Holiday Cooking, Vegan-Style, Part III

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http://missionlocal.org/2009/12/holiday-cooking-vegan-style-part-iii/

 

 

By: Anrica Deb

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December 25, 2009 – 12:03 am

 

Yesterday, we showed you brownies and pie crust. Today we go East with an

everyday classic with a coconut twist and another that is part of “pure vegâ€

Indian cuisine.

 

Coconut Banana Bread

 

Bananas, chocolate, and coconut, all grown in warm climes far away from San

Francisco. It fails to be locally sourced, ok, but this recipe is delicious.

 

Preheat oven to 350 F

 

Ingredients

 

½ cup sunflower, canola, or melted coconut oil, or combination

1 cup sugar

½ cup coconut milk (Not coconut water)

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3-4 ripe (nearly rotten) bananas

½ cup dark chocolate chips

 

Thoroughly mix oil, sugar, and half of the coconut milk together in a large

mixing bowl. Separately dissolve the baking soda in the other half of the

coconut milk and stir into the mix.

 

In another bowl thoroughly mix flour, salt and cinnamon.

 

In a third bowl completely mash up the bananas with a fork and then stir in the

choc chips.

 

Gently add the flour mixture to the oil and sugar bowl. Fold it in until stuff

is almost, but not quite, combined. Fold in the bananas and chips just as gently

– if there are a few pockets of flour that never got moistened, that is fine.

Complete mixing at this stage results is hard and unpleasant banana bread

texture later on.

 

Pour it all into some kind of well-oiled pan, loaf or bar pans both work. Loaf

will take longer to bake, of course.

 

Bake 50 minutes or until fork or toothpick comes out clean. Cool and eat.

 

Homestyle Pakoras (aka Chickpea Flour Fritters)

 

Chickpea flour, also called besan, garbanzo, or gram flour, is a peculiar but

tasty substance. It behaves poorly as a substitute to wheat flour, but does have

an egg-like quality in cooking.

 

This is my dad’s recipe for homemade pakoras. He’s a Bengali omnivore, but

the fritters are vegan. Apparently these can be made with a deep-fat fryer if

you have one, but a good deep pan will suffice. Though it’s an Indian recipe,

I don’t see why you couldn’t change the tone and use different herbs,

spices, and sauces. Go Mediterranean or Mexican, for example, with sage and

rosemary or cumin and cilantro.

 

Ingredients

 

1 cup chickpea or besan flour

½ tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground turmeric

¼ tsp mustard powder (optional)

pinch of chili powder

Salt

¼ - 3/4 cup water, depending on how fine the flour is

 

Vegetables cut up in one-bite size chunks. (Cauliflower, broccoli. Potato and

eggplant are ok if sliced into thin circles, slim enough to cook all the way

through. Onion rings work too. My dad likes to cut heads of cabbage into ½â€

slices and dip the circle of tightly-wound cabbage in the batter.)

 

Mix flour, salt, and spices. Slowly stir in water, adding enough water that

texture is of thick – not runny – batter. Set batter aside for 5 minutes,

and put on an apron. You may get splattered, and turmeric stains.

 

Drop the vegetables chunks in the batter.

 

Heat about an inch deep of vegetable oil, choosing an oil that tolerates high

heat and a pot that gives you extra depth once the things are frying away.

 

Some recipes have the frying done is only tablespoons of oil on a griddle

instead of deep-frying. That’s ok too.

 

Test some batter. If it cooks immediately, you’re ready. Oil needs to be hot,

or batter will get goopy. If too hot, then pakoras will be raw inside and burnt

outside.

 

Cook a few minutes, until golden, then flip and cook the other side. Remove with

slotted spoon or tongs, and cool on paper towels.

 

Serve with something delicious to dip them in: hot sauce, raita made with soy

yogurt, ketchup, or spicy mint chutney.

 

 

 

 

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