Rootbeer Float Cupcakes!

You never know what you're going to find on the Internet.  The other day I wandered across the link for this and today while Hurricane Irene rages up the East Coast (just a little wind and rain where I am) I thought, why not try these.  The recipe originally comes from Bittersweet blog's cupcake recipe.  I have made some slight modifications to the recipe.

I'd suggest you visit that site, and then return.

When it suggests soymilk in the ganache, I used chocolate instead of just plain or vanilla and instead of maple syrup, I used agave nectar.  Be warned, the ganache recipe makes about 3 or 4 times the amount you need for the cupcakes, so plan on using/eating some extra ganache.

These are very tasty, though strong flavored.

Health update

I first went vegan for health reasons, after reading the Engine 2 Diet as a way to lower my cholesterol.  In the first three months I lost 35 pounds and my cholesterol dropped 64 points.  Well, now 2 1/2 years in I had another phyiscal and my cholesterol has dropped a total of 140 points!  Doc says I'm very healthy and things look great.

Lack of posts

To anyone reading, sorry for the lack of posts since mid-June.  It's been a very busy summer with lots going on.  I'm still vegan and still eating lots of yummy food, but mostly repeats of recipes already posted here.  I hope to post something soon.

Laotian Pun Tofu

Years ago I worked with a woman who was Laotian and the couple of times she and her husband had us over, she made this wonderful finger food, using lettuce as the food container.  So after a quick Google and then putting my own spin on it here it goes.

Ingredients:
1 large seedless cucumber peeled and finely diced
3 tomatoes finely diced
3 scallions cut into thin rings
lots of mint (I took the leaves off of 12 or so stalks in the garden).
2 packages of extra firm cubed tofu (you could buy it uncubed, this just saves time)
1 cup seasoned rice vinegar
Juice of two limes
1 cup Kikkoman Ponzu (essentially lime flavored soy sauce)
10 drops sesame oil
1/3 cup Tamari
1/4 cup sugar
4 Tbsp Hoison sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil

Optional: Alfalfa Sprouts

Remove the mint from the stalk, rinse the leaves, dry them and then slice them into fine shreds.

Toss the cucumber, tomatoes, scallions and mint together and let sit.

Put the tofu (drained) into a ziplock bag with 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup Ponzu, 2-3 drops of Sesame oil and 1 Tbsp Hoison and let marinate for a couple of hours

Meanwhile in a pot combine the juice of the limes, the rest of the vinegar, Ponzu, Tamari, 1/4 cup sugar and 3 Tbsp of Hoison.  Heat over medium heat until it starts to boil and reduce to a low simmer, reducing my 1/3.  Then remove from the heat and let cool.

Then once the tofu has marinated, in a large skillet heat the olive oil and about 7 drops of sesame oil.  Once hot, add the tofu and marinade, stirring often, until the marinade has cooked off and the tofu starts to brown.  Remove from heat and cool.

Once cool, stir into the vegetable mixture.

To serve: Take leaves of your favorite lettuce, tear a roughly palm sized piece.  Put a dollop of the mixture on the lettuce, drizzle with a little bit of the sauce, fold the lettuce over and enjoy.  For a little extra punch, add a pinch of Alfalfa Sprouts to your wrap.

Tamales redone

Sorry no picture on this one.  Almost two years ago I made portabella and black bean margarita tamales.  These were so much better.

Ingredients:
2 cups Masa flour
1/2 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin

Mix all of these ingredients together, this will create a nice dough, kind of like what you'd have for cookies.

The filling can be anything you'd like.  I made half of mine with taco seasoned TVP, black beans and mexican corn.  The other half I made with yellow and red peppers and onion that I cooked down in a pan with some cumin and finished with about 2 tbsp of lime juice and 1/2 tsp cumin.

Take a sheet of parchment paper about 9 inches from the roll and tear it off.  I then rolled thsi up and cut it into thirds.  Take each third and put a thin layer of dough on it from one edge to about 1" away from the other, leaving 3 inches or so at the other end. 

Put some filling on it, then tightly roll and fold the extra parchment paper up.  Then place into a pot (I took the top half of my pasta pot and had it on the side).  Once they are all rolled, put water in the bottom of the pot and bring to a boil and steam for 30 minutes.  Make sure the pot doesn't run dry.  I placed a pyrex measuring cup in steamer section to make up for the empty space.

Serve with some salsa and guacamole.

Empanada Hash

After last night's empanadas were made I had a healthy amount of filling left over.  I put it in a container and put it into the fridge.

This morning it was calling me... so with a light spray of cooking oil in the skillet over medium high heat I made myself some nice hash for breakfast.  Now ideally it would have had some potatoes in it, but I wasn't going to cook potatoes just for this and I didn't have any already made.  So the next time I make empanadas, I need to also cook up a couple of potatoes.

Cook on medium heat scraping the pan occasionally to get all the good crispy bits up off the bottom of the pan.

Dark Chocolate Truffles!

I was looking for some new recipes to try and I found myself at http://www.yummly.com/.  When I first entered the word vegan, one of the first recipes to come up was chocolate truffles.  With only four ingredients, this just seemed far too interesting to ignore. 

I'm already thinking of tinkering with this.. a different coating... adding mint extract to it or possibly even something more potent.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup raw cashews
3/4 cup cold water
1 lb semisweet chocolate
cocoa powder

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. 
While that is happening, place the cashews and water in a blender and blend on high for two minutes.  Stop the blender, scrape it down and then blend again for another minute.  This will result in a heavy cream like liquid.

Once the chocolate is melted, remove from heat and let it cool a bit.  While still stirrable, gently mix in the cashew cream.

Once it is all combined, chill for at least two hours.

Using a spoon, scoop out some of the chocolate mixture, roll into a ball and drop into a bowl with cocoa powder.  Roll around in the powder and then plate.  Keep chilled once made.

Decadent and yummy!

Refriend beans

No picture on this one (see the Empanada recipe). 

Ingredients:
1 yellow onion (diced)
1 29oz can Pinto beans (drained)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup or more of water

Heat olive oil over medium heat and cook onions until lighly golden.
Add the pintos and use a masher to mash them (I still had some chunks in mine).  Add the water and seasonings

Continue to cook over medium heat stirring.  I used my stainless pan which allows me to use the stainless spatula and scrape the pan.  If it starts to dry out, just add extra water. 

These were far superior to what you can find already made in a can.

Empanadas

I've been sleeping fitfully recently and so I was up quite early yesterday.  There was nothing on the television and I ended up on Planet Green watching an episode of Emeril Green.  What hooked me was that he was cooking vegetarian.  So I watched, took some notes and then veganized his recipe along with my own twist.  So I present to you, my take on Emeril's vegetarian empanadas.  I served this with garlic green beans and home made refried beans.  I'll post the refried beans on their own recipe.

The salsa:
1 mango peeled and diced
3/4 of a seedless cucumber, peeled and diced
1 red onion finely diced
juice of one lime
1/8 tsp Hawaiian red salt
Mix all of these in a bowl and place in the fridge and let chill for 24 hours.

The dough:
You're going to need two 8oz containers of vegan cream cheese, 12 tbsp of Earth Balance, 2 1/2 cups of flour and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Have the cream cheese and Earth Balance at room temperature and using the paddle blade of a stand mixer combine at medium high speed until well blended.  Then reduce to slow speed and slowly add the flour and salt.  Once the four ingredients are combined, divide in half and turn each half out onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead gently and then flatten each into a disc and wrap individually in plastic wrap.  Chill for at least 3 hours.

The filling:
1 pound of shitake mushrooms with the stems removed
1 vidalia onion sliced
1 serrano pepper, seeds removed
1/4 cup golden raisens
1/2 bottle of stuffed green olives
1 Tbsp drained capers
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
3 Tbsp orange juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Put all of these ingredients into a food processor and pulse until well minced.  This may take two or three batches.  While doing this, heat some olive oil in a large skillet.  Once heated, add all of the filling and cook for 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan.

Remove from heat and let cool.

Take the dough from the fridge after it has chilled 3+ hours, flour a surface and roll out to a 1/8" thickness.  Then cut circles from the dough (I used a margarita glass).  Place a spoonful of filling in the middle of each circle, use some olive oil to moisten half the circle and then fold in half, keeping the filling inside.  Press the edges together and then use a fork to press the edge together.  Transfer to a baking sheet and continue until all of the dough has been rolled out and filled.  (I ended up with a little extra filling).

Lightly brush each empanada with olive oil and bake at 450 for 15 minutes

Plate 2 or 3 at a time and place a dollop of salsa across them.

I ended up with about 35 empanadas and they were delicious!

Pad Kao Saparod - Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

This recipe originally came from Yummly.com via Facebook.  I took the recipe and modified it a bit.  No picture unfortunately as I had to rush to get it to the table.

4 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions chopped (small)
12 baby carrots cut into small rounds
1 block of firm tofu drained and cut into 1/2" cubes
1 cup frozen green beans cut into 3rds
1 can chunk pineapple drained
3-4 cups cooked rice
1 tsp salt
12 chives finely minced
soy sauce as needed

Heat the vegetable oil in a stainless steel skillet over high heat.  Add the onions and garlic and cook until golden brown.
Add the carrots and green beans, stirring often until cooked.
Add the tofu and cook another 7-8 minutes.
Add the pineapple, salt,  and rice, stirring often for 8-10 minutes
Add a splash or two of soy sauce and stir together before serving
Garnish each serving with a sprinkle of chives