More tea, lemur?

Fancy a brew?

He did

And so did his friend:

Aren’t they great?!

That’s what I was doing at the wild animal park yesterday (that’s my hand, in the very stylish fingerless/not fingerless glove, offering the cuppa!)

When I went there a couple of months ago, to write a feature on how the animals are looked after in the cold, one of the primate keepers told me they give tea to the lemurs - apparently they need the tannin – and I thought it would make a good piece, with some great pictures.

Lemurs are so cool! I’m not a huge fan of monkeys but these are the daddy. I told the lovely PR girl she’d better keep count of them from now on because if one goes missing, they’ll know who to blame

It’s always good to be able to get out of the office and meet the people (or animals!) you’re writing about - but when they live at a wild animal park, it’s even better.

I didn’t get home till late (but it was worth it) and when I did, I started cooking dinner straight away – but still didn’t end up eating till silly o’clock!

I made these:

I’ve said before that I get ideas in my head for food and just have to try and make it.

I had it again

This dinner was inspired by the potato cakes my mum used to make; creamy mash, shaped into thick cakes, fried until they were golden and crispy… amazing.

I wanted to recreate them using butternut squash. So I took 200g and steamed it till tender, then mashed it up good and proper, with 1tbsp egg white, paprika, garlic and 10g flour, then shaped it into “cakes” (kind of) and sauted.

In hindsight, it probably would have been better to add a bit more flour, just to make cooking easier. You have to use quite a low heat so they don’t scorch before they cook… but if you’re patient, and don’t mind them falling a apart a bit, they’re delicious.

After I’d steamed the squash, but before I made the cakes, I started cooking some mushroom sauce to pour over the top. It’s from this brilliant “gravy” recipe from FatFree Vegan, which I’d tried before and been bowled over by.

I just used, for one serving, 3-4 closed cup mushrooms, 80ml vegetable stock, 2tsp cornflour and 20ml milk and cooked as directed (except I left it a bit longer to make it thicker).

Poured over the top of the butternut cakes.

So good (even if I did have to wait till about 9.30pm to tuck in!)

No offence, lemurs, but you can keep yer black tea and celery stalks, my dinner was much better

I do try to save time in the week, by making loads of dinners at the weekends and freezing them – but then I get ideas in my head and have to make them! Do you cook from scratch when you get in?

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