VeganMoFo Day 18-Iron Chef Challenge #2: Lemon and Ginger

This weeks Iron Chef challenge was hard and easy all at the same time, with lemon and ginger as the key ingredients. Easy, because it's lemon + ginger, which already is a total flavor marriage, but hard because it was really hard to narrow it down what to make. Let the wild rumpus start! (sorry, I've been all about Where the Wild Things Are this weekend.)


C, from Cardamom and Cast Iron, was super-ambitious and made TWO entries for this week, Lemon-ginger Muffins and Pomegranate-Lemon-Ginger Syrup. I'm a firm believer in adding fruit to sweets or alcoholic drinks and calling it a healthy, merry day.



Veg-in-Training made a spicy sour soup, that I am coveting big time on this gloomy, feeling-a-cold-coming-on sunday evening. Yum!


Laura, from Peace by Pastries, made the most perfect looking Lemon-ginger scones I've ever seen. Mine are usually blobs (of yum), and not the perfectly sliced triangle beauties here. I saw these earlier this week and it inspired me this morning to make scones and tea. Best breakfast!


Kip, from Messy Vegetarian Cook, shared a cough-curing tea that is totally delicious (I used up the rest of my lemon and ginger and had four cups of it this morning!)


Ohhh, and Joan, from The Geeky White Girl, made Glazed Lemon Drop Cookies with Crystallized Ginger. Um, YUM! Lemon cookies are the best and totally underrated.



I couldn't decide what to make all week, until saturday came and I had a sweet-tooth craving (this always happens right when I should be doing some work or something and I drop it all to make something sweet. Don't mess with my sweet-tooth). I have an underused bundt pan (and bundt pans should never be underused!!), so lemon-ginger bundt cake it was. I doubled the golden vanilla cupcake recipe, from VCTOTW, and added in lemon zest from two lemons and grated ginger from a 2" piece. I put the ginger through my garlic press and just got the yummy juicy bits and not the hairy fiber parts. I winged the icing, using just lemon juice, ginger, and confectioners sugar until it reached a goopy consistancy. Nik inhaled half of this cake after it had been out of the oven for only an hour!




Stay tuned for next week's challenge!
xo

VeganMoFo Day 11, Part 2: Iron Chef Challenge #2: Lemon and Ginger!

This week's challenge is Lemon and Ginger! Random number generator was giving me some not-so-good combos from this list, so I just picked two ingredients that sounded interesting for this week's challenge. If you have a combo that you would make a good challenge for next week, drop me a line!

Same as last week: Basic rules are just to make sure and use both ingredients, but anything goes after that! Sweet, savory, whatever floats your boat. This is just for fun, so no winners or anything, just a friendly challenge. Post your results here by 7pm (eastern time) next sunday, and I'll highlight some on my blog, along with the next challenge info.

VeganMoFo Day 4-Iron Chef Challenge!

Katie came up with the idea of an Iron Chef Challenge, using two ingredients that are announced a day ahead of time. So fun! The first challenge was to make something with Apples and Ginger, and I immediately thought DOUGHNUTS. I bought doughnut cutters awhile ago and have been itching to attempt to make some. Perfect opportunity! I decided to make apple-ginger doughnuts with a powdered sugar/cinnamon/ginger coating. They worked out better than I imagined and I totally ruined my dinner tonight by eating too many while making them (gotta "test" them.)

First I made some homemade applesauce, using two apples, a few splashes of apple cider, and some fresh minced ginger. I let that cool and used 3/4 cup in place of the egg replacer in this recipe.