Product review - Chocolate Cream Eggs

I recently bought some chocolate cream eggs from Ethical Wares (made by Chocolate Wendy House I believe) and I have to say that they were nothing short of awful. The chocolate had not been tempered so it tasted crystallised and the filling was pretty tasteless. I tried the caramel and vanilla flavours. Both were equally disappointing and at £1.50 per egg were also a complete waste of money. Will not be buying these again.

Cookbook Challenge Week 7 - Artisan Vegan Cheese

So this week I have been cooking from Artisan Vegan Cheese, most of the cheese recipes in this book require Rejuvelac ( a homemade culture), I made this using brown rice and thought it had turned out OK. I think I may have been wrong as I attempted to make 3 cheeses and only 1 worked out as it was supposed to (this may be down to the fact that its winter here and freezing which makes growing a culture a little difficult).
The three recipes that I tried were the Air Dried Emmentaler, Sharp Cheddar and Boursin.

The Emmentaler started out really well, it looked good but when I was air drying it, it kept getting impaled on the drying rack. In the end I used a hair dryer on it. It tasted OK, but would have been far better if I had been able to air dry it for longer:

The sharp cheddar looked quite good in the end, but was quite soft (had the consistency of playdoh) and didn't taste much better, again I am attributing this to the rejuvelac:

However the success story was the Boursin, this was just lovely. I'm not sure if it turned out quite as it was supposed to but it was damned good anyway, it had a great flavour and nice texture:

Overall I think this is a great book, any failures were due to myself rather than the recipes and I will be trying again in a few months time when its warmer!

Cookbook Challenge Week 6 - Vegan Eats World

This week I have been cooking from Terry Hope Romero's Vegan eats world.

This book has a lovely variety of recipes from different regions and I tried making 3 of them:

Like an Egyptian soup - this was quite nice but not spectacular, it had a good flavour but didn't inspire me and I don't think I would make it again:

Spicy black-eyed pea cakes - these were really good, nice and spicy and very filling:

Five Spice Seitan - this was the best recipe that I tried, great taste and fantastic texture (tasted a bit like beef), this would be really good in Chinese dishes but was great on its own:

Overall I really like the recipes in this book and can't wait to try some more!

Cookbook Challenge Week 5 - Cookin Crunk

This week I have been cooking from Cookin Crunk from Bianca Phillips

The first recipe that I tried was the Chicken Seitan, this was tasty and had a great texture, I will be making this again and may use the recipe to make a seitan roast at Easter:

 

 The second recipe that I tried (which I have made before) was Tofu Chicken and it was delicious! I don't like tofu most of the time but I really enjoyed this recipe, the only adaptation I made was to cook the tofu in the marinade rather than throwing it away:

Creamy Tofu Chicken Pasta Bake - again this was lovely and the only 2 adaptations I made were to bake the Tofu as above and to add some of the marinade into the sauce. I will be making this again:

Cream of Mushroom Soup - this was creamy and a delight to eat! Its the first really good mushroom soup that I have had since becoming Vegan:

Country Vegetable Soup - this soup tasted great and was really filling. With the fake bacon  it reminded me of Quiche Lorraine soup:

BBQ "Pulled" Tempeh & Carrot Sandwich - I liked this sandwich but I think in future I will add more BBQ sauce as even with cooking the Tempeh it still tasted bitter (I like that normally but it doesn't go too well with BBQ):

Hoppin John with Sausage and Brown Rice - this was a pure delight. A layer of brown rice with black-eyed beans, cabbage, sausage & facon (my own addition) in a tomato sauce topped with hot sauce:

Cheesy Tempeh Bacon Grits - Finally another delight, I had to use polenta so it was a little grainy but it was cheesy, oniony, bacon deliciousness!

This is a great Vegan cookbook and has become one of my favourites, the recipes are delicious and filling although a few are quite time consuming (to make the Pasta bake I first had to make the mushroom soup & tofu chicken) but they are well worth it