Procrastibaking

My last semester of grad school is in full swing. We're already on week 4 and my super-senioritis is getting worse by the day. Even though my full attention should be focused on my last two classes and studying for the comprehensive exam that will determine whether or not I received my MLIS, my focus has been increasingly diverted by all the other things I could do with my time. Like baking.

It's baking season after all. I was craving banana bread. So, naturally, I made three different kinds because I was determined to try a bunch of recipes and combinations. (Instead of reading my textbooks devotedly.)

First up: a banana bread recipe from Cooking Light. I threw chocolate chips in even though they weren't called for. I told myself I was just using up the last of the bag and the end of the plain nonfat Greek yogurt, but really it was just an excuse to not do schoolwork.

Well, that bread was enjoyed thoroughly but I thought it was a little dry. What can I really expect with a low fat content?

Next came the recipe from a homemade recipe book a school put together. You probably have a few of them too. They're the ones where parents and family members contribute their favorite and best recipes for some kind of fundraising event. Ours is from the early 90s meaning I virtually grew up with it. The recipe didn't disappoint. Made with canola oil instead of butter and yogurt, this bread is so soft and resists the drying effects of a few days with ease. Blueberries made their way into this batch, and, to illustrate how bad my avoidance behavior has become, I even shaved banana and carefully placed them over the top before transferring the filled pan to the oven.

For breakfast the next morning, I toasted a piece and smeared it with some red wine blueberry preserves I made over the summer to have with my tea. Of course that had to be Instagrammed and rubbed into my friends faces. (It was divine, in case you're wondering).

And the culmination of my banana bread making arrived in the banana bread with chocolate chips and strawberry swirl inspired by chocolate covered strawberries. The basic banana bread recipe came from a Good Housekeeping cookbook but I made a few adjustments based on my previous two quick-breads. Canola oil was used again since it kept the blueberry banana bread so tender but I skipped the spices it called for and used a touch of vanilla. The chocolate chips were an easy addition but the strawberry swirl was a little tricky. I wasn't sure how batter would react to the extra liquid.

I blended about a cup and half of strawberries with a teaspoon of sugar and let it sit while I made the batter. Once the batter was prepared, I poured half into the pan then added the blended strawberries. Using a butter knife, I marbled the strawberry mixture and batter before adding the reserved half and marbled again.

For an experiment, it turned out wonderfully. I wish the strawberry swirl could have been more vivid but looks hardly matter when it tastes so good. The strawberry doesn't overwhelm the banana and its subtlety is a delight when combined with the chocolate chips. All together, it makes for one fabulous treat.

While that's it for the procrastibaking this time, be prepared for the next level of crazy that avoidance has brought me. 

Watermelon Beer Cocktail Mixer Thing

 Happy International Beer Day!

Before beer lovers cry foul, let me point out what beer I used for this concoction. 

Less than 100 calories, Lime Cactus Michelob Ultra...
Yeah. It hardly counts as beer. Good thing I'm going to visit some breweries to make up for this.

Dad keeps buying them because he thinks Mom and I like them. When I first started drinking beer these weren't bad...they just don't taste like beer. My tastebuds have grown up and moved on to darker and hoppier things. Even the Shandys (Shandies?) lurking in the background lack appeal and crave an inspired touch. They're taking up valuable refrigerator space so things always get interesting when I'm trying to free up space. 

There's quite a bit of watermelon in the 'fridge too and, since I've had watermelon beer before, it seemed like a perfect simple solution. Improve the drinkability of the "beer" and use up some more watermelon. 

You can do this with any light beer to make a refreshing summer afternoon drink for relaxing:

Blend watermelon until the pieces create as fine a mixture as possible. Do NOT blend beer with watermelon. You'd have a foamy, frothy mess on your hands. 

Pour light beer into a large glass with ice leaving plenty of room for your blended watermelon. Add watermelon slowly and carefully because it's likely to fizz up. Watermelon and carbonated beverages make for a bubbly reaction just short of volatile.

My ratio was roughly one 12oz beer to 2oz blended watermelon. 

Garnish with an extra slice of watermelon! Or get creative and transform what you're not crazy about into something you'll be happy to drink!

Enjoy a drink far tastier than the boring light beer it started out as!

Salted Caramel Pretzel S'mores

Hopefully you'll find forgiveness in your hearts for the long delays between posts after you see this one!

During the summer, the only thing that can trump s'mores for me is ice cream. Honestly, ice cream trumps just about everything. It's the one dessert food that I will sacrifice real, savory, entree type food for the chance to enjoy that sweet creamy goodness...pardon, the daydream moment about the pint of Ben & Jerry's I just finished yesterday.

Back to s'mores! If you haven't seen The Sandlot, you should, purely for the sake of Ham's explanation of s'mores which I quote, verbatim, whenever they come up in conversation. Graham, chocolate, roasted/toasted marshmallow, graham. Campfire food perfection.

As much as I love traditional s'mores, an idea occurred to me thanks to some internet inspiration. Salted Caramel Pretzel S'mores! Between you and me, I might actually like these better than the original! (SHH! I know this is blasphemy!)

How can you create such a magnificent tastebud nirvana? With a few simple ingredients from your local store.

• Ghirardelli Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate squares
• Flat pretzel crisps
• Marshmallows

Now, you might have noticed in the picture above, that I used Peeps...My mother is a marshmallow fiend so I was appalled to find when I visited that the only marshmallows left in the house were mini ones and an open package of Vanilla Creme Peeps. I opted for the Peeps thinking that the sugar would caramelize beautifully while being toasted over the open flame of the kitchen range. (Don't judge me! It was the middle of a hot summer Saturday, I wasn't going to light a fire out back just so I could toast one Peep!)

So in the immortal and unforgettable (yet altered for the sake of this blog) words of the Great Hambino...

First, you take the pretzel crisp.
You stick the chocolate on the pretzel crisp.
THEN, you roast a 'mallow.
When the 'mallow's flamin' (or desired toastedness), you stick it on the chocolate, and you cover it with the other pretzel crisp.
And then, YOU STUFF!

It's super messy because the caramel inside the chocolate is gooey and the hot marshmallow melts the thin chocolate encasement of all that ooey caramel while the marshmallow squishes out on the sides. MMM! But it's the salty pretzel crunch and savory bite that takes these nontraditional s'mores to the next level of summertime food valhalla.

Vegan Seitan Laksa

Hopefully you can all pardon the slow rate of posting while I'm in school and working two jobs. It will be worse this semester because my schedule will have an additional 12 hours of unpaid labor added to my work week while I intern per school requirements. (Because working at two college libraries isn't enough professional field experience). Don't let my grousing fool you though! I am very excited to be interning this semester since its a chance to do different things and get experience in a wider context.

My parents have been getting to me with their veganism. While I'm not opposed to it, there are certain foods that I'm struggling to give up entirely. My body feels 100% healthier when I eat a completely plant-based diet and no dairy means I can actually breathe and swallow like a normal human being.

So in my efforts to eat less meat, and since I actually enjoy many meat substitutes, I decided to take a recipe for Chicken Laksa that I found on Myrecipes.com from Sunset magazine and make it vegan!

What is laksa? I hadn't heard of it before coming across a recipe for it on Pinterest. Food p*rn induced hunger cravings lead me to googling it to find out more. A hot and spicy Malaysian soup with noodles and usually some kind of fish component that can be done in a curry style with coconut milk. I was hooked. Reeling in some recipes was fairly easy and I printed off the one from Myrecipes.com since it seemed the most flavorful while still being quick and simple to prepare.

I had a problem though. When I found the recipe, I wasn't looking for vegan, not even vegetarian, variations. The first elimination was obvious: chicken. The second was quick to follow: chicken broth. The third was sneaky: shrimp paste. Three ingredients that all needed substitutions of some kind.

Substitution 1: seitan, pre-cooked and cubed
Substitution 2: vegetable broth/imitation chicken broth
Substitution 3: hoisin sauce

Why these swaps over others?

1. I personally really like seitan and it holds up well in soups and stew without breaking down. While some are turned off by its sponge like nature, I don't find it unappealing. It's not meat. No meat substitutes are going to have the exact same texture and mouth-feel of meat but your preference for meat's texture comes from years of eating meat and not experimenting with plant-based protein sources. Seitan is good because it gives your jaw something to actually chew on. Once you accept that it ISN'T chicken, it will be easier to develop a liking for it. Seitan is a wheat protein so it is NOT gluten free.

2. Vegetable broth is the easiest and most obvious swap for chicken broth but if you can find products like No-Chicken-Broth, you'll be able to mimic the taste to which you've become accustomed.

I also used Lite Coconut Milk to cut down on the calories.

3. Originally, I was just going to eliminate the shrimp paste and not worry about a substitute but last minute I decided it might need something salty. I did another search to find out if there are any easy substitutes for shrimp paste and found a number of recommendations but most involved miso or seaweed, neither of which I had on hand. I don't care for miso soup and I didn't want my laksa to taste anything like that. Someone suggested hoisin, something we always have in the fridge.

Vegan Seitan Laksa

adapted from Sunset magazine

by The Taming of the Roux

Ingredients:

2 tbsps coriander seeds

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

4 cloves

1/4 tsp gr. turmeric

5-8 arbol chiles, stemmed

2 lemongrass stalks*

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 lb seitan, cubed

1 tsp hoisin sauce

3 large shallots, thinly sliced

1/3 c. water

1 can (13.5oz)  lite coconut milk

1 qt. reduced sodium vegetable broth/no-chicken broth

2 tsps sugar

3 tsps kosher salt

1 cinnamon stick

6 oz mung bean sprouts, rinsed

8 oz wide rice noodles

fresh mint, torn

fresh cilantro, torn

lime wedges

Sambal oelek chili paste**

*I can never find fresh lemongrass so I used a jarred substitute. If you are like me, I used about a tablespoon of the jarred variety and didn't need to remove it from the soup later on.

**Sambal oelek is a chili garlic paste that can be found in the Asian section of your grocery store. It is not to be confused with Sriracha as it comes in a smaller container with a screw-cap. The main ingredient difference between the two is that sriracha has added sugar to make it a little sweeter. 

WARNING: The spicy heat threshold for this soup is very high. If you aren't a fan of spices tingling and heating up your whole mouth, you shouldn't add any sambal oelek at the end and you should used less than 5 arbol chiles.

Instructions:

1. Grind coriander through arbol chiles in a spice blender (or by hand for a great arm and wrist workout). Set aside. Peel the tough outer layers from the fresh lemongrass, if you have it, and mash the core with a heavy tool (like a meat mallet or a frying pan).

2. If you haven't already, slice your shallots and heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the shallots, the reserved spice mixture, and hoisin sauce. Stir to coat shallots and then add 1/3 cup of water to help the shallots saute and combine with the spices. (In the original recipe, the meat is added at this stage. Water adds moisture that is lost by eliminating the chicken.) Stir constantly until softened, roughly 2 minutes.

3. Add coconut milk, broth, sugar, salt, cinnamon stick, and lemongrass. Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered for 20 minutes. Add the seitan during the last 5 minutes.

4. In a separate pot, boil water and cook the beansprouts for 2 minutes. Remove the sprouts from the boiling water and cook the rice noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse well.

To serve, divide sprouts and noodles between bowls. Add sambal if you wish. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with a sprinkling of cilantro and mint, squeeze fresh lime juice over the top. You'll need chopsticks and a spoon for this!

How can I describe the exotic smell of this hot and fragrant soup? The kitchen smelled like a sweltering and humid country halfway around the world while the cold damp yet unseasonably warm (45 degrees F) New England January day passed by outside the kitchen window. It was nice to feel completely transported by this dish and escape, if only for a day, from the dreary weather at home.

Oh, and since I've never had laksa with meat, I have no memories of it to compare but I would put money on how delicious this recipe is. You won't miss the meat with all the warm and spicy flavors dancing on your tongue while the smell seduces your senses.