Cook with Us #13: Healthy Vegan Tofu Tiramisu

La Paix Street. The sense of peace is a mere illusion. The ambient calmness is soon a distant memory. Eight o’clock. It is school drop off time. The constant murmur grows into an uncontrollable shouting contest. Kids and parents alike are active participants in this ritual. Smaller kids would shed some tears. The socioeconomic diversity is in full display by the means of transports used: cars, motorcycles or bicycles. The more modest pupils will come by foot. Ding-dong, ding-dong. It’s already eight thirty. One of the nuns of Notre Dame de la Paix Chapel sounds the bell. School is due to start in fifteen minutes. The Chapel is on the right-hand side as you walked through the main gate (really a welcome arch). Whilst within the compound of the school (or vice versa), it is bound by a brick wall. A hundred metre ahead is a second gate which marks the official access to the school yard.
My husband Joel attended this catholic school in the mid-eighties. He would travel with his elder brother, in the morning, by bus. At the start, his grand father would pick him up shortly after midday. Then he would spend the afternoons with the nuns at the chapel. And eventually, when both their timetable would match, he would finish school at the same time as his brother. Very rarely he would go to his friend’s place. One of these afternoon he went to his best mate Lim Ping house. He lived up the road, within walking distance from the school. The house was very old. It was in stark contrast to the newly painted brick wall of the chapel. They went through a rusting colorbond gate and onto an overused cobblestone area. 

Joel remembered being struck by this dense smell. The odour was quite strong, similar to certain pungent of cheeses.  He kept walking and against the fence were tens of monotone buckets. In them were soaked jute bags. Suddenly, there was a big bang behind them. Startled, they turned around only to find Lim Ping’s dad pushing his old bicycle. He nodded at them and walked into the house and returned with a few transparent plastic bags. He knelt near the buckets, uncovered one of them, took handful of bean sprouts and placed them into separate bags. Lied against the fence was a tiny colorbond shed from which smoke was coming from. It was the origin of the odour. Joel tried to glimpse inside as Lim Ping’s mum was stepping out. He noticed an old millstone. On top of two circular stones were tiny soy beans. And at one extremity a thick white puree was oozing down from the grinder. It was collected in a white cloth stuck in a bucket. Lim Ping’s dad soon replaced his mum inside the shed and shut it close. He won’t know what else happened in there.

 Joel and his friend walked into the kitchen. There was a large wooden bench. On it was rectangular blocks of what looked like bean curds. Lim Ping’s mum was busy again. She had one end of a white thread tightly held between her teeth. And then with her right and left hand she would hold another part of the thread and make swift incisions in the curd. Two incisions on each side. The small blocks are then inserted into a transparent plastic bag with a quarter cup of a whitish liquid from a large bowl. On his way back to school, Joel learnt that Lim Ping’s parents were making tofu the traditional way. Each afternoon, after his normal day’s work, Lim Ping’s dad would ride into China town to sell his homemade Teokwon (Tofu) and home-grown bean sprouts.

Sometimes I wonder how my husband appear to have a story for a lifetime events that I want to express through my blogging. Joel is six years older than I am. He lived in Mauritius at a time when televisions and video games were a luxury. As a result, he got to experience first hand a lot of things, like how tofu was traditionally made. He also got to experience things that would be somehow different to someone growing up in Central Europe. I think when the ingredients/dish is right I will also like to incorporate my personal childhood or teenage memories. But for the time being, I would have to rely of his memories of past events and try to reproduce them as vividly as possible.

By now you would have guess that my entry for Cook With Us #13 has for primary ingredients Tofu. I can’t remember doing it before so a huge thanks to @chefsteve, @offoodandart and @pandamama from the @cookwithus team for hosting and organising this contest. I didn’t present an entry last week due to a busy schedule that prevented me from cooking with fire. So, let’s see how we go this week! I came across this recipe of a vegan tofu tiramisu from blogger Nadia (Healthy kitchen) which I’ve attempted for the first time for this contest. I’ve adapted and changed parts of the recipe to match the ingredients at hand. Hopefully she does not mind. Good luck to everyone!

Ingredients:
For the sponge layer:  

• 150g gluten-free flour
• 100g ground almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 6 tbsp maple syrup
• 120ml milk of choice
• 150ml strong coffee

For the cream layer:  

• 396g hard Tofu, drained
• 6 tbsp maple syrup
• 6 level tbsp almond butter
• 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 tbsp coconut milk
• Pinch of salt

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180°C.
 

To make the sponge:   

1. Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl, then pour in the oil, maple syrup and milk. Mix to combine.















2. Pour the batter into a lined 8″ square cake tin and bake for 15 minutes. Leave to cool completely.

To make the cream layer:   

1. First drain the tofu from as much liquid as possible. 





2. Blend all the cream layer ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

To assemble:   

1. Use dessert ring to assemble the tiramisu. Use one of the rings to cut out 4 rings from the sponge cake, and then carefully slice each circle in half horizontally.





2. Place one of the discs back into the dessert ring, then drizzle on top 2-3 tsp of the brewed coffee.










3. Top with a few teaspoons of the cream mixture, and then repeat the above step so you end up with two layers of sponge and 2 layers of cream. 




















4. Leave to chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours, then carefully remove the rings and top with a generous dusting of cocoa powder and cherries.

I hope you enjoy it!

Bon appétit!