Delicious Peanut butter Fudge

Peanut butter Fudge

So, back when I was in secondary school (pre-vegan times) our Latin class used to have a “competition” to see who could make the nicest fudge throughout the year…..

Well It was moreso just an excuse to eat lots of fudge, but it was great fun!

(personal favourite fudge was the white-chocolate and milk chocolate digestive fudge..)

Over several years of this I fancied myself a commissure of fudge-making, so thought to try making some fudge again..

This fudgey-method is a little tricky, and requires a close eye and good timing, but it’s Totally worth it! (Have a look at this link too, as it helped us lots: Butterless Butter Fudge)

You’ll need:

- 2 cups of powdered sugar                         - 1/2 cup of vegan butter (we used the ‘Pure’ soya brand)

- 2/3 cup of peanut butter                           - 1/2 cup of soy milk

- a teaspoon of vanilla essence

(you can use whatever flavouring parts you want, try out some different flavours & let us know! )

Try follow the method as close as you can, at it can be tricky to get just right

1.       Firstly melt the butter and peanut butter in a saucepan under a middle-ey heat

2.       Add in the soy milk, then powder in the sugar SLOWLY, like, really SLOWLY…. (~7mins)

3.       Mix ‘em all up, add the vanilla essence and continue to heat up. Stir continuously

4.       This stage takes a while, you just have to stir it, and wait for it to heat up

      5.       After a while the ingredients will start to foam, bubble and rise.. Don’t worry, this is what’s supposed to happen. What’s happening here is that you’re attempting the melt the sugar so that it will bind with the other ingredients. Thus  the overall melting point of the mixture will be rising.. (this stage will be 90˚C~100˚C)

      6.       The mixture will rise in heat till about 115˚C, and enter a kind of ‘soft ball’ stage. Now the sugar is melting and binding with the rest of the ingredients. The test for this stage is if you get a spoon of the fudge mixture and dip it in cold water then it should form a soft ball, but if the water goes cloudy, it means it’s not done yet.

      7.       Once it has done this, take it off the stove and LEAVE IT ALONE, don’t touch it or move it or mix it. The fudge is forming.

      8.       Wait until it cools down until it’s as hot as a potato you can’t hold.. (could take 10mins-30mins) then mix it about and put it into a tray with grease-proof paper

      9.       Slice it up into cubes and then put it in the fridge overnight

In the morning you’ll have some delectable fudge. But just be careful, if you leave it cook too long, the sugar will crystalize and turn to caramel, if you leave it too short a time it won’t form together. Tricky process as I said.

For us the fudge turned out divine, as was agreed by my family, and the guys in the lab (can’t do laser physics without peanut butter fudge!!)

Can’t wait to experiment some more with it!! >.<

Chocolate Macaroons

Chocolate Macaroons

It’s summer here in Ireland (so it’s raining as heavy as in a shower irregularly every twenty minutes and we’re sitting inside) and I’ve a hankering for coconut. I love coconut. It’s one of those foods, like mushrooms, that I’d love every day. These macaroons were so so easy and quick to make (without the chocolate would be 15mins tops)!

Ingredients (about 9-10 macaroons):

- 1 cup desiccated coconut

- 3/4 cup flour

- 1/2 cup soya milk or other milk

- 1/3 cup sugar

- 2-3 tbsp golden syrup (or maple syrup, etc)

- Vanilla essence

- Chocolate: vegan friendly (but can have without chocolate)

1. Mix all ingredients except flour and chocolate, then add the flour.

2. Take about 1 tablespoon or so of the dough and form balls in your hands (cover your hands in some flour to avoid them sticking too much to them). Put on a slightly greased tray and flatten (if you like).

3. Bake at 180⁰ until lightly browned (about 10-15mins). 

For chocolate: 4. Melt some chocolate and dip the bottoms of the macaroons in it. Let the chocolate set, then turn over and drizzle chocolate over the tops. Enjoy! ^^

We sat inside watching some Star Trek with them and cups of warming chai tea. Om nom nom nom nom…. 

Moussaka

Aubergine Moussaka

So, there’s this absolutely delicious Vegetarian Restaurant on Abbey st. in Dublin city, called Govinda’s (http://www.govindas.ie/), who give lots of amazing food, at low prices with lovely and friendly staff.

Most of their food is Vegan-friendly, but sometimes they have a really nice looking dish called Mousacca, (which kinda looked like lasagne but with no pasta sheets) and we decided to try make some.  Moussacca is a Greek food which is comprised of layered Aubergine, and vegetables/mince/what-have-you in between, topped with cheese.

As Hope had decided this week to make some ‘’Vegan Blue cheese’’ (http://vegannyomnom.blogspot.ie/2012/07/blue-cheesey-dipsauce.html), so we’ll put it on the Moussacca and see

Here’s what you’ll need:

- a large Aubergine                                             - a tin of green lentils or TVP mince

- 1 red onion                                                      - a courgette

- 6 tomatoes                                                      - a red, and a yellow pepper

- Any other vegetables you’d like

- some garlic                                                       - herbs & spices etc…

- the ‘’Vegan Blue Cheese’’ that Hope posted last time (see link!!)

   1.       Slice the Aubergine lengthwise into thin sheets

   2.       Heat the Aubergine over a low heat and set it aside for later

   3.       Start frying the onion, courgette and peppers. Turn the oven to 200˚C

   4.       Cook the rest of the filling in the frying pan,

   5.       Layer down the Aubergine strips with the other food in between in an oven dish, then put it in the oven for 15mins

   6.       Once the Moussaka is done, take it out of the oven and spread the ‘’cheese’’ evenly over the Moussaka, then pop it back in the oven for a further 10mins

   Serve it like you would lasagne and enjoy. This one turned out really well, and the interesting Blue cheesey flavour really added to the overall taste (though traditionally done with mozzarella cheese)
   Definitely one to try again with different variations and flavours :)

Blue cheesey dip/sauce

Blue cheesey dip/sauce

Before we were vegan, Conor and I were big cheese fans. Really big fans, and I don’t mean of silly things like cheese pizzas. Just roughly before we went vegan we went to this little village in the south of France (which was filled with a wide variety of indulgent cheeses of course) and luckily since then the variety of cheeses back in Ireland mean I’ve had no real temptation towards cheese. The only exception is blue cheese, of which I was such a big fan. I’ve tried some Sheese ‘blue cheese’ variety (which Conor brought back from Brighton for me) and was rather disappointed with it’s very very mild taste.

Back when we made the Ravioli, I mentioned how rocket heavily reminded me of the taste of blue cheese and I’ve been waiting to try make a blue cheese sauce thing from it since. Finally- here it is!

It may be a bit strong for some people (I liked my blue cheeses very strong!) so reduce the flavouring ingredients if so (the rocket and miso mostly) and increase the soya milk, or add bit by bit and see how you like it.

Ingredients:

- 60g rocket (or less, to taste)

- 1 avocado

- 1/2 cup cashew nuts

- 3-4 tsp miso paste (to taste as can get salty!)

- ~ 1/2 cup soya milk (or more if sauce/to taste)

- Spices: black pepper, dried garlic (or real), crushed mustard seeds (or mustard?)

If making as sauce can add:

- 1 tbsp dairy free butter

- 2-3tbsp flour

- More soya milk (or other milk)

1. Cut up the rocket really finely, then crush it or grind it (so some of it’s juice leaks out). Conor has a garlic crusher we used for this, but a pestle or anything else will work too. For cashew nuts, soak to soften them a bit.

2. Add avocado, soya milk, some rocket, cashew nuts to blender and blend until smooth. Add spices, miso paste and more rocket (taste as go along as can get strong!). At this stage, you can use it as a dip or over salad/sandwiches etc.

3. If making as sauce, make a roux: melt butter in a pot and add flour until butter absorbed. Add soya milk. Then add the mix from step 2 and cook a bit.

I realise it’s green and not the very most attracting looking – but you can add food colouring if you want and the taste is well worth it. The taste is the closest I’ve personally tasted to blue cheese since though, and will make it again. I’ll also be playing with this recipe a bit I think to see if I can get the consistency up from a sauce to even a Cambozola consistency using different things. 

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes stuffed with Green Lentils and Vegetables

For some reason I got a craving for sweet potatoes. I remember seeing somewhere a recipe to make the most gorgeous-looking ones, so we looked through every cooking book in the house, and on the internet and couldn’t find the specific recipe. So we pretty much made it up base on a picture from my head…

Anyway, Ingredients:

- 6 small sweet potatoes                                      - a tin of green lentils

- 1 red onion                                                       - a courgette

- 3 tomatoes                                                        - a red, and a yellow pepper

- some garlic                                                       - some spicy spices (chili powder etc..)

   1.       Start frying the onion, courgette and the peppers

   2.       Continue frying the rest of the ingredients in the stuffing

   3.       Cut the sweet potatoes in half and put them all in the microwave for about 4-5mins, once they’re soft, scrape out a small crevice in each of the potatoes to be stuffed

   4.       Put the potatoes in a foil cask and add a lil bit of pepper, salt and oil. Then put in oven a bit.

   5.       After about 20mins take them out and stuff with the mixture, serve with something yummy and voilà! J

A tribute to Conor’s mother

A tribute to Conor’s mother

This is a simple little recipe, tied in with the last puff pastry recipe, that’s really just being posted to say how indescribably amazing Conor’s mother is. Ever since myself and Conor became vegan, she has impressed us with her incredible skills at vegan-ising recipes and her ability to find vegan friendly products and ingredients. She makes an especially great vegan lasagne!

This isn’t our recipe – we just took the photos! But it’s worth showing in a little post as it was so easy and delicious.

 

You need:

- Sheet of puff pastry

- Tomatoes, Tomato puree, Cannelloni beans, Cheezly brand mozzarella.

- Herbs: basil (or to taste)

Spread the tomato puree over the puff pastry, top with cannelloni beans and chopped tomatoes. Sprinkle with herbs, then cover with sliced Cheezly mozzarella. 

Vegan Spiced Sausage

Vegan Spiced Sausage

Recently one of our favourite veggie restaurants, Govinda’s, has starting stocking something callled ‘Vegan Salami’. Growing up as a kid the only meat substances I had eaten were fish and salami and being far too curious, though it was a bit pricey, we got some. I since became a little obsessed with the idea of ‘Could I make this myself?’

Having looked up online possible ways to do so, the answer was vital wheat gluten i.e. the thing you can’t buy in Ireland at all (seriously, health food shops even look at you weird when you ask). So we tried to do it from the same method we made seitan. Technically, it’s just flavoured seitan, and you can make it with whatever flavours you want. (http://vegannyomnom.blogspot.ie/2012/06/broccoli-seitan-stir-fry-in-ginger.html) 

Ingredients:

- As per seitan recipe (1kg flour, water)

- 1/2 onion (chopped v. v. fine)

- 3-4 cloves garlic (chopped v. v. fine)

- 2 tbp tomato puree (or less, depending on what flavour you want)

- 1 tbp cornflour

- 1 tbp vinegar (we used wine vinegar, but it doesn’t matter)

- 2 tsp soysauce

- Spices (1tsp+ or to taste): coriander, smoked paprika, chili, black pepper, oregano, ground mustard (can grind from mustard seeds.. or use wet mustard presumably), a wee bit of salt

1. Make seitan according to the recipe (Attempt 2: http://vegannyomnom.blogspot.ie/2012/06/broccoli-seitan-stir-fry-in-ginger.html) Make sure when kneading it before you wash it you really give it a hard time – do it for about 30mins or so (you can watch some episodes/movie in the background, good recipe to make when angry!). This really helps it stick together when you wash it then and afterwards.

2. After seitan is washed (so starch is gone), knead all the rest of the ingredients into it unti thoroughly mixed.

3. Seperate into two (or whatever sizes/however many you want). Roll up REALLY tight in tin foil, twist at edges. (Something to stop the tin foil sticking to the sausage could be used, but we’re not sure what.)

4. Put in oven at 180º for about 1.5hrs.

5. Remove and very gently peel off the tin foil, so as not to remove the outer layer of sausage. (this may take some time – as said in step 3., maybe something could be used here to make this easier) Put in fridge for a few hours then as it sticks together more.

This was almost called ‘vegan salami’, but the taste wasn’t quite similar enough to warrant it. Doing it again I would definitely play around with flavours more, as this one came out a bit more tomatoey than I hoped (though still lovely on sandwiches).

Sweet Pastries

Sweet Pastries

The day my exams finally finished my friend kept talking about how much he’d love some croissants, and we went around a few bakeries looking for them (to no success). The next day I just wanted to make some pastries, but having found out that it takes about a day or half a day to make the pastry we resorted to using the premade puff pastry available most places very cheap. These two below are such a simple thing to do, and puff pastry can be found pretty cheap in places like Aldi and Iceland that one could easily get fat making these regularly. These aren’t ‘recipes’ persay I feel but good ideas of what to do anyways!

Ingredients:

- 1 pack puff pastry

- ½ - 1 apple

- 3-4 tbsp brown sugar (approx.)

- 2 tbsp dairy free butter

- 2 tsp cinnamon

- 1 tsp vanilla essence

For the mini cinnamon pastries:

1. Take one sheet of the puff pastry and roll it out. Mix the butter, 1-2 tbsp brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla essence in a bowl (add more or less of quantities as you like). Spread over the sheet completely.

2. Roll up into a log. Now cut into segments about 2-3 cm thick. Place on baking tray and pop into the oven at about 200⁰ until browns lightly.

For the apple turnovers:

1. Chop up apple into small chunks. Mash some of the apple up as well. Mix all together with sugar (1-2tbsp, but to taste).

2. Roll out the puff pastry. Cut into squares. (we got two big ones out of it, but whatever size you like). Spread the apple mx onto one half of the square (in a triangle distribution). Fold the other half over, seal, and place on tray in the oven at about 200⁰ until browns lightly.

Enjoy!