Z's chocolate pretzels

Last week, my children were on school holidays. Z decided that he wanted to bake. He checked out his cook books (my children all have several cookbooks of their own). In one called Cook for Kids by Jean Pare, he found some Chocolate Cookie Pretzels.

This is not a vegan cookbook, but Z is creative. He showed me the recipe and suggested that we could replace Nuttelex for butter, Tofutti cream cheese for cow cream cheese and dark chocolate for milk.

Here are his masterpieces:



Of course, the shape and consistency of the dough did lead an almost 10 year old boy to suggest some other shapes, that you can see lurking in this picture:


I laughed at them, because apparently I have the sense of humour of an 8 year old.

They were delicious and unusual. The use of a full tub of tofutti cream cheese meant that they were rich and delightfully soft and chewy, but not overly sweet. Very good baking from Z!

Z is watching me blog. He says to tell you "It was fun!"

Roast Medley

This was a medley of roast potato, cut into wedges and sprinkle with vegan "fry sprinkle" carrots cut into battons, green beans, capsicum, onion wedges, a few vegan sausages and stale sourdough torn into pieces and tossed with olive oil and garlic.

It was served with Massel vegan gravy, cauliflower gratin and a quick toasted spinach and vegan cheese pita. It was pretty good on a cold night a few weeks ago. It also made 7 sausages stretch into a meal for 5 people, without the kids noticing that they didn't get 2 full sausages each.

Potstickers

My dumplings from yesterday's post also make good potstickers. I had not encountered potstickers before I started reading American blogs. Some chinese restaurants have fried dumplings, but potstickers are a rare product here.

Potstickers

Makes 15 potstickers

15 dumplings (see recipe in previous post)
1 tablespoon neutral oil (vegetable, canola or rice bran oil is good)
1/2 cup vegan stock (I used Massel Chicken Style stock)
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon say sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar

1. Heat oil in non-stick or cast iron pan on medium heat.
2. Add dumplings to pan. Reduce heat a little. Fry on one side until that side is browned and crisp.
3. Mix remaining ingredients. Add to pan with the dumplings.
4. Bring gentle to boil.
5. Reduce to a fairly fast simmer.
6. Simmer until broth is absorbed (about 10 minutes).
7. Serve.

Everyone in our family enjoyed these. I could happily have doubled the recipe. I liked the crisp/chewy/simmered texture. I can see why they are so popular in the US.

Making dumplings

I love Asian food, as you have probably noticed. I frequently buy pre-made dim sum from asian supermarkets. However, I recently decided to make my own. So here is my take on dumplings. I think that next time I would use tofu or seitan in them.

Dumplings

Makes approx 30 dumplings

Take these ingredients:


200 g Vegan roast pork (Seitan, tofu or TVP mince would also be good)
2 Spring/green onions
3 mushrooms
1/4 small wombok (chinese cabbage)
dash each powdered ginger and black pepper
Dash soy sauce
Vegan wonton wrappers

1. Dice all vegetables and roast pork into a small dice.
   
2. Fry gently.
3. Once the vegetables have softened and liquid has been absorbed, remove from hear and allow to cool a little.
4. Place a small spoonful of mixture onto each vegan wonton wrapper. Fold and seal with a touch of water. I got lazy and simply folded them, but you could crimp them into a ruffled shape or an upright wonton, if you prefer. Place aside on a tray in a single layer:

5. You may now cook the dumplings or freeze them. The dumplings may be used in
wonton soup, fried, deep fried, steamed or used for pot stickers.



Wonton Soup

3-5 dumplings per person
Vegan stock (vegetable or chick'n style are good) (this is a liquid soup, so you will need 1-2 litres for 4-8 people)
pinch dried ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame
Asian style vegetables, including bock choy, sliced mushroom, and carrot (optional)

1. Put all ingredients but dumplings and green leafy vegetables in a large pot. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
2. Add wontons. Return to boil and then reduce to a simmer.
3. Simmer for approximately 5 minutes, or until dumplings are translucent and cooked.
4. Add green bok choy leaves to wilt.
5. Serve

The dumplings were good, but the char sieu style "pork" was a bit dominant in the recipe.

Spinach and Cheezely Pastries

This is what we had for dinner last night. You can see spinach and cheezely pastries, corn, asparagus, baked mushrooms and potatoes with punk rock chickpea gravy, from Vegan With a Vengeance. (If you have VWAV, you should make this gravy. It is seriously good!)

Spinach and Cheezely Pastries

Makes 8 pastries

Ingredients

250g frozen spinach
1 loosely packed cup grated mozzarella style Cheezely
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
pinch of salt and pepper
2 sheets Borg's vegan puff pastry (Aldi puff pastry is apparently also vegan)
little water to moisten pastry

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Defrost frozen spinach. Drain well.
   
3. Lightly fry onion in oil until translucent.
4. Mix spinach, onion cheezley and seasonings.
5. Quarter each sheet of pastry.
6. Put 1/8th of the spinach mix on one side of each square of pastry.
7. Moisten edges of pastry lightly. Fold pastry over filling. press edges together.
   
8. Bake for 1/2 hour or until golden.

M was helping me roll the pastries. She suggested that we should make rolls. You can also make rectangles, triangle or any other shape you fancy.

Everyone liked this one. Puff pastry is usually popular with my kids. They also love spinach and cheese. The younger two children took the last few rolls to school today in their lunchboxes, with cold icepacks to keep them fresh.

This is a handy dish to serve non-vegans. Omnis find it familiar (cheese and spinach triangles!). You can make small versions for parties. For a lower fat version, you can substitute filo pastry for the puff pastry.

Quick Pizza

This is a quick pizza that we had for lunch today. The base was a small pita bread. They are a convenient, low fat, thin base, with a bit of a crunch, if you bake them right.

I used Mediterranean relish for a sauce. It is tangy and a bit sweet. I then topped it with olives, mushroom, roasted pumpkin, fresh oregano and some small chunks of Cheezely garlic and herb vegan cheese.

It hit the spot. The children had variations on this. J had the same as me. M had only sauce, olives and cheese. Z had only sauce and olives. It was gone in no time.

The other day, I had this simple toasted sandwich for lunch. It was toasted with only Cheezely herb and garlic vegan cheese. After toasting, I added the fresh tomato, rocket (from my garden) and avocado. On the side, there are kalamata olives and pickled onions.


Cheezely has the best vegan "cheese" that I have eaten (out of the admittedly very limited options available to Australian consumers). While it does not taste exactly like cow cheese, it does fill the desire for cheese with a savoury flavour and cheesy texture (whough some are a little floury if not melted. Their super melting options melt reasonably well for pizzas or anywhere else that you crave melted cheese. My favourite is the herb and garlic, which is the only vegan cheese replacement that I would eat on crackers.