Ginger jam

Autumn has really come now, so I'd like to share something sweet, warm and spicy )

This kind of jam will do very well for the season. It's not only tasty but prevents season flu and gives extra energy to live your full life on windy and rainy days. But you need to have some patience because this jam can fairly be called "slow food": the whole process of making is 5-6 days.

So you need:

fresh ginger - 1 cup

apples - 1 cup

sugar - 1 - 1 1/2 cup 

Peel and dice ginger. Place it into a bowl of water for 2-3 days and change the water every day - to remove bitterness. You may add orange skin into the bowl.

Peel and chop apples (or process in a blender), add infused ginger (and orange skins if you took them), place all ingridients in a sausepan, add sugar. Bring to a boil and keep on the simmer for few minutes untis sugar melts. Then turn off the cooker and leave the mixture till the next day. The next day boil it again and keep on the simmer for 5 minutes. Repeat for 2 more days. 

You've got an unusual dessert for your family and a good present for anyone.

Apples everywhere...

Apples rule! We have so many apples that they will soon fill the kitchen up to the ceiling. And...apple pies, apple pancakes, jams, dry apples - it's not the whole list of things you can make of them!

Here is a very easy recepie of  russian apple jam "5 minutes". In this kind of jam all nutrients and vitamins are preserved very well, so it's a healthy and quite low-sugar dessert.

You need:
apples - peeled and destoned - 1 kilo
white sugar - 200g

Dice apples, place in an enamel bowl (sausepan) and cover them with sugar. Leave for an hour (until juice appears), stirring occasionally. When the mixture is juicy enough, place the bowl on a cooker and slowly reduce to boiling - it will take about 5 min. Don't forget to stir the mixture vigorously all the time. Jam is ready! Fill some jars with it and keep in a cool place.
This jam doesn't have long shelf life, though it even needn't it - because it too tasty!))

Semolina and lemon cake

This is a veganised variant of a popular Russian recepie. I love lemon cakes, so I add lemon, but instead /or you can add raisins or some other dry or fresh fruit.

For a middle-sized cake I took:

semolina - 250g
soy flour - 2 tbs
sugar - 3 full tbs
a half of lemon
baking soda - 1 1/2 tea sp
baking powder - 1/2 tea sp
apple vinegar - a splash
vanilla sugar with natural vanilla extract - 2 tea sp
vegan margarin - 2 tbs
see salt - a pinch, to taste

Preheat an oven to 200 degrees C. Mix well semolina with margarin in a bowl. Grind lemon (rind, flesh and juice - all goes), add it to the bowl. Add sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, soy flour and baking powder and mix well. Extinguish soda with vinegar, add to the bowl. Add some water to make a thick batter, mix very well again.
Grease a middle-sized baking form, put your batter into it and level a bit. Put into the oven, bake for about 40 min.
You'll get something like this, very fragrant and tasty:

Semolina cake

 

Russian pancakes

Russian Pancake week is a week before Lent, seven weeks before Easter. The tradition of cooking pancakes which symbolise the sun is derived from the sun worship of the ancient times. Now pancakes are the symbol of passing winter and coming spring. Each hostess has her own recepie of pancakes, there are no right and wrong recepies - the main rule is your personal preferences.
Here is the simplest recepie of vegan pancakes, of so called "thin" pancakes (for "thick" you need some yeast).
Ingredients:
1-2 cups of white flour
2 tbs of soy flour
1/2 cup of sunflower oil
 water
sugar, salt to taste

1. Start with adding water to white flour little by little, to make nice batter, without flakes. The batter should be liquid but not too much - a consistence something like that of treacle. It's not easy to find this appropriate consistence, so add some flour or water in the process of cooking, looking at what is turning out..
2. Mix soy flour with water and add to the batter. Add salt and sugar.
3. Heat a frying pan with at least 3 tea spoons of oil till the oil is boiling.
4. Spoon up a good ladle of the batter and pour out onto the pan. Swing the pan from right to left to let the batter spread in a thin layer at the whole surface. Fry for about 30 seconds, then turn uside down with the help of a broad knife. Lay the ready pancake on a plate, grease the pan again and pour out a new portion of batter. And so it goes.

The first pancake may be not as nice as you'd like it to be, but the next ones will get out better and better. You can make some filling (tofu, cooked vegetables, raisins - whatever you like) and roll it up in pancakes. Or just deep them in jam and eat. )))

The Cake before Christmas

This easy and delicious chocolate cake is a good match for a cup of tea in winter evenings. Now it's just the time when you'd like to chocolate yourself a bit and think about the upcoming holidays.

For the cake:
plain flour -300g
cocoa powder - 3 tbs
sugar - 100g
walnuts - 100g
baking powder - 1 tsp
baking soda - 1,5 tsp
vinegar, a splash
water - about a cup.

For the cream:
vegan margarine - 100g
cocoa powder - about 2 tsp
sugar - about 2 tbs

coconut chips for topping

Crush walnuts and fry them on a pan without oil.
Preheat an oven at 180C.
Mix well flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder and walnuts. Add a drop of vinegar into a spoon of soda and mix into the pastry. Add some water to make the pastry not firm but not fluid. Lay the pastry into the greased round baking form and top with coconut chips. Put into the oven for about 40 min.
Make some creame for layering. Mix mararine, sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl until sugar melts. Put the cream into the fridge.
Take the cake out of the oven and let it get cold. Divide the cake horizontally into 2 parts. I do it this way: cut the cake around (not deeply), take a dense thread, put it into the cut, cross the ends and pull them both ways. The halves get out plane and nice.
Take your cream out of the fridge and spread it on the bottom half. Cover with the upper half, press a little and put into the fridge. Let it settle for a day to become soft and saturated.

My cake rose very well, so it would be ok to cut it even into 3 layers. If you decide to do that, you'll need some more cream.

Vegan rissoles

A very tasty dish as well as cheap and easy. I make it of different ingredients, so this is only one of many possible variants.

You need:

fine oatmeal flakes - 1 cup
1 middle-sized carrot
1/2 middle-sized onion
ketchup - 2 tb sp
soy flour - 1 tb sp
white flour - 1/2 cup
oil or sunflower oil - 1 tb sp
dry herbs, any you like - 1 tea sp
salt to taste

Finely chop carrot and onion, mix with dry oatmeal flakes and fry. Add ketchup, herbs, soy flour and mix well. Form round rissoles, coat with flour and fry at both sides.

Instead of oatmeal you can take any other flakes, porridge, or boiled rice. You can also add beet, tomatoes, aubergine or squash.
Rissoles are delicious with mased or baked potatoes as well as in a burger with ketcup.

Vegan rissoles - one with beet to the right

Delicious...))

Chocolate and dates cake

This morning I found that remains of soya milk in my fridge got soured. So I decided to make this sponge cake with them. It turned out very well. Just for gloomy autumn day.

I took:

White flour - 250g
sour soya milk - about 150ml. If you're lucky and your milk is fresh, add 1\2 tea sp. of vinegar to it )
sugar - 2,5 tb.sp.
dates, destoned and chopped - a handful
cocoa-powder - 2,5 tea sp.
baking powder - 1,5 tea sp.
salt - a pinch
water - to make your pastry a bit fluid

Preheat an oven, 180C is enough
Mix all the ingredients together, add water to dilute. Mash until smooth.
Lay out into a greased baking forrm.
Bake until a picking match is dry, around 30 min (depends on your oven, though)

You can add some more cocoa if you like - to make it darker and more chocolate.

Vegan hot breakfast sandwiches

The recepie I like very much. It's so suitable for cool autumn mornings!

For 2 persons you need:
white bread, 8 slices
soya milk, about 1 1\2 cups
firm tofu, 200g
any oil or vegan margarine
salt (if you like)

Fill a bowl with milk and deep bread pieces in it (one by one or all together). Let them get soaked well.
Heat an oiled pan. Lay it with 4 bread pieces.
Slice the tofu. Put some slices on each heated piece of bread.
Cover the sandwiches with another 4 bits of bread.
Lid the pan, cook for 5 min.

The sandwiches are very soft and delicious...mmm!

Recpie from VeganFamily

Recently I cooked super-tasty quiche, the recepie is from http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2012/06/30/gluten-free-broccoli-and-sweetcorn-quiche/
I took cauliflower instead of broccoli (the former is common at my place fresh, the latter is sold mostly frozen). Cauliflower resembled puree at the end and made the dish very soft and delicate.

Thank you, VeganFamily! ))

Lentils-potato pie

For this delicious pie

you will need:

1 cup of red lentils (they’re boiled to pulp very well)

4-5 middle-sized potatoes

3\4 cup of soya milk (I use Alpro Soya Unsweetened) or water

2-3 tsp of soya flour

1 tsp of vegan margarine (or vegan mayonnaise)

1 tsp of vegetable powder or dried vegetables – leek, carrot, celery, etc. Dried herbs will do well too.

Bunch of dill or 1 tsp of dried dill

Salt, pepper to taste.

Peel and roughly chop potatoes, then place to a pan and boil to readiness.

Boil lentils with added dried veggies until very soft and creamy – 10-12 min.

Once potatoes are cooked, mash with soya milk or water and margarine (mayonnaise). Add salt and dill.

Stir cooked lentils with soya flour, add salt.

Place lentils in a loaf pan, spread mashed potatoes on top.

Place in oven at 200C\400F for around 20 min.

I spread a tsp of natural smoke (BBQ) essence on top of potatoes before putting in oven. That makes it even more delicious!

Serve with vegetable salad or veggies in any form.

You could take dried green peas instead of red lentils -  the dish turns out as well, but peas must boil for 40 min.