robotpilot & the picnic on the moon.

Persimmon & Meyer Lemon Spice-Cake

This was the yummiest gluten-free vegan thing I’ve baked since this experiment began a few months ago.

Unfortunately, I paid little attention to the quantities, I only jotted down the ingredients after the fact, so I’ll have to try again to replicate it, taking more notes.

Persimmon & Meyer Lemon Spice Cake:

Before you start, turn your oven on to 350°F, or 176°C (still the same thing) so it can preheat.

Sweet Sorghum Flour (~2 cups, more?)
Tapioca Flour (~1 cup)
Ener-g Egg Replacer (probably ~2-3 Tb) 
Baking Powder (1 Tb?)
Baking Soda (1 tsp?)
Salt (1/2 tsp?)
Sugar (1/2 cup maybe?)

Combine powdery ingredients in a bowl. Whisk & set aside. If you like sifting, you could do that instead. Your choice!

Bananas (7, frozen)
Persimmons (2, new world, diced)
Meyer Lemons (1 1/2, squeezed, then minced, both used, seeds removed.)
Vegan Margarine (1/2 cup?)
Nutmeg (a pinch)
Cloves (1 pinch)
Cinnamon (1 tsp)
Ginger (1 tsp, powdered, could use fresh)
Cardamom (1/2 tsp)
Vanilla Extract (2 Tb?)

Heat a pan, I’m partial to my wok, over medium heat. Melt the margarine & put the frozen bananas in, cutting them roughly with a wooden spoon. As they soften, add all the spices, the vanilla, persimmons & lemons. Simmer a bit, stirring often, until they become a fragrant melange. Remove from heat & pour into the powdery ingredients. Stir until combined.

Pour this into a pan. I like to use a bundt cake pan. It instantly feels festive.

Pop your cake in the oven, and bake until your knife comes out clean. Set your cake on a cooling rack & allow it to cool while you make the glaze by combining the ingredients below in your blender. If you have no blender, use a whisk or a fork. This will take much longer and turn out less smooth, though, so please use a blender if you can.

Glaze:

Vegan Margarine (1/2 cup)
Vegan Sour Cream (1/2 cup)
Vanilla (1 Tb)
Vegan Powdered Sugar (1 cup or so)
Ice Wine (1 1/2 oz)

Pour this over the top of the cake, allowing some of it to pool in the pan around the bottom.

Enjoy!

Vegan, Gluten-free, Lasagna

Since D.’s sudden-onset severe food allergies, I devote loads of time figuring out delicious food for him that doesn’t taste like bland filler.

I’m a pretty inventive cook, but the limitations: no dairy, soy, gluten, nuts, avocado, kiwi, raw leafy greens, etc… can be pretty challenging.

Since this is hard for me, a life-time vegetarian and a wicked-awesome cook, I can only imagine how hard it must be for other people with similar allergies. My recipes are pretty free-form, but I will try to share them here, starting with this tasty treat:

Vegan, Gluten-free, Lasagna

Cut up and steam a squash. I used Gray Ghost because it’s delicious. Allow the squash to cool, then remove from skin.

Cut up & steam a few potatoes, add to squash in bowl

Mash together with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and 1/2 cup Daiya.

Set aside.

Saute onion, garlic in olive oil w/sea salt & tarragon.

Add chopped carrots, celery, broccoli, asparagus, kale.

Set aside

Saute onion, garlic in olive oil w/sea salt, chili powder, cayenne, basil & thyme

Add tablespoon honey & ¼ cup red wine or vinegar

Once onions are translucent, add whole preserved tomatoes, chopped, and juice

Simmer about 45 minutes on medium heat, stirring, then remove from heat.

Once it’s cooled enough, transfer to blender and puree.

Rice pasta: cook and rinse with cold water to separate pasta sheets. Separate and set to one side.

Cover the bottom of a low dish with tomato sauce, then a layer of pasta.

Cover with a layer of squash mix, then a layer of pasta, then a layer of veggies, continue layering until pan is nearly full, finishing with a layer of pasta covered in tomato sauce.

Cover with a layer of Daiya, then pop it in the preheated oven, at 350F.

When sauce bubbles around the edges and Daiya is melted, your lasagna is done!

xoxo

Yummy!

Breakfast Tacos

I made D. some tacos for breakfast, and he said they were so yummy that I had to write them down for later.

Here’s my best approximation:

steam cubed potatoes and put in a bow, roughly mash them with olive oil, pink himalayan salt & freshly cracked black pepper. then steam chopped kale and add it to the potatoes. cook rice, then mix some in with the potato/kale mixture. set aside.

take some corn tortillas, spread across a cookie sheet. melt vegan margarine or olive oil on each, then sprinkle nutritional yeast across the top. sprinkle pink salt & fresh cracked black pepper on top, and put them back in the oven for a couple minutes to toast the top of the yeast.

open a can of el pato tomato sauce, or some other salsa roja if you must. drizzle a tablespoon or two across the top of each tortilla with a spoon.

spoon the potato/kale mixture into each taco. top with thinly sliced cucumber & serve.

xoxo