Vegan Southern-style Tofu Fry (Super-Quick Party Snack)

This recipe recently got published in a local mag Time Out Bengaluru.

They wanted a Vegan recipe that was quick and easy to make with easily available ingredients. Something to serve along with cocktails. And most importantly, something original. So this is what I came up with...

Vegan Southern-style Tofu Fry.

Ingredients
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 packet of Firm Tofu
¼- ½ tsp Sambar Powder
Salt to taste

Method
Gently press the block of tofu to squeeze out any excess water. Cube the tofu into bite-sized pieces. Heat oil in a pan and add the tofu. Gently stir till the cubes are lightly browned. Sprinkle on the salt and sambar powder. Alternatively, pepper or red chilli powder can be used instead (but then it won't be very Southern :oP). Stir fry for another minute. Pierce the cubes with toothpicks and serve.



P.S: The best Sambar Powder is the homemade kind but if you're feeling lazy or don't know how to make any, it's easily available at Indian Stores. A well known brand is MTR.

Feeding Etsy to Twitter.

Here's a quick step by step, followed by a video, on how to link your Etsy shop's RSS feed to your Twitter account so each time you create a new listing or relist or renew, this activity gets tweeted automatically.

1. Create an account on TwitterFeed and login.
2. In your dashboard click on "Create New Feed".
3. Enter a name for the feed under "Feed Name" - your Etsy shop name for example.
4. In a new tab/window open your Etsy shop's main page and find the "Subscribe to shop feed" link at the bottom of the right hand column. Right click and copy the link location. Or you can even click on it and copy the link from the address bar.
5. Go back to your TwitterFeed account and paste the link under "RSS Feed URL".
6. Click on "test rss feed" button. It should test and say "Feed parsed OK" in green.
7. Ensure the "Active" box is ticked.
8. The default "Advanced Settings" are fine as they are so leave them alone for now.
9. Click on "Continue to Step 2".
10. Under "Available Services" click on "Twitter".
11. Authenticate your Twitter account or select it from the drop down list if you've already authenticated it before.
12. Click on "Create Service".
13. You can also use TwitterFeed to automatically post your new Etsy listings to your Facebook account or Fan Page at this point if you like by clicking on Facebook and authenticating your account (not shown in video).
14. Click on "All Done".
15. Your Etsy store feed is now set up to automatically post to Twitter whenever you list/renew/relist an item.

You can also link your blog's RSS feed to Twitter using the same method. In Step 5 you just enter your blog's RSS feed link which can be found right at the bottom of your blog - "Subscribe: Posts (Atom)."

Avocado Mint Smoothie

This one has Avocado, Date Syrup, Agave Nectar, Fresh Mint Leaves and plenty of water. All just blended well into a delightfully refreshing and delicious smoothie. YUM!

Caramelized Bananas

Last weekend we attended this awesome seminar by Dr. Neal Barnard and Dr. Nandita Shah (of SHARAN India). It was 2 1/2 days of highly interesting lectures, super-fun cooking demos and yummy, healthy, vegan food. Both doctors are really nice people and patiently answered all of our questions - the intelligent as well as the silly ones. :)

One of my favorite recipes demonstrated by Dr. Nandita was Caramelized Bananas. These bananas are scrumptious! They contain absolutely no added sweetener and are ridiculously simple to make! It barely takes 10 minutes to get the whole thing done!

Did I mention they're delicious? :)



Sesame seeds - toasted well in a dry pan.
Ripe Bananas - cut in half lengthwise and horizontally.

Heat a pan (non-stick/Teflon makes things a lot easier). Place the bananas in a single layer in the pan. Gently flip the bananas once in a while as they cook. Once they reach a delicious looking golden color take them off the flame.

Serve sprinkled with the toasted sesame seeds.

I bet it takes you lesser time to make this dish than in took me to type it out for you. Enjoy! :)

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Coconut Crumble Cookie-Cake

Made this for my granny's birthday. Since she's a huge peanut butter fan and prefers cookies over cakes, it was a perfect recipe. The inspiration was a no-bake cookie recipe which I modified in various ways to concoct this one. :)

Adjust quantities of all ingredients according to your taste. This is an extremely flexible dish. I made this one extra sweet just for her because she has a predominant sweet tooth. Just remember that the coconut oil tends to bring out the sweetness even more so always start with a lower quantity of sweetner and then increase it if required.

I just threw the ingredients into a bowl by handfuls and container tilts, but I've tried to put down measurements here to give you a general starting point.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Coconut Crumble Cookie-Cake.

1 1/2 C Oatmeal
2 T Rice Flour
1/2 C Dry Coconut Powder/Flakes
1/2 C Chopped Walnuts
1/4 C Vegan White Chocolate Chips
2 T Coconut Oil
1 large scoop Peanut Butter
3/4 C Sugar

1. Toast the oatmeal in a dry pan for a few minutes by stirring constantly.

2. Put this into a mixing bowl. While it is still hot/warm add the peanut butter, coconut oil and sugar onto it and mix well. This softens the peanut butter and coconut oil helping them to get incorporated well.

3. Finally mix in the rest of the ingredients. Taste and adjust.

4. Put this 'batter' into a microwave safe dish and nuke for about 2-3 minutes. You can skip this step and directly go to step 5 but I liked doing this so the sugar would be slightly caramelized to add an extra crunch.

5. Cool down to room temperature. Press into a desired container/plate and pop into the freezer. Let it set for at least 20 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, get your toppings ready. You can serve the cookie just as is but since I made it for an occasion, I figured it called for a bit of decorating.

For the Topping:

1/4 C Vegan Semi-Sweet Dark Chocolate Chips
2 T Peanut Butter
2 t Tutti-Frutti (or other dried, chopped fruit)

Put the peanut butter and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and nuke for 30 seconds. Stir and put it back in for another 30 seconds if required. Just stirring well now will melt the chocolate chips completely and mix the peanut butter in.

7. Once the cookie is set completely, take it out of the freezer. Decorate it with the melted chocolate (you can pipe it on but I just used a fork and drizzled it on in thick lines) and sprinkle the tutti-frutti over it.

8. Pop it back into the freezer for 10 more minutes for the chocolate to set.

Enjoy! :)

Please do share the variations (vegan only of course :)) you used to make your own in the comments section.