Egg-free Tiramisu in 8 Steps

Start by gathering the ingredients (makes 8 servings):
- 250 g of ricotta (healthier and cheaper than the traditional mascarpone)
- 1 pack of speculoos cookies
- whipping cream (I used ALPRO soy-based)
- coffee
- sugar
- chocolate powder

Prepare the receptacles you will put your tiramisu in. Mine were 4 short glasses, but you can use ramekins, large oven dishes, verrines, etc.

Step 1: Brew a bowl or cup of coffee and let it cool.

Step 2: In a large bowl whip the cream until the volume increases, then whisk in ricotta until smooth. Add sugar, and a spoonful of coffee if desired.

Step 3: Quickly soak some speculoos cookies in the cooled coffee.

Step 4: Layer it at the bottom of your glass (or other receptacle). Repeat desired number of times (I made 3 layers of cookies each time).

Step 5: Spoon in some of the ricotta mixture. This will form the 2nd layer.

Step 6: Repeat steps 4 and 5 as many times as desired. End with a ricotta layer.

Step 7: Refrigerate overnight, or at least 4 hours until set.
Step 8: Sift on some chocolate powder. You can either cover the whole top with chocolate, or use a template to make a shape.

You can see the layers very well in this half-eaten one:

Potato salad

Potatoes were starting to grow things out of their buds... way time to eat them. I didn't what to make for dinner anyways.

Am I going to start blogging my college meal every day? I don't think so. Just these days, I'm getting some kind of food creativity/motivation, so I keep on doing things that are more than simply veggies and rice.

And I'm posting this more more for me to be able to find the dressing recipe again if needed.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients (amounts according to how much is required)

• potatoes
• carrot(s)
• cucumber (leftovers from yesterday's sushi night)
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1/2 lemon's juice
• 1 tbs mayonnaise/vegenaise
• salt and pepper, to taste

  Procedure

1. Dice potatoes, carrots (smaller than potatoes), slice cucumbers however you ant.
2. Steam or boil potatoes until tender. Steam or boil carrots until just cooked.
3. Refrigerate carrots and potatoes until cold.
4. Mix with cucumber slices.
5. In a bowl, mix mustard, lemon juice, mayonnaise, and season to taste. Multiply quantities as required.
6. Mix into the potato salad, careful to not mash the potatoes.

Norimaki (sushi)

When I have mozzarella and avocados, the first thing I think of is that I can make sushi with it. Like I've mentioned before, it has somehow become normal to put strips of mozzarella in my sushi...

I really liked the arrangement of the plate today, so I decided to make a blog post about it =D

Clockwise from the top left: cucumber, tofu, carrot, avocado, and mozzarella.

For a simple make-it-yourself dinner, we just set out the nori sheets cut in half, rice (black rice this time), cut up ingredients, and wasabi and soy sauce, and each of us rolls our own. I usually make a roll, cut in 4, and then eat it dipped in soy sauce and wasabi powder.

The two end pieces are not as pretty, but the middle pieces are nice! ^_^

Easiest Pasta

Here's another super simple recipe. It involves 2 ingredients (+ seasoning), plus whatever else you want/have around.

All you have to do is the following:

1. Cook any type of pasta to desired consistency.
2. Mix in some mayonnaise (vegenaise if you want it vegan).
3. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add some extra stuff (in this one, cashews and tomato).

For step 4, you can really put whatever you want! The first time I've had this type of pasta salad, it was just toasted pine nuts. The second time? Canned corn. I've done it with some carrots, other vegetables, etc. Realy easy for when you want pasta but are too lazy to make a sauce, or if you just don't have a lot of ingredients around. What's best about this recipe is how versatile it is!

Lazy Student Casserole

What do you do when you cook for yourself and you're lazy to stand by the pot and stir? You make a casserole. (Stove-top one, I don't have an oven yet).

It's really simple really. Just slice your veggies, layer them in a pot, cook on low heat. DONE! If anyone's interested, I got the recipe from a manga (Cooking Papa), once again. Even though it's never sure exactly how safe it is to test recipes from fictional characters, I like getting inspired by them.

With the potatoes inside, you don't even need any rice or anything. The veggies will leak out some juice, so it's not bad to mop up with bread if you're still hungry enough. Feel free to change the veggie type, just make sure the potatoes are not the bottom-most layer.

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What do you do when you're lazy (not counting instant noodles and such stereotypical student food)?

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RECIPE (full meal for one person)

  Ingredients

• 2 small potatoes (or 1 large one)
• 1/3 zucchini/courgette
• 3 white mushrooms (champignon de Paris)
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1 piece tofu
• 150 g mozzarella
• salt, pepper, chili flakes, Maggi soy sauce, Provencal herbs
• neutral oil

  Procedure

1. Slice everything
2. Heat a small pot, then remove from heat. Coat the bottom with some mild oil (I used olive oil)
3. Layer your veggies (this is the order I used, the bottom-most one being the one at the bottom of the list):
                   Mozzarella
                   Tofu + soy sauce + pepper + chili flakes
                   Bell pepper
                   Mushroom
                   Potato + bit of salt
                   Zucchini + herbs
4. Return to the stove, close the lid, and let cook on low heat for 15-20 minutes or until all the veggies are cooked through
5. Enjoy~

Triple Dessert

Another friends' gathering dinner. I think it'll be a regular thing from now on on Saturday nights.

One of my friends made a 5-spice stew to eat with rice, which was delicious. Another friend provided some steamed vegetables. I opted for dessert, since that's what I enjoy making most.

I made three small desserts for each of us. First, I did something very simple, which was to make pudding out of a pudding packet (mix with sugar, add to hot soymilk, pour into containers, refrigerate). Next, I took a few kiwis that were getting very ripe. I cooked them up with some brown sugar and lime juice, and topped them with a crumble mix (mix of flour, butter, and sugar, pan-fried to create a crumbled cookie mixture). Last of all, I made a mug cake, with cinnamon and more brown sugar as flavoring.

You can tell it was originally a mug cake, but due to the depth of the mug, it was very hard to take good pictures. So I decided to take the cake out of the mug.

Leftover curry?

Since I cooked that huge pot of curry for Monday night, I've been having leftover curry with rice, or with naan for the past few days (from Tuesday lunch until Wednesday lunch). I was kind of getting tired of eating curry the same way over and over again.

I made it into a curry noodle soup. Just watered down the curry, adjusted the seasoning. Cook up some noodles, and you have a nice winter dinner that warms you up to the core!

My curry being mainly potato based, another way would have been to make samosas with it. If I wasn't at a college dorm right now, I would have, but deep frying is too troublesome (especially with a too-sensitive smoke detector). Simply cut your potatoes smaller (or mash them), maybe throw in some diced tomatoes for freshness. Wrap spoonfuls of curry into spring roll skins, fold them, freeze them. Deep fry when you want to eat it (you could also add some fresh mint or cilantro).

Being in college, if I ever cook too much of anything, there's always a need to be more imaginative with leftovers (I easily get sick of eating the same stuff over and over again). I'll keep posting them here.

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What about you? Do you have other ideas for leftover curry?

Hallway Dinner

In my college dorm, we often organize hallway dinners where everyone living in the same hallway gathers together for a dinner. The way it is done varies from hallway to hallway, but in mine, we usually have one person cooking for the whole hallway. This Monday, it was my turn.

First, I cooked up a large pot of curry, accompanied by a choice of white or brown rice.

This curry consists of potatoes, carrots, lentils, a bit of tomato, eggplant, and cashews. The thickening agent in the sauce is simply the potato starch (and an extra potato I mashed up), since I couldn't use wheat flour, since one of my hallway mates is allergic to gluten. Some extra stuff added, besides the spices, curry powder, and cilantro are soy cream (heavy cream made out of soy) and lactose-free yogurt, for another of my hallway mates is lactose intolerant. Besides these, the recipe's pretty much the same as this one. With me as a vegetarian and others who are omnivores, we've got people of all kinds here!

I also made a bowl of raita (yogurt-cucumber salad) simply seasoned with salt and pepper. I made it with lactose-free yogurt as well. I didn't manage to take a picture of it, though.

For dessert, I made individual portions of blackcurrant topped lemon cheesecake in silicone cupcake cups. These were accompanied by small bars of spéculoos cookies, and all in all were just smaller versions of these ones.

Lemon-Blackcurrant Cheesecake and Spéculoos

Ever since I moved into my college dorm, I haven't been able to do much baking or anything due to a lack of an oven... And even though I do cook regularly to feed myself, it's never special enough to take pictures of and post (unless you want a bunch of pictures of steamed broccoli, soy sauce, and white rice).

Well, I did make some minestrone and some spaghetti, so it's not 100% bland boring stuff.

But today, some of my friends and I gathered together for a dinner together, and I decided I would provide dessert. I made a no-bake cheesecake and some small spéculoos in a friend's toaster oven.

The cheesecake is made of yogurt, cream cheese, sugar, half a lemon's juice, and a whole lemon's zest. It's topped with blackcurrant jam, and served with a cookie.

Recipe (makes 4 of the size in the picture)
Ingredients:
- 1 tub (185 g) Philadelphia cream cheese
- 8 tbs plain whole yogurt (don't take the "light" versions, it won't set well)
- sugar, to taste
- zest of a lemon
- juice of half a lemon

1. Whisk cream cheese and yogurt together in a bowl.
2. Add lemon juice and zest. Add sugar to taste.
3. Pour into glasses or other recipients. Top with blackcurrant jam (you can dilute it a little with warm water if it's too thick).
4. Refrigerate at least 4 to 5 hours, though the longer the better.
Note: may not set very well, but still tasty nevertheless.

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RECIPE (makes 4 servings)

  Ingredients

• 1 tub (185 g) Philadelphia cream cheese
• 8 tbs plain whole yogurt
• sugar, to taste
• zest of a lemon
• juice of half a lemon

  Procedure

1. Whisk cream cheese and yogurt together in a bowl.
2. Add lemon juice and zest. Add sugar to taste.
3. Pour into glasses or other recipients. Top with blackcurrant jam (you can dilute it a little with warm water if it's too thick).
4. Refrigerate at least 4 to 5 hours, preferably overnight.

  Notes

• The cheesecake may not set that well, but still taste great.

Christmas baking!

This year, I also went for baked goods for Christmas presents. I made a rough list of the number of people I was baking for (47!), then got to work! I procrastinated a bit, and started baking on December 23rd.

First up, I made 2 batches of Spéculoos cookies. Some are flower-shaped, but most are star-shaped, because I felt they fit the purpose better.

I followed up with a Cheesecake Crumble to bring to the family party:

I also had some leftover lemon-flavored mini cheesecakes, so I topped them with some forest fruit jam, and sent them along for the other side of the family's party.

The next day (24th), I rushed to try to make chocolate bark. I wanted to make peppermint bark, but the general stores around here don't carry peppermint candy canes, and the one store that I found that had some had sold out... So I had this vague plan of trying to melt down some other peppermint candy and using that instead, but that plan went literally down the drain as it failed beyond saving.

I settled for crushed pistachios (they're colorful... and go well with chocolate). Being my first time making this kind of stuff, I made the chocolate layers way too thick. Oh wells.

Quick snapshots of the cookies and chocolate in a pretty arrangement.

I cut each of the pieces in the picture into 2-3 pieces to make them more enjoyable to eat, and settled to package them with the spéculoos cookies.

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SPECULOOS RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 250 g (2 cups) flour
• 100 g (7 tbs) butter or margarine (margarine makes it vegan but softer)
• 150 g (12-13 tbs) brown sugar
• 2 g (1/2 tsp) baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 4-5 tbs cold water

  Procedure

1. Take butter out ahead of time to let it soften.
2. Preheat oven at 180°C (350°F).
3. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl
4. Cut in softened butter and rub into the flour into a sandy mix.
5. Add water progressively until it comes together into a smooth dough.
6. Roll out and cut into desired shapes.
7. Bake for 15 mins.