One of the most popular "needies" in my vegan kitchen is almond cream - a yummy allrounder, healthy (the antioxidants in the membranes of the almonds act together with the vitamins in the core as an "antioxidant dreamteam"), tasty and usable in very various ways.
All you need to produce your own (raw and natural) almond cream is:
almonds (surprise, surprise), a kitchen machine, time and patience.
Ready, steady, go!
Crush the almonds with this "shredder-thingie" of the kitchen machine. First the almonds will turn into pieces, then into powder...after a loooong time of crushing the powder becomes a bit more sticky, a looong time later it turns into something like "almond-gum"....don't hesitate, crush on, crush on! After a while (if the engine of your machine is not burned out already) the almond-gum will become a bit creamier, and more crushing will make it even more creamy and a little oily - but if your patience is used up and you don't want to wait if it's oily enough, you may add a little cold-pressed rapeseed oil to make it smoother and a little pinch of salt , fill the cream in a jar and keep it in a cool place.
Of course you could walk to your wholefood-store and buy the almond cream there instead, but firstly producing food by myself gives me much more satisfaction and secondly this selfmade cream is more nutrient-rich than the industrially manufactured one cause the almonds were not roasted or heated - just raw, raw, raw.
I use it as a spread on toasts or waffles, mix it in pancakes or muffins or add it to exotic currys or sauces, I use it for e-ve-ry-thing....like for this easy and delicious
ALMOND PUDDING
500 ml rice-milk
1 huge (and I really mean HUGE!) tablespoon almond cream
1 tablespoon unrefined cane sugar
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 tablespoon amaretto
Pot 250 ml rice-milk (yes, yes, this phrase doesn't exist in english...but my dictionary says that filling sth. in a bottle means "to bottle", filling sth. in a barrel means "to barrel", filling sth. in a sack means "to sack"...so I decided that it's absolute logically consistent to use "to pot" for filling sth. in a cooking pot. veto, anyone?), mix it with sugar, almond cream and amaretto and heat it.
In the meantime mix the corn starch with the leftover rice-milk, add it to the boiling ricemilkalmondamarettosugar in your cooking pot and stir constantly until the mixture turns into a smooth pudding, fill it in a bowl ("bowl it"), cool it (or....why not munch it hot?) and wallow in almond-pleasure.
Ok, but this is one way to enjoy this almond pudding...this is the way to enjoy it when you are by yourself, a little tired or in hurry, when there is no time or mind for chichi and falderal. If you like it more glamorous or receive guests for diner (escpecially if this are such "ohveganfoodisooooboooringandbleak"-people), try this version:
Heat some unrefined cane sugar gently on a small flame until it turns liquid, mix it with planed almonds and smear it (hell, what an unappetizing word!) on a piece of baking paper (and never, never, NEVER EVER lick off this mixture from your spoon, it's terribly fucking hot, keep it away from your tongue, your fingers, from everywhere...of course only if you don't like to wear blisters from burns in size of pingpong-balls). After a while of cooling down break this almond caramell into pieces and stack them alternately with the pudding into a nice wine glas. Dust it with a little cocoa and serve. Feel like a real kitchen-hero and tell no one how simple it was to make this marvellous pudding.
