The View From Home

Cafe Yumm! is a small chain of restaurants located in the great northwest. Their simple been and rice bowls are amazing and full of great organic produce. The trouble though is that they aren’t available anywhere else.

I have some friends who are teaching English in China and have begged and pleaded that someone find a recipe on how to make Yumm Sauce. After doing some research, I came across a couple recipes. Each one had a few substitutes and variations. After sending the recipe to Katie, who is one of my friends in China, she tried it out with additional modifications from the recipe below as ingredients are often hard to come by when abroad.

Cafe Yumm Sauce

Although this is not the official recipe, I believe it comes very close.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup canola oil (preferably cold pressed)
• 1/2 cup almonds (for a creamier sauce, use almond flour)
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast (available at Whole Foods grocery stores)
• 1/2 cup chickpeas or garbanzo beans, cooked
• 1/4 cup soybeans, cooked (not green edamame beans)
• 1/2 cup filtered water (important for flavor)
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh is best)
• 1-2 garlic cloves (small to medium size)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried cilantro

Directions

1. In a blender or food processor blend almonds beans and oil.
2. Add all other ingredients and puree until creamy smooth.
3. Cover and let stand in the refrigerator for one hour.
4. Don’t cover too tight, remember the yeast.

Notes:

• One recipe said to use 1/2 cup silken tofu as well as soy beans. Another suggests that the two can be interchangeable, while the most likely recipe only mentions the soy beans
• One recipe suggests nutritional yeast, while another suggests brewers yeast and fast acting yeast as an alternative.
• Another source suggests to double the amount of garlic.

What Katie had to say after trying this recipe:

YEA for YUMM!

We tried to make it this afternoon. The garbanzo beans are harder to
get ’round here, but I found a can at the import store The lemons
are tricky too, but I know a place downtown that usually carries them.
It ended up being pretty darn good.  I wish I had a can of the real
thing to compare, but from my memory it was close.

Here’s what I did differently:

• We decided that the soybeans were going to be too much trouble to soak and cook on our limited time schedule, so we bought soft (not silken) tofu and it worked just fine. You could probably add more than the 3/4 cup I used as the sauce was still pretty potent.
• added 2x the garlic and will scale back next time.
• used fresh cilantro instead of dried
• had to use a packet of regular fast acting yeast. 4 hours later, I think it is still active even in the fridge! I would cut that back to 1/2 packet at most-I could really taste the yeasty flavor. After letting it rest in the refrigerator for an hour I blended it again. It helped get the rest of the almonds smooth and made it look more edible. It got kinda foamy.

Mom brought over some brown rice when they came to visit, so Josh and I tried to recreate the whole thing (minus avocados and olives). I even made sour cream. Josh said that ours were better because we ate them with authentic chopsticks.

A couple of weeks ago we made hummus. Again, tricky to get the garbanzo beans, but who knew it was so easy!

–
Katie

A lot of equipment goes into brewing a good batch of beer. The following page, lists many of the brewing supplies that are needed in the home brewing process. Sanitation is very important and should always be considered when brewing. Home brew can be ruined by a wild strain of yeast, so unless you wish to gamble, be sure to pick up some sanitation devices.

The Airlock

The airlock comes in several forms and is also known as a fermentation lock, bubbler, air valve, or water trap. Airlocks are designed to let gas out while not allowing contaminants in. Two common types are the Three-Piece airlock and the classic S shape. Although the three-piece is easier to clean, the classic S shaped airlock has less parts and is also vary easy to move.

Stopper

Stoppers come in several different materials and may have a hole in the center for the airlock. The stopper presses into the top of a carboy and can be either solid of “hollow”

Siphon Hose Tubing

Siphon hose tubing comes in several diameters, including, 3/8ths, 5/16ths, 1/2 and 1 inch diameters. The tubing is uses to move your home brew from one container to another and will be used with various siphoning devices such as auto siphons and racking cases

There are several different forms of Vanilla to choose from and most are not readily available in the super market. Whether you are looking for Vanilla Extract, Vanilla Sugar, or simply Vanilla Beans, it is important to consider the growing region as that affects the flavor. Professional chefs and foodies prefer to buy Vanilla beans because it gives you full control of the flavor profile you are cooking with.

I don’t recommend using cheap vanilla extract as it is often an imitation, using chemicals to replicate the real thing. Real vanilla extract is expensive, however is quite simple to make. simply cut 3 vanilla beans in in half, scrape out the seeds and put all of it into a quart of vodka. Place that in the shade and shake occasionally. After about 3 months, you have your own extract and it is much less expensive then buying vanilla extract.

Where do I buy vanilla beans? Well, you have several options. You can go to a specialty spice store, just make sure they do a lot of business and have fresh product. Nothing is worse then stale herbs and spices. You could always go to Walmart, or your local grocery store, but you won’t likely know what growing region the beans come from. Tahitian and Mexican vanilla beans taste very different. The other option is to shop online and to look for specialty stores. I definitely recommend this option as you will probably find the best prices and best quality vanilla beans to buy if you shop around.

Knowing where to buy vanilla beans, or buy vanilla extract makes a huge impact on your expertise as a cook. Nothing says experienced foodie as seeds from the vanilla bean mixed into homemade vanilla ice cream.