Cooking with Alison

Posts Tagged ‘vegan’

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How to for Indian Spices

In How-To, Indian on March 14, 2011 at am

Indian food uses a lot of different spices and is rich in flavour.  It can be made to be very healthy and there are many great vegetarian and vegan options (with a few minor substitutions).  I enjoy Indian food, but I have always felt that Indian restaurants were overcharging for their food.  My suspicions were confirmed when I started making Indian food at home;  it turns out that many of the popular Indian dishes are ridiculously easy and cost effective to make!  If only I could afford the money and space for a tandoor oven…

If you’ve never cooked Indian food before, don’t be intimidated by the long lists of ingredients, because once you’ve picked up a few spices, the cooking part is easy.  Most of their meat dishes involve slow cooking, but I have created some fast-cook recipes that still taste authentic and won’t take hours to make.  Another great thing about cooking Indian food is that most dishes freeze well, so you can make one large batch of curry at a fraction of the restaurant price, and freeze the leftovers for future meals.

Check out my recipes for Indian food!  You can find them under the Recipe Index, under the Indian category.

Below, I have listed a few simple tips for using Indian spices that will hopefully encourage some of you to try making this cuisine at home.  Please share your tips by posting a comment!

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Miso Salad Dressing

In Sides and Sauces, Soups and Salads on February 28, 2011 at am

I had a lot of miso paste leftover from making miso soup (recipe here), so I made a miso salad dressing for a Japanese restaurant style salad.  Note that you could omit the carrot and use the rest of the ingredients (adjusted to your taste) to make a simpler miso salad dressing.  I served this with miso soup and chicken teriyaki with a stir fried bean sprout medley (recipe here).

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How To For Durian (Fruit)

In How-To on February 19, 2011 at am

Durian fruit is definitely an acquired taste – one which can only be acquired if you can get over the acquired smell.  They are heavy and covered with pointy, dangerous spikes.  As you can see from the photos below, the fruit is shaped into several lobes.  Each lobe contains soft, yellow flesh that encases one or two large, light brown, hard seeds.  You can eat it as is (not the seed), or you can use it in smoothies and cakes, etc.  In North America, you are most likely to find these frozen.  Simply defrost the durian at room temperature and cut open.  Opening a durian almost always involves injury, so be very careful.  I get scratched (and bleed) several times simply transporting it from the grocery store to the house.  I have provided tips on how to select a durian and photo instructions for how to open one.  Notice that it’s my dad doing it.  Thanks dad  🙂

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How to Make Bread Flour and Cake Flour Substitutions

In How-To on February 5, 2011 at am

I have containers upon containers (upon containers) of different dry ingredients overcrowding my pantry, cupboards, and counter top.  I’m embarrassed to admit that they’ve overflowed into closets and random corners of the rest of my apartment too.  Just to name the different types of flour that I have:  all purpose, bread, cake, whole wheat, stone ground whole wheat, organic whole wheat, semolina, rice, glutinous rice, potato, tapioca, corn (as well as corn meal), corn starch, wheat starch, and vital wheat gluten.  I actually have a post card that says “I dream of storage space” on my fridge (photo above).  🙂  So when I discovered simple substitutions for bread flour and cake flour, I was overly excited! haha  I love decluttering and now I’ll never have to buy cake or bread flour again.  Recipes below.

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Chinese New Year Steamed Cake (nian gao)

In Asian Desserts on February 3, 2011 at am

Nian gao is a steamed cake that is traditionally eaten at Chinese New Year.  During the 2 week long celebration, nian gao is often given and received as gifts.  It is a vegan cake made with glutinous rice flour (also known as sticky rice flour).  Since it does not contain eggs or baking powder/soda, it has a chewy, dense, and slightly sticky texture.  It really only tastes good when served hot, either from the steamer or pan fried (see photo below).  Also, note that nian gao is not meant to be very sweet (but you can use more sugar if you’d like).  There are variations of nian gao that you could try (ie. using coconut milk) and there are very good baked nian gao cakes too (see my recipe here).  The recipe below is for the plain, traditional steamed cake.

(Another steamed cake that is often enjoyed at Chinese New Year is turnip cake.  See my improved recipe here.)

Photo below:  Slices of the nian gao are coated in raw egg and pan fried in a little bit of oil.  But some people prefer to omit the egg and pan fry the nian gao directly in the oil.

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Cranberry Sauce Recipe (it’s not just for turkey)

In Sides and Sauces on January 17, 2011 at am

I love cranberry sauce with turkey, so I’m not sure why I waited so long to make it from scratch.  I will never buy canned cranberry sauce again.  It is very easy to make and can be made a few days ahead of time.  I made it for Christmas, 2010 and Ed – who doesn’t like cranberry sauce – surprisingly really liked it.  Now he understands why people pair cranberries with turkey.  🙂

The great thing about this cranberry sauce is that it’s not just for turkey.  You could add it to baked brie crostini or baked brie on crackers, use it as an accompaniment for pâté de canard (duck pâté), spread this on top of cheesecake (garnish with almond slices), or use it as a filling for layer cake or trifle.  You could even use this like jam on french toast, plain toast, pancakes, scones, muffins, or sandwiches.

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How to use Tamarind

In How-To on January 10, 2011 at am

Tamarind is a pod-like fruit that is used in Southeast Asian and Indian cooking.  It is also available candied.  It has a hard, dry, light brown exterior and several hard seeds.  The flesh is reddish brown in colour, slightly chewy in texture, and unique and tart in flavour.  If you’re not familiar with tamarind, you might be surprised to learn that it is an ingredient in Worcestershire and HP steak sauce.  On a side note, I like tamarind, but I dislike those sauces.

If you’re starting with fresh tamarind, discard the shell, the seeds, and the fibrous thread that runs along the outside of the flesh.  Otherwise, tamarind can be purchased in other forms.  There doesn’t seem to be a consistent use of terms that distinguish between those options.  So depending on the source, it can be very confusing as to what a recipe actually calls for.  Here is my general understanding:  Wet tamarind or tamarind block is shown on the right side of the photo above.  This is often simply labeled as “tamarind”.  I have even seen this referred to as tamarind “paste”.  But in general, tamarind paste, tamarind juice, and tamarind water usually refer to tamarind that has been prepared for cooking.  To add further confusion, the term tamarind pulp has been used to describe both the flesh of tamarind (wet tamarind / tamarind block) and, contrarily, the parts of the tamarind that do not “dissolve” or mix with water.

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Gourmet Mushroom Risotto Recipe

In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, Pasta, Rice, and Doughs, Sides and Sauces on January 6, 2011 at am

I’ve made butternut squash risotto and pea and prosciutto risotto before, but mushroom risotto is my family’s favourite – so far (I haven’t made them seafood risotto yet).  Since this dish is so simple, the selection of mushrooms is critical to the success of it.  The secret to my mushroom risotto is the use of dried black trumpet mushrooms.  The texture of these mushrooms is thin and leathery, but they lend the most amazing flavour and aroma.  When my mother tasted this, she was so impressed with the mushroom flavour that she thought I had added some processed or artificial flavouring.  For texture and aesthetic appeal, I also used dried porcini and fresh oyster mushrooms.  (I love the dried mushrooms from Marx Foods (review here).  You can taste the quality of their mushrooms from the soaking liquid, which in this case, added tremendous flavour to the rice.)

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Dulse

In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, How-To, Sides and Sauces, Soups and Salads on January 2, 2011 at am

Update:  This photo was published in TAPS The Beer Magazine in the November/December 2012 issue!

I had never heard of dulse until I started making travel plans to the east coast of Canada.  So when we were in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Krystal and I went looking for this and were lucky enough to find it at the City Market.  We purchased a bag of hand picked, sun dried dulse and brought it back to Ontario.  I wanted to share what I’ve learned as this might be of interest [in particular] to vegetarians, vegans, gardening enthusiasts and people who have anemia or hypothyroidism.  Note:  If you have hyperthyroidism, however, it may not be appropriate for you to consume dulse.

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Roasted Mini Potatoes

In Sides and Sauces on December 26, 2010 at am

I like using the leftovers for one skillet breakfasts (recipe here).

Roasted Mini Potatoes Recipe

makes 4 side servings

1 1/2 pounds mini potatoes, scrubbed clean and dried

1/2 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth or water)

juice of 1 lemon (optional)

4 cloves garlic, minced

optional: 1 to 2 tsp dried or fresh herbs (I like using dried parsley, rosemary or oregano, but you could use any herbs in any combination that you like)

3 to 4 tbsp olive oil

coarse sea salt

ground black pepper

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Cilantro Lime Hummus Recipe

In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks on December 7, 2010 at am

I love the freshness that you get from adding herbs to hummus.  I usually add a little bit of parsley and/or dill to my plain hummus.  But in this variation, the dominant flavour comes from one of my favourite herbs – cilantro.  I made this for my birthday party and people really liked it.  (See my sun dried tomato hummus recipe here.)  More recently, I made this for John’s housewarming party and it was, again, a huge hit.  This time, though, I didn’t allow the food processor to incorporate the cilantro leaves as homogeneously, and the hummus had a nicer look to it.

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Sun Dried Tomato Hummus Recipe

In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks on December 1, 2010 at am

It’s easy to create different variations of hummus.  For example, you could use carmelized onions, curry powder, roasted red peppers, edamame beans, beets, pumpkin, etc.  Here is my recipe for sun dried tomato hummus.  (See my cilantro lime hummus recipe here.)

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