Zesty & Spicy

If you like food, we'll get along *^_^*

Spiced, gooey brownies with candied ginger

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Ohhhhh snap.  These are the good ones.

When I first made this recipe, a few week ends ago, my bestie and I added a little secret ingredient to make them “magical” and then we went on this crazy adventure all around Montreal.  Allow me to be dead honest, some parts of this adventure is a little blurry today but overall we had a blast and I’ll forever cherish this memory.  Today, I’m offering you the updated, upgraded and non magical version of this delicious creation which I hope you’ll love as much as I do.

The recipe doesn’t make that many brownies and can easily be a serving for one.  I used a much smaller pan (6″ x 8″) to make sure they are thick enough so all the gooeyness shines through.  It’s also my fifth time tweaking this recipe (my friends are drowning in brownies from all the previous batches as it would have been impossible for me to eat everything) to make sure they are banging and I really think they are!

If you’re a fan of decadence and gooeyness, you got to try this recipe. Enjoy!

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My ultimate vegan sandwich

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This is another amazing way to use the seitan we’ve created the other day.

Lately, it’s my go to sandwich at either breakfast (I ate one a few minutes ago), lunch or dinner when I don’t feel like breaking my head much and want something that will keep me full for hours.  It’s honestly massive and kind of hard to bite through it but, obviously, nothing worth having comes easy in life right? XD

Joke aside, when I get sandwiches this high in restaurants, it makes giggle because there’s no way to look proper while eating this and it becomes a great exercise of “no giving a shit” because nobody looks cute trying open their mouth way too wide to fit an enormous sandwich in it.  You clearly don’t have to make it that big but, like they say…. go big or go home!? XD

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Angel food cake

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It took me a little time to tweak this one even if it’s a very simple recipe.  Most of everything found out there (I thought) uses way too many egg whites and since I live alone, the last thing I wanted was to end up having to eat a huge cake on my own.  Not that I wouldn’t be able to eat it in full but, this where I have to draw the line at being a solitary foodie.

So this recipe only uses 6 egg whites and make a much smaller cake which is perfect if you live alone and/or you just don’t like to share your food (like Joey from Friends).  The most important aspect of this preparation is to make sure you start with stiff peaks when whisking your egg whites AND that you take your time to fold the flour/powdered sugar mix in to the egg whites.  After this, you’re pretty much set and you’ll soon have a deliciously fluffy sponge cake to devour.

Growing up, this cake has always been my all time favourite and if I had known how easy it was to make it, I would have stopped buying the pre-made ones at the grocery full of bad ingredients.  Everything is always better when it’s homemade so don’t get too intimidated by the procedure, it’s really not that complexed.

Angel food cake
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 1 cake
Ingredients
  • Bowl 1
  • - ½ cup of all purpose flour, sifted
  • - ½ cup of powdered sugar, sifted
  • Bowl 2
  • - 6 room temperature egg whites
  • - ½ cup of regular cane sugar
  • - ½ teaspoon of cream of tartar
  • - Pinch of fine sea salt
  • - ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • - ⅛ teaspoon of almond extract
Instructions
  1. - Pre-heat the oven at 350, DO NOT GREASE the tube pan.
  2. - Sift all the ingredients of the bowl #1, reserve.
  3. - Mix in the egg whites the cream of tartar, both extracts, salt and a bit of the sugar and start whisking with an electric mixer. Gradually add more cane sugar while mixing on the fastest level until the full ½ cup if incorporated and you end up with STIFF PEAKS.
  4. - Take the flour/powdered sugar mix from the bowl #1 and VERY SLOWLY FOLD IT in to the egg whites. Take your time on this step, if you go too fast, the cake won't rise as much as it should.
  5. - Transfer the batter in to the UNGREASED mold, smooth the top and put in the oven for 45minutes.
  6. - Cool down the cake upside down on a cooling rack and gently unmold once it's fully cooled down.

 

Under 20 minutes seitan pasta for one

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After throwing you in to the seitan world, it would be a good idea to give you a little inspiration on what you can make it it.  If you’ve made a batch of my homemade seitan recipe already, this super quick pasta dish might be right up your alley.  It literally took me under 20 minutes to get everything ready and it was also eaten in a record time.

Some things in life shouldn’t be complicated and this is the perfect example.  Hope you enjoy this dish.

20 minutes seitan pasta for one
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Quick & Easy
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Serves: 1-2 portions
Ingredients
  • ½ tablespoon of oil (I used avocado)
  • 1 green onion, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
  • 3 tablespoons of fresh cream
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • ⅛ cup of chopped sun dried tomatoes
  • ½ heaping cup of small cubes of homemade seitan
  • 1 tightly packed cup of cooked buckwheat penne (or any cooked pasta you like)
Instructions
  1. - Start with heating the oil in the pan and drop the seitan cubes. Grill for 3 minutes.
  2. - Add the onions and garlic, keep grilling for another 3 minutes
  3. - drop the rest of the ingredients, cook for an extra 3-4 minutes
  4. - serve and enjoy!
  5. makes 1 big portion or 2 small ones

 

Basic, baked seitan recipe

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If you’re an adept of vegetarian or vegan dishes, you’ve probably came across seitan at least once in your life.  It’s a very versatile animal free protein made with vital wheat gluten (basically straight gluten flour) and it can be flavoured countless of ways to make it taste like chicken, beef, unicorn (lol)…you name it.

This is my personal baked seitan recipe that I use in almost everything but, I don’t think I could classify the taste under “beef” or “chicken” because it really has it’s own flavour profile.  It’s beyond amazing in a vegan gyros, in stir fry and even as a bacon replacement.  You can freeze it easily and it will keep for a decent amount of time in the fridge.  If you’ve already made a batch of my homemade vegetable broth, you’re already half way there for this one.

The classic way to make seitan is to boil it in the broth but I’ve had better results doing it this way because the end result is nice and soft compare to many other recipes out there who give you a very hard like rock seitan.

So let’s start!

Basic seitan recipe
 
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*As you mix, time is important because the flour will start absorbing the liquid and you want to make sure that all the flavours are well mixed in and there's no more white clumps of flour. It's totally ok to use your hands, at the end, to really mix everything in.
Author:
Cuisine: Vegetarian / Vegan
Serves: 1 loaf
Ingredients
  • Spice mix:
  • - the seeds of 1 black cardamom pod
  • - ½ teaspoon of dried, minced onions
  • - 1 teaspoon of dried, minced garlic
  • - ½ teaspoon of dried marjoram
  • - 1 teaspoon of dried basil
  • - 1 teaspoon of regular paprika
  • - 1 teaspoon of smoked Spanish paprika
  • - ½ teaspoon of salt

  • 1½ cup of vita wheat gluten flour
  • 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
  • 2 cups of homemade vegetable broth
Instructions
  1. - Pre-heat your oven at 325F, line a GLASS loaf pan with parchment paper.
  2. - In a mortar, crush the spice mix until powdered.
  3. - In a mixing bowl, add the vital wheat gluten flour and mix in the crushed spiced BEFORE adding the last two wet ingredients.
  4. - Add the tomato paste and the broth, start mixing*
  5. - Transfer the mixture in the loaf pan and press it gently with your hands to form the loaf and remove as many air pockets as possible. This is not an exact science but you just need to shape it a bit. The mixture will keep a very soft like texture and will harden once cooked.
  6. - Bake for 1h covered and then an extra 30minutes uncovered.

 

The day I almost died

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It had been a fun ride, I said to myself as my life flashed in front of my eyes.

The room was spinning and my heart was racing.  As my entire body was covering itself with sweat and the tip of my fingers became numb, I started to wonder why I had put myself in this crazy situation.  A part of me loved the experience but would have never thought it would have ended like this…

Truth to be told, I thought I was going to die laying half naked in the back seat of my car while holding one of Spunky’s poop bag in hope to expel what ever demon I had inside of me.  Not my proudest moment I’ll say but, even through the insane pain that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy, I kept laughing (and crying) at my childish decision.

All this began when I first accepted an invitation to appear on a podcast which could remind you of the same concept as “Hot Ones” on youtube but with the added twist of playing a video game.  Quite a daunting task to concentrate on playing while answering interview questions as the Scoville rating keep going up and your mouth starts to salivate like Niagara falls.

Spicy food doesn’t scare me, I thought… handling a little heat is totally something I can achieve, I thought.

From as far as I can remember, eating spicy food has always been something enjoyable but in all honesty… I’ve never encounter a heat more intense than the Da Bomb – ground zerohot sauce.  Not only it rates at 234 000 Scoville, it’s not even tasty.  It’s apparently made with pineapple but you surely cannot taste their delicious sweetness over the complete overbearing heat of the fire in your mouth.  I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re an adrenaline junkie with a foodie side and a slight death wish.

The few minutes after eating it, I felt fine but, it’s as we went down the parking garage of our building that everything went south.  Even after chugging a HUGE glass of cow milk (which is something I usually find super gross – surprisingly enough, at that time, it was the most delicious glass of milk I had drank in a long time) and a ton of water, the burn kept intensifying and felt like I had ingested a pound of lava.  Kneed on the side of the car, unable to stand up and holding my stomach, I kept laughing while wondering how come Kevin Strahle isn’t dead yet for ingesting so many hot peppers for the Guinness world record.  Some people are made much stronger than others and his stomach must be made of stainless steel.  After that day, I see him as a super human.

It took a lot of power to stand up quick and move my carcasse in the back seat of our Mazda thinking laying down would relieve some pain but, when I got there, it only made things worst.  Instead of the sweet relief I expected, the lava coated my entire stomach lining and it gave me no other choice than to sit up and “hold” my weight on the head rest of the front seat.  Things were not looking good and even with the worst nauseous feeling, my stomach kept on wanting to keep the lava in… So I took the matter in to my own hands… or finger to be precise.

A few second after expelling this burning non sense, the future started to look a little brighter.  Luckily, Max had read that drinking something acidic also help relieve the burn of hot pepper and made me chugged a bottle of lemon juice mixed with a bit of water.

Days after, my stomach still isn’t 100% back to it’s normal self but my mind has a new funny memory and life lesson she wont forget for the next thousand years.  Beside this incident, I had a blast recording the podcast and will notice you the second it’s uploaded on youtube so you can get a good laugh.  You’ll probably find me less eloquent than usual but I did my real best considering.

Until then, I hope you enjoyed this very graphic article lol!

Bagel, veggies, eggs & goat cheese

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Saturday’s brunch is a real thing and this fuss free recipe is going to be perfect to serve at any time today.  Breakfast, lunch or dinner… isn’t it always the perfect time for beautifully grilled veggies, poached eggs and melted goat cheese?

Yup, I thought so too.

So don’t spend your entire day in the kitchen today (unless you’re an obsessed foodie like me) and eat delicious food that will keep you happy and healthy for your big relaxing day.

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Under 3 hours Spelt & Buckwheat Sourdough loaf

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More than two months now that I haven’t purchased any breads at the grocery and have been surviving on all the baking projects created with my sourdough starter.  I decided to make the switch because not only baking breads has these peaceful and humble vibes to it but, eating sourdough everything is good for your gut health.

Up to date, two “work horses” sandwich loafs have been making their mark and this super quick to make spelt & buckwheat bread is one of those.  You can whip this cutie in less than three hours from the time to mix your yeast to the end of the baking process.  The longest part (if you ask me) it’s the cooling down time before you can start eating.

Hope you give this creation a chance and I’m looking forward to read your comments!

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