Incompetent Chef

Replacing eggs for yummy vegan baking

by wildlyfree

My favourite egg replacer for baking is flaxseed (aka linseed):

Instead of an egg:
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 3 tablespoons water/liquid
- Stir together until thick and gelatinous; alternatively, you can zap the mix in a microwave for 10 seconds, then stir, repeating these steps until it goes somewhat gloopy.

Bananas are excellent for muffins; unless you don’t like the taste of them.

I like to combine a few different egg replacers to get a better result. I don’t like to use commercial egg replacers (the powders you can buy from health food shops; they’re easy and they work but sometimes you can taste them). You can use a bit of baking powder or baking soda, but not too much extra otherwise you’ll be able to taste it.

Oh, and pancakes don’t need egg replacer (or eggs!)

If you’re making scrambled tofu, you can add himalayan salt, which has sulphur in it and therefore is a bit eggy. (It’s too eggy for me, plus I’m working on cutting out soya).

My favourite source for egg-replacer info is The Post Punk Kitchen.

The Vegan Society has helpful tips on replacing eggs too. It starts with vegan agitprop, but then has helpful stuff about what to use depending on what function eggs would be fulfilling, plus some recipes.

Bits of extra info (although lots of crossover too):
WikiHow
Peta

Experimenting is your friend!

Ooh, and a bonus recipe for vegan eggnog! It’s soya-free and gluten-free. You can easily make it nut-free by using rice milk, hemp milk or some other non-dairy milk instead of almond milk. :) I would make it alcohol-free too, by adding extra milk instead of rum.

NOM!

Latest adventures in the kitchen…

by wildlyfree

Cheery (and cherry) Banana Chocolate Muffins. Spicy Sundried Tomato and Black Olive risotto. Might have to rename Incompetent Chef…

The muffins are vegan, gluten-free and soya-free. Instead of “sugar”, there’s blackstrap molasses, agave syrup and cherries. Plus, extra rich 72% dark chocolate with added cocoa nibs.

The risotto is vegan, gluten-free and soya-free. It includes hefty amounts of garlic and oregano, with some leek and red onion too.

Recently made chocolate chip custard pancakes too. (Vegan, gluten-free).

Next on my list: Happy Vegan Lemon & Lime Coconut Cookies. (Vegan, gluten-free and soya-free, with a dash of molasses, agave and lots of sugar).

Nom.

Cheffing at Pogo Café…!

by wildlyfree

I might need to rename this site now, as yesterday I cheffed at Pogo Café in Hackney for the first time. Cooking meals and people paying for them!

It was great.

Volunteers needed: Come and help out! :)

Vegan, gluten-free cauliflower cheese

by wildlyfree

Ingredients

Roux

     Base
1 onions, slices
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 chilli, chopped
5 leaves fresh basil

     Flour
1/2 cup of rice flour

     Fat
2 tablespoons vegan sunflower spread (approx)
1/2 cup olive oil (approx)
1/2 cup rice milk (approx)
1/2 cup soya milk (approx) - you could easily substitute this with more of the other fats
Lots of yeast flakes - to taste
Tiny bit of rock salt - to taste

Cauliflower, head of, in florets

Plus… optional extras
Lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
Chilli powder - to taste

Instructions

1/
- Fry Base ingredients in a saucepan, until soft and yummy

2/
- Add a bit of Fat, add a bit of Flour. Mix continuously on a low, constant heat. Try not to splash mixture on the sides of the pan. Keep adding and mixing. Don’t leave it! (If yoy need to, take it off the heat).
- Vary amounts of Fat and Flour if necessary to make it a thick but pourable consistency
- Do the adding, mixing thing until it doesn’t smell or taste of raw flour. (Smell or taste some raw flour if you’re not sure).
- Taste it and make sure it’s yummy - if not, add more of whatever you think will help :)

When it’s done, take it off the heat. Switch the oven on - high heat.

3/
- Wash cauliflower (put some salt in the water to encourage any insects to leave)
- Boil for about five minutes (if you’re using an aluminium pan, add some lemon juice to the water to stop the cauliflower discolouring). When you put a fork in it, it should be a bit firm still. Eat some if you like!

4/
- Drain cauliflower (reserving the water that’s full of nutrition) and put it in a roasting dish
- Cover with the roux
- Mix it together somewhat
- Sprinkle with chilli powder, if desired
- Put it on the top shelf of the oven for about 10 mins (until a little bit brown).

5/
NOM!

Spicy Potato and Spinach Curry Thing

by askandy

Get these things:

• 800g potatoes (such as Red Rascal), peeled, cut into 4cm pieces
• Olive oil
• 1 large shallot
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 fresh long green chilli
• 1 tsp garam masala (ed. apparently this is “just a spice; you can get it anywhere”)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• Tomatoes
• 150g baby spinach leaves
• Crushed walnuts to serve

Now the great thing about this dish, apart from its rich, spicy flavours is that because it have lots of potatoes in you don’t need to have rice too unless you really want to. Its a one potter.

So first up, do your prep, get everything peeled, sliced and crush up the herbs and some oil.

Now get the potatoes on in some water and bring to the boils, give them about 4 mins just to soften them a bit and release some of that starch. Drain them and set aside.

In the same pot heat the oil / herb mixture, get it nice and hot. But be careful, the spices can burn fairly easily, so keep it moving and don’t blast it. Now get the shallots in and cook until they start to change colour, but don’t brown them, god no. About 4 mins.

Now get the tomatoes in, give them a blast, add the potatoes and brown the whole thing up a bit.

Its spinach time. First give it a good old wash (unless of course you are fancy and got the pre washed stuff from St Michaels). Don’t skimp here or you will end up with grit in your curry.

Add the spinach to the pot, slop in a little water, cover it and lets leave it for 15 mins.

OK

Give it a big old stir up, into a bowl and sprinkle with a nice amount of chopped walnuts.

Put Family Fortunes on the telly and Eat it.

Hot Keeeeeen Waaaaah Risotto

by askandy

Ocado delivered Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) as a replacement for brown rice a week or so ago, so I had to first figure out what it is and then what to do with it. Turns out it was big with the Incas, who held the crop to be sacred, referred to quinoa as “chisaya mama” or “mother of all grains”, and it was the Inca emperor who would traditionally sow the first seeds of the season using ‘golden implements’

So sounds like pretty cool stuff. So to keep with the health side of it I decided to try something vegan with it.

What you need.

• Mug of the mother of all grains.
• Large medium onion
• Large carrot
• Some mushrooms
• Red pepper
• Olive oil
• Birds Eye Chilies
• Chili powder
• Garlic
• Cumin Seeds
• Ground Coriander
• Salt
• Pepper
• Tomato puree
• Peas
• water
• Fresh Coriander
• Some more hot pepper sauce

First off, wash the quinoa, seemingly it has a bitter coating of some kind that need to be got rid of. So wash it well.

Now, smash up all the spices, the garlic and some oil in a P and M.

Now heat the spice mixture in a big pan, and get the onions cooking for a couple of mins (go easy, don’t burn them) , now get your carrots, mushrooms and pepper in there, another couple of mins please.

Right, stick the grain in, make sure you mix it up good so its covered in oil (add more if you need) , give it another couple of mins. Now squirt some tomato puree in, add 2 mugs of water, mix it, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 mins, stirring occasionally and add a little more water if you need to. Towards the end, mix in the peas.

After 15, remove from heat, give it a good old stir, cover and let it sit for 5 mins or so.

Now stir in some chopped coriander.

Taste and add hot sauce if you want to.

Done.

Over 100 vegan recipes by Gareth, Hipo Hyfryd

by wildlyfree

Gareth Blake, of Hipo Hyfryd, is lovely (I’ve met them) & makes the most amazing vegan truffles.

I just realised both their recipe books are available free online:

The Voluptuous Vole
The Happy Hippo

I guess I’ll have to make some of them now…! :)