September 2009 Daring Cooks Challenge

Indian Dosas

Serves 4

This month's challenge was hosted by Debyi from The Healthy Vegan Kitchen. Thus, the major requirement was that this dish had to be free of animal products. That means no cows milk, butter, meat, poultry, fish, chicken/beef broth, etc. This dish is also 99% oil free, using only what you need to keep the dosas from sticking, which isn't too bad with a nonstick pan. It's healthy, vegan, and delicious!

This recipe comes in 3 parts, the dosas, the filling and the sauce. It does take awhile to make, but the filling and sauce can be made ahead and frozen if need be. You can serve them as a main course with rice and veggies, or as an appetizer.

Ingredients:

Dosa Pancakes
1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)
½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water
cooking spray, if needed

Dosa Filling

5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground
1 TBSP (8gm) oregano
1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)
1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric
4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste

Coconut Curry Sauce

1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder
3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced

Dosa Pancakes
1.Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

Coconut Curry Sauce

1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4.Let it simmer for half an hour.

Garbanzo Bean Dosa Filling

1.Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

Use coconut and cucumbers as garnishes, and enjoy!

Cooking in the Dorms - A Delicious Chocolate/Kidney Bean/Tofu Cake

Continuing to blog while living in the college dorms was more concerning to me than fears of going somewhere new to start a new chapter of my life.  Where would I obtain access to a stove and oven?  It all seemed like a lot of fuss and hassle.

However, it can be done.  Using the communal kitchenette on the first floor of my dorm building, some friends and I had a delicious experience baking a chocolate vegan cake using a modified version of the Black bean chocolate cupcakes with tofu frosting based on the ingredients we could find.

How we obtained our ingredients is rather exciting.

We bought miniature sized four, sugar, and canola oil from the store, along with baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips.  Confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and maple syrup was borrowed from fellow college students.  Visiting friends were able to provide cake pans, spatulas, utensils, and pots in which to mix our ingredients.

In order to save money, we used my meal points to buy takeout from the dining commons.  Unfortunately, the dining commons was all out of black beans by the time we got there, so as a last minute decision, we decided to substitute kidney beans.  (Our options were: kidney, soy, or garbanzo beans)  We filled a box full of tofu and kidney beans, and a cup full of soymilk.  I couldn't help but smile at the other college kids shooting us funny looks.

We did have access to a food processor, but we forgot to bring it with us when a group of us, en masse regrouped in my dorm room.  Thus, we decided to mash the kidney beans by hand, instead of in a blender.

Mashed kidney beans plus wet ingredients. (above)

(below) Dry ingredients and wet ingredients.

While the cake was in the oven, we started on the chocolate tofu frosting.  

Again, sans-blender/food processor, we had to resort to mashing the tofu by hand.  It took significantly longer than expected to achieve a fine enough texture.

At this point, we realized we didn't have enough pots and pans to set up a double broiler for the chocolate chips AND hold the tofu, so we switched over to a tupperware.

Double broiler on the stove, full of melted chocolate.

The cake was such a hit that I didn't even have a chance to take a picture of it before people started eating.  You wouldn't be able to guess that the secret ingredients are kidney beans and tofu.  This cake is perfect for a late night dormitory snack, coupled with some delicious vegan ice cream!

Both my vegan and non-vegan friends present absolutely loved this recipe.  Although I was initially a little concerned about using kidney beans as replacement for black beans, it worked out well!

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

No doubt you've heard me mention the cupcake cookbook titled Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World in several of my past posts, from the green tea cupcakes to a classic chocolate cupcake, and several others yet to come. I highly recommend buying this cupcake cookbook, even if you are not vegan because it has some truly great recipes and ideas mixed in with other mediocre ones.

The chocolate cupcake and green tea cupcake recipes are definite keepers, while the golden vanilla cupcake and carrot cake cupcake recipes still need some tweaking. I haven't had a chance to work through all these recipes yet, but the first few chapters about exciting cupcake ingredients like agave syrup and experimentation with different soy, rice, and almond milks is a reason in itself to buy this book. The chocolate tofu mousse recipe is another one of those odd gems that you find in this book. Some people will love it and others will hate it, but it's one of those recipes that you can tell people about for years to come.

If you need any further urging to go out and buy this cookbook, just take a look at any one of the amazing visuals that accompany most cupcake recipes. Cupcakes in these pictures look so delicious that you'll instantly forget any vegan labels and feast your eyes on the mouthwatering delights before your eyes.

This is a must have cookbook for all cupcake bakers.

Tangerine-Almond Cupcakes

Loosely modeled after the Lemon Macadamia Cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

I’m really excited about how this recipe turned out! These are my first vegan cupcakes that actually rose higher than I had expected despite having no egg. My secret ingredient for vegan baking is adding soda which helps leaven the cake because of the carbonation. I’ll have to try this trick with my previous recipes and keep you updated!

Tangerine-Almond Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/6 cup canola oil

¾ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup soy yogurt

1/3 cup soymilk

¼ cup tangerine IZZE (or orange soda)

1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup almond powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, stir together oil, sugar, yogurt, and soymilk. Add IZZE, orange zest, and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in two batches, mixing well after each addition. Add almond flour, and add a tablespoon more of IZZE if your batter looks too dense.

Fill cupcake liners ¾ full, and bake for 20 minutes.

I frosted these with an orange glaze and an orange rind curl



Orange glaze:

2 tablespoons margarine

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 tablespoon IZZE

Mash up the margarine with a fork, and add sugar. Mix. Beat in the IZZE until smooth.

Put on cooled cupcakes.

My Unrequited Love of Quinoa: Part 1

Quinoa is nutrient rich, and serves up a perfect source of a complete protein for omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans alike. After trying a series of amazing quinoa salads at restaurants and picnics, I decided to try my own hand at cooking this supergrain.

I soaked 2 cups of quinoa in a large pot full of water. I just kind of filled the pot by eye. After soaking the quinoa for about 15 minutes, I rinsed the water a couple of times, refilled the pot, and began boiling the quinoa on the stove. After boiling for about 20 minutes, with the lid slightly ajar, most of the water had steamed out of the pot, so I removed the quinoa from the stove and let it sit, covered. After the pot had sufficiently cooled off, I realized that my quinoa was not the delicious consistency of the other salads I had tried; my quinoa was gooey and oatmeal-like.

However, undaunted I trudged on. In order to salvage my efforts, I let the quinoa cool off, and steam out some of that excess moisture. For some reason, I have a similar problem when cooking tabouli.

My quinoa salad ended up tasting great with:
1 handful of shelled pistachios
2 tomatoes, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 small handful of parsley, chopped
1 small handful of cilantro, chopped
1 small handful of basil, chopped
1/2 cucumber, diced
2 mint leaves, chopped
1/2 lemon zest and juice
1 tablespoon olive oil

I just mixed all of the ingredients together and let it sit in the refridgerator overnight. While in the refridgerator, the quinoa was able to absorb up the excess moisture. It was still a little more gooey than I would have liked, but it still tasted great!

Oh if only I had the magic touch when it came to cooking grains.
Oh if only quinoa loved me back half as much as I love it!

Black Bean Chocolate Cupcakes with Tofu frosting

These cupcakes are nutrient rich with black beans and banana hidden inside them. Admittedly, they end up tasting somewhat like chocolate banana bread, but they're tasty nonetheless. You can't even taste the beans. I modified the recipe which I found on Madhuram's Eggless Cooking website, which originally called for a prune puree that sounded too bizarre even for me, thus the banana as an egg substitute. The tofu mousse frosting is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and it is for the adventurous. Daring bakers only.

Black Bean Chocolate Cupcakes
makes 16 cupcakes

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 banana, mashed

2 tablespoons water

1/6 cup canola oil

one 15.5oz can of black beans, drained, rinsed, and pureed

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.

Drain the black beans from the can, rinse well under running water, and puree it in a food processor/blender using approximately 1/4 cup of water. The puree should be very smooth without any lumps. Add the sugar, mashed banana, 2 tablespoons of water, canola oil and vanilla extract. Process/blend it again for another 2-3 minutes. Transfer it to a large bowl.

In a small bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in 3 parts, mixing well after each addition.

Pour into muffin tin, filling each cup 3/4 full. Bake for approximately 14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Tofu Mousse Frosting
makes enough to frost 30 cupcakes

1 package extra firm tofu, drained of liquid.
1/4 cup soymilk
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (12 oz) package of semisweet chocolate chips

Puree tofu in blender until completely smooth. This step is the most important because if you don't blend enough, you will end up with chunks of tofu in your frosting. These chunks are unappetizing to all but the most intense soy-lovers. Add soymilk, syrup, and vanilla.

In a double broiler, melt chocolate chips. You can use two nesting pots in place of a double broiler with the chocolate chips in the top pan and water in the bottom pan. After the chocolate has melted, cool for 5 minutes and then add to the tofu and blend.

Transfer to an airtight bowl and chill for an hour.

Something else to try with any extra melted chocolate is to draw on a wax paper covered cookie sheet. Place your drawings in the freezer, and when they harden, you can use them as decorations for your cupcakes. Note the beautiful cactus cupcake and the cupcake cupcake below.

Chess Cupcakes

These cupcakes were made for a special Cupcake Chess match. The rules of cupcake chess are exactly the same as regular chess, but with a couple key differences:

1. When you capture one of your opponents pieces, you must eat it, or find someone to eat it.
2. A couple extra queen cupcakes must be made for pawn promotions. If you run out of the appropriate color of queens for pawn promotions, no more can be made.
3. You may allow some of your pieces to be captured so you can eat them.


The following cupcake recipes are from Vegan Cupakes Take Over the World:

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes
makes 24 mini-cupcakes

1 cup soymilk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/6 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes
makes 24 mini-cupcakes

1 cup soymilk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/6 cup canola oil
2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Follow the same procedure for both the Chocolate Mint and Golden Vanilla Cupcake Recipes.

Preheat oven to 325°F and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Whisk soymilk and vinegar together and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.

Add sugar, oil, and vanilla extract. Beat until foamy.

Sift together remaining ingredients and add in two batches to wet ingredients. Beat well and fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Strawberry-Raspberry-Applesauce Cupcakes with Marshmallow Flower Frosting

This tasty recipe is modified from one found on Little Miss Cupcakes blog. The modified recipe is vegan, although the frosting is not. I have yet to see if margarine and vegan marshmallows can be substituted for the frosting.

I love this recipe because my success with it is what really inspired my subsequent adventures in the realm of cupcakes and ovens.

Strawberry-Raspberry-Applesauce Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/6 cup canola oil
1 cup applesauce
1 cup soymilk
1 cup of strawberry soy yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 300°F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add canola oil, applesauce, soymilk, yogurt, and vanilla while mixing with an electric mixer. Do not overbeat. Fold in the frozen raspberries with a spatula.

Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full, and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely and frost with marshmallow icing.

Marshmallow Icing
enough to frost at least 24 cupcakes

2 sticks butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
16 oz. tub of marshmallow cream

Cream the butter on high until it's light and fluffy. Add the confectioner's sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, and beat until fluffy. Add vanilla and marshmallow cream. Transfer to a plastic bag and pipe onto cupcakes.

In order to frost cupcakes in the Chrysanthemum style, make tiny 'C' shapes around the outer edges of the cupcake, spiraling clockwise towards the center of the cupcake. It helps to frost with one hand while rotating the cupcake with the other in order to form even petals.

Chocolate Rain Cupcakes

These cupcakes were inspired by a friend who asked for Chocolate Rain cupcakes for his birthday. Literally, it's a reference to Chocolate Rain, a youtube video with 39,000,000+ views by Tay Zonday.

'Chocolate' practically requires a chocolate cupcake, and 'rain' connotates a great flood where only two of each animal were saved on a boat. This explains my post earlier this week about the animal crackers.

After much deliberation, I settled on a chocolate cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World with Green tea glaze frosting, to represent a dirt hill covered in grass. Animal crackers graze, while a light chocolate rain falls down upon their backs.

Chocolate Rain Cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes

1 cup soymilk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/6 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325°F and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Whisk soymilk and vinegar together and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.

Add sugar, oil, and vanilla extract. Beat until foamy.

Sift together remaining ingredients and add in two batches to wet ingredients. Beat well and fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.


Prepare the green tea glaze, and frost the top of each cupcake. Then, place one animal cracker on top of each cupcake.


In a double broiler, melt semisweet chocolate chips. When melted, drizzle your chocolate rain. Enjoy!

Zombie Cupcakes

Today Leryn and I tried our hand at making up an Okinawan Sweet Potato cupcake recipe. Okinawan Sweet Potatoes are special because they are naturally purple, but they taste similar to the average sweet potato you can find at your local supermarket. To put it simply, these cupcakes did not turn out as planned, but with some tweaking, I'm sure I can get the recipe right in a few more tries!

1 cup Okinawan Sweet Potatoes, mashed
4 oz vanilla soy yogurt

I started with baked Okinawan Sweet Potatoes. After removing their skins, I mashed them with a fork. Then, I added 4 oz soy yogurt to make a light purple mixture with the consistency of mashed potatoes.
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup applesauce
1/6 cup canola oil

I added this purple mixture to 2/3 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup applesauce, and 1/6 cup canola oil. Up until this point, the recipe was turning out as expected. Leryn and I were quite excited to sample the batter which tasted delicious!
A connundrum awaits.

Most of the vegan cupcake recipes that I have made use baking soda to give the cupcakes a cakey texture, in the absence of eggs. Baking soda releases CO2 gas when reacted with acid, creating the desired cakey texture. Thus, I decided to add 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar to 1/2 cup soymilk in order to balance out the baking soda.

The fridge had just been stocked with rice milk, so I decided to make an experiment. After adding 2 teaspoons of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of baking powder to the batter, I separated my purple mixture into three portions.

The first:
Straight up okinawan sweet potato cupcake batter.

The second:
Batter with 1/2 cup soymilk, 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar added.

The third:
Batter with 1/2 cup ricemilk/rice drink, 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar added.

It was after mixing these three side batches that the trouble began.

Leryn noticed that the batter was reacting with something I had just added and turning a deep green color. Surprised, I realized it was the baking soda. However, I'm not sure why our cupcakes changed color; I just know they did. Dismayed as we were, we trudged on.

The muffin tin in the oven holds rice milk cupcakes on the left, soymilk cupcakes in the middle, and no milk cupcakes on the right.


And this is how they ended up. Cupcake graveyard status. They are green zombies that taste a lot better than they look.

Starting at the far left, going clockwise we have: Okinawan Sweet Potato cupcake with no milk; soymilk cupcake with extra flour; soymilk cupcake; rice milk cupcake; rice milk cupcake with extra flour.

Obviously the addition of milk was a problem, as these cupcakes exhibit classic no-egg swamp sinkage vegan cupcake syndrome.

That, and the slight problem of my cupcakes turning from purple to green. Perhaps next time I will try without baking soda and only baking powder. Or perhaps I will try with less of each.

But there will be a next time, and it will be better.
I can assure you of that!

Green Tea Mochi Cupcakes

Last week, I made Green Tea Mochi Cupcakes with my sister, and they turned out too good not to share. The recipe was modified from the Green Tea Cupcake recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Instead of using regular flour, I used Mochiko (rice flour), which gave the cupcakes a crispy exterior and sticky interior. I think that since I substituted mochiko for flour, I should have added extra baking powder to counteract the denseness of the rice flour. I'll have to try again later.

Green Tea Mochi Cupcakes:
Makes 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup soy yogurt
2/3 cup soy milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/6 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cups rice flour (mochiko)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 teaspoons matcha powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 325°F, and line cupcake pan with liners.

Whisk together the yogurt, soymilk, vanilla, and oil. Sift in remaining ingredients. Fill cupcake liners all 3/4 full and bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on racks before topping with glaze:

Green tea glaze:
2 tablespoons margarine
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon matcha powder
2 tablespoons soymilk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mash up margarine in a bowl with a fork. Mix in sugar and matcha powder. Then, beat in remaining ingredients. Spoon on top of cupcakes, and enjoy!

Brown Sugar Nectarine Muffins

Today Leryn and I baked Brown Sugar Nectarine Muffins: recipe modified from the Brown Sugar Peach Mufin recipe found on the Post Punk Kitchen Blog.

They turned out super delicious with a really cakey inside and a crispy top, which is quite an accomplishment for a vegan recipe. The nectarines I had were unripe, so they were able to bake and soften to just the right texture in the oven. If you use ripe nectarines, they may get too gooey.

This recipe is a definite keeper. However in the future I'd like to experiment with adding oats in place of some of the flour to make it more nectarine/peach cobbler-y.

Brown Sugar Nectarine Muffins:
Makes 17 muffins
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cups brown sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup soymilk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/6 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

3 nectarines, diced

Preheat oven to 350°F and lightly grease your muffin tin.

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, ginger, and cinnamon. Add the applesauce, soymilk, apple cider vinegar, canola oil, and vanilla. Stir lightly. Make sure you do not overmix. It's good if you leave a couple of lumps in the batter. Carefully fold in the nectarines.

Scoop batter into muffin tins, and fill to the top. These muffins will rise a tiny bit in the oven, but then sink back down to their pre-oven height after cooling off. Lightly sprinkle brown sugar on the top of each muffin. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted through the center comes out clean. Let cool before removing from the muffin tin and enjoy!