Caramel Pecan Bars

 

If you saw my last post you would know that there is sickness in my household and unfortunately I have not managed to escape it. I think I was able to halt the severity of the infection with my soup but I still managed to come down with it a little. I have another problem too - cooking and eating are two of my passions and I would probably have to be on my death bed to stay out of the kitchen. So knowing that I’m not terribly well but still had this urge to cook something I attempted these Caramel Pecan Bars (from Vegan Cookies). This is a fairly easy recipe and the results are fantastic. It results in a thick chewy caramel with yummy pecans stirred through it on a lovely biscuit base with a hint of cinnamon. These are awesome and well worth the 20 minutes of effort (not including baking and cooling time). 

Crust

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• Large pinch of salt
• ¾ cup non-hydrogenated margarine, slightly softened

Topping

• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/3 cup non-dairy milk (soy, rice, almond, etc.)
• 1½ cups dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup brown rice syrup
• 2 tablespoons melted non hydrogenated margarine
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with aluminium foil, making sure the foil completely covers the sides of the pan, with about 2 inches folded outside over the edges. Spray the bottom and sides of the pan generously with non-stick cooking spray

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Use a pastry cutter or two knives held together to cut in the margarine until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Pour crumbs into the prepared baking pan and press down evenly and very firmly, making sure to press the mixture all the way to the edges of the pan.

Bake the crust for 8 to 10 minutes until very firm and very lightly browned. Remove the pan from the oven and set it aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and non-dairy milk until foamy.

Stir in the dark brown sugar, brown rice syrup, melted margarine, vanilla and salt, until smooth.

Fold in the pecans and pour the mixture onto the crust, using a spatula to spread the topping evenly.

Return the pan to the oven and bake for 28 to 30 minutes, or until the filling is rapidly bubbling. Place the pain on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes; then move it to the refrigerator to finish cooling and setting. Chill for at least two hours, or, even better, overnight.

To slide completely cooled bars, grab hold of the foil and carefully lift the whole thing out of the pan and onto a heavy cutting board.

Peel away the foil and cut bars with a heavy, sharp knife.

Vegetable Noodle Soup

I was planning to go to Mt Lofty this weekend and play with the camera however Mike came down with a chest infection on Friday. So seeing as there was no chance of us leaving the house this weekend I decided to make a Vegetable Noodle Soup to help kill this infection. I love this Chinese soup by Kylie Kwong  – it’s so good with lots of ginger  to promote perspiration and help eliminate chills and garlic which is a natural antibacterial/ antiviral/ antibiotic.  The secret to this soup though is to make your own stock. All the goodies are in the stock and then enhanced by adding vegetables to the stock when serving. Just what the doctor ordered.

Vegetable Stock

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 medium-sized red onions, finely diced
• 15 slices of ginger
• 10 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
• 6 sticks of celery, sliced
• 10 spring onions, trimmed and cut into 5cm lengths
• 3/4 cup of sliced coriander roots and stems
• 6 litres of cold water

Heat oil in a large stockpots, add onions, ginger, garlic and salt, and sauté over high heat for 1 minute. Add carrots, celery, spring onions and coriander, reduce heat and sauté, stirring often, for a further 3 minutes or until the vegetables are very lightly browned.

Add water to the pot and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer, skimming the surface with a ladle to remove any impurities.

Turn down heat until surface of the stock is barely moving and cook for 1 hour, skimming as required.

Remove stock from the stove, strain through muslin (or a clean Chux cloth) an store, covered in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for 2-3 months.

 

Vegetable Noodle Soup

Recipe can also be found on LifeStyle Food

• 1 small Cucumber
• 1 medium carrot peeled
• 220g udon noodles
• 6 cups Chinese Vegetable Stock (see above)
• ¼ cup Soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Ginger Julienne
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 2 sticks Celery finely sliced on the diagonal
• 100 g fresh oyster mushrooms stems discarded and caps sliced
• 150 g fresh shiitake mushrooms stems discarded and caps sliced
• 150 g snow pea shoots mange-tout, trimmed and finely sliced
• 2.3 cups finely shredded Chinese cabbages
• 1 cup fresh bean sprout
• 0.3 cup Mint leaf
• 2 large Red chilli's finely sliced on the diagonal

Using a vegetable peeler, finely slice cucumber and carrot lengthways into ribbons. Cut slices into a fine julienne and set aside.

Place noodles in a colander and rinse well under hot running water, then drain.

Bring stock to the boil in a large heavy-based pot. Add soy sauce, ginger and sugar and stir to combine. Reduce heat, add drained noodles and celery and simmer for 1 minute.

Toss in reserved carrots, mushrooms, snow peas and cabbage and simmer for a further minute or until noodles are just tender.

Remove pot from stove. Ladle soup into large bowls.  Place reserved cucumber, bean sprouts, mint and chilli in small separate bowls and serve alongside soup.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar to be released and shipped to Australia. I love Vegan cupcakes and had to have this one to complete the collection. So when it finally got here I was excited! I had to make something from it this weekend and asked Mike to pick something, anything as I was going to cook up a storm. He managed to pick the recipe which you can find on the PPK website but never-mind they still taste awesome!!!

 Chocolate dough:

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons non-dairy milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3  + 2 tablespoons cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:

• 3/4 cup natural unsalted peanut butter, crunchy or creamy style
• 1/2 tablespoons of salt
• 2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 2 to 3 tablespoons Carination soy cream or non-dairy milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl combine oil, sugar, maple syrup, non-dairy milk and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Sift in flour, cocoa powder, black cocoa if using, baking soda and salt. Mix to form a moist dough.

Make the filling. In another mixing bowl beat together peanut butter, confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons of soy cream and vanilla extract to form a moist but firm dough. If peanut butter dough is too dry (as different natural peanut butters have different moisture content), stir in remaining tablespoon of non-dairy milk. If dough is too wet knead in a little extra powdered sugar.

Preheat oven to 180 °C. Line baking sheet with baking paper.

Shape the cookies: Create the centres of the cookies by rolling the peanut butter dough into 24 balls. Scoop a generous tablespoon of chocolate dough, flatten into a disc and place a peanut butter ball in the centre. Fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter centre and roll the chocolate ball into an smooth ball between your palms. Place on a sheet of waxed paper and repeat with remaining dough. If desired gently flatten cookies a little, but this is not necessary.

Place dough balls on lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart and bake for 10 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and let cookies for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to complete cooling. Store cookies in tightly covered container. If desired warm cookies in a microwave for 10 to 12 seconds before serving.

YUMMO!!

Basic Chocolate Cupcake with Coconut Pecan Fudge Frosting

 

Back in the swing of cooking and loving having time to actually cook, we made these for Mike to eat during the week (oh and me as a after dinner snack – but they were really for him). I was browsing through my cookbooks and came across this recipe (published on Vegan Peace). I’d eyed these cupcakes before thinking they look pretty good and so decided to tackle them. Like the rest of the cupcakes in “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World” these did not fail to satisfy and we even got rave reviews from Mike’s work colleges.

The combination of a really chocolatey cupcake and the Coconut Pecan Fudge work really well together and it’s all very simple to make. I think the Fudge could also be used in small tartlets or the like as it is so good. The Fudge apparently turns the cupcakes into German Chocolate Cake Cupcakes, which interestingly enough did not originate in Germany. Whatever you call them though they are yummy!!!

Basic Chocolate Cupcake

Makes 12 cupcakes

This recipe is the basis for so many great chocolate cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180˚C and line muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat till foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat till no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are okay).
3. Pour into liners, filling three-quarters of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely.

 

Coconut Pecan Fudge Frosting 

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup rice milk
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot or cornstarch
• Scant pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon whiskey or bourbon, optional.

Directions

1. Whisk rice milk, arrowroot, and salt in a small bowl or measuring cup. In a large stainless-steel saucepan over medium heat, stir together coconut milk and brown sugar. Cook stirring occasionally, till mixture starts to boil. Turn heat down to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for five minutes. Whisk rice milk mixture once more and slowly pour into the coconut milk mixture, stirring constantly to incorporate.
2. Stir mixture continuously till it darkens again, gets very thick and smooth, and arrowroot is cooked, about 6 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and beat in vanilla and whiskey, chopped pecans, and coconut. Stir till everything is coated and completely combined. Cool to room temperature before frosting cupcakes.

I found that I had a lot of frosting and uneven levelled cupcakes. Seems that I can’t get them pretty and level but I can improvise. So i cut a little hole in the middle of each one and filled it with frosting to try to level them out.

Meet the Head Chef of Vegan Gourmet Caravan

It occurred to me, while looking through vegan blogs, that there is a theme and many employee the same type of head chef. So I thought I’d introduced you to the head chef of VGC.

Name: Skadi.

Age: 4.

Occupation: Head Chef and Supervisor of all kitchen activity.

Breed: British Short Hair.

Likes: Long naps, Tofutti ice-cream, boxes, bouncy balls, the water tap and singing to the birds.

Dislikes: Sudden loud noises, nap interrupters, her travel box and surprisingly all meat apart from tuna (and we had nothing to do with that).

Nuggets with Chips

Sometimes – Sunday morning after a late night or when you come home late after long day at work – the most cooking you want to do is put the oven on. You don’t want to see a spoon, mixing bowl or chopping board. All you want is the TV and a meal. Usually at this stage you’re also looking for some junk to eat. We’ve trailed a few things from the supermarket freezer and thought we’d post one of them – there will be more to follow!

The Mains:

Fry’s Vegetarian Chicken-Style Nuggets

Ingredients: Vegetable protein (Soya), Flavourings, Wheat protein, Wheat flour, Vegetable oil, Sea salt, Garlic.

The Side Dish:

McCain Healthy Choice Frozen Chips

Ingredients: Potato (97%), canola oil, salt

Condiments:

Any sauce and salt you like – we like: Sweet chilli sauce (an oldie but a goodie)or Smokin' Mango Chilli Sauce

Verdict:

The Fry’s nuggets are pretty good. We’ve had them a couple of times and like the flavour and texture – just like a nugget. They’re not too fatty or covered in oil. Not too flavour packed I find the more you eat of them the more you like them! They made even better with a sauce. We like to eat them for a late morning breakfast or lunch.

Update: It appears that Skadi is also a fan of these nuggets.

Brooklyn Pad Thai

 

Our blog looks a little neglected and it's true we're bad parents but as some of you would know Mike and I have just returned from a month long holiday touring Turkey and Egypt. It was such an amazing trip and a well earned break for both of us. Turkey is absolutely amazing with so many spectacular sites and Egypt is a completely different world ((we'll post some pictures at some stage). The only downside to the trip is that being Vegan is not always the easiest eating style, especially when your tour includes many hotel buffets aimed at tourists - think nothing but meat and cheese, salads yes but you can't trust the water the veggies were washed in. So we didn't have a wonderful gourmet journey but we weren't expecting to which is why when we got home we were dying for something Vegan and yummy!!!

So last night we called in the experts to solve our food crisis by grabbing Vegan with a Vengeance off the bookshelf. We wanted something fast and easy for after work but tasty and awesome to fulfil our food lust after eating token roast veggies at international buffets. We searched through the book growing hungrier by the second until we came across the recipe for Brooklyn Pad Thai. It was everything we wanted - different to what we had eaten, fast, easy and incredibly yummy looking. Without hesitation we started cooking and it was fantastic. One of the best Pad Thai's we've had and we really loved the slight heat from the addition of the chillies. I think it's definitely become one of our after work favourites.

Here is the recipe but we've modified it a little to our liking.

Ingredients:

for the noodles:

450g rice noodles
peanut oil
450g tofu, drained and pressed, cut small - we used Soyco Thai flavoured tofu (which went really well)
1 medium red onion, cut in half and sliced thinly
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tbs finely chopped lemongrass 
125g bean sprouts
8 spring onions, sliced into 4cm lengths
2 small dried red chillies, crumbled
50g chopped roasted peanuts
lime wedges for serving

for the sauce:

6 tbs tamari
6 tbs sugar
2 tbs tomato paste
2 tbs sweet chilli sauce
3 tbs rice vinegar
3 tbs tamarind concentrate or lime juice

Put it all together:

Isa suggests that you make this in two batches so the noodles don't go soggy- which works out well if you want to make it go for two nights (we did!).
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce together and prepare noodles according to package.
Preheat your wok or frying pan, med-high to high heat. Add peanut oil and fry the tofu until crispy. This should take around 5 minutes - but I liked my tofu cooked so I just taste tested. Remove from pan and set aside. You may want to rest it on absorbent paper to get rid of some of the oil.
Clean the wok (especially if you used the marinaded tofu like we did) preheat, add oil, and add half the red onion, stir fry for 30 seconds. Add half the garlic and half the lemongrass, stir-fry for another 30 seconds. Add half the sauce, and when it starts to bubble (almost immediately), add half the cooked noodles and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Then add half the tofu, bean sprouts, scallions, chillies, and peanuts stir for another 30-60 seconds, then transfer serving bowls and serve with a lime wedge.

It says to serve 4, but seems more like 5 –6 so save some for lunch the next day!!!