Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

Last Sunday we had a family party (24 of us) for my granddaughter Mariah's 13th birthday.  Because Mariah loves coffee flavor, I made two 9 x 13-inch Chocolate Mudpie Cakes with Coffee/Coconut/Pecan Icing (except that I used almonds instead of pecans, which I was short of).  To go with it, I made a double batch of the following ice cream. There were only a few vegans there, but everyone loved this rich-tasting treat, and we had no leftovers to bring home (which is a good thing, since we are weight-watching!).

               The Birthday Girl cutting her cake, with eager guests waiting.




Printable Recipe

I can't believe this week has gone by so fast! Sheesh! And here it is Thursday again! We did have a fun few days with DH's stepdaughter from Montreal and her two lovely 12-year-old twin daughters. We had a picnic the beach with some friends and 2 of my granddaughters, the girls having a great time swimming, canoeing, going out on my stepson's motor boat, and getting to know each other. We went to Salt Spring Island for a night, with the "gang" (as DH calls them) to visit more family-- driving in style in a friend's immaculate white 1972 Chevy Caprice. We would have been squished in our little car, with no air conditioning on the hottest weekend of the year, so our friend offered his ride. Very fun, and a big surprise for the Salt Spring relatives when we drove up!

But, along with company, cooking, the ordinary daily running of a house and job, family, and, of course, the Book-- hours of editing-- it's been mostly work and very little serious cooking, I'm afraid!

I did make an interesting recipe yesterday-- Lucuma ice cream (vegan, of course!). Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit and, as many of you may know, my father was Peruvian. I remember lucuma ice cream from my three months in Peru as a six-year-old. Lucuma is a fruit with a quite dry texture, so it isn't eaten as a fruit, per se. Mostly it is used for a delectable, rich ice cream. Lucuma is rather sweet and has a butterscotch-y sort of flavor. When I was in Vancouver last, I found a store with Peruvian foods and bought some frozen lucuma puree-- what a coup, I thought!

Yesterday I worked out a recipe based on my vanilla gelato recipe made with Instant Clearjel®, with the help of a (non-vegan) recipe from the internet. After splattering the kitchen with soy cream after a little accident (Mercury is in retrograde-- what can I say?), I made the mix and tasted it-- WAY too sweet!! I couldn't figure it out! My gelato is not as sweet as most, and I had used less sweetener than the non-vegan recipe called for (in relation to the volume of liquid, etc.). So, I got out my (new, under-used) reading glasses and read the small print on the bag of lucuma puree-- sugar! I had been assuming that it was unsweetened, since the label did not say "sweetened" and the recipes I found online all called for unsweetened puree. My mistake!

I tried diluting it with more soymilk-- still overpoweringly sweet! (I now have about 2 quarts of very sweet milky liquid in the fridge that I have to think of some ways to use!  Any ideas?) So, I started over and used no sweetener at all. It still tasted too sweet to me, but I know that when food is frozen, the sweetness is not as apparent, so there was hope. I stuck it in the freezer and hoped for the best, as I was hoping to take it to a family dinner with my sister and my mother on Friday-- they will remember this treat, too!

Last night I looked for unsweetened lucuma puree in Canada online-- no luck. But I did find lucuma powder. It seems that lucuma is all the rage in the raw foods community and is even used as a natural sweetener. I found some at a good price from this Canadian vendor, and ordered 2 lbs for future experiments!

BTW, lucuma is being called a "superfood", but I think this is somewhat of an exaggeration. It's true that it has lots of fiber and beta carotene, but, then, so do carrots! It is high in natural carbohydrates, so it was used by the Incas to provide energy, and evidently the trees are very prolific-- no wonder it was a popular food. Tasting sweet and butterscotch-y didn't hurt! I just feel that we should not go hog wild over exotic foods that are supposed to provide miraculous nutrients, when, in fact, we have foods at home that are just as good, more available, and much cheaper! For me, his is an exotic treat to relive some childhood memories.

Anyway, that said, we tried a bit of the ice cream when I was photographing it and re-packing it, and it is delicious! Here is the recipe I used with the sweetened puree, but I plan to try it again with the lucuma powder and will report back!


Printable Recipe

Update Aug. 2012: See a recipe for Vegan Lucuma Ice Cream using lucuma powder here. And stay tuned for Take 3!

BRYANNA'S VEGAN LUCUMA ICE CREAM (PERUVIAN), TAKE 1 (WITH SWEETENED LUCUMA PUREE)
Servings: 10
Yield: 5 cups

1 1/2 cups soy creamer (plain)
1 1/2 cups nondairy milk
1 1/2 cups lucuma puree (with sugar)
3/4 cup raw cashews or cashew pieces, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes and drained
(if allergic to nuts, use 1/2 cup more nondairy milk, or soy creamer, and 2 tablespoons oil)
1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
3/8 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons Instant Clearjel® (see info below recipe)OR 3/8 tsp. guar gum or xanthan gum

Place the creamer, milk, and lucuma puree into a blender along with the soaked, drained cashews, and blend until VERY smooth and frothy (make sure that it is not grainy at all).

Mix all of the remaining ingredients, into this mixture and blend again until it is VERY smooth.

Chill the gelato mixture thoroughly, and then freeze according to directions for your ice cream machine. Scoop into a quart plastic container, cover and freeze for several hours (preferably 24 hours) before serving.


Keep cool!

An experiment we loved, made with some of the apple bounty from my last post.

Printable Recipe (includes "Amaretti Crumbs" recipe

BRYANNA'S ROASTED APPLESAUCE/AMARETTI VEGAN GELATO
Makes 8/ 1/2-cup servings.
This is really delicious. The brown rice syrup adds a faintly caramel-like flavor that makes the ice cream seem very rich.

2 1/3 cup plain soy milk, or almond milk (such as Almond Breeze Original) or So Delicious Coconut Beverage, Original
1/2 cup raw cashews or cashew pieces, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes and drained
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
1/2 cup light-colored granulated organic sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon Instant Clear-Jel (See about this product and where to get it at this post ) OR 1/4 teaspoon Xanthan gum or Guar gum

ADDITIONS:
1/2 cup Vegan Amaretti Crumbs (see recipe in Cooking Tips) OR, you can simply use chopped toasted almonds instead
1/2 cup Chunky Roasted Applesauce (pictures at end of post)

Place the milk into a blender along with the soaked, drained cashews, and blend until VERY smooth and frothy (make sure that it is not grainy at all).

Mix all of the remaining ingredients, EXCEPT the Additions, into this mixture and blend again until it is VERY smooth.

Chill the gelato mixture thoroughly, and then freeze according to directions for your ice cream machine. Add the Amaretti Crumbs 30 seconds before stopping the machine. Remove the dasher and add the applesauce to the center. Using a small spatula, swirl the applesauce roughly through the ice cream.

Scoop into a quart container, cover and freeze until hard before serving.

Servings: 8
Yield: 1 quart

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per 1/2 cup): 273.7 calories; 18% calories from fat; 5.9g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 131.1mg sodium; 182.5mg potassium; 55.8g carbohydrates; 1.1g fiber; 45.0g sugar; 54.7g net carbs; 5.0g protein; 5.8 points.

Printable Recipe

BRYANNA’S "AMARETTI" CRUMBS (SOY-FREE)
Makes 2 and 1/2 cups
From my book "Nonna's Italian Kitchen".

Italians use crumbled amaretti cookies (almond macaroons) in many desserts (and even in a few savory dishes with Renaissance roots). Since macaroons are made with eggs, we can't use packaged cookies for this purpose.

You can use this easy recipe when you need amaretti crumbs, and do away with the need to have baked amaretti on hand.

Nuts and breadcrumbs can be quickly toasted in your microwave, if you like.. You can grind them easily and quickly in a small electric spice or coffee grinder, or mini-chopper.

1 c. lightly toasted ground almonds
1 c. toasted white or sweet bread crumbs
1/2 c. maple syrup
1 tsp. pure almond extract

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Mix all of the ingredients together well. Spread the mixture on 2 cookie sheets and place in the heated oven.

Toast the mixture for about 15 minutes or until it has dried out a bit, but is still slightly chewy. Cool the mixture, then freeze in rigid plastic containers.

Chunky Roasted Applesauce after 45 minutes in the oven:


Chunky Roasted Applesauce after broiling, before adding sugar:

Enjoy!!

 Chocolate-Orange Sorbetto ready to be scooped out of my new Cuisinart ice cream maker and ready to enjoy!

  UPDATE: The Chocolate-Orange Sorbetto recipe is in my newest book, World Vegan Feast.

I'm so glad I got my new ice cream maker in the summer! I can make delicious frozen treats-- low-fat ones, too-- for company and for just ourselves. The other day I made two very different sorbettos. A sorbetto is the Italian way of saying sorbet, a frozen dessert that is usually fairly intense in flavor and creamy in texture, but containing no dairy products, or even dairy substitutes. They could be called a "water ices", but that sounds so dull! Nothing dull about these treats!

I added Instant Clear Jel (which I talk about in this post) to ensure a creamy texture and no rock-hard freezing. But you can leave it out, if necessary.



Printable Recipe
BRYANNA'S GREEN TEA AND KIWI SORBETTO

Servings: 8
Yield: 1 quart

A friend gave us some large kiwis, but DH isn't fond of them, so I thought I'd make a sorbetto with them, using green tea as the liquid. This is a variation of a recipe that's going around the internet, so obviously, I wasn't the only one with this idea!

3 cups water
2 1/2 tablespoons your favorite green tea leaves
3/4 cup organic unbleached sugar
8 large kiwifruit, sliced in half lengthwise
zest of one organic lime
1 teaspoon Instant Clear Jel OR 1/4 teaspoon Xanthan Gum or Guar Gum

OPTIONAL: Green tea doesn't necessarily make a green brew, so if your mixture looks kind of "blah" or brown add a few drops of green food coloring or green food color paste (For natural brands see Cooking Tips below.
PS: Here is an article about making your own natural food colorings.)

Directions
Bring water not quite to the boiling point in a small non-aluminum saucepan . Remove from the heat and stir in the tea leaves.

Cover and steep the tea for 5 minutes. Strain the leave off (discard) and pour tea back into the saucepan. Add the sugar. Over medium heat, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Raise the heat to high and simmer about 5 minutes, or until the tea becomes syrupy. Stir in the lime zest. Set aside in the refrigerator until it comes to room temperature.

Now you need to scoop the kiwi out of it's skin. Hold one half of a kiwi in the palm of one hand, and, using a grapefruit spoon, scoop out all the green kiwifruit. If the white membrane in the center is tough, discard it. Repeat with the rest of the kiwifruit.

Place the scooped-out kiwi fruit and cooled tea syrup into a blender or food processor, along with the Instant Clear Jel, and puree it until very smooth.
If the color is not pleasant, add some of the food coloring (be careful not to add too much!).

Prepare your ice cream maker and add the mixture. Freeze according the the directions that go with your machine. Scoop the mixture into a container and freeze until firm.

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per 1/2 cup serving): 128.1 calories; 2% calories from fat; 0.4g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 6.3mg sodium; 302.5mg potassium; 32.3g carbohydrates; 3.1g fiber; 18.7g sugar; 29.2g net carbs; 0.9g protein; 2.0 points.

Cooking Tips
NATURAL FOOD COLORINGS (available online):
Here is an article about Chefmaster Food Dyes, which the author says are"All Natural Vegetable Food Dyes for the Allergy Sufferer, Earth-Conscious, or Chemically Sensitive".  I haven't verified this, but they are available from amazon.com

Another brand is India Tree, also available from amazon, but you have to mix your own colors from 3 basics.


Enjoy!