Black Metal Pad Thai

So i came across this youtube sensation named the VeganBlackMetalChef naturally i was curious what this means and after watching his episode on Pad Thai i had myself in a fit of giggles as well as excitedly getting ready to make this vegan Pad Thai via summoning the heat of Satan and throwing in some head banging.

The video consists of a heavy metal kiss look alike cooking with sacrificial bowls and stirring with a mace rather than a spoon. Imagine a heavy metal voice yelling "STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR THEEEEEEE BOOOOOOOOOWL!!! RAAAAAARGGGHHHHHHHH" it's highly amusing and i suggest everyone check it out. I originally just though it was good for a laugh but then found myself wanting to try the meals he was cooking.

The recipe itself is easy enough, the most un-supermarket friendly thing would be the Tamarind which my supermarket had anyway so all the ingredients were pretty easy to get. The chef doesn't use measurements anywhere in the recipe he says that "Recipes intimidate people and take away your aspect of creation." I can honestly say this is what i hate the most about the recipe, i was originally excited to try a recipe that had no measurements and just relied on me guesstimating everything i'm usually so intimidated by cooking but being in control took away that intimidation, however my pad thai turned out incredibly sweet and it was rather gross at first so even though he says in reference to the amount of sugar that all you need is "A whole f***ing lot" I can assure you approximately 1 cup worth is way too much. But I also think i didn't add enough tamarind puree because once i served the bowl and found it was too sweet i added tamarind puree directly to the bowl of pad thai and then it turned incredibly yummy and perfect so thankfully it was a very easy fix. I also added some dried shallots that i found in the asian section of my local supermarket and it added a really yummy texture to it, plus i'm a bit of an addict when it comes to dried shallots.

ANYWAY! use this recipe if you want to impress people because it really is yummy and incredibly easy. I ate it the next day as left overs and it was still incredibly good (provided i added the extra tamarind)

<3
Betheney

Vegan Maple Cupcake with Creamy Maple Frosting

My lovely husband noticed i left 'Vegan cupcakes take over the world' open on the computer for a few days as i was having an internal struggle on whether to buy it or not so as a surprise he bought it for me :-) Top husband points!

Once it arrived one of the first recipes i noticed inside was Maple Cupcakes with Creamy Maple Frosting and Sugared Almonds! Nothing else appealed to me as much as the thought of maple flavored cupcakes i remember as a child whenever asked what my favorite food was i used to answer "Maple Syrup", always asking at Mcdonalds for an extra maple syrup just so i could drink it out of the little tub. haha. So off i go to make my first real vegan food and the result was rather delicious.

 - The Recipe - 

*Sugared Almonds*


1 cup of Almond halves
1/3 cup of Granulated sugar
3 tbsp of Maple syrup
Dash of Salt
Dash of Ground cinnamon

• Toast the Almonds on a baking tray in the oven at 275F or 135C for about 8 minutes then shake the tray and toast for a further 4 minutes
• Then on Med heat on the stove combine the sugar, maple syrup and salt after about 5 minutes the sugar should start to melt and bubble, cook for another 3-4 minutes until it is thick and amber brown and smells like caramel.
• Remove from heat stir in Almonds and cinnamon, quickly spread out on some baking paper spreading it out to avoid clumps of nuts.

*Cupcakes*

1/2 cup of Soy milk

1/2 tsp of apple cider vinegar
1 & 1/3 cups of all purpose flower
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 & 1/4 tsp maple extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugared walnuts from recipe (measure first then chop)

• Preheat oven to 350F or 180C and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners
• Whisk soy milk and vinegar in a separate bowl and set aside
• Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg into a separate bowl and form a well.
• Whisk syrup, oil, brown sugar and vanilla and maple extract into the soy mixture.
• Pour wet ingredients into well of dry ingredients and stir still large lumps are gone.
• fold in chopped walnuts
• fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way and bake for 20-22minutes, transfer to cooling racks to cool completely then follow with frosting
  

*Creamy Maple Frosting*

2/3 cup Maple syrup

3/4 cup Margarine

2/3 cup Soy milk powder

1 tsp Maple extract

1 tsp Vanilla extract

• Beat the maple syrup and margarine then the vanilla and maple extract
• slowly add soy milk powder a little bit at a time
• Lather onto the cooled cupcakes!

 - My Review -

The cupcakes were very yummy and i was pleasantly surprised at how no one could possibly tell it was vegan which is giving me many ideas for my daughters up coming 1st birthday, i've never used nutmeg but the tiny hint of it in these cupcakes made all the difference. I tested the cupcakes on a range of people and they all came back with positive reviews and the same conclusion as me about the sugared almonds (read ahead). I could not be entirely sure how honest they were though as i'm a rather useless cook and my excitement over my cupcakes and my hovering over their shoulder watching every bite could of influenced them to agree about their yumminess without that being their actual opinion. :-/ i guess we'll never know.

I could not find maple extract anywhere so just substituted it with vanilla extract so my final result was probably not as maply as it should have been but it didn't make it any more vanillery either. I could also not find soy milk powder so my frosting was virtually maple syrup and margarine, as i was testing and tasting the frosting all i could taste was a mouthful of margarine and tbh it was quite sickening and i was rather disappointed, however once i applied it to the cupcakes it took on a whole new taste and worked well with the cupcake as it no longer had the margarine strong taste and just tasted like a bit of maple type frosting although the measurements for frosting i actually spread over 2 batches of cupcakes. The almonds are hands down the best thing about these cupcakes! That doesn't say anything bad about the cupcakes just amazing things about the almonds, although i struggled to get the proper crunchy toffee around the almonds as i never dissolved the sugar enough before spreading it all over the paper didn't seem to do any harm because the end result was so delicious, i have found a new sugary snack to take with me to the movie cinemas in fact they were so delicious that even though you are suppose to use half the mixture to dice and put in the cupcakes and the other half to garnish i used 1 half to garnish and ate the entire other half.

1.  - Things I Learnt - 

An entire bottle of maple syrup can be used in one Recipe.

I was completely in the dark about which sugar is Granulated sugar, so i asked my husband who said it's the chunky one (raw sugar). I'm not sure why i asked him as i don't think the man has ever baked anything that contained sugar a day in his life. However after struggling greatly to get it to dissolve in the sugared almonds i did a quick google and discovered it's the finer sugar. Not as fine as caster sugar but more the one up from that just traditional old white sugar.

Bi-carb Soda IS baking soda which IS NOT baking powder. This had me running around in circles in the super market for quite some time.

<3

My journey so far.....

After wanting to be vegetarian for years but constantly trying and only last a month it was clear to me that i could never do it. Then i had a cousin introduce me to the week day veg concept. It sounded ridiculous first and i couldn't understand it but then when i realized it's to help the all or nothings like me so i started straight away. All week i counted down to the weekend! i'd constantly say "just wait till the weekend" then the weekend would roll around and i was either too busy or just simply didn't want to ruin my already stellar record. This proceeded for a couple more weeks until once the weekend hit i realized i didn't want to eat the meat anymore at all. Then reality hit I WAS A VEGETARIAN YAY FOR ME!!! 9 months after starting my vegetarian journey i was asked on a whim by a friend do i want to do a vegan challenge for one month, although one week in i already know i'm hooked and there is no going back for me. So here i am with the vegan cook books cracked open and i'm attempting to teach myself not only how to cook vegan but how to cook at all. My mother cooked for me and my 6 siblings my whole life at home and my husband pretty much did it after that so the fundamentals of cooking and being all around domesticated are lost on me and i'm determined to learn them.

What i'm hoping to achieve and share on my blog

- A journey from a vegan finding their feet to a nutritionally balanced vegan foodie.

- Share with the world what Melbourne has to offer.

- Share the life of my little baby and the many amazing parts of Motherhood, maybe i'll through in a few not so amazing parts of Motherhood, but to be honest they're pretty few and far between, my girl is a blessing.

So here goes.