The sensational soybella machine!

So the coconut and almond milks ended up being a little too gloopy with the guar gum in it.  I need to learn more about that ingredient.  It was still good, but i really do not prefer to chew my coffee in the morning.

Today I decided to try something new.  I made a coconut/almond milk combo.  I did not add any guar gum, only a little bit of sugar.  It came out great so far, i am letting it cool from it's hotter than the sun temperature before i try to sample any.  I can happily say there were no injuries incurred with the making of this milk!

For tonight we are trying a new recipe from the book with some minor changes.  The base recipe is a curried mushroom soup.  I decided to augment this dish to make it more of a filling meal with curried turkey meatballs, made by yours truly.

Here is the basic recipe, which if you have a hand blender or even a regular blender this can be made and enjoyed!

1 (8oz) cup cashews

2 cups mushrooms, chopped (this is the soybella special cup measurement)  in real life it is about 1 (8oz cup)

.8L water (can be more if not using the soybella)

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp. poultry spice blend (i used old bay seasoning)

1 tsp. sea salt

pinch or more of curry powder, we happen to like this spice, so i used more

pat of fresh butter (i omitted this, it sounded stupid to me.......)

fresh parsley for garnish (omitted, but would do it for company)

These ingredients get either blended together with your hand blender or tossed into the soybella to become soup puree.

Turkey curry meatballs

1lb lean ground turkey

1 egg

small shallot chopped well

clove of garlic, minced

1 tsp red curry powder

1/4 C +/- breadcrumbs

Mix all together and roll into small (think wedding soup) meatballs.  I baked them in the oven first then threw them into a pot to which i added the mushroom soup so they could all sit and share flavors.

Right now we are waiting, will be eating dinner in about an hour.......again with the waiting.....

prep time, i used shitake mushrooms and unsalted cashews

the finished product, color wise seemed bland but taste wise was exceptional

So we ate our delicious soup, needless to say it will be a staple in our repertoire.  The spice was just right, the mushrooms and cashews broke down beautifully and the little meatballs were the perfect touch.  YUMMY!


~CM

PS - we tried the coconut/almond milk, it has a perfect thickness, flavor and taste!  YAY!

On this blustery Thursday

I just wanted to wish everybody a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!

Eat, drink and be merry!

~CM

The Magical Soybella Machine

I finally got a chance to play with a new toy of mine.  As a wedding gift we got a Soybella machine which I was super excited about.  I got it because I wanted to be able to make my own almond and coconut milks at home, they are rather pricey in the store.  When I was flipping through the instruction manual I learned that this machine it truly multi purpose.  It can make soy and nut milks, but it can also make soups, broths, purees, chunky soups, rice paste (whatever that is) and grind things like coffee, nuts etc.  Well now I am ecstatic about this little device.  It is smallish and light weight, surprising for all the tasks it can perform. 

I made three items today.  1. Coconut milk, 2. almond milk and 3. potato leek soup (c'mon, an Irish girl just cannot resist!)  A brand of coconut milk I particularly like is "SoDelicious"  It is very thick and creamy which I love in my coffee, I looked up what makes it thick and found that the magic ingredient is guar gum, a natural food thickener. 

I followed the instructions to make coconut milk and then after 15 minutes heard a glorious little BEEP and knew I may have made by first batch of "milk."  I transferred the liquid to another container and added the guar gum, cane sugar and vanilla flavoring.  I then put the lid on and proceeded to try to shake this lava hot concoction up......BIG, BIG, HUGE MISTAKE!  The lid popped off and I got burnt, I think I will survive but if you have never had to rip a scalding hot shirt off your body be thankful and just take my advice to not shake hot liquids.  After my quick recovery and generous application of aloe vera gel I decided to whisk my mixture because the guar gum kind of became a guar ball instead, mixing it helped but I recommend putting it in a little at a time and whisking.  But hey, guess what?  It worked and tastes pretty good too!

Well now I am on a roll, I cleaned my new toy up and started my almond milk recipe, I followed the same steps then transferred the liquid to a container DID NOT SHAKE IT and slowly added the guar gum as I mixed, it worked much better.  I also added almond flavoring and maple syrup, it's pretty good but I think the coconut milk is the winner for me.

Ok so for my last item of the evening the potato leek soup, this device makes it so simple it's just scary, literally I had to cut up some potatoes, onions, garlic and add some spices......then press "paste"......I am sitting here impatiently waiting for my new favorite sound....BEEP!!!!

While I wait I will share my recipes since, as always I make changes to fit my needs.

Coconut milk
1 cup* shredded unsweetened coconut  (there is a special measuring cup included)
fill vessel to .8 L (there are markings on the inside of the container)
press the "mill" button  I don't think I needed this step since the coconut was already shredded and will skip it next time
next press the "milk" button and the machine takes it from there
15 minutes later BEEP and there was a milk like liquid in the container
transfer to another container and add:
1 tsp of guar gum slowly as you whisk - this is my first time using guar gum, next time i will try 1/2 tsp.
1 tsp of vanilla (i think i may skip this altogether to see what it tastes like without)
3 TBSP cane sugar (i will cut this down as it was a little too sweet for me)

All in all I like it very much and will continue to tweak the recipe to see what flavors I can coax out of this mixture.

Almond Milk
1 cup almonds
fill vessel up to .8L
"mill"  i pressed this about 5 times, the book said the more times pressed the thicker the mixture
"milk"
this mixture had a sort of thin, watery smell to it
1 tsp guar gum
1 tsp almond flavoring
3 tbsp real maple syrup

mix and enjoy.  It thickened up nice and tasted pretty good, like i said, though, i do like the coconut milk a little better.

Potato Leek Soup
2 smallish potatoes diced
1 shallot, diced (i confess i don't have any leeks in the house)
3 garlic cloves chopped
pepper
sea salt
dash of cayenne pepper

place all into the machine, put lid on and press "paste" 

It beeped a few minutes ago and I opened 'er up.  While it does not look as thick as some cream based soups would, the potatoes should thicken the mixture up nicely, I did add more salt and think that I put just a tad too much cayenne pepper in it to begin with, hopefully that will dissipate a bit.  All in all it tastes great, I really cannot complain, I just made a fabulous soup in 20 minutes total! 

Well ta-ta for now!  If anyone has any recipes that they would like to share please feel free to post or email me.

~CM