I need a pestle....

Yesterday morning, as I was grinding a few cardamoms with my giant granite mortar and pestle, I decided that I need something littler, like a suribachi. My big Thai thing and my molcajete are both overkill for tiny grinding tasks. Then, on my way home from the store I found this cute suribachi in a pile of free stuff that hadn't sold at a yard sale the day before! I need to get it a wooden pestle, though, and I'm afraid it'll cost almost as much as an entire set.

Indian food

I had Rachael and her new sweetie Jake for dinner yesterday. I'd originally planned to make them Moroccan food, including a filo pie thing, but when I heard it was going to be in the mid-nineties I thought I'd better switch my menu to one using pressure cookers instead of the oven. I made our whole dinner out of my new--and very good, so far--cookbook, 1000 Indian Recipes.

We had
white and sweet potato salad,
black channa,
lemon rice,
mango raita,
and green chutney.

I had been going to make cucumber flatbreads, too, but decided it was too hot to cook any more.

dishrags

It's far too hot to knit big, woolly things so I've been making nice cotton dishrags. I'll give them out as Xmas presents, I guess, as I'm a sponge-user.

Work Treats

I had to bring a treat for a work meeting, and decided to bring gluten-free, vegan cupcakes as they would fit in well with people's various dietary needs. I made regular chocolate ones, and white ones sweetened with agave nectar for South Beach diet types. These cupcakes are actually no more trouble to make than ordinary cupcakes are, but require a lot of different flours.


Several people asked me for the recipes, so here they are, adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup unsweetened, unflavored almond milk (0r soy milk)
1/3 cup rapeseed oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 t vanilla extract
1/4 t almond extract
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 T flax meal
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup rice flour (white or brown)
6 T quinoa flour
2 T almond meal
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

Makes 12 cupcakes

Heat oven to 350F.
Beat wet ingredients together with sugar, flax, and tapioca till everything's thoroughly emulsified. Sift in remaining ingredients and beat for a couple of minutes.
Divide batter among 12 paper-lined muffin pan slots, then bake for 20-23 minutes. Cool before frosting with:

Ganache

4 oz dark chocolate, up to 60% cacao, chopped
1/4 cup almond milk (or soy milk)
1 T maple syrup

Bring milk and syrup to a simmer, take off the heat, then stir chocolate in till it's all melted.



Vanilla-Orange Cupcakes, Agave-Sweetened

2/3 cup almond milk (or soy milk)
1/3 cup rapeseed oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
2 t vanilla extract
1/4 t orange oil (or maybe 1/2 t extract)
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 T flax meal
1/3 cup corn flour (finely ground cornmeal) or almond meal
1/2 cup white rice flour (or brown if you don't mind its color)
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

Makes 11 cupcakes

Heat oven to 350F.
Beat wet ingredients together with flax, and tapioca till everything's thoroughly emulsified. Sift in remaining ingredients and beat for a couple of minutes.
Divide batter among 11 paper-lined muffin pan slots, then bake for 20-23 minutes. Cool before frosting with:

Agave Icing
1/3 cup soy or almond milk
1 T arrowroot
pinch salt
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup unrefined coconut oil (or use refined if you don't want a coconut taste)
1 1/2 vanilla extract
zest of an orange
1/2 cup plus 2 T soy milk powder

Whisk milk, salt and arrowroot together in a small pan and simmer together over medium heat till thickened. Add agave nectar, coconut oil, vanilla, and zest and whisk together till combined. Add soy milk powder, then beat with an electric mixer or immersion blender till smooth. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate at least 40 minutes--till it firms up.