Laksa inspired tofu marinade.

Laksa Tofu (right) (and meat-less balls, left)

I love laksa.

I found laksa powder in the Asian grocery and made up this tofu marinade to have an easy laksa fix without the guilt of half a liter of coconut cream that comes with a great laksa.

Serves 2-3 as a side serve of tofu with a wombok salad. Or on jasmine rice with steamed vegies.

Ingredients:

1 x 375g block of plain tofu
1 x 275ml tin of light coconut milk
2-3 tablespoons of laska powder (3 if you like it spicier)
3 - 4 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup hot water

Directions:

Press tofu well in tea towel to squeeze out the water so the tofu absorbs as much marinade flavor as possible. Then cut into 2cm cubes approx.

Prepare marinade by mixing coconut milk, laksa powder, peanut butter and hot water together in a tupperwear container until peanut butter and laksa powder have disolved and combined well. Using boiling water helps disolve the peanut butter.

Place cubed tofu in marinade and coat well, store in fridge over night or for as long as possible prior to cooking.

To cook: (In oven or on stovetop)

Oven bake - Pour marinade and tofu into pyrex baking dish or small lasagna dish and bake in oven at 180 degrees until most of liquid has been reduced, turning tofu occasionally and coating well in marinade. Bake until tofu has firmed and becomes slightly golden and some reduced marinade remains as a sauce.

Stove top - Pour marinade and tofu into large frypan or cast iron frypan and cook uncovered on medium-high, occasianlly stirring, until the marinade has reduced to a thick sauce and tofu has firmed and browned.

Potato Salad Recipe

Potato Salad (right) (with crispy noodle and wombok salad, left)

This is the same potato salad I made for the PPCR Camp in September, and I promised I would blog the recipe! Sorry it has taken until Christmas!

Ingredients:
10 - 12 small new potatoes (skin on) - cut into 1/4's
2-3 shallots - sliced very thin.
3 gloves garlic - minced
2-3 stalks celery - sliced thinly
2 TBS fresh thyme (2 teaspoons if using dried)

Dressing:
1 cup vegan mayonnaise (if unable to find Soy King brand mayo or don't want to make your own, the fat-free "Praise" brand is egg-free)
1/3 Cup pickle relish
1 TBS Dijon mustard (or 1 teaspoons mustard powder)

Directions:
Steam potatoes until tender, don't overcook, they should be a little firm still to not crumble when you mix the salad. Cool under cold running water when cooked.

Mix all dressing ingredients and garlic in large bowl. Stir with a fork to combine well.

Mix in celery, shallots, and thyme with dressing.

Add potatoes and mix with wooden spoon to coat well.

Chill in fridge until ready to serve.

Christmas 2009

My family doesn't go overboard at Christmas, we're not very good at over-eating really, and part of the family was doing the big Christmas dinner thing, so it was a light lunch for us yesterday....and we still had leftovers!

So for our vegan lunch we had:

Meat-less Balls with tahini-miso sauce and my favorite marinated tofu, a spicy laksa inspired flavor, with good old potato salad and a wombok and noodle salad with roasted seaseame seeds, and a dressing of sweet chili, soy and sesame. The wine was Sav Blanc and the desert was vegan christmas fruit cake with rum and nutmeg frosting and cherries, mango and pawpaw.

Vegan Cookies at the Coast 2 Kosciusko Ultra Marathon

As I was unable to go to the Coast to Kosciusko Ultra this year as planned due to injury, I still sent along a vegan cookie care-package for some of my favourite people to enjoy on their 240km journey from Boydtown Beach at Eden to the summit, the highest point of Australia.

Here is Michael with one of my cookies at each important milestone of the race (I'm still blown away that he thought to take these shots for me!).....

At the Marathon mark, 42.2kms, of the race

At the 100km point....

At 100 miles.....

And Michael + cookie at the summit!

My cookies have made it to the summit before me, but my time will come!

Oh and if anyone is more interested in the cookies than the run, or wants to bake them to fuel themselves on their next adventure, I will post the recipes ASAP!

Meat-less Balls

Great Christmas finger food, or for any occasion needing finger food really!

I modified the recipe for Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon (http://www.theppk.com/nomicon.html) for these.

INGREDIENTS: If you are referring to the Veganomicon recipe this is 4x that with a few modifications.

2 large tins of chickpeas, drained (4 cups)
8 TBS olive oil
2 cups vital wheat gluten (also called gluten flour -buy this at a produce deli or order in at health food store)
4 well crushed wheatbix (easier than breadcrumbs to have on hand)
1 cup vegetable stock
4 TBS soy sauce
4 TBS vegetarian Worcestershire sauce (no anchovies)
6 garlic cloves , pressed or grated
2 tps lemon zest
2 tps dried thyme
2 tps Hungarian paprika
1 tps dried rubbed sage
1/2 cup of plain flour for rolling balls in.
Canola oil for pan frying.

DIRECTIONS

Mash (or pulse in blender) the chickpeas and oil until no whole chickpeas remain.

Add wheatbix and pulse until well mixed - Unless you have a huge blender this will need to be done in 2-3 batches to get a proper mix.

Put all blended ingredients into large mixing bowl.

Add remaining ingredients (but not flour!) to chickpea mix and knead for 3-4 minutes until strings of gluten have formed.

Form little balls about the size of cherries or slightly larger and roll each ball lightly in the flour.

In a fry pan heat about 1cm of Canola oil and fry balls in batches.

Serve with toothpicks to pick up each meat-less ball and dip in mustard sauce, sweet chili sauce or tahini-miso sauce.