Miso Soup, Vegetable Terriyaki Bowls, Coconut Pancakes

I made Sunday family dinner this week and went with an Asian theme. We started with miso soup as an appetizer and then moved on to vegetable terriyaki bowls. For dessert, we finished with coconut pancakes and bananas in coconut milk. Robyn was right, the bananas in coconut milk totally taste like bananas foster! I was trying to bring Robyn to family dinner by having Asian, some Thai-influenced food!

Miso soup. Not as good as I've had it in restaurants, but somewhat similar. I'd give it a 6/10. This recipe came from my 500 Vegan Recipes. I used a mixture of brown rice miso and soybean miso. 

I made a LOT of miso soup! I even froze some!!

This is Justin's bowl of soup with a little white plate next to it (top right). Him and Gina picked out the somewhat slimy-silken tofu. I felt they might not like it but I was really shooting for as traditional as I could!

Brown rice with steamed green beans, snap peas, corn, carrots, green bell pepper and sauteed purple cabbage. Topped with homemade terriyaki sauce, green onions and avocado. Delicioso!!

Reviews on terriyaki sauce:

Gina: "I want to drink this for breakfast."

Justin: "I am going to shower in this tomorrow morning."

Coconut pancake with bananas in coconut milk and a little bit of mint on top! SO GOOD!!

Bananas in coconut milk! Recipe came from our Thai cookbook that we got from our neighbor who was giving a lot of books away!

http://my-vegetarian-recipes.blogspot.com/2009/04/thai-coconut-pancake.html


Ingredients

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Coconut milk: 200 ml(I used store bought coconut milk)
Rice flour: 100 gms
Sugar: 6 tbsp(I used granulated sugar so that it can easily dissolve in coconut milk)
Salt: 1/8th tsp
Flax seed meal: 1 tbsp
Water: 3 tbsp
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Refined Oil for frying
Food color: optional(I used orange, yello and green and plain with vanilla flavour)
Procedure

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1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Whisk flaxseed meal in water in another bowl.
3. Add coconut milk to the whisked flax seed meal and mix well.
4. Add dry ingredients to this mixture and mix well to combine.
5. Add food color if desired.
6. Heat pan/tava, add 1/2 tsp oil and spread it. Once the tava is hot, add a laddle of pancake batter.(Need not spread it)
7. Add some more oil over the edges of the pan cake.(1/2 tsp)
8. Once it is fried, turn the pancake so that the top portion is fried well.
9. Once the pan cake is fried well, remove from tava.
10. If desired, garnish with shredded, fried coconut.(I did not do this)
Homemade Applesauce
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sarahs-applesauce/
INGREDIENTS:

4 apples - peeled, cored and chopped 3/4 cup water

1/4 cup white sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1.

In a saucepan, combine apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, or until apples are soft. Allow to cool, then mash with a fork or potato masher. I got a whole bunch of avocados from a friend from Berkeley who stayed at our place for a night. Justin was begging for some homemade guacamole, so I made a nice big bowl of guac today. I didn't have fresh cilantro, biggest downside. However, no one seemed to mind as we all dug into it pre-dinner! Homemade Guacamole http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_guacamole/ INGREDIENTS 2 ripe avocados 1/2 red onion, minced (about 1/2 cup) 1-2 serrano chiles, stems and seeds removed, minced 2 tablespoons cilantro (leaves and tender stems), finely chopped 1 tablespoon of fresh lime or lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt A dash of freshly grated black pepper 1/2 ripe tomato, seeds and pulp removed, chopped Garnish with red radishes or jicama. Serve with tortilla chips. METHOD 1 Cut avocados in half. Remove seed. Scoop out avacado from the peel, put in a mixing bowl. (See How to Cut and Peel an Avocado.) 2 Using a fork, roughly mash the avocado. (Don't overdo it! The guacamole should be a little chunky.) Add the chopped onion, cilantro, lime or lemon, salt and pepper and mash some more. Chili peppers vary individually in their hotness. So, start with a half of one chili pepper and add to the guacamole to your desired degree of hotness. Be careful handling the peppers; wash your hands thoroughly after handling and do not touch your eyes or the area near your eyes with your hands for several hours. Chilling tomatoes hurts their flavor, so don't chop the tomatoes or add to the guacamole until ready to serve. Remember that much of this is done to taste because of the variability in the fresh ingredients. Start with this recipe and adjust to your taste. 3 Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole to prevent oxidation from the air reaching it. Refrigerate until ready. 4 Just before serving, chop the tomato, add to the guacamole and mix. **I forgot to take a picture of this salsa. It came about because Jill passed on some tomatillos to me, along with a few avocados from her mom in California, and a few tomatoes from her garden. I decided to make some tomatillo salsa. The biggest pitfall was the oregano, I think I added too much and it was dry. It overpowers the salsa. Other than that, there is definitely the traditional salsa flavor going on :) **** Homemade Tomatillo Salsa Verde http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tomatillo-salsa-verde/  INGREDIENTS: 1 pound tomatillos, husked 1/2 cup finely chopped onion 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 serrano chile peppers, minced 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste 2 cups water DIRECTIONS: 1. Place tomatillos, onion, garlic, and chile pepper into a saucepan. Season with cilantro, oregano, cumin, and salt; pour in water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until the tomatillos are soft, 10 to 15 minutes. 2. Using a blender, carefully puree the tomatillos and water in batches until smooth.

I get a whole bunch of apples throughout the week from my gym. We are now collecting fruit flies. So I made a whole bunch of applesauce! I browsed at this recipe below but I really did a free-style: apples, cinnamon, 2 Tbs of brown sugar or so, flax meal, poppy seeds, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup walnuts. I put it all in food processor so it turned out creamier and not as translucent as your typical applesauce. A bit heartier and very wonderful if you ask me :)