Meals with faux-cheese doesn't always have to include nutritional yeast. We love nutritional yeast, but it's not cheap to buy, so we use it sparingly. Mixing a few other simple ingredients together we find is enough to make a good and satisfying cheesy sauce.In the above image, we added brussel sprouts. It's not part of the recipe because it is a strange ingredient to add to mac and cheese, but we like it in everything. Whenever we cook rice, or pasta, we add halved and stemmed brussel sprouts(with the outer leaves removed) to the cooking water. If you like boiled brussel sprouts, give it a shot.SubstitutionsPlant milk: If you don't like soy milk, any non-dairy milk will do. We've had mac and cheese with full-fat coconut milk and it was heavenly. Coconut milk alters the flavor of the faux-cheese in a very good way.Miso: We always have miso on the ... Continue Reading »
Every fall we volunteer with a local organization to pick apples on private property that would normally go to waste. This year we got a lot of fruit so we decided to process some. We are not huge fans of compote, but we do like chunky-style jams.ApplesWe can't say for certain what kind of apple we picked, they looked like spartans or fujis, either way they are sweet and crisp and lend well to jams.Botulism? In the word of Kevin West, acidity is the enemy of botulism. Foods that have a pH below 4.6, high-acid foods like apples, blueberries, strawberries (and many more) are completely safe, they have sufficient natural acidity to safeguard us against the risk of botulism. Despite this, it is still necessary to process the clean jars after filling them with jam.Jam doneness Apples normally have enough natural pectin to gel. Is my jam ready to take ... Continue Reading »
A quick no-yeast flat bread recipe, ideal when you want bread but don't want to wait. The flat bread is ready in under 45 minutes (includes resting time), and it's possible to prepare under 15 minutes—we do this a lot—if necessary (without the resting time).Allowing the dough to relax after kneading makes it easier to work with, but if you skip that step it's still possible to roll it out, it'll just be a bit harder to do.Substitutions:Flour: Switching whole wheat flour for spelt, or all-purpose won't affect the dough.Fat: Fat is necessary in this recipe, it helps to create a smooth, rich and pliable dough. Using other types of oil, like canola or sunflower oil, is fine. It's possible to use vegan butter, but it's important to soften and mix it in with other liquids first. If using vegan butter, measure out 50 g.Liquid: For an even richer, and ... Continue Reading »
A simple roasted eggplant dip recipe. Roasting the garlic is optional, but it gives the dip a deeper, more complex flavor, while diminishing the pungency of the garlic.This recipe is ideal when served with flat bread or raw vegetables, it's also good if served with crackers. Optionally, you can add roasted green peppers and other vegetables to further augment the flavor and nutrition of the dip.Add-ins: Add 20 g (~1/2 cup) of chopped parsley and/or 2 diced tomatoes for extra texture and flavor. For a more complex (and sweet) taste, add 45 ml (~3 tbsp) of pomegranate molasses. You can also use grape molasses.Garlic: The garlic doesn't need to be roasted, you can use it fresh. If you do this, you will have to use ~4-5 cloves instead of the whole head. Use a mortar and pestle to crush the peeled garlic into a paste before adding it ... Continue Reading »
Since getting those mini silicone pans, we've been making mini everything. This time, we made some anise sweet bread topped with a sauce, and loaded with caramelized pear chunks.My bag of anise seeds has been sitting in my pantry, for way too long, begging for purpose. We are happy to report that the taste of anise pairs very well with pears.Continue reading
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Banana ice cream is a simple alternative to dairy or coconut based desserts. It's a no-fuss recipe that requires little preparation and waiting time.Making it is easy, and only requires putting bananas in the freezer. While waiting for them to harden up, prepare your balsamic coulis. If you've ever boiled balsamic vinegar, you know that it can sting your eyes. Making a balsamic vinegar reduction makes it thick and syrupy, and works well as a topping. We like the contrast of the bananas and vinegar.Continue reading
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Sesame brittle looks impressive when served over desserts, like small pieces of black coral.It's simple to make, but requires all of your attention. The sugar syrup becomes solid when cool, so all steps must be done quickly. These are no-bake, and are ready to eat almost instantly.These are best served over desserts that aren't too sweet, the sweet of the sesame brittle can be a bit overpowering, we suggest serving it with fruit, or kanten (agar agar based desserts).Continue reading
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We like making syrups, or juice reductions a lot. It's simple, and you can use it in many other recipes afterwards. Reductions that aren't sweetened with sugar are great as an add-on to sauces, or when used alone as a 'glaze'.We used a technique by the cook Mike Case, he made a white sesame syrup to use in cocktails. We liked not requiring a blender to make it, blending sesame seeds into a smooth liquid is tough, my immersion blender can't grind seeds finely. Boiling the seeds, and then straining them out is simple, and since you can re-use the seeds afterwards, there's no waste. Toasting the seeds beforehand helps to bring out the nutty flavor, so don't skip that step.This syrup pairs well with ice cream, especially those with subtle flavors like coconut and vanilla. It's delicious on fruit ice cream too. To make fruit ice cream, slice fruit ... Continue Reading »
Was in the mood for some baked veggie fingers, didn't have tofu, but what we did have was a jar full of chickpea flour. Burmese tofu is made with chickpea flour, one of our staple foods. We first learned about this kind of tofu by reading The Burmese Kitchen by Aung Thein. The process for making this kind of tofu is usually much longer, if you're interested in making it the correct way the process is described at length on this page(which was copied digitally from The Burmese Kitchen). Our recipe suggests a quick way to make chickpea tofu, which was inspired by this recipe. We prepared a batch of spicy, green scallion 'chickpea tofu' and coated it with breadcrumbs.The lemon juice adds flavor to the crumbs, no need for eggs or flour.We served these with sambal oelek, it's spicy but works well with the dish. We've been pairing this ... Continue Reading »
To make great brownies, you need to pay a special attention to how you treat the eggs and sugar. These two ingredients need good whipping to add heft to the batter.How do you know you've got the whipping right? If you lift your whisk after mixing, the eggs will dribble in thick ribbons which hold their shape on top of the batter for a few seconds. This is what bakers call the ribbon stage. This ability of eggs to swell is the basis of great pastries and desserts, for leavening they don't need baking powder or baking soda and instead rely on the air held in place by the whipped eggs.These properties aren't unique to chicken eggs. It's possible to get good ribboning with both flax seeds and aquafaba (liquid from chickpeas), but aquafaba yields better results in baking.SubstitutionsFat : Use 90 ml of canola oil instead of vegan butter. ... Continue Reading »
An onigirazu is a Japanese rice ball sandwich, or a 'lazy onigiri'.The word onigiri (or nigiru) means to press into shape using your hands, while razu means the opposite. Free form onigiri. This is perfect for people who have a hard time making rice balls. Onigirazu has the same great taste, without the fear of imperfection.This recipe is perfect when you don't have the right type of rice available for onigiri. You can use just about any type, we tested it out a few different kinds. The seaweed wrapping will keep it together, thus eliminating the need for sticky rice.We seasoned the rice with miso for added flavor, and filled it with carrot kinpira—'kinpira' means sauteed (usually with a mixture of mirin soy sauce and chili peppers.) It's a sweet and spicy dish that the Japanese serve in bentos.Inorganic arsenic(iAs). Rice can be a significant source of iAs, especially brown ... Continue Reading »
Corn pone has been part of our diet since 2016, ever since our good friend Claudia from the sailboat Essencia made some for us.Corn pone is a simple version of cornbread, it is heavy, crunchy and thick, rather than fluffy and light.This recipe is versatile, we use whatever vegetables we have on hand for the topping. If we have kimchi, we put kimchi, but this recipe is also delicious with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, or with the vegetables sautéed with dried chili pepper flakes. In the above photo, we added black olives because we had some.Instead of making one big corn cake, you can divide it into 4, or 8 smaller cakes. It's possible to eat them as is, without a topping, with or without a dollop of vegan butter.Oven versionTo prepare corn pone in the oven, preheat the oven to 190 °C (375 °F). Preheat the cast iron ... Continue Reading »
This is a quick, nut-free cheese recipe, that you can add onto if you want different flavors. It's simple to prepare, and ready under a few hours.SubstitutionsIn this recipe we use kanten, which is similar to agar agar except that it's made from a different type of red algae (tengusa). You can swap it 1:1 in a recipe, although the resulting texture will not be the same. Adding agar agar will soften the texture.In this recipe, it's possible to replace 240 ml of soy milk with 240 ml of water instead, this will result in a cheese that is less creamy and less filling. We like to add turmeric to make it yellow, but it's totally optional.It is also possible to the omit sunflower seeds, using mostly plant milk will still give good results. We make it this way if we forget to soak sunflower seeds. Another option, is to ... Continue Reading »
We have arrived in New Zealand, the land of plenty. All of the foods that we like and miss are here. Foods like nutritional yeast, miso and soba (to name a few).With a fully re-stocked pantry, we started to make faux-cheese again, a recipe from Vegan Richa that is simple to make and that we love. The recipe is for a cheese that can be cut into wedges, or that can be grated over pizza. I had an idea to use this recipe to make filling for ravioli, the difference being that we won't add any agar agar (a seaweed based powder that makes liquids gellify)Making the ravioli is easy, and requires laying out a thin sheet of dough, and adding bits of the spinach and cheese mix into separate small mounds across. Leaving enough space between each 'mound' is necessary, as another sheet of dough is laid overtop and ... Continue Reading »
This bread is super light and fluffy and great for morning toast or sandwiches.We've been reading up a lot about bread, we wanted to understand how the ingredients we add can affect the texture. We also read about the differences in temperature, to knead or not to knead etc. Truth is, every choice depends on the desired end result.We wanted to make a sandwich bread with a light crumb, the kind that bounces back when touched. This recipe has more fat, which in turn makes it softer and fluffier. The choice of fat will affect the texture/taste of the bread.There are many things you can do to help soften your bread, like brushing the outside with a oil or some other fat as soon as we take it out of the oven. Brushing fat on the outside softens the crust.SubstitutionsIt's possible to substitute nut milk for water, for a richer ... Continue Reading »
In the last couple of years, we've removed most pre-made cleaning and hygiene products from our lives. In fact, we don't use shampoo at all anymore. We make our own toilet cleaner, kitchen cleaner, and we also make our own toothpaste.Chances are you already have all of the ingredients at home to make it. The recipe consists of baking soda, coconut oil and peppermint oil (food grade).You can also brush your teeth with a simple baking soda and water mix (mix 1 tsp of baking soda with a small amount of water). Baking soda's relatively low abrasivity is enough to remove accumulations on teeth, and it rinses clear leaving a lightly salty taste. It's important to dilute the baking soda, as too much can be damaging. For those who dislike brushing with a salty taste, adding peppermint oil helps to smooth down both the taste and texture, although this ingredient ... Continue Reading »
The idea of making beer bread came from a book written by Lin Pardey called "The Care and Feeding of the Offshore Crew". In this book, Lin talks about cooking at sea, and has an entire chapter dedicated to baking onboard. In this chapter, the author talks about the many ways to make fresh bread while sailing, including a quickbread recipe that uses 3 basic ingredients: flour, sugar and beer.Beer bread you say? Right up our alley. The next day we gave it a try, the result was fantastic.The amazing thing about beer bread is that using different beer, will change the flavor and color of the bread. We tried baking with an IPA (21st amendment), a Hefeweizen (Sunriver brewing co) and a brown ale (Hobgoblin).SubstitutionsIf you have self-rising flour, you can omit the baking powder and salt. Also, you can omit the leavening agent if you have a craft ... Continue Reading »
We are about to leave Tonga, the tropics and the land of bountiful breadfruit. This versatile fruit can be cooked into fries, eaten with coconut milk, made into chips, or like this recipe suggests, it makes good gnocchi.Breadfruit has a taste and texture that resembles that of potato, and so it makes sense that it too can be made into gnocchi. The flesh of the fruit can be kneaded with ease, especially if the fruit is very ripe. I have tried to knead it when half-ripe, it works too, but requires added moisture and more kneading, not to mention that it doesn't have as much flavor. Ripe breadfruit develops a sweet taste. It can be difficult to catch it at the right moment, like avocados they have a tendency to overripen overnight. Because we like it so much, we've bought many and have had time to better tell when it ... Continue Reading »
Yes, another breadfruit recipe! This fruit is one of the most versatile ingredients we've ever cooked with, it's cheap and pairs well with just about anything. When we returned to the south pacific last June, you can be sure that the first thing we went looking for at the market was this lovely green wonder. It's become a staple for us, a treat and food we are excited to cook and eat.While in a grocery store in Fiji, we spotted breadfruit flour! A company called Friend's Fiji style sells it in bags of 300g. It's a good alternative if the fresh kind can't be found. It's something we'll stock up on when we leave, so we continue to have breadfruit in our diet (in some form).Making pasta from scratch requires your hands, a knife and a rolling pin (or bottle, whatever works). Making pasta by hand that is even and ... Continue Reading »
A recipe for the March 2021 Merveilles Cooking Jam.Our default buckwheat recipes include Buckwheat Tea and Soba. We like making soba, but it is a long, and messy process. Buckwheat is difficult to work with, especially if the aim is to make 100% soba (most are cut with wheat flour). So this recipe is a way to eat more buckwheat in our diet without defaulting to soba.SubstitutionsBuckwheat: It is possible to use pre-ground flour, I just like to grind my own because it keeps longer as groats. If buying flour, you'll notice a darker and lighter variety, using either is fine. The darker variety has the hull mixed in, and the lighter version doesn't. Hulled buckwheat has more nutrients.Tomato: tomato paste is a concentrate, it is useful on a boat as it helps save space (instead of carrying larger cans). When using tomato paste, use it with equal parts water. ... Continue Reading »
A friend from Japan gave us some soba cha そば茶 last month, it's something we've had before but that we never thought of making ourselves. It's a type of tea that is served in some soba shops, as a companion drink to buckwheat noodles. It has a subtle nutty flavor, and is perfect to drink after dinner, or later at night as it doesn't have any caffeine. We roast the groats as we need them, but it's possible to prepare a larger batch ahead of time. The roasted buckwheat groats will store for a few months if kept in a cool and dry place. Roasting a larger batch: When roasting a larger batch, use a larger pan so that the groats don't sit atop of each other. The groats must be in a single layer so they can cook evenly. Re-using the softened groats: It's possible to re-use the softened ... Continue Reading »
We ordered ingredients from BC Kelp, a company in northern Canada that grows their own seaweed. A lot of the food we make these days has either nori, wakame, bull kelp or bladderwack whole tips in it.We'd like to see more people cooking with sea vegetables. You can snack on dried seaweed, or add it to soups and salads. The powdered version we're using in this recipe adds a lot of umami and color to meals.You can order your own bull kelp powder from the BC Kelp website, they have a wide range of quality seaweed to choose from.RecommendationsAdding a bay leaf, a bit of onion or a clove or two of garlic to the cooking water add a subtle seasoning to the chickpeas and boost flavor.SubstitutionsIf you don't have access to bull kelp powder, you can use 5 ml capers or dulse flakes. They will impart a delicious, briny, ... Continue Reading »
We've been making chocolate chip cookies for a while, but never thought it worthy of a recipe because there are so many online already. In the interest of posting absolute basic recipes though, we felt it deserved to be written down, especially because cookie chemistry is difficult. Slight differences in moisture content, altitude, fat content and sugar content can alter the look and texture of a cookie. There are reasons for the quantities and choice of each ingredient, all interact with each other to give cookies their sweet and soft texture.This recipe is a good base. Substitutions are possible, but changing ingredients—depending on the ingredient—can mess up your recipe. In our suggestions we give examples of good substitutions, and how to modify the recipe to get a good result.Substitutions Flour: If you choose to use spelt flour, a more nutritious alternative, add 5 ml (5 ml) of baking powder to ... Continue Reading »
Coffee jelly is a popular dessert and drink (you could say) that is served in coffee shops in Japan. It is very simple to make, it doesn't require refrigeration to become jelly and it is delicious!The key ingredient in this recipe is kanten, or agar agar, a gelling agent that is algae based and that is widely available in asia. It is available in powder form, and also in sheets. Sheets can be melted in a liquid the same way as the powder form. Agar agar has no calories, and imparts no flavor.You can use instant coffee as well for this recipe, using 30 ml of instant coffee per cup.On Pino, we sometimes make the mix without a sweetener, and pour a spoonful on top afterwards.Quick soy puddingYou can eat the coffee jelly as is, or you can add the cubes in another recipe like a coconut or soy milk ... Continue Reading »
We found an old vegetarian cookbook in a book-sharing shelf. We must have spent an hour reading through it, the recipes were fantastic, the title read The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. The cookbook had an entire section dedicated to cooking with corn. It's there that we found a recipe for masa dumplings.Masa is corn that is simmered and ground into a paste and is the base for many recipes. You can make Mexican-style tortillas with it, that, or you can use it to make dumplings! We don't have access to fresh corn, nor do we have the space or the time to make my own masa, but we used corn meal instead and it worked! The only difference is that you need to add boiling water so you can roll the mixture into balls. If you were to use masa, you wouldn't need the added moisture.The texture of the dumplings is ... Continue Reading »
Making crackers is simple. There are no downsides to knowing, and in a bind it's a useful skill. What's great about a basic recipe is that you can swap ingredients with little consequence (most times) and you can add to it to suit your needs and cravings.We love to eat crackers as snacks, usually between breakfast and lunch, a cracker with some peanut butter to quiet our stomachs. We rely on crackers a lot during long passages at sea.You can make these crackers without extras with just the 'cracker' portion of the recipe. They're just as delicious that way, but you can add seeds and spices for added flavor and nutrition. We like to add seeds to ours, like pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds, or sunflower seeds. We recommend adding black pepper, or chili pepper flakes, these are also delicious if you sprinkle some salt over the top of ... Continue Reading »
Over the years, we've experimented with various ways of making tofu, our favourite recipe is made from milling, and then soaking, the ground soy beans for a short time. We prefer making our own soy flour with a grain mill. It's possible to buy pre-ground flour, but make sure it isn't de-fatted.Tofu is cheap to make. In Canada, 400g of soy beans costs about 0.35$ in bulk and makes a brick of tofu, the store bought equivalent 400g brick is 3.65$.Making tofu from the flour is faster, there is no need to pre-soak the whole beans overnight, it also makes it easier for us to extract more milk.Nigari is our preferred coagulant, as it imparts less flavor than lemon juice, vinegar or epsom salt.We got the idea to make this kind of tofu from The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook by Louise Hagler, and found general tofu-making tips from Cooking With Tofu ... Continue Reading »
The combination of carrots and zucchinis look beautiful on a plate. To complete the dish, we added some roasted pumpkin seeds, and topped it off with cherry tomatoes. For bulk, we added cavatappi pasta to this dish. Cavatappi pasta (or scoobi-doo) happens to be our favorite pasta cut (we're a sucker for shapes)See how to roast your own pumpkin seeds.Continue reading
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Been a while since we've baked cookies. It being pumpkin season, the choice was obvious.These are not very sweet, namely because of the addition of coconut sugar which has a subtle and more complex taste. Coconut sugar will make your cookies a darker shade of orange, almost brown, and we think it fits nicely with the toned-down color of the pumpkin seeds. If you want a bold orange color, use white cane sugar instead.Leftover chocolate: This recipe makes more chocolate than is needed for the recipe. If you want to keep it for later, pour it in a chocolate mold or shallow container and put it in the freezer. It will become solid and you'll have delicious homemade chocolate on the side for later times! Once it's solid, pop it out of the mold and put it in a closed container. Keep it in the freezer until you're ready to ... Continue Reading »
Making mayo is easy. This is a basic recipe that doesn't take long to prepare, and that requires few tools.It's possible to add other spices and ingredients to augment the flavor, like smoked paprika, garlic or fresh herbs. This recipe lends well to substitutions:SubstitutionsOil : It's possible to use other neutral oils like sunflower oil, but we wouldn't recommend using olive oil as it will impart too much flavor.Traditional mayo : This recipe uses less oil than the average mayo recipe. We used soft tofu to have a thicker mixture to avoid adding extra oil, for a richer veganaise you can use soy milk or other plant milks. To do this, mix your ingredients in the order listed in the recipe (switching the tofu for 250 ml or 1 cup plant milk), then pour 350 ml to 595 ml (1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups) of oil in a slow, ... Continue Reading »
Meals with faux-cheese doesn't always have to include nutritional yeast. We love nutritional yeast, but it's not cheap to buy, so we use it sparingly. Mixing a few other simple ingredients together we find is enough to make a good and satisfying cheesy sauce.In the above image, we added brussel sprouts. It's not part of the recipe because it is a strange ingredient to add to mac and cheese, but we like it in everything. Whenever we cook rice, or pasta, we add halved and stemmed brussel sprouts(with the outer leaves removed) to the cooking water. If you like boiled brussel sprouts, give it a shot.SubstitutionsPlant milk: If you don't like soy milk, any non-dairy milk will do. We've had mac and cheese with full-fat coconut milk and it was heavenly. Coconut milk alters the flavor of the faux-cheese in a very good way.Miso: We always have miso on the ... 
Every fall we volunteer with a local organization to pick apples on private property that would normally go to waste. This year we got a lot of fruit so we decided to process some. We are not huge fans of compote, but we do like chunky-style jams.ApplesWe can't say for certain what kind of apple we picked, they looked like spartans or fujis, either way they are sweet and crisp and lend well to jams.Botulism? In the word of Kevin West, acidity is the enemy of botulism. Foods that have a pH below 4.6, high-acid foods like apples, blueberries, strawberries (and many more) are completely safe, they have sufficient natural acidity to safeguard us against the risk of botulism. Despite this, it is still necessary to process the clean jars after filling them with jam.Jam doneness Apples normally have enough natural pectin to gel. Is my jam ready to take ... 
A quick no-yeast flat bread recipe, ideal when you want bread but don't want to wait. The flat bread is ready in under 45 minutes (includes resting time), and it's possible to prepare under 15 minutes—we do this a lot—if necessary (without the resting time).Allowing the dough to relax after kneading makes it easier to work with, but if you skip that step it's still possible to roll it out, it'll just be a bit harder to do.Substitutions:Flour: Switching whole wheat flour for spelt, or all-purpose won't affect the dough.Fat: Fat is necessary in this recipe, it helps to create a smooth, rich and pliable dough. Using other types of oil, like canola or sunflower oil, is fine. It's possible to use vegan butter, but it's important to soften and mix it in with other liquids first. If using vegan butter, measure out 50 g.Liquid: For an even richer, and ... 
A simple roasted eggplant dip recipe. Roasting the garlic is optional, but it gives the dip a deeper, more complex flavor, while diminishing the pungency of the garlic.This recipe is ideal when served with flat bread or raw vegetables, it's also good if served with crackers. Optionally, you can add roasted green peppers and other vegetables to further augment the flavor and nutrition of the dip.Add-ins: Add 20 g (~1/2 cup) of chopped parsley and/or 2 diced tomatoes for extra texture and flavor. For a more complex (and sweet) taste, add 45 ml (~3 tbsp) of pomegranate molasses. You can also use grape molasses.Garlic: The garlic doesn't need to be roasted, you can use it fresh. If you do this, you will have to use ~4-5 cloves instead of the whole head. Use a mortar and pestle to crush the peeled garlic into a paste before adding it ... 
Since getting those mini silicone pans, we've been making mini everything. This time, we made some anise sweet bread topped with a sauce, and loaded with caramelized pear chunks.My bag of anise seeds has been sitting in my pantry, for way too long, begging for purpose. We are happy to report that the taste of anise pairs very well with pears.Continue reading
Banana ice cream is a simple alternative to dairy or coconut based desserts. It's a no-fuss recipe that requires little preparation and waiting time.Making it is easy, and only requires putting bananas in the freezer. While waiting for them to harden up, prepare your balsamic coulis. If you've ever boiled balsamic vinegar, you know that it can sting your eyes. Making a balsamic vinegar reduction makes it thick and syrupy, and works well as a topping. We like the contrast of the bananas and vinegar.Continue reading
Sesame brittle looks impressive when served over desserts, like small pieces of black coral.It's simple to make, but requires all of your attention. The sugar syrup becomes solid when cool, so all steps must be done quickly. These are no-bake, and are ready to eat almost instantly.These are best served over desserts that aren't too sweet, the sweet of the sesame brittle can be a bit overpowering, we suggest serving it with fruit, or kanten (agar agar based desserts).Continue reading
We like making syrups, or juice reductions a lot. It's simple, and you can use it in many other recipes afterwards. Reductions that aren't sweetened with sugar are great as an add-on to sauces, or when used alone as a 'glaze'.We used a technique by the cook Mike Case, he made a white sesame syrup to use in cocktails. We liked not requiring a blender to make it, blending sesame seeds into a smooth liquid is tough, my immersion blender can't grind seeds finely. Boiling the seeds, and then straining them out is simple, and since you can re-use the seeds afterwards, there's no waste. Toasting the seeds beforehand helps to bring out the nutty flavor, so don't skip that step.This syrup pairs well with ice cream, especially those with subtle flavors like coconut and vanilla. It's delicious on fruit ice cream too. To make fruit ice cream, slice fruit ... 
Was in the mood for some baked veggie fingers, didn't have tofu, but what we did have was a jar full of chickpea flour. Burmese tofu is made with chickpea flour, one of our staple foods. We first learned about this kind of tofu by reading The Burmese Kitchen by Aung Thein. The process for making this kind of tofu is usually much longer, if you're interested in making it the correct way the process is described at length on this page(which was copied digitally from The Burmese Kitchen). Our recipe suggests a quick way to make chickpea tofu, which was inspired by this recipe. We prepared a batch of spicy, green scallion 'chickpea tofu' and coated it with breadcrumbs.The lemon juice adds flavor to the crumbs, no need for eggs or flour.We served these with sambal oelek, it's spicy but works well with the dish. We've been pairing this ... 
To make great brownies, you need to pay a special attention to how you treat the eggs and sugar. These two ingredients need good whipping to add heft to the batter.How do you know you've got the whipping right? If you lift your whisk after mixing, the eggs will dribble in thick ribbons which hold their shape on top of the batter for a few seconds. This is what bakers call the ribbon stage. This ability of eggs to swell is the basis of great pastries and desserts, for leavening they don't need baking powder or baking soda and instead rely on the air held in place by the whipped eggs.These properties aren't unique to chicken eggs. It's possible to get good ribboning with both flax seeds and aquafaba (liquid from chickpeas), but aquafaba yields better results in baking.SubstitutionsFat : Use 90 ml of canola oil instead of vegan butter. ... 
An onigirazu is a Japanese rice ball sandwich, or a 'lazy onigiri'.The word onigiri (or nigiru) means to press into shape using your hands, while razu means the opposite. Free form onigiri. This is perfect for people who have a hard time making rice balls. Onigirazu has the same great taste, without the fear of imperfection.This recipe is perfect when you don't have the right type of rice available for onigiri. You can use just about any type, we tested it out a few different kinds. The seaweed wrapping will keep it together, thus eliminating the need for sticky rice.We seasoned the rice with miso for added flavor, and filled it with carrot kinpira—'kinpira' means sauteed (usually with a mixture of mirin soy sauce and chili peppers.) It's a sweet and spicy dish that the Japanese serve in bentos.Inorganic arsenic(iAs). Rice can be a significant source of iAs, especially brown ... 
Corn pone has been part of our diet since 2016, ever since our good friend Claudia from the sailboat Essencia made some for us.Corn pone is a simple version of cornbread, it is heavy, crunchy and thick, rather than fluffy and light.This recipe is versatile, we use whatever vegetables we have on hand for the topping. If we have kimchi, we put kimchi, but this recipe is also delicious with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, or with the vegetables sautéed with dried chili pepper flakes. In the above photo, we added black olives because we had some.Instead of making one big corn cake, you can divide it into 4, or 8 smaller cakes. It's possible to eat them as is, without a topping, with or without a dollop of vegan butter.Oven versionTo prepare corn pone in the oven, preheat the oven to 190 °C (375 °F). Preheat the cast iron ... 
This is a quick, nut-free cheese recipe, that you can add onto if you want different flavors. It's simple to prepare, and ready under a few hours.SubstitutionsIn this recipe we use kanten, which is similar to agar agar except that it's made from a different type of red algae (tengusa). You can swap it 1:1 in a recipe, although the resulting texture will not be the same. Adding agar agar will soften the texture.In this recipe, it's possible to replace 240 ml of soy milk with 240 ml of water instead, this will result in a cheese that is less creamy and less filling. We like to add turmeric to make it yellow, but it's totally optional.It is also possible to the omit sunflower seeds, using mostly plant milk will still give good results. We make it this way if we forget to soak sunflower seeds. Another option, is to ... 
We have arrived in New Zealand, the land of plenty. All of the foods that we like and miss are here. Foods like nutritional yeast, miso and soba (to name a few).With a fully re-stocked pantry, we started to make faux-cheese again, a recipe from Vegan Richa that is simple to make and that we love. The recipe is for a cheese that can be cut into wedges, or that can be grated over pizza. I had an idea to use this recipe to make filling for ravioli, the difference being that we won't add any agar agar (a seaweed based powder that makes liquids gellify)Making the ravioli is easy, and requires laying out a thin sheet of dough, and adding bits of the spinach and cheese mix into separate small mounds across. Leaving enough space between each 'mound' is necessary, as another sheet of dough is laid overtop and ... 
This bread is super light and fluffy and great for morning toast or sandwiches.We've been reading up a lot about bread, we wanted to understand how the ingredients we add can affect the texture. We also read about the differences in temperature, to knead or not to knead etc. Truth is, every choice depends on the desired end result.We wanted to make a sandwich bread with a light crumb, the kind that bounces back when touched. This recipe has more fat, which in turn makes it softer and fluffier. The choice of fat will affect the texture/taste of the bread.There are many things you can do to help soften your bread, like brushing the outside with a oil or some other fat as soon as we take it out of the oven. Brushing fat on the outside softens the crust.SubstitutionsIt's possible to substitute nut milk for water, for a richer ... 
In the last couple of years, we've removed most pre-made cleaning and hygiene products from our lives. In fact, we don't use shampoo at all anymore. We make our own toilet cleaner, kitchen cleaner, and we also make our own toothpaste.Chances are you already have all of the ingredients at home to make it. The recipe consists of baking soda, coconut oil and peppermint oil (food grade).You can also brush your teeth with a simple baking soda and water mix (mix 1 tsp of baking soda with a small amount of water). Baking soda's relatively low abrasivity is enough to remove accumulations on teeth, and it rinses clear leaving a lightly salty taste. It's important to dilute the baking soda, as too much can be damaging. For those who dislike brushing with a salty taste, adding peppermint oil helps to smooth down both the taste and texture, although this ingredient ... 
The idea of making beer bread came from a book written by Lin Pardey called "The Care and Feeding of the Offshore Crew". In this book, Lin talks about cooking at sea, and has an entire chapter dedicated to baking onboard. In this chapter, the author talks about the many ways to make fresh bread while sailing, including a quickbread recipe that uses 3 basic ingredients: flour, sugar and beer.Beer bread you say? Right up our alley. The next day we gave it a try, the result was fantastic.The amazing thing about beer bread is that using different beer, will change the flavor and color of the bread. We tried baking with an IPA (21st amendment), a Hefeweizen (Sunriver brewing co) and a brown ale (Hobgoblin).SubstitutionsIf you have self-rising flour, you can omit the baking powder and salt. Also, you can omit the leavening agent if you have a craft ... 
We are about to leave Tonga, the tropics and the land of bountiful breadfruit. This versatile fruit can be cooked into fries, eaten with coconut milk, made into chips, or like this recipe suggests, it makes good gnocchi.Breadfruit has a taste and texture that resembles that of potato, and so it makes sense that it too can be made into gnocchi. The flesh of the fruit can be kneaded with ease, especially if the fruit is very ripe. I have tried to knead it when half-ripe, it works too, but requires added moisture and more kneading, not to mention that it doesn't have as much flavor. Ripe breadfruit develops a sweet taste. It can be difficult to catch it at the right moment, like avocados they have a tendency to overripen overnight. Because we like it so much, we've bought many and have had time to better tell when it ... 
Yes, another breadfruit recipe! This fruit is one of the most versatile ingredients we've ever cooked with, it's cheap and pairs well with just about anything. When we returned to the south pacific last June, you can be sure that the first thing we went looking for at the market was this lovely green wonder. It's become a staple for us, a treat and food we are excited to cook and eat.While in a grocery store in Fiji, we spotted breadfruit flour! A company called Friend's Fiji style sells it in bags of 300g. It's a good alternative if the fresh kind can't be found. It's something we'll stock up on when we leave, so we continue to have breadfruit in our diet (in some form).Making pasta from scratch requires your hands, a knife and a rolling pin (or bottle, whatever works). Making pasta by hand that is even and ... 
A recipe for the March 2021 Merveilles Cooking Jam.Our default buckwheat recipes include Buckwheat Tea and Soba. We like making soba, but it is a long, and messy process. Buckwheat is difficult to work with, especially if the aim is to make 100% soba (most are cut with wheat flour). So this recipe is a way to eat more buckwheat in our diet without defaulting to soba.SubstitutionsBuckwheat: It is possible to use pre-ground flour, I just like to grind my own because it keeps longer as groats. If buying flour, you'll notice a darker and lighter variety, using either is fine. The darker variety has the hull mixed in, and the lighter version doesn't. Hulled buckwheat has more nutrients.Tomato: tomato paste is a concentrate, it is useful on a boat as it helps save space (instead of carrying larger cans). When using tomato paste, use it with equal parts water. ... 
A friend from Japan gave us some soba cha そば茶 last month, it's something we've had before but that we never thought of making ourselves. It's a type of tea that is served in some soba shops, as a companion drink to buckwheat noodles. It has a subtle nutty flavor, and is perfect to drink after dinner, or later at night as it doesn't have any caffeine. We roast the groats as we need them, but it's possible to prepare a larger batch ahead of time. The roasted buckwheat groats will store for a few months if kept in a cool and dry place. Roasting a larger batch: When roasting a larger batch, use a larger pan so that the groats don't sit atop of each other. The groats must be in a single layer so they can cook evenly. Re-using the softened groats: It's possible to re-use the softened ... 
We ordered ingredients from BC Kelp, a company in northern Canada that grows their own seaweed. A lot of the food we make these days has either nori, wakame, bull kelp or bladderwack whole tips in it.We'd like to see more people cooking with sea vegetables. You can snack on dried seaweed, or add it to soups and salads. The powdered version we're using in this recipe adds a lot of umami and color to meals.You can order your own bull kelp powder from the BC Kelp website, they have a wide range of quality seaweed to choose from.RecommendationsAdding a bay leaf, a bit of onion or a clove or two of garlic to the cooking water add a subtle seasoning to the chickpeas and boost flavor.SubstitutionsIf you don't have access to bull kelp powder, you can use 5 ml capers or dulse flakes. They will impart a delicious, briny, ... 
We've been making chocolate chip cookies for a while, but never thought it worthy of a recipe because there are so many online already. In the interest of posting absolute basic recipes though, we felt it deserved to be written down, especially because cookie chemistry is difficult. Slight differences in moisture content, altitude, fat content and sugar content can alter the look and texture of a cookie. There are reasons for the quantities and choice of each ingredient, all interact with each other to give cookies their sweet and soft texture.This recipe is a good base. Substitutions are possible, but changing ingredients—depending on the ingredient—can mess up your recipe. In our suggestions we give examples of good substitutions, and how to modify the recipe to get a good result.Substitutions Flour: If you choose to use spelt flour, a more nutritious alternative, add 5 ml (5 ml) of baking powder to ... 
Coffee jelly is a popular dessert and drink (you could say) that is served in coffee shops in Japan. It is very simple to make, it doesn't require refrigeration to become jelly and it is delicious!The key ingredient in this recipe is kanten, or agar agar, a gelling agent that is algae based and that is widely available in asia. It is available in powder form, and also in sheets. Sheets can be melted in a liquid the same way as the powder form. Agar agar has no calories, and imparts no flavor.You can use instant coffee as well for this recipe, using 30 ml of instant coffee per cup.On Pino, we sometimes make the mix without a sweetener, and pour a spoonful on top afterwards.Quick soy puddingYou can eat the coffee jelly as is, or you can add the cubes in another recipe like a coconut or soy milk ... 
We found an old vegetarian cookbook in a book-sharing shelf. We must have spent an hour reading through it, the recipes were fantastic, the title read The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. The cookbook had an entire section dedicated to cooking with corn. It's there that we found a recipe for masa dumplings.Masa is corn that is simmered and ground into a paste and is the base for many recipes. You can make Mexican-style tortillas with it, that, or you can use it to make dumplings! We don't have access to fresh corn, nor do we have the space or the time to make my own masa, but we used corn meal instead and it worked! The only difference is that you need to add boiling water so you can roll the mixture into balls. If you were to use masa, you wouldn't need the added moisture.The texture of the dumplings is ... 
Making crackers is simple. There are no downsides to knowing, and in a bind it's a useful skill. What's great about a basic recipe is that you can swap ingredients with little consequence (most times) and you can add to it to suit your needs and cravings.We love to eat crackers as snacks, usually between breakfast and lunch, a cracker with some peanut butter to quiet our stomachs. We rely on crackers a lot during long passages at sea.You can make these crackers without extras with just the 'cracker' portion of the recipe. They're just as delicious that way, but you can add seeds and spices for added flavor and nutrition. We like to add seeds to ours, like pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds, or sunflower seeds. We recommend adding black pepper, or chili pepper flakes, these are also delicious if you sprinkle some salt over the top of ... 
Over the years, we've experimented with various ways of making tofu, our favourite recipe is made from milling, and then soaking, the ground soy beans for a short time. We prefer making our own soy flour with a grain mill. It's possible to buy pre-ground flour, but make sure it isn't de-fatted.Tofu is cheap to make. In Canada, 400g of soy beans costs about 0.35$ in bulk and makes a brick of tofu, the store bought equivalent 400g brick is 3.65$.Making tofu from the flour is faster, there is no need to pre-soak the whole beans overnight, it also makes it easier for us to extract more milk.Nigari is our preferred coagulant, as it imparts less flavor than lemon juice, vinegar or epsom salt.We got the idea to make this kind of tofu from The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook by Louise Hagler, and found general tofu-making tips from Cooking With Tofu ... 
The combination of carrots and zucchinis look beautiful on a plate. To complete the dish, we added some roasted pumpkin seeds, and topped it off with cherry tomatoes. For bulk, we added cavatappi pasta to this dish. Cavatappi pasta (or scoobi-doo) happens to be our favorite pasta cut (we're a sucker for shapes)See how to roast your own pumpkin seeds.Continue reading
Been a while since we've baked cookies. It being pumpkin season, the choice was obvious.These are not very sweet, namely because of the addition of coconut sugar which has a subtle and more complex taste. Coconut sugar will make your cookies a darker shade of orange, almost brown, and we think it fits nicely with the toned-down color of the pumpkin seeds. If you want a bold orange color, use white cane sugar instead.Leftover chocolate: This recipe makes more chocolate than is needed for the recipe. If you want to keep it for later, pour it in a chocolate mold or shallow container and put it in the freezer. It will become solid and you'll have delicious homemade chocolate on the side for later times! Once it's solid, pop it out of the mold and put it in a closed container. Keep it in the freezer until you're ready to ... 
Making mayo is easy. This is a basic recipe that doesn't take long to prepare, and that requires few tools.It's possible to add other spices and ingredients to augment the flavor, like smoked paprika, garlic or fresh herbs. This recipe lends well to substitutions:SubstitutionsOil : It's possible to use other neutral oils like sunflower oil, but we wouldn't recommend using olive oil as it will impart too much flavor.Traditional mayo : This recipe uses less oil than the average mayo recipe. We used soft tofu to have a thicker mixture to avoid adding extra oil, for a richer veganaise you can use soy milk or other plant milks. To do this, mix your ingredients in the order listed in the recipe (switching the tofu for 250 ml or 1 cup plant milk), then pour 350 ml to 595 ml (1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups) of oil in a slow, ...