Rich Chocolate Cake with Raspberries

This is not necessarily skinny, but it is vegan (no eggs, no butter, no sugar), so quite light and just a divine rich chocolate taste, and light cake texture.

Ingredients for a small spring form:
1/3 cp whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
1 ts baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
1/3 cp cocoa powder
1/4 ts salt
1/2 cp soy milk
1/4 cp canola oil
3/4 cp pure organic maple syrup
1/2 ts apple cidre vinegar
1 ts vanilla extract

Raspberry Sauce (for a small cake):
1 cp frozen raspberries, thawed
1/2 ts maple syrup
1/2 ts vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9 inch springform pan with non stick cooking spray. Sift together flours and baking powder and baking soda. In a saucepan, heat the soymilk on low-medium heat. When it is slightly bubbling, add the cocoa powder and whisk well until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Combine the other liquid ingredients in a bowl and whisk well. Add the cocoa mixture and combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry.

Pour batter into prepared pan, bake at 350 F for 25 minutes until a toothpick or butter knife comes out clean. Let cool completely and frost with your favorite frosting.

Wholewheat Soba Noodles with Sesame Vinaigrette

2 oz somen noodles
1/4 cucumber
1 scallion, sliced
1 TB soy sauce
1 ts sesame oil
1 ts rice vinegar
1 ts sake
1 ts white miso
½ inch ginger, grated

Cook noodles in hot water for 3 min. drain and rise in cold water. Place in the serving bowl. In another bowl, whisk soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, sake, miso and sesame seeds. Toss over noodles. Toss with green onions and cucumber. Serve!

In addition: Korean marinated cucumber (Oi Moochim)

½ cup distilled vinegar or rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Dash of dashida (dried soup stock made from essence of seafood or beef)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons gochuchang paste, plus more to taste, or thai hot sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
½ English cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

Whisk together the vinegar, soy, dashida, sugar, spicy hot sauce, and sesame oil in a large bowl. Add the cucumber and stir until combined. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and let marinate at least 1 hour before eating.

BBQ Steelhead Trout with Pineapple Salsa

It undeniably felt like spring today, despite a lingering 1 foot of snow on the deck, so the BBQ season had to be started. Here we go....

Steelhead Trout:
1 steelhead trout filet, with skin on
salt, pepper
fresh squeezed lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
a few fresh springs of thyme

Pineapple Salsa:
2 slices of fresh pineapple, grilled on high for 4 min on each side
1/2 red hot pepper
1/2 red onion, finely diced
salt
fresh squeezed lime juice, 1/2 lime
a few thyme leaves for color

First, grill the pineapple. While grilling, prepare the steelhead trout. Spray a piece of aluminium foil with oil olive and place the trout filet, skin-side down, on the foil. Season with salt and pepper, and lemon juice. Place thyme springs on top of filet, and fold foil up like a steaming tent.

Remove pineapple from BBQ, and place trout on. Prepare salsa by dicing pineapple, hot pepper and onion. Mix with lime juice and seasonings. The trout takes about 12 min. Enjoy!

Here is a photo of the preparation before folding up the aluminum foil like a tent: