15 posts tagged “chocolate”

I tried out a very simple yet ultra-yummy recipe of Nava Atlas - Stewed Tofu with Corn and Tomatoes.  I've always enjoyed Nava's recipes because they are simple, straightforward and often involve a balanced and tasty combination of commonly-used ingredients.  No fancy schmancy, and no fuss.  Vegetables, grains and tofu taste good on their own, and we shall try to remember that whenever we cook.  My variation of this recipe: I added a small onion (cut into half-moons), 2 celery sticks, half a red bell pepper, bok choy, and I used fresh cilantro and basil as suggested.  I also subbed packaged fried tofu so I avoided pan-frying firm tofu squares.  The stew is full of different textures and different tastes that blend well together.

 

And I'm really glad to announce that I finally tried the chocolate pudding Purplesque made a while ago, recipe by courtesy of Jugalbandi.  This is clearly the best chocolate pudding (vegan or non-vegan) I've ever had.  It's so chocolatey and rich that we practically inhaled it.  I didn't even have a chance to photograph its complete form before it was chilled.  My husband, who doesn't like any dessert, ate half of the pudding when it was still warm.  The photo below was what was left for me.

 

For Valentine’s Day, I was courageous enough to make half a batch of Brooklyn vs. Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes (VCTOTW, page 65).  My vegan pastry crème is not as clearly visible in the photo as in the cookbook but the taste is purely heavenly.  My rich chocolate ganache frosting came out a little thinner than usual this time (probably because I had a heavy hand in measuring the soy milk) but what the heck.  I’m still loving this batch of not-overly-sweet-and-super-rich cupcakes.

 

I've saved Lolo's recipe for Mini Baked Donuts for nearly 4 months and I was courageous enough to make these cakey and pretty donuts yesterday.  I used 1/4 cup of silken tofu to replace one egg, which worked out really well.  Since these donuts were the mini version, I didn't feel as bad when I ate a few right after they were done.  Do check out Lolo's VeganYumYum.  I really hope her cookbook will come out soon.

 

I only made a batch of glazed donuts with chocolate sprinkles.  If I hadn't finished eating the first batch, I would have been able to make some chocolate dipped donuts as well.  Oh well, next time, maybe.

 

I made only half a batch of Chocolate Chunk Spice Cookies (Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, page 184).  Yes, I only make half a batch of everything sweet now, since I will be the only one eating them for the next few days.  The new Swiss dark chocolate bars I bought were really good.  They contain 85% cocoa, which makes them taste quite bitter.  I love bitter chocolate bars.  I guess I will be baking some chocolate cupcakes and chocolate cakes.  OMG, it's almost like everything starts with "choco".  Enough digression.  The spice cookies were GOOD!  I ate two right out of the oven.  The melty chocolate chunks were oozing out.  Ultimate yumminess!  By the way, I used oat flour instead of barley flour (1:1).  You can also use all-purpose flour (less 2 tablespoons).  I will be making more wheat-free baked goods from now on because they taste better and have a better texture somehow.

 

I also made the first vegan Stuffing in my life.  The original recipe is by Veglicious.  I followed it strictly so you will have to check out the blog yourself.  It's really worth your time though.  I found a few great vegan recipes there.

 

I had two big eggplants and zucchini sitting in my fridge waiting to be picked.  So I was kind enough to slaughter them finally.  I made them into Eggplant-Potato Moussaka with Almond Cream (Veganomicon, page 164).  I didn't have any pine nuts left and we loved the almond cream we made when we had the baked ziti.  Naturally, almond cream was sitting on top of this casserole.  I am still so enamored with this cream.  But it's the most elaborate dish I've ever cooked.  I don't know why I spent 2 hours and a half trying to get it together.  I'll have to do some light cooking for tomorrow, or I might just completely take a day off.

 

Text-book result above.  I didn't take any picture of the inside though.  You know, layers of eggplants, potatoes, sauce, bread crumbs, and zucchini.  Just one layer after another.  I'm crazy to have done this without thinking about what's involved.

 

Now a very happy dessert experiment took place in my kitchen.  I made the much famed fauxstess cupcakes (VwaV, page 229).  I was too lazy to finish the icing.  I read on VeggieGirl's blog about My Sweet Vegan (another cookbook I should get soon) and the magical Self-Frosting Peanut Butter Cupcakes.  How I wish all cupcakes could be self-frosting!

 

This is a beautiful sight.  All the chocolate cupcakes waiting to be crowned but they had to keep waiting.  Again, I did the icing in a minimalist manner.

 

I ignored the fluffy white icing and the royal icing for the squigglies.  I only made the chocolate ganache icing.  My reasoning was that we should "all" pile chocolate on chocolate to keep these cupcakes pure.  Maybe one day, my lazy self will yield and I will do justice to Isa's recipe.

 

This week is turning out to be a VwaV week.  I made another 3 things from this awesome cookbook - Stewed Tofu and Potatoes in Miso Gravy, Sesame Asparagus, and Mexican Chococlate Rice Pudding.

 

For Stewed Tofu and Potatoes in Miso Gravy, I didn't do much different.  I just added fried tofu and sliced button mushrooms in addition to the recipe.  Also, I used an expensive Chardonnay in cooking because I didn't get white cooking wine.  The stew surely turned out fantastic, probably because of the extra Chardonnay I accidentally poured into the stew. :-)

 

Sesame Asparagus was so easy to make too.  However, I didn't have toasted sesame oil, so I sort of just dashed some sesame oil in olive oil and sauteed everything.  I sprinkled black sesame seeds on top in the end, which produced a very striking photo.

 

Finally, let me come to the big flop of the day.  I started making this Mexican Chocolate Rice Pudding full of enthusiasm but I ran out of white rice in the beginning.  I only had less than 1/4 cup.  I was already hard bent on making this pudding though.  So I foolishly started cooking brown basmati rice instead.  The 30-minute fun turned into a 3-hour saga of fighting with the hard-ass basmati rice.  In the end, my husband had to put all the cooked stuff in the blender to get the smoothness.  Amazingly the pudding turned out great!  I was so glad that it wasn't a wasted effort altogether.  Subsequently and naturally I ate too much of the pudding.

 

 

I experimented making some really chocolaty pancakes today.  They turned out to be really fine.  The dark chocolate version of pancakes.  They are very easy to make too.  You can see on the right that the batter looks really like liquid chocolate.

Chocolate Lover's Pancakes

Japanese hot cake mix (or other plain pancake mix you love)
100% cocoa powder
100% organic coconut cream
Vanilla soymilk
Vanilla extract
maple syrup
2 drops of olive oil

Combine all the ingredients above and mix well in a bowl to achieve the desired consistency.  Spray a pan with olive oil and pour some batter in the center of the pan and begin cooking your pancakes.  You will be amazed by these dark chocolate pancakes.

Feel free to adjust the amount of maple syrup in the batter according to your own taste.  I love that slightly bitter taste of dark chocolate so I didn't use much maple syrup.

We didn't wait too long before taking the chocolate mousse pie out of the refrigerator.  The pie is amazingly good but can certainly be improved.  It is based on fatfreevegan's Chocolate a l'Orange Mousse Pie but I guess I was too lazy to follow every step again.  The pie base is the oatmeal cake/pie base.

 

 

Vegan chocolate fudge or cocoa powder

Silken tofu

Medium grade maple syrup

White jasmine rice

 

1. Put 1.5 packages of silken tofu into the blender.  Blend with quite a bit of maple syrup until smooth.

2. Add chocolate fudge or cocoa powder and blend together until creamy.

3. Cook white jasmine rice until fluffy separately.

4. Add rice into the blender and blend thoroughly.  Stop a few times and stir.  Blend until very smooth and creamy.

 

Obviously, a food processor will work better since you don't want the topping to be grainy in any way.  Also, choosing finer vegan chocolate is very important.  I made the base a little too thick this time too.  So there are a few areas that I can fine-tune next time.

 

 

We didn't know what we were going to eat, so we ended up cooking and eating almost everything in the fridge.  We bought a new type of green vegetables yesterday - Malabar spinach.  We thought it was just another one of those modern spinach varieties.  But it turned out that we were completely wrong.  Malabar spinach is only distantly related to spinach and its taste and texture are certainly very different.  The texture reminds us of okra - very smooth.  After being steamed, Malabar spinach smells like spinach, only stronger.  However, we didn't like it that much.  I ate all of it only because dark-green leafy vegetables are good for us.

 

Breakfast

 

Sweet corn

Garden tomatoes

Wholewheat pasta with Malabar spinach and fried tofu

Chocolate coconut blueberry raisin pancakes

Chocolate soymilk

 

I cannot believe the list above.  It certainly had three breakfasts included. ^-^

 

 

This is very easy.  Slice up the fresh tomatoes.  Simply put some olive oil, salt, black pepper, coriander, and oregano on top of the slices.  You're done.

 

 

1. Boil fried tofu* (see notes below) and pasta together.
2. Strain.
3. Add chopped Malabar spinach (already steamed), olive oil, salt, black pepper, paprika, coriander, veggie mushroom paste** (see notes below), fermented black bean paste, and garlic powder.

4. Mix well and serve.

 

 

* It's very likely that you won't be able to find fried tofu.  You can use some extra-firm tofu instead.  Dry well before frying in the pan.

 

** You should be able to find some veggie mushroom paste in Chinese or Korean supermarkets.  Otherwise, feel free to use Porcini Mushroom Paste instead.  Or, an even simpler solution is to cook up some portabella mushrooms yourself.

 

Of course, I had to have some blueberry pancakes before I can call it a day.  I think next time we will do without the raisins in the pancakes though.  So the picture below is our Heavenly Pancake.  We have further improved the recipe.  Anyone will love it, vegan or non-vegan.  There's absolutely no doubt about it.  In fact, I really wonder why we were taught to use 2 eggs and milk in the batter at all.  (Well, for the egg and milk industries, right?)

 

These are the best pancakes we have ever made so far.  We used only vegan chocolate soy milk this time, and doubled the amount of organic coconut cream in the batter.  Amazingly, the coconut cream made the pancakes more fluffy and tasty.  Fresh blueberries and some raisins added more flavors.  We were really happy with the result.

 

Every bite I took contained either a blueberry or a raisin or both (when I was really really lucky).  It was purely heaven!