Chocolate tofu pudding

I have made chocolate tofu many many times since I first tried it (here). But realized when I was looking for the recipe recently that actually my noted recipe was a bit inadequate. So here is an updated version, adapted to use one whole typical 349g Mori-Nu type silken tofu package.

175 g chocolate

75 g sugar

120 ml hot water

349 g pack of silken tofu (preferably the kind in a tetra pak, not floating in liquid)

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp vanilla powder

pinch cayenne

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Dissolve the sugar in the hot water. Put the tofu and spices in a blender cup. Scrape the melted chocolate into the blender, and pour in the sugar syrup (let it cool slightly first). Blend until smooth. Transfer to glasses, ramekins or other containers (I like to use jars for easy storage), and refrigerate for at least 30 min before eating - preferably at least 2 hours for ideal texture, although it'll taste good right away. Keeps fine in the fridge for a few days.

Tostones (fried green plantains)

There used to be a Colombian vegan food stall in the now-long-gone Papirøen, which was always S's top pick when we went there, mainly because of their yummy plantain chips (tostones). 

I bought some very green, fairly small plantains from our super weird local Indian shop the other day. Only two, because I wasn't sure what to do with totally green ones (or if ones this green would ever ripen). S and I were sitting on the sofa early evening, somehow the question of what to do with the plantains arose, he suggested tostones, I had a quick Google and discovered they call for very green plantains, and was sold. They also seemed to be pretty simple. Off I went...

(makes about 20 tostones)

2 very green plantains

refined coconut oil (or other flavourless high-temp frying oil) for frying

coarse salt for sprinkling

lime, avocado, coriander also nice if you have them

Peel one plantain (they don't peel easily - had to slice to some extent). Cut into rounds 2-3 cm deep. Melt 2-3 mm depth of coconut oil in a high-sides frying pan. Fry plantain rounds a few minutes on each side, until yellow and just starting to brown. Remove from heat onto a plate. Repeat with the other plantain (peel and slice one at a time so it doesn't go brown - alternatively you could peel and slice them all and keep the slices in salted water until ready to fry).

Take the first slice of lightly fried plantain, put it on a flat plate, and squash with the (clean) underside of a tin (e.g. of coconut milk). The tin has a rim which means you can't flatten too much so press firmly. Repeat for all the slices from the first plantain, then put them back in the frying pan (add more oil if needed). Fry a few minutes on each side, until golden brown and crispy-crunchy. Remove to a plate lined with kitchen paper and sprinkle with coarse salt. Repeat for the rest of the slices.

Nice with a dip - guacamole would be ideal. Or just a sprinkle of salt and a squeeze of lime. Or ketchup if you are little s. S and s both loved them - they deffo turned out way better than I dreamed when I bought the green plantains, and were pretty similar to the colombian vegan ones - perhaps not quite as crunchy but no complaints.

Easter 2020: Hot Cross Buns and Egg Hunting

Lockdown Easter. We decorated eggs all the ways we could think of, and then put them in the garden for s and M-E to find and play with. Also, I made hot cross buns (this recipe), and they were the best I ever made (nb i think i've only made them 3-4 times - bit of a faff but not that bad, and you can't buy them here so worth it. i do like them! so did s...).
 

Onion marmalade

We had part of a bottle of red wine left after a visitor left (our last visitor from the UK before lockdown!). Clearly we weren’t going to drink it, we never do, but we also had quite a lot of onions so I decided it should become onion marmalade. I am pretty sure I have made this onion marmalade before, many moons ago. It’s easy and tasty, goes great with cheese, and keeps for a while in the fridge. I think this is the recipe I used before - and it was also the one I used this time.

2 kg red onions or regular onions 

4 garlic cloves 

140 g butter 

4 tbsp olive oil 

140 g golden caster sugar 

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaf 

pinch of chilli flakes (did not use) 

75 cl bottle red wine 

350 ml sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar 

200 ml port (used extra wine / wine vinegar instead)

Halve and thinly slice the onions, then thinly slice the garlic. Melt the butter with the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a high heat. Tip in the onions and garlic and give them a good stir so they are glossed with butter. Sprinkle over the sugar, thyme leaves, chilli flakes if using and some salt and pepper. Give everything another really good stir and reduce the heat slightly. Cook uncovered for 40-50 min, stirring occasionally. The onions are ready when all their juices have evaporated, they’re really soft and sticky and smell of sugar caramelising. They should be so soft that they break when pressed against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon. Slow cooking is the secret of really soft and sticky onions, so don't rush this part. 

Pour in the wine, vinegar and port and simmer everything, still uncovered, over a high heat for 25-30 min, stirring every so often until the onions are a deep mahogany colour and the liquid has reduced by about two-thirds. It’s done when drawing a spoon across the bottom of the pan clears a path that fills rapidly with syrupy juice. Leave the onions to cool in the pan, then scoop into sterilised jars and seal. Can be eaten straight away, but keeps in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Baked coconut rice pudding with mango

I liked the idea of rice pudding made with coconut milk instead of normal milk, and eaten with fresh mango. Right??? I approximately followed this recipe.

I also used coconut sugar, and tonka bean instead of vanilla. I bought the tonka bean a while ago but don't really know what to do with it. I was super curious about it because I first tried to buy it when we lived in the USA but couldn't, as it is illegal there! So when I saw it in the supermarket a spontaneous purchase happened... The internet suggests you grate it like nutmeg, and use it in places where you might use vanilla.

80 g coconut sugar (or normal sugar - golden caster)

800 ml coconut milk

1 strip lemon zest (optional)

about 1 tsp grated tonka bean (equivalent to seeds from 1 vanilla pod?)

160 g pudding rice

1-2 fresh mangoes, peeled and chopped or sliced, to serve

Heat oven to 150C. In large oven dish, combine sugar, coconut milk and lemon zest. Grate in tonka bean. Add pudding rice (rinsed), and mix to combine. Place in the oven and cook c. 2 hours, stirring halfway through, until rice is tender and liquid absorbed. Serve hot or warm with fresh mango.

Snobrød

I don't even know the name for this in English: 'bread twisted onto a stick and cooked on a fire' is rather long winded. So, snobrød (literally translates to 'twisted bread') is something that it seems to me every Danish person has been making since kindergarten (børnehave), like building supercool ground-level treehouses out of sticks in the woods or making awesome morning rolls. But I had never made or eaten it. So it had become one of my dream-Denmark-goals - my American one was to see a skunk (realized just weeks before leaving after 5 years). We had been talking with our neighbours about making a fire in the garden together and making some snobrød, and finally got around to it a couple days before New Year's Eve, on a non-rainy afternoon after S+T had been cutting down some tree pieces. T had bought some special sticks (metal with wooden handles), and I made the dough using this recipe.

300 ml water

25 g fresh yeast (used c. 1.5 tbsp dried)

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

500 g plain flour

Mix yeast and water in a large bowl. Add sugar, flour and salt and mix to a smooth dough. Add more flour if needed. Let rise approx. 45 min (or a bit longer). Take pieces of dough approx the size of a snooker ball, and roll into long thin sausage shapes before twisting around the end of a stick and squishing a bit into shape. Bake by holding over hot embers. Like marshmallow toasting, different techniques and tastes apply, but I think it best to be patient and go for browned on the outside / cooked on the inside. 

This was about the right amount for 4 adults and 2 three year olds, as a sort of afternoon snack. They were quite special - the crispy outside and soft inside is different from any other bread I've eaten. Next time it might be nice with seeds in the dough - sesame?

Third Birthday Cake

Little S turned three on Tuesday. He is crazy about cars / vehicles at the moment, so this year he clearly had to have a car for his birthday cake. I thought about a fire engine, but it seemed like you'd have to have the colour, shape, writing etc bang on for it to look recognizable, and I wanted to allow myself a bit more leeway.

So I went for a dumper truck. Still a favourite, still easily recognizable, still a truck - but could be any colour I want, no writing needed, and somehow felt like it would still look ok even if the shape went a bit wrong.

The cake was this one, baked in a loaf tin. I cut it into three pieces: about a third from one end to make the front part (standing on the cut side), all the rest except a couple of inches to make the back part, and then the last piece to cut into six wheel shapes. Then I shaped the front, cut out the hopper, shaped the wheel beds and evened out the wheels.

The icing was this one. Instead of cinnamon, I added a few different powders to colour it: the icing on the back part of the truck is with freeze-dried raspberry powder, the icing on the front part is with acai powder, and the icing on the wheels is with cocoa. I considered a few other powder (spirulina or matcha for green; turmeric for yellow), but then realized it took quite a lot of powder for a get much colour and I more wanted it to taste nice...

The decorations are: mango-coconut balls for the load and lights, dried kiwi slices for the wheels, and raspberry-apple fruit 'spaghetti' for the writing, window shapes and stripes on the back part. It would have been best presented straight after decorating, but it looked ok the next morning.

It tasted good but yet again I made a sage birthday cake that failed to rise properly (it rose beautifully, and then dropped a lot). This time I had even decided to follow a proper cake recipe to the word to prevent this... Oh well, the icing works!

And, most importantly, S liked it and recognized it as a dumper truck. He got a yellow dumper truck from the 1950s from my dad so it all fit together perfectly.