Vegan, Gluten Free, Soy-Free, Nut-Free Christmas Menu Planning (and a recipe for James)

This year Christmas will be had at my Mum’s house. My Mum, my sister and I went out for a coffee yesterday to have chat about what will be on the table when December 25th rolls around.

In a house full of sweet-tooths with dietary restrictions, this means serious planning. I was gonna post a pic of our serious faces to show you but I didn’t actually take a photo – that’s how serious it is!

Just to give you an idea of the lay of the land here at Operation: AwesomeChristmas, check out this list of restrictions:

• One step sister can’t have MSG (even naturally occurring), soy or gluten.
• Mum prefers not to do gluten but makes exception for pastry, and requires trifle.
• Sister likes everything except fruit, and requires rum balls (which she has re-named Amazeballs).
• Step-Dad likes prawns but is allergic to their shells (and that is the last you’ll hear about prawns on this blog).
• Brother is allergic to peanuts and gets creeped out by other nuts but will eat other nuts without incident if you don’t mention them.
• Everybody is gluten free except the kids and the vegans.
• Kids are coming, and kids are picky.
• There are two vegans and everyone else likes to chew on dead creatures (tee hee, crude!)
• I want all the sweets but am vegan and want to stay the weight I am because I am at the upper range for all my clothes and don’t want to go shopping.

Honestly, it’s less like planning lunch and more like answering one of those Lovatt’s puzzles with the grid where you match people with their train and shirt colour.

In the end we came  up with a menu that should suit everyone, we think

Menu for Operation:AwesmeChristmas

Key:     V – vegan    GF – gluten free    SF – soy free     NF – nut free

Snacks

• Dips in Christmas colours (hommus, roast capsicum and pesto with out nuts) – V, GF, SF, NF
• Chopped veggies for dipping – V, GF, SF, NF
• Rice crackers – V, GF, SF, NF
• Christmas lollies – GF, SF, NF

Lunch

• Rice noodle salad – V, GF, SF, NF
• Rice paper rolls with tofu – V, GF, NF
• Rice paper rolls without tofu – V, GF, SF, NF
• ***Roast strawberry and tomato tart – V, SF, NF*
• Caramel onion and Mushroom tart – V, SF, NF*
• Sanakopita minis – V
• Boiled baby potatoes with vegan sour cream and chives  – V, GF, NF, SF option
• Others are bringing a rocket and fig salad, a roast veg salad, and ham and prawns for the meat eaters.

*these will be gluten free if I can find gluten free puff pastry and short crust in Newcastle

*** I have been planning to make this tart for a week, but in my trial-run it was too sour. I have been using roasted strawberries and tomatoes, tomato paste, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, pepper and basil in the filling. Any suggestions for fixing it, please comment – in can be a collaboratart!

Roast strawberry and tomato tart – Trial run

Dessert

• Custard tart with fruit (from Vegan Pie in the Sky)  – V, GF*, SF
• Strawberry Cheesecake  V, GF
• Amazeballs (non-vegan rum balls without rum)
• Vegan rum ball Christmas tree - V, GF, SF, NF (I’ll adapt last year’s recipe to replace the biccies with GF, and the soy milk and soy chocolate with rice milk and rice milk chocolate)
• Trifle – V, GF, SF, NF

I’m so excited I could burst!

The custard tart is from Vegan Pie In The Sky, and I have made it twice before to resounding applause. It’s also very, very pretty:

Custard Tart

The cheesecake is my old go-to recipe, but I’m adding strawberries for good measure. I promised a friend the recipe (Hi James!), so without further ado…

Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake

• 1 x 200g packet of plain biscuits (GF if needed) like Arnotts Nice or Orgran Outback Animals, or Choc Ripple for a chocolate cheesecake
• 2 Tbs vegan margarine
• 2 Tbs non-dairy milk

• 1 cup good quality coconut cream (the whole fat stuff, try Ayam brand in the dark green tin)
• 1/2 tsp agar agar powder
• 1x200g packet Cheezly, Mozarella flavour, chopped
• 100g silken tofu
• 3/4 cup icing mixture
• 1 cup chopped strawberries

1. Crush the biscuits using a food processor (or whack them with a rolling pin) until they are very fine.
2. Melt the margarine and mix with the biscuits and milk to form a sticky, crumbly mess.
3. Press the mess into a tart dish or pie pan or a round spring-form tin.
4. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, but up to 2 hours.
5. Blend the strawberries until they are pureed. Set aside for later.
6. In a large saucepan mix the agar with the coconut cream and bring to the boil
7. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
8. Pour the agar and coconut into a blender with the cheezly, tofu, icing mixture and strawberry puree. Blend until smooth.
9. Pour the filling onto the base and refrigerate overnight.
10. Decorate with more strawberries and serve.

 

Lemon Cake II: the “healthy” version

Last night we had some friends over for dinner who are of the low fat, considered nutrition mindset. Despite this, I knew I couldn’t help myself but to make a dessert. Out of lemons, because, sooooo many lemons.

I used almond meal again and spelt again, added some polenta, removed the lemon juice, and swapped the oil and tofu for a little sour cream (vegan of course), and the sugar for agave syrup. Instead of icing the cake, I had a syrup to go with it.

The result was fabulous. Mr mentioned that he though it was a “little on the grainy side” but I thought it was fine, and it got good reviews from the adults and kids alike. It was dense, but not fudgey – I think it would be best eaten within 2 or 3 days of baking.

I got shy, and didn’t take a photo, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Low-Fat Vegan Lemon Cake

• 2/3 cup almond meal
• 1 1/4 cup spelt flour
• 1/2 cup polenta
• 2 tsp baking powder
• zest of two large lemons
• 3 Tbs raw sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/3 cup agave syrup
• 1/4 cup vegan sour cream (you could use yoghurt)
• around 1/2 cup almond milk (I got sloppy with the measuring here, sorry, so it could have been more)

topping

• juice of two lemons
• 2 tbs raw sugar
• 1 cup icing sugar
• up to 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup flaked almonds

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees celsius, line and grease a round cake tin.
2. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together well.
3. Add the agave, zest, vanilla, and sour cream, and beat until just combined.
4. Slowly add milk, beating with a wooden spoon until a cake batter consistency is reached. Sorry I can’t be more specific – thicker than pancake batter, thinner than muffin batter.
5. Pour the batter into the cake pan, and bake for around 35 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
6. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on a rack.
7. For the topping: in a small saucepan mix the juice, sugar an icing sugar together until there are no lumps. Add hot water, a little at a time, stirring. I used about 3 tbs. Over high heat bring to the boil and stir until the mixture thickens into a syrup. Pour 1/3 of the syrup onto the cake while the syrup is warm and he cake is cooling. Scatter the almonds on top of the cake, and reserve the rest of the syrup for serving. Reserving the syrup meant that sweet-tooths (Mr and I) could have at it with the sugar, but others could be more conservative.

I also made pasta out of spelt and he nettle that is overtaking my veggie garden. I didn’t get a photo of that, either, nor did I measure, but watch out for nettle recipes in a future post.

 

When Life Hands You Lemons…

…Make Lemon Cake!

The rental place I’ve moved into has a meyer lemon tree, which is going great guns at the moment.  I have lemons coming out of my ears, even after I’ve given bags of them away to the neighbours.

As a result, I’ve been experimenting with all things lemon flavoured. The latest semi-success was a lemon and almond cake I made this week.

I’ve never really had the knack with citrus in cake – they tend to turn out sort of like pudding, and this was no exception. I intend to look it up, but I suspect there’s some chemical reaction between the acid and the baking powder.

Anyway, despite the dense texture, this cake was delicious, so here’s a recipe for anyone willing to try it out. If you improve it, let me know!

Vegan lemon cake – only one piece left!

 

Lemon and Almond Cake

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 1/3 cup white flour
• 2/3 cup almond meal
• 2 tsp baking powder
• zest and juice of 2 meyer lemons (or any lemons)
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup silken tofu
• 1/3 cup soy milk

Icing

• 2 cups icing mixture
• juice and zest of one meyer lemon
• 1 tbs margarine
• 1/3 cup flaked almonds

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees celsius, and grease and line a round cake tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl mix sugar, flour, almond meal, and baking powder until well combined. Add all other ingredients and mix with an electric mixer until well combined.
3. Pour mixture into the cake tin and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.
4. Let the cake sit for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.
5. To make the icing, beat sugar, magarine and lemon juice and zest together until creamed. Smooth onto cooled cake.
6. Toast the almonds in a dry, non-stick pan, then sprinkle over the icing.

Birthday Round Up

It was my Birthday over the weekend, yay!

My favourite part of birthdays is the cake… making the cake! I love making birthday cake, and thinking of new flavour-combinations, decorating, and, of course, the eating.

In a fit of birthday happy, I decided to break from our usual programming and post this birthday cake recipe, which I literally dreamed up. Sometimes I wake up with a recipe ready to go in my head – this is one of those.

Vegan Coconute Ice Cake

Coconut Ice Cake with Strawberry Filling and White Chocolate Coconut Ganache

Cake

• 1 tin coconut cream
• 4 Tbs lite vegan margarine
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp coconut essence
• 2/3 cup dessicated coconut
• 1 2/3 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup soy milk
• a teeny bit of red/pink food colouring

Filling

• 3 Tbs lite vegan Margarine
• 4 Tbs strawberry jam
• Up to 3 cups icing mixture

Ganache

• 4 Tbs Coconut Cream
• 300g Vegan white chocolate
• 1 cup icing mixture

• Strawberries, for garnish

1. For the Cake: Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees, line a large square baking tin with baking paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add margarine, coconut cream, sugar, coconut essence and coconut, and mix together with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes.
3. Add flour and baking powder, and continue to beat with the mixer for another 3 minutes, or until well combined.
4. Slowly add the soy milk and a teensy bit of pink or red vegan food colouring, mixing until well combined, forming a smooth batter.
5. Pour batter into a large square baking tin. Bake at 170 degrees celsius, for 30 to 40 minutes. A skewer poked in the middle will come out crumby but not wet when it is done.
6. Allow to cool.
7. When Cake is completely cool, trim the edges. Cut it in half, so that you have two pieces of equal size. Set aside.
8. For the filling: In  small mixing bowl, whip the margarine and strawberry jam with a fork. Slowly add the icing mixture to form a smooth, very thick icing batter. You may only need 2 cups, I can’t remember precisely how much I used.
9. Place one half of the cake onto your serving plate. Smother with the strawberry filling, the top with the other half of the cake. flatten the edges of the icing with a spatula, if necessary.
10. For the ganache: In a small saucepan add the coconut cream, then add the vegan white chocolate, and stir over low heat until melted and smooth. You could use a double boiler if you have one, but I don’t bother, and it turns out fine.
11. When the chocolate is completely melted it goes an odd yellow colour – don’t worry, that’s normal. Remove the mixture from the heat. Slowly add the icing sugar and whisk to remove any lumps.
12. Allow to cool slightly, then smooth the ganache over the cake using a spatula of a butter knife. If it is very runny, wait longer – it will firm up. If you leave it too long, reheat slightly.
13. Once ganache has begun to firm on the cake, garnish with fresh strawberries.

I was a little worried that this cake was going to be too sweet, but it was just right, and a fun departure from heavy dark chocolate treats we’ve been enjoying while I perfect the recipes for the book.

While I’m here, I also want to put in a mention to my friends and family, for their effort and thoughful presents.

My mum, step-dad, sister and brother gave me some gorgeous new dishes to show off here, which I will do very soon, a pretty apron, and a fabbo recipe binder, which will be very useful, and a lot of fun to use. Along the same lines, my dad and step-mum gave me a notebook for recipe collection (yay!) and some nice pens. My partner’s mum gave me a book voucher and some vegan chocolate, perfect for book recipes, and for pondering new vegan cookbooks! So thanks Mum, Dad, Ralph, Lynda, Katie, Jay, Sue and Wim. Also, thanks to my friend Megan who came all the way from Canberra to visit me on my birthday, and to my Mr. who made my day lovely.

Holding my cake in my pretty new apron

So, it seems from my presents that I have a lot of cookbook writing and blogging to do!

I’ll be back soon, with some yummy food from Malaysia. Til then, hope you enjoy some cake, and I’ll leave with a pic of a very special heart pizza I made recently, for an at-home date-night.

Heart pizza with heart potato

Aloha!

I’ve decided that this will be the last night of American food, because its time to move on to greener, healthier pastures.

Hawaiian food, Succotash Stew and Gumbo battled it out for the chance to be eaten and reviewed at our place. Annnnnd the winner is… Hawaii! Mainly because I’m not that into okra (gumbo is basically okra soup), and I forgot to soak the beans for the stew.

During my research I discovered that they don’t eat a lot of vegetables in Hawaii. They do eat a lot of pork, chicken, banana, pineapple, coconut, and spam though. In fact, they eat more spam than any other state in America. Much of the food is inspired by Chinese, Japanese, and mainland US cuisine.

I chose to try Huli Huli Tofu (usually chicken), Macaroni Salad, and Banana and Pineapple Cake.

Macaroni Salad

Basic versions of Macaroni Salad include macaroni, grated carrot, and mayonnaise. Sometimes fruit, other vegetables, sauces and macadamia nuts are added. I used Plamil Egg Free Mayonnaise, a little lime juice, chopped brazil nuts (I don’t have macadamias atm), and some very finely chopped carrot. Oh, and macaroni, of course.

It was a little bland, but not a bad version of pasta salad. Mr ate about three peoples’ worth, so I suppose he liked it!

The Huli Huli tofu is just fried tofu, with a BBQ-ish sauce. The sauce is made from pineapple juice, soy sauce, worcestershre sauce, grated ginger, and cornflour. I marinated tofu slices in the sauce for about 30 minutes, then cooked them in all the sauce a skillet for about 15 minutes on one side, and 5 on the other. The sauce thickens and coats the tofu slices, and they become delicious saucy morsels of goodness.

Huli Huli Tofu

I also made a very quick vegie stir-fry to go with it, because I really couldn’t find a decent Hawaiian vegetable dish to make, and I didn’t feel like dinner without them.

vegie stir fry

Yummy cake

The last dessert from the US was Hawaiian style banana and pineapple cake. I used my own recipe, which is below. I overcooked it a little while distracted, but its still moist and flavoursome. The icing is made of icing mixture, tofutti sour cream, and lime juice.

My verdict on Hawaiian food: Tasty, but not my style. I’d like more vegies and much less sugar and meat. To get an idea of what I mean, check out the image at this website of Hawaiian recipes.

Banana and Pineapple Cake Recipe

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tbs golden syrup
• 2 tbs Tofutti sour cream
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 6 pineapple rings
• 2 cups plain flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1 tsp coconut essence

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees, line a cake tin with baking paper.
2. Beat the sugar, golden syrup, sour cream and oil together with a wooden spoon, until thoroughly mixed.
3. Add banana and pineapple, and mix well.
4. Sift in flour and baking powder, and beat well.
5. Add coconut, milk, and coconut essence. Mix wth a wooden spoon until mixture is consistent.
6. Pour into the cake tin, and bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.
7. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then cool on a tray.
8. Ice or dust with icing sugar and serve.

Azeri things I made before I got sick

I have a confession to make… I cheated a little. I actually did manage to make two Azerbaijani dishes before I got sick. So I’m gonna post them now, and have Fry’s schnitzle for dinner tonight

I made Dushbere, an Azeri dumpling soup, from the recipe over at AZCookBook, and Zebra cake, from a recipe at the same website (she really is fab). There are other recipes around, but I preferred to use the first one I found there.

The dumplung soup was tedios to make, and instead of getting 5-10 dumplings per spoon (!) I only got 1-2. Clearly I need to work on my tiny dumpling making skills.

I substituted mushed Sanitarium sausages for the mince, but I otherwise followed the recipe. It was so yummy, but I’m not sure its worth the work! I don’t have a photo, because I was in a bit of pain and forgot, but I can tell you it was yummy.

Earlier that day I also made Zebra cake. It is a chocolate and vanilla cake that is patterned to look like Zebra stripes. I have posted photos below, and it looks so pretty. I substituted silken tofu for the egg, and soy milk for milk. Mine was a little too wet, so I suggest only substituting about half as much tofu as egg, volume wise.

Zebra cake

It was so pretty that I’m going to appropriate the technique for an Orange and Chocolate Tiger cake, which will hopefully be in the book (a yet-to-be-named chocolate themed Vegan cookbook), whenever I finish it.

Rhubarb crumble cake

This is the promised vegan rhubarb crumble cake post.

My partner’s Nanna gave us some rhubarb to use recently. I’ve never cooked with rhubarb before, and in a fit of creativity I decided to make something up, rather than turn to the internet for help.

The result was delicious crumble cake, with a layer of vanilla pear cake, a layer of stewed rhubarb and apples, and a layer of crumble. Yum.

Vegan Apple and Rhubarb Crumble Cake

It turned into a recipe worth sharing, so here it is.

Rhubarb Crumble Cake

Cake layer

• 2 pears, peeled and diced
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp rose water
• 125g strawberry soy yoghurt
• 2 cups white flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• soy milk (about 1/3 cup, maybe more)

Stew layer

• 8-10 rhubarb stalks washed and chopped
• 1 apple (I used fuji)
• 1 cup raw sugar
• 1 tsp rosewater
• water to cover
• 4 tbs jam (i used strawberry and apple)

Crumble

• 1/3 cup whole oats
• 1 cup ground oats (ground in a coffee grinder)
• 3/4 cup flour of your choice
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup raw sugar
• 3 tbsp vegan margarine

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160, and line a 28cm square cake tin with baking paper*.
2. Add rhubarb, apple, sugar and just enough water to cover to a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, then simmer, stirring occasionally until the rhubarb falls apart (about 15 minutes).
3. In the meantime prepare the cake batter. in a large bowl, beat oil, essences, sugar and yoghurt with a wooden spoon until thoroughly mixed and homogenous-looking. Add the flour and baking powder, and beat until a thick batter forms. Fold in the diced pear. Add the milk, and stir until smooth. It may require a little more milk (I didn’t measure it), and should end up looking like, well, cake batter. Pourable but not runny.
4. Pour the batter evenly into the cake tin, and back for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
5. While the cake is baking, remove the rhubarb mixture from heat, and taste. Add enough jam to sweeten to your taste (this was a LOT of jam in my house). Leave to cool.
6. To prepare the crumble, add all fry ingredients to a mixing bowl, and mix thoroughly with hands. Continuing with your hands, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles very fine crumbs.
7. Once the cake is ready, top immediately with the rhubarb mixture, tapping the tin to ensure an even spread. Top with the crumble, and place it back in the oven to bake for 15 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven, and let it settle for at least 20 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

* I want to be more resource friendly, but just can’t part with baking paper, so we now wash it and reuse it. If you use it, give it a try. It just needs a quick wipe down with a warm sponge.

Hope you enjoy it!

It will be a few days before there is any Azeri cooking, but look out for something mid to late next week.