Avocado-Zucchini Soup

So now that avocados and zucchini are both in season, I over-zealously bought a-lot. Well, at least a bag of 6 avocados cost me only 3euros, which I thought was a killer deal. Best of all, they were in varying degrees of ripeness, so I was able to use some and save some for a little later without worrying about wasting any. However, after a few busy nights of not cooking, I haven't been using them, and I started to think- hey, better use up those softies!

Did you know that avocados are full of good stuff, like oleic acid to help lower cholesterol, potassium to help regulate blood pressure, folate for your health, and vitamin E which is great for your skin? I bet you didn't also know, that botanically, zucchini is actually a fruit, not a vegetable. Cool huh?

So after a bit of recipe browsing, I adapted this soup::

2 ripe avocados
1 to 2 zucchinis, depending on the size, or whatever you have
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 green chili
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 cube of vegetable or chicken broth
3 cups of water
olive oil
thyme, salt, pepper, to taste
So basically I just chopped the zucchini, onion, garlic, chilli and softened them in the soup pot with a little olive  oil. Once soft and fragrant I poured in the water and the broth cube. After boiling a while, I cut the ripe avocados, threw them in, blended it together, spiced it to taste and...... YUM! I can feel my blood pressure lowering already.

Dahl Mahkani - Black Lentil Curry

This is one of A's specialties, and I don't know his secret recipe, so I'll have to be patient with him to be a guest blogger here, as he's busy now with his own blog, coming soon on Facebook. 

Warm Asparagus Salad

I bought asparagus the other day when it was on sale and for some reason I had no idea what to do with it. I would usually make some kind of risotto, but that's the oldest recipe in the book. So I referred back to my ever handy Homestyle Vegetarian and found just what I was looking for. 

Starting with 2 red bell peppers, heat the oven to 200C and while waiting for the oven to preheat, cut the peppers into flat long pieces, discarding the seeds and core. Lay the pepper skin facing up on a baking sheet and place the baking sheet in the oven on the highest rung. It should take anywhere between 10-15 minutes for the skin of the red peppers to bubble and blacken, depending on the heat distribution in your oven. At this, take the peppers out and allow them to cool under a damp, clean kitchen towel. 

While the peppers are baking, you can prepare the bunch of asparagus. First, cut of the stumpy ends. These are usually a bit white-ish in color and very tough to chew through, even when cooked. Usually this is about 1-2 inches off the bottom. You can either cut them in half, or boil them whole. I cut them in half and put the bottom halves of the asparagus in the boiling water a few minutes before the tops, so that both halves reach the same softness and the tops aren't soggy when the bottoms are finally ready. Drain the asparagus and rinse with cold water after about 7 minutes. 

Mix together in a bowl a few cloves of crushed garlic, 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, the juice of one squeezed lemon (or two tables spoons of white wine vinegar) and 2 tablespoons of prepared pesto. Salt and pepper to taste. Whisk together. By now, the peppers should be cool enough, and you can remove the skin and dice the peppers. If you have baked the peppers long enough, the skin should peel off without much fuss. 

Place the aparagus on a serving plate. Sprinkle the chopped pepper on top, add some kalamato or black olives, and pour about half of the dressing on top, more later if you like.  A said this was restaurant quality, so I'm adding it to my list of favorites, and I'll never wonder what to do with asparagus again :)

Meringues

About twice a month, I treat myself and my sweetie to Eggs Benedict for breakfast. The Hollandaise sauce leaves me with a lot of leftover eggwhites. Being that I won't waste anything perfectly usable, and that egg whites present the perfect excuse to experiment, I kept them in the freezer for a week before I figured it out. Meringues. Let me just forewarn now, that the recipe I followed will not be used again, but the tips I learned in the process for beating egg whites was invaluable. Something I have struggled with for the last several years, without a stand mixer, I have finally avowed my revenge by doing it right. The tips were partly gathered by the Baking911 website on beating egg whites. If you don't have the patience to read through these, I'll give you the few vital basics: when separating the egg whites, don't allow even the teeniest bit of yolk into the mixture. The fat from the yolk will contaminate and impede the fluffing. Further, the egg whites should be at room temperature when beating. And third, start slowly and work your way up in speed. You don't want your arm to fall off, but slowing down after reaching soft peaks may ruin the loft. Save your arm speed for the end and give it a good burst of energy.

Meringues are a tricky thing, and a common tried and true recipe is elusive. For whatever reason, no two recipes are alike. I made these by whisking 4 egg whites with half a cup of plain granulated sugar, a tablespoon of vanilla sugar, and a teaspoon of lemon juice, until stiff peaks were formed.

The trouble is, according the recipe I followed, baking at a low temperature for about an hour, the meringues come out with a grainy texture. Let's just say, that in my opinion, a higher temperature and less time in the oven would have been more desirable. Say, next time, I may try a similar recipe, but leave it in the oven at 180 for 45 minutes. I'll let you know how that works out.

Next time I might be bolder and try macaroons, baked alaska, or chocolate covered meringues. David Lebovitz even made an icecream volcano! 

If you want to prosper in 2011- Black Eyed Peas

Several New Years traditions began with Jewish New Years traditions around Rosh Hashana. The food traditions, with the Shepardi Jews, moved to Georgia in the 1700's and the traditions have been given a good dose of Southern flare and hotsauce.

Of those traditions, black eyed peas and greens symbolize prosperity and money. With that in mind, I decided to modify a recipe from Vegetarian Suppers and use some black eyed peas with spinach and onion.

I start with half a bag of black eyed peas, the day before, because they have to soak in cold water over night and simmer for over an hour before being ready to eat.


To a large non-stick pan I added olive oil and one whole yellow onion, chopped. After the onion has cooked a bit, I added a couple handfuls of fresh parsley leaves, garlic powder, paprika, and a tablespoon of tomato paste. I stirred that a bit until incorporated and fragrant then added the spinach. About a half kilo of fresh spinach should do it. Once that has wilted. I strain most of the liquid from the black eyed peas, and add them to the spinach mixture. Salt and pepper as desired and serve over brown rice or bulgar, as I have in the picture. I heaping dallop of plain rich yogurt really goes well with this, and I've used a thick Turkish yogurt, although sour cream would be a good substitute.

Homemade Crackers

Happy New Year-

Time for shopping the sales and making new resolutions. One of mine will be a new commitment to my blogging- as if anyone wants to follow a dusty blog? Time to freshen up. Time to make more trips to the gym, stop eating junk food (not that anyone here does that, do they?) 

So with a keen mind about avoiding the typical snack food, I've decided to make some home made crackers. And of course we needed something to dip in this fabulous horse- radish cream cheese. Of course other favorite snack foods are these wasabi coated peas and we've also been snacking on a 'party mix' of dried papaya, pineable, raisins, cashews, and chocolate coated raisins, which are not as healthy as one might think.

Warning: Both of these snacks are addictive.

So I decided to make some crackers, and before long I found a lot of great recipes to work with, the end result being something like my favorite Wheat Thins (although not as thin). 

The recipe is pretty simple and allows for a lot of personalization. 

1 1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup of ground flax seed

1 table spoon of vanilla sugar

1/2 teaspoon of paprika

1/2 teaspoon of salt

4 tablespoons of butter

1/4 cup water

additional toppings, e.g. oil, salt, poppy seeds, etc

Mix together the dry ingredients, plus any adds, such as sesame seeds, flax seed, grated parmesan cheese, and the like. Cut in the butter and mash until coarse and grainy. Knead in the water until all is incorporated. 

Roll out as thinly as possible on baking parchment. Cut with a knife or a pizza cutter into whatever shapes you like. Add toppings, put the paper on to a baking pan and bake at 230C for about 12 minutes or until they start to brown. 

Of course many modifications can be made. I'd have loved to use a pasta maker to thin these out. As it is, I don't even have a rolling pin and I used an empty wine bottle I had *burp* lying around. You could make them into strips or diamond shapes, or whatever. I used rosemary infused oil and coarse salt to top. These were perfect with A's excellent lentil spinach soup. I'll have to let him guest blog about this recipe. Yum. 

Vegan Cupcakes

There were more..... I think 128 in total...

Those on the left are really banana bread.... my personal favorite.

I've been excited about vegan baking lately. Especially since I've discovered a cheap trick to avoid buying expensive egg replacers. I borrowed this recipe idea from CHOW, who borrowed it from 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World' (Moskowitz and Romero)- What a fun title :P

I wanted to make something special to contribute to our friend T's 30th birthday surprise party, that his lovely wife G organized in a large warehouse, complete with DJs and almost 160 guests. Congrats G on an awesome party no one will ever forget, least of all T. 

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 175C. Line a cupcake tin, or I used these reusable, yet disposable individual tins.

2. Stir the vinegar into the soy milk and set aside for a few minutes. This causes the milk to curdle a bit, and is the magic to eggless baking (and a lot cheaper than buying egg replacer). 

3. Add the sugar and oil to the milk mixture. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. I never used to understand why this was an important separation, but cocoa powder is much finer than regular flour, and doesn't absorb so much liquid, so unless you mix dry together before wet, you're going to have a heck of a time de-clumping those little bits of cocoa powder that stick together.

4. Mix the wet and dry ingredients well.

5. Pour into the lined cupcake tins, half full (or half empty, your call)

6. Bake about 18 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean. (after my 6th batch I had it down to an exact with my stopwatch, but every oven is different.)

The icing or frosting (whatever you like to call it) can be made in a lot of different ways. Since I was making quite a lot, I made two crucial decisions.... Not to ice the cupcakes until they'd arrived at their final destination (unless you consider tummy.... toilet.... am I taking this too far?) The second was to spare myself the hassle of covering them completely. Most people I've met that are not ::ahem:: American, don't like sugar overload, so just a dallop will do ya....

Therefore, this is the rough version of what I did with the icing: 

3 dl vegan margerine, softened

about 3 cups of confectioners (powdered) sugar

a tsp (tlk in Finnish abbreviation) of soy milk (or vanilla soy milk)

You can of course play with this, add cocoa powder, coloring, or follow a vegan butter cream recipe like this one, from CHOW.

I also made some of the cupcakes without cocoa, for those weirdos that don't like chocolate, and even a few cupcakes that I made with a vegan banana bread recipe. (I'll post that recipe in just a bit and add the link). 

That's me and Seyhan, making sure the crowd gets their fill. 
(Picture by Kevin Pollard)

Thai 'Son-in-Law' Eggs

I have been oggling this recipe for a while in my 'Travels with Thai Food'. The boiled eggs are fried in vegetable oil, halved, and topped with a garlic-y tamarind sauce that contains minced mock chicken. Fish sauce brings the flavors together.

This dish takes the name 'son-in-law eggs' because it is considered one of the few things an unskilled cook or husband could make on the spot if the in-laws visited unexpectedly.

Sauce
2 tbs vegetable oil
1/4 cup minced chicken (mock chicken in my case)
1 tbs tamarind concentrate plus 3/4 cup water
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs fish sauce
1 small yellow onion
6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 small red chilli
1/2 tbs ground coriander

Eggs
8 hardboiled eggs
vegetable oil for frying

1. Sautee onion, garlic, chilli, and coriander on high heat until golden.
2. Add the sugar and tamarind and turn the heat down to medium low to lightly caramelize, approximately 3 minutes.
3. Add the water, fish sauce and chicken (mock chicken does not need to be pre cooked, real chicken does)
4. Heat vegetable oil in a deep wok or pan to high. Drop in the hard boiled, peeled eggs, careful not to splash the oil. Allow to fry until deep golden on the outside. Remove with a slotted spoon. Cool on a paper towel.
5. Cut hardboiled eggs in half, spoon heated sauce mixture over top. Garnish with extra diced chilli if desired.

Individual 'Chicken' Potpies

Not that I can't always MAKE time to cook, but sometimes it's nice to have a good meal in a short amount of time without a mess, so you can just relax and do other things besides cook. (Like...?) Chicken pot pie is comfort food to me because of the buttery crust and the memories of fall and family and all the goodness inside.

I used a soy product and chicken and mushroom stock for the filling, along with an assortment of vegetables, and butter in the crust, so this recipe is unfortunately not vegan. But this recipe is still easily vegan-ized by using vegan margerine and alternative spices so don't turn the channel yet...

Once I made a batch of about 8 of these in individual, reusable muffin tins, I ate it for dinner for a night or two and froze the rest for an occassion that I wanted a hot lunch but no mess, or if I wanted to just take a bath while these suckers were in the oven.

Zucchini Bread

Now that I've been making the transition into a vegan diet, baking is posing a new challenge. Most of my friends will attest to the fact that I do not back down from a challenge. Learn Finnish? Bring it on. Learn German in Finnish? Ok, then. Make an entire buffet spread for my moving out party that is vegan and everyone will love? Done and done.

The menu of this particular party included homemade pita chips, a lentil and carrot curry dip, this zucchini bread adapted from Hell Yeah It's Vegan (I used less sugar but more oil), peanut butter and cocoa squares (I would have taken a picture if these weren't eaten so fast!), amongst other basics (veggies and fruit, etc).

Most people did not realize there was zucchini in this bread. People knew they liked it and kept asking me what it was, but were shocked to hear that there were vegetables inside. Something good for you? Ok, there is a lot of sugar in this recipe, so I won't go calling it 'health food', but it's a nice treat this time of year. Doesn't come close to my mom's zucchini bread (she makes dozens of mini loaves to give away every year and everyone loves it), but at least this version is vegan!

I still had quite a bit leftover, however, and ate the rest for breakfast with a little plain soy yogurt and fruit. But afterwards I got lots of ideas how to reuse leftover zucchini bread.... toasted with agave syrup drizzled ontop....layered in a cake..... with raisins....