Vegan Fondue feat. Cheezy Bites in Vegan Beer Batter

This Christmas my husbands family decided to celebrate a little early so everyone could be together. With families growing its hard to all get together at Christmas time. So we celebrated on Sunday night with an extra twist to tradition, instead of the typical turkey dinner we had a fondue party!
My mother in law has been hosting fondue parties since she was 19 years old, so we all knew that it would be well stocked with different types of fun dipping sauces, meats and cheeses, with of course a chocolate and caramel for dessert.

Now being vegan I wasn't participating in any of this, but non the less I was still excited because I was getting my very own pot this year! One that I could experiment with and try some new and fun things. I haven't got to fondue since I turned vegan so this was a pretty big deal to me, because for those of you who have fondued you know how fun they can be.
Sadly, we got to Devon's parents for brunch and ended up munching all day, which can be great but not when you have a huge fondue feast waiting for you that night. So by the time supper rolled around I was still very full from the days festivities so I didn't get to experiment like I wanted to. BUT! I did get to try the cheese balls, something that I knew I had to try. Devon's mom Mary B. already had a batter recipe that was tried and true so I just subbed out the eggs for a flax egg and voila vegan batter!

When I tasted my first bite of this cheezy goodness, I actually was on the brink of tears. For I haven't had something that good in a long time.... something so heavenly, so gooey, so melty, so amazingly non-vegan (but vegan!!!) cheezy goodness that it was definitely cry worthy. I made about 7 of them and had to call it quits. I should have stopped at one, but seriously who would do that?

So if you have a deep fryer, or are headed to a fondue party soon, I HIGHLY suggest you try these bad boys out, you wont be disappointed!

 

Vegan Beer Batter
3/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 flax eggs: 6 tbsp. water, 2 tbsp. ground flax
1/2 cup beer
Mix together all dry ingredients. Let your flax eggs sit for about 10 min to set before adding them into the dry mixture, then add beer. Mix until well combined. Best if you can let the batter sit for 1-2 hours before using.

The vegan cheese I used was a block of Daiya in cheddar flavour. I cut it up into 1/4 inch blocks, dipped them into the batter and fried them for about 2 minutes or until golden brown. Like most fondue/deep frying, let them sit for a minute or two because the insides will be hot!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

 

 

 

Isn't All Wine Vegan?

Sorry to say its
not vegan :(

First you take the grapes and you crush ‘em, you crush ‘em, then you take the juice and  you pour it, you pour it… well maybe a little more high tech then this but this is how I thought wine was made. Basically fruit with yeast to ferment the sugars into wine. But sadly no, this is not true. One of the things I have just learned is that some alcohols, including wine, may contain things like, fish, eggs and even milk. Crazy as it sounds, but this is true.

How you may ask? Well it has to do with how the wine is clarified and a process called ‘fining’. Fining is the process of filtering out tiny molecules such as proteins, tartrates, tannins and phenolics in young wines. Which in the beginning look murky and cloudy. These are save to drink, but wine companies like a clear clean looking wine so they use this process to clean them up.

Some of the most common fining agents are casein (a milk protein), albumin (egg whites), gelatin (animal protein) and isinglass (fish bladder protein). These fining agents are not ingredients in the wine, they are just processing aids and are filtered out through the removing of the haze molecules. For the vegans out there who are mainly concerned about consuming the animal products, these are safe because it has all been removed. But this is now a problem for ethical vegans out there, just because there are no traces of the animal products doesn’t mean that they were not used in the process of making it.

There is hope though! There are new ways of filing wine that a lot of winemakers are using today. Carbon, bentonite clay, limestone, kaolin clay, plant casein, silica gel, and vegetable plaques are all suitable alternatives and are vegan friendly. Also in a move towards more natural wines, some wine makers are moving to not fining their wines at all, and leaving them to self-clarify and self-stabilize.

Captain Morgan is vegan!

So how do I find out if my wine is vegan or not? There is a great website called Barnivore that lists both vegan and non vegan wine and also beer and liquor. Another website that focuses on just wine is www.vegans.frommars.org/wine, it has a lot of foreign wines if that is what you tend to drink.

I have listed below some of the most common alcohols and whether they are vegan or not. Some wines I am pretty sad about because I really enjoyed them, but on the plus side I now get to experiment with different types of wine! Yummm!

The information I listed is off of the Barnivore website, if you have a favourite drink that you are curious about you can look it up on there or email the company and ask. Barnivore has a great template for you to use in an email, as well as a polite email response. Good luck with your findings!

Sadly not Guinness 

Naked Grape – no

Sawmill Creek – no

Jackson Triggs – no

Apothic wine – no

Martini Brand – no

Silent Sam Vodka – no

Skinny Girl – Pina Colada – no

Skinny Girl – White Peach Margarita – no

Skinny Girl – Cranberry Cosmo – no

Smirnoff Espresso – no

Smirnoff root beer – no

Grandville Island, anything Casked – no

Richards Honey Brown – no

Guinness beer - no

Absolute vodka – yes

Appleton – yes

Amerito – yes

Bacardi – yes

Say yes to Absolut 

Beefeater – yes

Bombay Gin – yes

Canadian Club Whiskey – yes

Captain Morgan Spiced Rum – yes

Alexander’s – yes

Coors and light – yes

Miller – yes

Molson – yes

Corona – yes

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N