Sesame Sriracha Tempura Veggies!

Testing, testing...Is this thing on?

Oh, yeah! It's on!

On to another great tester: Joni's Sesame Sriracha Tempura from Vegan Fusion!

I fried this tempura in my enameled cast iron pan with a clip-on candy thermometer.  It was easy to monitor the temp of the oil that way.

First, I picked out some veggies from my stash...

Onions, broccoli (leftover, pre-cooked), Brussels sprouts, avocado, carrot and apple.

I also added a chopped, pre-cooked beet at the end since I had enough batter! 

Joni's batter recipe.

I kept mixing in enough veggies for a full round in the oil.  Then, I added them right to the hot oil from the batter.

Clockwise from bottom: Broccoli, onion, avocado, carrot, Brussels sprouts, and in the center, beets and, above, apples.

This was a decadent and delicious dinner, I served it with jasmine rice.  

Which one of those was my favorite?

Nope, it wasn't the avocado, but it was rich and creamy. YUM.

I loved serving this tempura with a Sriracha vegenaise, and I needed a sweet soy dipping sauce, but ended up using tamari + rice vinegar since I was out of time.

So, what is my assessment of the different veggies?

Actually (and this surprised even me), my favorite was the Brussels sprouts (upper right in this picture). They were perfectly cooked, a bit sweet, toothsome, and went perfectly with the batter and the sauces.  Not bitter or brascia-like at all :-)  

Second runners up were the onions, cooked broccoli and carrots.  The onions were delicious, crispy, sweet and delicate--a fancy onion ring! The broccoli was creamy and tender, you could really taste the subtlety of the batter the most with the broccoli.  The avocado was creamy and perfect, but needed a slightly saltier batter and a sweeter sauce, which would have brought out all it's glory.  The apples were fine, the texture was good, they went well with the batter and the sauces, but overall, merely average.  

The least interesting were the beets, which just tasted like cooked beets with tempura batter cooked onto them.

All hail Brussels sprouts tempura!

Who knew?

Sweet Chili Tofu, Korean Fresh Noodles and Betty Goes Vegan!

I made Joni's Sweet Chili Tofu tonight (but I pan fried it on my cast iron pan vs. grilling it) over Korean Fresh Noodles from my Asian Market haul with Broccoli and an Easy Asian Dressing.  This was an unbelievably delicious dish!

That tofu! Those noodles! That broccoli! OMG.

Marinating the tofu (it was already pressed in my TofuXPress) in the Sweet Chili Sauce: 

Pan Frying the tofu in one of my cast iron pans (the crepe pan, actually!). 

Served over Korean Fresh Noodles with Easy Asian Sauce, garnished with Scallions and Sesame Seeds 

My Easy Asian Sauce is EASY! 

This was one of my favorite Asian Noodle and Tofu dishes ever.  OMG.

And for those of you who know and love Annie and Dan Shannon and their Betty Crocker Project, their book came out yesterday (I received it yesterday because I had pre-ordered it on amazon months ago) and they were even on The Today Show! 

 There are so many amazing recipes in there, I don't know where to start, though I think Salted Caramel Apple Whoopie Pies is a good place!  Or maybe Inside-Out Peanut Butter Cup Whoopie Pies!  I may have just bought a heart-shaped whoopie pie pan, you know, for Valentine's Day Whoopie (Pies) :-)

XOXO!

Testers: Spicy Korean BBQ Jackfruit and Pull Apart Buns!

Here are three more testers from Joni's new book, Vegan Fusion!  This is an amazing Pull Apart Bread filled with Spicy Korean BBQ Jackfruit. I made all three recipes (the BBQ sauce, the Jackfruit and the bread itself) yesterday!

BBQ Bun Pull Apart Bread from Vegan Fusion

This was made from three recipes...

The Spicy Korean BBQ Sauce:

Delish!

The BBQ Jackfruit Story:

This was my first time working with jackfruit, it is very hard right out of the can.

Here it is just starting to cook with the sauce, etc.

 I couldn't really begin to break it up until it had been cooking a good while, though I got some of the pieces apart a little using two forks at the beginning.  Next time I may chop up the jackfruit with a chef's knife before adding it to speed up cooking a bit (I was a little impatient last night, if I had more time I wouldn't have worried about it, it gets soft as it cooks).

After 45 minutes and a bit of effort (with two forks as well as cutting it up with my spatula--I wanted to make those buns!) to break apart the chunks of jackfruit, here is the finished Spicy Korean BBQ Jackfruit! It was delicious!

And, I needed a snack while I was making all this, so I put some of Joni's Sweet Chili Sauce on my tofu from the Asian Market (the homemade tofu, which is always amazing) and had it over some organic "marathon" bread from Wegmans.

A super tasty snack!! That gave me enough energy to finish the buns!

And here are pictures of the bun making and baking and eating:

 This dough is so smooth and silky, a joy to work with!

 Bun Assembly Station.

 A second filling: Sweet Chili Seitan and Tofu with Lime!

Raw buns ready for the oven! The center ones are the BBQ Jackfruit, the outer circle are the Sweet Chili Seitan & Tofu ones.

Curious passersby! 

Baked Buns!! Aren't they gorgeous? 

 Time to eat!

Sweet Chili Seitan in the Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce. YUM.

BBQ Jackfruit, YUM. 

 We jammed these!

Para llevar!

Now, what to make next...

Pantry Stock-Up and Testing for Joni!

My pantry was hurtin' and I needed groceries, so today we did a monster Wegmans run (a mistake on any Sunday, but unfortunately necessary today) followed by an Asian Market run.  I just signed on as a tester for Joni Marie Newman's new book, Vegan Fusion, and I needed to replenish my sauces, vinegars, canned goodies, Asian noodles, frozen things, and to find some Jackfruit in brine!

I'm ready for you, Joni!  So psyched! 

Canned Jackfruit in brine: check!  Now I'm gonna do some gournet cooking, yeah, baby!

 Got some more agar powder, both for Joni's recipes and to make more vegan cheese from Artisan Vegan Cheese.  This agar powder is from Thailand, "Telephone" brand? We'll see about that...

Here is an interesting soda that has regular sugar and not corn syrup.  It's going into Joni's Spicy Korean BBQ Jackfruit!

Saw these Fresh Korean Noodles in the refrigerated section of the Asian Market and couldn't resist.  They look so gorgeous!  

Other finds...

Two kinds of "Vegetarian Mock Duck" (which is vegan, of course).  

I was looking for this last year and couldn't find it, but it was above the canned jackfruit!  I also got Chinese Roast Duck Mix, a spice mix to flavor that mock duck you see before you (also vegan, don't worry!).

  Who knows what will happen when I actually combine these entities, but I couldn't resist!  

A local tofu, Nature's Soy, which is made in Philadelphia, and another local tofu, made in Cherry Hill, NJ (the store's own homemade tofu).  I LOVE that homemade tofu.

These are frozen, vegan shrimp and they are REALLY good.

They are called "Healthy Food," I love it.

Because I bought SO many heavy things like cans and bottles, I got an awesome, free canvas bag!

And a free packet of these little envelope/pouch things...

I guess it's just an ad for the store?  What are you supposed to put in there??

Does anyone know? I can't read the writing on the front of the envelope (obviously), but I think that would help.

Oh! And I already tested Joni's recipe for Sweet Chili Sauce!

Ta-da! It's delicious.  I may make the Sweet Chili Grilled Tofu next, or start on the BBQ Jackfruit recipe...oh the choices! 

Hope you all had a great weekend.

BTW, here's what I made this morning, before all this shopping:

White Lightning Blend (I'll post the recipe soon) Isa and Terry's Basic Chocolate Cupcake with vegan Betty Crocker frosting ("Rich and Creamy Vanilla" appears to be vegan!). I think it worked to keep me going all day.

Go forth and prosper.

XOXO