Wednesday, April 6, 2016
What?! Meat(free)-balls!
I picked up some vital wheat gluten during my last trip to Ambrosia so that I could start experimenting with meat- and soy-free proteins. My copy of The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions has several interesting recipes, including their Meatfree Balls recipe. I made up a batch of those today and had them for brunch. The recipe calls for these delectables to be steamed for the last 8 minutes of cooking time in a barbecue sauce and — sure enough — during my tasting of these treats with various condiments, Diana Sauce provided, far and away, the best flavour profile, followed by ketchup. The texture of these was surprisingly (but not unpleasantly) chewy. I'm looking forward to experimenting further!
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Dal on a vegan chickpea "omelette"
The dal recipe I blogged about previously has become a lunchtime staple for me. Sadly, I keep forgetting to add extra salt during the cooking process, but that's — mercifully — easily remedied with a salt shaker. Also, I have now made this with apple cider vinegar for the acidic tang as well as just tomato (Bruce's suggestion) and I greatly prefer the former.
This week, I'm attempting to go vegan and refined-sugar free, so yesterday I whipped up a batch of my ice cream base to serve as my sweet, chocolate-y fix. Dinners for the majority of the week will be Tex-Mex, which I usually veganize for my purposes (last night's dinner: refried beans, sautéed onions, avocado, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, shredded lettuce, cilantro, salsa, guacamole and coconut yogurt on a whole wheat tortilla) and I had two grilled Daiya sandwiches for brunch.
Today, I thought I'd whip up some dal. Different this time: I used half of a dehydrated ancho chile for spice, rather than a bit of cayenne powder. It made for a nicely medium dal. For as long as I've got ancho, I'll be using that in this recipe! Also, I got around to trying Cooking with Plants' vegan omelette after a disastrous first attempt at making another YouTube channel's chickpea egg. As long as you resign yourself to the fact that these are nothing like eggs, Anja's version is quite good (the first I tried is basically a thick, dense chickpea pancake). I have yet to secure "black salt"/kala namak, so it's possible that simple addition would change my mind about how egg-like this is, but I suspect not — the texture is most certainly not a spongy protein. Still, this one made for a fast and delicious base for today's dal.
The dal recipe I blogged about previously has become a lunchtime staple for me. Sadly, I keep forgetting to add extra salt during the cooking process, but that's — mercifully — easily remedied with a salt shaker. Also, I have now made this with apple cider vinegar for the acidic tang as well as just tomato (Bruce's suggestion) and I greatly prefer the former.
This week, I'm attempting to go vegan and refined-sugar free, so yesterday I whipped up a batch of my ice cream base to serve as my sweet, chocolate-y fix. Dinners for the majority of the week will be Tex-Mex, which I usually veganize for my purposes (last night's dinner: refried beans, sautéed onions, avocado, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, shredded lettuce, cilantro, salsa, guacamole and coconut yogurt on a whole wheat tortilla) and I had two grilled Daiya sandwiches for brunch.
Today, I thought I'd whip up some dal. Different this time: I used half of a dehydrated ancho chile for spice, rather than a bit of cayenne powder. It made for a nicely medium dal. For as long as I've got ancho, I'll be using that in this recipe! Also, I got around to trying Cooking with Plants' vegan omelette after a disastrous first attempt at making another YouTube channel's chickpea egg. As long as you resign yourself to the fact that these are nothing like eggs, Anja's version is quite good (the first I tried is basically a thick, dense chickpea pancake). I have yet to secure "black salt"/kala namak, so it's possible that simple addition would change my mind about how egg-like this is, but I suspect not — the texture is most certainly not a spongy protein. Still, this one made for a fast and delicious base for today's dal.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Bulgogi bao!
Kara seems unlikely to want to eat all of the 2.83 lbs of beef that I turned into a bastardized bulgogi earlier this week, so — doing my due diligence — I've graciously decided to eat some too. You know, to help her out.
Fortunately, this dovetails nicely into my earlier research on how to make bao, so today I whipped up a batch which I steamed in my craptacular, collapsible steel steamer basket. Once they were done, I split a few of them and added to them sriracha (vegan) mayo, a quick carrot pickle (which is nothing more than carrot matchsticks in seasoned rice vinegar) and the aforementioned bulgogi. These were so delicious. I will happily be eating more tomorrow.
Sunday, March 27, 2016
When life Miriam hands you lemons...
...make vegan lemon curd-filled doughnuts!
Matt's had the flu for the past week, while Kara and I have had lesser colds. Given Matt's generally horrible state of being during this time, we thought it best to try to make arrangements to get the grocery shopping done yesterday without his help. Fortunately, Miriam very graciously allowed us to make use of too much of her time and her vehicle yesterday, so we were able to get that task addressed. In addition to being helpful, Miriam dropped off a bag of six Meyer lemons.
Well, the previously-blogged Bunner's cookbook happens to have a vegan lemon curd recipe. I noted it when I first went through the publication and dreamed wistfully of being able to procure some Meyer lemons, so it didn't take long for me to find "just the thing" to do with said lemons. The lemon curd turns out more like a gooey sauce, but the flavour is spot-on. I will absolutely make it again.
And, of course, if you're going to have a batch of lemon curd on hand, it doesn't take much imagination to decide to pair it with vegan doughnuts. I'm getting progressively better at making these, incidentally.
I've individually-wrapped the remaining, ungarnished doughnuts in plastic wrap and popped those into a large zipper-seal bag in the freezer. Some of my previous attempts at making these have proven that you can make them like-fresh if you re-heat them in the toaster oven for a few minutes before topping them and consuming. I hope this works, because trying to find things to do with a dozen doughnuts over the course of a few days can be trying when one is trying to avoid consuming refined sugar frequently. Fingers crossed.
Oh, and here's a picture of the utterly glorious remaining lemon curd (note the flecks of rind that I couldn't resist tossing in):
...make vegan lemon curd-filled doughnuts!
Matt's had the flu for the past week, while Kara and I have had lesser colds. Given Matt's generally horrible state of being during this time, we thought it best to try to make arrangements to get the grocery shopping done yesterday without his help. Fortunately, Miriam very graciously allowed us to make use of too much of her time and her vehicle yesterday, so we were able to get that task addressed. In addition to being helpful, Miriam dropped off a bag of six Meyer lemons.
Well, the previously-blogged Bunner's cookbook happens to have a vegan lemon curd recipe. I noted it when I first went through the publication and dreamed wistfully of being able to procure some Meyer lemons, so it didn't take long for me to find "just the thing" to do with said lemons. The lemon curd turns out more like a gooey sauce, but the flavour is spot-on. I will absolutely make it again.
And, of course, if you're going to have a batch of lemon curd on hand, it doesn't take much imagination to decide to pair it with vegan doughnuts. I'm getting progressively better at making these, incidentally.
I've individually-wrapped the remaining, ungarnished doughnuts in plastic wrap and popped those into a large zipper-seal bag in the freezer. Some of my previous attempts at making these have proven that you can make them like-fresh if you re-heat them in the toaster oven for a few minutes before topping them and consuming. I hope this works, because trying to find things to do with a dozen doughnuts over the course of a few days can be trying when one is trying to avoid consuming refined sugar frequently. Fingers crossed.
Oh, and here's a picture of the utterly glorious remaining lemon curd (note the flecks of rind that I couldn't resist tossing in):
Friday, March 11, 2016
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Frank the Second
Long-time readers will recall that I had a very conscientious pet nine(!) years ago, one which fed me back. Truthfully, I never really mastered bread-making whilst caring for Frank (this was my best attempt) before his untimely demise. Since that time, I developed a much better "feel" for how to make successful yeast breads.
After a bagel-making jaunt at Bruce's last weekend, we found that Netflix's Cooked was just the thing to watch while waiting for our bread to proof. We ploughed through the first two episodes. Later this week, I was able to watch the remainder of the series and was inspired by the third episode to resume my experiments with keeping, feeding, and baking from a sourdough starter. Thus, I began using The Kitchn's recipe for sourdough starter on Monday evening and have been steadily feeding it daily, making up a batch of English-muffin-style dinner rolls with Frank II yesterday. They rose beautifully and the crumb is dense, sturdy, and chewy like an English muffin. Well done, me!
Long-time readers will recall that I had a very conscientious pet nine(!) years ago, one which fed me back. Truthfully, I never really mastered bread-making whilst caring for Frank (this was my best attempt) before his untimely demise. Since that time, I developed a much better "feel" for how to make successful yeast breads.
After a bagel-making jaunt at Bruce's last weekend, we found that Netflix's Cooked was just the thing to watch while waiting for our bread to proof. We ploughed through the first two episodes. Later this week, I was able to watch the remainder of the series and was inspired by the third episode to resume my experiments with keeping, feeding, and baking from a sourdough starter. Thus, I began using The Kitchn's recipe for sourdough starter on Monday evening and have been steadily feeding it daily, making up a batch of English-muffin-style dinner rolls with Frank II yesterday. They rose beautifully and the crumb is dense, sturdy, and chewy like an English muffin. Well done, me!
Saturday, March 5, 2016
An excellent use of homemade, dairy-free feta
About a decade ago, my workplace at the time was within walking distance of a Michel's Baguette. Amongst their many offerings, I fell in love with their Spinach Feta pastry — the salty tang of the feta being toned down by the mild bitterness of the spinach, all encased in a lightly, flaky puff pastry. Sadly, my few attempts to duplicate that delectable treat in dairy-free form went poorly. I just couldn't get the flavour right on the filling. Tofu gave me the right mouthfeel, but it was far too mild. Simply adding lemon juice didn't provide a complex enough sour element.
My recent batch of very salty and tangy dairy-free feta seemed like I might *finally* have the missing piece of the puzzle on my adaptation of Michel's pastry. So it was that, just after dropping Kara off at school yesterday, I began work on a puff pastry.
I used One Kitchen's Spinach Feta pastry as the basis for the filling I made (which has rave reviews on its relevant YouTube video). My version used only 150g of frozen spinach — half a pack of No Name brand chopped, frozen spinach.
Well, aside from the fact that my pastry turned out more cracker-like than puffy (curse you, Robin Hood Nutri-Flour!), these turned out excellently. I still have some filling left, so my attempt at making a pastry resembling Sfogliatella still has a chance to go well.
About a decade ago, my workplace at the time was within walking distance of a Michel's Baguette. Amongst their many offerings, I fell in love with their Spinach Feta pastry — the salty tang of the feta being toned down by the mild bitterness of the spinach, all encased in a lightly, flaky puff pastry. Sadly, my few attempts to duplicate that delectable treat in dairy-free form went poorly. I just couldn't get the flavour right on the filling. Tofu gave me the right mouthfeel, but it was far too mild. Simply adding lemon juice didn't provide a complex enough sour element.
My recent batch of very salty and tangy dairy-free feta seemed like I might *finally* have the missing piece of the puzzle on my adaptation of Michel's pastry. So it was that, just after dropping Kara off at school yesterday, I began work on a puff pastry.
I used One Kitchen's Spinach Feta pastry as the basis for the filling I made (which has rave reviews on its relevant YouTube video). My version used only 150g of frozen spinach — half a pack of No Name brand chopped, frozen spinach.
Well, aside from the fact that my pastry turned out more cracker-like than puffy (curse you, Robin Hood Nutri-Flour!), these turned out excellently. I still have some filling left, so my attempt at making a pastry resembling Sfogliatella still has a chance to go well.
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