Category: Uncategorized


Oct
2018

Cooking Invention Week: A Good Lookin’ Bake (5/7)

categories: Eating In, Food Allergy Tips, Recipes, Uncategorized

Hello Folks!

Happy New Year! Welcome to our first post of 2019! We began this blog on 13th February 2013, so we’re almost 6 years old!

We’re still in our series about cooking inventions, and healthful, vegan, gluten-free ones at that!

Here in Switzerland, I’ve noticed that varied, well-arranged, properly (read: generously!) spiced oven bakes get a standing ovation at the dinner table. It’s wintertime, and oven-based cooking spread a delicious, warm smell through-out the house.

Super easy veggie oven bake...
Super easy veggie oven bake…

This particular recipe only requires you to buy colourful veggies and arrange them nicely in your baking pan or sheet.

Suggestions include: tomatoes (slit slightly open), potatoes or sweet potatoes (you may want to lightly boil these first, or cut them really small), mushrooms (add a lovely nutty texture when baked), carrots, parsnips, brussel sprouts, asparagus, etc.

I also like to use a bake-able fruit, such as an orange, pear or apple. It gives the dish a nice, sweet occasional munch!

Little trick: cut the veggies according to the size in which they will cook evenly. So for example, you’ll want to cut parsnips a little smaller than carrots. If you don’t do this, you’ll have to cook incrementally, i.e. put in the longest-cooking veggies first, followed by the second-longest-cooking veggies, and so on. This can be a waste of time!

Dressing Recipe:

  • An onion, sliced
  • 2-3 gloves of garlic, sliced
  • 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons of salt (you can also use soy sauce in lieu)
  • Pepper to taste

Once you have arranged your baking tray with all your delicious veggies, scatter the ingredients above onto your veggies. Toss around, so the coating of the “dressing” is even.

Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees or so. If you see them browning, take ’em out!

Once they are out of the oven, splash a little balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar on your food. You can also roughly chop up some cilantro (or any green herb or veggie) and sprinkle on top. Another idea: dust the top with nutritional yeast (make sure it’s of the gluten-free variety!).

Hopefully this cooking invention series has been a little inspirational to you all in spicing up (or spicing down) your at-home cooking… I wish you creativity and joy as you express yourself in the artwork that is making food!

Peace,

Daisy


Oct
2018

All about Jackfruit!

categories: Eating In, Eating Out, Food Allergy Tips, Gluten-Free Products, International, Uncategorized

Hello Lieblings!

Today I want to write about a new trend in health food – the jackfruit! Now, growing up in Malaysia, I knew it as sweet, yellow, sticky-but-waxy “inner fruit” from a large fruit with tough skin… like the durian but without the thorny exterior! The inner fruit had large seeds, which you could boil and eat as a healthy snack, by the way!.

Jackfruit: Truly a one-of-a-kind produce. Native to the tropics.
Jackfruit: Truly a one-of-a-kind produce. Native to the tropics.

 

The jackfruit tree bore very large fruit!
The jackfruit tree bears very large fruit!
The sweet, addictive "inner fruit" of the jackfruit...
The sweet, addictive “inner fruit” of the jackfruit…
What I loved eating growing up - and the boilable seed!
What I loved eating growing up – and the boilable seed!

However, recently (and especially in the West), there’s been a trend of cooking the outer flesh of the massive jackfruit, as a meat alternative!

The new trend seems to be to eat the other fleshy parts of the fruit (beige areas in photo. Also, this is precisely NOT how to cut a jackfruit! :)
The new trend seems to be to eat the other fleshy parts of the fruit (beige areas in photo. Also, this is precisely NOT how to cut a jackfruit! 🙂

It doesn’t quite taste like much on its own, but it has an interesting “meat-like” texture which chefs are enjoying experimenting with. It’s been used in curries, as a fried food, and in burgers! Best of all, it has been found to contain many nutrients!

To demonstrate, may I call your attention to my recent finding… Behold: the jackfruit burger – more or less a meatless “pulled pork” cooked in a tangy barbeque sauce!

Shredded jackfruit flesh, cooked in a barbeque sauce as though it were pulled pork!
Shredded jackfruit flesh, cooked in a barbeque sauce as though it were pulled pork!
Ta-daaaa! The jackfruit burger!
Ta-daaaa! The jackfruit burger!

Jackfruit meat is all health-conscious land! You can even buy it pre-packaged for cooking at home.

Example of pre-packaged jackfruit "meat"
Example of pre-packaged jackfruit “meat”

 

However, I’d strongly suggest you get the fresh version, if you’re in parts of the world that grow jackfruit. Don’t get me wrong though! I’m digging what some chefs are doing with this new material, and as always, I’m always up for a good meat alternative!

This particular burger was found at Eugen’s in Konstanz (read my post on it here). I pretty much could eat this every. single. day. No joke. Till next time… 

 

Peace,

Daisy

N.B.: Many thanks to Google Images for the photos of the jackfruit!