Three Vegan Cheezes Gone Nuts!

Last week I was doing a 10 day , while having a lot of down time I decided to catch up on re-reading some older issues . There I sat, reading, no, DROOLING over the delicious looking pictures and wanting to make/eat everything I saw. It was torture, but I made it through and today I made some things from one of the VT back issues that caught my eye. Vegan Cheezes.

These cheezes were super easy to make and taste really good. Try it out on your dairy loving friends and see what they think. They won’t be disappointed.

The first one I made was the easiest, a Cheddar Cheeze. The second was a Pepper Crusted Cashew Goat Cheeze and the last one was an Almond Feta. All three have nuts as the main ingredient, but vary somewhat to give each a distinctive flavor and texture.

The following recipes have been taken from Vegetarian Times in their original text.

Cheddar Cheeze:

Pine nuts are so small and tender, they don’t need to be soaked before using to make this cheese. Agar flakes lend firmness and sliceability and eliminate the need for a straining step. Try adding other ingredients, such as chopped jalapeño chiles, cumin, caraway seeds, or a dash of smoked paprika.

1 1/4 cups unsweetened plain soymilk
1/4 cup agar flakes
1/2 cup raw pine nuts
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbs. dry white wine
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tsp. granulated onion
1 3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Whisk together soymilk and agar flakes in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, set a timer for 8 minutes, or until agar dissolves completely and mixture is thick, keep stirring.

Blend nuts, oil, lemon juice, wine, garlic, granulated onion, salt, and pepper in blender or food processor for 5 minutes, or until smooth, scraping down sides frequently. Add soymilk mixture, and blend 2 minutes more, or until smooth.

Line a 2- to 3-cup rectangular (or whatever shape you prefer) container with 2 layers of cheesecloth, allowing cheesecloth to hang over sides. Pour mixture into the container; smooth top. Fold overhanging cheesecloth over cheese.

Refrigerate 1 hour, or until firm. Unwrap, slice, and serve.

Pepper Crusted Cashew Goat Cheeze:

Cashews become very creamy and smooth when blended, which makes them perfect for this cheese. It’s aged at room temperature, then baked just until dry to the touch.

3/4 cup raw cashews
6 Tbs. canola oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 Tbs. tahini
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cracked black peppercorns or coarsely ground black pepper

Place cashews in large bowl; cover with 3 inches water. Soak overnight.

Drain liquid, rinse cashews under cold water, and drain again.

Purée cashews, oil, lemon juice, tahini, salt, and 2 Tbs. water in food processor 6 minutes, or until smooth and creamy.

Place large strainer over bowl, and line with triple layer of cheesecloth. Spoon cashew mixture into cheesecloth.

Fold sides of cloth over cheese, and form into 6-inch-long oval loaf. Twist ends of cloth and secure with rubber bands. Set in strainer over bowl, and let stand 12 hours at room temperature. Discard excess liquid. Chill.

Preheat oven to 200°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap cheese, and scrape into 7-inch-long log on cheesecloth. Rewrap, and twist ends to secure. Place on prepared baking sheet. Bake 35 minutes, or until cheese becomes set on outside but still soft, turning occasionally. Cool, and chill. Unwrap cheese. Sprinkle with peppercorns, pressing to adhere.

Almond Feta Cheeze:

Blanched almonds give this creamy-crumbly cheese a rich texture. Unbaked, it will be smooth and spreadable. Baking will make it a bit more crumbly, like traditional feta cheese.

1 cup whole blanched almonds
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 Tbs. olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 1/4 tsp. salt

As with the Cashew Goat Cheeze, place almonds in medium bowl, and cover with 3 inches cold water. Let soak 24 hours. Drain soaking liquid, rinse almonds under cold running water, and drain again.

Purée almonds, lemon juice, 3 Tbs. oil, garlic, salt, and 1/2 cup cold water in food processor 6 minutes, or until very smooth and creamy.

Place large strainer over bowl, and line with triple layer of cheesecloth. Spoon almond mixture into cheesecloth.

Bring corners and sides of cloth together, and twist around cheese, forming into orange-size ball and squeezing to help extract moisture. Secure with rubber band or kitchen twine. Chill 12 hours or overnight. Discard excess liquid.

Preheat oven to 200°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap cheese (it will be soft), and transfer from cheesecloth to prepared baking sheet. Flatten to form 6-inch round about 3/4-inch thick. Bake 40 minutes, or until top is slightly firm. Cool, then chill.

Turkey, Turkish, Ottoman “Surprise” Baklava and Spices Gone Wild

So as I was slaving away during my 3-hour-solo-dinner challenge the other night, I figured, I’ve already got the phyllo dough out and thawed, why not make baklava too?

While it was good in principal, and actually ended up being pretty tasty, it could have been a disaster.

You see, the recipe calls for 1 to 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon in the filling.

That, my friends, is cayenne pepper. I don’t think I even need to say what happened here. Poor Taylor, still on the floor, heard me start swearing in the kitchen and panicked thinking I cut myself. Nope, but I did just dump in a boatload of cayenne into the freshly ground nut filling.

I hadn’t stirred it yet, luckily, and managed to skim off ‘most’ of the offending spice. Reground some more nuts, and hoped that you wouldn’t be able to taste it in the final product.

You couldn’t. In fact it was a decent baklava. I used the recipe I found here, using maybe 2/3 almonds (some regular and some marcona), and then the rest walnuts, because I ran out of almonds. I think it could have been better… I wasn’t too fond of the walnuts in there. Anyone have a killer baklava recipe that they swear by?

I do have to say, that this experience has reinforced the fact that our spices are out of control. Maybe if the labels hadn’t rubbed of the bottles, the above disaster could have been avoided. But the spice rack is just the beginnging…

It all started with the spice rack. Until you realize that you cannot be limited by the 16 random spices that someone decided to fill it with (Dill Weed, anyone?).

Then things start to migrate into the spice drawer. Good in concept – the drawer is just deep enough to lay down one row of spice bottles. But when that gets full, and you start buying bigger bottles and bags of spices… well..

That’s when things really start to get messy. They get thrown on a shelf in the cabinet. The very deep shelf that makes them almost impossible to find (”Taylor, where’s the oregano?” I say with my head as deep inside the cabinet as it will go. Maybe I should just get Kitty to get it for me).

They multiply, I tell you! And we’ve just discovered the wonder of spice that is the international food store, which only sells spices in large bags. Too much to transfer to a bottle (not that there’d be room in the drawer anyway), we need some spice mason jars or something. But where on earth would those go?!?

And thus I pose another question – how do you keep your spices under control? We have limited space – that drawer and some counter is about all of the room we have for any spice-containment-unit.