9 posts tagged “allspice”
I have been cooking but it has become rather hard to keep up posting more often. We always seem to have many things piling up onto the to-do lists. "It's always something" has been such a cliche in our household now. I didn't have time to come up with any new recipe. Nor did I participate in any cooking contest like I planned. I cooked from cookbooks and my recipe collection. Alas! 'Tis life. We ought to be grateful for what we have though. My husband and I have begun our little "self-compliment" group, inspired by LaidOutInLavendar. It is not easy at all. Gosh, I never knew it could this hard to say a few nice things about ourselves without feeling weird or discouraged. But we are trying. It's much easier to compliment each other, but when it comes down to the self-compliment... I guess we just don't know ourselves well enough.
Anyway, here comes the food porn, as usual. The first thing is from VwaV, page 28, "Fronch" Toast. It was great, but next time I will definitely add some cinnamon and nutmet to make it more traditional.
The second thing is Bryanna's Hunan Tofu. I made this before, a long while ago that I can't even remember. This time I didn't even fry the tofu beforehand because I wanted more of a soft and juicy texture. It turned out even better than I remembered. Surely a keeper!
How was everybody's Thanksgiving? I hope that you all had fun and lots of really nice food. Did you overeat like last year and the year before last year...? Here are a couple of things that you can eat when you're so sick of food or thinking about cooking anything.
Scrambled Tofu with Cauliflower and Green Beans
(makes 3-4 servings)
1 large yellow onion, quartered and thinly sliced
7-8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 cup thinly sliced green onions
9 large button mushrooms, wiped clean and thinly sliced
4 cups cauliflower florets, cut into bite size
4 cups green beans, ends discarded and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 1/2 blocks extra-firm tofu, pressed beforehand and cut into cubes
4 tsp. thyme
3 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. marjoram
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. rosemary
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Saute onions, garlic, green onions, mushrooms and cauliflower over medium heat for about 12-13 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften and mushrooms release some juice.
2. Add green beans and tofu cubes. Mix in well and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add spices except for the nutritional yeast and salt and pepper. Cook for another 10 minutes until green beans are fully cooked. I like them crispy. If you want them to be soft, cook for 15-20 minutes.
4. Remove from heat. Add in the nutritional yeast and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
I bought a few too many sweet potatoes so I decided to finally hit the "Knish Madness" recipe (page 76) in Vegan With A Vengeance. I have no idea what I got myself into. I don't know why the recipe says the baking is altogether 70 minutes while I spent almost 4 hours baking the potatoes at a higher temperature too. I mean I made other pies and baked other things so it seems that my oven is that off. I really don't know what happened. Then the kneading completely wiped me out. By the time I put the knishes into the oven to bake, I was so glad that it was all over I didn't even care if I ever got to eat them. And I didn't make any potato-spinach knishes after all that preparations. But the final products were really good. I think I still said that it was worth the effort - 6-7 hours of working in the kitchen.
I don't think I will make these knishes any time soon though. It's a little too much work for one day no matter how good they have turned out in the end.
9 large button mushrooms, wiped clean and thinly sliced
4 cups cauliflower florets, cut into bite size
4 cups green beans, ends discarded and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 1/2 blocks extra-firm tofu, pressed beforehand and cut into cubes
4 tsp. thyme
3 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. marjoram
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. rosemary
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Saute onions, garlic, green onions, mushrooms and cauliflower over medium heat for about 12-13 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften and mushrooms release some juice.
2. Add green beans and tofu cubes. Mix in well and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add spices except for the nutritional yeast and salt and pepper. Cook for another 10 minutes until green beans are fully cooked. I like them crispy. If you want them to be soft, cook for 15-20 minutes.
4. Remove from heat. Add in the nutritional yeast and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
I bought a few too many sweet potatoes so I decided to finally hit the "Knish Madness" recipe (page 76) in Vegan With A Vengeance. I have no idea what I got myself into. I don't know why the recipe says the baking is altogether 70 minutes while I spent almost 4 hours baking the potatoes at a higher temperature too. I mean I made other pies and baked other things so it seems that my oven is that off. I really don't know what happened. Then the kneading completely wiped me out. By the time I put the knishes into the oven to bake, I was so glad that it was all over I didn't even care if I ever got to eat them. And I didn't make any potato-spinach knishes after all that preparations. But the final products were really good. I think I still said that it was worth the effort - 6-7 hours of working in the kitchen.
I'm glad that I finally have something half decent to post here. The tasty and nutritious Dolmades (Meditarranean rice casserole) by Ricki of Diet, Dessert and Dogs really made my day. It's a very easy dish to put together within 25 minutes. I didn't bake the casserole since everything was already cooked and my husband is very determined to keep all the nutritional values as much as possible and we plan to eventually go raw some day.
My major changes: I used both pine nuts and almonds in the rice. I subbed bok choy. I must admit the balsamic vinegar and dill smell was very appealing. I had my little doubt before I used balsamic vinegar in the rice. Afterwards I was thrilled.
I also have a not-so-appealing photo here. I don't even remember exactly what it was since didn't write down the recipe. It was a very quick dish - Japanese buckwheat noodles with mock shrimps and leeks. I'm pretty sure I used some dark soy sauce, paprika, and some Asian black-bean-based sauces. Anyway, I thought those mock shrimps I bought looked quite real. They tasted quite good.
I found this very interesting Middle Eastern pasta recipe on Bryanna's blog. The original recipe is from "Arab Cooking on a Saskatchewan Homestead: Recipes and Recollections" by Habeeb Salloum, and Bryanna adapted it. The unusual aspect of this pasta dish is that you don't precook the pasta before putting the casserole into the oven. You simply sauté some onions, garlic, herbs and spices and throw everything else, including the uncooked pasta and some extra water, into a casserole dish and let the oven finish the cooking. Amazingly, it really worked. I used uncooked wholewheat elbows and the timing was still perfect. Just make sure all the uncooked pasta is immersed in the gravy and buried deep. Then out of the oven you will have an incredibly delectable pasta dish ready to please all of your senses.
It's been cold and it's been snowing. I'm not a big fan of very spicy food but even I was converted temporarily by this winter. I actually was looking forward to making this chili - Kidney Bean and Quinoa Chili. The original recipe is called Black Bean and Quinoa Chili by Melody Polakow of MELOMEALS.COM. I only had red kidney beans and I love them so that's about the only thing I changed. This chili was very easy to make, and it gave me the zap I needed for my tongue. Oh, I made my chili a little more soupy because it's still snowing outside and I wish I could be warmed up by swimming in the chili. By the way, why is it so cold this year? The global warming apparently doesn't just make the summer hotter.
With the chili comes the cornbread. In case you never knew of this super simple and awesome cornbread recipe by Isa Chandra, here it is again.
As if the chili is not enough, I made the Jerk Tofu and served it with steamed spinach on the side. This wonderful recipe is also by Isa Chandra. The tofu came out exactly like Isa's description, sort of like barbeque, sort of like curry, sort of sweet, and sort of savory. It is absolutely satisfying! This tofu has just become my favorite tofu dish. And my take on the name of this dish: it's called jerk tofu because if anyone wants to steal my tofu, I'll definitely say "jerk off".
Is it a crime that I had the jerk tofu with spinach together with some vegan fluffy biscuits? I saw a wonderful fluffy biscuit recipe on Elly's blog a few days ago. I haven't been able to get it out of my head. The photos looked really fantastic. I had to make these biscuits. I had no choice. So I took the original recipe and veganized it. My photos don't do justice to these biscuits (what's with the lighting anyway?) but rest assured they taste really good. They are really fluffy too.
These are the few things I did to veganize this recipe:
1. Put 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch at the bottom of the measuring cup and continue to measure out 1 cup of all-purpose flour to make 1 cup plain cake flour. This is for those of you, who are like me, who don't usually have cake flour around.
2. Use 1/2 cup of chilled vegan margarine (cubed 1/4-inch each) and about 2 Tbsp. canola oil to replace the butter.
3. Measure out 3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk and add 1 to 1 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar to curdle it for at least 2 minutes. This is to replace the required buttermilk.
4. Brush the tops with soymilk. You can also consider using a little melted margarine in the soy milk.
1. Put 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch at the bottom of the measuring cup and continue to measure out 1 cup of all-purpose flour to make 1 cup plain cake flour. This is for those of you, who are like me, who don't usually have cake flour around.
2. Use 1/2 cup of chilled vegan margarine (cubed 1/4-inch each) and about 2 Tbsp. canola oil to replace the butter.
3. Measure out 3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk and add 1 to 1 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar to curdle it for at least 2 minutes. This is to replace the required buttermilk.
4. Brush the tops with soymilk. You can also consider using a little melted margarine in the soy milk.
Although I love seeing the white snow outside, I really hope the winter will be over soon. I already want to make some summer rolls!
Maybe in a few more days I will make another batch of pizzas and update with the new result.
Both my husband and I are on a diet but we crazily love coconut. As long as I have shredded coconut and coconut milk/cream sitting in the pantry, I have no excuse not to make us a nice coconut cake to reward ourselves a little for our effort. I know our effort hasn't been that noteworthy yet, but we can use a little consolation. In fact, the coconut cake (from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, page 190) came out so heavenly that my husband took a big slice of one layer before I could assemble and add the frosting. He dipped the cake in the frosting too.
I didn't use the Coconut Dream Frosting (ED&BV, page 191) though. Not that I didn't want to. Who doesn't want to dream in coconut flavor? Sadly, I didn't have several ingredients so I had to adapt. But amazingly my own frosting came out to be very addictive too. Maybe a little too good for my poor husband. He's not even into sweets but the coconut flavor is just too irresistible. So here's my macadamia frosting recipe.
Macadamia Frosting
2/3 package silken extra-firm tofu
1 cup & 2 Tbsp. organic powdered sugar
1/2 cup roasted macadamia nuts
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla soymilk
1 1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp tapioca starch
In a blender or food processor, chop up macadamia nuts until like crumbs. Pat tofu with paper towel to remove extra moisture. Add tofu to the nuts and blend together until smooth. Scrape down sides if needed. Add powdered sugar, soymilk, lemon juice, and vanilla extract, and blend thoroughly to mix well. Finally, add in tapioca starch and blend in thoroughly again. Refrigerate immediately for at least a few hours before applying. I let it sit in the fridge overnight.
I didn't apply too much frosting on the cake because I knew I would get too "excited". I still managed to justify to myself how I could have two slices though.
Did I mention before that Dreena Burton's Eat, Drink & Be Vegan is a very practical and wonderful cookbook? I'm totally in love with this cookbook right now. I didn't use it until a few days ago because I never spent much time looking through everything in the book, for a good reason too - Veganomicon simply rules! But in all fairness, ED&BV is very practical and the recipes are wholesome and easy to follow. And you will have very tasty food without going through too much trouble. I just tried out the Palak Soyabina Panira (ED&BV, page 137) which is a tofu version of the indian dish Palak Paneer (spinach, cheese and a blend of spices). It was mighty tasty and it took me only 20 minutes altogether to prepare and cook. I didn't make our own marinated tofu and used half a package of fried tofu.
And I had my second try on Potato-Edamame Samosas with Coconut-Mint Chutney (VwaV, pages 80-82). I was very lucky this time to have a huge success with these delicious and satisfying samosas. My husband always says that samosas are the ultimate "junk food" (in the sense that you really spoil yourself with the fried dough, mashed potatoes and the Indian spices) and he was surely glad to get some finally. I had to photograph the filling because it just looked so pretty.
Now we can see the final samosas looking all very golden and smelling awesome, and the elegant-looking chutney. Vegan with A Vengeance is still so awesome!
Wow, I can't believe this post turns out to be quite long. I guess nowadays I'm really a cooking maniac. Until tomorrow (or maybe later) then.
First of all, I wish all of you in the bloggerland a Merry Christmas, or Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, or Happy December!
Now on to what we cooked. I failed to make the crispy peanut butter cookies (from VwaV). I don't know why the cookies didn't become crispy at all. I will have to try some other cookies to see if my cookie dough is just not right. The scrambled tofu I made with loads of mushrooms and some zucchini worked out really well. We just love mushrooms and zucchini.
With scrambled tofu, we need some nice rice dish to serve with the tofu. So I made the Lentils and Rice with Caramelized Onions and Spiced Pita Crisps (Veganomicon, page 177). This deceivingly simple rice dish was so comforting and satisfying that I couldn't believe it was just made of brown Basmati rice and lentils. Well, roasted onion rings and the remaining olive oil in the baking dish really infused the rice with a wonderful flavor. And one thing lead to another. Once I made the lentils and rice, I had to make the spiced pita crisps too since i had two pita breads laying around waiting to be thrown out as usual. I made use of them this time and I was really grateful that I did.
Tofu- and Herb-Stuffed Mushrooms (from VwaV)
I really had fun making these stuffed mushrooms from VwaV yesterday. I had button mushrooms and cremini mushrooms of all different sizes since it was getting really close to our shopping day. I had to stuff some really small mushrooms but it was still fun. Since I didn't find vegan bread crumbs on the last shopping day, I had to crush a bag of spelt rusk. I was amazed by the result. The spelt bread crumbs smelled mighty fine. I also replaced seitan with extra-firm tofu because tofu just goes very well with mushrooms in my book. I had no more walnuts left so toasted almonds were used, which is a very good solution after all. The whole cooking process was an easy sail in spite of the seemingly complicated instructions.
The funny thing is that I accidentally made too much stuffing and I didn't quite know what else to stuff. So I used the same stuffing in the baked ziti 2 hours later.
By the way, the picture on the right is the largest mushroom I was able to find in my refrigerator.
Blueberry Coffee Cake (from VwaV)
This is the densest cake I have made so far, the reason of which is still beyond me. Maybe just because it's a coffee cake. :) I changed the topping nuts from walnuts to almonds again. I love almonds. I also heavily reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe, which made the cake more savory (if it's indeed possible with a cake). This cake happened to be the largest cake ever in my house too. However, the sad news is that it didn't last any longer than other cakes. Although my husband is really not a cake person, he liked it very much because of the blueberries and nutty topping.
As I'm posting, I just realized that the pictures of stuffed mushrooms look quite like cousins to the blueberry coffee cake's picture. I guess it's because I'm nuts, and I love nuts.
Baked Ziti with Almond Cream
I first found this recipe from Laura Faye's blog "Jewish Vegan". But I used rigatoni instead of ziti. The original recipe calls for vegan mayonnaise and grated mozzarella soy cheese, both of which are not in my fridge. So I took Carla's Tofu Mayo recipe and adapted the Pine Nut Cream recipe by "Eat Air" (Chris), and also incorporated my leftover mushroom stuffing into the whole recipe (more or less because I didn't want to waste all that nice-smelling bread crumbs).
Below is the final recipe I used (serves 3-4).
Ingredients
8 ounces rigatoni pasta, cooked according to package instructions
2/3 jar of basil-tomato pasta sauce (try to find a good Italian one)
7.5 ounces extra-firm tofu, drained
1/4 cup tofu mayo (Carla's recipe)
1 1/2 cups stuffing from VwaV's stuffed mushrooms
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/8 cup unsweetened soymilk
1 cup Almond Cream (adapted from Chris' Pine Nut Cream, just use almonds instead)
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large bowl mash the extra-firm tofu with a fork. Mix in the tofu mayo. Stir in basil, oregano, and mix well. Add soymilk and stir again. Finally, stir in mushroom stuffing and stir thoroughly.
3. Place a few tablespoons of pasta sauce on the bottom of the baking dish.
4. Add the remaining pasta sauce into the bowl. Stir well.
5. Stir in cooked pasta, then pour the mixture into the baking dish. Top with Almond Cream. Cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil. Broil for 3-5 minutes.
The Almond Cream had an incredible pleasant smell. I definitely loved every bit of it. Enjoy!
