Author: Hannah (BitterSweet)

Author of My Sweet Vegan, Vegan Desserts, Vegan a la Mode, and Easy as Vegan Pie.

Koo Koo For Coconuts

It’s official- I do hereby declare 2009 the year of the coconut! This tropical trend has swept vegans everywhere off their feet, eliciting a near fanatical response every time it pops up somewhere new. Of course, it seems to be making cameo appearances in cutting-edge products on a practically daily basis, making up the base for everything from ice cream to yogurt… And now, to kefir.

Those crazy scientists at Turtle Mountain are on a roll, unveiling delight after delight- And all with coconut milk as the star. This particular beverage was something completely new to me, but in fact, it’s been around for centuries as a dairy product. Essentially a fermented milk drink, Kefir is generally described as a tangy milkshake. Supposedly very beneficial to digestion, it also comes with a whole laundry list of theoretical health benefits as well. What I wanted to know, however, was how it tastes! Happily, those same crazy scientists are also very generous, and sent me a few samples so that I could find out.

Hoping to get a baseline for what this drink would be like, I opted to try the Original flavor first. Casually taking a quick sip, I stopped short once the kefir hit my taste buds- Man, is this stuff tart! Much more “tangy” than I had expected and in fact downright sour, I would not recommend drinking this plain. That’s not to say that it’s bad, though, as I found that it made a fantastic “buttermilk” substitute in baking, and a wonderful addition to fruit smoothies. Only faintly coconut-y, the flavor is not too intrusive here, and just a pleasant undertone.

Taking a more cautious sip of the Vanilla kefir, I was happy to find that this perfectly smooth and white beverage was quite drinkable indeed. Just barely sweetened, it’s enough to take that “bite” out of this flavor. Very similar to a thin, drinkable yogurt, it’s a great drink to have as part of a meal on the go, or a nice, light snack.

Finally, the one I was most curious about: Strawberry. This pale, pastel-pink liquid, flecked with real strawberry seeds, smelled strongly of fresh berries from the moment I popped off the lid. Although the flavor is actually much more mild that the scent might suggest, it’s also far tangier than your typical berry-based drink. Hardly sweet at all, this is no kid’s juice box affair in the least. Although I wasn’t crazy about it initially, the flavor did grow on me, and it became even more tasty when blended with more whole strawberries.

Kefir itself is a very unique sort of beverage, as I’ve come to learn, and while I’ve never had the “real” thing, I think that this coconut version is very true to that original model.

[Written for Go Dairy Free]

Hannah (BitterSweet)35 Comments

Comfort Food

It’s been the word [and taste] on everyone’s lips lately; Comfort food.  Turbulent, stressful times call for a bit of reassurance that everything truly will be okay, really, and there are few things that carry so much emotional, nostalgic, and physical importance as food.  The dish or flavor that first comes to mind is so subjective, such a personal desire, I think that it would be impossible to name one all-purpose comfort food, no matter how tempting such a declaration might be.

Apple pie is about as classic and homey as they come, but I wouldn’t have named it right off the bat as a top comfort food in my book.  Sure, I like a good apple pie, as I would assume that most reasonable people would too, but I don’t ever crave it.  It’s not what I long for after a stressful day of work, or on a lonely rainy afternoon.  It wasn’t until I sat across from my mom as she ate warm apple blintzes just last week, the smell of spices and sweet apples wafting up from her plate, that it hit me how powerful my desire for such a dessert truly was.  Almost as if that one whiff awakened a hibernating beast, that need for comfort food stuck with me, driving me back into the kitchen to fill the hole in my stomach that cried out for apple pie.

Quick and Simple Apple Pie Bars

1 Cup Coconut Flour
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Cup + 2 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar, Divided
Pinch Salt
1/2 Cup Frozen Margarine, Cut into Small Pieces
5 Tablespoons Plain Soymilk
2 Crisp Apples, Peeled, Cored, Sliced, and Quartered
2 Tablespoons Corn Starch
1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
Pinch Nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, and lightly grease an 8 x 8-inch square baking pan. Set aside.

Place the coconut flour, all purpose flour, 1 cup of the sugar, salt, and margarine in your food processor, and pulse to incorporate. Drizzle in the soymilk, one tablespoon at a time, and pulse until the mixture comes together in a cohesive dough. Divide the dough in half, and press one half into your prepared pan with your hands. If it’s difficult to handle, lightly flour your fingers to prevent the dough from sticking to them. Make sure you get an even layer on the bottom, and then bake for 10 – 15 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, toss the apple slices, the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a medium bowl, so that the apples are thoroughly coated. Distribute the mixture evenly over your baked crust. Crumble and distribute the remaining dough over the top.

Bake for 25 – 35 minutes, golden brown on top. Let cool, and cut at will.

Makes 12 – 16 Bars

Printable Recipe

Hannah (BitterSweet)56 Comments

Octo-Brrr!

Forget about easing into the new month- Practically overnight, temperatures plummeted straight into sweater-and-jacket territory, wasting no time with autumn’s typically mild but brisk breezes this year. Forced to pull out my electric blanket and cranking it up to “scald,” I might as well take up sleeping in the oven at this rate!

Indeed, it looks like we’re on the cusp of a rather harsh season, with the skies growing darker earlier each day. With summer quickly becoming but a distant memory, all that can be done is to steel oneself against the cold, and for that, there is only one dish that will truly suffice: Chili.

Everyone’s got their own recipes, tiny twists on the same basic concept, but those small differences and adaptations are what really makes each fresh pot so special. I think that a bowl of red can say a lot about a cook, far beyond basic knife skills or flavor preferences.

What’s the protein? Beans are mandatory in my mind, while it may very well be sacrilege to die-hard omnivores and traditionalists. What about veggies? The more the merrier, please! My only limitations are what I happen to have in the fridge; Nothing’s safe when I’m cooking up a big vat of chili. Oh, and the spices! Are you a fan of intense, red hot, mouth-searing spoonfuls? Preferring flavor over heat, my approach may be defined as mild, and you know what? I’m perfectly okay with that. Spice at will, dump that hot sauce into your own portion, but this allows everyone the level of heat they can best appreciate.

And so it goes, my chili is unabashedly vegan, very healthy, nontraditional, and generally agreeable.

What does your chili say about you?

Yield: Makes 6 – 8 Servings

Veggie-Tempeh Chili

Veggie-Tempeh Chili

A very vegan chili that's heavy on the vegetables and unafraid of spice.

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
  • 1 Medium Onion, Chopped
  • 2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
  • 2 Medium Carrots, Chopped
  • 2 Stalks Celery, Chopped
  • Pinch Salt
  • 1 14.5-Ounce Can Diced Tomatoes
  • 1 – 2 Tablespoons Chili Powder
  • 1 Teaspoon Ground Cumin
  • 1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1/4 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
  • 1 8-Ounce Package Tempeh, Sliced into Cubes
  • 1 Medium Yellow Squash or Zucchini, Chopped
  • 1 Medium Red Bell Pepper, Seeded and Chopped
  • 1 Cup Vegetable Broth
  • Pinch Black Pepper
  • 1 15-Ounce Can Black Beans, Rinsed and Drained

Instructions

  1. In a large stock pot, heat up the oil over a moderate flame, and toss in the chopped onion. Saute for 4 – 5 minutes, until translucent, and add in the minced garlic. Let cook for another 2 minutes or so before add in the carrots and celery, along with just a small pinch of salt to help draw out the water from the vegetables. Stir occasionally, for about 5 – 8 minutes, until the veggies begin to brown around the edges stick to the bottom of the pan a bit.
  2. At that point, you can go ahead and incorporate everything else- except for the beans. I find that they get mushy if you add them in so soon in the process, but if you’re starving and can’t stand to let this thing simmer for too long, dump them in at will. I promise that the flavors will only get better with a longer cooking time, though!
  3. Stir well to distribute the new ingredients, turn down the heat to low, cover the pot, and let simmer gently for 30 – 60 minutes, depending on how long you can control your hunger. Add in the beans just 5 – 10 minutes before serving, to make sure they’re warmed through.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 165Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 447mgCarbohydrates: 21gFiber: 7gSugar: 5gProtein: 11g
© Hannah Kaminsky
Cuisine: American / Category: Baking / Cooking

Hannah (BitterSweet)37 Comments

It’s Not You; It’s Your Software

Carefully fine-tuning the last photo to finish off a blog post, adjusting the exposure and vibrancy to be at their best, even my small tweaks can take an inordinate amount of time to get just right. Using Photoshop is definitely not my forte, and it shows in my sluggish speed and clumsy handling of its sophisticated tools, but I still try my best through trial and error when necessary. Once the finishing touches are done, a quick save, one last review of the photo and… Oh, god, what have I done?! Into my view pops some hideously mangled photo, glaringly overexposed and flat out green. This is not what I was editing two seconds ago, I swear! This must be its evil twin, set on ruining the ambiance poor little blog!

Oh, the drama. But wait, it’s not all that it seems! While this horrific occurrence has sent me scrambling back to Photoshop in hopes of fixing the mess numerous times now, it suddenly hit me that perhaps it wasn’t my lack of Photoshop skills that was at fault here, but the program itself that I was using to view the altered pictures.


[Click for full view]

What do you know, the difference is as clear as night and day! Just because a certain photo viewer opens when you double click an image, doesn’t mean that it’s the best program for the job. So long, Windows Photo Gallery! I’ll be sticking with QuickTime PictureViewer from here on in, thank you very much! So before you drive yourself insane trying to figure out why your photo alterations always seem to go askew, perhaps you should check your programs against each other, and give your basic software a second thought.

This has been a public service announcement. We now return you to your regular programing.

Hannah (BitterSweet)19 Comments

Whip It Good

Quick, name one dessert accompaniment that goes well with absolutely every sweet dish imaginable. How could any single thing go well with such infinite flavor and textural possibilities? Easy- Just reach for the whipped cream. Lightly sweetened and enhanced with just a drop of vanilla extract, this classic confection accompaniment is almost universally loved by both young and old, serious sweets lovers and occasional enthusiasts, often piled on in voluminous mountains of fluffy white cream. However, for those who seek dairy-free options, the alternatives are still rather dismal. If I had a dime for every “tofu whipped cream” recipe I saw authors trying to fob off as an appropriate substitute, well… You know how it goes. It’s just a shame that those approaches almost always result in a heavy glob that merely tastes like sweetened bean curd.

Before you start bemoaning the lack of a vegan version, fear not, as this field is rapidly expanding! Now, not too long after the heaven-sent Soyatoo whipped topping hit US shelves and offered the first viable taste of luscious, vegan cream, there’s something new to get excited about: Rice Whip. Yes, you heard me right, a rice-based, aerosol whipped cream, completely vegan and soy-free!

Perfectly light and fluffy, the texture is everything you could ask for- Plus, the aerosol container makes dispensing each serving fun and easy. Clearly created to provide contrast to even the heaviest dessert, this pillowy fluff isn’t the least bit sweet by itself, but picks up just enough sweetness when eaten together with a more sugary main dish. For those seeking a vegan, soy-alternative to whipped cream, run, don’t walk to your nearest health food store, and stock up on this unique new product!

For those with no trouble digesting soy, however, I will admit that I still prefer the standard Soy Whip over this one. It’s a very faint aftertaste, but if you look for it, there’s just a hint of starchy rice flavor that I detect in the Rice Whip which detracts from the overall experience.  Such an offense is very minor, of course, and choosing this creamy topping over anything else would certainly be no sacrifice!

Hannah (BitterSweet)32 Comments

Vol au Vent-ing Some Stress

After suddenly disappearing from the blogosphere for about two weeks, I was hoping to just move on and pretend like nothing happened. So far it seems to be working, with not one peep of protest about my irregular posting schedule, and not a single complaint about the wreckage I’ve created on all of my recipe pages trying to add links to printer-friendly versions to varying degrees of success. Has anyone even noticed? What seem like huge changes to me appear to hardly constitute a blip in the collective blog reader’s radar. Nonetheless, I want to come clean- All of this blog neglect stems from yet another new project I’ve taken on, a bigger one than I was thinking of tackling any time soon. Believe it or not, I’m finally getting serious about a career, and decided to get my degree in photography.

Perhaps it was all of the back-to-school hype that finally got to me, but after researching various programs, I found online classes that seemed almost too good to be true. A flexible schedule, no set classroom hours, the ability to move at your own pace, and of course, getting to learn the technical aspects of an art form I’ve been trying to master merely through trial and error… It’s a truly wonderful new opportunity to further my skills.

So I may be a bit short on time in the upcoming months, and for that I apologize. I’ll work on keeping a steady flow of new content from here on in, but I may not be able to keep up with everyone else’s blogs. I’ll still be reading every last one of them though, (all 500+ that I’m subscribed to) even if I’m not commenting.

That being said, time constraints became a much bigger obstacle in complete this month’s Daring Baker challenge than I had originally imagined!

The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

Thrilled to tackle yet another “dream pastry challenge” on my list, I honed in on that puff pastry, determined to make it the star of the show. While the fillings typically are what make the dessert unique and bring it to life, there’s simply no reason why the flaky pastry base shouldn’t add just as much flavor and excitement. From the get-go, I knew I wanted to make chocolate puff pastry.

What to fill it with was another story altogether- Brainstorms ranged from luscious mousses to fresh fruit jellies, with ornate caramel decorations and perhaps a handful of chocolate caviar to top them all off. Unfortunately, those ideas came before I registered for my new classes, and failed to come to fruition. Scrambling to pull anything decent together at the last moment possible, I had no choice but to scale back on my grand plans in a big way.

Simple, but still plenty tasty, my cocoa puff pastry shells were filled to the brim with homemade lemon verbena-blueberry jam, and just a tiny dollop of my all-time favorite dessert topper, Soyatoo. After laboring for so long on the pastry, I was okay with taking the easy way out this time around, lest I run out of time to study or be forced to forfeit this month’s challenge altogether. Hopefully next time around, I’ll be able to dedicate more time and attention to my baking!

Hannah (BitterSweet)68 Comments