Recipe Round-Up: Cafe Flora Cookbook

Diving back in to my Cafe Flora Cookbook round-up, with the second of three posts. You can catch up on my other posts about this book here.

Wild Mushroom Curry: This includes a recipe for making your own red curry paste, but I am tired and also don't like spicy foods, so I just used a smaller amount that written of a storebought one that I have kicking around in my fridge. I also used a mix of light coconut milk and water so it wasn't too rich for me. The recipe calls for a mix of mushrooms, carrots, and capsicum. I left out the capsicum, and I could only get cremini mushrooms. I added some Soyco Japanese marinated tofu. Served over rice and garnished with some tinned beansprouts, dehydrated coriander, and crushed peanuts. In these times, you take what shelf-stable ingredients you can get!
Rating: :)



Indian Chickpea Stew: This is a rich, tomato and chickpea stew that has plenty of spiceys (of course I left out the jalapeno), potatoes, and greens. I used tinned chickpeas rather than cooking from scratch, because I am tired. Served over some basmati rice and with a big dollop of mango ginger chutney.
Rating: :)



Seitan and Vegetables Mu Shu Style: I did not use seitan here, I used some Soyco Japanese marinated tofu because it is easy and I love tofu. I left out the capsicum from the rest of the vegetables, which included carrots, shiitakes, cabbage, and bean sprouts. I also sauteed my scallions with the rest of the veggies because raw scallions don't suit my tummy. The stir-fry itself needed a bit more flavour to it. But once it was in a wrap (this calls for the easy version - flour tortillas) and smothered in hoisin sauce, it all worked out.
Rating: :)



Seitan Jambalaya: I did use seitan here, as I had picked up some Suzie Spoon seitan fillets. I made a half recipe of this, and I left out the capsicum, chile and the hot sauce. Instead I added carrots and used extra celery. Served this over some brown rice and baby spinach.
Rating: :)



Spicy Seitan Fajitas: Of course I made this non-spicy, by leaving out the hot sauce in the vegetables and seitan marinade. I also left out the capsicum in the vetables, using zucchini instead, and I used some more Suzie Spoon seitan fillets. This recipe has a few components, there is the marinade for the seitan, then the vegetable stir-fry, and then to serve it recommends a bunch of optional other recipes you can make from the book including chipotle pinto puree, pico de gallo salsa, and guacamole. In a fit of enthusiasm, I made all of these! For the bean puree I used tinned beans, left out the chipotle and hot sauce, and added smoked paprika. The pico de gallo salsa was a lovely fresh mix of tomatoes, coriander, and lime. I left out the chile and garlic, and added celery for crunch. And finally, the guac was a mix of avocado, tomatoe, lime and coriander. I found this a bit too heavy on the lime as written.
Rating: Fajitas: :), Bean Puree :), Salsa :), Guac :| (too much lime!)



Turmeric Basmati Rice and Spiced Coconut Sauce: Being a cookbook from a restaurant, some of the recipes have a lot of components (see above), and sometimes just one or two of those sound promising, but the others sound like effort or not something I'm interested in. So, just make the bits I want to! This duo was meant to be served with some Black Eyed Pea Fritters. But instead I served them together and sauteed up some vegetables and chickpeas to mix with the sauce. Spiced coconut sauce may surprise you as a choice I made, but I used a mix of light coconut milk, soy cream, and water instead of regular coconut milk. I left out the chiles and added paprika. It had a lovely mix of spices in it, and was great as a sauce for vegetables. The turmeric basmati rice was super easy, especially as I through it in a rice cooker, and had a great savoury taste and pretty colour.
Rating: Rice :), Sauce :)



Moussaka with Mushrooms, Lentils, and Walnuts: Sometimes, I have the time and energy to dive on into a recipe with several parts. This had a mushroom-lentil-walnut mix, roasted eggplant, cinnamon tomato sauce, and bechamel. The bechamel in the book is a ricotta bechamel, so I just subbed it out for the bechamel from another vegan cookbook. You could do this and just crumble some tofu through it if you wanted as well. It also calls for cheese to add to the layerings, I used some Sheese Mozzarella. This recipe was... nice. I have no issues with the flavour, but for the amount of effort you would want it to blow your mind. And it didn't quite do that. Still, it was a day of distract myself in the kitchen!
Rating: :)





Black Bean Stew: Another example of picking out a component of a recipe. This was a component of Oaxaca Tangos with Black Bean Stgew and Tangy Swiss Chard. The potato/cheesy tacos did sound amazing, and perhaps something I will make one day, but I was after something quick and easy. It's a very simple stew when you use tinned beans, and has corn and coriander in it. Of course I left out the spicy stuff and added some paprika. I served it as a bowl with some white rice, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. It was a but on the blander side, at least when you leave out the spicy! But it was still just what I wanted.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



What I wouldn't give to be able to curl up next to my cinnamon scroll angel again.