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Do you know the Evernote Food app? I’m creating a food photo diary with it — easy and fun! I only wish I could also edit entries in the equally handy all-round Evernote application, but maybe I’m missing something obvious?
On Saturday May 19th Evernote organized its first ever Evernote cook-along. ‘Chef’ Lauren Atkins provided us with the task to make crêpes.
You all know how I love challenges — and food! So I decided to take this up, even though I hadn’t baked any crêpes since going ExtraVeganza over a year ago… Pancakes? Yes. Crêpes? No. And I really even don’t like pancakes that much, but I just LUUUURV crêpes!
So the first question to tackle was: sweet or savoury?
As we had no dinner plans yet (and would be hiking during lunchtime), I chose the latter and picked Asian style rice crêpes with a mushroom-tofu filling.
It actually proved to be quite the dare! I had to adapt a basic vegan sweet crêpe recipe and combine it with the savoury dairy mushroom-tofu one from my vegetarian cookbook Het Grote Vegetarische Kookboek (p.138). Not a smart project to take on for a first attempt… So how did it turn out???
Rice Crêpes with Tofu-Mushroom Filling
Serves 2 (4 pieces).
I started out with this vegan crêpe recipe in my Vegweb iPhone app (substituting vanilla for a pinch of salt): whisking 1 cup of all-purpose flour (about 150 grams) with 1 1/2 cup rice milk (350 ml) and 2 heaped teaspoons of No-egg with 4 tablespoons of water mixed beforehand (note that the ratio for 2 ‘eggs’ is different from Ener-G egg-replacer). Adding 2 tbsp of sunflower oil and a pinch of salt.
I then continued putting additional ingredients in the batter that the non-vegan recipe in my cookbook called for: 1 tbsp kecap manis, 1 tbsp chopped cilantro, 50 grams of cooked rice (a combination of red, black and unpolished) and a mix of chopped and stir-fried fresh ginger (2 cm), 1 chilli pepper and 1 green onion.
Cooking rice in the morning
You’ll have to cook the rice in advance or -preferably- use leftovers!
Each pancake was baked for about 3 minutes on one side and 1 more after having flipped them over.
The filling consisted of 100 grams of tofu sautéed for about 5 minutes in a combination of sunflower & sesame oil, then adding 150 grams mixed mushrooms, a clove of garlic (crushed), 1 tsp of white miso, 1 tbsp kecap manis and 1/2 tbsp lime juice, stirring for about 1 more minute.
Result
We had a great dinner! Two crêpes each plus a large portion of salad.
I’ll admit the recipe needs a little tweaking because the pancakes were difficult to flip over — and stay in one piece at the same time. ;) My batter was probably a bit too thin from adding the extra ingredients. Next time I’ll adjust the amount of ‘milk’ accordingly and/or add some cornstarch.
Or maybe… I should just make sure to have a foolproof vegan crêpe recipe first?! Off to make some crêpes for lunch!!!
Here’s how the meal looks in Evernote…
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Join Beth Fish’s Weekend Cooking with a food-related post!
On the 2nd of May our local CSA season started. It is still a bit too cold for the time of year over here (we even had night frost during the weekend) so the weekly loot is small — but TASTY!
Amelishof organic CSA vegetables week 20, 2012
- Red leaf lettuce
- Bundle garlic
- Rhubarb
- Escarole
- Plum tomatoes (grown in an unheated glass house)
- Thyme
Menuplan May 15th – 19th
- Tuesday (dinner guest) ~ vegan Chinese takeaway: mini lumpias, satay, tofu in Tausi (black bean) sauce, bami goreng, cassava krupuk.
- Wednesday ~ Indonesian dinner: rice with toemis broad-leaved endive (escarole), tempeh boemboe Bali, leftover satay & krupuk.
Indonesian dinner
- Thursday ~ Lettuce soup, mushroom spaghetti with veg balls Provençal, escarole salad with mandarin and mustard dressing. Leftover beetroot-poppyseed cake.
- Indonesian dinner: Nasi goreng, leftover tempeh boemboe Bali & toemis escarole, garden peas ‘Indonesian style’ (with soy sauce & curry), lalab (lettuce, cucumber, carrot & sambal).
- Saturday ~ Savoury crêpes for the Evernote Cook-along
- Mediterranean vegetable stew (recipe acquired via Uniflame), salad.
Also planned: rhubarb cake and lentil loaf.
This week I’m testing my sustainable Salad Sac full of already washed lettuce leaves!
Amelishof organic CSA vegetables week 19, 2012
- Spinach
- Lettuce
- Red bell pepper
- Spring onion
- Combo of turnip tops and rocket
- Leek
Amelishof organic CSA vegetables week 18, 2012
- Spinach
- Curly red leaf lettuce
- Radishes
- Rhubarb
- Bundle garlic
- Tomatoes
Meals made with these vegetables:
Spicy spinach
Cherry-rhubarb crumble
Nasi goren with steamed spinach and mushroom salad
This office lunch for Friday May 11th completely consists of leftovers from previous days’ dinners. Fitting the theme, I had meant to submit it to the bento of the week challenge on the Bento Blog Network… Alas, I was too slow in posting. Never mind, the most important thing is getting to eat a meal like this! :)
(Apologies for the overexposed pic!)
Left tier
Spicy spinach with sesame, tempeh bacon baran, nasi goreng (fried rice), beet cress, oven-marinated cremini mushrooms, mix of red leaf lettuce, rucola & turnip tops hiding underneath mushroom mix (purple oyster, fennel & Japanese nemeko), purple asparagus and two radish flowers.
Right tier
White asparagus cosying up to mushroom gravy, cucumber, nut mix (raisins & peanuts), bruschetta, soy tofu and cherry-rhubarb crumble — a combination of Jamie Oliver‘s and this recipe (or in Dutch).
I’d like a lunch like this every day!
Not sure how to pronounce “quinoa”? Learn on YouTube!
Whaddayaknow: it’s is already the fourth time four Dutch foodie bloggers are getting together for a weekend cooking blog hop! This time we’re focussing on quinoa. Have you ever had quinoa for dinner? Or breakfast for that matter — I’ve seen several recipes but haven’t dared trying yet for myself. Just like I’m reluctant to eat rice in the morning… But what am I saying? Contrary to how it’s used in Western cuisine, quinoa is not a grain but a vegetable related to leafy greens like spinach and Swiss chard! Well, the seeds of it anyway.
The first time I tried quinoa was during my 10-day ExtraVeganza project. I made a stir-fry from The Guardian. Since then I’ve used it a few times in bento’s (#131, #161, #176, #177), but as I’m only halfway my second package… I guess it has not been used not that often! Rather surprisingly. O_o Because I like the taste, it’s quick & easy to make and belongs to the category of ‘super foods’ — meaning that it’s ultra healthy. ;) Quinoa is gluten-free, high on so-called complete proteins, vitamins B1&2, E, iron, copper and magnesium. Reading that you already feel better, right? ;)
The quinoa dish I’m sharing today is Quinoa & Vegetable Laksa. Laksa is an Asian chowder-like thick soup. Mr Gnoe and I had two helpings each so that our bellies were filled but not the I-need-to-lie-on-the-couch kind of full. Very satisfying but low-fat! This is a perfect weekday meal for when you’re tired and the fridge is empty.
I veganised the original recipe from BBC’s Good Food and made some adaptations dictated by the (barren) contents of my cupboards.
Quinoa and Vegetable Laksa
Ingredients – serves 2
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 tbsp Patak’s mild curry paste
- about 50 ml water
- 500 ml oat milk
- 400 g frozen mixed vegetables, or any veggies at hand which were in my case: frozen peas and green beans, corn kernels from a can, a large spring onion/small leek (sliced), an old turnip (nuked), some red and green bell pepper in small pieces
- 85 g quinoa, rinsed (!)
- 2 ts vegan broth powder
- salt & pepper
Preparation
- Simmer the onion, curry paste and water for 5 minutes in a large saucepan, stirring from time to time. Begin with a splash of water and add some when the mixture gets too dry.
- Heat the oat milk in a jug in the microwave.
- Add the vegetables, quinoa, broth powder and stir in the milk.
- Bring to the boil, simmer gently for 10 mins until the quinoa is cooked.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Let it sit for a short while longer if the directions of the quinoa call for that.
Serve with salad and bread – naan would be awesome!
Suggestions
Next time I would like to try this recipe with almond milk instead of oat. Mr Gnoe thinks that will be too overwhelming but I think it may be good. Or maybe half of each. Of course you can use any plant-based milk but some will be better than others.
Also, the original recipe was titled “Spicy vegetable and quinoa laksa” but my tastebuds failed to notice any heat. Of course that depends on the the type of curry paste: I may use a stronger one next time, or just add a red chilli.
Always remember to rinse your quinoa seeds before cooking. They have a bitter-tasting coating (called saponins), which is mildly toxic and meant to make the kernels less-palatable to birds and other seed-eaters. These days quinoa has already been cleaned by the manufacturer but it’s good to get rid of possible remnants. Just follow the instructions on the package.
<whisper mode> Of course I shouldn’t say so in a post dedicated to quinoa, but you can also use 150 grams of basmati rice instead — just cook until done. But you didn’t hear that from me, okay?! ;) <whisper mode off>
And now that you’ve opened a package of quinoa: hop over to my fellow foodies for their awesome recipes!
Chinoiseries goes south with her North African Quinoa Stew ~ vegan
JannyAn serves a Quinoa Salad with Cranberries and Apricot ~ vegan
Uniflame baked some Black Bean & Quinoa Burgers ~ vegetarian
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This week’s theme on the Bento Blog Network is Alternative Boxes: anything that wasn’t meant to be a bento converted to a lunch, snack, dinner or breakfast carrier.
Finding something to hold dry foods is not much of a problem; take for example the ‘nut case’ ;) I used for this Arigato Bento. Bringing wet foods provides more of a challenge.
But I found something — pretty obvious really: a mason jar! I would have preferred to use my Bonne Maman jam jar, but it holds our current batch of home-made veganaise so I picked another from my pantry — which was a little bigger anyway. :) This one previously held soup from De Soepfabriek.
I had just the right food to fill up this alternative bento! Layered from top to bottom:
- cucumber & chives
- leftover chackchouka (Moroccan ratatouille made of roasted peppers and tomato)
- slices of pickled lemon and black olives (picture of the work in progress)
- leftover Moroccan spinach
- couscous with golden raisins, paprika, cumin and cinnamon
- wonderful lentil soup that Mr Gnoe whipped up on Queen’s Day from red lentils, tomato paste, white wine, red bell pepper, leek, onion and garlic
You can have a closer look of the Moroccan B-day buffet leftovers in my “Bring Your Own” Bento.
A great advantage of using a glass jar as container is that it can be put in the microwave to heat up your lunch (without the lid of course). On the downside: there are probably types of food that won’t work layered like this. Yet that isn’t a problem today. :)
And that’s not all! I used a sakura body butter container from The Body Shop to bring some additions to my meal. There’s a picture of its previous life in the Hello Japan! post about My Sakura Collection (upper right corner of the first photo). Of course it was thoroughly cleaned and I soaked it in lemon juice to neutralize smell. Then I lined it with wax paper so that there’s no contact between food and container anyway.
The box holds:
- bruscetta (made of leftover baguette bread)
- radishes
- parsley
- pistachios
This office bento for Wednesday May 2nd contains mostly leftovers and stash, except for the couscous which was done in under 5 minutes: mixing grains with spices and a handful of raisins, pouring over the boiling water and 4 minutes of waiting (which have been put to good use ;).
Now I hope this lunch is a lesson to all persons thinking that one needs to have a real box before you can start bento-ing. You really don’t! Check out the other submissions for even more alternative ideas.
Themes for the upcoming two weeks are:
- No Cheese
- Leftovers
For me that’ll be no challenge at all. ;)
Last night I went to a party buffet and as the birthday grrl wasn’t sure whether there’d be anything vegan among the Moroccan caterer’s food, I offered to bring something myself.
Top: chakchouka (a kind of ratatouille that can be eaten either hot or cold, made from roasted peppers and tomato)
Bottom: spinach spread
Not shown: pide bread — okay, that’s Turkish ;)
On a party you’re supposed to have something sweet as well, so I pulled a cranberry muffin from my freezer, made a pink glazing of powdered sugar and cherry syrup and topped it off with some cherries. Perfect, as there was pie for dessert.
Now can you guess what’s in the present? ;)
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This week’s Meatless Monday Bento was chock-full of leftovers again.
There’s:
- rice hiding under chilli (actually the last chowder-y bit of spicy tortilla chip soup without tortilla chips ;)
- cauliflower-leek-radish stir-fry
- a cooked apple with cinnamon and lemon juice
- my very last hazelnut Easter egg
- and a strawberry especially saved for the occassion.
So the only things left to do were:
- throw in some seedless grapes,
- cut a white and a red radish
- & chop some cilantro.
Done!
Yay, number 180: the last of my bento backlog! Now I’ve only got today’s Meatless Monday Bento left to blog, which hasn’t been assembled yet at the time of writing this post (in the weekend).
When
Tuesday April 17th 2012.
Why
I went on an outing with my colleagues of the Nederlands Politiemuseum (Netherlands Police Museum), recently merged with the (‘Firefighter Museum’) under the working title Nationaal Veiligheids Instituut (‘National Security Institution’). We wanted to meet our new co-workers in Hellevoetlsuis and travelled along to Almere, to check out the building in which the new museum will reopen in a few years. On the way there we shortly went into Almere Public Library to drool — oh my what an awesome place that is! I wanted to be sure I’d get to eat vegan, so I packed myself a nice bento – sort of an emergency meal. ;)
What
Nasi goreng, braised pak choy, peanut sauce and serundeng. Grilled courgette, plum tomato, garden cress, pickles, tempeh bacon, dried cranberries and a salad corner with alfalfa, sundried tomato and caper berries. the all familiar buttered gingerbread with agave syrup for a moment of sweetness. Not shown: a country cookie to have with tea, when the others were having cake.
It feels really good to be up-to-date again with my bento posts! I hope I haven’t bored you?
I had meant to do a Sunday Salon about challenges today, but as I’m on a roll with my bento backlog I’d better get on with that. Bihun Bento it is!
When
Wednesday April 4th 2012.
Why
Office lunch which I got to eat at home as I was ill — a good thing I had lunch ready!
What
Leftover Pad Thai (baked up with sambal and spices), steamed broccoli, gherkin and salad vegetables in the middle tier: rocket, alfalfa sprouts, tomato and parsley.
Gingerbread with soy butter and agave syrup in the other, a mix of dry roasted almonds, salted sunflower seeds and dried cranberries, soy flavoured ramen wheat noodle snack (leftover from our Hanami picnic) and peanut sauce as a condiment to the broccoli. Those shiny balls on the right are sweet coconut cookies that I baked for my Saturday movie night with the grrls on which we watched Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter — a great film! The cookie recipe is from Lisette in Luilekkerland and I like it!
Then there’s apple in lemon juice on the side and cassava crackers in the colourful snack bag.
People often wonder if making bentos isn’t a lot of work. I’ll admit I takes a little more time than necessary, but that’s just because I’m slow. ;) By using leftovers and things at hand it can be put together quite quickly: you really don’t need to cook especially for a bento. Look at this one for example.
Leftovers:
- Pad Thai
- peanut sauce
- coconut cookie balls
- ramen noodle snack
- cassava crackers
Stash:
- dried fruit & nut mix
Extra work:
- nuking the broccoli in the microwave, taking just a few seconds — and not necessary if it had been a leftover from another day,
- frying up the bihun noodles — not really required but I chose to give my previous dinner a twist,
- buttering & sweetening my slice of gingerbread — not necessary as it’s really good without but I like it even better this way,
- chopping up some crudités,
- cutting an apple and sprinkling it with lemon juice — obviously unnecessary if you bring a whole apple but I can’t eat it that way because of the glued on metal splint behind my teeth (a leftover from braces).
So, is that easier than you expected?
If I can keep up the good work, tomorrow will bring the last of my outstanding bento posts!
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Join Beth Fish’s Weekend Cooking with a food-related post!
On Sunday March 25th we had a very special — BIG — picnic bento to celebrate spring with our friends. Like every year, we held our own Hanami Matsuri (cherry blossom feast) in the Amsterdamse Bos sakura garden. Unfortunately the Japanese cherry trees were only just starting to bloom, but there hasn’t been a better spring day afterwards so we were lucky anyway!
First of all I had to bake ‘something cherry’. Browsing brought me to a Martha Stewart recipe for vegan chocolate cupcakes with a cherry frosting, tried by BakedBree (substituting raspberry vinegar for plain and using cherries from a jar as fresh are not in season). Bree and her omni friends were quite positive so the choice was easily made!
At the risk of sounding immodest: don’t you think they look awesome?? :) And yes, they were nice as well.. but I don’t think I’ll make them again. I didn’t much care for the buttery topping and you can’t really have the cupcakes without.
Here’s the rest of what we brought to the picnic.
Up front is my sakura box loaded with tofu puffs or inarizushi (a recipe from The Vegetarian Table: Japan cookbook by Victoria Wise), onigiri rice balls filled with umeboshi (pickled plum) and chickpea-wasabi mixture, rolled in respectively plum furikake and nori seaweed.
Both tiers of my yellow Circle bento box are filled with raspberries; behind that stands a small bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce. There’s an oval tier with Japanese style coated peanuts (the other two contain more sushi), a can of wasabi peas (which we didn’t eat) and white chocolate Mikado “Pocky’s” that are not vegan but a leftover from my life as a vegetarian that I wanted to get rid of. ;)
For drinks: plum wine, sake and lots of hot water for a choice of sakura hoija tea, plum vert, sencha, gyokuro asahi and genmaicha.
Dôh, of course we overdid it. But it’s o-hanami only once a year, so who cares? ;)
And if you thought that would be all… There’s more! Because our friends are foodies too. :D They contributed their own yummy goodies, like vegan apple pie, dolmas, dorayakis (sweet red bean paste pancakes) and cheese cookies for the non-vegans among us, cucumber and more nibbles. We think alike because additional batches of inarizushi and onigiri (with cucumber and plum filling) were brought to the party.
Here’s a picture of our belly-pleasing banquet…
Are you getting hungry yet? ;)
Next up is my Bihun Bento!
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My BX bookshelf
