Autism Awareness Day 1st & 2nd April 2011.

When katefromscratch threw open the gates to finding "Blue Food" to raise awareness for Autism on the 1st & 2nd of April, I hadn't dreamt it was so difficult to find/ cook/ turn food blue!! Literally since Sydney seems to have plunged headlong into Autumn so now, I have blue toes & a blue nose to match : )

The following is an excerpt from Kate's post - Autism awareness day is on Saturday, April 2.  “Light It Up Blue”  is a campaign designated to spreading Autism Awareness.  So many of us are touched by Autism is one way or another.  This is because currently 1 in 110 children has been diagnosed with autism (CDC).  1 in 70 boys is diagnosed with autism (CDC).

For more info go to http://www.lightitupblue.org/

Kate has the most inspiring blue recipes I have seen so, head over to  http://bit.ly/hNZQtM to check them out.

Now onto my experiments with blue food as a vegan, Blue cheese was a no - no.  Honestly except, Blueberries & blue colouring, I couldn't see too many options.

So here are my choices

1. Vegan Blueberry Pikelets with Strawberry Jam topped with the mock cream that was leftover from the red velvet cupcakes.

Blue, blue batter for the pikelets -

To make this we need,

1 cup Wholemeal Pastry Flour

1/2 cup of Non Dairy Milk + 1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar, left for atleast 5 minutes

2 Tablespoons Blueberry Syrup ( you could use fresh blueberries, lightly crushed too)

1 Tablespoon Raw Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Method

Toss all the dry ingredients together.

Add the curdled milk in gradually follwed by the blueberry syrup , gently whisking to mix completely.

Use a large tablespoon or a small scoop to pour little rounds onto a heated griddle.

Flip over as soon as the surface of the pikelets starts  to bubble, cook the other side till its a light golden.

These keep excellently on cooling and, are good to eat sasndwiched with jam for lunchboxes.

2. Vegan Blue Spaghetti Bolognaise, made with soy mince & lots of vegetables instead of meat.

Here's another picture of my blue spaghetti in all its glory - 

So folks, Light It Up Blue for Autism Awareness Day.

Vegan Szechuan Egg plant & Sticky Peanut Noodles

I love noodles, thick ones, thin ones, wheat ones, rice ones..... Especially the Hawker style ones but sadly very few are vegan as most sauces contain shrimp.

Both these recipes are adapted from numerous asian cook books.

For the Sticky Peanut Noodles, you will need

500 grams cooked thick hokkein noodles (not egg ones)

1/2 cup smooth Peanut butter (smooth or chunky, your preference)

4 garlic cloves finely minced

2 Tablespoons Soy sauce
1 inch piece of lemon grass stalk, crushed and finely chopped
1 Tablespoon Chilli sauce
2 Tablespoons peanut oil.

What we do,

Combine the Peanut butter, soy  sauce & chilli sauce.

Heat a thick bottomed wok with the oil & add the garlic and lemon grass. Roast till fragrant.

Now mix in the peanut butter mixture, and combine everything on a low heat. Don't let it boil.

Add the Hokkein noodles at this stage and  toss around to coat properly.

Serve warm.

The Szechuan Eggplant traditionally is made with meat, so I decided to leave the meat and put in everything else. I had a lovely flavoured gravy with chunky eggplant, which demands second helpings!

For the Vegan Szechuan Eggplant we need,

1 large Eggplant, cubed into 1 inch pieces

1 Tablespoon Ginger Garlic paste

1 teaspoon chilli paste or 3/4 teaspoon chilli flakes

5 Tablespoons vegetable oil, for frying the Eggplant

2 Tablesppons Soy sauce

2 Tablespoons Balsamic vinegar

3 teaspoons corn flour & 1/2 cup water to mix into

5 green Shallots, finely chopped

Salt to taste.

What to do next

Heat the wok with the oil in it and, add the eggplant pieces. Shallow fry till golden and remove the eggplant. Keep aside.

In the leftover oil, heat the ginger garlic paste. Add the chilli paste after the raw smell's gone.

Add the Soy sauce, Balsamic vinegar and salt and stir well.

Add the corn flour mixture in and combine well, as it starts to thicken add in the eggplant and coat well. Turn off the heat.

Garnish with the green shallots before serving.

So tell me dear reader, what is your favourite hawker fusion  food?

A Fund Raising Tea Party for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund

The Foodbuzz folks have hosted a Tea Party fundraising event for Ovarian Cancer Research, a cause which is very, very close to my heart after losing my mother to ovarian cancer 3 years ago. Head over to the http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/3434277-electrolux-and-kelly-ripa-confidential-tea-party-event to participate.

My Tea Party Menu consists of,

1. Tea, courtesy the lovely folks at Vibe Village supporting my Veganism, have sent me lots of Tetley Soy Tea bags to try out.

2. Vegan Shrewsbury Biscuits, recipe follows.


3. Vegan Flower Cookies, these are a tribute to my mum who used to painstakingly make them every time I asked for them.

4. Vegan Snow Bundt Cake with Strawberry glaze.

Vegan Shrewsbury Biscuits

This is an old recipe from a newspaper cutting which, my mother had collected and pasted into a book. I veganised it by dropping the eggs and butter.

We need,

1 cup Self raising Flour

3/4 cup Sugar (powdered)

1/2 cup Non dairy salt free spread  (I used Flora)

2 Tablespoons silken tofu ( a blended fine uniform paste)

1 Tablespoon lemon zest (grated finely)

Method

Cream the tofu and margarine till well mixed. Add the mashed  tofu and beat well.

Rub the flour into this mixture alongwith the Lemon zest.

Knead till you get a firm dough without cracks.

Preheat the oven on fan forced setting to 175 degrees C and cover a large cookie tray with grease proof paper.

Flour a flat surface and roll out the dough to 1/2 an inch thickness.

I used a 5 cm round cookie cutter to cut the biscuits out. Carefully, transfer it to the cookie sheet, leaving an inch space betweeen them.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, till golden brown.  Keep for 15 minutes after removing from the hot oven before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely

Cool for atleast half hour before storing in an air tight box.

Dal Bati

I was looking for a Dal - Bati, a mixed lentil curry (Dal) with tiny wholemeal stuffed dumplings (Bati).  Most recipes I had come across contained  deep fried batis and, they were deep fried in clarified butter. I finally found a lovely recipe that had baked batis and, I was in vegan fat free heaven.

It is lovely to find tried & tested recipes to simply follow and get, fabulous food at the end. The lovely lady who writes http://usmasala.blogspot.com/ is definitely one after my own heart. Vegetarian, in a foreign country and has picky children! Her recipes are simple, gorgeous & absolutely delicious.

The only changes I made to the recipe was not adding yogurt and, using baking soda in the batis instead. I was also out of any cilantro leaves so, no garnishing either.  Here is the recipe in all its glory http://usmasala.blogspot.com/2010/10/daal-baati.html

Isn't it lovely and, completely drool worthy?

So, what are your favourite recipes dear reader that absolutely beg to be tried out?

Vegan Red Velvet Cakes

I have always found the hype surrounding Red Velvet Cakes a little funny. I thought it might be something to do with being Australian. Now that, I have decided  to seriously blog about food, I found the March Monthly Mingle  (notice the alliteration, so poetic!) which is being hosted by Maison Cupcake at http://blog.maisoncupcake.com/

This being the brain child of Meeta’s from What’s for Lunch Honey, whom I have always immensely admired. Her savoury steamed chickpea flour cake (Dhokla) cooked in the Microwave is one of my absolute favourites.

My submission to this event are.... Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes. My main worry being that vegan cupcakes tend to dry out fairly fast, I used a home made strawberry jam glaze (still in the pink mode, see?)  to cover my cupcakes before slathering them with "Cream Cheese" frosting.

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart's cupcakes.

What we need

2 cups unbleached self raising flour
1 cup raw sugar
3 Tablespoons heaped unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5 cups of non Dairy Milk  + 2 teaspoons vinegar 

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/3 cup vegetable oil
150 ml luke warm water

4 Tablespoons red powder colour mixed into the luke warm water

Method

Heat the oven to 175 degrees C and line a muffin / cupcake pan with paper liners.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder together and mix in, the sugar.  Set aside.

Combine the curdled milk, vanilla bean paste, oil and red coloured water in a big bowl. Mix well.

Add the dry flour mixture to the liquid mixture and stir till smooth.

Measure out scoops of the batter into the prepared paper liners.

Bake at 175 degrees C for 18 - 20 minutes.

Brush with a glaze made up with equal parts of strawberry jam and water, while warm.

Cool completely before slathering on a Tofutti Cream Cheese Frosting.

I haven't added too much red colour. I have heard about some red velvet cake recipes that use beets for colour and moisture. So what do you think my dear readers?

Quick Eggless Dairy free Chocolate Cake

I do believe that cakes come with a mind and destiny of their own, especially birthday cakes! This cake was made for my younger child's first birthday after the "big celebration cake" flopped spectacularly!!

It is a very simple and quick cake needing,

1 cup self raising flour

4 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1 tin soy condensed milk

3/4 th cup hot water (may not need all of it)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 cup melted vegetable margarine

1 teaspoon chocolate essence

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

What to do

Preheat the oven on fan forced setting to 175 degrees C
Grease a 8 inch cake pan (I used a square one)

Sift the four, baking soda and cocoa powder together into a large mixing bowl.

Separately mix the condensed milk, hot water, margarine, vanilla bean paste and chocolate essence till  smooth.

Fold the flour and cocoa mixture in gently. Stir lightly to remove all the lumps from the batter.

Without any delay pour the batter into the greased pan and bake for 30 - 35 minutes Check the centre of the cake whether cooked before removing from oven.

Brush the top of the cake with a solution  made from equal parts of  jam and water as the cake cools to keep it moist. Wait till the cake cools completely before icing.

Eggless Blueberry Muffins.

As a rule, I dislike using egg replacers, preferring to use vinegar and baking soda instead. This recipe was taken from a friend who has her own layers. Now I wasn't terribly confident till I made these that, they would be worthwhile. They tasted amazing fresh from the oven and even the next day, so here it goes

We need

2 cups unbleached self raising flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 and 1/4th cups of raw sugar

1 cup rice/ oat/soy milk

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1  cup frozen/ fresh  blueberries  (if using frozen ones, thaw them out, so they are separate rather than clumped)

2 tablespoons salt free vegetable margarine (softened  in the microwave)  

What to do next

Combine the flour, baking powder and sugar  in a big bowl.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C and line the muffin tray with paper cups.

Mix the apple cider vinegar into the milk along with softened margarine.

Gently mix the flour in alongwith the blue berries. The important bit here is not to stir too vigorously. Gently does it.

Fill each paper cup liner to about 3/4ths and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

Cool or actually, eat warm!!

Microwaved eggless, dairyfree vanilla pudding

I found a set of beautiful oven / microwave safe ramekins which I hadn't used.  Love this sort of cleaning! Now I did not have the patience to bake conventionally so, I decided to test their proof of safety in the microwave. This is the recipe for an eggless, dairy free vanilla cake which I shall post later. The recipe was modified for the microwave to get soft cake-y puddings to eat with fig jam or stewed fruit.

We need

1 cup unbleached self raising flour

1/2 cup softened salt free vegetable margarine (I used Flora salt free)

3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup hot water

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

What to do next

Beat the margarine and vanilla bean paste till fluffy.

Mix the hot water, sugar  and apple cider vinegar together. Slowly add this to the margarine and vanilla bean paste. Mix well.

Carefully fold in the flour and mix rapidly.

The batter should be an easy to pour consistency.

Pour the batter into the ramekins and microwave on high for 3.5 to 4 minutes.

Remove the ramekins and cool slightly to set.

They are best eaten warm though with stewed fruit.

Vegan Nan Katai -Egg free, nut free, dairy free cookies

These are a staple at our home. So if you pop in for a quick cup of coffee, nine times out of ten these are bound to accompany it.

What we need

1 cup unbleached self raising flour

1/2 cup fine semolina

1/2 cup mung Dal flour

1 cup powdered raw sugar

2 pieces green Cardamom - coarsely powdered

1 cup canola spread/ I don't believe it's not butter spread

What to do with these

Mix well the sugar and salt free spread together.

Heat the oven to 175 degrees C and cover a large baking tray with grease proof paper.

Add the flour in slowly while mixing and kneading the dough.

Throw the powdered cardamom in last thing and knead till we have a soft, well mixed dough.

Shape into 1" round balls and place onto the baking sheet.

Bake at 175 degrees C for 15 minutes, till cracks appear on the top.

Cool and store in an airtight box.

Sesame fudge

Colder weather seems to automatically suggest more food to munch on, to me :)

I grew up eating homemade sesame fudge during the colder months. Sesame is a calcium & iron rich, high energy seed, excellent for those without nut allergies.

The following recipes makes a small amount as I did not want to waste too much sugar practising caramelisation.

We need

1 cup sesame seeds

2/3 rd cup raw sugar

1 teaspoon rose essence

1 tablespoon ricebran oil or salt free canola margarine.

To make

Roast the sesame seeds in a thick bottom pan until golden. Spread on a big flat plate to cool. Grease a thick, flat surface to pour the molten fudge onto and cut.

In the meantime melt the salt free margarine in the pan on the lowest heat possible. Slowly add the raw sugar.

Do not crank the heat up or, the sugar will burn.  Stir the sugar around till it slowly melts and starts to flow around.

Quickly add the sesame seeds and mix well. Turn the heat off as the mixture starts to ball up and, add the rose essence and mix well again.

Spread the sesame mixture on the greased, flat surface and gently cut into squares while warm. Once the mixture gets cool, it seems close to impossible to cut it up.

Now to eat this with some hot tea while looking at the rain.... Bliss!

Eggless Monkey Cookie

Rainy, wet,  weekends seem to suggest baking to me, and now to the rest of my family too.

We made eggless monkey cookies filling the house with a warm and sweet aroma.

We used

2 over ripe bananas - mashed well

1.5 cup unbleached self raising flour

1/2 cup fine semolina

1/2 cup unsalted vegetable margarine (I used Canola)

1 cup raw sugar

2 tablespoons peanuts, roughly powdered (optional)

1 teaspoon cinnamon, finely powdered

To make

Heat the oven to 175 degrees C and, cover a cookie sheet with greaseproof paper.

Mix the vegetable margarine and raw sugar till fluffy.

Add in the mashed bananas into this mix.

Toss the peanuts and Cinnamon powder in and mix well. Slowly fold in the flour and semolina, and stir with a wooden spoon till well mixed.

Drop 1 teaspoon of the mixture at regular intervals on the cookie sheet, leaving space to expand in - between.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, checking if they are cooked through. Cool.

Yummy...

Chickpea gravy

The most annoying (yes even I get annoyed!) thing as a vegan is that people presume I eat only meat substitutes & tofu for some reason. Given that Sydney is one of the hot spots for Farmers Markets full of organic and fresh produce, why wouldn't anybody want eat them up fresh?

Pulses, beans, lentils also form a large portion of our diet as a family with growing children. Chickpeas are a hot favourite, as a sweet filling or, in savory dishes. The following recipe for chickpea gravy is a hot favorite with plain rice pulao and, a lovely fresh red onion salad especially now that, autumn is setting in.

Collecting ingredients-

1 large cup soaked chickpeas,(I tend to soak fresh, organic raw chickpeas in warm water overnight rather than, use the canned ones.)

2 tomatoes, chopped roughly.

1 brown onion, chopped roughly

2 teaspoons Cumin powder

1 teaspoon Carom seeds

1/2 inch piece of Ginger, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, roughly flattened

1 teaspoon cayenne, or more to taste

Salt to taste

Fresh Coriander leaves to garnish with.

Method

I tend to use a pressure cooker to cook this up really quickly. However a deep thick bottomed pan or a, slow cooker function as well.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil, add the cumin seeds, carom seeds, Ginger, cayenne and garlic and lightly roast them till aromatic.

Add the brown onion and cook till transparent and put the tomatoes in.

Cook till the tomatoes lose their raw smell and add, the soaked chickpeas. Stir well.

Mix in the salt and cover with double the quantity of water. If using a pressure cooker, shut the lid and, steam for 10 minutes.

If using the slow cooker, set it on high for 3 hours and then lower it and cook for a further 4 hours.

In the open pot method, cover the deep, thick bottomed pan after adding water and, cook for approximately 45 minutes, giving it a light stir so nothing sticks to the bottom.

Check the chickpeas to make sure they are cooked completely and have a soft, buttery and melt-in-your-mouth feel before adding, roughly chopped coriander as garnish.

I tend to use the time in which the chickpeas are cooking to make up the rice pulao and red onion salad. The chickpea gravy also tastes yummy with hot griddle baked flat bread/ rotis or naan.

Rotis

Rotis are the ubiquitous wholemeal, griddle baked flat bread used for everything from dunking into gravies to using as wraps for lunch the next day or cut into quarters and brushed with garlic flavored oil to eat with dips.

They are simple to make, need no special equipment and, relatively easy once you get the hang of it.

We need

2 cups of wholemeal wheat flour + extra for dusting
1/2 to 2/3 rd cup of warm water
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon canola or olive oil

What to do with it

Add the warm water, salt and olive oil into a large mixing bowl.

Slowly add the dry flour in and mix well with a spoon or your fingers. Once it starts to come together knead the dough till it looks silky smooth. Or do it the easier way, use a food processor with a dough hook ;)

Let the dough rest covered for 1/2 hour and then break of 1 inch pieces of dough and shape into little discs.

Pre heat a flat frying pan or a griddle on a slow heat to get it ready for the rotis.

Dust the rolling pin (or use a wine bottle instead) and a flat surface with dry flour and careful roll out the disc into a circle.

Slide the rolled dough carefully onto a heated griddle and cook on each side on low heat till small bubbles appear. Flip it over and increase the heat to get a beautiful puffy bread.

Brush with plain or flavoured oil and keep wrapped inside a clean kitchen towel in a container with a lid, ready to eat with your favorite dip or curry.

Chocolate chompkins!

These delicious little eggless, dairyfree morsels were made with an attempt to gain more control over portion size (if you can stop at one... chomp...chomp.. num.. num..)

Stuff from the pantry

2 cups raw sugar, finely powdered.

3/4 cup baking cocoa

3 cups self raising pastry flour

1/2 cup ricebran oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

To make

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together.

2. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C and either, grease 3 mini cupcake trays or lay out cupcake wrappers in each.

3. Mix the hot water, apple cider vinegar, vanilla bean paste and oil in a big mixing bowl and slowly, fold in the dry mixture.

4. Stir until smooth and no lumps are visible.

5. Use an ice cream scoop to drop measured amounts of batter in each of the cupcake cases.

6. Bake for 14 - 16 minutes or, till cooked through.

Cool completely on the wire rack before icing.

For the icing mix equal parts of  Tofutti cream cheese & Dairy free dark chocolate. Add icing sugar if the mix seems runny and difficult to pipe.

Ahhh... Nirvana!