Dancing with the Universe

None of the ones I've seen so far insist on soy milk, and almond milk has been doing pretty well for me (along with coconut milk) so far.

60 dairy-free ice cream recipes

Also, my version of catnip13's vegan mint ice cream:

( Recipe! )

I'm not saying you're gonna go up in a puff of smoke if you touch this stuff, but it does appear to be a cross between pure evil and total crack. You have been warned.

( Chocolate Evil )

When you look up lemon shortbread recipes, you find cookies with butter, flour, sugar, perhaps a little vanilla, and a touch of lemon zest (or lemon extract, or waving a lemon over the dough three times and calling it good). These are polite lemon shortbreads, the ones meant to be baked until light golden and served with tea, and scones, and little cucumber sandwiches. "The perfect touch of lemon!" the reviews purr. "Just right!"

I didn't want tea cookies. I wanted lemon cookies. So these are up-front, aggressive, punch-you-in-the-mouth cookies. There is no hint here, no subtlety. They're what would happen if the filling mated with the crust in a lemon meringue pie. The dough is even more so. :)

The recipe is just Michael Ruhlman's shortbreads with lemon juice and a touch more flour, nothing complicated. So here you go:

4 ounces granulated sugar
8 ounces (2 sticks) *fresh* butter (unsalted or salted, your choice)
12 ounces flour (about 2.5 cups rice flour, all-purpose will be a little less)
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1 tsp lemon zest
the juice of 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup)

Use a mixer for this if you don't want tired wrists. Cream together the sugar and butter until fluffy. Mix in the vanilla, salt, and lemon zest, then start adding the flour gradually. Stop when the dough refuses to form a ball, turning into a bunch of pea-sized lumps, and set aside any remaining flour; if using standard wheat flour, try not to mix it more than you have to, or it'll go tough. The dough should be firm but not crumbly when you shape it in your hands.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Roll portions of the dough out to your desired thickness (I usually like about 3/16" or 3mm) and cut into shapes. Don't re-roll more than once; I usually mix the scraps into a fresh ball of dough to recycle them. Place the cutouts close together on 2 baking sheets and bake in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until they turn the lightest shade of gold and any corners are starting to brown. Allow them to cool fully before moving them to an airtight container for storage. This made about 55 2" hearts.

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Yes, you can add more lemon, though if you add a lot more flour to keep things from getting too wet they might go sort of cardboard-like. Exercise restraint, and consider topping them with lemon curd or lemon frosting or this evil concoction if you really can't resist the one-two punch.

The key with any shortbread is really good butter. Buy it fresh for this, from a store that has high turnover. You really will notice a difference if it hasn't been sitting in your fridge consorting with the forgotten occupants of the crisper, believe me.

As I was looking for ways to use our embarrassment of plums (this is what happens when you suddenly inherit a bunch of plum trees because your brother bought the house next door), I was reminded of the time I used dates and green apricot puree to make the sweet-sour base for vindaloo. I did it because someone was avoiding refined sugar, but it turned out stupendously well, and I keep meaning to do it again.

So it occurred to me that if I grab a bunch of the almost-overripe plums (for sweetness) and cook up a few of the underripe but injured plums (for tartness), I could probably do a decent vindaloo. It might be worth a shot.

Anyway, here's the normal recipe. If you want to experiment like me, eliminate the tamarind and brown sugar, add tart and sweet fruit purees to the sauce instead, and keep tasting it.

( Chicken vindaloo recipe )

If you like garlic powder, don't buy the commercial stuff in jars. You're paying too much and (worse) it's weak. If you put in a little effort once or twice a year, you can have the really good stuff.

( How to make the best garlic powder )

I'm back at the recipe-book again. This is one I made entirely from my working knowledge of Indian food; I could probably give it more of a South Indian/Malaysian flavor with the addition of some fennel or cardamom, but I like this the way it is. (Though it could probably take a bit more black pepper.)

I like this recipe because the only things discarded are the chicken bones, and they help make the broth first. It's also unusual because it contains no tomatoes.

( Twice-Cooked Coconut Curry Chicken )

This was adapted from the Lemon Layer Cake recipe from Gourmet; you may recognize it as the same one that I used as a basis for my caramel buttercream cupcakes (which I know I posted a recipe for somewhere, but I can't find the post). No one would guess these are gluten-free. Not the finest texture, but if you don't mind a slight coarseness reminiscent of spice cake or carrot cake, these are really really good.

( Recipe )

I can't claim credit for this one; I copied it out of a vegan cookbook at the Davis Co-ops, because I was so impressed by it myself. I strongly suspect the author had adapted it from somewhere else, as it originally asked for egg substitute, soy milk, and "liquid sweetener" (this was a vegan cookbook, after all). I have neither the name nor author of the cookbook, so I can't attribute, sadly.

It's soft, moist, and holds together well, unlike many variants of cornbread; you can actually cut off and pick up a real loaf-sized slice. I've never known it to be dry or bland, ever. It gathers rave reviews any time I make it, so I thought I should pass it on.

( The recipe )

For some reason, I avoided this dish for a long time; I think I was worried that it would be bland and/or dry, as ground meat can sometimes be. Far from it.

I think this would work well with veggie burger, crumbled firm tofu, or possibly even scrambled egg. I used ground turkey instead of the traditional beef or lamb, and it was fabulous.

( Recipe )

It's not that hard, really, especially if you're comfortable with rolling out pie crust. If you're not, you can press the pie dough into the pan, but it's best when rolled.

This is a DARK shoofly. Don't make it unless you like molasses a lot; even then you may want some ice cream, whipped cream, or cafe au lait with it. A lighter version can be made with light-colored molasses (or a mixture of molasses and corn syrup) and granulated sugar instead of dark brown, at which point it approaches the English treacle pie.

This is an amalgam of Alton Brown's recipe and the Traditional Shoofly Pie on Allrecipes; I don't agree with Alton on blind-baking the crust beforehand, as I think it just adds unnecessary hassle. I do like his addition of vanilla, though.

( Gluten-free Shoofly Pie )