Speculoos Whole Wheat Churros (Vegan)

Browsing through my previous posts, I noted that the last seven have all been about savory recipes. Now that's pretty troubling for someone with a sweet tooth as big as mine. So I opted to do myself (and probably you) a favor and make this post a sweet one. In fact, it's sweeter than sweet. This is the very reason why I blog, to connect with people, to share my recipes and stories. And occasionally, those people I connect with via this leisurely past time make it to Brunei and they suddenly become real, in-the-flesh people. Or in this case, the real spouse of a fellow blogger.

Sometime last year, I connected with Lilly of Fuzz Free Food blog and our very similar sense of humor made us fast friends. To cut a long story short, her husband Joe has come over to Brunei to work here for several months and she'd sent some foodie gifts from the Netherlands via Joe.

This is Joe, I made him pose for Lilly (taken by iPhone). 

When I finally met Joe, I got the chance to speak to Lilly on Joe's phone and guess what - her energy reverberated across the distance and she sounded exactly as I'd imagined her, full of exuberance and warmth. Later on, I managed to pry from Joe the story about how they had met and I'm sure they wouldn't mind me re-telling this to the whole world because it really is interesting! Joe, an American from Texas, was attending his sister's wedding in Italy (she'd met her Italian husband on a plane - now that's another great story). He'd had some free time around the wedding so decided to tour Europe. Not knowing anyone there, he went on an online forum asking if anyone would be willing to show him around, and Lilly responded to his request! The rest, as they say, is history :). Proof that true love can exist anywhere if you open your heart to possibilities.

So one of the items Lilly sent me was Speculoos spice powder for baking cakes and cookies. The spice blend is made up of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom and white pepper. The very smell of it reminds me of Christmas treats in Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Nowadays, of course, speculoos cookies are available the whole year round and apart from that, some clever guy somewhere had also invented Speculoos peanut butter-like spread (Biscoff)... yay! Unfortunately we can't get any of these (spice and spread) in Brunei, so boo! 

I didn't want to go down the usual cookie route, so I settled on these Speculoos Churros instead. To convince myself that they should be somewhat healthier, I fashioned them out of whole wheat flour and substituted the usual butter with olive oil. Of course, that was before I deep-fried them, dusted them with sugar and dipped them in bittersweet chocolate! Life should be all about balance, I think.

The only issue I had with these churros was that I couldn't pipe them, the whole wheat dough just wasn't as soft as a regular buttery choux. Well I tried, and busted my piping bags three times before it occured to me that maybe they would look as good if I simply rolled them. Much, much easier and they still tasted really good, which was the important thing.

So, many thanks again Lilly, for your lovely friendship and gifts. This recipe wouldn't have been created if I hadn't gotten to know you (and by proxy, Joe) and this is the kind of thing that makes my blogging journey much more meaningful in the long run.

Speculoos Whole Wheat Churros (Vegan)
Makes: 4 spirals

Ingredients:
1 cup water
2 tablespoons raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil (or canola)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon Speculoos spice powder
canola oil for frying

For dusting:
1/3 c. raw sugar or confectionary/icing sugar

Method:

1. In a saucepan, stir together water, two tablespoons of sugar, salt, and tablespoon of oil. Bring to a gentle boil, and remove from heat.

2. Dump in flour and stir to make a dough. Let dough cool for a few minutes, work while it is still warm, not cold or it won't be pliable.

3. Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Using your hands, roll each dough on a clean surface into a long cylinder (about 1/2-inch thick), then twist to form a spiral. (Due to the absorbant wholewheat flour, this dough is too thick to pipe. I tried and my piping bags just kept bursting open!)

4. In a deep wok, frying pan or deep-fryer, heat frying oil to 350F (or medium high heat).

5. Lift the spirals using a slotted spoon and gently slide into the pan. Fry the strips for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until the outsides are a deep, golden brown. Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove from oil, and drain on paper towels.

6. Stir together remaining sugar and cinnamon, then roll drained churros in sugar mixture. Serve warm, and enjoy! 

Warm (Faux) Scallop Salad with Corn, Persimmon and Basil

I’ll continue to climb trying to reach the top…but no one knows where the top is.
~Jiro Ono, world's greatest sushi chef

I was watching the inspirational documentary/movie, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, about 85 year-old Jiro Ono, the first 3-Michelin star sushi chef in the world and owner of a 10-seat restaurant located in a Tokyo subway. This is a beautiful, thoughtful and engrossing movie of his life but what's amazing about it is the humbling lesson I took away from Jiro. As brilliant as he is, he has never lost track of his craft and is always striving to do better. 

In this day and age, many of us creatives on the other hand, tend to get caught up in social media and all of the other time wasters that technology has brought us (yes, I'm guilty too!) and then we forget the very reason why we're doing what we're doing in the first place. So I've decided, from now on, I am not going to forget. I've come such a long way from 2 years ago when I couldn't cook zilch to now, and will continue to push boundaries with my cooking. Let me tell you something, this is actually very easy to do when you don't know very much to start with and are not limited by rules. The story of my life...

Well, I don't know where my vegan journey will eventually take me but I'm willing to jump in at the deep end and see how far I can make things work by being extra creative in the kitchen. Like for this week's French Fridays with Dorie's assignment, for example, Warm Scallop Salad with Corn, Nectarine and Basil. It's a beautiful assortment of fresh, raw and minimally seared ingredients tossed together to make an exotic salad.

Not so long ago, when I ate seafood, I rarely ate scallops. Now that I'm trying to give it up entirely, I struggle to recall what scallop tasted like and had to think what ingredient I could possibly use to substitute it with. Those giant oyster mushrooms would be a good choice, except that I couldn't find any. Firm tofu is also suitable, but I'm bored of eating so much tofu lately. Then it came to me....eggplant!

Yes, I simply cut out scallop-shaped eggplant pieces with a round cookie cutter, marinated them in a mixture of miso paste and aren syrup that helped with the caramelization process during searing. Maple syrup would be a good one to use for this purpose as well, as it adds a bit of sweetness to the saltiness of the miso and earthiness of the eggplant.

I had persimmon on hand and since it had a very similar texture to nectarine, I used that instead. The persimmon was already sweet, so I didn't bother searing it but left it raw. I actually missed out reading Dorie's instructions about grilling the fruit, but you didn't think I was going to admit that, did you? :) I was concerned that there may be too many sweet elements in my salad - persimmon, eggplant scallop and the sweet corn. But I worried needlessly, because the tangy chili lime dressing and fresh basil coulis balanced this salad out quite beautifully.

Dorie was right in saying that the exotic star of this dish was the raw corn. I absolutely adore raw corn and eat it in many dishes and desserts. However, my other shining ingredient here has got to be the eggplant scallop. It might not have had the exact scent of the sea, but it was close enough in texture and appearance that I'm happy to imagine it was the real deal. It really is worth checking out how the other Doristas interpreted this recipe here.

Have a lovely and fun-filled weekend, everyone!

Vegan Bún Chay (Vietnamese Noodle Salad) with Tofu Cheese Balls

What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art.
~ Augustus Saint-Gaudens

A few years ago, I was in Ho Chi Minh on a girls' trip away and I remember eating plenty of street food over that period in time (our Asian tummies are well trained for that sort of hardcore feasting). What I enjoyed most about Vietnamese cuisine is its range, the delightfully complex flavors of many of its dishes showcasing contrasts of taste and texture, as well as heat against cold.

So when my Instagram buddy, Joe, challenged me to take a classic Vietnamese dish and put my own spin on it, I immediately thought of this flavorful, yet incredibly simple to create, Bún Chay, or noodle salad. Usually it's made with vermicelli rice noodles, a generous handful of fragrant herbs, julienned vegetables, crunchy bean sprouts, a savory protein such as tofu, and a salty-sour-sweet sauce.

Basil, cilantro & Vietnamese mint

My spin on this was on two aspects: one was to make a more flavorful version of the tofu, in the form of Tofu Cheese Balls. I filled these up with the homemade vegan cheese from my last post and also contained Shiitake mushrooms which gave them a certain depth in flavor. Once fried, they are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and provided that lovely contrast of heat against the coolness of the salad. 

I'd like you to think of this more as an inspiration and a rough guide than a recipe. The tofu cheese balls can be prepared ahead of time and reheated, but if you are strapped for time, you can simply serve the bún with deep fried sliced tofu, which is quick and easy to cook. Variations could include marinated tofu to add more flavor, baked tofu for a healthier version, or adding meat or seafood for a non-vegetarian version. Just feel free to include more or omit some vegetables, use any herbs you like and have available, but most of all, be creative and enjoy creating your customized bún chay.

My second spin on this dish involves a tweak on the sauce. Traditionally, bún is served with a sauce called nuoc cham, which includes nuoc mam, or fish sauce. Here, I've made a quick vegan version using soy sauce and minced nori. This is a trick I've learnt (from watching Heston Blumenthal's Mission Impossible food series) to introduce umami to the sauce and enhance the intensity of its flavor. The nori can work surprisingly well in a variety of other dishes too, and I can't wait to show you in future posts. In the meantime, enjoy!

Vegan Bún Chay (Vietnamese Noodle Salad) with Tofu Cheese Balls

Serves: 2 to 3

Noodles:

100g/4 oz dried rice sticks or vermicelli

Greens:

1 1/2 cups shredded red cabbage and/or lettuce

1/2 cup mung bean sprouts

1/2 cup julienned cucumber (I made ribbons)

1/2 cup julienned carrots (I cut mine using flower cutters)

Large handful of mixed herbs, coarsely chopped or torn (basil, mint, cilantro; if available, rau răm or Vietnamese mint)

1 large red pepper, deseeded and julienned

Sauce:

1 sheet nori, minced finely in a blender

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons water

1 clove garlic, crushed

Tofu Cheese Balls:
Makes: 15

450g/15oz firm tofu, well drained

150g/5oz soft cheese (I used vegan mozzarella)

1 cup Shiitake mushrooms, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, sliced finely

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

oil, for deep frying

Garnish:

2-3 tablespoons roasted peanuts, chopped

For the noodles

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add rice sticks. Stir and cook until noodles are white and tender but still firm, about 3-5 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water, fluffing the noodles to separate the strands. Drain again completely.

For the greens

Prepare the greens and set aside. (May be prepared ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator.)

For the sauce

In a small bowl, whisk together ingredients for sauce. Set aside. (May be prepared ahead of time kept in the refrigerator.)

For the tofu balls

1. Place all ingredients (except oil) in a food processor and blend until homogeneous.

2. Place about 1 tablespoon of tofu mixture on palm of hand and roll into a ball. If mixture is too sticky, moisten palms with a little water before rolling.

3. Heat oil to 350F/175C and deep fry balls until golden brown. Drain excess oil on paper towel and serve hot.

To serve:

Divide the noodles between two bowls. Arrange greens and tofu balls on top or the sides and garnish with peanuts. Just before eating, drizzle with sauce to taste and toss.

French Fridays with Dorie – Vegan Tomato Cheese Tartlets

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie assignment was easy enough, it’s a concept more than it is a recipe of tomato and mozzarella (or goat) cheese slices arranged over puffed pastry rounds. The perfect dish for when you have an abundance of tomatoes and very little time or idea on how to use them up.

What’s interesting here is that the puff pastry discs aren’t supposed to be cooked to puff-fection but rather, are flattened during baking by weighing them down with another baking sheet on top. They result in heavier but still crisp and flaky rounds, with the flat base making it easier to spread a pesto paste or olive tapenade on them and place the tomato and cheese toppings.

For the spread, I made some fresh lemon basil pesto from my plant that was growing out of control in the garden. It seemed I had run out of ideas on ways to utilize that basil too lately, so what a relief to be able to store some of the leaves in a jar in the form of pesto. 

I’m also slowly trying to give up dairy products (it’s damn hard, given my love for baking and desserts!) so this week, I used store-bought vegan puff pastry and also came up with a quick and easy version of mozzarella cheese. And what is quicker and easier when it comes to setting ingredients in a semi-solid form than agar agar? Yes, it seems odd, but the texture of the vegan cheese turned out very similar to soft mozzarella. Plus it crumbles and shreds too if the consistency is made a little thicker and it sets firmer. Think healthy pizza, yay!

I haven’t shared my own recipe with my FFWD posts in a long time, so I’m happy to share this cheese one with you. It’s basically a mix of silken tofu, agar powder (not flakes), ground cashews and almonds, rice vinegar and garlic. Blitz everything in a food processor, bring the mixture to a quick boil and pour into a mold, leaving it to cool down and then set in the fridge for several hours. If you have access to this non-dairy cream substitute, MimicCreme (I don’t), then just replace the nuts with a cup of this vegan cream and your ‘cheese’ texture will turn out smoother than mine looks here.

The blended 'cheese' mixture 

This vegan tomato tartlet salad, drizzled with balsamic vinegar, tasted better way than I expected. Vegan food in general tends to get a bad rep, because we do expect it to taste bland and often look boring, and as you can see that’s clearly not the case here. In many of my future FFWD posts, I’m going to show you how to bring sexy into vegetarian or vegan cuisine. I’ve had so many successful experiments with substituting ingredients for the real deal that I need to put them down as solid recipes and share them with all of you out there - before I forget it all! The French may not approve of my cheese blasphemy this week, but hey, sometimes I feel we should do what we need to in order to align the outside world with our evolving inner selves. :)

Have a peaceful weekend, everyone!

Homemade Vegan Mozzarella
Ingredients:
1 package extra soft silken tofu (about 340g)
1/2 cup ground raw almonds
1/2 cup ground raw cashew nuts
3/4 cup water
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 cloves garlic, finely grated (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
4 teaspoons agar agar powder

Method:

1. Place all ingredients except agar powder in a blender or food processor, and blend on high until it becomes a completely liquid consistency. Place the mixture in a small saucepan, stir in the agar powder, and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

2. Bring the contents of the saucepan to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Be careful, as the hot mixture will sputter. Remove from heat and pour immediately into a baking dish or mold. 

3. Smooth over the mixture as if you were making a batch of brownies, then place into the refrigerator for a few hours until completely set. Use as you would like any of your favorite cheeses. It shreds, slices, and even melts like real cheese under a hot grill!

 

5 Star Makeover: Inside Out Melitzanes Imam Baildi – Eggplant, Sesame and Fig Stuffed in Tomato

This month’s theme of the 5 Star Makeover Challenge hosted by our talented friends, Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks and Natasha of Five Star Foodie is Greek Meze. We were supposed to put our own spin on a classic Greek meze dish or create something new altogether to bring to the table.

hosted by 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro Cooks!

Greek food is something that’s fairly unfamiliar to me, as I’ve never been to Greece and there aren’t any Greek restaurants out here in Brunei. My meze experience has therefore been limited to Turkish and Middle Eastern ones, and luckily there are many similarities between these and the Greek meze. So this is my take on an originally Turkish dish that’s become a Greek classic, Imam Baildi, literally meaning “the imam fainted”.

Traditionally, Imam Baildi are boatshaped, hollowed out eggplants stuffed with vegetables and herbs, and topped with tomatoes and/or cheese. In my version,  I decided to turn the Imam Baildi inside out and stuff the eggplants inside tomatoes instead. I could easily have used red tomatoes, but I quite fancied the idea of pairing tart green tomatoes against a sweet, savory and nutty filling. As it happened, there was an abundance of green tomatoes in my mother’s garden so I used those and they were perfectly bite-sized.

What I did was to scoop out and chop up the insides of the 6 small tomatoes and 2 eggplants, sauté all that in 2 tablespoons olive oil for about 10 minutes along with chopped dried figs, fresh oregano, ground cinnamon and cumin, garlic, onion until softened. That filling was then seasoned with salt and pepper and stuffed into the hollowed tomatoes, topped with black sesame seeds and these were roasted for 15-20 minutes in a hot oven, not too long so the tomatoes still retained their shape and had a bit of a crunch. 

I had read somewhere that during the Great Lent, about 40 days before the Greek Holy Easter, most Greeks would fast and avoid eating meat and dairy products. So this would be a suitable, quick and tasty vegan dish that could complement any meze spread in a Greek kitchen during that time.

Lazaro will be doing a round-up of all the participants’ meze offerings on Friday, and because I’ve already seen some fantastic and creative ideas from the others, let me assure that you won’t want to miss that post. You can recreate some of these dishes for munchies for when you watch the opening of the London Olympics that very same day. Better still, gather some friends and family round that day for a proper meze party to celebrate the Games!

Rosemary Garlic Flaxseed Kringel Bread

The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight.
~ M.F.K. Fisher

I only just realized that this blog had surpassed its 2 year anniversary last May, but with with everything that was happening in my life around that time, it had completely slipped my mind. So yay, happy belated 2nd blogoversary to my baby, Foodiva's Kitchen! What better to commemorate the occasion than with a bread post? Now those of you who have been following this blog know that I am ever so slightly obsessed with beautiful breads, especially the baked, yeasty kinds. I blame it all on my time in Europe, when I found it quite impossible to walk past a bakery everyday without being drawn in by the waft of the freshly baked loaves. Oh, and walking out with at least one each time! 

So a while ago, I came across several posts featuring a traditional Estonian festive bread called Kringel Bread. Originating in Germany, it's a sweet bread often flavored with cinnamon and almonds and it's usually baked in Estonia for special occasions such as holidays and birthdays. Kringel just means 'circle' or 'ring' so the bread is basically one that's been twisted into the shape of a pretzel or a simple ring. 

I actually made this bread quite a while ago and the draft post had been lying dormant in my posting schedule  all this time, waiting for the day when I will have the desire to fine-tune it and finally press the 'Publish' button. I'm not quite sure why it took me so long to get this out because it really is a pretty and scrumptious tasting bread. Instead of a sweet-bread, however, I opted to make a savory one using a filling of fresh rosemary, garlic and flaxseed. And just because I was on a healthy streak the day I made this, I exchanged the plain flour with whole wheat flour...it made me feel better about scoffing down almost all of the Kringel on my own afterwards :).

It's an impressive-looking bread once it's baked, but don't be scared off thinking you can't make it as it's really quite simple to shape. Once you sprinkle the flattened dough with the filling, you just have to roll it up into a cylinder, slice it in the middle leaving one end intact, twist the two ropes around each other and finally join the ends together to make a circle. That's all there is to it.

Enjoy making this bread for your loved ones and friends and don't forget to be adventurous with the filling!

Off to Yeastspotting this goes!

Rosemary Garlic Flaxseed Kringel Bread

Ingredients:

Dough

300 g all-purpose or wholewheat flour (2 cups)

1/2 tsp salt

125 ml lukewarm milk (1/2 cup)

20 g fresh yeast (0.6 oz fresh yeast or 1 envelope active dry yeast)

30 g melted butter (1/8 cup)

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp sugar

Filling

50 g softened butter (1/4 cup)

2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons flaxmeal/ground flaxseed

Method:

1. Mix the yeast and sugar with the lukewarm milk and let it sit a few minutes while the yeast bubbles and foams up.

2. Add the egg yolk, the melted butter, the flour and the salt, then knead the dough and shape into a ball.

3. Place the dough in a large, greased bowl, then cover and place in a warm space and let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour).

4. Preheat oven to 200°C (about 400°F). Dust your work surface with flour, and roll the dough out to a rectangle with a thickness of 1cm.

5. Spread the melted butter across all of the dough, then sprinkle the rosemary, garlic and flaxmeal on top.

6. Roll up the dough into a cylinder and using a knife, cut the log in half length-wise but leave one end still joined up.

7. Twist the two halves together, keeping the open layers exposed as shown in the photo tutorial. Form into a wreath shape, weave the ends together and pinch to seal. Transfer to a baking tray (buttered or lined with a cookie sheet or silpat).

8. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Cover with a foil halfway to prevent excessive browning of the dough.

9. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) after 5-10 minutes to stop it burning. Remove from oven and leave to cool on a rack for about 5 minutes before eating.

French Fridays with Dorie - Crunchy Ginger Pickled Cucumbers

Earth laughs in flowers.
~ Henry David Thoreau

A friend once told me that the way someone prepares food is an innate expression of their soul. I'm too scared to even ponder what my food says about me, nevertheless I couldn't resist turning this week's French Fridays with Dorie cooking group assignment into something that Dorie had probably never envisaged - visually, anyway - when she was writing up her award-winning cookbook, Around My French Table.

It's an easy recipe with no cooking involved, Crunchy Ginger Pickled Cucumbers. Dorie suggested that we cut the cucumber into chunks and add minced ginger and red pepper flakes to the pickling liquid. So what did I do? I sliced the cucumbers across into rounds and punched out holes in the middle using a round cutter I use for making donuts. And instead of mincing the ginger, I decided how lovely it would be if the ginger was turned into teeny flowers. My flower shaped fondant cutter proved handy for this task and I was glad it got some usage because having never ever worked with fondant, my exotic cutters were lying in my baking cabinet doing, well not very much. Please don't ask me why I even have so many of them in the first place....that's like asking why I have more pairs of shoes than I'll ever need. It's just one of those unresolvable mysteries of the universe!

In place of the red pepper flakes, I thought fresh sliced red pepper would complement the green of the cucumber and still give off some heat. For an extra dimension of flavor, you could sprinkle some minced herbs, either cilantro, parsley or chives on top of the cucumbers just before serving but I chose not too, because after cutting out all those miniature ginger flowers, why would I want to hide them? These pickles are quick to prepare and make such pretty picnic food, I will definitely be thinking up new ways of serving this up in future. Oh, and there will always be a more interesting way just around the corner!