Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco

I was very excited about a work-related trip to San Francisco, because I know the city is very vegetarian friendly. A friend and I made a point of trying a number of vegetarian restaurants there and we were not disappointed.

One night we treated ourselves to a more upscale meal, at the gourmet Millennium Restaurant. It’s situated in the Hotel California, the lobby of which has California-related lyrics stencilled all over it.

The meal started with bread served with a lentil spread. My friend told me he hated lentils and never ate them, so I deliberately didn’t let him find out what the spread was. He wolfed it up and said how much he enjoyed it and was shocked when he found out that it was made of lentils. I already knew I liked lentils, but this spread was indeed special.

Appetizers included fried green tomatoes and a spinach salad with smoked tofu. My main was seared tempeh served with grits, a peach sauce, and loads of tasty veg, while my friend had cornmeal-crusted zucchini/courgette (he told me how much he disliked polenta and was surprised to learn that cornmeal was polenta!). We couldn’t resist dessert. My friend had a peach cornmeal cake (since now he knew he liked cornmeal) and I had a chocolate almond cake to satisfy my chocolate-loving taste buds.

Everything tasted really fresh and delicious and it was great to be able to order anything we wanted from the menu and to know it was vegetarian, organic, and healthy. My friend and I were glad we treated ourselves and we’d definitely recommend the restaurant.

An Unusual Tomato Sauce

I often make curries with curry paste and coconut milk and I was planning to do that one recent night when I suddenly discovered I didn’t have any curry paste. I had to quickly rethink my dish. I looked in the cupboard and found that there was a jar of tomato-olive pasta sauce that M had bought while I was out of town. I decided to use that instead.

Oddly enough, it worked quite well with the coconut milk. I stir-fried courgette, cabbage, and cauliflower together, added some coconut milk and tomato sauce, and let that simmer for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I made some sticky rice, to which I added the rest of the coconut milk and another tablespoonful of the tomato sauce. The meal worked out quite well and I would actually make it again. I might also use the leftover tomato sauce to marinate some tofu.

Cornbread Muffins

This makes 6 muffins, but the recipe can easily be doubled. I like to serve them warm with salad. It’s nice for guests to have these muffins when they’re over for dinner, as it’s a rather unusual sort of bread (at least where I live).

Ingredients:
¾ cup cornmeal
¼ cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
30 g butter, softened
2 tbsp honey
1 cup yogurt

Instructions:
1. Mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
2. Add the butter, honey, and yogurt. Mix well.
3. Pour the batter into muffin cases or tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 190 C.
4. Serve with butter.

Baked Apples

This is a simple and relatively healthy dessert. Well, except for the cream, I guess. You can also add raisins and nuts, as desired.

Ingredients:
butter or oil for the dish
2 cooking apples
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
cream (soya cream is fine)
milk (soya milk is fine)

Instructions:
1. Grease and oven-safe dish. Wash and core the apples, leaving a bit at the bottom (in other words, made a hole in the middle of the apples, but not one that goes all the way through). Put the apples in the dish.
2. Put 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tsp vanilla in the centre of each apple. Pour cream in as well.
3. Drizzle cream on the sides of the apples and pour more cream and milk around the apples.
4. Bake for 30 minutes at 200 C.

Spicy Tofu

This is really easy and tasty. I like to add it to stir fries. For example, it goes well with aubergine, broccoli, and noodles in a peanut cream sauce.

Ingredients:
1 package tofu
2 tbsp horseradish, or to taste
1 tsp mustard powder, or to taste

Instructions:
1. Drain the tofu.
2. Coat the tofu in horseradish and mustard.
3. Bake it in the oven at 180 C for about 15 minutes, until firm and slightly golden.
4. Use the tofu in any dish you like.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

This recipe makes enough frosting for the cupcakes I posted in the last recipe. You can double it for a larger number.

You can also replace the vanilla extract with mint or almond or any other flavour.

Ingredients:
100 g butter
2 tbsp milk or cream (cream makes it richer)
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup icing sugar

Instructions:
1. In a mixer, mix the butter, cream, vanilla extract, and cocoa together until pretty smooth.
2. Add the icing sugar, about ¼ cup at a time. Mix well.
3. Taste and add more cream or vanilla if needed.
4. Frost the cupcakes (or cake) with the frosting.

Banana and Chocolate Cupcakes

I went on a cupcake kick for awhile. Here is yet another of my cupcake recipes.

Ingredients:
115 g butter
½ cup sugar
1¾ cup flour
¼ cup cocoa
1 pinch salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup milk
3 bananas, overly ripe

Instructions:
1. Cream butter and sugar together.
2. Mix the flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and cinnamon together. Then mix with the butter and sugar.
3. Mix in the milk and bananas.
4. Pour the batter into muffin tins.
5. Bake at 180 C for about 15 minutes. Frost if desired.