Wednesday 2 January 2013

TANGERINES LEMONADE | VEGAN RECIPE (JANUARY MENU)


WIKI NOTE: During Chinese New Year, mandarin oranges and tangerines are considered traditional symbols of abundance and good fortune. During the two-week celebration, they are frequently displayed as decoration and presented as gifts to friends, relatives, and business associates.

Mandarin oranges, particularly from Japan, are a Christmas tradition in Canada, the United States, and Russia. They are commonly purchased in 5- or 10-pound boxes, individually wrapped in soft green paper, and given in Christmas stockings. This custom goes back to the 1880s when Japanese immigrants in the United States began receiving Japanese mandarin oranges from their families back home as gifts for the New Year.

TANGERINES LEMONADE 

YOU WILL NEED:
1 lemon
3 tangerines or mandarin oranges
Half a litre of water
50g panela sugar or unrefined cane sugar
Several ice cubes (optional)
NOTE: The recipe is for a jar.

LET´S COOK!
1. Peel the lemon and the tangerines, and carefully take out the seeds. Cut the fruit into pieces and put it into the blender's measuring cup. Add a splash of water and mix it well with the blender.
2. Add panela sugar and half a liter of water. Continue mixing until everything is well crushed.
NOTE: Try and add more sugar if necessary, it will depend on tangerines.
3. Pour the tangerine lemon juice into a serving pitcher.
NOTE: If you do not like the pulp, you will have to strain it.
4. Serve with ice, and sliced lemons.

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CHOCOLATE SALAMI | ALTERNATIVE VEGAN RECIPE INCLUDED (JANUARY MENU)


WIKI NOTE: Chocolate salami is a Portuguese and Italian dessert. The dessert became popular across Europe and elsewhere, often losing alcohol as an ingredient along the way.

Chocolate salami is not a meat product. The appellation "salami" stems from physical resemblance. Like salami, chocolate salami is formed as a long cylinder and is sliced across into discs for serving. These discs are a brown, chocolaty matrix (like the red meat of salami) peppered with bright bits of cookie (like the white flecks of fat in salami). In Portugal, they are typically made using Marie biscuit. Some varieties also contain chopped nuts, such as almonds or hazelnuts, and may be shaped like truffles.

CHOCOLATE SALAMI

YOU WILL NEED: *vegan recipe
200g Digestive biscuit or Marie biscuit /*vegan biscuit
130g Fondant chocolate /*vegan chocolate, chunks
100g butter /*vegan margarine
40g caster sugar /*80g panela sugar or unrefined cane sugar
3 egg yolks /*3 tablespoons sugar-free peach or strawberry jam
30g chopped walnuts (optional)
A handful of icing sugar

LET´S COOK!
1. Weigh out 170g of biscuits and mash them with a handheld blender or with a pestle and mortar. Reserve the cracker crumbs in a bowl.
2. Put the chocolate chunks, egg yolks, sugar, and butter in a saucepan. Warm gently, stirring until it's all melted. Pour the mixture into the bowl with the cracker crumbs and mix it all together.
3. Chop by hand 30g of the biscuits (and walnuts), pour the chopped biscuits into the bowl, and mix them well.
4. Cut a rectangle of a cling film and pour the contents of the bowl onto it. Roll up a sausage shape with the cling film - like a salami - and close the ends as if it were a sweet wrapper.
5. Leave it in the freezer until the salami is as hard as a stone (about 2 hours).
NOTE: Once the salami is well done, place it on a sushi mat and roll it together. Then leave it in the freezer. The sushi mat makes the texture of the salami skin pretty well.
6. After a couple of hours, when the salami is ready, then take it out of the freezer. Unwrap the cling film and sprinkle over it with icing sugar.
7. Cut the ​chocolate salami into short slices, and put the slices on a plate because they are ready to eat!
NOTE: Cook several chocolate salamis at the same time and leave them in the freezer. As soon as one is finished, there is another ready to eat...No one can resist them!

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SAVOURY JAM ROLY- POLY | ALTERNATIVE VEGAN RECIPE INCLUDED (JANUARY MENU)

WIKI NOTE: Jam Roly-Poly, Shirt-Sleeve Pudding, Dead Man's Arm, or Dead Man's Leg is a traditional British pudding probably first created in the early 19th century. It is a flat-rolled suet pudding, which is then spread with jam and rolled up, similar to a "Swiss Roll", then steamed or baked. In days past, Jam Roly-Poly was also known as shirt-sleeve pudding, because it was often steamed and served in an old shirt-sleeve,  leading to the nicknames "Dead Man's Arm" and "Dead Man's Leg".

***Piononos are prepared using a dough made of flour, eggs, and sugar, which is based on a thin sheet cake and then rolled around a filling of dulce de leche sometimes with walnuts, or fruits like strawberries with chantilly cream, or in the case of savory piononos with York ham, cheese, tomato, and mayonnaise, or a savory salad, such as ham salad with asparagus and lettuce, chicken salad or even tuna.


SAVOURY JAM ROLY-POLY "ARGENTINE PIONONO"
NOTE: Thin layer of mashed potatoes instead of flat pudding for this recipe.

  • LAYER OF MASHED POTATOES:

YOU WILL NEED: *Vegan recipe
5 medium potatoes (approx. 500g)
A dash of olive oil (approx. 50ml) or a generous tablespoon of butter /*veggie butter
A generous dash of milk /*soy milk
Salt, to taste
White pepper, to taste
A pinch of nutmeg (optional)
Water, to boil

LET´S COOK!
1. Put the peeled potatoes in a saucepan with a pinch of salt and cover with water. Once they are cooked, remove the water, put the potatoes in the same saucepan, add butter or olive oil, and grate a little nutmeg, salt and black pepper.
2. Mix everything in the blender or the crusher, and add some dash of the milk until the desired mashed potato texture is obtained.
3. Cover a tray with cling film, and extend the mashed potatoes to get a thick layer (approx. 2 cm). It has to be thick enough not to break when it rolls. Put the tray in the fridge for about 2 hours.
NOTE: This can also be made with Instant mashed potatoes but, to be honest, it's not the same flavor.

  • FILLING:

YOU WILL NEED: *Vegan recipe
5 medium potatoes (approx. 500g)
Small lettuce leaves, cut into julienne strips
1 or 2 tomatoes, peeled and diced its
A handful of chopped green olives
Salt and black pepper, to taste 
Several tbsp of mayonnaise (approx. 400g) / *vegan mayonnaise
2 boiled eggs, sliced /* fried tofu, slices
Several slices of ​​cooked ham for covering the roly-poly (approx. 200g) /*grated carrot
Several ​​cheese slices for covering the roly-poly (approx. 200g) /*grated beetroot
Several chopped crab sticks for covering the roly-poly /*roasted red pepper
Several prawns, cooked and peeled (optional) /*sweet corn
NOTE: homemade mayonnaise and vegan mayonnaise recipe

LET´S COOK!
1. Wash the vegetables well. Chop the lettuce, eggs, tomatoes, and crab sticks into small slices. Put everything into a bowl. Add several tablespoons of mayonnaise, until the texture is creamy. Mix everything with a wooden spoon. Add salt / black pepper, to taste.
2. Spread mayonnaise on the layer of mashed potato but leave a margin of 2 cm around the edge untouched, so that the jam roly-poly can be closed on the unfilled margin.
3. Put a layer of ham and a layer of cheese slices over this first layer of mashed potato.
4. Take the mix from the bowl and spread it over the layer of cheese slices, the mix has to be well distributed around the surface to make the roly-poly shape.
5. Roll the surface with the help of cling film and give the shape of a roly-poly. Remove the cling film carefully at the end.
6. Put the jam roly-poly on a tray. Leave it in the fridge for long (approx. 2 hours).
NOTE: It is better to cook this recipe the day before you want to eat it, so you can leave it in the fridge for a day. 
  • LET'S MAKE A CLOWN FACE!
1. Take out the jam roly-poly from the fridge, wait for a while, and cover the jam roly-poly with a layer of mayonnaise.
2. How to make the clown face: use half a cherry tomato (nose), lettuce leaves cut into julienne strips (hair), and 2 halves of black olive (eyes) and red pepper flakes (mouth and eyebrows).
  
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HUMMUS 3 WAYS: CLASSIC, CARROT, BEETROOT | VEGAN RECIPES (JANUARY MENU)


WIKI NOTE: Many cuisine-related sources describe hummus as an ancient food, or connect it to famous historical figures such as Saladin. Indeed, its basic ingredients (chickpeas, sesame, lemon, and garlic) have been eaten in the region for millennia.

But in fact, there is no specific evidence for this purported ancient history of hummus bi tahini. Though chickpeas were widely eaten in the region, and they were often cooked in stews and other hot dishes, puréed chickpeas eaten cold with tahini did not appear before the Abbasid period in Egypt and the Levant.

Today, it is popular throughout the Middle East (including Turkey), North Africa (including Morocco), and in Middle Eastern cuisine around the globe.

HUMMUS 3 WAYS
  • 1. CLASSIC HUMMUS
YOU WILL NEED:
500g of soaked chickpeas
1 tablespoon of tahini
2 cloves of garlic
A handful of chopped onion (optional)
A handful of sesame seeds
A generous splash (approx. 50g) of extra virgin olive oil or olive oil, to taste
A dash of lemon juice
A pinch of ground cumin
Salt, to taste
A pinch of sweet paprika (optional)
NOTE: Tahini is a cream produced from roasted and crushed sesame seeds.

LET´S COOK!
1. Leave the chickpeas to soak for about 12 hours in cold water. Then drain them with a strainer. Put them in a covered saucepan of water and cook them over medium heat until the chickpeas are very tender. Drain them again and let them cool.
NOTE: You can use the on-base chickpeas, but first rinse them well with water and then drain them. The final result is not as tested as the real chickpeas.
2. Once they are cooled, put them on the base of the blender, and add peeled garlic, chopped onion, a spoonful of tahini, ground cumin, salt, olive oil, and a dash of lemon juice.
3. Mix everything with the blender until you have obtained the desired texture (creamy) from the ingredients.
NOTE: If the texture is very thick, add a dash of olive oil or cold water and beat with the blender for a few more seconds.
4. Fill the silicone cupcake wrappers with the hummus. Decorate the top of the cupcakes with more hummus and sprinkle each cupcake with sesame seeds on the top. Make the icing with olive oil and paprika.
  • 2. CARROT HUMMUS
YOU WILL NEED:
3 grated tender carrots (reserve 1 grated carrot for the garnish)
1 or 2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons ground hazelnuts
2 handfuls (approx.100g) of cooked chickpeas
A generous splash (approx. 50ml) of extra virgin olive oil or olive oil, to taste
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste

LET´S COOK!
1. Mix everything in a blender until you have the desired texture.
2. Fill the silicone cupcake wrappers with carrot hummus. Decorate with a topping of hummus (adding olive oil if you want to get the desired texture of the icing). Sprinkle the remaining grated carrot on top.
NOTE: Put the leftover hummus in a Tupperware. It can be kept in the fridge for several days.
  • 3. BEETROOT HUMMUS 
YOU WILL NEED:
50g of cooked beetroot (reserving some for garnish grated beets)
2 garlic cloves
2 handfuls (approx.100g) of cooked chickpeas
A dash of lemon juice
A generous splash (approx. 50ml) of extra virgin olive oil or olive oil, to taste
A pinch of curry
A handful of sesame seeds (optional)
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste

LET´S COOK!
1. Mix everything in a blender until you get the desired texture.
2. Fill the silicone cupcake wrappers with the beetroot hummus. Decorate with a topping of hummus (adding olive oil if you want to get the desired texture of the icing). Sprinkle with the reserved grated beetroot.
NOTE: Put the leftover hummus in a Tupperware box. It can be kept in the fridge for several days.


  • LET´S EAT SOME CUP-TAPAS!
1. Serve one cup of each hummus per person as a tapa.
2. Plus pitta bread, carrot, and celery sticks, fresh veggies, toast soldiers, or bread sticks to dip into hummus or spread hummus on rice cakes,  rustic toast, or Mexican tortillas, ...

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