Last weekend, I attempted to make chocolate lamingtons with a vanilla icing on the outside. I kind of munted them.
I used this chocolate cake recipe, and made a vanilla icing with icing sugar, vanilla extract and a bit of plant milk.
I baked the chocolate cake batter in a rectangular baking pan and cut the cake into square pieces.
Then I sliced them in half and put some seedless raspberry jam in the middle.
It was all going fine until I tried to dip the cake into the icing. I thought I had to make the icing really thick, and then heat it up so that it would be liquidy, but then rapidly solidify after cooling.
The result was that the jam layer heated up, causing the cake layers to slide. Dipping the cake into the icing munted its shape as well.
They tasted great though! Next time I will definitely just make normal vegan lamingtons. Stay tuned!
This weekend I decided to make a meal with mostly whole foods, and I came across some recipes that I learnt from a family friend.
For the lentil dish:
400g cooked French lentils 1 large onion 3 cloves garlic olive oil 200g sliced mushrooms A few handfuls of spinach Diced roasted kumara/sweet potato (optional) High quality balsamic vinegar
Combine some olive oil, the onion, garlic and mushrooms in a pan over medium-high heat. Cook for a few minutes until the mushrooms soften and become aromatic. Add in lentils and spinach as well as a few tablespoons of the balsamic. Cook for only a couple of minutes. Add kumara/sweet potato if using. Serve warm.
For the farro/wild rice:
1 1/2 cups farro 1 cup wild rice ~1/2 cup dried cranberries 1-2 bell peppers Zest of one orange
Cook farro with 3 cups of water. Cook wild rice with 2 cups of water. Combine and add the cranberries and bell peppers as well as the orange zest.
After a long and rather hot summer, it finally feels like autumn here in the northwestern US. We had our first real rain storm yesterday. To mark the beginning of the new season, I decided to make pumpkin scones.
I’ve become very attached to this recipe from Sarah’s vegan kitchen, which I made several times last autumn as well. I doubled the recipe and increased the amount of pumpkin slightly. The recipe was unfortunately in imperial units, so I’ve converted it. See below for metric conversion.
For shaping the scones, I used a scone pan, but I think you can just shape them properly and put into a baking tray as well. I skipped the kneading process, so that is excluded in my version of the instructions below. My dough was definitely more wet/moist than hers, so perhaps that’s why kneading didn’t make sense for me. I also omitted the ginger and cloves.
-512 g all-purpose flour -200 g brown sugar -2 tablespoons baking powder -1 teaspoon salt -2 teaspoon ground cinnamon -1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg -180 ml coconut oil or cold vegan butter -400g tin pumpkin puree -2 tablespoon molasses -2 teaspoon vanilla extract -120 ml unsweetened plant milk
for the icing: -400 g icing sugar ~100 ml unsweetened plant milk (just make sure it’s the right consistency) -1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1) Preheat oven to 220°. Line baking tray with parchment or a silicone baking mat. 2) Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin puree, molasses, vanilla extract and milk. 3) Using two knives, your fingertips, or a pastry cutter, cut in cold coconut oil or vegan butter to create a crumbly mixture with pea-sized bits. 4) Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture a few tablespoons at a time, tossing with a fork between additions until dough comes together in a loose ball. 5) Place scone-sized pieces of dough into scone pan or shape into scone shapes in a baking tray. 6) Bake scones for 20-22 minutes, until golden brown on the bottoms. Allow to cool on mat for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Allow scones to cool completely before icing. 7) Combine powdered sugar and milk to create the icing. Dip scones face-down, and return to drying rack to harden. Store in an airtight container.
A long time ago, I found this recipe. Like many other recipes that I find, I bookmarked it and promptly forgot about it. Today I finally decided to make it. I’m glad I did, because it was delicious.
For the eggplant:
2 medium eggplant, quartered & cut into 0.5 cm slices
2 red onions, quartered & cut into 0.5 cm slices
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons chives
Preheat the oven to 230°C. Slice the eggplant and the onions and combine with the other ingredients. Then spread on a baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes, and then flip over the slices and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
Chive pesto
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/4 cup cashews, toasted (I used pine nuts)
2 cups chives, chopped
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
salt, to taste
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until the nuts are finely chopped.
For bean spread:
400g tin cannellini or white beans, drained and rinsed
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mash beans or process them until chunky or mostly smooth, depending on your preference. Combine with other ingredients in a pan and cook for a couple of minutes under medium heat.
Spread chive pesto on one piece of toast and the beans on the other piece.
Add eggplant pieces on one side, then put pieces of toast together and slice in half.
We enjoyed this with huckleberry syrup and maple syrup, and some herbs on top. It was delicious. I’m sure this would also be tasty with some vegan whipped cream too. Cheers!
Since going vegan, I’ve missed those classic fudge brownies – the ones with that special crackly top.
For a long time, I couldn’t figure out how to replicate this. I tried to veganise an old recipe that was mostly egg based. I replaced the eggs with flax meal mixed with water, but it didn’t work. I left the brownies in the oven for an hour, but they wouldn’t cook and the batter boiled in the oven, resulting in munted brownies. I had to bin them.
I’ve tested out several vegan brownie recipes – one made with avocados, which, while delicious, lacked the dense fudgy-ness that I was looking for.
However, I came across this recipe from seitan is my motor, which was a total win. It turns out that the trick to the crackly top is vegan mayo! Who would have thought?
I tweaked a few things; in particular, I drastically increased the amount of chocolate in the recipe, and it was amazing. I also did not use parchment paper on the bottom, as it made the bottom become too crispy.
Best vegan brownies
30 g Dutch process cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons instant coffee powder or espresso powder
150 ml boiling water
160 g unsweetened chocolate , finely chopped
210 g vegan butter
120 g vegan mayonnaise
40 g aquafaba
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
250 g granulated sugar
250 g powdered sugar
250 g flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt.
150 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped, or chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 180°C and generously butter a 20 cm x 30 cm rectangular pan. Then sprinkle flour over it.
Combine the boiling water with the cocoa powder and the instant coffee powder. Let cool until it is below 40°C.
Melt vegan butter with unsweetened chocolate in the microwave at low/medium power or using a bain marie. If using microwave, stop every 30 seconds and stir and let sit briefly. This is to ensure that it doesn’t get too hot. Overheated chocolate becomes munted chocolate. After melting the mixture, let cool slightly.
Add the water/cocoa powder mixture.
Add vegan mayo, aquafaba and vanilla to this mixture and stir until combined.
Add both sugars and combine. Add flour, baking soda and salt.
Add chopped chocolate or chocolate chips. Pour into baking pan. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean.
If you like, garnish with some vegan chocolate drops (I used Little Secrets dark chocolate).
Let cool at room temperature for two hours. Then slice and refrigerate for at least 12 hours before serving.
First, the recipe. A while ago I attempted to make vegan sushi with a friend, and it was a success!
For the tomato “tuna” we used this recipe except we soaked the “tuna” slices in a combination of flaxseed oil and kelp powder.
After following their steps for four medium sized tomatoes, add the tomato slices to a bowl and add 1 tsp kelp powder and a few tablespoons of flaxseed oil (use olive oil if you don’t have flax oil).
Stir until all the tomato slices are covered.
Let marinate in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.
Then spread on a baking sheet. Preheat oven at lowest setting (~80°C for my oven) and leave it in for one or two hours until the texture is more like raw fish and less juicy (I was impatient and only left it in for 30 minutes and it was fine, but longer would be better I think).
For the “California” roll, we used vegan seaweed “fish”, which I found at my local vegan grocery. We roasted it in the oven at 180°C for about 20 minutes from frozen, shredded it, and placed it in a bowl. If you cannot find vegan fish, use some sort of vegan “chicken” and shred it finely. Gardein chick’n strips would probably work just fine. Then add a bit of vegan mayo and stir together in a bowl.
Take your sushi rolling device and cut a piece of clingfilm to wrap around it.
Then place a nori sheet on the sushi rolling device, and press some prepared sushi rice on it. Make sure to cover the whole nori with rice, but don’t make it too thick! We tried to make the rice layer as thin as possible, but upon eating it, we decided that there was still probably a bit too much rice in it.
Then flip it over onto the clingfilm wrapped roller.
After flipping, make a layer of sliced avocado and some of the vegan fish mixture close to the side which you will roll from.
Then carefully and slowly turn the nori over the sushi filling until it is completely rolled.
Then place the pieces of the tomato tuna on top, and slice. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi.
Continue reading for Shortland Street….
As you may know, I am a huge fan of Shortland Street, so we will be discussing this on the blog heaps.
Shortland Street has been epic the past couple of months.
Zoe got a job as Chris Warner (the CEO of the hospital)’s PA and quickly decided that they were meant to be together. So, like any normal person, upon finding out that he had recently gone into remission after treatment for leukemia, she faked cancer.
Her sister, Kate, eventually found out about this and threatened to tell Chris. Of course, this scene happened right outside Chris’ office, so he heard them yelling.
A very dramatic cliffhanger ensued.
Kate finding out that Zoe lied about the cancer
She eventually did tell Chris. Of course, both he and Kate both forgave Zoe within a week. Mo (Kate’s boyfriend) was the only one who harboured resentment towards her. He’s the only one who’s been sensible about all this.
Mo’s reaction
Zoe then got pregnant by Chris. After this, Chris found out about another set of lies that she had told him (pretending that her ex-fiance was abusive, etc) and cut off their relationship.
Then more drama ensued.
Zoe and Chris found out that their baby had a high chance of having Down syndrome. Chris said all the wrong things to her afterwards, assuming that she would want an abortion – “There are other options if you don’t want to have this baby”.
As a result she found support from Finn, Chris’ son, and they grew close.
She became very concerned about the pregnancy after visiting Chris’ disabled sister Amanda. She later ran into the chief of the medical council that had suspended Finn after finding out about his drink driving (he ran over Nicole!).
Zoe conveniently recommended that the chief have dinner at the IV pub ‘across the road’, where Finn works. As a result, the chief would see him working as a waiter, and also see that he was humbled by his suspension.
Amazingly, this worked and the medical council immediately reinstated him and now he can go back to work as a surgeon.
Finn in glee after being reinstated
Of course, right after this, Finn and Zoe grew even closer and then kissed (ugh).
What followed were a series of awkward scenes – one in which Zoe was defending Finn but ended up saying “I just want to see those hands do more than pour drinks”.
Kate returned from her very long trip with Mo, and immediately guessed that there was someone else that Zoe was interested in.
Kate can’t believe how immature her sister is
She found out that her bed had been used, and accused Zoe of sleeping in it with someone.
In other news, Harper finally gave birth and she and Drew are loving their new roles as parents.
Harper and Drew with Billy
And there is a hot new doctor in town, Lincoln (Link!)
New ED registrar, Link
Within the course of one week, Jack (left, above) got together with a guy called Connor, found out that Link and Connor were a couple, and revealed that he was the “other man” that Connor had cheated on Link with.
Link blamed himself for Connor’s cheating, and then Connor broke up with him after Link decided that he couldn’t do the whole open relationship thing.
What followed was an odd scene in which Link said to Jack:
“On the bright side I get to keep you.”
“What?”
“In the breakup. He gets the good armchair and the nonstick frying pan, but I get Jack.”
Huh?
“I don’t know how to feel about that.”
Soon after, Nicole, Jack and Link go out clubbing. Link and Nicole bond over their recent breakups (Nicole’s marriage to Vinnie has recently dissolved).
In a shocking twist, Nicole and Link have sex, after shooting up MDMA or whatever one does with MDMA.
The really gross part is that they have sex in Mo and Kate’s bed after going home with Jack. And Jack walks in on them. Ugh.
Leanne (Nicole’s mum) catches Nicole sneaking home, and figures out that she’s been with someone.
“Where were you?”
“Um, at at the IV and club.”
“Oh, is that where you took your dress off?”
Needless to say, she’s not impressed. She demands to know who it was, under the pretext that she needs to know whether it was a man or a woman in case Nicole is on “that slippery slide back to lesbianism” because she claims it might be “confusing” to Nicole’s 3 year old son.
Nicole refuses to tell her, so she assumes it was a woman.
Leanne’s disapproval
Leanne’s been on a roll this week.
The next day, Leanne continues to prod her – “You’re only this secretive when there is a woman involved!”
Nicole later tells her that her one night stand was with a gay man.
It’s all very shocking. Then Leanne finds Nicole hugging Jack, and thinks that she was with him, even though Jack is only 19 years old! Or, as Leanne says, “he’s a baby, a gay baby”.
Being the busybody of the show, she prods Jack about it. “I saw you at the bar last night, and your body language was X rated.”
She tells Kate and Mo about this.
WTF?
Then they confront Jack about this. He insists it is false, but they don’t believe him, so he asks Nicole to confirm.
Nicole is horrified
She admits that it was her and “Dr Smartass” (Mo’s saying).
