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after playing around with the excellent french toast recipie in the millenium restaurant's first cookbook, i found myself really impressed by flax seeds as an egg replacer: how often are "eggy bitts" cooked onto the bottom of each piece of french toast in other receipies? occasionally i have adapted a recipie to include flax seeds (such as the dessert crepe recipie in the now and zen epicure), but the holy grail is, of course, merengue.
i had noticed (while a raw food friend was preparring some flax crackers) that a bowl full of the seeds left in water for 20 minutes will produce a thick, clear runny liquid as the mucillagenous coat to the seed takes up water. but the results of my experiments (which ammounted to extracting the clear fluid from the seed with a french coffee press) were, when it came down to the whipping moment, an abject failure (with and without creme de tartar). i note that the french press couldn't get the thickest portion of the fluid away from the seeds. any ideas for a better pressing tool?
has anyone else had success in the elusive vegan merengue?
lex
i had noticed (while a raw food friend was preparring some flax crackers) that a bowl full of the seeds left in water for 20 minutes will produce a thick, clear runny liquid as the mucillagenous coat to the seed takes up water. but the results of my experiments (which ammounted to extracting the clear fluid from the seed with a french coffee press) were, when it came down to the whipping moment, an abject failure (with and without creme de tartar). i note that the french press couldn't get the thickest portion of the fluid away from the seeds. any ideas for a better pressing tool?
has anyone else had success in the elusive vegan merengue?
lex
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Wed, December 7, 2005 - 7:21 PMWell, I know how to make a raw vegan merengue type substance. I work in a Raw Vegn Cafe and we make lemon merengue pie and many others. Generally, our merengues are a combination of soaked cashews, almond mylk, sometimes cocount meat, sometimes coconut butter, agave, and salt. You can play around with these a bit. I know the cashews are essential to make it creamy and then some sort of liquid or softer substance like coconut meat, coconut milk, almond mylk will help with the frothy...then flavorings (vanilla-non-alcoholic, salt, etc.) -
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Unsu...
Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Thu, December 8, 2005 - 1:43 PMhey there! thank you!
what kind of machinery are you using to frothify and otherwise play around with your food texturally? will any good food processor and blender set up work or is there something else needed?
lex -
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Fri, May 5, 2006 - 4:01 PMA good blender to make the consistency smooth is important. It requires being chilled to allow the coconut butter to set. To make it appear "merengue" like, I spread it over whatever pie I am making and use a spoon to make peaks
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Unsu...
Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Fri, December 9, 2005 - 10:23 AMVegan lemon Merengue....????? really?? yummy? and raw!!! wow!
My wife loves lemon meringue but I haven't found a good Vegan recipe...could you post a recipe or would your café have issues with that? -
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Fri, May 5, 2006 - 4:06 PMYes, I can post the recipes, however the unfortunate part is that we use an ingredient you just can't get anywhere. We use Irish Moss in it's pure seaweed form delivered straight from the carribean to "gelatinize" the lemon custard part and the merengue part. I hear you can find Irish Moss in powder form at some health food stores, but it doesn't work the same or taste the same.
The lemon custard part, I suppose could be done with agar agar or pectin or some other vegan gelatinizing agent. It's pretty much 2 cups of lemon jiuce blended with the Irish Moss and 1 cup of agave nectar witha touch of turmeric for color.
The Merengue piece is as foloows:
2 oz. Irish Moss blended up with 2/3 cup water until slightly warm and completely pureed
add 4 cups of coconut milk
1 cup soaked cashews (wet measured)
1 cup coconut meat
3/4 cup agave nectar
salt and vanilla to taste
blend until completely smooth
Then add
3 tbsp pwdered or liquid lecithin
1 1/2 cups melted coconut butter (preferably unscented)
Set in the freezer or refrigerator -
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Unsu...
Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Fri, May 5, 2006 - 4:44 PMooo. I can get irish moss here in Toronto. There's a big jamaican population and I know a jamiacan restaurant where they have irish moss!! yippeee! -
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Sat, May 6, 2006 - 10:02 AMThat's very cool! Do they sell online? :) -
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Unsu...
Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Fri, May 26, 2006 - 9:23 AM"Do they sell online? :) "
no it's just the local corner store...I recomend calling a jamaican restaurant or carribean grocery store in your area..they'll know where to find it...irish moss is made into a traditional jamaican drink.
Worse case I could always mail it to you :-) -
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Sun, May 28, 2006 - 5:03 PMYou know, this is good info to have. I don't need any Irish Moss right now, but I will keep[ in mind contacting a Jamaican restaurant. I've used it in drinks at work, as well, and it is yummy. If I wind up in some sort of Irish Moss emergency, I will be sure to contact you. Thank you for the offer :)
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Wed, May 24, 2006 - 1:03 PMwhat Raw restaurant did you work at? i am trying to come up with a good raw frosting recipe for a raw carrot cake. Cafe Gratitude makes an awsome one for their strawberry shortcake and uses irish moss which i have but havenot had much sucess in using. -
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Sun, May 28, 2006 - 5:01 PMI am one of the dessert chefs at Cafe Gratitude (the one on Harrison and 20th). We do not use Irish Moss in the frosting for the strawberry shortcake. It's actually pretty simple:
3 cups coconut milk (our coconut milk is fresh coconut water and meat blended together, but I bet canned would work just fine)
2 cups soaked cashews
3/4 cup agave
salt, vanilla
blend together
Add:
3 tbsp lecithin
Blend
Add: 3/4 cup coconut butter (unscented and melted)
Blend
Set in refrigerator or freezer.
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Unsu...
Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Fri, May 26, 2006 - 11:45 AMa few questions
the powdered lecihin...is it soy lecithin?...and my health food store says he only has granules...is that powdered? in granules?
thanx
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Sun, May 28, 2006 - 5:02 PMYes, it is soy lecithin. It comes in both powder form and liquid. I have liquid at home and use the granules at work and both work just fine. I think the granules are powdered. Does it look like a powder?
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Tue, March 14, 2006 - 5:20 PMyou cant get the thick part of the extract because it is soluble fiber, not protien solution., it will not work, but a french press is a good idea. i almost have a vegan meringue, ill publish it soon. :) -
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Unsu...
Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Wed, March 22, 2006 - 6:58 PMhi susie!
of course, you'e mad right. but it seems (visually) that some of the thicker part is also soluable... maybe i'm smoking crack... like i can smear it on my hands, but the press ain't tuff enuff...
anywho... i am waiting with baited breath...
cheerie doodles!
lex -
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Thu, March 23, 2006 - 12:01 AMsoaked flax seeds, strain with 4 layers of cheese cloth, make a ball, squish.
or
2 eggs = 2 dried apricots, soaked overnight in 2-4 ounces of water each apricot, blend like mad, voila, fake egg.
and
has anyone played around with agar agar. try it, it's like gello without the bone marrow.
good luck.
niko -
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Unsu...
Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Fri, April 7, 2006 - 7:11 PMreally?!?! apricots?! NO! ... really? wow! aprictos!
gonna go try it... :}
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Sat, May 6, 2006 - 8:51 AMAgar Agar, yes! It is popular in macrobiotic cooking, so recipes can be found there (sorry, I don't have any with me). For the best results, it should be cooked with fruit juice for a while. You can pay A LOT for agar agar in health food stores, but it is very cheap in Chinatown. Look for telephone brand in little packets.
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Tue, July 20, 2010 - 8:32 AMAgar is a natural gelatin derived from an edible sea vegetable and has been used for centuries. It's a great source of nutrition: iodine, calcium, phosphorous and those ever elusive "trace elements".
Important points:
* Agar sets at room temp making it very different from traditional gelatin.
* When combined with citrus you'll probably need 10 - 20 % more to achieve a proper gel vs a sauce
* Flakes dissolve more easily during cooking if soaked briefly first - use similar technique as when "blooming" gelatin - about 10 minutes without stirring.
* Unlike traditional gelatin, Agar can be reheated and re-jelled if you need to adjust the firmness/texture of your dish.
Agar comes in three forms - flakes, bars and powder. It is easy to substitute Agar for traditional gelatin (think Knox) but it's not a one-to-one substitution. You'll need 3X the amount of Agar. So - 1T Agar flakes= 1tsp gelatin and jellies 1C liquid. I like the flakes best since both the process and the substitution math is easier. 1 Agar bar = 4T of Agar flakes. Bars are soaked in cold water then squeezed dry. They are then shredded into your liquid and cooked until dissolved (about 7 min after boiling is achieved)
Hope that helps,
Stacy
Private Chef, NYC
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Re: vegan egg whites and vegan merengue
Mon, January 31, 2011 - 11:55 AMFlax = Lecithin and you can just purchase lecithin in a powder form.
