Cashew Ginger Tofu

This is my current favorite way to eat tofu. I found the recipe while flipping through a borrowed copy of eat, drink & be vegan and happened to have all the ingredients on hand. It is sooooo good! I'm surprised that I found something so soon that really gives my other fave (BBQ Tofu) a run for its money but this definitely does. Here is the link to the recipe on the author's site. I served it alongside another recipe from the same book, cinnamon lime quinoa with apricots & almonds, and also had a helping of sauteed kale. The quinoa was a good dish also, but not nearly as dreamy as the tofu.

Trifle with berries and vanilla custard

I was looking at some of the gorgeous food pictures on 101 cookbooks and followed a link to this blog, Whole Food Cooking, which is written by Australian cookbook author and real food activist, Jude Blereau. I love all things pudding-like so when I saw this recipe for vegan custard I had to try it. I've changed just a few things in the ingredient list because I believe some common ingredients in Australia are different than here in the States. Also a few quantities were metric so I changed them to standard.

For the vanilla custard:

1 cup blanched almonds

1 1/2 teaspoons agar powder

scant 1/3 cup maple syrup

1 vanilla bean (or 1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract)

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup coconut milk

Put the blanched almonds and 3 1/2 cups water in a blender. Blend well. Peg 4 layers of muslin onto a jug or bowl and pour the almond mix through. Squeeze out the remaining milk from the muslin. This should give you 3 cups almond milk. ( just use my nut milk bag. You could probably use store bought unsweetened almond milk in a pinch but fresh is definitely better!)

Measure out 2 1/2 cups almond milk into a saucepan and add the maple syrup. Whisk in the agar to stop it clumping. Lay the vanilla bean flat on a chopping board and, using a small sharp knife, cut down the length of the bean. Open the bean up and flatten to collect the seeds - add these to the milk. (Or, just add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste)

Stir together and bring very gently to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Stir frequently as agar loves to sink to the bottom and stick as it dissolves.

Add the cornstarch to a small bowl and mix to a slurry with 1/4 cup almond milk. When the agar is dissolved, remove the milk mix from the stove and whisk in the almond milk and cornstarch. Return to the stove and stir constantly as it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and pour into a clean bowl. Place some parchment paper on the surface and refrigerate until cool.

When set, put what will be a fairly solid mix back in the blender. To this, add the remaining almond milk and coconut milk. Blend for a few minutes until silky smooth.

Now, to make this into a trifle all you have to do is layer it with plain cake of some kind and fresh or thawed berries or other fruit that would go well. Some people drizzle different liquors on to the cake layers but I never have them on hand and don't like buying something for just one recipe. It can go from economical to expensive really quickly! I'm sure the custard could be eaten as is too. It's really delicious.

I am going to make mine with thawed strawberries and this yellow cake recipe off of recipezaar. I'll post a picture later when I make it.