Tuesday, September 17, 2019

The Baking Debate


I’ve thought about opening a bakery as a retirement business. A friend recommended I open one now so that it’s established by the time I retire - not that far distant of a future. The tricky bit to that idea is that I’ve already got a lot of irons in the fire. Adding a fairly major enterprise seems exhausting.

Another option is to create a cookbook. I originally started posting my recipes here as an alternative to creating a cookbook. Then I hit on a recipe I didn’t want to share - which surprised me. Apparently there is a part of me who really wants to be a chef (dessert chef most likely - major sweet tooth).

If I create a cookbook, I would start with the minimalist recipes - those that use very few kitchen appliances and/or very few ingredients. Most likely it would be self-published as I don’t have a baking platform to go the traditional route.

As things stand, I’ve opted to hide the dessert recipes here until I figure out what I’m doing next. Hopefully that won’t take long.

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Carrot Ginger Soup - Personal Size


Feeling a bit under the weather today, so I decided to make a bowl of soup. I love having a Vita-Mix for this as it will make the ingredients smooth and cook the soup at the same time. I wasn’t planning on adding cashews but decided to in order to make the soup creamier. The amount of cashews can be adjusted to achieve the desired consistency or add more water as needed. Leave the cashews out for a nut-free version - you can add a little milk of your choice instead if desired.

13 Baby Carrots
2/3 cup Water
1/3 cup raw, unsalted Cashews
1/2 slice Onion
1 tsp chopped Ginger
1 tsp chopped Garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste

Blend these ingredients until smooth. With a Vita-Mix, blend on high for 3 minutes to cook the soup. Without a Vita-Mix, blend as best as possible and heat in a sauce pan.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Cashew Cream Sauce - Salad Dressing Base


I wanted both cashew cream sauce and salad dressing last night, so I made a base that could go either way. Starting with this cashew cream sauce recipe, I put it all together except for the nutritional yeast. Also didn’t add any water but you may need to depending on how well everything is blending together.

For the dressing, I separated 1/2 cup of the base and added 1/2 cup vinegar. With that much vinegar on top of the lemon juice, it packs a punch. I like it that way. You may need to adjust accordingly. Perhaps a 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 base combination.

I finished off the cream sauce with water and nutritional yeast and poured that into a container. After I rinsed out the blender, I poured in the dressing mixture and blended in 1/2 banana.

And that’s it. Pasta sauce and salad dressing done at the same time. This dressing - without any avocado - lasts 3-4 weeks.

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Cashew Cream Sauce - Updated


This recipe is best if you have a mega-blender or a food processor. It can probably be done in a regular blender though you may get a more chunky sauce.

I’ve made several versions and posted some here. Today’s is my favorite, by far. Ingredient list first and then I’ll walk through the order that may be easiest.

Ingredients:

Juice of 1 Lemon
1 Zucchini - peeled and chopped
1-2 Carrots - peeled and chopped - yellow preferred but not required
1/3 medium yellow Onion
3-4 cloves Garlic
3 oz raw, unsalted Cashews
3/4 cup Nutritional Yeast
Salt & Black Pepper to taste (1/4 tsp @ as a suggestion)
Water as needed

If you’re using a regular blender, soak the cashews in water overnight so they soften for easier blending. Drain before adding them to the recipe. If your carrots are on the small side, then use two. Yellow carrots are preferred simply due to the effect on the final color of the sauce.

Put the lemon juice in first, then add the zucchini. If you notice lemon seeds have jumped into your blender, try to fish them out before adding the zucchini. Blend on low so the zucchini won’t hop away from the blades. It doesn’t have to be blended completely yet. Add a little water to help - probably less than 1/8 cup. 

Add the carrots, blend a little more, but this time work up to high briefly. Add the onion and garlic, salt and pepper. Blend all of this on high until it’s smooth. It should be fairly thin.

Add the cashews and the nutritional yeast. Work up to high slowly when blending so the yeast gets pulled into the mixture instead of decorating the inside of the lid. Blend on high until smooth.

At any point that it seems this will not blend nicely, try a tamper or add a little water.

If it’s too thin at the end, add more cashews and/or nutritional yeast. If it’s too thick, add more water or lemon juice.


Friday, August 10, 2018

Salad Dressing Basics


I’ve tinkered with the recipes a few times now and have found what works for me. The base of the dressing is a vinegar, an oil in the form of avocado and/or nuts, an optional sweetener (banana, dates), and water to achieve the desired consistency. The additions can vary pretty widely.

For some dressings, the vinegar/water measurements are: 1/2 cup vinegar, 1 cup water. When the mixture is thicker, then the measurements become: 1 cup vinegar, 2 cups water - especially if you have avocado, nuts, and banana in the recipe. Some vinegars may overwhelm the flavors if there’s more than a 1/2 cup. Lemon juice could be used instead of a vinegar as well.

In general the water is twice the vinegar.

Base:
1/2 cup Vinegar
1 cup Water
1/2 cup raw, unsalted Nuts (cashews, walnuts, etc) - optional
1 Avocado
1 Banana - optional

Equipment choices and preparation: If you have a Vita-Mix, food processor, or equivalent, then you can thoroughly blend in most ingredients. If you’re using a standard blender, some ingredients would work better with a little prep. Nuts may need to be soaked overnight to soften them for blending. Carrots will most likely make a chunkier dressing, but it’s not the end of the world. People often put carrots on salad. Onion, garlic, and harder veggies like carrots may need to be chopped before being added to the blender.

For the flavor profile, it depends on what you wish. I like to add zucchini and carrots to give it more depth of flavor and add more veggies to my day.

Zesty dressing:
1 peeled Zucchini
2 peeled Carrots
2 tsp chopped Garlic or 3-4 cloves Garlic
1/4 yellow Onion
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper

Mustard dressing:
(I’ve made this with Amy’s German mustard but not yet with the mustard seed)
4-5 tbl prepared Mustard or 1-2 tbl ground Mustard Seed
1 Banana (extra sweetener for the Honey Mustard idea)
Salt and Pepper to taste - optional

Balsamic dressing:
(contains sulfites)
For this dressing, I added nuts, avocado, and banana so the base had 1 cup Vinegar and 2 cups Water
2 tsp chopped Garlic or 3-4 cloves Garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste - optional

Fruit dressing:
(I haven’t tried this yet, but here are my thoughts of what this would look like)
5-6 oz Fruit - could be frozen or fresh
Banana or Apple to taste - depending on the sour/sweet aspect of the fruit
Salt and Pepper to taste - optional

Because the oil is also a thickener, these generally don’t separate. The fruit one might because some fruits like to do that.

These dressings last about 1 week.

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Mustard Salad Dressing


1 Avocado
2 Bananas
½ cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 ½ cups Water
4-5 tbl Amy’s German Mustard (or other mustard you like)
4 oz (~1 cup) raw Cashews

Blend


The Amy’s mustard has apple cider vinegar, so it should be safe if you can do ACV. If not, maybe use rice vinegar and skip the prepared mustards. Instead add ground mustard to taste - maybe 1-2 tbl. You might also need some salt and pepper if you go the ground mustard route.

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Salad Dressing


I played with two different versions of a salad dressing. The first one was probably too heavy on the vinegar and it contained oil. When poured on salad, the vinegar taste was diminished enough to be quite enjoyable. If I make that particular one again, I’ll cut the amount of vinegar in half and leave out the oil.

The second recipe came from the desire to play with a new acquisition - ginger juice - and an avocado that was at the use it or lose it stage.

Nut Free: Because both the avocado and the cashews add the creamy consistency, the cashews are optional. Cut back on the initial amount of water and then add as needed for the desired consistency.

Ingredients for recipe 1
1 cup ACV
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
2 very small Zucchini
2 yellow Carrots
1 small Avocado
2 tsp chopped Garlic
1/4 yellow Onion
1/2 cup raw, unsalted Cashews
Water to achieve desired consistency

Ingredients for recipe 2
1/2 cup ACV
1 cup Water (more later if needed to achieve desired consistency)
1/2 cup raw, unsalted Cashews
1/2 tsp Salt (I added a little bit more at the end to brighten the flavor)
1/2 tsp Pepper
1 Avocado
1/2 tbl chopped Garlic
2 tbl Ginger Juice (or other desired flavoring)

Put everything in the blender and blend on high until creamy. This may require adding more water to allow the blender to keep going strong. I used the dry container on the Vita-Mix to help get the cashews well macerated. If your blender is not up to macerating nuts, I suggest soaking them in water or ACV to soften them up first.

I’m a big fan of strong flavors. If mild is more your style, cut the amount of ginger juice down to 1 tablespoon. Once this is on salad though, it should lose more of the flavor’s strength. 

This lasts roughly 1 week in the fridge.