Artistic Attempts

Well, this certainly isn't food related. But I think one of the important components of veganism is remembering we are all connected to everything and everyone on this planet. This post is about being connected to our fellow humans. :)

 A friend I haven't talked to in ages had a great idea. She sent anyone who asked a personalized, hand made Christmas card. Included in the envelope was a stamp. The other half of the deal was that we had to create something - anything- on a normal sheet of computer paper and send it back to her. Well, I cheated and used heavy linen paper, but it's the right size! I haven't done much (really any) painting before and have been inspired to do so lately, so this was perfect! My brother let me use his acrylics so I gave 'er a go. I painted a mushroom cloud because she has one in the background of her Facebook picture. I did it in the style of Roy Lichtenstein: primary colors, sharp contrasting images, and use of words. I'm fairly happy with it, all things considered. I am going to mail it to her tomorrow!

Tomato and "Feta" Quinoa Pilaf

I decided to marinade some tofu to make it feta-like and use it in a tomato quinoa pilaf. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The lemon juice was really nice.

Tofu Marinade

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

Thyme

Basil

I didn't measure the herbs because I used fresh herbs from our window planter. I used a couple sprigs of each. Maybe a teaspoon-ish dried herbs of each would be good. Anyhoo, mix all the ingredients and toss 1 lbs of firm tofu with the sauce. Let marinade for 1 hour, mixing in between.

Pilaf

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water or veggie broth

3 cloves garlic

1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

1 lbs marinaded tofu

Place the quinoa, water, and garlic in a pot over medium. Bring to a boil and turn the heat down, and cook for about 7 minutes. Add the tofu and some of the marinade to the quinoa and cook for about 3 more minutes. Then add the chopped tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes, quartered). Cook for another minute or so then serve.

Sesame Rice Noodles

This dish is super fast and easy, not to mention delicious. And Bestest likes it, too! Well, without the chili sauce...

Sesame Rice Noodles

1 lbs extra firm tofu, cubed

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup sesame oil

1/2 package vermicelli rice noodles

4 tbsp sesame seeds

1 cucumber, julienned 

Sweet chili sauce

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, julienne the cucumber. Next, heat the vegetable oil in a pan on medium and add the tofu. Cook until lightly browned. Mix the soy sauce and sesame oil together and add it to the pan. Turn the heat to low. Put the noodles in the boiling water for about 2 minutes, JUST long enough to soften. Any longer and the noodles will clump together into a big mess. Strain the noodles and place them into a bowl. Add the tofu and sauce and stir. Dish out into bowls, placing the tofu on one third of the bowl. Place a quarter of the cucumber in another third, and 1 tbsp sesame seeds on the other. Add a dollop of sweet chili sauce to the middle of the bowl to taste. 

Baba's Nobby Apple Cake

We had a bunch of Granny Smith apples about to go bad, so Mom suggested I try out my Baba's recipe for Nobby Apple Cake. I wanted to double check with Mom before I posted the recipe, but she was fine with it. :)

Nobby Apple Cake

1 tbsp ground flax + 5 tbsp warm water

1/4 cup vegan margarine

1 cup sugar

3 cup chopped apple

1 cup chopped nuts

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 cup flour

Whisk flax and water and set aside. Cream margarine and sugar, then add flax and water mixture. Cream. Add chopped apple, nuts, baking powder and soda, and spices. Add flour last and stir to combine. Transfer to a greased pan. Bake 45 minutes at 350.

The cake was nice and gooey and absolutely delicious. I'm glad I thought to put the cake in my heart pan. It was the perfect size. :)

(Just to clarify, the original recipe was not vegan; I just made a couple minor modifications)

New Years Eve Nibbles

My brother had some friends over last night for a party, so my mom picked up a bunch of stuff for them at M & M Meat Shop. Quite literally the only vegan option I saw was a package of mixed frozen veggies. That wasn't exactly what I had in mind, so I realized I would have to make my own foods.

I decided to try the wingz again, this time with a maple garlic sauce. Dad was helping me out in the kitchen, so I directed him to make the sauce. In his typical style, he didn't use a recipe, so I don't have one to share. I know it had tons of garlic, maple syrup, a little vinegar, some spices (I believe he mentioned seasoning salt), and even a couple splashes of truffle oil (man am I spoiled!!). He and Mom have apparently had their little bottle of truffle oil for over 5 years, and I'm always too afraid to use it. I've only used it once. The sauce reduced on the stove for about 30 minutes and was delicious. I made my own bread crumbs by throwing the end pieces of bread that no one ever eats into the food processor and toasting them at 325 for 6 minutes. These were amazing! Mom and Dad loved them, too. I saved a couple and I'll be having them instead of turkey with tonight's dinner.

Next, I made stuffed mushrooms. I got the recipe from Mom's Company's Coming Appetizers book (overall not remotely vegan friendly!), and just didn't put in the cheese. The grocery store had huge mushrooms, which worked out really well for me!

Stuffed Mushrooms

12-16 medium mushrooms

1/4 cup vegan margarine

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup dry bread crumbs

Salt and pepper to taste

Remove stems from mushrooms with a pearing knife and arrange caps on a baking tray. Finely chop the mushroom stems. Put margarine, stems, and onion into a frying pan and cook until unions are clear and soft. Remove from heat and stir in bread crumbs. Stuff caps. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 350.

The final dish of the night was Sweet Onion Beggars Purses from Conscious Cook. This cookbook is great, and Tal Ronnen is amazing. However, basically all the recipes in this book are quite intensive and time consuming. If you have time though, I promise it's worth it! I'm yet to be disappointed by a recipe from this book. This PETA link has the full recipe. Phyllo pastry is pretty picky to work with, and be prepared to take close to two hours on these, between caramelizing the onions and forming an onion jam, brushing each layer of phyllo pastry with butter (and layering spices on every second layer), and tying the purses. The recipe calls for wrapping fresh chives around the purses once they're cooked, but the chives I bought were too short, so I will have to find something new to do with them. These were delicious, and there are leftovers, too. :) 

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! May 2011 bring you joy, happiness, and balance. 

Ruben on Homemade Rye

Apparently most of my recipes are coming from Vegan Dad these days! I find I tend to get fixated with a particular cookbook (or blog in this case) for a while, then move on to a new one. Mostly I've been trying my hand at seitan and he seems to be quite an expert in the matter. I don't know that I've had a real ruben, but I love rye bread and saurkraut, so I figured I couldn't go wrong.

My first step was to acquire rye flour, which resulted in a trip to Planet Organic. Couldn't find it at my normal grocery store. Next up, make the rye bread. I used a recipe entitled George's Light Rye Bread, which comes from this cute elderly man, George. I mostly picked this recipe because of George. I think we can learn a lot about food from the generations before us! George did not disappoint. This bread turned out absolutely amazing. I'm not sure how much difference it made, but I'm glad I splurged for the organic rye flour. The recipe makes two loaves so I've been having rye toast for breakfast. It reminds me of my Papa.

Next step: make the vegan corned beef. I had no juniper berries, so they just weren't used. The corned beef was pretty good, though I wasn't a giant fan of the texture. I still need to practice seitan, I think! While the corned beef was steaming I tried my hand at vegan mayo, but I used a terrible recipe that didn't thicken. It had soy milk and I think my next try will have tofu instead. But since I mostly wanted it to make thousand island dressing, it wasn't the end of the world. I just changed the entire batch into thousand island dressing which I can now put on salads. I'm not sure how long it will stay good though... we'll see. The saurkraut was store bought, unfortunately. My Aunt makes great saurkraut but we've long used up the jars she canned for us. We have half a head of saured cabbage thawing in the fridge, though, and Mom has agreed to teach me how to cook holupci, the tiny cabbage rolls I remember my Baba making. Yum.

All around, the sandwich was quite good. I went back for a second. The rest of the family had left over turkey on their rye, so I froze the rest of the corned beef for later uses. I had my sandwich with a cabbage and chickpea salad with tahini lemon dressing and the rest of the har gao from dim sum.

Chickpea Pot Pie

So this is another recipe I took from Vegan Dad, though I didn't put any peas in it because Bestest doesn't like them. I also used Better than Bouillion No Chicken Base instead of the "chicken" broth powder. I love that stuff and have started using it in the wingz, too. I got mine at Planet Organic. I cooked this at Bestest's house and she helped with lots of it. She's a very picky eater, which is a lot of why we are trying this challenge: to force her to break out of her comfort zone and make friends with new (non-processed) foods. She normally wouldn't go near onions or chickpeas and she ate both in this dish! I'm like a proud Mama.

The recipe made two of those loaf pan like dishes, so Bestest, her partner and I had one for dinner and we put the second one in the freezer for a day they don't feel like cooking. That's something I'm hoping to do before the term starts: cook lots of stuff I can freeze or can so that I have food on lazy and/or super busy days. So far I have sticky rice, steamed buns, and a little canned chili and split pea soup still left from this fall. Before the term starts I'd like to make a couple frozen pizzas and can some lentil soup.