i'm thinking of buying a second-hand copy of VWAV but i guess you wouldn't be selling that if you love it!
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i'm thinking of buying a second-hand copy of VWAV but i guess you wouldn't be selling that if you love it!
i made the lemon cupcakes in this book, and everyone loved them! well except my son, but he's more of a chocolate man...
they did rock. cant wait to try some dinners!!
I've made the chickpea and spinach curry, and the udon noodles with peanut sauce.
The curry tasted great - like a "real" one from a restaurant if that makes sense. The only problem was that I found it very hard to dice up the fresh ginger finely, so there were a few slightly larger pieces. Is there a trick to doing this?
The noodles I did a bit differently as I wanted everything hot, whereas in the book the noodles are cold and the peanut sauce at room temperature. Plus I didn't make any seitan or garnishes to go with it. I couldn't find any chilli sauce so used a little dry chilli powder instead. It tasted really good and I'll probably try the full version next time when I'm less busy and less hungry!
No photos as I tend to dollop food onto a plate and it never looks very photogenic :rolleyes:
I've had one disaster and that was the Fettucine Alfreda. I followed the ingredients/instructions exactly, but the smell of the sauce was repulsive so I chucked it away and OH did some veggies in olive oil to go on top of the pasta instead. I think for me, the sauce ingredients just don't go well together (mustard and veg stock for example - yuck) so I'll not try that one again.
Other than that, though, very happy with the book :)
Ah - thanks bryzee!
Just make sure you use the fine side of the grater
ETA: this is bryan... didn't realise jo was signed in!
Will do! I always used to manage to grate my fingers as well :( but that was in the bad ole' cheese days. Maybe I'll have good karma with ginger and other veg*n goodies, and manage to avoid self-harm and finger loss :rolleyes:
So, I love that Big Gigantoid Crunch Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie recipe and I made some changes and it was fantastic!
I used smooth almond butter instead of pb
I subtracted 1/4 c. flour and replaced it with carob powder
I added about 3/4 c carob chips
I only used half the amount of sugar cuz the carob chips were so sweet
They were caroby and amazing!
Also, for the pb silk pie does anyone else find that they have waaaay too much agar and water solution even after cooking it for 10 min? I always have an entire cup left and it seems like such a waste to only use 1/3 of it.
I made the sparkly ginger cookies (I think thats the name) and they are interesting.... I think i would use a bit less molasses as you can really taste it! You also cant eat too many of them as they are mega rich - and I like to eat whole batches of cookies the same day that are cooked so a good diet cookie!! :D
I just made the apple crumb cake muffins - I recommend highly.
Has anyone in the US made the ginger cookies? I'm just wondering how much molasses I should use...
I love those cookies, they are one of my favourites!
I think the terms used for molasses are different in different countries, in New Zealand/Australia (and I think the UK) what is generally just sold as molasses is actually blackstrap molasses and what is sold as treacle is plain molasses. I have always used treacle in US recipes that call for molasses and haven't had any problems.
Yup, I've been told that too. I made the gingerbread cookies from the ppk recipe section which calls for molasses. The only molasses I could find here was Blackstrap in health food stores. It is so dark and I really don't like the taste, like I wouldn't eat it on it's own. I made the cookies with it and they were a bit strong so I went back to making them w/ maple syrup and just a small spoon of molasses. Then I was told treacle here = molasses! Still have to buy some for the next time I bake 'em.
I love this book. It is definitely my favorite and most used cookbook. The sweetcorn chowder is my fave soup, although I skip on the chilli's and use extra bell peppers instead. Tempeh sausage crumbles are great and I've just recently got into scrambled tofu (Its great on toast with a side of beans).
The aforementioned ginger sparkle cookies are so yummy and really easy. I bought a huge tub of various cookie cutters the other day, it had the usual gingerbread man, bunny, star, circle etc.. ones but then also had some really random ones like tennis rackets, buses and flow chart symbols. For our next managers meeting at work I intend to bring in a vegan sparkle cookie flow chart :)
I replace half the molasses with apple sauce and double the ginger. I'm a ginger junkie!
Mmmmm I LOVE those Cookies.
I've replaced the Molassess with Black Treacle and they are perfectly scrummy!!
I love love LOVE this book! Made the choc chip mocha muffins yesterday... delish!
I made the stewed potatoes and tofu in miso gravy yesterday and it was soooo good, a bit salty though, but that was probably because I used a strong miso.
I like VwaV, but I find a lot of the recipes make a large amount... which as its just me and my hubby means we end up eating the same dish for a few days. Its nice to have enough left overs for lunch, but sometimes I feel it makes a lot. It's nice to cook once, eat twice (Chickpea currying in over rice for dinner, Mashed Chickpea spread in pitta for lunch) but sometimes eating left overs doesn't feel so satisfying psychologically to me, but I'm a strange girl.
Anyway, because of the larger postions, I haven't really cooked much from it.
I do sometimes wonder why most cookery books make such big portions... maybe it's just that for as long as I've cooked it's just been be and my Husband, but judging by most of the threads here it seems like a lot of us live on our own/with a partner or are just responsible for cooking for themselves. Maybe it's because it's easier to make an impressive dish with lots of ingredients if you have a larger quantity, eg, you can have a red pepper, a green pepper and a yellow pepper instead of just the one.
For some reason, that really made me laugh out loud. I had a mental image of you blindfolding yourself and trying to tell the difference between two pots of sweet stuff spinning about on an old record turntable.
I don't get out much ;)
I find the quantaties just right for two persons. So maybe you are a small eater?
I think it depends, some recipes really make a ton (usually the stews and anything that takes a lot of work) and others are just right for 2-3 people.
Then we are just big eaters:)
nah, I'm a pig, too. maybe there's a difference between the UK and US version again?
It seems to me like a lot of the recipes seem to work out perfectly for my bf and I to eat a big dinner and then have enough for one or both of us to have a smaller lunch of leftovers the next day. I love having leftovers though...it's nice to take them to work for lunch.
Someone made these for one of our bake sales and they were amazing.
A friend bought me this as a b'day pressie, it arrived today but it's the UK version. I'm so disappointed as I've read about all the mistakes in the measurements. I'm hoping the online store will let me exchange it for the US version because I have been waiting so long for VWAV!
I'm sure there's a thread with all the mistakes at the PPK forum. also, the wrong measurements are pretty obvious most of the time. I wouldn't worry too much.
I made the orange scones a while back and they were awesome!
I ended up making the Buttery Lemon Cut Out Cookies, the Sweet Corn Chowder and the Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy, all yum.
Yesterday I made the curried split pea soup and the lemon gem muffins. They were both delicious. For the icing on the cupcakes I only used half of the recommended amount of soymilk b/c I could tell it was going to be too soft. I could have gotten away w/ just 1/4 of the soymilk I think. And for the soup I only put in half of the recommended amount of curry powder b/c I thought it sounded like too much for our taste.
I recently made the revolutionary omelet with saffron with red pepper and almond sauce. The omelet itself didn't have as much flavor as I thought it would, but the sauce was awesome.
I also made the chocolate chip cookies which everyone loved. All in all, I really like vwav and would recommend it to anyone.
Another vote for the Tofu Scramble and the Scones!
I'm glad to hear the cupcakes are good. I've been avoiding cupcakes for a while ~ had some trouble with other recipes early on ~ but I'm offering a bake table at our holiday craft fair this year, and it would be nice to feature at least one.