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 COCONUT CREAM BUTTER BEAN DREAM

BEAR'S COCONUT CREAM BUTTER BEAN DREAM

Good gosh! This is such a tasty dream! I didn't know how this one was going to turn out but… Oh, my! Mmmmmmm… Creamy Dreams!

INGREDIENTS

1 Butterbean can

1 Garden peas can

Creamed coconut

1 or 2 Red onion

4 Chestnut mushrooms or any other type of mushroom

2 Finger chillies

2 Garlic cloves

Koko Dairy Free yogurt

PREPARATION

Peel the onion(s) and place in a colander with the chilies and garlic. Give them rinse under cold water.

Get a deep dish/pan, add coconut oil to it as in the picture below.

Slice the onion(s) into rings and place in the dish/pan. Bring to the cooker and intuitive a medium heat to it. We want to sweat the onions.

Wash the mushrooms and pat dry with a paper towel while the onions are sweating. Cut the mushrooms in medium thick slices and finely cut the chilies and garlic cloves. Keep them separate!

THE METHODOLOGY

Once the onions have sweated down, remove from heat. Add just the mushrooms to the onions and return to the heat! We are gently frying the onions and mushrooms! Once the mushrooms have wilted remove from heat.

Add the garlic and chili. Return to the heat, reduce the temperature as we don't want the chilies to burn. When you see that the chilies have sweated, remove from heat.

Get a thick knob of coconut cream and add it to the dish. In fact, you could place in a clean cloth and beat with a rolling pin to make it easier to melt in the pan/dish. I don't, oddly enough, have a rolling pin.

Now we're going to open and drain the butter beans, give them a quick rinse and add to the pan/dish.

Return to the heat, mix it all together! And once you see that the butter beans are cooking, open the garden peas, drain, rinse and add to the pan/dish!

Once the garden peas start to cook, you may experience that the coconut cream starts to stick to the bottom of the pan/dish. If this happens, remove from the heat and add about 2 tablespoons of water to stop it drying up. Return to the heat and keep stirring so that the water gets absorbed and the mixture isn't quite as sticky.

Let it cook on a low temperature; open the coconut yogurt and pour about half of it into the pan/dish and stir!

Now it's time to add some seasoning…

I added turmeric, cayenne pepper, thyme, and coriander. I added just a teaspoon of each. I didn't want to overdo the pepper as I didn't want to overpower the butter beans! I just wanted the ingredients to compliment each other. I added a pinch of Himalayan salt to reduce the freshness. Freshness = blandness. Yuck!

Give it a taste! I use a minimum of salt in my cooking. You should always taste your cooking when adding seasoning.

I increased the temperature to warm up the coconut yogurt. You don't want it to boil. When it starts to gently bubble it pretty much ready. You want to gently stir to ensure the heat is distributed evenly. When you think it's hot enough it's time to…

PLATE UP

Or bowl up! Doesn't it look gorgeous? Mmmmmmm… Just for decoration, I sprinkled a wee bit of cayenne pepper on top.

Enjoy!

Love,

Bear XOXOXOXOXO

BEAR'S LAZY SPICY CHILLI GRAINS

BEAR'S LAZY SPICY CHILLI GRAINS

It's that time again… Time for one of my Lazy Salads! Here's a scenario… You are hungry but you could sleep where you are. But you have a desire for good, nutritious Vegan food. None of that processed junk that contains “Vegan flavoring” plus unhealthy amounts of salt and sugar. Nooooooo!

What you want is to put together a meal in less than 30 minutes! You've got it! Let's raid the fridge!

INGREDIENTS

1 Wholegrain rice, wheatberry, bulgar wheat and pinto beans.

4 Nori seaweed sheets.

1 Hummus standard tub (organic)

1 Red onion

1 Paprika (Bell pepper)

4 Finger chillies

1 Red chilli

2 Garlic cloves

PREPARATION

Give the onions, garlic cloves and peppers a rinse under cold water. Pat dry with a kitchen towel.

THE METHODOLOGY

Finely cut the onion, garlic and chilies, place in a large salad bowl or deep dish. Add about a tablespoon of vinegar. Mix 'em up!

Open the wholegrain rice packet and add all the contents to the salad bowl. Mix them together! Now add to taste turmeric, cayenne pepper, and black pepper. Now open the seaweed pack and remove up to 4 sheets of the seaweed. Crumble the seaweed into the bowl/dish and mix.

Now open the hummus and add the contents to the bowl. Give it one final mix and…

PLATE UP

It serves 2.

I added an avocado to offset the intense chili heat. I love this kind of food; it's easy to make, minimal effort, it's very healthy and it tastes so freaking good! Mmmmmmm…

Enjoy!

Love,

Bear XOXOXOXOXO

BEAR'S ACKEE-DO DUBPLATE MASHUP

BEAR'S ACKEE-DO DUBPLATE MASHUP

Whoa! What have we here? This is an Ackee-Do Dubplate Mashup! I dared to experiment with Jamaican, Welsh and Chinese influences! It's a bit of this 'n’ that! Ha ha! But it works somehow! WOW!

Let's get to the…

INGREDIENTS

1 Tofu block in a carton

1 Garden peas can

1 Ackee can

1 Red onion

1 White onion

A handful of baby plum tomatoes

5 - 6 Chestnut mushrooms

1 Green chili

1 Red chili

6 or more finger chilies

Broccoli

The rest of the seaweed

3 Garlic cloves

PREPARATION

Wash the onions, chilies, garlic and tomatoes. Pat them down with a paper towel.

Wash the mushrooms and pat them down with a paper towel too.

Take about a handful of broccoli - 2 handfuls, if you're cooking for 2 or 3! Check the broccoli florets for infestation and give the broccoli a good rinse. Add the broccoli to pot/pan/dish on its own.

Get a deep pan/dish and put some coconut oil within. Of course, you can use a tablespoon of another oil such as extra virgin olive oil, rapeseed or rice bran oil.

Slice the onions into rings and add it to the pan/dish with the coconut oil.

Cut the chilies and garlic cloves in small pieces. Cut the tomatoes in half. Place the chilies, garlic, and tomatoes in one bowl for the time being.

Cover the seaweed with cold water for a minimum of 6 minutes

Slice the mushrooms and place on a paper towel.

Open the Ackee can and drain. And once drained place in a baking tray.

Open the garden peas can and drain. Open the tofu carton, carefully remove the tofu and rinse. I used a soft tofu but you could use a harder one. And cut in slices. If the tofu is soft then it doesn't matter how you cut it.

Drain the seaweed and place aside. I used a large mug to soak the seaweed and once drained, I placed the seaweed back into the mug.

Now we're ready to get cooking..,

THE METHODOLOGY

Introduce a high enough heat to sear the onions. Once the onions have wilted, add the mushrooms… Reduce the heat once the mushrooms have wilted and browned; add the garden peas.

Add the bowl of tomatoes, garlic, and chilies to the onions and mushrooms. Mix so that the ingredients get cooked evenly. Introduce a medium heat to the broccoli. Turn the oven on and preheat for about 5 minutes at 210 (electric). Stir the broccoli - don't let them burn. If the broccoli starts to brown then add a little bit of water to prevent burning; add about a tablespoon of water.

Keep mixing the onions, mushrooms, etc. Add the tofu and mix. Then place the Ackees in the oven and reduce the temperature to around 190 (electric). Now add the seaweed to the onions, mushrooms, etc. If you find that the mixture is burning and/or sticking to the bottom of the pan/dish, add about 2 tablespoons of water. Season with black pepper, turmeric, and coriander. You shouldn't need to add salt as the seaweed is salty enough. Give the mix one final stir to infuse the seasoning. Remove from the heat and cover.

Keep turning the broccoli and maintain its composure i.e. al dente. Once the florets are a darker shade of green, it's time to remove the heat and then transport to the main pan/dish to keep warm.

It's time to…

PLATE UP

Remove the broccoli and arrange them on a plate or plates. I placed the florets to the left in a line and then placed the stalk on the opposite side.

In the middle, I made a bed with the main dish. I then removed the Ackees from the oven and placed them on top of the main dish.

Enjoy!

It can serve 2 to 3.

FOOD BIGOTRY

Please, do not fear Ackees that come in a can that can be bought from any decent supermarket or specialist shop.

Ackees are only dangerous when handled incorrectly. Ackees come from a pod that opens up to reveal the fruit. If the pod is forced open then the toxicity will remain. The gasses are released when the pod opens naturally. And therefore, the Ackees, the yellow flesh - if you will - are safe to eat.

There's no way Ackees would be commonplace in good supermarkets if it was a danger. Think of Ackee as you would rhubarb; the rhubarb leaves are deadly and people have been known to die from rhubarb leaves poisoning. Yet we can pick rhubarbs from our gardens and prepare it ourselves or buy it in a can at the supermarket.

Don't be afraid to give Ackees a try! If you're new to Veganism and you miss eating scrambled eggs then Ackees will do it for you! Or it should do!

THE INFLUENCES

My folks are from Jamaica and I used to be a lover of Jamaica's national dish, Ackee, and Saltfish which is usually served up with boiled or fried dumplings, green banana, and yams.

Being a Londoner, I used to love my Chinese takeaways. I appreciated how the vegetables were cooked, al dente. And, the Welsh influence came from watching a food show that featured the use of seaweed in popular Welsh dishes. I would love to go to Wales to learn more about the use of seaweed in cooking. That's it. I still have lots to learn and I love learning!

I called this dish “Ackee-Do Dubplate Mashup” because the tofu got mashed in the process; I thought the tofu would be harder. Plus, I enjoy the martial arts; Aikido is a Japanese martial art and tofu comes from both Japan and China. It takes me back to watching martial arts movies growing up. I also used to listen to Dub Reggae a lot in my youth.  

Love,

Bear XOXOXOXOXO