The End of Vegan MoFo 2010

Ah, so this is it then. One month of blogging, over 700 participants from around the world and a whole lot of good vegan food! Well, it's been a blast. High five everyone, well done! *highfive*

I am so happy to have been part of this fun adventure and can not wait to make all of the great recipes I have found over the course of the last four weeks. Blogging every day was incredibly challenging for a blogging newbie like me, but I am glad I stuck with it and I hope some of you enjoyed what I have blogged about. I discovered a plethora of awesome blogs and people through Vegan Mofo and yes, I actually am excited for next year! Ha!

So thank you to all those of you who stopped by to read my blog, your comments provided a great deal of encouragement to me and kept me going! I will take a brief leave from the blogging world to replenish my energy (hello mofo burn-out!) , but I'll be back in a week or two, ready to start baking for the holidays. :)

x Julia

The Mighty 'Booch' Part II

As promised, here's part two of my kombucha adventure. I wanted to do something like a step-by-step guide for other people interested in homemade kombucha, but that didn't seem right since I am still experimenting with it myself.  Instead I thought it'd be nice to make a diary-style entry on kombucha, showing you how the tea & scoby developed during fermentation, as this was something I was very curious (and nervous!) about myself. I hope this is helpful to some of you, but do let me know if you have any questions and I will try to help!

Part of the Equipment

A glass jar with a volume of 2,5 litres (84 fl oz) and six swing top bottles. Once bottled, the kombucha will continue to ferment, thus creating more carbonation which will put a lot of pressure on the bottle. It is best to use swing-top bottles as the caps are designed to release pressure without the loss of carbonation. I've read some horror stories about exploding bottles and mason jars, so you definitely want to go the safe route here. (Though I guess there's no guarantee with this sort of thing, so do your research if you decide to bottle your kombucha - this is just the way I make mine and I am not responsible for any accidents...)

Day 0 - Tuesday evening

Here's the jar, sitting on a table in our storage/radiator room, the temperature in there varies from 24° C (75° F) to 26° C (78° F), average temperature seems to be 25° C (77° F).

Day 1 - Wednesday evening

The batch after one day. I think both the scoby and the tea are doing alright. I can see that things are happening inside (yeast), but nothing too exciting yet. If you look closely you can see that a new baby scoby is starting to form, the surface of the tea looks slightly matte, though it's a bit hard to see from this angle.

Day 2 - Thursday evening

Things are happening! The surface looks a bit milky/cloudy, that's the new baby scoby growing - d'aww. There are small clusters of bubbles under the surface, first signs of carbonation.

Day 3 - Friday evening

More bubbles, hooray! The baby is growing nicely.

Day 4 - Saturday afternoon

The baby is slowly getting thicker: it is now 5mm thick and seems to be growing evenly.

Day 5 - Sunday evening

Growning thicker, still. I had to move the jar today and the tea swapped over the baby. Those brown things, on the middle of the scoby and on the edge, are yeast not mould. The yeast normally likes to hang around under the scoby, sorry about the disturbance buddies! It looks a bit gross, but it's not dangerous and I might be able to wash it off before I start my second batch.

Day 6 - Monday morning -> bottled!

I woke up this morning and walked into our storage room to check on my baby. Right away I noticed the temperature in the room seemed to be warmer than usual. The thermometer confirmed this with a temperature of 28° C (82° F). I lifted the paper towel off the jar and took a sniff, then quickly stepped back - vinegar-y! Panic set in, I wasn't sure what to do - stick to the original plan and wait another day or bottle it now?! I stuck a straw into the jar for a taste test and decided it'd be best to bottle it. In hindsight I am not sure if this was really necessary, I would've preferred a more sour brew, but I'm hoping that the second round of fermentation will take care of this. I got enough tea for 4 and a half bottles and starter liquid for two new batches, so I am rather happy with my first harvest.

Flavours
1x ginger (dried & candied)
1x mandarin (juice of one fruit)
1x cranberry (dried)
1x black currant (syrup)
1/2 bottle plain kombucha

I'm leaving the bottles out at room temp. for 1-2 days for a second ferment to get some extra fizz, then they'll go in the fridge. The tea for my next batches is already cooling down as I type, one's black tea, the other one's a mix of black and green. Can't wait to see how these will turn out!


So, I guess that's it! I thought it would take a lot longer, but I'm happy about the fast progress. I am going to do more blogposts about the 'booch in the future, once I have a little more experience, so let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see and I'll do my best to include it in my next post! There might also be a post about water kefir in the near future, I sort of stumbled upon it when I did research on kombucha and it looks really interesting and a bit easier than kombucha. Let me know if there's something you want to know about water kefir, so I know what to write about when I get mine. :)

Sunday Eats

Breakfast

Oatmeal with almond milk and a heap of cherry compote.
A cup of Moroccan mint tea (so good!).

Lunch

Carrots, cucumber and bread with baba ganoush & hemp seeds.

Roasted chickpeas with nooch.

Snack #1

More pulp cookies! Changed the pulp to flour ratio, added cocoa and switched
some of the oil for water. They're sort of fudgy inside - brownie cookies! :)

Dinner

Onigiri stuffed with marinated mushrooms and miso.

Peek-a-boo!:)

Snack #2

A sliced apple with almond butter.

Mofo Favourites Week 4 & a Quick Kombucha Update

A couple of days ago I wrote about my little kombucha adventure, I figured I could give you a small update today. I'll do a full blogpost on it when the batch is done and I have taken photos of it's progress everyday so far, so I think that should be helpful for those interested in making the tea at home. 

Kombucha at Day 4

As you can see there's a lot of carbonation going on, lots of bubbles under the scoby (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast, a.k.a. that gross white thing). The baby scoby is already 5mm thick and has taken the shape and width of the glass jar. It seems to be doing very well so far, yay. I wonder how much thicker it's going to grow (we're at day 4 out of approximately seven to eight days of fermentation.). There's some visible yeast under the scoby and in the tea itself. The tea smells nice and a little vinegary. Overall it all seems to be going according to plan, very exciting! :)

Anyway, on to my Saturday round up!

VEGAN MOFO FAVOURITES: WEEK 4

• Zucchini Corn Pancakes (via EatPure)
I made these a couple of days ago and LOVED them! Jeni from HeathenVegan blogged about them and I couldn't resist and made them for dinner one night, the coconut milk added an interesting touch.

• Tips for New Vegans and/or Raw Foodies (via BittOfRaw)
I thought this was so informative and well thought out. I wish someone would've linked me to a post like this when I was new to veganism.

• T is for Thyme Bread (via TahiniToo)
Thyme is awesome! It is my favourite herb at the moment and those flat breads look scrumptious!

• Candied Orange Peel (via BreadWithoutButter)
Oooh pretty! Making this as soon as I can get my hands on some organic oranges.

• Cherry Bakewells (via Tea & Sympatico)
Cute and classy looking mini tarts from England, nom. :)

• Coconut Macaroons / Kokosmakronen (via SeitanIsMyMotor)
A German Christmas cookie classic with grated coconut. This cinnamon swirl bread looks great too!

• Königsberger Klopse (via Juu's GermanKitchen)
I fricking loved these as a child! 'Meatballs' with capers in a white sauce, usually served with potatoes.

• Simple Cinnamon Berry Compote (via MusingsFromTheFishbowl)
You can't go wrong with compote. Good on oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, pudding, cake.. Good on everything!

• Walnut Spätzle (via TisiGoesVegan)
A classic Swabian noodle dish, super tasty. Watch the video and be amazed! Check out these cookies too: Spitzbuam.

• Swedish Lussekatter (Sweet Safron Buns) (via Seglare)
How cool is this? I have to make this asap!

• Yakitori (via GoVeganMeow!)
Japanese 'chicken' skewers. Bring out the grill (...next year that is)!

Fast Friday: Today's Dinner

Very purple looking red cabbage, plain potatoes, mushrooms and the darkest gravy I've ever made.

Tasty!

Sugar Cookies / Plätzchen

Seems like the blogroll is in full-on Thanksgiving-mode today. Happy Thanksgiving to all those of you who celebrate it, I hope you're all spending some quality time with your family and friends! All the festive food I've been seeing has me craving for a hearty meal, no fair. 

Cookie season has officially begun in my kitchen and it started off with a classic: The sugar cookie. The recipe is from my Oma (Grandma) and truly a childhood favourite. We made them multiple times every year  during the holidays and I am so grateful to have something that reminds me of her, as I never got to meet her because she passed away when I was just a baby. Our family doesn't really have a lot of traditions, so I cherish the ones we do have. It is comforting to return to this recipe every year, even if it is a veganised version. The recipe uses ground almonds, but sometimes we'd use ground hazelnuts instead - they're both very tasty, but the almond ones were always my favourite so that's what I'm sticking with now that I'm old enough to rule in my own kitchen. ;)

My Mum wrote down the recipe in 1988, a year before I was born. The page has some stains, but thankfully it's still in readable condition.

Dough pre-rest.

Sugar Cookies / "Butterplätzchen"

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup pastry flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbl margarine
1/2 - 3/4 cup ground almonds
1 tsp Vanilla Extract or 1 tbl vanilla sugar
dash salt

1) Combine all ingredients and knead to a smooth dough. You can do this by hand, but I let my food processor do the work as warm hands can make it hard to work the margarine into the dough.
2) Form dough into a ball, wrap in tinfoil and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
3) Preheat oven to 180° C / 375° F and grease your cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper.
4) Dust some flour onto your workspace and roll the dough out (I like mine thin). You may need to work some extra flour into the dough if it is too soft to work with. Time to use your cookie cutters!
5) Place cookies on baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
6) Let cool and decorate with icing or dust some powdered sugar on them while they're still warm. Store in an airtight container.

Done!

Ha, see those wonky lines on that snail (you probably can't tell it's a snail from that photo..)? Yeah, I'm not very good at applying icing.

Mhmmm!

By the way: We had our first snowfall last night. It really feels all Christmas-y now. :)

The Mighty 'Booch'

I got my first batch of kombucha started! The postman delivered my scoby yesterday afternoon, a day sooner from when I thought it'd get here. I spent the afternoon going over the whole process, reading multiple websites and blogs and got started.

On Monday I ran through the shops, trying to find a big enough glass jar for the tea to ferment in, but didn't have much luck. I settled on a jar with a volume of 2,5L (83 fl oz) that I found in a shop for interior decoration & design. It came without a lid but that's okay, I don't really need one for this. I am glad I bought it then or else I wouldn't have been able to put the scoby to good use yesterday, but I guess I'll have to look for a larger jar eventually. I don't want to spend too much money on it though.. Any tips on where I might find one for cheap? I also got these nice swing top bottles for when the tea is ready to be bottled. They sell this kind of bottle online, but it's usually cheaper to buy a six pack of beer and so that's what I did. I really like the blue 'cork' and the red rubber ring.

Here's the jar, sitting on a table in our storage/radiator room. Let's hope the booch will flourish in this environment, I'd rather not spend money on one of those heating plates that some folks use.

Below is a photo of the batch after one day. I think both the scoby and the tea are doing alright. I can see that things are happening inside, but nothing too exciting yet.

So, I guess I'll do another post on kombucha after the batch is ready for harvest. I'm pretty excited, but I could use some patience heh!

Do any of you like kombucha? What's your favourite flavour or do you like it best plain? Do you make your own? Any tips on making it at home?
I'd love to hear your thoughts about it! :)

Caramelized Almonds

Caramelized Almonds.

Christmas markets are an essential part of Christmas season here in Germany and when I woke up this morning and turned on the radio, the DJ mentioned that it was finally time for the first markets to open their doors today! What a nice thing to wake up to. Caramelized nuts, usually almonds, can be found at every other stand and I would always ask my parents to buy me a bag whenever we went to one of those Christmas markets. Unfortunately a lot of sellers will use butter to prepare the glaze, but it is incredibly easy to make them at home and I thought today would be a perfect day to show you how I prepare them. :)

Almonds! Almonds!

RECIPE FOR CARAMELIZED ALMONDS

Ingredients
1 cup almonds
4 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs water

1) Put all ingredients into a microwave-safe bowl and mix well. The sugar does not need to be dissolved.
2) Grease a large plate with a thin layer of oil.
3) Place bowl in microwave and microwave on high (see notes) for 3-4 minutes. You only want to stir once, after 1-2 minutes, and ONLY if you're using a large bowl. Not stirring will give you an even and see through glaze that you might not archive when stirring the mixture.
4) Put on your oven mitts and remove the bowl from the microwave. Pour almonds onto the greased plate and let cool down to room temperature. You may need to use a spoon to get the almonds out, the faster you are the better as the sugar will harden quickly.


Notes
• Sugar Brown sugar here in Germany is different compared to what I've encountered abroad. In my experience brown sugar in other places of the world is often sold in tightly sealed plastic bags to keep the sugar slightly moist. Here in Germany brown sugar is granulated and dry, much like ordinary white sugar. I'm not sure if this will make a difference in the recipe, but I wanted to mention it in case anyone encounters problems. If your almonds come out funky, try using 2tbs of white sugar and 2 tbs of brown sugar instead. 1 tbs of white and 3 tbs of brown sugar could work well too.
• Microwaves Cooking time will vary from microwave to microwave. 3 minutes on 900 watt did the trick for me. The almonds started to make a few 'popping' sounds towards the end, you can probably take them out if you hear that sound.
• Try to be patient and let the almonds cool down completely before you try them. The almonds will taste a bit weird straight out of the microwave (and hot, don't burn yourselves :)), but they'll be nice and crunchy once they've cooled down.

Ingredients assembled.

VARIATIONS

• Nuts
You don't have to use almonds, of course. Other nuts, like hazelnuts or macademia nuts for example, would be just as good.

• Salted Caramel
Add 1/4 tsp of coarse sea salt for a sweet and salty combination. (before microwaving would be easiest. Though you could sprinkle it on the nuts after, but you'll have to be quick or else it won't stick!)

• Cinnamon Caramel
Add 1 tsp ground cinnamon before microwaving.

• Ginger Caramel
Add 1/2 tsp dried ground ginger before microwaving.

• Using extracts
You could use a couple of drops of extract, like vanilla, to add some extra flavour.

• Sprinkles
Add grated dried coconut, cocoa nibs or other sprinkles after you transfer the nuts from microwave to plate. Be quick or the sprinkles may not stick, because the sugar will harden quickly!

After microwaving.

Fighting Mondays - One Banana & Cheese Sandwich at a Time

 

 What is it with Mondays? Even if you get everything on your list done (and today's list was long!), they just suck the energy right out of you, don't they? I want to crawl into bed and watch awful TV shows for the rest of the evening and so I am keeping this post short, but let me tell you: Banana and cheese sandwiches are amazing! Just what I needed when I came home. That pale yellow glob of cheese may not look too appetizing, but don't knock it till you try it (you can thank me later). Just two slices of toast, some vegan cheese (vegourmet santeciano), half a sliced banana and a sandwich maker - it's pure magic!

Sunday Eats

Breakfast

Oatmeal with almond milk, roasted almond butter, banana and cinnamon maple syrup. 

Mhmm, tasted just like speculoos. :)

Snack #1

Kale Chips. I snacked on these all day long, yum.

Lunch

'Cheese' pizza. I used the vegourmet santicciano cheese.  

The taste reminded me A LOT of real cheese, very good.
(So good in fact that I ate another one 2 hours later.. :))

Snack #2

A Persimmon.

Dinner

Just hummus and carrots.

Snack #3 
(no photo) 

Cookies w/ almond milk. 

Wow, Vegan Mofo week 3 is over, see you all in week 4! :)

Mofo Favourites Week 3!

Jen and her bat ears invite you in.

I haven't had the time to check the blogroll today and the week isn't over yet anyways, so I might add some more entries tomorrow - check back if you're interested.

VEGAN MOFO FAVOURITES: WEEK 3

• Poffertjes (via EatingWithTheRabbits)
Mmmmmh, Poffertjes! Dutch mini pancakes traditionally dusted with a good deal of powdered sugar and some butter/margarine, there's a stand selling these at every Christmas market here in Germany and Christmas season without them just wouldn't be right.

• Trail Mix Muffins (via SeitanIsMyMotor)
What a great idea, get your trail mix and muffin fix in one!

• Kiwi Salsa (via Courtney'sVeganJournal)
Courtney writes about a recipe for kiwi salsa, sounds like a taste of summer to me.

• Chocolate Toaster Pies (via BreadWithoutButter)
These made their first appearance last week, but without a recipe - luckily Tiffany decided to share the magic with us mofo folks this week, get baking!

• Whipped Cream's Healthy Makeover (via Chocolate-CoveredKatie)
Can't get Soyatoo in your necks of the wood? Katie's got an alternative for you and it looks mighty tasty too. :)

• Harry Potter's Butterbeer (via MirandaWrites)
There can never be too many Harry Potter related recipes, especially not when it comes to butterbeer, m-m-m-magic!

• Quinoa Rosemary Crackers (via TahiniToo)
I like the sound of these, but then anything with rosemary is a sure way to lure me in, ha. I don't know when I'll have the time to actually make all of these mofo recipes, but this one is veeery high up on my list. :)

• Rainbow Tapioca Rice Balls in Coconut Milk (via MessyVegetarianCook)
D'aww, what a great idea, reminds me of a bowl of colourful cereal.

• Almond Pulp Cookies for the Dehydrator (via ThisEvolutionaryLife)
Rach's take on almond pulp cookies: raw macaroons! It must have been hard to wait 16 hours for these babies, haha.

• Peppermint Stick Ice Cream (via IEatTrees)
For some reason the site seems to be down? But make sure to save this to your bookmarks, it looks santastic! (..hehehe)

• Homemade Harry Potter Chocolate Frogs (via VeryVeganHoliday)
More Harry Potter stuff for us geeks! Chocolate frogs with a decadent looking filling, omnom.

• Vegan Thanksgiving Ideas (via C'estLaVegan)
Great ideas for those still looking for the perfect vegan thanksgiving dinner.

• 12 Steps to Avocado Adoration (via VeganCookbookCritic)
Oh avocado, how I love thee~

• Banana Bread French Toast (via MidWestVegan)
Need I say more? :))

• Pitepalt - Swedish Potato Dumplings (via NorthernVeg)
Dumplings! Sweet, savoury, potato dough or flour dough - I love them all, round food rocks and this Swedish version looks like it would be no exception.

• Baking Without Sugar (via ADashOfCompassion)
A very helpful introduction to alternative sweeteners. :)

• Quinoa Brownies (via HealthFashionVegan)
Another quinoa dessert, nice and fudgy - just how I like them!

• Sweet Chia Seed Crackers (via Luciana's Vegan Kitchen)
Silly me, I thought these were for the oven, but unfortunately you need a dehydrator to make this. The crackers look fantastic though, so do give them a try if you're lucky enough to own a dehydrator! :)

• Goulash the Australian Way (via GoVeganMeow)
Who knew Australia has it's own Goulash version? I certainly didn't. Nevertheless, this looks just perfect for Winter, a nice warm and filling meal.

Fast Friday: Homemade Larabars

Homemade Larabars, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough!

Just a quick one,  I don't really have a lot of mofo time today.

Camilla from Enlightened Cooking posted about her homemade Larabar recipe (a whooping 2 years ago!). I gave it a try today and made the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough version, oh dear oh dear oh dear - SO GOOD! I don't think you can buy Larabars here in Germany (but we certainly have girls named Lara - hello, Lara!), though iHerb sells them in bulk, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy a whole box of something I might not like and this seemed like a nice thing to try. I really want to try a lemon pie version though, the mere thought of it - mmmmmmh.

Have a nice weekend everyone! Talk to you tomorrow. :)

Almond Goodness

- ALMOND MILK -

After having success with homemade nut butters I couldn't wait to try my hand at making nut milk and quickly found a promising recipe here from ChoosingRaw. Gena posted a detailed direction for the entire process, from nuts to milk, so there really isn't more for me to say.

But I do have a few tips and notes:
• Add a dash of salt, it helps bring out the flavours.
•  1/4 cup of agave made for a rather sweet milk, this would be great for oatmeal & co., but I'll try 1/8 - 1/6 cup next time. 
• I always wondered, is it more common to own a blender or a food processor? I'm guessing most people do own a blender (those lucky folks!), but a food processor will work just as well: I combined the almonds, salt, sugar and vanilla with one cup of water and let it run for a minute or so, then I added the remaining 3 cups of water and turned it on for about 5 minutes. I don't know if that was really necessary, but I wanted to make sure it was all well combined.
• I'm hoping I'll get a nut bag for Christmas, but until then a finely meshed sieve and a muslin cloth will serve me well. I poured the milk through the sieve first, then placed a triple layer of muslin cloth in a larger sieve atop a second container and poured the milk through that and used the muslin cloth to wring out some extra drops of milk. The milk has been in my fridge for a couple of hours now and there's no visible layer of pulp on the bottom of the bottle, looks like this worked out well.
•  I  was pleasantly surprised to realise that this works out cheaper for me than buying soy milk! I pay approximately 1,80€ ($2.45) per litre soy milk, the bag of almonds I bought will be enough for two batches (a little less than 2 litres) and only cost me 1,30€ ($1.77), even with the added agave nectar I'll pay less for two batches of almond milk than for 1 pack of soy milk. Yay!

- ALMOND PULP COOKIES -

I was left with a nice amount of almond pulp from making the milk and I knew that if I threw it in the freezer it would probably never come out again, so I searched the internet for some advise. Now, there are a lot of recipes floating around, but most of them require a dehydrator and that isn't an option for me at the moment. Luckily I stumbled upon this Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe by Elana (from Elana's Pantry). I made a few modifications to suit my ingredients, but I'm sure the original recipe will make for some great (gluten free!) cookies too.

Vegan Choc Chip Cookies (from Elana's Pantry) - Modified

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup almond pulp
1 1/4 cup pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbl vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Visit Elena's Pantry for the original recipe & directions.

Notes
• Almond Pulp The almond pulp should be as dry as possible, I tried to squeeze out as much water as possible (I used a muslin cloth).
• Oil The original recipe calls for grape seed oil, but I used canola oil and that worked well.
• Sugar Because I used almond pulp (wet) instead of almond flour (dry) I used granulated sugar instead of agave nectar, I was worried that the dough would be too wet otherwise. Worked like a charm.

• I'll experiment with different amounts of pulp in future, I wanted a quick solution and the cookies came out great and I thought it'd be nice to share this with you, but there's still some room for improvement. I will probably reduce the amount of oil and sugar next time too, they were a bit too sweet for my taste.

- DRYING ALMOND PULP -

I wasn't sure how the cookies would turn out and halved the recipe to be on the safe side, which left me with some left over pulp, so I wanted to see if I could dry it and then process it to almond flour later. A lot of people use a dehydrator for this, but I think the oven would probably work just as well, just make sure to use the lowest temperature setting (50°C/122°F for my oven). I didn't feel like using the oven for such a small amount and started a little experiment with my radiator: I placed a sheet of baking paper on a sushi matt, spread the almond pulp on top of the paper and placed the entire thing on top of my radiator. To protect the pulp from dust I placed an old casserole dish upside down on the matt. The matt provided some much needed stability, though I have to say that my radiator has a flat grid on top and I wouldn't know how you'd go about this with other type of radiator. Because it is always rather toasty in my room, around 24°C/75°F during the day but less at night, I thought this would be a fantastic way to dry the pulp without wasting extra money to use the oven. I have no idea if this will work, but I'll keep you updated!

EDIT: This worked very well. It was dry after 9 hours, very clumpy so you may want to grind it to a more flour-like texture in your food processor. Put it in the freezer for future use. 

- ROASTED ALMOND BUTTER -

Wow, step away peanut butter, I have a new favourite! This is SO tasty and it was so easy to do too. Just roast a couple of almonds in the oven (few minutes at 350°F/180°C, though I'll try a lower temperature next), let them cool before you throw them in a food processor with a dash of salt and some sugar, then blend. I didn't even have to add extra oil, the roasting really helped a lot. I ate some with a banana right after I made it, yummm. I can't wait to use this up so I can try a caramelized almond version for a Christmas season!