Sesame Herb crusted Eggplant

I've actually been craving these ever since I made them a few nights ago, it reminds me of fish, in the way that it was super amazing with lemon squeezed all over it, and had a nice crunchy coating on it.

You will need:
1 large eggplant, peeled
1 cup of breadcrumbs - either make your own or store bought (make sure they're vegan)
2 tablespoons of dried mixed herb
1 cup of corn flour (or regular flour)
1 cup of water with 3 tablespoons of cornflour added
1/4 cup of sesame seeds
salt for salting eggplant.
oil for frying


preheat your oven to 180C

Prepare your eggplant.

Cut into thick (2-3cm) slices (I cut them lengthwise to get a more 'fishy' shape) and scrape away excess seeds, place on a plate and cover with salt to draw away the bitterness, you will need to do each side with salt for about 15 minutes, you will notice a brownish liquid coming from the eggplant (this is good!) then rinse.

place breadcrumbs, sesame seeds and 1 tablespoon of herbs into a container which is wide enough to dunk the slices of eggplant
prepare a second container (same rules apply) with the water/cornflour mix + extra herbs
and a third bowl with the cornflour or plain flour.

while still wet, dunk eggplant slices into cornflour (ensure fully coated) and then quickly into the water/cornflour mixture (ensure fully coated), and then finally into the breadcrumb mixture.
Fry off in a pan over medium/high heat for about 7 minutes on each side or until starting to go golden brown.
finish off in the oven for about 15 minutes, let them go crispy on the outside.


Enjoy, these were great with some fresh lemon!

Snickers inspired cupcakes

The lovely picture is courtesy of Appetite Affliction
Recipe review on the website can be found here

I was craving a snickers bar yesterday... so I got to work on creating my own cupcake inspired by one.
These cupcakes are SUPER rich and full of flavour... if you get through more than one... you truly are amazing. The caramel in the center tops these for me. It's a delicious suprise!

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Peanut butter cupcake:

3/4 cup of Rice Milk
2 teaspoons of Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 cup Chunky Peanut Butter
1/2 cup canola oil
2/3 cup raw sugar
2 tablespoons of agave syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons of no egg powder
1 cup of all purpose flour

-Preheat oven to 180 C, line muffin pan with liners, normally I would say lightly spray the inside of the liners with canola oil, but there is more than enough oil in the mixture!
-Mix rice milk with vinegar and set aside to curdle
-In a large bowl, cream together the peanut butter, oil, agave syrup, maple syrup, sugar, vanilla and egg replacer until well combined and creamy. Add rice milk mixture and mix until well combined.
-Sift flower, baking soda, baking powder and salt into wet ingredients and gently mix until just combined.
-Fill cupcake liners two thirds full and bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean.
-Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack.

Caramel:
1 cup of raw sugar
1/4 cup of vegan butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1/2 - 3/4 cup of rice milk
(optional) 1 teaspoon of xantham gum

-Melt sugar in a pan over high heat, also heat rice milk in a seperate pan on high heat until bubbling.
-Once sugar is melted, add butter and vanilla and cook until desired colour (toffee like) Add milk and boil until all sugar is completely mixed.
-For a thicker mix, gently whisk xantham gum into caramel.


Chocolate topping
1/2 cup of icing sugar
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
1 tablespoon of oil
1 teaspoon of warm water




Mix ingredients together until well combined.


Mousse mixture:
1 tub of kingland soy cream cheese - left out of the fridge to soften
5 heaped tablespoons of nutellex or your choice of vegan unsalted margarine
1 1/2 cups of icing sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder

-beat on high with electric beater for 5 minutes or until smooth and fluffy



Final step - assemble your cupcakes!
cut the center out of each cupcake and fill with caramel
pipe mousse into neat swirls over caramel filled hole to cover
Gently pipe chocolate and caramel in zig-zag pattern over mousse
Done! Top with chopped peanuts for a final touch.

chocolate cupcakes with chocolate mousse topping.

These were absolutely delicious if I don't say so myself, also got the seal of approval from omni partner and work colleagues.

Ingredients:
1 cup of soy milk
1 teaspoon of applecider vinegar
3/4 cup of raw sugar
1/3 cup of canola oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond/chocolate/vanilla/coconut extract
1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Method:

1 - preheat oven to 180C
2 - line muffin pain with cupcake liners (I also like to spray them with a little canola oil at this stage)
3- place soy milk and apple cider vinegar into a cup together and leave aside for 5-10 minutes to curdle
4 - place all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix until well combined
5 - add all wet ingredients and mix until blended - try not to overmix, the more you mix, the tougher the cupcakes will be! (at the same time make sure everything is well combined.)
6 - fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full with batter
7 - bake cupcakes for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean.

gently remove from muffin pan and place on a cooling rack to completely cool before topping.

Mousse mixture:
1 tub of kingland soy cream cheese - left out of the fridge to soften
5 heaped tablespoons of nutellex or your choice of vegan unsalted margarine
1 1/2 cups of icing sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder

beat on high with electric beater for 5 minutes or until smooth and fluffy - place in piping bag and swirl onto cooled cupcakes. Top with garnish if desired (strawberries pictured)

beat

Chocolate Self Saucing pudding

(It's a mess, I know. But it makes up for looks when you taste it!)

Pudding:
1 cup self raising flour
3/4 cup of raw sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons of cocoa
1/2 cup of soy milk (I used soy milky)
2 tablespoons of melted vegan butter (nuttelex)


Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Mix dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl ( flour, salt, cocoa and sugar)
Stir in wet ingredients (melted butter and soy milk)
Spread the thick mixture into a greased baking dish - leave to side until covered in sauce.

Chocolate Sauce:
1 cup raw sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 3/4 cups boiling water


Mix raw sugar, cocoa and sprinkle over cake mixture
Pour the boiling water over the pudding before going in the oven (GENTLY!!!!)
Bake in oven for approximately 30-40 minutes or until the top resembles a cake.

Serve with fruit, vegan custard, or in my case some coconut cream :)

Stack of pancakes with blueberry sauce

These are a great breakfast idea for any occasion, including mine which was just to satisfy pancake cravings. I'm only human!

Pancake batter:
1 cup of plain flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
6 heaped tablespoons of raw sugar
1 cup of soy milk
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence (optional)

Method:
mix together dry ingredients well in a bowl and make a well in the center
add wet ingredients and blend until combined with few to no bumps


Heat up a frying pan and add some vegan butter to minimize sticking to the pan

Add small amounts and cook no more than 3 at a time in the pan - set aside





Blueberry sauce:
1/2 cup of frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
4 heaped tablespoons of raw sugar
3/4 cup of water (a little more if you'd prefer more sauce)
2 tablespoons of cornflour dissolved in 3 tablespoons of water.



Add water, sugar and frozen blueberries to a pot and bring to the boil, the water will discolour and match the berries, this is normal
Let boil for 5 minutes (blueberries must soften) and then add the cornflour and lemon juice, take off the heat and mix in, the sauce will thicken (add more water or cornflour depending on what consistency you would like the sauce)




Stack up your pancakes (or don't) and add your blueberry sauce. Enjoy :)

Hot Chocolate

Everyone enjoys a good hot chocolate in the colder months, but may find it hard to get one whilst out and about, and lets face it, real chocolate tastes that much better than the powdered stuff.

For 3 small mugs (150ml ish each - good luck trying to eat more!) - you will need:

3/4 - 1 cup of grated dark cooking chocolate, grated
4 tablespoons of raw sugar or sweetner quivalent (stevia for example) add more or less depending on your sweet tooth.
2+ cups of soy milk or vegan alternative (rice would go nicely, but I used Soy Milky Lite)

Place about half a cup of the milk in a pot over a high heat, once it starts warming up add half the chocolate and all of the sugar, mix until melted.
Add the rest of the chocolate, mix until melted and combine with the remaining milk.
At this point it's up to you, if you would prefer more milk and less of a chocolatey flavour, add more milk.

Done! Easy!

Place in mugs (make sure you serve it very hot!) and add toppings of your choice. In the picture I've just added some extra grated chocolate, but some whipped soy or coconut cream or vegan marshmallows would also go extremely well.

Mushroom stroganoff

so, this was surprisingly tasty, it's a mixture of mushrooms in a creamy sauce om nom nom


You will need:
1 cup of button mushrooms, cut into halves
1 cup of shitake mushrooms, cut into halves
1 cup of oyster mushrooms
2 large field mushrooms cut into large chunks
1/2 cup of soy creamy cooking milk (I used carnation for this, but coconut cream would also work well)
1/2 cup of vegetable stock
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of red wine
1 brown onion, cut into a medium dice
3 tablespoons of flour (more if you want it thicker)
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley, more for garnish
4 generous tablespoons (heaped) of vegan butter - I used nuttelex
2 tablespoons of salt
3 tablespoons of pepper

Melt butter in a pan and add onion and garlic, fry until translucent but do not burn.
Add half of the mushrooms and all soy sauce, red wine and vegetable stock, salt,  pepper and cook for a further 5 minutes.
add 3/4 of the cooking milk and the parsley to the pan and simmer for another 5 minutes until you start seeing some colour in the sauce, I would add the remaining mushrooms at this point, you want a little variation in the texture of mushroom, but they will all cook.
whisk flour into remaining milk until there are no clumps and add this to the pan, the sauce should thicken, cook for a few more minutes. Taste and add more salt or pepper accordingly (at this point I usually add heaps more pepper!)

You are done, it's that easy! serve on pasta or rice, which ever you prefer