Hello there!
No need to say how 2012 is being crazy and busy (and full of love), right? Now that baby boy is getting older I’m getting back to my other life, the one that involves writing and cooking and going out to eat and traveling and one of my projects was to make my dear blog All About… (vegan) Food a website. As you can see we still have the blog page and I will keep posting there but there are many more to come.
We’ll have this space for giveaways and are working in two other projects that will be part of the website! I’m hoping that everything will be ready and running by the beginning of 2013 
To celebrate all these changes and this space that is making me really happy and proud I got 3 cookbooks from some of my favourite authors to giveaway. One luck winner will get them all! I talked to the authors and they were kind enough to let me publish here one recipe from their books, so here we go! I won’t make any reviews of the books because I didn’t have enough time to try many recipes, but I’ll do it in the future.
Book 1: Vegan a la Mode – By Hannah Kaminsky - Hannah has being one of my favourite authors since I started reading her blog, Bitter Sweet, in 2008. I have all her books and I love all them. If you’re an old reader of my blog you know how much I love ice cream so I had to get my hands on this.
Recipe:
Hint-of-Mint Chocolate Sorbet
An intense rush of pure chocolate flavor, combined with a subtle, refreshing essence of mint, this rich sorbet is dangerously easy to eat. Deceptively light but still full-bodied and entirely satisfying, it’s the ideal dessert to cap off a hot summer’s day. Especially when faced with overgrown mint plants threatening to overshadow all the other struggling sprouts in a tiny garden, it was time to take action and chop some down for edible applications. This is hands-down my favorite use for extra fresh mint, since it comes together so effortlessly and is always a huge crowd-pleaser.
3 Cups Water
1 Ounce Fresh Mint Leaves*, Roughly Chopped and Bruised
1 1/3 Cups Granulated Sugar
1 Cup Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powder
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
3 Ounces Dark Chocolate, Finely Chopped
Combine the water and fresh mint in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Immediately turn off the heat, cover with the lid, and let infuse for 45 – 60 minutes. Strain, pressing all of the liquid out of the mint, and discard the spent leaves.
Combine 1/3 cup of the mint water and all of the sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir just to combine, then keep that spatula away at this stage of the game. As the mixture cooks, the sugar will dissolve and eventually come to a boil. Continue cooking, swirling the pan occasionally to mix the contents, about 8 – 12 minutes, until the sugar turns a golden caramel color. Add the remaining water carefully, standing back in case of splashing. The caramel will seize and sputter a bit; don’t worry if it appears to harden. Cook gently once again until the caramel is dissolved, immediately removing the pot from the heat once smooth. Thoroughly whisk in the cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt, making sure there are absolutely no lumps. Finally, add in the chocolate and whisk until fully melted and the whole mixture is perfectly smooth.
Chill thoroughly, for at least 3 hours, before freezing in your ice cream maker per the manufacturer’s instructions. Once churned, pack the sorbet into an air-tight container and freeze solidly before serving. This sorbet turns out a bit softer than most, so it will take nearly a full day to become scoopable; It’s quite delightful as more of a soft serve consistency too, though.
Makes About 1 Quart
*Plain peppermint or spearmint are equally refreshing, but if you’re fond of gardening, consider adding a specialty mint variety to your herb line-up. We don’t get enough sunlight to grow much, but mint is a particularly hardy plant that has a propensity to take over any plot of earth once it takes root. I specifically grow black peppermint for its clean, sweet, and bright flavor. The fine nuances of some boutique varieties like pineapple mint, lemon mint, and ginger mint may become lost in a complex dessert, but anything vaguely minty can absolutely work.
Book 2: Vegan Pie in the Sky – By Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero - Another favorite here. I have almost all books from them and I just love Post Punk Kitchen. And yes, pies and cakes are some of my favorite foods too!
Recipe:
Voluptuous Pumpkin Pie
Single pastry crust, fit into a 9 inch pie plate
3 cups cooked pumpkin or other sweet winter squash
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup plain unsweetened soy milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
4 teaspoons canola oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 /4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon agar powder
Preheat oven to 350 F. In a blender, pulse together pumpkin, maple syrup, soy milk, canola oil, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt, cornstarch and agar powder until very smooth. Pour into the pie shell and bake for 60 to 65 minutes until the center looks semi-firm not liquidy. Check the edges of the crust after baking for 40 minutes; if the edges appear to be browning too rapidly carefully remove the pie and apply crust protectors to the edges to keep from getting too dark.
Remove from oven and onto a cooling rack for 30 minutes, then chill for at least 4 hours before slicing. Serve with Rad Whip, vegan whipped topping or your favorite vegan vanilla ice cream. In the photo, we piped cream around the edges of the pie with a large decorating tip.
Book 3: Cookin’ Crunk – By Bianca Phillips - When I saw that Bianca was launching her first book I didn’t think twice about getting it. I read her blog (Vegan Crunk) every day, love her posts and was really excited to find out what recipes she was “hiding” from us! And I couldn’t get just cookbooks about sweet stuff so she was my obvious choice for some savory recipes.
Recipe
BBQ “Pulled” Tempeh & Carrot Sandwich
Yields 2 sandwiches
1 8-ounce package tempeh
1 tablespoon canola oil
3 tablespoons minced red onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, grated
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
Extra barbecue sauce for dressin’
Creamy Poppy Seed Coleslaw (recipe below)
2 whole wheat buns, toasted
Slice the tempeh into about 10 medium-sized strips. Place the tempeh into a steamer basket with a little water in the bottom. Steam for 10 minutes. If you don’t have a steamer basket, place the tempeh directly into a little water in a saucepan and heat for about 10 minutes. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the shredded carrot and sauté for about 5 more minutes or until carrot is soft.
Crumble the steamed tempeh into the skillet and brown for about 5 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup of the barbecue sauce and continue to cook for about 1 minute. Remove from heat. To assemble, divide the tempeh over the bottoms of two toasted buns. Top with extra sauce and coleslaw and the tops of the bun halves.
Creamy Poppy Seed Coleslaw
Yields 3 1/2 cups
3 cups shredded cabbage (about half of a medium-sized head)
1 carrot, grated
2 tablespoons minced red onion
1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise
1 teaspoon agave nectar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds
Place the shredded cabbage, grated carrot, and minced red onion into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the vegan mayonnaise, agave nectar, salt, and poppy seeds. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
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Now that you have three amazing recipes to try, here’s the rules of the GIVEAWAY!
The prize: 1 copy of each book described in this post (Vegan a la Mode, Vegan Pie in the Sky and Cookin’ Crunk)
Who can enter the giveaway? This time the giveaway is open to everyone in the world!
How to enter: just leave a comment saying what you would like to read about in this website.
Dates: the entries will be accept from today (November 21st 2012) until November 29th 2012. The winner will be announced on November 30th 2012.
Increase your chances! You can do one or more of the following things, return here and leave a comment saying which one you did (leave a comment for each extra entry so you can have more chances):
a. Tweet about the giveaway and mention @AboutVeganFood
You can use this text: “@AboutVeganFood is giving away a copy of Vegan a la Mode + Vegan Pie in the Sky + Cookin’ Crunk! http://allaboutveganfood.com/2012/11/giveaway-to-celebrate-the-new-website.html
b. “Like” the All about… (vegan) food Facebook page and “like” the wall post about the giveaway.
c. Write about the giveaway in your blog/website and leave a comment here with the link.
