Category: recipes

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Coconut yogurt

I made some non-dairy yogurt using 3 cans of coconut milk and coconut cream, a container of plain coconut yogurt as my starter culture, and a Salton yogurt maker my mom gave me that we used when I was a kiddo (circa 1974?) The white glass cups didn’t survive but 8 ounce Ball jars work great. I shook up the cans of coconut milk and coconut cream and emptied them into a sauce pan, 3 cans worked out to be 5 cups, and heated to 190 degrees fahrenheit, then cooled to about 111 degrees (the temperature fort the missing thermometer tablespoon that came with the yogurtmaker) and then stirred in the starter culture/yogurt. Filled the jars in the yogurt maker and plugged it in, the dairy yogurt mom used to make had a 24 incubation period, I found images of the instruction manual for the yogurt maker here, and read a blog post on making coconut yogurt which specified a 48 hour incubation, but it actually worked out to be closer to 60 hours because at 48 hours it had a nice tang but was still a little liquidy. I put the lids on and put the yogurt in the refrigerator, and it firmed up nicely, next time I will try 48 hours and see if it firms up enough in the fridge. This morning I put it in a bowl and mixed in some grapefruit habenero marmalade a friend made and it was delicious. Will be making granola next.

Attempt #2: 1st attempt with heating the coconut milk/cream and using coconut yogurt as a starter culture, and my Salton yogurt machine worked great. After reading the Minimalist Baker blog post, I decided to try again, without heating the coconut milk, and using probiotic capsules as the starter. I used 3 cans of coconut milk (no coconut cream this time, they didn’t have any at my grocery) and as the MB recipe had 2 capsules of probiotic to a can of coconut milk, I used 6 capsules for 3 cans. Emptied the capsules and whisked in the powder into room temperature coconut milk, and poured it into my jars and set the yogurt maker to incubate. I’ll check it at 48 hours, I don’t expect it to be quite as thick as I got with the coconut milk/cream combo, but we’ll see. If it doesn’t thicken up, I can add some coconut yogurt as starter, mix and pour back into the jars.

  • post-incubation
  • water at bottom
  • pre-refrigeration, 48 hrs

After refrigerating, yogurt firmed up nicely. Not quite as tart with the probiotics vs. the yogurt starter, but also delicious. Success!

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Making sesame green beans!

Making sesame green beans http://nakatsudesign.com/2008/08/yum-green-beans-in-sesame-dressing-ingen-no-goma-ae/ (can be made vegan by using kombu dashi instead of the traditional fish dashi.) It’s been SO HOT! Hundreds every day. The Chinese long beans keep producing, little tomatoes have slowed to a crawl, everything else dying. This time of year it’s hard to keep anything alive. Mmm sesame green beans!

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Japanese eggplant recipes

Was just talking about eggplant recipes with a friend and thought I’d post them here as well.
If sodium is a consideration they do sell lower sodium lite soy sauce and miso paste.

Easy eggplant and cucumber pickles my aunt taught me
(good as a side veggie with a rice dish)
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Slice eggplant into 4-5mm disks. Salt eggplant. Mix marinade in a baggie or container: 3 TBSP soy sauce, 3 TBSP vinegar (preferably rice wine vinegar), a little sugar. Marinate eggplant in refrigerator for 2-3 hours, shaking occasionally.
If desired, serve slices with a little hot chinese mustard.

Cucumber pickles: Long thin japanese cukes work best but I’ve used regular or english cucumbers as well
Mostly peel cucumber, cut into 3″ lengths, then lengthwise into quarters. Mix marinade as above, but add a couple of shakes of sesame oil.
Marinate in refrigerator 2-3 hours, shaking occasionally.
Continue reading Japanese eggplant recipes

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Yum! Green Beans in Sesame Dressing (Ingen no goma-ae)

My fave! My mom used to make this for us growing up, we grew a lot of green beans in our veggie garden. (I used konbu dashi packets, so my version is veggie.)

From Bento.com:
Green Beans in Sesame Dressing (Ingen no goma-ae)

Ingredients:

  • 175g (6 oz.) frozen whole green beans*
  • a pinch of salt

For the dressing:

  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
  • 1 tablespoon caster sugar **
  • 2/3 tablespoon dashi stock ***
  • 1/2 tablespoon miso paste
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Directions

1. Boil the beans in a pan of water for 5 minutes or until tender.

2. Finely grind the sesame seeds in a pestle and mortar or in a coffee grinder. Add the sugar, dashi, miso paste and soy sauce and mix together well.

3. Toss the green beans in the sesame dressing and serve as a side dish.

* I really prefer using fresh green beans, and I parboil (submerge in boiling water) for a few minutes, drain and then “shock” them with cold water and ice to stop the cooking. Recipe is yummier when the beans still have a bit of crispness.

** Caster sugar is superfine granulated sugar.

*** See the recipe for dashi (Japanese fish stock); you can also make instant dashi from freeze-dried granules, available in many Asian grocery stores. Dashi is used in so many Japanese recipes, it’s good always have the granules on hand or konbu dashi granules or packets if you prefer those.

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JoAnne's scones

K’s mom used to serve these with traditional new year’s meal. We tried them, maybe recipe (from memory) needs a bit of adjusting, or we mixed them a little too much, they were close to what he remembered but not spot-on.. we’ll try these again.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • /4 c butter at room temperature
  • 1 c buttermilk
  • 1 tsp milk to brush on top

Directions

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in butter, add 1 c buttermilk. Knead it ten times on board, flour slightly if sticky.
put in pan ( we used 9″ circular cake pan) and brush top with milk. Cut into eighths.
400º 15-20 minutes
makes 8 pieces

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cranberry sauce, yummm!

putting my notes here because I had trouble finding them from last year…

*Whole Cranberry Sauce with Orange

In a sauce pan, combined 6 cups of fresh cranberries with 2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, 2 1/2 cup sugar, about 2 tbsp fresh grated ginger, and the zest from 2 oranges.
Bring to a boil while you stir. Adjust flame and continue stirring until berries “pop” and “sauce” thickens (back of the spoon is clear when you swipe your finger across). Made the day before and chilled

*CANDIED YAMS

2 40 oz (2#, 8 oz) cans yams

butter

1 cup orange juice

1/4 cup brown sugar

Drained yams, discarded liquid. Arranged in baking dish. Pour orange juice over yams. Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar. Dot with butter pats. Sprinkle with marshmallows, if desired (I am not a fan of marshmallows in my yams, but some folks like ’em). Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees or in any oven temperature (i.e., right along with the turkey) until marshmallows melt and liquid is bubbly.

Cooked night before and reheated!

http://www.culinarycafe.com/Vegetarian/Vegetarian_Dressing.html

Vegetarian Dressing
Serves: 6

Ingredients:

* 1 loaf day-old bread, torn into small pieces
* 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
* 1 (10.5 ounce) can vegetable broth
* 2 tablespoons water
* 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
* salt to taste
* ground black pepper to taste
* 1/2 cup wild rice, cooked
* 1/4 cup dried cranberries
* 1/2 cup fresh mushrooms
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans
* 1/4 cup cubed apples

Mix together the bread, cream of mushroom soup, vegetable broth, water, poultry seasoning, and salt and pepper to taste. Add rice, cranberrys, mushrooms, pecans, and apples as desired. It will be sticky. Shape into a loaf and wrap in (nonstick, sprayed) foil to bake. Bake for about an hour at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). You can slice it like a meatloaf and serve.