Saturday, October 23, 2010

Fast and Easy Whole Grain scones

Sorry no picture, the omputer ate it!

These scones are a recipe that I've had lying around for ages, and never got around to baking. I used whole grain spelt flour, but I imagine regular spelt, or wheat flour will make them a bit moister. These were a bit dry and flaky, but nothing that can't be remedied by butter, jam and a mug of tea on the side. Delicious!

220 g. flour (again, I used whole grain spelt)
2 heaping tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar
dash nutmeg
60 g. sugar (I use organic raw cane)
60 g. of soft butter (I used half butter, half canola)

Mix these in a bowl together. Then add:
1 egg, beaten. Now, put the egg in a measuring cup, and fill up with yogurt naturelle (or soy cream, like I did) until you hit the 1 dl mark. Set aside a few drops for later. Then add to the other ingredients.

Mix everything well, and then roll it out until it's roughly one inch thick. Using a cup about 3 inches in diameter, stamp out your scones. Anywhere between 8-12 scones is the goal, depending on the size of your cup.

Place them on a baking sheet, brush the tops with the remaider of the egg mixture, and bake at 200 degrees for about 12 minutes. If you're using convection oven, lower the temp a little!

Enjoy! This was a nice change from our usual Saturday pancakes ritual, faster too!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Vegan Hokkaido Heavy Fajitas



So I'm in this co-op. And I love it. But practically every single week includes a hokkaido pumpkin. I like a good hokkaido once in a while, but you know...pumpkins and versatility...not so much. Usually they get thrown into soups, puréed and used in cakes and pies. It's all good. But it's just not enough. They're still milling around my kitchen, piling up in a sort of gourdish/kitchen traffic jam. I was loathe to make a soup out of one. Again. So I ate myself to one less hokkaido the other day, and I was quite pleased with my creativity in doing so. I present: fajitas with beans, hokkaido guacamole and hokkaido/tomato salsa.

Fillings:
- Admittedly, the beans are canned chili beans. I warm them on the stove with a bit of ground cumin and garlic. Still good, nonetheless.
- Peel the hokkaido with a good potato peeler. Cut in half, scoop out the seeds.
- Now, dice half of the hokkaido into smallish cubes, and blanche in a bowl for a few minutes. Drain, and leave to cool. When cool, mix them with diced tomato, diced onion, cilantro/coriander and a dash of vinegar. Tastes best when the flavors are allowed to mesh and mellow a bit. I also added canned corn to the mix, because the kids and I like to play with them at the table (!).
- Cut the other half of the hokkaido into chunks, and steam or boil them in just a tiny bit of water until soft. Let cool. When cool, mash them up with your regular old guacamole ingredients, you might want to go heavy on the avocado and lemon so the guac isn't too orange-y and pumpkin-y. Nothing wrong with it, but I know my kids would get suspicious!

Warm up some nice whole wheat tortillas, and you've got yourself a meal. The guac is extra creamy, and the pumpkin bits in the salsa have a lovely bite that's really satisfying. Because of the pure vegan aspect of this meal, it's nice and light, and doesn't seem to bog you down with that really full feeling, even after you've had your share. Yummy!