Vegan Latina June 23, 2009

I don’t know why it should be, but I don’t seem to take many photos of food I’m testing for recipe books. Well, I probably do know why – one of the books is super secret. I can’t blog about it yet but believe me you’re in for a treat when it comes out.  The other reason is that when you’re testing you obviously can’t give away any of the recipes, so although I don’t mind teasing people with pictures of delicious food, it becomes dull after a while! I haven’t taken too many pictures of my current other testing project either, but I do have a few. And since I’ve done nothing but testing for quite  while now, I’ve got nothing else to blog about!

This testing is for Terry Hope Romero (co-author of Veganomicon and Vegan Cupcakes take over the World) and the book is going to be called Vegan Latina. I’ve had heaps of delicious things from it so far. It has been a bit of a challenge getting hold of some of the ingredients – I have had a wonderful package sent over from America, but most of the things I’ve made have relied on ingredients available in the UK.

This is Peruvian Saltado, a winning mix of seitan and baked potato fries!

Sexy tempeh and avocado stuffed arepas

Chimichurri baked tofu

Arroz con seitan

Butternut blackeye bean tostadas

This is only a small sample of the things I’ve made and without exception everything has been great.

Have you been testing for Latina? Let me know and I’ll link to you here!

Redwood new burgers June 3, 2009

I have always been a fan of the Redwood food company. They make a full range of products suitable for vegans, including a choice of sausages, sandwich fillers, fishfingers and cheeses. (The mozarella is even recommended by the mighty Isa Chandra Moskowitz as an omelette filling in her new book, Vegan Brunch).

It always seemd odd to me though that they didn’t produce a vegan burger.  Several years ago I wrote to them and suggested it. They replied that there already seemed to be plenty of vegan burgers available. Not round here, said I. So I was delighted when I saw an advert recently for their new vegan burgers, and, being the shy retiring type that I am, e-mailed them to tell them what a good idea I’d had and would they like to send me some free samples as a thankyou! The very next day 2 packets arrived on my doorstep!

Now many of you know that since I tested for Joni’s 101 Burgers (I need to check when that is coming out), I no longer need to ever buy a vegan burger again. I’ve got recipes for beautiful burgers for all occasions and a freezer well stocked with leftovers. But if you’re having an emergency BBQ, or invited to one and not sure if there’ll be anything there for you, I’d certainly recommend grabbing a packet of these. They’re definitely meaty – not one for those who don’t like fake meat. As they were under the grill I was almost giving them suspicious prods to check they weren’t meat! They’re a decent size too – they were sticking right out of the buns, and as I’d piled on lettuce, tomato, Plamil mayo, mustard and pickles, it made for a rather sloppy eating experience.

If this warm weather lasts, and you’re vegan or have vegetarians visiting for a BBQ, I’d certainly recommend giving them a try!

Lemon rice, aloo paratha, stuffed baby baigan, kale chole palak May 23, 2009

We were craving Indian food at the weekend so I made this spread on Sunday. Both the stuffed aubergine and kale chole palak were taken from the Khazana cookbook. I’ve liked everything I’ve made from the book but his recipes aren’t always especially well written. No real problems, just things like spices added to the dish not in the same order they’re listed in the ingredients list etc.

I’d been looking for other ways to use the black chickpeas I bought for the puttu kadala and this was an amazingly tasty way to use them. The aubergines were stuffed with a ground peanut and spice mixture then steamed. It was a very good way to stuff aubergines and I’ll certainly use this method again and vary the stuffings. The lemon rice was from one of the Rasa cookbooks and was just rice cooked plainly with lemon juice and zest and a tempering of oil, urad dhal, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Again I’ll be using this method again and again as it was a very easy way to add interest to rice.

I have to admit that the aloo parathas came from the freezer. I’m terrible for stocking up the freezer with things like that “in case of emergency” and those emergencies are rare! My freezer is so full that I’m having to use up my emergency items even though it wasn’t an emergency and I’d rather have made my own. Still, they were good and tasty and just needed a few minutes per side on a hot tawa straight from frozen – so they really would be good for emergencies!!

Spinach linguini with basil coriander pesto May 17, 2009

I’ve been doing loads of fun cooking recently but almost all of it has been testing – 3 books! More on that to come very soon, but for now here’s the one dish I’ve made for ages that hasn’t been a test for someone. I got in from football last night at about 7:20 and wanted something I could have on the table very quickly. This dish, from Veganomicon, fitted the bill perfectly.

I’d been putting off making this dish because I couldn’t find vegan spinach pasta anywhere. I know I could have done it with plain linguini but I knew that eventually I’d find some spinach pasta somewhere and was happy to wait. I eventually found it in the strangest place – the local chinese supermarket. Even though they’ve got a whole aisle full of noodles I was still quite shocked to see spinach noodles there. it just show that you can find unusual ingredients anywhere if you keep your eyes open!

The pesto was easy and tasty and once you’ve made that the dish couldn’t be simpler – it’s just red onion, garlic and a splash of wine. I threw in some spinach as well as my day so far had been notably lacking in vitamins and heavy on alcohol. My one complaint is the use of tinned artichokes. I generally prefer jarred, but the recipe specifically says not to use them and to use tinned. Maybe not all tinned artichokes are created equal, because mine (Sainsburys) were very metallic and jarred with the lovely silkiness of the rest of the dish. I will certainly make the pesto again, it was a lovely bright green and nice and zingy.

Testing vegan chocolate May 13, 2009

The lovely people from Venture Foods sent me a box of goodies to try. if you have a look at their website and are in the UK you will probably recognise some of their products. They are a small independent company and all products are vegetarian society approved and many of them are vegan.

In the box were at least 5 different chocolate bars and 2 jars of curry paste – balti and Thai green curry. I’m always reading blogs where the authors have obviously had products sent to them to review (I can’t count the amount of blogs I’ve read recently with reviews of Pom on!) but this was the first time it has happened to me and I was totally excited. I’m not a big fan of sweet things in general but who doesn’t like free chocolate?

I have never ever been a fan of white chocolate, always finding it sickly and too sweet, so I opened the white chocolate bar at work where I knew it would find a home if I didn’t like it. It wasn’t sickly at all and I preferred it to dairy versions of white chocolate I remember, but I wouldn’t buy it. However, it was descended on by the white chocolate fans at work who loved it and said they would buy it even though they eat dairy.

My favourite chocolates that came were the two “mars bar shaped” bars – one was coconut and dark chocolate and the other was hazelnut, nougat and dark chocolate. I haven’t found many vegan versions of this type of yummy dense chocolate bar and they really hit the spot when I had sugar cravings. I devoured the coconut one in about 2 bites and adored it.

The chocolate couverture bar with rasins and almonds was a real treat and disappeared quickly shared with non vegan friends who didn’t even notice it was vegan. And I think I’ve still got one bar left at home to try – I’ll check what that is and report back.

I like to make my own curry pastes but there’s always times when you’re in a rush or you need to rely on another family member who doesn’t share your love of pounding spice. My husband used the balti paste with some potatoes, spinach and chickpeas and it had a lovely clean non greasy flavour. Every ingredient on the label is recognisable and there aren’t any strange sounding chemicals or dodgy E numbers either. He’ll use the Thai paste next time I’m working late – it’s difficult to find Thai pastes without shrimp so that’ll be very useful to have around.

There’s a full range of Eastern sauces as well as pickles, worcestershire sauce, ketchup, stir fry sauces, salsas and pasta sauces as well as all the chocolates. I will definitely be trying the worcestershire sauce when I finish the current bottle I am using as it is too vinegary and plain nasty.

I love the idea behind this company and I’m so glad the products are good and tasty too. I’ll definitely be supporting them in future!

Vegan Brunch – get it pre-ordered NOW! May 4, 2009

I was very fortunate to test a whole load of recipes from this book and I’m here to tell you that they have all been incredible. I did blog about some of them but by no means all. You can find the blog posts by clicking on “Crack of Noon” on the right of this page. If you’re wondering, that was going to be the original title of the book, but the publishers decided to change it. I can see why, but I quite liked “Crack of Noon” – It does still bring some very interesting search phrases to my blog too!

Now, I’m a savoury person at all times, and especially at breakfast time, so the savoury dishes were all my favourites. The pierogi, the breakfast casserole, the beer battered tofu, the cornbread waffles, the leek and mushroom pie, courico tacos with pineapple salsa, ethiopian lentil pancakes – they’ve all been repeated several times in my house. But if you love sweet foods, don’t worry – you’re catered for too. Lemon poppyseed muffins, banana rabanada, gingerbread waffles, pain au chocolat – and many more. Add in the basic breakfast essentials such as bagels, omelettes, muffins (the sensible English kind), bacon and hashbrowns, and this is a brunch encyclopedia that you can’t be without. Not a morning person? Never fear – many of the dishes can be made in advance and of course there’s nothing to stop you eating them at any time of the day!

It’s available for pre-order on Amazon right now. What on earth is stopping you?

Buster’s potato torte with rosemary-pistachio pesto and tofu “gruyere” April 27, 2009

Yet another Artful Vegan dish this weekend, and this one was probably the easiest I’ve done. It was just a matter of making the pesto and the “gruyere” in advance then pretty much just layering and baking it! It does require rather an unusual ingredient – white fermented tofu. I got mine in a chinese supermarket. It’s pretty scary stuff – smelly and in a very gunky liquid but it definitely gave a nice musty taste to the cheese.  I plan to use it again in this dish.

This is the second recipe from this book where I’ve found quite a big error. The title of the dish in the book is cashew gruyere, but there’s no cashews in it. I debated what to do about this for ages, and finally decided to add in a few cashews for added creaminess – but according to a few wise people at the PPK, the recipe is right, but the problem is that the title is wrong.

The pesto at first appeared extremely salty and I was a bit worried, but in the final dish it didn’t appear so. The other issue was the amount of potatoes used. I cant get hold of fancy red or purple potatoes, so I just used rooster, but maybe my potatoes were especially large as if I’d used the full 9 I’d never have got them all in the dish. I sliced 6 then did 3 experimental layers before I boiled them and that seemed about right, so I went with it.

This is a starter in the book, served with rocket salad and a drizzle of truffle oil. I served larger portions and some asparagus as it’s just come into season here and I always love that with truffle oil anyway so I thought the combination would work well. It did all work, extremely well, and resulted in a very classy meal with great depth of flavours. It was all rather rich though – and that’s coming from someone who used to be able to scarf down whole platefuls of the richest cheese dishes imaginable. Maybe my taste buds have changed? That’s probably the subject of another post, but in any case, this is a delightful, impressive dish which isn’t at all difficult. I’d love people to try it and see what they think!

Yuca black bean cakes with sweet mango, mustard and habanero sauce April 26, 2009

I don’t only cook from Artful Vegan, honestly! It’s just that I had a few days off work so I was determined to get a couple of new dishes sorted out. I’ve been having a sort of competition with my on-line friend Gill to see who can cook most recipes from these books. Since she’s not even vegan I felt I ought to be winning this one hands down, but she’s giving it a good shot! (I win the competition for meeting Eric Tucker though; even though I turned into a brainless dribbling idiot when I bumped into him at his restaurant Millennium).

I picked this recipe out because I knew I had some frozen yuca taking up space in my freezer, but when I came to cook it I wasn’t sure the frozen would work so I switched to the suggestion of sweet potato instead.

It’s really quite a simple dish (it’s from the appetiser section but as usual I just served a larger portion as a main course just for me). There are quite a few dishes in these books that are simpler than others, so if you’ve been neglecting these books because you think all the recipes are too time consuming, do get them out again and have another look.

I made the roasted tomato salsa first – I’ve never made salsa with roasted tomatoes before and I will definitely do it that way again. Then I made the habanero and mango sauce, and finally the yuca-black bean cakes. I didn’t expect the cakes to hold together but they did.

This wasn’t my favourite dish from these books but it was still very nice. I think the main problem was the sauce. Sometimes US ingredients differ from ours and that may have been the case here, but the mustard was far too overpowering. Looking at the recipe again I wish it had stated a weight for the mango because I’m sure that Californian mangoes must be a lot bigger and tastier than ours. If I was making this again I’d probably double the mango in it.

Seitan satay skewers with peanut coconut sauce April 18, 2009

I did say that I’d be making more recipes from Artful Vegan and here’s another. This is in the appetizer section but I was eating alone so I decided to just eat more of it than the recipe suggested and eat it as a main course. It appears to be quite a bit simpler than some of the recipes – but there a couple of mistakes in the instructions which made it not as easy as it appeared!

The instructions missed out a couple of the ingredients mentioned in the recipe list. I’d already struggled with the seitan not having enough liquid and added some extra water before I spotted the tamari in the ingredient list and assume that was meant to go in. I have to buy my vital wheat gluten online so I was reluctant to start again, so I just added a splash of tamari and kneaded it in. I think that made it a bit tough, so if you are making it be sure to add the tamari in along with the water.

The other problem was that there are 12 cups of stock mentioned in the ingredients list which don’t get used, but it was easy to see that that should have been added to the coconut broth to cook the seitan nuggets.

After that things went pretty smoothly. My sauce was a lot thinner than double cream consistency, but I went with it (and after refrigerating the leftovers, it really thickened  up, so I’d make it in advance next time). I used a bag of preshredded stir fry mix for the salad part, as I can never get through a bag of bean sprouts before they turn to liquid.

I put 3 pieces of each of the seitan, mint and pineapple on the skewers because I was eating it as a main course. This might have overcrowded the pan a bit because I’d have preferred more of the seitan to come into contact with the grill pan. In fact after I’d taken the picture I gave the seitan nuggets a few extra minutes on the grill to get more nice smoky grill marks.

So, how was the overall dish, after all the tweaking? Delicious. The seitan chunks were astonishingly meaty and went brilliantly with the pinepple and mint. The salad was lovely and fresh and the sauce was rich, peanuty, spicy and zingy. I don’t think I ground the szechuan peppercorns finely enough because I bit down on a few little rock hard things, so next time I’d spend a bit longer grinding them before adding to the sauce. But otherwise, now that I’ve ironed out a few of the difficulties, I’d certainly make the dish again.

And using the leftovers… April 11, 2009

I had some of the noodle salad leftover from the dish last night, so, instead of just piling it onto a plate and noshing, I decided to make some rice paper rolls from it. It hardly took me any time at all and took a basic plate of leftovers into a tasty treat. Delicious!