Crunchy Roasted Chickpea!

Chickpeas (German "Kichererbsen"), or garbanzo beans, ARE SOOO TASTY!  Sorry...  I was just thinking out loud...
So...  I read about roasted chickpeas Anne's Food: Roasted Chickpeas and I tried it out following the instructions exactly, but I ran into a couple of problems...  So I did 3 batches just to address these issues...

First, the ingredients...  If I use canned chickpeas, the nutritional values are compromised and dried chickpeas are a bit cheaper than canned.  (Humus 101: Dried vs. Canned Chickpeas)   Thus, I bought dried chickpeas and soaked in water for 6 - 8 hours (using warm water would soak the peas a bit faster than using cold water would).

Second, I roasted at 225°C (about 440°F) and the peas POPPED all over in the oven!  I mean, I don't want to clean up the oven every time I roast some chickpeas...  So I addressed the issue with boiling the chickpeas till they are soft (just like the canned ones!) and then I roasted them at much lower temperature of 180°C (about 350°F) for a bit longer time.

The chickpeas were popping everywhere with high heat!

Lastly, I wanted the chickpeas to salt more evenly and complete, so I had 2 salting process, first before popping into oven then I salt it again at the spicing process.

So here's my take on the super crunchy roasted chickpeas!  I heard that using curry powder instead of cumin gives a nice taste also!

Uber Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas
Preparation time:  8 hours soaking, 20 minutes boiling
Roasting time:  15 - 20 minutes before spiced, 15 - 20 minutes after spiced
Yield:  about ½ cup (125 ml)

Metrics Measurements	U.S. Measurements	Ingredients
125 mL	½ cup	dried chickpeas (Kichererbsen)
(1 can)	(1 16-oz can)	(canned chickpeas, start from step 3)
2.5 mL (5g)	½ tsp	salt (for the first salting)
2.5 mL (5g)	½ tsp	salt (for the second salting with the spices)
5 mL	1 tsp	ground cumin
2.5 mL	½ tsp	paprika powder (Paprika)
5 mL	1 tsp	olive oil

***CAUTION!! "Cumin" is NOT the same as German word "Kümmel", "Kümmel" in English is "caraway seed"
***Notice that if you are using canned chickpeas, start with step 3.

Direction:
1.  Soak the dried chickpeas over night or for at least 6 - 8 hours, till they are completely soaked to the heart.  They'll grow 1/3 bigger than its original size.
2.  Boil the chickpeas 15 - 20 minuteswith water fill up to just above the peas in the pot.  They should be soft to the center when you taste one.
3.  Drain the water and mix in about ½ teaspoon of salt.  Mix well.
4.  Pop the salted chickpeas into the oven 180°C (350°F), preheat is not required, spread them over a parchment paper or oiled surface on a baking tray and roast for about 15 - 20 minutes.
5.  Combine the spices (salt, ground cumin, paprika and oil) and mix them in a bowl big enough for the chickpeas to go into.
6.  Take out the half-roasted chickpeas and put them into the spice bowl and toss them so that every chickpea has some spice on them.
7.  Pop the spiced chickpeas back into the oven for 15 - 20 minutes, or till they get slightly brown.  Make sure to keep an eye on the peas to make sure that they don't burn!  They are ready when you taste one, it’s crunchy on the outside and about 85% to 90% crunchy on the inside, take them out, they’d be completely crunchy after you let sit till they cool down.

Soaking the chickpeas over night

Completely soaked

Boiling the chickpeas

Salting the boiled chickpeas

Spread the chickpeas around before popping them into the oven

Mix the spices while waiting for the chickpeas to roast a bit

Toss the half-roasted chickpeas with spices and popping them back into the oven.

FINITO!!!!

Do you have more chickpeas and don't know what to do with them?  Here's hummus recipe and falafel recipe!

I'm all rhubarb-ed out today, how about you?

'Tis Spring time, time for rhubarb!  I saw a kilo of Rhabarber selling for €1.29, it was pretty cheap, so I bought a package of it.  It contained 5 ginormous stabs of rhubarb!

I have to say that I'm not all that advance in the taste of rhubarb just yet.  I can't control just how rhubarb has to be prepared to taste a certain way.  Rhubarb isn't so popular in So Cal, so for the last year, I experimented on rhubarb also...  But it didn't help.  So this time, I decided to make a spread with rhubarb, so I can fully experience the taste and let my rhubarb taste simmer into my taste buds.

It's very basic, the recipe is basically calling about 2:1 ratio of the weight of rhubarb and sugar.  Volume-wise...  about 3:1 ratio.

This time I added lemon, but if you have orange and wanted to add orange juice instead, you can also juice 1 orange and add it in.  OR you can add in strawberries instead, frozen or fresh!  About maybe 200g - 300g (1 cup) strawberries would be nice (make it more red).  Raspberries can also be added instead!  Depends how much (and how expensive) raspberries are, 100g would probably be enough.

Rhubarb Spread

Preparation time:  5 - 10 minutes
Cooking/simmering time:  20 minutes
Yield:  about 1 liter of spread

1kg rhubarb ("Rhabarber")
400g brown sugar (or sugar of your preference)
½ lemon

1.  Wash the rhubarb and chop them up in about 1.5 cm in length.

2.  Toss the rhubarb pieces into a large pan, add in the sugar and squeeze in the juice from the lemon.
3.  Turn on the heat to medium and close the lid for 10 minutes or until the pieces can easily form into sauce when stirred.
4.  Take off the lid and start stir the sauce constantly to prevent it sticking on the bottom of the pan and avoid bubbles to burst the sauce everywhere.
5.  Once the sauce becomes more gooey, it is done and can be put into jars.

This spread tastes quite tangy...  It doesn't need pectin or agar-agar to thicken it; it is naturally tart-like once it's finished.

This way rhubarb spread can't escape from my realm!!MUST EAT IT ALL!!!

German Food Labeling

Coming from California, I was used to really carefully labeled food information and ingredient specifications.  I was utterly surprised that German food labeling don't seem to have a proper standard!

The very basic food labeling should include (for both allergies and nutrition reasons):
- Allergy information
- Countries of origin (planting/production, packaging and distribution)
- Correct ingredient labeling (actual comprehensible names for the ingredients AND label the ingredients!)
- Nutritional fact
- GMO or non-GMO crop (I deem it as a very important label!)
Sometimes most of these pieces of information were missing, some were labeled ambiguously.  Once I saw a honey (from black-yellow Netto) with a country-of-origin label, and what was stated was "outside of European countries".  What country is that exactly, then?  Oh, let's just guess from the about 170 countries that it has narrowed down for us!

I bought a bottle of carbonated mineral water from Netto (the red-yellow sign Netto, from Wikipedia Netto entry), everything seemed normal until I was curious enough to read what was written on the label:

It basically claimed, "this bottle of carbonated mineral water is vegan friendly," which isn't the wildest claim, but a redundant label.

Now to reinforcing the food labeling.  Being in California, food labeling from imported food products were also very strict.  Nutrition information must be clear and in the standard format required by FDA, Food and Drug Administration (FDA on food labeling and USDA site).

Once, I was shopping in an Asian market, I saw miso (a type of fermented soy bean paste), I didn't know which one to take, so after checking the ingredients in German, I chose a small packaged bag.  Then after I started to cook with it and tasted the food, something tasted wrong, since I haven't had fish for a long time, fishy taste tastes very strong to me.  I check the label in German again to see if I overlooked an item.  Nothing.  I started to force myself to utilize my rusty Japanese skill and checked the ingredients one by one, there were numerous items that were not labeled and "bonito powder" was among them.

Anyone who reads Japanese more fluently would say that "it's clearly labeled in the front in Japanese!!"  It says "Marukome - includes stock of katsuo and konbu"  But I'd argue that it is sold in Germany and at least the German label has to have what is written on the Japanese label as well!  The label in the front says "katsuo" (bonito) and "konbu" (kelp), yet the German label states NOTHING of the two.
There were merely 3 ingredients on the German label:
soy beans, rice and salt, also it warns that it may contain traces of barley
The Japanese label states:
non-GMO soy beans, rice, salt, bonito powder, seaweed extract, various flavorings (amino acids and others) and alcohol
TOO MUCH information was unforgivably missing.  This is the JFC international food exporting responsibilities, but without a stronger policy, it is not likely to change, meaning people in Germany would have to read multiple languages to make sure what they are eating is exactly what they think they are eating.

Food mislabeling is one of the most disturbing things to people with allergic reactions and food restrictions.

Spicy and Fermented! Kimchi! (with a vegan twist)

My apology for not having updated last week, I was too busy studying for an exam.  Now that is all over, I shall continue and post 3 types of kimchi recipes to make it up!

So we were just at the end of the cabbage season and right in the middle of radish (or daikon) AND  the Nashi pear (Asian pear) season.

What can we do with these 3 things?  WE CAN MAKE KIMCHI!

Kimchi is a traditional Korean fermented food that is a must in every Korean household, either store-bought or home-made.  But since a lot of kimchi requires for the use of Korean fish sauce, salty dried anchovy or other seafood (like octopus, clamps and so on) and vegans know just how these organisms are being over-fished and it is not sustainable to continue eating, we are making vegan kimchi.

Kimchi is basically fermenting vegetables in a low temperature (by low, I meant humanly environment) for a while with flavors seasoned into it while fermenting.  One day I craved for my Mom's kimchi, so I attempted it myself, and I was surprised that it's so simple!

I tried to get something similar to the traditional Korean red chili powder, since they don't have seeds and have finer grain, but I couldn't find any in German shops in Berlin, and I thought these recipes are supposed to be locally accessible ingredients anyway, so I just got the chili flakes (available in Kaufland or Real, I think any big super market in a bag).  You could of course get those finely grained chili powder they sell in a very small container and very expensive, but they are not spicy at all (you know what I'm talking about, those "Ostmann" and other brands, expensive spices!)

Please try to get sea salt or kosher salt, the kind WITHOUT iodine, because iodinized salt hinders fermentation process.

Since these kimchi does not use the traditional salty fish sauce, I used seaweed to compensate for the sea taste and used a bit more salt.

Mak Kimchi (the simple lazy way, for people just in it for the fermented taste of cabbage and spicy chili)

Preparation time:  20 to 30 minutes

Fermenting time:  at least 4 days (warmer days) and 6 or 7 days (colder days), even up to 3 weeks (in fridge)

Yield:  about 1 liter of kimchi

500g (about 1 lb) Chinese cabbage (or Napa cabbage, it's known as "China Kohl" in Germany)

40 - 60g (2 - 3 tbsp) Sea salt (the kind in big chunks without iodine or kosher salt, if you really don't have it, normal table salt is O.K., but it'd hinders the fermentation a little bit)

8 - 15g (2 - 3 tbsp) Red chili powder

20g (1 tbsp) Sea salt (for fermentation process)

1.  Wash the cabbage well, separating the leaves and wash leaf-by-leaf.

2.  Chop the cabbage into 3 - 4 cm wide pieces (horizontally, starting from the tip of the leaf to the bottom), if the length of the pieces are too long, chop it in half and put into a big bowl.

3.  Add 40 - 60 g of salt into the cabbage bowl and toss and turn with your hands, make sure the salt is evenly distributed.

(Wait for about 20 to 30 minutes for the salt to work its magic on the cabbage.)

4.  After the salting process, there should be some juice from the cabbage coming out.  Tenderly rinse the salt off the cabbage leaves with water once or twice, make sure that the cabbages are not squeezed.  Try to dump all the liquid out of the bowl when finished rinsing.

5.  Add about 20 g of salt and chili powder into the cabbage bowl (if you don't like spiciness, add less chili or none), and stir well with GLOVED hands if you are using chili powder.

6.  In an air-tight jar or tapper ware, then put in the cabbages, it's important that you lightly pat it when putting them in, so not so much bubbles are stuck in between.  LEAVE AT LEAST 2-cm GAP IN BETWEEN THE LID AND THE TOP OF THE CABBAGE, since during fermentation, bubbles will expand and the jar might be overflowing with liquid.

** NOTICE:

- During the fermentation process, it is O.K. to open the lid, the air-tight container is for the smell not to get out in the kitchen or the refrigerator.

- Tasting the kimchi is fine, but if you are looking for the sourness in the fermented kimchi, you'd have to wait till when little or no air bubbles are coming up and the cabbage volume start to shrink a little (meaning that the fermentation slowed down) and this is when kimchi is sour.

Mak Kimchi (more flavored)

Preparation time:  30 - 40 minutes

Fermentation time:  at least 4 - 5 days (if you leave it in room temperature)

Yield:  ¾ - 1 liter of kimchi

Flavoring

25g (1½ tbsp) glutenous rice flour*** (optional)

80 ml (⅓ cup) water*** (optional)

10g (½ tbsp) sugar*** (optional)

25g (3 - 4 tbsp) chili powder (actually it depends on how hot you want it to be)

5 - 10g (½ tbsp) ginger (very finely chopped, more like minced)

30g (3 tbsp) radish (or daikon) (in very thin strips)

20g (2 tbsp) carrots (in very thin strips)

½ sheet seaweed (rip in pieces)

40g (2 tbsp) sea salt (or kosher salt, iodine salt is the last resort, it hinders fermentation process)

Cabbage

500g (1 lb) Chinese cabbage (or Napa cabbage, known as "China Kohl" in Germany)

60 - 75 (3 - 4 tbsp) sea salt  (for adding to cabbage to sit, later would be rinsed off)

20g (1 tbsp) sea salt (for keeping in the jar)

1.  Wash Chinese cabbage well, washing by separating them into individual leaves.

2.  Chop the cabbage in about 3-cm strips, starting to chop from the top to to the bottom, if the strip is too long, cut it in half of its length.

3.  Toss the cabbage in a big bowl and put in the salt and toss and turn the leaves around in the bowl a bit.

(while the cabbage is sucking on salt)

(the next step is optional, only if you do have the material and do decide to make the glutenous rice paste)

4.  Water + glutenous rice powder in a sauce pan, heat with constant stirring till it gets thicker.  Turn to medium to small heat, add in the sugar and stir till it gets even thicker.  Now it's completely cooked.  Set aside to cool off.***

(while waiting for the porridge to cool to room temperature)

5.  Chop up the radish and carrot and mince the ginger.

6.  Turn and flip around the cabbage a bit.

(Once the glutenous rice porridge gets to about room temperature)

7.  In the porridge bowl (or just a bowl if you don't have the porridge), add in chili powder in the porridge*** (if you don't have the porridge, just mix together without it) and mix well.

Add salt first and stir.

Add pieces of seaweed second and stir.

Now add in the ginger and stir.

Then finally add the radish and carrot strips, this way nothing would be lumped together so the stuff would be more evenly distributed.

8.  Wash and rinse off the salt from cabbage with water gently, not to squeeze the leaves, just once or twice.  Afterwards, you can taste that the cabbage is still crispy and fresh, but a bit salty, and could be even sweet!  Get rid of excess water after rinsing.

9.  Add about 20g (1 tbsp) of salt in the cabbage again.  Then add in the porridge paste (or the mixture of flavoring) into the cabbage bowl.  NOW!!  WEAR A PLASTIC GLOVE OR USE A PLASTIC BAG AS GLOVE ON ONE HAND!  Toss and mix around well with your hand.

10.  In an air-tight jar/tapper ware/container of about ¾ - 1 liter, stuff in the cabbages and everything else.  Padding on it lightly to eliminate the air in between the cabbages.  Remember to leave about 2-cm gab between the top of the cabbage and the lid to avoid overflowing of liquid during the fermentation process.

** NOTICE:

- During the fermentation process, it is O.K. to open the lid, the air-tight container is for the smell not to get out in the kitchen or the refrigerator.

- Tasting the kimchi is fine, but if you are looking for the sourness in the fermented kimchi, you'd have to wait till when little or no air bubbles are coming up and the cabbage volume start to shrink a little (meaning that the fermentation slowed down) and this is when kimchi is sour.

*** Optional ingredients

The red one is mak kimchi, the white one is mul kimchi (water kimchi).

Mul Kimchi (water kimchi)

Preparation time:  20 minutes

Fermentation time:  at least 4 - 5 days (if you leave it in room temperature, I heard it takes about 3 weeks in the refrigerator)

Yield:  about 2 liters of kimchi

500g (½ lb) Chinese cabbage (or Napa cabbage, known as "China Kohl" in Germany)

500g (1 lb) Radish (or daikon)

½ of a Nashi pear (or Asian pear)

2 pieces (each about 7 cm in length) green chili peppers, one can be red chili pepper (fresh!)

40g (2 tbsp) sea salt (or kosher salt, iodine salt is the last resort, it hinders fermentation process)

½ liter (2 cups) water (at room temperature)

20g (1 tbsp) sugar*** (optional)

1.  In a big jar or a big bowl, add in the water, salt and sugar*** (optional) and stir until everything is melted.

2.  Wash the chili pepper.  Cut open the chili pepper in half vertically, remove the seeds and chop it up finely, in strips or in 0.7-cm strips (just finely).  Add the chopped chili pepper into the bowl or jar of water mixture.

3.  Wash the Nashi pear, peal it, and chop it into small pieces (smaller than ¼ of a bite size).  Add it into the water mixture.

4.  Wash the cabbage well, separating the leaves and wash leaf-by-leaf.  Chop the cabbage into 3-cm strips, chopping from the from top to the bottom.  Add the chopped cabbage into the water mixture.

5.  Wash the radish well.  Quarter the radish vertically (the cross-section area should be about 2 cm-by-2 cm or 3 cm-by-3 cm), then slice the radish in about 0.5-cm or 0.7-cm thickness.  Add the chopped cabbage into the water mixture.

6.  Stir all the ingredients well.  If you started with a bowl, you need to put the finished "soup" into an air-tight jar/tapper ware/container, leaving about 2 cm from the top of the "soup" to the lid to prevent overflowing of the liquid during fermentation process.

** NOTICE:

- During the fermentation process, it is O.K. to open the lid, the air-tight container is for the smell not to get out in the kitchen or the refrigerator.

- Tasting the kimchi is fine, but if you are looking for the sourness in the fermented kimchi, you'd have to wait till when little or no air bubbles are coming up and the cabbage volume start to shrink a little (meaning that the fermentation slowed down) and this is when kimchi is sour.

The white one on the left is mul kimchi, the red one on the right is mak kimchi.

Kkakdugi (for the lazy)

Preparation time:  20 minutes

Fermentation time:  at least 4 - 5 days (if you leave it in room temperature, I heard it takes about 3 weeks in the refrigerator)

Yield:  about ½ liter or more of kimchi

500g (1 lb) radish (or daikon)

40 - 60g (2 - 3 tbsp) sea salt (or kosher salt, iodine salt is the last resort, it hinders fermentation process)

25g (3 - 4 tbsp) chili powder (actually it depends on how hot you want it to be)

1.  Wash the radish well and chop it into about 2 cm-by-2 cm size cubes.

2.  In a bowl, add the radish and the salt and stir well.

3.  Add in the chili powder and mix well.

4.  Put the seasoned radish into an air-tight jar/tapper ware/container.  After a while there would be some liquid in there and some bubbles during fermentation process.

** NOTICE:

- During the fermentation process, it is O.K. to open the lid, the air-tight container is for the smell not to get out in the kitchen or the refrigerator.

- Tasting the kimchi is fine, but if you are looking for the sourness in the fermented kimchi, you'd have to wait till when little or no air bubbles are coming up and the cabbage volume start to shrink a little (meaning that the fermentation slowed down) and this is when kimchi is sour.

There is about 250g of radish in the jar.

Vegan's Take on Cupcakes... LOCALLY in Berlin!!

I shall start with something sugary as a sweet start to this blog.

Cupcake has been popular for a number of years in the U.S.  Naturally, vegan communities in the U.S. has also been tackling the balance between their taste buds and a life style they have chosen.  A number of vegan cook books have taken on the challenge to make that happen, and one of the most distinguished and recognizable cupcake cook book is called "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule", which includes an admirable effort and astonishing number of cupcakes and tips to make cupcakes vegan.

My sister has made some cupcakes a while back when I went back to the U.S.  After I bit into the consistency and the taste, I asked for the recipe.  She has modified the cupcake recipe a bit, but the recipe was originally based on "Golden Vanilla Cupcakes" from a recipe site called "Culinate".  What I found most challenging in vegan cake-making (or baking) is that the ratio of oil, sugar and flour often deceives the outcome.  What I mean is that when you measured the amount, everything seems to be in order, but once the outcome reveals in its mysterious way, I would see that the cake is actually way too greasy (in a "moist" sense, since oil gives the "moist" feeling in cakes) or that the outcome is way too sweet.  Having trouble testing recipes as I did, I came to develope a rule of thumb in regards to making cakes, the sugar and flour volumn ratio is usually about 1.5:2 (please refer to the ratios that I work for me if you want some reference).

After knowing my sister's modifications, I started testing my own modification...  So here is my take on the vegan cupcakes.

What I chose for the ingredients:

First of all, I used a type of margarine, I guess, what is commonly used in a lot of vegan recipe as a replacement to butter, "margarine", which is a plant-based, industrially derived oil.  Margarine typically higher in "saturated fat" (vegetable shortening, partially hydrogenated, hydrogenated, and in some cases trans fat, or "gehärtetes Öl", "gehärtetes Fett", here's a nice diagram denoting how long these industrially-made molecules are on Wikipedia page, the longer they are, the less able your body can process them).  This brings out a question of German's food labeling, but that is a topic for another day.  I chose this brand after carefully reading the ingredients and selecting them.  Most of all German margarines I came across in any store have "hydrogenated oil" (gehärtetes Öl) as one of their ingredients.  Try to eat as healthy and not taking a toll on my body as much as possible, I almost never choose product that has "partially hydrogenated oil" or "hydrogenated oil" in it.  Finally, there was a product that doesn't state it as an ingredient and looks very legit (although in reality, the nutritional values are not stated clearly, it doesn't separate the "unsaturated fat" and "saturated fat" like the U.S. FDA would have required), the "Flora Reform-Margarine" (found in Berlin's "Real" and "Kaufland" grocery stores):

The detailed description of the product and why I chose this product over the others is on "Ingredients Reference" page.

For pure soy milk, I mean just extracted from pure soy and water, without all those calcium-something, flavorings and salt.  There are a number of brands out there, the easiest place to access those in Berlin is undoubtedly health-conscious, organic-oriented health food store "Vitalia Reformhaus".  I used granoVita's Soja-Drink:

Vinegar has to be the lightly favorful cooking vinegar ("Tafel Essig"), such as apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar (unsweetened) or wine vinegar, about 5% acidity are all O.K.  But definitely NOT heavy flavored ones like balsamic and other ones out there (fruit-flavored and Chinese dark vinegar 烏醋, you know just who you are!).

All-purpose flour means it's not weak flour ("cake flour" or type 550) and contains more gluten than weak flour and will result in slightly harder outcome.  Although it is not that big of an issue, use what you have on hand, just try not to use those contains more high gluten, unless you have a special fondness to chewy cakes, then I would have absolutely no objection.

Recipes from the U.S. usually state the unit by volume, which is a great reference if you have no weight in your kitchen (described as "weightless", hehehehehehehe...) to do a volume ratio.  Here I will also do the same and give relative weight of the ingredients.

Golden Vegan Vanilla "Just-As-Nice-and-Even-Better-For-the-Earth" Cupcake

Preparation time:  about 10 minutes (batter)
Baking time:  about 20 minutes
Yield:  about a dozen cupcakes

Metrics Measurements	U.S. Measurements	Ingredients
250 ml (300mg)	1 cup	soy milk, unsweetened and unflavored ("plain" or "original" soy-and-water soy milk)
5 mL (5g)	1 teaspoon	apple cider vinegar (or any other 5%-acidity, light-flavored, like wine vinegar, rice vinegar, but NOT balsamic or anything like that)
312.5 mL (170g)	1¼ cup	all-purpose flour (wheat, of course, Mehltyp 405 or 550)
30 mL (7.5g) (OR 15 mL)	2 tablespoons (OR 1½ tablespoon)	corn starch (Maisstärke, or any old baking starch) (instead of corn starch, use flaxseed meal) (OR flaxseed meal)
3.7 mL (11g)	¾ teaspoon	baking powder ("Backpulver")
2.5 mL (7.5g)	½ teaspoon	baking soda ("Natron")
2.5 mL (10g)	½ teaspoon	salt
62.5 mL (50g)	¼ cup	non-hydrogenated plain margarine with no flavorings (like salt or olive...), softened in room temperature
83 mL (74g)	¼ cup	vegetable oil
180 mL (90g)	¾ cup	brown sugar
5 mL (7g)	2 teaspoons	vanilla extract (or vanilla sugar)
1.25 mL (2g)	¼ teaspoon	almond extract (or caramel extract or MORE vanilla extract if you don't have them!  Yay!)

Direction:
1.  Preheat oven to 350°F (or 175°C).
2.  Add vinegar into soy milk in a bowl, let it sit a couple of minutes while you prepare other stuff.
3.  Whip together the margarine, oil, brown sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract till it gets fluffy (and if you don't have a device to do that for you, simply stir evenly).  Then add in the soy milk.
4.  In a separate large bowl, combine in flour, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda and salt, then add in the oil-sugar-soy milk mixture.
Make sure there is no clumps of flour.
5.  Lay the muffin/cupcake parchment paper ("Backpapier") cups, and pour into the muffin baking tray and pour in the batter into the cups till about 85% to 90% filled.
6.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.  The cupcakes are done when they appear golden yellow and/or poked with a stick and pulled out with no batter sticking on it.
7.  After taken out of the oven, make sure to take them out of the tray, or else the water vapor gets accumulated on tray and the cupcakes.

What about the signature cream on top of the cupcakes?
For the amount of one cupcake cream, whip or cream together (by hand or machine) about :

Preparation time:  7 minutes
Yield:  cream for just one cupcake

1 tablespoon (15 ml or 6 g) confectioner's sugar, unbleached powdered sugar ("Zucker Pulver"), add more if the feel it's not up to your sugar-craving standard.
1 tablespoon (15 ml or 12.5 g) margarine

Powdered sugar and white sugar (any old white cane sugar, sugar extracted from cane or "Zuckerrohr") usually uses a refining filter that contains animal bone char, which is a de-coloration process or bleaching process. This would make vast majority of the commercial powdered sugar non-vegetarian and especially non-vegan. However, if the sugar comes from sugar beet ("Zuckerrübe"), it will not go through this process and is considered vegan by the pourists. In Germany, since cane is grown in warmer locations like sub-tropical or tropical area, majority of the sugar will be derived from sugar beet, so it'd be safe to say that most of the sugar you see in Germany is from sugar beet. (Although I cannot guarantee if they combine cane sugar and beet sugar in the process for some reason or the other...)

To avoid this issue, you can simply use finer sized brown sugar, or use a salt crasher to create finer sugar.

Then you can add any flavor you like and combine the creamed sugar-margarine mixture!  Here are some examples:

Coffee
a small dash of ground coffee powder
½ teaspoon (1.25 ml or 1 g) coffee (you know, share a little of your coffee from your brewed coffee, sharing is caring!)

Cherry (Strawberry flavor is the same way also!)
1 teaspoon of cherry jam

Chocolate
1 teaspoon of unsweetened plain cocoa powder
And maybe some sprinkle of dark cocoa chocolate on top of the cupcake after putting on the cream (make sure there is no diary product in there)

Coconut
2 teaspoons (or more if you want it to be stronger) coconut powder (available in most Asian markets)
If you want, sprinkle on some coconut shreds on top of the cream on the cupcake to please your eyes, teehee!

Be creative, it's up to you to make some new flavors!  :]

I hope you guys enjoyed it!

You might be interested in making blueberry-banana muffins, too!

Curious about how to make soy milk yourself?

Ingredients Ground Rule

Every time I go to the supermarket and eying something new that I would like to try, I would spend a good amount of time checking the ingredients. If it is an item that I really want to try but it sometimes contains ingredients that I avoid, I would look really hard for a similar item by other brands.

Needless to say though, the recipes will of course have all vegan ingredients, but in addition, for a healthier and more natural recipes, here are the items in food that I would be avoiding.

Ingredients Selection

Since I don't eat garlic, onion, leek or asafoetida (an Indian spice), these ingredients would not be used, but you are welcome to add those items in your food if you like the taste.

Aim

Using ingredients as natural and unaltered as possible for a health vegan eating. Avoid using artificial food coloring, partial hydrogenated oil, hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, saccharin, conservatives and other highly processed food additives.

(Alle Rezepte werden ohne Farbstoffe, gehärtet Öl, Glucose-Fructose-Sirup, Saccharin, Konservierungsmittel und so weiter.)

Mission: Vegan in Berlin, an Intro...

After more than 15 years of being a vegetarian and coming from the US, especially from the produce state of California (yay, southern California, sunny SoCal!), where being vegan is a much easier choice, I found myself very lonely in Berlin.

I have to say that I'm, in fact, not vegan, although sometimes I think I might as well be.

Being of East-Asian ethnic and all, my diet consists almost all non-dairy, plus I am, proudly (?), lactose intolerant (like most of normal healthy adult mammals) to fresh milk and German's very fresh cream cheese ("Frischkäse"), as I realized later in an extremely painful experience. (Ah, thinking about it, I still almost have some tears in my eyes...)

Due to being a lacto-vegetarian (not ovo) who eats mostly just like a vegan, except occasionally eating diary products, I hardly eat out. After spending a year and a half in Berlin, I found that eating vegan in Berlin is actually very pricy in specialty restaurants. I like to make things from scratch, especially from raw ingredients that are as natural as possible. Sometimes there are pricy imitation fake-meaty-eggy products available, but most of the time we have to give way to chemically produced "natural" artificial flavoring and "natural" colors. And if proving that being a vegan or a vegetarian is a healthier choice, I do so prefer making stuff from raw produces.

My attempt of this blog is to perhaps give a new and tasty way of living vegan in a place where produce is abundant. (Although the organic produce here in Berlin proved to be a lot more expensive than that of SoCal, the fresh in-season produces are a lot cheaper than that of SoCal! Which I find utterly amazing about Berlin! I tried, but I just couldn't figure out how the in-season produce prices stay so low here.)

I will try to post up at least one recipe a week, ranging from vegan dishes to desserts, even nostalgic comfort food, along side with the possible vegan products and vegan options available. I hope I can be of help to anyone vegan out there and share the experience with me!