Joy(ously Alive) Goes Vegan

We're not all 'Crunchy Granolas'

2011-06-13T14:22:00.004-04:00

I haven't posted a recipe in forever, and yes, I feel guilty! But I saw this video today and was totally enchanted and had to share. It makes me so happy to see Vegan food being prepared in such a fabulous and fun way (plus it sounds pretty yummy). It's also great proof that not everyone who is Vegan is living some kind of hippie lifestyle. People always make the assumption that if you're Vegan you can only be one way - guess again! We are EVERYWHERE! Mwahahahahahah! Enjoy the Vegan Black Metal Chef - I can't wait to try this Pad Thai!

Oh and don't forget to head-bang furiously!!

Chana Masala with Basmati Rice

2010-08-16T21:04:00.019-04:00

I love, love, love Indian cuisine. Unfortunately even while Indian restaurants offer Vegetarian options, usually an entire section of the menu, they do not often have many Vegan options. Butter (ghee) is a big component in Indian cooking. What to do? Cook at home of course!

Making Indian food can seem daunting, there are complex spice and flavor components and one of the beauties of Indian cuisine is setting out a variety of dishes - a taste of this a nibble of that. When I was 13 I saw Julia Child create an Indian banquet on The French Chef and in those dark days before VCRs let alone the internet I scribbled recipes frantically as she cooked and then I attempted to recreate that amazing spread. It involved a special shopping trip to a store that carried things our suburban grocery store did not - and in fact that we'd never heard of prior to this Indian adventure. Papadums, Bombay Duck, curry powders, cardamom seeds... it was all very exciting. For some reason my parents were actually supportive of this crazed cooking endevor of mine. Possibly because I had previously made a seriously impressive cake (Gateau in a Cage) after watching Julia make it and more likely because my mother was thrilled not to be cooking.

I spent the day in the kitchen with my scribbled notes and my exotic new ingredients and presented a fantastic Indian meal which my parents actually liked! (Except for the Bombay Ducks which smelled horrible once cooked and tasted fairly awful as well - but one bad dish out of 8 or so... that's not bad).

I mention this cooking memory because while I loved doing it and the results were amazingly good - hey, I was 13, had never HAD Indian food and was working off a tv show, nobody was more shocked than me that it was edible! But it did color my thinking about making Indian food at home and in fact from then until now I think I may have made one curry... So I do understand that it can feel like Indian food is just too complex to make at home.

BUT it is not!

Today I whipped together a really respectable Chana Masala with Basmati Rice with cashew and raisins and I did it without a recipe and it took less than 30 minutes. Probably less than 20 actually. So I thought I'd share it here. Because if I can do it - so can you!

Chana Masala

1 biggish onion chopped small

1 clove garlic diced and smashed

splash of canola oil

2-3 Tablespoons tomato paste

1 1/2 teaspoon Garam Masala

1 small bay leaf

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 cardomom pod

2 whole cloves

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 cup vegetable broth (I used a Tablespoon of Better Than Broth)

sprinkle of pepper

1 can of chickpeas drained

Saute the onions in a splash of oil until they become translucent, then add garlic, spices and tomato paste. Stir frequently so the tomato paste doesn't burn - you want to cook the spices until the flavors meld - 5-10 minutes should do it. Then add the vegetable broth and chickpeas and heat through for a few more minutes. That's it. Seriously.

Basmati Rice with cashews and raisins

1 cup basmati rice

1 1/4 cup water

1 whole Clove

sprinkle of cinnamon (or a stick if you have one)

1 Cardamom pod

1/4 cup chopped raw cashews

2-3 Tablespoons golden raisins

1/4 cup peas (I used frozen)

Super easy. Put everything except the peas into a pot (you want them to stay bright). Bring to a boil. Lower heat to a slow simmer and cover pot. Set a timer for 10 minutes and check - mine was done in 10 and you don't want to burn it. Nothing more annoying than digging burnt rice out of the bottom of a pot. It's done when all the water is absorbed - the rice should be slightly al dente. Throw the peas on top, fluff rice and replace the lid until your Masala is ready.

Rice on the plate, Channa Masala on top - bit of bread if you have it handy, chutney if you like. And then pat yourself on the back for making Indian food at home - you wild International Chef you!

Something I've mentioned here before and I will continue to is that any recipe I post here is simply a guideline - and unless it specifically says don't substitute or something along those lines it should be understood that you should take the recipe and run with it. Get crazy with yer bad self and throw in things you like or have on hand. No need for a special shopping trip - be brave - be bold! What's the worse that can happen? You end up with something that smells like Bombay Duck? Then again you might end up with an amazing cake. (please excuse the poor quality of the following photos - they are scans from ancient Polaroids - just wanted to give an idea of what the Gateau in a Cage looks like)

Squash - Spaghetti Squash!

2009-09-21T09:01:00.003-04:00

I've been on an angel hair pasta kick for months. Simply can't get enough of it. There's nothing inherently wrong with that... except that I'm not really someone who can eat all the pasta I want and not have it affect me. And by me I mean my weight. Dang those dangerous processed carbs and their yummy goodness!

To pull myself off the pasta train I decided to go to nature's own spaghetti: the awesome spaghetti squash! Of course it doesn't taste like processed pasta, but it allows you to have the same kind of mouth feel, eye appeal and it goes beautifully with things you would typically put on your pasta. What's not to love?

Spaghetti squash used to make me apprehensive because I was always afraid I'd somehow cook it wrong and mess up the strings that make it such a neat pasta alternative.

I'm no longer apprehensive.

It's really very simple to make, and once you've done it a couple of times you'll wonder why you didn't do it before.

To prepare:

Simply cut the squash in half down width-wise (if you've bought a particularly wide one that you can't cut through - you can cook it whole, it just takes a little longer). Put the two halves cut-side down into a baking pan with a couple of inches of plain water in the bottom, pop it into a 350 oven and let it bake for about 45 minutes, or until the skin pierces easily with a fork. If you're cooking it whole you want to slice into the skin in a few spots, or prick with a fork, the way you would with a baked potato.

After you remove it from the oven let it sit for a few minutes until cool enough to handle, then scoop out the innards. Some people stress that you have to flake it with a fork to get the strands to separate, which works, but don't let it worry you - I have pulled out the entire 'meat' of the squash and then separated it outside it's shell and it works just as well. Just be kind of gentle with it and you won't mush up the strands too much. Really.

Then serve it however you would serve pasta!

I did this dish with a quick tomato basil sauce. Just saute some garlic in a saucepan, throw a couple of freshly chopped tomatoes into the pot, add a bit of fresh basil, salt, pepper, some red pepper flakes if you like a little kick and cook it down for maybe 10 minutes. It's that simple. I like to throw a few pine nuts on top for a little extra protein.

The cauliflower and string-beans were VERY lightly coated with olive oil and roasted in the oven while the squash cooked.

This is my new obsession dish. I'm hoping it will keep my pasta demons at bay for at least a couple of weeks. And you know, if you have kids who aren't too fond of squash - they might discover they like it if you make it like pasta! Try it.

Pita Bread!

2009-07-21T16:45:00.009-04:00

A friend of mine has a friend who has a vegan blog: Novel Eats. When he forwarded me the link to this blog the first thing I came across was a recipe for Pita. Well it NEVER occurred to me to make my own pita so I was intrigued. Vegans reading here are probably aware that it isn't always easy to find pita that is vegan, or that doesn't have a ton of preservatives, and when you do find it it's not always cheap.

Well I'm here to tell ya: make your own! It's super easy and fun!

I'm not going to reinvent the wheel here, rather I'll refer you to Novel Eats where there are detailed directions. But I will tell you that rather than bake my pitas in the oven - it's summer, a hot oven isn't something I was in the mood for today - I cooked them on a cast iron griddle on top of the stove and it worked very well.

I also used only whole wheat flour (because that's what I had) and while some comments on other blogs say that whole wheat tends not to 'puff' I didn't have any issues. They puffed, they cooked in only minutes and hello saving the money!

After they cooled I put them in a zip-lock bag... I don't think they'll last long.

Many thanks to Tom-Jim for sending me to Novel Eats!

P.S. Hummus Here and Here.

Murphy's Law

2009-06-30T07:34:00.002-04:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Baked Ziti

2009-06-07T11:32:00.015-04:00

I've been hankerin' for baked ziti for weeks, but just didn't have the 'oompf' to figure out how to do it. It's not something I ever made before I became vegan so while I had a vague idea of what was needed I was still sort of at a loss. Yesterday I finally got myself googling for recipes and while I found a few (hundreds of non-vegan recipes, natch) I ended up futzing with what I did find, mostly because I was in the mood to cook and not in the mood to shop so I had to make substitutions depending on what I had in the house. The 'ricotta uncheez' recipe is adapted from Kathleen's lasagna recipe on Vegweb, and while it's not white like ricotta, the texture and taste work really, really well. I was never a big ricotta fan, but this stuff - I LOVE!

Most baked ziti recipes are for a huge panful (9X13). Since I only had a half box of rigatoni and one jar of sauce I was forced to make a half portion. Of course, now I'm sad because it came out so good I wish I'd made a huge platter!

Baked Ziti Vegan-style

1/2 box rigatoni (if I had ziti in the house I'd have used it, but rigatoni works fine too)
1 26 oz jar Basil Marinara sauce
1/2 package Yves 'ground beef'
5 slices Tofutti Mozarella
sprinkle of vegam 'parmesan'
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Uncheez "Ricotta"

1/2 tablespoon margarine
1 block firm silken tofu, thoroughly mashed
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup soy milk
3 tablespoon vegan mayonnaise
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon mixed seasoning such as Spike or Mrs. Dash
1 teaspoon dijon mustard

Start by boiling the pasta - take 2-3 minutes off the suggested cooking time. You want it to be al dente because it will cook more in the oven. While the pasta's cooking preheat your oven to 350 and start making the 'cheese'

In a medium saucepan melt margarine then add the mashed tofu, mix add yeast, paprika, salt, mixed seasoning, mustard and mayonnaise, mix thoroughly and saute for 3-4 min. Then add soymilk, lower heat and simmer gently for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so it doesn't burn or stick to the bottom of the pot. After 5 minutes take the pot off the heat and set aside.

For this recipe I used and 8" x 8" pan, if you're doubling the recipe you'll need the more traditional 9" x 13". Lightly grease the pan with some oil or margerine. When the pasta is done drain well and layer half of it into the pan.Top the pasta with enough tomato sauce to cover, sprinkle with about a quarter package of the Yves ground 'beef' and broken up pieces of mozzarella.If you have a shredded cheese use it - it will spread more easily. I just happened to have the slices so I used them. Then take about half the 'ricotta' you just made and layer it on top of everything. This is where I sprinkled on the red pepper flakes, but if you don't like that 'kick' you can leave them out altogether.Follow that with the remaining pasta, 'beef', sauce and more mozzarella to top it off. If you have a parmesan sprinkle - now's the time to use it.
Cover the whole thing with aluminum foil and pop it in the oven for 30-40 minutes. It will be bubbling and the cheese will be melted when it's done.
I didn't try freezing any, since I only made a couple of days worth, but traditionally baked ziti does freeze well and there's nothing here that makes me think this version would be any different.

Baklava - vegan style!

2008-12-27T23:10:00.001-05:00

Baklava is one of those desserts that seem so intensely difficult to make that few people try. Trust me: you can do this. Working with Phyllo dough is a little intimidating at first because speed is of the essence to keep it from drying out. But really you don't have to move at lightening speed to do this - just remember to cover the dough with plastic wrap and a damp towel to keep it from drying out, stay calm and breathe!!!

There are two key ingredients that also make Baklava non-vegan 1) Butter and 2) Honey. People swear you need these to make it 'real' Baklava. Guess again. Earth Balance makes insane vegan 'butter' - the taste is all there. They even make one with olive oil now and because my local store had run out of the usual variety I use I tried the olive oil one. I figured olive oil = Mediterranean and this dessert is nothing if not Mediterranean, whether it originated in Turkey or in Greece is up for debate - but not by me! The Earth Balance worked beautifully.

Now the honey issue. Personally I like honey and I use it. I know, I know: scandal. But I would never suggest that because I have no issues with honey that it is something ALL vegans should use. NEVER. It's a personal choice. My choice is to use it. BUT I decided to make my Baklava without honey to see how it would work. It's been at least 10 years since I made Baklava so I was a little bit afraid I wasn't familiar enough with making it to fiddle with recipes, but I gave it a shot. It came out just great! And totally, completely Vegan.

So if you want to use honey, please go for it. IF you are strongly opposed to it, the following may be the answer!

Vegan Baklava
the filling
1 lbs finely chopped nuts (I used a mix of walnuts, pecans and pistachios but any nuts will do)
2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. ground cloves
1/8 t. allspice
1/4 C. sugar

the crust
1 lbs package Phyllo dough (reserve 6-8 sheets for top layer)
1 C. melted Earth Balance (you may need more or less depending on how you brush it on)

the syrup
1 C. water
1 C. sugar
1/2 C. dark Agave Syrup*
1 T. lemon juice
zest of one large lemon
2 t. Almond extract*
1 t. Vanilla extract

You will need a 9 x 12 pan (or thereabouts) that is at least 2-3 inches deep. You will also need a pastry brush.

The first thing you want to do is make the syrup so it has plenty of time to cool while the pastry is in the oven. This is where the honey usually goes and I replaced it with dark Agave syrup. *(Flavored agave syrup is showing up on the shelves, so it you find one flavored with Amaretto you don't need to use the almond extract because it's in there already.) Normally you would put in about a cup of honey, but using the agave, almond and lemon gives a 'sort of' approximation of honey flavor.

Put the water and sugar into a saucepan and bring to a slight boil cooking until the sugar is fully dissolved. Reduce the heat and add the lemon juice, zest, Agave and extract(s). Cook over a very low heat for approximately 20 minutes until syrup begins to thicken up. Then remove from heat and allow to cool fully - you can pop it into the fridge to cool it that's fine.

Now preheat your oven to 350° and melt your 'butter'.

Prep the filling by thoroughly mixing the nuts, spices and sugar together in a large bowl. Depending on how sweet you like things you can add more sugar here or omit it entirely. Taste the syrup and see if the lemon makes it too tart for you, if it is you want to put more sugar in the nut mixture.

With a pastry brush lightly butter the bottom and sides of your baking pan. Open your package of Phyllo dough, pull out one sheet and promptly reroll the rest and/or cover with plastic and a damp towel. Take one thin sheet of dough and lay it in the bottom of the baking pan. Gently, but quickly brush the dough with melted butter. The end of the sheets of Phyllo will begin to dry out very quickly so you should start at the ends and butter 'in'. And don't worry if you miss a few spots - you don't have to butter every single centimeter. If your sheets are very large you can either cut them or save time by simply laying half over the pan, buttering it and then folding the other half over (giving you two layers of dough very quickly without having to open the towel-covered 'stash') and buttering that portion. Also do not fret if you tear a sheet here and there while buttering - it happens! It will be fine.

Repeat the layering and buttering of the dough until you have between 6-8 layers of dough on the bottom of your pan. If there are edges sticking to the sides of the pan just push them down as they happen with the edge of your pastry brush. The more 'crumpled' the dough is the more it will flake and layer when it cooks - so don't worry that you will mess it up. You won't!

Once you have the bottom layer of dough done take a couple of handsful of the nut mixture and sprinkle a VERY thin layer across the entire pan - covering all the dough. Remember you will be cutting this into small pieces and you want every piece to have full layers of nuts. Now layer another sheet of dough on top of the nut mixture (this is where some tearing can happen because of the nuts - but again - it's fine the next sheet will cover for you!) and repeat the buttering layering process until you have 2-6 layers of dough which you will top with nuts again and continue this process until you are out of nuts. For reference I only did 2-3 layers of dough between layers of nuts and as you can see in the photos that doesn't give you a really defined 'layer' look. So I would err on the side of more rather than less for the dough layers - 2 is the absolute minimum. Just be sure to reserve about 8 sheets for the final top layer of dough so that you get that nice flaky pastry top.

Once you have the top layers done you can pour any remaining 'butter' right on top of the whole dish.

Important step coming up.

You MUST, absolutely MUST cut the baklava BEFORE you put it in the oven. If you miss this step you will end up with one giant baklava and trust me, that flaky crust will not cut well once it's been baked. So please: cut before cooking! And use the sharpest knife you have.

You can cut squares or try angles for a fancier look - either way is totally fine. If it's your first time, you may want to stick to the squares/rectangles because the diamond shape can be a little tricky as the top layers of dough are going to try very hard to slip away from you. Baklava - it's a feisty dessert.

When you are cutting through make sure you go almost to the bottom of the pan but try not to completely cut the bottom layer because a) the syrup will stay IN the pastry if it has no where else to go: if you cut all the way through you'll have a layer of syrup on the bottom of your pan and while that's still fine, it's not really what you want. So cut almost all the way through (do your best). b) You will cut all the way through thoroughly after everything is done.

This is what it looks like before it goes into the oven - after you've cut it.

Same thing - just a closer look (see how some of the top layers have left their assigned seats? that's okay!)

Put the pan into the oven - top shelf if possible to avoid burning the bottom layers - for approximately 50 minutes or until the top is a nice golden brown. Give it a quick look after about 30 minutes - some ovens may be quicker and you don't want it to burn after all that layering and buttering work you've just done!

There it is all golden and pretty!

Now take your cooled syrup and pour it evenly all over the top of the baklava right away while it is still hot from the oven. You may get some pops and hisses from the cool meeting the hot, but that's fine. And fun!

This is how it looks after the syrup is poured on. Shinier. Now you must let the whole thing cool fully. Leave at room temperature to do this part of the cooling and don't cover it with anything or it can get soggy. Nobody wants soggy Baklava! Crispy tops is part of the fun here.

After it's thoroughly cooled (a few hours) you can cut all all the way through and serve! However the longer you can let it sit and kind of marinate the better - so if you can wait until the next day that's good. Of course you can do a sampling - just to make sure you like it before you serve it up.... you'll like it.

Quinoa and whateveryagot Pilaf

2008-12-07T16:25:00.000-05:00

This time of year with all the running around, parties, shopping, and cooking for guests it not a time you really feel like going all-out for an everyday sort of meal. But the great thing about Vegan cooking is that you can make something really tasty that seems really special in next to no time.

I threw together this pilaf with things I happened to have on hand - I wasn't going shopping just to make a quick pilaf for lunch. So this is what I came up with - and I have to say, I'm very pleased with the results!

Quinoa and Whateveryagot Pilaf

1 c. uncooked quinoa
2 1/4 c. vegetable broth
1 T. olive oil
1 small yellow onion diced
1 carrot diced small
1 celery stalk diced small
2 cloves garlic minced
3/4 t. dried marjoram
1/8 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. turmeric
a good pinch of salt
handful of roasted cashews
half handful of yellow raisins
half handful of sunflower seeds
1 can chickpeas (drained)

Saute the onions, carrots and celery in the oil for about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic, spices and quinoa and continue cooking until the garlic is fragrant (don't let it burn!) Then add the broth cashews, raisins, sunflower seeds and bring it to a boil. Once the pot is boiling reduce heat and cover for 10-15 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Add the chickpeas, toss and fluff the quinoa and let the chickpeas heat through. Then serve! (I just put a 1/2 cup on top of a ready-to-eat bagged salad that I had.)

Remember the key to this is that you use whatever YOU happen to have handy and go with that - don't get caught up in my ingredients list - just try whatever you feel 'might' work. Odds are you will come up with something you love (because it's made up of what you already like and have around) and it will give you ideas to make all kinds of versions of this! Plus, you get more Quinoa in your diet which is terrific for vegans and non-vegans too because it packs so much nutritional punch. The other good thing about this is that if you have left-overs it works cold (or at room temperature) as well as hot from the pot.

Roasting

2008-10-02T13:13:00.006-04:00

The weather is chilling up and that means turning on the oven is no longer going to turn my apartment into an inferno. Turning on the oven means roasting veggies!

I love roasted vegetables and as soon as the temperature dropped I pulled out everything roastable I had on hand and did it up.
This is a half an acorn squash (roasted) stuffed with roasted fresh cauliflower and potatoes.

I split the squash, scrapped out the seeds and gave it a quick, light coat of olive oil then put it cut side up into a baking dish with a little water (to keep the skins from burning) and popped it into a 400° oven.

The squash takes a bit longer to cook so while that was getting a head start in the oven I washed and chopped a head of cauliflower and about 4 medium sized potatoes. Put all the veggies into a big bowl and tossed them with olive oil, one clove of sliced garlic and a healthy sprinkle of powdered rosemary. Then spread them all out evenly on a baking sheet or a shallow baking dish give them about 20 minutes then turn everything and let them go for another 20 minutes or so until they start showing some nice browning.

The squash takes about an hour to cook through (depending on the size). Then put everything on a plate and feel that yummy comfort of autumn cooking settle in. Deeee-lish!

Leftovers the next day for sure and they heat up very quickly. I added some oompf to the leftovers by toasting some pine nuts and sprinkling those on top. And the squash got a chopped up apple added while it was reheating. A really nice addition!

Mac 'Cheez' n Peas

2008-07-23T21:27:00.001-04:00

One of the very few things I have actually missed since becoming a vegan is the comfort of Macaroni & Cheese. Like a lot of Vegans I am not overly thrilled by the assortment of soy cheeses available. Sure, some are very good but they aren't mac & cheese worthy. However there is a great item that makes an amazingly accurate substitute - nutritional yeast.

I do not understand the mechanics that make nooch as many call it taste like cheese - but I'm here to tell you, it does.

I got some old school elbow macaroni and while it boiled then put together a batch of Wolffies's Nutritional Yeast "Cheese" Sauce from La Dolce Vegan.

1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes (not Brewer's Yeast!)
2 T. flour
1/2 t. salt
1 C. water
2 t. oil
1 and 1/2 t. dijon mustard (Actually I like it with a little less 1 t. seems enough to me)
1 and 1/2 t. tamari

Whisk all ingredients together in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer for 2-4 minutes - stirring constantly. Makes approximately 1 and 1/2 cups.

Drain your mac (any type of pasta you like), pour some cheez sauce over it and if you're like me you'll throw in some peas. Peas in my mac & cheese are imperative to me. There's just something about the pops of green that make me happy. Of course you may prefer it straight up old-school or with some other veggie. Make it your own!

Portobellos

2008-05-06T18:10:00.003-04:00

I'm not a huge fan of the big meaty portobello mushroom. Maybe because it's big and meaty? But I decided to give them a try at home and see what I could do with them.

What I did was slice them fairly thin and sautéed them in a pan with some garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Hello, simple! They seemed cooked enough - meaning they had shrunk down significantly - in under 5 minutes. I simply scooped them into some pitas with lettuce and not only was it tasty, it was so fast I barely knew I'd cooked!
I think some tomato slices would have really complemented the mushrooms, but I didn't have any.
Now that I have a portobello dish I really like, I may experiment with them some more! And maybe next time my photos will come out a little prettier!

Peppers!

2008-04-26T07:36:00.005-04:00

Like many people, I have some trouble with green bell peppers. They can be hard on the digestion. But red, yellow, and orange are mellow, dreamy and oh so beautiful!

You can throw them into practically any dish for a little extra zing of color and flavor. For example this is simply collard greens sautéed with olive oil , onions and garlic. I threw a can of butter beans on top and while it would have still tasted fine, the look of it was a bit... blah. So I cut up a yellow pepper and threw it into the mix. Eye appeal makes a world of difference.

This is scrambled tofu (Vegan with a Vengeance) and Diner home fries (Veganomicon). While I've made this without the peppers because I didn't have any in the house, the addition of a pop of red pepper makes it so much more appealing! I also like to put some spinach into the tofu scramble for that 'Florentine' vibe.

I really love jalapeños and habañeros and all the other spicy peppers as well, but for every day the colorful bells always work.

Irish Soda Bread

2008-03-14T12:57:00.000-04:00

There is nothing like Irish Soda Bread. When I was a kid we'd only ever have it for St. Patrick's Day - if then. But I never realized how easy it is to make. Really ridiculously simple - though maybe the traditional recipe is more complex. Since I've only ever made it as a Vegan, I can't say. But vegan is best, so why quibble? The longest part of the process is the baking.

Irish Soda Bread
1 cup soy milk (rice milk works too)
1 T. apple cider vinegar
2 ¼ flour
2 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
heaping ¼ t. baking soda
½ t. salt
½ cup (or more!) raisins
3 t. caraway seeds (if you like 'em - for me they make the bread)

Preheat oven to 350°.
Add the vinegar to the milk and set aside to 'curdle'. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Mixing the raisins into the flour coats them and keeps them from clumping all together in one place in the dough. When the oven is ready add the wet to the dry and mix just until everything comes together into a dough. Sprinkle a bit of flour onto a cookie sheet lined with silpat or parchment or just lightly greased. Form the dough into a ball, sprinkle a hint of flour on top and give it a little "x" slice across the top. Bake for approximately 40 minutes. Give it a toothpick test for doneness and if it sounds hollow when you tap it, it's certainly ready. Set it on a rack to cool or the bottom might get soft.

You can also throw the dough into a loaf pan if you want more uniform sandwich slices. Just remember to grease the loaf pan so you can get it out.

If you want that old-school bakery feeling, add a drop or two of green food coloring to the 'milk' mixture. Green bread makes me think of mold, but if you get a deep enough shade it's sort of festive for St. Pat's.

Soba Noodles with Cabbage and Miso

2008-02-15T14:03:00.005-05:00

This is super easy and healthy comfort food.

Broth
2 cups water
2 t. Better than Boullion (or whatever boullion cubes or mix you like)
1 chopped carrot
1 chopped celery stalk
2 thinly sliced cabbage leaves (I used savoy)
1 BIG Tablespoon White Miso (you can use any style miso, I just prefer the white for this)

Boil a large pot of water for the soba noodles. Soba noodles usually come bound in serving sizes - one is more than enough for this amount of soup. While the water is boiling for the noodles, chop the veggies and start the 2 cups of water for the broth.

Throw the veggies and broth mix into the 2 cups of water - throw the noodles into the large pot of boiling water. Soba noodles take about 7 minutes to cook. When the noodles are almost done dissolve the miso paste into the broth - make sure not to let this boil any more as boiling will diminish the benefits of miso. Just let it simmer.

When the noodles are done drain them, rinse with some cool water and throw them into a bowl. Top with the veggies/broth mixture and sprinkle with some black and white sesame seeds (if you have 'em).

This literally takes less than 15 minutes to put together and it beats the hell out of packet or pre-made soups. Try it!

Warning! Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies!

2007-12-17T02:49:00.000-05:00

The Veganomicon is a cook-book of pure, unadulterated evil. I am now its slave.

I wanted to throw something super-chocolatey into my holiday gifts and these Chocolate Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies sounded good. HA. Good? Talk about understatement.

Nothing out of the ordinary before they go into the oven.
But something wonderfully obscene happens to them after only 10 minutes of baking.
They taste like. . . is "heaven" overused? Well then, how about - these cookies are what brownies aspire to be. And I ADORE brownies.
I made them to be used as gifts, but now have to make another batch because after one taste I knew none of these cookies were leaving here except inside of ME! These are my new favorite cookie of all time.

p.s. There's ground flaxseed in there too - sinfully delicious AND a little healthy. See? Evil.

Lace Cookies

2007-12-16T16:45:00.001-05:00

These are sometimes called Florentines, but I have always known them as "Lace Cookies". Though I've always loved them, they are not always easy to find and for some reason I never thought to make them myself. I always thought they must be really difficult. Uh. Not so much. I've veganized a recipe I found on the Food Network and let me tell you - not difficult AT ALL. A little time-consuming, but not difficult. Make these, impress the hell outta everyone, and delight in the fact that you made these simple and elegant cookies.

Vegan Lace Cookies
1 3/4 cups sliced, blanched almonds (about 5 ounces)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Finely grated zest of 1 orange (about 2 tablespoons)
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vegan cream (I actually used soy creamer)
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
5 tablespoons Earth Balance butter
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pulse the almonds in a food processor until finely chopped, but not pasty. Stir together the nuts, flour, zest and salt in a large bowl.

Put the sugar, cream, corn syrup and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a rolling boil and sugar is completely dissolved. Continue to boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, then pour mixture into almond mixture and stir just to combine. Set aside until cool enough to handle, 20-30 minutes. It is easiest to form if it is still warm, but not hot.

Form the dough into small balls (teaspoon size makes a big enough cookie - honestly) and place onto a parchment paper or silpat lined cookie sheet while you preheat the oven to 350. You can only bake one sheet at a time, really I've tried two and they don't bake evenly - so it's easiest to form all the balls at once. You can lay them out on some parchment - it helps save time and aggravation because once the dough cools it gets harder to make the balls (they sort of crumble apart).

You really do need to space them far apart - they spread like crazy. But if you have a mishap, don't worry - it's easy to fix, but you must be quick.
When you take them out of the oven, if you see any that have spread into each other, just grab a knife and push them apart, reforming a nice circular shape. They are still very pliable while hot so you have about a minute to accomplish this. If you wait until they cool you'll just crack them. So be quick!
After a minute, take them off the parchment and cool fully on racks. My advice is not to try to lift them off the cookie sheet with a spatula, they are too thin and it's easy to ruin them this way. Instead simply peel the parchment away from them - they pull right off.
You can leave them as they are - they are awfully nice this way.
OR you can get all crazy with yourself and add some chocolate. Either drizzle some over the tops, dip one end, or my personal favorite: drop a teaspoon of melted chocolate onto one cookie and sandwich it in with another. The chocolate spreads and does a little poke-out from the 'lace'. Very indulgent. Very delish.
You know you want to. Chocolate + almonds = yummy yummy heaven. So go for it.

Sugar Cookies

2007-12-15T18:10:00.000-05:00

VEGAN SUGAR COOKIES
This makes between 3 and 6 dozen cookies - depending on cutter sizes.

1 cup margarine (Earth Balance-YUM!)
1 cup white sugar

2 whole egg replacements (Ener-G)
grated rind of one lemon*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

3-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. (you can wait on preheating the oven until you are ready to start cutting the cookies)

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar. Stir in the egg replacements, lemon rind and extracts until creamy and smooth. Gradually add the flour, baking powder and tofu cream cheese and mix until everything is incorporated.

I have always had trouble with my sugar cookies becoming tough. I found a tip at Kitchen Collectibles that helps avoid that by not having to add additional flour while rolling. FABULOUS!

HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess -- Rather than wait for your cookie dough to chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.

Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters.

Sprinkle the cookies with colored sugar or dust with plain white sugar unless you plan to ice them. Place about 1 inch apart on sheets - they don't spread very much, so you can actually smoosh 'em in closer if you need to.

Bake for 10 to 13 minutes until bottoms and edges just start to get light brown. If you are using dark colored, non-stick cookie sheets, check at 8 minutes to be sure they aren't burning. I hate these cookie sheets of mine. I could sure use some plan ol' non-nonstick cookie sheets. Hint, hint.

Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container. Then go make more...

because you'll probably have eaten all of them before you can give them out as gifts. Oh. Is that just me?

*I use dried grated lemon rind that I reconstituted. Very handy stuff to have on hand if you don't feel like grating lemons. You can leave this and the lemon extract out if you don't care for lemon - I have a weakness for those roll and bake sugar cookies but they aren't vegan - adding the lemon rind and extract makes these taste almost like the roll & bake kind.

Holiday Baking for your favorite pooch

2007-12-12T09:23:00.000-05:00

I must thank Vicki at Vegan Vice for posting this recipe last July. (Go look and see her wildly cute Jolie enjoying her treats!) I've been meaning to make them since then but I have never been great with rolled cookies and dealing with cookie cutters. How silly. These were SO easy I can't believe it!

Vegan Dog Treats
1/2 c. cornmeal
2 c. whole wheat flour
6 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2/3 c. vegetable broth

Mix it all together, roll it out about 1/4" thick and cut your cookies. I baked these at 325 for about 30 minutes until they were nice and hard. Note: I put them on parchment and a sil-pat so they wouldn't stick to the cookie sheets, but found that they were not sticking to anything when a couple slid off the parchment and baked directly on the cookie sheet. Talk about easy "cookies"!

At the end there were pieces I just couldn't roll out any more so I just pressed them into flat logs - they seem to be just as appealing to Basil as the cut shapes. He's fussy - but not that fussy!

I only have two cookie cutters - a star and a heart that I picked up 20 minutes before I started making these. The stars are small so I made more of those. My dog would eat treats endlessly so I prefer to give him smaller sized cookies so he'll feel like he's eating more. It's an old dieter's trick. But I did make a couple of hearts because they are so cute. And I do love my doggie!

I really like knowing exactly what is in his treats. And by the way, yes I did taste them. They are yummy! Hard... but yummy.

Seitan

2007-12-07T22:21:00.001-05:00

Making seitan at home has got to be one of the easiest things ever. Who knew? One and 1/3 cups of Vital Wheat Gluten plus one cup of veggie broth = a TON of home-made seitan. I don't think I kneaded it quite right, but practice, practice. It tasted great and lord knows there's ENOUGH of it! I was shocked at how much it 'puffs' up - it's pretty amazing stuff. FYI: basic directions for seitan are right on the box of vital wheat gluten.

Here it is in the pot simmering away. Yeah, not the prettiest thing in the world - but give it a chance!

Here it is sliced up on a plate with some mashed potatoes, baked sweet potato and kale steamed with a little garlic.

And a close-up!

If you like seitan and want to save some money, I highly recommend making it at home. You can flavor it however YOU like, it's ridiculously easy, and very satisfying (to make and eat!)

Oatmeal Cookies!

2007-12-06T16:50:00.000-05:00

The holidays are cookie time! My biggest fear about going vegan was, in actual fact, baking. Cookies in particular. I love making cookies at this time of year and I've been doing it since I was a kid - so how do you change decades of 'know-how' into HOW do I make cookies without eggs? Without BUTTER?

Well. First you take a look at some great cookbooks and you give it a shot. Just like when you were first baking as a pre-teen. And it's not so different. A little, but not so much. You do have to be really careful about not overbaking - vegan cookies can turn into rocks a lot faster than 'regular' cookies.

These are Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin cookies. The recipe comes from The Veganomicon.

They are amazing. The brown rice syrup seems to be the key. Deeee-licious!

PSA

2007-11-28T11:21:00.000-05:00

The following is almost entirely off-topic for this blog, except for the fact that Dennis Kucinich is a Vegan - YES! I didn't write the following, it is an email from Kucinich for President. I am posting it here simply to do what I can to get the word out about a DIFFERENT kind of presidential candidate; someone who seems to actually have some integrity. Might be nice for a change, don't you think?

Back to the food tomorrow!

Thanks for taking the time to look into this under-publicized candidate.

xo
Joy

************************************************************************************

IN DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACY

We all know that something is very wrong in our country. The Rule of Law, the Balance of Powers, and our Constitutionally guaranteed Civil Liberties have been under sustained assault by an Administration that is brazen and unrepentant in its abuses of our rights and our founding principles. And, to make matters worse, the Democratic leadership of the House and the Senate have failed to exercise the Constitutional authority granted to Congress to stop those abuses and hold violators accountable.

The results? The powers of the Executive Branch have gone unchecked and its policies unchallenged. The Congress and the American people were deceived into an illegal and immoral war in Iraq, and those same deceptions and manipulations are being used to justify a new war in Iran. The government is spying on its own citizens, ignoring judicial protections and due process, denying the right of habeas corpus, and refusing to abide by international laws, treaties, and principles.

Our nation faces a crisis, yet its leaders, and the candidates campaigning for the Presidency, refuse to acknowledge or address it in any substantive way.
That's why it's time for: A DIALOGUE FOR DEMOCRACY.

This Thursday, November 29, Democratic Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich will host an unprecedented "Dialogue for Democracy" forum that will be streamed LIVE on the Internet at KucinichTV.com. Along with invited guests, Dennis will bring this crisis to the attention of the nation and the world so we can better understand what's wrong, and, more importantly, what we can do about it. The first segment of the LIVE broadcast begins at 11 a.m. and continues until 1 p.m. The LIVE forum will resume at 5 p.m. and end at 9:30 p.m.

AN INVITATION TO SPEAK OUT! The Kucinich campaign is also extending this open invitation to representatives of interested organizations and concerned citizens to participate in this "Dialogue" by sending an email to dialogue@kucinich.us. Tell us who you are, the issues you want discussed, and whether you or your organization would like to participate directly during any of the LIVE broadcasts.

OUR DEMOCRACY - YOUR DEMOCRACY - is at stake in this election. And there's something you can do about it. You can stand with the candidate who stands with you. The one candidate who isn't afraid to speak the truth, to give honest answers, and to lay out real solutions that don't protect the status quo. If that's the kind of leader you want, someone who will protect and defend YOUR interests and rights under the Constitution, consider making a contribution to the Kucinich for President Campaign today. It's your way of ensuring that your voice will continue to be heard throughout the debates, the primaries, and the caucuses.

DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT! Any contribution you make now through November 29th is eligible for federal matching funds. That means your $50 contribution becomes a $100 contribution. A $100 contribution becomes $200. BUT THE DEADLINE IS THURSDAY NIGHT, so please don't wait.

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Chili Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu

2007-11-27T11:02:00.000-05:00

If you aren't a tofu fan, this could be the dish that changes your mind.

It's from the amazing Veganomicon.

You have to do a little battering and frying - but much as I don't care to fry things I tried this. I have to say it is not like the kind of frying I anticipated. You only use a very tiny amount of oil - the slices of tofu are really thin so they don't need much - and they are cooked in just a few minutes.

left to right: pressed tofu, soy milk with cornstarch, cornmeal-chili mix

I wanted to present it all fancy-like... 'cause that was my mood last night. So I started with thin slices of baked sweet potato and a molded pile of garlic and olive oil sauteed spinach. It's easy to mold. I just put it into a quarter-cup sized measuring cup and then popped it out on top of the potato slices.I sprinkled on some pine nuts - because I forgot to mix them into the spinach while I sauteed it! Ooops!
Then a sprinkle of roasted corn kernels (thank you Trader Joe's frozen veggies section!)

Finally, because I love it, I topped the whole thing off with some raw cranberry relish. Lots of colors, lots of flavors, who says they don't love tofu?

Vegan Thanksgiving!

2007-11-24T10:58:00.000-05:00

The Menu
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup*
Tofu 'Turkey' Loaf**
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Roasted Cauliflower with cumin
Roasted Red Bell and Cubana Peppers
Stuffing**
Mashed Potatoes**
Baked Sweet Potatoes
Raw Cranberry Relish
Joyous Pecan Tarts with Mexican Vanilla Ice 'Cream'

*recipe from Vegan With A Vengeance
**made by Miss Lori

...and this is what happens when you leave delicious vegan food on an untended table.

Raw Cranberry Relish

2007-11-24T10:55:00.001-05:00

Raw Cranberry Relish

* 2 cups fresh or defrosted frozen cranberries (sort through and toss the bad ones, remember this is raw and bad cranberries will be too mushy or too hard)
* 1/4 cup diced red onion
* 1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
* 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
* 2 oranges peeled and chopped
* 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 2 stalks celery chopped small to fine depending on your tastes

Place cranberries in food processor, and pulse to chop coarsely. Add onion, jalapeno, lime juice, orange sections (and their juice), and ginger. Pulse until everything is chopped and blended.

Transfer to a bowl. Mix in sugar and celery. Refrigerate for at the very least 2 hours and up to 2 days. Seriously do not skimp on the last step. The sugar needs to melt and blend with the cranberries otherwise you have a grainy consistency and the cranberries will be too tart and the sugar too sweet. Definitely plan to make this the day before you want to serve it for the absolute best results.

This is so good you will want to eat it by itself. It compliments almost anything - depending on how many people you are serving you may have to double the recipe. Trust me, you'll be happy to have leftovers of this stuff!

Pecan Tarts with Mexican Vanilla Ice 'Cream'

2007-11-24T10:39:00.000-05:00

These little darlings are Pecan Tarts.
MMM-MMMM-MMM.
I veganized this recipe from Shirley's Bitchin' Pecan Tarts.

Joyous Vegan Pecan Tarts

The pastry:
* 1/2 Cup vegan cream cheese
* 1 Cup sifted flour
* 1/4 Cup Earth Balance "butter"

Blend together the cream cheese and butter. Sift in flour, mix until all the flour is incorporated - roll into ball. Chill for 2-3 hours. Divide the dough into 12 equal balls and press into muffin or tart pans so that the edges reach the top of the mold.

The filling:
* 3/4 cups chopped pecans
* 1/4 cup Earth Balance "butter", melted and cooled
* 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
* 2 flax eggs*
* dash salt
* 1 Tablespoon vanilla

Cool melted butter and add sugar, flax eggs, salt and vanilla blend until liquid and smooth. Put chopped pecans in bottom of shells. Fill 2/3 full with filling.

Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes. Makes 12 if you use regular muffin pans. Makes 24 if you use small tart pans.

You can top these cuties with Mexican Vanilla Ice 'Cream' for a more special treat.

I used the recipe for 'fancy pants' vanilla ice cream found on A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise but used only 1 cup soy creamer and 3 cups vanilla soy milk. I also used a vanilla bean from Mexico - which is why I'm calling it "Mexican Vanilla Ice Cream".
The real vanilla makes the most amazing ice cream and nothing goes better with pecan tarts than vanilla ice cream. Heaven on a plate!

*Flax Eggs
1 Tablespoon ground flax seeds + 3 Tablespoons water = 1 egg
just put the water and flax seed meal into a blender and blend until gelatinous (you can also use flax seeds - you just need to blend longer)

Cholent

2007-11-20T21:41:00.000-05:00

Five steps to satisfaction.

1. Go buy Veganomicon.
2. Go to page 182.
3. Make this unbelievably great stew.
4. Serve it to your nay-saying "eiwww Vegan" friends and family.
5. Smirk smugly as they dig in and rave.

The meat-like substance in this stew is TVP chunks. This is the first time I've used the chunks and I tell ya, dried out and packaged they resemble nothing more than dog kibble. But once you put them into something... oy! Fabulous!

The recipe in the Veganomicon doesn't call for dumplings, but for me, stew requires them. Just for the record, dumplings made with Bisquick are super quick and easy. Well worth the extra few minutes effort.

The stew also calls for caraway seeds, which I normally don't care for. Then again I've only ever run into them in bread, Irish Soda or Rye. I'm not a fan of these seeds in bread. If you don't think you like them, use them here any way. Really. There's a subtle flavor that you won't want to miss.

I'm so glad I got this cookbook!!!

New Cook Book!

2007-11-17T16:47:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited! I got my copy of Veganomicon the other day and today I wanted to make cornbread - guess who had a quickie recipe? Yup.

Now the recipe calls for a skillet - you make it in the skillet, skillet goes in the oven, but I don't have an oven-proof skillet (anyone wants to get me a nice cast-iron skillet is welcome to do so!) so I did it in a glass baking dish.

Crispy on the edges, moist inside. The VWaV gals did it again!

Since I was going to have this with the black bean soup I threw together the other day, I decided to spice it up with some jalapenos. The recipe in Veganomicon says to saute onions and the peppers then add to the cornbred, but hello laziness. I just chopped up the jalapeno and stirred it into the batter along with some crushed red pepper flakes - that's what those little red and green specks are in the cornbread. Next time I'm trying the onion and pepper saute - really! I'm not ALWAYS lazy!

Summer rolls in November

2007-11-14T11:15:00.000-05:00

The first thing I saw in Vegan with a Vengeance that I really wanted to try to make was the Mango Summer Rolls. They just looked so beautiful. But I never got around to it and oh look, it's mid-November. Can you make "Summer Rolls" in November? Oh sure you can - especially if you live in an overheated New York City apartment.

I did not follow the recipe in that great cookbook - I just didn't have all the ingredients so I improvised.

It was really simple.

Rice papers
rice noodles
Fresh Mango - sliced thin
Carrots - sliced thin
cucumber - sliced thin
chopped roasted almonds
sprinkle of ground ginger

Soak the rice papers until soft (one at a time otherwise they will get too soft and tear apart when you lift them out of the water). Lay them on a towel to absorb the excess water and then lay some cooled, cooked rice noodles on one end. Then layer whatever you are using on top of the noodles - but not too much or you won't be able to close the rice paper roll.

You roll them like a burrito, except that you fold in both ends and you have to roll carefully because the rice paper can tear (especially if a carrot is a little too long and pops through!)

I think they look really pretty cut open.

The dipping sauce was something I threw together, again, with what I had laying around.

Hot Chili Oil
Peanut Butter
splash of soy sauce
splash of rosemary vinegar
ground ginger

Just whisk it together, give it a taste - adjust the peanut butter and chili oil until you have the amount of heat you like and that is that!

I think these would be fun to fry as well, making the rice paper all crispy. But I'm not much of a fryer, so I left them as they are.

Eat Your Colors... I mean Veggies!

2007-11-08T11:57:00.001-05:00

Colorful vegetables are good for you - you know all those fabulous vitamins and antioxidants and so on. The best part of cooking with colorful veggies is how unbelievably PRETTY your food looks! And you don't have to do any special work to make it gorgeous - you do your regular chopping and stirring and Mother Nature takes care of the decor.

I got this little head of purple cauliflower at a farmer's market.

I threw it into the sautee pot with red and yellow bell peppers, spinach, red onion and of course, garlic.

Throw in some whole wheat pasta, a sprinkle of pine nuts and you're eating art!

Honestly, who wouldn't want to eat all those colors?

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream filling

2007-11-07T16:38:00.001-05:00

I was a little sad when I read the label of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and found they were not Vegan. Oh well. When you want some chocolate in your peanut butter, or peanut butter in your chocolate, you can always make a batch of these Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream filling (recipe from VCTOTW) and satisfy that urge.

These were my first filled cupcakes and I was surprised at how easy it was to do the filling. You poke your finger into the top of the cupcake once it has cooled and then with a pastry bag (large tip) filled with peanut butter cream you just plug up the hole! Then you pipe a little on top to cover the hole up and that creamy center is just waiting to surprise the lucky cupcake eater!

I sprinkled some cocoa powder over the top of the frosting, because I was gettin' all crazy with myself, but I don't think they need it at all. They are pretty scrumptious. And chocolatey. AND peanut buttery! Yum.

Salsa

2007-10-27T13:18:00.000-04:00

There's no reason not to have fresh salsa. It's so easy - and fast! I found some fabulous tomatoes on the vine at my corner veggie and fruit stand so I went crazy! The tomatoes are from Mexico so they really wanted to become salsa - I could tell.

Aren't these beautiful? They were so juicy!

I threw these bad boys into the food processor with some garlic, red onion and a little bit of fresh cilantro, pulsed it a few times and opened a bag of chips.

Could it be easier? Really, nothing beats freshly made salsa.

Mucho Margarita Cupcakes

2007-10-26T23:37:00.000-04:00

Do I love VCTOtW? You bet I do!

This is the Mucho Margarita Cupcake - and it really is. Mucho. Mucho DELICIOUS!!!

Tequila and fresh lime. What's not to love?

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

2007-10-26T16:58:00.000-04:00

naked cupcakes

In keeping with the Mexican theme, and because I'm having a small fiesta tomorrow, I made VCTOtW's Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes.

just a dusting of confectioner's sugar

The recipe called for 1/4 cup of almond flour, but I had none on hand so I upped the measurements of corn flour and all-purpose flour to make up the difference.

a quick sift of cocoa powder

The batter is delish, I haven't tried a cupcake yet because they are for a party... and I'm being strong. Yeah. that's gonna last.

a sprinkle of cinnamon and they're ready to eat!

on display with marzipan skulls

Fantastico!

Tamales!!

2007-10-19T22:00:00.000-04:00

I've made tamales. It's my first try. I highly recommend you try it out!

I learned some basics from watching the great Post Punk Kitchen and then with a little internet surfing and a little experimentation (and with much shaking in my boots) I made some all by myself.

There are some basics that you need. First of all Maseca. If you can't find it in your area (I couldn't) you can order it at mexgrocer.com. It's really inexpensive (and delish!)

Next you need corn husks to wrap the tamales. Again I got mine at mexgrocer.com (LOVE that site!)The husks are dried so you need to soak them to soften them up so you can wrap your tamales.
Then you need a nice deep steamer pot. I did not have one so I improvised and it worked quite well. I took an aluminum pie plate and punched holes in it - it fit in the stock pot I had perfectly.
Of course you need filling. I had some TVP that I've never cooked with and thought this might be the time to try it out. I mixed one cup plain dried TVP with 1 cup water and a packet of taco seasoning (okay, so I cheated a little, it was my first attempt and I was going easy on myself.)
I sauteed some onions, garlic and red bell pepper until soft then added the spiced up TVP , a can of black beans, a little veggie broth, a little tomato sauce, a tomato and some chopped jalapenos (because they are my favorite). I also threw in some pepper paste I'd gotten from mexgrocer and a few splashes of habanero sauce (I like the spice!)
I thought it needed a little something more so in went some frozen roasted corn kernals and some spinach... and a little more chopped jalapeno. I didn't use any set measurements, just went for it.

You cook your filling down until it's not so runny and then let it cool. I'm serious. I didn't and it's a mess - the heat from the filling melts the masa and you don't want that - it makes the wrapping a nightmare! You can make the filling the day before and refrigerate it. Trust me. Learn from my mistakes. Let the filling cool down.

Then make your masa (the corn dough). The directions are on the package, but they call for lard - I used olive oil instead.
You have to beat it like crazy - use a handmixer if you have one - until it is light and fluffy.

It ought to be the consistency of peanut butter when you slather it on your softened and dried off, corn husk. Again, learn from my mistakes. I didn't dry off the first few husks and it made it very hard to get the masa to stick to the husk. So pat down your husks before attempting to fill them.

~~I very cleverly forgot to take a photo once I'd put the filling on - I'll update this when I make my next batch (tomorrow) with my very cooled off filling.~~ But what you do is put a little plop of filling in the middle, roll the husk around it so that the masa meets and covers the filling, then you tie the ends together with some strips of corn husk (it tears really easily - kind of like curling ribbon).

UPDATE: This is what they look like with a little filling.

The wrapping is where you find that practice makes perfect. I messed up a lot. Learning the right proportions of masa to filling seems to be something you just have to learn by doing. But it's a fun process and worth doing it until you learn it!
That's my first little tamale! I'm so proud!

One the third one I tried a different wrapping style. I was getting cocky. I went back to the two tie method.

The recipe I was using for the masa, from the Maseca package, said it would make 16 small tamales. I got 9 good sized tamales that's them waiting to go in the steamer.
And that's them IN the steamer. I covered it and thought it would be done in about 45 minutes. No such luck. They took about 90 minutes - because they were so stuffed. In that time the water in my steamer burned away - so remember to keep an eye on that. I had a lot of water in there, didn't think it would boil away, but it did. Luckily I smelled that something was amiss and caught it before everything got ruined. Whew!You know they're done when they feel firm to the touch and are a little poofier than when you put them in the pot - don't worry, you'll be able to tell. Take one out of the steamer when it feels right and let it sit for a couple of minutes, then try peeling away the corn husk. If it's done the husk will come away smoothly and the masa will be firm and cooked. This one above is done. Sadly my masa was not completely meeting as it should and some filling seeped out. But only a little. If you find your sample tamale is not done, just put it back in the steamer and give it some more time.

When it's done it will look like this!

I ate one and put the rest in the fridge to see how they hold up.

I think they'll be okay.

UPDATE: I resteamed a couple that I had refrigerated yesterday - they were perfect. Then made a second batch. I'm freezing them to see how that works out. This is some of Tamales Day Two in the pot. (my wrapping technique improved and I tried some different styles to suit the husk sizes = it's so much fun!)

Try some yourself!

Split Pea Soup - simple dinner

2007-10-18T13:14:00.000-04:00

The other night my friend Gary was staying over, I was in the mood to cook so while we usually run out to eat when he comes in, I decided to cook.

It was a slightly chilly day, one might even call it autumnal (which is saying something in these days of global warming). I decided to make soup. A thick, hearty split pea soup. To celebrate the fact that this was one of the very rare times my kitchen table was clear, instead of being used as a catchall, I decided to make this simple soup dinner a little more special.

I have four vases (they are actually recycled mini soda bottles) set up in my bathroom* with happy orange and yellow flowers, so I grabbed one of them and put it on the table with my fancy-schmancy leopard plates and matching votives. Voila! A special table with no effort whatsoever!

The soup was just the basic recipe from the back of the Goya beans package (minus the suggested pork products) - it's so easy. An onion, some garlic, a carrot, veggie broth and the split peas. Cook until soft. Simple. With split pea soup I also like to pour half of it into a blender and really smooth it out, it helps thicken the soup and I LOVE really thick pea soup. Making soup is so easy and stressless because you basically throw stuff in a pot, let it simmer forever and you don't have to keep an eye on it the whole time or worry that it will overcook, and you almost always have leftovers.

I just served it with some rye bread and Earth Balance margarine. The sweetness of the soup worked really well with the sourness of the bread.

It was just soup and bread and yet it was filling, and cozy.

*yes, that's an action figure of Norman Bates dressed as his mother from Psycho. Of course it belongs in the bathroom, where else?!

Red Lentil Pasta

2007-10-16T20:10:00.000-04:00

I'm in a cooking mood. The dilemma is always what to cook? I have a jar of red lentils I've been meaning to use and aside from throwing some into lentil soup just haven't found anything special to do with them. Tonight I flipped through La Dolce Vegan and found the quickest easiest use for the little red devils!

It's just the usual start point for savory goodness - onions and garlic sautéed in a little olive oil; add some veggie stock, some fresh chopped tomato, the lovely red lentils and the thing that gives it that special zing: cinnamon! I'd love to post the recipe, but since it isn't mine I don't feel right about that (copyright and all).

Toast some cashews to toss on top.

And here it is!

I can't even tell you how yummy this is - and it took about 20 minutes to make. Now I know what to do with my red lentils. AND what to make when I'm in a hurry!

Eggplant is my friend

2007-10-10T15:26:00.000-04:00

Eggplant is such a great vegetable. It's not only gorgeous, who can resist that purple color? But it's also versatile and so yummy!

The trouble is cooking a fresh eggplant. It's something I'm not overly familiar with and just .... oh alright, I'm lazy.

But I was recently introduced to two ready-made eggplant items that I've incorporated into my life with great ease. This one:

Is so super easy to use that it probably should be illegal. They are prebreaded and all you have to do is brown them in a little olive oil (takes all of 2 minutes!) and you have a great addition to a veggie/pasta dish or the perfect, quick makings for an eggplant parmigana hero.

I used them with my usual throw a pile of veggies into a pot, saute 'em and toss with pasta dish.
This is just some string beans, wax beans, carrots and chopped collard greans sauteed in garlic and oil with some pine nuts.

I threw that over some pasta (not whole wheat I'm afraid... I was in a rush and used some angel hair that I had because it cooks so quickly).

Then I topped it all with a quickly browned cutlet.

Very scrumptious. And insanely quick.

Sabra makes a sauteed eggplant that is really good on top of toasted bread.

I sliced up a bagette, this one was salted - yum! And dropped a dollop of the eggplant on top.

I found this eggplant a tiny bit too sweet for me so I sprinkled some hot pepper flakes on top.
It was just enough heat to offset the sweet.
Makes a nice hors d'oevres - or just a nice snack.
Now to practice cooking with a fresh eggplant!

more gobo fun

2007-10-02T17:36:00.000-04:00

Living a block away from Gobo is dangerous. I want to eat there all the time! I try to mix it up... but given the opportunity I would eat at Gobo every day. These are two dishes I have not published photos of - other dishes we had have already been discussed here.

I'm so in love with the seitan dishes here that I would probably have never veered away from them. Luckily I didn't have to make the choice as my friend ordered this panini and I got to try it. yes... the bite mark is from me.

Oh man, this is one tasty sandwich. It's brimming with yummy mushrooms and seasoned so beautifully I could have eaten the whole thing. But then I would have had to share my seitan. *sigh* I couldn't let that happen.

truffled wild mushroom panini with onion fonduta

This is the apple & pear crisp. Um... usually there is an identifiable scoop of soy ice cream on top. Sadly we dove into this temptation before I remembered to snap a photo. This is the first time I've ordered this dessert that I've gotten any sort of photo of it - so I guess that's a good sign. Maybe next time I will be able to stop drooling long enough to remember to take a quick shot before devouring it.

If you go to Gobo and you're stuffed after the great meal, I recommend you split this dessert with your dining companion. It looks like a tiny little serving, but in reality it is quite a lot and quite filling so splitting it is more than enough for even the biggest sweet tooth.

apple & pear crisp with (some) soy vanilla ice cream

Pumpkin Muffins

2007-09-25T15:48:00.000-04:00

I've made a lot of cupcakes since beginnning my Vegan journey, but not so many muffins. There may be a resemblance between the two, hey, you use the same pan what do you expect? But there is a difference in texture and weight as well as flavors.

A friend had indicated a craving for a spice or pumpkin bread so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try The Best Pumpkin Muffins recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. As the author points out, calling them the "Best" might seem a bit boastful, but I am here to tell you - it's not a boast. It's a simple fact. These really are the best pumpkin muffins ever.

see? cupcake pan - muffin pan = same pan

The recipe gives a variation - adding cranberries or walnuts. I only had pecans so I used them. I also topped each muffin with a pecan half to make it clear that these were not cupcakes - these are muffins. By the way, pecans work GREAT with these muffins!

They are so flavorful, spicy, pumpkiny and moist that you will want to eat them all at once. Don't do it! Save them for the next morning. Not only will your home smell delightful as long as they are around (the aroma from these muffins filled my kitchen for days and it was gorgeous!) but if you slice a muffin in half, toast it slightly and add some Earth Balance spread you will be so glad you held back the urge to eat them all right out of the oven that you will write to me and thank me for the tip! Or maybe you'll just enjoy your toasty taste of pumpkin muffiny goodness and thank Isa Chandra Moskovitz for her great recipe. That works too.

I used cupcake liners just to keep clean-up easier,
you could just plop the batter into the pan directly if you wanted to,
just a matter of choice here.

The tops are crunchy, the insides are moist. What more could you ask from a delicious muffin?

Boiled Peanuts

2007-09-25T15:38:00.000-04:00

I'm an East Coast Northerner. I have eaten peanuts my entire life, roasted, as peanut butter, as peanut sauce in various cuisines, as a perfect addition to chocolate but I have never eaten boiled peanuts. Until now.

I have heard of boiled peanuts, but until trying them for myself I had no idea how unbelieveably addictive they could be. Oh man, oh man these are delish!
They are heavily salted, and the boiling makes them very soft. You simply peel the softened shells open and eat the peas.

According to the bag my friend brought me on his recent visit, these boiled goobers are "country caviar". Not only country caviar, but totally vegan caviar as well!

It's hard to describe the flavor. They don't really taste peanutty, but there is a familiar legume/nut taste and there is almost a boiled potato mouth feel.

I'm told these are available all over the southern states, for us northern folk it's a rarity. If you have any friends in the south, or if you travel below the Mason-Dixon line - look for these tasty treats. But I cannot be responsible if you become addicted!

Pita Sandwich!

2007-08-30T17:02:00.001-04:00

I'm not usually big on sandwiches, but since I discovered these fabulous ready-to-go tofu and TVP spreads at the health food stores I've become a bit of a junkie for the sammies.

This one is Vegan Sundried Tomato Chicken Salad in a Whole Wheat pita stuffed to the gills with assorted lettuces and baby Roma tomatoes. Half a sliced apple and a strawberry round it out to a nice little meal. It's a sandwich and a salad all in one!

Finding Vegan bread is a bit of a bother sometimes - why do so many bread companies put milk in their bread? This seems so odd to me, though I never gave it a thought before, now that I know it's in there I'm really stumped. But I found these lovely Baker's Whole Wheat pitas and they are simply yum-a-licious. They also hold together better than the more commonly found pitas made by the bigger companies. So there "sahara".

I just love things that are quick to throw together, easy on the eye, and filling while being simply deeee-lish. Plus you really can't beat all those colors. Nothing nicer than colorful eats - all those antioxidants!!! MMM-MMM-MMMM!

Fast Falafel Salad

2007-08-22T21:35:00.000-04:00

Falafel is one of the best things you can make out of chickpeas. Hummus is a close second. Trouble with making falafel at home, for me, is the frying. I just don't enjoy frying so much. So I haven't made it at home in decades.

The other day I spotted frozen falafel in the health food store and decided to give 'em a shot.

They are pre-cooked and can be eaten after defrosting, or you can heat them up for 5 minutes in a toaster oven. I did the latter. While they were heating, I mixed together a bit of tahini, some water and lemon juice with a shake of garlic/spice powder to make a dressing. Threw some salad on a plate with a few sliced baby roma tomatoes, tore up half an Ezekiel 4:9 burger bun and voila! Ten minute falafel salad.

Fast, easy and yummy. What else do you need?

Dinner at Gobo

2007-08-20T19:37:00.000-04:00

Friday night I had dinner at Gobo with my friend Lori.
She is not a vegan but is extremely vegan friendly, and thus very willing to try new and tasty vegan treats. She's also very, very funny. As you can see, she had me cracking up.Because we both like to toss back a few shots of the hard stuff at Gobo we started out strong... 2 oz. shots of wheat grass, and keep 'em coming barkeep! Yeah. Well, a shot is a shot, right? And this little cup of liquid lawn is yummy and good for you!
Along with the wheat grass is the fabulous Gobo bread: cranberry on the left, 7 grain on the right. The bread is served with an amazing sweet potato spread (there are raisins in it!) that would make even a butter lover swoon.

We split an order of scallion pancakes with homemade mango salsa as an appetizer because... c'mon. You know why. Because they are delectable! That gorgeous mango salsa on top is a perfect complement of sweet and sharp to the slices of potato scallion heaven beneath it.

Lori ordered the sesame protein braised in sweet & sour sauce. I tasted one of the crispy little apple balls in the sauce and next time I go, I'm ordering this dish!

I had the natural seitan medallion in sizzling spicy citrus sauce (try saying that five times fast!)

Eating at Gobo has very quickly become an addiction for me - I can't get enough of their seitan nor their amazingly delicious coffee. Yes, the coffee.

It's an organic Brazilian coffee made in a French press and I swear it is the best coffee I have had any where. And trust me, I love my coffee. They also have the most amazing desserts, though we were both too full this time to have any. I do recommend both the multi-layered chocolate cake dusted with green tea and the crazy delicious apple & pear crisp served with soy vanilla ice cream. I wish I had photos to show you, but when I've had these desserts in the past I haven't had my camera with me! Silly Joy!

The meals here are so filling that a take-home bag is usually necessary and this time was no exception. I was happy to have left-overs of this seitan dish and I gussied it up by steaming some fresh kale and throwing the seitan and veggies over it. Seitan and kale? A marriage made in heaven!

Lemon Cut-Out Cookies

2007-08-19T12:24:00.000-04:00

I love to make cookies, oddly enough they are not something I have made since becoming Vegan. I wanted to make something to send to my friend who sent this little dough boy, and cupcakes, which while awesome might not do so well in the mail. So I opted to try cookies because they do travel well.

I used the recipe for Lemon Cut-Out cookies from Vegan With A Vengeance. Even though rolled cookies are not my strong suit, these sounded good and I thought they would be pretty.

They are, aren't they?
Lemony and sweet, but not too sweet. This is also a nice simple cookie that goes well with, say a nice cup of espresso or tea. Just a nice cookie. And it travels well.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

2007-08-17T12:00:00.000-04:00

The cupcake of the day is Chocolate Chip!

nekkid chocolate-chip cuppers!

I used the VCTOTW recipe for Golden Vanilla Cupcakes then threw in about a 1/2 cup of mini-chocolate chips at the end.

This was my first go 'round with my new disposable pastry bag - I was a little nervous, but had the friendly totem and new blog mascot of this little poppin' fresh fellow to hold my hand (metaphorically people, this is not Chucky or Trilogy of Terror!) He was a gift from a wonderful friend who wanted to be in the kitchen with me, so now he is! I'm not normally that sappy, but I'm making an exception here because I love the gesture, so sweet.

Here's my first shot at pastry-bag cupcake decoratin'. Not too bad for a first timer. I'm just sayin'. This frosting is the Chocolate Buttercream from (you can guess) VCTOTW!!!

I had these vegan sprinkles I wanted to use and I think they are just the right finishing touch.

I cut one open to show off the hidden surprise of little chocolate chips inside.

I have to say this is my favorite cupcake so far. I'm not normally a big frosting fan, but this stuff? I could eat this without the cupcake... and there are left-overs so....

Chocolate & Vanilla Marble Cupcakes

2007-08-10T04:15:00.000-04:00

Pretty. Yummy. And a bit of dexterity required. These are from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. As if there was any doubt.

On the left you see the chocolate batter. On the right is the vanilla.
Pouring them equally into the liners is a messy affair (I cleaned up the tin before taking the photo!)
Swirling is the next part of the process. I found that while these look pretty darned 'swirly' when you open up the cupper it is not quite as marbleized as it looks on the outside. So if you make these, my advice is to marbleize more than you think you need to - so they look as pretty on the inside as they do on the outside.
After they come out of the oven they are a little more golden and just as swirly.

I iced them with Vegan Buttercream Frosting from VCTOTW. I divided the vanilla recipe and then added a bit of cocoa to half. I wanted to recreate the swirls of the cupcakes in the icing. Unfortunately it wasn't quite the success I'd envisioned. It seems the time has come for me to get a pastry bag.

This is one of the little cakes cut open.

See what I mean about the marbelizing? It looks great on the top, but deep inside the cupcake I needed to swirl it up a bit more.

Lesson learned. Next time: Perfection!
In the meantime? They taste just fine!

Mini-Pizzas with home-made sauce

2007-08-06T10:10:00.000-04:00

It doesn't happen often, but it happened last night. I had a pizza craving. Oh I sure did.

I wanted to make my own, because hunting down vegan pizza was simply not on my agenda, I didn't want to commit to a full-sized pizza, nor did I want to attempt making my own crust. So I fell back on an old childhood fave: English muffin pizzas!

I used whole wheat English muffins because they are denser than the 'nook and cranny' variety so they have more of a 'real' crust feel. I also made my own sauce!

I know making sauce is an art unto itself, so it's something that always intimidates me. But I was feeling bold - and I wanted the damned pizza - so I made it up as I went along.
Tomato sauce with basil
2-3 T. olive oil
1/2 large onion chopped small
2 cloves garlic minced
1 package (17 oz) Vitelli crushed tomatoes
2-3 t. dried oregano
1 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 c. chopped fresh basil
sea salt (to taste)
2 t. agave nectar (it's really sweet so go sparingly, you just want enough "sweet" to round things out)

In a medium saucepan saute onions in olive oil. When they begin getting softer add the oregano and nutmeg and continue sauteing until almost translucent. Add garlic and cook until you start to smell the garlic - don't brown!

Add the tomatoes and basil to the onions, let it simmer for a couple of minutes, stirring from time to time. Check the taste and salt as necessary, then add a little agave nectar and taste again. You'll know when you've added enough - the acidic 'bite' of the tomato will soften and you'll taste a full-bodied 'sauce'. Then of I let it simmer for about 15 minutes, but longer would probably be even better.

This was my first vegan pizza and of course the cheese was going to be the biggie. I scoured the health food store and decided to try Vegan Gourmet's mozzarella. I was really happy to see that Urban Vegan recommends this as one of her favorites, so I knew I'd chosen well! (Talk about beginner's luck!)

I lightly toasted the English muffins and shredded the cheese (which does shred very easily). Then I laid out the muffins and layered on some sauce. Because the sauce is thick with onions it actually looks more like large bruschetta, but once the cheese went on it became pizza!
I did not find that the cheese melted very much, but that may have been because I made these in a toaster oven; but it browned a wee bit around the edges and it was moist and yummy, so the meltiness was not an issue for me.

I reserved a few smaller basil leaves to use as a fresh topping - tastes fantastic and looks awfully pretty.
I didn't clock this, but I'd put it at about 30-40 minutes and that's, of course, because of the sauce. If you have sauce on hand already, this wouldn't take more than 10 minutes to throw together.

Frozen or Fresh: YOU decide!

2007-08-04T12:04:00.000-04:00

Cooking from scratch has become something I love. While I've always loved baking from scratch, making 'food' rather than desserts has always been more challenging for me. Though I do admit that was primarily due to the fact that I never quite knew what to do with meat products. They scared me. Being vegan has wiped away all those fears.

However this is not to say I'm above the use of conveniently pre-packaged, heat and serve foods. In fact frozen vegetables are easily my favorite things. If you have some frozen veggies on hand you can do amazing things. Best part: they don't go bad waiting for you to decide what to do with them!

The other day I found a new frozen dish that was waving, jumping up and down in a VERY insistent manner and screaming my name from the frozen food section at my favorite food Mecca, Trader Joe's.

Though I enjoy throwing together my own creations, they seem to all be variations on a theme. A whole lotta stuff in one pot. So when I saw this ready to go dish, I had to try it.

There are 8 pre-made 'bird's nests' in a package for something like $2.59, and they come with a dipping sauce that is so good I want a recipe!

a look inside the box

It takes about 20 minutes in an oven - it's a thousand degrees here so I used the toaster oven for this. They come out like this.

So yummy I was in heaven. You can deep-fry them also, but they already have enough oil for me so the oven was the way to go. I had convinced myself I'd save these to use as 'impress the company' fare if anyone came over - but let's face it: these bad boys are too good to leave frozen.

My one regret is having only bought one box. Note to self: stock up!!

German Chocolate Cupcakes

2007-08-03T08:44:00.000-04:00

I haven't made anything new and exciting in the past few weeks. As evidenced by my lack of posts on this blog. My trip to Mexico really put my experiments in cooking on hold. Now I am happy to report I'm back!

Thursday is cupcake makin' day here and though the last few weeks I've been 'off', last night the cupcake batter was flowing again and world balance was thus restored. This time it's German Chocolate Cupcakes from, where else, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

This flavor was a special request (as were the Carrot Cake Cuppers I made a while back). I'm happy to finally be able to fulfill that request. Even though New York is in the midst of a heat wave, last night I was slaving over the oven. Because, for chocolate, I will suffer.

The recipes I used from VCTOTW are Your Basic Chocolate Cupcake (page 37) and Coconut Pecan Fudge Frosting (page 147). These cuppers are not necessarily a 'real' German Chocolate Cake but they evoke the flavors and they are DELISH! I keep wondering when I'm going to find a recipe in VCTOTW that I don't like! So far, I love every single recipe I've tried. Oh yes, the cupcakes are very, very persuasive in their plot to take over!!

The cupcakes themselves were easy-peasy - primarily because of the simply, straightforward and helpful directions that are the hallmark of VCTOTW. The frosting, however, was a new adventure for me. I haven't tried a cooked frosting so I was feeling the stress of hard work to come. But no, not so much.

Making cooked frosting is a lot less difficult than I'd led myself to believe. I was actually chatting away on the phone while I made this, which might not be the wisest way to try a new recipe or technique. Especially if you are math-challenged like me. In fact I did screw up the recipe a teeny bit and instead of the rice milk I measured out coconut milk to make the arrowroot slurry. Oops! Instead of kicking myself I just omitted the rice milk altogether and went full-on coconut milk. The results were yum-yum-yummy, so I figure it wasn't such a bad mistake after all.

I decorated these little yummies with a square of Lindt 85% cocoa (for that illusion of "I'm eating this for my health") that I picked up at the Duty-Free Shop as I left Mexico. I think it's a nice bow farewell to my time off and a delicious way to enter back into the amazing tastes of Vegan cooking.

Mexican Vacation

2007-07-25T22:50:00.000-04:00

I'm just back from a week in Mexico! I didn't take many pictures of the food because I just wasn't thinking clearly - vacation-mode was in full swing. But I have a few I thought I'd post here.

When we first arrived we were a little early for check-in so we sashayed over to the bar to wait. Because I'm not a big drinker, I couldn't decide what to order. When Jesus, the bartender whose colorful shirt you can see on the left of the photo, mentioned mango daiquiris there was nothing more to say other than SI!! Por Favor!! I love the mangoes! My BFF and travel partner, Gary, ordered the banana version (on the left).

This is just a simple salad but I loved how gorgeous the colors came out. That watermelon is so pink - and was so sweet! There are also hunks of jicama that was marinated in herbs and vinegar (nice!) and plain ol' iceberg lettuce, which I normally pass on but even that was so fresh in Mexico that it was delish. I opted to pass on the assortment of dressings available in favor of oil and vinegar and was delighted to find the oil was olive infused with pecans! Very subtle, but very nice and something I plan to try making at home.

One of my favorite parts of the day while in Mexico at La Posada del Capitan Lafitte is the 'early bird coffee'. They prep a couple of pots of coffee (or tea) and you just grab what you want and go watch the spectacular sunrise.

A full breakfast is served later but some people (like me) just can't wait to get their coffee.
The great thing about hitting the 'early bird' service is the packages of Soles cookies. They are simple, probably considered no big deal to people in Mexico, but they are one of my all-time favorite 'bought' cookies. And when I read the label and found they are actually vegan I was just thrilled. How could they not be vegan? Look how happy they are!

For the most part we stayed at Lafitte, there's really no reason to leave paradise, is there?

But one evening we spent a couple of hours in the town of Playa Del Carmen and while waiting for our return ride to pick us up we happened on a little restaurant that was having a happy hour. Two drinks for $5. We opted for the Margaritas - don't you love the hot-pink, plastic glasses? Don't be deceived by the funky color, these were the real deal and possibly the strongest drinks I had on my entire vacation. One of these for each of us and we were both flying. It was the perfect (and cheap!) way to chill out and wait for our ride.

Baked "Sweet Potato Pie" Fries

2007-07-14T09:55:00.000-04:00

On Thursdays I try to bake cupcakes because I meet friends for lunch on Fridays. This means I get the fun of baking and I have a place to take the cuppers and not have them in front of me where I can get at them. Having cupcakes in the house = dangerous! Delish, but dangerous.

This week I did not get to bake because I'm going to Mexico in a couple of days and just have too much last-minute stuff to get done. However I did make Sweet Potato Fries!

I had a few sweet potatoes sitting around and they were never going to last until I returned from vacation, so I flipped through Vegan With a Vengeance looking for something really quick and simple. I found a recipe for Sweet Potato Fries. YES!!

Unfortunately the recipe in the book calls for spices I did not have on hand. The recipe is more savory with cumin and coriander. But my 'taters needed cookin'!! So I altered the recipe to suit what I had around.
2 large sweet potatoes
1 T. olive oil
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. freshly ground nutmeg
1 t. ground allspice
a sprinkle of sea salt (optional)

In a large bowl mix together the oil and spices. Slice the sweet potatoes into long strips and throw 'em in the bowl giving a good thorough toss with the coating mixture. (It just gives the potatoes a very slight coating, for a hint of flavor without too much oil.)

After the potatoes are coated, lay them in a single layer on a baking sheet (I lined with parchment because I hate scrubbing baking sheets) and lightly sprinkle with sea salt if you like. I chose to add a touch of salt because I find a little sea salt really lets the sweetness of a yam or sweet potato shine. But it's completely optional.

Bake in a 425° oven for about 15 minutes, flip them and let them bake for another 10-15 minutes.

The 'fries' have a real pumpkin (or sweet potato) pie flavor. How could they not with these spices? And are very dessert-like. I ate them solo, I'm not sure they would work as a side dish - but as a snack or a very healthy dessert they rock!

Onions and Peppers with Pasta and Basil

2007-07-10T17:57:00.000-04:00

This is something I've been making for years. It's one of the easiest dishes to throw together and also one of the fastest. Depending on the pasta's cooking time and the amount of peppers and onions you want to use this will take you between 15 and 30 minutes to prepare. How's that for simple?

You can use any color pepper or onion - whatever you have on hand is good. I usually like to really up the color with red, yellow and orange peppers but today I only had one red pepper in the fridge and it needed to be used before it kicked the dust.

I'm also really partial to red onions in this dish because the color *oomph* is so awesome.

So all you need is some onion, some pepper, some garlic (because where there are onions there should always be garlic), a nice olive oil and fresh basil. Sometimes the basil is wildly overpriced, or you just can't find it any where. This dish is just fine without it - but if you can get your hands on some it really is a perfect little sparkle of flavor here.

Just put the pasta on to boil and then chop everything else up. Don't go nuts with a small dice, bigger is better here. Even the garlic is best when sliced in large pieces (it gets really sweet and you'll be happy for a big yummy bite of it!) Saute the onions and garlic in some olive oil in a pot with high enough sides that you can add the pasta. When the onions and garlic start getting translucent throw in the peppers.

By the time the pasta is done your sauteed veggies should be soft and tender, but not mushy! Drain the pasta and toss it into the veggie pot and stir it up. You can add a bit more olive oil if you need to - everything should have a slight sheen of olive oil. Not dripping oil, of course, but just a light coating.

The last step is to toss the fresh, chopped basil in and mix it together. Season with a bit of real sea salt and that's it. Now eat!
You can also omit the pasta, throw in some chopped veggie sausage and serve it on a roll. You'll feel like you're at the San Gennaro festival! Not that San Gennaro has Vegan versions of the Sausage and Pepper hero, but, oh you know what I mean!

Fettuccine Alfreda - From VWAV

2007-07-09T22:35:00.000-04:00

Vegan With A Vengeance has a recipe for Fettuccine Alfreda. A friend of mine who also just got hold of this FABULOUS cookbook, saw the Fettuccine Alfreda and was very excited. He's not a Vegan, but he is lactose intolerant, so something as cheese-heavy as Alfredo sauce is essentially something he should eat only when he's really hankering to hang in the Emergency Room for a few hours.

Since the recipe calls for Nutritional Yeast and he was not excited by the idea of that ingredient, I thought I would try the recipe out so I could report back to him whether I thought it was worth a trip to his local health food store for a canister of Nutritional Yeast.

Going on the record right now: Josh, go get some Nutritional Yeast. Like Yesterday! Go. I love this stuff - it's so good! I put some into Italian dressing to give it a little hint of Parmesan and it really did.

So back to the Alfreda. I did not follow the recipe exactly only because I was out of some of the ingredients. This was a spur of the moment cooking choice, I was not in the mood to run to the corner for ingredients. I had nothing even close to the yellow mustard the recipe asked for and my 'medium' onion was more like a very small, very frightened itty-bitty onion that did not want to participate in class. But I went for it anyway. Figured I'd get the basic flavors of the Alfreda sauce and see how it went from there.

You're supposed to sauté the onions and garlic and put them in the blender first, then add everything else. Silly me. I got ahead of myself and toasted the pine nuts first, and put them in the blender. I didn't think this was a huge deal - blender. Blending. What's the dif, who goes in first? And I wanted to use the same pan and save some dish washing. Well... I think it might make the blending process smoother if the onions and garlic went in first. That's all I'm saying.
I did not have fettuccine so I used what I had, tri-color whole wheat rotini.

When the pasta was almost done I tossed in some frozen haricot vert. Why? Because: Dee-lish! I love string beans. They only need a minute in the boiling water to defrost and cook through so why boil another pot? Just put 'em in with the pasta and they all finish at the same time. Easy Peasy.

Then I drained the whole thing, put some on a plate and poured the sauce on top. This entire process took less than 20 minutes - which I LOVE!

Did it taste exactly like traditional Alfredo sauce? No. But it might, if you have enough onion and you actually use the mustard... and you know... follow the recipe as it is written. I'm not sure if it should be as darkly colored as mine, but I don't think it matters. And even if it doesn't taste exactly like 'the real thing' it is absolutely YUMMY! There is a definite cheesy taste, and it is easily just as filling as old-school Alfredo. According to VWAV the recipe serves 4, but honestly it is sooooo filling I think it's more like 6 servings, possibly 8. I have close to a pint of this easy-to-make sauce in the fridge now and I'm looking forward to seeing how it holds up.

I can actually see this sauce as a nice choice mixed with cold noodles, sort of an Alfredo Pasta Salad. Yum!

Deep, Dark Chocolate Almond Ice Cream

2007-07-07T16:03:00.000-04:00

I have been borrowing ice cream recipes from A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise for weeks. I finally decided to try my own flavor. I am still borrowing the basics of Agnes L.'s recipes, but I'm switching it up a little. Having some fun.

1 c. soy creamer
3 c. almond milk (chocolate)
¾ c. sugar
¼ c. dutch cocoa
2 ½ T. arrowroot
1 t. vanilla extract
½ t. almond extract
½ t. chocolate extract
¼ c. roasted almonds (coarsely chopped)
¼ c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix ¼ cup of almond milk with the 2-½ tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Whisk ¼ cup of chocolate almond milk with the ¼ cup cocoa, then add it, the soy creamer, almond milk, and sugar together in a saucepan.

When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken.

Stir in vanilla, almond and chocolate extracts.

Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. Once it cooled mine was actually a bit like pudding and had a slight skin which should be stirred up or it will 'plop' out of the pan all at once and make a mess of your ice cream maker. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions, adding the almonds and chocolate chips in the last 5 minutes.

I'm really thrilled with how this came out. It could be a little creamier, maybe 2 Cups of soy creamer and only 2 cups of Chocolate Almond Milk would fix that. This actually is like a really mushy fudgesicle, and I'm very, very okay with that!

Breakfast

2007-07-07T10:00:00.000-04:00

People have asked me: what does a Vegan eat for breakfast?

I'm not the ideal person to ask, because I've been known to have salad in the morning and pancakes for dinner. I'm not locked-in to the meal-types. I love cold cereals but I don't eat them often because I tend to want to eat the entire package. Not a smart move.

But I recently picked up a big tub of Soy yogurt and some muesli and have found a really simple almost dessert-like breakfast that doesn't make me want to swallow every last ounce of cereal.

I like mixing textures, creamy and crunchy are well-represented here by the yogurt and muesli and then a handful of blueberries puts it over the top.

If you stir it all together it turns a into a purple explosion!

How's that for a "starving" Vegan?

Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes

2007-07-05T21:44:00.000-04:00

It's Thursday and that means cupcakes.

I've never had Red Velvet Cake, so making the VCTOTW Crimson Velveteen cupcakes was a bold adventure. But let's face it, how wrong can you go with chocolate anything?

I love baking. Everything starts out as a whole lotta mess o' nuthin' much.

Mix it all together and it's a regular cupcake bucket o' blood.

I know they look kind of gruesome here, but after they bake...

Oh. My. GOD! They're nekkid!! Don't stare like that!!

It's okay to look again. They have their pretty Vegan Cream Cheese icing on. Some even dashed on a hint of cocoa powder, because some cupcakes just don't know when to quit.

Let's cut one open and see how pretty they are inside. Because we all know that's where true beauty lives.
Yes. Yes. Pretty, pretty on the inside, pretty on the outside! YUM!! Let's eat 'em before they take over the world!!!

Put Away the Cupcakes - it's Ice Cream Time

2007-07-01T22:50:00.000-04:00

Vegan Ice "Cream" of course.

Today's foray into the frozen fun is "Butter" Pecan. The recipe is from A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise and it's a keeper!

Want to see it happen? Good, because I want to show you!

It's not so much to look at here. This is the blending of the sugar, 'milks' (I used almond milk instead of soy milk just for the extra nuttiness), and the fabulously yummy Earth Balance margarine.
When everything is blended together you cool it and then it goes into the ice cream machine to 'become' ice cream.

In the meantime I toasted my pecans. The ones I had were raw, and toasting always releases more flavor. I had the time, let's face it, ice cream is not an instant dessert, so why not toast up those pecans? It's really simple to throw them into a non-stick pan for a couple of minutes. Just keep them moving around so they don't burn and when you smell the nuttiness, you know they're calling uncle. Take them off the heat and spread them on a plate to cool. I toyed with the idea of making them into pralines, because how decadent would that be? But since this was my first attempt at Butter Pecan I opted to go with the basics.
Here's the cooling pecans next to the ice cream machine which is diligently turning that liquid into ice cream.Most of the finished product went into a plastic container and into the freezer. Sadly there was a little left that just wouldn't fit. So I had to eat it right away. Awful, huh? I 'forced' my dog to help me with this nasty task. He kept a stiff upper lip and did his best (there wasn't a drop left between us). This is seriously the best butter pecan I've ever tasted. And it doesn't have a drop of butter in it! Isn't that amazing?
I like a LOT of stuff in my ice cream - let's just say if I'm eating plain vanilla there had better be a big ol' brownie underneath it - and since you can't really stuff the ice cream machine with a lot of add-ins, I compensate with an extra nutty garnish of whole pecans.If you're a Vegan (or lactose intolerant!) I really recommend getting your own ice-cream machine. It is so insanely simple to make your own - you can make the flavors you want (invent new ones!) and it's cheaper than buying it. Of course the downside is that you can have ice cream handy any time. Oh. Is that a really a downside? Make some ice cream!! (And your dog will love you for it!)

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

2007-06-28T21:00:00.000-04:00

I've never made carrot cake. Certainly never made Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes. But the VCTOTW recipe sounded so good, with all its raisins and walnuts and spices... I needed to give a go.So I had no idea how the batter should look. I expected a regular thick cake-like batter.
It was a bitch to get into the paper liners because it was so liquid-y. I feared I had missed an ingredient, or over beaten, or had committed some other 'cruel to cupcakes' crime.
But I soon learned what 26 minutes in a 350° oven can do!I also learned that grating carrots by hand may be a royal pain, but it is worth every minute! Oh scrumptious little carrot cupcakes! I had marzipan left over from last week's cupcake adventure (the green tea cupcake 'cherry blossoms') so I made little marzipan carrots. They may not be sculptures of great art - but you get the idea. Carrots.
I have nothing to say but "Bow Down Before the Vegan Cupcakes!"

The Vegan Cream Cheese Icing is absolutely perfect. I like carrot cake, I've never craved it or gone out of my way for it, but now I think carrot cake cupcakes are going to be regulars on my baking list.

A Nice Salad

2007-06-28T14:39:00.000-04:00

I would bet that the majority of people hear Vegan and think: salad. Naturally. It's not the only thing to eat, but it is easy and quick. When it's boiling hot outside it's also light enough that you won't feel heavy and sleepy afterwards.

This one is a little too simple.

It's just half a bag of prewashed salad - because washing lettuce is my least favorite thing to do in the kitchen
1/2 c of frozen roasted corn kernels (run some cool water over them to defrost them - you want them to be cool)
1 small avocado cubed
a handful of roasted almonds

I don't care much for bottled dressings. I tend to buy them, use them once and then end up throwing out the bottle a year later. So I whipped up my own dressing using an envelope of Seven Seas Garlic & Herb as the starter. Since I only wanted enough for one or two salads I did not follow the directions on the packet. I just 'eyeballed' some flax seed oil, extra virgin olive oil, water and white balsamic vinegar with a few sprinkles of the dressing mix. Quick and no waste!

Who doesn't like a fresh, pretty, EASY salad?

I Didn't Cook It

2007-06-28T01:41:00.000-04:00

I met my friend Maria for lunch today to celebrate her (belated) birthday. Because she is thoughtful, and has a vegetarian sensibility, she chose Quantum Leap. I was very excited because I've never eaten there but have heard some great things about it. One thing I really wanted to try was the Sweet Yam Tempura. Yes. Yes. Yes. Crispy coating, not greasy, with hot, sweet, succulent yams inside. Did I say "Yes"? Yes!
We also had the guacamole. It's not Rosa Mexicano's awesome guac, but it's darned good with a bit of tomato and nice thick tortilla chips.
I was so busy running my big mouth that I forgot to take pictures until we were already digging in!
The Seitan satay in peanut sauce was my favorite. It's quite spicy (just the way I like it) and the texture of the seitan is perfect, tender but with a little chewiness. The slices of tomato and cucumber were very welcome to cool some of the heat of the peanut sauce.

We also split a slice of chocolate tofu pie which I completely forgot to photograph. It was extremely RICH and creamy. The crust was made of oatmeal so it had a nice, nearly crunchy texture. If you go and it's available: save room - you'll want to order this! The service is really unobtrusive, yet friendly and the atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable. I can't wait to go back and try some of the other menu items - most of them are Vegan and they ALL sound terrific (but how many can you have at one meal?) So a trip back is definitely required.

Baking Soda Biscuits

2007-06-26T14:16:00.000-04:00

When the summer weather finally kicks in, and it's hitting the nineties, what do I like to do?

Turn the oven up to 450° and start baking!

Yeah, well. That's pretty much how I am.

These Baking Soda Biscuits are from La Dolce Vegan and though I was hesitant to include the oregano I did it because I'm all about the rules. Uh. No. Not so much. But I was curious to see how they would come out. My opinion? Oregano = good biscuits! I think other herbs would actually be even better, but that's for next time. My only complaint about La Dolce Vegan is that there aren't any food pictures. But I guess that's what blogs are for!

Sarah Kramer, La Dolce Vegan's author. Suggests making a fancier biscuit by dividing up the dough into three balls and smooshing them into the muffin tins. Naturally I did it. Had to try, at least on a few.
I did some plain, some in the clover-leaf, some with black sesame seeds (because I was out of the poppy seeds the recipe asked for) and some without.
And look how pretty they are!
Closer... Closer...

Now split one open and throw on a little Earth Balance vegan margarine (which I swear on a stack of VCTOTW cookbooks tastes more like real butter than real butter does!) And you have yourself a quick and fabulous baking soda biscuit to eat alone or with soup or with anything you like!
The whole process takes maybe 30 minutes, and that's on the first-time. Things always go faster after you've done it once. So what if it's 90° out there? If you can't take the heat, get out of the vegan's kitchen!

Oh man... the heat's getting to me.

But I have biscuits!

Never fear a cupcake!

2007-06-26T10:40:00.000-04:00

I found this on Totally Not Vegan. It perfectly sums up the reaction I got to my first batch of vegan cupcakes.

(click on picture to enlarge)

I think there will be much less resistance to the next batch!

I love that the baker pictured here is actually using Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Isa Chandra Moskowitz is the J.K. Rowling of Vegan cookbooks.

Corn Muffins

2007-06-24T13:16:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning and all I could think about was corn muffins. It's been ages since I've had one but corny-muffiny-goodness was SCREAMING at me. I had to make some. There really was no other option.

I grabbed my new cooking bible: Vegan with a Vengeance and opened to the Sunny Blueberry- Corn Muffins. This was just what I needed. Unfortunately I found only about a 1/8 of a cup of blueberries in the freezer. What I really wanted was a plain ol' corn muffin but this recipe sounded so fun I had to try it out. Since I had a dearth of blueberries I added cranberries with the few blues I had on hand. Because cranberries are so awesomely tart (and so plain ol' AWESOME I always have extra bags in the freezer) I sprinkled a tiny bit of sugar onto the berries while I made up the batter in hopes that it would be just enough extra sweet to counter the tartness without being too sweet. I wanted a corn muffin, remember?
The batter was ready. I was ready. I filled a couple of paper muffin cups with non-berry adorned batter (just in case those cranberries mocked me with their tartness!) Then folded in the berry mix and filled my muffin pan!
Even before they baked they looked delicious!
But after they came out of the oven all golden and smelling sweet, I was a lost cause!
I kept telling myself I wanted plain. Just a plain, ordinary corn muffin. That's all.

But who am I kidding? I popped open one of each, spread on a pat of Earth Balance vegan margarine and as soon as it started to melt - so did I.

If there is even one of these left by the end of the day it will be a certifiable miracle.

Pigeon Pea Curry with basmati rice and jicama

2007-06-23T03:35:00.000-04:00

As in life, so in the kitchen. Oh brother, when did I become a philosopher? Still, it's true. You have the sweet, and you have the savory. The cupcakes were sweet - now let's delve into the savory!

I made it up as I went along because I had no clue what to do with pigeon peas! A little internet research came up with pigeon peas with rice made with coconut milk so I took that general idea and got crazy with my inner chef. This was my first taste of the cute little peas, I bought them as part of the "try something new every day" plan (beans are good to do that with because they are CHEAP!) and they are delish. Of course. What bean isn't?

Pigeon Pea Curry

This is what I was working with. Went through the cupboard and pulled anything that felt vaguely right.
I put the pigeon peas in to soak the night before - adding a bay leaf and Epazote spice to the water. I had a 1/4 cup of coconut milk left over from my foray into coconut ice-cream making, I didn't want to open another entire can so I only used this little sip. Given the high fat content, I think it was more than enough. Of course there are onions and garlic. Spices: curry powder, cumin, cinnamon, freshly ground nutmeg (go me), chili powder is in the picture but I did not use it (wrong kind of flavor for this dish). I also used turmeric (very good for you), ginger (hello healthy), one large black cardamon pod, and an Indian spice called Ajwain which I've never used before but is supposed to 'aid digestion of bean dishes' (so it couldn't hurt!). I would list amounts but I didn't measure - just threw it in and hoped for the best. I guess you could call it cooking by faith.

First you put the rice on to cook. Then saute the onions and garlic in a little (and I mean LITTLE) bit of olive oil. I added the spices here during the saute to let them all develop together.

I wish I could post the fragrance of this - with the basmati rice... forget it, I was in heaven.

After the onion spices mixture is softened up a bit, add two cups of vegetable stock. You could use water I guess but I like a lot of layered flavors. Then after that cooks for a few minutes stir in that 1/4 cup of coconut milk. It turns everything a luscious color and it starts looking like CURRY! It also thickens things up a bit so it's not so soupy.

Last I tossed the beans into the mix and just let it all simmer and blend until the rice was ready.
I had a sad little jicama that I bought about a week ago and never cut up. I do this with jicama a lot. Not sure why this happens with jicama. Seems we have some karmic issues to work out, jicama and me. But before it all went soft and useless I decided to use it with this dish, I thought the sweet crispy jicama would be a good foil for the more savory bean curry and I'm happy to say it IS! (The 'rays of the sun' in the finished product are the slices of jicama, which are yummy to crunch on in between bites of the curry and beans. I love textures!)

And here's the finished product.

Ta-Da!

As with any sort of curry or stew or soup, I'm betting this will taste even better tomorrow after the flavors have a chance to really meld. But right off the stove it was still really great. I'm a pigeon pea fan now!

Welcome to My New Obsession!

2007-06-21T21:08:00.000-04:00

I think it's only fitting that the first post should be on the Summer Solstice. And that it should feature a gorgeous cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World!

Green Tea Cupcakes!

It starts like this:

After much sifting and stirring you get this:

Careful plopping of the batter into the pans:

While they're baking you start making the icing and the pretty, pretty flowers:

Take 'em out of the oven to cool:

Then you spread that gorgeous icing on top and pop on a marzipan flower and you have this most beautiful celebration of vegan cupcakey goodness!!

Whose going to go Vegan with me now?!