What does a vegetarian do with a meat grinder?

I love my stand mixer. Recently in an op shop I spotted an attachment for it: a meat grinder. Although they're not that rare (you do see attachments on eBay -- they can be pricey) I was so surprised to find it that I bought it right away without thinking about what I would use it for.

Quite some internet research later, I read that you can grind chickpeas for falafel with a meat grinder. And so I did. The falafel worked out really well. I convinced myself that this was because of the excellent texture, but it may well have been because the previous few times I've made falafel I have wimped out and baked them in the oven, and this time I (shallow-)fried them. Another vote in favour of the meat grinder was that it was really fun to throw the chickpeas, parsley and garlic into the hopper and have them come out homogeneous. (Okay, that happens when you use the food processor too, but I swear this was more fun.)

Emboldened, I ground some seitan, and some cauliflower, and made a version of larb with cauliflower 'rice' from Stone Soup. This was delicious! We had a green mango salad alongside (sort of along these lines).

Overall, I'm happy to have the meat grinder. It's a bit of a hassle to clean, but not that much worse than a food processor. I like that the stuff you grind comes out a uniform size. I also like that you can grind a large amount. I think the next thing I'm going to try is bigoli.

Chocolate stout cupcakes

These cupcakes set a dangerous precedent.

I am not one of those bakers who enjoys precision. I try to measure things accurately and follow the recipe, but the urge to just eyeball it, and change things on the fly is just too hard to resist.

Anyway, the day I made these cupcakes on the spur of the moment, I surprised even myself in how far I strayed from the recipe. I didn't have tofu or sour cream, or self raising flour. I used less chocolate, and more sugar. And yet they worked out beautifully. The flavour combination of chocolate, prune and stout is just perfect.

Mapo doufu

I hate it when Chinese restaurant menus have a tiny vegetarian section, with say, fried rice as the most exciting option, and then they have a whole tofu section which is decidedly nonvegetarian. The Szechuan dish mapo doufu is one of those that I've always wanted to try, and this week I made a version with crumbled tempeh in place of the meat. It was great.

I used this recipe, following the suggestion of one of the commenters to reduce the oil by omitting the chili oil, and infusing the 1/4 cup of oil with both chili and szechuan pepper. (I think that worked okay, but next time I might use the chili oil. I didn't find my chili infusion hot enough.) I also added a bit more water because the tempeh seemed to soak up a lot of liquid.

Artichoke tea

I bought this because... well, I like artichokes and I like tea. In fact, I think artichokes sometimes taste a bit like tea. But after I bought it, the box sat unopened for weeks because it scared me. Maybe it was the artichokes looming over the tea cup, like triffids.

But I finally got up the nerve to try it, and the verdict is: quite nice. It's a very gentle, vaguely sweet flavour.

Mac and cheese

I don't make mac and cheese very often -- maybe once or twice a year. But when a craving hits, this is the recipe I turn to. It's sort of involved (two separate 'cheese' sauces) and a bit extravagant, but totally worth it. Apparently this recipe won 2nd prize in a (non-vegan) mac and cheese contest!

I make candy for the intellectual stimulation

These are homemade Butterfingers candies, from this recipe (I only had chunky peanut butter in the house, so that's what I used). I hadn't realized that Butterfingers were supposed to be peanut butter flavoured, but there you go.

These were very interesting -- and not in the euphemistic sense, I actually mean the candy-making process here is interesting. You heat the sugar until almost the hard crack stage, and then add the peanut butter. This prevents the sugar from hardening into a toffee consistency -- it ends up sort of flaky and crumbly.

Sourdough bread

All through the summer, I kept my sourdough starter alive by feeding it once a week and using it for sourdough pancakes. These days, with the cooler weather, I am back to baking bread with it.

Since I got a stand mixer, I have been drawn to recipes that require one, but it turns out that my current favourite sourdough recipe is actually based on the famous NYTimes no knead bread. The recipe is by JMonkey of The Fresh Loaf.

Bread nerd notes:
-- I have been using 400g white flour, 169g wholemeal flour, and 3 t vital wheat gluten.
-- It tends to need a little bit of extra water.
-- In our cold house I have been letting it have a slightly longer rise (up to 21 hours).
-- I had some trouble with the crust burning before the bread was done, so I lower the temperature to 375 for the uncovered baking period, and bake it for 30 minutes or a bit longer. (A few times, the crumb has been ever so slightly gummy, so I am careful to avoid underbaking.)
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UPDATE: I solved the gumminess problem. DO NOT add any extra water. When you mix all the ingredients together it takes a bit of effort, and the dough can be a little dryish and shaggy in places, but it works. I bake it covered for 30 minutes and uncovered for 20, and it works out perfectly.