Culinary Experiments: Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake

This coming Tuesday (we don't have class on Monday, Memorial Day) will be the Cuisines of the Pacific Northwest--Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. One of the recipes was the "Flourless Chocolate Cake". As the name implies, it contains no flour, with egg whites as the only leavening agent.
Those with Celiac Disease or wheat allergy would be rejoicing over this recipe. However, with half-a-pound of chocolate, butter, 6 eggs, and half a cup of sugar, this cake is anything but healthy. And definitely not vegan. Which made me wonder: What if someone is vegan and allergic to wheat or gluten? Most, if not all, Flourless Chocolate Cake recipes call for butter and/or eggs (usually both). Vegan Chocolate Cake recipes contain (obviously) no eggs or butter, but require flour.
So this is what I came up with...Substitute butter with avocado, eggs with mashed potatoes!

*Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake (Reduced fat, Reduced Cholesterol!)*

Makes three 8-oz servings

Ingredients:

4 oz semisweet chocolate (or vegan chocolate), chopped
2 oz ripe avocado
6 oz mashed potatoes
1 T cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-processed)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 T soy milk

Ingredients--just some chocolate, a potato, and creamy avocado...

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter three 8-oz ramekins; set aside.

Make the mashed potatoes first. Peel and cube the potato to equal 6 oz. Place the potatoes in a pot with enough water to cover, then bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, while keeping the potatoes in the same pot, cook some more on medium heat to evaporate excess water. Mash with potato masher or fork until fluffy. Add the chopped chocolate into the hot mashed potatoes. Stir until melted.

Mmmmm....Chocolate Mashed Potatoes...

Add the cocoa powder, brown sugar, peeled and pitted avocado, and vanilla extract to the chocolate-potato mixture. Use a stick blender to puree the entire thing until smooth.

You can do one of two things here: You can add the 6 T soymilk to the mixture, spoon the batter into the ramekins, then bake in a hot-water bath until puffed, about 40 minutes. Or, you can add the soymilk to a desired consistency and eat/slurp/drink as is. This can be consumed like a pudding or a smoothie.

If you chose the bake option, once out of the oven, let the cakes cool before unmolding and inverting onto a plate. It can be served warm, but definitely tastes better chilled overnight in the fridge. Serve with vegan cream or chocolate syrup.

It had a pretty intense chocolate flavor...with the aftertaste of avocado, which surprisingly resembled tofu. But it definitely had that "vegan chocolate dessert" taste. Rich, yet somehow healthy.

I mentioned earlier about not baking the batter and eating it like a pudding or a smoothie. There already are a lot of vegan chocolate pudding and smoothie recipes out there, but most pudding recipes (again) contain flour, and...tofu.

Now that doesn't seem like a bad thing. Tofu is indeed a health food, loaded with proteins, calcium, and low in fat. But again...what if someone is vegan and allergic to soy?

Also, a friend of mine has had breast cancer, and she's not allowed to have any soy, since soy contains estrogen, which can cause the breast cancer to become worse.

The recipe is still a work in progress, but it's a good start.

Sysco Convention

I have the Culinary Arts class on Monday and Tuesday mornings. Yesterday was different--we went on a "field trip" to help out at the Salsa and BBQ Competition held at the Sysco Convention instead (which turned out to be a lot more fun than I had anticipated). We really didn't do much; just poured the salsa entries into numbered containers, and served them in little cups so people can sample them and judge which salsa tasted the best.

So we ended up with a lot of time on our hands, and Chef Instructor encouraged us to go look around before leaving. And boy were there a LOT of stuff to look at!

Ready-to-serve frozen desserts. If I am to work at a five-star restaurant...I think I'll make mine from scratch instead of thawing the ready-made store-bought stuff...

But these DO look good.

Fresh produce--from lettuce to kiwano melons to mushrooms.

Artisan cheese. They had a fruit and cheese skewer for a sample. I loved the port-wine and sage derby...my stomach however, had a lot to complain about.

Fresh crustaceans! I got to try their cocktail shrimp and seared scallop...very juicy and succulent.

Also, fresh sushi-grade salmon, tuna, and halibut. Unfortunately, he didn't have samples...but it turned out he and my former boss (from the time when I worked at a Japanese restaurant) knows each other!

With all the dizzying arrays of food displays, pre-packaged dishes, prepared soup mixes, ready-to-serve desserts, I couldn't help but wonder....exactly what are we REALLY eating at restaurants? Are the plates of food that come out of the kitchen really made on the spot? Is that chicken noodle soup made from real chicken or the chicken-flavored powder (i.e. chicken stock granules)?? How fresh really is their "freshly baked bread"??? Are all the restaurants simply throwing the ready-made stuff together, adding their own spice to it, and calling it "made from scratch"?? What are the customers paying for??

Hmmm...so this maybe what the restaurants do:

Whip up a chocolate cake made from Betty Crocker cake mix, smear it with store-bought fudge frosting, layer it, drizzle with Hershey's chocolate syrup, whipped cream and chopped nuts, give the cake a fancy-schmancy name like "Decadent Death-by-Chocolate Cake" and charge a customer $8 for a slice. And the customer will gladly dish out the cash for it.

Clever, yes. This is a proven strategy to make money. A restaurant generally charges 4 times the cost it took to create the dish. For example, it probably took McDonald's $0.25 to make their $1 hamburger.

One thing I learned from this Convention--eating at home can potentially cut the food cost down to a quarter.

My Turtle's Birthday!!

Today, May 20th, is my turtle's "birthday". I don't know his real birthday...that is, the exact date he hatched. May 20th is the day we met...and fell in love, two years ago.

On May 20, 2008, my family and I were in San Diego for a family vacation.

This is the hotel where we stayed...

All the foods we had there were delicious...this Namachirashi Sushi was $12. Seriously.

Don't woory, Be haapy...

We visited our family friend who owned a farm. He grew tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, among others. He took us on a tour....

And he was so generous he told us to take our pick of tomatoes, cucumbers, and vegetable seedlings!

Towards the end, one of the farmhands ran up to our friend saying, "Tortuga!" and showed us a bucket he was holding. We all peered inside... and there...on the bottom...

...A tiny baby turtle, little less than two-inch shell length--so probably about a week-old.

I instantly fell in love with it, but felt hesistant to just take him. I mean, I already felt bad enough picking all that fresh produce (even though he gladly let us) off the field.

I asked him what he's going to do with the turtle. His reply; turtles eat some of the crops, so probably dump him in the compost pile.

Horrified, I decided right then and there to adopt the turtle. Our friend gave me a plastic bucket to put him in. We then moved on to our next designation, the aquarium.

The next few days were spent going to various Japanese markets shopping, having lunch at the food court there. I love Japanese bakeries! They have some good quality desserts and pastries for a fair price.

Mom, seriously...

After the wonderful 2 weeks, it was time to go home. I was worried if the turtle will make the 12-hour road trip back to Utah...but much to my relief, he did just fine. I bought him a 10-gallon aquarium tank, which he outgrew in about 6 months. Two years later, he is 8" and resides in a 30-gallon tank which is still a bit small for him. I think I'll buy him a doggies wading pool once the weather warms up.


To my Kamenosuke...adopting you was a life-changing event, and one of the best decisions I've made. The peace and the joy you brought was enough to keep me sane through the toughest times of my life. Thank you baby...love you lots! :)

One week after we found him. He's the cutest turtle!

His birthday cake. A zucchini-walnut cake with mango slices on top. He only got to eat the mangoes--the cake isn't good for him.

Veal-ity Check

Last night, I finally got the incentive to cook the veal scallops that has been sitting in the freezer for a while. The only reason we bought it was because it was 50% off the regular price (hint: the store needed to GET RID OF IT). I've never cooked with veal before, but I figured it can be cooked similar to the tender cuts of beef. Boy was I wrong.
I had a bunch of asparagus that needed to be used, so I parboiled them, pounded the meat into 1/4" thick pieces, and wrapped the asparagus with the meat. They looked pretty once I trussed them. Then it was time for the actual cooking. Tender cuts of meat are generally cooked at a higher temperature than the tougher cuts, since they are usually served as rare to medium steaks. After oiling the pan and heating it to medium-high, I put the veal in...and it STUCK. It seriously would refuse to come off the pan. But it now had a nice sear on it, so I continued with the process. I added the sauce to the pan, and let it reduce for a little bit.
Voila--Teriyaki-glazed veal & asparagus.

Took the first bite, expecting it to be oh-so-tender....

Ick.

Well, it wasn't bad.... but it wasn't as delicious as some people claim it to be. It had a very mild beef flavor, and the texture was similar to pork. Even my Dad, who usually devours most of the meats off the table, didn't have the last few pieces. So I went to bed feeling sad about the veal--how, despite the inhumane treatment it goes through to get on the market, it doesn't even taste good... and if it IS supposed to taste good, how I ruined the dish, thus rendering the poor calf's death meaningleass (I seriously think that every organism that goes into the dish dies in vain if the dish doesn't turn out good).

So that was last night.

This morning--during the worship service, our pastor preached about Abraham serving VEAL as a special (and probably very tasty) dish to the three visitors. Veal is supposed to be tasty!
I am now determined to learn how to cook veal properly--not because I enjoy the novelty of eating such an expensive ingredient, but so that, in the event that I do end up cooking with veal, the calf will not die in vain--because it at least would've died to make a delicious dish.

Mom's Birthday!

Last Wednesday the 12th was my beloved Mom's birthday! Now...two days before that, (to my pleasant surprise) Dad came up to me and asked what he should get for her birthday; it's sort of rare for him to remember anniversaries and birthdays.

But I actually already had a present ready--a giftcard to one of her favorite retail stores. He asked if he should give her flowers with a birthday card. I said... Negative. Knowing Mom, she would prefer a vegetable seedling in a terra cotta pot over a flower bouquet in a crystal vase. So I suggested that I go get some eggplant seedlings and he can hand the card to her...and tell her that he loves her. (Awwww.....)

All of us know that our lives are in God's Hands. If it's His Will, He can take it away any time, today, tomorrow...or in ten minutes. That's why I felt that it's important for Dad to tell Mom that he loves her, in the event that either he or Mom dies tomorrow (that and I have no idea when the last time he told her that he loves her is).

We went out to have sushi for lunch. Ordered Sashimi Moriawase, a combination sashimi plate, a few nigiri, and bowls of rice. I cooked up a simple dinner that night: Asparagus bake, corn on the cob, planked whitefish, and salad Nicoise. Then the birthday cake...

I found this chocolate praying hands at a dollar store, and immediately thought about using it on a Christian themed cake. With this and some edible flowers, the cake had the "Garden of Gethsemane" theme--when Jesus prayed before His arrest and crucifixion.

The close up of the cake.

The cake itself was composed of two layers of gateau brushed with orange syrup, with blueberry mousse inbetween, and chopped almonds pressed on the sides. It was pretty good, but a little too sweet, and the mousse should have been a little firmer. Hmmm.... I have long ways to go to become a pro...

Eco-Cooking

In October 2008, a poll conducted by the American Psychological Association found that 8 out of 10 people stated the economy as a significant cause of stress. A year-and-a-half later, Americans are still very much worried about economy--a valid concern, considering the fact that their worries indeed proved true. When the 2008 poll was conducted, unemployment rate was 6.6%. As of April 2010, it's up to 9.9%

In April 2009, Allstate/ National Journal conducted another poll, surveying 600 adults with this question--"Over the past 6 months, what specific steps, if any, have you taken to make sure you can more easily pay living expenses?"

The poll found that only 34% cut back on wasteful spending. Which is funny--the majority of the population is worried sick about the economy, yet only the minority did something about it.

Apparently, Americans aren't very good at cutting back on luxuries. I have noticed that trend while volunteering at a food pantry. People wearing gold watches, people covered with tattoos (very expensive), and/or carrying various electronic gadgets (i.e. cell phones, iPod, portable DVD player) would come in to get FREE BAGS OF FOOD FROM THE PANTRY. Seriously...they can afford an iPod, but won't spend a dime on quality food??

Anyway, with these days of economic instability, it makes more sense to practice what I call Eco-Cooking. It's the utilization of leftover foods and food scraps and turning them into a gourmet meal.

One example that I posted earlier was the Gumbo curry.

The Gazpacho we made during the Floribbean Cuisine Week was turned into a salad dressing with the addition of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and the Stuffed Chayote Squash was deconstructed into a pasta dish...

Left: Gazpacho Dressing on grape salad

Right: Chayote Squash & Mushroom Pasta

Mashed potatoes and risotto (these were from the last quarter, Fundamentals of Classical Techniques class) were turned into a creamy potato soup, and seafood paella...

Left: Mashed Potato Soup

Right: Risotto-turned-Seafood Paella

This week was Central Plains Cuisine. The leftovers from Day 1 were Sauteed Green Beans & Cherry Tomatoes and Morel Mushrooms & Spinach. The former was turned into Salad Nicoise with the addition of lettuce, olives, hard-boiled egg, and boiled potatoes. The latter was turned into a pasta dish.

Left: Salad Nicoise

Right More Mushroom & Spinach Pasta

Leftovers from Day 2 were Bratwurst (without the casings), BBQ sauce, and Sunchoke Gratin. The Bratwurst I turned into BBQ meatballs and I added the Morel Mushroom & Spinach to the Gratin to make a creamy casserole dish.

Doing this allows me to exercise creativity, while being frugal...and cutting our food budget. I get plenty of practice with the massive amount of leftovers I get at school. And with the economy going the way it is, it's probably a good idea to start practicing Eco-Cooking.

Post Midterm Update (Part 4)....

This morning, I tried the Organic Colombian--AGAIN. This time, I used 4 level Tablespoons of whole beans (which equals about 5 Tablespoons ground) with 6 (5 oz. each) cups of water. And instead of letting it sit for half and hour while I make breakfast, I brewed it 5 minutes before we sat down to eat. Mom and I took a sip...

Wow. It was a LOT better than yesterday. But Mom still thought it was too bitter. It's probably the grinder then...aw well... Someday I will brew that perfect cup of coffee.
Anyway, this week was Cajun & Creole Cuisine.

Day 1

Gumbo; Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce; Blackened Chicken, Cajun Fettucine, Braised Scallions with Hollandaise

Day 2

Front: Crawfish Etouffee, Red Beans & Rice

Middle: Cheese Grits, Jambalaya, Sauteed Sugar Snap Peas

Back: Pecan Praline

I've never had crawfish before, so I was quite excited for this week. It like shrimp with an earthy aftertaste...like....dirt. Towards the end, we had a lot of leftovers (as usual); I ended up with several Tuppers full of jambalaya, gumbo, and red beans. I'm pretty zealous about taking foods home--I hate to see foods get wasted. My classmates will just throw them away otherwise. One time I watched in horror as this guy dumped a whole vat of (buttery, garlicky, and good)mashed potatoes into the garbage can. Coincidentally, earlier that day, I had a lady break down in tears in front of me because she had absolutely nothing left in her cupboards and no money to buy food for her child.

So I took the leftovers home. Now what to do with them? I knew Dad wouldn't eat the gumbo. We tried to get him to eat it in the past, but he refused, saying that it "smelled like armpits and black people".

I was pretty offended by his comparison of African American people to a stew and stubborn refusal to try new foods. But this time, I had a plan. Come lunch time, I reheated the gumbo... then added a glop of Worcestershire sauce, a dollop of honey, a wallop of Chardonnay, and 1 tsp of curry powder. Served it over spaghetti. Dad wolfed it down hungrily, saying that this "Okra Curry" is delicious!

(MWA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!)

So that was lunch. For dessert, I wanted to use the anko (sweetened adzuki beans) I made the week before, so I made Taiyaki. One of the many Japanese sweets, Taiyaki is like a thin waffle sandwich with anko filling.

Pour the batter into the fish-shaped Taiyaki pan...

Put a scoop of anko on the batter...

Pour some more batter over the anko, then close the lid. Flip over to fry the other side...

Voila! Cooked to golden perfection!

Post Midterm Update (Part 3)....

(...continued from previous post)

...I woke up earlier than others (as usual) and got right to fixing breakfast. I am a bit irritable in the morning (who isn't?) but despite my temperamental demeanor, I love making breakfast. As a matter of fact, I usually think about what to fix for brekkie the night before. I just LOVE to cook! That's why I got into the Culinary Arts Program...unfortunately, it took me 4 years to figure that out after graduating from the University of Utah...but I couldn't be happier about my career change :)

But back to the issue at hand: breakfast. Wanting to use the mustard-mayo sauce I made the night before (as a way of getting my Dad to eat his broccoli, but alas, he didn't touch it :P), I made potato salad with peas and corn using the sauce. Sunny-side up and fruits completed the meal. Now on to the coffee.

I decided to give the Organic Colombian a whirl again. Did I screw up the water/coffee bean ratio? Was it the way I ground it? Was it the grinder itself? Or is this just a crappy bag of coffee beans?

I increased the amount of water, made the grind coarser, and tried it again.

We sat down to eat. Mom and I took a sip.

...Not as bitter as last night, but lacks body. Mom was again, disappointed. "I'll just put them in the compost," she said.

"Heavens, NO!!!!" I thought. Even if they weren't good, I was still planning on using the beans. I didn't like the idea of coffee farmers' fruits of labor going to compost/turning into worm food.

So I offered a few suggestions: Maybe it's the way I ground the beans. Maybe the coffee maker needs to be cleaned. Mom thought that this coffee "tastes like Arabica coffee, not Colombian", what she had mentioned last night. We checked the bag and sure enough, on the back, it said, "100% Arabica coffee beans". Mom got upset, because the label on the front read "100% Organic Colombian"....then I said, "...Are the two the same thing? Maybe the names are interchangeable..?"

After 30 minutes of online research, here's what I found:

1) There are only two species of coffee beans cultivated commercially: Arabica and Robusta. The names like "Colombian", "Kenyan", and "Kona" refers to the the geographical name of where these beans have been grown. In other words, it doesn't matter where they're grown, they're all either Arabica or Robusta (the majority of it would be Arabica however). However, the location of where they've been grown does affect the flavor.

2) Colombian coffee is supposed to have an acidic note, and shouldn't be overly bitter.

It was NOT the coffee beans. Which brought up the topics of proper grinding and brewing technique...

3) The best grinder is the burr grinder--the kind with a rotating handle and a mill. We have a blade grinder, with a pair of blades that whirls to chop the beans. Apparently the blade grinder generates heat as it turns, causing the grounds to lose its flavor.

4) Coffee to water ratio. Two level tablespoons (the Approved Coffee Measure) deveopled by the Coffee Brewing Institute per 6 oz. of water. Turned out that our coffee maker's 1 cup equals 5 oz. instead of the standard 6 oz. The manufacturer recommended 1 tablespoon per cup. So to make the "standard" coffee, I should use 5 level tablespoon for 30 oz. (6 cups) of coffee.

5) Wait until the last minute to brew coffee. I usually brew coffee the first thing after I get up, so it ends up sitting there for a good half an hour.

These are my findings. I still have a long way to go before I can brew that perfect cup of coffee.

Post Midterm Update (Part 2)....

My mom and I went grocery shopping yesterday. On the way home, we made a stop at a bakery--we had bought an eclair here before, and it was pretty good. Mom probably liked its price better than its taste. Wanting to try something new, I chose a baklava (I have had it before, but Mom hasn't) and a "Marzipan Pie".

Maybe there is an official name for this pastry, but that's how the girl who worked there described it.

So after dinner, we brewed some gourmet coffee (whole bean, organic Colombian--we splurged for the first time on coffee...) and divided the pastry among the three of us.

I tried the baklava first. Then I noticed that this one had only two layers: the top consisting of phyllo pastry sheets and the bottom layer was the nut-layer. Baklava should have multiple (as in, more than two) layers of phyllo and chopped nut filling. The cross-section should look like layers of the pastry with the nuts interspersed between them.

Then I turned to the Marzipan Pie. I was getting a bit skeptical after the baklava. First bite...Hm. Marzipan with good almond flavor, with a cherry jam filling in a pie crust. First several bites were good...then after about a third bite, things got mediocre. The pie finished tasting....flat. No depth to the flavor, just almond and (a little too much) sugar, although that is to be expected from a marzipan--I mean, that's what marzipan is made of; almond paste and sugar. In other words, it probably shouldn't have been used for a pie filling.

What makes a pie delicious is the balance between the complex flavors of the filling (i.e. apple with 4 different kinds of spices, or the rich and deep body of chocolate cream) paired with a more bland crust. If this one had marzipan with some other filling(s) it might have been better.

....Then I took a sip of the coffee. Pretty bitter...but I like my coffee bitter, so I liked it. Mom, on the other hand, was quite disappointed. She doesn't like overly bitter coffee, and was hoping it to be more acidic, claiming that this coffee "tastes more like Arabica coffee, not Colombian!"

So that was last night. The pastries AND the coffee were a bit disappointing. Then the next morning....



(...to be continued)

***Update (05/19/2010) This "Marzipan Pie" has the official name Frangipane Tart. And it is supposed to taste like marzipan, along with another ingredient for the filling.

Post Midterm Update....

Last Friday (I deserved a break from my research paper), my friends and I went to Super Adopt, an event sponsored by Petsmart; animal shelters from all over the state bring in their best/cutest candidates for adoption. My friend Ami was looking for a dog to adopt...I tagged along to check out the cats (I'm more of a cat-person). And I could NOT resist taking some of their pictures.

The cat with a "mustache"--the one that looks like Charlie Chaplin (or Hitler. I totally would've named him Hitler if I had the option) reached out with his paws and covered the camera lens when I went up to him. I seriously considered taking one of them home, but alas, I already have a lovable cat, Tanu...

She was at one point without a home herself. Mom saw her get rejected by our neighbor (she was apparently trying to find a home who'll adopt her)and when she started yowling in the middle of the road, Mom invited her into our front yard, without a whole lot of thought. And that was the end of it. Our original plan to drop her off at the local animal shelter once the weather warms up was scrapped when we fell in love with her--including my Dad who used to absolutely hate cats. She is now an irreplaceable member of our family.

So....I'm hoping and praying that Hitler will also find a loving home.