Iron Chef Challenge #2 - Pear walnut and banana muffins with walnut crumb topping

So I have a vegan potluck to go to today - and, as there are mountains of bananas in my fruit bowl I thought some banana muffins would go down pretty well. When I looked at some other vegan blogs I found this pretty awesome recipe at vegan visitor.

But then this morning when I woke up and started checking my blog reader I saw that the Iron Chef Challenge for week 2 of Vegan Mofo used the ingredients pears and nuts. Now pears are becoming quite expensive here (as it is now spring in Aussie) but I did have two pears in the fruit bowl. As I needed to get cooking straight away so I could get to the potluck on time, I decided to create a pear and banana muffin and use the crumb topping from vegan visitors muffins.

The muffins were a BIG hit - everyone thought they were moist and the crumb topping really went well. I did have issues keeping the walnuts from falling off the top - maybe I need to press them down more firmly next time.

Pear, walnut and banana muffins with walnut crumb topping.

1/2 cup walnuts
1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup whole meal flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup packed sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 225g (8 ounce) tub plain soy yogurt
1 large banana mashed
1 1/2 cups pears –peeled and diced
Topping
1/4 Cup Walnut Halves or Pieces
1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Rolled Oats
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Margarine
1/8 teaspoon Salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Finely grind walnuts using a mortar and pestle or a food processor.
Sift flour into a bowl; add baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in ground walnuts. Make a well in center of mixture.

Combine sugar, oil, vanilla, yogurt and banana in a small bowl, add to the flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in diced pear.

Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray.

Topping
For the walnut crumb topping I followed Vegan Visitor’s recipe here.

Bake at 180ºC on the centre rack for 18 minutes, until firm and golden or insert and remove a toothpick.
Allow muffins to rest in the tin before moving to a rack to cool.
Makes about 12 muffins.

VeganMoFo- Iron Chef Challenge - Vegan Mulligatawny

Well I only just realised that there was an Iron Chef Challenge - hence the second post today. This weeks challenge was posted by Katie - if you want more info you can get it here.

The ingredients for this week are Apple and Ginger. Now my Northern Hemisphere fellow bloggers are in Autumn and so they are in the heart of apple season - here - they are still around - but just not as nice as they are in say April or May.

I didn't really know what to do for the challenge - so I googled apple and ginger recipes and came up with Mulligatawny. It looked interesting - looked very different to anything I have ever eaten - so why not give it a try.

I have not yet ventured into the seitan realm so I thought that frozen tofu would be a perfect substitute for the chicken. Except I had no frozen tofu!!! This never happens. So I had to settle for extra firm tofu.

The results are awesome. Nat and I both love it and will make it for tea again very soon. I still think frozen tofu would be awesome to try - but I am not at all disappointed with this dish.

Vegan Mulligatawny

400g extra firm tofu (optional: freeze and then thaw/press out water)
1 inch fresh ginger - grated
2 tsp chicken style stock powder
400ml water
1 tsp sugar

1 medium onion - chopped
2 carrots - chopped
1 red capsicum - chopped
2 small or 1 large apple (I used jonagold - the recipe I found suggests Gala)
1 stick celery - chopped
1/2 cup green beans - trimmed

2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp curry powder (I used Madras)
1 tsp chili paste
1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp mango chutney
1/4 cup tomato paste

Directions

1. Cut the tofu into cubes - mix the stock powder with the water and add the ginger. pour the fix into a flat bottomed container and place tofu in to marinate - leave for a few hours.
2. When marinated, spray a heavy bottomed saucepan with cooking spray and fry the tofu for about 3-4mins - stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Remove tofu from the pan.
3. Saute onion, carrots, capsicum, apples, celery, and beans for about 5 mins.
4. Add flour, curry powder, chili paste and salt - stir to combine.
5. Add chutney and tomato paste - bring to boil and then simmer for about 10 mins.
6. Add tofu and serve over rice.