Its snowing!

I interrupt our regular programming to squeal a little about that fact that its snowing where I am!!!!!!!!

Ir. Abashidze, Tbilisi

The view from my window

More window view

Me holding my first ever snowball last night

And because it is snowing, it is cold, (or the other way around), so its time to kick back, watch bad movies and drink perfect vegan hot chcocolate.

(My) Perfect Vegan Hot Chocolate Recipe

Makes 2

• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• dash cinnamon
• dash cardamon
• dash nutmeg
• dash clove powder
• dash cayenne, if you’re into that kind of thing
• 1 large tsp of golden syrup
• 2 cups of soy milk (actually I prefer Spelt milk, and I’ve heard good things about hazelnut milk, but any non-dairy milk works)

1. In a small saucepan add the cocoa, spices and sugar, with about 2 tablespoons of the soy milk, and make a paste.
2. Over low heat, add the golden syrup and combine thoroughly.
3. Add the milk slowly, continuing to stir over low heat until all the milk is added.
4. Turn the heat up just a little. This is the technical part – stir occasionally and keep over heat until you see the surface just begin to have ripples. It should look like greasy water does when you drop detergent into it, nothing like boiling. DO NOT BOIL THE SOY MILK – it makes it taste like mushrooms, which is just weird.
5. Serve in mugs, with some vegan chocolate on the side to dip in and melt.

Elsewhere on Aroudtheworldvegan: Mexican style hot chocolate

 

Everyone has a tip that they think makes the perfect vegan hot chocolate, what’s yours?

Go Local – Karat Banana

One of the most amazing things here is the variety in bananas. For a girl from the land of one variety- that I don’t even know the name of, because they’re just “bananas” – its a little baffling, to be honest.

I don’t know how many varieties there are, I’ve been told around 40, but the shops have 3-10 types on a normal day, and there are posters around educating people on the beta carotene levels in 15 varieties, all grown here on Pohnpei.

The king of the beta carotene bananas is the karat (Kar-arch) banana. It is fat, has red skin and is bright orange on the inside. Like this:

Karat Banana

Karat bananas have 2230 micrograms of beta carotene per 100 grams, which is around 100 times more than white flesh bananas. It has been used as infant food here for centuries, but has fallen out of fashion lately, although there is a campaign to bring it back. In a place where there are a lot of starchy foods available, and much more American imported junk food than fresh produce, vitamin-rich bananas are pretty handy. Also, they make your pee fluorescent yellow., which is almost a plus in itself.

Now, I’m not a huge fan of bananas myself. Mr eats a few every day (even at home in Oz), but I only have them when the mood really strikes me. However, as on of the only regularly available fruits on the island, I’m learning to like them a little better.

Here’s how we’ve been using our karat:

Karat Smoothy

• 1 Karat banana
• 1 scoop protein powder (we are using Sun Warrior, Vanilla flavour)
• Some soy milk

1. Blend.
2. Drink. (easy)

Karat looks like egg yolk

Finished karat smoothy

Banana, Caramel and Coconut Ice-cream Tart

• 1 pre-made pie base
• 1 karat banana
• 1 Akadahn banana
• 2 taiwang or another type of banana
• 1 jar coconut jam
• 1 cup coconut cream
• 1 tbsp cornflour

1. Slice the taiwang and akadahn bananas (or any type) and cover pie base.
2. Smoosh the karat banana and add to other bananas.
3. In a small saucepan heat the coconut jam until it becomes a little runny, then remove from heat and pour onto bananas.
4. In a small bowl, mix the cornflour into the half the coconut cream to form a slurry.
5. Clean the saucepan, then heat the other half of the coconut cream in it.
6. When the coconut cream is hot, add the slurry and it will thicken.
7. Remove from heat, pour over caramel.
8. Freeze pie, and thaw slices slightly in fridge as needed.

Karat-Caramel Tart

Karat Banana Spice Bread

• 2 karat bananas
• 2 other bananas (any variety)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/2 cup wholemeal flour
• 1 1/2 cup white flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 to 1 cup milk (depending on smooshiness of your bananas).

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees celsius.
2. In a large bowl, smoosh bananas and add sugar, spices and oil. Mix with a hand blender until smooth.
3. Add flours and baking powder, and combine to form a very thick dough.
4. Slowly add milk until you reach a muffin batter consistency (sorry I can’t be clearer, it really depends on how big and ripe your bananas are. Hmm, that sounded a bit off.)
5. Pour batter into a large loaf pan or normal cake pan.
6. Bake for 45-60 minutes.

Banana Spice Bread

Devil Curry and Ais Limau

After the disastrous attempt at sambal, I decided it would be wise to go back to the world of following recipes.

This one is a recipe from The Food Of Malaysia, by Wendy Hutton, which by the time you are reading this, will be back in the Preston Library for you to enjoy.

Devil Curry, called so for its chilli content, is a Malacca Eurasian dish, with Indian, Malaysian and Spanish influences. I followed the recipe, being a little shy after the sambal-incident, however of course I left out the chicken and replaced it with tofu.

Devil curry didn’t end up being all that hot. I don’t know why, it just wasn’t. Maybe because we’d been eating chillies all week, or maybe I used the wrong variety. In any case, it didn’t bother us, as it was delicious.

Yum, Devil Curry

Hearty and full of potato and tofu, spicy with chillie, ginger, turmeric, lemon grass, garlic (I love garlic!), and a little sour with the vinegar, it was a perfect meal when served up with rice.

I also made us some Ais Limau (Lime cordial) to go with it. There is no trick to this, but I’ll post the recipe for the syrup-ly challenged.

Ais Limau

Ais Limau

• 4 Limes, juiced
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 litre water
• 2 Limes, cut into wedges
• ice

In a small saucepan add the lime juice and sugar. Stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the water and stir until mixed thoroughly. Remove from heat, decant into a glass bottle, and cool.

When cool, add ice and lime wedges to glasses. Pour the cordial over and enjoy

Hot Chocolate, how I love you

Hot chocolate is perhaps my favourite way to chase away the winter shivers, and its even better when its home made. I could write an essay on all the different ways to make fantastic vegan hot chocolate, but this isn’t the time.

Today, its time to talk about Mexican hot chocolate.

I tried two kinds of Mexican hot chocolate this week: Basic, everyday, hot chocolate, and Champurrado, a thick hot chocolate drink made with masa dough. I didn’t want to limit myself to just one, Mexico being the birthplace of chocolate, after all.

Box of Mexican chocolate disks

I bought a packet of “proper” Mexican chocolate from AztecMexican. Its very different from chocolate as we know it. This was dark, had a rough texture and visible raw sugar crystals, and was very dry in comparison to the chocolate we’re used to in Australia. This version also had cinnamon in it, meaning I didn’t need to add any to the pot.

Disk of chocolate

The basic hot chocolate is very simple to make. Just take 1 cup of vegan milk (soy, rice, oat, almond, whatever), and heat it, careful not to burn or boil, in a small saucepan. When its hot, add the chocolate, and whisk until it is melted, well combined, and a little frothy. Then drink.

Mmmm, steaming hot chocolate

The champurrado is a little harder. It is similar to ordinary hot chocolate, but its thickened with masa dough (corn meal), and flavoured with anise. I used this recipe, substituting a mixture of soy and almond milks for the dairy, and using golden syrup instead of molasses. It turned out a little grainy, but otherwise fab, the anise adding a bit of a kick to it.

Not frothy, but nice and thick- Champurrado

In both cases, Mexican cooks use a molinillo to work up a froth, which I found almost impossible using a whisk. I don’t know if it was my inadequate utensils, my lack of whisking ability, or the substituted milk, but in any case, the best we got was a few lack-lustre bubbles.

Froth or not, I’ve been drinking hot chocolate all week, and I’m pretty darn happy about it Up with chocolate!

Almost real froth!

Piti, Khangal, salad and Sherbert

This was easier Azeri food.

Piti, usually a mutton soup with mutton fat (challenging to replace), Khangal, pasta with mince and yoghurt sauce, salad, and sherbert, a sweet drink.

I don’t know why this photo is going all stretchy, and wordpress isn’t letting me fix it. Sorry.

Clockwise from top: Salad, Khangal and Piti

First, the Sherbert. This was actually the second time I had turned my hand to sherbert-making. The first time, Mr mistook the liquid cooling in a bottle for me trying to soak a bottle, and tipped it down the sink. In his defence, it is clear. Then again, if he had given it a sniff, surely he would have noticed it had a strong smell of roses. In any case, it got made again.

I followed the recipe from the Ministry of Tourism, sort of. I didn’t use rose petals, because I can’t imagine where I would find them, without becoming a petal-robber, stalking Brunswick in the night. So I used rose water instead. Its easy to find here, with the big Lebanese  influence in the area. Given I didn’t use real rose-petals, I also didn’t see the need to let it draw for such a long time. I didn’t add ice, I just poped the mix in the fridge until it was cold. My last change to the recipe? I added a little tiny bit of pink food colouring, so it wouldn’t get poured down the drain this time.

It was pretty good. Sweet, rose-falvoured (I love rose water!) with a lemony, citrus flavour underneath. (the lemon-acid referred to in the recipe is citric acid). Totally worth the small amount of effort, and it might just go into rotation at home.

Next was the Piti (I’ve also seen it spelled Pyty). It is usually made of mutton, mutton fat, butter, and vegetables. The veges were easy, of course. For the mutton I substituted Sanitarium vegan sausages, chopped into small bits and fried in olive oil. After that I followed this recipe, however as before, I could not find dried sour plums, so they were left out. I cooked it until the sausages were quite soft, to simulate the tender meat in the real deal, and added some beef flavoured stock to compensate for the lack of mutton butter.

This was also pretty tasty, and surprisingly buttery. Again, I can’t tell how close to the real thing it was, but it tasted good to me.

Last was Khangal. I have only found one description of this dish on the internet, and no recipe, but it sounded so good, I guessed at a recipe, which is below. It is a pasta dish, with mice meat, butter, and garlic yoghurt sauce. Challenging to veganise in Australia, where we don’t have vegan natural yoghurt, or butter, but we gave it a shot, ad it was fantastic! it will be made again, and was great with the salad I added. According to the article (link above) Khangal is not a dish shared with guests. If I guessed at the recipe correctly, that’s a shame, because it was very tasty, and might go with the sherbert into my dinner options list.

The salad was just a quick mixture of cucumber, parsley, corriander and dill.

Vegan Khangal Recipe

• One packet sanitarium mince
• One onion, chopped finely
• Olive oil (about 3 tbs)
• mixed spice
• cumin
• dried mint
• pepper
• salt
• chicken style stock
• flat pasta broken into strips (or you could make your own)
• Tofutti sour cream (1/3 cup)
• 1 clove garlic, chopped very very finely
• 1 tbs vegan margarine

1. Chop all ingredients.
2. Boil enough water to cook your pasta in, and begin to cook pasta. If you are going to make your own pasta, do so now, and cook it right at the end. (I didn’t have time this time around)
3. Fry onion in a large frying pan, until soft.
4. Add mince. It may need mashing with a fork to get the right consistency. Fry for at least 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add stock and spices to taste. Stir through. I like mine very flavourful, others don’t. Do your own thing.
6. Add about 1/3 cup water, stir through and allow to simmer until water is soaked up.
7. Mix the garlic with the sour cream in a small cup.
8. Drain the pasta. Place it back into the saucepan and add margarine. Leave to melt (off heat).
9. Place pasta on plates, cover with mince, then add dollops of sour cream mixture. Serve with salad.