THE VOLUPTUOUS VEGAN

Today I will be looking at two books, as I have only cooked a little from each one. So this way you can still have lots of photos of food!

The Voluptuous Vegan
Myra Kornfeld and George Minot, Potter, 2000



A menu book! A menu book! I love menus, so of course I had to buy this. This book is paperback and does not stay open easily. There are no photos either. The book is divided into the following chapters: Introduction, Ingredients, Equipment and Cutting Terms, Soups, Main-Course Menus, Desserts, Glossary and Resources. The Main-Course Menu section is made up of many different menus with several components. The menus cover all sorts of cuisines and ingredients. Unfortunately, as much as I love menus, I often don't have time to make menus. And because I am obsessed with making menus, I don't like to make single dishes out of menus. This is the reason why I have yet to make anything from the amazing Party Vegan by Robin Robertson, and why I have only made a few menus from this book. I do find a lot of the recipes in this book quite fiddly and time consuming as well, which is another limiting factor with time constraints. Anyway, let's have a peek.

Gingery Split Pea Soup


The soup chapter of the book contained stand alone recipes, as does that desserts chapter. This yummy soup has a great smokey flavour from chipotles. 4 stars.

Menu Page 123



This menu includes:
*Thai Vegetable Stew - includes eggplant, cauliflower, zucchini, carrots, sugar snap peas and others. 4 stars
*Baked Tofu Triangles - amazing little morsels. 5 stars.
*Jasmine Rice With Coconut - 4 stars.
*Mint, Orange, and Red Onion Salad - makes a small amount. 4 stars.
*Total menu rating: 4 stars.

Menu Page 166


This menu includes:
*Mesclun with Raspberry Vinaigrette - fast and tasty. 4 stars.
*Seitan Bourguignonne - this has an amazing marinade, it makes heaps so there are leftovers for all sorts of things. It is quite time consuming. 4 stars.
*Mashed Potatoes with Parsnips - a fun twist on mashed potatoes. 4 stars.
*Total menu rating: 4 stars.

Menu Page 205


This menu includes:
*Indonesian Sambal - mixes together really well and is super addictive. 5 stars.
*Rice Noodles with Thai Peanut Sauce - I used 250g of rice stick noodles here. 4 stars.
*Stir-Fried Vegetables - A yummy mix of different fresh vegetables. 4 stars.
*Mango slices - not a recipe at all, just instructions how to cut mangoes. 5 stars (because mangoes are awesome).
*Total Menu Rating: 5 stars.

There are a lot of fun recipes in here, though some of them do call for some more obscure ingredients. I look forward to making more menus, if I can find the time! Savannah over at In Her Grace is blogging about recipes from The Voluptuous Vegan this week, so check things out over there as well!

The Asian Vegan Kitchen
Herm Parekh, Kodansha, 2007



If you look above the book in the photo, you can just see two little Gizmo feet! This is a great book that is packed full of authentic recipes, including recipes for making many sauces and pastes from scratch. This book does mean a bit of a trip and trawl through the Asian grocery shop, but it is worth it. The book is a paperback with a glossy dust jacket. There are is a middle section of lovely colour photos. Chapters work through different Asian countries, and include India, Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia and Korea. Each chapter includes four or five sections such as Soups and Salads, Main Dishes, Rice Dishes, Noodle Dishes, Side Dishes and Snacks, Pancakes, Breaks, Drinks, and Desserts. There is also a glossary of ingredients (which is very handy) as well as a great index of main ingredients. 

Again, I have not made much from this book yet. But let us see where I have been!

Chickpea Curry (India) with Bhatura Bread (India)


The chickpea curry gives instructions to soak and cook chickpeas from scratch. I had to cook them for much longer than the hour called for. In the future I would just use tinned, as any sort of woody chickpeas give me tummy aches. There are only one or two brands of chickpeas I can buy, even. Anyway, this is quite a spicy little curry, and great with the bread. 4 stars.
Bhatura is normally a deep fried bread. I shallow fried it here and it worked well. 4 stars.

Biryani (India)


I like biryani - rice and vegetables and seasonings make for an easy and yummy dinner. I served this with the above two dishes. 4 stars.

Red Curry Paste


My own homemade red curry paste! Beautiful. 4 stars.

Red Curry with Vegetables (Thailand) with Pineapple Fried Rice (Thailand)



The red curry used some of that beautiful curry paste. This recipe uses 3 cups of coconut milk, which I found way too rich! Either use light coconut milk, or even sub in some stock if you get overcome. I added lots of extra vegetables as well. 3 stars.
Pineapple Fried Rice is one of my favourite dishes to order from a Sydney vegan Thai restaurant. This is also amazing! Plus super cute. I used peas in place of capsicum. The restaurant one has fake prawns in it, which skeeves me out. This one has sliced up strips of inari skin (the closest thing I could find to abura-age deep fried tofu). 5 stars.


Food I have made but not photographed:
Dashi (Japan) - 4 stars.
Miso Soup with Tofu and Wakame (Japan) - Very quick and easy. 4 stars.
Green Tea Ice Cream - Was not good, but I realised that my green tea powder was not matcha. So I will report. Made me sad because it uses a cup of maple syrup - that is like $9 worth of syrup in something that didn't work great. Star rating pending retrying with proper matcha.
Sukiyaki (Japan) - This is delicious and so beautiful. I am sad I have no photo. 5 stars.

There is so much more for me to make from this book!

Roasted Corn and Chicken Tostada

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (7-inch) whole wheat flour tortilla or flour tortilla
• Nonstick cooking spray
• 1/3 cup frozen whole kernel corn
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 4 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 cup salsa
• 1/4 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup shredded lettuce
• 2 tablespoons shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
• 

  DIRECTIONS

  1. Lightly coat both sides of tortilla with cooking spray. Place on baking sheet. Bake at 400° F about 10 minutes or until crisp.
  2. Meanwhile, in small nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray cook corn over medium-high heat for 1 to 3 minutes or until beginning to brown, stirring frequently. Remove from skillet. Set aside.
  3. In same small skillet heat oil. Add chicken, chili powder and cumin. Cook and stir over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Stir in salsa, beans and corn. Heat through.
  4. Place tortilla on serving plate. Top with lettuce, chicken mixture, cheese and sour cream. Serve immediately.

Beautiful Diamand Long Earring

Beautiful Diamand Long Earring;.She can easily pull off a pair of diamond hoops or several carat studs. She pulls them off effortlessly and with confidence.If a round shape, for a pair of long earrings, diamond earrings to go, or a higher ring. If you have a long face, go to the prisoners, diamonds, rings made of pure gold and precious stones and fragile. delicate look great hang your face shape and the addition of diamonds and precious stones earrings .

Bridal Mehndi Designs

The Mehndi night is an important pre-wedding event for an Asian bride. The bride has a motley group of friends, relatives and family for a memorable evening. When a young girl fantasizes of her prince charming, she also dreams of wearing the most stunning bridal ensemble and gorgeous mehndi design on her hands and feet. The feeling of getting married sets in on the mehndi night when the mehndi artist works on intricate designs. She asks for the groom’s initials and then deftly she embeds his name in the leitmotif. The feelings sink in, the girl who is blossoming into a woman and shall leave her maternal home as a wife.
Knowing the importance of this pre-wedding event, there are different kinds of bridal mehndi designs. The 5000 year old Indian tradition has evolved from a simple large dot of mehndi paste in the middle of the palms to elaborate mehndi designs for hands and feet. Today the designs also include glitter adding to the deep hues of the cool art work.   Auspicious mango leaves, scenes of a wedding procession, checks, creepers, peacock, fish, doli, all are woven on the live human canvas, drawing appreciation for days after it has been applied.
New brides draw inspiration from traditional Indian mehndi designs, Pakistani mehndi designs and Arabic mehndi designs that have adorned generations. While the tradition continues, its modern avatar has added glitter too. Young girls like to wear similar patterns that celebrities have done for their weddings. Expert mehndi professionals are flown overseas for many weddings.

Full Hand Bridal Mehndi Design

Arabic Mehndi Design

Bridal Mehndi Designs 2011

Bridal Mehndi Design for Full Hands

INDIAN FOOD

Indian food is different from rest of the world not only in taste but also in cooking methods. It reflects a perfect blend of various cultures and ages. Just like Indian culture, food in India has also been influenced by various civilizations, which have contributed their share in its overall development and the present form.

Foods of India are better known for its spiciness.Throughout India, be it North India or South India, spices are used generously in food. But one must not forget that every single spice used in Indian dishes carries some or the other nutritional as well as medicinal properties.

North Indian Food

Food in the north India, to begin with, Kashmiri cuisines reflect strong Central Asian influences. InKashmir, mostly all the dishes are prepared around the main course of rice found abundantly in the beautiful valley. Another delicious item cooked here is the 'Saag' that is prepared with a green leafy vegetable known as the 'Hak'.

But on the other hand states like the Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh show high consumption of chapatis as staple food. Again, these chapatis are prepared with a variety of flours such as wheat, rice, maida, besan etc. Besides chapatis other closely related breads baked in these regions include Tandoori, Rumaali and Naan etc. However in the northern region impact of Mughlai food is quite obvious.

West Indian Food

In western India, the desert cuisine is famous for its unique taste and varieties of food.Rajasthan and Gujarat are the states that represent the desseert flavor of Indian food. Here an immense variety of dals and achars (pickles/preserves) is used that simply substitutes the relative lack of fresh vegetables in these areas.

In the states like Maharashtra, the food is usually a mix of both north as well as south cooking styles. Here people use both the rice and the wheat with same interest. Along the coastline ofMumbai a wide variety of fishes is available. Some of the delicious preparations include dishes like the Bombay Prawn and Pomfret.

In Goa, that is further down towards south, one can notice Portuguese influence in the cooking style as well as in the dishes. Some of the major dishes of this regiun are the sweet and sour Vindaloo, duck baffad, sorpotel and egg molie etc. 

East Indian Food

In the eastern India, the Bengali and Assamese styles of cooking are noticeable. The staple food of Bengalis is the yummy combination of rice and fish. Usually the Bengalis love eating varieties of fishes. A special way of preparing the delicacy known as 'Hilsa' is by wrapping it in the pumpkin leaf and then cooking it. Another unusual ingredient that is commonly used in the Bengali cooking is the 'Bamboo Shoot'. Various sweets prepared in this region, by using milk include the 'Roshogollas', 'Sandesh', 'Cham-cham' and many more. 

South Indian Food

In the southern India, the states make great use of spices, fishes and coconuts, as most of them have coastal kitchens. In the foods of Tamil Nadu use of tamarind is frequently made in order to impart sourness to the dishes. It simply distinguishes the Tamil Food from other cuisines. 

The cooking style of Andhra Pradesh is supposed to make excessive use of chilies, which is obviously to improve the taste of the dishes. 

In Kerala, some of the delicious dishes are thelamb stew and appams, Malabar fried prawns, Idlis, Dosas, fish molie and rice puttu. Another famous item of this region is the sweetened coconut milk. Yet another dish is Puttu, which is glutinous rice powder steamed like a pudding in a bamboo shoot. 

Modern digital art design