food Archives - Page 56 of 93

A first try at Roti

This was my first try at making Roti. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever even eaten this particular flat bread. I saw the recipe for Mama Nadia’s Caribbean Roti in Vegan Fusion World Cuisine when I was making up my grocery list and thought I’d give it a try. The recipe called for spelt flour but I used unbleached all purpose with some barley flour mixed in instead.

They aren’t as hard as I thought they would be. But I did have a lot of trouble with the filling busting out. Probably because I didn’t feel like hauling out my mixer and kneaded by hand. I hate kneading by hand. Actually, I hate putting my hands in the food in such a way that gets the food under my fingernails. Anyway, I should have let the mixer do it. I think the dough would have been smoother, developed a little more gluten and then the filling wouldn’t have busted out. But still, they came out pretty well. And were tasty. The recipe suggests serving with mango chutney. I didn’t have any so I just mixed up a quick sauce of apricot jam mixed with a little soy sauce. That seemed to work out just fine.

Blueberry Coconut Cupcakes

Blueberry coconut sounds kind of strange, doesn’t it? They were the answer to the question “what can I make for a dessert without going to the store.” And they were tasty too! I especially liked the effect of rolling the frosted top in coconut. It makes them look extra special.

And I’ve never even been to Seattle

Recently a friend made a trip to Seattle and brought back a ton of Mighty O Donuts. I think it’s funny that through the magic of traveling friends, I have now had Ronald’s Donuts from Las Vegas and now Mighty O’s without having visited either city.

Mighty O’s are cake-like doughnuts. I don’t have a problem with that. I like both cake and raised. Even though they were a day old, the doughnuts were still fresh and lovely.

Kevin picked the lemon poppyseed. It had nice sharp lemon flavor and a light glaze on the top.

I went with the Lots o Chocolate flavor. Chocolate cake, chocolate glaze. Mmmm. The glaze was sort of reminiscent of the flavor of Entenmann’s chocolate covered doughnuts. But not as firm. It got a little melty. Of course, what do I know. I haven’t had Entenmann’s in many years. Anyway, this doughnut was rich enough for a chocolate snob like me.

Polenta is easy!

I don’t know why I always thought polenta was hard to make. Maybe it’s just made out to be a big pain in the ass. In reality, it’s not that bad. You need to whisk steadily as you add the cornmeal, but after you’ve got it all in there and the lumps are worked out, you really only need to stir every so often. Not constantly as some recipes would have you believe. And talk about budget food! I mean, how much is cornmeal?

This is the Polenta with Fresh Corn recipe from The Vegan Gourmet. I took advantage of the fresh white corn at Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market and even super-sized the corn by using 3 ears instead of two. I also was able to make use of the sage I have growing outside my kitchen. On top is a bit of Daiya cheese that we didn’t even bother to melt. And some roasted asparagus and summer squash.

Adventures in Soy Curls

You may have seen or heard of Butler’s Soy Curls in shops or on other blogs. They are awesome in their simplicity: soy beans. And guess what? They’re really easy to use too! I just rehydrate with warm water and use in recipes that call for seitan or TVP.

Here’s a recipe from A Vegan Taste of Thailand that called for TVP. I think it’s called Soya Mince with Rice Noodles and Peas. The sauce base is coconut milk and red curry paste. I used yellow curry paste instead. Still delicious. This is the only one of the “a vegan taste” series that I own, but I’ve been pretty happy with it. I know the various books get so-so reviews on amazon.com. But they are fairly inexpensive, so the risk is pretty small. I should try another one soon.

And here, I was easily able to substitute the Soy Curls for seitan in this Persian Seitan in Pomegranate Sauce from The Vegan Epicure. Bonus, I was able to use some of the Pom Wonderful Pomegranate juice sent to me a while back. I usually just make this dish with pomegranate molasses. I was hoping using the juice would have it turn out a little less brown, but I didn’t get the concentrated flavor from it that I like. So I ended up adding the pomegranate molasses anyway. We just ate it over bulgur.