For the love of…Cookies

My sister is fantastic. Seriously. My mother thinks my sister and I have switched places because I’ve been doing copious amounts of baking recently, because my sister is the baker in our family. She is honestly amazing, she sent me a few vegan cookbooks amongst which was Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and my mouth simply started watering.

This book features a selection of mouth watering recipes for all kinds of cookies you never imagined would be vegan, including vegan style oreo cookies! Now that really excited me, especially with my new found oreo cookie cupcake fetish!

So over the weekend I decided to refrain from baking cupcakes in order to try out a vegan version of traditional chocolate chip cookies and I was happily surprised!

These were whole wheat chocolate chip cookies that were perfectly chewy in the middle, and crunchy on the outside. The kinds you dream about dunking in a glass of milk (soy of course) and enjoying as a midnight snack!

Once again as proof I did actually bake, my handy dandy blackberry provides you with an image:

I do promise I will be investing in a camera soon – I just havent found one I liked yet! For now the handy blackberry will have to do!

The Verdict: I would recommend you buy this book in a heartbeat! I’m excited to try out more cookie recipes along side my cupcakes!

 

For the love of…Indian Food

I’m not a die hard fan of Indian food, having grown up around it all my life I always get excited about any other cuisine, because Indian food is one thing I find is best home made by mum and there really isn’t any other way I would have it.  The one thing I do love about Indian food is that most of their vegetarian dishes are actually vegan – it gets me excited when I feel like i’m lacking in variety.

So here, I share with you, one of my favourite Indian recipes by Manjula Jain, a chickpea salad:

Recipe serves 4.

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry chickpeas
• 1 medium size boiled potato peeled and cubed in about ¼ inch
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/4  cup gram flour
• 1 tablespoon finely grater ginger
• 1 seeded minced green chili adjust to taste
• 1 1/2  teaspoon salt adjust to taste
• 1 teaspoon black salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon roasted cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon mango powder
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Wash chickpeas and soak in about 4 cups of water for at least 8 hours. Chickpeas after soaking will become about 2½ times the volume of the original.

Drain the chickpeas and wash it.

In a pressure cooker add chickpeas with four cups of water. Cook on medium high heat.

As pressure cooker starts steaming turn the heat down to medium, put the pressure and cook for about 8 minutes.

Turn of the heat and wait until steam has stopped before opening the pressure cooker. Chickpeas should be soft and tender.

Heat the oil in a saucepan (large enough to hold the chick peas) on medium heat, add the gram flour (basen) and stir fry until gram flour is light golden brown. This process should take about two minutes.

Next add grated ginger and minced green chili, stir for a few seconds. Add the chickpeas to the gram flour.

Add salt, black salt, black pepper, roasted cumin seed powder, and mango powder. While mixing the spices lightly mash the chickpeas.

Let it cook on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, turn of the heat.

Add potatoes, garam masala and lemon juice. Mix it gently. Let the chickpeas sit at least for half an hour before serving so it is well marinated.

Recipe courtesy of http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2010/03/15/chole-chaat-spicy-chickpeas/

 

Thank You

I owe you guys the hugest thank you for your continued visits to my blog despite the lack of postings. Things have been a little hectic on this end and in due course with upcoming posts I shall explain why, but for now – in the midst of me coughing incessently and working like a maniac, I just wanted to drop a little thank you note to you – I’m still here – and there are definately more posts coming your way shortly.

Much Love

R x