Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Vegan Apple Crisps

Published on February 25, 2009 in recipes and vegetarian.

I came across a bunch of apples sitting on the kitchen table. They have been sitting there for a while and I was afraid they might go rotten. I decided to experiment with making vegan apple crisps.

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup rolled oats
  • 1/3 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup pecans
  • 6 tbsp apple sauce
  • 4 medium apples
  • 1/2 cup apple juice
  • 1 tbsp arrowroot
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp all spice
  • 1/8 tsp cloves

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. In a bowl, mix the oats, flour, sugar, pecans, and applesauce. Mix until it is crumbly.
  3. Chop the apples into small dices.
  4. In another mixing bowl, toss the diced apples, apple juice, arrowroot, and spices.
  5. Pour apple mixture into a baking dish and spread it evenly across the dish.
  6. Sprinkle the oats mixture on top of the apple mixture.
  7. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top is golden and the fruit bubbles slightly around the sides of the baking dish.

Instead of a large baking dish, I decided to make little bite size apple crisp tarts. I scooped the apple mixtures into twelve silicone muffin cups, topped it off with the oats mixture and placed them into the oven. They looked pretty adorable. They tasted pretty good as well. I noticed that it wasn’t very sweet and a bit tart. If serving alone, I would probably recommend increasing the sugar. Otherwise, I think it would go really well with something like ice cream or yogurt.

I used red McIntosh apples in this recipe. I read somewhere that Cortland apples (red), Granny Smith (green) and Golden Delicious (yellow) apples are good choices of apples for baking pies. Maybe next time I will try it with one or many of those. Feel free to share any comments about baking/cooking with apples.

Here is a single piece along with three blueberries and some cinnamon sprinkled on top. Serve warm and accompany with some vanilla ice cream (non-dairy, soy ice cream of course)!

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

Published on February 14, 2009 in Uncategorized.

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Wontons and Dumplings

Published on February 7, 2009 in photo.

Sometimes, I like putting together large batches of homemade wontons and dumplings. Portion them into small bags and throw them in the freezer. It’s great for those busy days. Simply defrost, boil or stream them, and serve with your dipping sauce of choice. I like to eat it with spicy dumpling sauces, citrus soy sauce, or simply light soy sauce. They are also great in soup. I would throw a couple of pieces in my bowl of noodles to fancy it up.

The dumpling filling can pretty much be anything you like. I used a meat mixture consisted of grounded pork and shrimp, seasoned slightly with pepper. Usually I pick up the wonton/dumpling wrappers from the Asian grocery stores. There are quite a lot of varieties to choose from. There are egg ones, wheat ones, round ones, squared ones, regional ones, etc. For these dumplings, I bought some Nasoya wonton wrappers from the local supermarket. It was my first time using this brand. The wrappers are a bit thicker compared to the ones I’ve used in the past. Wonton wrappers generally are thicker and chewier compared to other wrapper skins. They worked well and tasted great. On a side note, it would be interesting to find out which brands/types of wrappers are best for steamed, boiled, and pan-fried dumplings. Any recommendations?

There’s many ways of folding wontons and dumplings, I only know these two ways. I try not to overfill the dumplings too much. And I usually seal the dumplings with egg white. My dumpling wrapping abilities have improved over the years. No more wrappers tearing. No more dumplings exploding while being cooked. Woo-hoo!

I made so many of them. I used up all the meat mixture and had a few wrappers remaining. I wonder how long this batch would last. Mm… by the way I ate, probably not too long.

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