Two ways to use coldsmoke-tofu

Life should be taken lightly at times! Celebrating is an important part of life. Now is the time when people unite to celebrate, ending school, graduating and welcoming the summer holiday (perhaps). If you have age, you will certainly be offered some sparkling wine or maybe even champagne! We had some dry australian rose-sparkling wine, Pink Yellowglen.

Cold smoke-tofu-pie

The base:

2 dl soy flour

100 g margarine

Mix the soy flour and margarine to a dough, preferably by hand. Press on a pietin evenly on bottom and sides. Stick with a fork a bit. Prebake in the oven for 10-15 min, in 175 degrees.

The filling:

150 g coldsmoke-tofu (half of a package)

1 onion

½ yellow paprika

2 dl of coconut milk

1 tsp of jeera

1 dl grated cheese

salt, pepper

Chop the onion, tofu and paprika and spread on the prebaked pie. Whisk jeera and spices in the coconut milk and pour on the filling. Sprinkle on top the grated cheese. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Cold smoke-tofu salad

1 jar of leaf lettuce (I used tammenlehväsalaatti, I have no idea what it's in english)

½ yellow paprika

150 g cold smoke-tofu

1 tomato

1 apple

pumpkin seeds

Dressing:
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp honey
½ dl olive oil
½ lime's juice
salt, pepper

Chop the tofu to cubes, and roast on a pan (no oil) until slightly brown. Let cool. Chop the other ingredients and mix in a bowl, and add the tofu when cool. Mix the ingredients of the dressing and add salt and pepper to your flavor. Pour on the salad and mix. Roast the pumpkin seeds on a pan until they pop, and garnish the salad.

Banana-beetroot bread

I found yet another recipe from Veganomicon I just had to try (I haven't got yet to try the cookie recipes, but I'm anxious to make them!!). I variated the recipe by adding some beetroot and cardamom (once, again). I can't describe the aroma that came from the oven, it was so good. Maybe this is a more of a winterly thing, but why not ? On a rainy day.

Ingredients:

2 large bananas

2 beetroots (or 1 dl of applesauce)

1 dl melted butter (or oil)

1 dl sugar

2 tbsp syrup

5 dl flour (I used spelt-flour about 3 dl, and all-purpose 2 dl)

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmed

1 tsp ground cardamom

½ tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Lightly grease a 20x12 (about) pan. In a large bowl, mash the bananas well. Add sugar, beetroot, butter and syrup, whisk briskly. Sift in the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Use a wooden spoon to mix until the ingredients are just combined. Transfer the batter to the pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. The top should be lightly brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Vegalicious pancakes !

Banana-nut-pancakes

I have started to take us of my new vegan bible. Vegan brunch part 704, these pancakes must have been..best ever! My only addition was replacing nutmeg with freshly ground cardamum. Banana and nuts are my favorites!! Eaten with a new find: coconut jam by Jam It! Suitable for vegans. They also have other exotic jam options, papaya and mango. But now for the recipe (from the book Veganomicon, the measures are translated from cups):

Ingredients:

about 4 dl of soy milk

1 dl of water

2 teaspoons apple honey vinegar

2 bananas

3 tablespoons oil / melted butter

3 tablespoons honey (or maple syrup)

1 teaspoon vanille sugar

about 5,5 dl of flour (3½ dl of spelt flour, 2 dl of all-purpose flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 tsp cardamom (about 3-4 whole cardamoms)

2,5 dl of nuts (chop or fine with a blender)

Preheat the pan. Pour the soy milk, water and vinegar into a cup and set aside.

Mash the bananas well, add the soy milk mixture with oil, honey and vanilla. Now add the flour, baking powder and soda, salt and cardamom. Combine with a fork, don't overmix. Fold in the chopped nuts. The batter becomes quite firm.

Now add some butter or oil on the warm pan, and cook the pancakes. Because of the batters' texture I used a spoon to spread it evenly on the pan. Serve with ice cream, jam, fresh strawberries etc..

Salty Goodness

I ordered myself a vegan cookbook from the States, and it arrived on friday! I read a lot of cookbooks, mainly from the library. Even though I rarely cook the recipes on the books, I find reading them very inspiring. Often you get ideas from the books that can be variated as you like. Now I have my first own vegan book, Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I have given it only a quick look, but seems nice! Though it lacks photos it is a good package full of information.

We ate some feta-cheese (tomato, salad, honey melon, fetacheese, yellow paprika, onion) salad and cheese-croissants today. This recipe is good for the croissants, I like that it's not too greasy. Using spelt flour gives a nice taste on them. I added some turmenic, which gave them a fun yellowish color. For the filling you could use some blue cheese, or as I did now, Grana Padana etc. I prefer quite sour cheeses on these, like Emmental and Polar. You needn't add any salt, since the cheeses use to be quite salty.

Cheese-croissants

Ingredients:

4 ½ dl of flour (3 dl of spelt flour + 1 ½ dl of wheat flour)

4 dl of grated cheese + 2 dl for the filling

3 tsp of salt

2 sp of cumin seeds (2 tsp of turmenic)

100 g of room-temperature margarine

1 ½ dl of soy milk / water

Mix the dry ingredients. Add in the butter until the batter becomes crumbly. Add liquid and knead into a firm dough. Heat the oven in 200 degrees.

Share the dough in 3 portions. Roll the portions to a round shape, and divide in eight sections, like a pizza. Now sprinkle some cheese on each part and roll them from the wide end to a tight croissant. Apply some soy milk on the croissants before putting to the oven. Bake for 13-15 minutes.

Spring Brunch

Hola! Summer is coming! Breakfast is def-i-nitely my favorite meals. It doesn't matter if the meal is small, somehow I am a breakfast person. So brunch is the weekend-special, where you can devote more time for cooking and eating (and socializing of course). So here is a quick look on our (May Day) Brunch.

Small bites:

Toasted Nuts

I'm trying my very best to remember, how I seasoned these...! But I'm not totally sure. But you can use your imagination! There is no one-way. Just use
200 g nutmix (cashew-, para-, wal-, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds and almonds)

Roast the nuts in a pan (no oil) with medium heat. When the nuts seem slightly brownish, add seasoning. One option : chiliflakes, cocoa powder, freshly squeezed orange juice and some honey. Roast a bit (don't burn) and pour on a small bowl. Other option: freshly ground cardamom, cinnamon, freshly squeezed orange juice. Let cool.

With fresh rye-bread

Smokesalmon-mousse

I'm thinking you could use smoked-tofu for this! We usually just use salmon. This is a classic in our festive foods.

200 g of smoked salmon

1 onion

1 red paprika
200 g of Philadelphia (plain unripened cheese)
2 spoons of creme fraiche
juice of a half lemon
salt, pepper, fresh chives

Put the salmon, onion and half of the paprika in a blender. Mix in the cheese and creme fraiche and seasonings. Chop finely the other half of the paprika and mix in(don't blend), garnish with chopped chives. Serve with small pieces of rye bread!

Bluecheese-pear-salad

100 g of blue cheese (Aura Gold)
1 pear chopped
1 mango chopped
salad
fresh basil and mint leaves
lime juice, salt, pepper, olive oil

Drink some bubbly

Sparkling wine

This was just normal dry sparkling wine, but pureed frozen raspberries gave it a pink look! Cheers for spring! I can recommend a good organic sparkling wine: Can Vendrell cava, Albet i noya. Spanish wine, and I loved it, organic is somehow always better... Not the cheapest bottle, cost was about 12 euros, but definitely worth the price. IF you wish to invest on quality instead of quantity...!!

For Sweet dessert
Fruit salad & Flourless chocolat cake

For the fruit salad I chopped some fruits, banana, apple, mango, orange, dates. Add some fresh mint leaves and desiccated coconut and sprinkle on some lime juice. I have the recipe for the cake over here: Chocolat cake. You can do it without the dried fruits and season with cardamom, cinnamon, chili, coconut, or whatever you wish!