Calzone

Once again, I didn't take a photo. It looked pretty much like this though, but with more delicious red ooze.

It's like making a standard pizza except:

- bit more dough / less topping

- less forgiving if the dough's too dry

- more difficult to tell if it's done, you only have the brownness of the dough to go on.

- surprisingly good without cheese (although probably still nicer with!)

- mix yeast (7g packet from co-op) in small mug of warm water

- put 3 or 4 handfuls of four in a big bowl, keep the packet handy

- adding salt is good, fennel and chilli if you're feeling fancy

- add the water to the flour

- adding some oil's also good but not more than, say, a quarter as much as the water

- get one hand in there, because you'll presumably need to...

- add some more flour or water

- you can use the second hand once the dough's not too sticky

- if it's at all flaky add more water although this can be a pain, you're going to have to roll it and fold it

- make a nice ball and leave it to rise while you cut veg etc.

- spread flour on the worktop/table

- roll the base out thin, hopefully it will fold over easily

- put it on the baking tray before you...

- dump on the topping and fold

- wet the dough where top and bottom meet so they stick

When I did it, there was enough dough to roll over at the edges, like in the picture. These bits became kinda chewy and nice, not like non-foldy pizzas. I imagine they could easily become rock-hard though.

Things I screwed up:

- I put too much salt into the dough, I thought I'd try more than usual but then shook a bit too hard

- I rolled it, filled it and closed it right on the worktop. Then it nearly exploded trying to get it onto the baking tray

- I forgot to put cheese in, this actually worked out fine.

who doesn't love pancakes?

this recipe comes also comes from "vegan brunch". basic, but "perfect pancakes"! they're great with banana slices mixed in the batter.

• 1 1/4 C flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1/3 C water
• 1 C rice milk, soy milk, or other milk
• 2 T maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• banana slices, berries, chocolate chips, etc (optional)
  

preheat a large skillet over medium heat with some vegetable oil.

in a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. add the remaining ingredients and mix until just combined. (don't overmix, lumps are fine.)

pour pancakes into the hot pan one at a time, flipping over once bubbles form and bottom is cooked.

tofu-broccoli quiche

if you've ever come over to my place and eaten a quiche-like object, it was probably this tofu-broccoli quiche, inspired by a similar recipe in Vegan Brunch. this quiche seems to be successful with vegans and non-vegans alike. at clm, we are devotees of the cookbook series coming from the ladies of the post-punk kitchen. in particular, if you know me at all, you've likely tasted a cookie and cupcake inspired by their cookbooks.

• olive oil
• onion
• garlic
• 2 heads broccoli
• a bit of tumeric for color
  
• seasoning (i used thyme, but you can also try curry or other types of herbs/spices)
• salt/peper
• 1/2 C raw, unsalted cashews
• 1 lb extra firm tofu
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1 prepared pie crust (i like the spelt crust sold at coop)
  

preheat your oven to 350 F. lay out the pie crust in whatever pie pan suits you.

sautee the onion and garlic, then add the broccoli, seasonings, salt and pepper to taste. cook until the broccoli is soft.

in the food processor, process the cashews into crubs. after squeezing the water out of the tofu, crumble into the food processor with the mustard. add half of the cooked broccoli mixture to the mix and process a bit further.

transfer to a mixing bowl, add the rest of the broccoli mixture and combine. once combined, transfer everything into the pie crust. bake for ~40 minutes.

pasta with fried eggplant and tomato-almond-basil pesto

some friends came over for a quick bite before hitting the movies, so i put together an easy pasta dish. we agreed it was a hit and that we should've taken a photo for the blog, but alas, we ate it all before we had the chance! the recipe is based on this one.

• eggplant, sliced and salted
  
• fresh tomatoes, chopped into chunks
• almonds
• fresh basil
• garlic
• olive oil
• hot chili flakes
  
• salt
• pasta, whatever shape you want and cooked to specification
  

fry the eggplant slices in olive oil. meanwhile, whiz together the olive oil, garlic, almond, and tomatoes in a food processor. add hot chili flakes and salt to taste. i'm not specifying exactly how much of each ingredient, as you may like it with varying amounts of tomato, almonds, basil, garlic, etc.

toss the fried eggplant and pesto with the pasta, and you're done!

momimoto's miso

my mom helped me make this super simple but tasty miso soup when had a dinner party with her in geneva.. it was her first time in europe, and momimoto as well as her miso were a big hit!

it's really easy to prepare and can include all kinds of things. i list below the version that we made for the dinner.

• kombu (dried kelp), or something else to make a stock with "authentic oriental flavor", as momimoto would say.. shiitake mushrooms would do, for instance
• wakame (another kind of seaweed, which you see in big chunks in the image), rehydrated
• tofu (silken or firm), cut into bite size pieces
  
• age (fried tofu), cut into strips
• miso paste (here we used white miso)
• green onion, chopped

Heat a pot of water with the a couple large pieces of kombu to make a stock. Add the miso paste, to taste. You can melt it with warm water before adding it to the pot. Add the remaining ingredients. Before adding the fried tofu, rinse it through with boiling hot water to remove some of the oil. That's it!

smokey spinach salad

this salad is inspired by an amazing salad i had at maitrea vegetarian restaurant in prague. really easy and really delicious.

Salad

spinach (or other greens)
sun-dried tomatoes in oil (cut into bite-size pieces)
smoked tofu (cut into bite-size pieces)
optional: avocado, pine-nuts, thinly sliced onion

Dressing

olive oil (from the sun-dried tomatoes, perhaps)
balsamic vinegar reduction
agave nectar (or a light sprinkle of something else sweet--honey, sugar, etc)
salt & pepper

Toss the ingredients together.. Drizzle with olive oil, balsamic reduction, a tiny bit of agave nectar for sweetness.. and then salt & pepper to taste.

nectarine and almond crumble pie

strange, it seems nectarines are not popular for pies, as i found it really difficult to find a good nectarine pie recipe online.. i get the impression people are far more fond of peach pie recipes, though this one was a hit at the dinner i served it at!

this recipe is adapted from:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/nectarine-pie-almond-topping.html#

Crust

Dough for 1 single-crust pie crust

Filling

4 cups pitted and sliced ripe nectarines, unpeeled (about six nectarines)
1/3 cup sugar (more or less depending on how ripe the nectarines are)
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Almond Crumb Topping

1/2 cup whole or slivered almonds

1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons margarine butter, cut into pieces

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Spread the pie crust into the pie tin.

In a large bowl, combine the nectarines, 1/3 cup of the sugar, lemon juice and almond extract. Stir in the corn starch. Fill the pie crust will the fruit. Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the topping. Combine the almonds and the sugar in a food processor, pulsing in short bursts to chop the almonds well. Add the flour, cinnamon, and salt and pulse briefly to mix. Scatter the margarine over the dry ingredients and pulse until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Dump the crumbs into a large bowl and rub between your fingers to make large, chunky crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Remove the pie from the oven and reduce the temperature to 375F. Carefully spread the almond crumb topping over the pie. Continue to bake until the juices bubble thickly around the edge, 30 to 40 minutes.

vegan cupcakes *have* taken over the world!

we already knew that vegan cupcakes are the best :-).. seems the rest of the world is just catching up on the news:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/tasty-vegan-food-cupcakes-show-it-can-be-done/?ref=health

aminata's favorite raisin bread

(a recipe for the bread machine)

add the following ingredients (in this order) into your bread machine.

• 275 ml water
• 30 g margarine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 T sugar, maple syrup (more if you want it sweeter)
• 500g flour (i usually use a mixture of 400g white flour, 100g whole wheat flour)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
  
• 3/4 packet dry yeast
• handful of raisins
  

bake on RAPID (~2 hours) setting. this will produce a 0.9kg loaf of delicious cinnamon raisin bread :-)

welcome!

welcome to the vegfriends blog.. a place for vegetarian friends and friends of vegetarians to get together and exchange recipe ideas!