Belgian Yeast Waffles and a Product Review

I love to have a hearty breakfast especially over the weekends. But it so happens that every weekend morning we are either running around to finish errands or wake up too late to have breakfast. Hearty breakfast menu in our household (whenever we make it, that is) is usually pancakes with syrup, idlis with chutney or sabudhana khichdi (ahem.. it’s probably been more than a year I made this dish).

Making Waffles for breakfast is probably something I wouldn’t even dream off to make at home. So when CSN Stores contacted me to do a product review, I was super excited and this time I knew exactly what I wanted to get. I got this Presto Belgian Waffle maker and after making waffles for 2 weekend breakfasts, I’m totally in love with it.

I used the Belgian yeast Waffle recipe from King Arthur flour website and the waffles turned out crispy on the outside and soft & yeasty on the inside. Batter can be refrigerated overnight making breakfast on a weekend morning possible and not a dream.

Recipe from KAF website
Ingredients:
All-purpose flour – 1 cup
Milk – 1½ cups
Butter – 6tbsp
Maple Syrup – 3tbsp
Salt – ¾ tsp
Vanilla extract – 1tsp
Eggs – 2, large
Yeast – 1 ½tsp

Method:

• Heat milk until very hot (microwave for about 2-3 minutes depending on the power of your mw).
  
• Pour into a large mixing bowl (make sure that the bowl is BIG enough to accommodate doubled batter the next day), and add butter, maple syrup, salt and vanilla. Stir until butter starts to melt and the mixture cooled down to lukewarm.
  
• Add eggs, yeast and flour and mix until well combined. Cover the batter with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 1 hour.
  
• At this point, batter can be used to make waffles or can be refrigerated overnight to make waffles next morning.
  
• Preheat the waffle maker and following manufacturer’s directions, make the waffles. On my waffle maker; I used 1 cup of batter and cooked for about 5 minutes to get a perfectly cooked waffle. Enjoy right away with syrup and/or fruit.
  

These were probably the best waffles I ever ate and even my almost 3 year loved them. Will be making them often now.

I have to thank CSN Stores for giving me the opportunity to do the product review. The Presto Belgian Waffle Maker has a unique 180º flip design that ensures that the batter spreads evenly for waffles that are crispy on the outside and soft, fluffy and tender on the inside. It has a countdown timer and digital display signals when baking time is up. It locks in a vertical position and stands on the side making it compact and easy to store.

Will keep you posted with other waffle recipes I make for our weekend breakfast or for dessert (???).

Grilled Tofu

I buy tofu on a regular basis, but end up using it in fried rice or some kind of Chinese style dish (or my version of some Chinese dish). But this time I wanted to make something different and searched around quite a bit (since all I have in my fridge is this tofu) before I found this recipe on Vegetarian Times. Recipe is for baked tofu, but I used my stove top grill pan instead. I was quite impressed with my grilling abilities, but it can be done better the next time.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times Magazine.
Ingredients:
Extra-firm Tofu – 1 14 oz. package

For the marinade:
Tomato Paste – 1 ½ tbsp
No-Chicken stock – ¾ cup
Low-sodium Tamari (Soy sauce) – 2 tbsp
Vegetarian Worcestershire sauce – 1 tbsp (I didn’t have this, so I used an extra 1 tbsp tamari)
Red Wine Vinegar – 2 tbsp
Scallions – 2, chopped
Garlic cloves – 2, minced

For the sauce:
Nutritional yeast – ¼ cup
Oregano, dried – 1 tsp
Corn starch – 2 tbsp
Cold Water – 2 tbsp

Method:

• To make the marinade: mix all the marinade ingredients in a baking dish and slowly slide in the tofu. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
  
• Preheat the grill pan on medium high heat for 3-4 minutes.
  
• Remove tofu from marinade and quarter it. Reserve the marinade.
  
• Spray the grill pan with non-stick cooking spray. Place the tofu slabs on the grill and let them sear for 3 minutes. Lightly press tofu with wooden spatula or tongs once in a while to get grill marks. Turn each tofu piece 90° and grill for another 2 minutes to get the cross hatch grill marks. Flip and repeat.
  
• Remove and keep warm in a warm oven till ready to serve.
• To make the sauce: Mix nutritional yeast and dried oregano to the reserved marinade. Bring the mixture to a simmer and add the corn starch solution. Simmer until the sauce thickens, season with pepper and salt.
  
• To serve: Slice each tofu slab into two triangles. Serve over brown rice with the gravy.

This is my entry to this month's Monthly Mingle: Grill It being hosted by talented Sig @ Live to Eat. Monthly Mingle is brain child of Meeta @ What's for lunch Honey..

Golden Bowl

This recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine. I usually keep at least two varieties of frozen mixed vegetables in my freezer. Very handy when there is no time to clean, peel and chop the veggies. Simply thaw and use them in pulao or mixed vegetable curry or upma or anything for that matter.

(Recipe adapted from Vegetarian times)
Ingredients:
Extra firm Tofu – 1 15 oz. package
Onion –1 cup, finely chopped
Frozen mixed vegetables - 2 cups (I used Italian style blend that has broccoli, beans, squash etc)
Mushrooms – 1 cup, sliced
Cabbage - 1/2 cup, shredded
Carrots - 1/2 cup grated
Low-Sodium Soy sauce – 2 tsp plus more to taste
Nutritional Yeast – 2 tbsp, or more to taste
Salt and Pepper – to taste
Brown Rice – 2 cups, cooked


Method:

• Heat 1tbsp vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add tofu and saute 10 and 15 minutes, until light brown all over. Sprinkle with soy sauce, and saute 2-3 minutes more to further brown tofu. Transfer tofu to paper-towel-lined plate.
• Drain and rinse skillet, and wipe dry.
• Heat 1tbsp oil over high heat. Add tofu and all vegetables. Saute 5-7 minutes, or until tofu is browned and vegetables are tender, tossing constantly with spatula. Sprinkle with soy sauce to taste. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast over tofu to coat. Saute a few seconds more. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Serve over brown rice.

This is my second entry to Protein Rich monthly event hosted by Sangeeth @ letusallcook.

South Indian style Pepper-Seitan Curry

As I mentioned in my previous posts here and here, I have started venturing into making and cooking mock meat. I tasted mock meat for the first time at Veggie Heaven. It’s an all vegetarian Chinese restaurant that serves great mock meat dishes along with all-vegetable stir fries, noodles and rice dishes. Their menu looks like a regular Chinese restaurant menu with Taro chicken a la king, beef with broccoli, baby shrimp with chili sauce and so on. But they are 100% vegetarian and also vegan friendly dishes.

I loved their curry chicken and General Tso’s chicken. So after a little research and information from my colleague, I decided to make my own seitan at home. I bought the ingredients seen here and made my first baked seitan. It was really good. I boiled seitan the second time I made it. I thought it was better than my first try. It makes a whole lot of fake meat. I refrigerated half of it in the broth and froze the other half. I used half of the refrigerated to make this pepper-seitan curry.

Ingredients:
Peppers – 2 medium, chopped into big bite size pieces
Seitan – ½ cup, chopped
Onions – 1 medium, chopped into big bite size pieces
Tomatoes – 2 medium, chopped
Curry powder – 2tsp (I used Priya Madras curry powder)
Chili powder – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2tbsp oil in a heavy bottom pan; when the oil starts to shimmer add onions and peppers. Cook on medium high flame, till the veggies start browning on the edges.
• Move the veggies to one side of the pan; add seitan to the other side and sauté till they are slightly browned all over.
  
• Once that is done, mix everything in the pan, lower the heat to medium; cover and cook till the onions and peppers are tender, about 6-8 minutes.
  
• Add the tomatoes, cover and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Add salt, chili powder, curry powder and ½ cup water. Cook for another 5 minutes till all the flavors come together.

Serve with rice or roti.



This is my entry to JFI & VoW-Bell Peppers event, being hosted by lovely Pooja.

New Pantry Additions

Lately I’ve started expanding my pantry staples with items that I have never used before. Here are some items that are new in my pantry/ fridge: Vital wheat gluten, Nutrition Yeast, Flax seed meal, Miso, Wheat Germ.

I made Seitan with Vital wheat gluten and nutrition yeast with Seitan O' Greatness recipe from here. This is a very versatile dish and you use any seasonings to make it your own. I added some cumin pd, coriander pd, pinch of turmeric. My husband thought it tasted a little bit like chicken, but it did not have the texture of chicken.
To use, just sauté in little bit of oil and you can use it in million different ways. Freeze the unsautéed seitan in plastic wrap or aluminum foil, it makes quick and easy BLD (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner) recipes, so always make the complete recipe even if you are making for two.
I made Seitan Curry with mixed vegetables and coconut milk with half of the log (no pics.. sorry) and used half of the rest in wraps (lavash wrap smeared with mayo and filled with seitan, rice, onions, tomatoes and spinach).
I’m still snacking on the rest of the sautéed seitan. So good.. yummmmm..