Pok Pok

This was a great dinner courtesy of Pok Pok. Maybe I should say 'inspired by', because I did a lot of veganizing and lazifying to the very precise recipes.

It's a cucumber salad in the style of papaya salad, with coconut rice and grilled eggplant salad. We also had (not pictured) some flavored tofu with this -- I was inspired by the recipe for Khao Man Som Tam (papaya salad with coconut rice and sweet pork). The combination of the cucumber salad, rice and sweet tofu was superb -- I kept making myself perfect little bites with a bit of each on my fork. The coconut rice in particular was the best version I have ever made: the secret is coconut cream instead of milk, and a bit of sugar. (Who'd have thought adding extra fat and sugar would make something taste better?)

For veganizing, I replaced fish sauce and dried shrimp with a healthy dose of toasted and ground tua nao. I didn't have a mortar and pestle for the cucumber salad, so I just bashed everything a bit in a bowl.

Pavlova

I can't believe this worked.

It's a vegan meringue topped with coconut whipped cream and berries. The meringue had the texture contrast you want for pavlova: crisp on the outside and marshmallowy on the inside. 

On the PPK, everyone was having lots of success with flaxseed meringue. I gave it a go, but it didn't work out for me. I think I might not have cooked the flax goop down enough. When I whipped it, it did increase in volume somewhat, and got sort of frothy, but not enough. I added the sugar even though I was doubtful it would work, and nothing much happened.

To the 100g flaxseed goop, 100g sugar, and pinch of cream of tartar of the original recipe, I decided to add another more high-tech whipping agent: Versawhip 600K, along with some xanthan gum. (I used 2 grams of versawhip and .5 gram of xanthan.) And, presto, it whipped up beautifully.

I decided to try making pavlova style meringue. I remembered that some people (Mr Nice Guy Cupcakes, I believe) have had success using agar for marshmallow-style meringue (like the topping on lemon meringue pie), so I added some (I think about 1/3 teaspoon of agar powder). If I remember the Mr Nice Guy recipe correctly, the idea was that the agar would activate during the baking step.

I baked the meringue for 30 minutes at 100C, and then as customary for pavlova, left it in the turned off oven to cool. When it was cool, I tried some, and found that at the very centre it was still somewhat liquid. So I baked them again for 30 minutes, and then let them cool down in the oven overnight. Next morning they were perfect.

Banoffee pie

Banoffee/Banoffi pie, veganized:

The crust is the shortbread tart shell from Vegan Pie in the Sky (but with some of the margarine replaced with coconut oil). Then there's a layer of soy 'dulce de leche', then a layer of sliced bananas, and then it's topped with coconut whipped cream (1 cup coconut cream, 0.5 g xanthan gum, whipped in the cream whipper) and there's some chocolate flakes on top. (I decided to skip the coffee from the original because I wasn't sure how it would go with the coconut.)

Whipped cream experiments

This is a variant on Isa Moskowitz's  Rad Whip, whipped in a cream whipper. I'm pretty impressed that it worked so nicely!

I replaced the original recipe's cashews with tofu, mainly to avoid any danger of clogging the cream whipper -- my blender is not the best at pureeing cashews.

The recipe I used:
84 g firm silken tofu
76 g coconut cream (i.e. coconut milk with about 30% fat; I bet regular coconut milk would be fine)
1 cup soy milk
1.5 g agar powder
3 T sugar
2 T plus 2 t coconut oil (liquid)
1 t vanilla

1. Puree the tofu with the coconut cream and half the milk (in a blender).
2. Heat the other half of the milk with the sugar and agar, bring to the boil and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the coconut oil.
3. Stream the agar mixture into the tofu mixture with the blender running. Add the vanilla.
4. Transfer to a bowl and place it in the fridge to cool.
5. When it is cold and firm, scoop it back into the blender and puree. Now it's ready to put into your cream whipper. (Mine is a 500ml whipper, which means that its capacity is actually 250ml or about one cup, which is about half of this recipe.)
6. At least an hour before you want whipped cream (preferably even longer, like a day before, because it seems to get better the longer it sits), add the mixture to the cream whipper, close it up and add the N2O. Shake it a few times, then put the whipper in the fridge. (Some people suggest laying it on its side, but I don't know if that matters -- I haven't noticed a difference.)
7. When you want whipped cream, turn the whipper upside down and shake downwards firmly (like you would if you were trying to get the last bit out of a shampoo bottle). Then squeeze the trigger. My results haven't always been quite as pretty as in the photo, but I'm not sure why.

For a simpler, straight coconut whipped cream, my current best recipe is:
1 cup coconut cream
0.35 g xanthan gum

Disperse the xanthan in the coconut cream with a stick blender, or by pouring the xanthan into the vortex while running the regular blender. The mixture is now ready to put into the cream whipper. As mentioned above, this needs to be at least an hour before you want the whipped cream, and preferably a day or more before.

Parsnip ice cream

I have to admit that I am always more drawn to the weirder ice cream flavours than the classics. And so it came to pass that I made parsnip ice cream, based on this recipe by Barbara Kafka. (I replaced the cream with coconut milk/cream*).

Anyway, this was really good. I loved that I got to taste it: it's really sweet and nutty, in a sort of chestnut/sweet potatoey sort of way. I think that with the right accompaniments, it could be really amazing, but as a flavour on its own I had my fill after a few bites. And now I am regretting that I didn't make something more boring (I mean, 'classic').

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 * I used some mysterious coconut product I had in a container in the fridge. Usually that would be coconut milk, but recently I have been playing around with coconut whipped cream, and have been buying something called coconut cream which is coconut milk with about 30% fat. Most likely it was a mix of coconut milk and cream.

Broad bean burgers

I had some leftover cooked-from-dry broad beans (fava beans), and remembered that there was a recipe for broad bean burgers in Ottolenghi's Plenty (also appears here). It turns out the recipe called for fresh beans, but the cooked dry beans worked really well. I also replaced the spinach in the recipe with a bunch of greens from the garden: rocket (arugula), fennel fronds, broad bean leaves, and nasturtium leaves. We ate the burgers with a 'coconut sour cream' with lemon and chives. (Inspired by a bunch of experiments with vegan nut cheeses, I made the sour cream by fermenting pureed young coconut flesh with rejuvelac.)

These were really good -- I made them again a couple of days later, which is saying something.

Coconut-oil croissants

For the first time ever, I managed to make croissants. (Last time, I ended up with something like croissant-shaped brioche.)

The secrets of my success: (1) Lagusta's recipe and its use of coconut oil, (2) it not being the middle of summer this time, (3) letting the dough spend each rest period in the fridge.

I ended up making mini croissants because I had halved the recipe, but hadn't thought through the consequences when it came to the part where you cut the dough into triangles ready for croissantification. Also, my triangles should have been taller/longer, to make prettier croissants.

I used mostly refined coconut oil, but some non-refined. They tasted great -- not coconutty specifically, just delicious. I found the dough really easy to work -- I think that Lagusta's suggestion of refrigerating it for 10 minutes between turns is really helpful. Depending on the temperature of the house, I think next time I might let them have most of their final rise in the fridge (say an overnight rise, with an hour to warm up before baking.) As it was, although the coconut oil was fairly solid in the morning when I started, by afternoon when they were rising, it was melting out.

Nasi lemak redux

I haven't been too interested in cooking recently, but when I got Ottolenghi's Plenty for Xmas, I remembered how good his version of nasi lemak was. So here it is again, but with non-traditional chickpeas. The sambal is really tasty: not too hot, and the tamarind and sugar give it a sweet tanginess.

On top, I sprinkled some crispy fried shallots and some vegetarian anchovies (which I brought back from Singapore -- they are seasoned dried mushroom stalks). Unfortunately I left the bag of anchovies on the counter, and while I was out, Mackie ripped open the bag and ate the lot.

Mmm, bacon

Eggplant bacon from Appetite for Reduction:

Magic Shroom Dust from Hot Knives:

Smoked coconut flakes:

Smoking

I got a stovetop smoker for my birthday. Since then we've been eating lots of smoked things. Probably my favourite things so far have been smoked tofu and tempeh. Here's the smoker packed full of veggie protein (marinated pressed tofu, tempeh, and two homemade seitan sausages).

For the tofu, I press it overnight and then marinate it for a day in soy sauce with a bit of maple syrup and sesame oil. Once it has been smoked for 30 minutes, it's ready to be sliced thinly for sandwiches. The tempeh just goes in plain -- once smoked, it's ready to be cooked however you like. I like to slice it thinly and pan fry, adding flavourings (soy sauce plus whatever other things) at the end for a glaze.

Other things I've smoked so far: cherry tomatoes (10 minutes), garlic, potatoes (45 minutes from raw to cooked -- too long; better to parcook them before smoking), young coconut, coconut flakes (20 minutes), lemon. The young coconut was a bit odd -- I ended up pureeing it and making a smoky ice cream which was pretty good. The coconut flakes were great as a bacon-y element in a salad. The smoked lemon I didn't know quite what to do with, so it is sitting in the freezer waiting for inspiration to strike.

Blueberry pie

This was my first blueberry pie. I usually think of pie as something to make with excellent seasonal fruit, but this one was made with frozen blueberries and it was pretty great. The filling was blueberries, lemon zest, sugar and some tiny tapioca pearls.

I used the 'one pie dough to rule them all' recipe from Chez Pim, but with refined coconut oil instead of butter (80% by weight). (I liked the dough technique, where you push the fat into the flour with the heel of your hand to make long flakes. But cold coconut oil tends to be hard and lumpy, so I don't think it worked as well as butter. The recipe has you fold the dough several times, kind of like the laminated dough for croissants, but I found that the coconut oil dough was very fragile, and the carefully-formed layers were falling apart. I wonder whether whipping the oil might work -- Lagusta uses this technique for her croissants.)

I am nitpicking. The crust worked out fine, and the pie was delicious!

Nasi lemak (sort of)

I recently borrowed Yotam Ottolenghi's book Plenty from the library. It is a beautiful and inspiring cookbook. I have never seen such gorgeous photos of salads. Luckily (since I had to return the book) many of the recipes are actually published on the web -- Ottolenghi does a series for the Guardian called The New Vegetarian.

One of our favourites from the book was his take on the Malaysian dish nasi lemak. It's coconut rice (with ginger and kaffir lime leaves), topped with sambal (chili sauce, with tamarind), fried shallots, coriander (cilantro), and lime. We've had it a few times now, but I used roasted okra or roasted eggplant. One day I had leftovers for breakfast and it was a most excellent way to start the day.

Coconut muffins

I recently bought a young coconut. After we drank the coconut water inside, I was left with the question of what to do with the coconut meat. It was too soft to grate, and its flavour was quite subtle -- not that exciting to eat on its own. But cut into chunks and baked into muffins, it was amazing.

Even though it was quite a lot of work cutting into the coconut, I am thinking about getting another one just so I can make these muffins again. (The coconut water was great too -- it wasn't the flavour that blew me away, but the scent, which was surprisingly floral.)

I used this recipe with a few modifications*. (I should take a moment to praise this recipe -- it is terrific. I say this as someone who has made many failed muffins.) I used some cooked and pureed pear for the cup of fruit in the recipe, and added the chunks of coconut plus some Dutch chocolate sprinkles.

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* I reduce the oil to 1/4 cup, use regular whole wheat flour, reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup and increase to 3/4 if necessary, replace the egg with a 'flax egg' or just extra water, and use soymilk + vinegar for the buttermilk. So far the fruits and vegetables I've used to great success are: pumpkin, pear, apple, banana, and most surprisingly, a mixture of banana and pureed kiwifruit.