lilikoi lemon bars

it's was an overcast sunday and i came back from my drizzly morning walk around the farm with 6 lilikoi (passion fruit) in hand.  while juicing them, i got the idea to put that tart, tangy liquid into lemon bars.  so i found a basic recipe and added in the lilikoi juice.  here's the recipe:  

Lilikoi Lemon Bars

Ingredients

For the crust:

1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

For the filling:
6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 cup freshly squeezed lilikoi/lemon juice (i used about 3/4 c lilikoi & 1/4 lemon juice)
1 cup flour
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed. Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and gather into a ball. Flatten the dough with floured hands and press it into a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking sheet, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides. Chill.

Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.

For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.

Cut into triangles and dust with confectioners' sugar (which i didn't have, but oh well).

yummers. 

raw vegan alfredo (with noni)

there's a noni tree right outside which is dropping its fruit all over the driveway.  if you know noni fruit, you know that it's aroma is, well, less than pleasant.  it's just downright funky.  then again, noni is supposed to be so good for you (high in fiber, protein and macronutrients: vitamins A, B3, C, iron, potassium and calcium, etc) ... don't you just hate it when it works out that way? 

anyhow, i was trying to think of a great way to ingest all the noni goodness while masking the nastiness, and jason, my friend and housemate, mentioned that he'd had it in an alfredo sauce at a raw food cafe.  wow!  what a great idea!  noni does have that cheese-like funk after all..  perfect for alfredo!

so i found this recipe on Vegan Yum Yum and used noni pulp in place of the nutritional yeast:

Hurry Up Alfredo
Makes 2-3 Servings
1 Cup Soymilk
1/3 Cup Raw, Unsalted Cashews
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast* (i used noni pulp instead)
3 Tbs Low-Sodium Tamari or Soy Sauce
2 Tbs Earth Balance Margarine
1 Tbs Tahini
1 Tbs Fresh Lemon Juice
2 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp Paprika (smoked is awesome)
1 Pinch Nutmeg
2-4 Cloves of Garlic, optional
Black pepper, to taste

Just throw it all in the blender or food processor and blend until smooth (the longer you blend the smoother it will be).

I served it over penne pasta and dressed it up w/ some spicy vegan sausage, fresh basil and cracked black pepper.  It was quite delicious, if i do say so myself.  om nom nom!

when life gives you lemons....

sure, make you some lemonade. or, make grape juice, and then sit back and watch the world try to figure out how you did it. OR, just throw them at mean people.

but what do you do when life gives you radishes? a pile of baby daikon ones, to be precise.



first of all, the mountain of radish greens that were attached to the comparatively small pile of tubers could not just go into the compost bin. no ways! they just happen to be premium roughage, high in vitamin C and also a good source of folic acid, potassium and molybdenum (a healthy trace mineral). koreans usually use them for kimchi, but it was decided that the easiest way to deal with them was to blanch and freeze them all for future use (in soups, as a side, etc.).

whew! that done w/. on w/ the radish part. my favorite thing to do w/ daikon is to make a bunch of daikon cakes (delicious!), enough to freeze a batch. however, the radishes that we just harvested from the garden were quite small... some only the size of my pinky finger. so, i went w/ do chua, which literally translates to "pickled stuff" in vietnamese.

making do chua is quite simple: just julienne the daikon and some carrot. add salt, leave sit, rinse w/ cold water, cram it into a jar and then fill it to the top w/ a brine of sugary vinegar.


my reason for loving do chua is because i'm madly in love w/ banh mi, of which do chua is a key ingredient. it's like the best sandwich on earth, trust me. and i do it up veggie-yum-style w/ a marinated & fried tofu.




take a toasted torpedo roll (or baguette), smear some mayo on the insides, put sliced cucumbers, some bitter greens and the tofu on one side and then a hefty layer of do chua and fresh cilantro on the other. drizzle on some sweet chili sauce and sriracha, then go to heaven. :)