Vegan MoFo Day 27 - The Tempeh Conspiracy and Other Stories

Yes I think there is a tempeh conspiracy against me. The first time I ever tried it was this bottled stuff in brine and it was minging. 
Yet so many trusty vegans I know of declare their tempeh love on a daily basis so I've been determined to give it another go. I was pretty impressed when I spotted some fresh tempeh at my local supermarket, so I bought some. That was about 2 months ago. Afore mentioned product has been sitting in my fridge keeping the lone pickled onion company ever since. I didn't know what to do with it and there was that little bit of trepidation based on my last (and first) experience that was also playing a big part in my reluctance.

I PPK'd, I MoFo'd, I even Googled (I know, so primitive right?).

I had enough tempeh teasers in my brain that I felt confident enough to attepmt to cook with it today. 

What had I chosen you're all dying to know?

Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes from the AWESOME Isa.

So I opened the package, started to crumble the tempeh only to stop after 2 seconds, slightly confuzzled 'cos this tempeh shatang looks very similar to tofu. I grab the package, double check the label......hmmmmm........tofu sukiyaki estilo al japones is apparently not tempeh but, umm.....well......just tofu.

Determined not to abandon my plans (bearing in mind I'm now craving some fishy fried bredcrumbed goodness) I went ahead with the recipe anyway. I followed it step by step instead I didn't use red pepper and I used regular coarse homemade breadcrumbs.

These came out a cross between a Maccy D's filet o' fish and a fish cake. 

They were so so good. So so fish like. If I hadn't of made them with my bear [sic] hands I'd be screaming that someone had tried to poison me.

Think I'm exagerating?

I'm not.

Pretending that I'd been cleaning out the freezer and found a bit of cod that needed using up, I gave peskytarian Mr treehugger 2 of these for his lunch.

When asked if they were nice his only comment was; "There's too much lemon juice in them." 

Well I laughed because there's no lemon juice in them at all! He meant vinegar (he's a wuss with acidic things, they weren't too vinegary for me).

So I asked him if the cod tasted alright or if it had been in the freezer too long and he said "No, the fish is lovely".

RESULT!!

He would not believe me when I told him they were vegan.

I would still like to try the original recipe though, the way they were intended, but this really was a very happy error on my part.

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Vegan MoFo Day 19 - Golden Crumb Treacle Tart

Golden Crumb Treacle Tart
Ingredients
For the shortcrust pastry:
200g plain flour
100g vegan margarine
2 teaspoons sugar
pinch of salt
a little iced water (about 2 Tablespoons)
For the filling:
2 cups coarse  breadcrumbs
Juice and rind from one orange
8 Tablespoons golden syrup

Make the pastry by mixing the flour, sugar and salt together and rubbing in the margarine until the mix ressembles breadcrumbs, add a little cold water until the dough is smooth but not sticky then place it the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven at 200°C.
Make the tart filling by mixing the breadcrumbs in a bowl with the orange zest and juice and the golden syrup. Mix to incorporate all the ingredients.

Once the pastry has been in the fridge for 30 minutes, take it out and roll it out onto a floured surface and line a greased 25cm tart tin.
Pour the golden syrup mix into the tart tin and place in the oven at 200°C for 20 minutes and then 180°C for 10 minutes.

Scrummy with custard.

 

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Vegan MoFo Day 12 - Carrot Cake

This is another recipe inspired by Vegan Vitality (still on sale at Amazon from 1 pence!!!).
Carrot Cake
Ingredients
225g wholemeal self raising flour (or add 2 teaspoons of baking powder to plain flour)
2 teaspoons All Spice
225g grated carrots
50g raisins
75g margarine
2 Tablespoons sunflower oil
75g muscavado sugar
4 Tablespoons Golden Syrup (maple syrup would work just as good)
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 Tablespoon soya milk.

Method

Heat the oven to 180 ceslsius (340 fahrenheit).

Grease a loaf pan.

In a big bowl sift together the flour, all spice, grated carrot and raisins and mix together really well.

In a small saucepan gently heat the margarine, sunflower oil, sugar and golden syrup. Bring to a boil and immediately take off the heat. Add the mashed bananas then mix everything into the flour bowl. Add the soya milk and give everything a really good mix.

Pour into the greased loaf pan and bake in the middle of the oven for 65-70 mins.

Cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

Leave as is and serve with lashing of vegan butter or decorate with orange butter cream made from margarine, icing sugar, fresh orange juice and grated rind of an orange.

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Vegan MoFo Day 11 - Mini Carrot and Squash Roasts

Mini Carrot and Squash Roasts

makes 12

Ingredients

Half a butternut squash, roasted and mashed with salt and pepper to taste

450g (3 cups) carrots, peeled and sliced

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

100g (2 cups) mushrooms, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

quarter cup diced red pepper 

half teaspoon dried rosemary

12 scrapes nutmeg

half teaspoon smoked paprika

Good knob of vegan margarine

175g toasted hazlenuts (sorry, forgot to measure cups)

100g fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs (forgot to measure this in cups too! It's about 4 slices) 

8 twists of black pepper

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 Tablespoon soya flour

1 Tablespoon arrowroot

Method

Heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius (350 fahrenheit). Grease a 12 hole muffin pan.

Place the carrots in enough water to cover them and simmer until soft.

Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a medium sized saucepan and fry the mushroom, onion and garlic for 5 minutes, stirring every so often. Add the salt and cook for another few minutes then add the red pepper, rosemary, nutmeg and smoked paprika. Cook for a few minutes more then take off the heat.

When the carrots are cooked, drain, reserving the liquid, and mash with the margarine. Add the mashed carrot to the sautéed vegetable mixture along with the lemon juice, hazlenuts, breadcrumbs and black pepper.

Mix the soya flour and arrowroot to a thin paste with 2 tablespoons of the cooled carrot water and mix into the rest of the ingredients and give everything a really good stir.

Place a tablespoon of mashed squash in the bottom of each muffin hole and smooth down with your finger, then top up with the sautéed veg mix and smooth down with the back of a spoon.

Bake in the oven for 45-50 mins.

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins.

I roasted the seeds from the butternut squash and used some to decorate the tops. The rest of the seeds are in mah tummy.

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Vegan MoFo Day 7 - Vegan Cowboy Baked Beans

'Cos all good cowboys are vegan right?

Baked Beans

Serves 8

Ingredients

400g dried haricot or cannellini beans

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 red onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp dark muscovado sugar

3 Tbsp cider vinegar

480g can of plum tomatoes, smooshed up

150ml water

Method

Soak the beans overnight.

Drain and place in a pan, cover with fresh water and bring to the boil over a medium heat.

Cook for about 45 minutes-1 hour until tender.

Remove from heat and set aside for 30 minutes.

Drain well.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onions and cook for 6-8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another couple of mins then add the salt.

Stir in the sugar, vinegar, tomatoes, and water, then tip in the beans. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 1½-2 hours, stirring occasionally, until you have a thick sauce and tender beans.

Wearing of cowboy attire is entirely optional. 
These will be awesome on a jacket potato which is exactly how I intend to eat them tonight.

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Vegan MoFo the Fifth

It's nearly that time again folks!

1st October 2011 sees the start of this year's fifth Vegan MoFo.

VeganMoFo was originally created by the awesome people that are collectively known as PPK'ers over at the Post Punk Kitchen.

The idea is to write as much as you can all throughout October, about the awesomeness that is vegan food. Pretty easy 'cos we all know how AWESOME being vegan is already so let's all shout it out to the rest of the world so that they can be in on this nifty secret too!

Be sure to check out the new Vegan MoFo website, where you will find everything you could possibly want to know about Vegan MoFo, as well as the official RSS feed, the form for registering your blog, AMAZING daily give-aways, daily round-ups and LOTS more. You'll find me there posting daily round-ups every Friday.

This is my fourth year doing MoFo and I absolutely LOVE IT!!

The comradeship, the camaraderie, the fun and THE FOOD!

It is all just simply awesome.

I don't usually have a theme for MoFo, I just post about what I've eaten that day, but this year I have finally decided to have one and this year's theme will be revealed all in good time. 

Well, OK, on the 1st October actually.

It's a corker!

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Vegan Coconut and Peanut Butter ice cream

I am the happy excited owner of an ice cream maker - so I will be experimenting with a LOT of ice cream all summer YAY!

My very first attempt came out AMAZING so I wanted to share it with you.

Coconut and Peanut Butter ice cream

serves 3/4

Ingredients

2 tins full fat coconut milk

half a cup muscavado sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons smooth peanut butter, warmed a little so as it mixes easily

Mix all ingredients together, chill for 4 or 5 hours then follow ice cream maker instructions.

Easy or what!

Winner of the Tofutti voucher is Ashley. Well done Ashley. email me your postal details and I'll pop the voucher in the post.

Barefoot Contessa Chocolate Cake Veganized

I saw an episode of The Barefoot Contessa where Ina Garten made this awesome looking Chocolate Cake. This particular recipe really shouted out to me because one of her ingredients was coffee. That and the fact that it's cake!

Hello!

I really like the idea of using coffee with chocolate. They are a perfect combo on the taste bud scale so I was really eager to try and veganise her recipe. I'm so glad I did. This is IT as far as I'm concerned, I will never use another chocolate cake recipe.

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

2 cups self raising flour (or plain flour)
half a teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup granulated sugar
half a cup light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup hot coffee –  (made with 1 teaspoon of instant coffee powder)
1 cup soya milk
1/2 cup silken tofu (whizz it up first to make it nice and smooth)
1 teaspoon of good vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees (360 Fahrenheit)
Grease two 9 inch sandwich cake pans with margarine and line the base with greaseproof (parchment) paper. Sprinkle some flour into the pans to coat the sides and shake off excess flour.
In a big mixing bowl sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, granulated sugar and light brown sugar.
In a separate mixing bowl mix together the oil, coffee, milk, tofu and vanilla extract and then add these to the bowl with the flour and things.
Mix really well.
Divide the mixture equally into the two sandwich pans and bake in the middle of the oven for about 40 mins. Check the cakes are cooked by inserting a clean cocktail stick into the centre - if the stick comes out clean your cakes are cooked.
Leave to cool completely before turning them out.

I sandwiched mine together using buttercream which is a delicious mixture of marg and icing sugar.
To cover the cake I melted 100 grams of 85% dark chocolate and added this to more buttercream.
This cake is a winner.
MAKE IT NOW!

One I made for my son's 18th birthday - I grated dark chocolate on this one.

 One I made for my mum's friend's birthday - it's omni approved!

Vegan Cherry Sponge Cake

S'uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!

Mostly I are making cakes. And eating cakes. Mostly I are happy.

This makes such a delicious, dense, moist, rich cake you will wonder where this recipe has been all your vegan life.

Vegan Cherry Cake

Ingredients
3 cups of self raising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup glace cherries, halved
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups coconut milk (which conveniently is one whole tin)
2/3 cup of groundnut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Method

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a 9 inch cake tin (deep one).
Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. In another bowl stir together the coconut milk, oil and vanilla and add to the flour, sugar and salt. Add the halved cherries and mix until you get a smooth batter. The consistency will be quite thick for a cake batter but this is good.
Just before pouring into the cake tin, stir in the cider vinegar.

Bake for about 1 hour 30 mins (check after 1 hr 15 mins) until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Don't be tempted to open the oven for at least an hour or it will sink!
Cool in the tin.  
 

Christmas Cake Revisited + holiday baking

So the cake has been fed copious amounts of brandy since being made. It got fed every 4 days by pouring 1 to 2 Tablespoons of brandy all over the base. It was stored wrapped in tin foil and kept in an airtight container.

This is what it looked like on Monday.

I then heated up some apricot jam and brushed the entire top and sides of the cake with the jam, rolled out some store bought marzipan and covered the top and sides and left it to sit for 24 hours.

With it's Marzipan layer

I then brushed the marzipan with cold water and covered it in rolled out store bought icing and let loose on the decorating which is by far the BEST BIT! 

All dolled up and ready to go!

Mincepies!

 Mushroom paté

So that concludes my holiday baking. I've made a seitan encroute for my Christmas dinner but I'll post a photo of that when it's all baked and in it's finery.

I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas.

Vegan MoFo IV Day 16: Having your cake and eating it this time

Most readers will think this cake is a little tame for me, and in looks I suppose it is. But this little beauty packs it's punch on taste, so much so that there's no need for fancy decorating at all.

The cake is Isa's Just Chocolate Cake recipe doubled up, with buttercream in the middle and then the topping is Chocolate Orange buttercream ganache.

YUMMMMMMM!

The only decorating required was the obligatory 40 candle seeing as my buddy Wayne turns 40 today!

Thomas the Tank Engine Birthday Cake

It was the third birthday of my friend's son and seeing as he is Thomas' number one fan there was only really one cake I could make for him.

The cake was a Coconut Cake (recipe to come soon) smothered in blue buttercream and decorated with coloured rolled fondant.

Here's me and the birthday boy - notice the dog Molly taking an interest too!

Hello Kitty Birthday Cake

Made for my friend Sonya, the cake was the Jelly Doughnut Cupcake recipe from Veganomicon doubled, spread with vegan buttercream and decorated with ready roll fondant.

Cute huh!

Lime and Coriander Baked Tofu

I love the kind of recipes that you just throw together on instinct and they turn out to be super amazingly awesome. This recipe is one of those.

My coriander (cilantro) has gone crazy in my garden this year but it was just starting to bolt so I wanted to cut it right back and so resulted with LOADS to use up.

I had some fresh lime in the fridge that needed using up as well and thus this recipe was created.

Lime and Coriander Baked Tofu

serves 4

Ingredients

8 slices firm Tofu about a cm thick each

1/2 cup of olive oil

2 cloves garlic, diced

Juice from 1 lime

handful coriander leaves

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Place the oil, garlic, lime juice, coriander, salt and pepper in a blender and whizz up.

Place the tofu slices in an oven proof dish and pour over the marinade, turning the tofu over to incorporate all the flavours. Leave to marinade for half an hour.

Bake for 20 mins in a medium hot oven, turn over then bake for another 20 mins.

I served mine on a bed of fresh rocket, scallions and juicy ripe tomatoes.

DELISH!

GO VEGAN!

Low fat garlic mushrooms

Just a quick post to let you know that I'm still alive and fighting the good cause. Mr treehugger and I have been busy doing some much needed DIY hence my blog absence - but you don't want to hear all about that do you? "GET TO THE RECIPE" I hear you cry. Well this might be a quick post but it's an awesome one none-the-less so for what I lack in quantity I hope I make up for in quality. You'll have to let me know about that one!

Vegan Low Fat Garlic Mushrooms serves 4 as a starter or snack Ingredients 1 teaspoon olive oil 16 medium/largish mushrooms sliced 2 cloves garlic, diced 4 Tablespoons water 4 Tablespoons white wine (use the good stuff please) Pinch of salt Handful of parsley, chopped Black pepper Method Heat the olive oil in a pan and when heated add all the mushrooms and stir. Add the garlic, stir again then add the water. Cook on medium for 5 minutes then add the white wine and reduce - will take about 10-15 minutes. Add the salt and parsley and cook for a few more minutes. When ready to serve, grind some black pepper over the top and stir. DELICIOUS!

GO VEGAN!

Mum Cake

Mummy treehugger has moved over to Spain. She arrived on her birthday so a Cake was definitely called for. This is the same recipe as the Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake (man I LOVE LOVE LOVE that recipe) but this was covered in butter cream.

I didn't even think to get an inside shot - can you blame me?

GO VEGAN!

Vegan Cream of Spinach Soup

I woke up this morning craving spinach and soup so there was only one way forward - Cream of Spinach Soup Yeeehah! This is so simple and soooooo delicious and is packed full of super human power inducing ingredients - so get a bowlful inside ya now. Cream of Spinach Soup serves 4 Ingredients 2 Tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion, diced 300 grams washed and trimmed spinach 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced 2 Cloves of garlic, diced 1 to 1 and a half litres vegetable water ('spose you could use stock cubes but you'd have to check the taste before adding seasoning) Quarter cup of Cashews Salt Black pepper

Method Heat the oil in a big pan and add the onion. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes until onion is softened. Add the spinach, potato and garlic and cook for another couple of minutes stirring all the time to incorporate everything.

Add 1 litre of the vegetable water (or stock). Put the lid on the pan and cook on low to medium for 20 mins. Take off the heat and add the cashews to the pan, leave with the lid on for half an hour or so. After half an hour blitzz everything up with a stick blender (or a normal blender, whatever). Add salt and pepper to taste. If you need to add the rest of the vegetable water or stock because the soup is too thick for you then do so now. Re-heat and EAT!

Super scrummy yumpalicious fabby dabby dosey

My craving is sated.

GO VEGAN!

Happy New Year! WooooHooo!

Yes I know, I am but a mere 16 days late on the greets but it has taken me as long to sift through the backlog of work that accumulated whilst yours truly was rocking her jollys for the hollys in the merry old land of Blight. I have been trying to catch up on all your awesome blogs and am slowly making my way through them but I will apologise in advance if you get a Happy New Year greeting in mid March! I spent 19 days in the UK for the festivities and was very lucky to have escaped all the snow that many of my fellow brethren and sistren had, in fact, me and Mr.treehugger were very lucky to have escaped the country full stop as the evening of our flight was the last flight out of the South for a good few days. But get home we did and boy isn't it always nice to get home after being away. I was super happy to see my fur babies and the feeling was mutual. Although they had been well cared for and looked after by Uncle Wayne and Aunty Sonya, they were all deliriously happy to have us back home so as things could get back to normal. Another super happy sight that greeted me when I got home was a parcel that had been delivered whilst I'd been away. It was pretty obvious who it was from and I excitedly (but carefully) ripped open the package to behold the wondrous sight within.

This AWESOME bundle came courtesy of Michelle Cavigliano from My Zoetrope . Her blog can be found here and her Etsy store here. I was lucky enough to be the chosen commenter when, back in November, Michelle blogged about this awesome give-away. To say I was thrilled to be chosen is a serious understatement. I LOVE LOVE LOVE all Michelle's work, it thrills and delights me no end. As well as a cute card and four gorgeous little gift tags; I now have 12 awesomelly cute little pictures to hang on my wall too. The tough decision is whether I put them in frames now or wait 'til January 2011! Tough call.

GO VEGAN!

Vegan MoFo Day#9: Easy curry

I will be cooking for the whole 2 weeks of my stay with my mum.

My mum will be vegan for two weeks and her response to this, in her own words "I don't mind, it'll be fun to see what you make."

YAY! Open minded people RULE especially when they're your mum.

Now my mums spice cupboard isn't the best stocked spice cupboard in the world (OK I am spoilt I know) and rather than go out and buy individual packets of herbs and spices to make tonights dinner I thought I would just get an all in one curry powder.

This is the one I went for.

These are excellent if you're new to cooking curries and you're not too too sure on what spices to use and, more importantly, how much of them to use. These all in one powders will give your confidence a boost until you're ready to go it alone.

This one contains:

corriander seed, cumin, fenugreek, mustard seed, ginger, garlic powder, salt, bay leaves, turmeric, cayenne pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper.

It couldnt be easier.

And 'cos I know the blogosphere, and the universe in general, is not lacking in vegan curry recipes - I shall just get straight to the finished product.

Pepperoni Style Sausage

This is one of my favourite ways to make Seitan. It is seriously moreish. I've used it in sandwiches, stews, on pizzas and just for slicing off a hunk and snacking with. Pepperoni Style Sausage makes 2 sausages each about 200 grams Ingredients 1 1/2 cups of Vital Wheat Gluten 1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast 1 tsp Onion Powder 1 tsp Garlic Salt 3 Cloves of Garlic, squeezed through a garlic press 1 1/2 tsp Mixed Herbs 1 Tblsp Toasted Sesame Seeds (toast your own if you can) 1/2 cup Thick "Beef" broth 1/4 cup Red Wine 1 Tblsp Soy Sauce 1 Tblsp Olive Oil 5 Tblsp Tomato Paste 2 Sundried Tomatoes, diced thinly 1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke few drops of Tabasco

Directions Place in a bowl the Vital Wheat Gluten, Nutritional Yeast and crushed Garlic. Mix well with a fork. Add the Garlic Salt, Onion Powder and Mixed herbs. The contents of this bowl shall forever be known as "dry ingredients". In a separate bowl - place the rest of the ingredients and mix well. The contents of this bowl shall be known as "wet ingredients" Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a fork until it all comes together to form a dough. Knead for a few minutes. Pesky bits of Sundried Tomatoes will keep popping out but just stick 'em back in. Take 2 pieces of aluminum foil and lightly oil. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts and roll each piece into a sausage shape about 6 inches long and 3 inches diameter. Roll up each sausage in each piece of foil and roll the foil round the sausage. Twist the ends tight so as the sausage shape retains. Bake in the middle of an oven at 200 degrees for 40 mins turning round half way through cooking time. Unwrap and leave to cool completely. Each sausage yields about 25 1/4 inch slices and will get scoffed very very quickly! I should make double this recipe each time really.

The dough

Rolled out like a sausage "I did a twisty, a tiny twisty" NOM NOM!

GO VEGAN!