Blueberry Banana Muffins

These were originally supposed to be a way to clean the freezer of all of the happily laid up fruits of the past few months. Ontario wild blueberries from last season, those lovely sweet brown bananas that you forget to eat during the work week and get thrown into the freezer for banana ice cream or smoothies.

I based the recipe on the ppk's vegan banana cake, (http://www.theppk.com/2007/10/banana-bread/) and took a cue from the comments in how to adjust the baking time for muffins. These worked beautifully, although the batter seemed very dry. Next time I would add nuts or perhaps almond flour.

Chew your smoothie - popsicle time!

 

This popsicle maker is going to change my life.  Okay, that's a bit drastic, but this week it's going to be around 30 degrees every damn day, and I have no a.c.

Enter the popsicle.

This one is a raspberry/banana/soymilk smoothie popsicle, with about a teaspoon of sugar.

I used the raw ingredients for a small smoothie (1/2 banana, a handful of raspberries, a tsp of sugar and about 1/8 cup of soymilk), blended them as I would a regular smoothie and then spooned the mixture into a popsicle mold and froze overnight.

This is maybe my favourite way to eat my fruits!

I wanna (Mulberry) Jam it with you

 

I'm very inspired by the group Not Far From the Tree, who gather volunteers to harvest fruit and sap that would otherwise go to waste from Toronto trees. They share it with community groups and with the volunteers and I think they do a wonderful thing.

For the last 5 years, I've worked near a tree that exploded with mulberries every year.  The tree looks ancient, and 80% of its berries are out of reach to a shorty like me.  Every year I told myself I'd get a ladder and some coworkers and shake that shit down.

Last week most of my coworkers and I found out we were being laid off next month. So now or never, right? 

I made this jam from between 6 and 8 cups of mulberries, and I got six small jam jars full--that's enough to share with all the gleaners, and an extra one for me to eat with my welfare cheese in a few months (just kidding)

 

 

Kate, Mike and Liz star in 'The Gleaning" - Photo by Carly

 I kind of flew by the seat of my pants for this jam...there really aren't many mulberry jam recipes out there. 

All told, it took about 5 hours (phew) of stemming, washing, boiling and jarring.  I added a pinch of cinnamon and allspice because I was curious, and it turned out very well!  I think you can use any basic jam recipe, with or without pectin, and this will work.

I see many more jams in my future!

Vegan Rice Flour Thumbrint Cookies!

This is a slightly adapted, well-loved jam cookie recipe. As I prepare to move, I try to eat up everything in the pantry so I don't have to move it.  This is how I ended up with rice flour cookies.
These cookies are dead easy to make.  They're made of just under 1 cup of rice flour which is combined with just under 1/2 cup of margarine that's been creamed with 1/4 cup of sugar and a tsp of vanilla.
They're allowed to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes, then rolled into 15-20 small balls and pressed flat, with a small dollop of jam in a thumbprint in the middle.
Bake these beauties at 350 degrees for 15-30 minutes (they're done when they start to go slightly brown, and how long it takes depends on how large you made them).  Enjoy!

Four Pie Date

Got together with Edie this weekend to dispatch of some Rhubarb in her freezer, and to take advantage of the new crop of Ontario Strawberries. Three hours and a bit of sweat and blood, and we ended up with four beautiful pies.
We loosely followed an old Betty Crocker sixties recipe for the crust:
5 cups of flour
6-7 tbsp ice water
2 tsp salt
1 and 2\3 cup of butter

The filling was about two pints of strawberries and 5 cups of rhubarb with several cups of sugar added. Man, what a joy. We split one between the two of us :)

Pate a Fruits

Edie and I have been cooking together more often since she and I moved into the same neighbourhood (hooray for neighbours!).
First we made macarons (Chocolate and Prune from David Liebovitz). They were a great success, and our next mission was to make Pate a Fruits. I've personally only ever had one measley serving of the stuff, at Canoe Restaurant as a part of a dessert dish. It was delicious, and we aimed to try to veganize it.
What was interesting about this adventure was that we each used a slightly different recipe and different ingredients. Hers was to be a mango pate de fruits, while mine would be apple. Mine had juice in it, while hers did not. Hers had more pectin in it, and no straining.
God, I wish mine had required no straining. I microwaved fresh apples and pears, then smushed them through a wire sieve (which took the better part of an hour).
We both stood at the stove, adding pectin to our fruity, lemony mixtures, and stirring. We had no candy thermometers, so we guessed when the mixtures had come to the appropriate temperature, and then poured them into containers lined with parchment paper to set.
Next morning: they're still loose. No lovely jelly.
We both try to salvage ours by boiling them again. This time, I added agar to mine while she added gelatin to hers. We both got a great result this time! Mind you, we'd been futzing with this jelly for hours.
Some issues: I ended up with WAY TOO MUCH JELLY, and had to throw a bunch of it away. I don't know what I was thinking. No one wants more than a couple of small pieces of fruit jelly, and some people don't want even that!
Also, I sugared it the night before, and it got sweaty and had a runny, honey-like coating the next morning. That didn't prevent kind co-workers from eating it, but it felt like a bit of a fail.
So remember, Liz, for you French fruit jelly is not worth the effort!

Blueberry Chutney

Triple-post today. I made a few things over the holidays, but since school's started I haven't got around to posting.
I was going to an X-Mas party, and wanted to bring something interesting, low stress, and good for sharing. I thought I invented this dish, but googling proved me wrong on this, as it often does.
The process was quite similar to making Mango Chutney - I simmered a pint of blueberries, half a chopped onion, 1 1/2 cups vinegar, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, a handful of raisins, a teaspoon of salt, some mustard seed, cinnamon and ground cumin together until it became chutney-like, tweaking the seasoning until I liked it. I also threw in a small chopped apple for substance about halfway through the simmering.
Verdict: not as good as its mango cousin. A little too sweet, and with a background taste that did not mesh well with the papadum I served it with. However, my host claimed she loved it, and saved the leftovers to have with her dinner the next day. Go figure.

Beer and a Light Snack - Papadums and Chutney

I know you want to nosh on something summery and light. I think this is the answer. A perfect, crunchy, complement for a summer evening on the porch with a beer: papadum served with a mint chutney and a mango chutney. All made in under 40 minutes.
The papadum(s?) were cheap in Kensington market. Instead of deep frying them I microwaved them individually, 30 seconds on each side, and they turned out beautifully without all the oil required for frying them.
The chutneys were simple and fresh.

For the mango chutney: cube 1 ripe mango, combine with half a diced onion, a handful of raisins, a tsp grated ginger, a tsp of cumin, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 2-3 tsp brown sugar (or skip it, maybe use juice, or a reallly ripe mango) 3 tbsp vinegar. Simmer until the liquid evaporates and the onion is tender. Then add a handful of julienned mint leaves, salt and pepper to taste.
For the Mint Chutney: combine in a blender 1/2 cup mint and 1/2 cup cilantro with the juice of half a lime, 1/2 to one whole fresh hot chili (I used green hot sauce 'cause I was out of chilis) and 5 tsp of water. Blend the sh*t out of it for 2-3 min, adding water if it's too dry. Now get outside, drink some beer, and eavesdrop on your neighbours. Ah, summer!

Ichigo Daifuku - Japanese Sweet bean and Strawberry ball

I used to eat these almost every day when it was Strawberry season.
I finally got around to trying to make my own...
Step one was making sweet bean paste. I boiled dry white beans with sugar until they were tender, then pureed them with a bit of the water in the food processor.


The next step was to prepare the strawberries.
I washed and trimmed them, and then molded a layer of the cooled bean paste around them, leaving the base exposed.


The next step was combining the rice flour, sugar and water and microwaving it briefly (2 minutes, stir, 1 minute, stir)





Then I divided it into 8 pieces and rolled it (on a floured cutting board) into round discs about the size of a saucer. After they were rolled, I picked up a bean-coated strawberry and wrapped the flattened dough disk around the berry, pinching the dough together at the bottom to close the bundle. Mmmm...


A brief dusting of cornstarch and they're ready to go. I ate 3 (they were ugly and crackly) and brought 5 to work to share.
Next time: Don't let the dough sit for more than a minute or two in the open. A dry skin forms on it and it's tough to get it silky again.
Actually, there might not be a next time...at least not for awhile. This may turn into a yearly strawberry season once-off.