Vegan Pineapple curd and Beanilla Vanilla beans GIVEAWAY!

May 31, 2012

This Contest is now closed. And the winners are

Stacy curtz – Comment #53
Dixya – Comment # 7 replacing ~~Becca – Comment # 3~~ replacing ~~Joanna – Comment #42~~
Teresa – Comment # 9 replacing ~~Gloria Richards – Comment # 35~~

replacing ~~Corgipants – Comment # 52~~ replacing ~~Lynne – Comment #38~~

Congratulations! Winners have 24 hours to get back to me. Or else I will have to pick another winner.

Yet another giveaway time: The birthday celebration continues! This time the giveaway is sponsored by the “Beanilla“. They are giving away their most famous “Premium Mexican Vanilla beans”. Excited? Want to know more? I will get back to the details in a while but at first let’s talk about what I made using their rich mexican vanilla beans.

I always used pure vanilla extract in my cooking/baking. Never tried out the beans first of all because they are bit pricy and secondly never knew which one is the best – so many verities are there in market! But it all changed when last year I attended my first foodblogforum conference. I was lucky to return home with a swag bag filled with amazing food products including a glass vial of Mexican Vanilla beans. I was so excited! Once I tried it, I became a fan of vanilla beans. The flavor was way better compared to any vanilla extract and I fell in love with those tiny vanilla seeds that makes your dish even more beautiful. Now I rarely use vanilla extract anymore. Thanks to Beanilla 🙂

So what did I make using these beans this time? Vegan Pineapple curd! Smooth, sweet and tangy – just perfect! And it is absolutely out of this world. If you are familiar with fruit curds then you know what I am talking about but if you are not, then let me explain. What is this fruit curd? Basically it is kind of thick, smooth and flavorful sauce made of fruits, eggs and citrus. And as per Wikipedia, it was originated in England back in 19^th century. It is normally used over scones, biscuits, muffins, cupcakes, pies etc… Well whatever it is, it is simply delicious. You just can’t stop eating it.

Pineapple and coconut is such match made in heaven, isn’t it? Plus it is sooo summery and kids love it.

Since I do not eat eggs, this recipe is vegan – that means absolutely no unnecessary fat and calories from eggs and butter. I even substituted sugar with Organic Agave nectar to sweeten this curd. So this recipe is healthy, low in fat and low in sugar J Although it is vegan, I promise about not compromising on the taste, you know why? Late in March, I participated in this charity event called Cupcake Palooza. Where I made about 180 mini pina-colada cupcakes filled with this delicious chilled pineapple curd and it was a hit. People came for seconds. What else do I need, right?

So as I said this is a full proof recipe which you will surely enjoy! Oh and BTW, I still wonder why it is called CURD? Technically curd and yogurt is the same thing…so still trying to figure out the reason behind this name! Do you know why? Please explain.

Vegan Pineapple Curd:

Yields: 2 cups

Total time: 20 minutes Plus Chilling time

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup canned pineapple or use fresh
2 Tbsp Organic Agave Nectar
½ cup lite Coconut milk
2 Tbsp corn starch dissolved in 3 Tbsp cold water or pineapple juice
½ Beanilla Mexican vanilla bean or 1 Tbsp Vanilla syrup
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp Margarine
2 Tbsp Shredded dried coconut – Just for optional texture but it is completely optional

Method:

Drain canned pineapple and save the juice.
Puree pineapple using a food processor, and use 1 ½ cups of it.
Mix pineapple purée with coconut milk, agave nectar and dissolved corn starch. Whisk well. Slit the vanilla bean to half using knife and add this to the pineapple mixture. Let the pod release the beans itself while cooking.
In a medium saucepan, cook this mixture over medium heat. Stir continuously. Cook until the mixture begins to thicken and you see bubbles appearing on the surface. It takes about 10 minutes. Keep stirring. Right at the end, add margarine, mix well and cook for 3 more minutes. Remove it from the heat and transfer the mixture to a glass bowl.
Keep stirring!
Let it chill in a refrigerator before you use it. It goes well with bread toast, scones, cookies or cupcakes. OR eat a spoon full of it just like I had it last night as my dessert 🙂

Tips: If you are going to chill it in refrigerator, then cover the surface of the curd with plastic wrap to prevent dry layer.

You can take out the bean pod once the curd is cooked and chilled. Choice is yours.

Giveaway details:

Beanilla beans is generous enough to giveaway 3 glass vials filled with 5 premium Mexican vanilla beans for 3 lucky Winners. Wohoo! What a wonderful giveaway!

This giveaway is open for USA residents only. If you live outside the USA, and if you still wish to enter, you have to provide USA address where they can ship the price pack.

This giveaway is open until Thursday (06/07/12) 11:59 pm (your time). I will pick three lucky winners on Friday (06/08/12).

The winner will have 24 hours to get back to me so make sure to leave a valid email address. Your information is confidential.

I will use the random number generator software to pick the winners. So if you choose to go for extra entries, make sure to leave separate comments for each entry. Otherwise the number generator software will not recognize your entry.

Mandatory entry: Just leave a comment in this post saying what will you make with this vanilla beans if you win.

Optional entries: Make sure to leave separate comments for each step you follow.

Remember to leave a separate comment for every step.

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