The Vegan Baker: soft cinnamon cookies

My most recent post for my Vegan Baker blog over at Good is Soft Cinnamon Cookies. Intended to be veganised graham crackers, they did not turn out as intended at all. But as with many food-related mistakes, they became something else altogether, the recipe for which you can find here.

Freezing fruit in times of abundance

With it being summer in the US, there is stone fruit abound. Sometimes too much abound. A couple weeks ago I ate ten stone fruits in one day, then had a peach cobbler for dessert. The next day I woke up with a headache. I thought maybe a fruit smoothie would be good but what a bad idea that was. I barely touched it and lay around for a couple hours feeling like I might be sick. In the end I slept it off but I’ve been left with somewhat of an aversion to peaches, nectarines and apricots. Fruit is delicious and healthy but you CAN go overboard! I’m calling what I went through a sugar hangover.

To combat greediness or it’s equally evil antithesis, wastefulness, freezing your excess fruit supply is a good idea. Don’t do it whole though! Unless they’re berries, you’ll have a hard time trying to deal with them when you get around to using them on your cereal or in a smoothie.

Chop the fruit as you please and place on a sheet of baking paper on a hard surface like a chopping board or baking tray. Try not to have them touching.

Put in the freezer and transfer fruit pieces into an airtight container when frozen.

Cooking With Dog: tempura

Cooking With Dog is THE best thing on the internet, ever.

My friend Ashley from Nerdy Foodie (who incidentally I currently live with and incidentally happens to be doing a vegan month) and I made tempura the other night with the help of this video.

The tempura turned out really good! The only trouble is keeping the veges crisp while you’re cooking the rest. Suggestions? I was thinking a warm oven would do it.

I used some of my vege stock to make a noodle soup, but as usual I put the vermicelli noodles in way too early and ended up with a noodle mush. It still tasted good though, and I used the leftover mush to make noodle fritters. Booyah! Leftovers baby.

Tempura Vegetables

1/2 cup flour

1 tablespoon cornflour

cold water

assorted vegetables, sliced or cut appropriately

(pictured (for one):  1/4 eggplant, 1/8 capsicum, 1/2 courgette, 1 small sweet potato (kumara))

vege oil for frying (amount depends on size of pot)

Combine the flours in a bowl. In a separate bowl make a batter as needed using a ratio of 1 tablespoon water to 1 tablespoon of the flour mix. 3 tablespoons was the perfect amount for the veges pictured above.

Heat a saucepan filled about 10cm deep with vege oil to a high tempurature. Drop a touch of batter in to test.

Sprinkle veges with flour on both sides to help the batter stick.

Coat veges with batter one at a time and carefully place in the oil. How many pieces you can fry at once will depend on the size of your pot.

Turn veges once while frying. Cook until golden.

Drain veges on a paper towel.

Noodle Soup

vegetable stock

soy sauce

rice vinegar

brown sugar

vermicelli noodles

Heat as much stock as you like.

Add seasonings to taste.

Add vermicelli noodles at THE LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT. They don’t need to cook, they just need to absorb the liquid.

Sushi is easy!

Don’t be intimidated by fancy ingredients or tools like a sushi mat, sushi is a healthy and easy meal or snack to put together at home. I won’t list my ingredients here because they were an only just bearably average combo but I can forgive it that for its nutritional value. Not to say that healthy=gross but it’s another story altogether to eat something mediocre and get nothing out of it.

To prepare, you basically want to imitate this picture here:

Baking paper, then nori, then rice, then toppings at the end closest to you. Rolling is kind of hard to describe in words, it’s a pretty instinctual process. If you’re really stuck, there are videos on YouTube that can show you how.

If you have rice vinegar for the rice, cool. I used 2 teaspoons for 1 cup of cooked rice. If you don’t have it, plain rice is no biggie. Good soy sauce is though.

Sodium Benzoate=bad

My friend Aurora’s been warning me against Sodium Benzoate since I arrived in the States. It’s a common preservative, and while often used in miniscule amounts, it’s still probably best to be avoided, as with most additives*.

When Sodium Benzoate and vitamin C come together in the body, they make Benzene, a carcinogen (cancer-causer) and DNA wrecker.

Even though our bodies don’t store vitamin C, it’s common enough in fruits and vegetables for it to be a safe assumption that there is vitamin C in our bodies a lot of the time. I dunno, I’m not an expert or anything but additives were the next thing I was hoping to eliminate from my diet so what better prompt to take that goal seriously than this info?

Sodium Benzoate is also labelled on foods as E211. Beware soft drinks and condiments amongst other things.

For more information/my source, click here.

*for more information read Green MP Sue Kedgley’s Eating Safely in a Toxic World. It’s got all the info on food additives such as preservatives and artificial sweeteners. Very interesting read, highly recommended. I don’t know if the book is still in print but I know it’s available to borrow at the Wellington library. I’m certain there’re similar books out there but I like this one cos it’s written by an NZer.

Vege stock

Vege stock is super easy to make but if you’re like me and tend not to read/follow recipes you end up forgetting essentials like peppercorns, garlic, and a bayleaf. If you have an aversion to salt you don’t season it either.

Regardless, once you have these unforgettables in your pot, you can put whatever scraps you like in there. It’s a good way to use up odds and ends from other meals. I made my stock with beet leaves (actually more nutritious than the beets themselves), corriander stalks, an old carrot, half an onion, and the tops and ends of a celery bunch.

Cover (just) with water and bring to a boil. Simmer for an hour, season if you wish (probably a good idea), then strain.

Stock’s handy to have around for soups and sauces and can be frozen or kept in the fridge for about a week. At a loss for a vessel? Try your recycling. I froze two cans worth of stock and put the rest in an old juice container.

Barbequed spring onion

One of the best homemade things I’ve eaten here so far is bbq’d spring onion. It’s so easy, all you do is throw it on the grill and let it burn. You don’t need a bbq either, you can do it in a fry pan (although a grill pan is even better). So charred, so delicious. That’s just a grilled vege sandwich with tomato salsa hanging at the back there, being healthy and yummy at the same time.

Who’s reading?

Just wondering. Would anyone care to comment? Doesn’t matter what, I’m just interested as stats don’t tell you much, they just give numbers.

Coconut whipped “cream”

For my friend Geneva’s bday I had the idea of a vanilla cake with a whipped cream-like topping and berries. What I ended up with was nowhere near as stiff as I’d have liked or required (the cake was a little sloppy as you can see in the pic) but it was still tasty and suitable for use as a side of whipped “cream” to accompany desserts. I really don’t know how to describe the consistency, other than maybe a lightly whipped “cream”? Also I wonder if using coconut cream as opposed to milk would make much difference. I’ve adjusted this recipe from the original, which can be viewed here.

Coconut whipped “cream”

2 cans coconut milk (not light)

1 cup icing sugar

5 tablespoons cornflour

1 teaspoon vanilla

Chill coconut milk in a glass or metal bowl overnight or for at least four hours.

Beat with a hand mixer or blender for 10 minutes.

Add sugar, flour and vanilla.

Beat/blend for another 10 minutes.

This recipe can easily be halved as you end up with a lot of cream. I would not recommend attempting this by hand.

It’s Good to be back

Oh boy I just love making Good puns. Here is my first post for Good.net.nz as The Vegan Baker. Basically I’m an amateur home baker, trying to bring vegan to the people through sweets. My first item is chocolate chip cookies, American style. Enjoy!