The Joy and Wonder of Turmeric

The blog naturopath.ca posted a fantastic writeup on turmeric, the wonderful Indian spice that gives curry its bright color. The post mentions turmeric’s dual role as spice and medicine, and gives a few tips for using it.

The take-away here is that turmeric is delicious, very healthy and isn’t just for Indian dishes. You’ll find that many of my recipes call for this oh, so wonderful spice.

Click here to see all my recipes that use turmeric.

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Merry Christmas!!!

Vegan Turtles – Turtles, turtles…rah rah rah! I will post this recipe shortly…yummy!

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Dance of the Sugar Plum Vegan

There is something magical about the Nutcracker ballet… the music, the story, the thought of a land filled with endless sweets. Many years growing up, I looked forward to wearing my holiday dress and using those little glasses to magnify the dancers up on their toes. I would leave the theatre feeling like I too had been transported to the land of the sugar plum fairy with a nutcracker prince at my side. Since I didn’t make it to the ballet this year, I put together my own little video to whisk me away to that magical place filled with holiday sweets…
(music from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker)

This year’s holiday baking included veganizing some of my childhood favorites. They turned out so well that I’m going to share the recipes…

Mounds Bars – a graham cracker crust with a gooey coconut filling and topped with a layer of chocolate

Ingredients:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup Earth Balance vegan butter, melted

1 cup coconut (sweetened, not dessicated)
3/4 cup sweetened condensed soy milk (recipe here)
1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
1 T chunky peanut butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Mix crumbs, sugar, and melted earth balance and press into an 8×8 pyrex dish.
2. Combine coconut, sweetened condensed soymilk, and vanilla in a small bowl. Spread carefully on top of crumbs in an even layer.
3. Bake for 15 minutes in 350 oven. Remove from oven and cool.
4. Melt chocolate chips on a double broiler. Add in peanut butter. Spread on top of baked bars.
5. Refrigerate until chocolate has set and ready to serve. Store in refrigerator.

Pecan Tassies – a creamy dough with a sugary sweet pecan filling

Ingredients:

1/3 cup vegan cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan butter, softened
1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp EnerG egg replacer + 2 T water
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 T Earth Balance vegan butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line a mini muffin pan with liners and lightly oil. Set aside.
2. In a stand mixer, cream together softened cream cheese and butter. Mix in flour until well incorporated. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
3. Shape dough into 24 – 1 inch balls. Place balls into greased muffin cups. Press dough into the bottom and up the sides of the cups.
4. Beat together the EnerG, sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt until well combined. Add the chopped pecans.
5. Fill the dough lined muffin cups with the pecan mixture. Top with extra pecans if desired.
6. Bake for 25 minutes at 325, or until filling is set. Remove from oven and cool until able to remove the tassies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Crispy Peanut Butter Balls

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup chunky natural peanut butter
2 cups crisped brown rice cereal
1/2 cup sweetened coconut

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combin rice cereal and coconut, set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring sugar and corn syrup to a boil.
3. Add peanut butter and return to a boil. Continue to boil for approximately one minute.
4. Pour sugar and corn syrup mixture over cereal mixture and quickly coat the cereal.
5. Drop 1 T sized balls onto waxed paper and allow to cool. Store in an airtight container.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday full of friends, family, and of course, lots of vegan sweets.

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Quinoa with Seitan and Vegetables

I’ve managed to check off at least a couple of things from my list. The Sauteed Seitan with Mushrooms and Spinach from Veganomicon made for a fairly simple but very delicious meal a few nights ago (sorry, no pictures of that one). I also went back to the test kitchen with my seitan patties this past weekend. This time it was for sort of a chorizo style, seasoned with smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, cayenne, fennel seed and garlic. And once I made the seitan the idea for this quinoa dish started formulating. Actually it was going to be a rice dish but we were out of white rice and I didn’t feel like waiting for brown rice, so quinoa made a fine substitution. Here’s how it went down.

1 lb. seitan
3 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 med. onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
pinch saffron
14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
3/4 c. water
1 c. quinoa
1-2 c. broccoli florets
1/2 c. frozen peas
salt & pepper to taste

Short version: cook onion in 1 Tbs. olive oil; add garlic, thyme, paprika, saffron. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Meanwhile chop the seitan and fry in 2 Tbs. olive oil until nice and brown. Stir into the quinoa at the end.

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Oats, Not Just For Breakfast!

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General Mills Italian Dinner Kit, Chicken Marsala, 10.1-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 8)

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peppery party crackers and casting call

Peppery Party Crackers from “The Urban Vegan: 250 Street-Smart, Animal-Free Recipes”

To form the crackers, I use a pastry cutter because it’s quick and simple. But you can make them in any shape you want. You can even get all Martha Stewart on me and use small cookie cutters to create shapes that fit your party’s theme. (For example, use a wedding bell cutter for a bridal shower).

Casting Call
What’s your vegan story? Eric of An Animal Friendly Life just got funding to complete his documentary “I’m Vegan.” To be considered for casting, visit his film’s web site.

Required Reading
If you’re less than happy with your outdated kitchen, check out this excellent article by Mark Bittman which appeared in the Week in Review section in Sunday’s New York Times. (The link will expire in a week unless you’re a subscriber, so read ASAP.) It has implications that extend way beyond cooking.

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Apple Crumble Ice Cream

One of my all-time favorite desserts is Annie’s Apple Crumble, so named because a wonderful lady named Annie shared her recipe with me. This particular apple crumble is always a huge hit at potlucks. My husband likes it best when served with a scoop of ice cream. So tonight, with an apple crumble baking in the oven, I thought…why not mix them together? Genius! (And the best part is that you only need part of the apple crumble for the ice cream, so you will have more crumble leftover!)

First, the apple crumble recipe. Then the genius mash up.

Annie’s Apple Crumble

5 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced approx. 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1 dash nutmeg
1 cup sugar, divided into two ½ cups
½ cup flour
½ cup rolled oats
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
½ cup vegan margarine, such as Earth Balance

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, toss the apples with lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Place the apples in a lightly oiled 8 x 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking dish. Sprinkle ½ cup sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes.

While the apples are baking, make the crumble topping. Mix the flour, remaining ½ cup sugar, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Cut the margarine into small pieces and mash it into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter, a fork, or your fingers. The mixture will be crumbly and coarse.

When the first 10 minutes of baking are over, spread/sprinkle the topping over the apples. Bake (still at 350) for another 30 – 35 minutes, or until the topping is golden.

Ice Cream

2 cups soy creamer (or any non-dairy milk)
1 cups soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)
¾ cup sugar
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
dash nutmeg
2 tablespoons arrowroot
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup Annie’s apple crumble, with the apple bit kind of chopped a little so it’ll mix in easier

Mix ¼ cup of soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the soy creamer, soy milk, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a saucepan. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Stir in vanilla extract.

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. Meanwhile, take your apple crumble–be sure it’s not hot anymore!–and scoop out about 1 cup. If there are any large apple slices, cut them up a little so they will mix more easily into the ice cream. Break up the crumble topping if it’s baked into a solid mass. The goal will be to spread the crumble bits throughout your ice cream base.

Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Add the apple crumble in the last 5 minutes of freezing.

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More going green by eating greens

There is yet another write-up on the Straits Times on heading green by consuming green.

It’s fascinating that individuals make diet plan switches to “save money” simply because it’s not the situation if you’re searching to consuming out like a veg. Wholesome veg food are much more pricey whenever you consume out as they are generally not the types to become discovered at hawker centres and coffee shops. Nevertheless, should you cook at house and use small or no mock meat, perhaps it does assist conserve much more cash.

On another note…

The essential part the advertising plays in advertising vegetarianism

An growing quantity of individuals are concern with saving the planet following the link in between meat-eating and atmosphere problems obtain publicity with the advertising.

I keep in mind all the although veg organizations had been advertising the veg trigger utilizing environmental factors however it in no way appear to consider off so a lot as “going veg for animals”.

Then comes the Inconvenient reality and worldwide warming, together with Reside Earth with the video of the cows pooping away and leading to worldwide warming. It did brought some awareness, but it is nevertheless becoming brushed aside. Possibly some individuals are starting to believe about vegetarianism at this stage, however it requires lots of determination to go against the flow.

We then hear Dr Patchauri saying we ought to consume 1 veg meal a week, at the exact same time we see news and the papers start to publise much more and much more veg associated content articles. With this we see mindset modifications and much more individuals accepting heading veg for the atmosphere.

This shows how essential the advertising is and how it can make some thing that’s previously shunned, mainstream. Individuals like to “belong” and often consider what’s in the advertising as “authority” and “following that indicates you belong and are with the mainstream society”. Thankfully we’re now displaying the devastating results of meat consumption and atmosphere on advertising (that is the reality), rather than how great, nutritious and fresh meat tastes.

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panko-crusted tofu with raspberry-tamarind glaze

Tamarind from India. Panko from Japan. Raspberry jam from France. This is fusion cuisine at its best, and I love the fact that, as a city dweller, I can buy all the ingredients, including organic tofu, within a 3-block radius. The glaze is a unique blend of sweet, sour and earthy.

Omniman loved it and so did I. It’s my new favorite dish.

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