This weekend, we are finalising our paint choice for the living room as builders will start knocking down the dividing wall on Monday. I realise that I have made some bold claims about painting the room dark teal, then I moved on to just middle of the road (known as midtone in paint speak š ) blue or blue-green and now Iāve done the exact opposite and retreated to safe greys. Yup, I am not proud! I will tell you why ā cos I donāt have the courage to paint my essentially north facing (although a bit east facing too) living room any of the cold colours I so love. I will need to wait with that till I move to the sunnier part of the house, AKA the kitchen and my future office.
For now, itās all about warm grey, i.e. grey without any blue or green in it and with a touch of pink or yellow instead. Not my favourite colour on its own by any means ā in fact, I find it a bit dull, but when you put it in the actual living room it sort of comes to life, it suddenly becomes a bit cooler yet still inviting. Itās possibly a touch darker than I would like and a touch lighter than Duncan would like so we settled on that happy medium. It will create a soft contrast with the cornice and will hopefully bounce the light around the room a little and wonāt jar with the newly opened kitchen-diner. Time will tell if this vision comes to fruition, but we are hoping that a funky sofa, good lighting, nice window dressing and some artwork should hopefully banish any āgreigeā (grey beige) dullness we are so afraid of. Foodwise, I continue my need for comfort food with a quintessentially English bake ā vegan shepherdās pie (also known as cottage pie to some, I think). As opposed to an actual pie, it is actually really easy to make as making decent mashed potatoes isnāt anywhere near as challenging as making good pastry. I made it for my lovely Scottish cousin Thea (whom I last saw 8 years ago, unforgivable!) and her two boys a few weeks ago and it went down a storm. I tinkered with the recipe a bit more and here it is. The original Shepherdās pie features meat mince but since we no longer consider animals food in this household, Iāve swapped up mincemeat for ground up chickpeas so that not one more āgunning for vegansā person can ask me where I get my protein fromā¦I used raw, soaked overnight chickpeas and allowed them to cook in the sauce, but if that doesnāt appeal to you for whatever reason, feel free to use cooked chickpeas (undercooking them a little is a good idea as you donāt want them overcooked by the time the bake comes out of the oven) or small, firm (not mushy) lentils like Puy or speckled brown lentils or good soy mince. Lots of options here so use whatever takes your fancy.
1.2 kg / 42 oz starchy potatoes, I used Maris Piper 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or vegan butter, plus extra to drizzle approx. 240 ml / 1 cup unsweetened almond milk or cashew cream*** (for extra indulgence) approx. Ā½ tsp salt, more to taste a good pinch of grated nutmeg, adjust to taste black pepper, to taste
ASSEMBLY
***Cashews soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes, drained and blended with cold water until creamy and smooth. I would go for Ā¾ cup cashews to 1Ā¼ cup of water for thick cream.
