The starter was a delectable Cuban Black Bean Soup, with a fantastic chilli kick to it. It has an option to use tinned black beans, but I can't get them anyway so I made it from the dried bean method, which is always great. I love cooking up dried beans! It has a little coriander sprinkled on top of it. I had hoped to make some golden salsa to top it with, but it's still a bit too early to get yellow tomatoes. I also added the option rum. The alcohol itself of course cooks off, but it adds a fantastic extra flavour.
This is the main - a crappy photo I know. But even though it might look a bit drab, it was a power house of awesome flavour! Obviously there are some leafy greens on the plate. There is also a Jerk-Spiced Portobello Steak, which is an amazingly flavoured mushroom. They are great on a burger as well! There is also some Mahogany Eggplant, which is a fantastic saute of Japanese eggplant slices with a great tasting sauce (tamari, sake, chilli, ginger, garlic and sweetener). Both of these recipes have a five out of five rating from me! My dad asked just to have it with some rice, so I took a liberty and made some Coconut Rice from Vegan With A Vengeance. Normally this rice would have toasted coconut to garnish, but I only had dessicated coconut which I figured would be like eating slightly coconutty sawdust, so I omitted them. The recipe works perfectly in a rice cooker as well. It was a lovely plate of food!
This was take two on a tart I had made a couple of weeks before, the Asian Pear Tart with Toasted Almond Crust and Orange-Ginger Glaze. The last time I had made with with normal pears, rather than the Asian Pear, known here as Nashi Pears. This time I made it with the Nashi. The texture was great, they were still a little bit crunchy after the baking was done. I made it in my tart pan this time rather than a pie plate so I could push it out and make it looks super pretty. And it did! The top of the crust still got a teeny bit burnt though.
I served it with scoops of vanilla soy ice cream. Delicious!
Tomorrow I will try and post about my Mother's Day feast - which was all the way back in May!
Cute Cat Photo of the Post
Why, it is my beautiful Sahara! She is stopping to smell the roses. The roses she is sniffing are my bridesmaid bouquet from Little Jen's wedding. Sahara does love to sniff flowers and plants, which means definitely no lillies in our house! Even if she didn't, I wouldn't have lillies near cats anyway. For those who don't know, even the smalled ingested part of a lily (any part) is extremely toxic to cats and causes acute kidney failure and often death. So no lillies! Anyway, Sahara is provided with some great non-toxic plants for her to sniff. How cute is she?
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