Bok Choy Bohemia | A Vegetarian Blog

Beer Brats and Garlic-Stuffed Potatoes

2008-11-19T05:18:00.000-05:00

The recipe for the brats came from Yellow Rose Recipes, and the idea to top them with onions and peppers is from B36 Kitchen. The sausages were o.k....I’ve made and eaten better. To be honest these were rather bready and bland, things I should have thought of during the mixing process because I could have fixed them then. It probably didn’t help matters that we ate them on these rocking sprouted buns that were great...but almost un-distinguishable from the “sausage” in terms of texture and weight.

The peppers and onions on the other hand were a definite score. I cooked these up in olive oil, garlic salt, and thyme. (the crumbled herb version not the powder – we have both) and I could’ve eaten them alone…seriously…who needs the brat?

The potatoes were actually a recipe from a friend. We went to her place for dinner one evening, and when we arrived she had cut slits into potatoes and was stuffing them with sliced garlic, who would’ve thunk? After being stuffed with the garlic, the potatoes are drizzled with canola oil and receive generous grinds of salt and pepper. I’d never seen this done before, and I thought it was ingenious.

These are baked in the oven for an hour at 375F and are best served with some sort of dressing. If you’re using Yukon Golds or a similarly skinned potato, feel free to leave them unpeeled. The Maine baking potatoes I had on hand are a bit too thick-skinned for that. In our household we like “green dressing” which is an emulsion of herbs, oils and braggs…but the exact recipe is secret and not mine to divulge. I’d be willing to bet that a Ceaser or mustard vinaigrette would be delicious as well.

The beer brats could use some work, and since I’ve made better sausages in the past, I think I’ll stick with those. I will make onions and peppers to top sandwiches again...or maybe just to snack on as is. And the potatoes? Always a mainstay around these parts.

Selah.

BBQ stir fry

2008-11-17T20:41:00.005-05:00

Frankly I don't remember what went into this. If you see it...it's there. The pale yellow stuff is chili oil packed bamboo and I know I served it over soba noodles.

I started things off with some preserved garlic and ginger in peanut oil, and added shoyu, mirin, and roasted red chili paste and honey barbecue sauce to the vegetables.
It was a weird combination (to my memory, it included mushrooms, corn, peas, garlic, ginger, bamboo, black olives, fake hot dog and green onions) and somehow it was REALLY good...I think I can blame that on the bbq sauce.
Selah.

Burekas and Shitake Consumme

2008-11-14T05:20:00.000-05:00

I’ve wanted to try out home made burekas for a couple years now, since among other things, they aren’t available in the freezer section of my local market like in Israel. I’m pretty sure the standard bureka just has a layer of mashed potatoes between puffed pastry, but these were a bit more “unique”, and really VERY good. The potatoes were jazzed up with fresh parsley and turmeric. In following the recipe I added a couple eggs and butter, but I’m sure they would fair fine without.

The recipe came from Joan Nathan’s “Foods of Israel Today” a cookbook I’ve owned longer than I’ve been cooking, but have made very little from. I set these up with a really simple dipping sauce of sliced baby bellas, jarred tomato sauce and red chili flakes. They were an odd shape, but that’s because I followed the recipe directions. In the future I think I can make them into the more traditional triangles, and while this recipe is good, I’m thinking the more traditional flavor might also be nice from time to time. I need to limit myself though…puffed pastry is like eating pure butter…or so it tastes.

The other half of this meal was a shitake “consumme” lifted from Vegetarian Planet. Apparently a consumme involves simmering a whole bunch of vegetables for a long period of time (in this case an hour…that’s long for me) and then discarding all the vegetables and adding a couple flavors to the broth that remains. I’m not into trashing a pot full of perfectly good produce though, so this strays a bit from that idea.

The recipe called for transparent bean thread noodles, which I may have been able to find…but I had no issues using Asian rice noodles that I already had on hand. Once the broth was done simmering, I strained out the liquid and seasoned it along with the noodles. Each bowl got a couple ladle-fulls of the broth-noodle mixture, and a scoop of the reserved vegetables on top. This wasn’t groundbreaking in any way, but it was definitely good with all the vegetables in the mix. I have no idea why you’d just want to throw it all out and eat plain broth…

Selah.

Jamaican Mix-Up Rice

2008-11-13T07:51:00.000-05:00

If Jamaicans had their own version of fried rice…this would be it. And I don’t want to sway in my allegiance to greasy brown rice and undistinguishable veggies in a cardboard carton, but this was damn good. The recipe also made a TON, so I’m sure I’ll be eating it for the next three days.

The recipe came from Vegetarian Planet, and allowed for a bit of wiggle room. I decided to use carnival as the requested squash (the recipe called for pumpkin or butternut) and collards as the green. This also called for allspice, but since I only have whole allspice and I don’t have a spice grinder (or mortar and pestle for that matter) I decided to replace it with cloves and jerk seasoning. I’m not entirely sure why I picked up cloves from the spice rack, but I can tell you that I just figured jerk seasoning belonged in a Jamaican dish.

The jalapeno was optional in the recipe, but I’ve made my feelings on spice pretty clear….a whole pepper, seeds intact, joined the mix. I have to admit the best part of this was essentially the garnish. I fried up some sliced banana in oil and set that atop each serving. It added a sweet, uniquely textured element not otherwise present in the dish…I only wish I’d made more than two bananas worth, since I’ll have to make a new batch to adorn the leftovers.

I made more of the black bean burgers from V’con today too…as expected, they went great with the sundried tomato dip. They’ve had their photo ops though…so I didn’t bother.

Selah.

Pasta Fazool and Sundried Tomato Spread

2008-11-12T05:22:00.000-05:00

I got these awesome looking Rosemary Spelt crackers, so of course I needed to make something just as exciting to slather them with. We scored a HUGE bag of sundried tomatoes last week, so the sundried tomato spread from V’con was looking pretty good. The only problem was that I didn’t have any almonds…I need to stock my pantry with nuts in general…the fats are really good for my complexion...or so I’m told.

That’s not just the lighting…this dip was very orange, and I couldn’t tell you why for the life of me.

I used “small white beans” whatever those are (I’m thinking they’re Great Northern in disguise) and ended up adding about half a cup of the liquid in which the tomatoes were re-hydrated. This is SO FRIGGIN GOOD. It’s a lot like a thicker, spreadable version of tomato sauce, which is cool with me. I feel like the almonds would add a smoky element this doesn’t have, but it’s more than edible without, and I could always add a bit of liquid smoke. I plan on spreading it on a roll nestled around one of V’con’s black bean burgers tomorrow…mmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it. As an added bonus, this stuff is practically fat free while tasting rich beyond all belief.

It was also time to try out the Pasta E Faglioli in V’con…which is apparently called Pasta Fazool in the real world…don’t ask me how they got to that. I didn’t realize just how simple this was until I finished making it, but I certainly can’t complain. While it was quite good, my other half said a green addition wouldn’t have hurt (some baby spinach perhaps?) and I was pining for a bit of spice…probably in the form of some dried chili flakes.

I used the same beans as were in the tomato spread, and I’d stick with my choice there. I’d definitely make this recipe again, but I’ll be jazzing it up a bit with some extra veggies and a spicy kick in the future.
Selah.

Tempeh and Onions

2008-11-10T21:01:00.002-05:00

This was a simple dish made to round out a meal of leftovers. I also made a pretty sweet salad combining the spicy citrus vinaigrette from V'con with half a papaya that met its fate on the mandolin. Sadly the salad never got as far as pictures, but it looked pretty average anyway, nothing telling of the exotic flavor.

I bought a block of "garden veggie" tempeh tonight, and although I could see tiny specks of vegetable in it, it tasted exactly the same as every other tempeh I've ever had. I coated a large skillet with olive oil, and added about two cloves minced garlic, along with the block of tempeh, cut into small cubes. Once the tempeh had cooked and was starting to brown on all sides, I added a whole onion; sliced, and decent servings of Spike (seasoning), white pepper, and Bac-Uns. Once the onion became translucent, about 5 baby bella mushrooms; sliced, joined the party. This took about ten more minutes for all the flavors to meld together, and was then served up.

I've really been surprised by how much tempeh is growing on me lately. I'm still a little hesitant of recipes calling for large pieces, like tempeh "ribs", since it's easier to cook out (or hide) the bitterness when it's chopped, crumbled, or mashed (as in the spicy tempeh rolls from V'con). This particular method is really good, simple, and filling, not to mention fast. I'm glad I have such a simple tempeh mainstay in my repertoire, the stuff really is great for you...

Selah.

Fondue Lo Mein

2008-11-10T07:53:00.000-05:00

The basic idea for this dish was: “dump everything left in the fridge into the fondue pot and see what happens”, and that was what I did. The one glaring mistake I made was in not re-hydrating the oyster mushrooms and dried lily buds ahead of time. I figured since they normally re-hydrate in boiling water, throwing them right in the pot would work out great…and it would’ve. The oyster mushrooms were fine, although a bit chewier than I like…the lily buds had a lightly bitter after taste, which I think I could have avoided by re-hydrating and draining them ahead of time.

Because there were so many ingredients in the pot, this ended up being closer to a lo mein in terms of consistency, which was fine with me, I’m always up for an Asian noodle dish.

Ingredients

1 pkg. Chinese style lo mein noodles

3 cups vegetable broth

1 tbsp. fresh minced ginger

1 tbsp. minced garlic

Dash five spice powder

1 crown broccoli, roughly sliced

1 onion, sliced

3 scallions; sliced

½ cup bamboo shoots in chili oil (my favorite food)

½ cup dried oyster mushrooms

½ cup dried lily buds.

¼ cup mirin

2 tbsp peanut oil

Directions

1. While this could just as easily be made in a saucepan, I used a fondue pot, and kept it at “6” throughout the cooking process.
2. While I didn’t do it, I’d definitely suggest boiling water and re-hydrating the oyster mushrooms and lily buds separately. The lily in particular can be quite bitter otherwise.
3. Heat the peanut oil in the fondue (or stock) pot, add ginger, garlic, and onion, cook until onions are translucent.
4. Add broth and mirin, once it comes to a boil, all the other ingredients can go in. Cook for 5-10 minutes and serve.

Overall this was a really good dish with spot on flavors…and in the future I’ll know to prepare the lily in particular separately. Who knows? It could say that on the bag…I just need to learn Chinese. Simple….

Selah.

Veggies and Stuffing

2008-11-06T17:30:00.001-05:00

We’re coming up on Thanksgiving, and even though thanks to my work schedule I’ll be spending the holiday alone, I’ve been feeling the need to make thanksgiving food anyway. Today’s dinner really consisted of a couple sides…some simple veggies, and a vegan stuffing.

The veggie side started off with some quickly blanched green beans. The beans were then drained, and quickly sautéed with olive oil, minced garlic, baby bella mushrooms, frozen peas and corn. They got generous grinds of salt and pepper before finishing.

This was (very) simple and good. Add red bell pepper, onions, perhaps a zucchini, and you’ll have a much heartier medley.

The stuffing was even easier, since I’ve made big fancy stuffings before, which were good…but I wasn’t feeling that motivated today.

This started with 6 cups of vegetable stock. The stock was put on the boil, and in the meantime I added 6 baby carrots; minced, half an onion, minced, a couple stalks of minced celery, a bay leaf, oregano, sage, cumin, salt, and pepper.

While the liquid was coming to a boil, I cubed a loaf of Italian bread. The bread went into a large casserole dish, and once the stock came to a boil, it was poured on top and the bay leaf was removed. I made sure all the bread was coated, and then baked in the oven for 30 minutes at 375F. This was very moist and loose when it came out of the oven, but I’m hoping with some fridge time it’ll firm up a bit. Even if it doesn’t, it still tastes REALLY good.

Selah.

Lobster Mushroom Bisque and Morell Mushroom Ravioli

2008-11-05T13:06:00.003-05:00

Tonight's dinner looked really fancy...and it tasted ok.

I started things off with the lobster mushroom bisque made by What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway a couple weeks ago. I replaced the cognac with white wine simply because I didn't have it, and last time I bought cognac for a dish, the remaining half bottle sat in my fridge door for a YEAR. Perhaps that was the element that truly pushed this dish over the edge, I don't know. I thought it was ok...nothing to write home about.

For the meal entree, I decided to make some fresh ravioli using the dried morel mushrooms I'd picked up a couple weeks ago. Once reconstituted, I chopped the mushrooms, and mixed them into the tofu ricotta from V'con with some cracked pepper and salt added. I made the pasta dough from the recipe on the back of the semolina flour bag.

These might have been ok, except that I made them WAY too thick. This dough would've been thick for perrogies, never mind ravioli. I'm still getting the hang of making fresh pasta, and I'm currently at the "thicker it is, less likely it will break stage", which while safe in terms of form, is apparently also very detrimental to the enjoyment of ravioli. The filling in these was ok, although it was nothing special either, again, I think I would have enjoyed it more if not encased in all that dough.

Selah.

Leek-Bean Cassoulet

2008-11-04T05:18:00.001-05:00

OH. MY. COMFORT FOOD. This was SOOOO good. I’ve been wanting to make this dish since I got Veganomicon, but didn’t have vegetable shortening (or any other kind) until now, so I had to hold off. I finally got the shortening last week, and made the dish last night.

The only change I made to the recipe was adding a dash of Hungarian paprika to the stew, other than that I kept everything according to recipe. I made this a true one pot meal, using the pot in which the potatoes were boiled for all the ingredients, simply adding them to the drained potatoes. The stew component was rich and creamy, and the biscuits were soft and flaky, all of which adds up to a great, belly-warming, winter months dish. While the stew tasted really rich, there is absolutely no fat in it, it’s just the shortening in the biscuits you need to look out for…but what’s a biscuit from time to time…I could do worse damage….and I went for a run yesterday, so it’s fair.

Selah.

Garlic Bread and Stuffed Shells

2008-11-03T07:55:00.000-05:00

My freshman year of college, I was very into the “dinners” you could order from every run of the mill pizza place. For about 8 bucks, you could score a huge serving of pasta (at the time baked ziti was my poison of choice), a side salad, and a chunk of garlic bread. Tonight we did the same sort of thing, but classed up because…uh…I cooked it.

There was a day old baguette on the bread cart when we went shopping today, and it was just begging to be made into garlic bread, so it met its fate just like that.

To make: Mix together some soft EB, minced garlic, and oregano. Coat the sliced bread in the EB mixture, and then sprinkle dried basil on top. Bake for ten minutes at 375F or whatever you have the oven set at for the rest of the meal.

For the pasta component, I went with stuffed shells, since I bought the pasta awhile ago, and I’ve been meaning to stuff them FOREVER. I made the cashew ricotta from V’con for the filling, and jazzed it up a bit with some julienned fresh basil.

The red sauce was made up of stewed tomatoes, sherry, dried basil, oregano, garlic salt, and dried chili flakes. YUM. The sauce coated the bottom of a casserole dish, the shells went down over that, and another layer of sauce went on top. This baked at 375F for twenty minutes, sharing the last ten of those (minutes) with the garlic bread. It was almost creepy how much like real ricotta this tasted…or maybe I’m just getting used to it, now that I’ve made it a couple times and haven’t had actual ricotta in awhile.

The salad didn’t get a picture, but it was pretty standard as salads go…I’m sure you can imagine it.

Selah.

Vegetarian Sweet and Sour Pork

2008-11-02T16:46:00.002-05:00

Why on earth would I buy something called "Sweet and Sour Vegetarian Pork" that comes in a can? Well, why not...try everything once. This sat in the pantry for a couple weeks, since frankly, I was scared of it. No need...it wasn't bad.

Will I buy sweet and sour pork in a can again? Probably not. But it was totally edible combined in a skillet with a broccoli crown, a whole onion sliced, and a heaping tablespoon of Thai Kitchen Roasted red chili paste. We served this up over whole wheat pasta and hit the top with some Gomasio seasoning.
Selah.

lychee seitan and a sugar snap stir-fry

2008-10-30T13:03:00.003-04:00

I remember when I was a kid, there was this fairly classy chinese sit down restaurant my family would go to from time to time. We always got the moo shoo pancakes (which I've already done a veggie version of) and another dish we often ordered was the lychee chicken. I actually haven't had lychee chicken in years...the last time we went to that restaurant I was barely in middle school, and your average take-out menu doesn't have any lychee dishes on it, not to mention the fact they'd have to do a lychee tofu for me to order it...

The time had come:

The lychee chicken I remember had an orangey sauce on it, and I wasn't able to re-create that color, but from what I remember, the flavor here was spot on, so I'm rather proud.

Ingredients
About 2 cups simple seitan, cut into chunks
Corn Starch
2 tbs. brown sugar
15 ounce can lychees (you need canned, in juice, for this)
4-5 dried red chilis
1/2 cup pulp free OJ
2 tbs. minced ginger
generous squirt hot chili sauce
Peanut Oil

Directions
1. Coat the bottom of a large skillet with peanut oil, and heat over med-high. In a small pot, combine the liquid from the can of lychee, the OJ, brown sugar, chilis, ginger, and chili sauce. Bring to a boil.
2. Toss the seitan chunks in corn starch to coat, and then add to the skillet. You want to keep an eye on these, tossing every so often to make sure they crisp up on all sides.
3. Once the sauce ingredients hit a boil, lower to simmer, and add a cornstarch slurry. Start with about a tablespoon's worth and add more as deemed necessary. Allow to thicken for about ten minutes.
4. Once the seitan is crisped on all sides, pour the sauce and the lychees in with it. Mix everything together and allow to simmer for another ten minutes or so before serving.

I backed this up with a very simple stir fry of celery and sugar snap peas. I started them off in some peanut oil with minced ginger and scallions, and seasoned with some cracked white pepper and gomasio...which if you haven't come across it, is essentially sesame seeds and salt.

The entire time I was eating this meal I wanted it to come out of a card board carton...now I'm wondering where I can buy those, I'm sure they're available somewhere, and it would be so much fun to eat home made take out from cardboard with chopsticks....

Selah.

Syrian Tomato Salad and Tuscan Zucchini Pie

2008-10-29T13:36:00.003-04:00

I was feeling pretty global last night, so I decided to pull out Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian and see what she had to say that worked with my fridge contents.

Her first offering was a Tuscan Zucchini pie, that looked an awful lot like a quiche without the crust. I replaced the egg in the "batter" with silken tofu, and soy milk takes the place of the lactose version quite nicely.Unfortunately, there's not much more I can say about this. It's pretty bland and boring, and will be forgotten as soon as the leftovers are gone. Thankfully I made an arugula pesto (not pictured) to coat the top of this, and that helped things along, but it's still nothing to write home about.

I also whipped together what she calls a "Syrian Tomato Salad". As far as I'm concerned it was an Israeli salad without the cucumber, but to each their own.

Whatever it was, it was good.

Selah.

Savory Kugel and Neatloaf

2008-10-28T05:15:00.002-04:00

Tonight’s meal was pretty rustic and comfort food-esque, without a lot of fat. Sadly my kugel is not vegan, due to the egg noodles and the two eggs I used to bind everything together. I’m not sure what would take the place of the eggs here, since Ener-G is more of a rising than a binding product. I made this up as I went along, but it came out well so I’ll share, and if you’ve got ideas about how to replace the egg and still have everything mold together…please let me know.

Ingredients

1 lg. onion, halved and sliced into strips

1 cup frozen corn

Half cup cherry tomatoes, halved

2 stalks celery, thinly sliced

Half cup buttom mushrooms, sliced

1 lg. bag wide egg noodles

2 eggs, beaten

2 tbs. dried basil

Half cup dry white wine

Liberal sprinkling bac-uns

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

Sweet Paprika

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Boil water for the noodles. Meanwhile, heat a skillet over med. heat and add enough olive oil to coat.

2. Add onion and celery to the skillet, stirring until “just” translucent. Add all the other ingredients EXCEPT eggs, paprika (and noodles) and cook until corn is bright yellow, no longer, since these will finish in the oven.
3. Once they’ve cooked to al dente, drain the noodles. Mix in the vegetable mixture, along with the eggs.
4. Coat a large casserole dish with PAM (or equivalent) and pour in the noodle mixture. Sprinkle the top with Paprika, and bake for 30 minutes.
5. Once this is out, it’ll need to cool for awhile in order to retain its shape well, if you don’t mind eating a more “free form” kugel, feel free to dig in right away.

The “neatloaf” is another “Vegetarian Times Cookbook” recipe, and it is vegan. The recipe listed eggs, but had them down as optional, and although I was worried about what would keep the loaf together, I decided to go ahead and attempt it without.

While this tasted good, it did have some intrinsic (and not totally unexpected) issues. As expected, it didn’t hold together very well. The outside got a bit brown and crisped which helped it to maintain it’s shape, but once I attempted relocation to my plate, the soft, loose insides completely fell apart, creating more of a ground beef style dish. I was also looking for a tomato-ey presence (read; ketchup) that I should have added on my own, but I was too concentrated on following the recipe. While its been awhile since I’ve had either, the mild flavor and light color of this reminded me more of my mother’s fish loaf then a meatloaf dish. If I were to do this again, I think I’d extend the cooking time to solidify the insides more, and probably add ketchup and liquid smoke, if not a straight-up steak sauce to make the dish more “meaty”. I was also thinking about sautéing the veggies with some red wine to deepen the richness of the dish, and while I decided against, I think it merits experimentation in the future. For what it was, this was good, and I’ll have no problem finishing off the leftovers…but for what was touted as an American Favorite look-alike….it needs some work.

Selah.

Mediterranean Burger

2008-10-28T05:15:00.001-04:00

We still had two of those horrible “Bahama Burgers” I reviewed a while ago sitting in the fridge, and I decided it was time I “manned” up and took care of…one. I went with a “the more I put between the buns, the less I’ll taste the burger” theory, and it actually worked out quite well. In all fairness, the Mediterranean flavor is also not as bad as the pineapple-mango ones were.

I set these up in whole-wheat bakery rolls, with my traditional nayo-lemon juice-caper-pepper spread. I then sliced up nearly half a HUGE avocado, and piled that under a healthy mound of alfalfa sprouts. Pretty simple, and it was so good I plan on having the last burger the same exact way tomorrow…which will be even quicker, since I’ve got leftover spread and the avocado is already partially sliced.

Selah.

Mushroom Stroganoff

2008-10-27T04:50:00.000-04:00

Since the Vegetarian Times Cookbook is due back to the library this week, I figured I should try out a couple last recipes. (although I’m considering renewing). All of a sudden the mushroom stroganoff recipe was looking really good to me, which is interesting because I’ve never had a stroganoff in my life, and wouldn’t have known one prior to tonight if it hit me in the face.

This looked really good, and my better half thought it was great…but I wasn’t a huge fan. I’m not big on rich, creamy foods at all, and somehow it didn’t occur to me that something with a full container of soy sour cream would be rich and creamy…I’m not sure what I was thinking there. The recipe also called for a “meaty mushroom such as oyster or portabella” which is odd, since they’re nothing alike. I figured that since I already had a huge bag of oyster mushrooms in the pantry I’d go with those…bad decision. The oyster mushrooms were very “fishy”, which I didn’t like with the creaminess one bit, and in the future I’ll think an option like that through. I am thinking about eliminating the sour cream and going with a plain yogurt instead, to limit the “richness” and add an acidic component…perhaps a greek yogurt would do the trick.

Selah.

Yam Noodles with Peas

2008-10-27T04:49:00.000-04:00

First off, I can’t believe that I’ve lived in this town for more than five years, and just today learned that there is a fully vegetarian supermarket not ten minutes from my apartment. Who knew? To top it all off, the prices are more than fair, the selection is great (it’s the first place we’ve found in the area that sells nooch…up to now, we’ve been getting it from Massachusetts), and it’s got a full bakery and cafeteria, not to mention a second floor of herbs, spices and vitamins. SCORE!!! And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

For lunch I decided to whip up something quick and simple with the yam noodles we got at the asian market last week. While the noodles were cooking (they’re pretty much done once the water comes back to a boil) I set up some peanut oil in a skillet, and added minced, preserved garlic (a recipe from Vegetarian planet), sugar snap peas, dried red chilis, green peas, tamari, a bit of sesame oil, and some hot asian chili paste. Once the noodles were done cooking, they were drained, and added to the vegetables in the skillet.

This was incredibly good, had just the right amount of kick, and was ready in less than 15 minutes…as lunches go, it really doesn’t get any better than that. To top it off, my other half introduced me to “Mochi” which is this sheet of hardened sweet brown rice, that actually puffs up when you toast it, way cool!!! He preferred his toasted plain and then dipped in Braggs…but that was a bit salty for my liking. I discovered that brushing the squares with agave before toasting was simple, and much more to my taste, although sadly these were gobbled up much too fast for a picture.

Selah.

Potato Gnocchi

2008-10-23T21:09:00.000-04:00

This one isn’t Vegan, and while I know you CAN make vegan gnocchi, I’ve never done it before, and everything I read said if you want to eliminate eggs, to use them the first time, halve them the second time, etc, to make sure you’ve got the hang of it before going completely without. Considering this was my first attempt at gnocchi, I think it came out pretty well, although I wish I’d had more than 4 small potatoes to work with.

Gnocchi Ingredients
4 potatoes
Approx. 2 cups cake flour (it’s lighter than normal)
Pepper
Sprinkle Parmesan
1 egg

Directions
1. Peel and cube potatoes; cover with water in a med. Pot and boil until soft, then mash.
2. Add in the remainder of the ingredients, and then mix until it forms a single mass, at which point you can knead by hand. You don’t want this to be sticky, but it shouldn’t be so dry it flakes either.
3. Form the dough into uniform tubes about 3/4 of an inch thick, and then cut into small “nuggets”.
4. Drop the gnocchi into boiling water, and once they rise to the surface and float for about a minute, pull them out with a mesh strainer.

While the gnocchi was good, the “sauce” was the real star of this dish, although it’s so hearty, I’d hardly just call it a sauce.

Ingredients
Heaping tbs. minced garlic
Whole onion, halved and then sliced the long way.
1 leek, chopped into rounds
2 cups button mushrooms
½ cup dry white wine
½ cup dry red wine
2 Tbs. earth balance
Salt and pepper

Directions
1. Melt the EB in a large skillet over medium heat, and add garlic and leek, as these will take longest to cook.
2. Add the onion, mushrooms, salt and pepper, and allow everything to cook for a couple minutes until onions are translucent.
3. Add both wines to the sauce, and allow to reduce for approximately ten minutes…adding salt and pepper to taste.
4. Drop the cooked gnocchi into the sauce, and stir to coat.
5. Serve!

You can replace the EB with Olive oil, I just find that it adds a creamy element to the sauce which is nice with all the wine. Now that I’ve got my first attempt under my belt, I’m looking forward to trying an egg (and parmesan) free version, pesto gnocchi, and even other vegetables, like sweet potatoes.

Selah.

Chili Dogs and Beer-battered Seitan

2008-10-22T19:52:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you just want some junk food...and tonight was one of those nights. First off I made some beer-battered simple seitan. I used the classic simple seitan recipe from V'con, and made a pretty standard beer batter with flour, baking soda, paprika, and beer. fried in some canola oil.

I set these up with some homemade honey-mustard (by which I mean I mixed mustard...with honey)and was somewhat weirded out by how close they looked to fried chicken, since I was expecting something closer to fish and chips.

Like Vegan Dad, I'd never actually had a chili dog, but when I saw his, I HAD to have one. His of course look perfect but mine weren't so bad either. I made the buns from scratch earlier in the afternoon, using the really easy recipe found here. They weren't bad, but the shape threw me off a bit before eating. They're also pretty pale, which I found a bit unnerving, but I don't think the pre-meal steaming did much for their color..although it worked wonders on their consistency.

I made Vegan Dad's recipe verbatim, with a couple small changes do to pantry stockage. I didn't have any tomato paste, so I double the ketchup in the recipe and added some liquid smoke. I didn't have cocoa powder either, and instead chopped up half a bittersweet baking square, which gave the entire dish a slightly mole-like flavor. This was great, and I almost feel bad for the people out there eating "actual" chili dogs...they must be missing out.

Selah.

Schnitzel and Fruit "cups"

2008-10-21T19:43:00.002-04:00

Way back before I went Veggie, one of my favorite foods that my mother cooked was schnitzel...essentially chicken patties, breaded and then baked. That doesn't sound very exciting...but somehow, it IS. In Israel you can buy "vegetarian schnitzel" at every run of the mill grocery store, and it is generally full of corn or some other vegetable. That's great of its own accord, but it's nothing like the real thing, and I'd been craving it for years.

Fast forward a bit, and melbedggood posts her own veggie rendition, hooray!!!

Now before you start saying "oh, well that doesn't look very exciting", BITE YOUR TONGUE!! These were so good, I was nearly in tears when I finished the two allotted to me, since the recipe only made four. I hate to shake my allegiance...but these could unseat V'con's chickpea cutlets as my favorite "faux meat" entree.

I did have some timing and measurement issues, so I'll tell you all what I changed from the original. (I'm not putting it all here, since I gave you all the link to the original, and you should check out melbedggoods blog anyway!
The original measurements left me with a very watery end product, and to fix that I ended up quadrupling the vital wheat gluten called for. I also replaced the chicken salt with a .5 serving of garlic salt. I skipped out on the parm in the breading, and mixed nooch (nutritional yeast) into the breadcrumbs instead. As far as the oven baking goes, I checked out the patties after 7 minutes at 375F and they weren't even close. I turned the temp. up to 400F, and gave the first side another ten minutes. The second side got exactly ten, and these were cooked to perfection. An hour later, and all I can think about is when I'm making more...

I never learn that I should stick to food and stay away from desert...and I had some filo dough that had outstayed its welcome and was already beginning to dry and crack at the edges. I used my muffin tin to create little filo cups, which I then brushed with some soy milk. To fill, I sliced up some fresh strawberries, and mixed those with some frozen mango chunks, a sprinkling of raw sugar, lemon juice, and a shot glass of water. This all simmered for about five minutes, and was then poured into the "cups". I baked it at 400F for about ten minutes, and removed everything when the visible part of the cups was golden brown and flaky. Problem being, the fruit mixture completely soaked through the bottom half of the filo, making the cup bottoms soggy and prone to tearing.

regardless of their bottoms (or lack thereof) the fruit inside these was amazing, and the filo that did crisp up was a great contrast. I'm just wondering if anyone knows the trick to protecting the filo...baking it alone first, perhaps?
Selah.

Cranberry Stuffing and Buttercup-Udon Stew

2008-10-21T13:08:00.001-04:00

I’d been eying the kabocha-udon stew in Veganomicon for awhile, but held off, hoping I’d one day see a kabocha squash…no such luck. I wasn’t able to find the kombu either, which is supposed to flavor the stock. I finally decided the time had come regardless, and I would just improvise. I had all the other ingredients on hand, and the dish did come out pretty well:

I definitely under-tamari-d a bit, because I was afraid of sodium overload, and as a result, bowls of the leftovers will each get a squirt of braggs. This needed some additional spice as well, and I think I’d add a generous squirt of hot chili oil in future editions. Who knows…I may even find the kombu someday…

Just to be totally random, I decided to make some stuffing as well. I had a bag of the potato rolls that was STILL rolling around in the fridge, and even though they were long stale, I figured stuffing would offer them a noble ending. I was also in the mood for cranberries, and in honor of Veganmofo, wanted to keep this one dairy free, which left me short my normal binder…eggs. My favorite stuffings of the past were also heavy on the butter, another no-no for the vegan challenge and my waistline.

I started by creating a pretty simple cranberry sauce, simple boiling down the berries with some sugar and water. I then mixed that into the bread, a couple stalks of slicked celery, a minced onion, rubbed sage, cayenne, bac-uns, 1 cup veg. stock, and salt and pepper. I’m not going to bother you all with more specific directions, because to be honest it wasn’t very good. It held together much better than anticipated. (and I’m not totally sure how) Apart from the tang provided by the cranberries, this was just bland…and pretty boring. I think it had a lot to do with the rolls, which were too “wheaty” tasting for the dish. I was also hoping the bac-uns would come out more, since I’m told bacon in stuffing is amazing, but they got completely drowned out somewhere in the cooking process. All in all, this one definitely needs work. I’m very into the idea of a vegan, low-fat stuffing….this just isn’t quite it.

Selah.

Roasted Root Veggies

2008-10-20T15:30:00.001-04:00

With a serious chill setting in, I decided to try out a heartier version of roasted veggies. It ended up a little different from my original plan, but still not bad.

Into the casserole dish went: a HUGE daikon root we picked up at the asian market, a couple very large carrots, a large onion, two zucchinis, and 4 beets. Those were hit with some salt, pepper, and fennel seeds, and then tossed in canola oil.

I put these in a 400F oven for 45 minutes, but as it turns out, they need a bit longer than that….I’d say an hour at 425F to really soften up and develop all their flavors. I’m not sure how I feel about roasted daikon…it’s not bad, but still has a bit of that bitter “radish” taste to it. I’ll probably stick to my favorite method of pickling from here on in. Beets on the other hand, which normally sketch me out, are REALLY good roasted, the sugars develop and make them really sweet…the only downside is that they turn everything else purple too.

Selah.

Asian Experiment

2008-10-19T16:27:00.004-04:00

Today I decided it was time to hit up the Asian Market again...mostly because I was down to the last drop of peanut oil, and there's no better (read; cheaper) place to get it.

We decided to play around in the aisles a bit, picking up a bunch of stuff we'd either never seen...or never eaten before. After the trip there as well as an over-flowing cart full at Shaws (I haven't been posting because we've had no food!) it was high time for a late lunch, and I decided to try out some of the new ingredients we'd picked up.

I pulled out the wok, and stir-fried "vegetarian pork in sauce", bamboo shoots in chili sauce, mung beans, fresh straw mushrooms, and the leafy greens from the beets we picked up at Shaws. I got everything started with the last of our former peanut oil, and spiced it up with an overflowing spoonful of hoisen and some five spice powder.

In summary? The fake pork I could do without...the texture's ok, but it's got a faint aftertaste that isn't my favorite. The bamboo shoots in chili oil on the other hand....NEW FAVORITE FOOD. I liked the straw mushrooms as well, they turned out a lot like spaghetti, and given the choice...I'm ALL over straw mushrooms with marinara...ooooh...now there's an idea.

Selah.

Paella

2008-10-15T11:24:00.001-04:00

This was definitely an "everything but the kitchen sink" type dish, inspired by a paella I saw Curtis Stone make on Take Home Chef this afternoon (I admit to watching way too much television) and a need to finish off a bunch of things in the fridge that didn't add up to any more specific recipes.
I'd been making saffron rice forever, and never realized I could call it paella until I heard the term on an episode of Weeds a couple years ago, and googled the dish. That was all it took...I could make saffron rice, dump a bunch of leftover veggies into it, and call the dish something fancy and gourmet sounding, who knew?

This was a much brighter yellow then it appears in the picture, I'm not quite sure what happened with the lighting there.

Ingredients
2 cups rice
4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
1 large onion, minced
3 cloves garlic
bunch fresh spinach, chopped
1 cup chopped cauliflower (the last of my yellow head)
half jar whole black olives
1 cup julienned baby carrots
3 tbs. capers; chopped
half block frozen and defrosted tofu
1 cup re-hydrated oyster mushrooms
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 stalks green onion, sliced
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. saffron powder
Generous grind pepper
Generous splash hot chili sauce.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Boil some water in a tea kettle to re-constitute the mushrooms, and heat the vegetable broth. Set a wok or paella pan on med/hi heat, and pour the olive oil in the bottom.
2. Add minced onion and garlic to the pan, and stir until translucent. Add the saffron powder, pepper, and all ingredients from spinach to peas, along with the rice. Add the wine, and stir until the rice smells a little toasty.
3. Add the vegetable broth one cup at a time, allowing everything to simmer for approximately ten minutes. Add the chili sauce, and stir together.
4. Put the entire pan in the oven, and cook at 400F for 20 minutes. Once the paella comes out, stir in the green onion, and serve!

If you're not into spice, eliminate the chili sauce, we like everything with a kick around here, but asian chili sauce isn't exactly a traditional paella ingredient.

Selah.