Agave Nectar Corn Muffins
By jen | June 3, 2009
I’m very particular about my cornbread. I like it dense, moist, slightly sweet and with a crispy edge. I’ve tried a few different recipes but never been completely satisfied with the results. After some experimenting these past few days, I think I’ve found something I really like — for now. The crispy, crackly tops and subtle flavor and sweetness from the agave nectar are what make these corn muffins special. Blueberries or corn kernels would be a great addition to the mixture.
The following recipe makes 12 small muffins.
Ingredients
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plain soy yogurt (I recommend Whole Soy & Co brand)
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/8 cup canola oil
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a muffin pan or line with paper muffin liners.
In a medium sized bowl, mix the soy yogurt, agave nectar and canola until combined. In a separate bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently stir until thoroughly combined. The batter should be very thick — too thick to pour.
Spoon the batter into the muffin pan, filling each cup about 3/4 of the way. Use a small spoon to smooth out the tops of the muffins. Bake the muffins for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Topics: Baked Goods | 1 Comment »
Waffle Party!
By jen | May 23, 2009
Did you know today is an international waffle party day? Well, it is. Created by Dave and Jen of WaffleParty.com, I first heard about it through a random ad on Facebook. There it was, a photo of a waffle with something like “Vegan Waffle Parties” written underneath — who wouldn’t click on that!? After checking out the site, I decided to officially sign up as a party host. I hadn’t had a waffle since becoming vegan and this was a good excuse for me to finally get a Belgian waffle maker.
Jesse and I decided to keep it low key and have 10 people over for brunch. We served three kinds of waffles: wheat waffles made with yeast (from WaffleParty.com), chocolate chip brownie waffles (from Veganomicon) and banana walnut waffles (from Veganomican). We kept the toppings pretty simple, providing maple syrup and having people bring fresh fruit. For sides we served GimmeLean breakfast sausages and hashbrown patties. And it wouldn’t be a real brunch without mimosas, of course! (Thanks for bringing champagne, Jeannie!)
I can see myself developing an obsession with waffles. Who says you can only have a waffle party once per year? I’m thinking this should happen once a month, minimum. I’m already brainstorming ideas for new waffle recipes…
Topics: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
Hungry, anyone?
By jen | May 16, 2009
I’ve been on a baking frenzy, which means a fridge full of sweets and an ever-expanding waist line. This week’s menu included a lemon tart, pumpkin cheesecake, mushroom pasta, asparagus with sweet tomato dressing and strawberry shortcake.
I like my lemon tarts tart! I adapted the lemon bar recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking to make tart and served it with a sweet raspberry sauce on the side.
Pumpkin is normally a fall food, I know, but I just love this cheesecake from Fat Free Vegan (and cheesecake in general) so much! As you can see, I only thought about taking a photo after I already began cutting into it.
Jesse’s friends came over for dinner last night and I decided to try a couple recipes from one of the vegetarian cookbooks I recently received for my birthday. The mushroom pasta and asparagus dishes both come from The Vegetarian Bible: Fresh from the Garden. The recipes are quick and easy, and most all of them are vegan or easily veganized.
The asparagus and sweet tomato dressing recipe consisted of broiled asparagus topped with chopped tomato, balsamic vinegar, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese (which I omitted). Simple, but delicious!
The mushroom pasta with port recipe called for spaghetti, butter, shallots, white mushrooms, heavy cream, port, sun dried tomatoes, nutmeg and fresh parsley. I used whole wheat spaghetti and substituted the butter with Earth Balance, heavy cream with soy creamer and port with white wine. Again, this dish was surprisingly simple but tasty.
And last, but my favorite - dessert! I didn’t have a whole lot of time, so I opted for something I could make in less than 30 minutes. I adapted Alton Brown’s shortcake recipe, which turned out great. I used Soyatoo! soy whip instead of making my own whipped topping due to the time factors and because I’d been curious about it for a while. It tasted just like the the whipped cream from a can I’d eaten as a kid - light, airy and just slightly sweet.
The best and worst part about making all this food is that I have so many leftovers to eat. If I’m going to fit into the bridesmaid dress I’m supposed to wear next month, I think I’d better take it easy with the sweets these next couple weeks!
Topics: Baked Goods, Meals | No Comments »
Rugelach
By jen | May 8, 2009
Rugelach is a tasty Jewish pastry that consists of rolled up dough containing fillings such as raisins, chocolate, cinnamon, fruit preserves and ground nuts. My hairdresser and I often talk about my vegan baking and she mentioned her love of rugelach so I decided to make some for her. After researching numerous recipes online and in various cookbooks, I found that most recipes are essentially the same. With the exception of using currants instead of raisins, brushing the pastry with soy milk and sprinkling additional cinnamon and sugar on top, the recipe below is the same one found on allrecipes.com, chowhound.com and in The Joy of Vegan Baking. And let me tell you, this recipe did not dissapoint! Wow, are these good! The baked dough is so rich and flaky and complements the fruit preserves and currants very well. The recipe below makes between 32-64 cookies, depending on the size you want to make. If you can’t eat them all at once, the great thing is that you can freeze the dough to use later, prep the pastries and freeze them raw for baking later, or store them in the freezer after baking.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup vegan butter, cold
8 oz (1 package) vegan cream cheese
1/3 cup vegan sour cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely ground walnuts
1 cup apricot or raspberry preserves
1/2 cup raisins or currants
1/2 cup + 4 Tb granulated sugar
1 Tb + 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup of plain soy milk
Directions
Combine and mix the flour and salt in a medium-sized bowl or in a food processor. Add the sour cream to the flour. Cut the butter and cream cheese into small pieces and cut them into the flour using a pastry cutter or pulse with the food processor until crumbly. Press and shape the dough so all the pieces stick together. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Form each piece into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate the disks for 2 hours.
While the dough is chilling, you can prep the filling. Combine the 4 Tb of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and set aside for sprinkling on top later. Combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon with the walnuts and currants (or raisins) in a small bowl.
Once the dough is ready, preheat your oven to 350 degress and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper (to catch the oozing jam). Pull out the disks one at a time as you’re ready to roll it to keep the dough cold and easier to work with. The dough is a little sticky so be sure to lightly flour your work surface as well as your rolling pin. Roll each disk into a 9″ round. If you’re like me and have a hard time rolling things into a circle, simply use your hands to push edges of the the dough to form a round shape every few turns.
Just before going into the oven
Now the fun begins! Like you’re putting toppings on a pizza, spread a thin layer of the fruit preserves (about 1/4 cup) on each disk. Evenly divide and spread the nut/currant/sugar mixture on each of the four disks and gently press the mixture into the layer of preserves. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut each disk into even wedges: 8 for large, 12 for medium or 16 for small rugelach. Gently pull out individual wedges and roll the dough from the widest edge towards the pointy end so the pointy end is on the outside. Lightly brush each cookie with soy milk and sprinkle with the prepared cinnamon sugar.
Bake the rugelach for 22-23 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.
Topics: Baked Goods | No Comments »
“Be the change you wish to see in the world”
By jen | May 1, 2009
Not my favorite food.
I love this quote by Gandhi. It’s this very notion that we as individuals must be the driving force for change and progress that first inspired me to become vegan. I’ve been thinking lately though that there is a lot more work that I could and would like to do around vegan activism. I’ve sometimes felt at odds with the mainstream vegan movement, which, in my opinion, hasn’t been very culturally aware in its approach to education and outreach. As such, I’ve long struggled to find my place in it.
I remember the first time I became exposed to the concept of veganism and how the person was trying to sell me on the wonders of Boca Burgers. Even though I was a meat eater at the time, I wasn’t one of those burger-eating kinds, so the thought of fake meat burgers didn’t exactly excite me. What had escaped me at the time was that a vegan and plant-based diet has always been a big part of my diet. Growing up Buddhist and on Vietnamese food, eating lots of fruits, veggies, whole grains, tofu and seitan was not only normal, but a satisfying way to eat for me. When I realized all this, my main objection to veganism — not wanting to give up my home foods and connection to my culture — disappeared.
The idea that that culture and veganism need not be at odds with each other was reinforced for me when I had the opportunity to hear Bryant Terry, food activist and author of Vegan Soul Kitchen, speak couple days ago. He spoke not only about veganism from the standpoint of animal welfare, environmental issues and sustainability — which if you’ve been vegan for a while, you’ve heard before — but how healthy eating and sustainability are an important part of African-American heritage and the ways in which health issues and lack of accessibility to fresh produce affect communities of color. His talk got me thinking about the relationship between privilege and veganism and how I want to approach my activism.
I think I want to start by supporting food activists who do work concerning communities of color, like Vegans of Color, Mo Better Food, People’s Grocery and of course Bryant Terry. Any others? Please share!
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Surprise!
By jen | April 25, 2009
Jesse’s birthday passed while we were in Orlando and while we did celebrate, I wanted to get some of his good friends together for another celebration. I’m horrible with surprises so it’s incredible I was able to pull this off. I told him that we were going to dinner last night to celebrate my friend getting into grad school. The funny thing is that he was home with me while I was baking this cake — chocolate with chocolate buttercream — and remarked that he wished I was making this for him! I would have liked to have written “Happy Birthday” on the cake, but couldn’t for obvious reasons.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Gimme some sugar!
By jen | April 23, 2009
Growing up, my mom used to buy Entenmann’s brand baked goods all the time. Entenmann’s isn’t exactly high quality stuff, I know, but I remember loving the buttery flavor and the moist, dense texture of their pound cake. I’d been eyeing the vanilla pound cake recipe from Veganomicon for a while and finally made it last night. Instead of making one large loaf, I decided to make mini loaves so I could more easily share them with friends. While it doesn’t taste like regular pound cake (the texture is a bit spongier and lacks the buttery flavor since the recipe calls for canola oil instead of vegan butter), it’s pretty darn tasty! I only wish I had some kind of whipped topping and berries to eat with it.
Next, I baked some chocolate mocha cookies for my friend Jeannie’s vegan professor who has tried a number of my baked goods and wanted to buy a dozen of these. I consider myself an amateur baker, so I’m flattered that anyone would want to buy my baked goods. These babies are soooo good warm and with a glass of soy milk!
Topics: Baked Goods | 3 Comments »
Ethos Vegan Kitchen
By jen | April 14, 2009
I’m in Orlando, Florida with my partner, Jesse, who is here to attend a conference. I’ve only been here for a day but have started to hate this place because we’re cooped up at a frou frou, country club-esque hotel that’s far away from the rest of the city. While I’m thankful for the opportunity to experience such opulence on someone else’s dime, the culture here — golf courses, enforced dress code, “nonsurgical facelift” treatments at the spa – does not fit my style at all. I don’t think I was meant to be wealthy, or at least, live a wealthy lifestyle. I don’t want to be waited on hand and foot. And paying $15 for a veggie burger and $4 for water (the only vegan food in the whole place, unless you count an $11 iceburg lettuce salad) is plain absurd. Continue reading “Ethos Vegan Kitchen” »
Topics: Restaurants | No Comments »
Mushroom Asparagus Quiche
By jen | April 10, 2009
Yeah, that’s right, folks. Vegan quiche. People who assume being vegan means subsisting on iceberg lettuce simply lack imagination. Or maybe it’s lack of exposure to the the wonders of tofu. Unless you hate tofu (and/or foods made in tart pans), this quiche is guaranteed to please you with its deliciousness. Continue reading “Mushroom Asparagus Quiche” »
Topics: Meals | 2 Comments »
Oyster Mushroom Calamari
By jen | April 6, 2009
My partner got me The Artful Vegan cookbook from Millenium for Valentine’s Day and I absolutely love it. The recipes intimidate the hell out of me, but I like to flip through the pages over and over, fantasizing about the kinds of dinner parties I’ll throw one day. Since I got through the Cajun crispy tofu recipe without burning down the kitchen, I decided to attempt the sesame-crusted oyster mushroom calamari recipe for a housewarming party I was attending. Though mine didn’t turn out as tasty as what you’d get at the restaurant, I was fairly satisfied with the results and the omnivores at the party seemed to enjoy them, too.
Topics: Appetizers | No Comments »