Category Archives: Vegan Seafood

Air Fryer Experiments

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Air Fryer, Appetizer, Coconut, Comfort foods, Cooking, Dinner, Dinners, Healthy, Original Recipes, Recipes, Soy Curls, Tofu, Vegan Seafood and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hi!

As I mentioned in my last post, I bought an air fryer on sale. What is an air fryer, you ask? Well, it’s basically a healthier version of a deep fryer. It fries food with hot air instead of oil.

Personally, I am still figuring out what works and doesn’t work with it and trying to perfect temperatures and cooking times. I have found that using a lot of liquid batter without any kind of dry coating over it does not work so well. It says you can make donuts in it, but I have no clue how that’d work. I have not tried cooking french fries yet, but I really want to, just haven’t yet.

So far I have fried some soy curls using this recipe here. Those came out excellent, I think I cooked them at 350 for about 10 minutes. I also tried defrosting some Gardein chicken scallopini, coating it in watered down Neat egg substitute coated with vegan/gluten free rice crispy-esque cereal. That was okay, but not that exciting even though I had high hopes.

Then, when I botched a bunch of battered cauliflower, I came up with a splendid idea. But I didn’t have any more cauliflower, so I tried it with tofu. It’s supposed to be like coconut coated fried shrimp, but is made with tofu (and someday I need to try it with cauliflower, too!)

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Here is the recipe for it:

Coconut Crusted Air Fried Tofu

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup chickpea flour
  • 1/2 cup cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup vodka or unflavored soda water/seltzer
  • 2 tbsp peanut or vegetable oil
  • one bag sweetened shredded coconut flakes
  • sweet chili sauce for dipping
  • 1 block tofu, preferably frozen, thawed, then pressed for 20 minutes

Directions:

  1. Combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
  2. Whisk in the water, vodka/soda water until a liquid, medium thickness batter forms. Water it down if necessary to be the desired thickness, but it should stay fairly thick.
  3. Cut tofu into smallish rectangles.
  4. Place some of the sweetened coconut into a dish.
  5. Dip the tofu in the batter, then into the coconut.
  6. Delicately place in the air fryer tray.
  7. Air fry for 10 minutes, 350 degrees F or slightly lower if you don’t want it as browned as I did. May take some experimentation as I believe air fryers can vary quite a bit.
  8. Use sweet chili sauce to dip in, and serve with a generous helping of veggies!

I’m sure I’ll discover some new tips and tricks about air fryers soon!

So check back here for those.

Until then, or until another recipe creation strikes!

Take care! xo

 

Vegan MoFo Day #17, Post #13: Make (or eat) a traditional local dish: RI clam cakes veganized!

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Gluten Free, Original Recipes, Recipes, Rhode Island, Vegan MoFo 2015, Vegan Seafood, Veganized Recipes and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apparently vegan seafood is my specialty. And why wouldn’t it be living in New England? I’ve made vegan shrimp bao, lobstah salad, vegan scallops wrapped in tempeh bacon (that was actually featured on the Bake and Destroy Blog for Superbowl recipes), papaya lox, and probably more that I am forgetting! I’ve fantasized about making a vegan New England Beach food truck more than once…

Today I decided to veganize a Rhode Island (my home state) favorite seafood snack, the clam cake. According to Wikipedia, “Clam cakes, which can also be called clam fritters, are a New England food, most commonly found in Rhode Island.” I didn’t really eat these before going vegan, but from what I know, these are not a “cake” in the way you’d think of a crab cake or whatever (which can also be veganized–check out this recipe I love). They are more like a fritter or even a weird type of fried donut.

I made these with dried reconstituted shiitake mushrooms in place of the clams. They were pretty darn good!

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I served them with some vegan Tartar sauce (relish and Just Mayo), and my favorite new thing: Broccoli Fries, They’re french fries with broccoli in them. I threw out the bag and the trash went out so I can’t tell you the name of the brand that makes them currently…I’ll try to remember to share this some other time.

Here is the recipe!

Vegan/Gluten Free New England “Clam” (Shiitake) Cakes

Ingredients:

  • 1 oz package dried shiitake mushrooms
  • 1 tbsp kelp granules
  • 1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
  • Cold Veggie Broth and boiling water mixed together, enough to soak the dried mushrooms in
  • 1 cup yellow corn flour (not cornmeal!)
  • 1/2 cup superfine brown rice flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp dried dil
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp chia seeds with 1/4 cup water
  • Juice of one lemon
  • 1 cup light coconut milk
  • Peanut oil, for frying

Directions:

  1. Reconstitute the dried mushrooms by placing in a medium sized bowl. Pour the water and broth over them. Stir in the kelp granules and Old Bay. Let sit for thirty minutes.
  2. In the meantime, mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
  3. Prepare the chia seeds and water mix, whisking several times, and let it sit until the mushrooms are done.
  4. When the mushrooms are moist after 30 minutes, drain in a strainer. Don’t rinse them off or anything, you want the seasonings to remain (I almost did that out of habit).
  5. Cut each mushroom into thin strip. You probably want to cut those in half as well, but that’s up to you.
  6. Add the chia water mixture, lemon juice, and light coconut milk to the dry ingredients.
  7. Pour about an inch of peanut oil into a frying pan/skillet with tall sides. Begin to heat the oil on high.
  8. Fold in the chopped shiitakes to the batter mix.
  9. The oil is hot enough when a drop of the batter immediately sizzles when placed in the oil.
  10. Set aside a plate or platter lined with paper towels to drain the excess oil and cool the cakes when done.
  11. Before frying the batter, turn the heat to medium, you will need to adjust this occasionally as you continue to fry them.
  12. Drop large spoonfuls of the batter into the oil.You will most likely need to cook them in two batches. Don’t get tempted to overcrowd the pan.
  13. Flip them over when the side facing the bottom of the pan is golden brown. They are ready when they are golden brown on both sides.
  14. Take each cake out with a slotted spoon so that you don’t get hot oil all over the place. Gently transfer to the plate with the paper towel, and allow to cool before serving.

Here are some more pictures of the process:

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After the Shiitake are reconstituted and drained

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The batter minus the shiitake

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The shiitake all chopped up

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Some finished cakes.

I haven’t gotten a chance really to look at many other people’s MoFos because of my workload lately 😦 But I hope to be looking a bit more this weekend *fingers crossed* If you’ve been participating with your blog, and you want me to check it out, be sure to comment on this post (and/or tomorrow’s) so I remember to look!

Also, don’t forget to “Like” me on Facebook if you haven’t already! Or follow me on Twitter. And Instagram.

Vegan Papaya Lox for Bagels

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Bagels, Breakfast, Jewish Vegan Food, Original Recipes, Recipes, Sunday Brunch, Vegan Seafood and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Last night I bought some pre-sliced papaya because I wanted to see if I liked it without buying a whole papaya. I don’t think I have ever had it before or if I have I don’t remember. When I got home from the store, I tried a slice, but I didn’t really like it. However, the color, texture, and lack of distinct flavor led me to believe I should try making a vegan lox substitute. So, I began to make a marinade for it and began experimenting. The results were pretty great!

First you marinate the slices for about an hour in a mixture of stuff (see my recipe below) in the fridge, then you bake it at a low temp of 200 degrees F for about 5 minutes, turn up the heat in the oven to 250, bake 10 minutes, flip, and bake for 10 more. Then you will have the perfect faux lox to put on top of bagels and vegan cream cheese. I’m also going to try making it in the dehydrator I think. I’ll post more about that if (when) I do it.

IMG_2866Vegan Papaya Lox

Ingredients:

  • 4-6 large, thick slices of papaya
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp kelp granules
  • 2 tsp liquid smoke
  • 1 tsp rice vinegar
  • 6-10 tbsp water (depending on how many slices you are attempting to make and what container you are marinating it in)
  • Salt, to taste

Directions:

  1. In a shallow container with a lid that fits securely and is big enough to fit the papaya and marinade, pour all the ingredients in (except the salt and papaya) and stir or whisk well.
  2. Place the papaya slices into the marinade. Flip to the other side.
  3. Close the container, and place in the refrigerator for an hour or longer, flipping halfway.
  4. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.
  5. Place papaya on a well-oiled baking sheet and sprinkle the tops with salt.
  6. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.
  7. Turn the heat up to 250 and continue to bake for 10 minutes.
  8. Flip over, sprinkle this side with salt as well, and heat for another 8-10 minutes.
  9. Allow to cool or eat while warm on top of a bagel with a schmear of cream cheese!

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Raw papaya before being used

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the papaya in the marinade

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The papaya after it’s been cooked