Rice Balls (v0.1)

Rice Balls

In my spare time, I have been re-watching the Rurouni Kenshin TV series, which is seriously endearing viewing if you're into Anime. A commonly eaten food in the series is the humble rice ball, which, for animated food looks really damn good. I thought I'd attempt to make some.

I must give my thanks to the 3 hungry tummies blog, for providing some insight into how to make them.

http://3hungrytummies.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/onigiri-japanese-rice-balls.html (warning: recipe is not vegan, mine is!)

Served here with spicy tofu and buckwheat.

Experimental, Japanese-inspired buckwheat and chilli tofu with riceballs. #vegan #goodluck

A photo posted by Vin G (@vinpous) on Jul 27, 2015 at 1:59am PDT

Ingredients (rice ball)

2 cups of whole grain basmati rice
~ 1.2 litres of boiling water
2 tbsp white miso paste
Nori

Ingredients (fillings)

(set 1)

7 mushrooms

2 long red chilli

1 cloves garlic

---

(set 2)

half avocado, cubed

Japanese pickled ginger

Japanese pickled daikon

Method

1. prepare filling set 1 by putting ingredients in a blender and blending to a course coleslaw texture. Place in dish for later

2. place filling set 2 in a separate dish for later

3. Combine until dissolved the miso paste and the water.

4. In a rice cooker or whatever, cook the basmati rice with 3:2 ratio miso water (6 cups of water to the  2 cups of rice). Keep warm.

5. Once cooked, lay the rice on a flat surface near the fillings, make a small bed of rice, add about 1-2tsp of filling (depending on the size of ball you want), cover with rice, then using your hands shape into a ball being sure to compact it as much as possible.

6. Repeat until you have all the balls you want

7. Cut nori into strips and place ball in it. You could make this like a sushi roll if you wanted.

Peanut butter v.0.1

I made some peanut butter. It's okay.

And an additional recipe to go along with the custard tart recipe.

Ingredients

Salted, roasted peanuts x whatever quantity.
~2-3 tbsp chia seed
Olive oil as necessary

Method

Blend ingredients until a paste is made, and assess the oily-ness, add more oil as you feel necessary.

Tasty.

Custard Tart v0.1

Hello,

Today I am in the process of making an experimental custard tart. Experimental because I have absolutely no idea if it will work, or how good it will be. Completely untested! The stakes? A dinner party!
Verdict: freaking delicious.

An experiment in #vegan custard tart making, to take to a dinner partay tonight. #custardtart

A photo posted by Vin G (@vinpous) on May 13, 2015 at 7:30pm PDT

Ingredients:

Base
1 packet of Arnotts "Nice" biscuits (they're vegan!)
~1/3 cup of raw cashews
~1/3 cup melted coconut oil
~2 tbsp homemade peanut butter (link to recipe)

Custard
2 cans of coconut milk
~3 tsp vanilla essence
~3/4 cup raw, dark brown sugar
~7 tbsp tapioca starch
~2 tsp nutmeg

Method:

Base
Blend all the ingredients other than the oil and peanut butter until powdery. Transfer to a mixing bowl, add oil and peanut butter and combine into a loose base. Transfer to an oiled pie dish, pack it firmly into the bottom and the edges, and bake at about 200C for about 15 minutes to make it nice and firm.

Custard
Put all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to large pot and cook on medium heat, stirring/whisking constantly, until custard-like consistency is reached. Transfer to pie dish, sprinkle some additional nutmeg or cinnamon on the top.

Allow entire tart to cool, then place in fridge until serving time.

Spelt Bread - Bread Machine (V. 0.9)

This is almost ready for version 1.0, but still could be better. Some minor variations of mine to this recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/perfect-bread-machine-spelt-bread-298300, so all credit to this for the base. I've never been able to get a fluffy loaf like they describe, but I'm working on improving it.

The first thing I noticed was all the talk about spelt flour having a different gluten structure to wheat, and so I thought that perhaps using a gluten substitute to help might work. It did. My next step was attempting to get a bit more moisture and a bit more lift out of the yeast. Definitely getting there.

Spelt Bread - Bread Machine (V0.9)

Ingredients

4 cups spelt flour (either wholemeal or white, organic or not. I've been using organic white)
1.5 cups of tepid water
3.5 tsp dried yeast
6 tsp of raw dark sugar
2 tsp of salt
3 tbsp olive oil
1.5 tsp xanthan gum

Method

Put water into bread machine, followed by sugar. Give it a stir to part-dissolve. Add yeast. Then leisurely add the remaining ingredients in no particular order.

Set bread machine to medium size, light crust, default (white bread) setting. Should be about 3h12-20 minutes.

Bonza.

Vindaloo Variations (V.0.1)

I went out for dinner last night with my partner and some old school friends (and SOs) to an Indian restaurant in Melbourne called Gaylords. It was exquisite, though I somehow ended up with an extra-hot vegetarian Vindaloo. It didn't list that it included paneer, which was annoying, but it did, so it was not vegan. But it was exquisite. It inspired me to make a vindaloo of my own. I've used other people's recipes, or book recipes, for years now, but I've not tackled a vegan vindaloo yet. To be fair, I'm not entirely convinced it should be called a vindaloo, though of course there is so much variety in these curries that it probably doesn't matter. Anyway… for the base of this recipe I used Madhur Jaffrey's Goan Pork Vindaloo recipe (from her Quick & Easy Indian Cooking, which is written for a pressure cooker, which I don't have!)

I've not tried the original recipe, but it served as a decent basis to build mine off. So I want to acknowledge that source material.

This recipe also differs from, as far as I can tell, a lot of Indian cooking because it is baked in a cast-iron pot (pot-roasted?) rather than cooked on a stove, or a pressure cooker. Also note that this is a recipe designed for bulk cooking so that my partner and I can take food to work with us over the coming days.

Variation on a Vindaloo (V. 0.1)

General ingredients:

1x large potato + 2x medium potatoes, loosely cubed in various sizes
550g firm tofu, cubed
~2-3 cups of (soaked/cooked) chickpeas. I used dried, which soaked for about 12 hours.
Couple of handfuls of green beans, with ends removed.
1 tin of whole tomatoes
1 tin of coconut milk
1-2 tbsp of coconut oil

Curry paste ingredients & method:

1.5 tbsp brown mustard seeds
1.5 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar + more as needed (I used white as I ran out of AC)

STEP ONE: Using a large mortar and pestle, grind the mustard seeds and vinegar into a paste that still has quite a bit of texture.

To this paste, add:

~12 large cloves of garlic
~1 medium red onions, loosely chopped
3 heaped tsp of ground turmeric
3 heaped tsp of ground coriander seed
3 heaped tsp of ground cumin seed
3 heaped tsp of cayenne pepper
3 dried kashmiri chilis
~1 tsp of asafoetida powder
2 level tsp of salt
~9-15 dried curry leaves
~3 tbsp of red wine vinegar

Pulverise until a chunky paste consistency is achieved.

Method:

Preheat oven to 160C (fan forced), with large cast-iron pot (with lid) inside
In a separate frying pan, heat on a hot heat the coconut oil.
Once hot, add about 1/3 of the curry paste and fry until fragrant
Add the cubed tofu and fry until it starts to absorb the colour of the paste

Remove hot pot from oven, transfer contents from frying pan to pot
Add the remaining paste and fresh ingredients
Add tomatoes including juice, then use scissors to chop them up
Add coconut milk and about 1/2 a tin of extra water

Put the lid on and put it in the oven for about an hour and a half, stirring every 30 or so minutes.

Once the hour and a half is up (or the potatoes/chickpeas are nearly cooked through), turn the oven up to 200C (fan-forced) and cook for a further 30-40 minutes until well-reduced and a thick, clinging gravy exists and the tomatoes have basically turned to liquid. Sauce should be a dark caramel colour by this stage.

Serve with basmati rice or whatever you want.

Not Very Experimental Vegan Anzac Biscuits (V.1.0)

This little recipe has been in development for a while now, and is also the first v.1.0 recipe I've posted.

I really need to emphasise that I have borrowed most of the recipe from VeganEasy.org, the recipe is by Jo. However, I have modified it to suit my own taste and cooking style, so I am including my version here. This version is much, much less sweet than the original, but likely more crumbly (which I like).

Not Very Experimental Vegan Anzac Biscuits (V.1.0)

Preheat oven to 180C (FF).

1 cup of oats
1 cup of self-raising flour, gluten free
1 cup of desiccated coconut (or shredded, but des. works better)
1/2 cup of soft brown sugar
2/3 cup of liquid coconut oil
1 tsp of warm/hot water

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and then form into biscuits (squish into walnut sized balls, then flatten slightly), place onto a baking-paper-lined-baking-tray, and bake at 180C for about 25 minutes or until you think they are suitably baked.

Enjoy.

Buckwheat Soba Noodle Salad (V.0.2)

Buckwheat Soba Noodle Salad (V.0.2)

This thing was inspired by the salad with the same title that Disco Beans in Preston (Melb, Vic) have on their menu at the moment. I am seriously considering doing their cooking class to learn how to make at least the dressing that comes with it. But I thought this would be a pretty tasty lunch on a fairly warm day.

My partner thinks it was too fatty tasting and too strong on the olive oil, but I disagree on both counts. However, if you decide to make it, keep that in mind. In future, I would add some seaweed and avocado, and possibly a sprinkling of crushed chilli on top.

Revision two modifies the dressing a little, and includes avocado and alternative leafy greens.

Salad Ingredients

You could use whatever you want, really. But I used:

5-10 cherry tomatoes, quartered.
The entirety of the inner heart of an iceberg lettuce, loosely chopped OR;
Two big handfuls of mixed greens, OR;
Two big handfuls of baby spinach
1/2 a lebanese cucumber, cut lengthways into small lengths.
1/2 a zucchini grated
1 bunch (about 8-9) spring onions, chopped
1 large avocado, cubed
1 tube of Chinese buckwheat soba noodles (dried, boiled for five minutes, strained, washed with cold water, and left to cool). These have wheat in them.

Dressing

~1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
~1 tbsp of sesame oil
~1 tbsp of black sesame seeds
~1/3 cup of soy sauce
~1 heaped tsp of white miso paste (optional)
~1 tsp of vegan "fish" sauce (made with pineapple juice)
~2 basically juiceless limes, but would use 1 juicy one.
~1 tbsp lemon juice
~1/3 cup of rice wine vinegar
~1 tbsp of tepid, brewed, black tea.

Whisk that all together, assemble salad and toss, pour on the dressing, toss again (I used hands!) and serve.

Needs revision, but it was really good.