Vegan Meringue

It's real, and it works - vegan meringue is here, and the Vegan Internet has lost its collective mind. And it's not meringue-like, or meringue-ish, it's proper meringue, made exactly the same way as a traditional recipe. Secret ingredient to replace the egg whites? Chickpea or bean brine, now also known as Aquafaba. And I do mean the liquid that you drain from a commercial can of chickpeas, or the cooking water from chickpeas cooked at home. Its amazing potential was apparently discovered earlier this year by way of a French chef and a vegan blogger called Goose, and nobody knows why it works, but it does.

Amazingly, you use the bean brine *exactly* like egg whites. It whips to stiff peaks, then you add the sugar and it whips to glossy, hold-it-upside-down perfection. This was simply 1/2 cup (1 can) of chickpea Aquafaba whipped with 1/4 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (for stability - cream of tartar works too, apparently, as with 'normal' meringue), and a cup of caster sugar. Boom.

 

Baked in a super-low oven, 100C, for 2 hours or so.

 

I even made a little pavlova, which I've never even had, let alone made.

 

Sweetness-wise, its obviously pretty full-on, but I understand that you can use this magic new ingredient to make mayo, perfect breaded tofu, fudgy brownies, killer waffles - who knows what else can be done! There's an international Facebook group dedicated to 'hits and misses' - and this is one of the things I love about vegan cooking; the creativity, the community spirit, and the willingness to share these crazy discoveries. Until the professional chefs catch up, it's all grassroots experimentation, driven by home cooks and food bloggers. Punk rock.

I, for one, have dug out my French cookbooks and am rummaging for inspiration in the formerly impossible. Index: Egg Whites.
 

Vegan Fondue Night (and Sticky Tempeh Bites)

So, we are headed home soon, and it's been difficult to keep up the Mofo mojo while travelling, so all I can say is that I intend to do better once we are back on English soil. I am keeping up on Instagram if you follow us there. Swapping today's prompt for the 9th, because we'll be in midair: a retro recipe. And this is less a recipe than an idea for a meal, vegan fondue night!

We have a proper fondue pot, which was a gift, and some fondue plates I found at a thrift store. I like to start with a plain old nutritional yeast sauce (usually one of Isa's), but you could also make a more traditional fondue sauce with garlic, white wine and your favourite vegan cheese - I think Daiya would work best. But what to dip? Besides bread, because duh. 

Cooked veggies:

Broccoli 

Cauliflower

Carrots (I really like a roll cut for this)

Sugar Snap Peas

Other root veggies like Sweet Potato, or even Swede and Celeriac - just don't overcook them to mush. 

Roasted onions - keep the root base in tact on your sections so they won't fall apart. 

Raw Veggies:

Peppers

Mushrooms

Fennel

Tomatoes, little ones

Radishes

Some selective fruit, like crisp apples.

Some pickled things, like gherkins.

And, my must-have, Sticky Tempeh Bites

A block of Tempeh, cut into bite size chunks

Equal volumes of BBQ sauce and hot water from the kettle (eyeball it; you want enough for a marinade, but not so much that it's drowning - I say the bites should be about halfway submerged). If you have access to a Californian hot sauce called Pepper Plant, you should definitely add some to the sauce. 

Marinate for a while, an hour is fine.

Bake at about 180C (350F), WITH the marinade, flipping a few times. 

Once the tempeh is browned and sticky, it's done! Yum. 

See you when we're back home!

Scenes From Our Table (iPhone edition)

Hello! We're still away (and phone blogging exclusively!), so these photos are old, but I meant to post them before summer slipped away from us. 

Waffles, nectarines, strawberry Kombucha. Mismatched everything.

Those pickled onions, changing my leftovers and LIFE. Seriously, I'm going to have to make them every week until I die.

Congee, greens, tofu, onions and lacto-fermented radishes. The stuff of my dreams, basically. 

 Plantains, beans and rice.

Pretty stationary, iced decaf. 

Not our table, rather our kitchen side. Just 'cause I love summer fruit.

Simple late-summer supper of baked tofu and veggies.

Iced nettle tea. For the discerning pregnant lady.

Rainy day watercolours.

And some dahlias!

Also, FYI, we're going to be attempting to participate in Vegan Mo-Fo (Vegan Month of Food) this year, so from tomorrow, expect DAILY food posts. I just hope I can keep up!! Here goes nothing!

Hello, August: Pickling and Fermenting Summer Veg

I'm not new to preserving, but I am new to pickling - we're just gonna go for it this year. Since I'm off sugar these days (it just makes me feel crummy - not worth it), I'm sticking to veggie preserving for now, although I may be tempted to put up some fruit later in the month. Anyway, using several methods, for the sake of experimentation, the most exciting of which is, surprise surprise, fermenting! These are radishes, and it really is the simplest recipe (from Phickle). Note how I'm using a smaller jar to keep the radishes submerged - that's really important.  

They will be ready in about a week at room temperature. Fermenting some daikon (mooli) as well, using a shot glass as a weight this time. 

I love this kind of cooking; anything that relies on a bacterial or chemical process (besides, you know, heating) to bring about a transformation just feels like magic to me. But it's not magic! It's science! Apparently, this is how veggies ferment: Their skin is loaded with bacteria, good and bad. We want the goods guys, in this case lactobacillus, to take over. Lactobacillus is salt tolerant, so a salt brine gives them an environment in which they can get a foothold. The other bacteria are still hanging around, mind, but as our good guys breed they also change the pH of the whole situation, which benefits them, and kills off the competition. So once our pickles reach a certain distinct point of sourness, we can be confident that the good guys won and our food is not only safe to eat, it's wonderfully healthful. Now, call me a nerd if you must, but I think that's cool.

I'm also doing some vinegar pickles, because I like them, and some quick pickles, which aren't intended for long term storage. 

There are some great recipes for quick pickles in Bryant Terry's excellent Afro-Vegan. It's not a preserving book, it just happens to have a handful of easy, yummy-looking pickle recipes. This is the cumin-pickled red onion. It's intended to go in the fridge and be eaten within a month or so. These babies are going to up our sandwich game significantly. 

Lastly, I'm doing some traditional vinegar-pickled cucumbers with dill, and some more radishes. I happen to dislike sweet pickles intensely, so these are spiced vinegar only. I'm using the Jams, Preserves and Chutneys Handbooks as a guide - it's a great book to learn with, for any kind of preserves, because it gets you started properly on the basics. I bought it several years ago when I was learning to make jams and chutneys - the recipes are a great jumping off point for experimentation. 

With the vinegar pickles, we won't have our bacterial Battle Royale keeping us safe, so we need to keep everything very sterile in the traditional way - I'd highly recommend sticking to a reliable recipe if you're a beginner like me. 

What about you guys, are you preserving this month? Whatcha makin'??

Scenes From Our Table

 

Some nights, you basically just want pan-asian restaurant starters. Corn cakes and spring rolls. Sweet chilli, and peanut sauce. Remind me to post the peanut sauce recipe, guys, it was BOSS.

 

Corn cakes.

 

 

Stewed rhubard isn't the most photogenic of foods, I will grant you, but hot damn, it does the job.

 

 

Buckwheat pancakes.

 

 

Posh take-out.

 

 

Taking the 'table' outside. I made this quilt a few years ago from thrift store scraps.

 

 

Take that, Dad. Defeated!

 

 

A breakfast series, starting with quinoa sourdough (sadly, not homemade. I am still struggling with sourdough). 

 

 

Waffles and peanut butter. She just calls it 'butter', because she's the sweetest.

 

 

FRENCH. TOAST.

 

 

My new thing - multigrain porridge. This is oat, quinoa and millet with Udo's oil , a little brown rice syrup, and seeds. And lemon water because I'm soooooo virtuous. Just a note, the millet takes a bit longer to cook, so use leftovers!

 

And finally, some inspiration. Been craving homemade tortillas, and I'm going to make that business happen for us.

Hope you are all having a good weekend!!

Scenes From Our Table

Her new favourite book, I think I've read it 15 times since yesterday.

 

Taco night! And salad, obvs. 

 

Little hands.

 

Sometimes I think I'm just an old-school, sprouts kind of girl.

 

We have a little alcove above the table where we store jugs and serving plates...

... and cookbooks and table linens. I like it.

 

 

Another new friend.

 

Why are the chipped mugs always the best? Got it in Provence and can't bear to part with it.

Oranges, my mother's ring.

 

A fairly typical weekday lunch - a little bit healthy, a little bit not. Salad and Violife quesedillas.

 

Trying to get organized, and little hands shoot in there, like, instantly!

 

Who, me?

 

Little hands.

 

Yeah, I'm a sprouts kind of girl.

 

Hope you are all enjoying the long weekend, and hopefully some spring weather. Don't forget to give the link below a click if you want to vote for us!