Archive for November, 2011
Friday Feast: Pickled Watermelon Rind
It’s almost summer here in Australia, which means it’s time to eat watermelon! I like to use my handy dandy melon baller so I can eat it with a fork. I know, it’s kinda un-Australian to not eat it in great big slices and get it all over your face… but I don’t really like getting sticky. If someone builds me a swimming pool to jump into after eating it, maybe I’ll change my method.
Anyway, I was eating watermelon the other day and after I’d removed all the lovely pink flesh of the melon, I was left with the rind, and I remembered reading about a Southern (as in the South, in the USA) snack – pickled watermelon rind. I don’t mind regular pickles, but I’m not as in love with them as my Polish-American partner, so I wasn’t sure I wanted to eat the pickled rind of quarter of a watermelon… but I figured I might as well give it a try at least once. Everyone raved about them, so why not?
Well, I gotta tell you, pickled watermelon rind is yummy! It’s crunchy and cool and refreshing – a perfect snack for hot weather, and it’s not super sweet. Most cold foods are sweet. This one is vinegary, but a little sweet from the sugar. It’s nice for a change. And I really like the crunch!
I chose the absolutely easiest watermelon pickle recipe I could find. Others call for certain herbs, or soaking the rind overnight – stuff like that. Since I wasn’t even sure I would like them, I was going for minimum effort. I think this actually was a great idea. The simplicity of the flavours is part of what I really like about these pickles. Plus they’re quick and easy, and they use up something I’d normally discard. I just changed the vinegar to apple cider vinegar cos that’s what I had in the cupboard.
So now that I’ve raved… here’s the recipe.
Pickled Watermelon Rind
Ingredients
- Watermelon rind (from a quarter of a big melon)
- 1 very scant cup of water
- 1 very scant up of apple cider vinegar
- 2/3 to 3/4 cup caster sugar
Method:
- Cut the watermelon rind into small chunks, about 1 to 2 inches in size. Make sure you remove the green skin.
- Stir the water, vinegar and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.
- Add the watermelon rind and stir.
- Turn off the stove, but leave the saucepan on the hotplate. Let the rind sit until it reaches room temperature.
- Place rind and as much brine as you can fit in a jar(s) and put them in the fridge.
- Eat them right away or save them for a bit in the fridge. Remember, these haven’t been properly sterilised and sealed, so they’re not shelf-safe. You should eat them within a few weeks at most and keep them in the fridge.
Note: swish your mouth with water after eating, because it’s not good for your teeth to let acidic foods like vinegar sit on the enamel.
Friday Feast: Pumpkin Pie Spice Muffin Tops
These were meant to be cookies. I followed the recipe completely! But they’re way too cakey. They don’t look like the picture in the recipe I veganised. I don’t know what happened… maybe it’s cos I made my own pumpkin puree*? Or could it have been the veganisation? I don’t think it was due to my reduction in white chocolate chips or making my own pumpkin pie spice (you can’t buy it in Australia!).
Anyway, regardless of whether or not they turned out how they were supposed to, they taste good. Just call ‘em muffin tops and eat ‘em all up!
This recipe makes about 36 cookies.
Pumpkin Pie Spice Muffin Tops
Ingredients:
- 2-¼ cups plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsps pumpkin pie spice
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup vegan margarine, softened
- 1 cup white/raw sugar (we used low GI cane sugar, which is similar to raw sugar)
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (I made my own from a grey pumpkin)
- egg replacer for a whole egg (we used Orgran’s No Egg)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence (imitation is fine)
- 1 cup vegan white chocolate chips (or chunks, in our case – we cut up some vegan white chocolate)
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
- Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
- Cream the margarine and sugars.
- Add the pumpkin, egg, and vanilla to the wet ingredients and combine thoroughly.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
- When all ingredients are combined, stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop small spoonfuls (slightly heaped teaspoonfuls) of dough on a non-stick cookie sheet, then place in the fridge for 5 to 10 mins before baking.
- Place in the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Cool for a couple minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.
Friday Feast: Chewy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
On Halloween night, while Yankee Elv and I were waiting for trick-or-treaters, we decided to make biscuits. I mean, cookies. Since they were American style, they can be cookies just this once.
We made two types: chewy chocolate chip and pumpkin pie spice with white chocolate chips. The latter turned out too cakey. The flavour is great, but the texture is not right. However, if you think of them as something other than cookies (such as muffin tops), then they are super yummy. As for the former – the chocolate chip cookies – well, they’re only the most super awesome vegan cookies I’ve ever tasted.
So, here’s the recipe. We didn’t really change it much; but we did reduce the number of chocolate chips. Admittedly, this was only because we didn’t have enough chocolate chips… We actually changed the method more than the ingredients. Clearly we made smaller cookies, cos we ended up with 48 rather than the 25-30 the recipe said it would make. Also, to get a great texture and shape, Yankee Elv puts the tray full of unbaked cookies in the fridge for 5-10 minutes before placing it in the oven. This really helps for some reason and is not a trick I’ve ever used before. This may be why I’m typically bad at baking cookies. But these ones turned out great (thanks YE).
Chewy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of softened vegan margarine
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white/raw sugar (we used low GI cane sugar, which is kinda like raw sugar)
- 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
- 1 tsp vanilla essence (imitation is fine)
- 2 1/4 cups plain flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 300g vegan chocolate chips (the original recipe called for 12oz)
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
- In a large bowl, cream the margarine, sugar and brown sugar.
- Slowly stir in the non-dairy milk.
- Add the vanilla essence.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda.
- Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir well.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Drop small spoonfuls (slightly heaped teaspoonfuls) onto non-stick cookie sheets and refrigerate each tray for 5 to 10 minutes before placing them in the oven.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly, until you can lift them off the tray with a spatula. Then place them on a cooling rack until they’re cool. Make sure you eat some while they’re warm though!
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