Sugar Free Vegan Fudge

I finally gave in and bought some Organic Coconut Oil... it's been exploding in the blog world right now.
Used it to experiment with making a teeny test batch of some vegan fudge.

This is what I used:

1/2 t vanilla
10 drops liquid stevia
20 grams coconut oil
2 T dark unsweetened cocoa powder


... mix all ingredients and freeze.

To be continued when I take the fudge out of the freezer.
I licked the spoon after mixing and it tasted like extremely dark/rich chocolate sludge. I couldn't taste the stevia but I was hesitant to add more because I was worried that it would get overly sweet and have a weird aftertaste. Maybe it will be good after it freezes. We shall see!

Cooking Class: Tibetan Breads

One morning in Dharamsala, when Dana was feeling a little under the weather (note to fellow travelers: don't eat the samosas sold at the bus station at 6am), I decided to take a Tibetan cooking class.

From K - India I

Sangye's Kitchen is run by a 32-year old Tibetan exile living in Mcleodganj. He runs cooking classes 6 days a week, and there are three different classes to choose from: Tibetan breads, Tibetan momo dumplings, and Tibetan noodle soups.

From K - India I

I took the Tibetan bread cooking class, where we learned 2 types of steamed bread (tingmos), a fried cookie, and the famous Tibetan brown bread.


Below: Sangye slicing the dough for the fried cookies:

From K - India I

After slicing, we cut a slit in each strip of dough and turned them inside out.

From K - India I

From K - India I

After frying. These cookies were crispy and rich but not sweet - I think they only had 1 or 2 tablespoons of sugar in the entire batch.

From K - India I

This is the base of the steamed bread: we mixed mustard oil, turmeric, and garlic and spread it on the dough before rolling it up and cutting it like cinnamon rolls.

From K - India I

From K - India I

From K - India I

From K - India I

From K - India I

Finally, my favorite: Tibetan brown bread. It's a basic yeasted whole grain bread, and it can be cooked in a skillet or in the oven. It is sweet and very satisfying.

Sangye was a skilled cook and he was very friendly and open - he told us about his experiences escaping from Tibet, traveling on foot with a group of exiles through the Himalayas, through Nepal, and into India. His story was heart-wrenching and hearing it transformed the already-interesting cooking class into an extremely memorable and meaningful experience

From K - India I

The Famous Blackberry Cobbler

For as long as I can remember, my mom has made this blackberry cobbler each year when the wild Oregon blackberries ripen in September.

I thought of this cobbler while traveling through Asia. When we arrived in Dalat, Vietnam, and saw piles of fresh blackberries for sale at the produce market, I knew what I wanted to request as soon as I returned home.

in Dalat:

From K - Hoi An & Dalat

From K - Hoi An & Dalat

Inside a cupboard in our kitchen, there's an old, fraying recipe card with a handwritten blackberry cobbler recipe. It says it's from Gourmet Magazine, but I think the recipe must be from the '80s, and a recent search of the Gourmet website didn't reveal this amazing recipe.

My recommendation: use this recipe, also from Gourmet. I think it is almost exactly the same as the one I use. However, disregard the "1/2 cup cold lard" and substitute butter instead. You'll thank me. Who wants to eat lard?

You should do yourself a favor and make this before blackberry season is over for good. Remember that a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top of the warm cobbler is not optional. It's mandatory.

Quick & Healthy Homemade Hummus

After returning from three months of traveling, I've been making up for lost time in the kitchen.

I've also been playing around with my new food processor.

 

This recipe uses chickpeas. You can either use canned chickpeas or dried chickpeas - I used dried chickpeas, and soaked them overnight in preparation. After soaking them, I simmered them for about 30 minutes on medium heat in a pot of water.

Quick Lemon Hummus:

1.5 cups chickpeas
Juice of one lemon
2 T nutritional yeast
1 t salt
1/2 T dried parsley
1 clove garlic
1/8 C olive oil

Combine ingredients in food processor or blender. Top with fresh or dried parsley and a drizzle of olive oil.

 

Late Summer Vegetable Frittata

This was my first experience cooking a frittata. For some reason, I thought frittatas were tricky, like a souffle. I couldn't have been more wrong. This is one quick and easy dish, and it's really easy to heat up a leftover slice the next day. Definitely a good dish to prepare in anticipation of a busy schedule.

I started with some extra vegetables I had on hand.
Saute a large white onion with some bell peppers and a couple of mushrooms until the onions are caramelized.

 

Next I added some yellow squash, zucchini, sea salt, and pepper.

 

To make a smaller frittata, I used 5 eggs plus one egg white, beaten with some low-fat milk (2 Tbsp?).

 

After adding the egg mixture to the veggies and cooking over medium heat on the stove for a few minutes, I added some fresh basil and put the frittata under the broiler for about 3 minutes.

 

One protein-packed, easy meal.

Grow Your Own Sprouts

I love sprouts in salads, and I recently came across my old sprout grower, hidden in a kitchen cupboard.

Growing your own sprouts is incredibly easy, and you don't even need a special sprouter. In a pinch, you can grow sprouts in any glass jar.

I looked around and found some adzuki bean seeds, alfalfa, and radish.

Since my sprouter has three trays, I thought I would try to grow one tray of each. I think they take different amounts of time to germinate, but I'll just wait and see.

Apparently raw sprouts are one of the foods most likely to become tainted by bacteria that leads to food poisoning. On the package of adzuki bean sprouts, it recommended that you soak the seeds for 5 minutes in 135 degree water, in order to kill any bacteria.




Don't keep the seeds in the water for longer than 5 minutes, or else they might not germinate. I took this precaution for the adzuki bean seeds, but the alfalfa and radish seeds seemed too small and I didn't want to deal with painstakingly draining the seeds after soaking them. Honestly, I'm really not that worried about getting food poisoning from my own sprouts.

Alfalfa seeds:




Adzuki bean seeds:




Radish seeds:



After pouring water into the top level, it drips through each of the three trays, moistening the seeds.




We'll check on these little guys in a couple days!

Butterscotch Cinnamon Coconut Pancakes

This morning I decided to break in the new food processor. After 3 months of vagabonding, and eating at restaurants 3x per day, I am so excited to be back in the kitchen, able to cook up strange concoctions.

 

My project this morning: High-protein, gluten-free, low-carb, sugar-free pancakes.

Adapted from this recipe at the edible perspective

Butterscotch Cinnamon Coconut Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 egg plus 2 egg whites
6 T unsweetened almond milk
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t Saigon cinnamon
1/4 t sea salt
1/4 t stevia (optional)
1/4 butterscotch extract (can substitute vanilla)
2 T coconut flour
2 T ground flaxseed

Blend eggs for 30 seconds in food processor. Add other ingredients and mix for additional 30 seconds.

 

 

My toppings? Greek yogurt with a tiny bit of homemade strawberry jam. And some peanut butter.

 

 

Sprinkled with some additional Saigon cinnamon, local bee pollen, and topped with frozen raspberries.

 

 

Feels good to be back in the kitchen.