Strawberry Biscuits

Strawberry Biscuits from Vegan Dad on Vimeo.

The first Ontario strawberries have made their appearance so it is time for all things cobbler and shortcake! This is a riff on Peter Reinhart's biscuits in Artisan Bread Every Day (much like my teff biscuits): they are veganized and sweetened but use the same method to produce a light, fluffy biscuit. The video is a touch long, but I wanted to show you the folding method in real time so you can see that it really is rather simple and quick to do. The trick is to keep everything well-floured. Here is the ingredient list:

INGREDIENTS

- 1/4 cup margarine

- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening

- 1 cup chopped strawberries

- 1 cup soy milk

- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

- 1/2 cup icing sugar

- 1/4 cup sugar

- 2 1/4 tsp baking powder

- 1/4 tsp baking soda

- large pinch of salt

English Muffin Week

In the indoor cycling (a.k.a. spinning) class I attend with great fervor and cult-like loyalty, there is a saying: "Every bike is different," which refers to the fact that some days you might have the tension on your bike turned up four revolutions before you hit your wall and some days only two because, literally, every bike is different, and what matters isn't necessarily the number of turns on your bike but rather the idea of listening to your body to ensure you are neither taking the easy way out nor setting yourself up to fail. But sneakily and over time, the saying has made its way into my everyday, non-spinning life, morphing and twisting itself to apply to any situation where you encounter others going about things differently than how you might—be it your grandma, friend, coworker or the writers of a critically-acclaimed television show. (Specifically, those of the finale episode of The Killing.) An example of this in action might look like:
"I can't believe they just did that!"
"Every bike is so different."

All of this is to say that this week I was sick. My appetite was off. And "listening to my body" led me down a strange path of consecutive English muffin-based meals. With that, I bring you: The evolution of being sick as portrayed by variations on the English muffin. Fair warning: Every bike is different.

Day one:

Butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

Day Two:

Apricot jam and peanut butter.

Day Three (getting more curious):

 Nutella and bananas with a side of Emergen-C.
 

Day Four:

Poached egg and sautéed spinach.

Day Five  (I suddenly got really hungry):

Fried egg, cheddar, and prosciutto.

On that note, today is day six; I'm on the mend and have moved on to something else notoriously English! (Let's go Mardy Fish!)

Ethiopian Potatoes and Peas with Split Pea Puree

This is really just an Ethiopian vegetable stew repackaged a different way that photographs well and would make for a nice dish at a dinner party. You can eat this with a fork or spoon, or scoop it up with traditional injera. If you are using injera, make sure the potatoes are cut small enough to be picked up with your fingers.

INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup yellow split peas, rinsed
- 3 cups water
- 1.5 lbs small red potatoes
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 sweet onions, halved and sliced
- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp minced ginger
- 1 tsp tumeric
- berbere to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tomato, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- water as needed
- 2 tbsp margarine
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- pinch of allspice and cloves
- 2 cups peas, fresh or frozen
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup water
- parsley, to garnish

METHOD
1. Boil the 3 cups of water and get the split peas cooking. Simmer, covered, until very soft and breaking apart.
2. While split peas are cooking, parboil the potatoes, whole, for about 10 mins until tender but still firm. Rise with cold water and set aside.
3. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Saute onions for 15 mins, until golden brown. Add pepper, garlic, ginger and spices and cook for 5-8 mins more, until onions are a deep brown. Add tomatoes and bring to bubbling.
4. Drain split peas in a fine sieve and add to the onion mixture. Add tomato paste and mix well. Blend until smooth in a blender or food processor, adding water as needed and adjust seasonings as taste. The mixture should be pourable but not runny. Set aside.
5. Heat margarine in a frying pan over medium heat. Cut potatoes into bite-sized pieces and fry until golden. Add add spices and fry for 2 mins. Add peas, paste, and water and mix well. Let bubble until peas are cooked and mixture has thickened.
6. To serve: pour some lentil mixture into a shallow bowl. Top with some potato mixture and garnish with chopped parsley.

Gaufres de Liege (Belgian Sugar Waffles)

Friends! I made some waffles for the annual No Cookie Left Behind bake sale. They turned out fairly pretty, no? Though I do have a few hot tips to share if you are planning on making a batch of these on your own. 

1. Get your friends to help you. (Thank you, Heather and Jeana!) This is especially key if you enjoy a friendship with a proud owner of a waffle iron.

2. If you can't find pearl sugar, sprinkle the turbinado sugar on the dough right before pressing it in the iron—that way, we discovered, you can still get the nice melty, caramelization effect on top.  

3. Eat them while they're nice and hot. Either that or toast them up later and pair with cream—iced or whipped, the choice is yours.

Also, for those who couldn't make it to the bake sale but would still like to donate to Share Our Strength, click here! And thank you!

Gaufres de Liege via The Kitchn (with more helpful tips via Not Martha)
makes 12 waffles
6 tablespoons warm milk (no hotter than 110°F)
1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar 

2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 cups (230 grams) bread flour, sifted
1 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 medium egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, at slightly cooler than room temperature
140 grams (3/4 cup) turbinado sugar, or pearl sugar if you choose
Cooking spray

Dissolve the sugar in the warm milk; then add the yeast. Make sure that the milk is not too hot, lest it kill the yeast instead of promoting its growth. Place a plate or some kind of cover on top of the bowl with the milk, sugar and yeast. Set aside for about five minutes. When you check on it, the yeast should have bubbled up, looking light brown and spongy. (See first photo above.)

Meanwhile, mix the sifted bread flour with the cinnamon, vanilla extract, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Pour in the yeast mixture; then add the whole egg and egg yolk. Mix on medium speed until it is fully combined. The dough will be yellow and stiff, yielding only slightly to a poke.

Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest in a warm place for about thirty minutes.

Beat in the butter piece by piece; you do not have to wait for the prior piece to be fully incorporated before adding the next. When the dough has incorporated about half of the butter, the mixture will be like a very thick, somewhat broken-up paste. If you keep engaging the mixer on medium-high speed, the dough will eventually become a cohesive whole, looking smoother and more feeling more elastic. Scrape the sides of the bowl if needed.

Kneading very gently, incorporate the sugar crystals just enough to get them evenly distributed. Work quickly so as not to soften the buttery dough too much.

Divide the dough into a dozen equal pieces, gently forming them into balls.

Place the balls of dough on a cutting board in a warmish place for fifteen minutes or so. During the last two minutes of this resting time, preheat your waffle iron until it is very warm, but not hot.

Spray the griddles with cooking oil. Place each ball of dough in a whole square or section of the waffle iron. Like regular waffle batter, the dough will start to puff up. Cook the waffles until the surface is golden to dark brown. Be sure that the waffle iron you are using is appropriately deep, or else the interior of the waffle will not be cooked through. If you are using a vintage stovetop waffle iron, flip the iron every thirty to forty seconds, lifting the iron to check the rate of browning. The browning should be gradual to allow the interior to fully develop.

Set the waffles on a cooling rack as they come out of the iron to promote a crispy exterior. Serve immediately with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Any leftover waffles, if they are not dark brown, can be carefully re-cooked in a toaster for approximately thirty to sixty seconds. Leftover waffles may also be kept in an airtight container between sheets of parchment paper, for up to three days.

Blueberry Streusel Muffin Recipe

I love the blueberry muffins they have in Starbucks so I started looking for a similar recipe online a while back. Although there were a few hits and misses, nothing really looked compelling. Then the search turned to other things and I promptly forgot about the blueberries I had bought and frozen to make muffins.

But you can't really forget about blueberry muffins for long, can you? I resumed my search for a good blueberry muffin recipe a couple of weekends back and found a recipe for something better - blueberry streusel muffins! I have been wanting to make streusel something for a while now so here it goes!

Blueberry Streusel Muffins Recipe
Makes 8 large muffins
Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

For Muffins:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or maida
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil)
1 egg
1/3 cup milk, approx
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

For Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 400F / 200C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners and set aside.

2. For muffin batter - combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl with a whisk or fork

3. Place vegetable oil in a 1 cup measuring cup, add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture gently until no traces of the flour mixture remain.

4. Fold in the blueberries without breaking them. Its helps to refrigerate or freeze them for a bit before this step. If the blueberries break, they will bleed all over the batter, making your cupcakes purple. Unless that's the colour you want to end up with, freeze the blueberries and harden them a bit. Either ways, taste is not affected.

5. Fill muffin cups almost to the top. This gives a more domed muffins as you get in malls and bakeries. The streusel topping will make sure the batter doesn't spill over while baking.

6. To Make Streusel Topping: Combine the ingredients with your fingertips until they resemble bread crumbs (the mixture will be more moist than bread crumbs though). Sprinkle over the muffin batter and cover as completely as possible.

7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the muffins pass the skewer test (insert skewer or toothpick into the muffin and if they come out with some dry crumbs at the end, you are done).

The muffins were airy, large, domed, and delicious. I also added some almond extract to the second batch but the ones without that were nicer so omit any flavouring that you feel tempted to add, like vanilla or almond.

I promised I will give an option to make these eggless so to make eggless blueberry streusel muffins, replace the egg with 1/2 cup yogurt or add 2 tbsp flax seed meal mixed in with 1/4 cup warm water. I haven't tried these egg substitutes for this recipe but have tried them in other muffin recipes and they work like a charm!

No Cookie Left Behind Annual Charity Bake Sale

See you all Sunday, right?! (For more info, click here.)

The beauty of a beet cake recipe

I watch cooking videos like kids watch their favourite cartoons - often back to back and in a loop and totally engrossed.

I also wanted to get my mind off the bad stuff going on around here. Part of me wishes I had just let it go but either ways, I can't thank you all enough for all the wonderful support. I don't want to flood my Facebook page with more updates and words of gratitude.

Moving on. This is by far the most gorgeous recipe video I have ever seen. I hope the husband-wife team behind Tiger in a Jar come up with more. I really wanted to bake the cake and post the video together but that would mean holding this back from you for that much longer. So here goes. Use headphones.

For the full beet cake recipe with measurements, visit this page in Tiger in a Jar.

Now I am going to go back and watch this one more time. Food porn, this is it. 

My Marble Cake Recipe and an Update on Plagiarism

Update (June 16, 2011): The offending post has now been removed by Yahoo!.

Yesterday, an anonymous reader commented on my marble cake recipe saying that she saw it on another website, copied word by word (link at the bottom).

Admittedly, I do come across replications of my posts now and then, images cropped to remove the watermark, etc. I leave comments, email them, and hope they remove it. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. I am sure bloggers face this issue all the time.

So I headed over to the site and saw that not only has my post been copied over word by word, but there were close to 70 comments and over 300 FB likes on the post (strangely, I don't see this information now)! Most of the comments were about how good the swirls of the cake looked and what amazing memories the cake brought back, etc. I scanned the page to see if the source has been credited. Even if it was linked back to me, I want the post removed. Porting an entire post over is just not done, even if there's a link back.

Needless to say I was very upset and frustrated and put up a status on Facebook where a lot of you promised to support me if push came to shove.

On going through the earlier comments, I also realised that not only has this "Linda" person copied my entire marble cake recipe to her blog, she has also copied every single comment I got on the post, with the names of the commenters changed! Who does that? I started having serious doubts if this person was even real and whether this was done in some automated way. I checked her other posts and realised she only has about 2-3 posts apart from this. So I am not very sure if she is popular as I initially thought she was.

The first thing I did was to leave her a comment asking her to remove the copied content. Then I contacted Yahoo! following the steps on their Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy page. I got a reply today morning asking for a proper notice and the email has a lot of legal jargon that I am trying to figure out. I wish they had a document for such instances that folks like me can digitally sign so that even laymen can complain and prevent their content from being misused.

Next Steps:

- I am going to write back to Yahoo! and try to include as much information as I can to get this content removed.

- I am not sure if adding more comments will get this Linda person to remove my recipe. I doubt it but maybe that will work.

Either case, this has been stressful business so I am considering adding a watermark bang in the middle of my images going forward and maybe disabling right click on this blog. I don't think the latter is a super useful thing though, because anyone who has subscribed to the feeds will get all the info they need and can copy all they want.

Again, huge thanks to everyone who rallied against this for me. I am sorry if I wasted your time in any way, and I really really appreciate this. The food blogger community and my readers - you rock!

Copied post
My original post

Update: Apparently, my Eggless Chocolate Chunk Recipe has also been copied and posted by another Shine blogger (link). Thank you for letting me know, Swapna chechy.

Everyday Whole Wheat Bread

Everyday Whole Wheat Bread from Vegan Dad on Vimeo.

My first recipe video. I did not like the video quality via Blogger, so I created a Vimeo account and posted it here from there. I also had to drop the soundtrack because of copyright issues (Facebook deleted it right away), so I will have to work on that. I think I have learned a bit about colour schemes, lighting, shots, etc., so hopefully these get better over time (like learning how to spell "hydrated.") Here's the ingredients if that helps:

INGREDIENTS

- 17 oz hard whole wheat flour

- 1 tbsp instant yeast

- 18 fl oz warm soy milk

- 11.25 oz white bread flour

- 2.25 tsp salt

- 4.5 tbsp sugar

- 3 oz oil

Matt's 30th Birthday Meal

In case you haven’t noticed, my husband Matt factors in quite heavily to this blog. (Matt is to Bon Appetempt what Jeffrey is to Ina?) Point being, Matt turned 30 a couple of weeks ago, and like last year, this post chronicles his yearly bon appetempt birthday meal.

Being extremely familiar with Matt’s likes and dislikes, I began brainstorming potential less-than-healthy, meat-centric menu ideas. We had recently had the most amazing dish of sausage and clams at Salt's Cure and without consulting Matt, I began to scour recipes to see if I could recreate it. I found a homemade sausage recipe and another for clams in a broth that seemed like what we'd eaten. I printed them out and was about to leave for the store when I realized I hadn’t yet run this idea by Matt. I sent him a quick email and got a reply with much enthusiasm but also some other ideas—dishes with more cheese and less fuss. Right, I remembered. This is Matt's birthday.

His birthday dinner had already been postponed a week because of our Sonoma trip, and having wasted much of the morning on the sausage and clams, I didn’t have time to mess around. I went straight to the woman who has always gotten it right when it comes to Matt’s dream meals: the aforementioned Ina Garten. And in less than fifteen minutes, she helped me pull together a winning menu comprised of steaks, onion rings, salad, and a non-Ina dessert he’d requested months earlier, Crack Pie. Maybe it wasn’t my dream menu, but let’s be honest, it didn’t sound too bad.

The bummer about Crack Pie, apart from the name conjuring images of Bubs, is that it calls for one night in the refrigerator before eating. This time around, I decided to skip this 24-hour step. I made it in the morning, put it in the fridge by 1pm, and at 8pm, served it up to fantastic results. And while I’m sure that the overnight chill does serve some mysterious purpose, for those of you who need their dose of Crack Pie that day, there’s hope—a lot of hope.
With the Crack Pie in the fridge, I ventured out to Lindy and Grundy, a new butcher shop I keep hearing great things about. And while I found the store to be impressively cute and almost shiny in its newness, I’d arrived a few days after Memorial Day weekend, and they were completely sold out of most cuts of meat including the filet mignons that Ina’s recipe called for. Not wanting to make another trip, I asked if there was anything else I might be able to substitute and was soon introduced to the faux hanger steak, a long and skinny cut of meat that didn’t resemble a filet at all. I was skeptical, but the nice guy behind the counter assured me that I could prepare it the same way I would the filets—by searing it on all sides and then finishing it off in the oven. They had two left, and I had only a few hours until dinner, so I took them. Besides, I had a feeling this dinner was going to be all about the onion rings.

Home again, I sliced the onions and began soaking them in buttermilk. I washed the romaine and made the salad dressing—a vinegary, lemony, creamy dressing I hoped would stand up against steak and fried food. By the time I got back to the rings, all I had to do was heat up the oil, dredge them in a flour and cornmeal mixture, and then, in small batches, fry them into delicious crisps. Unfortunately, the candy thermometer I had planned on using to watch the oil temperature was too big for the pan I’d chosen. This, combined with having recently read a story about kitchen traumas (warning: graphic!), made for nervous frying. So nervous that when Matt came home from work, I was deep in the weeds with a few batches of overcooked onion rings, a few batches of undercooked ones, and a question: “Did you know that hot oil burns are the worst kind of burns?” Having not read the article and being a very nice person, Matt changed out of his work clothes, grabbed the tongs, and cooked the rest of the rings to perfection. Meanwhile, I seared the steaks, dressed the salad, and mixed a Manhattan with extra cherry juice. And very soon, we sat down to plates that looked something like this:

The only thing better than trying a new recipe to fantastic results is trying a new recipe to the realization that you have found something you are going to make for the rest of your life—a recipe that is going to break through from the world of rarely enjoyed, special occasion food to the world of staples that get you through the work week a couple of times a month. Of the above four components, can you believe that I’m talking about the salad? It's from one of my current favorite cookbooks, Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food, and it's seriously delicious. (Plus, when you buy heavy cream for some endeavor, don't you always end up with extra just sitting in the fridge?) The recipe is below. Make it immediately and find out what I'm talking about. 

Hearts of Romaine with Creamy Dressing from The Art of Simple Food

4 servings

This salad is best made with whole uncut leaves of romaine. You may need to remove quite a few of the large outer leaves to expose the smaller pale green sweet leaves at the heart. There are tender small varieties called Little Gem and Winter Density that make incredible salads. Look for them at your farmers' market.

Remove the outer darker green leaves from:

2 heads of romaine lettuce

Cut off the stem end and separate the leaves. Wash them thoroughly and spin-dry in batches.

To make the dressing, stir together in a large bowl:

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

salt

fresh-ground black pepper

Taste, and adjust as needed. Whisk in:

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespons heavy cream

Cornmeal-Fried Onion Rings via Barefoot Contessa
2 large Spanish onions (or 3 yellow onions)
2 cups buttermilk
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (medium) yellow cornmeal
1 quart vegetable oil

Directions
Peel the onions, slice them 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick, and separate them into rings. Combine the buttermilk, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl. Add the onion rings, toss well, and allow to marinate for at least 15 minutes. (The onion rings can sit in the buttermilk for a few hours.) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.

When you're ready to fry the onion rings, preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with paper towels.

Heat the oil to 350 degrees F in a large pot or Dutch oven. (A candy thermometer attached to the side of the pot will help you maintain the proper temperature.) Working in batches, lift some onions out of the buttermilk and dredge them in the flour mixture. Drop into the hot oil and fry for 2 minutes, until golden brown, turning them once with tongs. Don't crowd them! Place the finished onion rings on the baking sheet, sprinkle liberally with salt, and keep them warm in the oven while you fry the next batch. Continue frying the onion rings and placing them in the warm oven until all the onions are fried. They will remain crisp in the oven for up to 30 minutes. Serve hot.

Banarasi Dum Aloo Recipe

If I see a bag of baby potatoes when I head to the supermarket near my place, I pick it up. Always. Good things always come out of having a bag of baby potatoes in your kitchen. You will see. 

Earlier last week, I was telling myself how inefficient and wasteful I am being. I almost always turn online if I want a recipe but love to buy cookbooks and stack them up in the kitchen shelf. In my new kitchen, all the books are out and neatly arranged so I really have no excuse for not using them more. 

So armed with about 15 baby potatoes, I turned to one of those small Tarla Dalal booklets, simply and efficiently called "Potatoes". There were some really great looking recipes in there but I had to zero in on Banarasi Dum Aloo because that's what I had all the ingredients for.

Since this is a cuisine I am not familiar with at all, I decided to not meddle with the original recipe and follow it to the T. This meant frying up the entire batch of baby potatoes but all I did was gulp once before going head and doing it. 

Banarasi Dum Aloo

Serves 2-3 as a side

Total cooking time: 45 mins

Source: Tarla Dalal's Potatoes

Ingredients:

12 to 15 baby potatoes
oil for deep-frying

1/2 tsp powdered cardamom (about 8 pods)

1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)

3 tbsp cream (or 1/4 cup plain curd)

A small bunch chopped coriander for garnish

2 tsp butter

Salt to taste

For the gravy:
2 cups roughly chopped tomatoes (2 large ripe tomatoes)
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
3-4 dry red chillies (use dry Kashmiri red chillies for added colour)
2 tbsp broken cashew nuts
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
2 1/2 cups water

How I Made It:

1. Wash and dry the baby potatoes. Pierce each potato all around with a fork and deep fry in hot oil, with the skin on, till the potatoes are cooked and golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper and keep aside.

2. Combine all the ingredients together under the "gravy list". I know this sounds weird but trust me on this. Dunk all the ingredients together along with the water and cook on a low flame for around 15 mins or until the tomatoes have turned mushy and soft. Cool and blend to a smooth paste. If you have one of those soup blenders like me, just go ahead and whip it up hot. Saves a lot of time.

3. Heat the butter in a pan and add the powdered cardamom and gravy paste and allow it to come to a boil. Simmer till the oil separates form the gravy. This will take about 12-15 mins. Keep the fire on simmer throughout and be prepared for a slight mess if you don't use a deep pan. The tomato gravy will bubble up all over your stovetop.

4. When the gravy is ready, add the potatoes, kasuri methi, and salt and simmer for another 3-4 mins. Finally, add the cream and coriander and serve hot with jeera pulao or rotis.

Notes:

- I like to use powdered cardamom because its not pleasant to bite into the pods when you are eating. 

- The original recipe also called for 1 tbsp honey but I omitted this because we were not in a mood for a sweet-ish dish. I think this is meant to be hot and sweet so add that in if you want to get more of an authentic Banarasi Dum Aloo. 

- You can boil and add the potatoes to the gravy if you want a healthier version. Adding cubed, fried regular potatoes will also taste brilliant, I am sure. 

- Banarasi Dum Aloo does not use dahi or curd as normal dum aloo does so use cream if you have it. Substitute with curd as a last option. 

- The gravy gets thick on sitting for a while so if you are reheating leftovers, add a little bit of curd of water before heating it up. Don't add more cashews than what's mentioned, it will make the gravy even thicker.

- As you can clearly see, I was out of coriander leaves :)

Eggless Blueberry Pancakes for 1 in 10 Minutes

I am married to a guy who doesn't like pancakes. Atleast, he thought so until I made these perfect pancakes and that kinda sorta turned him around but not completely. But I knew for a fact that if I added a fruit to the pancakes, he is not going to touch them so I devised this recipe meant for one - just me! Its also eggless because I didn't have any eggs at home. Sometimes, necessity creates masterpieces.

Well, I know these pancakes are not really the Brad Pitt of pancakes but they come together in 10 mins, and are eggless. So, stop being shallow. After all, the rustic look is in these days. The more dilapidated-looking the plywood for for your food photo base, the better. Haven't you noticed?

Btw, you do need some maple syrup to serve these up because they aren't super sweet on their own. Of course, you can add more sugar to the batter but why would you. Pour on the maple syrup (or the ones that masquerade as maple syrup, your choice). I got the real deal in US this time and its worth every gram of the weight I had to lug back.

Eggless Blueberry Pancakes Recipe
Prep + Cooking : 10 mins
Serves: 1 (about 3 medium-sized pancakes)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup plain flour
1/3 tsp baking powder
A pinch of baking soda
1 tbsp sugar (adjust to taste)
A pinch of salt
2 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp milk
1/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
2 tbsp butter to spread on pancakes while cooking

How I Made It:

1. Mix all ingredients together (except for the butter).

2. Heat a pan or griddle and spread some butter on it. Pour about 1/3rd of the batter into the centre of the pan and let it spread naturally. Keep the fire on low.

3. When small bubbles start to appear on the pancake surface, drop some blueberries on the pancake. I used about 5-6 per pancake. Flip over gently. Don't press down hard on the pancake, otherwise the blueberries will burst and create a mess. Handle very gently and always keep on low flame, otherwise the edges will burn like one of my pancakes did.

4. Cook for another minure or two and transfer to a plate.

Eat warm with a generous drizzle of maple syrup and be glad you don't need to share!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Vegan Daughter!

Today we celebrated Vegan Daughter's 2nd birthday with this Holly Hobbie cake. She doesn't actually have a Holly Hobbie doll, but she does have a bonnet that is very Hobbie-ish. Vegan Mom picked up the cake pan at the library and I pulled out this recipe for the cake batter. I used it once before for my Valentine's Day Edible Art and found it a little tough and chewy. I had to triple the recipe to fill the pan (the perfect amount) and played around a bit with the ingredients and amounts. I left out the flax (totally unnecessary, I think), upped the soy milk to 2.5 cups (for the triple recipe), the sugar to 1.5 cups, and the oil to 1/2 cup. The cake worked perfectly in the pan and took 50 mins to bake (I always find it tricky to bake in these pans so the entire cake is cooked). The final product was still a bit dense so I may concoct a recipe next time that is somewhere between this one and Isa's cupcake recipe.
This cake also forced me to learn a new skill: making drop flowers. It took a few times to get it right, but I think I did pretty well in the end. The funky part is that you make the flowers on parchment then freeze, carefully transferring them to the cake when needed. Also, I did not have the proper leaf tip so I just shot some green icing around to get the same effect.

Crispy Chinese Tofu Balls

After posting this recipe and asking for advice on how to make the batter crispier, many of you replied with very helpful advice. Basically, you advocated for 3 things: chickpea flour, rice flour, and/or some kind of starch. I did not have any rice flour, so I went with cornstarch and chickpea flour. Success! The batter crisped up nicely and did not tend to burn like the previous recipe. I also upped the vital wheat gluten to make sure the tofu was not too moist, and made smaller balls. I think the flax might be superfluous with the chickpea flour but I kept it anyway. So, there is some room to play with this recipe. Have fun!

INGREDIENTS
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3 tbsp chickpea flour
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp plain soy milk
- 1 tbsp finely ground flax seed
- 2 tbsp warm water
- 1 pkg extra firm tofu, pressed for 20 mins
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp poultry spice (or to taste)
- 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
- ground white pepper
- 1-2 tbsp vital wheat gluten
- oil for frying

METHOD
1. Heat your frying oil to 375 degrees.
2. While oil is heating, make the batter by whisking together flours, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk flax seed and water together until thick, and then whisk flax mixture into the soy milk. Whisk wet into dry ingredients. Add more liquid or flour as needed. The goal is a thick pancake batter consistency--not too thick, but not so thin that it drips right off the balls. Refrigerate until ready to use.
3. Make the tofu balls: mush the tofu in your hands until very fine and clumping together. Add spices and hoisin sauce and mix well. Adjust seasonings to taste. Sprinkle the wheat gluten over top and mix in. Form into about 30 balls, not too big.
4. To fry: dip a few balls into the batter, letting any excess drip off (I use 2 spoons to coat the balls and transfer to the oil). Fry for 1-2 mins, until very lightly golden. Drain. Repeat with remaining balls. Return first set of balls to the oil, letting fry until a deep golden brown. Drain and serve with your sauce of choice.

Ergo Chef Knives - A Review

I love knives.

After cooking pots, they are my biggest kitchen obsession and I often try to pick up knives as varied as possible. I did get 2 knives from the US during my recent trip but that's for another post because today I am going to talk to you about Ergo Chef Knives.



Pros:

- They are gorgeous
- They are ergonomic and that's great for people who spend a lot of time chopping
- They are super sharp, as knives should be
- The cutting blade is very thin and this allows for very smooth and thin slicing. I don't think I have ever sliced onions this pretty before or minced up coriander leaves so fine before
- The knives are heavy at the front so it naturally lends more weight on whatever you are chopping up. That's clever.
- They don't cost a bomb. I have ogled at Wusthof knives for a long time but I just can't afford them at this time. I am not sure how these compare to that brand but honestly, I am happy with Ergo Knives.



Cons:

- If you like light knives that are easy to hold in hand for chopping (the Kerala way, will post pics soon) or peeling, then the chef knife is too heavy for that job
- They look serious and don't come in colours. May not be a con to you but is somewhat of a boo for me
- You only get them in the US at this time and shipping to your country if you live outside it may prove a bit expensive. But then again, now you know what you can ask your friends and family in Amrika can bring a food-lover like you next time they visit!

Here are the two knives I picked form the website and have been using for the past 2 weeks.



The 6" Chef Knife and the 3.5" Paring Knife

Leave a comment if you have any questions on best uses, or any other details.

    













**disclosure - I have received no monetary compensation for this post. I did, however, get to pick two knives from the website and got these for free but under no obligation to review or say nice things about. All opinions are honest and my own**

Eggless No-Bake Mango Cheesecake Recipe

I have taken pictures at every stage of this recipe and I am going to force you to look at them. This does not mean this is not an easy recipe. I mean, this is cheesecake you don't need to bake. It really doesn't get easier than that. Round up your ingredients and let's get started.



You are going to need graham crackers for the base. I got some from the US because I really really love graham crackers but if you don't have any handy, go with digestive biscuits, marie biscuits, or even Oreos.



Give them a whiz in your food processor to turn into crumbs. You can even put them into a ziplock and use a rolling pin to smash them into small pieces. I always take the easy way out, especially when the end result won't show much difference anyway.



Time to pour in some melted better.



Give the mixture another whiz so that the base becomes moist and crumbly, just the way we want it. At this time, I urge you to smell this mixture. I swear it already smells a bit like cheesecake!



Now, you can go many routes. Use an 8" springform pan if you want one full cake which you can later slice up. I decided to set them in individual glasses and picked out whatever I had in hand. This will make serving much easier, especially if you are making this for a small party or something. Also looks infinitely prettier.



Spoon some into each glass and press firmly with the back of a spoon or fingertips. Leave this in the refrigerator while the rest of the cheesecake is prepared.



Mix well together the cream cheese, sugar, and cream. You can do this with a whisk by hand since you are not going to beat it much, just until it all comes together. I used my Kitchenaid for the job.



Time to bring out the gelatine. This is our setting agent, since this is a no-bake cheesecake recipe. You can also use china grass, I am sure, but I haven't tried it with that. If you want to go that route, I would recommend starting with 5gm and following the rest of the steps as mentioned here.

Dissolve 1 tbsp gelatine in hot water.



Mix this into the mango puree. I used canned mango puree but if you have fresh mangoes that you want to use up (lucky you!), then go for that, please. Make sure the mango puree is well combined with the gelatine mixture.

Reserve half and pour the rest into the cream cheese mixture. Incorporate well. This is our middle layer or the main part of the cheesecake. How easy was that?



Bring out the glasses from the fridge and spoon the cheesecake mixture into each, until about 3/4th full. Return to fridge for atleast 10 mins. I took them out in about 15 mins or so.

Once the cheesecake has set a bit in the fridge, pour the reserved mango-gelatine mixture gently on top of the cheesecake. If you don't do the refrigerating bit after you pour in the cheesecake, that will blend into the top layer that you are pouring in now so its important to let the cheesecake mixture set for a bit.

That's it! Refrigerate overnight or atleast 6-8 hours for a delicious dessert.

Full credit for this recipe goes to my classmate from school, Swetha and her cousin. She emailed me this recipe long back and I had kept it starred for ages. Glad I got around to finally making it. This is an easy dessert that makes you look really good for making it, just the kind I love!

Here's the recipe, all in one place.

Eggless No-Bake Mango Cheesecake Recipe

Ingredients:
Cream cheese - 1 block (250gm, Philadelphia Cream Cheese)
Cream - 170 gm (I used Nestle)
Sugar - Half a cup
Mango puree - 3/4 of a cup
Gelatine - 1 Tbsp
Hot Water - 1/4 cup
Graham cracker crumbs - 1.5 to 2 cups (Depending on how thick you want the base to be)
Unsalted butter, melted - 75 gm (about 1/3 of a cup)

How I Made It:

1. Whiz the graham crackers in a food processor. Add melted butter and whiz again until the mixture comes together. Press into the bottom of an 8" springform pan that's lined with aluminium foil or use individual glasses. Refrigerate while preparing the rest of the cheesecake.

2. Mix the cream cheese, cream, and sugar in a bowl until well combined. You can do it by hand or use low speed on your Kitchenaid. An electric beater is not needed.

3. Add the gelatine to the hot water and stir till it completely dissolves. Add the mango puree and stir well. Keep half of this mixture aside and add the rest to the cream cheese mixture. Stir gently until well combined.

4. Pour on top of the graham cracker base. Return to fridge for another 10-30 mins.

5. Pour the mango mixture as the third layer. Do this gently so that the layers don't combine. If you use a springform pan, the top layer will be much thinner, as it should be.

6. Refrigerate overnight and get ready to serve a yummy dessert at your party that can be prepared well in advance!