Vegan pudding?

[battleofthebulge]

[Patrick S]

[...]I always use organic sugar so the bone stuff (eeuuu) shouldn't be a problem.[...]

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Naive question, perhaps, but why would the use of bone necessarily make anything non-organic?

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It wouldn't, at least according to USDA standards of what constitutes a 'certified' organic product.

[Patrick S]

Okay *Deborah* you definitely beat me to the punch with your question.  With all due respect to the vegan wine, isn't that like worrying about how many thousands--and there are thousands--of microscopic critters you wash down the drain every day when you take a shower and wash your hair?

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Hmm. I never considered that! Actually there are mites (8-legged animals related to ticks) on our bodies in several places. I guess the mites make us all animal mass-murderers! Probably you can't even walk around in your garden without crushing soil organisms, like nematodes. BTW, I'm knocking anyone here, I just never considered the lowly mites before.

EDIT to add juicy detail. Mites of the species demodex folliculorum inhabit our eyelash roots, and there may be as many as 25 per root, chomping away on your skin.

Edited July 28, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[jaynesb]

Here are 2 vegan recipes I have made with success (in other words, even folks who aren't vegan like them)

Amazon cake (a chocolate cake):

Amazon choc cake

I've got a friend who now makes this once a week!

Chocolate chip cookies from a comment I found in a blog. Here's the link. Scroll down to a comment by Lauren on May 20 2004 11:16

These cookies have lots of stuff going on in them -- nuts, chocolate, oatmeal, coconut.

vegan choc chip cookie

jayne

[battleofthebulge]

Thanks so much Jayne, but the meal's tonight (which is now, UK time).

So, I've just placed in a medium / low oven a large bowl with arborio rice, coconut milk (enough to cover and then some), a cinnamon stick, some cardamom cloves and about a cup of unrefined sugar (avoids the bones issue ..). I reckon it'll take about 30 mins to cook, so in 15 I'll add some lemon zest. It should sit whilst we're eating the mushrooms. Then sprinkle on some cinnamon to serve.

Gotta dash - everyone will be arriving in a minute, so must check the Pinot Grigio is cold!

Book for the evening: 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian'

Thanks to everybody for a really interesting thread. Brilliant!

Sarah

[M. Lucia]

To the above question, yes use vegan chocolate and make sure whatever you use for the crust is vegan as well.

There is a little shop near me in nyc that does all sorts of vegan desserts (Jubb's Longevity) including pudding. The stuff is pretty good, but I think it is just a whole bunch of different variations on tofu. They are also kooky and it's really expensve.

Also, I don't know if you've seen the new dessert tofu in grocery stores? They have it with the other tofu products and it comes in fruit flavors like mango. I would just buy that if one of my guests were vegan.

coconut milk is good also, maybe a coconut creme pie, coconut ice cream, parfait, etc.

[Darcie B]

I realize this is too late, but I have a vegan chocolate pudding recipe close to the one posted earlier but different enough to include, should anyone find the need for a vegan dessert.

Chocolate Cardamom Pudding

1 cup coconut milk

3 green cardamom pods

1 box silken tofu (1 lb.)

8 oz. dark chocolate

Bring coconut milk to a simmer; add cardamom pods and remove from heat. Let steep 20 minutes, then remove pods. Meanwhile, melt chocolate via whatever method you prefer. Spin tofu in food processor until smooth, add melted chocolate and coconut milk. Chill until set.

This is really good even for non-vegans.

[ivan]

If you embark down the vegan road, you denounce the bulk of human culinary practices. Why, then, look upon the evil ways of the unenlightened with nostalgia? Food analogs are an abomination, not just in a culinary sense, but also because they belie a vegan's commitment.

Some foods are vegan just the way they are. A chocolate cake is not. For it to be vegan, the chocolate cake must be mutated into a grotesque simulacrum. It is an insult to the platonic ideal of a chocolate cake, to the cook producing this abomination, and to the person eating it.

Why do vegans need to own their own perverted versions of desserts enjoyed by the unenlightened, when they can simply eat a peach?

Edited July 28, 2005 by ivan (log)

[battleofthebulge]

OK, it didn't take 30 mins to cook- it took 90 mins and I had to add some more coconut milk. But mmmmmm was VERY good! Very filling. I served it with pistachio kulfi icecream (bought not made!) for the non-vegans.

The cardamom goes really well with the coconut milk and I think if I'd added nuts (almonds?) as suggested, that would have been even better.

Thanks again everyone.

Happy cooking and sharing

Sarah

[LindyCat]

Ivan. Because we all grow up with chocolate cake. Because everyone still loves buttered toast. Because food is so much more than nutrition, or even flavor; it is also culturally significant. When someone decides to turn their back on animal exploitation or when someone decides that their new religion prohibits animal products or when someone discovers they have an allergy to some animal ingredients, they don't suddenly stop wanting chocolate cake. Vegans and other abstainers mostly don't want to remove themselves entirely from society; they just want to remove the animal from their diet. At it's best, a choice to limit ingredients can produce a more varied cuisine, the same way that rules and limits and any other structure often help an artist create something better than if they start from the void. But there isn't any reason to give up chocolate cake.

For most people's palates, margarine and other substitutions in desserts with a strong flavor like chocolate aren't even noticeable. Egullet is probably a bit beyond there, but I nevertheless haven't met anyone who has turned down my vegan chocolate cake with a mocha glaze.

American pudding can be made vegan using soymilk. Preparing it over the stove via a warm milk and cornstarch method produces something basically identical except the soy flavor. After years of abstaining from dairy, I do have to point out that milk and dairy are not neutral flavors, either, but simply seem that way in our dairy-heavy culture. I can taste milk in things immediately, and I think it tastes strange and overwhelming. It's just a matter of what you are accustomed to.

I love coconut milk pudding, too, and I'm glad your coconut rice pudding turned out well, Sarah! You can also make it with Thai black rice for a traditional Thai dessert. The rice itself has a quite distinctive and unusual flavor, and it colors the pudding a sort of purple color. My dinner guests love it.

[rooftop1000]

To the above question, yes use vegan chocolate and make sure whatever you use for the crust is vegan as well.

There is a little shop near me in nyc that does all sorts of vegan desserts (Jubb's Longevity) including pudding. The stuff is pretty good, but I think it is just a whole bunch of different variations on tofu. They are also kooky and it's really expensve.

Also, I don't know if you've seen the new dessert tofu in grocery stores? They have it with the other tofu products and it comes in fruit flavors like mango. I would just buy that if one of my guests were vegan.

coconut milk is good also, maybe a coconut creme pie, coconut ice cream, parfait, etc.

←

I tasted the Tofu pudding at the food show at the Javits center...somewhere between slippery and gelatinous It was quite tasty though.

tracey

[markovitch]

vegan gelatin= <a href="http://www.bulkfoods.com/agar_agar.htm">agar agar.</a> powerful stuff, it is.

Amy Pearce, a friend of a friend, was the pastry chef at Millenium in San Francisco. her rockin' desserts are <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580082076/qid=1122934320/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-6728409-9642235"> here</a>

An aside, I am surprised that wine and beer do not have to comply with EU's strict labelling laws.

Edited August 1, 2005 by markovitch (log)