L'Opera

And now for the May Daring Bakers Challenge, Opera Cake!


At first look. I thought this was going to take a few (or more) tries to veganize this little bugger. The recipe contained about a dozen eggs, some cream, some butter. What's a girl to do? Tackle the little egg laden booger one bit at a time.

The first bit is the cake layer, the joconde. This is traditionally a thin spongecake like layer. This is where most of the eggs came in so this was going to be the biggest challenge. I needed to find a suitable replacement for 6 lg eggs and 6 egg whites. I decided the best way to go about it would be to make up my own recipe while staying in the spirit of the original. Almond focus, light, airy. This is what I came up with.

Almond Cake

1 cup almond meal (you can make your own with a blender or food processor)
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil (a nut oil will taste nice here but any would work)
2 cup almond milk (or your favorite milk alternative)
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Oil three 8" spring form pans or line cupcake tins (12-15)
Combine almond meal, flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In a large bowl combine remaining ingredients using a hand mixer or whisk to fully mix. Add in dry ingredients mixing until fully incorporated.
Pour into prepared pans and bake 30 mins, until inserted toothpick comes out clean.


Next the syrup, this was easy. The recipe was already vegan and simple. Use this to drizzle into the cake.

Syrup

1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp-1 Tb flavoring of choice (I went with vanilla)

Stir all ingredients into small saucepan. Bring to boil. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Buttercream, this also had some eggs in originally but I just leaned more towards a light fluffy frosting cream.

Buttercream

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup vegan margarine (such as Earth Balance)
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 Tb vanilla
2 Tb melted vegan white chocolate

Beat together shortening and margarine in a large bowl until combined and fluffy. Sift in powdered sugar and beat again to incorporate. Finally add vanilla and white chocolate. Beat until fluffy smooth.

The mousse aspect was optional but who can forget the mousse. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Mousse

1/2 cup jam (I used half berry and half apricot)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp agar powder
1/2 pkg (6oz) silken extra-firm tofu
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tb powdered sugar

In a small pot on medium-low heat, whisk together jam, lemon juice, and agar and bring to a slow boil. Cook for 3 minutes reducing heat to maintain slow boil to dissolve agar.
Meanwhile in food processor combine tofu, vanilla and powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
Add jam mixture and puree again. Refrigerate until completely cooled. Puree again when ready to use to make spreadable.

Then there's the glaze. This took a little work. I wanted a white chocolate glaze like the recipe called for but I had to order dairy free white chocolate. I went with a source I hadn't tried before, Chocolate Emporium. They don't contain any partial hydro nastiness (unless the label is wrong) so I'm pretty happy with them.

Glaze

3-4oz vegan white chocolate
3 Tb vegan creamer (soy creamer, mimiccream)

In a double boiler melt white chocolate with creamer. Stir until smooth. Add more creamer to reach pour-able consistancy.

Assembly should go something like this.
If you have springform layers.
Layer: cake-syrup-buttercream-cake-syrup-buttercream-cake-syrup-mousse-glaze.
If you have cupcakes.
Cut each cupcake into three layers (see photo for example) and layer each item as listed above. I chose to add the glaze under the mousse.

Couscous Cake?

Looking though some food porn on the ppk I came across a thread featuring couscous cake. I was intrigued. What is this couscous cake you speak of? What a strange idea. After looking at the photo and reading the post I realize that I have a recipe for a couscous cake in a cookbook that I have recently purchased, Vegan Planet. Now this is not a small book so I wasn't surprised in the least that I missed this particular recipe. Also in general I am not a Pumpkin fan. Well it's alright but I have never liked pumpkin pie. How un-American of me, I know. Anyway, also included in this post is a reference to a contest hosted by Robin Robertson on her Vegan Planet blog. "Alright I'm in!" I think. I'm such a sucker. A contest is as good an excuse as any to try out a new and, to me, unusual concept in cooking.

As it turns out couscous cake is a super easy thing to make. Also super quick and super versatile. As this was the first trial of said cake I wanted to keep things simple. I decided to go with the smooth delicate flavor of coconut as it would pair nicely with the fresh fruit I had on hand already. So without further adieu. My couscous cake recipe.

Coconut Vanilla Bean Couscous Cake

1 15oz can coconut milk
1/2 cup water
1/4-1/3 cup sugar
1 Tb arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
1 vanilla bean
2 cups whole wheat couscous

In a medium saucepan heat coconut milk, water, sugar and arrowroot over medium high heat, whisking to fully mix in the arrowroot. Meanwhile scrape out vanilla bean seeds and add to pot. Whisk to incorporate seeds. Toss in the vanilla bean pod as well, this will also add to the vanilla flavor. Once the mixture comes to a boil stir in couscous, cover and simmer for about 1-2 minutes then remove from heat and set aside for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile lightly oil a 8" spring form pan, this is to mold the couscous into cake form. You may try something else if you'd like, this cake comes out fairly firm and cohesive.

After 10 minutes, remove the lid to your pot. Your couscous should have absorbed the liquid. Gently stir the couscous to locate the vanilla beans and pull those out. Now dump the mixture into your prepared spring form pan. Press and smooth down the mixture. Cover and chill until fully cooled through, at least 1-2 hrs.

Remove from refrigerator and you can now remove the spring form pan. Slice and serve like a regular cake garnishing with sauce and/or fruit of your choosing. This cake comes out light with a smooth vanilla coconut flavor that will compliment just about anything you dream up. I paired mine with strawberries and kiwi.

Cheesecake Pops are evil!

Better slightly late than never. The April Challenge, my first. And challenge it was. I'm a little late posting so let's get on with it. This month's challenge was a recipe from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O'Connor.
I wanted to stay as true to the original recipe as possible. So a basic veganization. My altered recipe follows.

Cheesecake Pops

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages tofutti cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 pkg extra firm silken tofu
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, flour, and salt until smooth.
Using a mixer, mix on low speed in another bowl the tofu, sugar & vanilla.
Beat the two together.
Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.
Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight. You may need to lightly freeze to firm the cake up enough to scoop.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.
They aren't all that pretty. I didn't really get the chance to decorate these. They were too delicious and didn't last long at all. The recipe could use a little tweaking. I may revisit this again to perfect it as they would be a great treat to share. Mega yum!

Rose Parade

As a member of the Post Punk Kitchen forums, I hear about all the great new vegan cookbooks as they come out. Someone is always rushing out to pick up a copy and make something from it. Many members are cookbook and cookzine authors themselves which gives you an even greater resource as you can ask the author your questions or comment directly. The book of my obsession over the last week is one of those very books.

Yellow Rose Recipes by Joanna Vaught is a great book for people who love good food and don't want to take all day making it. This book came about through her blog of the same name, definitely check it out for updates on her next delicious cookbook and additional recipes. I have not made all the recipes, yet. Have a look at some of the tasties I have made.
Chana Masala with Lemon Rice. I added spinach to this because I felt in need of some green. It was far too delicious (even though I shook my hand a little too hard when I was adding the spice and dumped a bit too much in). Chickpeas are good for everything, they just are. And this rice, what can I say, it was bright with scents and flavors of lemon but also smooth and almost a touch of creaminess to it.
The base of this plate o'deliciousness is Penne Alfredo. Encircling are Cajun Spiced Tofu fingers. I could have eaten the penne on it's own for a couple meals easily but sometimes the husband needs a bit more. This is where the spiced tofu came in. These two were a match made in heaven and the leftovers were a welcome lunch treat the next day.

Most days I am getting home from work at the time I'd like to be eating dinner. Although living out of a crockpot is a possibility I am not talented enough with it to keep it interesting at the moment. This pot of Pasta E Fagioli was just the ticket. It came together quite quickly and didn't take every last bit of my waning energy to prepare. Far from it really. On top you'll notice was looks like a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. "What the heck?" you say "Isn't she vegan?" Yes, yes I am. That's not parm. Joanna was kind enough to include an excellent recipe for a Vegan Parmesan that is quite enjoyable and really completes this dish.
Now I'm new to these crazy southern traditions like "mess o'greens" and "texas caviar" but I'm adventurous enough to give them a whirl. Enter Lemon Pepper Chard and Texas Caviar. I see these as wonderful barbecue accompaniments. They just taste like summer, bright, a bit tart, cool. These will be back when we start firing up the grill in a month or so.
In the book, Joanna mentions making these Sesame Green Beans for her boyfriends family the first time she met them. They loved them and pestered her for the recipe. Often reading accounts like this we super impose our own little, "yeah sure they did" thoughts. I now know I would have been in that badgering group of recipe beggars. These beans drove me to pick up more green bean seeds to grow, I need more beans!
This plate holds five separate recipes which testifies to the modularity of these dishes. In the foreground you see Braised Cauliflower. I know there are a lot of haters out there but I beg of you to give it just one more try. This cauliflower came out great on it's own but I took the suggestion in the book notes to try it with Lemon Tahini Dressing. The dressing is great, I've been pouring it here and there on food ever since. Next to that is a Mustard Crusted Seitan cutlet, I used Joanna's Simple Chicken Style Seitan to make the cutlets but you could buy some seitan if you'd rather not make it yourself. This is the second time I've made this seitan. It will not be the last. Finally in the background you can barely see the Stuffed Twice Baked Potato. This can be a meal in itself but true to my style I like to make a lot of food when I can (it keeps the frige full of leftovers and the hubby happy).

Now onto sweet things. First make Oatmeal Cookies, toss in some raisins or chocolate chips if you like but they are by no means necessary.
Then continue on with the recipe making the cream filling for Oatmeal Cream Pies. Now I am a devout chocolate lover but these cookies, pies, sammies, whatever they are, are amazing little cakes of joy.
Oh and if you want to continue your Yellow Rose Recipes fun into the morning hours there recipes for that too. Here I made the Cherry Almond Granola. I have never made granola before but I surely will make it much more often now.
That's enough Yellow Rose fun for now. I'll be making more, you can be sure of that.

Tonight's dinner was crazy good, dispite it's weirdness in places. Scalloped potatoes, beet salad which will hence forth be called weird beets, and crusted tofu with horseradish mustard sauce. The scalloped potatoes relied on tahini for it's creaminess, yummy taters. The beets, are they vegetables or fruit? You really wonder after eating these. The combination of beets, pineapple, walnuts and a little garlic for fun is actually really tasty. Now the tofu, crazy good.

Herb Crusted Tofu with Horseradish Mustard Sauce

16oz extra firm tofu, pressed and cut into 4 1/2" "steaks"
2 Tb corn starch & 4 Tb water
1-2 Tb vegetable oil, for frying
Sauce
1 8oz container plain soy yogurt
2 Tb Coarse Ground Mustard
1 tsp agave (or sweetener of your choice)
2 tsp prepared horseradish
1/2 tsp dried dill
Crust Coating
1/3 c matzoh meal (or fine bread crumbs)
1/2 tsp dried dill
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Salt & Pepper, to taste

In a small bowl, whisk together sauce ingredients and set aside. In another small bowl combine crust ingredients. Spread evenly on a plate and set aside. Combine water and cornstarch in wide shallow dish. Set up your dishes next to the stove, cornstarch, crust, pan. Heatoil in a large skillet over medium heat. Coat each slice of tofu with cornstarch mixture, crust coating and place in the skillet. Cook until crispy, about 3-4 minutes, flip to cook other side. Transfer slices to plates and drizzle with sauce. Or just scoop on that sauce, yeah it's that good.

Dinner tonight was brought to you by:

Rabbi's Roots Horseradish

This is the first time I've used this in a recipe other than a bloody mary. It's great stuff. In the recipe the heat of the horseradish blended really well with the rest of the ingredients, not providing too much heat, just that little something.

Burgers & Bundts

It was a Veganomicon kind of night tonight. I wanted something quick. I used up all my creative and happy energies at work. I needed simple and tasty. I settled on Vcon's Black Bean Burgers with lettuce, tomato, red pepper, and peanut sauce.
As we can see, Lex needed two.
These were great. As anyone who has made a veggie burger from scratch knows getting them to hold together is the biggest challenge. These are the most stable burgers I have ever made and so easy! They are the perfect basic burger as they are, able to take on any sauce, any spice. I will indeed be making these again.

And for dessert. Oh yes dessert. I can't behave for more than a day at a time. Vcon's Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake. I used my mini bundt pan because it is oh so cute and because I don't have a regular sized bundt.
This was delicious! So moist and cakey. I would have been safe from eating this little bute if Lex hadn't received a new bike part to fit on his motorcycle so he was at the shop and I was left to my own devices in the kitchen.

Tropical Tempeh

Tempeh is a delicious thing, even more so when you can buy local. Exhibit A:
Rhapsody Tempeh is from Montpelier, VT and is available in 8oz and 3lb packages. The best thing about this delicious package is, not only are you buying a local organic product but it costs exactly the same as the Lightlife tempeh. I have never visited their cafe (in fact I didn't know they had one until I searched for their website) but I will next time we can't think of anything to do on a day off. But really, when you think of Vermont, you don't think tempeh. It's pretty great.

If you're new to tempeh or maybe never had it before this is a good first recipe. The coconut makes it creamy while the lime gives is a bright summery flavor. The sauce for this dish will transport you to a tropical island. Perfect for this time of year when we have had enough of winter but winter isn't ready to release it's grip just yet. Serve this over rice.

Coconut Lime Tempeh with Green Beans & Macadamias
Sauce
1 cup coconut milk
Zest and juice of 2 limes
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
3 Tb brown sugar
1 Tb minced fresh ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne

The rest
8oz tempeh, cut into 1/4" slices then 3/4" pieces
8oz green beans, ends trimmed then cut in half
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Tb soy sauce
2 Tb chopped macadamia nuts

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Stir together sauce ingredients in a large bowl. Place tempeh in bowl and gently stir to cover all pieces. Use a 9x13" pan (glass recommended) to spread out tempeh and shallot pieces. Reserve leftover sauce, set aside. Bake tempeh 20 minutes, until tempeh starts to brown and sauce in the pan is bubbling. Remove from oven and keep warm until needed.
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat oil and saute beans about 7 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook 3 more minutes. Stir in garlic and heat for another 1 minute. Stir soy sauce into reserved sauce mixture and add to pan, heat through. Add in baked tempeh and gently toss to mix and heat through. Serve over rice.

Pizza anyone?

Tonight I decided on pizza. So simple yet so satisfying. I had yet to try the pizza recipe in Dreena Burton's Eat Drink Be Vegan so the final answer was easy. Making pizza from scratch can be time consuming, Dreena calls for a pre-made pizza crust for her pizza focusing more on the topping & sauce.

I wanted to make it entirely from scratch so first order of business, get that pizza dough going. If you do not have a bread machine, I very highly recommend one. Making dough by hand is a great skill to have but a bread machine helps when time is tight but you don't want to compromise with someone/something else's bread. Lex picked one up for me from a resale/reuse place in town called Recycle North for $10. It's in perfect condition and makes perfect bread every time. This little baby is actually rather large as it will hold up to a 2lb loaf but they do come in smaller sizes. For things like dinner rolls and tonight's pizza dough there is a dough setting which will mix, knead, & rise your dough so you'll just need to take the dough and form it to your needs. So I popped my pizza dough ingredients into the pan of the machine (I used the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance) and 1.5 hrs later the dough was ready. While the machine did it's magic I could prep the sauce and other toppings and run through a few dishes.

The sauce for this pizza is super yum. A slightly spicy peanut sauce, very simple to throw together. Spread your dough on the pan, top, place in preheated oven and we get:

Magnolia Bistro

We of the How to Feed a Vegan household no longer endorse this eatery. Please reference this post for details of our latest experiences which have caused us to never go here again and advise the same to anyone who truly cares what they are eating. I can't bring myself to delete the post. Think of it as a homage to what could have been. I was so happy for this place when I wrote this. That makes it all the more sad I suppose.

Our new favorite breakfast place, Magnolia Bistro, located at 1 Lawson Lane in Burlington. Now anyone vaguely familiar with Burlington is asking, "Where is Lawson Lane?" It's more of an alley really, between American Flatbread and Pacific Rim on St Paul St downtown. American Flatbread is delish as well but that we shall save for another day.

Magnolia Bistro is the second openly vegan friendly cafe to open in Burlington. Items on the menu that are already vegan are labeled as such but many items can easily be modified to vegandom. Observe:

California Omelet with the eggs subbed out for tofu. Vegan sausage, avocado, tomatoes, yum!



A custom scramble with black beans & toms.
See those beautiful home fries? yeah, vegan.
That wheat toast? yup, they have Earth Balance.

Sesame Tofu Scram, for the love of garlic! Sesame oil and seeds add to the yumminess. This one is a little light on the seeds, it's always a little different every time but always good.

Huevos con Diablo, sans the huevos add tofu. This is a great comfort food breakfast. Polenta topped with scrambled tofu then layer on black beans and salsa. Be sure to ask for it vegan to keep the sour cream at bay, they are great about this.

Most items are veganizable and they understand the word "vegan" in the kitchen. It's pretty great really, especially in a town where there has yet to materialize a completely vegetarian restaurant.

They serve breakfast and lunch and have free wi-fi should you need to do a little browsing. The atmosphere lends itself to hanging out and relaxing with various featured artists hanging on the brick walls. Sunday can be a little crazy but just drag yourself out of bed before everyone who drank too much the night before and you should get a plate of delicious food in good time.

Oh and did I mention they serve a good strong cup of organic fair trade Mexican coffee?

So I've been cooking up a storm, trying new local products and collecting photos. Let's get started with my brunch today on this lovely overcast Vermont afternoon.


Banana Buckwheat Pancakes (soy free)
These pancakes are very flour and milk versatile. You can use all purpose flour, whole wheat, buckwheat, spelt or a mixture as I have done below. Also feel free to use your favorite milk, this will work fine with rice, soy, hemp, almond, oat, the possibilities are endless.

1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups plain rice milk
2 tsp lemon juice
2 Tb flax meal (or 2 tsp egg replacer, or just mash up 1/2 banana)
2 Tb walnut oil
1 Tb maple syrup
2 bananas, sliced

Combine flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder in small bowl, set aside.
Whisk flax meal (or egg replacer) with 1/4 c rice milk until well combined. Add remaining rice milk, lemon juice, oil, maple syrup and mix to combine. Add dry ingredients to the wet and mix well. Fold in the bananas.
Lightly oil and heat griddle or skillet over medium heat. Use an ice cream scoop or 1/4 measure cup to measure out batter for even cakes. Once griddle is hot add 1 scoop batter and cook 2-3 minutes until edges firm up and bubbles appear on the top. Flip and cook 1 minute more.
Serve your favorite pancake way: maple syrup, nuts, more fruits, earth balance.