Jicama salad

juice of 1 lime
1-2 tbsp maple syrup
1-2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
good pinch salt
good pinch cayenne pepper

1 jicama, peeled and chopped into matchsticks
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped into matchsticks
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp chopped coriander

Put the first six ingredients into a bowl and mix.  Prepare the vegetables and coriander and then add them to the dressing and toss.  Best chilled for an hour or so.


Jicama has a wonderful crunchy, juicy, slightly sweet texture.  Goes well with the lime and maple.  It's not really like anything else but reminds me a little of kohlrabi, in that it is a white inside part that is crispy-crunchy and fresh and subtly tasty.  Don't really know what else to do with it, other than make salads or eat it in thin, raw slices.

Caraway and orange bread

I've been wanting to do something with caraway seeds for a while - felt like they were missing from the spice cupboard.  Found some in the Indian store at the weekend, and was inspired by our epic vegan thanksgiving feast to try making bread with them.  This one sounded fancy, so I went with it.  On reflection, the method is weird, another time I will use a method that's worked better for me in the past.

3/4 cup water

2 tbsp brown sugar

Zest of 1 orange, grated

1 tbsp marg

1 tsp caraway seeds

1 1/2 tsp yeast

2 cups bread flour

Heat water, sugar, orange, marg and caraway seeds in a small saucepan for 3 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Once the warm mixture is lukewarm, mix it with the yeast and 1 cup of flour.  Knead (it will be sticky), and let rise for 1 hour.

Add the rest of the flour (1 more cup) slowly and knead well.  Shape, lay on baking sheet lined with paper, and prove for 1 hour.

 

Bake at 180C / 350F for 50-60 min (until sounds hollow when bottom is knocked).  Let cool before eating (warm is OK).

 

 

The caraway-orange-bread combination was interesting and worked - nice mix of sharp spice and sweet orange.  But the method was odd - the second cup of flour was hard to get in, and the loaf ended up quite small, seemed dry, and didn't rise very well.  Looking at the pics on the original site perhaps a dense crumb was the intention, and it certainly wasn't inedibly dense or un-risen, but think I might prefer to make it lighter next time - perhaps using the method from the olive bread, or trying rolls?

Curried beet greens with chickpeas and raisins

Cooked up some bright pink curry with beets, and decided to do something with their leaves too:

Leaves from 4 beetroot, washed and chopped (stems separate)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
coconut oil
1 tsp brown mustard seed
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp nigella
1/2 tsp dried chili flakes
2 tbsp desiccated coconut
handful chickpeas
2 tbsp raisins
~1/2 tsp finely grated nutmeg
salt and pepper
fresh coriander, chopped, to garnish

Heat coconut oil, add spices and cook til starting to brown.  Add coconut and garlic and cook til the garlic starts to colour.  Add chopped beet stems and cook for a few minutes.  Add chickpeas, raisins and beet leaves and cook until everything is done and the leaves are wilted.  Add nutmeg and seasoning to taste.  Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and eat.

Seb cake (walnut and coffee cake with salted caramel and banana)

I woke up before S, and decided to make him a cake because I like him.  It should contain many of his favourite things: coffee, walnuts, salt, banana...

Cake mix based on this recipe.

For the cake:
1 cup fake milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
1¼ cups plain flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
⅓ cup veg oil
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp coffee granules dissolved in 2 tsp hot water
¼ tsp vanilla essence
¼ cup walnut pieces

For the caramel:
1 cup white sugar
¼ cup water
2-3 drops lemon juice
¼ cup coconut milk
1 tbsp marg
1 tsp sea salt

For finishing:
1 banana
~2 tbsp chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350F. Line the bases of two cake tins.

Mix the fake milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle.

Beat together the fake milk mixture, oil, sugar, coffee and vanilla in a large bowl. Separately sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt. Add wet to dry and mix until no large lumps remain, adding the walnut pieces in the final few strokes.

Divide between the cake tins and bake for ~30 min. Allow to cool.

Caramel consistency - thick, sticky, not hard

While the cake is baking, make the caramel.  Clean a saucepan thoroughly and spread evenly across the base of the pan.  Add the water and make sure all the sugar is wet.  Bring the sugar-water mix to a steady boil (be very careful, it will be super hot).  Add a couple of drops of lemon juice to inhibit crystallisation.  Boil until it starts to change colour (to brown).  Do not stir - swirl occasionally to make sure it is cooking evenly, but stirring may set off crystallisation and that would not be good.  When it reaches a rich brown colour and starts to smoke a little, take it off the heat.  Prepare yourself for potential spitting hot sugar danger, then add in the coconut milk, marg and salt.  Stir gently, while avoiding getting hot sugar on you.  Allow to cool.

When cake and caramel are both well-cooled, sandwich the cake with half the caramel (and some sliced banana, if you like), and drizzle the rest of the caramel on top.  Decorate the top with some chopped walnuts.

It's half gone already, so I think it was a success!  He said it might have been his favourite ever cake.  The cake mix was very runny and I thought I might have forgotten something / it might come out all wrong, but it baked up fine.  This was my first real caramel (previous problems with over-stirring, not boiling for long enough...), and it was good.  This tutorial was useful.  I'm thinking about variations on it now - thickness, intensity of colour etc...  The banana and nuts worked really well in combination, and offset the sugary caramel.  Those three together drowned out the coffee a bit though - could perhaps be tweaked somewhat to let the coffee through more.

Thanksgiving - more pumpkin

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  Feeling a little detached - everyone is making big food plans and / or heading home across the country - S+I are privately just like: ummmm so you just want to eat lots of turkey?  not really our bag...  Although some friends from the South have invited us to help them drink beer and deep-fry turkey in their front yard.  I assumed this meant deep-frying bits of turkey in the style of KFC, but then today I saw this video and a wave of realisation swept over me - this is serious!  So yeah, right now our plan is to go to the best vegan restaurant in town and eat their 4-course thanksgiving menu, then head over to M+S's place to observe the turkey action...

One thing I love about Thanksgiving is pumpkin pie.  Well, sweet pumpkin anything is pretty much awesome.  I already cooked pumpkin for Halloween, but yeah, what's this season all about but excess?

Pumpkin Cardamom Cake

This year: Pumpkin Cardamom Cake

(from this recipe)

1/4 cup fake milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
3 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp ground cardamom

Put the soy milk into a jug and add the vinegar, leave to curdle.  Put dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well with a fork.

To the milk and vinegar mix add the oil, pumpkin puree and the vanilla and mix.  Add wet to dry and mix until just combined.

Spoon into muffin tin or cake tin(s) and cook at 350F until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean (25-30 min).


These are goood - lovely warm orange colour, good texture, bold cardamom taste - perhaps a little too much cardamom, but I love the stuff so that's fine by me.


Last year: Pumpkin Pie

(from this recipe)

For the crust:
1/2 cup unbleached flour
7 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp veg oil
3 tbsp soy milk + 1/2 tsp lemon juice
3 to 4 tbsp water 

For the filling:
2 cups pumpkin purée
1 cup fake milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar cane syrup (just used sugar / maple syrup instead)
1/4 cup cornflour (used regular flour instead - didn't expect it to work but it did!)
1/2 tbsp dark molasses or to taste (didn't have so used maple syrup instead)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice

To make puree:
Heat oven to 400F, cut pumpkin or squash in half and place, cut side down, on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  Bake for 30-40 min until collapsing when poked.  Scoop out the innards and mash them up.  Can freeze if more than needed.  Can use tinned if preferred.


To make crust:
In a mixing bowl, combine both flours, salt, sugar and baking powder.  In small bowl, mix oil and soy milk mixture.
Pour liquid mixture into dry ingredients and mix with a fork until it holds together in a ball.  If it is too dry, add some water, a little at a time, until dough is moist enough to roll.  (If time allows, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.)
Roll out dough onto clingfilm with a lightly floured rolling pin, forming an 11-inch circle.  Line a 9-inch pie plate with the dough.  Flute or crimp the edges with your fingers or a fork.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.
Preheat oven to 425F.

To make filling:
In large bowl, mix all remaining ingredients until smooth and blended. Pour into prepared crust and smooth top.  Bake 10 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350F; bake until filling is set, about 50 minutes.  Set on wire rack to cool, then refrigerate overnight.


I made this twice last year - it wasn't long after I'd gone vegan and this was my first successful vegan baking effort.  Despite not having some of the ingredients and thinking a vegan pumpkin pie wouldn't work, it came out amazingly - all the tastes were there.  I did almost manage to poison a friend with a nut allergy with hidden almond milk in the filling (she was fine, thank goodness).

Baked Apple

One large red apple (the last of my Rome Beauty from our apple picking trip), core removed without cutting any other part of the apple, stuffed with a mixture of vine fruits (raisins/currant/golden raisins), sweet spices (cinnamon/ginger/nutmeg/allspice), chopped toasted pecan pieces and brown sugar, base wrapped in foil and dumped in a baking tin, cooked at 350F for ~ 20-30min.

mochi

I've tried to make mochi a couple of times before: with Anna we heated the mixture in the oven and it came out a good consistency but glued into a baking tin - sprinkled with sesame seeds it tasted good, but...  another time I followed a youtube tutorial and steamed them, but they came out kinda hard and not soft and sticky...  The easiest way seems to be with a microwave and we don't have one.

I met this recipe on the internet the other day, and found that it had wonderfully detailed instructions, so thought I might give them another go at some point.  Then discovered some red bean paste still in the freezer and a packet of glutinous rice flour in the pantry, S was at football and I was making lebkuchen and thought 'why not now?'.


(makes 10)
100g glutinous rice flour
50 grams sugar
100 ml water
plenty of potato starch or corn starch for dusting / making a bed

10 tsp sweetened red bean paste
toasted sesame seeds

Mix the rice flour, sugar and water in a heatproof bowl that fits inside the steamer.  Place the bowl in the steamer and cover the bowl with a heatproof plate.  Close the steamer and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring once or twice during that time, until the mixture is thick and slightly translucent.

While the rice flour mixture is cooking, pour a generous layer of potato/corn starch in a good-sized, rimmed container, and keep more starch on hand.  When the rice flour mixture is ready, pour it onto the starch; it will be super sticky.  Pat the dough to flatten it slightly and cut into 10 even pieces.

Take one piece of dough, stretch it out and flatten it gently, and place it on the palm of your hand.  Put ~1tsp red bean paste in the middle (and a sprinkling of sesame seeds as an alternative), and wrap, and pinch the dough around it, trying to be neat and not make any holes or let the bean escape.  If there is any stickiness left on the outside squish into some toasted sesame seeds.  Place on a starch-dusted plate and repeat with the other nine - try and work quickly as the dough is harder to work with when cool.

Let rest for an hour to set and cool to room temperature before serving.  Leftovers should be covered and stored at room temperature, but they don't keep longer than about a day.


These are way better than previous attempts - the trick is to cook the dough well first, and then to use plenty of starch to stop everything getting too stuck together.  In future I'd like to try sesame or dessicated coconut on the outside instead of using so much starch, and to experiment with different fillings (such as the fresh strawberries in the original recipe).  And to try putting coconut milk or powder in the batter, and/or green tea powder in the batter too - green tea mochi are my favourite.  Could try with cocoa powder also.