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Vegan Pesto

November 29, 2020 / / 0 Comments

This is very good recipe for pesto, that tastes just like a good non-vegan pesto. I made it for my daughter using the basil she herself grows. It makes about 1/3 cup (I know, it doesn’t seem possible, but sometimes the sum is lesser than the factors).

Ingredients

  • 2 cups basil leaves
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
  • 2 Tbsp pine nuts 
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Instructions

Put all ingredients, save for the olive oil, in the bowl of a food processor or blender and process into a paste. Gradually add the olive oil and blend in.

Adapated from Monica’s recipe at The Hidden Veggies

Vegan Pecan Pie Recipe

November 29, 2020 / / 0 Comments

I made this recipe for vegan pecan pie for Thanksgiving, and my vegan daughter was quite happy with it. Unlike most vegan pie recipes this one didn’t use corn syrup and it wasn’t too sweet. It had the right consistency, however, and the pie set perfectly – no need for eggs.

I was cheap and made it using a Safeway refrigerated pie shell and it was horrible! There are far better vegan pie shells out there. The filling, though, was good:

Ingredients

  • 1 pie shell
  • 3/4 cup canned coconut milk
  • 3 Tbsp cup corn starch
  • 2 Tbsp vegan butter
  • 6 oz pecans, chopped
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake pie crust for 7 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a bowl. whisk together the coconut milk and corn starch until dissolved. Set aside.

Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it melts. Add the pecans and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds. Whisk in the coconut milk mixture, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla extract and salt.

Pour the mixture onto the pie crust. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Cool on the counter for two hours and then let cool completely on the fridge.

Adapted from Ana’s recipe at Making thyme for health

UeNo Dora Magical Tales: Coconut Flavoured Egg Rolls – review

November 11, 2020 / / 0 Comments
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I picked up these snacks at our local Asian market. They’re made in Malaysia, and they are sort of an Asian version of pirouline. They are much shorter, however, and a bit thinner. They come in many flavors, but I chose the coconut ones.

I was a little disappointed. They don’t have enough filling, so they’re pretty dry. The filling is fine, though maybe not as coconuty as I’d liked.

They were around $1.50, I believe, but they still felt overpriced given how few there were and how small they are. Still, if they hadn’t been as dried I might have given the other flavors a try.

Canelés de Bordeaux – French Canelés Review

November 11, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Canelés are a specialty of the Bordeaux region of France. These small pastries are made from eggs, milk, flour, butter, sugar and rum in special molds that make them look like a tall mini bundt cake (but they don’t have a hole in the middle). I first came across them almost two decades ago when I started researching Bordelaise cuisine. For years, I considered making them until finally giving up on the idea – buying a mold for something I’d only make once seemed too wasteful. Still, my curiosity about them stayed.

Then a week ago, I found that Costco was selling these “Made in France” canelés. They were quite expensive, almost $10 for a package of 16 (each weighing a bit over 1 oz), but I had to see what they were like. Unfortunately, they weren’t very good.

The pastries are pretty dense, though I liked their airy, somewhat chewy consistency. They didn’t have much flavor, however. The rum masked whatever else was there, without really adding that much. And while I enjoyed the consistency, they were a bit too dry. All in all, I wouldn’t get them again. Now, if I ever find myself in Bordeaux, I might give a bakery-baked one a try.

Exploring “I” cuisines

October 27, 2020 / / 0 Comments

In the last few months, I have (mostly) finished cooking “H” cuisines and I’ve been making my way through the I’s. I still have five of these cuisines to go (Indonesian, Iranian, Irish-American, Italian Renaissance and Italian) but I figure this is a good time to announce the many new cuisines I’ve added to my International Food Project:

  • Haryana: I made pakora, butter chicken and garlic cauliflower
  • Iceland: baked fish, chicken with saffron and pepper cookies
  • Imperial China: a chicken wing recipe from the 8th century, braised chicken from the 10th-13th and beef and walnuts from the 18th.
  • India: chickpea, red bean, and chicken curries plus chicken and tofu tandoori
  • Indo-Chinese: noodles and cauliflower
  • Iraq: lentil soup, two types of kibbeh, chicken in yogurt sauce, lamb shanks, rice, and farro pilaf
  • Ireland: Irish stew, beef & stout pie, potato biscuits, and bread and butter pudding.
  • Iroquois: ghost bread and three sisters stew
  • Israel: corn shakshuka, meatballs in tahini sauce, lamb shawarma, grilled chicken and olive oil cake
  • Italian-American: minestrone, fetuccini alfredo, baked zitti, spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, vegan lasagna, chicken scarpariello and chicken parmesan.
  • Ivory Coast: grilled chicken, roasted lamb, stewed chicken and peanut sauce.

Benihana Yakiosba Steak Review

October 23, 2020 / / 0 Comments
Benihana Yakisoba Steak Frozen Entrée (10 oz) - Instacart

As much as I love to cook, sometimes I fall off the cooking bandwagon and I then rely on frozen food. I’ll be honest, most frozen entrees suck – so I was pleasantly surprised to find this particular one. It actually tasted like something I’d want to eat. The beef was tender and looked like beef, the noodles were good and the sauce was tasty. The main problem was that the entree wasn’t very big – but maybe I was specially hungry.

Vegan Chick’n Tetrazzini

October 21, 2020 / / 0 Comments

I set out to make chicken tetrazzini as part of my exploration into Italian food for my International Food Project. Alas, after doing a bit more research into the dish, I found out that it’s not Italian at all. Rather, it was apparently created by chef Ernest Arbogast at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in honor of Italian soprano Luisa Tetrazzini. I had already bought the ingredients to make it, though, as well as those to make a vegan version for my daughter, so I went along and made it for dinner last night.

The regular chicken tetrazzini I made was good, my husband in particular liked it, but not special enough for me to repeat it – so I’m not going to write down the recipe (to make it, I combined this recipe by Ciao Italia with this one by Giada di Laurentiis). My daughter would like me to make the vegan version again, however, so here is the recipe (yes, this blog is mostly for myself):

Ingredients

  • 8 oz spaghetti
  • 2 Tbsp vegan butter, divided
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 8 oz cremini or button mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 2 tsp flour
  • 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • 1 1/2 cups unsweetened oat, soy or almond milk
  • a dash of nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp white wine or apple cider vinegar
  • 4 oz vegan chick’n strips, cubed
  • 1/2 frozen peas
  • 1/2 cup shredded vegan mozarella
  • 1/4 cup vegan panko breadcrumbs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F

Cook spaghetti according to package instructions and set aside.

Melt 1 Tbsp vegan butter and olive oil in a medium or large saucepan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid evaporates. Add the onion, garlic and thyme and cook until the onion is soft, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to a bowl and set aside.

Add remaining tablespoon of vegan butter to the saucepan and melt over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until you have a thick paste. Whisk in the coconut milk and let cook a few minutes until it thickens, whisking occasionally. Add the non-dairy milk and cook a few more minutes until it thickens. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir in the vinegar and turn off heat.

Add reserved spaghetti, mushrooms, chick’n and peas to the sauce. Mix well. Transfer mixture onto an 8″x8″ or similar size oven-safe dish. Top with mozarella and breadcrumbs.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Adapted from Alissa’s recipe at Connoisseurus Veg

Vegan Parmesan Recipe

October 8, 2020 / / 0 Comments

My vegan daughter loved this super easy alternative for Parmesan cheese.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup raw cashews
  • 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Place all ingredients in the bowl of a mini-chopper, food processor or blender and process until smooth.

Been Banh Mi – EveryPlate recipe

September 30, 2020 / / 0 Comments

I got EveryPlate last week and I was pretty impressed by the food I got. The recipes were simple, they had few ingredients, but they were very tasty. I was particularly blown away by their spicing of ground beef for “been banh mi”. It was so simple, yet delicious! So here is the recipe:

  • 1 Tbsp oil
  • 1 small yellow onion, chopped
  • 10 oz ground beef
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 4 tsp soy sauce
  • salt & pepper to taste

Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, 4-5 minutes, stirring. Add the ground beef, garlic and sugar and cook, breaking up the clumps of beef, until it’s browned, 4-5 minutes. Stir in the soy sauce. Turn off heat. Taste and season as needed.

Cashew Cream

July 14, 2020 / / 0 Comments

This is a vegan cashew cream that you can use in place of soft cheeses in traditional recipes. To my mind, this doesn’t taste anything like cheese – but I’m not vegan. My vegan daughter loved it, however.

  • 2 cups raw cashews
  • 2 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ~2 cups water

Directions

Soak cashews in water for about 4 hours. Drain.

Place the cashews, lemon juice, vinegar, nutritional yeast, Dijon mustard, salt and 1 cup water in an electric blender and process until smooth. Add more water as needed to achieve the consistency you want.

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