***Closed***A Giveaway...

***The Giveaway is now closed***
Note: Sorry, but I think it is fair that the last comment will not be counted in as it has been left after the closing time.

A while ago, I hosted a giveaway for a rice cooker from CSN Stores. And I did promise some more giveaways coming your way! Well, guess what? CSN Stores are back and this time, you get to choose your product with a US$40 gift card! You can browse or peruse their websites that sell anything from lights to furniture, baby essentials to fitness products, housewares to outdoor products. You are bound to find something you like; their stores are just massive!

To participate :
Just browse their stores and leave a comment here about what you would like to get with your gift card. Please leave your comment on the blog http://www.veganlovlie.com/ not on the Facebook page/feed!
Make sure you leave an email address or a link to your blog (with contact details of course!) so that I can contact you!

You will get 1 additional entry for each of these:

• Join my Facebook group (leave a separate comment here saying you did this, if you are already a member of the group then leave a comment as well)
• Like my Facebook Fan page (leave a separate comment here saying you did this)
• Follow me on Twitter (leave a separate comment here saying you did this)
• Blog about this giveaway on your own blog with a link to this post (then come back and leave another comment here saying you blogged about this)

This giveaway is opened for US and Canadian readers.
You have until Friday 30th July till 11.59pm to enter.

Winners will be chosen by a random number generator.

So, what are you waiting for?

Why don't you treat yourself to one of these suggestions:

Feel sexy in the kitchen with this Flirty Apron in Sweet Sunshine.

Or, something I've quite been looking forward to adding in my kitchen is a cookbook holder and this one seems like the perfect one!

Maybe a tart pan?

A waffle maker?

These are just a few suggestions from me to inspire you although the stores are in themselves a great inspiration! You can pick something completely different from kitchenware. The choice is massive!

Good luck to everyone!
Winners will be announced on Saturday 31st July.

I know this giveaway is only opened to US and Canadian readers but did you know CSN have opened a UK store recently? Check it out: http://www.csnstores.co.uk/
Have a look, there are some pretty good bargains on there!

DARING COOKS JULY 2010 CHALLENGE: NUT BUTTERS

When I first saw this challenge, I thought oh no! Not a nut challenge! I am allergic to both nuts and seeds, although I do cheat and eat them from time to time in small quantities and hope that I don't fall sick! Haha! Ok, it's not funny when I do fall sick!

Anyway, I did not want to take any risk. Then, I saw that this challenge allowed fruit butters as well for nut allergy sufferers! I could have made a bean butter with chickpeas but I used this for a previous challenge to replace nuts in a satay. So I thought I'd try a fruit butter instead.

Fruit butter is similar to making jam except that it doesn't require any jellying agent and uses much less sugar. However, it is cooked for 2 hours. I was short of time. So, I only cooked it for 1/2 hour and it was fine. I only made a small quantity and did not add any extra liquid to the fruits, so it dried up quicker.

The July Challenge is brought to you by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies.

DARING COOKS JULY 2010 CHALLENGE: NUT BUTTERS

This was a pretty quick challenge to make. I decided I would use my fruit butter as a dressing for an Asian salad. I made the fruit butter a few days before and had used half of it by the time I took the photo!

Apple and Pineapple Fruit Butter

I am not providing an exact recipe for the fruit butter as I can't remember the quantities I used! But I don't think quantities matter that much as basically the fruits are pureed, sweetened a little bit, water added, then cooked for 2 hours. In my case, I only cooked it for half an hour.

So, I took 2 apples, peeled and cut them into small pieces. I used about 1/2 pineapple, peeled and also cut into small pieces. Place all fruits in a blender and process to a puree (a hand blender is also fine for this). Add 2-3 tablespoons sugar and place in a thick bottom pan. Cook on low-medium heat for 30 minutes or until thick enough to use as a spread.




Asian Salad

I don't have an exact recipe for the quantities of the salad ingredients as I just picked and tossed in what I had on hand. Roughly for 2 persons, here are what I used:

200g Sweet potato noodles (boiled until soft, then rinse in cold water to prevent them from glueing with one another)
1 medium sized carrot (finely sliced with the vegetable peeler)
Mixed peppers (sliced)
150g frozen broad beans (immersed in boiling water for 10 minutes, then drained)
4-5 radishes (sliced)
70g raw green beans (sliced with the bean slicer)

Toss and blend everything together in a big salad bowl.

Fruit Butter Asian Salad Dressing

1 tablespoon fruit butter
1 teaspoon wasabi paste
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) fine chili powder
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon fruit syrup (or maple syrup/agave nectar)
Salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together.

Pour on salad just before serving.

Daring Cooks Challenge June 2010: Pâtés and Bread

This month's challenge was different from what I expected but I liked it. I kind of make bean spreads quite often but never actually made a bean pâté before. The result was quite tasty I must say! However, the pâté is supposed to be eated cold with bread to go with the summery weather, in the northern hemisphere at present. Well, in Ireland, it's not very summery at the moment, despite being in the northern half of the planet. And especially, I chose to do this challenge just on the eve of the posting date. It was rainy and not warm. So, I decided to make a warm hearty bread to compensate - Sweet Potato Bread. And my, was that tasty! I'm not a great fan of bread in general but I am a fan of sweet potato and BoyfriendLovlie is quite the contrary. With this bread, it seems like we found common ground!

Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

THE DARING COOKS JUNE 2010 CHALLENGE: PÂTÉS AND BREAD

I chose to make the Tricolor Bean Pâté and it turned out tastier than I thought it would be. All three layers combined give a delicious taste. And eaten as a spread on the warm Sweet Potato Bread, it was just perfect for this moist evening.
I can't believe how easy and quick it was to whip this pâté together. I already had boiled butter beans, red kidney beans and cannelli beans. I usually regularly boil a big batch of beans, divide them into small portions and freeze them in freezer bags. This makes preparing meals that call for them so much quicker.
The pâté took me a little over half an hour to do. The bread was a very easy one but it does require about one and a half hours to rise. So, if you are making both on the same day, you may want to start with the bread first and leave it to rise while you make the pâté.

Easy Sweet Potato Bread
Ingredients

2 1/2 cups (275g) strong white flour
1 rather big sweet potato (350g)
1 sachet (7g) yeast
100ml warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
5 tablespoons rice milk (soy milk is fine too)
2 tablespoons coconut oil (melt first, if hardened, then take 2 tablespoons of the liquid oil. Vegetable oil should also be fine)
1/2 teaspoon salt

• Place sweet potato with the skin on in the microwave and cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Prick with a fork to test. (You may also boil the sweet potato).
• Peel and discard the skin. Mash the sweet potato to a fine puree. Set aside to cool.
• Place yeast and sugar in warm water. Stir to dissolve and let stand for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, add oil and milk to flour.
• Add sweet potato then the yeast mixture.
• Mix with the hand until well combined. Then knead for 8 - 10 minutes. You may want to add a little more flour if too sticky or 1 - 2 tablespoons more milk if too dry. (This also depends on the moisture content of the sweet potato.)
  
• Oil a large bowl and place in the dough. Cover with cling film and leave to rise for 1 and a half hours in a warm place.
• The dough should double in size.
• Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
• Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Take one part and roll into a log. How long or thick you roll it will depend on the size or length of bread you want. I made mine rather short and fat, a bit like a country style bread. So, I leave this up to you. Repeat with the other 2 pieces.
• Join the 3 pieces at the top and start braiding. Press to secure them at the end, then reshape to nice rounded smooth ends.

• Place on a baking tray and bake for 1 hour (rotate bread 180 degrees on itself halfway through for even baking).
• Remove from oven and allow to cool a little before slicing.

Tricolor Bean Pâté
Ingredients (for 1 loaf pan)
White Layer
3 cups (450g) boiled butter beans, well drained
3 - 4 pieces pickled/oil-preserved artichoke hearts
1/2 teaspoon asafoetida (optional, you may also use some dried herb seasoning)
1 tablespoon vegan cheese powder (or vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast)
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Pink/Reddish Layer
2 cups (300g) red kidney beans
4 sundried tomato halves (I used the ones preserved in oil. If you are using dried ones, rehydrate them by soaking for a few minutes in some warm water first)
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida (optional, you may also use some dried herb seasoning)
1 tablespoon vegan cheese powder (or vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Green Layer
1 1/2 cups (250g) broccoli florets, boiled
1 tablespoon vegan cheese powder (or vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast)
1/2 cup (120g) boiled canneli beans
1/4 teaspoon salt

• Start with the white layer, place all ingredients in a food processor or blender. I used a hand blender. Process to a thick puree.
• Line a loaf pan with cling film; this is for easy demolding. Pour the puree and spread with a spoon to a smooth surface.

• Repeat with reddish layer.
  

• Then green layer. Because I was using a hand blender, I cut the boiled broccoli as small as possible before blending them.
• Place the loaf pan in the fridge for 4 - 5 hours.
• Freeze for 30 minutes before demolding, slicing and serving.

I served this pâté with sweet potato bread, salad, some asparagus and carrots both tossed for a few minutes with some margarine in the a medium hot pan.
Both the pâté and the bread is something I will definitely be making again - a request from the boyfriend!

One Great Mexican Sauce Recipe for a Daring Cooks Challenge - May 2010

I can't believe it's been a whole month since my last post! I've been working on a few personal projects lately and been more regular to the gym, so haven't found much time for blogging. But I knew I had to do this challenge when I saw the post on the Daring Kitchen website! It was too exciting and I had never made mexican food at home before!

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

THE DARING COOKS MAY 2010 CHALLENGE: STACKED GREEN CHILE AND GRILLED CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

Of course I replaced the chicken with tofu and vegetables. I also did not make a stack but made rolls instead. This dish was "succulent" as described by SisterLovlie, when we had this for dinner last night!
I made quite a lot of variations to the original recipe as this challenge was very versatile. The only mandatory part was to make a homemade Mexican style enchilada sauce.

The challenge called for two main ingredients for the sauce - tomatillos and green chilies. I could not find any tomatillos over here in Ireland. In fact I had never heard of these before! However, Audax (from Sydney, Australia) suggested to use green gooseberries instead. Well, I could not find any green gooseberries either and was feeling a little bit miserable. I really wanted to try something new for this challenge. And then, it seemed the Universe wanted to cheer me up! I saw a can of gooseberries in syrup on the shelf in Tesco. How cool was that?! I had never seen them before and just when I needed them, they were there smiling at me on the shelf! Now, I only know Audax on the blogsphere through the Daring Kitchen, but at that moment I thought, they must have been sent by Audax himself! Hahaha!



As for the chilies, I used a combination of green and red.

One thing I wasn't really sure of is whether these canned gooseberries would be too sweet for the sauce since they were in syrup. But I hoped they would be fine. I opened the can and quickly tasted one. Great! I thought they would be perfect for this sauce. They still retained a bit of tartness and were slightly sweet from the syrup.



So, the rest of the ingredients for these enchiladas were green beans, aubergine, tamarind paste, tortillas (I used store bought ones). You can't see a can of tomatoes in the picture as I added them in later on when the sauce tasted way too hot and also I did not have enough sauce from using just one can of gooseberries, I realised! I bravely grilled a whole batch of chilies only to use but four in this sauce; it was already too hot!



Tofu and Vegetable Enchiladas in Chili, Gooseberry and Tomato Sauce

Ingredients (6 enchiladas)

1 can gooseberries (reserve the syrup)
4 green and red chilies (not peppers)
1 can tomatoes
1 tablespoon tamarind paste (remove seeds if required, but diluting the paste in water)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 tablespoon vegan cheese powder (optional)
1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 block (aproximately 400g) tofu, cut into small pieces
1 aubergine, sliced
2 cups (approximately 300g) green beans, cut into 1-inch (2.5cm) length

Oil as required for cooking

Salt to taste

• Drain gooseberries from syrup (I reserved the syrup to be added into the sauce), place on a baking tray, lined with foil or non-stick sheet. Place chilies on the same tray. Spray with some oil.
• Place in oven at 275 degrees and grill until the skin is brown, about 15 minutes.

• Meanwhile, sautee the aubergine in a little oil until lightly golden.
  
• Do the same for the green beans until tender but still crisp.

• Shallow fry the tofu until lightly golden and slightly crispy.

• Remove chilies from oven. Let cool. Slice the chilies open and remove the seeds, scrape the flesh from the skin. Place the flesh in a blender. Discard the skin.
• Place the gooseberries in the blender. Add ginger, tomatoes and tamarind paste. Liquify.
• Heat 1 tablespoon oil, pour the sauce from the blender in the pan and cook for a few minutes on high heat. Then lower heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
• Dilute cheese powder (if using) and cornstarch in a little water. Add to the sauce. Stir continuously to avoid lumps from forming. Add water if required.
• Taste and add syrup (or sugar) and salt as required.
• Remove sauce from heat.
• Reserve 2/3 of the sauce.
• Add the vegetables and tofu to the remaining 1/3 sauce in the pan.

• In a baking dish (I used a rectangular one), laddle 1/3 of the reserved sauce.
• Then proceed to making the tortillas.
• Place some vegetable and tofu on one tortilla, roll with the ends tucked in and place into the baking dish.
• Repeat for the remaining tortillas.
• Laddle the remaining sauce to cover the tortillas.

• Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes.

• Remove and serve hot.

A pan-Southern Classic for the Daring Cooks April 2010 Challenge - Brunswick Stew

This month's Daring Cooks Challenge was a Brunswick Stew. Brunswick Stew is a classic dish from southeastern United States. Stew is a dish that I make quite often. Although I had never had a Brunswick stew before. Well, apparently we cannot call a stew a Brunswick Stew unless all the ingredients and seasonings are used according to the recipe. So, I guess mine was a vegan UnBrunswick Stew or just a Lovlie Stew. The original recipe uses chicken broth along with meat originally game. I used vegetable stock with pinto beans as meat substitute. For more flavour I added a pinch of cumin and a dash of cayenne pepper.
If you want to add onions to the recipe, sautee them just before adding the tomato puree in the recipe below.

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.

THE DARING COOKS APRIL 2010 CHALLENGE: BRUNSWICK STEW

Ingredients (4 to 5 servings)

3 medium potatoes (diced)
1 medium cauliflower head (cut into florets)
1 can plum peeled tomatoes (made into puree)
2 cups pinto beans (boiled)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tablespoon maple syrup (or 2 if the tomatoes are more on the sour side)
1 vegetable stock cube
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ginger powder (or 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
Salt to taste
Dash of cayenne pepper
Water to make the sauce

• Heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil in a deep non-stick pan. Add in potatotes.
• Cook on medium heat until half cooked, adding water occasionally if required to avoid burning.
• Add in cauliflower florets. Cover and let cook until both potatoes and cauliflower are almost done.
• Remove from pan, set aside.
• Add 1 tablespoon coconut oil. Add in tomato puree, cumin, vegetable stock and ginger. Sautee for a few minutes until starting to reduce.
• Add potatotes and cauliflower. Stir and mix well.
• Add beans and peas.
• Add about 1 - 2 cups of water or more (depending on the desired sauce consistency).
• Cover and simmer for 15 minutes until sauce starts to thicken and vegetables are cooked. Adjust heat and cook uncovered to reduce the sauce to desired consistency.
• Add maple syrup, cayenne pepper and salt to taste.

Giveaways! Giveaways on Recipe Books!

This is a quick post to share some great recipe book giveaways with you. By now, many of you have heard about 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman. For your chance to win, head over to Ricki's blog - Diet, Desserts and Dogs.

And 2nd giveaway is Ricki Heller's (Diet, Desserts and Dogs) vegan dessert recipe book Sweet Freedom. Visit Sally's blog for this one.

Both giveaways end Friday 2nd April.

Baby Orange Tian for a Daring Bakers March 2010 Challenge

I thought I'd never get this post up! I've barely finished taking the pictures of this today and writing this post just now. This month has been very busy. I was thinking of opting out but this challenge looked like a dessert I would enjoy, so I gave it a go.

What also attracted me into it is the homemade orange marmalade which was part of the challenge. I rarely make desserts with orange. Orange is something I just buy as juice cartons. Of the citrus family, I most of the time buy lemons, grapefruits, satsumas and clementines. So it was a nice change to have some real oranges at home after a long time!

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

THE DARING BAKERS MARCH 2010 CHALLENGE: ORANGE TIAN


The homemade marmalade called for pectin which I couldn't find. There are some jam sugar in the supermarkets here but I didn't bother with that. I've made jams before with just the fruit and sugar and I really love it this way. I don't particularly like the jelly consistency of store bought jams and this is the reason I would make jam at home. I sometimes put a little agar flakes but this time I did not have any at home. I just used soft dark brown sugar and that was the only other ingredient apart from the oranges. More of a compote than marmalade maybe, but very nice!

The recipe suggested to slice the oranges with the peel, then blanch 3 times in water, pouring off the water each time, to get rid of the bitterness.
I, however, blanched the oranges whole, without peeling, 3 times, pouring the water off each time after 5 - 6 minutes of boiling. I found that the oranges retained more of their flavour in this way. And no bitterness at all, which I liked!



The dessert is made of different layers: a pate sablee with orange marmalade, a flavoured whipped cream topped with fresh orange segments and served with a caramel and orange sauce. It is built upside down and then unmolded so that the bottom layer (the orange segments) becomes the top layer.

My version of the tian is a bitesize baby orange tian. I made them in empty tealight holders. I usually like to keep my tealight holders for some reason after the candles melted away. I sometimes use them as cookie cutters.



I used a pate sablee recipe that did not contain any egg. I don't think pate sablee really needs any eggs. Well, anyway, I can't remember where I got the recipe from but the proportions of
flour : icing sugar : ground almond : (cold) vegan butter is
2:2:1:1.
Also a pinch of salt.

As I did not use any ground almonds, I increased the butter by a little.

As for the whipped cream, I made thick custard instead using custard powder, soy milk and sugar.

This dessert was really nice and I liked the simple combination of pate sablee, custard, marmalade, caramel and oranges into something really yummy! It was very refreshing!

The marmalade I will definitely make again!