BEAR'S DUBPLATE MASHUP PRESENTS, JACK UP THE PUMP

BEAR'S DUBPLATE MASHUP PRESENTS...JACK UP THE PUMP

This one comes from childhood memories living in North London amongst a diverse community. I remember going to food festivals that celebrated such a wonderful mix of cultures​. Instead of going to Karate classes on a Saturday morning, I and a couple of friends would embark upon going on adventures in our surrounding areas. I remember one time we ended up at a food festival and we just went from stall to stall, eating our way around.

One of the dishes I sampled featured the jackfruit! So, when I saw a can of jackfruit at the Vegan supermarket, Green Bay, I just had to have it! I didn't have much of an idea of what I was going to do with it; I just figured I'd to another Dubplate Mashup that pays homage to North London’s diversity.  

THE INGREDIENTS

1 Wheatberries, quinoa, and mung bean packet

1 Jackfruit can

1 Low salt vegetable stock cube

1 Red or white onion

1 Garlic cloves

4 Finger chillies

1 Red chilli

Pumpkin seeds

Maple syrup

Soy sauce

Oh, I added the remainder of the stir fry medley!

PREPARATION

This one's easy! Rinse the onion, garlic, chilies, and stir-fry medley - if you have any leftover! You could go out and buy a packet/punnet.

Have a pot for the wheatberries, etc; add about 4 tablespoons of water and place the stock cube within.

Get a pan/dish for the main ingredients. I've decided to avoid cooking with oil. I then added about half a small cup of water to the dish.

Slice the onion into rings and add to the pan/dish.

Slice the garlic and chilies however you like. If you have mini spring onions (scallions) I suggest cutting them in slices lengthwise; that way you can see if it's necessary to rinse out any grit.

Open the jackfruit and drain.

THE METHODOLOGY

Saute the onions in the water or, if you prefer, use an oil of your preference. Once it sweats down you can remove from the heat or leave it on the hob whilst you add the garlic cloves and peppers.

Once the garlic and peppers start to sweat you then add the jackfruit. Stir everything together.

When you see the jackfruit getting soft you then add about a tablespoon of soy sauce. This makes it easier for the jackfruit to soak up the seasoning.

When the jackfruit starts to brown you have to do 2 things:

1. Add the stir-fry medley.
2. Introduce a low heat to the pot for the rice.

Keep mixing to ensure that the jackfruit and stir fry medley gets cooked evenly. When the water in the  pot meant for the wheatberries starts to simmer gently, use an employment such as a fork or spoon to help the stock cube dissolve. It doesn't have to be completely dissolved because you'll be stirring the wheatberries once added.

Give the wheatberries a mix and temporarily remove from the heat.

Now we're going to finish off the main dish. What we're going to do now is to add half a tablespoon of Maple syrup and seasoning: cayenne pepper, black pepper, and Chinese five spice seasoning. Give it a stir and put the lid on.

You'll have to keep looking at the jackfruit mix to make sure it's not burning. The heat should be just below medium.

With the wheatberries, return to the heat. Keep stirring and, if you like, you can add cayenne pepper and a bit of cinnamon to give it a bit of oomph! It takes about 2 minutes until it's ready. Just before it's ready, add the pumpkin seeds.

Give it a good mix and remove from the heat to avoid the moisture from drying out.

Remove the cover from the jackfruit and give it a final stir. You should have a nice sticky sweet 'n’ sour sauce; the jackfruit should be tender from soaking up those lovely juices.

PLATE UP

Plate up the wheatberries and then add the jackfruit!

It'll serve 2.

Enjoy!

Thank you for following my recipes!

Love,

Bear XOXOXOXOXO

BEAR'S ULTRA-VEGAN MEAL REPLACEMENT MIDNIGHT BOOTY CALL 3

BEAR'S ULTRA-VEGAN MEAL REPLACEMENTMIDNIGHT BOOTY CALL 3

Good gosh! I managed to miss my main meal last night! Yeah, I visited Central London during the day and walked around until it got late - really late! I love walking and I get carried away when in Central London as there's so much to see!

By the time I got back, it was too late to make something substantial to eat. So, I had to make something that wasn't going to be too heavy yet fulfilling!

I wanted to improve upon my meal replacement formula that I've dubbed “Midnight Booty Call”. Why? Okay… I think it's essential to have a good amount of roughage/fiber in every meal. A lot of Vegan based processed foods that could be microwaved for convenience does not contain much by the way of fiber. The main ingredient in my meal replacement is dried fibrous fruit such as prunes and figs. I could also use dates and (unsulphured) apricots too!

And, of course, by the time I realize that I'm hungry, it's midnight or later!

Here are the ingredients for the dish as pictured above…

INGREDIENTS

1 Prunes​ in juice can, 200g. You could use dry prunes and add a good prune juice from a reputed source; I must look into this deeper.

1 Chestnut packet

1 cup of oat bran

Half a cup of desiccated coconut

1 cup of prune juice

A couple of splashes of vanilla essence

Half a tablespoon of cinnamon

Half a tablespoon of cocoa powder

A cup of coconut yogurt

For decoration: desiccated coconut, Morello cherries, a single chestnut, coconut yogurt, and cinnamon.

THE METHODOLOGY

You're going to need a decent liquidizer/blender.

Empty the prune can into the liquidizer jug, followed by the cup of oat bran, desiccated coconut, chestnuts​, coconut yogurt, vanilla essence and cocoa powder. Now add the cup of prune juice. You might need to add more juice to get the liquidizing blades moving as the mixture can become too thick to blend.

Use the pulse setting to break up the solids gently. Once the chestnuts start to break up use settings 1 and 2 to create a texture that looks like a cross between a mousse and smoothie. Once you've got that texture, it's done!

Pour into a bowl and then decorate - if you wish!

RESULT

The above is the result that is very, very satisfying to taste and is pretty light. I had this Midnight Booty Call whilst watching a movie, as you might do on a Saturday night. Perfect!

If this doesn't move you, nothing will! Ha ha!

Thanks for reading and following my recipes!

Love,

Bear XOXOXOXOXO

BEAR'S MIDNIGHT BOOTY CALL 2

BEAR'S MIDNIGHT BOOTY CALL 2

I thought I'd treat myself after the über-tasty Enter The Wing Chun Bear Dubplate!

I figured this would be a great opportunity to create a variant of the original Midnight Booty Call. I used prune juice from a carton, but you could use pressed apple juice. And I used figs instead of prunes. Oh, I opened up all the figs to make sure that there wasn’t an innocent creature residing within.

I made it exactly the same way as the original Midnight Booty Call.

THE IDEA AND DESIRED FUNCTION

I was thinking, if you're consuming a lot of gluten and wholemeal flour based foods, you could end up blocking your colon. This happened to me years ago when I first became a Vegan. Foolishly, I ate too many foods that used wholemeal flour pastry in order to feel full. Yeah, I was full alright!

The idea of this dessert come breakfast come meal replacement is to help the evacuation of the bowels. You wake up the next morning (if you ate it at night) and purge. Sweet!

In fact, come to think of it, this Midnight Booty Call is what I believe the Xmas pudding was designed for. After stuffing oneself silly during the Winter Holidays, the Xmas pudding would help provide a bit of relief. Can you imagine all that food compacting in the stomach?

This is what I want to achieve, desserts with some functionality. Version 1 worked a treat! Let me know how you got on.

Love,

Bear XOXOXOXOXO

BEAR’S DUBPLATE MASHUP ENTER THE WING CHUN BEAR

BEAR’S DUBPLATE MASHUPENTER THE WING CHUN BEAR

I love Dub Reggae. I love Kung Fu. What you go do? This dish is a celebration of my love for Chinese food, Wing Chun, and heavy, heavy Dub Reggae. I used to train in the Martial Arts of Wing Chun.  

Those were the days… Lol!

INGREDIENTS

1 Stir fry medley

1 Quinoa & wholegrain rice packet

1 Red onion

2 Garlic cloves

1 Low salt vegetable stock cube

1 Plantain

1 Lemon

Low salt soy sauce

Maple syrup

PREPARATION

Peel and wash the red onion along with a selection of the stir fry medley. Seeing as I'm cooking for 1, I didn't use all the baby corn and spring onions (scallions​). If you intend to cook for 2 then you'd have to use the whole medley.

Dry the red onion with a kitchen towel. Get a pan/dish suitable for frying and add a bit of coconut oil or any other oil - about a tablespoon of liquid oil. See pic below.

Place the stir fry medley on a kitchen towel; let the water drain off. Cut the red onion into rings and add the rings to the pan/dish. No heat just yet!

Now cut the spring onions (scallions) into 2 or 3 thin slices. And cut the red pepper into circles as shown in the pic below. You can either plaza the stir fry medley on a kitchen towel or on a dish. I left them on a kitchen towel after cutting them in order to avoid adding more to the washing up! Leave them aside for now.​

Next, we get a pot and place the vegetable stock cube and add a bit of water as you can see in the above pic. We're going to add the packet of wholegrain rice and quinoa a little later...

About the plantain… I've had mine for weeks whilst contemplating a suitable recipe for it. Most people would've thrown it away thinking it's over-ripened. Well, I'm not like that. Ideally, your plantain wouldn't be as ripe. After giving it a rinse, I wrapped the plantain in aluminum foil and placed it in the oven. Being so over ripened, I should've first wrapped it in greaseproof paper and then the aluminum foil.

Your plantain won't be that ripe and should resemble a banana with a few brown spots. When it's firm you could remove the skin and place on a baking tray.

Anyway, you won't need to preheat the oven. Either remove the skin or if you leave the skin on make sure you add a few slits with a sharp knife to stop the skin from splitting and prevent the plantain from hemorrhaging. Place the plantain on a baking tray, and pop it into the oven. We're not ready to apply any heat just yet.

We're good to start…

THE METHODOLOGY

Introduce a medium heat to sweat the onion rings down.

See? The onions are looking nice. They're not overcooked. Remove from heat. Keep stirring as the residual heat could cause the onion to burn.

Once the residual heat has dissipated you add all the stir fry medley. Before you return the onions and stir fry medley back to the heat, you introduce heat to the pot containing the stock cube and a bit of water.

Once the heat is on the pot containing the stock cube and water return the onion and stir fry medley back to the heat. We want to gently fry the contents; the vegetables should be firm - al dente. As soon as the stir fry medley starts to wilt, remove from heat. Once the stock cube pot behind to simmer, use a fork or wooden spoon to dissolve it in the simmering water. Do not let the water dry out! If need be, remove from the heat to ensure the water does not evaporate.

Now turn on the oven with the plantain, about 190 (electric) should do it! Now add the rice to the pot containing the stock cube and water. Give the rice a stir to absorb the water and stock cube remnants. Remove from the heat as the rice will cook in about 2 minutes.

Next, we return the stir fry to the heat. We want a little less than medium heat. While the stir fry medley gently cooks, juice the lemon and pour into the stir fry. From there, add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and give it a stir. Add 2 tablespoons of Maple syrup and stir. If it gets too hot, remove from heat. Keep mixing as the residual heat has the potential to burn the vegetables. Stop stirring when the heat has dissipated.

With the pot of rice, add roughly a teaspoon of turmeric, black pepper cayenne pepper, and a sprinkle of coriander. There's no need to add salt as the stock cube contains enough! Mix but don't return to the heat just yet.

Add Chinese 5 spices to the stir fry, mix and return to the heat. Stir and reduce the heat. The liquid should be gently simmering. Return the rice to the heat and mix the seasoning. If the moisture starts to dry out then remove from heat, add a tablespoon of water and return to the heat. Keep stirring the rice and break up and clumps.

Turn the heat off from under the stir fry, stir to avoid burning. Give the rice one last mix, and turn the heating off.

PLATE UP

Plate up the rice as shown in the pic below or as you like.

Then add the stir fry on top. Remove the plantain from the oven and turn it off. If you've chosen to leave it in its skin then be careful when removing; it's very hot! And add as shown in the pic above. Your plantain should look a lot better than mine. As you know, my plantain was over ripened and I'm lucky to have been able to use it at all!

You could slice your plantain in medium sized circles.

It serves 2. It's possible to cook 2 plantains - size depending.

Enjoy!

Love,

Bear XOXOXOXOXO

BEAR'S MIDNIGHT BOOTY CALL

BEAR'S MIDNIGHT BOOTY CALL

What? You've managed to miss your main meal? How??? Well, I got sidetracked installing some software that proved to be very troublesome, to say the least! When I realized the time, I popped out to my local 24-hour supermarket and got chatting with a friend (I need a disguise or visit another supermarket where I'm not known).

Once my conversation had finished it became clear that I wasn't going to cook at this time or night. It's nearly 01:00 in the morning. So, once I got home, I had to quickly put together something to eat that's not too heavy; it's so unhealthy to eat dinner before sleeping. It's bad news.

Here's how I satisfied myself…

INGREDIENTS

1 Prune can (200g)

A packet/bag of oats

A tub of coconut yogurt

A packet/box of desiccated coconut

Light Maple syrup

Vanilla essence

Cinnamon

THE METHODOLOGY

Place about roughly 4 tablespoons of desiccated coconut in a cereal bowl as in the picture above.

Top the desiccated coconut with oats; that's about 4 tablespoons worth of oats in the picture above.

Top with another 4 tablespoons of desiccated coconut!

Add cinnamon to taste; I love cinnamon! Mmmmm…

Open the prune can and drain the juice into the desiccated coconut and oats; stir the juice in. Don't worry if the overall mix is dry…

Add the coconut yogurt - finish the tub if you, like me, used about half of it in my Coconut Cream Butter Bean Dream recipe. It's all too easy to forget to use the rest of the yogurt, by the time you remember, the yogurt will be teaming with life.

When you mix in the coconut yogurt, it'll be moist but firm.

Add all of the prunes on top of the sensual mixture, drizzle about half a tablespoon of light Maple syrup around the bowl and add a couple of vanilla essence splashes on the oats and desiccated coconut.

I was careful not to let the vanilla essence and the Maple syrup hit the prunes as it would spoil the taste sensation. The idea is to get waves of taste infusions, the oats, coconut, vanilla, light Maple syrup, prunes, and cinnamon. Oooooh, that certainly hit the spot!

To finish it off, I sprinkled a bit of cinnamon on top for both decoration and taste. Cinnamon complements the prunes (and most other dried fruit).

And there you have it! It's a bit naughty and it's certainly nice! It's not like you're gonna wake up the next morning and discover your pants don't fit. It's better than giving into a quick fix of processed cereal that can contain milk and refined sugars (in the form of corn syrup). Yuck! Light Maple syrup is healthier! Well, you're controlling the amount of sweetness, whereas the sugar content in most cereal boxes is hidden, and, before you know it, you feel like another bowl to get one more sugar rush. And, if you, like me, have a sweet tooth, the horrid cereal could end up being consumed habitually! Don't do it! The weight will certainly pile on! Throw the old boxes of cereal out! If you have a child or children, this could be difficult. I would like to know how you, as a Vegan parent or parents, weaned your child or children off these horrid cereals! HOW??? Who had the misfortune to remember the sickly, yet addictive taste of Frosties? Diabetes in a box!

The Midnight Booty Call is a one-off! It also makes for a great dessert after dinner. What I love about the Midnight Booty Call is that it makes me feel sated. At this moment in time, after eating it, I am not thinking, “Let me make this tomorrow and the day after…” For me, the Midnight Booty Call is like one of those meal replacement shakes. I should have eaten properly and I did not. Shame on me!

I called this dish a “Midnight Booty Call” for what should be obvious reasons. In out, far out… It's all good! Ha ha! Oh, one more thing... If you want to make the most out of Tech then check out Synapse Circuit for Tech Reviews!

Enjoy!

Love,

Bear XOXOXOXOXO