Avocado Berries Mousse Thingie

I hope you like the name for this recipe, I made it up all by myself. I'm a huge fan of avocados, mostly guacamole. But avocados are really nice for giving a creamy texture to all sort of concoctions. They also add a sort of body that will allow it to bind everything else together, kind of like silken tofu but more delicious.

This dessert ended up being quite nice, sadly we left one out for the next day and it was horrible, the avocado had already gone full oxidation even blended with all the other ingredients and it was just unbearable, so make it fresh and eat it while you're at it.

This photo was taken with a cell phone:

Put all of this in a blender:

Avocado, medium, flesh (this was about 160 grams)
Frozen berries, 200 grams (I used mixed berries)
Brown Sugar, 2 Tbsp (I didn't have any agave, which is my first choice for sweetening everything that doesn't go in the oven, and sometimes things that go in the oven as well)
Lemon juice, 1/2 Tbsp
Soy Milk, 0.2 L

Then blend. Instant dessert, omomomomomom.

Banana Chocolate Cake - Minor variation, but totally worth it

Hello world! I've been doing a lot of cooking but not enough of writing down what I'm doing plus taking photographs of it. Also I'm in love with a few recipes so I just keep making them over and over again. That and lots of tomato sauce.

I still haven't got a camera, but the other day I did a super minor alteration to the recipe I use for Banana Bread, and I got my flat mate to take a picture of it with her phone.

This isn't a sweet cake, but it doesn't make it any less delicious. I just substituted the 50grams of white sugar by 50g of powdered chocolate. Not powdered cocoa, otherwise it will be less than not sweet I'm afraid x)

Anyway this is powdered chocolate specific for baking, not the one you mix with your plain milk to make into chocolatey goodness.

Long time no post

It's been quite some time since my last post, and I am not sure as to when the next one will be. However I am resolute to resume posting as soon as possible.

I went through a few hard months with changing from a crappy job to a good one, so I have that going for me which is nice. To being single and most content about it.

I finally have some peace in my life and I feel I am able to finally start living. For my next posts I won't be able to post any pictures as I don't have access to a camera at the moment, but I do hope to post some tasty ratios you can try out for yourselves at home.

Book update

I haven't had the chance to cook much, by cooking here I mean something other than eating salads and bread/soup. I was however able to add two more recipes to my Traditional Portuguese Food Veganized e-book.

Açorda de alho e coentros / Cilantro and garlic bread stew (I couldn't really find a translation for Açorda and it is a sort of bread stew thing)

Tempero para Azeitonas / Olives seasoning

Pumpkin Pie

My first attempt ever at a pumpkin pie. The thought of making one had crossed my mind many a times in the past but we don't have any canned pumpkin puree and buying a whole pumpkin was a bit out of my budget. But last week I had access to a kostenlos pumpkin! And so I set my plan in motion.

I would first make this pumpkin puree and then attempt the pie. I first cut the pumpkin in half and removed the seeds setting them aside for a later venture of roasted pumpkin seeds omomomom. To roast them I placed them in a tall baking tray with some water in the bottom and covered them in foil.

They were in the oven for an hour at what is suppose to be 200ºC or about 400ºF. This is sort of speculating as I'm previously working an an older than me gas oven. It was burning at the top gas mark possible. As the pumpkin halves were freed from the oven they were filled with water I took care to dispose of.

I just took out the flesh with a spoon and made sure to try and extract as much water as possible with the aid of a hand masher. Having no cheesecloth available it did not go as well as I would have wanted it too. But it was also not bad.

My plan of blending the pulp straight away after straining also failed. My blender would not do this one thing for me. So I bid my time and lived to bake another day. After removing as much water as possible I set the pumpkin puree aside in the fridge in plastic containers.

I now regret not having weighed the pumpkin which would have allowed me to determine its food cost. The pumpkin you see in the photo yielded 6 cups of pumpkin puree for a total of about 1,7 ~ 1,8 Kg.

In the next day I tried to strain a bit more water but not much was leaving the building. I used a store bought crust which is accidentaly vegan and for the filling I used:

3 cups of pumpkin puree ~ 850 grams
1 cup of soy condensed milk ~ 330 grams - currently in Portugal I only have the Continente brand available. I find it too sweet and almost too corn sirupy but meh.
2 lemons, the zest
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

With the aid of the soy condensed milk the blender worked and blended everything into a nice pulp. At first I feared using the pulp as is without adding some extra flour as it seemed too liquid for me but I needed to try it anyway to have a measure for comparison.

It baked for about 45 minutes at what is suppose to be 200ºC or 400ºF. The result was as I expected a pie a tad on the liquid side. But I was still able after cooling it to cut a clean slice.

A nice idea was to dust it and caramelize it with some powdered sugar.

For the future I plan on buying silken tofu and making my second attempt at a pumpkin pie with the remaining 3 cups of pumpkin puree.

Roast bananas

This is a too simple dessert. Yet too good.

With the oven at 180ºC (350F) roast the bananas for about 10/15 minutes.
Peel the top section and dust with powdered sugar.
Eat.

Mashed sweet potatoes with coconut milk

This side dish of mashed sweet potatoes is sure to keep you warm in the coming cold weather. Depending on which part of the world you are that is. I guess if you eat it cold it is sure to keep you fresh in the coming warm weather.

I wrapped an 800g (1,7 pounds) sweet potato in foil after cutting into it a bit. It was in the oven at 180ºC (350F) for about an hour and a half.

Then I mashed the pulp while still warm with the aid of a tablespoon of vegan butter. I added 6 tablespoons of coconut milk while mashing. It was pretty nice. I chose not to add any salt or pepper because I enjoyed the extra sweetness of it all.

I used a hand potato masher by the way.