Dinners for Dad (Birthday 2016 and 2014)

I shared what I had made for my mum last year in a previous post, but what about my dad? I already shared the meal I made for Father's Day last year, it was the Indian Menu from 1000 Vegan Recipes and you can see my write up here. But he also had a birthday! My Dad loves Indian, so almost all his meals seem to have some sort of Indian component to them. Sometimes, I will make a specific menu from a book (like this), and other times I will mix and match from different books.

Last year, I picked a couple of different recipes.

Indian-Spiced Tomato Soup with Curry Cashew Savoury Granola from Oatrageous Oatmeals by Kathy Hester: The soup recipe says it serves four, but made three small starter size serves. It is made creamy by the addition of oats, and has a lovely spiced flavour. But be careful as it did start to burn on the bottom of the pan as I was simmering, so make sure to stir those oats occasionally! The addition of the granola was great. I only made a half batch, which gave me just over a cup. I used sultanas as I did not have any golden raisins. As well as being nice as a soup topping, it is also very snackable.
Rating: Soup :), Granola :)



Kofta Curry from Vegan Without Borders by Robin Robertson: Koftas are pretty fun, though these were very fragile. You need to be especially careful with the peas, as they did tend to make it falla part a little. But treat them with care, and you will be rewarded. The tomato and coconut spiced gravy is very nice. Served with rice and spinach.
Rating: :)



Coconut Sambal: This is quite tart, but makes a nice topping. I used dried coconut flakes (rather than grated fresh coconut) and some light coconut milk.
Rating: :)



German Chocolate Cake from Chloe's Vegan Desserts by Chloe Coscarelli: A very non-Indian cake. This cake is the reason why I scale everything down to just one layer these days. This two layer cake, stuffed with coconut pecan frosting, was HUGE. Far too big for three people to work their way through. It was a bit too sweet for me all up, but my parents loved it. I did need to bake things for about 25 extra minutes. I also added a bit of chocolate extract to the batter, and used a mix of coconut and oat milk for the liquid. Definitely could just have done with a single layer!
Rating: :| for me (due to sweetness), but :) from my parents



So that was last year, which I then realised was very similar to his birthday dinner from two years earlier. I realised that I had already shared the cream of mushroom soup I made in this post, but hadn't put up the rest yet.

Chandra Malai Kofta from Isa Does It by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: Having some deja vu? This recipe is similar, though the sauce has cashews as well as coconut milk and tomatoes in it, and was a lot saucier as well. The koftas themselves were very cute. There was a lot of sauce, which was perfect to serve over basmati rice and some broccoli as well.
Rating: :)



Just Chocolate Cake with Gooey Ganache from Isa Does It by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: This is a basic chocolate cake recipe, nothing fancy, using standard cake ingredients. It was a lovely chocolate cake, though was quite soft. I only made a half recipe of the ganache, which I found to be just enough for one cake. Classic chocolate cake goodness.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



This little cutie is one of our adoption kittens. His name is Hobbes!