Vacation Upstate...banana brownies, asian puff pastry

I am currently on vacation at Hyde Park for a week since my b/f is currently going to CIA and he already started school while I still have several weeks left. He goes to school at 12:30 pm and comes home at 9 pm. So you can only imagine with can a girl be doing in his apartment all day. Well truthfully, I've been doing nothing...maybe some food blog reading and some baking. The apartment is pretty bad. The shower leaks so you hear water running all the time and the toilet flushes automatically and the oven dial does not have the temperature on it and sometimes the oven doesn't even heat up! With some experimentation, I figured out the oven temperature with a handy dandy oven thermometer. Alright on word with the food blogging.

Very Banana-ie Brownie with Options

Very Banana-ie brownie. More Banana-ie than chocolaty but I've made some adjustment to make it more chocolately. However the picture is of the very banana-ie brownie. Modified the recipe on Vegweb Chocolate Banana Brownie to suit the ingredients that we had.

Recipe Yields 36 1.5" x 1.5" pieces 70 Cal/ Bite size Piece
180g 1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
76g 2 2/3 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips or Blocks, Melted
347g 2 1/2 Large Banana, Riped and Mashed
300g 1 1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt
15mL 1 Tbsp Vanilla extract

• In a large bowl cream the sugar, mashed banana and melted chocolate together.
• Combine the vanilla extract.
• In a smaller bowl combine the dry ingredients together.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet and combine.
• Pour it into a 9" x 9" pan and bake it in the oven for 400 F for 25-30 minutes.

Option : To make it more chocolaty use 142g 5 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips or Blocks instead of the 76g 2 2/3 oz and used 319g 2 1/3 Large Banana instead of the 347g 2 1/2.

Apple Raisin Chinese Puff Pastry

They are similar to the European puff pastry but not exactly. Instead of butter, lard and oil is mainly used for the fat. I got the recipe of the puff pastry from Cafe of the East. Normally when you go out to eat dimsum, they are filled with the mung bean, red bean paste, taro paste or lotus paste. Apparently being upstate, I don't have the luxury of being a walking distance from my local Asian market so I'll make a apple raisin filled ball.

I modify the puff pastry from Cafe of the East to fit the ingredients I had available.

Recipe Yields 20 Puff Pastry Ball 162 Cal/Pastry Puff Ball

Chinese Puff Pastry 122 cal/ Puff Pastry Dough
Wet Dough
200g 1 2/3 Cup All Purpose Flour
70g 1/3 Cup Shortening*
20g Sugar, Confectioner
+ - 100mL Water

Oil Dough
120g 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
60g 1/4 Cup + 2 Tsp Shortening*

* If you don't want to use the hydrogentated crap you can use expeller pressed oil like Earth Balance shortening and Spectrum shortening.

Filling
742g 3 1/2 Large Apples (I used gala)
85g 3 oz Raisins
177 3/4 Cup Cranberry Juice
1 Tbsp of Sugar, Granulated

To make the pastry dough

• First you need to make the wet dough by combining the sugar and the flour.
• Then cut in the shortening into the dough until all the crumbs are uniform in size.
• Slowly add the water as you mix the dough with your hand until it is smooth like the consistency of bread dough. Then let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Then make the oil dough by cutting in the shortening into the flour and knead it until it has the consistency of the wet dough. Add more shortening if you have to. Then let it rest for 30 minutes.

To make the filling

• Peel and core all the apples and dice them into about 1 cm cubes.
• While you are cubing the apples pour cranberry juice in a medium size pot and put in your raisins and let it simmer on medium heat.
• Then add in your apples and sugar and combine.
• Continue to simmer it until all juice reduces to nothing. Stir occasionally to make sure that the apples or raisin do not stick to your pot.

To assemble the apple raisin pastry

• please click on the picture to enlarge and see the visual aid.

• 1. Put the oil dough on a flatten wet dough.
  2. Wrap the oil dough with the wet dough and pinch the ends together
  3. Roll out the dough vertically.
  4. Roll the long dough downward into a long cylinder, resembling a cigar.
  5. Turn the horizontal cigar 90 degrees so that it is vertical.
  6. Roll out the cigar dough vertically.
  7. Roll the vertical dough downward into a cylinder again.
  8. Sit the cylinder upwards on your palm.
  9. Pinch up the ends so that it forms a ball.
  10. Situate the botto of the ball on your palm, so that the swirly pinched
  up ends are facing you and flatten the dough with your fingers. Make sure
  the edges are thinner than the middle and do not pull on the dough to
  flatten as it will pull apart the coil lamination you have just rolled out.
  11. Put the filling into the middle of the circular dough and pinch up the ends and round it into a ball.
• The dough doesn't spread so you can put it close together on a cookie sheet and bake it for 400 F for about 30 minutes.

Something Purple...

It seems like I love purple this week. I've made Jasmin agar agar tapioca jellies and taro ice cream. Who doesn't love purple? PUrple Purple Purple and lots of restaurant jumping in this entry.

Jasmin Coconut Agar Agar Jelly

This recipe is based on Baking mum's Multi-Color Sago Jelly. Despite the fact that jasmines are white, whenever I take a big whiff of jasmines, I instantly think of purple. If you are wondering where to purchase agar agar, it can be easily found in your near by health food store. I know Eden Food carries agar agar flakes and agar bar but they are rather expensive. Now Foods also carries agar agar in the 2 oz bottle and 2 lb bottle but I think the 2lb bottle is a bit extreme, no? If you are lucky to have access to some Asian supermarket, I really advise you to check there first. There are several brands of agar agar I know of, in which they are the telephone brand and the golden cup brand. They are sold in the .88 oz packets for only a dollar. Those packets are small but goes a long way! 1 gram is equal to 1/4 tsp you don't need much anyways.

The packet looks like this...


Recipe Yields 16 slices (100 Cal/Slice)

Tapioca Portion
70 g 2/5 Cup Tapioca Pearls Aka Sago
1/4 Tsp Jasmin Essence (You can use any extract or essence like orange, almond, vanilla etc. but if you are using extract use a tad bit more.)
1 drop Red Food Coloring (Any colors will do)
1 drop Blue Food Coloring

Coconut Agar Portion
12g 2 Tbsp Agar Agar Powder or 6 Tbsp Agar Flakes
200 g || 1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Tsp Salt
300 mL 1 3/8 Cup Coconut Milk, Canned
1000 mL 4 1/4 Cup Water
1/3 Tsp Jasmin Essence
1 drop Red Food Coloring
1 drop Blue Food Coloring

Tapioca Portion

• Boil some water on high heat in a pot. Pour the tapioca pearls and cook it until they turn transparent. It takes around 20 minutes.
• Pour off as much boiling water as you can and rinse it with cold water and strain it.
  
• Then divide these into to portion and for one portion mix 1 drop of red and blue food coloring and 1/4 tsp jasmine essence.
  

Coconut Agar Portion

• Combine the coconut milk, water, sugar, agar agar and salt in a pot.
  
• Mix with a whisk and simmer the mixture until the agar agar and sugar melts.
• Divide the mixture into three portion.
• Combine the food coloring and essence into one of the portion.

Molding

• First pour the coconut agar layer into a 2lb loaf pan (8 5/8" x 4 1/2" x 2 3/5" )then let it cool down in the refrigerator. (This layer will take the longest to cool so it is essential for you to be patient or else you would be like me! I messed up on the purple tapioca pearl layer >< ) Stir the other two coconut agar layer to prevent from setting while the first layer sets in the microwave.
• When the first layer has cooled, warm up the purple tapioca pearls a bit in the microwave for 10-15 sec on high so that it can be able to adhere to the previous layer nicely and for it to set. (Don't microwave too only or it might melt :X ) Spread it evenly on top of the first layer and let it set again in the microwave.
  
• When that layer has set, add another layer of the white coconut agar mixture on top, again warm this up in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Mix it with the whisk to dissolve any set agar. Then pour it on top of the purple tapioca and let it return to the refrigerator to set.
  
• Microwave the last clear tapioca pearl portion for 10-15 seconds on high and spread it over the white coconut layer and let it set again
• And for the final layer microwave the purple coconut agar layer in the microwave for about 45 sec on high and mix to dissolve any set pieces and pour it on top of the tapioca layer. Let this set for at least an hour in the refrigerator before unmolding. Don't be impatient like me!
  

Taro Ice Cream
Taro Ice Cream. I love taro they are delicious. I absolutely love the texture of the taro when it's half solid and half paste. It is naturally sweet and very aromatic. It is simply divine even if you just cook with plain ol' salt. My love for ice cream and the inspiration from A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise.

Taro Ice Cream Recipe Yields about 2 1/2 - 3 Cup Ice Cream (170 Cal/ 1/2 Cup)

Taro Paste Yields about 290 g Taro Paste
226 g Taro Root, Cubed 1"
591 mL ||2 1/2 Cup Water (Give or take some taro may require more or less)
1/3 || 66 g Sugar ** EDIT add 50g || 1/4 Cup more Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt

(If you are using the paste as filling for steamed buns or cake)
** From what my b/f had learned from CIA, he said that when things are frozen, there are less flavor so you need to add more flavor to frozen food.

Ice Cream Mixture
All the Taro Paste
180 mL 3/4 Cup Non Dairy Creamer (You can use unsweetened non dairy milk but I highly recommend using soy creamer or you can add 1 1/2 tbsp of Vegetable Oil)
Plus 60 mL 1/4 Cup Non Dairy Creamer.
30g 1 Tbsp Tapioca Starch

For the Paste

• Mix the sugar into the water and bring it to a simmer in a sauce pan on high medium.
  
• Then put the diced taro into the simmer water. Break the taro down with a fork or spatula as you cook it. You can leave small pieces of taro to give it texture and a bite.
  
• If all the water has all be absorbed by the taro and the taro is still hard, add more water. It's okay if you add a bit too much since the taro will absorb all the water or it will all be evaporated.
• Continue to cook the taro has absorbed all the water and it is in the consistency of a paste.
• Sprinkle the salt and combine. Then take it off the heat and let it cool down. It yields about 290 g, almost 2 cup of paste. You can store it or make a bigger batch for steamed taro buns.
  

Ice cream mixture

• Take the taro paste and combine it with 3/4 cup soy creamer or nondairy milk + the oil.
• Whisk everything as you bring the mixture to a small simmer on medium heat.
  
• Dissolve the tapioca starch in the remaining 1/4 cup soy creamer.
  
• Whisk the ice mixture as you slowly pour in the tapioca and soy cream mixture.
• Continue cooking on medium heat until you feel the mixture thicken.
• Then pour it into your ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer instruction.

OR (if you don't have a ice cream maker like me)

• Poor it into a very wide pan (I used a 14" round pan). Any pan with a huge surface area will do.
  
• Put it into the freezer and beat it with a whisk or electric beater ever 15 minutes until the mixture is almost frozen into a solid.
  
• Put it into a container and freeze it.
  (note the quality will not be as good as the ice cream machine)
  

Dosa Hutt of Flushing NY!!
Vegan restaurant hunting!! I've been going to so many vegatarian/vegan places around NYC with my handy dandy VegOut: Vegetarian Guide to New York City. They have other VegOut books for Southern California, Seattle and Portland, Chicago and other large cities. Although I wish they had a vegan guide to NYC :[ it's alright many of the vegetarian place serve great vegan dishes as well. With in this month I went to Oneness Fountain Heart, Spice, Cafe Spice, Buddah Bodai, Wholes Food, LifeThyme, Dosa Hutt, My GOd I'm a freaking pig and I'm planning to go to Red Bamboo Soul Cafethis thursday.

I must say Dosa Hutt is AWESOME!! Spice authentic Indian food right by my house too awesome. Now i don't always have to eat at Buddah Bodai or Happy Buddah. Getting sick of Chinese food. My b/f ordered so much food cause it was extremely cheap :x Pondicherry Masala Dosa, Rava Masala Dosa, rava Mysore Masala Dosa and the Medhu Vada in Bowl. Cafe spice was nothing in comparison to Dosa Hutt. Cafe Spice was lacking in the spiciness for the tourist. For all those who live in Queens or the Tristate area please do try Dosa Hutt. everything is less than 4.75 with the exception of 2 items in which it is the Special rava masala dosa which is $5.25 and the speical low carb. dosa which is $6.00.
Everything is mostly vegan!! HOrray Hoorah!! I believe the butter masala dosa and cheese dosa are the only two that are vegetarian. Well that's what the cashier said but ask to make sure when you go there for an updated list. The desserts are not on the menu. It's located on the leftt side of the counter in plastic boxes. Too bad they aren't vegan since they contain milk though :/ but the besan ladoo didnt contain any milk. It's traditionally made with ghee but according to the cashier, it's vegan. Yayy

Chickpea, cardamom, golden raisins, cashews, almonds, LOTS OF OIL and I believe some kind of flowery essence. Probably rose or jasmin. Hm.... I must say it was very oily though. When i squeezed it, oil was gushing out. Don't as why I was squishing at it. It was rather fun.

Weekend getaway

More like a one day get away. I went with my b/f to the Poconos. Stayed at hojos and lots of candle stores/factories. They're also a cute little farmers market near by and two health food store. Awesome. Pangea the restaurant in the Poconos had a wide variety of food from different parts of the world and they also had a whole section for vegetarians. The waitress was very nice unlike some other waitress when you ask them about the food they would just lie about their answer. We asked the waitress some questions and she actually when to ask the chefs to find out the answers.
Other than that I didn't do much at all this week except for buy buy buy.

Crystallized Ginger (Vegan)
Bought some Vietnamese "sweetened ginger" thinking it's crystallized ginger at my local Chinese supermarket. I bought it before but I remember to taste more spicy. They also did not look like that either. It looks and taste like they have been boiled down and lost all it's ginger taste and dusted with confectioner sugar. It reminds me of those sugared cover Chinese new year candy like those sugar coated winter melons. I got the recipe from Great Cooking.

Verdict: I love sweet spicy ginger!!



Recipe Yields around 5.6 oz - 6 oz/156 g - 170 g
8 oz/227 g Large Young Ginger (Old wrinkly ginger has thread in it)
2 Cups/400 g Sugar, Granulated
1 Tbsp Water

• Peel the ginger with a spoon and slice it 1/8th to 1/4th an inch which ever way that will yield you the widest slice. (Yes peel it with a spoon! The spoon is harder than the ginger skin but not harder than the ginger so it makes peeling so easy. You wont peel away all the flesh of the ginger either.
  
• Toss the ginger with the sugar in a bowl
• In a large sauce pan put in the water, sugar and ginger. Try to layer the ginger evenly so that it gets cooked evenly.
  
• Bring the mixture to a slow simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes or until the syrup turns into paste. Stir when things starts sticking together or the ginger starts burning. It's best not to stir at all or else the sugar will crystallized. When it looks like the mixture will brown, lower the heat Do not let it brown at all or else it'll be too hard or bitter.
  
• When it reaches a paste like mixture start stirring the mixture more often to form sugar crystals.
  
• When the whole paste turn into sugar crystal place your crystallized ginger into an air tight jar or container. You can save the ginger sugar for tea or for your gingersnap cookies.

Sweet Potato Ginger Tong Sui (Vegetarian/Vegan)
I love ginger and sweet potato who know how many bowls I ate in one sitting. "Tong Sui" literally means sweet water in chinese so this is a dessert recipe. It's actually a sweet soup. The measurement is really not on scale because I just made it to my preference with no measuring cups. My mom never use measuring cups or any measuring utensils. She just grabs and dump and that's exactly what I did. I think the rock candy and the peen tong contains honey. I'm not sure... I was almost finished with the dessert, all except for dissolving the sugar but I had to run out to do something quickly. I'm assuming my mom used the rock candy cause that's all she uses.



Recipe
24 oz- 36 oz/680g - 1021 g Sweet Potatoes
2 in" worth Ginger
2 Handful Dried Jujubes (Chinese Red Dates) (optional)
1 Handful Dried Logan (Fruit similar to the lychee) (optional)
Water
Peen Tong/Rock Candy if none are available use Granulated Sugar

• Peel and cube the sweet potato ginger into 3/4" - 1" cubes.
• Peel the ginger with a spoon and slice it 1/8"-1/4" thick.
• Rinse both the dried red dates and the dried logan. They both can be purchased at the dinese herbal store or your local Chinese supermarket.
• Dump the sweet potatoes, ginger, jujubes and logans in a huge pot and pour in enough water cover 1 cm over the sweet potatoes.
• Let it boil on med to high heat until the sweet potatoes are soft and sweeten the soup with the sugar. Put as much as you like.

Frey Chocolate Bar (Vegan)
Frey, the Swiss chocolate company also has an American Line of chocolate called the supreme. Target is the only place in America that sells Frey's chocolate. So far I have only found out that Frey's Swiss Dark Chocolate and Frey's Supreme Hot Chilli Peppers are vegan but may contain traces of milk. All the other chocolates like Endanger Species, Chocolove, Rapunzel and Green and Black are considered vegan but may contain traces of milk. Up to you to decide. I do no have the email to authenticate my words on the Swiss dark chocolate but the ingredients does not contain any milk solid, butter, nonfat milk and other dairy products. I need to buy the bar and scan the wrapper on. I do have the email saying that the hot chilli pepper is vegan.

Click on the photo to enlarge

Korean Traditional Rice Syrup (Vegan)


I found it at the local Korean supermarket. It cost $3.99 but my b/f bought it at his local korean market for a buck cheaper and twice the size. I was comparing and contrasting this syrup and the one I had from Lundberg. The korean rice syrup was a bit more diluted and the taste was not as strong. It's possible that water was used to dilute it or it was mixed with malt syrup but I can't tell for sure. On the ingredients all it said was Rice Malt syrup. I think i might use this as a substitute for brown rice syrup.

Bread.A Bakery
Hooray a vegetarian bakery opened near my neighborhood. For all those who live in Flushing, NY you should check it out. Although it's quite small and has not so great of a selection, the girl who works there is really nice. A Taiwanese person opened this place so the workers there might not speak English well. I know I was having a hard time communicating with the girl who works there since I can't speak Mandarin and she was not quite familiar with English. I hope the other workers there are more knowledgeable of English.


Pros
They have cakes, cookies, buns and entree.
They have a variety of bread and buns. I love buns!!! They had many buns like those Chinese bakery buns. They have the red bean, cinnamon raisin, black sesame and others. I love the fact that someone actually tried to make those vegetarian buns!! The drinks they serve are very delicious too.

Cons
They don't really serve any vegan cake or cookies but they are willing to custom make it for you. Yay vegan birthday cake but damnnit birthday passed. Too bad it's situated in a poor area though. It's right on an area in which there are many construction companies, auto shops and hardware stores. I am afraid they might do a lot of business. The place also a bit small. Its like an extremely small bakery with 2 tables and several chais in the back.

Goodies from the Place
Po Lo Bao (Pineapple Bun er...more like pumpkin bun)


It was Po Lo Bao at all. I think it was the pumpkin bun but I don't think the girl understood me when I was speak in Cantonese but never the less it tasted quite good. I loved the dough especially the flaky coat layer. I was having so much fun peeling it as i was eating it. The filling was decent, not the best but not the worst either. It was mildly sweet and reminded me of apples. I thought it would have had more filling though.



Hong Dao Sa Bao (Red Bean Paste Bun)
I think it tasted funky to me. The red bean didnt really taste like red bean. It tasted a bit bitter and not sweet at all.

Hak Zee Ma Bao (Black Sesame Bun)

It looked really cute... too cute to eat. I like the walnuts in the bottom of the filling and the sesame was pretty good.

Everything there was fairly decent. I like the service since the girl did try really hard to help me and I loved the drink that my brother got and the fact that there are buns!!