Friday, February 29, 2008

Eating from blogs

In addition to being a good form of procrastination, blogs provide an abundance of great new food ideas and recipes. In less than a week, Andy and I have found three new favourites from different blogs.

First up, my favourite metal vegan femme, Ashasarala, posted her mum’s recipe for black bean burgers. I made these exactly as the recipe said, but the end result was a bit dry—I blame my oddly cooked black beans, a result of experimentation with a new pressure cooker. To make up for the dryness, I added about ¼ c. of veggie stock with a teaspoon of cornflour, to make the mixture the right consistency to form into patties. These were good. Really good. We had them in tortillas with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, beetroot, sautéed onion and mushroom, bbq sauce, and sour cream. We’ll definitely make these again.

Next up, I made Liz2’s recipe for Aloo Paratha, posted at her blog Kamutflake Girl. Tangy, spicy potatoes warmly embraced by whole wheat chapatti = heaven, plain and simple. I made the potatoes a day or two ahead of time, so they didn’t even feel like much work. I thought the process of stuff the bread with the filling would be complicated, but it was really much easier than I thought. The perfect accompaniment to dhal!

And for dessert, how about some pie? When I saw Emmie, aka VegBitch, post about strawberry lime no-bake pie, I knew I had to make this. The only problem was, we didn’t have many of the ingredients on hand. One evening Andy went up to the shop to buy marked down bread so I asked him to get some frozen strawberries and vegan biscuits. He came home with raspberries and blackberries. We got yogurt, and found some vegan Nice biscuits (Cole’s brand). There is no such thing as vegan whipped topping in Townsville, so I used some mango flavoured silken tofu. The only problem was that I didn’t really measure, because the cup was full of sour cream in the fridge. I think I had way more filling ingredients than the original recipe called for, because there was definitely not enough agar to gel the pie filling (we stuck it in the freezer to make it keep its shape). The end result was vastly different to the recipe posted, but it was good. With some tweaking, it will be really good. Andy and I are both imagining the different fruit and flavour combinations we can create with this basic pie recipe. For now, here is a picture of my Raspberry Blackberry Lime Mango no-bake pie!

All of these recipes will be getting a workout in our house in the future, and I suggest that you try them, too!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't it so much fun to cook from fellow bloggers? I love it! I'm usually more satisfied than I am with cookbooks because the blog authors always give their own personal touch and explain far more.

That said, I must try Kamutflake Girl's recipe because it's just too delicious-looking!

Amy said...

You stole my post :P Seriously though, those black bean burgers are awesome (although I used tinned beans and mine were a little dry too, I ended up throwing in some mayonnaise).

I don't cook enough from other bloggers. I always want to and mean to and then I get distracted.

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

eek, your chapatis look soooo perfect! I'm so glad you like them! And I tend to make the potatoes a day in advance, too.

I also love the Raspberry Blackberry Mango Lime pie variation, more fruit = always better. And Asha's burgers sound great! I'm on a total mexican kick, I should give those a go.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you decided to try out our pie recipe, even if it didn't quite set properly! I wish we had blackberries on hand like you do. I've been thinking about substituting cashews for the whipped vanilla topping in the recipe, or maybe half tofu and half cashews.

Agar can be a little tricky, and I just read somewhere that acidity lessens its gelling properties. So more fruit means more acid means less gelling, I guess!

And your aloo paratha looks delicious - I always thought it's really complicated to make!

-Anni.

Anonymous said...

i love to cook from other bloggers too!

Vegan_Noodle said...

I just love eating from other blogs!! And funny enough, I've got both the black bean burgers and the aloo paratha on my list to make as well! And glad you pointed out emmie's blog, it's not one I'd seen before :-)

Anonymous said...

Ooooh, mango blackberry pie! I love the pie so much, love it! I actually have frozen blackberries from last summer in the freezer, and frozen mango too. I need to go check out that black bean burger recipe now.

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

aren't we so lucky to have such great cooking blogger friends?

TB said...

I need to try those black bean burgers for sure!

Ashasarala said...

Yay! I'm so glad you liked them!!! I told ya they were the bomb-diggity. I might try adding some broth for that extra moist goodness, myself.

I need to start making other bloggers' recipes. I've been very frazzled lately and everything's been coming out of the same two cook books. I need to live a little!