Bagel Italiano

*Picture will be re-taken soon*

Isn't that the most beautiful Italian flag you've ever seen? There's the bright splash of red coming from the oven-roasted tomatoes underneath the freshly-made sesame seed bagel. The inside is stuffed with delicious mashed white beans and dotted with little bits of fresh rosemary and spinach. To finish this menagerie of flavor I topped it off with some good-quality olive oil leftover from the oven-dried tomatoes. I sandwiched it in between the fresh bagel and enjoyed with a side of grapefruit and wavy potato chips. This bagel/sandwich is extremely filling and extremely easy to make. Its kid friendly and you don't have to just stop with the toppings that I used. You can try chocolate, fresh fruit, or just your basic schmear of (vegan) cream cheese to make the flavor pop. If you're on the go or just don't like feeling like you're masking the pure deliciousness of your bagel, you can always just eat it plain. It's full of fiber, protein and low fat!

Bagel Recipe:

1 cup of Lukewarm Water

3/4 A teaspoon of Rapid-Rising Yeast

3/4 a cup Bread Flour

1 and 3/4 a cup Wheat Flour

3/4 A teaspoon of Iodized Salt

1-2 Tablespoons of Blackstrap molasses (or any sweetener of your choice)

Add half of the cup of water into a large bowl and add your yeast, then prep your oven to 500 degrees and mix your dry ingredients together. After that, stir the yeast and prepare a baking pan with greased parchment paper, a pot with about 3-4 inches of water in it and something to scoop out your bagels with.  Create a well in your dry mixture and slowly add the yeast-water mixture. After it is loosely formed together, add more water until it is a good and only slightly doughy mixture. Knead it until it comes together and is elastic and transfer it into a small bowl covered with a towel. Let that mixture rest for about an hour and work on whatever toppings or fillings you want for your bagel. Let your imagination run wild, and after about 55 minutes of waiting have elapsed - put enough water into your pot with the molasses (make sure to grease your measure spoon prior to working with the molasses) and place it on the lowest setting. Then, uncover your dough ball and split it into equal pieces. Work with each piece slowly and make sure that it comes together, then take both of your palms and slowly work from the middle, to the left, to the right of the dough piece until it forms a long skinny piece of dough. Then you can hold it slightly in the middle until it stretches out a bit more and finally you can connect the two ends of the dough together to form an the shape of the bagel. Place it onto the greased baking pan/parchment paper and repeat with the other pieces of dough. After you have all formed them, cover them with a towel and wait for about 10 minutes for them to proof once more. Make sure to stir your pot to make sure that everything has come together and hasn't burned. 

Meanwhile, you can place your toppings (I used sesame, chia, and poppy seeds) in a small bowl as you wait. After the bagels have proofed for 10 minutes, place them individually into the water slowly, to ensure that none of them stick together. Wait for exactly 60 seconds for each one and flip them over at their 30-second mark (make sure to do this in the order that you put the bagels in) afterwards, place them onto the baking sheet and cover with your preferred toppings (or none if you prefer naked). Wipe away the excess seeds as they have a tendency to burn, but do not affect the flavor in any way, and place them into the oven for about 15 minutes or until they look to be a satisfactory color.

After they have cooled down for a few moments (10 to 15 minutes should be fine), slice them in half and  treat them as you will. Wasn't that fun?

(Recipe makes about four bagels)

Vegan Cream Cheese Recipe:
1 package of pressed Silken Tofu (your choice on the amount)
2 teaspoons of fresh Lemon Juice
2 teaspoons of Apple Cider Vinegar (or more lemon juice)
1 tablespoon of Raw Sugar, Agave Nectar, or vegan White Sugar

Hope you enjoy!

                                                                                                                                    

All In Your Face

This is a huge and bold combination of Italian spices of seasonings. First, we have the homemade whole-wheat hot dog buns made just a few moments prior to the photo that are so soft and fresh its like eating a cloud made out of love and wheat. Next, we have some fresh rosemary and roasted garlic (Russet Potato) french fries covered in good quality olive oil, and to keep the balance between the two brown carbs I decided to add a nice spinach salad with mushrooms and tomatoes (dressing is optional). But the piece de resistance is the uber-texturized wheat meat, otherwise known as seitan.

Seitan is extremely easy to make, especially if you have some vital wheat gluten on hand (which you will also need for the buns). The brand I used is "Bob's Red Mill" and followed the recipe from this site - www.theppk.com/blog
(just type "Italian sausages" into their search bar if you're unsure of where you're going) and made sure to salt them to my liking (no matter what, seitan can be a bit plain tasting)

After that, I spread roasted garlic onto the still warm buns and placed some caramelized onions with fire-roasted red bell pepper (jarred) on top with a little sriracha. You can use any combination you like, but I always find roasted peppers with caramelized onions are a hard topper to beat for these sausages.

Hot Dog Buns Recipe:

1/8 a cup of Agave Nectar or molasses (I used black-strap molasses)

1/8 a cup of Vital Wheat Gluten

1/2 a tablespoon of Active Dry Yeast

Egg replacer equal to one egg (Ener-G, flax seeds, or chia seeds are fine)

1/2 a teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 a cup of lukewarm water (Too hot can kill the yeast, too cold it won't become active)

1 and 3/4 a cup of 100% Whole Wheat

Combine the water and yeast together and everything else except for the salt. Mix it together until it loosely forms, then add the salt to keep it from killing the yeast and deflating your bread.

After that, lay some flour down onto a wide surface (I used wheat, but All-Purpose should be fine) and place your dough on top of it. Make sure to cover your hands in flour and knead it for about ten minutes, or until it comes together and is slightly elastic. After that, slice the dough into equal proportions and roll them into the shape of hot dog buns. They don't have to be perfect as long as you can get the basic oblong shape. Place them on a lightly greased baking sheet (I used Olive Oil, but vegetable or canola oil should be fine) and let them proof (rise) covered for about an hour.

Meanwhile, heat your oven to 375 degrees and bake your buns for about 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven. You can also brush your buns with a bit of oil or vegan margarine and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top before baking them to give them a nice texture and shine. Take them out after they are browned enough and let them rest on a cool sheet pan or a wire rack for about 30 minutes. Test one to see if its still doughy on the inside and then you can slit them down the middle and stuff them whenever you're ready to enjoy them. Normally I would say that they're better on the first day since they contain no preservatives, but they're so good that they probably won't last a day!

(Recipe makes about six hot dog buns)

Enjoy!

 Signed, 

<3 Bou Shin <3

Unh Na Naan Na Naan

Look at that up there - not so quick! You don't want it to notice you checking out all of its fine curry graviness, speckled with little bits of ginger, carrots and edamame and bulked up by bits of tofu. Its so saucy and seductive, it's practically calling you over to inhale its mild heat and smooth texture. When you finally take the courage to fully look it over and lift just a forkful of this curry to your mouth, your mouth and stomach will beg for more! But this isn't the best part of the meal, not even by a long-shot.

You see its two friends there? They look kind of frumpy and unattractive standing in the back don't they? You'd be wrong thinking that the curry is the spotlight of the meal, its simply a reason for you to use those two pieces in some kind of twisted sandwich, getting both your fingers and face messy. All you want is to shovel your mouth full of this garlic naan like there's no tomorrow. But again, you have to play this cool as you lift it up to your face and smell its delicious bready-aroma. You can see the slight sheen of oil emanating from their bodies and the flecks of parsley sprinkled atop the flat-bread. That isn't even the best part - there is sweet and savory minced garlic stuck in the middle of that bread, and you definitely need to get to it. One bite and you're through the oil with herbs over that floury bread, another bite and you start to taste the slightest flavor of that aromatic garlic, and at the third bite you're in the middle of garlic-nirvana - swimming in a sea of passion with the sweet but slightly pungent flavor of the garlic. You close your eyes as you're enveloped by it and you love every single minute. You open your eyes and see that your hands are gravy-stained, the pot you use to cook with has been wiped clean, and all of your naan bread is gone. What do you do now? Make more of course!

(Naan Bread Ingredients) -Makes about six naan dough-balls

• 1 and 1/4 cups of All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 of a teaspoon of Baking Powder
• 1/4 a cup of Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 a teaspoon of Cumin
• 1/4 a teaspoon of Coriander
• 1/4 a teaspoon of Iodized Salt
• Unsweetened Soymilk (to make it enough to come together)

(Optional)

• Half a cup of fresh parsley or cilantro (to sprinkle over the finished bread)
• Oil.

(Curry ingredients)

• Firm tofu (cubed)
• Oil.
• Carrots, peas, onions, mushrooms (any vegetables you like)
• Sriracha sauce
• Golden Curry's curry paste

(Directions)

• For the Naan Bread: Mix the dry ingredients together thoroughly and create a well in the middle. Pour some soymilk in until it comes together but isn't too wet of a dough. Knead it together for about 4-7 minutes or until it comes together fully and feels a bit elastic. After you've mixed the dough together, place it in a bowl off to the side and start working on your curry.


• For the curry: Press some of liquid out of the tofu. Then, pan sear it on all sides until golden. Remove from pan and set aside.
• Saute your vegetables. Add a few chunks of the curry paste and water. Stir until paste is dissolved. Then add cooked tofu.


• Back to the Naan bread: Get out a rolling pin and flour the area and everything that you're working with. Take out the dough and cut it into equal pieces, then roll out each ball as thinly as you can. Then cook it(baked or fried) however you want until it blisters and looks like my bread. If it gets extremely puffy - don't worry, it just likes you.
• If you prefer to stuff the bread, put it in the middle of the thin bread and then fold the pieces of the dough around it. After that, flip it over onto its seal and roll it out to its thin stage, repeating with each dough ball. Then bake or fry until it blisters and looks like my bread.

Although it isn't much, these recipes are my own so if you use them on your site please do notify me. If you have questions or simply want to comment, I'd love to respond.
Enjoy!

Stinky and Delicious!

I'm sure you've heard of this dreaded fruit. It lurks in the dark corners of your bedroom, waiting for you to make any sudden movements, but that doesn't mean it wants you to forget that it's there. It's covered in sharp points all over and it emanates the combination of the smells of rotten gym socks, feet and onions to make sure that you'll never forget its presence. To some people it smells like rotten feet in rotten gym socks covered in rotten onions. To others, it might be the smell of lunch or a quick afternoon snack.

This dread fruit is the durian of course, and even to me it smells like odd onions." A fruit should never smell that way!" is probably what you're thinking every time you see it, or screaming out-loud for everyone to hear in my case. Despite the stares of the crowd I continue to look at the fruit in fear and awe, wondering how so many people could like it. How weird would you have to be to actually enjoy a fruit that has the creamy yet slightly stringy texture of custard with the taste of pudding combined with rotten feet? Hm, about as weird as a person named Bou Shin.

I first saw the durian fruit during an episode of my favorite show "Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern". He was traveling through Thailand at the time and looked up at the netting that separated the fruit of the trees from his soft skull. The fruit that could have killed him so easily being the durian fruit also made sure to emit its pungent odor as it declared itself king of all of Thailand's botany. When the fruit dropped down and a native man opened it with a large knife, it seemed like Andrew couldn't take it. Was the fruit infested with some nasty cheese-creating fungus? Maybe the fruit copies Twilight DVDs and keeps them inside of each of its little custard-filled pods? Nope! Thats just how durian smells and seems to make even the hardest platinum-steel stomachs queasy.

How was it that a small teenage girl can love the taste but a 40-something year old man can't even stand the smell of it? It has nothing to do with who has the strongest stomach, considering that Mr. Zimmern can handle a bowl of bull intestines soup and still want a few chicken gizzards to wash it down or a way to feel mightier. Infact, I respect Mr. Zimmern as his show has taught me a lot about the world and that I'm not alone in my love for food. I especially love that he at least tries the food before criticizing it and that he has tried durian several times before. I, however, have only tried it once and enjoyed it very much and when I found it in my local Asian grocery store (frozen section) I was amazed!

I was scared that I would be wasting money, but I wanted to try something that wasn't the Kim-chi that I constantly eat. It cost about $5.50 for two large pieces of durian and I decided to share it with my mother and sister. When we opened the package we were immediately hit with the harsh, pungent smell of rotten onions. I feared that I would smell this all week but when the durian hit my dessert bowl - I knew I had to have it. I closed my nose and simply felt the custardy and slightly chalky texture of the fruit, along with its light sweetness. I decided to open my nose and as I got used to the pungent taste and flavor, I really enjoyed it. It seemed like a fun kid's food that a lot of people could enjoy, but when I turned around I could see my sister throwing the durian into the trash and my mother wiping her tongue with a paper napkin.

I was glad that I could try something that was out of the ordinary, and decided to store the rest of the durian in the freezer, where it stayed for quite some time.

I couldn't eat it as a snack fruit, as the smell would singe the hair off of my house-mate's noses and stay in the air for sometime, and I didn't know of anything vegan that I could do with it. That is, I didn't know of anything I could do with it until a few weeks ago when I watched an episode of "Chef Vs. City" where they went to a Thai grocery store and created a recipe for the durian. 

It included vanilla, cashews, some milk, durian, cinnamon and a few other ingredients. I'll have to see the actual recipe later on (or watch the episode over again), but it seems like a good introduction of durian into a person's diet. Are you ready to go through a flavor adventure or a horrifying nightmare (depending on your taste buds)?

                                                                                                                               Signed, 

<3 Bou Shin <3

First Time

Hello everyone! This is Shin's Vegan Lovin' and you can call me Bou Shin! I'm a Vegan teenager who loves a different variety of foods and who loves to voice their opinion about them. The site will feature other well known and not-so well known Vegan foods and sites, my own recipes and their photos. I hope you enjoy the blog and to tide over the excitement enjoy this picture -

Field Roast Corn Dog with Tiger-Chili Sauce.

It had a thin and cracker-like crust, which reminded me of the spring rolls I used to eat when I was younger and my eating habits were less healthy. It allowed for the flavor of the Field Roast to come through and for its meatiness (eggplantiness?) to aid the absorption of the heat and the sweet of the chili sauce. Unfortunately this was the last piece of field roast that I had, meaning that I couldn't make more and I most definitely couldn't make a picture of the full uneaten one. It was too good!

This was also the one time that I've never measured when using flour, meaning that it was just a mixture of things to help solve my hunger pangs. I combined some corn meal with a larger amount of flour, some baking soda, sugar, salt, paprika, a pinch of baking powder and a splash of original soy milk to  make it the consistency I wanted. After whisking it together and preparing the oil, I dropped a tiny piece of batter into the oil to see that it was done and I whipped out my (Field Roast) sausage, cut it in half and shoved two bamboo sticks into the smaller sausages. Then it was just a matter of making a sauce with some salt, sugar and chilies, which I then chilled in the fridge as I dunked the sausages in the batter and waited for them to cook. They were incredibly adorable and incredibly delicious!

baking soda, sugar, salt, paprika, a pinch of baking powder corn meal flour splash of original soy milk (Field Roast) sausage