Vegan Tastes of Rajasthan India!

It's been a long time coming and I've wanted to get my India photos uploaded so here they are, most without captions -- for the moment.  Mange! (OK, that's French, but I don't know how to say "eat" in Hindi.) ~Namaste.This was from one of our first lunches on the tour.  The cashew curry (at about 7:00 on the plate to the left) was amazing. I talked about how much I loved it the entire trip and on one of the last nights, I got to cook it (with some help of course), using ingredients from the local market.  There is a photo below of the pan while I am cooking the cashew curry...So delicious...

Food from the Bishnoi village, an all vegetarian village.

This is the market where we haggled (only when appropriate considering how cheap everything was compared to the US) for the ingredients used during our night of cooking.

Cashew curry in progress

Thali

Gulab jamun - my favorite dessert.  I recall having thirds of this syrupy sweet little dish!  I couldn't help myself!

Cowgirl vegan cupcakes (East Village, NYC)

Vanilla with chocolate frosting (full-size and mini)- sorry about the blurry photo

Clockwise from upper left (blue cupcake): cotton candy, chocolate cake with peanut butter, mini vanilla, second cotton candy, chocolate with chocolate (or was it mocha) frosting, mini vanilla with chocolate frosting.

The flavors rotate daily; other stand-outs include french toast flavored cupcakes (chocolate or vanilla cupcake and cinnamon maple frosting.  Cupcakes do contain soy.  I made an exception in my soy-free diet for this place.  They also offer gluten-free flavors.  For soy-free and gluten-free vegan cupcakes, go to Babycakes on the Lower East Side.

Maybe I went too late in the evening, but I found the minis a bit stale around the wrapper.  I ate them anyway, of course.  My favorite flavor is the cotton candy, despite the blue food coloring and pearl-like adornments, both of which made me a bit nervous.  I surprised myself and liked the vanilla-bottom cupcakes better than the chocolate ones, which is the reverse of my usual taste preference for everything chocolate.  The peanut butter frosting is also quite yummy.  I tasted the mint-frosted cupcakes on a prior visit and found them almost too minty, and learned that you cannot eat a peanut butter cupcake in the same sitting as a mint one.  The flavors just do not mesh well together.  That's what I got for eating three cupcakes in a row.   No big surprise there.

Cowgirl also offers an assortment of other sugary treats, like donuts, cookies, cakes, pies, brownies and more.  It varies from day to day.  You can call ahead or check their blog or Twitter. In addition, they have a savory menu -- burritos, sandwiches and more.  All vegan.  I have not tried anything other than the cupcakes at this point.

Cowgirls Baking

Delicious sweets (Paris)

I loved the sweets and pastries in Paris during my recent trip.  Here are a few photos of the vegetarian (not vegan) yumminess.

Orange chocolate mousse from Le Potager du Marais

Pastries, chocolates and macarons from the 6th arrondissement

Dao Palate-Pan Asian Vegan Cuisine for a light dinner (Brooklyn)

Tom Yum Soup (left): nice and spicy, will clear up your sinuses straight away!

Problem was there was vegan (soy) ham

in the soup, which I ate around. I choose

not to eat soy products for a variety of

reasons.

Basil summer roll wrapped in rice paper

with vegan hoisin sauce and peanuts (right):

The sauce was great; I could have eaten it

like a soup. Problem again was the presence

of soy inside the wrap, which I accidentally

ate a few bites of.

Indian pancake (below) with curry dipping sauce: the pancake was greasy

goodness but the curry sauce fell short. It was way too mild and tasteless

for my palate.

Dao Palate seemed so promising on a freezing cold night recently. Nice

ambiance with candlelight and minimalist-inspired decor. Unfortunately,

the servers (yes, two of them) did not listen to my requests for soy-free

dining and that ruined the whole experience. How is this possible when

the restaurant was literally empty otherwise? It was clearly not a question

of being too busy. When I encountered the soy in the soup, I realized

they completely ignored my requests and I was even ignored when I

asked one of the servers about it as if I had not said anything just then.

Only after repeating my question did she say it was "ham".

Not even vegan ham, just "ham". Then, when I looked dumbfounded,

she spelled it "H-A-M". Yes, I heard. I had to then explain to her that

it must be soy-derived since this is a vegan restaurant and reminded

her that I mentioned I didn't eat soy when I ordered. The response

was, tell us next time and we will omit it when we are cooking.

I thought I did that this time, no? How disappointing.

Mmm, vegan banana bread loaf

My favorite baking resource is Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Joy of Vegan Baking, which, of course, is legendary. I've adapted the banana loaf recipe to make it even more healthful by re

moving the chocolate chips (no, that is not a typo), using organic whole wheat pastry flour and using either SUCANAT or jaggery as the sweetener. I used to sweeten with agave nectar and adjust the rest of the liquid proportions but I no longer use agave after all the recent news about its processing. Coincidentally, I also subbed in unsweetened applesauce for half the canola oil today because I was low and that worked very nicely.

The modified recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

2 c. 100% whole wheat organic pastry flour

1 1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. unrefined sea salt

1 c. SUCANAT or jaggery, if you have time to grate

1/3 c. canola oil (I split this evenly 1/6 c. each of canola oil and unsweetened applesauce. Next time I plan to use the full 1/3 c. of applesauce)

4 ripe organic bananas, mashed

1/4 c. water (filtered)

1 t. vanilla extract (with no alcohol or corn syrup added; I use Trader Joe's brand)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, mix the first three ingredients. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil (applesauce) together, then add the mashed bananas. I find it's easy to mash the bananas right in the bowl, using a fork. Stir in the water and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and stir to mix.

Fill the baking pan about 90% with the batter leaving a generous portion in the bowl. I will get to the leftover batter in a second.

Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (normally 40 minutes on the dot for my oven).

Ahh, as for that last 10% of batter (you won't find this in any cookbook)...The best part of vegan baking is my favorite past-time -- licking the bowl! A delicious treat for when the bread is baking. What, were you going to do the dishes??

Enjoy the baked bread once it cools, and try not to eat it all at once. I won't tell if you do, though...

Exotic fruit baskets by Yana

A friend of mine, Yana, surprised me last night with a beautiful basket of exotic fruits. The basket was so beautifully wrapped in gold mesh fabric and adorned with pretty leaves (photo, left). It was filled with goodies (working counterclockwise, right-hand photo) like miniature pineapple, kumquat, ugli fruit, cherries (from Chile), pomegranate (with 613 seeds, a tidbit from Yana), Myers lemon and a clementine. Wow - awesome!

So far I've tasted the cherries; what a treat in the wintertime when they are no longer in season locally and a kumquat, which I never had before. Both were excellent. Can't wait to try the pomegranate seeds next.

This is a great gift idea for holidays, birthdays and most anytime, really. The good news is that Yana lovingly creates these pretty baskets and sells them so if you are interested in buying one, visit her websites at:

www.littlemissvegan.com

www.fruittasting.com

Thank you Yana for the thoughtful fruity goodness!

V-Note (Upper East Side) for dinner

We had the best table in the house...

The photos are out of the order they were eaten; it's hard to control the picture order using Blogger. Really, I did not have dessert first, although with me, it's not totally out of the realm of possibility.
Fondue! The fruit was a little too cold for my taste and the fruit, especially the strawberries, weren't the ripest (I shouldn't be too picky, I realize it's not strawberry or pineapple season). It is worth noting that our table would have been perfectly content with all bananas for dipping (they were perfect), and maybe one or two of the yummy cookies. Technically the fondue was for two but it was a fine serving for the three of us.
Soy chicken cutlets (special) with mushroom sauce and brussels sprouts. The whole dish was tasty, especially the sauce.
The small-sized Caesar salad was a good portion with nice flavors.
Mushroom risotto entree with mushrooms galore, seaweed and basil. Creamy, warming goodness on a cold night. Yum yum!

Seitan schnitzel appetizer with blueberry sauce and potato salad. The potato salad had lots of mushrooms, which is a plus if you are a mushroom fan like I am (though the person who ordered this was not, unfortunately). The seitan was good though heavy because it was fried and a sizable portion for one person.

The pumpkin and sweet potato gnocchi appetizer with sage cashew cream and kale was heavenly; it was my favorite course. Yes, even better than dessert, which doesn't happen often. Last photo but definitely not least!

V-Note is owned by the same people as Blossom, which is consistently great and one of my top picks in NYC. The quality was excellent, both food and drinks. The atmosphere is chic and modern, with spacious tables and lots of space between tables, which I like and is so rare in Manhattan.

Perspective

"If you lose money, it is nothing. If you lose your health, it is something. If you lose your character, that is everything." Yogi Bhajan via my incredible Kundalini Yoga Teacher