Recipe: Deep Fried Oyster Mushrooms [vegan, gluten free]

Ingredients:

• Oyster mushrooms (I used two baskets worth from the farmer’s market)
• Dry ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 – 2 cups buckwheat flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • ground pepper
  • 3/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
• Wed ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup plant milk (I used coconut milk)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• Safflower oil for frying (it’s great for frying because it tolerates high temperatures, and it’s not generic vegetable oil so it’s palm oil free!)

Clean your mushrooms whichever way you prefer to do so. I personally wash the  mushrooms under running water and leave them in the colander to drain.

Whisk together the wet ingredients and set aside. Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside.

Put oil in a deep pot (I prefer it over a shallow pan to prevent splattering of oil) and heat over medium-high heat. Make sure to use enough oil, shallow frying WILL NOT work with this recipe. If you don’t add enough oil, the mushrooms will stick to the bottom of the pan. You don’t have to completely deep fry, just make sure you have plenty of oil.

While the oil is heating up, separate the clustered oyster mushrooms into bite size pieces. You don’t have to chop them up, just separate them with your fingers, they are kind of stringy, like string cheese. Put a big handful handful of mushrooms into the wet ingredients, making sure that every piece gets covered in the batter. Pick up each piece one by one, letting the excess mixture drip off, and drop into the dry mixture, making sure each piece gets covered in the dry mixture. Once the oil is hot enough, drop the pieces into the oil and cook for a total of 5 minutes. If you are not deep frying, cook each side about 2-3 minutes, flipping at least twice.

Set the cooked mushrooms on a cooling rack. DO NOT lay directly on a plate or on a paper towel, or they will get soggy.

Repeat until you have fried all the mushrooms.

To reheat, place in a toaster oven for about 15 minutes. This will ensure that the mushrooms stay crispy. Reheating in the microwave may make them soggy, although I have never tried it, I just assume that will happen.

And that’s it! Honestly, I hate frying things, I think it’s really time consuming, but OH MY GEEZ these are so good! It is totally worth the time it takes to cook them. And it’s an incredibly easy recipe, it just takes time to fry the mushrooms in batches. I wonder if these would bake well in the oven……maybe I’ll try baking some next time! But honestly, these are pretty healthy. You SHOULD NOT feel guilty about eating these delicious things

I personally like eating this in taco form,  and topping with avocado and Frank’s red hot sauce. And just today I topped them with HOMEMADE BARBECUE SAUCE that I made up on a whim after work today. That recipe will be up soon. 🙂

How to have FRIZZ-FREE curly hair: all natural, homemade shampoo

I have curly hair, and when I was little it looked so cute. But now, it is ALWAYS frizzy and no hair gel, mousse, oil, cream, or shampoo/conditioner has EVER tamed it. Lush conditioner worked somewhat, but it is expensive and I always used a lot of it. So, I was ecstatic when I found a recipe for homemade shampoo on this blog.

This shampoo I found by pure accident. I have been trying to lead a zero waste lifestyle (for info on that, read through this blog and this blog), and I wanted to make my own shampoo in order to stop buying plastic bottles of shampoo. I was looking for a general shampoo recipe, but I found the holy grail for frizzy hair instead!

The recipe is great for dry, curly, frizzy hair. I doubt this will work if your hair isn’t dry or curly. It did not work for my boyfriend, it just made his hair greasy, which I think is because his hair is short and not dry or frizzy at all.

DISCLAIMERS:

• The shampoo doesn’t lather like store-bought shampoo, nor is it as thick. It also has to stay refrigerated, or it will go bad. So, what I do is keep it in the fridge and then pour myself enough for one use into a small container and then go shower. It does take some getting used to, I used to keep forgetting to get my shampoo and would remember once I was already in the shower.
• Make sure you don’t use too much, it may make your hair greasy (hasn’t happened to me)

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT:

• I don’t use conditioner anymore, my hair is tangle free using this shampoo.
• I add tea tree essential oil to help with dry, itchy scalp (and dandruff), and I haven’t had an itchy scalp since using it.
• I don’t use ANY product in my hair anymore! This is a miracle if you have curly, frizzy hair. If it’s a particularly humid day and my hair does frizz up a bit, I use a mixture of castor oil and argan oil (but not too much or hair will look greasy).

I have tweaked the recipe that I found,  after I made it and tried it.

So here is what I use:

• 1.5 cups distilled water (or boiled and cooled)
• One 400mL can coconut milk
• 2 teaspoons honey (optional-but I think it helps with not going bad)
• 1 teaspoon vitamin e oil (optional-but I think it helps with not going bad)
• 1/3 cup castile soap (or less, depending on your lather preference)
• 10-20 drops tea tree oil (optional-keep shampoo in a glass bottle if you do use it, essential oil eats away at plastic)

Put all the ingredients in your container (the castile soap goes in last so it doesn’t bubble up too much), and shake! Also, shake before each use.

I use about 3-4 tablespoons of shampoo per wash and my hair is shoulder length. This usually lasts about 3 months for me, kept in the fridge it has never gone bad.

For the original recipe that I found, and more information on essential oils and this recipe in general, go here. You can check out the comments section for tips from other people who use this recipe.

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment if you try making this shampoo:)

The Trials & Tribulations of Baking a Buttermilk Pie

A few days ago, I baked a buttermilk pie from this book https://www.amazon.com/Bake-Good-Things-Williams-Sonoma-Techniques/dp/1616287675.

I think the end product came out very tasty; HOWEVER, boy did I have trouble with the filling.

The filling is made with a basic butter, sugar, flour, and buttermilk custard. I creamed the room temperature butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, added in 3 eggs VERY SLOWLY (really, very, very, very, slowly), and everything was going great. The SECOND I started to mix in the flour, my mixture curdled. AND I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY!!! When I added the buttermilk, it was too late. My mixture curdled, hard. I can’t express my despair enough. All my ingredients were at room temperature, I mixed in my eggs one at a time, I followed all the tips I found online to not have my mixture curdle. And it still happened. I’ve seen other recipes use melted butter, and I’m wondering if I should try that.

Anyways, I baked my pie with the curdled mixture and it came out great anyways; the filling had a great texture. Some recipes even said that curdling is fine. But, I’ve seen videos on Youtube of people making this pie and their mixture doesn’t curdle, and I want to know why.

So, if anyone has any tips, please let me know!

xo,

Paola