Chopsticks in the Kitchen: Day 11, or "First Try at Baking"

On Friday, Claudiu and I had what my mom would call a "cooking festival." There was slicing, dicing, baking, sautéing, whisking, mincing, stirring, boiling, chopping, you name it. Also, there was eating.

Due to the fact that my kitchen appeared to have been visited by the spaghetti-with-red-sauce tornado-monster (my roommate had two friends staying at our place for the weekend and thus, no time to do dishes) and also due to the fact that I don't have an oven, I headed over to Claudiu's place for this 'festival' around one in the afternoon, carrying a bag of groceries that probably weighed at least 382.09 pounds. On the day's menu: Vegetable Curry Pasta and Vegan Blueberry Muffins, recipes I found at Madhuram's Eggless Cooking. The following is a detailed account of the afternoon's proceedings, complete with adapted recipes. . .

It was lunchtime, so naturally we started with the curry. We began by dicing a whole lot of fresh vegetables for the steamer:

While the vegetables were steaming, we started on the sauce. Claudiu saw my lame work with the crushed red pepper grinder and promptly took over, resulting in a fiery flavor I'm sure I would have been too timid to create had I been cooking alone.

Once the sauce had thickened and while the pasta was cooking, we combined the steamed vegetables with the curry:

It smelled so good! And now, the how-to you've all been waiting for, adapted from this recipe.

Vegetable Curry with Whole Wheat Pasta

Ingredients:

2 cups vegetables of your choice (I used fresh carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, and mushrooms), steamed 8-10 minutes if frozen, 6-8 minutes if fresh.

1 cup of whole wheat pasta (I used whole wheat penne)

1/4 cup fresh cilantro (cilantro has not yet made its way into Germany, apparently, so I was forced to omit this)

salt and pepper, to taste

Curry Sauce:

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp flour

2 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or chili powder

2 cups vegetable broth

1 tbsp cornstarch (we needed a little extra)

1/4 cup dry white wine or water (I used water, but I would suggest trying it with the wine)

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Sauteé garlic and onions in olive oil in a medium skillet, 2-3 minutes. Add flour, curry powder, and chili/cayenne, stirring 1 minute. Add broth and heat to boiling. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with water or wine until the starch is completely dissolved. Add to the sauce, bring to a boil, and stir until thickened, at least one minute. Season with salt and pepper.

Prepare pasta according to package directions. When the pasta is nearly finished, combine the vegetables with the sauce. Sprinkle with cilantro, if using. Plate, and enjoy!

After all that hard work (cooking and eating), we took a break to watch Youtube videos and listen to several versions of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" (live and studio). I did my best not to play air guitar or sing along to the shredding guitar solos - I mean, I don't want to impress this guy too much. Around four, we went to the grocery store to buy more bubble water and sugar. Claudiu pointed out something hilarious on the bottled water:

Yes. The water has a "vegan" label. Yikes.

I should probably admit at this point that I forgot to put the blueberries back in the freezer right away when I got to Claudiu's, so they may have gotten a little warm before refreezing. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. However, the blueberry juice had an interesting effect on the muffin batter:

Yes, that is purple batter. While Claudiu would love to blame this on my veganism, the only logical explanation I can come up with is that the unfrozen blueberry juice had a hay day in the mixing bowl. At this point, I considered changing the name of the muffins to "Kaci's Psychedelic Muffins," but I quickly reconsidered, not wanting to give people the wrong impression as to the 'special' ingredient in these muffins (Apple Cider Vinegar).

I have to admit, though, before going into the oven, they did look unlike any blueberry muffins I've ever made:

We were extremely skeptical during the 22 minutes they were baking, partially due to the color, and partially due to the fact that our measurements were slightly less than precise. First of all, the recipe I was using naturally had all measurements in cups and tablespoons (instead of grams and milliliters, standard for Europe). Second of all, Claudiu's kitchen, while extremely well-equipped (far more so than my own), lacked any measuring tools other than a scale of questionable accuracy. So we did a lot of eyeballing, which can be dangerous when baking. But when they came out of the oven, the muffins looked, well, normal:

For the recipe, check out this page. For the milk, I used soy. I also omitted the lemon extract, and found that with the zest, they were lemony enough. As if this wasn't enough approximation, I also didn't have any baking soda. So I did what any good cook does - I googled how to substitute baking powder: double however much baking soda is required and omit the salt. I think they turned out rather nicely. . .