Coco-Fever

I've been having a craving for a peanut butter cup recently because its been so long. The other other night me and c had a chocolate cook out. We made chocolate peanut butter cups, chocolate cups stuffed with a maple-walnut ganash, and chocolate walnut rounds. Best part about it was that it was all vegan!

Chocolate peanut butter cups
24 oz chocolate
2 cups peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp earth balance
tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
pack of wax paper cups

To make the peanut butter filling add the peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla, earth balance, and salt in a sauce pan. Cook until everything is mixed. Cool it in the freezer until its firm but not frozen. Reserve

To make the maple walnut ganash take a 1/2 cup of the melted chocolate and mix it with some crushed walnuts, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 2tbsp of maple syrup. Mix well. It will really sticky at first but eventually it form a ball. Chill. Reserve.

Melt your chocolate in a double boiler. After it is melted let it sit in the boiler for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Set up the wax papers in a muffin pan to make it a little easier to fill them. Fill the papers just enough to cover the bottom of them. Put them in the freezer to harden them up. When the chocolate has firmed up spoon some of one of the fillings over them. (the ganash is a pain if its room temp) Them fill up the rest of the cup with melted chocolate. Put them in the freezer as well until they firm up as well. Close you eyes and enjoy.

To make the rounds use the melted chocolate and pour it into a greased muffin pan. Make the rounds real thin. Top with crushed walnuts and freeze. Super easy and oh so delicious.

Greek Themed Feast

Man it feels good to post again. Its been forever & now I finally have my camera again. This is a feast all the way back from valentines day. I made at the last minute not knowing what we really wanted to eat or having much time to really make anything extravagant. So we quickly picked a theme and it came together pretty alright. Its not too pretty but it was damn delicious.

On the menu

Gyros
Grilled 'lamb' Kabobs
Stuffed grape leaves
Hummus
Rice and lentils
Tzatziki

The Gyros

Da Meet

3 cups vital wheat gluten

1tsp tapioca starch

coriander

cumin

cumin seeds

cardamom

sage

onion powder

1/2 onion

2 tbsp lemon juice

2tbs soy sauce

2 garlic cloves

3/4 cup water

tbsp sugar

Add everything together that's not the water or the flour. mix it up till you like the taste. Then add the flour and water.

Fix it into a nice log. Wrap in foil.

Steam this gentleman for about an hour checking your water level

so you don't burn your pan (like i did!)

When the the seitan is done cut it in half. use only one half and slice it really really

thin. If you have a serrated bread knife or a

slicer knife, that works good in absence of a mechanical slicer of

some type. Marinate the slices in cumin, coriander, salt, olive oil

sugar and pepper for about a hour or so.

The same meat can be used for the kabobs and for the grape leaves. Cut the remaining half into two pieces ,a bigger piece and a smaller piece. Cut cubes out of the bigger piece and mince or chop the small piece to put into the grape leaves.

Marinate the faux lamb cubes in lemon juice, coriander, cardamom, paprika, cumin, oil, and sage for about an hour and a half.

Grill it. Enjoy.

Stuffed Grape leaves

1 jar of grape leaves

Ground lamb seitan

2 cups cooked rice

3tbsp lemon juice

coriander

cumin

dill

1 cup of cooked lentils

salt and pepper

add all ingredients together. let sit four 20 minutes for flavors to be absorbed

traditionally the dolmas are steamed but for lack of time

we cooked the filling fully and c wrapped it in the raw leaves like a pro.

Rice and lentils

3 cups of rice

3 cups lentils

2 cloves garlic

2 onions

salt pepper

cumin

turmeric

lemon juice

add cooked rice and lentils together with olive oil salt and pepper lemon juice and cumin. sweat onions in saute pan with garlic and turmeric until nice and soft. add onions on top of lentils and rice bake in an oven at 350 for about 12 minutesto get the top of the mixture nice and crispy.

tzatziki sauce

1 tub vegan or Greek yogurt

half of a seedless cucumber

2 cloves garlic

lemon juice to taste

salt pepper

so now that we got everything..... cut up some lettuce, onion and tomato. grab so awesome olives, toast some pitaand oil and paprika up your hummus wrap a fat gyro and chow down.

cheese recipe over at my neglected food blog

http://theapeman.blogspot.com/2010/03/aged-cashew-brazil-cheese.html

Check it out!

Teese Coupon

I know this isn't a recipe, but totally an awesome link to a great product coupon, check it out!

FREE Teese Vegan Cheese Coupon

Enjoy! Thank me later.

Orange Tofu

Hey everybody. I decided that I had to learn how to make orange sauce as good as the Mandarin Wok and it turned out to be better than any orange sauce I have ever had (modest, I know). So I decided to share my recipe with ya'll so you could enjoy it too. Here it goes.

Orange Tofu

1 block of tofu, extra firm, cubed
salt
white pepper
oil for frying in wok

4 Tbsp garlic, minced (about 5-6 cloves)
4 Tbsp ginger, minced
1/2 jalapeno, super thinly sliced
1 Tbsp oil
1/4 cup mirin or sherry
1/3 cup OJ, fresh squeezed or whatever
2 Tbsps orange zest or rind chunks
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup agave nectar
3 Tbsp soy sauce
4 Tbsp arrowroot mixed with 2 Tbsp cold water
1 Tbsp siracha
white pepper
crushed red pepper

Start out by frying your tofu until golden brown on all sides over medium/high heat. Season with salt and white pepper. Set aside.

Keep you wok hot add the 1 Tbsp oil, and stir fry the garlic, ginger and jalapeno for about a minute. Add the mirin or sherry, the OJ, the orange zest, sugar and agave nectar. Cook for a minute or two. Add the soy sauce and siracha. Then once its boiling add the arrowroot slurry and let it get nice and gloopy. Adjust seasonings and make it hotter if you wish. Pour over your crispy tofu and some steamed broccoli. Serve with rice or like in my case some leftover low mein noodles.

Pairs nicely with a sweet wine like a Riesling to counter balance the spice. Beer is always a good option too. Maybe a nice pale ale would work well.