Thursday 27 October 2011

Cookbook Challenge Day XI

After taking a day off from cooking yesterday I was back with a vengeance today! I picked up the cookbook challenge for its final day with another three new recipes & tackled a haunted gingerbread house for a little Halloween gathering I'm having on Saturday!

Two of the recipes came from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan today, you might think that this was a coincidence but I'll admit that it was pure cheating on our part! Eat, Drink & Be Vegan did come out of the hat once & as per the rules Nick was meant to pick one recipe from it, unfortunately once he saw the picture of the Orange Sesame Tofu with the Coconut Lime Basmati Rice there was no stopping his rule breaking! I have to admit it sounded like a really delicious combo so I figured why not? They're our rules & we can break 'em if we want to!


This was an awesome meal & I'll definitely be making both of these recipes again. The tofu marinade is a mixture of soy sauce, maple syrup, sesame oil and orange juice with some arrowroot to thicken it. I'd probably sprinkle on a few less sesame seeds next time but mainly because they're kinda expensive! The coconut rice recipe suggests that you serve it with a lime wedge but we both preferred the rice without the extra lime, I think the recipe is limey enough as it is & the extra lime kinda overpowered the coconut flavour.

The next book out of the hat was Veganomicon & Nick was instructed to pick a dessert so that we wouldn't be eating two dinners! He chose the Tea-Poached Pears in Chocolate Sauce. We don't often make desserts, there are quite often brownies, cookies or other dessert like things lying around but I don't often whip up a fancy dessert.

I think I'm actually in love with these poached pears! I actually kinda hate tea and I was worried that the tea flavour might overpower the delicious flavour of the pears & subtle orange zest, thankfully that was not the case. You need to let the pears cool for around an hour before eating them & I'm happy to say that they were well worth the wait & this was a truly delicious dessert.

11 comments:

  1. I love tea poached pairs. I hope we're going to see pics of the haunted gingerbread house too!

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  2. Would you believe I have never tried a poached pear? I'll bet they are good though! Especially if it's from Vcon.

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  3. we don't make fancy desserts either (usually it's just coconut milk ice cream and chocolate sauce), but those tea-porched pears in chocolate sauce are enough to change my mind. thanks for the heads up on them taking an hour to cool before enjoying. that's good to know, fo 'sho. i also agree - they're your rules so break 'em if you want to! kick ass, Jojo! i need to make both the 'fu AND the rice. we have ED&BV - i cannot wait!

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  4. Those pears sound really good. I might bring them to Thanksgiving or Giftmas dinner!

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  5. Congrats on your last cooking challenge for the month. You deserve a vacation after this harrowing MOFO Madness. Everything looks yummy and you had a xgfx day, too!

    xo
    kittee

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  6. I've also never tried a poached pear. I've clearly been missing out...

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  7. I'm all for breaking the rules when you end up with a delicious meal like that! And those pears look so decadent, what a perfect way to finish a meal.

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  8. Oh, yum! I've wanting to make that poached pears recipe. Glad to hear it's good! And really, sometimes those photos in cookbooks can be like crack. You can't resist!

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  9. I love E,D, be V!!! In fact, I love all of Dreena Burton's books. However...this recipe has never caught my eye. Your lovely photo makes me want to try it now. Thanks! (PS: we love the kids' hummus recipe in E, D, be V...so good...especially that little bit of nutritional yeast.)

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  10. I love poached pears, and that is a great recipe for them.
    Eat, Drink and Be Vegan is an awesome book, and those two recipes are yummy.

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  11. Oooh poached pears! So going to have to make those! I've been eyeing them for awhile now. Your photo has convinced me! Yum!

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