Vegan Rugelach

Wow I haven't updated in quite a long while. School was crazy! I'm so glad classes and finals are over. Now I can devote all my time into my hobbies. HOrray hoorah. It seems like there's never enough time for anything.

Mixed Fruit Rugelach
I used to work in a Jewish Bakery and I would snack on those all day. Too bad it's not vegan and that place closed down due unsatisfactory scoring in the health inspection. I would know hahaha, but thank goodness I left before that happened.

Rugelach is a very popular Jewish cookie. They normally contain nuts or some kind of jam. The most popular rugelach that we had in the Jewish bakery were the chocolate and the cinnamon raisin. This is a really simple recipe. Nothing special. No crazy drizzle or excess amount of sugar especially for the holidays.



Yields 24-32 Mini Rugelach/ 12-18 Large Rugelach (2129 cal Total)
Dough
1 Cup/ 120g All Purpose Flour
3 oz/ 85g Vegan Cream Cheese, Room Temperature
2 oz/57g Vegan Butter, Room Temperature
1/4 tsp Salt

Filling
2 oz/ 57g Raisins
2 oz/ 57 g Dried Cranberries
2 oz/ 57 g Deglet Noor Pitted Dates, Chopped
1/3 Tsp Cinnamon, Grounded
3 Tbsp Soymilk, Warm (you can use any vegan milk)

• For the dough part, sift the flour and salt together.
• Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and cut in the cream cheese and butter.
• Let the dough chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
  
• Meanwhile mix the cinnamon with the soymilk and soak the dried fruits in the soymilk mixture. You don't want the fruits to burn while they are baking.
• After the chilling is finished.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
  
• Take the dough and roll it out to be a 8" x 16" rectangle. *
  
• Then spread the mixture evenly across the dough and tightly roll up the dough.
• Wet a knife and cut the rolled up rope of dough to however big you want the rugelach to be.
• If there is any leftover liquid from the filling, brush it ontop of the rugelach and bake it for 35-40 minutes or until the top turns into a light golden brown.
  

*If you want to make mini rugelach, you get less spirals in the cookies. Just divide the dough in half and roll each piece to a 4" x 16" rectangle.

Steamed Spring Roll
Normally the ones at YumCha is fried but it's healthier to steam but the taste is very different.
This recipe is very similar to the tofu skin wrap.


Yields 21 Spring rolls

Water
21 Spring roll Wrapper
15 Dried Shiitaki mushroom
2 Bunch of Rice Vermecille Noodle
1 10 oz Baby Corn, Canned
1 10 oz Braised Bamboo Shoot, Sliced into Matchsticks
20g Woodear Fungus
Soy Sauce
Salt

• Soak the shiitaki mushroom, rice vermecille noodles and woodear three separate bowls of warm water.
  
• Rinse the canned baby corn and bamboo shoot to get rid of the perservatives in the can.
  
• Slice the shiitaki mushroom into thin slices and cut the rice vermecille noodles into 2" and snip and hard spot in the woodear. Then roughly chop the woodear fungus.
• Cut the baby corns into quarters.
• In a saucepan cook the mushroom and woodear fungus until it's almost 3/4th done then add in the baby corn and bamboo shoot and cook it until they are warm.
• Toss in the vermecille noodles and cook for about 2 more minutes. Then flavor with soy sauce and salt.
  
• * Soak a spring roll wrapper in warm water to soften it.
  
• Place the spring roll wrapper on a flat surface and place the filling horizontally in the middle towards the bottom of the wrapper.
• Fold the left and right side of the wrapper towards the middle and then roll the wrapper tightly starting at the bottom where the filling is.
• Repeat this process 20 more times, start the steps where the * asterisk is.
• Place the spring rolls in to a steamer or a wok with some water and steam it for 15 minutes.
  

Soy Yogurt Cheese


I personally think it taste better than sour cream and cream cheese. Just follow these few simple step to make your own yogurt cheese from regular soy yogurt. You can make your own soy yogurt by going here. You can use this soy yogurt cheese for almost anything

Yogurt
Colander
Cheesecloth or Coffee Filters.

• Line your colander with a cheesecloth or enough coffee filters to fit the whole colander. (Just wet the coffee filter to make it easier to handle.)
• Pour the cheesecloth over the muslin and let it strain the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

*note: if you want a more tangy yogurt cheese do not use commercial soy yogurt, make your own. The longer you ferment the yogurt, the tangier and sourer the yogurt becomes.

Macau Almond Cookies

They are also known as Macau Almond cake. This brand makes their almond cookie mainly out of almond, oil and mung bean starch. This company is a well known bakery in Macau famous for their almond cookies. They are absolutely delicious. I have odd cravings to make southeast Asian food. Delicious. I love kueh!

Thai food anyone?

Curry Kabocha with Yu Choy and Tofu



It's a rip off of the Epicurious shrimp curry with yu choy and kabocha

Instead of the shrimp I used some extra firm silken tofu.

As for the fish paste, I used FatFree Vegan's No Fish Fish Sauce.

Note: If you can't find kaffir leaves, even in the Asian market but you can use lime leaves, lemon leaves or 1 tablespoons for every 6 kaffir leaves.

Normally you can find lemongrass in your local Asian market but you can use a substitute of 1 zest of a whole lemon is 2 stalk of lemongrass.

I found the thai basil a bit overwhelming since Thai basil is very pungent in comparison to the regular basil you may find in the regular supermarket.

The choy sum has so many names for the Cantonese, it's called yu choy, yow choy or flowering rape.


Tofu Mushroom Side Dish


Recipe

1 Clove of Garlic, Minced
1/2 Yellow Onion, Chopped
8 oz Mushroom (Cremini or White)
6 oz Firm Silk Tofu, 1/2 Inch Cubed
1 Scallion, Finely Chopped
Oil

• Heat the oil on medium-high heat and cook the garlic to release the aroma for about 10 seconds, make sure not to burn them.
• Then add in the onions and cook it for a few minutes then add the mushrooms. Add enough salt to the vegetable to salt to your preference. This will allow the vegetable to release any water.
  
• When the onions are almost thoroughly cooked add the tofu and the scallions and cook it until the onions are soft and the mushrooms are cooked.

Chocolate Banana Muffin


It's not very banana-y tasting so I dont know whether to post this recipe or not.

Midterm week

The title describes all!! I had midterms last, this week and I believe the one after this... Great this shows how tentative I am in class. I don't even know when my midterms are. I've been so busy studying for calculus, I'm drained so I decided to treat myself by going to Six Flag for the fright fest. I'm not a picture person so there's no pictures. It wasn't what I had expected. I expected it to be more frightening but apparently not with all the rude people pushing and shoving.

Anyways onward to the food. I helped my boyfriend bake some goodies for his mother's office since she was leaving that hell hole yay!!! We had to bake 80 of each item but we didn't have enough time to bake enough of the muffins. I wished I had more influence on what was being served. We made apple cranberry muffins (ovo-vegetarian), gingerbread cookies (ovo-vegetarian) and VWAV pumpkin oatmeal cookies (vegan). Awesome. Everyone loved the baked goods. The vegan cookies came in second though :[ They liked the muffins more...but at least it's not last!!


This week's muffin, Persimmon Muffin!!
Tis is the season for persimmons!!! I love persimmons although they can cause severe heartburns if you just eat it out of the hand. They're amazingly delicious. Some how they remind me of pumpkins because they're so orange! *Note I tend not to use cups to measure ingredients as they can be quite inaccurate. I've just converted the weight to volume so please excuse all the odd measurement in volume.


Recipe Yields 6 Muffin // 165 Cal/Muffin


75g// 5/8 Cup All Purpose Flour
75g// 5/8 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
38g// 3 Tbsp Sugar, Granulated
12g// 1 Tbsp Dark Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Allspice, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Nutmeg, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Salt

115g// About 1 Medium Persimmon, Pureed
12g// 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
1/2 Cup Soy Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla

Kabocha Pie (Japanese Pumpkin Pie)
Tis is autumn!! The leaves are falling, the winds are strong, it's almost Halloween, Thanksgiving will soon follow. It's a great time for eating pumpkin pies and sweet potato pies! Normally people associate autumn with pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie but there aren't many pumpkins readily available here but there are many kabocha. Kabocha is also known as Japanese pumpkin. The taste a bit like pumpkin and a bit like sweet potato. Even better! Killing two birds with one stone. Of course I wouldn't do that I can't even kill one bird with a stone. Poor birdie. Kabocha is a popular ingredient in Asian cooking and it's avaible all year round in the Asian markets. I've seen them in both the Korean markets and the Chinese market. In the Chinese market these kabocha are actually called pumpkin in Chinese. Hey why not make so "pumpkin pie"?


Recipe Yield 1 7" pie, 8 slices// 140.25 Cal/Slice

Crust
62g// 4 2x2 Graham Crackers, Crumbled
60g// 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
24g// 2 Tbsp Soy Butter, Room Temp.
3 Tbsp Soy Milk
1/3 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated

Filling
265g// Kabocha, puree
6 oz// 170g Silken Tofu, Firm (I used Mori-nu)
50g // 1/4 Cup Sugar, Granulated (You can use more, my kabocha was very sweet)
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
  
• Crumble the graham crackers and combine it together with the all purpose flour.
• Cut in the soy butter into the flour mixture.
• Make a well in the middle and add the soy milk and knead the dough.
• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerated it for about 20 minutes.
• Take out the dough and flour the rolling pin and your surface.
• Roll out the dough to be around 3/4 cm thick and cover your 7" pie pan.
  
• Poke many holes with the fork and back it in the oven for 15 minutes.
• Take it out and let it cool while you make the filling.

• Peel and dice the kabocha. (Make sure you measure the kabocha with out the skin and seeds.)
• Dice the kabocha to 1.5" cubes and steam it in a steamer for 15-20 minutes or until tender.
• Puree the squash in the food processor until there are no more lumps.
  
• Put the kabocha into a large bowl and puree the tofu in the food processor. (Since we're using firm tofu, make sure there are no lumps! You don't want lumpy pie!)
• Add the kabocha sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg into the tofu mixture and puree it until all the ingredients are combined.
• Pour the filling into the crust and bake it for 20 minutes. If you bake too long, it will crack!

Cinnamon Raisin Coconut Rice Pudding


Rice pudding hmm....The coconut taste is very subtitle but with the addition of shredded coconuts, it goes quite far. Actually I've made it twice, once in my b/f house and once at home. The one that my b/f and I made was from a recipe in vegweb. It didnt turn out the way we wanted to so I've made it again.

Recipe Yields 4-6 Serving// 533-355 Cal/Serving

1 13.5 Fl Oz// 2 Cup Canned Coconut Milk
1 1/2 Cup Soy Milk (I used plain, sugarless)
185g// 1 Cup Jasmin Rice
150g// 3/4 Cup Sugar, Granulated
40g// 1/4 Cup Raisins
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated
2 Tbsp Agave Nectar (Optional)
23 g// 1/4 Cup Shredded Coconut (Optional)

• Boil the coconut milk and soy milk together in a saucepan or pot while you wash and rinse your rice. (It helps a lot if your saucepan or pot are nonstick because the rice will stick!)
  
• When the milk mixture is just boiling, pour in the sugar and let the sugar melt in the milk. (If you are happening to use sweetened soy milk, reduce the amount of sugar.)
• Pour in the the rice and let it boil with a lid overing the saucepan or pot on a medium to low heat.
  
• While you are waiting for the rice to cook, soak the raisins in half a cup of warm water. If you don't soak the raisins they will absorb the moister in your rice pudding, making your pudding dry.
• When the rice is starting to cook and has already absorbed about half of the milk, lower the heat to low and let it simmer slowly with the lid on so the steam can softens the rice. If you don't use a lid, the moister will evaporate out of the saucepan or pot. It's essential that you lower the heat or else the rice will burn! No shortcuts!! It may take up to 20 minutes to 30 minutes of simmering and steaming depending on the size of the saucepan or pot.
  
• Stir the rice every few minutes to prevent burning or sticking to the saucepan or pot. If it does stick quickly scrap off any rice that is sticking to the saucepan or pot to prevent burning.
  
• When the rice is mushy and reaches your desire consistency, fold in the raisins, vanilla extract, cinnamon, shredded coconuts and agave sugar (if you are using those).
  
• Let the rice pudding simmer and steam for five more minutes. If your rice pudding happens to be drier due to moisture lost, add in some more soy milk.

Fatfree Carrot Muffin
Delicious muffin. My b/f and I got this recipe from fatfree vegan but we made our own streusel. which was not exactly fat free.



Streusel Topping

Recipe Yields enough for about 16 Cupcakes// 349 Cal total

36g// 3 Tbsp Sugar, Granulated
24g// 2 Tbsp Sugar, Dark Brown
1 Tbsp Applesauce, Sweetened
1 Tbsp Soy Butter
1 Tsp Cinnamon. Granulated
1/2 Tsp Ginger, Granulated
1/4 Tsp Clove, Granulated

• Combine the sugars and spices.
  
• Cut the applesauce and soy butter into the dry ingredients.
  
• Combine until they are the consistency of breadcrumb
• Sprinkle them onto the muffin batter after you scooped the batter into the muffin pan.
  

Tofu Pie!!

Yearly check up at the doctors. I got a call back from my doctor because there was something wrong with my check up. I had a low count of white blood cell uh oh...don't know why though. I haven't gotten sick in a long time so I didn't really use any wbc... I dont know. I also have a high level of URIC ACID. All vegans and vegetarians should be concerned because high level of uric acid is caused by beans, pea, wine, beer and nutritional yeast! If you're a vegetarian/vegan and a lover of alcohol, it's a double whammy. High level of uric acid causes gout which is also known as metabolic arthritis. Here's a little more info about uric acid. Uric acid is the product of the purine when it's broken down by your body. Some holistic ways of reducing uric acid are eating 1/2 lb of cherries per day, drinking celery tea, eating bilberries, eating hawthorns, drinking juniper berry tea and much much more. Ah this is terrible...

Lots of cooking but not a lot of recording. I find that cooking is something that is hard to measure...People have different taste. Some people love to eat salty things, some people like blander things. Some people like spicy, some people can't stand spicy. I think I'm going to focus mainly on dessert and baked goods since I love baking. Whoopdeedoo.

Despite the fact that I should be reducing my intake of beans, I made CHOCOLATE TOFU PIE "magic pie". Love it so much. My b/f went ballistic. No picture since my mom borrowed my camera. Tofu is the shit!!. Also made raspberry chocolate pie. Hm.. hm.. good.

Chocolate Raspberry tofu pie

Not much modification. Just the addition of some raspberries.

Recipe 8" pie Serves 8/ 347Cal /Slice

Crust
8 large/128g Graham Cracker, Crumbled
4 Tbsp Applesauce, Sweetened
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon, Grounded
1/4 Cup/50g Sugar, Granulated
or
You can use a prepared graham cracker shell.

Filling
16 oz/454g Silk Tofu (I used soft)
12 oz/340g Chocolate Chip, Vegan
7.35 oz/208 g Frozen Raspberries, Unsweetened
plus
2.5 oz/71g Frozen Raspberries, Unsweetened

• Start preparing the chocolate by heating up the chocolate chips in a double boiler.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Combine the graham cracker crumb with the cinnamon powder and sugar. Then mix in the apple sauce until it reaches a consistency of brown sugar.
• Bake it for 10 minute.
• While the crust is baking, place the tofu in a blender and start blending. The chocolate chip should be melted by now so add the melted chocolate while the blender is on.
  
• Add in the 7.35 oz/208g of Frozen Raspberries into the blender while it's on.
• Shut the blender off. Try and chop the remaining 2.5 oz/71g of frozen raspberries into halves or quarters and stir it into the blended mixture.
  
• Pour it into the graham cracker crust and let it sit in your refrigerator.

*Note: This is softer than the original "magic pie" due to the addition of raspberries. The brown color of the pie is much lighter too.

Autumn = Apples

Autumn is Here

Don't you just love autumn? My family and I went to the Masker Orchard in Warwick, New York for a jolly family apple picking trip. We picked around 45 apples but the variety was not great since there were only a few variety of apples ripe at that moment. We only have a few left. We love our apples. Yes we do.

Apple Tartlet


Recipe Yields 6 Tarlets 112 Cal/ Tarlet

3 1/2 Tbsp / 49g Vegan Butter, Room Temperature
48 Sheets/26 g Phyllo Dough (Each sheet around 4.5"x 2.5')
1 Large/ 268 g Golden Delicious Apple, Finely Diced
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Vanilla
1/8 Tsp Nutmeg
1/8 Tsp salt

• Grease a muffin pan.
  
• Peel and dice your apples and put it into a sauce pan with the salt and a tablespoon of butter.
  
• Heat up the apples on med-high heat and wait until the apples starts to let out it's juices.
• Pour the sugar and lower the heat. Let the apples simmer and continue stirring the apples until the syrup reduce into a thick syrup similar to the consistency of rice syrup.
• Add in the vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir until it is combined.
  
• Then set the apples aside while you prepare the phyllo dough crust.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 F and Lay the first sheet down and generously spread some butter on the phyllo dough, lay another phyllo sheet and spread the butter on it again. You should do this four more times, resulting in 6 layers of phyllo dough.
  
• Gently stuff the sheet into the muffin pan and dollop 1/6th of the apple filling into the phyllo shell.
• Do this 5 more times resulting 6 apple tartlets.
• Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Another day in Manhattan

Sorry I didnt bring my camera but damn!! I love Union Square. I went with my boyfriend and we went to the green market and bought a lot of those decorative guords and indian corn. There was also a street fair with many various booths. There was a couple who had a booth selling vegan soap. Awesome! The only non vegan soap they had was the Honey Oatmeal. The couple was very nice and offered some nice tips and free samples. They also have a website so maybe you can check it out. They're booth is called the Copasoaps. They're from Phila, Pennsylvania but they sell their soaps in the street fairs on N.Y. They have the locations, time and date on the website.

My boyfriend and I also went to Zen Palate. They serve mostly vegan Asian food. They do specify whether the food contain milk derived ingredients, eggs, or dairy. Although it's a bit small, I loved the atmosphere. Their dishes are also huge so we ended up sharing our food and getting some appetizer. I didn't fully enjoy my stay there because of the other customers. There were several groups of customers who went into the restaurant not knowing that it was a veggie restaurant. When they took a look at the menu, they got up and left. What bunch of pricks. Screw them.

Thank goodness we went to some place sweet to calm my nerves. We went to Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen. FUck Yah. COMPLETELY VEGAN. I think Babycakes is overrated. Pretty website and what not. After reading an article online about Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen, I found out that they went through a lot since early this year, they were suppose to be scheduled to closed down due to their landlord but with support from the lovely customers of the bakery, a rally was held to keep the bakery open. Hell yah! They're still open. We got a pumpkin pie. Great treat for the fall. It tasted great! The bakery does not look the best nor was it big, it fucking rocks.