Mango Pasta and The Strawberry Mountain

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for your encouraging comments about non-massive blogging! You motivated me a lot... now there's the next thing... when I try new stuff, I must remember to post it. My SD card told me it's full yesterday- full of food piccies that I haven't gotten round to post.

Now I can't really say that I've been eaten by the work monster last week, but I was totally absorbed by Black Books, Strawberry Panic! and Michail Bulgakow's "Master and Margarita". Add some gay scene partying and German stout and the week's over.

Anyway, I have a recipe to share. I don't really care for raw mango, especially since I'm too stupid to slice them properly (not letting them go over-ripe might fix that). Now every now and then, I buy "Vegetarisch Fit!", a vegetarian cooking magazine. Rather "than" than "now", because few recipes are vegan, it's pricey and full of ads. Anyway, the April issue had a pasta special, so I grabbed it on a late shopping trip to find the most awesome recipe for * MANGO PASTA* For 3-4 people, you'll need:
* 1 pound of pasta (I used fussili)
* 1 huge can/ 2 small ones chopped tomatoes
* 1 massive ripe mango, diced * 1 onion, chopped
* 1 cup of cashews (or less if they cost an arm and a leg like they do over here)
* 1 block of tofu, drained, pressed and diced
* 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp cumin
* salt + pepper and chilli powder to taste

- In a huge pan, fry the tofu in neutral oil until crisp, about 10-15 minutes. Take out and set aside.
- Sauté the onions until translucent.
- Coarsly grind 3/4 of the cashews in a blender/food processor and add to the onions. Also add turmeric and cumin, sauté for 5 more minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, tofu and mango and mango and let simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the pasta is done.

Serve over the pasta and garnish with the leftover cashews (as I didn't). This is simple yet a wee bit exotic and has all the protein a pasta-maniac vegan needs. I think it might be good with kids, too, if you make it less spicier.

As short info for all German-speaking readers: after vegan.ch, there's a new German podcast made by two blokes from the Rhein/Main area... they also do a bit of live action cooking in every podcast and know all the AR info and dates in the country.
Hooray for German vegans!

Finally, I give you cake. This is my messy version (because neat baking is boring) of Strawberry Mountain. I now know why they called it like this... because it makes a buttload (and I halfed the recipe!) and you will get lost in the mountains of sweetness *swoon*.

Nothing's gonna stop me making bento...

... but proper cooking is a completely different thing.

Seriously, I wonder how people manage to come up with awesome blog post on a daily basis or even every other day.
I don't mean to moan on here, but I have trouble even posting once a week and it makes me feel like a bad blogger. I'd love to be more active in the community, but I simply don't have the spare time.

Let's be honest- how do you do it?
It can't be that all bloggers are students or stay-at-home moms, right.
I'm out of the house from 8-8 on weekdays, so there's simply no time to try awesome new recipes every night, as much as I'd like to.

Anyway, here are some recent bento:


leftover yakisoba (see last post for the recipe), carrot sticks, an orange and some berry soy yoghurt.

traditional Japanese bento, though a bit protein-less... sticky rice with an umeboshi, sesame spinach, an orange, marinated mushrooms and scallions and some apple pieces in the bunny.
another lazy one... rice with sesame and soy/mushroom sauce, peach slices and leftover veggie stir-fry.

And look what arrived in the mail the other day!

I did a little swap with another blogging Stephanie (who throws awesome blog parties and mail blogging thingies that I don't really understand) who sent me, among other stuff, this ginormous bento... I think it holds about 5000 ml and comes with a lovely bag, just perfect for picnics and the like (though I consider scaring me coworkers and bringing it along as my lunchbox XD)... I plan on using this for our Japan day picnic.

Right, only four more weeks until Japan day, my favourite holiday (in my book, it's an annual holiday, all right? Just like Christopher Street Day and World Vegan Day and Bochum Total rock festival and Veggie Street day in Dortmund)!

You are what you Eat-Swap @Swapbot

According to what I ate this week, I'm muesli and Japanese and Italian.

This little email swap was about writing down every single thing you have eaten in the past week and sharing a recipe.

Keeping track of what I'm eating was great fun, and I'm quite content because I captured a typical week in food for me.
I simply listed the foods I ate since I don't think of my meals (nor eat) as in the classic "breakfast/lunch/dinner" categories.


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Just about every Japanese mother has her own Yakisoba recipe- after all "yakisoba" means "fried noodles" and nothing else. What makes it special is the Japanese yakisoba sauce that contains all sorts of nasty things and is mighty expensive, so I make my own. You can add any vegetables you like, but sometimes I just crave this simple version. Yakisoba not only feeds crowds, but makes awesome leftovers and is the best in bento :)

/My Simple Yakisoba - serves four

Break spaghetti into thirds if you can't get fresh yakisoba noodles.
Chop up a package of (veggie) wieners and half an iceberg lettuce.

Boil the spaghetti and sauté the wieners in a large pan. When the sausages are nicely browned, add the lettuce and turn off the heat.
In a seperate bowl, mix 3/4 cup of plain tomato ketchup with 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce. Stir in 2 tbs soy sauce and 1 tbs wasabi powder.

Drain the noodles and add to the pan. Turn on the heat again briefly and sauté everything a little longer. Pour the sauce over it and mix, reserving some extra sauce for serving the noodles.
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Saturday:

* a bowl of berry muesli with vanilla soy milk
* 2 sesame bread rolls with strawberry jam
* some pineapple chunks
* cherry tomatoes
* white wine
* whole wheat fussili with tempeh cacciatore
* salad with ramson, olives and mushrooms


Sunday:

* a banana
* at vegan brunch: chickpea salad, sauteed mushrooms, a variety of
spreads on bread, phyllo spinach pasties, bulgar pilaf, cherry
streusel cake, tiramisu
* 1/2 grapefruit
* a pizza with asparagus, mushrooms and Keehse (vegan cheese)


Monday:

* 2 slices of sunflower seed bread with alpro "quark" (cream-cheese
like spread) and tomatoes
* 1 banana
* 1/2 grapefruit
* leftover tempeh cacciatore with penne
* some tomato wedges
* cayenne chocolate
* cashew nuts
* small bowl of berry muesli with vanilla soy milk
* Japanese cooking with a friend- yakisoba with iceberg lettuce,
mini wieners and homemade yakisoba sauce, mixed salad with sesame
dressing



Tuesday:

* 3 slices sunflower seed bread with "quark" and tomato slices
* 1 berry soy yoghurt
* 1 raw carrot
* leftover yakisoba
* risotto with ramson and arugula pesto
* 2 glasses of cidre


Wednesday:

* berry muesli with soy milk
* 3 chocolate muffins
* 1 apple
* apple/mango/lime smoothie
* leftover veg stir-fry with rice
* mixed salad and tomato/pea/bean rice from the Turkish take-away


Thursday:

* 1 soy yoghurt berry
* 1 apple
* 2 loquats
* fried rice with carrots and beansprouts, grilled tempeh

* greek salad with tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, olives and some
baguette


Friday:

* berry muesli with soymilk
* a peach
* leftover rice and stir-fry
* some vanilla halva
* pita bread with tomato salad, some olives
* spaghetti with homemade pesto
* 1/2 bottle of red wine and a bit beer on top

Bye-bye, Brunch!

... at least for the next two months, the potluck-style vegan brunch that I've come to love in the last months will be closed.

One thing I like best about veganism is socializing with other vegans, though the capitalism-critical little punk in me tells me not to do so in commercial places. Plus, I consider myself a good home cook so I'm mostly dissappointed by the bland, hippy-reminiscent food most vegetarian places in Germany sell for mucho €€€.

In January, I discovered the monthly vegan brunch in Düsseldorf, which is organized by a former VoKü group (something like the German FNB, though I'll talk about FNB later). It's non-profit, though they charge 2.50 € (which is nothing compared to another vegan place in town that takes 12.90 € O_O !!!), and anybody can bring their own stuff as long as it's vegan.

The venue is the sort of run-down autonomic leftist centre which also has a lovely yard where you can sit when the weather is great- as it was last weekend, also perfect lighting for food pictures (we tried photographing the buffet inside, but it was waaay to dark).

Beware of messy food pics!

Kick-ass tiramisu. Must remember not to mix it with couscous and chickpea salad on a plate next time. The recipe is the best! You can find it on their website (among other recipes, if you read German), but I plan on making it myself sometime soon and posting about it.


Rachel knew better and got herself tiramisu AND streusel cake:


A small relief considering the summer break is that they had a little zine with recipes on offer- post to come for sure (yeah I didn't mean to promote Vegan Fire & Spice again, but so what?)!







It was an amazingly hot spring day, so we decided to walk through the infamous Altstadt and by the Rhine, where I took the picture of the day:


On Sunday night, we're off to Bochum to see what their Food not Bombs group is up to (anybody who'd like to join us is more than welcome!).

Now do tell me all about your brunch/potluck/whatnot non-commercial vegan thingies, I'd love to hear about it!

Picnic at the BM

That's right. When I had planned my birthday meetup with people of veganforum, I thought of a mellow springy picnic in the park.

Alas, spring played a trick and surprised us with cliché London weather- foggy, breezy and raining at times.

Still, us stubborn vegans wanted our picnic, so we found out there's a picnic area in the British Museum. When we arrived, we had to learn that said area is actually UNDER the museum and meant for families with kids, being called the "young visitor centre".
Dammit, we ARE young, aren't we?

And so we wandered off to the catacombs of the British museum where we were greeted by mice, winged children and healthy vending machines.

I didn't take any pictures of the grub, so thanks for Michael for letting me borrow some of his.

Everybody brought sausage rolls. Or at least three people.




Coleslaw


We also had falafel, chocolate (see the above picture of Mon Cherie- German alcoholic chocolates that had an unexpected effect on some usually non-drinking vegans), crisps, wieners, muffins, a quinoa pilaf, guacamole and crackers, various fruit... and Stu's infamous Poo cake of which I regret not posting a picture. You must know that Poo cake is a dessert-y gluten-free cream cheese cake that looks like poo, but tastes like chocolate goodness.

Please post lots of comments so there's enough pressure on the bloke to finally share the recipe (he told me it's made of poo and cake. helpful, huh?).

To put in a nutshell, the day was awesome, certainly one of the best bday parties I've had.
I also brought my mystery girlfriend (mind the eyelashes, it's a girl):

This week in bento

It was one of the biweekly weeks where I have to attend vocational school twice- Wednesday and Fridays, which makes both my work and private life totally stressful and crazy.

What makes those teachers think it's a good idea to give people who already work 10-12 hrs a day homework?
(probably the fact that they are teachers and have never worked in events management...)

I barely cooked at all this week, but at least I managed to pack a proper bento on the days without school.

The laziest of them... when I went to denn's last week, they had a special offer for mexican-style tofu "spring rolls". They are huge and filled with seasoned tofu, corn, tomato and red bell pepper.
While I usually don't use those vegan convenient products, I had to try them and have to say that I don't regret it. It's 100% not authentic Mexican, but that's probably what I loved about them.
The roll was so filling that I only had some olives, apple, tomato and cucumber to munch along.


I picked up the simple 800ml white bento box at Muji in Düsseldorf. I had planned to go there for ages, but never got round to it. Call me an official Muji addict now!
They also have shops in many other cities, so check those boxes out.

This one has rice, tomato quarters, TVP and bok choy sesame stirfry, kiwi and apple dice and some coconut bread.


The size of the box is just perfect for me- my regular 2-tier boxes hold 580 ml, and I always need ~200-250 ml more for fruit and a treat in order to be full. 800ml boxes rule. I think I should get one of those "men's" bento boxes as they typically hold 700-900 ml.


Wednesday's school bento had a quick calzone with mushroom, zucchini and dried tomato filling cut in half, more apple, tomato and cucumber and some whole hazelnut chocolate. I wasn't satisfied with the looks of it, though. There's so much empty space!


As a bonus, two more bento I made last week.

Leftover Vegan Fire & Spice Asian Fusion noodles with hot sauce in the teddy container, two slices of banana bread (better than cake, better than bread... it's banana bread!) and some kiwi.


This might look boring and is not kawaii at all, but I loved the flavours. One tier has rotellini with garlic, olive oil and nutrional yeast, the other pesto-marinated olives, Julie Hasson's Italian sausage slices and quickly sautéed zucchini with balsamic vinegar. Even the thought of this one makes my mouth water again, so I'll probably try a combination like that again for Monday's bento.

Vegan Fire and Spice

It's been almost two months since I received my copy of Vegan Fire and Spice, Robin Robertson's "new" book.
"New" because it's actually a reprint of an ovo-lacto cookbook she released a couple of years ago, though now it's all vegan and 25 new recipes have been added.

As I said when writing about the V-con, I mainly cook ethnic foods and try to be authentic. I will cook and eat more "traditional" Western foods, but to make me a happy foodie, give me Asian/Africa/Middle-Eastern/whatnot.
If you like this way of cooking, you will love Robin's books ( I also own Vegan Planet and Quick-Fix Vegetarian, which is actually all vegan).

As I love hot and spicy foods, I had to get this book, even though I had vowed not to buy any more cookbooks in 2008.

I don't regret it, not at all. Vegan Fire and Spice totally hit my foodie spot.

The book is divided in different chapters geographically, so there is:

• the Americas
• Mediterranean Europe
• The Middle East and Africa
• India
• Asia

It also has a lovely introduction with info about all sorts of different chillis, peppers and spices and some basic cooking information (think tempeh, seitan, tofu, vegetable broth).

Still, I realized I'm really spoiled when it comes to the terms "spicy" and "hot", due to Indian and Thai friends.
The recipes themselves are not searing hot, but I assume still unusual to the "standard"
Western palate.

Anyhow, here's a selection of what I made (and managed to snatch photos of). Enjoy!



Curried Mushrooms with rice, from the Indian section. This has shrooms, coconut milk, tomatoes and ginger. Need I say more? It was so easy and tasty. I had the leftovers with pasta in my bento the next day. This will become one of my standard recipes, I'm sure.



Another standard recipe of mine is harira. I have a friend with Morrocan heritage, so I know many variations of this traditional soup eaten to end the fasting month of ramadan. He approved of Robin's version and so did I. It's a very simple soup with chickpeas and red lentils, a nice staple-no-veg-at-home-dish, though totally unphotogenic.


Asian Fusion Noodles. As the title suggest, not authentic. I found it bland and didn't really like it, but friends and their kids did love it. I'm a total Asian food snob, sorry.

I also made the Hunan Fried Rice that everybody was raving about. That's why I followed the recipe very closely... and to be honest, it was ok, but I don't see what's so special or amazing about it. Maybe Asian restaurants in Europe make their fried rice totally different?
However, it was good in my bento the next day with some hot sauce in the birdie container. The other tier has steamed broccoli, tomato and some carrot strips.



This is the most versatile, tastierst and easiest recipe I made from the book so far.
Middle Eastern Chickpea soup with tomato salad and olives. I didn't amp up the heat in this recipe because it was 150% percent perfect as is.
This was so easy and made a lovely meal with some warm pita bread. I can imagine leaving out/ using less of the cayenne and feeding it to kids.