honey lavender cake

Easter! Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Not sure why. Candy? Spring?

I tried to die some eggs just for fun. I did blue and yellow. Yellow was from turmeric and blue from purple cabbage, both quite smelly. It was pretty easy, took longer than I thought, but there are different methods. I first made the dies by letting the turmeric and cabbage boil then simmer for about half an hour with some vinegar. Then once it cooled a bit I let the already cooked eggs sit overnight in the die and rinsed them in the morning. We have a tradition in my family where we play a game of crack the egg. Everyone goes around the table trying to crack everyone else’s egg and the one that ends up not cracked is the winner. I wanted to make these eggs for that but some of them ended up cracked in my careless haste.

This cake I made was really good and I think I will make it always on Easter from now on! It was my first time baking with lavender. I love the smell so much, it is my go to scent, it really does calm. I was always scared to bake with it for some reason but it was easy. I just bought some lavender buds in the bulk section in the co-op, it was by the tea so I guess I assumed it was good to eat! The lavender was not that strong in the cake but added a nice floral taste that I enjoyed. And the lemon was perfect on top!

Honey Lavender Cake

cake:
1 stick butter plus 3 tbsp
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 2/3 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2-3 tsp lavender buds
2 eggs beaten

icing:
1 cup confectioner sugar
4 tsp soft butter
juice of 1 or 1 1/2 lemons

1 In a medium saucepan heat the butter, sugar and honey. Once nice and smooth add the lavender, turn off the heat and let it cool.

2 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Add the eggs and the cooled butter mixture.

3 Pour the batter into a greased cake pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

4 As the cake cools prepare the icing. Just blend everything until smooth and not too thick. Add more lemon juice or a little water if too thick. Spread over a cooled cake.

pad thai

pad thai, pad thai, pad thai, pad thai!!!!  Who doesn’t love pad thai!  It’s actually not my favorite thai dish but it was fun to make.  I used a wok!  And tamarind, which I discovered is a fruit but has a more savory taste.  It’s used all over the world is dishes.  I’ll have to try it again in an other ethnicity.

adapted from here

Pad Thai

12 ounces dried flat rice noodles (stir fry noodles)

3 tbsp tamarind (from a block)

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup light brown sugar

2 tbsp Sriracha

1 bunch scallions, chopped thin

2 shallots, diced thinly

1 pkg firm tofu, rinsed and cut into 1 inch cubes

1 cup vege oil

6 eggs

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups bean sprouts

1/2 cup roasted peanuts, chopped

handful of cilantro

1 lime cut up for juice

1 Soak noodles in a bowl of boiling water for 30 minutes.  Soak tamarind in boiling water for 5 minutes, stirring to break up.  Press through a sieve and mix juice with soy sauce, sriracha and brown sugar.

2 Heat oil in wok on high until hot.  Place in the tofu in the wok and fry in one layer.    Fry until golden, about 10 minutes.  Set aside tofu on a plate with paper towel.  Pour oil in a bowl and set aside.

3 Lightly beat the eggs with a little salt.  Heat 2 tbsp oil in the wok until it is hot.  Pour in the eggs and swirl the wok so the egg sticks to the side of the wok.  Use a spatula to break apart a bit, let cook all the way through.

4 Heat the wok again until a drop of water evaporates instantly.  Add 6 tbsp of oil, swirl to coat the wok.  Add the scallions, garlic and shallots until soft.  Add noodles and mix in for a couple minutes.  Add tofu, sprouts and 1 1/2 cups of the sauce until everything is mixed.

5 You can add more sauce if desired (I had enough).  Stir in the egg.  Garnish with cilantro, lime juice and peanuts.

lemongrass thai noodles

“New York City is a living organism; It evolves, it devolves, it fluctuates as a living organism. So my relationship with New York City is as vitriolic as the relationship with myself and with any other human being which means that it changes every millisecond, that it’s in constant fluctuation.”

-Timothy “Speed” Levitch

‘be so good that they can’t ignore you’

-Steve Martin

Lemongrass Thai Noodles

9 oz. udon noodles

1 1/4 cups asparagus, cut into little pieces

1 1/2 cup snow peas

2 carrots, thinly sliced

1 red chili pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

3 spring onions

1/2 cup roasted cashews

dressing:

1 stick lemon grass, thinly chopped

handful cilantro

1 red chili pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

juice of 1 lime

salt/pepper

1 Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Add the noodles and cook for 10 minutes, drain and rinse.

2 Bring another pot of water to a boil.  Add the asparagus, snow peas and carrots for about a minute and then drain.

3 In a skillet heat a little oil and sauté the onions and chili pepper for a couple of minutes.

4 Mix the dressing ingredients together.  Toss the noodles, blanched veges, onions and chilies and the dressing together.  Top off with cashews and more cilantro!

caramelized fennel and shallot risotto

I made this risotto last week when it was still raining every day, which seems to be what is going to happen this week.  But this weekend I had lots of fruit and salad and quacamole.   This risotto is kind-of sweet, which I really loved.  It was different which I loved also.  And simple.  While I was making this I questioned what to do with the green parts of fennel?  I guess you can eat it, I’m going to have to experiment.

From “Fresh and Fast Vegan”

Caramelized Fennel and Shallot Risotto

4 cups vege stock

2 large fennel bulbs (or 1lb.)

2 tbsp olive oil

3 shallots

1 tbsp light brown suger

1 3/4 cup arborio rice

sea salt and pepper

fresh tarragon leaves, roughly chopped

1 Cut the fennel bulbs and shallots into thin slices.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan.  Add the fennel and shallots and sugar.  Saute on medium heat for about 30 minutes, until both start to caramelize.  The sugar just helps speed up the caramelization, you can leave it out and cook the veges longer.

2 While the veges cook, heat the stock in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.

3 Add the rice to the fennel and cook a minute or two.  Add 2 ladles of stock and stir until the rice has absorbed the liquid.  Keep doing this a couple of ladles at a time.  It should take about 20 minutes to half an hour.  Keep stirring so the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom.  If more liquid is needed use hot water.

4 Season with salt and pepper and tarragon.

soba noodle salad

Today I saw a butterfly on the subway.  I thought it was pretty neat, it was neat to watch people watch it too!  Little moments of beauty!

So everyone and their mother has some sort of recipe for soba noodle salad with sesame seeds out there, I know.  I know I’m not that original, I know!  But still it was yummy and pretty.  So this is a mix of other soba recipes and stuff I had but it was yummy.  Once I discovered soba noodles I became an addict for sure, I love their texture and that they don’t take that long to cook.  I found this beautiful bowl at an awesome thift store (well it was kind-of awesome).  I also just moved, again!  My second move in NYC in less than a year.  I have my own room now with three lovely roomates!  It was really weird at first, then it was really great and now it is starting to feel a little more normal (all with-in a week, ha!).  Anyway, lots and lots of inspiration to cook more!

Soba Noodle Salad

8 oz soba noodles

1 large carrot, cut into matchsticks

4 scallions, thinly sliced

1 cup sugar snap peas (ends removed)

1/3 cup frozen edamame

1 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tsp rice vinegar

5 tsp soy sauce

2 tsp honey

3 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add the soba noodles and the carrot.  After a couple minutes add the edamame.

2 Heat 1 tsp sesame oil in a skillet.  Add the scallions and the snap peas.  Just toast for a couple minutes.  Add the sesame seeds to toast them a bit as well.

3 In a small bowl mix the vinegar, soy sauce, honey and rest of the sesame oil.

4 Drain the noodles and other veges.  Return to pot (over no heat) and the the other veges with the sesame seeds and the dressing.

things i love

plants, yel

tofu scramble

This is my favorite tofu scramble!  It has everything I would love in my eggs: spinach, mushrooms, scallions, green pepper!  Sometimes I actually prefer this to eggs, the flavors are great!  I made this for myself before heading out to Montréal for my b-day!  I posted some pictures below.  The food there that I ate was not worthy of mentioning, I mean it was really great sometimes but not so vegan.  Since I was visiting with a bunch of people we just wanted to take in the city and the traditional food-I guess you could call it that.  Montréal is super French!  So the food is too.  At first I was in heaven because I love the French language, I’ve always wanted to learn, but after a while I just got frustrated because I didn’t understand anything!  I guess that is expected but it’s weird because I thought the city would be more bilingual (the people are) but everything else is strictly in French.  The food is a lot of meat, that is what they are known for.  I had some fish occasionally, and I lot of good cocktails, and we found the best shawarma/falafel sandwich place thanks to our friend who lives there and knows everything about the city.  For my birthday I had the best croissant for breakfast and some awesome chocolate at an all chocolate restaurant.  And of course we had poutine, the worst thing for you ever-french fries with gravy and cheese.  It was actually kind-of good, I had a couple bites because I wanted to know what it tasted like.  It was really nice to get away and see another place.  We also drove through upstate New York which is so beautiful, I can’t wait to get up there.

Anyway here’s my favorite tofu scramble:

1 tbsp oil

1 medium onion, diced

3 scallions

1 tsp minced garlic

1 bell pepper, diced

1 pkg. firm tofu

1 cup spinach, chopped

2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/4 tsp salt

1 Heat the oil in a large skillet.  Add the onions and garlic.  Once those are soft, add the garlic, scallions, pepper and mushrooms and cook til’ soft.

2 Before heating up the tofu, squeeze out the liquid and crumble it up slightly.  Add the the skillet with spinach, add seasoning  Cook until all the flavors are nicely incorporated.

And here’s some of my Montréal:

A maple syrup lollipop!  I sucked on it for a day then got sick of it.  It’s still sitting in my room with the wrapper on.  It reminds you a lot of pancakes.  From ‘Juliette Et Chocolate’My morning cappuccino (with heart form!) at a great cafe!