A post long over due: food porn backlog!

I had a lot going on in the past couple of weeks, like planning stuff for the summer and undergoing dental surgery, but it seems like things are finally looking up and all of the stress is slowly subsiding - phew! Sorry for keeping you waiting, guys. :)

[Some of the photos were taken on my phone, so the quality may not be the best. Whoops~]

Pasta in cream sauce with lemony asparagus.

Mitarashi dango!

It was my second time making dango and it actually turned out okay this time. The sauce was really nice, savoury yet sweet - mhmm! You can read more about dango and all the different variations of it here on the good ol' Wikipedia.

Donuts! And Strawberries, too.. But the donuts are clearly the star here :D

Oh how I wish one of the local bakeries would offer vegan donuts, sadly that's not the case - perhaps someday? This recipe from Cooking Vegan Food Up North was easy to make and it provided me with a generous amount of delicious fresh donuts - highly recommended.

Sesame & Spring Onion Ramen

A plate full of tofu scramble & veggie goodness.

If only I could eat this everyday. Simple pan fried tofu scramble with steamed asparagus, avocado and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Jam & vegan cream cheese sandwiches, a banana, strawberries and raw almond butter.

Onde Onde

Onde Onde are chewy fried rice cakes rolled in sesame seeds and filled with a sweet mung bean paste. I was so surprised to spot these at a local Asian grocery shop, because it's really hard to find freshly made Asian desserts, snacks and bakery style~ goodies for sale here in Germany. Small unexpected finds like this are just the best!

A breakfast food you can't go wrong with: Pancakes!

These came out just perfect. Slightly crispy on the top with just the right amount of fluffy pancake-y goodness on the inside. Topped with a little margarine and golden syrup. Unfortunately I can't remember what recipe I used, possibly one from Vegan Brunch?

Breakfast: Peach green tea and grapefruit.

I wish I had taken a better photo of this because the flesh of the grapefruit had such a nice shade of red, but I forgot to take one with my DSRL. Ah well~, another time.

Rice paper rolls filled with letuce, vegan bulgogi and OJ.

The recipe for the bulgogi can be found on Vegan8Korean. They have three different recipes: Gochujang Bulgogi (hot & spicy), Tempeh Bulgogi and Bulgogi Style Seitan. I have tried the first two and they're both immensely tasty. :)

Vanilla-Pudding & Chocolate Cake

Fluffy vanilla cake, a layer of vanilla pudding and a layer of chocolate ganache. The ganache looked a little funky after it had hardened, but it didn't harm the taste at all. I am not ashamed to say that I ate the entire pan in two days... ^^;

Raw zucchini pasta in cheese sauce with crumbled burger patty leftovers.

Homemade kimchi.

As usual I used Maangchi's recipe: Easy Kimchi (Mak Kimchi)
You can replace the fish sauce with some soy sauce and leave out the squid, no problem! Or you could use this completely vegan recipe by Vegan8Korean, yum!

Well, that's it for now! I hope you're all enjoying summer. Talk to you soon ♥

Coconut-Green Tea (Matcha) Ice Cream

Back in April Germany was blessed with sudden bursts of warmth and sunshine and, naturally, I immediately started to long for ice cream in all variations and flavours. Most of the vegan ice cream flavours that can be found at the shops here in Germany are very simple: chocolate, vanilla and various fruit-sorbets. I love chocolate ice cream and will pick it over vanilla eeevery time, but sometimes it's just nice to branch out a little and to try something unusual or new. I wanted to make my own ice cream as soon as possible, but I also wanted to keep the process relatively simple so I choose coconut milk as my base and matcha powder for an intense flavour. Mhmmm... Shall we get started? :)

Coconut - Green Tea (Matcha) Ice Cream
1 can thick coconut milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbs matcha powder
1 tbs powdered vegan lecithin

1) Put all ingredients into a blender and blend on high for about a minute (the sugar needs to be dissolved completely).
2) Pour the mixture into a plastic container, then close the lid and move the container to the freezer. Use a container that is not too small as you will have to stir the mixture later on.
3) Use a strong fork to stir the mixture every hour or so until it's ready for serving.
[You can skip step 2-3 and use an ice cream maker instead, if you own one... Lucky you!^^]


Notes:
• Lecithin works as an emulsifier and stabilizer and thus it helps to freeze the ice cream mixture evenly. I used sunflower lecithin that I bought from eBay, but I think soy derived lecithin should work equally well and it is more easily accessible.
• Matcha can be found in most well stocked asian grocery shops.
• While this ice cream is easily made without an ice cream maker, it will unfortunately harden quite a bit the longer it sits in the freezer. An easy solution would be to use ice lolly/popsicle moulds, this way you don't have to worry about the scooping issue, but you still get to enjoy a creamy iced treat. Another possibility is to prepare the ice cream in the morning so that it'll be ready for immediate consumption at dinner time.

A short update

Ah... Time has flown by and somehow I haven't updated since April. Today I'm just letting you all know that I'll be posting a simple recipe this weekend and some food porn from the last couple of weeks next week!

I hope you are all enjoying summer and I'll talk to you soon! ♥

Daily Eats: Green Tea Chocolate Cookies & Almond Milk

Green tea chocolate filled cookies & almond milk.

Inspired by AliensDayOut's most recent cookie adventure. Like Mipa, I started off with the 'Minono' recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, an extra tablespoon or two of flour was enough to make the dough work-able and the cookies kept their shape very well. I left out the orange zest because I wasn't sure if the flavour of oranges would work with green tea, but vanilla made a lovely replacement. The filling is made of white chocolate and green tea (matcha) powder and the tiniest bit of vegetable oil - it's incredibly delicious!

Daily Eats: Green Tea Swirl Bread

Homemade green tea (matcha) swirl bread.

RECIPE: Milk bread & variations (via Une-deux senses)

Great, great recipe! You can leave out the egg to make it vegan, it's no problem at all, though you might want to add a little more water or else your dough could be too dry. The left over tangzhong / water-roux can be diluted with water and be used as a vegan 'egg' wash. My bread making skills aren't very good, but I have used the water-roux method used in this recipe before for making bread and it honestly never disappoints. If you've been shying away from making bread at home I suggest you give this recipe a try, it's worth the work. :)

Daily Eats: Crêpes

Crêpes with blueberry filling.

I decided to spoil myself a little today and made some delicious crêpes in the afternoon and filled them with with a blueberry pie style filling, which was my favourite crêpe filling as a child and probably still is (though I do love maple syrup too mhmmm~).

Daily Eats: Breakfast

Bread roll with sweet sugar beet syrup and black coffee.