7 posts tagged “vegan”
During my usual food blog patrol, I stumbled upon this cool idea for the Monthly Blog Patrol event started by Coffee at The Spice Cafe. July's MBP theme is 'Less is More', and people are invited to cook any recipe from a blogger that has five or less ingredients. The event is being hosted by one of my favorite food bloggers, Nupur at One Hot Stove.
I really like the idea of cooking with less, of using spices only to highlight the main ingredient. It also helped that I'd had my eye on the perfect recipe for a very long time.
I'd first read about Haak, a simple Kashmiri recipe for slow-cooked greens, in Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian. Soon I started noticing it on all over the blogosphere. This Haak is from A Mad Tea Party's recipe, though I subbed the Veri Masala with Jugalbandi's Kashmiri Garam Masala.
Not counting the salt and the oil, Anita's recipe has 6 ingredients. The lack of fresh green chillies in our fridge took care of that, and we ended up with exactly five ingredients:
2 lbs collard greens/kohlrabi greens/dandelion geens, chopped and tough ribs removed (You can leave them whole if tender)
1 tbsp mustard oil
2 dried red chillies, broken
a hefty pinch of powdered asfoetida
1 pinch of soda bi carb
1/2 tsp Kashmiri Garam Masala (or Veri masala)- optional
salt to taste
- Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed pan.
- Add asfoetida, red chillies. Let them sizzle.
- Add 1 cup water. Bring it to a boil.
- Add a pinch of soda (it helps retain the fresh green color) and the greens. Stir them around until they wilt, then add salt, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Once the greens are done, uncover, turn up the heat to evaporate most of the remaining water.
- Sprinkle the garam masala at the end.
- Serve with steamed rice and yogurt.
We love everything about the haak, the simplicity, the slightly bitter green taste of the collards, the gorgeous flavor that the mustard oil, asfoetida and the red chillies lend the dish. Having lived in Mississippi for a year and eaten a LOT of collard greens in proper southern manner (with cornbread soaking up the pot liquor), this similar yet very different Kashmiri recipe is my new favorite. It even has pot liquor if I decide to soak my rice in it. :)
Sweetening it up in the kitchen post-call. After making savory appey in the aebleskiver pan, today we made traditional aebleskiver, apple stuffed danish pancakes, dipped in powdered sugar and served with raspberry preserves.
For the apple stuffing (from here):
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, shredded
1 tsp butter/oil
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp orange juice
a pinch nutmeg powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
- Mix all ingredients on low-medium heat in a nonstick saucepan. Cook until apples are softened, about 5 minutes. Remove, drain, reserve the liquid.
For the aebleskiver:
1 and 1/4 cup all purpose white flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp ginger powder
1 and 1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup water ( I used the liquid from stuffing)
2 tbsp oil/butter
2 tbsp maple syrup/brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
- Whisk the wet ingredients together in another bowl.
- Mix the dry and the wet ingredients together. Avoid over-mixing.
To make aebleskiver-
- Heat the pan. Add 1/2 tsp of butter/cooking spray to each cup.
- Add 1 tbsp of pancake batter, then 1 tsp of apple stuffing, finally, another tbsp of batter, to each cup.
-When the top bubbles and bottom browns, turn them gently about 90 degrees with a knitting needle/fork. The filling will spill down into the bottom of the cup (thats the idea).
- Let the bottom brown, then turn another 90 degrees, completing the flip. Let the bottom brown again.
- Remove, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve with raspberry jam.
Makes 25 aebleskiver, per pancake 55 calories, 1.6 gm fat, 9.9 gm carb, 1.1 gm protein.
..I've ever made. These are high protein, low fat, and absolutely delicious.
Ingredients-
14-15 large white mushrooms (or use five portobellos)
1 tbsp olive oil
8 oz (I packet) tempeh
* can be substituted with Indian cottage cheese/paneer, Mexican queso fresco, or even cooked beans.
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp pepper flakes
1 tsp dry basil
1 tsp dry oregano
2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
2 tbsp lime juice
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley (about 1 bunch)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (or use your favorite cheese)
salt to taste
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop them up.
- Break the tempeh into pieces, cover with water in a microwave safe bowl and steam for 4-5 minutes, until most of the water is absorbed. Or steam conventionally for about ten minutes. Drain the water and crumble the tempeh.
- Heat oil in a saute pan. Add the chopped stems and saute until they release water.
- Add tempeh, spices, soy sauce, lime juice and saute for five minutes until browned.
- Turn off the heat and add the parsley and nutritional yeast. Mix well. Add salt if needed.
- Stuff the mushrooms with the mixture and place on a greased baking sheet.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Garnish with more parsley and serve.
This was to be is my entry for Photo Quest # 14- Still Life.
Go into our Salsamole!!
But it doesn't look like any still-life advertisement that I've seen. :(
Salsamole-
Mix together-
3 fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 avocado, loosely mashed
Juice of one lime
1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
a handful of chopped cilantro
a few basil leaves, shredded
salt to taste
1/2 chopped red onion, if you like
Serve with your favorite burritos.
Okay, here's the truth. I'm a cheapskate. The only reason I ever buy expensive stuff ( my griddler comes to mind) is if I believe it will actually be cheaper in the long run, last forever and save me money and energy by requiring less maintenance.
So I will buy an pricey food processor. But, a fifty-buck baking stone? Stones should be cheap. And last forever. And make a mean pizza.
If I find a stone like that, I'll marry it.
In the meanwhile, research suggested quarry tiles. Yep, for making the perfect pizza..
Everyone from Julia Child to Alton Brown to Isa Chandra Moskowitz swear by them. I don't know about Ms. Child, but Isa?
This had to work.
We bought a box full of 6 by 6 unglazed quarry tiles at Home Depot for 11 bucks.
Voila! Absolutely the crispiest crust Ever.
P.s. I just realized I'm slowly becoming a vegan (rather than plain ol vegetarian) because the damn recipes are so good!!
Devious, I tell you.
Purple wanted to bake a cake. A special cake.
A chocolate cake.
She found this recipe, and tweaked it just a little bit.
This is what she did.
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, sift together-
- 1 cup flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 6 oz silken tofu
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 3 tbsp canola oil
- 3 tsp applesauce
Add the puree to the flour mixture to make a batter.
- 1 and 1/3 cup boiling water
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 4 oz bittersweet chocolate chips
Here's where she ran into trouble.
The recipe called for a springiform pan, and layering the chocolate puree on top of the batter, so that the chocolate would explode when the pan would be released. She had no springiform pan.
- Add the batter to ungreased silicone bundt pan.
- Add 1/4 of the chocolate puree on top of the batter, and the rest in a separate pan.
- Bake both for 45 minutes.
- When the cake was done, she turned it out and added the puree on top! There was plenty left over.
P had a slice with the strawberries, and A had two slices with raspberry sorbet.
They both lived happily ever after.
Disclaimer- Chocolate drives me crazy. I am not responsible for the stupid pictures and/or the juvenile tone of the above post.
From Isa's recipe. I followed one reviewer's suggestions and
- used all-purpose flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour.
- used 1 can (1 3/4 cup) pumpkin and added 3 tsp ground flax seeds and 3tsp milk.
- Replaced half the raisins with walnuts (NOT a big fan of raisins, moi).
- Used 3/4 cup brown sugar instead of maple syrup (almost out of syrup).
The bread has a lovely golden color, and a super-moist crumb. And my nose is finally shutting down, since my kitchen smelled like nothing.
P.S. Why is Vox ed suggesting I replace 'reviewer's' with 'reviewers' or 're viewers'? Haven't they heard of possessive apostrophes?
