Jalebi

To continue the Indian kick is a nice Indian dessert: Jalebi.
(although in some parts of the country it is eaten with breakfast)
I actually had only ever had this at one Indian restaurant, and only occasionally at their buffet (the rest of the time they had Galub Jamun. I would watch bitterly while who ever I dragged there that day would eat them in ecstasy. I've never had them, but I will try to make them soon enough). Anyways, I would stuff them in my face but never found out what they were called. Finally some dedicated interwebz searchin not only yielded their name, but A VIDEO on how to make them. I used Manjula's recipe.

After frying:


After soaking:


The ones I had were bright orange, but then again these ARE homemade, not full of dyes. And damn, they are tasty (especially if they sit for a few minutes.. if you can hold out!!).

STORY
I haven't had dinner yet and I these are almost gone. I just hope it doesn't end the same way as when I was in my single-digits and I was helping my Grammie make rosettes (read=pretty elephant ears) and I ate so many covered with so much powdered sugar, that I still not only have a food adversion to it ump-teen years later, but the smell also makes me sick. (holy crap that was one sentence) These are pretty similar, if they were covered in powder rather than syrup I would have been ill.


Note: I didn't have gram flour, so I used bran instead. The consistancy was very runny, so I added a little flour at a time until it was the thickness she had. I also feel half a pinch of saffron would have been better. I have a little bit of syrup left too.

Indian Curry

Since the turn of the millennium, there has been an epic battle.
Which do I like better, Indian or Mexican?
In the motherland, I could make my own Mexican food if I had a craving.
But Indian food is a bit trickier with its wonderful blended spices. The more often I ate Indian, the more my cravings drove me mad until I could get my next fix. I suspect much like nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

I had a nice vegetable curry the other day and decided to do something where the base was pureed veggies to give it the nice "thick and creamy" texture.

Boil:
potatoes
onion
broccoli stems
carrots

When potatoes are nearly ready, ladle half of the veg and broth into a blender with part of a tomato. Blend! (I also added a can of drained white beans for a thickener. Good, but I think I'll leave it out next time and just up the potato ratio).
In the meantime add broccoli and cauliflower florets to cook. Throw in any other veg you want. (I also threw in some tofu burgers for kicks, to be like paneer?)
Stir in a couple spoonfulls of Curry paste, along with the blended goodness. Mix until everything is heated through.

I served it with saffron rice and some cashews on top just to be kinky.

Mac and Sheese

Ahhh, comfort food!
Mama Ronin's macaroni and cheese could not be beat. I think I've got it down after years of toil!
For the best Mac and Cheez, start with a roux.

Finely chop some onion.
Lightly sautee in butter or oil (a little more than you need for the onions)
Add some flour and stir until all mixed.

Still on med-low to med heat:
Add non-dairy milk and stir.
Add block vegan cheez (I used mild cheddar Sheese)
Stir until as melted as possible.

Season with a squirt of yellow mustard (secret ingredient), a shake of salt, and a shake of paprika (as you like it).

Mix in pasta and add fresh pepper!!




I was never into baked Mac and Cheese, but I guess you could do that if you want.

With the leftover sauce, it will mostly solidify. Heat backup with some more 'milk'. You may need some more seasonings because of this.

Vegan Desserts!

Eat your heart out vegan haters!

Aww, the simple desserts!

Banana Split


Bananas! Vanilla Rice Cream! Vegan Hot Fudge! Frozen raspberries! Almond slices! Soyatoo whipped cream!! BOO YAH!

Root Beer Float


Bulldog Root Beer and Vanilla Rice Cream! I know the whipped cream wasn't necessary, but it was too good not to add some =D

BBQ PIZZA

Before:


CRUST
Ok, first the no yeast herb crust from HOW IT ALL VEGAN is like, the best thing ever. I use it all the time (but I use nutritional yeast instead of vegan parmesan, add extra herbs and extra garlic powder!). I would recommend baking it 5 minutes before piling on stuff.

SAUCE
I made an alfredo sauce. Get some tofu (soft or silken if possible, but if not, no biggie), cube it and boil it for 5 minutes to get rid of the beany flavor. I add some boullion and add like 3/4 cup of water slowly while blending it all. If I need some more herbs or salt, I throw it in. (This can be used as an alfredo pasta sauce too!)

THE GOODS
Fresh spinach
chunked portabella
chopped fire roasted peppers
chopped onion
Cubed Riblets (set out to thaw for about 10 min)
Cheddar Sheese (I used a fancy hard-cheese hand held grater thingy that you turn and it spits it out- like shaved ice!)


After:


Holy crap I think my mom is more in love with this than I am!!
Like I said, the Sheese doesn't melt so much as get soft, but that's fine!

**I usually pan fry Chikn Strips with BBQ sauce for this, but the riblets were handy and still totally good!**

Portabella burger

This monster is stacked high!! You need:
Portabella cap
Fire roasted peppers and their marinade (or fresh bell pepper slices and a good dressing/marinade).
Eggplant slices
Spinach
Sheese
Toasted bread

Marinade the portabella, peppers, and eggplant in a big baking dish. I used the marinade that the peppers were packed in, but any good marinade will do. Let soak for a MINIMUM of 10 minutes each side.
Cover dish (with lid or foil) and bake 375 for 10ish minutes. Take cover off and cook another 5 (or under mushroom is nice and soft. It will have shrunk a little.)

Assemble to your likings and grab a napkin!
This is one of those sandwiches that you have to hold on to and eat the entire thing because if you put it down you can never pick it all up again!

Super delicious.


*TIP: If you buy portabellas by the pound at stores, pull off their stem before you buy them! Ditchin` that weight saves you some cash!!

Enchiladas!

MMMMMMM!
I sauteed onion and orange peppers with the Chikn Strip Starters.
While that was sizzling, I rinsed a can of black beans and seasoned it with lime juice and parsley (if I had cilantro I would have used that).
I added chunks of the amazing Medium Cheddar Sheese, wrapped it in tortillas, placed in a baking dish and added enchilada sauce around them, with a drizzle on top with a little Sheese. Bake 350 for 15 min (or when sauce is bubbling).



*Note that Sheese doesn't really melt, it just gets really soft. It's still the best cheese substitute out there though!

Chik patty sandwich

Chik Patties how I've missed thee!!




On toasted grain bread with fresh spinach and Veganaise.
On the side is artichoke hearts and edamame and homemade apple sauce.

I never ate edamame (soy beans) and frankly it looked scary. Now, I love it.
Get yourself some edamame still in it's pod.
They will probably be frozen so boil it on low heat it for about 15 minutes. Drain and toss with salt. I usually eat them cold, but slightly warm is nice too! Just squeeze them out of the pod into your mouth! The slight salty tatse on the pod to your lips is divine!

Lunch break v.2

I am going to visit the motherland for a week, so I will leave you with this!

I got a new lunch box and containers only because I could not resist the cute.



Inside is a PBJ, carrots and pretzels and 2 lil carmalized biscuits.


PS- Guac and pretzels are the wave of the future!

THE Tofu Omelet

It takes about 20 minutes, but it’s worth it.



The Omelet.
What you need:
1 tub of silken tofu (firm is ok too)
1/4 C flour
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp turmeric
2-3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Pre-sautéed veggies of your choice
Lightly oiled large skillet/frying pan
Blender/food processor


1. Press the tofu.

2. BLEND tofu flour, baking powder, oil, soy sauce, turmeric, and garlic until creamy.

4.Mix! You may need to add more flour, just enough so it’s thicker and kind of sticks to itself.

*POINT* Turmeric and soy sauce are the key points in making delicious egg replicas.

Pour in a lightly oiled frying pan on low heat. Smooth out as much as possible.




Soon, the edges will start to look suspiciously like egg. It will turn more yellow, and the top will dry out. When it is firm to the touch, and doesn’t jiggle when you give the pan a shake, its done!




**While this is cooking, start the hash browns below, and sauté the veggies you want to use as well.**

Slide it out of the pan and add the veggies. Fold over.


(Blended)



(Hand mixed)




DEVOUR!



As seen above:
Campfire Hash browns.
I’ve been using the “campfire” foil pouch technique a lot lately. Simply chop yr taters, drizzle with the slightest of oil, and a pinch of salt. Wrap those babies up in foil and throw in the toaster oven. Put it on the highest heat (hey, it’s replicating a campfire!) for about 15 minutes.

Pesto

It’s been a magical food find week. A jar of garlic puree, a jar of basil puree, tri-color swirl-shaped pasta and fresh spinach! I’m sure you know what that equals!
Pesto!!
Pesto is usually wrought with cheese, and chopping up your own basil can get expensive (depending where you live I guess). So the jar of pureed basil from Peru was a little investment, but well worth the money.

EASY PESTO
Sautee minced garlic (or a small spoonful of garlic paste/puree)
Add a spoonful of basil
(I also added a spoonful of left over cheez sauce)-opt
Add cooked pasta (drained and rinsed in cold water- to stop cooking)
Mix until coated and warm, add fresh spinach and toss.
You got yourself a quick delicious meal buddy!



Ok I swear this was more green than brown like the picture. At any rate, superb!
(I saved the tricolor pasta from my lunch the next day ^_^)

Banana pouch

How could I not buy it?
Coincidentally, now I often have bananas at lunch!

Enjoy all the new posts!

Breakfast Buddies

EDIT: I have named these "Breakfast Buddies" and their glory can be seen in an updated version HERE! =)



Advisory Warning: This post uses filthy language. I'll give you a hint, it starts with M and rhymes with mcdonalds (not worthy of capitalization).

Like most veggies, I was not raised vegan. Thus, sometimes guilty cravings creep in every now and then. Sometimes, I want a mcdonalds breakfast sandwich biscuit. THANKFULLY, I have a healthy alternative that quenches those cravings!

1st make polenta. This will be your 'egg'.
1 part polenta (corn meal/grits) & a few shakes of salt: 3 parts water
slowly add polenta to boiling water, constantly stirring until thick. Stir a minute or two more or until polenta pulls away from the pan sides. Pour into a container and let cool until firm. While cooling...

2nd, make biscuits (American type)! You can make them super easy with Bisquik, or there's plenty of biscuit recipes all over the web (basic uses: flour, baking powder, salt, oil, and 'milk').


3rd cut biscuits in half. slice polenta and place on each biscuit half. Add a slice of cheez, and maybe a little soy-sage if you're feeling a bit saucy. Place in toaster oven on a low-med heat for about 2-3 minutes.

4th Enjoy them open-faced or put the sides back together for a monster craving smasher.



I ended up eating them open face because they were too tall! The fella on the left has some fake shredded pork on it (I like them better plain).

YUM!!
Polenta really can make wonder-foods!

Curry Udon

Curry Udon is probably my favorite food ever.
It's indulgent, succulent, full of fat and calories and all that bad stuff that makes it tastes so good.
Japanese curry is very different from Indian curry*. It's smooth, savory, thick and mild (if you want).

You will need

-Veggies. Staples are onion and carrot chunks. Broccoli is nice too. No more than 3 veg, it'll clog up the soup.

From your local Asian market:
-Box of curry. Comes in mild to hot. Not all are veg, but Golden Curry is (has MSG in it though).
-Bag of udon. This is PREMADE udon. Big thick noodles, either refrigerated or frozen. No dry noodles, those are blasphemous.


Sautee half an onion and a carrot for about 3 minutes.
Add about 2 cups of water, bring to a boil, then let simmer for about 10 minutes. (Add broccoli at the 5 minute mark).
Take off heat.

In your curry box, there will be two sections. each of those can break into 4 chunks. Break off one chunk, and stir in until dissolved.
Return to heat for about 5 minutes.
You want it to be soupy, so if it gets a little thick, just add some more water.

Frozen udon boils in a few minutes, and refrigerated udon noodles only take a minute.

Add to your curry, and then a big soup bowl!



As I transfered it to my bowl I added sliced age tofu- flavorless fried poofy tofu. Cuz yknow, I didn't feel there were enough calories in this.



For curry rice, do not use as much water, so it is like a very thick gravy to ladle over your rice. Add potatoes to the cooking process, as well as any other veggies. I love this a lot too! It is a treat for me, I don't eat this bad all the time =p

* ok food snobs, I'm just using the term "curry" for the generic main stream meaning. I know Indian food can have many different types of curry.

Spring Smoothie

First off, April is my 10 year vegiversary. Yay. But next month is my 6yr veganniversary, so there will be many yummy celebration food to look forward to!

I made a smoothie this morning that reminded me it was spring. Must be the wonderful pastel colors, along with the flowers my parents sent me.




I froze some strawberries and put them in the blender, added some frozen blueberries and covered them in soymilk. Blend!

Tip: Make sure you cut off the strawberry leaves before freezing! Makes things a lot easier!

Pierogi Power!

Thanks to LittleVehgen for reminding me I haven’t eaten pierogi in at least 8 months. So sad seeing that I love them so much. So I decided to make some too!

First, I know it is a sad fact not everyone knows what pierogi are. Thankfully, Wiki has a good entry on it (and different ways to make it).

I halved her dough recipe, giving me about 20 pierogi. I boiled 2 big potatoes* (only needed one though) with half of a minced onion. I mashed them up with salt, garlic powder, and a pinch of thyme.

I do not have a rolling pin nor a cookie cutter. So using small portions of dough, I treated it like a pizza crust dough and then rolled it out with a coffee mug, and used the mug’s mouth to cut out circle and stretch them out a little more. Scoop a little potato mixture up and squeeze it into a ball and place on the dough. Wet the lip of the dough and pinch shut all the way around.

TIP: Before sealing the dough completely, give it a few pats to make sure all the air it out of it first. You can thank Alton Brown for that tip.



Fresh boiled pierogi takes only about 1 minute or so to cook (when it floats, it’s done. Overcooked piergoi will be slimy and chewy.) If you freeze your pierogi, it still only takes about 3 minutes to cook (same rules apply).

I am part Polish, so I learned to eat them the Polish way. After they are boiled, have a heated skillet with some oil ready. Place pierogi and chopped onions in at the same time. Keep on a low/med heat and allow the onions to caramelize and piergoi to turn golden (turning occasionally).



Serve hot! You can eat as it, or add some vegan sour cream, or some people even add salsa (I don’t think I could handle that.)


*Because there’s only one thing worse than instant potatoes, and that’s olives. Next in the line of grossness after instant potatoes are reheated mashed potatoes. And it’s mashed, not smashed. IMO =)

Tofu Stirfry

No biggie, just something easy that is often whipped up on a Friday night.

Cut up some firm tofu. I'm usually too busy/lazy to wrap it in a towel, so I just throw it straight into the frying pan. On low, let it sizzle. When it is a bit golden (with holes) on the other side, flip and add a splash of soy sauce for it to absorb. Sizzle some more.
Add
Garlic, Onion, Peppers, Bok Choy stalks (and frozen broccoli)
Fry until soft. Add mushrooms (and fresh broccoli).
Right before you serve, stir in the bok choy leafs until slightly wilted.
Serve over rice and add a favorite sauce if you like!



You can't see it but I used brown rice cooked with a little saffron.

Japanese Enkai food

I did not make any of this but wanted to share the food that I had at my work party (called an enkai).


The layouts


Carrot, bamboo, fried tofu, green things. And I think the pink thing is made out of fish, I don't know why it was there. I didn't eat it.


Green konyakku, dandelion, shredded daikon, sticky potato strips, shiso leaf, spicy purple sprouts and wasabi.


Spring rolls with sweet chili sauce and pink seaweed.


Veggie Tempura


Fried tofu and eggplant


Cold green (tea?) soba with nori.

For dessert we had rice and pickled veggies with miso soup and fresh fruit.

Trifle

My dude is British and I have heard him say “trifle” a few times in his craving-fits. I had never heard of trifle, the word itself reminds me of “tripe” something my grandfather used to eat. So that was a put off. In reality, it is a dessert. It sounded odd, but the image search yielded eyeball satisfaction. I decided to surprise him.

Trifle is true DIY do-what-you-want layered dessert. Every recipe I looked at was remarkably different. The skeleton of the recipe seems to be: Layer ladyfingers (sponge fingers), fresh/canned fruit, custard, and whipped cream. Do what you will from there. Some use regular sponge cake as the base, and some add jam in between those cakes. In the past 20 years, Jell-o (jelly) has been added in with the fruit! So many options! Hey that's great, but lemme get a handle on things before going experiementing. So I emailed his sister to ask what they ate at home.

Abracavegan!

(I couldn’t get anything fancy to put it in!)

Top to bottom, my layers:

Whipped cream
Custard
Jello (Jelly)
Fruit
Sponge cake

Starting with the bottom layer:

Sponge Cake (click for recipe)

This is FREAKIN delicious and I added a bit of lemon juice with the water. Wonderful.

Cool cake, slice and make your bottom layer

I lined the sides with strawberries at this point

Can/Tin/Fresh fruit

Pour canned fruit and jello over cake.

I actually soaked fresh strawberry slices in canned tropical fruit syrup while I was making the cake so it would have the sugary goodness. I poured the fruit over first to let it soak up a bit before the jello (because that seems weird to me). (I used the tropical fruit in another cake).

Agar Agar Jello

I used Apple-White grape juice instead of water (still added just a small amount of sugar though). I reduced the recipe by a third, but it still needed a bit more agar. I only used a small portion, maybe a cup- enough to not go over the cake before absorbing.

Pour over cake with fruit while still hot. Let it set in fridge

***If you are pouring this into a glass container, cup, etc, make sure it was HEAT TEMPERED, otherwise it will shatter at this stage***

Custard

I wish it were a little bit thicker- next time add more cornstarch. I added a pinch of cinnamon and it was overwhelming. Delicious, but maybe skip it. (First I made a custard on the back of an Australian no-egg powder box. Don’t, it’s gross.)

Let custard cool, stirring once in a while to avoid a skin. Add on top of fruit, let set.

Whipped Cream

I thought if I did this by hand it would be fluffier. Wrong. While the blender still keeps it runny, not as runny if you do it by hand. Still great tasting though.

Top your trifle off with it right before you serve it.

The result? Sure it wasn’t the trifle he was used to (and I had nothing to gage it against) but he loved it! I thought it tasted like a giant over indulgent strawberry shortcake- yum! He raved about the real sponge cake bottom. Me too, that sponge cake is magical, I'm tellin' ya!

Strawberry Shortcake!

I had some strawberries, and I woke up craving strawberry shortcake. I think I’ve only attempted it once in the past 6 years. The time I did, the shortcake I made was more like a sweeter (American) biscuit. Not what I was looking for.

I mixed some of my dry batter mix (this stuff makes pancakes, donuts, cakes, etc… So whenever I need a sweet cake-like concoction, I turn to it) in with a bit of oil, soymilk, and vanilla. Put it in a muffin liner and put it in the toaster oven (following the instructions for pound cake).

Next was the whipped cream. At home I get a giant frozen can of non-dairy whip from a bulk restaurant store (GFS -no membership required!). You mix the liquid for about 15 minutes and it whips right up! It tastes like real whip cream, and not like nasty Hip Whip. However… this is not an option. I used a recipe from How It All Vegan.

SOY MILK WHIPPED CREAM:
1/4 cup soy milk
2-4 tbsp sweetener
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tsp of cornstarch
1/2 cup oil

In food processor or blender, blend together the milk, sweetener, vanilla, and cornstarch. Slowly drizzle in the oil while the blender is running. Blend until smooth and creamy. Chill for 1 hour before using. Makes approx. 3/4 cup.

It is not really fluffy and kinda runny. I used 3 Tbsp of maple syrup, I will cut it down to 2 next time (and I have a sweet tooth!). NOTE: Do not mix this by hand to give it more "umph". It does not work. Maybe try a hand mixer? or more cornstarch...

Assemble and chow down!