Vegan Zest For Life

I'm back! (But just to tell you my new address.)

2011-12-02T20:27:00.000-08:00

It's been almost exactly a year since I posted here. A year that started off incredibly sad and then got incredibly happy!
Anyway, I'm now blogging at my website.
I hope you'll visit me there, and sign up for our monthly newsletter and even join us on Facebook!
Very best vegan wishes,
Alice

Meringue buttercream frosting goes vegan

2010-12-08T15:04:00.000-08:00

I try to be helpful.
So when Daphne from Singapore saying she wanted to make Italian meringue buttercream for her vegan friends, and would Angel Food meringue mix do the trick, I scurried off to the kitchen to give it a whirl. Or should I say, a whisk.

And I am very grateful I did!
The resulting recipe is heart-meltingly gorgeous. It's firm enough to pipe, and not as sweet or as fatty as regular buttercream.
Go on, give it a whisk.

VEGAN MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup + 1/4 cup water, divided
1 tablespoon meringue A powder (from the Angel Food vegan meringue mix)

2 1/2 teaspoons meringue B powder (from the Angel Food vegan meringue mix)
2 tablespoons Instant Clear Jel
3/4 cup dairy-free margarine
1 - 2 teaspoons liquid flavouring of your choice (2 tablespoons instant coffee powder is delicious too)

Directions
1. Mix the sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. 2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
3. Allow to simmer (no need to stir now) until it reaches 121 celsius (250 farenheit).
4. Turn the heat off and allow the mixture to cool for a few minutes.
5. Put 1/4 cup water and 1 tablespoon meringue A in the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment.
6. Whisk until thick and fluffy, scraping down the sides with a spatula as necessary.
7. With the mixer running, pour the hot syrup slowly into the fluffy mix in the bowl.8. Add the flavouring. Continue mixing until it is fluffy and pale. (This could take 10 to 15 minutes.)
9. Mix the ICJ and meringue B in a small bowl, sprinkle them over the mixture in the bowl, and quickly whisk again (before it has time to form lumps!).
10. Finally, add the margarine and whip again until it is all blended and fluffy.

Please note this is still a work in progress. I've never made or tasted 'real' meringue buttercream, so do let me know if you can think of improvements to this recipe!

Marshmallow round-up

2010-11-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

Our marshmallows are delicious in their plainest form, but they really shine when you get creative with flavours and textures. Here are a few of my favourite variants. Sing out if you need more details on any of them!

1 teaspoon each of brandy essence and coconut extract instead of the vanilla in the recipe; coated in unsweetened cocoa.

I baked heart-shaped graham crackers, cut out vanilla marshmallows using the same cutter, and used chocolate to 'glue' the two together.

Ice cream cones filled with peanut butter ganache, topped with vanilla marshmallow and more chocolate and finished with salted peanuts. Must make these again soon!

Marshmallow frosting: just double the amount of water called for in the standard recipe and pipe it on.

Chcocolate cake from Joy of Vegan Baking, layered with canned cherries, marshmallow frosting and cherry syrup.

Replace the vanilla extract with 1 teaspoon of natural strawberry extract and a few drops of red colouring (I used beetroot extract).

What are your favourite marshmallow flavours?

Black bean + beetroot = delicious combination

2010-11-09T16:13:00.000-08:00

I love beetroot but often put off using it. Silly, huh? I think the stained fingers puts me off. So when I buy beetroot, I make myself peel it and grate it (thanks, food processor). What I don't use straight away goes into the fridge for future salads or into the freezer for future cooked dishes.

For dinner last night for Billy and I, I defrosted some grated beetroot (from a massive 1kg beetroot from our food co-op) and cooked it up with some black beans. I figured they'd suit each other, with their earthy flavours, and I was right. The only seasoning was a little garlic stock powder and a dash of balsamic vinegar (to tame the sweetness).

I served it on top of quinoa, and with a side of pan-fried asparagus and capsicum strips. It'd look better if I'd cut the capsicum the same width as the asparagus, but I was in a hurry. (How unusual!)
The flavours, textures and colours were all gorgeous together - and that's gotta be a heapin helpin of antioxidants and other phyto-nutrients.

Culinary challenge: bamboo shoot

2010-10-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

We recently signed up for a weekly vege box from Ooooby. This week's bundle of vege joy included a fresh bamboo shoot. Or it may have been a dinosaur's claw.

Once I'd cut a few centimetres off the base and the tip, and peeled off many layers of sheath-like leaves, this is what I got:

I boiled the pieces for 30 minutes until the top section was tender, and boiled the other piece for another 20 minutes. It didn't get tender.... and didn't get eaten: too tough!
I roasted the pieces with some other less-glamorous veges from Ooooby - kumara, pumpkin (cut with my fancy corrugated knife!), onions and capsicum.

The verdict? It's a lot of work for a small amount of food. But the piece that got cooked properly was delicious. At first it had a strong potato flavour, followed by a mushroom flavour. I'd definitely give them another go!

Sometimes simple is best

2010-10-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

Pearl barley, topped with black-eyed peas, topped with fresh dill. Easy and delicious.

Usually I add a lot of different flavours to our meals. And this dish proves that isn't always necessary.
The fresh dill was from our local farmers' market. And the lemons (which look like they're relaxing against the side of a hot tub) are from our tree.
We added white salt and black salt at the table, and that was it.

Orange custard cups

2010-10-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

Mack and I enjoyed these for afternoon tea yesterday, sitting on the lawn in the sunshine, with Tui Cat rubbing up against us.

I came up with this recipe because we had some custard powder sitting on the shelf and I thought it would be good to use it up. Also, oranges are my favourite fruit right now.

ORANGE CUSTARD CUPS
Crush a couple plain sweet biscuits into the bottom of a tall glass.
Add the juice of half an orange, and moosh it all together with a fork (trying not to mess up the sides of the glass).
Make one cup of your favourite custard, with the addition of the zest of half an orange.
Add half the custard on top of the cookie/juice mix.
Sprinkle on some chocolate drops.
Allow the custard to cool slightly before carefully adding small pieces of orange. (I didn't think of this until later, but it would look good if you managed to stick the orange pieces to the inside of the glass!)
Top with the rest of the custard, more pieces of orange, more choc drops and a final sprinkling of orange zest.
Enjoy it warm or cold.

Macaroonish meringues

2010-10-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

Gosh things have been busy! This weekend we had a big catering job for a conference on Saturday, followed by our bi-monthly vegan potluck dinner on Saturday evening with Karen Dawn as special guest speaker, and then on Sunday it was the Auckland Vegetarian Festival at ASB Showgrounds.
It all went very well, but I have to say I'm enjoying a (relatively) quiet week this week.

For the potluck on Saturday, my contribution was a big tray of mini meringues (using Angel Food meringue mix, of course!) with cocoa and dessicated coconut stirred into the mix. They're delicious! Very chocolate-y, crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. There were complaints... that I didn't make two huge trays of them!

MACAROON-ISH MERINGUES
Make up one batch of Angel Food meringue according to the directions on the pack.
Add 2 tablespoons of sifted cocoa, 1/2 cup fine dessicated coconut and 1/4 teaspoon coconut essence.
Stir with a rubber spatula.
Use a broad nozzle to pipe small meringues.
When the meringues have cooled, dress them up with a splatter of melted dark chocolate and a sparse sprinkling of coconut.

Come and see us at the Auckland Vegetarian Festival this Sunday!

2010-10-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

Mack and I at the Angel Food stall at the Christchurch Vegetarian Expo.

You'll be there, right? ASB Showgrounds, 10am to 4.30pm. $5 entry, free for kids under 12.
The Angel Food stall will have all kinds of delights for you to ooh! and ahh! at. Our new products you might not have seen or tasted are salami sticks, pate, cooking cream and caviar. All vegan, all delicious, all available this Sunday at the fest. Come and get 'em!

We'll also be having a stall this Saturday evening at the big vegan potluck dinner in Grey Lynn, with international guest speaker Karen Dawn. Yes, there's a lot going on. Email me (alice at angelfood.co.nz) if you'd like info on the potluck.

Travelling treats

2010-09-21T20:27:00.000-07:00


Yumminess, starting top centre: good old plain chips; spicy bhuja mix, halva bar, dried strawberries, cashew/rice wafer cookies, tamarind sweets (salty, sweet, sour AND spicy!), fried eggplant, coconut-cream-coated peanuts.

Mack and I are heading off to the Christchurch Vegetarian Expo this weekend, and the Wellington Vegetarian Festival the following weekend, so I've stocked up on treats.
I was talking to the lovely ladies at our local library the other day about road trips, and they were talking about how stopping for junk food is an integral part of the journey's pleasure... well, as vegans we take our own junk food! And I have to say, our supplies look pretty delicious.
The fried eggplant will go into fresh baguette, since every supermarket in every town has baguette. Yum!

Culinary confession

2010-09-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

I'm sick of cooking! It pains me to admit it, because I'm supposed to have this never-ending supply of passion for all things foodie, but... I could happily live on takeaways for the next six months.
Although I'm sure I'd get sick of it pretty darn quick. Salad cravings!

Lucky for me, I haven't needed to cook many dinners this week.
Billy and I went to Golden Age cafe on Monday night with Paul and Linda and a few others, to contribute to the Christchurch Earthquake Fund, and to farewell Anna and Patrick who are off to Melbourne.

Billy and I at Golden Age. He didn't look so happy after somebody ordered stinky tofu!!

Tuesday I cooked something unmemorable.
Wednesday the lovely Alice Chan cooked dinner for us. She's such a generous hostess.

Alice Chan cooked wood ear fungus with sugar snaps, lotus root with peanuts, and an eggplant stew.

Thursday nights Mack is rostered on to cook, which suited me particularly well this week.
Tonight it's back to my turn. I'll think of something!

Caramel cream pie, oo la la.

2010-09-08T23:08:00.000-07:00

First things first: this is not my recipe! I copied it from the gorgeous blog Like a Vegan.
Second things second: it's as delicious as it looks.

Healthy obviously isn't the highest priority with this recipe, although I'm sure you could easily make a few tweaks that would push it a couple of rungs up the nutritional ladder.

Here's the recipe as I made it. The original included soy cream cheese, but I didn't have any, so I used a block of firm tofu instead, with some lemon juice.

Caramel Cream Pie
Based on the recipe at Like a Vegan

Ingredients
Base
16 biscuits (I used half malt biscuits, half gingernuts, both ‘Budget’ brand)
1/2 cup margarine
2 tablespoons sugar

Caramel Filling
1 can of Soymilke soy condensed milk
½ cup margarine
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tablespoon agar powder

Cream Topping
1 block tofu
Juice of 1 lemon
1 pack of Soyatoo whipping cream
1/3 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

1. Whizz the biscuits in a food processor until they’re really fine.
2. Melt the margarine in a small pot. When it's melted, stir in the sugar and the fine biscuit crumbs.
3. Add the melted margarine and mix well.
4. Press the mixture into a springform tin and press it down firmly, making the edges a little higher than the centre. Set aside.
5. In a saucepan, bring the caramel ingredients (except the agar)to the boil, stirring constantly.
6. Turn down and simmer for about 8 minutes, stirring regularly.
7. When the caramel has started to thicken and darken, stir in the agar powder and cook for 1 more minute.
8. Remove from heat and pour the caramel on top of the base.
9. Allow to set in the fridge.
10. Meantime, blend the tofu, lemon juice Soyatoo, icing sugar and vanilla in a food processor.
11. When the base has cooled, remove it from the fridge and spread the cream mixture on top. Even out with a spatula.
12. If you like, decorate the top with grated dark chocolate.
13. Serve in small slices - it's very rich!

Living up to promises

2010-09-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Mack and I were out shopping in the morning, and on the way home we both realised we were really really hungry.

"What are we going to eat?" he wailed. "I will make us splendid sandwiches!" I improvised.
And the sandwiches did live up to their hastily-created name. You can't see all the details in the photo, because I was more interested in eating it than food-styling it.
The bread was spread with mustard and chutney. I dipped slabs of tofu in a mix of soya sauce, liquid smoke and cumin, pan-fried it, and layered on the sandwich with slices of avocado. A bag of baby rocket leaves and some grated beetroot/swede/carrot, which I had in the fridge from the previous day's food prep, made for very easy salad additions.

When I'm grating veges, I like to get the food processor out and grate way more than I need right now - it keeps well in the fridge, and I'm much more likely to use it if it's ready to go. And by the way, raw grated swede in salad = delicious.

Plates of munchables

2010-08-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I've added the lemon cream recipe at the end of this post.

A very quick post today - this week is just going ridiculously fast!
These photos are of items I made for a recent fundraising event.

Slices of some new salami sticks which I'm bringing in from Germany, and a cheese spread simply made from mozzarella Cheezly blended with some water, and then some finely-chopped spring onions stirred through. It reminds me of that Kiwi classic, reduced cream + onion soup powder!


Mini desserts: tart cases filled with lemon cream (a last minute problem-solver which turned out to be wonderful!), mocha truffle cubes, and mini macaroons. Lemon cream 1 pack silken tofu 1 pack Soyatoo! soy topping cream 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup Instant Clear Jel Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Pipe into small tart cases or use between two layers of cake or as a cheesecake filling.

Cheezly, cute calves and a serious discount!

2010-08-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

This is one of my family's favourite recipes: pasties which are known as 'stegs' in our house, because of the knobbly bits along the spine (which, oops, you can't actually see in this photo...).

You could also call them a great way to use up various leftovers that are clogging the back of your fridge. This batch contained slices of pumpkin, some black beans and leeks, and mozzarella Cheezly.
To make the stegs, you make a basic bread dough, roll out vaguely oval shapes, put your fillings (which should be already cooked) along the centre, pull the edges together and fold/crimp them.
Pierce to allow steam to escape, and bake in a hot oven for about 20 minutes.

I've probably mentioned this before, but I used to be a huge consumer of cheese before I went vegan. At high school, a regular after-school snack I'd make for myself was a cheese and Marmite sandwich - that was two big slabs of cheddar, with Marmite in the middle, no bread. Hmm.

When I went vegan six years ago, I was amazed just how easy it was to live without cheese. Actually, I was amazed that it was even possible to live without cheese!! I lost 10kg in a couple of months, and I put that down mostly to kicking the cheese habit.

Of course, now that I'm the New Zealand importer of Cheezly soy cheese, we do have (vegan) cheese in the house again. It's great! But I reckon it's not as addictive as dairy cheese, because although I love its rich, creamy texture on pizzas and on crackers and especially in toasted sandwiches, I don't feel driven to eat it every day - let alone twice a day like I did with cow cheese :-)

There are a few fields around the organic gardens where our monthly food co-op operates from, and on Saturday when we went to purchase our organic beans and grains and nuts and seeds, we met some beautiful calves.

That's my boy Mack with some of the calves. I loved meeting them, and stroking them, and seeing the steam rise off their flanks, and gazing into their big dark eyes, but I felt so so sad knowing what lies ahead for these babies. All I can do is help more people along the path to veganism, so that fewer animals suffer. It's not enough, but it's all I can do.

I promised you a discount, and here it is: I have a swag of Cheezly (mostly mozzarella, but some cheddar too) which is officially best-before 20-08-10... i.e. tomorrow! I need to move it out of my fridge, so I'm selling it off at 2 blocks for $10 (in New Zealand only...), or 4 for $20 etc etc. In fact if you want to buy 10 or more blocks, just make me an offer via email (alice at angelfood.co.nz) and we'll talk. Despite what the label says, the cheese will still be perfect for weeks to come, or even months if you freeze it. Maybe you know some vegans or dairy-intolerant folks who haven't tried soy cheese? This would make a perfect gift for them, right?

Sourdough's first appearance

2010-08-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

I'm always trying to tweak our household's eating habits to make things slightly healthier. My latest project is bread - shop-bought bread is either very expensive (if it's any good) or nutritionally pretty vacant.

I made a sourdough starter last week, using this recipe, and on Friday evening I used my first batch of sourdough to make pizza for dinner. It was great! It probably should have risen a lot longer, but I'll figure out that sort of thing as I go along. Today I'm making my first sourdough loaf, and I've allowed plenty of rising time.
Sourdough is supposed to be a lot easier to digest than regular wheat bread, and I'll be adding in a variety of flours for extra nutrition.

Our pizza toppings were tomato paste, artichoke hearts, black olives, sweet corn, diced tomatoes, butter beans and vege 'chicken'. It was generously sprinkled with nutritional yeast, black pepper and dried basil.

I'll let you know how the loaf turns out!

Mmm, roast veges for dinner!

2010-08-08T01:51:00.000-07:00

Well, steam-roasted veges, actually.

I lined a roasting dish with baking paper and filled the dish with yams, red-skinned potatoes, these gorgeous 'radical kumara' (see that deep purple colour?) Billy bought at Harvest Wholefoods, and swede.
I simply sprinkled salt, coarse-ground black pepper and smoked paprika over the whole lot, stirred it around for better spice coverage, and popped it in a hot oven covered with a silicon baking mat.
The baking mat is no good for its intended purpose but is a great help for oil-free roasting. Without the mat and without oil, the veges tend to dry out before they're cooked.

Vegan lemon curd recipe

2010-08-01T22:17:00.000-07:00

I'd already planned to post this recipe, in response to a customer request about making lemon meringue pie with our vegan meringue mix.

And then I was asked to do the catering for a funeral last week with the main condition being that there be plenty "of those delicious little lemon tarts you make". Sure thing!

Delicious little lemon curd tarts

This is one of my* best recipes, because:

a. It's delicious
b. It's a much healthier vegan version of an old favourite
c. The key ingredient takes most people by surprise, which is always gratifying!

Where traditional lemon curd is full of egg yolks and butter, this low-fat lemony twist is based on golden kumara (New Zealand sweet potato). So, along with the delicious sweet lemonyness, you get you get fibre and lots of other phyto-goodness, instead of saturated fat and cholesterol. Pretty good deal, huh?

* To give due credit, this recipe was based on this one by the wonderful Bryanna Clark-Grogan. But I have altered it considerably!

VEGAN LEMON CURD
250g golden kumara, thickly peeled and diced
¾ cup sugar
6 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juiceZest of one large lemon

1. Steam the kumara until very tender.
2. Place in a food processor with the remaining ingredients, and process until very smooth.
3. If I want it thicker, I add about 1/2 teaspoon of Instant Clear Jel.

This makes a great filling between two vanilla cakes - or you can drop a spoonful of the curd into cupcakes before you bake them. Delicious.

And, of course, it also works for vegan lemon meringue pie!

I made a double batch of the lemon curd, and while the kumara was steaming I shaped and baked a crust from the new New Way short crust pastry (finally, ready-made vegan short crust pastry in New Zealand!).
The curd was spread into the crust while still warm.
Then I whipped up a batch of meringue (adding 4 teaspoons of Instant Clear Jel for extra strength!) and piped it on top. I popped it into a low oven for about 15 minutes, until the outside was just firming up.
Mmmm, so good!

Portable sociable food

2010-07-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

During the school holidays, Mack and I did a lot of visiting and hanging out with friends. Most times, we took along some food to share (and I'm not just saying that to get more invitations!).

Here's a couple of very simple examples.


Peanut rice parcels

Edamame hummus

Peanut rice parcels
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 teaspoons grenadine syrup (or lemon juice)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon hot water
2 cups cooked brown rice
Nori sheets cut into quarters

1. In a bowl big enough to hold all the ingredients, stir the peanut butter and hot water together, then add the grenadine (or lemon juice - I just happened to have grenadine and felt like using it!) and salt.
2. Stir in the rice.
3. Lay the nori squares on a board, so that they look like diamonds rather than squares. Have a small bowl of water handy. Dip your fingers in the water and flick some water on the nori to make it easier to work with.
4. Dip your fingers in the water again, then with your wet fingers, scoop up about a tablespoon of the rice mixture and put it in the centre of the nori.
5. Fold the bottom corner of the nori up over the rice, then do the same with the left and right corners. If the nori is stiff or your mixture is a bit dry, you may need to moisten the corners of the nori.
6. I sprinkled each parcel with a seaweed/sesame sprinkle mix from the Asian supermarket - not necessary, but it dresses it up a bit!

Edamame hummus
This is simply edamame cooked until al dente, then blended in the food processor with lemon juice, garlic, salt and a tiny amount of tahini. Delish! And although you can't tell from the photo, it was a really pretty pastel green. I topped it with some violets from the garden.

Waste not, eat well

2010-07-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

I love developing recipes and teaching cooking classes... and both of these activities can mean a lot of leftovers! I also hate to waste food. No point bragging about the environmental benefits of eating further down the food chain on a vegan diet if you're being wasteful!
Even though all our food scraps go into the compost, it's still better to eat the food than compost it... :-)

This is a recent lunch: soup containing some quinoa and some buckwheat, some little white beans, creamy-ed up thanks to some cashew cheese spread and some satay sauce. On top is a nod towards the salad I had intended to eat for lunch - lots of raw red cabbage, plus seaweed sprinkles and dried capsicum flakes. Yum, and very warming on a chilly day. And, as usually happens, the flavours of all the different leftovers blended together very well.

I've been a slack blogger lately. It's been school holidays, and I've been enjoying a change in my routine and lots of hanging-out time with Mack. Back to normal next week!

Now THIS is cruelty-free bacon!

2010-07-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

A certain animal-welfare group in New Zealand has started promoting bacon made from free-range pigs as 'cruelty-free'. Ummm, no. If you wouldn't hand over your cat, your dog and your kids to be put through the same process, then it probably ain't cruelty-free.

This fakin' bacon, however, ticks all the boxes. It's made from tempeh, which is basically a healthier and tastier version of tofu, marinated in all kinds of deliciousness, and then baked.
It's tasty (sweet, salty and smokey), free of cholesterol, low in fat, high in fibre, and it's made from plants not animals, so it really is cruelty-free.

And here's the recipe:

Tempeh bacon

4 tablespoons tamari or soya sauce
2 tablespoons sugar (or other sweetener)
2 tablespoons water
¼ teaspoon liquid smoke*
2 teaspoons tomato paste

1. Mix marinade ingredients in a plastic lidded container.
2. Slice a block of tempeh thinly (5mm slices).
3. Put in the container with the marinade, move the pieces around so that each slice is coated.
4. Refrigerate for at least an hour and up to overnight.
5. Heat the oven to 180C.
6. Put the slices on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake for 15 minutes, or fry in a very small amount of oil.

Great in sandwiches and wraps, as part of a cooked breakfast, on pizza and in sushi.

* Liquid smoke is key to this recipe's bacon-yness! And conveniently enough, you can buy it at Angel Food's on-line store :-)

An easy dinner and an even easier lunch

2010-06-27T15:29:00.000-07:00

One night last week I didn't leave myself much time for cooking dinner. And this hearty one-pot meal was the delicious result! There's no recipe, but the technique is no secret, and adaptable to whatever ingredients you have on hand.

I simply diced 3 medium carrots and cooked them for about 15 minutes in plenty of water (with a generous shake of dehydrated garlic granules and a teaspoon of fennel seeds). Then I added 1.5 cups of rinsed quinoa and 3 cups of water, and cooked it for another 10 minutes. Lastly, I added about a few finely sliced Brussels sprouts that needed using up, a cup of finely chopped cauliflower and a cup of cooked black beans, and cooked it for just 5 minutes (because Sjaan mentioned at our last cooking demo that cauliflower is best eaten as lightly cooked as possible).
I seasoned the soup with smoked paprika, half a bunch of finely chopped coriander leaves and stalks and some soya sauce.
It was delicious! Billy had it as is; Mack and I topped ours with karengo flakes (NZ seaweed, yum yum: that's the very dark stuff you can see at the top of the photo) and Parmazano.
And there was just enough leftover for my lunch the next day ;-)

I made a very similar meal a couple of days later, but this time based on buckwheat instead of quinoa, and I added lots of finely diced red cabbage for the last few minutes of cooking time.

Cheezly service bulletin!

2010-06-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

Cheese is number one on the list of things that non-vegans can't believe anyone would willingly give up.

I grew up eating cheese a couple of times a day most days; I loved cheese so much that my after-school snack was often a cheese and Marmite sandwich... and that was no bread, just two thick wedges of cheddar stuck together with Marmite!
When I went vegan six years ago, the fact that life without cheese was okay was one of the biggest surprises for me!
But then I started importing Cheezly, and decided that life without cheese is okay, but life with decent soy cheese is definitely better. :-)
We sell Cheezly through our website, and through stockists all over New Zealand. And because soy cheese isn't identical to dairy cheese, and therefore needs handling slightly differently, I've written a little 'how to' guide for you.
(I don't know how to get clearer quality on the pdf below, but if you'd like a copy emailed to you, just send me a note to alice at angelfood.co.nz and I'll get it to you, lickety-split.

Making a good vegan cookie recipe even better

2010-06-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

I love improving recipes, either by simplifying them or using healthier ingredients.
These choc chip oaties - which will be one of the dishes we'll share at the July cooking demo in Royal Oak - are a case in point.

The recipe from Vegetarian Times was already pretty healthy, using oats and oat flour instead of wheat flour, and ground walnuts instead of butter or margarine.
I removed the small amount of oil, added goji berries for health, colour and deliciousness, and slightly reduced the amount of chocolate (and believe me, I love chocolate!). I also simplified the ingredients and the process.
Here's my take on the recipe:

Choc chip and goji oaties

Makes 30 cookies
2 cups walnuts
3 1/2 cups rolled oats, divided
1 cup soft brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup water
1 cup vegan chocolate drops
1/2 cup goji berries

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking sheets with baking paper.
2. Blend walnuts and 1 1/2 cups rolled oats in food processor until it's ground into a fine meal.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients except the remaining oats, choc drops and goji berries. Process until well blended, and transfer to a mixing bowl.
4. Add the remaining oats, choc drops and goji berries, and mix well.
5. With wet hands, shape the dough into walnut-sized balls, and place on prepared baking sheets.
6. Bake about 15 minutes, or until cookies begin to brown and tops look dry. Allow to partly cool on the baking sheets before moving to cooling rack.

Being low in fat, these won't stay fresh long. I'm keeping them in a plastic box in the freezer, so we can just grab them as we need (well, want!) them. Perfect for school lunch boxes.

GOOD NEWS: There are still places available at my July class!
The theme is "Maximum nutrition, minimum effort," and the delicious health-enhancing recipes which Sjaan and I will be presenting include:

cheesy kale chips
rocket pesto
savoury pumpkin crumble
winter fruit salad with banana cinnamon cream, and
choc chip goji oaties

Our classes are held on the third Sunday of most months, from 11am to 1.30pm, in Royal Oak.
At each class I demonstrate at least 8 different dishes on the month's theme. When all the cooking is done, we sit down together and enjoy the results for lunch! Sjaan is on hand during the class and at lunch to talk about the nutritional aspects of particular foods and to answer questions relating to nutrition and diet.
All the dishes are vegan (and therefore suitable for dairy-free and egg-free diets), most are gluten-free and very low in fat, and they're all developed with taste and health as equal priorities.
Come along to our classes, and give your health and your culinary horizons a boost!

Each class costs just $30 per person, including lunch and copies of all the recipes.
To book (booking is essential!) or make enquiries, please email alice at angelfood.co.nz.

(By the way, if you're keen but the cost is a factor, please get in touch! We're looking for someone to help out with cleaning up, and would love to do a trade. Email me!)

Here's our upcoming cooking class schedule for the rest of this year:
Sunday August 15
Great ways to start your day (breakfasts and brunches, and packed lunches)
Sunday September 19
Purify your life: Celebrate spring by adding detoxifying foods to your diet
Sunday October 17
Sensational salads that you'll enjoy right through summer
Sunday November 21
A celebration feast and some home-made gift ideas

Bookings are open now for the July class - don't miss out!

Love this: "Making Ideas Happen"

2010-06-08T17:13:00.000-07:00

I've just read this book, and what a great ride it was!

It's aimed at 'creative professionals' and while I'm not sure I would put myself in that league, a lot of it certainly rang true for me. I have a LOT of ideas of projects I want to take on, I find it difficult to turn down new projects, and when the going gets tough, I'm often very tempted to trade the turtle-esque tedium of being thorough and persistent for a new and exciting idea!

Scott Belsky lays out a plan for applauding one's own great ideas, and then actually knuckling down and making some of them happen. After a couple of years of feeling overwhelmed by my various projects - yet not wanting to let any of them go - I'm enjoying putting a structure in place to make them happen!

Show success!

2010-06-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

So, this is me, working on my 45th birthday.

Being a somewhat reserved person, I wasn't that keen on dressing up in wings and a halo to reinforce the angelic nature of my business... but friends persuaded me it was definitely the thing to do. And I did it, and I'm glad I did it! It was fun.
The show (that is, the Auckland Gluten-Free Food and Allergy Show) was very good. I talked to hundreds of people, many with dairy allergies - and many of whom didn't even know you could get such a thing as soy cheese, let alone one as delicious as Cheezly!
As for the Soyatoo cream and the Olvebra sweetened condensed soya milk, let's just say there were some very happy people at the show.
My favourite moment was when I was talking to a seven-year-old boy who was very savvy about checking that things were gluten-free and dairy-free. And then he looked up at me and said, in a very matter-of-fact manner, "So, did you just make your halo from cardboard and tinfoil?"
Ah, yes, I did. And while I was making it, I laughed to think about all those people who think vegans are so self-righteous - and how they'd love the fact that this vegan was making herself a halo!

Cheesey Sauce recipe and free tickets

2010-05-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

Yes! Angel Food is having a stand at the Gluten-Free Food and Allergy Show in Auckland on May 29 and 30. This is our biggest marketing effort ever and I'm pretty excited/nervous about it. I'll sail through the actual event, but don't expect me to be making much sense for the couple of days after the show!

I've got a pair of tickets to give away - just leave a comment here with a suggestion for a vegan product you'd like to see Angel Food stock. (Winner will be announced this Friday, May 21.)

In other news, yesterday Sjaan and I gave our Zest for Life class all about incorporating more vegetables into your diet. It was a small class but I was really happy with how it went, and I very much enjoyed the lunch we all shared afterwards (of the dishes cooked during the demo, of course).

The Cheesey Sauce was probably the dish that elicited the most 'oohs' and 'ahhs', so I'll post it here. It's pretty amazing - if I do say so myself! - so creamy and tasty, but so low-fat that even my fat-intolerant husband Billy enjoys it. The recipe's based on one I found at the Post Punk Kitchen forums, and the creaminess is thanks to the starches in the white beans - plus a smidgeon of tahini.

I don't have a photo, sorry!

Cheesey Sauce

INGREDIENTS

2 medium-large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup water
1 x 400g tin white beans (drained)
1/4 cup of savoury yeast (aka nutritional yeast)
1 tablespoon tahini
2 tablespoons white miso
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 clove garlic, peeled

METHOD

1. Simmer the carrots and onion with the water for about 15 minutes, until the vegetables are soft.2. Add to the blender with all of the other ingredients and process until smooth. If necessary to get the right consistency, add a little water, vege stock or rice milk.
3. Serve warm over baked or steamed vegetables, or in pasta dishes. With less water, it would probably make great toasted sandwiches, too!

Recipe: mini PB truffles

2010-05-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

These mini peanut butter truffles were part of the spread for Lisa's party food on Friday. Thanks, Susan, for reminding of my promise on Angel Food's new Facebook fan page (please join me there if you haven't already) that I would post the recipe here!

It's actually just a simple adaptation of the NY Times fudge recipe I blogged about a couple of months ago. And it's very simple.... so long as you have condensed soya milk on hand. If you don't, please don't hate me! (You can buy it from us or from many organic stores in New Zealand, or online vegan stores in Australia and the US. And probably in any supermarket in Brazil, cos that's where it's made!)

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup natural peanut butter, crunchy or smooth

500g dairy-free dark chocolate (I used Barry-Callebaut chocolate drops)

1 can sweetened condensed soya milk
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
1/2 cup chopped peanuts to roll the truffles in

METHOD

1. Line an 8-inch-square baking pan with baking paper.
2. Make a double boiler by sitting a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water)
3. Put all the ingredients except the peanuts into the metal bowl. Stir gently as the chocolate melts. You want to heat it only as much as necessary for the chocolate to melt.
4. Pour the delicious mixture into prepared pan (not into your mouth, although it is tempting). Refrigerate until set (at least 2 hours).
5. Use the baking paper to lift the fudge out of the pan and cut it into small squares using a large knife.

6. Roll each piece in your hands to soften it and turn it into a sphere instead of a cube, and then toss it in the chopped nuts.

7. Voila!

Cutting the truffle mixture into squares makes

it easy to get even-sized truffles.

Party food

2010-05-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

'Twas the lovely Lisa's birthday do last night, and I was very happy that she asked me to do the food!

Black bean and persimmon salsa canapes

Sushi with cuke, carrot, crispy 'chicken' and pickled ginger

Mountain bread wraps with cashew cheese spread, roast capsicum, fresh basil and black olives

Marshmallow hearts on Isa's fab 'Gwam Crackers'

Teeny tiny PB choc truffles

I didn't actually stay for the party - I snuck home to play poker (for cashews!) with Mack, and drank red bush tea instead of cocktails. That's me!

Educating my taste buds

2010-05-02T22:34:00.000-07:00

Except when I'm baking sweet treats like this cake, I tend to cook very low-fat. In our regular meals at home, I don't use oil or margarine.

I started cooking this way because my lovely husband Billy can't digest any kind of fat (and he hates the taste of anything fatty) and, of course, I wanted to create meals that he would enjoy and that would be good for him.

It did feel strange, at first, to be sauteeing onions in water or vege stock - but when the net result was almost the same as using oil, and when I started learning about the negative health impacts of fats in the diet, including oil, I really started to enjoy cooking this way.

And now, my taste buds have adapted. For my 'Green Gourmet' class which starts this Wednesday, one of the recipes is pumpkin tortellini. Because the focus in this class is on 'treat food', I tried tossing the tortellini in garlic-infused olive oil... but I just didn't enjoy the sensation of oil in my mouth. So I'm quickly dreaming up a rich but lower-fat sauce for those beautiful little tortellinis!

The Green Gourmet series is full, but there are spaces on the next Zest for Life class on May 16 in Royal Oak - it's all about veges! I'll be sharing new ways of enjoying veges (including stuffed kumara, a creamy dreamy low-fat 'chesese' sauce to go over steamed veges, a creamy and - you guessed it, low fat! - cauliflower soup, and a rich and tasty beetroot cake.

After the May class, Sjaan and I will be taking a break and we'll be back with a whole new series of themed cooking demos starting July 18.

If you'd like to sign up for the vege class, or sign up to our cooking class email list, please email alice (at) angelfood.co.nz and I'll sort you out!

The value of compliments

2010-04-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

I know that people appreciate our products, because they write and tell me so. But yesterday I received the most deliciously complimentary email, from Jo in Australia, whose young daughter has severe allergies including egg.

Jo wrote: "We have just whipped up some of your meringues, and half of them have been eaten before they have actually cooled! The adults are trialling them – because we are dairy/egg converts out of necessity we were incredibly sceptical. Needless to say you have blown our socks off. They are amazing! You have single handedly transformed my daughter's second birthday party coming up. Thank you thank you thank you."

Imagine how great I felt, reading that! Thanks, Jo.

The meringues in the photo were a test batch I made with different amounts of food colouring (beetroot extract).

Check out our meringue mix here.

Have a great day!

Marshmallows and stuffed dates

2010-04-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

Today's big project is marshmallow hearts for the Auckland Vegan Bake Sale at Kraftbomb tomorrow. It's being organised by the lovely Sara - thanks, Sara! I can't wait to see what everybody else has baked up for it.

My other fun project at the moment is developing and tweaking recipes for my Green Gourmet series of hands-on classes at Northcote College, which start on May 5. These stuffed and choc-dipped dates are on the menu for the first class, and they are delicious. (And surprisingly healthy - even though this series of classes isn't as health-focused as my regular classes!)

Fabulous posh lunch and marshie mix winner

2010-04-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was lucky enough to interview Jinu Abraham, the award-winning executive chef of The Heritage Auckland, about the joys and challenges of designing a vegan menu.

While we chatted, one or more of his 22 kitchen staff made me lunch. It was quite a step up from the last-night's-leftovers I usually have for lunch!

Lunch: stir-fried tofu topped with silverbeet, lemon and a roast tomato, served with a nine-grain mix which was topped with a rice noodle wafer and micro watercress

Dessert: Cinnamon banana fritters with roast grape salad,
served with walnuts, maple syrup and pear essence.

The photos don't really do the meal justice, but I was so excited to taste it that I wasn't going to scour the building for a spot with good natural light for photos.

The interview was for an article in the next Vegan Society magazine, which is due out next month. Jinu has kindly provided the recipes for these dishes, and they'll be published in the mag too!

It was a delicious lunch, and best of all was meeting a chef who is not vegan himself but who is so dedicated to creating great vegan meals. Thanks for being an ambassador for vegan cuisine, Jinu!

It's been two weeks since I announced the new improved marshmallow recipe and its accompanying prize draw - so today I very scientifically conducted a random draw of those who entered - and the winner is 'Dobsonites'. Congratulations! Email me your details, and I'll despatch it pronto!

It's all happening here!

2010-04-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Lots of great things happening here at Angel Food!

Yesterday I had a call confirming that my Green Gourmet cooking class is going ahead at Northcote College, starting on May 5. Since government funding was withdrawn for evening classes, a lot have been cancelled, so I'm very pleased about this one going ahead!

I've also just signed a contract to have a stand at the Auckland Gluten-Free Food & Allergy Show on May 29 and 30. It's about time I revealed the wonders of Angel Food's dairy-free and egg-free products to the allergy market.

Mmmm, cheddar Cheezly on crackers, and mozzarella Cheezly on pizza...

Finally, Sjaan and I are doing a Zest for Life healthy cooking demo this Sunday, focusing on incorporating whole grains into your diet. There are still a couple of spaces left, so don't be shy about emailing me! alice @ angelfood.co.nz

Oops, nearly forgot to tell you about the wonderful treat I had last night! Sorbet from Giapo on Queen St (in Auckland, that is). Not cheap but definitely worth it for a treat. So, so good. I had a scoop of chocolate sorbet and one of pineapple sorbet. And I wish I'd taken a photo, but I was too busy enjoying it!

Sweet little clouds

2010-04-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

I'm very happy to announce that Angel Food marshmallow mixes are now shipping with improved instructions for the making thereof!
The ingredients remain the same, but by adding another step to the procedure, I've made a much more consistent result. Phew!

If you've got a pack of the marshie mix languishing in your pantry, email me (alice at angelfood.co.nz) and I'll send you a PDF of the new directions, lickety split.

And if you'd like to go in the draw to win a free pack of marshie mix, just leave a comment at the end of this message.

Two bowls of deliciousness

2010-03-07T20:15:00.000-08:00

Lunch. At an exciting angle!

I'm renowned for my optimism, and this week my optimism has led to an oversupply of onions in our house, due to my wildly inaccurate guess at how many hot sausages (with onions) we could sell to raise funds to set up an op shop. (The op shop will raise funds for animal causes so, yes, we were holding a fundraiser for a fundraiser!)

Anyway, back to the onion mountain. Those which were already sliced, I cooked down for about an hour with a little tamari and balsamic vinegar, and froze in meal-sized batches. But first, I used some of them in this very simple dahl. (If you don't happen to have pre-cooked onions, you could simply cook the dahl for longer, until the onions are as soft as you like them, or replace them with a quicker-cooking vegetable. Don't forget to change the name of the dish too!)

The fennel seeds come from Mack's herb garden. They're so delicious; they add a lovely mellow sweetness, which works well with the onions.

Sweet onion dahl

1 cup split red lentils

1 1/2 cups onions, peeled, sliced and cooked until soft

2 1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon chilli powder

2 drops liquid smoke

1/4 teaspoon salt

Put all of the ingredients except the salt into a medium-sized pot.

Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on.

Stir occasionally to check that it's not sticking to the bottom; add a little more water if necessary.

Add salt, if necessary, at the end of the cooking time.

I enjoyed this for lunch with a mixture of leafy greens from the garden (silverbeet, magenta spreen and a couple of dandelion leaves) and green peas.

Brigadeiros nestled in a lovely little

bowl made by my gorgeous young cousin Alex.

I've also been enjoying these, the second recipe from the NY Times article on condensed milk. They're not as knock-your-socks-off as the chocolate fudge from the same article, but they're good. And they have an exotic name. I love the way they look like eggs in a nest... gives me some Easter inspiration!

Thank you, Erik Marcus and the New York Times

2010-03-04T12:46:00.000-08:00

I follow many blogs, but Erik Marcus' blog is probably the most info-rich of 'em all. He posts several times most days, and is always brief and interesting. Usually I agree with his posts, but yesterday we definitely disagreed! He was outraged that the New York Times would dedicate page-space to lauding the resurgence of sweetened condensed milk, whereas I - as the proud importer of Olvebra sweetened condensed soya milk - was very happy about it!

My boy Mack is pretty happy about condensed milk, too.

I promptly made the NYT's easy fudge recipe and boy oh boy, it's really good! And ridiculously easy. Erik Marcus, if you have a sweet tooth, get in touch and I will send you fudge. Seriously.

For everybody else, here's the recipe, so you can make your own.

Absurdly Easy Mocha-Peanut Fudge

Adapted from Michael Chu's recipe published in the New York Times

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup dairy-free margarine (I used Olivani)

500g dairy-free dark chocolate (I used Barry-Callebaut chocolate drops)
1 can sweetened condensed soya milk
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
1/2 cup chopped peanuts

METHOD

1. Line an 8-inch-square baking pan with baking paper.
2. Make a double boiler by sitting a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water)
3. Put all the ingredients except the peanuts into the metal bowl. Stir gently as the chocolate melts. You want to heat it only as much as necessary for the chocolate to melt.
4. Mix in the nuts (I kept a small amount aside to sprinkle on top) and pour the delicious mixture into prepared pan. Refrigerate until set (at least 2 hours).
5. Use the baking paper to lift the fudge out of the pan and cut it into pieces using a large knife.

Just a little farewell teaser shot of the melting-in-the-bowl....

Life and death. Mostly life.

2010-02-28T17:01:00.000-08:00

What a busy couple of weeks I've had!
I'm involved in a few wonderful projects at the moment and life is whizzing by very quickly.
And then a wonderful young man named Josh passed away, just over a week ago. He was a very very close friend of close friends of ours, and I was honoured to be asked to do the catering for his memorial service. Providing food for people on special occasions is always a very positive experience for me, but on this occasion there was the added element of seeing a very caring group of people organising the best possible send-off for their cherished friend.

On Saturday I did a talk about veganism at the Body Mind Spirit Expo. The samples of chocolate mousse and salad wraps and polenta with hummus went down very well!

And on Sunday, most of the day was spent hanging out with the Chiella team. 'Chiella' is a movie project I'm working on with friends, and Sunday was all about recording the soundtrack (two of our young stars are in the photo above). It was a lot of fun. I'll write more about Chiella here in the next couple of weeks!

Sunday evening was spent with another group of friends, with whom Mack and I are setting up a charity shop to raise funds for animal causes.

I love having lots of projects on the go, but I sometimes feel overwhelmed - when I write it all down, I realise a little overwhelmedness is not surprising! Would I trade it all in for a normal job? No way!

Proof that I don't only cook sweets

2010-02-19T11:57:00.000-08:00

My blog is supposed to be about healthy vegan living, but I'm very aware that I've mostly blogged about treat foods! That's because the treat foods tend to be the most photogenic - and the healthiest meals I make tend to be our dinners, and by the time dinner is ready, the light isn't good for taking photos. Is that enough excuses? Okay!
So, here's a photo of last night's dinner. At the front is a very simple chilli made with canned kidney beans, cumin seed, white beetroot from our garden (I actually thought it was silverbeet and was just using the leaves, until I noticed they were growing great big bulbous roots!), some tomatoes from our garden, and coriander leaves added right at the end.
Behind the chilli is grilled polenta seasoned with dried basil and sundried tomatoes.
The salad - mostly from our garden - is covered with a generous dollop of cashew basil sauce. I'm not thrilled with the khaki colour, but it tastes great.
As I took this photo, Mack was calling out, "Aaaargh! Stop photographing your dinner, so we can watch the movie!" He was right, it was time for the movie. ('There will be blood'. It was good and unnerving.)

And then we ate these: the world's easiest macaroons. Just a spoonful of sweetened condensed soyamilk plus as much thread coconut as it would hold, squished into bite-sized balls and baked until the tops were golden. The original idea was to put melted chocolate on top - and that would have been great - but I took the lazier/smarter approach of putting a choc drop on top of each and putting the tray back into the still-warm oven so the chocolate would melt.

Fluffier, mousse-ier buttercream frosting

2010-02-16T09:42:00.000-08:00

I know that, for some people, the buttercream frosting is the best bit of a cake. The cake, in fact, is a mere vehicle for the buttercream: a tiresome necessity. Certain swish bakeries in New York City have started selling 'frosting shots' to appease those customers. (Yes, that's a serving of buttercream frosting sans cake.)

Those people probably won't be thrilled by my innovation... but I am! I too love the icing on the cake, but it's just a bit too heavy on the fat and sugar for my taste. So I started playing with adding Instant Clear Jel to the mix. The result is a wonderfully light, mousse-like concoction and I'm delighted with it! I went a little crazy with the flavourings - but I think there's room in this recipe for extra flavours, because you're not overpowering them with the fat and sugar.

Without further ado, here's the recipe.

Chocolate mousse buttercream frosting
350g (3 1/2 cups) icing sugar
1/2 cup ICJ
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup water
180g (1 cup) margarine
Optional: 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke (true!), 1/8 teaspoon chilli powder, 1/8 teaspoon salt
Sift dry ingredients into bowl of stand mixer.
Stir to combine.
Add water, and beat slowly until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated.
Add the margarine and beat on high speed until the frosting is light and fluffy and fabulous.

While we're on the subject of liquid smoke and Instant Clear Jel, those are just two of the specialty ingredients I sell. (Nice segue, huh?) Here's the brand spankin' new price list drawn up by the marvellous Mr Hossack. To order, please email me your requirements and I'll get back to you re postage cost and payment options.

Whole lotta love

2010-02-13T23:25:00.000-08:00

I made this wedding cake on Friday for our lovely vegan friends Ana and Andrew. The cake is chocolate, the filling is chocolate mousse, and the icing is chocolate buttercream. I was so honoured to make this for them, and it was lovely to hear the comments of many of the non-vegan party guests, who were blown away by the idea of a decadently delicious vegan cake!

I've found a great trick for making buttercream that's less sweet and less fatty than usual - I've started adding Instant Clear Jel. It's amazing stuff. I'm still finding my way with it, but I'll post a lower fat, lower sugar buttercream recipe here soon.

Yesterday evening was our bi-monthly vegan potluck dinner, and it was also our gorgeous friend Linda's birthday. I wanted to make something special to mark the occasion, but knowing Linda isn't so keen on sweets, I thought I'd try a savoury cake. This is it! The base is cornbread and the 'frosting' is pureed kumara (sweet potato). I added a little tomato paste to improve the colour of the kumara (and a little Instant Clear Jel to make it a pipeable consistency - yes, I'm hooked on that stuff!). I cut one of our home-grown stripey tomatoes into a heart shape for the centre, sprinkled it with chopped peanuts, and put tiny basil leaves around the edge.
It's very appropriate that Linda's birthday is so close to Valentine's Day, because she's the most loving person I've ever met. Check out her website.

Snacks for sustainability

2010-02-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight's the first meeting of the year for Grey Lynn 2030, our local Transition Town group.

I'm honoured to be providing the munchables:

Salad sandwiches with cumin hummus

Sushi filled with roast eggplant strips and gingered-up carrot

Fudgey-and-surprisingly-healthy chocolate brownie

Fudgey chocolate brownie

1 large kumara (sweet potato) (about 1 1/2 cups)

½ cup dates

1½ cups dairy-free chocolate chips

3/4 cup potato starch

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.
Grease or line a loaf tin and set aside.
Peel and dice the kumara.
Steam the kumara and the dates until soft (about 10 minutes).
While the kumara is cooking, put the chocolate chips, potato starch and salt in the bowl of the food processor.
Once the kumara is cooked and the dates softened, transfer to the food processor and blend with the chocolate chips (the heat from the kumara will melt the chocolate), potato starch and salt, and blend until smooth.
Add the walnuts and pulse to mix.
Scoop the batter into the prepared tin and smooth it with a spatula.
Bake for about 25 minutes until the top is dry and slightly crunchy.
Let cool before removing from the pan.

Because this recipe is relatively low in fat, it will dry out quite quickly – so eat it up within 24 hours (be sensible, people!) or store in the freezer.

Based on the recipe at http://www.manifestvegan.com/2010/01/shiraz-ganache-covered-brownies/

Cheers!
Alice

Playing with flavours

2010-02-06T10:47:00.000-08:00

I haven't made meringues for months and months!

For several months, I just couldn't. My stand mixer was standing idle, waiting for parts to arrive from Australia (yes, it did occur to me that maybe some helpful staff member was swimming between here and Australia - how else could it take so long..?). But it was my own fault the mixer needed to go to the fixer; I taxed it by asking it to soften some fondant for me. It tried valiantly, and then something 'went' in the gear box thingy.

And then life got insanely busy, with so many projects on the go and so much camping to be done over summer.

Anyway, yesterday I finally felt inspired to make meringues. We've going to a big beach barbecue this afternoon and some friends for dinner tonight, and I'll be taking meringues along to both.

The first batch I made were cocoa-almond. I've done this flavour before, but the recipe has dropped off my website in the changeover. All I did was add 2 teaspoons of cocoa and 1/4 cup of ground almonds to the standard Angel Food vegan meringue recipe. I dusted the tops with cocoa before baking, and baked them for just 20 minutes, so the insides are still a little gooey.

Then I made orange-chilli meringues, and they're my new favourite! I replaced the water in the standard recipe with fresh orange juice, and added about 1 teaspoon of orange zest, 1/8 teaspoon chilli powder, a pinch of salt and 2 tiny drops of orange colouring. They took 30 minutes to bake.

Next time I'd add a tiny bit more colouring, and sprinkle some zest on top before baking.

The colouring is quite hard to gauge, because it intensifies as the cookies bake and the water evaporates.

This last photo ain't pretty, but the taste is fabulous! It's a baked banana stuffed with dark choc drops and crystallised ginger. So good.

Sweeeeeeeeeet.

2010-02-03T12:29:00.000-08:00

If you have fond memories of childhood treats made with sweetened condensed milk but you no longer consume dairy products, then this is the business!

It's creamy, sweet and sticky - just the thing for fudge and gooey biscuit slices. Eating it straight out of the can is fun, too, although of course I couldn't condone that kind of behaviour.

I haven't had a chance to add it to the products page on my website, but I'm retailing it for $5 a can as a special introductory price this month. Shoot me an email if you're interested. (That's NZ$. I don't know of anyone selling it by mail order in other countries. I'm happy to post outside of NZ but the postage will be a bit costly because it's a heavy product. But it may be worth it!)

Did I mention that it's vegan? It's vegan. And gluten-free. And because it's made in Brazil (from non-GMO soyabeans grown in the north of that huge country, not the south where rainforests are being obliterated for producing soy for cattle feed...) you get a free mini-lesson in Portugese on each label.

For the animals

2010-01-24T15:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made six packed lunches for some vegans who were at a meeting at the Auckland SPCA. The regular caterer couldn't provide any vegan food, and I was thrilled to be able to help out.

The sushi contains pickled ginger, kumara (sweet potato) baked in a tomato/chilli/liquid smoke marinade, and crunchy red capsicum.

The pita pockets are filled with cashew cheese spread and lotsa salad veges.

Apparently there were a few omnivores eyeing the vegan goodies enviously...!

If we hadn't just returned from camping the day before, I would have done a big tray of mini vegan cupcakes for everybody, but there just wasn't time.

Also yesterday, Mack and I met up with my cousin Helen and her daughter Alex, and Helen's cousin Mark and his son Joe, at the Parnell pools. The kids swam and swam and swam, and the adults swam and spa-ed and talked. And then we played mini golf!

Lovely welcome-home email

2010-01-21T21:30:00.000-08:00

Just got back from a few days' camping and among the many emails in my in-box was this treasure:

"I ordered and made my own vegan marshmallows. i thoroughly enjoyed the entire process! it was so great watching the batch grown in size, and taste testing along the way! I have so many treats i want to make with my marshmallows, I don't even know where to begin!

Thank you for providing a wonderful product that is super easy to make and share."

Nice, huh?!

Just briefly...

2010-01-14T00:08:00.000-08:00

... there's a new New Zealand vegan email list been started up, for disseminating important info like events and new products. Also a great place to ask questions and find resources. Email me if you'd like to sign up.
Cheers!

Testing for teaching

2010-01-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

My trio of healthy cooking classes, mostly aimed at people eating a 'normal' diet and starting to suffer some of the health consequences, start on February 14 - very appropriate, since we tax our hearts hard with a rich diet! (Not to mention other parts of the body that depend on healthy blood flow...)

I'm in the full flurry of recipe testing for the classes and have had some delicious surprises (check out the choc brownie below) and some disappointments (kumara frittata definitely needs more work).

This version of the brownies is from www.manifestvegan.com. And they're delicious. But, as usual, I just couldn't resist tweak-ety tweak tweaking... I healthed it up a little, and it's gooood.

And just for laughs, check out the promotional video my friend Hana and her friends made for me. (I'm sure there's a way to put the actual video here, not just a link, but I can't figure it out!)

This Sunday (January 17) Sjaan and I are doing a free introduction to the classes - I'll be demonstrating a couple of recipes and there'll be tasting of those and several more. If you're in Auckland and would like to come along, please let me know!

Mmmmm, breakfast.

2010-01-04T11:38:00.000-08:00

This is what I have for breakfast every day. Half a cup of quinoa rinsed (thanks for the tip Sjaan!) then cooked with one cup of water for 15 minutes. Top with a tablespoon of molasses, 2 tablespoons of ground linseed, a sprinkling of sesame seeds, a small handful of walnuts, a teaspoon of cinnamon and fresh fruit. Those strawberries are from our garden, yum!

Seasonal greetings all rolled into one post!

2009-12-31T13:15:00.000-08:00

Rice paper parcels filled with day lily petals, coriander, ong choi leaves,

eggless aioli and smokey tempeh. Part of our Christmas Day feast.

It's New Year's Day so, happy 2010 everybody!
We've had a week of friends and family and feasting, and it's all left me in a very good frame of mind for a brand new year.
I'm not one for New Year's resolutions, but who I want to be this year is calm, brave, compassionate and joyful.
My first big challenge will be my new series of heart-healthy cooking classes which start, very appropriately, on February 14. It's all about changing habits and I had time to think about that when I caught the ferry across Auckland Harbour yesterday to visit some friends and collect Mack. Normally I'd take the car, just because it seems easier (actually it's much easier and way more pleasant to go by bus and ferry and have someone else do the driving!). It was sunny and windy and I had such a lovely trip, and it reminded me to be willing to do things differently.

Me and Mack on the ferry heading back to the city,

all wind-blown and squinty-eyed.

This little mousse of mine

2009-12-15T12:12:00.000-08:00

So good!

On Sunday, I'm going to be filming a little promo for next year's cooking classes and this is one of the dishes I'll be including - I figure if anything can get people signing up, it's chocolate mousse!

I topped it with my cashew cream and some orange zest. To be honest, the zest was purely there to add a little colour, but once the photography was done and Mack and I had gobbled up the mousse, we agreed it really added a lot to the flavour, too!

Anyhoo, without further ado, here's the recipe.

Chocolate mousse

120g (3/4 cup) dark chocolate

250g silken tofu

1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

1. Put the tofu, sugar, vanilla and salt in a food processor and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary.
2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (which can simply be a metal or glass bowl sitting over a pot of boiling water).
3. Add the melted chocolate to the mixture in the food processor and process again until well blended.
4. Pour into serving dishes and allow to set.

It's an easy way to impress the socks off anyone, particularly tofu-haters and vegan-doubters!

Exciting development

2009-12-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

I love teaching cooking classes. For much of this year, I've been learning, on the job, how to teach. I've learned how thoroughly organised you need to be - but I also learned that it's not a complete disaster if an ingredient gets left at home (one class had the thrill of seeing me mime the making of split pea soup because I forgot the split peas!).

Anyway, on to the exciting news: in early 2010 I'll be teaching a series of three classes for non-vegans on how to cook delicious low-fat vegan meals. My very savvy friend Sjaan Evans is working on the project with me, bringing her nutrition expertise (she's studying for a Master of Human Nutrition) to the party. We want to help people with diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Can't wait!

I'd had teaching on my 'list of things I want to do' for quite a while - thanks SAFE for getting me started by asking me to teach a series of classes at the beginning of this year!

Hana and me. She organised the first lot of SAFE cooking classes for me and has assisted me brilliantly at many a class since then. Cheers Hana!

Channelling my inner granola-making Earth Mother

2009-12-03T11:49:00.000-08:00

My boy Mack likes cereal for breakfast.

I hate shopping for cereal. It's hard to find one that he likes that is vegan, isn't full of sugar and evil additives without buying the expensive imported organic varieties.

Finally, I realised I should be making the cereal myself - doh!

It tastes great, I can use mostly organic ingredients without taking out a second mortgage, and we can vary the flavourings each time. (Mack loves to cook and my plan is that he'll help out and eventually take over the role of Granola Maker.)

Gourmet granola

2 tablespoons coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

3 tablespoons sweetener (I used shakkar, aka jaggery, aka Rapadura)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla powder (or vanilla essence)

Pinch of salt

Sprinkle of powdered ginger, ground cloves and nutmeg

1/2 cup walnut pieces

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1 1/2 cup quick oats

Melt coconut oil, mix in cinnamon, shakkar, vanilla and spices.
Add nuts and seeds, stir well so they’re coated with the seasonings.
Add oats and stir well again.
Bake 180C 10 minutes, stir and bake for another 5 – 10 minutes, until walnuts are crunchy.
To serve, add fresh and/or dried fruit.

Bonus pic of roadside roses. I always prefer to put my gardening energy into things we can eat, but I do love miniature roses. I saw these beauties while I was on a long walk yesterday.

Lashings of cashew-licious cream!!

2009-11-27T13:13:00.000-08:00

As the importer and distributor of the only dairy-free cream available in New Zealand, why on earth would I come up with a delicious recipe for cashew cream that people can make at home?!
Well, Christmas is coming up and lots of people want dairy-free cream to go with their Christmas desserts, and the Soyatoo cream has been selling so fast that I'm going to be completely out of stock a couple of weeks before Christmas.
And I like to be helpful.
And I know that no matter how much people love this recipe, there will always be plenty of people who're happy to pay for the convenience of buying dairy-free cream in a box.

Cashew cream

1 cup raw cashews (pieces or whole)
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 tablespoons icing sugar

Put the cashews in a pot, cover with water and bring to the boil.
Turn the heat off once it’s come to the boil and leave for about an hour (but at least 30 minutes).
Drain and rinse the cashews, and put them in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients.
Blend until very smooth. Depending on the gruntiness of your food processor, you may need to add a little more water.

It's luxuriously creamy but very healthy - so healthy, in fact, that I'm enjoying some on top of my quinoa-and-fresh-fruit breakfast as I write!!

'tis the season to be thankful

2009-11-24T10:58:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty excited to be going to my first Thanksgiving celebration this Friday. I'll be one of a few Kiwis amongst a gaggle of Americans at an event organised by a friend of Billy's.
I love the idea of having a specific time of the year to acknowledge the many things we have to be thankful for. So I made a list of some of the things for which I'm grateful:

Nico and Mack, my beautiful sons
Billy, my lovely husband
Angel Food, my vegan business
The miniature rosebud I found on the footpath last week, which opened into this lovely flower

Found-on-the-footpath item #2: a brocade dress which was in a pile of free stuff left over from a garage sale at the Buddhist Centre! It was, ahem, a little tight on the hips, so I've made it into a top and I think it's going to serve me well.

Which reminds me, I'm grateful for the sewing machine my parents gave me 20-plus years ago and which is still going strong!
I'm grateful that the gathering on Friday will be vegetarian and vegan.
I'm grateful that I have so many things for which to be grateful, AND that I know when to shut up about it!! So that's all for now!!

Recipe: polenta crisps

2009-11-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

I love polenta. It's versatile, healthy, cheap, naturally fat-free and delicious! Last night I tested out an idea for using it to make crisps. I swear the idea was original, although a quick internet search revealed that I wasn't the first to have this original idea... never mind!

I'm not really happy with the light in this photo but it's too late, because I've been snacking on the props while writing this! Yum.

Baked polenta crisps

3 cups water
1 tablespoon stock powder (I use Rapunzel)
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 teaspoons savoury yeast
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 cup polenta (coarse cornmeal)

In a large pot, bring the water and seasonings (i.e. everything except the polenta) to the boil.
With the heat still on high, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, pour the polenta into the boiling water.
Turn the heat down so it's simmering but not splattering too much (do watch out for the splatters - they hurt!).
Simmer for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.
It's done when it's thick enough that the path cleared along the bottom of the pot by the wooden spoon doesn't immediately fill in with polenta. Make sense? (Must take a photo of that stage next time I make this.)
When it's done, divide the gloopy goodness between two baking sheets and spread it out as thinly and as evenly as possible. Allow to cool.
Cut into squares (or other shapes if you're feeling a little crazy) and bake, on baking paper, at 180C for about 30 minutes. How long it takes and how crispy they get is determined by how hot your oven is and how evenly you managed to spread the goop. Either way, it'll taste good!!

Being pushed beyond the Comfort Zone

2009-11-19T12:51:00.000-08:00

I've been vegan for more than five years now and making delicious vegan food just seems completely easy and normal to me. I have to admit to a twinge of impatience when people say to me things like, "I'm too busy to be vegan" or "I'd love to cook you something vegan but I have no idea what to make".
So it was a humbling moment when, invited to a couple of raw vegan potlucks (are there raw potlucks that aren't vegan?), I had to step out of my own comfort zone.

This is a green pea hummus I made for Colin's raw potluck. I used frozen peas (I hope they're considered a raw food? Not sure though!) blended with lemon juice and garlic and a little salt, decorate with red capsicum.

For Barb's potluck, I kept delaying thinking about it, so ended up with very few options (and I suspect many an omnivore intending to make a vegan dish might do the same and therefore be less than satisfied with the results, and prove themselves right that vegan food just ain't that good...!). I ended up cutting spinach leaves in half and making mini taco-esque munchies filled with matchstick carrots, asparagus, guacamole and karengo (NZ seaweed which = yum).

They tasted good, but the guacamole meant it was too fatty for Billy to eat. I think raw food tends to rely more heavily (no pun intended) on fatty foods like nuts, seeds and avocado. Or maybe that's just the 'treat' food that people make for shared meals.

Truffles of gratitude

2009-11-11T16:36:00.000-08:00

A tray of truffles I made for a wedding a few months ago.

Every year I intend to thank various people whose input makes my life run a little more smoothly: the people who print my packaging, the people who make sure my car is safe, the people who do my accounts, the people who work at the local library.

And each year I leave it too late, get too busy and miss the boat! Not this year, no sirree.

Last year I felt particularly bad about missing the boat the previous Christmas, because the lovely old guy who'd been my accountant for about 15 years passed away. And I probably never told him how much I appreciated him. The year before, the guy who'd been fixing my car for almost 20 years retired, and I felt bad about having had the 'thank people with Christmas goodies' idea but not having acted on it.

So this year, I'm making chocolate truffles for all those important people. People will be thanked!

This is the recipe I'll be using.

Chocolate truffles

¾ cup raw cashews
¾ cup water
500g dark chocolate

Blend cashews and water to a smooth cream.
Melt chocolate in a double boiler.
Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then fold in the cashew cream slowly (you don't want to create bubbles).
Cool in the fridge for a couple of hours, then roll into balls and roll in various coatings.

Best eaten at room temperature.

Very more-ish.

Walking and eating

2009-11-07T23:22:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin millet bake

Tonight's dinner was a tester for this week's Northcote class. It's a pumpkin millet bake that's very easy to put together... except for chopping up the pumpkin! I love pumpkin but I'd use it more often if it wasn't so time-consuming to chop and peel. Anybody have any good pumpkin-wrangling tips?

We're having it for dinner again tomorrow night, as I want to make some tweaks to the recipe. I'll post it here after Wednesday's class!

I walked home from meeting some friends this afternoon on Vegan Society business (sounds important, huh?!) and I saw this subtle graffiti on a bus-stop advert:

The Lotto promoters assume that yachts and plane travel are what people want, but a low-key graffiti artiste added a more sensible request:

Unfortunately it'll take more than NZ$5million to achieve that, but I love the subtle subversiveness.

Yay, World Vegan Day!!

2009-11-01T20:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my sixth World Vegan Day and it was the best yet! We organised a barbecue for 60 people and I'm happy to report that it went fabulously well. Phew!
Everything went according to plan (or near enough), including the weather - and that's saying something for Auckland, where 'changeable' is the only safe weather prediction to make.
To make it easy for catering purposes, I insisted that admission be by prepaid tickets only, and limited space meant we could only fit 60 people in. The tickets sold out so fast, with scarcely any promotion, that we'll be looking for a much bigger venue to sell out next year. Looking forward to it already!

My husband Billy, my boy Mack, and me.

The highlight of the day for me was the moment when I announced that we were relaunching the Vegan Society of Aotearoa New Zealand. Yes!! After a couple of comatose years, the society is up and running again. We've got big plans and we're aiming to make a real impact and save lots of lives.

Thanks for coming, people! Come back next year, and bring your friends.

It just doesn't seem right!

2009-10-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

When I first went to the wholesale grocery a few years back, I was shocked to see great big sacks of muffin mix (just add water and egg!) and tubs of ready-made custard and sauce. Suddenly it was quite clear why many cafes serve not-so-great food that's very similar to that served by most of the other cafes ...

Yesterday I spotted a new ready-made oddity at the wholesalers: frozen sushi. That can't be good, surely?

Feta and blue cheese got together...

2009-10-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

... and had a vegan baby. Its name is fermented tofu.
It tastes good in cornbread and on rice.
It's got all sorts of flavour busy-ness going on and I like it a lot!
Given that cheese is such a big culinary deal, I thought this baby was worthy of my first-ever blog post.