Veg Nosh

Soffrito Seared Seitan

2012-02-11T20:25:00.001-08:00

Oh my, this is good! This is from the Candle 79 book and is to die for. The sauce is prepared with a load of great, fresh, raw ingredients (except for the roasted tomatoes). You marinade the seitan in the sauce for 4 hours and then take it out, pan sear it, add the sauce back in to heat it up. It is fantastic. It would be a great summer meal because except for the tomato roasting at the beginning, the cooking is minimal- and it has a really light, fresh flavor to it which would be excellent on a hot day.

They recommend serving on rice with avocado on the side which adds to the aforementioned light, fresh aspect. The sauce almost tastes like pico de gallo. There's tomatoes, garlic, onion and cilantro- which I think is where that fresh salsa idea comes from, but there's also red bell peppers, parsley and some other stuff that hints more at a meal sauce. Anyway, we loved it and I do think that this will become a staple meal. Minus the marinade time, I think it's an hour of cooking tops (oh, also minus the seitan making time too, but still!) It's an excellent dish!

Apple Rosemary Scones and the L.A. Food Swap

2012-02-10T11:05:00.000-08:00

I made these Apple Rosemary Scones for my first foray into the Food Swapping world. Last night's swap was hosted by Reform School, who I sell my work through (see HERE) , which is how I found out about it. Turns out that I'm a bit late to the party, as this was their one year anniversary. It's a fantastic idea and was truly a lot of fun.

For those who don't know, the swap is a gathering of peoples who bring food that they've made, grown or foraged. You bring as little or as much as you like. There were; jams, pickled goods, chocolates, cupcakes, granola, nut milks, simple syrups, limoncello, herbs, citrus fruits, etc. I made 3 dozen Rosemary Apple Scones (I'll review the recipe in a sec) and had 4 bags of cherry granola as well. I made two batches of my Hybrid Granola, which made a disappointing amount. But, it turns out that granola wasn't too big of a hit with that crowd, so it was for the best.

The first 1/2 hour of the event was set up time. Everyone set out their offerings and samples (samples are the key!). The second 1/2 hour was mingle and tasting time where you walked around and ate peoples food and bid on it if you wanted to trade your stuff for theirs. Then the swapping commenced. I was shocked at what a smooth operation it was, it all went down in an hour and a half. My scones were a hit (yay), and I scored some serious awesomeness (see photo); Fresh herbs, grapefruits, oranges, a kick ask hot paste, more jam than I'll eat in a year, some chocolates and more. I'm not a haggler, but luckily there wasn't a lot of that. I did feel like a heel turning down swaps of dairy food- but they're very kind and assure everyone at the start not to feel bad about that stuff. I also was refused some simple syrup (which was amazing!) b/c the maker didn't eat grains (which I can't fathom, but a lot of people can't fathom being vegan either, so...)

As for the scones- the recipe is fantastic! I used a bit less rosemary than it called for because I simply didn't have enough. I loved the flavor, though, so I would go forward using less in the future (a bit over 1/8 cup where the recipe calls for 1/4). I also used Earth Balance in lieu of shortening, because I realized that my shortening is hydrogenated and I didn't want to inflict that on my swapmates. These are by far my fave scones ever, though- despite how much I loved the others in the book!

If you're in L.A. and so inclined, the swap organizer's Facebook page is HERE. I know that the idea isn't unique to here, though- so if you're elsewhere, you may want to google around to see if there's one near you. I loved the experience and will totally do it again!

Candle 79 pancakes

2012-02-04T20:57:00.001-08:00

These are the pancakes from Candle 79's book. They're good, but I prefer Isa Chandra's Perfect Pancakes. They were a little involved and were fine, but nothing fantastic. Of course, this is just a personal preference, at the end of the day there aren't a lot of pancakes that I'd kick out of bed.

THE Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe

2012-02-04T20:53:00.000-08:00

I really need a new apartment with better lighting.

Anyway, these are from the book Vegan Diner and are IT. THE Chocolate Chip cookie recipe!!! I have tried quite a few veganized versions of chocolate chip cookies, but these. are. the ones.

They stay a bit chewy, even after cooling, but are so flavorful and amazingly classic-everything-you-remember-in-a-cookie amazing that we each ate about 4 the night that I made them. Which... may not be the best cookie to have in the house!

Stroganoff

2012-02-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

This is a mushroom stroganoff from the Native Foods cookbook. This is another new book for me, but after trying the Moon Dahl recipe online, as well as eating at the restaurant- I was sold on getting the book.

Despite resembling wet cat food, this is a really tasty dish! The flavor really reminded us of Isa Chandra's mushroom gravy (which I also realize I never photo'd- that is really good too- it's in Vegan brunch and makes for a great biscuits and gravy!) I also added asparagus to the mix since I am a huge fan of asparagus with mushroom sauces. It worked out great- it's a bit too intense to eat regularly, but once in a while would be amazing.

Smoked Paprika Hummus

2012-02-04T20:39:00.000-08:00

Huzzah! This is from Candle 79's book. It is intensely flavored! I was a bit skeptical about using smoked paprika, a spice I've only used in faux sausage, in hummus. But, there's a lot going on in there; cayenne, tahini, lemon juice, etc- and it all makes for a really super intense hummus. Which I think is great! There are times that I want a more neutral hummus, but all and all to get a huge bang out of a quick snack- this is amazing. It's not any more complex than normal hummus but tastes far more complex. It would be great for a party since it makes a boat load- or next time I shall halve the recipe to make it a more reasonable amount!

Szechuan Peanut Noodles

2012-02-04T20:33:00.000-08:00

This is from Vegan Family Meals. It was... okay. I think that a wider, fatter noodle would work better (rice, perhaps?) The veg was listed as optional in the recipe- I think it's mandatory- the noodles and sauce alone would be rather grodie, it really needs the vegetable textures and flavors to break up the peanut overload.

It was kinda meh. I have to say, I really prefer the RFD book to this one, and if I didn't know better, I would never peg this food as being made by the same chef that made the RFD recipes. But, that book is so stellar that I would never say anything disparaging about her food!

Arancini w/ Roasted Tomato Sauce

2012-02-04T20:15:00.000-08:00

This is an appetizer from the Candle 79 book. It was pretty darn good. Quite a lot of effort for an appetizer at home, but good. I had read it over and deemed it worthy of being an entree- but it turns out that they were right. It would have been far better as a starter.

Their sauce was a great lesson in simplicity though. Turns out that I have never written about my mama sauce recipe. I'll have to photo it and post it next time I make it. My childhood BFF is Italian. She refuses to eat any other red sauce besides her mom's. This is rather stereotypical (the whole "my mom's sauce is the best" thing)- but I've had Lucia's sauce. It is the best. My recipe is an amalgam of hers and RFD's, and involves a minimum of 6 hours of cooking. One time that I made it, I was tasting it throughout the day and found a significant shift between hours 5 and 6. At 5 it was a really good sauce, at 6- the flavors melded in a way that really dialed it to 11. And, Lucy had said that 8 hours simmer is ideal, so I'm going to listen to her.

Having said all that- this is a sauce that only takes about an hour. They get away with it because the only spices in it are fresh basil, salt and pepper. The key to boosting the flavor is roasting the tomatoes. I was extremely skeptical- being a mama sauce convert and all, but this is a really nice, fresh, light sauce that worked great with this dish and would be amazing with a really hearty ravioli. So, I shall keep it in my pocket for such occasions.

The balls themselves were good too. For one, they incited endless crass jokes and giggles from me and Davey (3rd grade humor). Also, they were tasty. They were a bit labor intensive for an appetizer, but would really be impressive at a dinner party. They are basically Italian rice that is supposed to be stuffed with tempeh and vegan cheese, then breaded and pan fried. All went well except that the rice mix wasn't firm enough to hold it's shape when I stuffed it so I mixed the filling into the rice and then rolled them up and breaded and fried them. This actually worked out well- I think that getting tempeh in most bites worked out best- it could even have used about double the tempeh to make me happy.

All in all- very tasty!

Tempeh Mole

2012-01-17T22:36:00.001-08:00

I got a new cookbook! It is from Candle 79, a vegan restaurant in Manhattan that I have read about a ton online. Since I have no idea when I'll get to New York next, and I do kind of long for fancy pantsy food (too much Food Network, I guess), I figured I'd make it myself!

I'm finding a trend with the restaurant cookbooks. They tend to have really complicated (or at least time consuming) recipes that generally involve more than one recipe per dish, but it's all so worth it (I've talked about this a lot). This dish was no exception. The recipe was for the Tempeh Mole. The photo showed pretty much what I have here, only they put microgreens on top, which includes a sweet potato mash and braised green beans. I'm so glad that I made the whole shebang because the flavors balanced really well!

The mole sauce was really very good. The last mole that I made was such an ordeal, that I've not gone near it since. This one was comparatively super easy. The whole combo of dishes was hours of cooking, but the sauce wasn't too involved by itself. The tempeh gets marinated for 4+ hours, then there's the mole to make, the sweet potatoes to bake (they're baked, than mashed), and the beans to braise.

Also, how I've gone 21 years as a vegetarian and never braised green beans is beyond me. That method really packs them with super flavor. The potatoes were incredibly sweet, but all three dishes went together beautifully. The crunch of the beans was a refreshing addition to the heavy mole and tempeh and the sweet taters.

All in all, it was quite a big production, but totally worth it. I'm excited to try more recipes from this book (probably not for at least a week though!)

Nancy Minestrone + crackers

2012-01-10T20:18:00.001-08:00

This is my very own minestrone that I made up tonight! I had a bunch of soup/ chili things around and didn't want such a heavy beany chili as I usually make, but still wanted a main course soup. This totally did the trick. It's a tomato-y version of minestrone, but it's really good and has to be super healthy with all the veg in here.

Also, because we had no bread or cracker element, I made some! Davey was bananas for them, I think they're good but could use a little tinkering. It's a seriously modified recipe from a magazine (I veganized it and changed some of the flavors). They're a hint floury, but all in all, it's pretty awesome to have soup and homemade crackers, so I'm not gonna complain. If you want to make them together, the crackers took about a 1/2 hour or so, I started them after the hour simmer phase on the soup.

Here's the soup recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 large onion, diced
2 carrots, coined
2 stalks celery, chopped (I think I'd do 3 next time, the celery bites were primo)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium sized tomatoes, diced
2 c spinach, roughly chopped
1 can cannellini beans, drained
1 c. cavatappi pasta
1/3 c bulgur wheat
6 c Better Than Bouillon no chicken flavor
1 little can (8oz, I think) tomato paste
2T olive oil
1t oregano
1t parsley
1t basil
1/4 t sage
1/2 t thyme
1/4 t marjoram
1/2 t black pepper
1/2 t sugar (optional)
1 bay leaf

Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium heat, add onion, carrots and celery. Sautée until carrots are softened and onion is translucent. Add garlic for a minute or two being careful not to burn it. Add broth, tomato paste, tomatoes, all spices except basil and sugar. Once the soup starts bubbling, reduce the heat to low, partially cover and simmer for 60 minutes or so. Over the hour, stir every 15 minutes or so and taste after 45. If it's too acidic from the tomatoes, add the sugar and the beans. If not, fugget the sugar- just add the beans.

After the hour of simmering, add pasta, turn heat up to medium and cover pot. Let that go about 10-15 minutes until pasta is tender but not fully cooked. Add basil and bulgur wheat, cover and continue to cook for 10-15 more minutes until pasta is done. Add spinach and stir until it wilts, remove from heat and serve.

...And the Cracker Recipe:

1c unbleached all purpose flour
1t thyme
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
3 T earth balance margarine
Egg Replacer equivilant of 1 egg
1/4 c cold water
2T of olive oil for brushing the tops
salt for the tops

Preheat oven to 350. Pulse flour, salt, pepper & thyme in food processor to combine. Add margarine, pulse until it's a course meal. With machine running, add egg replacer and water, process just until dough is combined.

Roll dough out on a floured surface (it may help to divide it into 2 for rolling space), roll until dough is about 1/8" thick, err on the side of a bit thinner if you're not sure. Cut with a biscuit cutter (just like cookies, combine the scraps, re-roll, cut crackers, etc till you're out of dough). Place crackers on ungreased baking sheet.

Brush oil over crackers and dust with salt (sparingly- I love salt, but oversalted). Bake until firm to the touch, 20-25 minutes. Check on these after about 15, though, 1/2 my batch cooked way faster than the other 1/2 (uneven oven, I guess).

Cool on a cooling rack, store in an airtight container. Bask in the pride of having made a flipping cracker.

Banana Muffins

2012-01-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

These are great! We had some overripe nanas, and I thought I'd explore a new recipe vs my go-to Banana Bread one. It's a good recipe, but I don't want to be caught in a banana shaped rut.

These were great- totally moist with a really great flavor. I would cut down on the baking time, though (depending on your oven)- I baked for the recommended time and they were a bit overdone on the bottom (you may be able to see the color difference between the bottom and the top on the photo). Even with that, though, they weren't dried out or anything- which is saying something (that they're good!)

You can get the recipe HERE

Eggplant Bolognese

2012-01-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

This recipe came from Whole Foods website. Not sure what rabbit hole got me there, but I thought I'd try it (we had a spare eggplant). It had great flavor for sure. It wasn't very saucy- the chopped veg is just chunky and the sauce was pretty runny (vs a nice thick, stick to your noodle sauce). We ate it over spaghetti noodles the first night and then took the leftovers and used them as a pizza topping the next day. Davey (who eats cheese) did; crust, pizza sauce, Bolognese and covered it with cheese for his 1/2. My 1/2 had; crust, olive oil, shredded FYH "mozzerella" and Bolognese on top. It was so-so. Davey said his was great. I doubt I'd make it again because it's not really my thing. But, if you're into chunky veg, this may be the sauce for you.

The recipe is HERE.

My hybrid granola!

2012-01-09T18:45:00.000-08:00

So, I have been a bit like goldilocks with my homemade granola and tonight came close to "just right". My standby recipe was Neysa's, though I had long ago ditched the flax and sunflower seeds- I know that they have great nutritional benefits, but I really am not in to the taste of seeds in the granola. Particularly the flavor of flax. Whenever I've used it for an egg replacer (ground) in baking, if I can pick up the taste of the flax- it totally ruins it for me. I digress- this is supposed to be all about granola. This standby recipe was also a bit dry for me and didn't have the clumping that some store bought granola has (I like food in clump form).

I also tried the granola from Vegan Family Meals- she cracked the code of the clump, but mine came out far too sweet, I over cooked it and it tasted like candy, really. Which is great for a sweet snack, but not as much for brekkie.

Tonight I sat down with both recipes to suss out a happy medium. There were similarities, but also huge differences (4 c of flakes difference, and- the magic clumping ingredient- brown rice syrup is in the cookbook). So, I took my favorite parts of each and made my own hybrid or franken version that I think came out pretty good.

It has a huge crunch raw, and holds up without getting soggy in soymilk (while I took this photo). You could bake it for less time to cut back on the crunch. There's no real huge clumps, but I'm not sure that I mind too much, there's a few small ones about which makes me happy. Also, this is a really good sweet level for me. It's not very sweet, but still with the dried cranberries and blueberries, it's as sweet as I'd want to go. I may try reducing the maple syrup and agave next time for 1/8 c more rice syrup to try to get those elusive clusters, though.

Dry:
1 cup rye flakes
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2T Cinnamon
1/2 t salt

Wet:
1/4 c brown rice syrup
1/4 c maple syrup
1/4 c agave nectar
2 T melted coconut oil
2 T water
1T vanilla

Toppings:
Dried cranberries
Fresh Blueberries

Preheat oven to 275. mix all dry ingredients together. Melt coconut oil and wisk wet ingredients together in a second bowl. Combine wet into dry and mix until all dry ingredients are coated. Do not add toppings before baking. Spread on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and stir up and rotate. Bake for another 10-20 minutes depending on crunch preference (more time = more crunch).

You can add about 1/2 c dried cran into the cooled granola. I just put in a handful of cran and a handful of fresh blueberries before eating it. If you try it, let me know what you think!

Cranberry Clementine Cocktail

2012-01-01T12:33:00.001-08:00

We had a super lucky new year. I tried two new recipes and they were both over the moon fantastic. One was the PB Cups and the other was this- a Clementine, Cranberry, Rosemary cocktail. Whoa, this was amazing!

First- freshly squeezed clementine juice is the nectar of the gods. It's sooooo good, you could probably use it as a base for any drink and come up with perfect. I used unsweetened cran juice which is, I think, intolerable on it's own. I also used Reed's Ginger Brew (the hard core stuff that's way more ginger and way less sweet than Ginger Ale), and Piper Sonoma Brut sparkling wine- which I had not tried first before adding to the cocktail. After having two of these delicious, amazing drinks, I tried the wine alone and it was vile. It was $15 wine (sale price), but tasted like $3 wine- it was just grodie. Which I think is a testament to how amazing the juice combo is because the cocktail was delicious.

I also tried an n/a version and mixed the juice combo with club soda instead of wine, which was also great. The juice on its own was even good too, but it all need to be consumed the night that you mix it. I tried it the next day and the rosemary had elbowed out all of the other flavors. You can find the recipe HERE

Peanut Butter Cups

2012-01-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

If only the vegan chefs of the world could nail the taste of dairy cheese down the way that this recipe nails down peanut butter cups- my world would be perfect. These. Are. Amazing. And I'm saying that even after f-ing up the recipe a bit. These are the Peanut Butter cups from the book "The Kind Diet", which, truth be told- I don't own. I found this online and now will be needing to get to a bookstore to pick up the book.

These taste like an alternate universe Reese's cup where you're convinced that you're not eating crap but the flavor is the same (dialed to 11). I did goof while making them, and they have far too loose and gooey of a consistency- but that may be my fault. I made about 5 recipes last night including this, so I was a little scattered. You're supposed to melt the margarine and then add the peanut butter, graham crackers and sugar. I had them all in together without pre-melting the margarine. But- we threw them in the freezer and even overnight, they weren't stiff and hard, but firm (as you see here) and delicious.

I used sweetened peanut butter b/c that's what we had and Ghiradelli chips b/c they're awesome. Also, I made used a mini muffin pan and mini liners- these would be too much in a full size one. Truly- this one is amazing, I highly recommend it!!! You can find the recipe HERE

Hummus and Tabouli Pita

2012-01-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

This is barely cooking- which kind of makes it more awesome! As you can see, I haven't been cooking anything new much lately. I was flooded with work before Christmas, which was fantastic, but left us eating a lot of prepackaged sauces and dinners.

This could involve a lot of cooking- or not. It's my version of a pita sandwich that I had on Christmas Eve when we had family in town that were allergic to cats (and vegan food too, kinda). We went to Casbah cafe in Silverlake, which I have only been to once despite having lived around the corner for two years. After eating this sandwich, I wished that I had a time machine so that I could've been enjoying Casbah's food since 2009. This sandwich is a combination of flavors that I would never have paired and it's amazing. Here's the stuff:

Pita Bread
Avocado (about 1/2 per full pita)
Mixed green salad tossed in balsamic vinaigrette
capers (my addition- the restaurant serves it with olives on the side)
Hummus
Tabouli

See what I mean? Balsamic with Hummus and Tabouli? But it's fantastic! So, you can see how this could be more involved- you could make your own vinaigrette, hummus and tabouli. I made my own dressing but got the rest from whole foods deli. Their tabouli is a bit too minty- next time I'm making my own. But, this was faster and easy to put together while working 12+ hour days!

Hash!

2011-11-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

Thanks to this here hash, from this day (actually Monday) forward- all Mondays in the J-R household shall be Savory Morning Monday! (catchy, yes?) I found that Tofurkey (swoon) has a vegan breakfast sausage, which is fantastic news to me because even though I've been known to fall off the wagon and eat cheese every blue moon, eggs are an absolute no for me- and the faux sausages that I had loved so much from Morningstar Farms have eggs as one of the main ingredients. And, call me cynical- but seeing as they're owned by Kraft, I can't see those coming from free range happy birds.

Anyway, tofurkey's sausage is good- a bit sweet, but it works great in this hash. I feel silly listing directions as it's basically pan fried potatoes with some jazz in it, but here you are anyway. I also made the La Dolce Vegan scrambler which is great mushed into this hash too. A bit of wheat toast on the side and you really don't need to eat until 'Left Over Savory Morning Tuesday'.

• 1 large baking potato, chopped into small cubes
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 roma tomato, diced
• Tofurkey breakfast sausage
• salt and peppa to taste
• about 1T of oil (mine was too oily with more- I found I cannot cook this in my non non-stick pan without serious stickage)

Sautee the onions in oil for a few minutes, add the potatoes- covering the pan will make them cook faster. Cook until potatoes are firm-soft. Add breakfast sausage, green pepper, tomato and salt and pepper (about 1/2 t each). Cook until peppers are firm-soft and tomatoes are close to falling apart.

Also, if I were to get all Nancy on this (I've been known to individually flip these little potatoes to get all sides evenly cooked), I'd cook the 'sausage' separately to get a little bit of a crust on it before adding it to the potatoes, but with making the scramber as well, I just threw it in. Yup, I can be crazy too.

Cranberry Orange Nut Muffins

2011-11-10T14:55:00.000-08:00

These are some tasty muffins from Isa Chandra Moskowitzs' Vegan Brunch book. Her Bakery Style muffins from this book have become my go-to recipe (which I've oddly enough never photo'd for the blog). These are equally amazing in a way that feels a mite more healthy (there are cranberries, orange juice and walnuts involved- it's practically a meal in a muffin).

They have a great balance of flavors, any one of them seems dominant when you focus on it, which I think means that they're all doing a good job. The crans are crazy tart. The muffins have an all over orange-y taste. There's almond extract, which is very prominent (that stuff is STRONG!), but in these, it's ok (generally I halve any almond extract called for in recipes b/c it is so overpowering). In this case, it adds a fullness that the muffins need b/c between the crans and oranges could get a bit too citrus/ tarty. Same with the nuts, they are an absolute must or- again- the muffin would be too high pitched. The nuts add a low end (forgive the music analogies- I am married to a music fella). All in all- they're really good.

The tops are nice- they have a light crunch to them b/c (the author says) of the juice in the recipe. I would still prefer blueberry over anything, but this is good to mix it up. It is also great as a fall muffin and would even be good during the holidays when you have family spending over to have these in the morning. They're super easy too, which is a plus, particularly at this time of year when you have enough to do :)

144 of the tastiest little cupcakes you ever did eat!

2011-11-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

In hindsight, I realize that I should have taken individual photos. Alas, I didn't- but I did try two new cupcake recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I love having the excuse to make them (parties, etc) because generally we don't want cupcakes running amok in our house and pleading to be eaten whenever we go into the kitchen. These were made for the opening of a pop-up shop that I'm taking part in at Reform School here in L.A. (see HERE for info).

I am realizing that I have a pretty fierce Martha streak. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist and to overdo things a tad (I made 12 dozen mini cupcakes for the party). In this instance, it was a good thing b/c they all proved to be necessary and were all eaten up that night.

So, the new ones were the Basic Chocolate Cupcake (with buttercream frosting) and the Golden Vanilla Cupcake (with chocolate ganache frosting). Both were great (no real surprise there). The Chocolate was really moist and rich and was just an excellent classic chocolate cake. The buttercream is poofy and sweet and made for a very grade-school-party-cupcake with the chocolate.

The vanilla one was drier (and dried out a lot faster the next day (I had squirreled some away for us to keep). But on the day of the party, they were still delicious and were so great with the ganache. It really classed up a plain vanilla cupcake.

The third offering was carrot with cream cheese frosting, which has proven to be a staple go-to cupcake for any grown up party. Everyone loves them and they are always the first to go when there's options.

Incidently, making 144 mini cupcakes isn't too big of a deal (it was 4 batches of batter), but frosting 144 mini cupcakes is a HUGE pain! In case you're planning to make 12 dozen cupcakes in the near future, I thought you ought to be warned.

Grilled Polenta and Vegetable Stacks

2011-11-03T19:21:00.001-07:00

For a pile of vegetables- this is amazing. I know that it's weird for a vegan (and also rather inconvenient), but I'm not a fan of grilled vegetables. This is primarily because it's the hot equivalent of a salad at restaurants that don't offer any vegan options. I used to get so annoyed as a teenager when I stopped eating meat and we'd go to a steakhouse for a family dinner and an aunt or someone would say, "oh look, you can eat- they have salad!" Of course, those were back in the days when salads were vegetarian- before the mounds of grilled chicken, beef, bacon or ham were involved.

I digress. This is about the Grilled Polenta and Vegetable Stacks from the (what else) Real Food Daily cookbook. It involves making your own polenta (shockingly easy and FAR tastier than store bought), marinading the mushrooms in handmade vinegrette, making tofu ricotta and a tomato-saffron Coulis. In other words, this is a typical hours long RFD recipe that is delicious and awesome and worth the work.

If you use a biscuit cutter for the polenta (recommended), you'll have loads of left over odd shaped pieces left, which are super perfect for making the BBQ Tempeh with Polenta Stuffing from Appetite for Reduction the next night.

For the Coulis, which is amazingly delicious, I went to a specialty spice shop to get saffron. I know that it's a super expensive spice, but it was $35 for a gram there. I vented on Facebook about that and got the super helpful suggestion that I should go to Trader Joes (where I found a $6 jar). Granted, the more expensive stuff is probably better, but... I shall never know since I used the TJ's one.

Anyway, all of the flavors of this work together brilliantly and in a way that I wonder how a person (Ann Gentry) envisions before making up a recipe like this. There's the deep, rich, almost meaty flavor of the grilled mushroom and eggplant, the creamy tofu ricotta, the hearty polenta and the light, tomato based sauce all melding and having a grand party in your mouth as you eat (what, I'm not a writer- I'm a foodie).

Also, another great thing about making this was that it was the first time that I used a fresh fennel for anything (the sauce), and nature is so crazy. To make a thing that looks like celery but smells like anise when you cut it is just kooky. But the recipe is great, we loved it and super loved using the grill to make booshie food!

Pinto Bean Enchiladas

2011-09-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

These are from Ann Gentry's new book, "Vegan Family Meals". She is the founder of the life-changing Real Food Daily restaurant and accompanying cookbook). If you've seen this blog before today or met me or Davey, you know that we eat RFD either from the restaurant or the book at least once a week. Their food is mind blowingly amazing. So, I was really looking forward to new recipes from Ms Gentry, since, as amazing as RFD is, you can burn out if you're eating the Taco Town tacos a few times a week (Davey would beg to differ, but still.) However, this book is a bit different. She explains that the RFD cookbook recipes are so complex because they are literally what the restaurant uses. So, they have one person making seitan, another making sauce, another making cashew cheese, etc. So this book is supposed to be more geared for a home cook who has to do it all themselves and may not have time to make 4-6 recipes for one dish.

I gotta say, though, so far- I give it a firm 'meh' for a review. This dish (the pinto bean enchiladas) was actually one of the best that I've tried, and so far, I've tried; the Hippy Granola, Baked Kale Chips, One Pot Vegetables, Lasagna Rolls and this. The recipes are a bit shorter than the RFD ones, but they really are no where near the amazing heights of those either. Which kind of points to a truth that I think all of the cooking that I've done with this blog has taught me- generally- great meals take time. You'll notice a huge gap in this blog where I hadn't posted much for about 6 months until last week. It was because I was working a job that took up about 60 hours a week and about 100 hours of head space a week. So I wasn't making great meals. I was using a lot of jar sauces and pre-made things, and none of that is really worth exploring on here, because it's food, but it's not a meal.

So, back to these enchiladas. They had a load of Asian ingredients, which I found odd for a Mexican dish; Tamari, Umeboshi Paste and Kombu. They used soaked bean water as a stock (versus chilis or tomato based sauce, like enchiladas usually do). They were alright. They were actually pretty good- but you have to readjust your "enchilada" expectations, because they just aren't what your mouth is expecting. I may make them again, but it's kind of unlikely. They did take hours with the bean prep and all, and if I'm going to invest that time, I'd rather make the enchiladas verde from the RFD book. I am a bit let down at this book, but I have no bad feelings because RFD literally changed our lives- we eat so much better and so differently than before we moved here. I'd buy any book that she comes out with- if only as a thank you.

Waffle Maker!

2011-09-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

Oh, man! Glorious day! My uber husband bought me this uber double waffle iron for my bday (along with other lovely gifts, and yes, as you could guess by the fact that I have a blog about food- I seriously love getting kitchen stuff for gifts!). I wanted some cheapy one waffle at a time, get the job done iron. But this... oh, the luxury! You can cook two at once (no more stabbing at your family's hands with your fork when they try to steal your waffle), and- as if it needed another reason to be awesome- the pockets are a flipping inch deep! Entire blueberries fit in the pockets! It's magic and cooks to perfection and will make every Sunday morning amazing in my house from this day forward.

The recipe used is the same one that I used for the waffle pan- the Buckwheat Waffles from Vegan Brunch. I did alter it (minused the Buckwheat since I had none)- which I'm sure defeats the intent of the recipe, but for the record- 3/4 white flour with 1/4 wheat (of what the recipe calls for- not cups) is perfect. If you'll excuse me, it's 10pm on a Thursday and I'm gonna need to go make some waffles now.

Neysa's Granola

2011-05-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

This granola recipe is courtesy of my former boss Neysa! I don't remember how this came about, I know that she had made it and became addicted to eating it with homemade yogurt and I think that the smell of deliciousness wafted from her office to mine and then I stole her purse and said sent her an anonymous ransom note (I loooove cutting individual letters out of magazines!) and then she turned in the ransom (the recipe) and I put her purse in one of those barrels around a St. Bernards neck and sent him to her office to return it. Then I went home, made it and basked in the tastiness.

It also makes a great gift for people who have everything (since they'll consume it).

here's her recipe and my modifications in parenthesis:

3 cups large flake oats (bulk section of whole foods or a natural foods store)
1 1/2 cups barley or rye flakes
1/2 cup oat bran (bulk or sometimes boxed by cereal isle)
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 t salt
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, cashews, pecans or almonds- I loooove it with sliced almonds)
1/2 c pumpkin seeds (I don't add this much, but it is good)
1/2 c flax seeds (I'm iffy on these, I know that they're great for you, but I'm not huge on the taste- I still use some though)
1/2 c veg oil
1/4 c water
2/3 c honey, maple syrup (or agave)
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 c dried berries (cherries, cran, raisins, etc)
(2 T cinnamon)

In a large bowl, combine all dried ingredients except berries. In smaller bowl, whisk, oil, water, liquid sweetener and vanilla. Combine wet and dry together. I add 1 T of cinnamon into the batter and then sprinkle more on top (I likes me some cinnamon).

Spread mixture onto two baking sheets and bake at 250 degrees for 10 minutes, stir and cook for another 10 minutes. If you like it crunchy, bake another 10 (I end up baking for an hour and stirring every 15 minutes or so- I either like it really crunchy or Neysa has a warp speed oven!)

Cool and stir in berries. Sealed it keeps for up to a month.

Thanks again, Neysa!

A note about the blog

2011-05-09T21:58:00.001-07:00

This pic is from Veg Nosh's heyday. When I didn't have a day job (10-7or 8 daily) and could cook elaborate meals a few times a week and then photo them in daylight (it's dark by the time dinner is done now). It's been really challenging. Coupled with the fact that I need to bring a lunch despite working as a designer for a restaurant (they have pretty much zero vegan food). Also, there's no refrigerator or microwave there, so it's pretty much a set of circumstances set up to test my veganhood. And, so far- so good. I found that if I wrap a cold dish in reuseable ice cube sheets that it stays cold until lunch. I got a hot food container and can heat things up in the morning and they stay pretty much warm until lunch (I don't want to think about food safety issues with this).

What I did find is that a few meals are good for this newfound lifestyle of not a lot of cooking time at night and the stupid lunch situation. They are:

Mexican Quinoa Salad
Chili
Seitan Enchiladas (cooked on Sunday, when I had some time!)
Hummus Wrap (that was a great one)
Cold Penne Salad
Peanut Noodle Salad
and Seitan Tacos (for quick home dinners)

No one ever said that being vegan wasn't a pain in the bum at times (or if they did- they're probably trying to convert someone or they have a personal chef).

Still, despite the inconvenience, I'm not rethinking it. I do long for the days when I could labor over dinners for hours on end multiple times during the week. But, the steady income is a good trade off!

Carrot Cupcakes and Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-05-09T21:51:00.001-07:00

Everything that I've tried from Vegan Cupcakes Rule the World is amazing. Ironic, because one of the co-authors of that book also authored the book that I just posted about (the disaster casserole from hell).

This recipe is really good! The cupcakes are incredibly moist to the point of being almost soggy (the papers are kinda soaked). The frosting is great and made enough just for the one batch (unlike the cookies and cream frosting that made enough for 24 cupcakes). It requires an entire cup of finely grated carrots, which is great (I can try to delude myself into thinking that it's health food). I would try putting more spices in them next time, though. They have cinnamon and ginger in them, but I think - maybe I'm getting it mixed up with spice cake, but I thin kit would be better spiced up. Maybe nutmeg? Allspice? More cinnamon and ginger?

Or, as Davey insists, they're great the way that they are!

Tortilla Casserole aka The Nastiest Crap I've Ever Cooked

2011-05-09T21:46:00.001-07:00

I absolutely hate to waste food, but what's in this photo- totally going into the trash. This was easiest the grossest food I've ever made and maybe even ever eaten. It was the "Tortilla Casserole" from Viva Vegan. So. Gross. The pine nut crema on top- nasty. The sauce- far too acidic and just gross. That's the best adjective- gross. The potatoes blanded it up. It was mushy, icky and gross and icky and gross.

What's so frustrating is that not only did I waste food and money, but I have so little cooking time now, and this was over an hour of my night that I invested in a dish that we couldn't even finish it was so nasty. And, I had a cupcake and beer for dinner so now I have a tummy ache. Sooooo annoyed!

Oven Fried Chik'n Seitan

2011-04-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

New cookbook! Since Borders is closing all L.A. stores (insert stifled weeping here), their cookbooks were 30% off. The selection was pretty picked over on the whole in the store (although there were still two full shelves of Sarah Palin's book), but there was also a pretty decent selection of vegan books (insert groan that they weren't snapped up). They were mostly ones that I have or am not interested in except for "Vegan Comfort Food", which I've looked at a few times and never gotten for some reason.

I'm excited to have it now, though. There's a great selection of recipes that aren't just veganized meaty recipes but also aren't too esoteric that you couldn't cook for omnivorous family members from it either. I had left over seitan so I decided to try the Oven Fried Chik'n Seitan. I think that I can't really review this fairly b/c I didn't use her seitan recipe. This was a recipe from RFD's book. The thing is, I LOVE RFD's seitan, but every other book says to boil it (instead of roasting it in water like RFD). I dunno about that whole boiling thing, but I'll try it soon just to see what all those other books are blathering on about.

Anyway, this worked alright. The Panko is WAY crunchier than breadcrumbs. I had made something else breaded recently that never made it onto this blog- but the breading recipe was found online and worked amazing. This one didn't work as good. The liquid was too runny and the panko too big to stick, although it did enough to make what you see here. I baked them as directed, and they were looking dry and lame, so I threw them in a pan with some oil to finish them off. The seasoning was delicious though. I would maybe use the liquid from my other mixture and then mix panko and breadcrumbs (?) I'll experiment at some point and report back. Over and out.

Cold Penne Salad

2011-04-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

This is the Cold Penne Salad from RFD's book (otherwise known in the restaurant as "Penne for Your Thoughts", I guess (says the book, so it must be so). It's phenomenal. While I was making it, I was really second guessing it. It seemed like such a loony mix of stuff. There's cooked onion, broccoli, green pepper, garlic... then chopped kalamata olives, re-hydrated sun dried tomatoes, penne, balsamic vinagrette-marinated grilled portabello and... pesto sauce (with miso!). Yet, because Ann Gentry has come up with things far more over the moon than I ever have, I followed the recipe to the letter and it payed off (whew!). It was fantastic! Oh, there's pine nuts too, which I'm convinced elevate a lot of salad, pasta and rice dishes to heights that they'd never otherwise achieve. It's also served room temp, which worked out great for my new job which doesn't have a fridge or micro (a vegan lunchtime challenge!) But, this works. It did take a long time to cook, though (a sauce, a marinade, grilling, cooking, etc)- but, as the RFD book has taught me, really amazing food usually takes time.

Hal's Maple Chocolate Flax Brownies

2011-04-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

Remember when I made cupcakes and said that I've yet to make that mythical dried out tasting vegan bakery? Well I did it! (not that that's a good thing...)

These stink. They are "Hal's Maple Chocolate Flax Brownies" from Dolce Vegan. I mean, they're edible. It takes a bad, bad, brownie to be so bad that I won't eat it. The chocolate chips save them. They are very dry- the batter was really dry too, which should have been a clue. For having both sugar and a ton of maple syrup in them, they aren't very sweet- which would be fine with the sweetness of the chocolate chips if not for the overall dryness and the flax seeds. I made peanut butter cupcakes with flax seeds successfully a few weeks ago, so I thought this would be just as good- but these have a TON of ground flax in them (1/4 cup compared to the 1T or so in the cupcakes), and you can really taste it. Which, in a brownie? Not so good. They are denser like a brownie should be (compared to the other Dolce ones that were the really good cake) Still, maybe the word "brownie" means something else in Canada, because Sarah Kramer (Dolce author) and I have wildly different ideas about what constitutes a good brownie (or a brownie- period). I have gotten a few great go-to recipes from Dolce, but also a good few duds. I wonder how much testing went into the book and I don't rule out that I could have goofed too.

I don't even love brownies a ton, I'm just looking for that thick, fudgy recipe with the flaky top that I can go to when I do want a brownie. For now, the quest continues.

Cuban Black Bean Soup

2011-04-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is the Cuban Black Bean Soup from "Viva Vegan!". It's a good 'day off' soup because it takes a long time to make. Most of it is simmering, but stirring is necessary, so you can't just leave it be for the multiple hours that it takes to cook.

It uses dried beans, which I'm still sort of warming up to. I just have a hard time getting past how flipping long they take to soak and cook. I know that they're supposed to be what real cooks use, but I don't know, with how many steps some of my recipes use- adding more is kind of annoying. They do taste a bit better, the canned ones turn to mush too fast. But the dried ones are kind of a pain on the whole and I'm not sure that they taste THAT much better for all the attention that they need. Perhaps if I just shift to dried being the norm, I won't think about it and it'll just be part of the process.

Anyway, I made my own vegetable broth in another attempt to be a real cook. I have spoken with and read info from some chefs who, although they seem elitist and d-baggish about it, insist that homemade broth is the only way to go. I made the RFD broth recipe, which seems fine, but I've honestly never tasted straight up store bought broth, so I'm not sure of the difference. I'm going to use the rest of it in a lighter flavored soup where the broth can shine though and I'll report back.

Anyway, the black bean soup. S'good, but honestly, I prefer mine (see HERE) I like the red bell, carrots and celery in mine. This one has green bell and a whole other process (with the dried beans and all). It utilizes the bean cooking liquid, uses green bells and not a lot of tomato. So, it's a very husky, deep soup. It also has a bit of liquid smoke in it, which further darkens the whole thing. It's good, I just prefer black bean soup to be less smoky and heavy. Hearty is great, but this tastes heavy. I should have made the cashew cream, it may have balanced everything out better. I was just tired of making things at that point.

Samosas (again)

2011-04-07T22:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, you'll see from my other samosa posts HERE and HERE that I've been trying to nail this down for awhile. And, I have good news to report- I found a good samosa exterior! And mostly a good interior, though it needs tinkering. The interior is the Joy of Cooking recipe that I did last time, only I used less lemon juice (very good), and a teaspoon of coriander seeds (good, but still not spiced enough). The whole inside is so close, but needs way more characteristically Indian spices in it. It's just too plain. Too white tater.

The chutney is also the same as last time, still good, only I would definitely stick to serrano only. The recipe said jalapeño was okay, so I used two of those and a serrano, and it was too jalapeño in flavor.

The exterior was a brand of frozen samosa dough from India Sweets and Spice here in L.A., it is by 'Prime Mazedar' and is called simply, "Samosa Pastry" and is a product of Pakistan. They work great pan fried (not deep fried, I tried to stay minimally healthier-ish). They stick a bit, but not nearly as much as the phyllo dough and they taste way more like a samosa- the phyllo just didn't taste like it was meant to be an Indian appetizer. I make no claims of authenticity, I'm a white, American mutt of European descent, but I've eaten my share of Indian restaurant samosas, and none were made with phyllo. Also, if you aren't up for making the samosas yourself, Indian Sweets has boxed Pillsbury ones (presumably imports). It's cool to see the Dough Boy on a samosa box though.

Yam and Black Bean Stew with Orange and Cilantro

2011-04-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

This recipe was great for me because it was a lesson in learning to trust my gut. We had a bag of yams left over from a dinner party last weekend, and with the price of food being out of control (plus the moral issues with wasting food), I wanted to do something with them. The recipe is from Appetite for Reduction- kind of. I say "kind of" because all along the way, I was switching things up to my taste. Which is the beauty of this. I am finally getting to the point with cooking where I can anticipate how things will work together and what I like and how I can alter things to my taste. There's definitely still something to be said for following recipes to the letter to experience new flavors and ways of doing things, but I think that this is a big step for me.

I changed the water that it called for (3 cups) to broth because I thought water was going to make it too bland (it may also have been water in the recipe b/c it's a low-cal book. Adding broth adds calories that she may have been trying to shave out of the soup). It called for a cup of orange juice at the end too. I tasted it and it was really sweet as-is, so I was inclined to skip it all together. But, because "orange" was in the title and she said that it jazzed up the yam flavor, I added 1/4 c. anyway. I was right, I didn't like it. The orange was sweetness that this soup sure didn't need. Really, I wasn't fond of it at all. I think that I like far more savory soups, and the yams really overpowered it. The taste and the texture weren't my thing at all. Which isn't to say that it wouldn't be the bees knees for someone else. And, another up side is that had I not tried this soup, I just would have made piles of sweet potato fries, which sure aren't all about 'reduction!

Papusas!

2011-04-07T21:10:00.000-07:00

Not the most glamorous food pic I've ever taken, mostly because the bottom papusa is half eaten... (I forgot to photo them until I started dinner!).

These are from "Viva Vegan!". This version is filled with refried beans and left over chorizo from the sopas (HERE). It was my first time making homemade refried beans, and that's really the best part about having made this recipe- those were fantastico!

I must say, between the sopas and the papusas, I think I preferred the sopas. The papusas were great too, but the masa overpowers the other flavors of the fillings a bit more just because they're wrapped in it (versus sitting on top of it where you can pile your fillings up to the moon). Still, they're relatively easy, pretty darn tasty and really versatile.You could probably stuff them with almost anything that you'd put in a burrito or taco. And who doesn't love new incarnations of those?

Pasta Con Broccoli

2011-04-03T18:01:00.000-07:00

This is the Pasta Con Broccoli from Appetite for Reduction. Again, I was trying to mimic something that I love from a restaurant. The restaurant is Joey's on Jackson that was in Milwaukee (it has since closed, a fact that I am devistated by because it was a darling family place and also we had our amazing wedding reception dinner there where we fed most of the restaurant with my mom and aunt Pat's amazing Martha stewart espresso chocolate cake). Anyway, I always got the Pasta Con Broccoli there, and it was always mind-blowingly amazing. Generally, it was kind of greasy but loaded with garlic, it had cheese and probably cream and butter to really gunk it up in a gooey delicious way, and it was just over the moon fantastic. Now all I have left of our relationship together is a wedding photo of me and the dish at our reception (see 2nd and 3rd photos).

This was good too. Not Joey's good. Probably far healthier good, though. There's a great undercurrent of sizzle to this because you sautée crushed red pepper in the oil with the onion (my addition, there's no onion in the recipe, but Joey's had onion). This uses 1/4 cup of garlic which is more than I have ever used ever in a recipe- except bruscetta (and I love garlic). Still, I think Joey's had more. Because this didn't have all the dairy to congeal, it was way waterier than my beloved Joey's, so although it was really very tasty, it wasn't what I was going for. It's a nice, light pasta dish though that, like I said- is really the thin, fit cousin of what I was looking to make.

I also added cauliflower and the recommended pine nuts. Joey's was great with cauliflower, but this probably would have been better without it. The pine nuts were great in it though.

Still, I miss Joey's.

Battle of the Tofu Scramblers

2011-04-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

Anyone who's been vegetarian or vegan for more than five minutes has probably had tofu scrambler. I had so much of it years ago that I pretty much never eat it anymore. But on the rare occasions that I want it, I want to make it. I have had too many nastily prepared versions at restaurants to ever order it out again unless for some reason, I'd know that the restaurant makes it amazing.

This is getting on a tangent, but the thing about ordering tofu in restaurants is that most places (non-veg restaurants) do not prepare it well. You need to use the right tofu for the right job (Silken for sauces and deserts, water packed for stir fries and scrambles). I went to a big, chain Mongolian barbecue style place with a client and ordered a stir fry with tofu- they served silken in a stir fry that was undercooked and unmarinated! No wonder tofu has a bad rep with most of the meat-eatin' crowd!

So, yeah, water packed is the way to go for this dish, firm or extra firm. These recipes are from Vegan Brunch and Dolce Vegan. Dolce Vegan is the one in the tortilla and was the clear winner. I would halve the mustard that it calls for, but other than that, it's a great, basic recipe that you can doctor up with peppers or whatever you like. It's just yellow and neutral with enough flavor to make it interesting. I also threw in some vegan chorizo to justify the tortilla b/c we were out of bread (toast).

The Vegan Brunch recipe was not my thing. I suspect that the author is also bored with this dish and just wanted to jazz it up, but 2 teaspoons of cumin was overkill, and not the flavor that I'm looking for with scrambler. Plus, it calls for quite a lot of nutritional yeast, which I think is great in small doses but too much of it damns a dish for me.

So that's my tofu scramble report until next year when I make it again and try a new recipe.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

2011-04-03T17:13:00.001-07:00

Hello "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" book, goodbye to any prospect of wearing a bikini this year! These are over the top. They are delicious and insanely decadent and I would not recommend making a batch unless you have 11 friends to share them with (maybe 10 friends- two indulgent cupcakes never hurt anyone).

One of the best parts about these is that you get to buy Newman O's. The reason that this is great is three fold. One- Paul Newman was a dreamboat and his picture is on the package (even elderly Paul Newman was a dreamboat). Two- all the proceeds for Newman's Own products go to charity. Three- they're effing good cookies.

The cupcakes are great, it's a basic chocolate recipe that has a bunch of different recommended variations- cookies and cream is just one of them. I do wish that I had smashed my cookies a bit finer, I hit a few crunchy crunches in the cupcake here and there, but that's fine too. There are worse things in life than bits of cookies. The cake is moist and has a great, deep chocolate flavor. It's funny because vegan bakery has a bad rep as being really dry. I've had dry vegan bakery at cafés once or twice, but have never made it. Every recipe that I have is super duper moist. There goes that myth. I have a theory though- I think it has that rep b/c it doesn't sell as fast and people are eating old, dried out stuff.

The frosting is the vegan buttercream with the cookies and cream variation- you smash up five cookies (half of what's in the cupcakes) and mix it into the frosting. The recipe made enough frosting to frost two batches of cupcakes and I would love to have a vegan bud around who wants my extra frosting, b/c 24 cupcakes is out of control. The frosting is simple and amazing. It's redonkulously sweet, which is good on these cupcakes because they aren't over the top sugary. It is a bit disturbing to think that you're eating mostly margarine, shortening and sugar for the frosting, but ya know what? It's a treat! It shouldn't be all spinach and broccoli all the time, life needs sugar too!

Oh, and I had to post two pics because it really only was a matter of time until our kitty Maxwell crashed my food photo shoots (see the right side of the image with 3 cupcakes in it).

Sopas!

2011-04-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

These are good. They're from "Viva Vegan!" a book that I just got by Terry Hope Romero (co-author with Isa Chandra Moskowitz on a bunch of books). This recipe, and quite a few in the book, are similar to RFD's in that each recipe calls for ingredients made with other recipes in the book. For example, for the Sopas here, there was; the masa dough, the chorizo, pickled onions and cashew crema (skipped that one) and then, of course, the recipe itself. I also inadvertently skipped the onions despite having made them 2 days ago (forgot about them in the fridge, outta sight, outta sopa). So, to me now, this complexity in a recipe implies that it will be good. If I have the time, I'll go for the long, drawn out recipes because they generally are better. Short, fast and easy ones tend to reflex their simplicity in their taste (spoken like a true snotty foodie). Which is not to say that I still don't love me some pb&j and other quickie meals.

The crust/ tart/ tortilla-esque shell on this is great. The author likens making papusas to making clay ashtrays and that's exactly what this reminded me of. A masa ashtray. The spinach was perfect on it, it was creamy and moist, but I'd scale back on the lime juice next time. The chorizo, I am sad to say, I did not like as much as Isa Chandra's from the Vegan Brunch book (HERE). These are spiced differently (and more intensely) which is nice, but it was the method of preparation that I think made the difference. The others are steamed and these are baked. After cooling them for hours, I cut into them and they were really sticky and not firm inside, even though the outside was fully cooked and dried out. The Vegan Brunchers have a seitan-ish gluten meat texture, and these are way...puttier on the inside. Also, she instructs to pan fry them with garlic, which did not work out well. The chorizo had to be cooked so long to get some semblance of firmness that the garlic got charred (not a taste I'm fond of). So, next time, I'll probably make this with Isa Chandra's Chorizo- or a hybrid. Viva Vegans spices + the rest of the Vegan Brunch recipe.

I was surprised that the recipe didn't call for tomatoes with the toppings, but when I ate my tasty sopa, I found that it didn't need it. There was enough moisture in the spinach and crust and enough tomato flavor in the chorizo. I wish I had remembered the red onions on top (they turned a crazy neon magenta from the pickling process), but the rest (cabbage, radish and avocado) was amazing. This was one of those meals where you sit in silence and let all of the flavors bounce around in your mouth and think about how lucky you are to be eating like this. (i.e.- I highly recommend it) And, I have three chorizos left so I will try the papusas or something else from the book in the next few days too.

Black Bean Cakes with Lime Peppered Mayo

2011-04-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

I was craving the southern style black bean cakes from Wishbone in Chicago. When I worked at Columbia, they would often cater our meetings and events and the black bean cakes with cornbread and mango salsa was about the only veg thing that they had (which I grew to love).

I got the Best Life Cookbook in a swap from swap.com a while back. It has a fair about of plant-based recipes, primarily because they're generally lower in fat and calories than meat stuff. This is from that book, it's from the guest chef section in the back. Since the "best life" stuff sprouted from the Oprah show, you can get the recipe HERE

It's ... alright. It's not what I was going for, really. The patties have a great flavor, the creole seasoning mix in the recipe is amazingly good. They had the problem that so, so many veg patties have and that is coagulation. They're kinda a blob of mush that smooshes when flipped and never really firms up. It's kind of a paste consistency. Also, they're fried (which is kind of weird b/c the best life book is a diet book), so they're pretty greasy and ridiculously messy to make- mostly because since they aren't firmed up patties, they disintegrate a bit in the oil, so you end up with a gritty, globby, oily mess. Again, great flavor, but the rest really counters that.

The lime peppered mayo sauce was very sour and pickled tasting. It was kind of okay, but really, if you made the recipe as-is, just the cakes with that sauce- I'd have walked away not liking it at all. What redeemed the dish was that I made corn muffins from scratch to have with it and also just reverted to Trader Joes roasted red salsa on top when I realized that the mayo was a bit too sour (and runny) for my taste. So... all in all, I'm still looking for a good Wishbone-style black bean cake recipe. I did see in their menu that I linked to in this post that theirs has lentils in it, so maybe I'll experiment with my own franken-burger creation.

Tamarind BBQ Tempeh & Sweet Potatoes with Polenta Stuffing

2011-03-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

These two recipes are from Appetite for Reduction, and though I've only tried three or four from this book, these are the best so far. I picked this dish solely b/c I wanted to use my Tamarind Concentrate that I bought at Indian Sweets and Spice. The tempeh/ sweet taters get marinaded and baked in a high heat oven similarly to RFD's tempeh treatment for the Sweet and Sour Tempeh, which is amazing. Tempeh is so nutty anyway, that marinading it and roasting or baking it like this really makes it hearty and flavorful. I could make these types of tempeh and pretty much throw it in a bowl and eat it like popcorn. But, the other flavors help too. The marinade was smoky, sweet and tart all at once. The sweet potatoes balanced the nutty, hearty tempeh, and the polenta (a separate recipe) was a lighter, delicious compliment to the BBQ dish.

Also, the "Appetite..." book lists calories and nutritional info, so it's nice to see that the BBQ dish has 530% of the daily required Vitamin A, 17 g of protein, and only 380 cals per serving. Coupled with the polenta, it was still around 600 cals or so each for dinner, which is great when a dish is this delicious and filling. Davey put in a request that we make this once a week- which I'll add to the list of 20 or so other recipes that he'd like to have weekly! (It's great to cook for such a fellow foodie!)

Peanut Butter Cupcakes w/ Chocolate Ganache

2011-03-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

These are the Peanut Butter Cupcakes and the Chocolate Ganache from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (of Vegan With a Vengeance and Vegan Brunch) and Terry Hope Romero (of Viva Vegan, a book that I just got and will try out this week).

They're really amazing. Davey described them as, "a peanut butter punch in the face". Which is apt. The ganache is a mite bitter (I used bittersweet chips), but it's an excellent balance to the sweet peanut butter in the cupcakes. These were really easy to make and had surprising ingredients- flax seed is used for an egg replacer, and it had the vegan "buttermilk" combo of soy milk and apple cider vinegar. I am getting better at creating my own dishes lately, but it's still great to make others recipes because of things like this that I would never think to do. I don't have worlds of experience baking, but I didn't know that cupcakes could require buttermilk (or it's vegan substitute). Anyway, they're moist, intensely flavorful and delicious.

I got this book in hopes of utilizing it for Davey's studio open house (coming soon) and any vegan bake sale that I may partake in. I won't often be making cupcakes just for us, since twelve cupcakes in the house is a dangerous thing. The ones that I'm most excited to try though are; Cookies and Cream (utilize Newman O's), Brooklyn vs Boston Cream Pie Cakes (filled with vegan custard), Toasted Coconut Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting (salivating), and Tiramisu. So, yeah, I hope I find some great fund-raising sales that I can bake for soon!

Spinach Pinenut Pilaf

2011-03-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

This is from the Beans and Barley Volume 3, it's their Spinach Pinenut Pilaf. This is probably the simplest tasty dish that I've made since I gave up pouring jarred pasta sauce on noodles for dinner. It's very easy, the only chopping is of the "oinion" (I found a typo in the book) and the spinach. I also tried the "chiffonade" cut of the leaves for the first time, which is a great way to cut them.

This is really nicely flavored, being that there isn't much to season it (onion, salt and pepper), it really takes on the broth flavor that you cook the rice in, so be sure to use a broth that you really like the taste of. I used Better Than Bouillon brand faux chicken flavor, which was perfect in this. It's nice to taste the pure flavors of the pinenuts and spinach- usually I make recipes so complex that individual flavors don't stand out like this. I think it would be good with the chicken-style seitan from RFD and some kind of saucy-sauce on that. It is a side, but makes a good light lunch alone too.

Chipotle Mexican Chili

2011-03-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

I made this up. I rarely do that unless I'm aiming to replicate something amazing that I've eaten elsewhere. But, I was drawing on deadline and didn't have the time to go get groceries. We had a lot of bits of good things in the house, and I figured that they had to amount to something.

This was testing the theory that any combo of protein, onions and spices, and broth and/or tomatoes will make a good chili. Turns out, I think that's true. This recipe came out amazing! It was intensely flavorful, has great textures and a nice smoky aftertaste. If you adore chipotle, I would add an extra pepper in. The flavor is there as-is, but it's not overwhelming or overpoweringly chipotle flavored.

1/2 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic
1T cumin seed
2 small tomatoes, diced
2.5 cups vegetable broth
1 chipotle chili (in Adobo sauce), de-seeded and diced
2T chipotle/ Adobo sauce from the can
1 1/2 t oregano
1T chili powder
1 16oz can pinto beans
1 green bell pepper, diced
5T tomato paste
1/2 cup TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein)
2 bay leaves
1t salt
1/4-1/2t cayenne pepper
1T canola oil

Heat oil in a large stock pot. Sautée onions until translucent, add garlic and cumin seeds and sautée another two minutes or so until fragrant. Add the broth, tomatoes and all other ingredients except the can of beans. Simmer 1 hour. Add rinsed beans and simmer another 1/2 hour.

This is great with crumbled tortilla chips on top.

Native Foods "Moon Dahl"

2011-03-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

Yum. I found this on the Native Foods blog, and dug and dug to find it again to no avail. You'll have to trust me, I got it from them. I'll retype it since they had published it. I did change a few things, I'll list it as they listed it and then tell you what I did differently after.

This came about because I had bought a bag of Mung Dal at India Sweets and Spice. I love yellow lentils at restaurants, but can never find them, so I got the Mung Dal first then dug around for a recipe after. This is a good one too. The yellow lentils (not sure if that's technically what they are, but ?) are intensely creamy. Also, I used spinach as a green, which gets pretty creamy too. It was a great dish, and excellent along side the Creamed Lentils with a bit of naan. Divine nosh.

Native Foods Moon Dahl

1 c Split Moong Dahl (mind was spelled Mung Dal on the bag)
1-1 1/2 cups water (I used 2)
1/4 c olive oil
1 T coconut oil (cool stuff!)
1 1/2 t cumin seed
1 1/2 t ground coriander
1/2 t turmeric
1 t salt
1 tomato, chopped
1/4 jalapeno, chopped
1/2 bunch swiss chard, chopped into 1/2" pieces (I used baby spinach)
1 t lemon juice
4 T cilantro, chopped (didn't have this, skipped it)
1 pinch finely ground nutmeg ( I know that I should have trusted this, but it sounded weird so I skipped it)

Rinse beans well and sort through for stones. Add water and bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes, set aside.

Heat olive and coconut oils and roast cumin seeds for 30 seconds. Add coriander, turmeric, salt, tomato and jalapeno and saute for approximately 3 minutes.

Add swiss chard and saute for another five minutes

Add chard mixture to dahl

Add lemon juice, chopped cilantro and nutmeg

Dodo's White Trash Recipe

2011-03-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

I don't have a photo of this, it's not vegan and best qualifies as super junk food. It is, however, amazingly addictive and delicious. A couple of years ago, we met up with my father-in-law, Jim, in Florida where he was visiting his aunt Dodo. Dodo is short for Dorothy and was the nickname bestowed upon her when Jim and his brother Jack were too young to pronounce Dorothy. It stuck, and was almost as adorable as she was. Dodo passed away last week. She was an amazingly sweet and wonderful woman who had an excellent sense of humor and was so warm and welcoming, I felt that I had known her my whole life.

We were at their house and she brought out some snacks. Sliced oranges, a bowl of pretzels, some cheese and crackers and a bowl of these clusters of stuff covered in white chocolate. Jim (who she still called, "Jimmy"- if he could call her Dodo, he could be Jimmy) asked her what the bowl of white cluster stuff was. "White Trash", she replied. After everyone giggled, we asked her again, and she said, "White. Trash." very slowly as if there were something wrong with us.

When I got home, she emailed me the recipe, here it is (thanks, Dodo :)

One block of Almond Bark
1 box (13 ounce) Golden Grahams Cereal
1 can regular peanuts

Mix cereal and peanuts in a large bowl. Melt almond bark and pour over peanut mixture. Mix well and then spread out on a brown paper bag. Let dry and then break into pieces.

Hope you enjoy= Love, Dodo

Cashew Paté

2011-03-26T13:47:00.001-07:00

This is my attempt at replicating Meet Market's (R.I.P.) Cashew "cheese". I'm calling it paté, though, because unlike RFD's Cashew Cheese, which uses Agar to replicate the texture of cheese (meltable and shreddable)- this one remains the texture that it is when you make it, which is like a thick hummus (or paté).

I used a photo of the packaging that I found on Quarrygirl's site to get the ingredients, which I varied by one ingredient. They list a probiotic last, which I didn't have or really have the inclination to investigate. I think that it's in there probably for one, because Jamie Lee Curtis has spread the probiotic gospel to the point where people want to be partaking in it. And two, because raw cashews could be hard to digest (one of my cookbooks mentions this and the remedy to it, which is soaking them). I also added a hint of onion powder b/c it tasted a bit bland.

So, you are supposed to soak raw cashews for about 12 hours, when recipes tell you to do it. Others never mention it. So, I soaked for 4 hours. Not out of strategy, but out of timing more than anything. Four hours was all the time that I had until I wanted to eat this up.

This is the closest that I've gotten to replicating the awesomeness that was Meet Market's recipe. If you are in L.A. and would like to try the real deal, Flore has the same owners and uses it in their East Sider tacos, which it's amazing in (see my knock off HERE). Here you go (you will need a food processor):

1 cup Raw Cashews, soaked 4+ hours (MUST be raw and unsalted- you will regret swapping this out with salted
2 T Nutritional Yeast
3/4 t Sea Salt
1/2t Paprika
1/4 cup Soy milk
1/4 t Onion Powder

Soak cashews in water, covering the nuts entirely with the water and covering the bowl with a dishtowel to keep out dust and cats and things.

When the nuts are done soaking, drain them and let them air dry for 15 minutes or so. Put the nuts into the food processor and grind them into a fine powder (paste, if they have moisture in them still). Add the other ingredients and blend very, very well. Scoop out and serve on bagel chips, with tortilla chips or in tacos.

Tarascan Bean Soup

2011-03-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

This is the Tarascan Bean Soup from Beans and Barley's Little Book of Beans Volume One. I'm not sure what they were going for with this (or what I was going for with this slanty slanty pic). The soup is basically a soupier version of refried beans, which I'm not fond of eating by the bowl. It could be "soup" if you thin it like the directions say, but I'm not sure why you'd want that. I had thought before I made it that it would be more of a hearty, whole bean soup.

After soaking the dried pintos overnight and making the soup, I basically realized that it's refried beans in soupy form and decided that it wasn't for me. I ate this bowl to be sure (it was weird), and then cooked it longer to thicken it and just made a mexican casserole with this, black beans, the spanish rice from RFD and tortillas. It was pretty good.

So, using this soup as a refried bean mixture (keeping it thick) is a winner- except I would ditch the coriander seeds. I really don't know what those were doing in there, and when you hit one while eating, it's overpowering (and makes you just want curry). On the whole, the recipe's not so much of a winner, but it was fine and on the up side- this was the first time that I used dried beans in a recipe (I'm slightly embarrassed to admit). My goal is to start using them at least half of the time or more in the future. They're cheaper, have less sodium and make me feel more like a real cook!

Quinoa Vegetable Soup

2011-03-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

This is the Quinoa Vegetable Soup from RFD's book. I know that I swore off that book this week, but this was from last week, so other than the chicken style seitan, I haven't cheated.

I was coming down with a bit of a cold, so I made this to infuse some nutrients into my immune system. It has onions, carrots, celery, zucchini, corn, red bell, garlic and tomatoes in it, so I figured it would do the trick (I didn't get sick, but still feel it lurking- so maybe the soup kept it at bay).

It's a really good vegetable soup, extremely chunky and pretty filling. It is a very strong veg soup flavor, though, with little to break it up. It's good with crackers or crusty bread, but best with a sandwich to balance flavors so you don't feel like you're eating veg stock alone. Still, very good. It's no Turkish Lentil, but it's good.

Mediterranean "Chicken" Salad

2011-03-15T17:16:00.001-07:00

Yum. I think that the Beans and Barley cookbooks have such great salads in them because a) they have a deli, and b) it's so cold all winter that people in Milwaukee get really excited in summer to be outside and have cookouts and eat great picnic food. Like the Mexican Quinoa from book two or ...this salad! It's from the Beans book Volume 3 (thank you again, Nicholas V!)

This was intended to be a salad using chicken along with parmesan cheese. I skipped the cheese (although I could tell from the flavors of the salad that it would be really excellent on it), and I veganized it by using the "chicken style" seitan from Real Food Daily's book.

The salad is pretty quick to mix up (after spending 2+ hours making the seitan). Just some noodles, fresh spinach, diced tomatoes, red bell and red onion and some pine nuts. The dressing is good too, a teeny bit goes a long way. Also, since Davey hates vinegar, I reduced that by 1T and it was pretty great. Unless you love vinegar, I'd recommend cutting the recommended 3T down to 2, it's a nice balance of flavors with less.

This would be great to take on a picnic or to make for a summer meal, it's nice and light but still pretty filling with the faux chick, noodles and pine nuts. So the verdict is, I'm super happy to have more Beans and Barley books!

Pressies?!?!!

2011-03-11T18:47:00.001-08:00

First, I must say, thank you, Nicholas V.!

Months ago when I was ignoring my life to write an entry about something or other that I had cooked for dinner, my husband Davey started talking to me about this blog. He was asking (in a nice way) why I'm doing this. He was like, "What's your ultimate goal? Do you want this published or to be a food writer now?" (I think he's more goal oriented than I am). I told him that I just wanted to do it. It can't be published, really, because it's primarily about other people's recipes that I can't publish for copyright reasons. I just like it. I thought about it and told him that my ultimate goal would be that I'd get free cookbooks to try more recipes from.

And then, today, because of this blog, I got free cookbooks to try recipes from! Didn't that work out amazing!

I had said in this post HERE that I wanted to pick up the Beans and Barley book, volume 1, if they still sell it because I have volume two and it's excellent. A peach of a boy that Davey knows read that and bought not just volume 1 for me, but all three volumes! (I didn't even know that there were three!). I have to say, this made my day. I adore kind gestures (I walked around with blank valentine's cards in my purse on 2/14 and wrote them out to our waitress at brunch and our waiter at dinner). And I adore presents, and I adore new recipes- so it's really a trifecta of happy today.

Also, it was perfect timing as I just decided that I need to move on from Real Food Daily's book that I'm addicted to and try new stuff. It is also menu planning day (geez I sound like a true Virgo calling it that), so I have added Tarascan Bean Soup from Volume 1 to the week as well as the Mediterranean Chicken Salad (which I'll veganize with chicken-style seitan from RFD- I won't quit that book cold turkey- no pun intended).

Stay tuned and I'll report back on my findings! And thank you very much again Nicholas V.!

Pretty Chili Bits

2011-03-07T13:59:00.000-08:00

This has nothing to do with anything except that the clippings from the chili peppers from my mole looked beautiful on the cutting board and I had to photo them.

Bayless Mole Enchiladas starring "chicken style seitan"

2011-03-07T13:18:00.001-08:00

This sauce recipe from Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill is the single most involved thing that I have ever cooked- ever. It took a total of four and a half hours from start to finish yesterday! A bit over two hours of that is simmer time, but that leaves two hours and some change of actively cooking to make this. It involves roasting, frying, blending, and then the hours of simmering.

Now, I have to say, it tastes amazing. It tastes like it was labored over- which is good, or I probably would've thrown it and the pot that I made it in out of the window. It's not at all heavy on the chocolate taste. In fact, no one flavor (of the eighteen ingredients) dominates. If I had to choose one that stands out, it's the peppers (there are three kinds), but just when you think you're tasting the cinnamon, then you taste the almonds or the anise or the garlic or the tomatillos. It's kind of a dance of flavors going on, which is amazingly interesting. It is probably the best mole that I've had.

However, that doesn't change the fact that you need the bulk of the day to make it, so it will be a very special occasion sauce. And really, it's not a sauce that would be good to eat weekly anyway. I have no idea what the calorie count is, but I'd guesstimate it at about 400 cals per serving (for the sauce alone). This is, of course, completely pulled out of thin air, but based on the fact that some of the ingredients have a lot of calories (almonds, raisins, chocolate, oil), and the peppers, almonds, garlic and raisins are all oil fried before going into the sauce (and that oil stays in the sauce).

Which leads to the other down side of this sauce. It is ridiculously messy. So there's that oil that I mentioned- it's a 1/2 cup (or starts out as that before you fry all the aforementioned ingredients). Then, after soaking the chilis for a half hour, you puree them with some of the soaking water and then add that puree into the oil. If you've ever put water into hot oil, you'll have an idea of what you're in for. Now make that splatter mess reddish brown and that's the treat that you're in for for the next hour of cooking until you get to the point where you add broth to calm that noise down (then have that all simmer for two hours).

Having said all of this, it is a decadent sauce to behold and will surely make you feel like a master saucier for having gone through all of this work. I kept the enchilada filling simple since I spent so much time on the sauce that it would be lunacy to then have other flavors battling the mole. I just sauteed onion, garlic, green pepper and cubed "chicken style" seitan (from the RFD book, see Fajita post), added a bit over a cup of sauce to the mix and used that for the filling. A lot of the mole that was in the pan and on top of the enchiladas dried during baking, so I saved about 2 cups to use for dousing before serving and froze another 2 cups to have another time.

Also, I halved his recipe which makes 3/4 of a GALLON of sauce. As I said, I still got to freeze 2 cups after making a saucy dish, but if you feel that you would only be up for this mole production once in your life, it may be a good idea to make the whole recipe and freeze a whole bunch to then pull out when you don't feel like cooking all day but want the mole fix.

If you're up for it, you can find the recipe HERE

Fajitas starring "chicken style seitan"

2011-03-06T12:36:00.000-08:00

These are the Fajitas from the Real Food Daily Cookbook (I gotta branch out, but... why?) These are amazing! The "chicken style" seitan has different ingredients than the standard stuff (this one has onion, garlic, cannellini beans and garbanzo flour). It changes it up a bit, although it's hard to tell the taste difference b/c this fajita recipe adds a bunch on top of it.

There's a "marinade"- the driest marinade known to man, only 4T of liquid to, oh, about 20 T of spices. I marinaded it overnight. After that, it's easy peasy to make- just chop the peppers, onions and tomatoes, pan sear it all and voila! It's a delicious dish, and I appreciate the recipe a lot because I would never, ever have used those herbs (oregano, thyme, basil + others) for a mexican dish.

I have one pound of the seitan left, which will go in some mole enchiladas, so again, it'll be doused in something disguising the flavor, but there is a clear difference, and I can see why you'd want to use the "chicken style" versus plain for different applications. It's also nice to expand our non-soy protein base with a different flavor.

Turkish Lentil Stew

2011-03-04T14:24:00.001-08:00

Ooooh, this is a good one! This is the "Turkish Lentil Stew" from Real Food Daily's book (there's actually still recipes in there that I haven't tried yet). Also, as an aside, Ann Gentry is coming out with a new book in June which makes me extremely happy. If it's 1/2 as good as the first, I won't look good in a bikini this summer.

Anyway, this is a great, hearty, flavorful soup. It uses fresh rosemary which is just unbelievable to smell and chop and work with. It's like ginger in that the smell just makes you feel lucky and happy to be around it. Also, for an RFD recipe, it's relatively quick (45 min or so total). And, you can't help but be convinced that you're getting healthier by eating it; lentils, tomato, garlic, spinach... all good stuff. I generally am not the biggest soup-as-a-meal fan. I like a good soup and sammie combo or something. This, however, falls into the chili/ black bean soup category- it's definitely filling enough as a meal. I did half the ingredients, though (like most RFD recipes)- and it still made enough for at least four nice sized bowls.

Four stars and a bonus point- it's a great recipe.

Indian Sweets and Spice

2011-03-04T14:14:00.001-08:00

My mind has just been blown out of my head. I just went to "Indian Sweets and Spice" on Los Feliz Blvd (in Los Angeles), and omfg- I have never seen anything like it. It is huge, huge, huge and has any esoteric spice or ingredient that I've ever never been able to find elsewhere plus a ton of things that I've never heard of and would have no idea what to do with (but would love to learn). I went only for chickpea flour which I didn't even need for an Indian recipe- it's for the Chicken Style Seitan from RFD. I had bought it before for pakoras, though, so I knew an Indian grocer would have it.

My gosh, they have everything! I got poppadoms, tamarind concentrate (which I've looked all over for before and never been able to find) and a jarred spicy mango chutney. I would have gotten TONS more, but I was on the scooter with no topcase room. this place is unbelievable, and if you live in L.A. and haven't been, you must! Also, there's a café attached too!

Btw- this photo is photos of one pound containers of spices. I took a photo of all of the four pound containers of spices, but it was too blurry to use. FOUR pounds of garam masala! Just insane.

Samosas (take two- phyllo version) and Green Chutney

2011-03-04T13:53:00.001-08:00

I'm getting closer. Close, but no real cigar. This is the second time that I've tried samosas lately (see RFD's here). These are the "Samosas with Potatoes and Peas" from the Joy of Cooking book, latest edition (which I don't own, I got it from the library). Btw- the library is an excellent source for culling vegan recipes from non-vegan books without having to buy a book that's comprised of 3/4 meat recipes.

Anyway, these are far, far closer to the classic Indian restaurant samosas that we know and love and that I'm trying to come up with a solid go-to recipe for. Still, I'll continue the quest and probably just cave in and make my own dough, as these two tries at samosas that use recipes that circumvent dough making fell a bit short of what I'm after.

Still, these are good in their own phyllo-y way. If you've never worked with phyllo, I must warn you that you desperately need to have two things in your house; counter space and beer, wine or liquor to take the edge off. Actually, it seems like it would be fun if you just had the former. I absolutely don't have counter space and didn't realize how much room that I needed (but didn't have) until I was in the throws of the phyllo. It needs to stay moist- but can't get wet or damp or it'll stick together. So, you cover the dough with wax paper to shield it from moisture, then cover the paper with a damp towel. If you don't have enough space, inevitably your towel will touch your dough and ruin a good few sheets by wadding them together. Conversely, if the dough were to, say, hang off the edge of your teensy counter on the bottom- said dough would be dried up and useless as well.

Somehow I got enough dough to work to make them. I also got to utilize my Girl Scout skill of flag folding, as that's how the phyllo is folded after you put your filling in.

The samosas themselves were good, a bit too lemony acidic, though, I'd cut back on that if I made this filling again (which I probably would, it was really close to my idea of a perfect potato samosa).

The chutney is from a book called, "Pure and Simple: Homemade Vegetarian Indian Cuisine" that I got from the library. This chutney could make any goofy attempt at samosas taste delicious! It has cilantro, green chilis, cumin seeds, coriander, salt and lemon juice in it. It's easy peasy as it's all thrown in a blender (besides the lemon, which is added after). It was a bit too thick, so I thinned it with a teeny bit of water, though. It was spicy, but not unbearably so. I also have a slight aversion to strong cilantro taste, which remarkably this didn't have even though there was 2 cups of the leaves in there.

I also cheated and picked up a tamarind chutney from a nearby restaurant (I made 3 recipes that night and was tired). I would recommend having both the chili and the tamarind- as the sweet and spice are a great combo.

Chana Masala

2011-03-02T15:25:00.001-08:00

This was a recipe that I found online but modified, so I feel safe in reprinting. It is amazingly good and is great with the Creamed Lentils and Samosas. This was the first time that I caramelized onions- which was kinda a pain, but the dish is so good, I wouldn't cut that step out. The blend of flavors is delicious and this will for sure be one of our regular staple meals.

1 T canola oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 t cumin seeds
2 t coriander seeds
1 t ground coriander
1t ground cumin
1/8 t ground cayenne pepper
1/2 t ground tumeric
1 ripe tomato, diced
1 c water
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 sm lemon (to juice)
2 t paprika
1 t garam masala
1/2 t salt
2 t fresh ginger, grated

Heat oil in a large pot or skillet, add onions and cumin seeds. Sauté covered over low heat until caramelized (stirring often to prevent burning). Add garlic and sautée 30 secs more.

Add the coriander, ground cumin, cayenne and turmeric until well mixed, add tomatoes and stir well. Cook until tomatoes have broken down a bit and looked nicely cooked. Add chickpeas and water, stir. Then add paprika, salt, lemon juice and ginger.

Simmer covered for at least a 1/2 hour, up to 1 hour. Add garam masala 3-5 minutes before serving.

Ratatouille

2011-02-05T19:37:00.000-08:00

This is my first foray into Ratatouille/ French anything since being vegan. Partially b/c French food is pretty inherently non-vegan. Butter, cream, foie gras...

Anyway, I re-watched Julie and Julia and fast forwarded through the "Julie" parts. I also picked up a biography of Julia Child as well as "My Life In France" by her from the library. And, I see how Julie got obsessed. Julia is an utter inspiration to anyone over 30 (she first found her calling in food at 37). Also, I really would have a hard time believing that any other cookbook author tests their recipes like she did. To take 10 years to pour over dozens of ways to make mayonnaise, french bread (for volume 2 of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"), etc... it's just remarkable. That is the way that cookbooks should be authored. I suspect that contemporary books are nothing like that (see the "brownie" below). I am buying "Mastering" one and two, despite being able to make little if anything from the books only because I know that they were made with such an intensive process. I can't help but think that I'll learn something from them!

So, I was inspired to make Ratatouille. Not from a Julia/ Simone recipe, but from "The Compassionate Cook". It was good. I have no frame of reference for what it should taste like though! But, what could be bad about eating eggplant, zucchini, red and green bell peppers, etc? I guess the only down side for me is that I'm not a huge fan of all-vegetable meals (crazy coming from a vegan, I know). But, it's good. If you can hunt down a copy of the Compassionate Cook, it's worth making for sure. Crusty bread is mandatory, though.

Espresso "Brownies"

2011-02-05T19:31:00.000-08:00

Either I did something wrong, or the author of La Dolce Vegan has a whole other definition of what a brownie is. What I made was the "Espresso Brownie" recipe from that book. What came out of the oven was a delicious, fluffy, moist, rich chocolate cake (with the somewhat inappropriate bits of walnut in it). As cake- this is amazing! There's bits of chocolate chips in it, aside from the cocoa powder that already makes the batter chock full of chocolatey goodness. In fact, I believe that this will be perfect when I eventually try making fauxstess cupcakes ala Real Food Daily/ the Vegan w/ a Vengeance book.

Also, this is the moistest bit of vegan baking since I made TJ's Pumpkin Bread mix with a banana in lieu of eggs. I know that I haven't eaten dairy in almost 2 years, but I think that in a blind taste test- no one would label this as vegan baking.

As a brownie, however, this fails. Nothing about it is brownie-esque. It's not flat, no crispy, flaky brownie crust- it's just so totally not a brownie.

But it's an amazingly good cake!

Mexican Quinoa Salad

2011-01-22T14:04:00.000-08:00

This is a recipe from Milwaukee's Beans and Barley café. It's a great place that I utterly miss not living closer to. This is from their teeny book "Another Little Book of Beans". I have no idea if they still sell their cookbooks, this is from the year 2000. I hope that they do, though, b/c this is volume 2, and I'd like to get #1.

Anyway, this is delicious. It's great as a side, great alone, would be great as a pot luck or picnic dish, it's amazing. For such a little salad, there's a ton of nutritious goodness in it; the qunioa, black beans, peppers, tomato, avocado, etc. It made a TON (I noticed after the fact that it said that it made 8-12 servings), and I made it only for Davey and me. So, right now, I'm tired of it and won't be making it probably until summer when we have a picnic to go to where I want everyone to be asking who made the tasty salad.

Indian Quinoa Salad

2011-01-22T14:00:00.000-08:00

This. Is Good. This is the Indian Quinoa Salad from RFD's book. I had never made Quinoa, or, I think even had it before. It's a nutty but light little grain that tends to get everywhere when you cook from onto your clean dishes to the bottom of your feet.

This dish is delicious! It's very light, and would be a great side. I tended to just devour it by the bowl, though. It doesn't have a really distinct Indian flavor, though- the only real spice is garam masala. S'good- it'd be great at picnics, and I'll for sure keep it in my pocket to use for such occasions.

Chorizo Tempeh Samosas

2011-01-22T13:50:00.000-08:00

This... is not the samosa that you're thinking of. The amazingly good fried one in dough that you get at Indian buffets with potatoes and cumin seeds and peas inside. This is RFD's Chorizo Tempeh Samosas. Until I went to write this, I forgot that it had that title, and am now wondering why "chorizo" is in it. There's no chorizo in the samosas (maybe b/c of the spices?) Anyway, they're real time consuming and are pretty difficult to form. You have to make the outer potato dough, refridge it, broil the tempeh, make the filling that the tempeh goes with, refridge that, and make the Spicy Tomato Sauce for the top.

They had a good flavor, and are probably a lot healthier than their fried restaurant counterparts, but I wasn't thrilled with them for the amount of work involved. Also, I'm really disappointed to say that the sauce was pretty darn bland.

I also made my version of the naan pizzas from the L.A. restaurant Cowboys and Turbans (which either recently changed their name or closed). It's an Indian/ Mexican fusion place on Sunset on the Silverlake/ Echo Park border (across from the Epitaph offices). It's a great place.

Anyway, their naan pizza is wilted spinach in a masala sauce with peas and tofu cubes (and mozzerella, for non-vegans). My tofu was expired and mine was cheeseless. So, I made naan and topped it with Trader Joes Simmer Masala sauce with peas and a bag of wilted spinach. And, (this is sad)- that sauce was WAY better than the RFD Spicy Tomato Sauce that I had made from scratch and slaved over.

So, it turned out that the magic combo was topping the samosa with a tad of the Spicy Tomato Sauce, and then dousing it with the Masala/ Spinach concoction. Which was good, and Davey loved it, but I doubt that I'll make these again.

J-R Black Bean Soup

2011-01-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

This is a recipe that I made up and LOVE. It was modeled after (I'm a hint embarrassed to say) Panera's black bean soup. My office in Chicago was down the block from a Panera, and their black bean soup was about the only vegetarian thing there that didn't have a million calories (I loved their asiago bagels until I learned that plain with no cream cheese they have 330 calories- with the cream cheese- something like 700 ;)

Anyway, if they have Paneras in L.A., we're no where near one, so I decided to make my own black bean soup. This is also a great end of the week dish when you have 1/2 of an onion, bits of bell peppers, etc. left in the fridge and need a use for them.

Black Bean Soup (makes 4-6 servings)

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 6oz. can tomato paste
2 stalks celery, chopped small
2 medium carrots, chopped small
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, chopped small
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped small
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped small
1 T canola oil
1 1/2 T chili powder
1 t cumin
salt to taste
1 t ground black pepper
1/4 t ground red pepper
*great with crusty bread

Sautée the onions, celery and carrots in oil until all is soft and onion is translucent. Add garlic, sautée another minute or so. Add the beans,broth, tomato paste and spices (all but the bell peppers). Bring to a boil and simmer for about an hour. Add peppers and simmer another hour. The long cooking time lets everything get married and taste delicious.

20 minutes prep, 2 hours cooking.

Vegan Chorizo

2011-01-17T11:59:00.000-08:00

Craaazy! Vital wheat gluten is a thing of wonder.

To continue my trend of making things that I henceforth never considered actually making (bagels, seitan...) this is a homemade vegan chorizo from scratch, featuring the magic of vital wheat gluten and zero soy. The rest of the base of this is mashed pinto beans. Then there's a bunch of spices, veg broth and tamari (oh, a bit of soy, I guess).

This is from Vegan Brunch and for the life of me, I can't imagine how anyone could invent this- but I'm so happy that she did. It's magical. You make this springy dough and then form it into "sausages", roll it in tin foil and steam it for 40 minutes. Then, slice it, pan sear it a tad to get a nice crispy outside and a better, deeper color. This stuff is amazing. It's spicy, flavorful, eyes-roll-back into your head amazingly good. Plus, there's no intestinal casing involved (not to get grodie, but that's a pretty nasty component of real sausage.

This is used as a brekkie side (hence it's origin in the Vegan Brunch book), but we made tacos with it. Flipping. Amazing.

Hummus

2011-01-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

This is the hummus from the Compassionate Cook. It's good, nothing to shout about though. It is great for wraps (in this one, I have shredded carrots, cuke, lettuce, tomato and the hummus.)

Personally, the best hummus that I've made has been Isa Chandra Moskowitz' roasted red pepper hummus. She blogged when she was on a local Portland show, and the recipe is over the moon. Davey, however, is not a fan of roasted red peppers, and since I'm not a fan of eating two tubs of hummus in the span of a few days, I don't make it anymore. Maybe for the next party or something though, because the flavor in this one is beyond!

The link is HERE, but I've cut and pasted for your convenience.

Forest Hills Hummus

Makes 3 1/2 cups

For my Greek friends in Queens, this hummus is given deep flavor with
roasted red pepper and Kalamata olives. The flavors are subtle enough
that people might not be able to guess them off the bat, they will only
know that they are eating the best hummus in the world.

Ingredients:
25 oz can chickpeas
1 clove garlic
1 roasted red pepper (about 1/2 a cup if from a jar)
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)
Big pinch salt
Several dashes fresh black pepper
Big pinch paprika
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives

Directions:

Drain chickpeas and reserve cooking liquid in a separate bowl. Place garlic in food processor and pulse to chop.
Add chickpeas, red pepper, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, black pepper and paprika. Puree until mostly smooth.

Add reserved chickpea liquid to thin a bit, from 1/4 to 1/2 a cup, and puree further until very creamy.
Add olives and pulse until they are finely chopped. Taste for salt and seasoning.

Store in a tightly sealed container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Eggplant Stacks

2011-01-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

A frequent fave of ours, this was modded out a bit from a Peta recipe that I got about 100 years ago. I'll share b/c we've changed it a bit. The eggplant is fried, so it may be a bad New Year's resolution dish, but it's also a decadent treat.

1 large Eggplant
1 jar red pasta sauce (or equivalent homemade, I made RFD's tomato sauce which was amazing with it)
1 package Angel Hair Pasta
soy parmesan
1/2 c Olive Oil
1-2 c Flour
1 T salt
Lots of paper towels.
Parmesan cheese (if you're into that kind of thing)

*goes nicely with red wine and crusty bread

If you're making your sauce, do that first or be sure that it's ready to go.

Wash the eggplant and slice horizontally into disks. Dissolve the salt into the water, add the slices, weigh them down with a plate and leave for 20 minutes to de-bitter the eggplant (I've read a lot about this being unnecessary, I'm too scared about ruining a dish to skip the step, so far, it works out great, so I do it).

Preheat oven to 350 and get a 9x12 baking pan ready. In a large skillet, heat the oil until it's almost bubbly. Leave all of your slices in the water, they'll need to be wet. Place a wet slice into the flour and coat both sides, put floured eggplant into the oil and repeat with other slices. Fry the eggplant until both sides are golden brown, let drain on a paper towel (or 12). Once your slices are all cooked up, you can start your stacking.

Pour enough sauce in the 9x12 pan to coat the bottom. Place eggplant slices into the sauce (about 6 fit into the pan). Now, if you eat cheese, this is amazing with a good parmesan that you can layer in at this point the way that you would lasagna. I don't- and it's still good. put a spoonful of sauce on each slice of eggplant, cover with another slice of eggplant, etc. You're basically just making layered stacks; sauce, eggplant, sauce, eggplant... until you run out of eggplant. I finish it with a dollop of sauce on top too to keep the top layer from drying out. Pour any extra sauce into the pan being careful not to drown your bottom layers.

Heat for about 12 minutes. If you've cheesed it up, that's a great way to know if they're done or not (when the cheese is melted and browned a bit). If not, 12 minutes will suffice.

While the eggplant is baking, boil your angel hair. Drain, and then make little nests of noodles on your serving plates. Once the eggplant is done, spoon some sauce from the pan onto a noodle nest, top with a stack, dust with vegan parmesan, and you're done! A nice crusty bread goes well with this too (what doesn't go well with a nice crusty bread?!)

Sushi!

2011-01-16T11:03:00.000-08:00

This is fun to make about once a year! Veg sushi; I made a carrot roll, avocado roll, and asparagus roll. The sad thing was that I made rice for the basil fried rice dish. That needs to be dried out and loose (the antithesis of what's needed for sushi; sticky and moist). Even after sitting over night, my rice for fried rice, was globby and sticky and no where near the texture that I needed. So, I made lemonade out of lemons (or sushi out of failed fried rice).

I added 2T of Rice Vinegar, 1T of sugar and 1t of salt to my mush rice. Rolled the veg and rice in sheets of Nori (just discovering after three times of making it that it's perforated where you're supposed to cut individual pieces). We got a powdered wasabi that is pretty grodie. I don't know what restaurants use to get that technicolor wasabi glob, but ours was more of a deep sage color. Still, it did the trick, and was so overpowered by the tamari that it was fine.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

2011-01-16T10:54:00.000-08:00

This is from Vegan Brunch and it's delicious! The crumble was way too floury and not sweet enough the first time that I made it, so I doubled the sugar in the recipe. Only, I forgot to cut the flour down and ended up with a fat stack of crumble (see photo of 5" crumble stack). So, next time, double the sugar, half the flour.

The cake is very moist and not at all sweet on it's own, so once the crumble is ironed out, it will be the perfect coffee cake to enjoy with my Alterra Burly Blend :)

Black Bean, Sweet Potato Burrito

2011-01-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

These are from La Dolce Vegan and have become a staple in our house. The first time that I saw the recipe, I thought it sounded weird. The sweet potatoes are boiled and mashed and then layered with seasoned black beans. The beans have a very deep, rich flavor, and coupled with the sweetness of the taters- these are amazingly tasty. I used Frontera's Jalapeño and Cilantro salsa- a bit inside and some on top. Also, from the crappiest little taco hut in Chicago (Burrito House, oh how I miss thee), I got the trick of pan cooking a finished burrito to get that crispiness on the top and bottom. I don't do it for all burritos, but it's absolutely necessary for this one. A soft tortilla just wouldn't work with this. This recipe is also always a hit with non-veg peoples too. It's A+ #1 delicious.

Bagels from Scratch!

2011-01-16T09:55:00.000-08:00

This was fun. I love making things that I never thought you could make by hand before. I mean, I guess I knew that it was possible, but I never thought I'd do it. These were made with a recipe from Vegan Brunch. They're pretty time consuming (as any yeast bread is), but fun too.

You make the yeast dough like any other, let it rise, etc. Then, after separating the dough into bagel size balls, you poke your hole in the middle and bob them in boiling water for two minutes (this gives them that lovely bagel gloss), then bake, then enjoy!

You'll see that I have gobs of stuff on one for these photos. That was inspired by the Empty Bottle's "Bite" café in Chicago. They had a small bagel menu on their brunch menu. There's a section called "Superbagels" with offerings topped with every imaginable ingredient. In that section, each type of bagel is numbered. It turns out that the cream cheese, basil, tomato and red onion one was #1 on the submenu. Meaning that when we went there, and I ordered my favorite bagel, I got to ask for the "Number One Superbagel!" Which, honestly, I'd want to order no matter what was on it, just to say that.

I subbed out vegan cream cheese, and it's still #1 Super to me.

Also, I've picked out the next thing that I didn't think that I could make to make- English Muffins (or if you're in England- Muffins).

Chili (Sick days= Chili days)

2011-01-10T22:22:00.000-08:00

I was just sick for a few days, but stayed out of bed long enough to make chili. Not the classic J-R chili HERE (we just had that), this one is based off of a recipe from the awesome Milwaukee café Beans and Barley. They rule. They're Real Food Daily in Milwaukee, basically (only the entrees are about $8 tops versus $18 or so here). Many years ago, when we still lived in MKE, I got their second Little Book of Beans, a dinky pamphlet of a cookbook that has this great chili recipe in it. What I love about it is that it's kind of the anti- J-R chili. Ours is thick and heavy and chunky, which is great when you want that, but this one is far more veg soupish. Also, since I've seriously altered the recipe from the book, I felt that it was safe to share it. The Beans and Barley chili was a springboard, but this one's pretty different. I like it a lot, and it was perfect for this latest stretch of sickness. I got to eat super healthy for two days while only cooking once. Also, like most soups and chilis, crusty bread is an absolute must with this.

2 cans Kidney Beans
1 quart vegetable broth
1 large onion, diced
2 large carrots, coined
2 stalks celery, diced
1 green bell, diced
1 small white or sweet potato, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 t thyme
1 T oregano
1 T + 1 t chili powder
1/4 t cayenne pepper
1 t black pepper
salt to taste
2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
1 T ground cumin
1 t sage
1/2 cup TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein)
1T oil
salt to taste

Sautee onions, carrots and celery in oil, add all other ingredients except TVP and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce to very low heat and simmer for at least an hour, up to an hour and a half. Add TVP when there's about 20 minutes left of cooking time, taste for salt and spices. Finish cooking, let stand for about 20minutes (to an hour, the longer spices steep, the better this stuff is). Enjoy with crusty bread and cold medicine.

Seitan from Scratch + Salsbury Seitan- Take Two

2011-01-10T21:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, I've gone off the vegan deep end. I made seitan from scratch today! It's in a few of my cookbooks, but it always seemed overboard to make not only a recipe for the dish (plus the sauce, plus the side dish, plus whatever else), so I've bought a delicious one by Westsoy. Some of my favorite recipes use seitan now (Ethiopian Seitan and Peppers, East Side Tacos, etc), and the stuff is rather expensive ($10 a meal). More importantly, when we went to Real Food Daily and ate their homemade seitan, it was noticeably faaaaar better.

The process of making it made me feel like a real cook. Combine wet into dry, blah blah, but then... you put parchment paper in an 8x8 pan, you lightly oil the paper, put the seitan dough in it, cover that with tin foil, and THEN put that in a 9x12 pan that's filled 1/2 way with water, and bake the whole shebang for two hours! Then, you take it out, and that gooey dough turned in to something that very strongly resembled seitan brownies! Once cooled, it can be cut however you please.

But here's the magic part. I made the Salsbury Seitan, which I made before and wasn't too fond of.The marinade never soaked in with storebought seitan, it just sat on top in a paste (see my comments HERE), so I almost wrote it off as a bunk recipe. After eating it at RFD, though, I knew it wasn't them, it was me. So, I tried it again with the homemade seitan and voila! Super magic! The marinade was entirely absorbed, it was beyond delicious, it was moist, flavorful, non-gritty, and awesome. In fact, we ate hours ago, and the only thing keeping me from going in for more is that I'm in bed and I've flossed already. Also, the golden gravy from the RFD book is an absolute must with this. I could do shots of that stuff.

And, just because I was getting over a cold and had nothing better to do all day, I made baked potatoes too. The only way that I've ever known how to make these is to wrap them in tin foil and bake them (or the micro way which seriously creeps me out now). I looked up how long to leave my tin foil pressies in the oven, and found that other people oil the skin of the potato and salt it and then bake them. There was even a tirade about my treasured tin foil method online! So, I tried the oil/ salt method, and holy Pete! What a different beast! I still think that the tin foil method is great too, but this is good in its own right. They get amazingly fluffy inside, and the skin is crispy and salty goodness. So, I'm sure most of you know this, but this was what I did:

• Scrub baking potatoes
• Puncture them with a fork a few times
• Coat in oil lightly with a brush or your fingers
• Put in a metal baking pan, sprinkle with salt
• Bake for 30 minutes, turn
• Bake for 30 more, enjoy perfection

Anyway, five recipes later, we had a phenomenal dinner, and I cannot recommend the Real Food Daily cookbook more, particularly now that I've made this seitan! And now, I feel like I have to re-make all the seitan dishes that I heretofore thought were awesome just to have my mind blown out of my head from deliciousness overload.

Pasta e Fagioli with Spinach

2011-01-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

New Cookbook! I just got Appetite for Reduction, Isa Chandra Moskowitz's new book (awesome title and cover), which features low cal vegan recipes (it is the new year and time for that sort of thing- especially after the 3 dozen batch of sugar cookies that Davey and I ate in a week). This is the Pasta e Fagioli with Spinach on pg 185. We had never had pasta with beans, and both loved it. I thought that on the whole, the tomatoes made it a bit acidic and that it could have used some deeper tones. The spinach and beans were great in it though, maybe I'll add more beans next time to round it out a bit more. All in all, very good, though. Davey loved it and had seconds, which is always a good sign. Also, since it cooks up rather fast (about 30 minutes total), it may be a recipe that tastes better the next day after everything has steeped overnight. And, it's good to know that you're only eating 440 calories of pasta too!

RFD Veggie burgers

2011-01-02T20:45:00.000-08:00

Whew! So, these are the Veggie Burgers from the Real Food Daily book. I've never had the ones at the restaurant- but you sure must know how much I love mostly everything from there by now! I made beet burgers from scratch before that were so-so, and the Vegan with a Vengeance ones, which were good- but I was still on the hunt for the perfect recipe.

After making these, I kind of still am. It may just be the nature of the beast, but all of the ones that I've made had coagulation issues. I have to say, it was less of a problem with these, I think in most part because they have gluten flour in them- which does not have the word "glue" in it for nothing (okay, it doesn't, but it should be spelled that way). That stuff is crazy! Just 3/4 cup, and there was a stringyness to it that was unbelievable.

The great thing about these is that they have so many good ingredients in them; beets, tempeh, carrots, miso, mushroom, corn, peppers, etc. Which kind of makes them take a long, long time (as is standard with RFD recipes, but still) they seem to be a bit of a pain because of all of the steps. It is funny how much the pre-cooked finished recipe looks like ground beef to me!

The recipe said that it made 6 patties, I formed 12. They weren't the biggest, but since they're smaller, I think that they stay together a bit better. We froze 6 of them, so I'll report back to let you know if they re-cook well after having been frozen. All in all, they're about a 7 or 8 out of 10, but I think that the quest may still continue.

Lentil Shepard's Pie

2011-01-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that it took me this long to write about this one. It's been a staple for us for years- particularly at holidays. It's a very carnivore-friendly recipe. It's hearty and comfort-y (mashed potatoes!) I also add corn to the mix, which isn't in the recipe. It's from the Compassionate Cook (p.160). Seasoned brown lentils, mashed potatoes (with skins) and corn... you kinda can't go wrong.

J-R Chili

2010-12-27T19:04:00.000-08:00

This is today's version of the Julson-Rieley chili. The beans vary, the tvp is optional, sometimes there's fresh tomatoes, sometimes a ton more chili powder... but today's turned out pretty nicely, and we had all the ideal components on hand, so here's the recipe for youse...

1/2 onion, chopped
2 t veg oil
2 Roma Tomatoes, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and coined (if that's a word)
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 c. veg broth
1 can 16 oz tomato sauce
1 can 8 oz tomato paste
1 can garbanzo (or dried equivalent)
1 can dark kidney beans (or dried equivalent)
1/2 c TVP
3 bay leaves
1/2 t sage
1 t oregano
1 t thyme
1/2 t marjoram
4 T chili powder
1/2 t ground red pepper (or to taste- this gives it the kick)
3/4 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1 t cumin

Chop onions and sautee in oil until onions are soft, add carrots and cook until onions are translucent. Add garlic, broth and spices. Then add tomato, sauce and paste. After about 20 min, add bell peppers. After another 20 minutes, add TVP. Simmer over low low heat for at least an hour. Let stand a few minutes and serve with fresh crunchy bread, flour tortillas or if tortilla chips. This makes enough to serve 4-6.

Seitan Tacos

2010-12-26T21:13:00.000-08:00

So, these are familiar, they're from RFD's book (p.155), but are very similar to the East Sider Tacos that I've talked about from Flore. However, as much as I love Flore's East Sider's (and my knock offs), the Seitan Tacos at the RFD restaurant are probably the best tacos that I have ever had ever ever ever... ever. If you are in Los Angeles, you must go eat them now. If you aren't in Los Angeles, this and the ocean are why you need to come visit.

So, despite having perfected my version of the Flore tacos, I had to try making RFD's at home. I should start this with stating the fact that mine aren't the same, and i will never do this again. But, they were good. I did two alterations to their recipe, I used taco sauce in lieu of Ranchero and made Meet Market knock off Cashew Cheese instead of the Tofu Cheddar. I will post that Cashew Cheese recipe when I iron it out, it's still not perfect. But, this was all very tasty.

The issue was that it's fried. Which is messy. And greasy. The restaurant has a fryer and can flash fry it. They get to the perfect level of crispy awesomeness without being greasy. In a pan, it takes a good minute per side to turn a corn tortilla into a hard shell taco. Thats a ton of time for the oil to seep all in to the seitan (you have to put the filling in before frying to keep the shape). So, they get pretty greasy, but I really wanted to try making hard shells, and it worked. But, we've been going to they gym, and that kind of thing makes you think twice about eating this kind of thing. At least at the restaurant, with the grease being absent, I can delude myself into thinking that they're healthy!

Spinach Chickpea Curry

2010-12-26T20:12:00.000-08:00

This dish is the end of my awful streak of trying new Indian recipes and being disappointed, this one is really very good! It's the Spinach and Chickpea Curry from p170-171 of Vegan With a Vengeance. I still think that the French book and Beckham are best, but this is really delicious. It was relatively quick and easy except for the part when you have to wilt 10 cups of spinach handful by handful. It ended up being very flavorful and the spinach had a creamy texture (keep in mind that I haven't eaten dairy in a year and a half- it's creamy to a vegan!). We both liked it a lot and will add it to our recipe roster.

New Waffle Pan

2010-12-26T19:24:00.000-08:00

Yup, I said "pan", not "iron". I had wanted a waffle iron since we haven't had one for years. However, in our dinky, tiny galley kitchen, storage space is pretty much nil. The only thing we have less of than storage space is counter space. So, the idea of another appliance to store or find room for was too much for Davey to handle. He solved this by getting me a waffle pan from Sur La Table (HERE). I was skeptical because of the one sided nature of this waffle preparation method. After all, the whole schtick of a waffle is that it's being formed and cooked on both sides at once. But, this this is pretty amazing.

Since the recipe on the pan wasn't vegan (natch), I used the "Buckwheat Waffle" recipe on pg 93 of "Vegan Brunch"- only b/c I hadn't shopped to prepare for the xmas gift pan, I had no buckwheat flour. So they were "Plain Flour Waffles", I guess. Sill, it worked pretty great after getting the hang of it and flipping at the right time. I photo'd the uber waffle side, as the other side really just gets a square pattern on it, but whatevs. They're good, we get waffles and we can hang the pan from our ceiling pot rack instead of having to find room on the counter or in the cabinet for it.

Also- the best part is that Davey figured out that if you put a Morningstar Farms brekkie sausage in the middle- you have a sweet and savory (if a tad unnutritious) brekkie sammie!

Tofurkey Cookbook Mash-Up Pot Pie

2010-12-26T13:09:00.000-08:00

Our California Christmas dinners are becoming traditional (i.e. I did this year sort of what I did last year- but with some very important updates). For Christmas Eve, I make a Tofurkey (store bought). As good as the Tempeh Meat Loaf, Salsbury Seitan and other recent homemade discoveries are- we are conditioned as a family from years and years Tofurkeys- to want that for the holidays. So, the 24th was that.

Then the 25th, I make a pot pie with the left overs. Also, this year, on the 24th, I made "Golden Gravy" from pg 69 of the RFD book (I was never a gravy person- but this stuff is AMAZING!). So for the Christmas Day pot pie, we had the following mash-up of recipes and ingredients:

Crust: "Sister's Pie Crust" from the Compassionate Cook

Gravy: RFD's "Golden Gravy" (in lieu of the gravy in the Ellen pot pie recipe (HERE) They're pretty different. The Ellen gravy is just flour, broth, onions, garlic, salt and pepper. The Golden Gravy has all that except the broth and plus spices, tamari and nutritional yeast. So the RFD stuff has a bit more zing.

Protein: Instead of the Gardein that the recipe calls for, I used left over Tofurkey (cubed) and at Davey's suggestion, shoved the stuffing in too

So... in spite of being terribly nervous that I'd ruin Christmas, this was AMAZING! It has so much more flavor than the standard way of making it, which has always been really good- but a hint bland. In fact, the gravy got to be a tad too intense at times, but on the whole, it was really excellent. It was a jazzed up version of the normal pot pie which is really fitting for a holiday meal! Especially when followed by a SUGAR COOKIE or two!

Holiday Cookies!

2010-12-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

Whew! Davey and I had a bake-a-thon that went from Friday night through Saturday night. We were going to a Christmas party,and I wanted to bring some cookies. We also, being away from family this year, were looking for the traditional messy kitchen cookie decorating bonanza to get us into the holiday spirit. Because I tend to overdo things a tad... I picked out three recipes. I wanted to do more than one, and two varieties seems silly, so three seems to make sense. It was fun, but I was SO ready to get out of the kitchen by Saturday night. Also, in addition to all of the baking, I made tacos for lunch, Creamed Lentils for dinner and Tempeh Bacon Guac for the party. It was a ton of work, but I can't help but realize how amazingly lucky we are to have all of this delicious food around.

As for the cookies, two of the recipes are online and one is from Vegan With a Vengenance. That one is "Sparkled Ginger Cookies" (the brown ones w/ the colored sugar), p 192. These are delicious and perfect for this time of year. They're sweet and spicy, mildly crunchy but also chewy. They're spiced with ground clove, ground ginger and cinnamon- and coupled with the molasses, it makes for a hearty, spicy, comfort cookie that's great with a hot tea. The recipe calls for Turbinado sugar for the top, but we used colored because... then it's a party. Talking of party- these were very popular with many non-vegans (the true test of a good vegan cookie).

The sugar cookies were the most amazingly pleasant surprise. I just googled "vegan sugar cookies" and trolled around until I found something that looked appealing. These are SO good! They are exactly like the big, crazy neon colored varieties that you get at coffee shops and bakeries. The cookies alone sort of hold back some sweet to allow for the redonkulously sweet icing. As a combo, it's sugar for sure, but not too overpoweringly or sickeningly sweet as some of the iced cookies can be. We got our cookie cutters from Sur La Table and threw in a Triceratops for a new holiday tradition. These are also a huge hit with friends of all dietary persuasions. You can find the recipe HERE.

To save the most decadent for last- I present the vegan magic bar! These are insane. They taste exactly like my mom's dairy version, in fact, I think that they're far gooier. There was a guy at the party who came up to Davey, grasped his shoulder with a fiercely intense death grip and said, "These. Are. The. Best. Thing. EVER!" Of course, after being told that they were vegan and being shocked, he vowed to eat a few pieces of bacon to compensate, but still- it was a nice compliment. They would be easy to prepare too- if not for the vegan condesed milk that you have to make. It needs to reduce for about 30 minutes (my heat was too low in fear of burning it, so mine took about 45 minutes). Also, I think the graham/ margarine combo was too wet, I would increase grahams or decrease the margarine. It may have been that my milk was too hot and saturated the crust too much- but they ended up extremely moist and almost greasy on the bottom. I compensated by putting them on a bed of dry graham crumbs when it was all done, but I would tweak that in the future. But, on the whole, if you're looking for something that will make everyone's eyes roll into the back of their head- this is it. And, it's another awesome recipe from Ellen's chef Roberto that's on their site (love that- this is the man who gave us the Pot Pie and Tamale recipes!) The recipe is HERE.

Happy holidays!

RFD Nachos

2010-11-21T10:50:00.001-08:00

Oh. My. Gosh. Okay- if you're in Los Angeles, just go to Real Food Daily and order the nachos. They are beyond. The best mix of flavors that ever I have had in a nacho- and I consider myself a connoisseur. To make these at home is quite a lot of effort, but like all recipes from RFD's cookbook- it's well worth it.

There are five recipes within this recipe; The Cashew Cheese, the Black Beans, the Pico, the Guac and the Sour Cream. I mod'ed these out b/c I had made their burritos or something which required making the ranchero sauce and the spanish rice. So- these particular nachos have; The Spanish Rice, The Guac, plain Black Beans, Cashew Cheese and the Ranchero Sauce. Amazing!

I have to talk about this cheese too. I was addicted to Meet Market's cashew cheese, but the damn restaurant closed. Also, theirs is more of a spread that's the consistency of hummus or something. It was delicious and I'll still try to replicate it, but RFD's is in a universe of its own. For one, it melts. When you first make it, it's a sauce (see the pic). It has phenomenal flavor as well. But then the magic part happens after its cooked. Any cheese sauce that's left over can be poured into a tupperware and refrigerated. Hours later- you have a block of f-ing cheese that you can grate to put on top of tacos, burritos, etc. Can you even believe that? It's like some magic substance (real cheese). It blows soy and a certain name brand oil based faux cheese out of the water. It's the absolute best, and I shall never go back to any other cheese substitute. I cannot sing it's praises any more, it's the best!

Dooooouuuuugggghhhhnnnnuuuuutttttssss!

2010-11-21T09:56:00.000-08:00

So, these aren't the fried, greasy, artery clogging (delicious) doughnuts that we all know and love from grammas house, but these are delicious in their own right. For one, they have a bit more of a cake-y texture. They're sweet, but not overpoweringly so- excellent with coffee, and you can eat 3 or 4 and be all like, "wha? they're not fried or anything". I got the recipe from Vegan Yum Yum who went further than I have and made a chocolate glaze for the top as well.

The pan is from Sur La Table and is here. It's well worth the monies, even though it's such a specialty pan and I have a redonkulously tiny kitchen. I also gave some away as hostess gifts to family that I stayed with who have kids, and they were a hit. Who doesn't love doughnuts? Even knock-off healthy ones!

Basil Fried Rice

2010-11-21T09:47:00.000-08:00

As with most dishes that I "make up" myself, I'm generally trying to replicate something amazing that I've had at a restaurant. In this case, it's the Basil Fried Rice from Tamarind in Chicago. Tamarind is in the south loop on Wabash, convienently located across the street from my former office. I came no where near close to the deliciousness that was their dish, so this is in a constant state of tweaking. Still, since I"m 2,000 miles away from Tamarind, it'll have to do.

Peas ½ c
shredded carrot ¼- ½ c
basil 1 cup
rice 2 cup cold
onion 2 T
garlic 1-2 t
chilis 1-3 t
white pepper (1t or 1/2 t black)
peanut oil 2-4T for frying
2 t soy sauce
pinch sugar

Heat a wok till the surface is almost smoking. Then add the oil and spread it around till it coats the surface evenly.
Temporarily move the wok off the heat and the add the garlic and chillies, then stir for about 10 seconds. This is to prevent the garlic and chilli from burning. Then add the onion. Move the wok back to the high heat, add two pinches each of salt and pepper and toss around for another 30 seconds. Add carrots and peas.
Now add the rice to the pan, crumbling any big sticky blocks with your hands to ensure they're all separate.
Toss the rice and the veggies well and keep stirring for another minute or two so that the rice grains are properly coated with the oil. Then add the sugar, white pepper, and soy sauce. Stir the mixture around again for another minute. Then taste the rice to check saltiness.
Add the Basil. Stir the rice and basil mixture in the wok for another minute, then take it off the heat and serve. That's all there is to it.

NOTES
You need a large wok or pan for this.
Be sure to use cold rice.
If you add other veggies to the dish, make sure they get enough time to cook before adding the rice.

Salsbury Seitan

2010-10-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

Ah, a healthy vegan version of the classic Swanson tv dinner! This is from p188 of RFD's cookbook (aka my bible). The marinade/ sauce is good, although there's kind of an overpowering mustard flavor to it (I think I'll 1/2 it next time- that or maybe the tahini is giving it a bit of an almost pasty flavor. But, with a ton of the golden gravy (p68), some smashed taters and corn, it still is a delicious comfort food meal.

Cremed Lentils (or Lentilles á la créme)

2010-09-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

This is an awesome Indian dish with a great story. About 12 years ago, I bought a small pamphlet of a cookbook (softcover, only 64 pages) at 1/2 Price Books. It was an Indian cookbook that I got because I was trying out veganism (for the first time). Half of the book is meat, but the other half is amazing vegetable dishes like Piquant Chickpeas, Pakoras, etc. The hands down best of all the veg dishes that I tried from the book was a dish called, "Creamed Lentils". It calls for creme, which I skip- and it's still amazing. It's a relatively easy dish that has intense, amazing Indian flavors and is great with Naan or Poppadoms, or for a bigger dinner with the Bend it Like Beckham Gobi .

Anyway- I loved the dish and loved the book, but it was lost in a move. We were devastated. I had no idea what the ratios of spices and ingredients were, and since it was just a little wisp of a book, there was little chance of ever being able to find it by title on Amazon, Borders, whatever.

We came to terms with our loss and years later were in Paris. There's a huge bookshop that we had gone to whenever we were able to visit the city, and there it was- right there on the sidewalk sale table for 2 €- "Cuisine Indienne"- the exact same book! In French. So whatever, we bought it and have translated it and... here you are! And you didn't even have to go to France to get it (you're welcome).

1 cup red or yellow lentils
1 teaspoon salt
3 / 4 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon chili powder
3 cups water
1 onion, finely chopped
4 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 large tomato, very ripe and chopped égrainée
2 teaspoons garam masala
2 tablespoons minced cilantro or mint

1. Cook 20 minutes the lentils in water with salt, turmeric and pepper, until they are tender. drain.
2. Brown the onions. Book 1 tablespoon for garnish. Add garlic and ginger and cook briefly. Add tomatoes, cook until they are soft.
3. Combine lentils with the garam masala and half the chopped herbs. Stir and heat.
4. Pour into a dish, garnish with remaining herbs and garnish with the reserve onion.

Chiliquiles. Tastier than they look.

2010-09-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

This would be an instance of the photo really not doing the dish justice! This is a Rick Bayless recipe- mutilated into veganness (no cheese or meat). I did use refried beans in it as a protein (otherwise, you're really just eating saucy chips). It's an excellent recipe (no real surprise, the man makes amazing food). Spicy, saucy, flavorful- and the perfect way to get rid of multiple 1/2 bags of chips.

http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/view?recipeID=64

You can take the girl out of Milwaukee...

2010-09-24T16:40:00.000-07:00

... but you can't take the Burly Blend from the girl.

Okay, no cooking is involved with this, but I had to give a shout out to my favorite coffee. It's "George's Burly Blend" from Alterra Roasters in Milwaukee. I haven't lived in that city for over 7 years, and I still will only drink this (which involves stocking up on trips back and begging for bags from MKE visitors). It's a full, heavy bodied roast that is strong, but really low in acidity. I love it, and were I not married, I'd marry it.

Also, we got these sweet cups from there on our last trip with an off center home for the mug on the saucer. I just love Alterra so much.

BBQ Tempeh Sandwich

2010-09-24T16:31:00.000-07:00

This BBQ Tempeh Sandwich is from "The 30 Minute Vegan" (I was trying to counteract the longer RFD recipes). It took about an hour though, so... the title is a mite bunk.

Anyway, the home barbeque sauce was good, I doubled the liquid smoke called for because- 1/4 t, c'mon! That's loony. I also added 1T of Liquid Smoke to the marinade, which gave everything a better, more intense bbq flavoring. The buns were from Trader Joes and suited the sammy perfectly.

The recipe was great, the barbeque was very tangy (lots of extra sauce, too),a nd the recommended lettuce, tomato and red onion are necessary- don't skip them.

RFD Tempeh meat loaf (and golden gravy)

2010-09-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

Ah, comfort food. It's just so... well, comforting. Last week, before the current summer renaissance that's going on in L.A., temps had dipped to about 70 or so (I'm adapting to west coast weather- that signalled fall) and I decided to make some cozy food. This is from the amazing, fantastic, wonderful Real Food Daily cookbook- the loaf is p 177, the Golden Gravy is p 68.

This recipe is amazing. Like all RFD recipes, it took a good 2 hours to make, but it's so worth it. I highly recommend making the gravy with it as well, that recipe makes enough that you'd have some left for the salsbury seitan too. Potatoes are also a must as it's a good balance to the other flavors.

This is hearty, and has a rather complex- but really good flavor. It turns out that we also went to the RFD West Hollywood restaurant a week after I made this and Davey ordered their version. He preferred mine ;) Also, on the gravy, I used about 1/2 to 2/3 the amount of nutritional yeast, because I feel that that flavor is just too overpowering in most recipes. In the restaurant, where they use the recommended amount (I assume), you can really taste it far more than in mine. So, adjust to your preference, but to me- that ingredient is like cilantro- too much of a good thing wrecks the whole dish.

Bayless' guac

2010-07-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

The non-veganized recipe is here

This unique guac is from chef Rick Bayless of Chicago's Frontera Grill, which, having lived in Chicago, I know to be amazing. My husband saw him on GMA and sent me the link, so I veganized it with tempeh bacon and made it the other night.

Holy. Phenomenal. Guac is pretty much always good anyway, but the Chipotle chilis and tempeh bacon really add another dimension to it. Mr. Bayless also advises to rinse off onions, which I think is a great technique that keeps the onion from overpowering the dish (maybe everyone knows about this, but it's the first time that I've seen it in a recipe).

The tempeh needs to be marinaded for at least 4 hours before frying it up in a pan for this dish. That sounds like a hassle, but on a afternoon that you'll be home anyway, it's totally easy peasy. I printed the tempeh marinade recipe before, but to save you from digging, here it is...

I use an 8 x 8 baking pan and whisk ingredients

4 T Tamari
1/2 c water
1 T Agave Nectar
a pinch- 1/8 t garlic powder
1 T Liquid Smoke

Mix all 5 ingredients in pan. Slice tempeh about 1/8" thick lengthwise, coat each slice in marinade, and leave for 2 hours. After 2 hours, turn to coat other side of slices.

Spring Rolls!

2010-06-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

These are the spring rolls from RFD's cookbook. First thing's first- make these when you're having company over, not when you're solo for dinner like I was tonight. It's way too much prep and chopping and according to the book, they won't keep if you pre-make them (longer than 8 hours).

This was my first foray into spring rolls and I now wonder why I've ever paid for such a thing. They are ridiculously easy (aside from all of the time spent chopping). I used to get some in Chicago that had bits of tofu in them, I'd like to replicate that (these are veg-only), but these were pretty good. I wonder if bean sprouts wouldn't hurt either, I seem to remember those being in my favorite spring rolls.

But whatevs, I'll totally make these the next time that we entertain. I could see them being impressive despite the lack of hard work involved :)

Sweet and Sour Tempeh

2010-06-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

This is from the RFD book. The tempeh treatment is amazing. I halved the marinade time after the yin yang tofu incident last week- that worked amazing! then it's broiled- I could've just ate the broiled tempeh plain for dinner, it was that good.

I was excited to make this because of the variety of veg in it; bell peps, cabbage, carrots, corn, onion, etc. All of which are great together and the directions on cooking create a well blended mix of flavors that's not too mushy.

The bulk of the cooking time was spent marinading and chopping, so it wasn't too horribly labor intensive. I halved it and still had enough for at least 4 meals- none of which are for the faint of heart. There's crushed red pepper sauteed into it- and holy-burn-your-soul- it is HOT! Almost to my limit of edible-ility. We'll see if I can handle it tomorrow.

So, in the future, I'd half (or quarter) the crushed red pepper and proceed with the halved recipe. It's really very delicious.

Black Bean Tostadas

2010-06-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

This is from Real Food Daily p. 165 + 135 (and could be potentially from p 70 and 64... geez!) Only this book could turn tostadas into a 4 recipe affair. Again- it's time consuming b/c it's good, but even I don't have that much time on my hands.

The Spanish rice for this is really good, but again- makes a vat for an army. Next time, even though it would involve halving a carrot and a few bell peppers, I'm halving it. If I even make it again, it was good, but not amazing good. I think that the other flavors in the tostada just don't balance it enough. It's really pretty sweet from all of the tomatoes, so I feel like it needs some spicy seitan or something instead of black beans.

Also, I didn't make the tofu sour cream (I had tofutti in the fridge, but forgot to add it), or the Pico de Gallo because I had already been cooking for hours and was tired of chopping. Also, the rice has enough tomato flavor, the dish didn't really need more.

It was cool to make my own tostada shell by baking a corn tortilla though. I'm sure it's Mexican cooking 101, but I've always bought the crispy shells vs making them (duy).

I am happy, with how high this was piled, that Davey worked late tonight since I ended the meal with as much tostada fixings or more on the plate and my lap as were on the damn thing when I started.

All in all- it's so-so. That seems to be my pattern with this book so far. Over the top amazing or ... eh, s'alright. Maybe the over the top ones just set the bar too high (?)

Tortilla Soup

2010-06-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

This is from Real Food Daily's cookbook p 90/ 106 (what can I say, I'm excited at the new prospects in this book!). I should preface my opinion of this with a disclaimer. I have never tried tortilla soup before today.

The story in the book on this one is that there was some trash talking in the kitchens at RFD about whose family makes the best tortilla soup. They decided to have a smack down, and the published recipe is the winner.

Holy tortilla- it's f-ing amazing! It took quite awhile to make even though the book puts it at about 45 min, I spent about double that. But, I was on the phone, so I was probably being kinda pokey. It is an amazing array of flavors, and I think because I mistakenly bought a serrano vs a jalapeno- it is really crazy hot. But it's hot in an "I want to conquer this" way, instead of a "f-that, my teeth are burning" way.

I did half the recipe because this book seems to be under the impression that I'm cooking for 10 instead of 2. Halving it still would make about 4 decent sized bowls, which is all we need.

Also, the garnish is (another recipe) is AMAZING! All it is is sliced corn tortillas coated in oil with chili powder, sweetener and salt on it baked to crispiness, but my gosh, it's good. I had to make a second batch because I snacked my first garnish batch away while cooking (hey, I skipped lunch).

A+ #1 Awesome soup- this is worth getting the book for alone.

Ying (sic) Yang Salad with Peanut Sesame Dressing

2010-06-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

This is the Ying (sic) Yang Salad and Peanut-Sesame dressing from Real Food Daily's cookbook (see Enchiladas). This is where I found out how vast the difference between a food processor and a blender really is. I have a blender. I needed a food processor. A peanut butter based dressing in a relatively cheap blender is not a good combo at all. Still, it was fine. Probably not at all what it should've been, but fine.

This is typical of the recipes in the book where when you set out to make one thing, you need to actually make 3 things (for this one it was; the dressing, marinated ginger tofu, and the salad itself. The salad has amazing fresh ingredients that are primarily things that we don't eat regularly (daikon radish, red cabbage, etc). The tofu was way too salty for my taste. The peanut dressing balanced it a tad, but not enough to make a day long tofu-making process worth it (there's a 2 hour long draining of the tofu, plus a 4 hour marinade).

I would try it again, but would skip the uber tofu and just add some tj's stuff or something marinaded for less time (?). Also, I'm going to be needing a food processor before attempting the dressing again since a moratorium has been effected which prevents me from putting peanut butter in the blender ever again (Davey got stuck with the dishes and said that was a huge pain). Sorry, honey!

Enchiladas Verde (that's Spanish for "awesome")

2010-06-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hey, guess what? I got a new cookbook! It is: The Real Food Daily Cookbook by Ann Gentry. Real Food Daily is an L.A. restaurant chain that is vegetarian and organic. Disclaimer- I've never been there (to any of the locations). I've read good and bad reviews and live no where near any of them, so I just have never bothered. But the cookbook is beautifully designed, full color (unlike most of my books- not that I have anything against low and minimal budget printing, it's the content that counts). But this one is damn pretty. What really caught my eye with it though was the seasonal sections in the back. The chef lists recipes by seasonal ingredients after the usual sections (soups, salads, entrees, etc).

One thing that I noticed when I got it home and really delved into it, was that the recipes that are most interesting to me are rather complex. there's a lot of listing of ingredients and then buried in the list will be "x sauce (see page blah blah)". Meaning that you have to make things to have the ingredients to make things. Which undoubtedly makes them better, but also takes up some serious time.

But anything worth doing is worth doing well, right? So this is the Enchiladas Verde (more or less) from page 152. I say more or less b/c I cheaped out on making my own Seitan and just bought some. I'm ambitious, but I have limits.

I did make the Salsa verde, which was my first foray into tomatillos. They're kinda creepy as I found a large dried up spider in one (in between the husk and the fruit). Anway, the salsa is an excellent recipe in itself. I did hit on a happy accident with this too. I made the salsa and had a minor catastrophe last night (almost lost my engagement ring while making it- we found it after 2 hours of looking. It was in the onion drawer). Anyway, I didn't feel like finishing up enchiladas, so I stuck the salsa in the fridge. It turns out that having it steep overnight is really good for the flavor.

Today, I made the enchilada part with store bought seitan (oh, whatever, it's good). The recipe is delicious! Davey thinks it's the best green salsa that he's ever had. It has great flavor, and after the addition of the second chili in the enchilada sauce, a nice simmery spice to it. the seitan takes on a very faux chicken feel, and the whole combo of flavors is really over the moon.

I also got ingredients for a nice peanut noodle salad that I'll be trying. I'm hoping that all of the recipes from the book are as out of the park as this one. And, I have to get around to trying out the restaurant as well!

Bruscetta

2010-06-20T19:58:00.001-07:00

This is easy peasy do-it-in-your-sleep easy, but I took a nice photo of it so I thought I'd share.

1 baguette
3 firm tomatoes, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c basil chopped
Olive oil (about 4 T)

Preheat oven to 350. Combine tomatoes, garlic and basil in a bowl and set aside. Slice baguette into 1/5 ths, and then slice each piece lengthwise. Set out inside-side-up on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil. Bake 10 minutes or until crusty. Divide tomato mixture onto tops and serve immediately.

Tyler and Phoebe's Perfect Pesto Sauce

2010-06-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

The name don't lie. This is page 177 from La Dolce Vegan. I've made it plenty of times, and there was always something off about it. I toasted the pine nuts because the recipe says "toasted pine nuts". We have a basil plant that I harvest every so often for this recipe, and then I'd make it and we'd be like, eh- not so good. S'alright- but not good. The pine nut taste was way too pungent.

File that under "taking things far too literally". The f-ing pine nuts say "toasted" on the bag. So, this time, I just used the 1/4 cup of them plain- untoasted, and abra cadabra shezam- perfect pesto. Duy.

So, yeah, don't toast your toasted pine nuts.

Tamales!

2010-06-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

Wow. I thought that Indian food was a time investment. I had always heard how Tamales are a huge ordeal, but really, including cooking time- it was over FOUR hours! Three for cooking and clean up. It's nothing that I would do on a regular basis, but a few times a year- for how good these are- would totally be worth it. These are DELICIOUS! The Masa is a hint greasy, but it's so flavorful. The filling that I made with corn was great because it was so sweet and when balanced with the spice of the peppers... I may have ate 6 of them (I skipped lunch and they were small- don't judge) This is another case of the photos not doing the food justice- Davey had the good camera at work, and by the time I finished, there was pretty much no light left in the day!

This was another Ellen recipe, so the recipe is HERE

I ended up varying from the recipe a tad. Here's what I did:

Filling:
1 pan of Gardein faux chicken cut into strips with some of the chili sauce mixed in
1 pan of; 2 cobs of fresh corn, 1/2 small fresh green chili, 2 green bell peppers- all cooked in a skillet and then mixed with some of the chili sauce.

Husks:
I only used 1 bag and had more than enough (the recipe calls for 2)

Masa:
I made double the masa that the recipe calls for- this is b/c I used up all of the masa and had tons of husks and filling left. It was no biggie to make more, but in the future, I'd double it to start with, so everything goes more smoothly

Chili Sauce:
I goofed on this- I bought 1/3 of the dried Anchos that the recipe calls for and was too lazy to go back to the store. I should've thirded the recipe to keep it all in proportion, but felt chaotic at the start of making everything and didn't. Next time, I'll intentionally 1/3 the whole recipe b/c this makes a LITER of sauce, and after mixing some in "just to coat" the fillings, there was still 750ml left! Way more than you need even if you use it for serving. Also, my lack of peppers made it far less intensely flavored than it should've been, but it was still really good!

I used a small veg basket steamer. Standing them all up was a bit challenging, but worked fine. 31 fit in a sauce pot. Making these is so time consuming that you have to be in to it. You have to relax and be zen and get kinda meditative with it or you'll just be angry that it's taking so long! It's such a great pay off though, totally worth the ordeal.

Falafel Sammie

2010-05-29T11:38:00.000-07:00

This is a sammie made using the falafel recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance p98-99. This is when I learned that a blender is really no substitute for a food processor. So, take my adventures with a grain of salt. If you have a food processor, this is probably totally different (by different, I mean better).

I tried to blend the chickpeas and ingredients- all of which are pretty dry. So, I got a paste on the bottom of the blender and untouched stuff on top. After trying to stir, blend, stir to get the right consistency, I gave up and threw it all in the kitchenaid stand mixer which probably got it close to the right consistency.

Other than that, it went well. A bit greasy because it's falafel and it's fried, but they held together well and were really very flavorful. To make the sammy, I used Trader Joe's Mediterranean Hummus, pita bread, shredded lettuce, diced tomato and really thinly sliced red onion. It was really good, but I shall never again attempt it without a food processor.