Circles*

Last Saturday I cooked pancakes/crepes (we call them pancakes in Brazil, but many people around the world call them crepes) just for me and I ate a lot! I used Fry's Vegetarian Mince to make my sauce and added some cherry tomatoes and Irish mushrooms (I forgot to say how hard it's to find mushrooms in Brazil and how expensive they are, so here I eat them always). Of course I had sauce for 3 days, but it's ok, it's delicious.

The recipe of the pancakes are here.

I had two with the salty sauce and the last one with vegan Nutella. So good! So not part of my diet!

And yesterday night I baked and decorated these vegan cupcakes:

I finally created a Flickr album for some of my sweet vegan treats, check here!

This week will be full. Gig, dinner with friends, visit of a Brazilian friend, my birthday. Hope you're having a great time too ;-)

(* Dag Nasty - Can I Say)

Under your influence

I don't like to cook just for myself and I really forgot how is to do that. But for the next days it will be just me, so I need to do it. Today I decided to try a recipe that my amazing Brazilian friend, Flavia, posted at her blog (in Portuguese). She's not vegan or vegetarian but some of her recipes are naturally vegan/vegetarian and the other ones are easy to "veganize". So, I had a delicious penne (for my luck I can eat pasta again!), but I still have to work on the quantity because I cooked enough also for my dinner.


Recipe (1 person):

125g pasta (penne or other pasta that you prefer)

2 sliced Irish mushrooms (this was my "local" touch)

4 cherry tomatoes

1/2 small onion, cut into small cubes

1 garlic clove, minced (I confess that I used 2 and was too much!)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 vegetable stock cube (Yes, I'm a stock cube addicted)

Black pepper and other herbs (I just used oregano in the end)

Salt

Dairy free parmezan


Cook the pasta in boiling and salty water. In a pan, put the olive oil. Let heat and add the garlic. When the garlic is "golden", place the onion. When the onion is transparent, add the mushrooms and the tomatoes and 50 ml of water. Let boil and cook until thicken. Stir from time to time until it becomes a succulent red sauce. Add the black pepper. Add the sauce on the cooked pasta and mix. Serve the plates and add the dairy free parmezan and oregano.

(Listening to Dag Nasty: Can I Say)

Tofu party

My title today is a reference from another blog that I love to read (I think I'm in love with the blog names): Tofu Party! Last week we cooked a lot of meals using tofu and it made me remember how I love to eat tofu. I know many people that hate tofu and I can understand, when it's not well done it tastes like nothing. But there are some amazing recipes using tofu and make your own tofu party.

I'll post about 3 recipes (I don't have the quantities for them so they won't be the recipes, just some ideas):

* Penne with white tofu sauce: I don't know why but I can't eat pasta almost everyday anymore. I was used to it but for the last weeks I just cannot. But I could eat this one. The only difference was the sauce (I chose penne for the pasta but you can use your favorite one). To make the white sauce I used vegetable oil (less than one teaspoon, just to fry the garlic and onions), sliced garlic, onions, vegetable stock cube, soy cream (Provamel) and scrambled tofu (it was the first time that we bought the organic one from Clear Spot ant it's delicious). Add the oil, garlic and onions and cook for 2 minutes, just to let them "blonding". Add the stock cube (with a splash of water), the tofu and let it cook for another 2 or 3 minutes. Add the soy cream. Another minute and it's done. Add splashes of water if you think it's too much concentrated.



* Basic scrambled tofu: for this I used a lot of garlic and onion (one thing that I really love in Brazilian cuisine is that we use them for basically everything!). Fry them for 2 minutes. Add the scrambled tofu (if you prefer you can use some tofu big pieces too) and let it fry for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add one teaspoon of turmeric and mix to incorporate and cook for more 2 or 3 minutes. We ate it with rice and beans and roasted potatoes.

* Zucchini and mushrooms frittata, my favourite one, inspired at the new book of Isa Chandra, Vegan Brunch. We used the "Curried Cauliflower Frittata" recipe but instead of the cauliflower we used zucchini and mushrooms. It was so delicious. Everybody must have this cook book.

Picture post

Today all I have are pics:

Dinner yesterday: yellow rice (supposed to be a risotto) and salad

Mocha with chocolate vegan cupcakes

A new great dairy free chocolate bar that we bought today (one of the best vegan chocolate ever)

A vegan mayonnaise from the brand Grano Vita that we also bought today (and we like it!)

Açai with straweberries and strawberry syrup: I'll miss it this summer

Taiwanese vegetarian food rocks my city!

Finally I have some time to write about Brazil and I'll start with Belo Horizonte. I know that I already wrote about my home town here before, but this post is about the best restaurant there: San Ro.


Their menu has dishes of Taiwanese cuisine, the same origin of the owners, but it's all vegetarian. None of the recipes, prepared only for lunch, is prepared with meat. We started to go there since they opened the doors because the owners used to have an ice cream shop before that had some vegan options. It's hard to see a place like that having success in Belo Horizonte, so we decided to go there as much as we could to support them and started to invite friends to go there. But the restaurant is in a good area, a commercial area, so people (vegetarian or not) just started to go there and the place now is always full!

They work with a buffet system, very common in Brazil, which consists of salads, desserts and hot dishes and you pay for the weight of your plate (it's not cheap but it's worth it). They have many delicious vegan options like quioza, sushi, vegetables, tofu, fake fish, etc. This is a very specific cuisine, so some people love it but others are not into it. I really like the food there and also enjoy the place (it's big and comfortable). And the owners are really nice.


Here's what some of my friends think about the place:

“Our city may not have the best options for vegans and sympathizers, but San Ro definitely presents itself as an oasis. Great atmosphere and an amazing selection of Taiwanese and Asian well-tempered delights. Not to mention the free tea!” (Ronan Sato, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais)

“I started to go to San Ro almost 2 years ago. The restaurant looks like a traditional oriental place and always has some traditional songs too, that I really like. As the restaurant started to have more clients, some stuff that sometimes bothers me started to happen, like a lot of people waiting to serve, to seat and and sometimes too much noise, that makes the calm sensation goes away. But I always enjoy the food! They have good vegan options and most of the time they have some of my favourite food like spring roll and yakisoba. I think that San Ro is the best vegetarian/vegan option in Belo Horizonte. And just writing all this made me to want to go there right now!” (Andrey Leonardo de Paula, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais)

"Although I'm not vegetarian, I believe that San Ro is one of the best options for those who do not eat meat in the city. The Taiwanese food is light and they have a lot of options. The place is relaxant and makes me think about the oriental restaurants of Liberdade, in Sao Paulo, simple but welcoming. My only objection is the price. It's hard to make San Ro a daily lunch option because it's expensive." (Uiara Azevedo, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais)

“I remember I went to San Ro in 2006 'cause we were in Belo Horizonte to play. A chic place, with great vegan food and amazing vegan sweets. I recommend it to everybody!” (Felipe Chehuan, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro)

“I went to San Ro for the first time less then one month ago and since it I already went there other three times. It's so good to have a buffet 100% vegetarian and don't need to think about what I can or can not eat. And because it's Taiwanese cuisine it has some food that I never tasted before like the spiced soya chunks, that my sister loved and it's also one of my favourite food there!” (Gabriel Cadete, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais)

“I have to confess that I'd hardly not going to a steak house to go to eat at a vegetarian restaurant. But in this case is different. San Ro has a buffet with a huge variety, different from other restaurants around and the food tastes incredible! And it's a very pleasant place too. I have eaten in many vegetarian restaurants in Brazil and in Europe and there are just a few that I like as much as I like San Ro. I think I'd been there three times and I recommend: If you go to Belo Horizonte, be sure to go there!” (Jefferson Ferreira, from Blumenal, Santa Catarina)

So, if you have the chance to go to Belo Horizonte, stop at San Ro an try this great Taiwanese vegetarian food! It rocks ;-)

Keep calm and have a cupcake

My day started finishing these vegan cupcakes (vanilla with chocolate filling and strawberry frosting):




And one of the sweetest people that I know, my friend Gabriel, sent this to me and made me smile:


I wish a great week for everybody!

Sweet summer

I'm having a busy week and I'm loving it! I know I still have to write some posts about Brazil here, but be patient.

Yesterday I spent all day in the kitchen baking and cooking (Betrayed guys had a vegan cheesy strogonoff to eat before the show) but it was worth it!

Cupcakes for Govinda's restaurant

Cupcakes for the gig

Chocolate cakes

If you live in Dublin, I need your help: I need to have my vegan cupcakes being sold in more places (coffee bar, restaurant, etc) so if you know about any place that can be open to that, just let me know, please! You can write to dublin.sweet@gmail.com. Thanks a lot ;-)