Jäsen: bluesalamanders

So jealous that you won The Poison Eaters! I hope it's awesome. :)

Lähettänyt: wosret 10:55 pm (EST) Dec 4, 2009

If you've had to give up dairy (oh my do I miss regular cheese...) then you need to know the vegan shortlist of replacements:

If you're in the US -- blue diamond unsweetened original almond milk is your friend. It tastes 'neutral' and not sweet. You can use it in ANYTHING and it will be milk-like. Cereal, mashed potatoes, you name it, it works. It's white and creamy, like a real milk.

MimicCreme is also really great for the super-creamy recipes that you want that are savoury.

Cocoa Butter left out in a 'warm' area (like a warm kitchen in spring or summer) will be soft and easy to use as a spread. It doesn't have much of the 'butter' taste unless you add a bit of salt. Now, the secret to a pretty good 'whipped butter' from cocoa butter is to have it be just 'soft' add a bit of salt and use a whipping attachment to whip it. Some humidities and temperatures and even some cocoa butters will need help to make them into proper 'butters' ... so you can use things like coconut oil (this should be stocked in any house that doesn't use dairy), coconut milk or coconut cream.

Coconut oil, if 'cool' will be solid and you can just use a knife on it like it was butter. Add a bit of salt, if you need, and it works like a charm.

Since both cocoa butter and coconut oil are well, vegetable oils, they will act similar to butter. Also, there are plenty of 100% vegetarian butters out there, made with nuts and other plant oils.

Soft tofu works as a cream as well -- also, so do avocados. If you want to make things like pudding, you can use avocados as the 'cream' base, add your flavourings (like chocolate, cocoa butter, sugar or agave syrup) and poof, instant pudding / creams / fillings / etc. You can make GREAT cream pies using avocado as the base of the filling.

As for the beloved cheese.... there are soy, rice, and almond replacements. There is also something called 'nutritional yeast' or 'savoury yeast flakes' that you can sprinkle as if it were parmesan cheese, or use as a powdered cheese base. It's pretty good as a replacement for some kinds of cheese sauces and such.

Most of it comes down to experimenting and experience, I've found, at this point.

Lähettänyt: kassetra 9:12 pm (EST) Nov 21, 2009