Saturday, March 21, 2009

March 18, 2009 meal

My Those cupcakes look splendid!




This week at the Hot Yam! we cooked up a gr8 ginger carrot salad, many servings of Happy Hummus, Lovely lentil soup and out of this world-cupcakes. We hope that our meal made your bellies full and happy--!
Below are the recipes so that you may recreate the experience over and over again:

Ginger carrot salad
Ingredients For 5 people:
3 large carrots, cut diagonally into thin slices
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 clove garlic, grated
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/8 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 dash cayenne pepper
1/2 cup raisins

Procedure:
Cut Carrots thinly on a diagonal and boil then for 2 min, ( still crunchy carrots)

Whisk together oil, vinegar, garlic and ginger, season with cumin, cinnamon, sugar and cayenne, Mix carrots, (add raisins in the morning)

Hummus
Ingredients for 6 people:
2 cups cooked chick peas
1/3 cup of tahini
_ cup of lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic
1tsp of olive oil
_ tsp of paprika
_ tsp of cumin
as much water as needed, perhaps a cup or two
Procedure: If Chick peas are dried soak overnight, drain and boil with a pinch of salt until tender. Add all ingredients in food processor and spin away until the desired consistency!
Hot Yam! tip: to enhance the taste, when adding water to the blend, use the same water that was used to boil the chick peas

Curried Lentil Soup
Ingredients for 8 people:
3 medium onions
2 tbsp of graded ginger
3 cloves of garlic
4 stacks of celery
2 tbsp of curry powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp of tumeric
1 tbsp of dried coriander
1 can of coconut milk
6 cups of veggie stalk
2 cups of red or green lentils
2 cups of chick peas
Procedure: sautée the onions, celery, garlic, ginger and oil in pot until tender. Add 6 cups of veggie stalk and spices. Bring to boil. Add lentils and coconut milk and chick peas. Should take approximately 45 minutes but making it the night before helps all the flavors to burst!


Now onto Dessert! Yum



The cupcakes
(recipe for 1 batch - makes 12)

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla
extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder



Frosting!

- 1 L of earth balance marg (we have a bazillion tubs, anyone know how many? It's at least 2...)
1 L earth balance shortening
28 cups of icing sugar (get this from essence of life. it's vegan. ah the vegan sugar issue)
60 mL vanilla
2 cups of soy milk

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil
liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set
aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla
extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and
beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour,
cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two
batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a
few tiny lumps are OK).
3. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes,
until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Frosting

1. Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and
fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.
2. Add the vanilla and soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes
until fluffy.

For the frosting, the timing actually matters\


Happy Baking!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

MARCH 11 - recipes

This week Meghan H. did an awesome job preparing the menu and organizing things. Here's the recipe for those kick-azz cookies that so many of y'all asked for. I also threw in the focaccia bread recipe to encourage everyone to try making bread at home. So easy! So yummy!


Happy Baking!

*ALSO - don't forget the general HY! meeting tomorrow Friday 13th at 6pm in Hart House Map Room*

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OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES this recipe makes 100 cookies! Adjust accordingly!

Vegan Butter, unsalted, at room temperature – 3and ¾ cup

Light Brown Sugar - 5 cup

Flax Seed Powder - 5 teaspoon

Water – 1 and1/4 cup

Vanilla Extract - 5 teaspoon

All Purpose Flour – 3 and 3/4 cup

Baking Soda – 2 and1/2 teaspoon

Salt – 2 and 1/2 teaspoon

Cinnamon, ground – 2 and 1/2 teaspoon

Old Fashioned Rolled Oats - 15 cups (I used quick cooking oats)

5 cups dried raisins or craisins

1. Preheat oven at 350F/180C. Prepare 2 large baking sheets either greasing it or lining it with parchment paper.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.

3. In a blender, add flax seed powder and water and blend it until it’s foamy.

4. Add the flax seed mixture and vanilla extract to the creamed butter. Stir it well using a wooden spoon/spatula.

5. In a medium size bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

6. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and combine it well using a spatula.

7. Now stir the oats and other optional ingredients you wish to include.

8. Drop the batter by tablespoonsful 2 inches apart.

9. Wet your hands and flatten the cookies so that they are about 1/2 an inch thick.

10. Bake it for 12-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the centre is little wet.

11. Remove it from the oven and let it cool in the baking sheet itself for 5 minutes. Then transfer it to a wire rack to cool it completely.

_________________________________________________________________________


FOCACCIA BREAD this recipe is regular sized!

  • 2 ½-3 cups all-purpose flour

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • 1 teaspoon white sugar

  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast

  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder

  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano

  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme

  • 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

  • 1 pinch ground black pepper

  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

  • 1 cup water

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Mix ¼ cup of warm water with the sugar and yeast. Allow to sit and bubble for about 5 minutes.

2. Mix the yeast mixture, another ¼ cup of water, the flour, and 1 teaspoon of salt in a bowl. Also add the herbs and seasonings. Mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture holds together. The dough will be very wet and sticky.

3. Turn out mixture onto a lightly-floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth, elastic, and shiny. Add flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to the surface.

4. Form dough into a ball and place into a bowl lightly-oiled with olive oil.

6. Allow dough to rise in a warm place covered with a damp cloth until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

7. Preheat oven to 475°F.

8. Punch down, let rest for 2-3 minutes. Form the dough into a disc about 9-inches in diameter. Place the disc into a lightly-oiled, circular 9-inch cake pan.

9. Drizzle 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil over the surface. Sprinkle the surface lightly with the coarse sea salt and more dried herbs.

10. Bake at 475°F for approximately 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.



Sunday, March 8, 2009

Recipes for February 25th, 2009


Okay, backing up a bit, here'r the recipes from the Yam! meal on the 25th of Feburary:


Aprons!

Two weeks ago, Nora and Suzie surprised the Yam! with aprons! With our very own Suzie-designed Yam! chef screened on, no less. Amazing!

Suzie, why don't you show us what they look like:



Don't you just want to volunteer with us now?

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Recipes for March 4, 2009

I've had a few people complement us on the meal yesterday, which is always good to hear. Mostly it's: "What's the recipe for the gnocchi?!!"

Well, yesterday's meal was backed by some excellent recipes from this awesome vegan cooking blog I just found, veganyumyum.com, and a goodly dose of the usual on-the-fly Yam! inspiration.

So, the meal:
  • Potato Gnocchi with Thyme Vinaigrette and Lemon Cashew Cream. We strayed from the gnocchi making instructions on this recipe, making things a bit more "rustic". We boiled the potatoes, instead of baking them, left the skins on, mashed them (and used a hand-blender) instead of using a ricer, and added olive oil, salt, and water to the potatoes. The aim was to make a smooth, soft dough that could be rolled out into long "snakes". We then chopped them into pinky-width sized pieces and put them directly into salted boiling water for 2 minutes. No rolling them down a gnocchi board to get those nice ridges, or anything like that. For the potatoes we used Yukon gold.

    We stuck closely to the recipes for the vinaigrette and lemon cashew cream sauces. Not really local. But delicious.
  • Roasted squash. The old standby. Slice squash into half-pinky width pieces, place on pan, slather in oil, a little salt, bake at 500F until golden, flip once or twice while they're baking.
  • Lentil salad. This Kira and I totally made up. We imagined some beautiful Italian style salad, with red and yellow peppers, lots of parsley, and vinegar. Alas, that's for summer. Instead we made up our own, not even close to Italian style salad. I'm not sure I can even tell you how we did it exactly; I'll need Kira's help. Basically, we boiled green lentils in veggie stock until they were edible but firm, cooled them down. Added lots of chopped parsley. Separately we sauteed minced garlic (a LOT of it), and added it to it crumbled firm tofu. Cooked this in plenty of sesame oil, adding a variety of spices: salt, pepper, cumin, mustard seed, steak seasoning(! I know!), and other things which only Kira can tell you.
  • Pear tartlets. We based the pastry on this intriguing recipe from Vegan Yum Yum, because it made for quick assembly through bypassing the process of rolling out the pastry, but instead just cramming it against the edges of the cupcake tins. My opinion: the pastry was a bit tough, and maybe because of this. Yam!ers, thoughts?

    We didn't cover the tarts as in the recipe above, but just left them open.

    The filling was diced pears, dried currents, blueberries, maple syrup, sugar, and some flour. Maybe some cinnamon. We baked them at 350 F for about 25 minutes, IIRC.
  • Peppermint Tea. Boiling water + dried peppermint.