Archive for February, 2010
Feb. 28, 2010 – General Tao vegan tofu
Tonights meal was pretty good. I learned a bit after making this meal so don’t be upset if things turn out just a bit not like you expect.
I needed to dry the tofu and press it more than I did. Also, I needed to keep the chunks of tofu a bit larger than I did.
General Tao’s Tofu
Ingredients (use vegan versions):
1 box of firm tofu
egg substitute for 1 egg
3/4 cup cornstarch
vegetable oil for frying
3 chopped green onions
1 Tablespoon minced ginger
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
2/3 cup vegetable stock
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoons sugar
red pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon sherry (optional)
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
steamed broccoli
Directions:
Drain, dry and cut tofu into 1 inch chunks. You can freeze tofu the night before to get a more chicken-like consistency, but it isn’t necessary. Mix the egg replacer as specified on the box and add an additional 3 tablespoons water. Dip tofu in egg replacer/water mixture and coat completely. Sprinkle 3/4 cup cornstarch over tofu and coat completely. Watch out that the cornstarch doesn’t clump up at the bottom of the bowl.
Heat oil in pan and fry tofu pieces until golden. Drain oil.
Heat 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil in pan on medium heat. Add green onions, ginger and garlic, cook for about 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn garlic. Add vegetable stock, soy sauce, sugar, red pepper and vinegar. Mix 2 Tablespoons water with 1 Tablespoon cornstarch and pour into mixture stirring well. Add fried tofu and coat evenly.
Serve immediately with steamed broccoli over your choice of rice.
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 30 Minutes
Feb. 26, 2010 – Banana Date cake
This was a very happy mistake.
I intended to make some granola for my wife. However, I added real brown sugar, not the Splenda brown sugar like she requested.
I was stuck with 3 cups of brown sugar, 3 bananas, and 1 1/2 cups of chopped dates.
After some searching, I came across my favorite website for vegan recipes….www.vegweb.com
Here is the original link: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=24600.0
I took their ideas, and made it fit my needs. It turned out to be more like banana date brownies, so be warned if you try this!!!!
36 dates
1 1/2 cups water or soymilk
1/4 – 1/2 sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup oil
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 bananas
Directions:
This is a remake of a vegan date cake recipe I like.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and oil an 8×8 inch metal baking tin. (I use a deep cake tin with the oven on 150 – we have a very hot oven)
2. Put dates, soymilk/water, sugar and bananas in a blender or food processor and blend/process until dates are pureed (you can soak the dates in boiling water if they are hard) and ingredients are well combined.
3. Pour date mixture in a large bowl and add the oil. Stir well to incorporate. Add flour slowly. Then baking soda.
4. When you have incorporated all of the flour into the batter, pour into the baking pan and bake for 40-60 minutes (depends on your oven and tin, mine took an hour)until toothpick test comes out clean. (Cake will be very dense)
Serves: 12
