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.

Roast veggies dip

I had some mixed veggies in the fridge which would most likely spoil if I didn't take the extra free time I had before going to work so I decided to make a roast veggies dip. I used the equivalent of:

1/2 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 average sized eggplant, I used the 3 mini ones as you can see in the pic, they weighed 285g total
2 tomatoes
1 head of garlic cloves

I wrapped the bell peppers and garlic cloves in foil.
The eggplants and tomatoes I sliced in half and layed face up in the oven.

I allowed the veggies to roast for about an hour at 180ºC (350F).

Then discard the skins for the bell peppers, tomatoes and eggplants and save the pulp. As for the garlic cloves, just squeeze them out. Then with the aid of a hand blender grind to a pulp. Correct seasonings with some salt, pepper, olive oil and enjoy!

Slaw with caper vinaigrette

To make the slaw I just used:

250 g Purple cabbage (aprox. half a pound)
250 g Cabbage (aprox. half a pound)
1 tbsp Lemon juice
5 tbsp Soy Mayo

I shredded the cabbages and mixed the mayo and lemon juice in.

For the caper vinaigrette I blended:

2 tbsp Capers
1 tbsp Mustard
6 tbsp Olive oil
2 tbsp Cider vinegar

Then I just folded the vinaigrette in.

Seitan strips Sandwich with Fiddes Payne American Steakhouse seasoning

I remember buying this in Berlin at LIDL at a discount for only 2,99€. I had previously bought the Jamaican version in Portugal for aprox. 4,99€. The smell is wonderful so I decided to cut off some thin strips off of a seitan block and sautéeing it in:

Butter, I usually go with Alprosoya
American steakhouse seasoning
Garlic powder, just a little extra because it's so delicious
Lemon juice
White wine

There are no measures because it was freestyle. Also as with most of my recipes I don't marinate the seitan before using it because I already give it flavour as I'm making it.

I ate it in a Prokorn baguette left over from work. The team that closes the store gets to take home some of the leftover bread. My favourite is the prokorn croissant but it's like catching a rare pokemon :(

The smell of this american steakhouse seasoning is so intense and vegan I decided I should make an american variation of the base seitan using this spice!!