Review - Considerit Chocolates

Apparently there's a Saturday market on Grassmarket!  I had no idea.  On one hand, I love that there are so many markets springing up all over Edinburgh - there also seems to be one just off Princes Street nearly every Saturday (I can't remember the name of the street, but it's next to the HSBC branch), and every once in a while one pops up at New Kirk Gate Centre (down at the bottom of Leith Walk).  On the other hand, they almost never have anything vegan, apart from things like marinated olives.

I'm in a local vegan Facebook group, and, Claire, the proprietor of Considerit Chocolates, posted that she'd be selling there this weekend, so I went along after buying nearly all of the tofu from The Engine Shed at the farmers market.  Pro tip - If you go right to the back of the farmers market, there's a stair that leads onto the bottom of the Grassmarket.

Claire had two tables loaded with a huge variety of truffles, truffle bars, and Halloween chocolates, all of which was vegan and gluten free.  I went with the deal she was doing for 5 truffles and a truffle bar for £7 - quite a bargain as it would cost about £8.50 for a similar purchase from The Chocolate Tree, and they don't have nearly the same selection of vegan options.

The truffles, from left to right, are salted caramel (x2), amaretto, cinnamon, and vanilla.  The skull is a plain chocolate truffle, and the bar is a mint truffle bar.  Plus bonus Zebby nose - he was more curious about what I had on that plate than when I brought out my lunch of VBites fish-style steaks.

The truffles were amazing - I really wish I'd bought more, because I ate them all (except the skull) in about 5 minutes.  The salted caramel was a liquid centre, but the rest were ganache.  The flavours worked really well and weren't too subtle as to be overwhelmed by the bitterness of the chocolate.  Claire does a great job of balancing the flavours (they're obvious without being a punch in the face or feeling like the flavour comes just from extracts), and she clearly knows from chocolate.  I honestly couldn't even tell you which was my favourite as they were all delicious in their own way.

I think I'm gonna have to make at least a monthly if not bi-weekly trip to the Grassmarket to get a box of truffles.  If you can't make it to the Grassmarket, or want truffles sooner than next Saturday, you can order from the website (linked above).  I'm so pleased that this wee business exists and wish Claire all the best of luck so that she keeps making these delicious chocolates.

Cookin' through Cookin' Crunk - fried green tomatoes and cauliflower creole

 

Those of you who know me know that my journey to veganism was a lot faster than my journey to liking vegetables and fruit.  The potential reasons for this are plentiful - possible childhood trauma (the only veg we had at home was boiled-to-death canned or frozen stuff), being a supertaster (I'm one of those people who can taste cucumber), personal preference/texture issues, who knows.

But I've always had a problem with tomatoes.  I started out not being able to eat anything other than ketchup (catsup?), then progressed to being able to eat completely smooth tomato products.  I've now reached the point that I can have small diced tomatoes, but only cooked.  I can't eat raw tomatoes.

So, as you can imagine, the Fried Green Tomatoes recipe was kinda daunting for me.  A thick slice of tomato - brrr.  But I bought those green tomatoes at the farmers market (lookit that wee one!  it's so tiny!), put on my big girl pants, and made some fried green tomatoes.

I have to say, they were alright, but I probably wouldn't make them again unless they were for someone else who really loves them.

I made the Fried Green Tomato and Tofu Sandwich with them, and that was pretty good, but it was more the tofu than the tomatoes that I was interested in.  The coating on the tomatoes gave it a nice crunch, though.  This used the Sweet & Spicy Marinated Tofu, which was really easy to make and was very, very tasty.  I can see it going into regular rotation.

Dinner tonight was Cauliflower Creole.  I did it in stages, so it probably took longer than it would have if I'd made it as written.  This was fantastic.  I don't think it really mimicked shrimp creole all that well (at least texture-wise - I've never had shrimp creole to compare the taste), but whatever, it was tasty as hell.  I served it with the remaining tofu and some brown rice.  I would definitely make this again.

My shrooms went off, so I didn't get to make the cream of mushroom soup.  I'll buy more shrooms and make that this week since I cubed the tofu chicken to use in a recipe that also requires the cream of mushroom soup.

Cookin' through Cookin' Crunk - curried sweet tater fries

Oh man, I'm so used to only blogging during VeganMoFo that I almost went to find a MoFo banner to top my post!  Unfortunately I no longer have that to fall back on.

So, yeah, as most people who know me are aware, I usually only post during VeganMoFo.  But one of my 40 Before 40 goals is to cook through Bianca Phillips's book, Cookin' Crunk: Eatin' Vegan in the Dirty South (to give it its full title).  One reason is because I've never cooked every recipe in a cookbook before.  Another reason, which I may have mentioned already, is that it's like it was written for me - a book full of recipes for classic Southern dishes.

Today I made the Curried Sweet Tater Fries.  I bought one giant sweet potato instead of 2 normal-sized taters.  I baked instead of frying, which took a lot longer than I expected (about 90 minutes, I think).  I think I might not have had the heat up high enough.  We ate them with some Sainsbury's LoveVeg Indian spinach and lentil burgers and the tahini sauce in the book.

They came out a bit floppy, but Mike and I really liked them.  The sauce was the perfect accompaniment.  I left out the cayenne because I've become a bit of a spice wuss, but they could've used a touch of spice.  I should've thrown in a bit of chipotle powder.  Regardless, they were super tasty, and I could definitely see myself making them again.

I went to the farmers market today and bought green tomatoes, spaghetti squash, and loads of tofu.  I've already started marinating two blocks of tofu - one for Tofu Chicken and the other for Sweet and Spicy Tofu.  I'll fry the tomatoes and use them and the S&S tofu in the Fried Green Tomato sandwiches for my lunch tomorrow.  I'll use the spaghetti squash later in the week - it's a big bastard so I can probably get two dinners out of it.

Plum brandy conserve and raspberry jam tart

A few days ago, I saw this post in my blog feed thingy, and I thought, that looks good. You see, I like the concept of pies et al (crust and sweetness, possibly topped with ice cream or whipped cream - hell yeah!), but I don't like the texture of bits of fruit that is inevitable in such items (well, of the fruit variety). This seemed like the perfect solution. Also, I've had a jar of plum brandy conserve in my cupboard that I got at the Farmers' Market months ago but could never bring myself to open it for some reason. However, as you can see from the thread, it doesn't actually have a recipe. It links to two other blogs that do have recipes, but neither of those is vegan. As you can see from the original post, it calls for one whole egg and one egg yolk, and I wasn't exactly sure what to do there. I mean, I know how to sub eggs in cake, but since I've only ever made eggless pie crusts in recent memory, I wasn't sure what I should sub for the egg (well, the yolk more accurately). So, after some PPKonsultation, I settled on soy yogurt. I give you ...

Plum Brandy Conserve and Raspberry Jam Tart



9 tablespoons (110g) margarine, at room temperature
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c plain soy yogurt
1/8 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 c plain flour
1/2 c stone-ground cornmeal or polenta
pinch sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 c plum and brandy conserve
1/4 c raspberry jam
turbinado or demerara sugar, for sprinkling


1. Cream together margarine and sugar. Mix in the soy yogurt and almond extract.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder. Gradually add the dry ingredients, just until the mixture just comes together.

3. Measure out about 2/3rd of the dough, wrap it in cling film, and chill it. Take the remaining dough, wrap it and chill it, too. (I chilled for about 2 hours, but only because I was distracted.)

4. Preheat the oven to 350F/175C. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature. Press the dough into the bottom and sides of an ungreased removable bottom 9-10"/24cm tart pan or springform pan, patting it evenly.

5. Spread the conserves and jam evenly over the dough (they'll mix together as you spread - no need to combine them ahead of time if you can't be bothered).

6. Form the extra dough into disks, then lay them over the jam. Top very generously with coarse sugar (as much or as little as you feel like).

7. Bake until the pastry is golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. Let cool before serving, and serve at room temperature.



The Verdict: I'm not gonna lie, it's kinda like a giant fancy pop tart - a crusty icing sugar glaze wouldn't have felt out of place here. And I wasn't keen on the texture of the crust, to be honest. But overall, the taste was great, and it was even better the next day (as was the texture).

I'll make this again, but I might experiment with a finer grind of cornmeal. It was pretty close to a shortbread crust, so that's another possibility. Also, as the original recipe suggests, you can use pretty much any jam, preserve, etc., in place of what I used - this is just what I had on hand. I might try again with raspberry jam and chocolate chips, since it's always been a winning combination. I might also try to do a GF crust, just to see if it works and to do something for the GF peeps.

I've uploaded all of my pictures from the past, oh, 8 or so months, and I've managed to get them into my Food Porn album on FB. I have to say, trying to label everything (thank jeebus for AllyChristine's cookbook/blog challenge compilation post) reminded me about a lot of good food I haven't made in ages. And it made me hungry. Part of me wants to do a post (or 10) to catch up, so I might do later. But I have meal planning and grocery shopping to do, so it'll have to wait.

Farmers' Market and getting ready for tomorrow.

Another Saturday, another Farmers' Market post. Today I got a sack of tatties, some shrooms (which hopefully I'll actually use this time), some Swiss chard (frittata!), and kale from the organic farm, and another three bars - chili and coffee to send to a friend in TX, and winter spice for us - from The Chocolate Tree. It was sprinkly and chilly, and there weren't a lot of other stalls that I fancied (though the other farm stand had squash, but I just can't afford £2.50 per Kg), so it was a quick trip.

Tomorrow is movie night - French food and Gigi! I'm really excited. I've already made a White Bean Boursin from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. Tomorrow I'll make a baguette from La Dolce Vegan to serve with it, as well as French onion soup (also from Ultimate Uncheese), omelets from Vegan Brunch, and something for dessert that I haven't quite decided on - maybe crepes, but I'm not sure I have that kind of patience or time. (Now I've got this song stuck in my head. And for you Buffy/Angel fans, yes, that's Wesley.)

Mike's off to Gamers from 11, so I'll have about 7-8 hours to clean the flat and get most of the rest of the food made. I hope I have enough time and energy to pull this off. And I hope no one bails, because I don't have room in my fridge for leftovers from more than one dish. I probably don't even have room for leftovers of one dish.

Farmers' Market haul and new chocolate

Today's oatmeal was wonderfully simple - golden syrup and a dash of cinnamon. I usually like my oatmeal quite sweet and dessert-like, but I've been thinking about branching out. Interestingly enough, today I saw this thread on the PPK. I might try some savoury oatmeal for lunch sometime next week.

I finally managed to make it to the Farmers' Market with more than 20 minutes to spare before they packed up. Unfortunately, I didn't really get much - spinach, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms. I normally wouldn't buy mushrooms, since Mike won't eat them, but I'm thinking about cooking a couple to throw in my calzone tomorrow.

Yesterday, I went to Real Foods and found this -

an Organica Swiss Chocolate Couverture bar - in the discount bin, at what I thought was half price, because it was broken. Mike really liked it, so he asked me to get another bar. Unfortunately, it turned out to have been much less than half price, because an undamaged bar was £2.39. That, to me, is a lot to pay for chocolate. Regardless, I bought that and a new (to me) flavour of Divine Chocolate -


Oh yes, chocolate makers are finally jumping on the chocolate and raspberry train. I saw a chocolate raspberry bar in Tesco a few months ago, but it wasn't vegan. But this is! The raspberry lends a slight tartness to a lovely, smooth dark chocolate, with a little bit of crunch due to the raspberry being freeze-dried. It's quite nice - something you eat one wee square at a time, very slowly, rather than scoffing it.

Next week's cookbook challenge is How It All Vegan, which I don't have. I went to look at a copy at Waterstone's today. I flipped through the whole thing, and there were a few recipes I would like to try, but I didn't buy it because it's in UK measures. I just can't get my head around weighing my ingredients. I might have to see if I can find a copy with US measures. I actually borrowed this book from a friend many years ago, but this was pregan and when I still didn't eat many vegetables, so I didn't get out of it what I could have. Now, though, it's a very basic book, very much meant for newbies, so I'm torn on whether or not I should buy it. I'll see what everyone else says about the recipes, and maybe try to get someone to send me a recipe in US measures to try out something new.

On a non-food related note, Mike was looking for things to watch on BBC.co.uk, and they had a show called 'Synth Britannia', looking at the history of synth-pop and early industrial music. It was as if someone at the BBC had said, 'What can we do to get Rachel to watch?' So we're trying to watch that now. It's making me happy.

Porridge!

Lots of people seem to be blogging about oatmeal. OK, I read two posts where it was mentioned. I used to eat oatmeal for breakfast every morning when it was cool, and then it got warm and I got busy (it's kinda time-consuming to make), so I started eating something different for breakfast. But this post reminded me of the deliciousness and versatility of oatmeal.

I made my standard oatmeal for breakfast this morning - oats (rolled, I think) microwaved in a mixture of soy milk and water, then a bit of molasses, maple syrup (to make up for the bitterness of the molasses), cinnamon, and ginger. Unfortunately, I followed the package directions for my porridge, forgetting that the preference here seems to be a lot more liquidy, and it took ages to cook out all the liquid. But now I know for next time. I think I'm gonna go back to porridge for breakfast, unless I need a quick breakfast.

I also just managed to make it to the Farmers' Market today. I really need to start getting out of the house earlier, because I only had 20 minutes to spare by the time I got there. I only got a few things this time, due to the lateness - kale and tatties from the organic farm, a bottle of red currant and raspberry wine from Cairn O' Mohr, and some chocolate from The Chocolate Tree (though I'm not gonna mention which types I bought because some of it was for my swap partner!).

Tomorrow is the start of week 8 (I think) of the cookbook challenge, and this time I actually have the book we're using! I really need to flip through that tomorrow and figure out what I'm gonna make.

Chilli Heatwave Doritos - vegan food that hates me

Ugh, I feel ill. Mike got a craving for chips and hummus (and bourbon creams), so I ran to Tesco just before they closed to get some. The only vegan tortilla chips they had were Chilli Heatwave Doritos. They taste pretty good, especially with the hummus, but now that I'm done, I kinda feel sick. Blah.

So, I had kinda decided to do my cupboard cleaning project tomorrow while Mike was away at Gamers, and today I was gonna blog about the Farmers' Market. I went to the market, and no one was there! As it turns out, they canceled it because it's windy as hell outside (and I'm guessing that was good enough reason, since it was pretty sunny most of the day). But now, I have nothing good to blog about. Apart from being made sick by those evil Doritos.

Did I mention the master index project? If not, I realised that I do indeed have spreadsheet software (I thought I didn't), so I'll be going through all my cookbooks and indexing by ingredient. This way, if I have some soft tofu that needs using, I can use my list and search 'soft tofu' and pull up every recipe I have that requires soft tofu, rather than looking at every one of my cookbooks until I find something (though soft tofu is almost exclusively used for omelets in my house).

Since Mike doesn't go to Gamers until the evening, I might put off the cupboards until Monday when he's at work. I think I'm gonna try my hand at English muffins tomorrow! We go through several bags a week (Mike has them for his breakfast and as the bread component in his lunch). Since he likes plain for breakfast and wholemeal for lunch, I think I'll try to do one of each. Or maybe I'll just do the wholemeal (and hope the substitution works) and buy the plain (since I only have to go around the corner for those, rather than half-way across town).

Vegan MoFo starts today!

I know I haven't updated in forever, and this will just be a quick one to remind everyone that VEGAN MOFO STARTS TODAY!! As you can see, I'm very excited.

Tomorrow (well, technically today, but after I sleep) will be a catch-up post for the Yellow Rose Recipes cookbook challenge. I didn't blog about any of those recipes at all, and I ended up making quite a few (over 2 weeks, since I didn't have the book for last week's challenge). The cookbook challenge will continue through October, and I have (or have access to) 3 more books (though not next week's), so that'll continue to be a feature.

I'm hoping to do a couple of projects this month. On top of trying to find uses for the 7 varieties of beans and 8 varieties of flour in my cupboard (that may or may not be an exaggeration), I also hope to try my hand at sushi, English muffins, cinnamon rolls, and bagels. I might also take another stab at sourdough bread! Also, I have a ton of cooking/baking equipment that, let's face it, rarely sees the light of day, so I'm gonna go through that stuff and find a use for it (at least once).

Plus, my favourite holiday is in October, which means...cooking for the Samhain ceilidh! It's a lot of work, but I really loved doing it last year. Hopefully I'll be more on the ball this year and be able to do more ahead of time.

Anyway, I'm ready for bed, so I'll conclude this post with my five favourite shops and why they are so.
1) Real Foods - Probably the only store that's meat-free, it's really easy to find loads of vegan treats. It's the only place in the city where you can buy tempeh, and they often have vegan chocolate cake!
2) Jordan Valley Whole Foods - A great little shop on Nicholson Street, they have quite a lot of the same staples as Real Foods (like nutritional yeast, aka nooch). They also have great pasties, most of which are vegan, and chocolate quinoa bars (kinda like a cross between a dry rice crispy treat and a chocolate flapjack).
3) Edinburgh Farmers' Market - The best place to get reasonably priced organic veg, Cairn O' Mohr wines, and Belhaven Fruit Farm sorbet.
4) The Engine Shed - To be honest, I don't shop here often, and I usually try to catch them at the Farmers' Market. But they sell Gypsy Creams, an awesome sammich cookie, as well as some delicious dips, varieties of tofu, and tofu cottage cheese. Nom.
5) Scotmid/Co-op - Vegan donuts. That is all. Actually, though they tend to be more expensive and have a pretty small selection of vegan foods compared to, say, Sainsbury's, they at least have the courtesy to label the own-brand items that are vegan, unlike, say, Tesco. But yeah, the donuts - not quite as good as an American donut, but good when you get the urge and don't feel like making them yourself. Because, seriously, have you ever made donuts? It takes forever, you end up with a shit ton of used (and pretty much useless) oil left over, and then you have to eat them before they go stale. And you want to, but it's probably a bad idea.

Cookbook challenge, week 3, days 4-7 - Vegan Brunch

I haven't been making a lot from VB, which is why I haven't blogged in a while. I'm doing a catch-up today, though I can't really remember what I made on which nights, to be honest. I mean, there was at least one night when we had cereal for dinner, and last night, I'm ashamed to say, we actually had donuts and coffee cake for dinner. I had every intention of making decent food, but Mike ended up not being particularly hungry after eating 3 donuts and a piece of coffee cake. Anyway, I digress. I'll go in order.

At some point this week, I made Spinach and Millet Polenta with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto:


This one is actually a hold-over from last week's challenge, Vegan with a Vengeance. I had intended on making it last Sunday with spinach I got from the Farmers' Market, but I didn't get around to it because it is a bit time consuming. The spinach was on the brink, so I decided to make the polenta before I ended up having wasted the money (although I think we got a deal on the spinach because it was the end of the day and they were trying to get rid of everything).

I baked the polenta to avoid the extra fat from pan-frying, and I used ground almonds for the pesto since I had a big bag of ground almonds and a small bag of slivered almonds (and no whole almonds). I served it with roasted asparagus.

I can't believe I waited so long to try this recipe. I think I was scared off by the pesto, since I can't have regular pesto (allergic to pine nuts), or maybe the sun-dried tomatoes, or maybe even the amount of time it takes to make. Either way, I'm so glad I finally made this. It is freaking amazing. The pesto was a perfect complement to the polenta. It was so delicious that I actually turned the oven back on to make seconds. I will definitely make this again (though probably in stages and well in advance so I can just throw everything together, because it took ages).

I made East Coast Coffee Cake (jam swirl variation) on Friday:

Oh yeah, I busted out the heart-shaped pan!



I've actually made this before (raspberry jam swirl and chocolate chip layer variations), but I needed to use up some applesauce that's taking up room in the fridge and wanted to make something from VB for which I had all the ingredients on hand. This time I made it with seedless bramble jam I got from the Farmers' Market. It was just as delicious as last time. OK, I lie, nothing is as delicious as chocolate and raspberry. But it was delicious. I love this recipe.

Finally, tonight's dinner was Sesame Tofu Scramble with Greens and Yams:


This was delicious and super easy (if you prepare ahead, which, for once, I did). It has just a few ingredients and takes less than 20 minutes to cook. We both scarfed this stuff. The flavours were really subtle - a bit of saltiness from the soy sauce, just a bit of sweetness from the sweet potato, the slightest hint of heat from the peppers. It felt a bit lighter than regular tofu scramble. It was really nice.

Mike is going out tomorrow, so I'm gonna try to make the Matzoh Brie and Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes at some point.

Cookbook challenge, week 3, day 1 - Vegan Brunch

OK, I was really kinda crap with last week's cookbook challenge. I'll try to be better with this week. That said, this week is Vegan Brunch, and there are so many recipes I want to try, I've decided to just do a few this week and then use this book as my VeganMoFo project.

We had one of Mike's friends over, so I made the Coffee Chip Muffins:


They both really liked them, though I wasn't all that keen. The coffee flavour was pretty subtle, and I was hoping for a lot more. I also thought they were a bit too chewy and not quite as fluffy as I would've liked. Still, all but two of them are gone (and those only survive because I put them away before Mike could eat them - they're going with him for his lunch tomorrow). I'm beginning to wonder if I'm so tired because I'm crashing from the caffeine. Anyway, I don't know if I'll make these again. Maybe if I'm having a coffee fan over. And I might double the coffee if I do.

Here's where my post gets sad. I wasn't feeling making dinner, but then I looked at the recipe for the Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes and realised I had all the ingredients, and they don't take that long. So I got out my tempeh...and it smelled of fish that's about to go off. It was pretty disgusting. I don't know why it was like that. I didn't even realise tempeh could smell like that, especially since it still looked fine (though it's really hard to tell when tempeh's gone off just by looking). I really wish I'd bought the other package of it when I was at Real Foods.

So, I decided instead to make omelets with burnt broccoli, since we'd bought broccoli at the Farmers' Market yesterday. But when I cut up the broccoli, I kept finding bugs. If it had only been one or two, I would've been OK. But there were several, and I couldn't be sure that I'd gotten them all. I actually felt ill thinking about the possibility that I might end up eating a bug, so we decided that it was better to waste the money than for me to throw up my dinner. We ended up having cheeze omelets, which were still delicious.

Oh, and we finally managed to get to the Farmers' Market when the Engine Shed was there, so we got the delicious Gypsy Cream cookies they sell. These are oatmeal cookies with a coffee buttercream sandwiched between them. Nom! I really need to make these myself. Two packages of two sammich cookies each cost us £3. I'm sure I could make them for cheaper.

Cookbook challenge, week 1, days 2 & 3 - Veganomicon

Yesterday was day 2 of the Veganomicon cookbook challenge, and I made the Applesauce-Oat Bran Muffins.



They were nice the day of, though I wish I could've had one while they were still warm. My only complaint for the first one was that the cardamom was a bit overwhelming, but I got used to it after a few bite. On day 2, the spices seem to have mellowed, so it's just a nice spicy muffin.



And it's healthy! Loads of applesauce and only 2 tbsp of oil (though the recipe calls for 3), made with wholemeal flour, and only 1/2 c of sugar. This is the kind of thing you make when you want to bake but don't want to feel guilty about eating all of it. I'll definitely make these again, though I might up the cinnamon (just because I love cinnamon) and grate an apple to add to the batter (I didn't have any yesterday).

Tonight's dinner was roasted spaghetti squash from the Farmers' Market with V'con Beanballs and Roasted Garlic Marinara



and new leaf salad with Miso Tahini dressing and wholemeal croutons.



The spaghetti squash was weird. It was really liquidy - I poured off about 3 cups worth of liquid when I took it out of the oven, and then at least another 2-3 once I'd shredded it. It wasn't terrible, but I won't spend £5 for another one. However, the marinara and beanballs were delicious, so much so that I ate my entire plate of food even though the squash was funky. I'll be using the leftovers to stuff pitas (because I have pitas and not sub bread). The beanballs weren't an exact replica of meatballs texture-wise (I think tofu balls do a better job of that), but they were very close in taste. And I think they might even have been a little easier to make than tofu balls, as well as being cheaper (beans are cheaper than tofu) as long as you have vital wheat gluten on hand.

It took a while for the dressing to grow on me. It was very salty. Unfortunately, since there's no actual salt in it (it's just equal parts miso and tahini and warm water to thin it out), there's not much you can do to make it less salty. I added some pepper and garlic powder and used about twice as much water as the recipe called for, but it didn't really help much. It was good, but I don't think I'll make it again because of the saltiness issue.

Tomorrow I'll be making the Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits, and I'll probably make the cookies again, but with a bit of a change.

Cookbook challenge is almost here!

So, the PPK cookbook challenge starts tomorrow (well, technically Monday, but I'm starting tomorrow). The point of the cookbook challenge is to get us to use our vast array of cookbooks in a structured way, so that we can share experiences and favourites and try new things that we might not have. We're meant to make at least three recipes from the book chosen for that week and post in the forum about how we got on. The first book is Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. I'm super excited. I already have my recipes picked out, including at least one dessert (so I can make use of my oat flour), and I'll be posting as I go along. Hopefully this will be good practice for VeganMoFo.

I went back to the Edinburgh Farmers' Market today for the first time in at least a month. I'd been missing Swiss chard and was hoping to find some good stuff to use for the challenge. To be honest, I stopped going because basically one side of the market is almost entirely comprised of meat producers, with some of them offering cooked meat products at the stalls, and frankly, it makes me a little nauseous. It would make my life a lot easier if the meat producers were all on one side and the non-meat people (even the cheese toasty people) were on the other. Oh well. I'm hoping that today's score is indicative of increasing variety, which would at least temporarily alleviate my other problem - they had the same stuff every week. But this week, I got my standard greens (chard and spinach, though I could've gotten kale as well), but I also got two lovely squashes. One was a 2Kg spaghetti squash, the first time I've seen one since I moved to the UK. The other was this lovely squash that they couldn't identify, but PPKers identified as a kabocha:


I've been told that it's best when it's left to its own devices for a few weeks, otherwise it pretty much tastes like courgette. So, I'll be saving that beauty for a later challenge. Anyway, the chard went into a delicious Swiss Chard Frittata (recipe in Vegan Brunch), and I'll figure out what to do with the spinach later.

I also managed to find a use for the carob chips my sister brought from the US (she was supposed to bring chocolate chips), and here are the results:


The Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. Not the best picture, I must admit, but they were tasty as hell. I almost always make modifications to the recipe when I make them, but they are by far the best muffins I have ever eaten in my life, regardless of how I change them up. This batch had about 1/2 c of carob chips, used only 3/4 c of sugar, subbed half the oil with applesauce, and subbed the flour as follows - 3/4 c plain flour, 1/2 c wholemeal pastry flour, 1/2 c spelt flour (also, the recipe in the book, which is what I use, doesn't have soy yogurt). The sweetness of the carob balances out the 'healthy' taste of the flours, even with 1/2 cup less sugar than the original recipe. These also do really well with chocolate chips, and I would imagine they would taste alright with some kind of berry, if you go in for that sort of thing.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to post my first cookbook challenge experiences tomorrow. Yay! Also, I just realised that it kinda looks like I'm whoring for Isa since I've posted all but one of her (and Terry's) books. I'm really not - I just love the books, and they happen to be the ones I use most. Part of why I'm taking part in the cookbook challenge.