turmeric

Sweet Sesame, Potato & Chickpea Curry on Black Japanese Rice

September 5, 2016 by Ariel Leave a Comment

This is clearly not a traditional curry but it is inspired from what I know about the culture.

The idea started from the seasoning attached to this recipe. Pre-made spice blends save my life when I’m uninspired after a long day working and, this seasoning was inspired from the episode of Chef’s Table (…on netflix, you HAVE to watch it) where they featured the progressive restaurant Gaggan in Bankok. The way Gaggan Anand described the perfect flavour balance of his dish made my head spin and this is what I was able to come up with. Some red chili powder would be interesting to give it a spicier twist but, I sadly didn’t have any on hands. Instead, I choose to top the curry with a little bit of Kochukaru (Korean red pepper flakes, used in kimchi) and it gave it the little spiciness I didn’t add in the seasoning.

I hope you’ll enjoy this potato & chickpea curry recipe and new spice blend attached to it. Make sure to have a small container for the remaining seasoning because you’ll have extra to be creative with.

Happy Cooking! *^_^*

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Choco No Choco Smoothie

February 15, 2016 by Ariel 3 Comments

There is a slight hint of chocolate flavours in this one but the recipe doesn’t call for any cacao or carob. Instead it is packed with greatness like baby spinach, turmeric, hemp seeds and more… Will you dare try it?

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Unicorn Meat Stuffed Bell Peppers

February 14, 2016 by Ariel 2 Comments

This is a nice recipe for all your meat lovers, vegan and vegetarian hater friends out there.

We all know a few, those people who absolutely despise tofu and would never indulge in a nice tofu anything even if their lives depended on it. It will be able to fool any of those harsh critics and amuse them by the thought of eating unicorn meat.

Make the test, challenge one of your buddies and let’s see if they are able to taste this awful tofu they are so scared of.

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Vegan “Ground Unicorn Meat”

February 14, 2016 by Ariel 2 Comments

Trying to eat less meat, sometimes it gets a little complicated because you wished you had some sort of “ground meat” type like protein but those store bought versions often contain too much salt, carrageenan or even worst, ingredients we can barely pronounced.

This is my own version for vegan “ground beef” which obviously isn’t beef but has some sort of beefy flavour although I like to call it unicorn meat since they are kind trendy right now and it always make people smile when I present them a dish made with this little concoction. Use it pretty much like you would use ground meat, it’s perfect for taco, stuffed peppers, spaghetti sauce, lasagna and more! Get creative, this recipe wont disappoint.

The only small detail to remember is when you shred your tofu block with your hands, make sure you keep decently big pieces or reduce the cooking time a little, if you have a lot of small pieces, so they don’t burn.

Have fun!

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Basic Burmese Tofu (Chickpea tofu)

March 15, 2015 by Ariel 1 Comment

Burmese tofu was such a revelation…

On my quest to become 80% vegetarian (i’m saying 80% because I love food too much and I can conceive cutting so many things from my diet), I’m searching for protein alternatives that aren’t made of soy. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE regular soy tofu but researches shows that it can be bad for you health. Even worst, it’s also bad for the planet and as new obsessed gardener, I take these things to heart. If you are curious to learn a little bit more about the whole soy problematic, I found this very well written and informative post from Wellness Mama and I have to admit that I’m hoping that it will maybe change some of your culinary habits. After all, we only have one planet, let’s take care of it as much as we can *^_^*

Now, what is Burmese tofu?

It is a “tofu” that is made of besam flour (Garbanzo Bean flour) aka chickpea flour. It has more in common with polenta because of the way it is made but also because of the soft texture of the end product. Don’t worry, you can still use it as you would do for regular soy based, tofu. Fried, grilled, in soups or in salads, you wont be missing ideas once you taste it… well, I hope so *^_^*

This is not an original recipe, only my own twist on this Burmese cuisine classic. One thing I learned from all my failed attempts at making the best batch of burmese tofu is that it’s all about the ginger powder! Ginger will absolutely “neutralize” the rough chickpea after taste and leave you with a silky smooth tasting tofu. Also, the longer you cook and stir it, the firmer it will end up. So take it as a mini work out and don’t cheap out on the stirring time!

You can keep your Burmese tofu in the fridge, in a plastic bag, wrapped in absorbing paper. Once every 2-3 days, change the absorbing paper to avoid a quit mild formation. I usually keep my tofu for 2 weeks in the fridge.

Hope you like this recipe *^_^*

Basic Burmese Tofu (Chickpea tofu)

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

20 mins

Author: ZestyandSpicy.com

Cuisine: Vegan

Ingredients

1 cup of chickpea flour
3 cups of COLD water
¼ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of turmeric
½ teaspoon of garlic powder
¼ teaspoon of onion powder
½ teaspoon of ginger powder
2 teaspoons of sunflower oil (or any oil that doesn't have a strong taste)

Instructions

- Take a medium sauce pan on the stove, add inside all the dry ingredients. On the side, prepare a square 8x8 (or any other shape mood you want your tofu to have in the end) lined with absorbing paper (scott towel type)
- Open the heat on Medium/High. ½ cup at the time, add the cool water and whisk every time to make sure there isn't any clumps of flour of spices left.
- Never stop stirring/whisking the mixture.
- Once you start feeling it thickening, and there is barely any foam left, the mixture will be silky looking and you might start breaking a sweat. Set 10 to 15 minutes on the time watch and keep stirring vigorously, making sure to often scrape off the sides of the pan to bring everything back to the middle and avoiding too much "drying" and firming up on the sides. If you find that it's boiling too much, reduce the heat of the water to medium.
- When the full 10 to 15 minutes is done, the texture should be much thicker and almost gelatinous. Pour inside a flat bottom dish, lined with absorbent paper towel and leave in the fridge till it harden
- Cut in the desire shapes and make your favourite recipe with it! Place the left over in a plastic bag, each piece of tofu wrapped in absorbing paper.
- Replace the absorbing paper every 2-3 days.