Recipe Round-Up: Cookin' Crunk

Today we are delving back into Cookin' Crunk by Bianca Phillips. I've followed Bianca's blog for a long time, and I had the absolute delight of spending time with Bianca at VidaVeganCon in Austin two years ago. Her cookbook is a lot of fun, full of very satisfying and delicious food. You can see what else I've made from this book here.

Baked Tofu Fish Fry with Hush Puppy Corn Muffins: Tofu is marinated in a slightly fishy marinade (it has dulse flakes) and then is breaded (also with dulse) and baked, making yummy and crunchy savoury triangles. I didn't taste much fishy in the finish product, but it was still great. I appreciated that the breading mix made almost the right amount - there was not much waste (unlike a lot of other recipes calling for breading). The tartare sauce is a simple max of mayo, horeseradish and pickle relish, and was lovely. Bianca suggests serving with the corn muffins. These are fun, using tinned creamed corn in the batter. I made a half batch. I found that the batter seemed a bit dry when I was putting it in the muffin pans, but the finished product wasn't dry at all. I also skipped the minced onion and used some onion powder, which may have made the batter a little dryer as well. Served with some broccoli.
Rating: Tofu :), Muffins :)



Sausage Gravy with Sage: I unearthed a tube of Gimme Lean Sausage from my freezer that I have brought back from the US to make recipes from this very cookbook. In order to stretch the tube across all the recipes, I made a half batch of this. This gave me two serves, with some biscuits and a side of cheese kale. This gravy is so savoury and rich!
Rating: :)



Breakfast Lasagne: This was another Gimme Lean recipe, and again I halved it. I got three servings from it this way. I still used a whole medium potato though, because I like a thick potato layer. This has layers of potato, tofu scramble, sausage and cheesy sauce. I just made each layer in order, put it in the casserole, and then started on the next one.
Rating: :)



Sweet Potato-Sausage Balls with Cheesy Dipping Sauce: These are so much fun! This used the last of my Gimme Lean, and again I hlaved the recipe. The dough was quite sticky and quite soft, I found it easier to roll with slightly damp hands rather than floured hands. The balls sort of flattened and spread a little while baking, so they are more bites or patties, kind of like a mini-scone. Instead of the Spicy Cheesy Sauce, I made it a smoky cheesy sauce by mixing in some smoked paprika rather than chilli powder. All served with some rice and broccoli.
Rating: :)



Cauliflower Creole: This is a nice, comforting, vegetable stew. My cauliflower was huge, and I used it all, so perhaps it should have been a but more saucy, but I liked it this was. I left out the capsicum and the hot sauce.
Rating: :)



Hopping John with Sausage and Brown Rice: This recipe uses Gimme Lean as well, but I didn't have any left, so I just three Fry's sausages that I cooked and chopped and it was really nice. The recipe starts with dried black-eyed peas, but I had cooked, so I changed it up a little. I used 1 1/2 cups cooked beans, 3/4 cup of water, 1 bay leaf, and thickened for about 15 minutes, then continued with the recipe. I also threw in some grated carrot that needed using. Served over brown rice and some baby spinach, I got three big serves.
Rating: :)



Holy Mole Chocolate-Chile Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream: I made these for a bake sale (that I wasn't organising), and they are quite lovely. The recipe calls for grinding ancho chiles, I used a TBS of chipotle powder in the liquid mix and added a sprinkle of hot chili powder when mixing, and it gave a lovely gentle heat. The frosting was not too sweet, and made the perfect amount to frost all the cupcakes with a decent swirl from the piping bag. I used a blend of wholemeal spelt and white all purpose flour. I actually got 13 cupcakes out of this, so a perfect dozen for the bake sale and one for the cook!
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



The good news is that little Aurora is doing wonderfully in her new home. But we are very excited that she will be coming to board with us for a few days next week. I miss her sweet face! Here is a photo from when she still lived here. One day we put her in my hoodie and she loved it!