Win A Vegan Food Box

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Vegan Food Box

Vegan Food Box

2 prizes of a selection box of vegan products to win.

Boutique Vegan opened their online store to a bit of a fan fare last year. I recently checked in with them to see how it is all going, and we decided it would be a rather good idea to showcase a selection of new, and much loved vegan products for 2 lucky readers to try. Vegan food for free!

The winners boxes contain the following:

  • miigan soy protein - low carbohydrates and zero cholesterol, which makes them a perfect base for any low-carb diet.
  • Vego chocolate bar - you just have to mention the name of this hazelnut packed chocolate bar to a vegan to get them salivating.
  • Hurraw lip balm - infused with ayurvedic herbs to keep your lips at their kissing best
  • Violife vegan cheeses - One of my favourite soy free, melty vegan cheese slices made with coconut.
  • Chimpanzee energy bars - all natural protein bars made with brown rice protein and dates.
  • HanFu hemp seed paté - a delicious healthy nut free, lactose free pate made from hemp seeds.
  • Vantastic Foods Veggie Carpaccio - organic vegan parma ham style slices. NOT GLUTEN FREE - made with wheat protein.

Entrants in Europe only with some area exceptions - see here

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

good luck!

x

 

 

A Trip To The Coast Unearths An All Vegan Food Store

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I was house sitting a couple of months ago when Britain was awash with a welcome hot sun.  I travelled to a little English village beside the ‘Butlins infamous’ town of Bognor Regis.  A seaside town with pebble beach on the south coast of England.  I was a bit concerned beforehand that it would be a jolly vista of lobster pink bodies, garish teeth chipping candy, and awash with bawdy ‘hens’ on a night out.  Not so.  Just 1/4 mile from Bognor promenade and you arrive in a calm and peaceful oasis where time has stood still.  It’s all precision clipped lawns and friendly doffed caps.  The most rowdy you’ll experience in this village of thatched cottages and dogs you can tuck under your armpit, is a swooping opportunist seagull nicking your cucumber sandwiches!

As usual when I am travelling around much research is carried out and the internet chugs out helpful lists of places of interest, and of course Happy Cow lets me know what is in my area in terms of vegan eats.  The vegan eats drew a blank, the closest being Daisy Moo in Worthing.  What I did find was Vegetaria.  A totally vegan shop (curiously combined with an estate agency - the veggie passionate owners wanted to make eating meat free easier for shoppers).  It is small shop floor but well stocked with ready meals, gluten free products, veggie ‘meats’, vegan cheese, desserts, frozen good, condiments, snacks, drinks, house hold products and pet food!  And, it is a not just a high street store.  Vegetaria have an online store too!  I’m so happy to see more and more vegan stores sprouting up in Europe.

Two of the three pugs that I had the pleasure to look after.  Pugs are hilarious as I had the joy to discover!

Going Cheese Mad! A Workshop. An event - A Cheese & Wine Tour June 2013 [with gorgeous photos!]

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Last month I was so excited to visit Peta’s offices in Oakland, California, to attend a cheese making class with chef and cookbook author Miyoko Schinner.  The room was packed with eager home cooks. Miyoko was so fun, giving us great tips and being very generous with the samples the Peta staff handed out to the hungry crowd.  She demonstrated how to make her signature nut cheeses.  We got to see how to make mozzarella, the taste so close to the dairy version! Sure to fool anyone.  A cashew cream cheese, with a few flavour combo’s; ‘salmon’, garlic etc.     At the end of her demonstration, she had even more aged cheeses for us to try.  The murmurs around the room told me I wasn’t the only one who loved them.  
Miyoko mingled with the audience afterwards, happy to sign books and answer questions.  I’d already reviewed her book (click here) of aged, air dried, almost instant and sauces and fondues so I knew her work well.  After seeing how fit she is and how effervescent I wanted to know how she kept in amazing shape.  She said, ‘I have cheese as an occasional treat, I eat greens everyday and surround myself with loving family and friends’.  Well it is certainly working for her!



I am excited to let you know of an event I was invited to, coming up in June, 22nd. 2013, where you can go on a tour with Miyoko.  It saddens me I’m not in the country to be able to go.  But perhaps you can?  If you would like to have the opportunity to go on a vegan Cheese & Wine Tour, in the beautiful Sonoma County, California, with Miyoko. And join a bunch of folk eager to spend the day with one of America’s artisan cheese makers..you can.  The details below.


p.s  If you go, please come back and let us know in the comments box below this post, how it went!  Make us all green with envy!


Click here for Facebook Event Page

Artisan Vegan Cheese - Book Review

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Artisan. Vegan. Cheese…Yes!! check out those words sitting up against each other.  Is that music I hear?!  To my ears, Ms Miyoko Schinner.  To my ears.
I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book.  Written by long time vegan Miyoko. Cook and founder of Artisan Vegan Life  It is squashed full of cheese alchemy.  The book is sectioned into styles of cheese. 

  • artisan & aged
  • almost instant
  • air dried
  • meltable
  • sauces & fondue
You can learn to make cream cheese, brie, chèvre etc.  

The back of the book hosts recipes in which to showcase your creations.  I am yearning to get all experimental in the A Vegan Obsession kitchen but, alas, my house is full of plaster dust.  Building work and an impending trip are hampering the experimental kitchen right now, but I did manage to have a blast at the nut parmesan powder and the sharp cheddar.

It is a fascinating read, discovering just what ingredients make a beloved cheese.  Not all recipes are allergy friendly, though they are certainly fantastic for the lactose intolerant (some soy is used in certain recipes).  A good deal of the recipes (the ‘hard’ cheeses) require thickening agents - agar, carageenan (irish moss).    Miyoko breaks it all down and helps to make you realise that cheese is bascially protein and fat.  Who needs animal milk?!   
It is has some surprises too.  Did you know oil is the secret ingredient to make cheese all melty? Although some of the recipes are practically instant, mostly patience is required.  It’s cheese.  Cheese takes time.  Some recipes take mere days, others take weeks…..usually the hard ones.  Though ‘hard’ doesn’t necessarily mean they be as dense as their dairy counterparts.  

Equipment needed to execute the recipes are discussed in the book too, to make sure when cheese making fever strikes, you are good to go.  Most you’ll have in your kitchen. The use of a cheese press is aparantely invaluable to produce a more traditional ‘hard’ cheese.  The only other bit of equipment you may need to fork out for is a blender.  Actually I second (and third) that…a blender is highly recommended.  My blender is still unmaterialised and gathering dust on my ‘wish list’, (alongside the book deal and the man).  So, I’ve decided to give the delivery of hitherto mentioned blender a deadline to have it sitting on my countertop for summer 2013!  Meantime, the processor works ok, but can tend towards resulting grittiness.  Or to be more poetic..a tad coarse. 
Rejuvelac, a culturing agent made from water and a grain such as rice or millet and/or non dairy yogurt, get the good bacteria to work, imparting that cheesy flavour.  One of my attempts was with non-dairy kefir, so not so sure it hit the right spot.  I’ll try with rejuvelac next.  It is simple to make.





Results: My sharp cheddar came out a little piquant and, without the use of a cheese press, firm.  Tasty though, but not as I recall mature cheddar, and definitely not much of a slicing challenge to my cheese knife.  The nut parmesan was lovely.

Once I’m back in AVO headquarters and those dust-making builders have packed up their tools and walked into the sunset I’ll be making my way through these recipes for sure. 

Thanks to The Book Publishing Co.  for bringing us another great vegan recipe book and Randol White from Eat Drink Explore for agreeing for us to post his video interview with Miyoko.

Layered lunch.  

A doorstep of Raw almond bread, a mighty wedge of sharp cheddar, a slice of sweet red apple, topped with a hearty spoon of carrot mayonnaise.   Yes, carrot mayonnaise!  Want it??   I’ll be posting the recipe tomorrow.  

Watch out for it. 

PARTY POPPERS - Bite-you-back stuffed Peppadew Peppers - gluten-free vegan

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I could easily live off these for a month!  Do you ever raise two triumphant, celebratory hands into the air when achieving something awesome?  When I popped my first taste of one of these my body lost control and I did just that.  I looked like the person first through the tape at the end of a race!

Continuing my recipe testing of Vegan 90 mouthwatering recipes for all occasions by Tony Weston & Yvonne Bishop..gossip.. they since married..ahh)   I was so excited to give this recipe a whirl.  I had to make them a couple of times to get the batter right.  My recipes are gluten-free so I have a little bit of tweaking to do.

The first batch tasted INCREDIBLE almost indescribable but they were like flavour grenades.  The peppadews were piquant and succulent, the garlicky cheese was rich and creamy, the sesame seeds and lemon rind gave a background of slightly bitter tang.  Soft, chewy, moist little pops of flavour burst into your mouth with such intensity and they take you over completely…rendering all around you, momentarily, of very little interest.  Attention grabbers! 

With the flavours in the bag I made a few alterations and put another batch in the oven.  I made the batter thicker than previously and put a little less of the cheese stuffing in the pepper (so the heat of the oven didn’t make them explode and leave me with a baking tray of garlicky cheese (though I would’ve eaten it anyway!).  I wanted them to look good (I’d say look as good as they taste but I think this near on impossible).

My second batch pouting for the camera…

I think the batter could still be improved slightly to prevent cracking…a pinch of xantham gum may do the trick.  For now, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

8 teaspoons of Vegan cream cheese (I used Redwood Blue cheese style)
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 tbs chopped parsley
8 peppadew peppers in a jar - labelled HOT - they are deseeded and topped
1/2  cup(125g) sorghum flour (they used strong white)
1 (125ml) coconut milk (I used Kara - it is not the type in a can you use for cooking but a milk drink) you can use rice or soya milk instead
1 tbs Vegan yogurt
1 tsp arrowroot
1 crumbled vegan yeast free stock cube
1 tsp lime rind or zest
juice of 1/2 lime
sesame seeds for sprinkling
oil for greasing pan

optional - a generous pinch of cayenne and a peppering of white pepper

Method

1. oil a baking sheet.  Preheat the oven to 180 (350f).
2. put cream the cheese, garlic, and parsley in a bowl.
3. using a small spoon stuff the mixture into each pepper
4. in a bowl put the flour, milk, yogurt, arrowroot, crumbled stock cube and lime rind/zest & juice.  Mix well to a stiff batter.

5.Using your thumb pat the dough into your other hand to make it even thickness then place the stuffed pepper inside.  Close the dough over the pepper and then roll in you hand to make a ball.  Ensure all of the pepper is covered.
6.Roll in a little oil and then the sesame seeds (I didn’t do this so they looked a little anemic..learn from my mistakes to result in a nice golden finish).  Pop onto the baking tray.
7. Bake for approx 7 mins and then turn and baste and return to oven for 7-10 mins until crisp.

They will not last five minutes as they are SUBLIME, mouthwatering and moreish.  Crowd pleasers for sure!  Next time I will double the ingredients and make 16.  I can freeze any that remain (yeah right).  

* Tony & Yyvonne’s original recipe made way too much dough/batter for 8 so I changed this up.

Next time I make these I will have a go and tempura them.  They’d also be very delicious without the batter and just naked, blushing and bare on a platter…exposing a tantilising flash of the garlic creamed cheese.

OUTTAKES

My first batch - oh dear, extremely tasty yet not fit for exhibition!

From the cookbook VEGAN

LONDON VEGAN FESTIVAL - 2011

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Woo hoo!  It was the London Vegan Festival on Saturday.  An annual event held in an exhibition hall just off Kensington High Street.  I had been before, a few years back, but to be honest I’d not really enjoyed it.  This time was different though, I had people I wanted to meet and a few foods I had on my list to try.

The day had pasted up wall to wall sunshine so I decided to walk along the Thames before hopping on a tube to wilt in the high heat of a packed train.  The Circle line was closed so I had to walk from South Kensington, which could have been annoying but turned out rather well as a very manicured Italian Adonis agreed to accompany me the mile or so to the High Street, following my plea for him to relieve me from my state of lostness (is that a word?.. actually no, but I’m using it anyway).

When I entered the festival I was plunged into a world of brown.  I then recalled why I didn’t  much enjoy the festival the first time I’d gone.  Kudos to London holding a vegan festival but to be honest in my opinion, the building is depressing and dingy and doesn’t really do much to advertise bright and happy vegan living. 

Anyhow, I had a job to do so I wandered around the stalls.  Encouragingly the place was packed and patience was called upon to reach the front of the rows of people and get to sample tiny squares of things on cocktail sticks.  Much of the stalls were animal rights based and, being food obsessed,  I would have loved to have seen a bigger food contingency too.

I picked up a few cards and flyer’s from the stalls that impressed me;

 Raw Delights had some really good granola and savoury crackers
www.moofreechocolates.com were there with their vegan chocs and hamster (??) mascot

www.redwoodfoods.co.uk had some samples of their ‘meats’ (too closely resembling the real thing for my liking but would be a good choice perhaps for those transitioning. Their BLUE CHEESE was delicious. 

I FINALLY got to meet www.mscupcake.com - what a sweetie - agreeing to pose for this picture.  She’d already nearly sold out of her creations by 1pm

www.plamil.com had a stall packed with all their flavoured chocolates and vegan mayonnaise

Bright West Indian flavour from the Green garden cafe
this rather nice chap from Redwoods had some tasty soya free, yogurt made from pea protein and fruit sweetened.  Do you think he had honed his pot holding skills before the festival?

The gluten free cheesy slice and colourful fresh salads from www.fairfoods.org were enticing and I was curious to try so this was my lunch option (surprising how I had room after a round of sampling and a cake pod and cupcake!).  I didn’t take a pic (this is courtesy of their website - you can also get the recipe here).  I can report it was rustic, delicious and I cleaned my plate.

A full list of programme promoters, vendors and sponsors can be seen here.  Other noteworthy vendors;
www.mccakes.co.uk - wonderful artistic custom made cakes
www.bboheme.com - Bourgeois Boheme had a line up of some very stylish and covetable boots and shoes
www.establishlife.org - sweet couple just on the cusp of launching their new online  wholefoods store and lifestyle management consultancy - cooking courses etc.
Sorry the stall was too crowded and my pics all had an orgy of arms in front of the produce but www.vegusto.co.uk makers of organic vegan, soya free, nut based cheese had some very tasty hard cheeses.
http://www.beanieshealthfoods.co.uk/ had a hearty line up of their fake meats and sausages to sample from their Frys Foods range.
www.veganrunners.org.uk  had left their trainers (sneakers) at home for today and were signing up new members.
www.animalcharitiesfair.org.uk were promoting their fair to be held at THE CAMDEN CENTRE on Sunday 6th November
www.animalaid.org.uk were one of the festival sponsors
My favourite gluten free, sugar free, bonnie wee lass www.hannahbananabakery.co.uk  whose raspberry chocolate cupcake pods had me all giddy with delight when I reviewed them last week - read (drool) here was there in a volunteering capacity for her favourite animal rights organisation so only had a small but happy-making selection of her cake pods.  Yum in abundance!

Talks and workshops on raw food, Animal Liberation, massage, gardening and even vegan bodybuilding went on throughout the day. 
I think the UK has someway to go to match the vegan food festivals of LA and San Francisco.  Very salubrious affairs, held in HUGE beautiful, light exhibition centres, they are full of fun and seem to attract a large following of veg curious too.  To be honest I didn’t feel like this event had moved on much….one day.  Though, counting the number of footfalls crossing the threshold and gathering in the sunshine outside makes me hopeful for the future.