curried seitan + cauliflower

When I was a kid, one of my favorite treats was miàn jīn, Chinese fried gluten. It is impossible to describe in a way that makes it sound appealing. Balls of wheat gluten that had been deep fried, and canned in some sort of mysterious and delicious oil. In terms of appearances, it was not a pretty thing. It also kept its shape fairly well, so when you peeled pieces out of the can with your chopsticks, they always retained its vaguely cylindrical, brainlike consistency, and is advertised as "mock meat". You're drooling right now, aren't you.

So, like with most things, once I moved away to college and away from the sometimes astonishingly ... antique contents of our pantry at home, I forgot about most of these things.

Until, a couple of years ago, Hillside Quickie happened. So the name of the restaurant is a bit of a misnomer, given that it is neither situated on a hillside, nor is the service quick, by any stretch of the imagination. What it does boast, however, is VEGAN SOUL FOOD.

Now, I've already gone over my various and complicated feelings about "-an" classifications of eating, so you can take my word for it when I say that this isn't just good food by vegan standards (if you are one of those skeptics that believes that meat + butter related substances are key for anything delicious). This food is good, period. If you are ever in the Seattle area, it is definitely worth a stop. This place affirms the hypothesis that everything can be made delicious through the process of deep frying.

Hillside Quickies can be wholly attributed to my discovery of seitan - namely, that it existed outside of the nebulous walls of my mother's pantry, and that other people eat it.

Since I've started cooking in earnest this year, my roommate has pioneered many successful attempts at making seitan through baking. As I was doing research for our weekly group vegan dinners, I finally thought that I would try my hand at it. And let me tell you, there is a lot of shit to sort through about seitan.

I encountered a few recipes that uttered dire warnings about boiling the seitan, others still who swore by it, tons of recipes that differed between cooking time, cooking method, amount of oil, type of oil, marination. You get the idea.

So, deciding that it was time to just pony up and start experimenting, I glommed together various recipes from around the internets and came up with this.

Curried Seitan + Cauliflower

INGREDIENTS:

• 6-8 cups vegetable broth
• 2 2/3 cup vital wheat gluten
• 3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 Tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon tumeric
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 3/4 cup water
• 1 stalk green onions, chopped
• 1 head cauliflower, chopped
  

• 2 cups rice milk
• 1 Tablespoon flour
• 1 Tablespoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pour the broth into a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer.

2. Combine the vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, curry, and salt into a medium size bowl.

3. Combine the soy sauce, sherry, and water into another bowl.

4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a spoon. Knead into dough a few times until all of the ingredients are incorporated. The water will react almost instantly with the vital wheat gluten to make a tough dough.

5. Tear pieces of dough off the larger dough ball with your hands and drop gently into the simmering broth. The pieces should be about an inch in diameter. Allow to cook for about 20 minutes, or until the seitan has expanded and risen to the top of the pot. Remove from heat and place in a shallow dish.

6. Mix half a cup of rice milk with the flour in a medium saucepan. Stir over low heat until the mixture has thickened.

7. Add the remaining rice milk and other sauce ingredients, and cook at medium heat for approximately 5 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened.

8. Pour the mixture over the seitan pieces and refridgerate overnight.

9. The next day, allow the seitan to sit at room temperature for about ten minutes before cooking.

10. Heat 2 tsp of oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Spoon the seitan pieces into the pan, reserving the sauce, and cook for 3-4 minutes, until the seitan is slightly browned and firm.

11. Pour marinade sauce over the seitan, add the cauliflower, and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes.

12. Salt and pepper to taste, garnish with green onions, and serve over rice.

I was a little nervous about making this, in the way that I am nervous about attempting to make cheese. When food texture is so important, it generally is common sense to assume that it would be really easy to screw up. And though I cooked my seitan a tiny bit longer than I should have (I modified the above recipe accordingly), the seitan just was a little bit tougher than was my preference, but could very well be exactly up someone else's alley. But the point is, the whole thing did not explode into a seitany, satan-y ball of doom, and was quite forgiving of all of the humiliations that I put it through. Do be prepared for the alarming rate of dough expansion among cooking, and learn from my mistakes and test the seitan frequently to make sure that it is at the consistency and texture that you like.

Though I will admit: I am still a little bit freaked out by the insta-magic of wheat gluten. The final product was a very convincing meat-like texture, with good flavor. In the future, I'm going to try slicing and frying cutlets (instead of boiling pieces), so we'll see how that works out. Also, I am well aware that this is the second curried cauliflower recipe that I have posted. I'm working on diversifying, I promise.

It was quite an easy make-ahead sort of recipe, and the vegetables could certainly be flexible, depending on what is in season. Seitan keeps remarkably well in the freezer as well, so you could always portion the seitan in freezer bags, instead of just marinating overnight.

And while it is not quite as cheap an option as tofu or beans, it is quite a treat, and - it turns out - easy to make.

Also, if anyone has any killer seitan recipes, then do let me know! Sorry for not having pictures of the final product (the first picture was the seitan, post-marinade) - but it always gets eaten up so fast...

Vegan Mexican Chocolate Cake

It's been a big week. A big week involving acceptance letters in the mail! And finally, finally, the previously distant future melding with my immediate present.

So, with the prospect of moving to New York on the brain, I decided that celebration was in order. Specifically, celebration in the form of cake.

Vegan Mexican Chocolate Cake

[copied verbatim from Foods For Long Life]

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 to 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cut a piece of foil to fit the bottom of an 8 inch pie plate, and place in the bottom of the pan. Grease the sides of the pan with olive oil.
3. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Stir in the water, vanilla, vinegar and oil until combined.
5. Pour mixture into the cake pan, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Cool in the pan, then turn the cake pan over and gently peel off the foil from the bottom of the cake.
7. Turn the cake back over so it is cooling on the rack with the top facing up and cool another 15 minutes.
8. Dust cake with powdered sugar.

clam pesto pizza

To say that I'm a fan of seafood would be a major understatement. By and large, I'm fairly successful in eating very little red and white meat, but seafood is one thing that I know that I could never give up completely.

I could rattle off a Forrest Gump-esque list that soliloquizes all the ways and manners in which I love all kinds of seafood - not just shrimp - but for everyone sanity (and limited attention span), I won't. I'll just say that we have crabs for Thanksgiving in lieu of a turkey, and leave it at that.

So.

Within the last couple of years, I've been lucky eough to have a monetary and gastronomic lifesaver nearby: Trader Joe's.

Specifically, two ingredients: the pizza dough, and the basil.

Let's break this down for a minute.

The pizza dough, which comes infused with all of the herby/yeasty/premade (and therefore lazines enabling) goodness: is less than $2.

The basil: comes in one boatsized denomination, which is not so great when you picked it up to make basil mozzarella sandwiches, but is the perfect amount for making pesto. In fact, I am fairly sure that it is humanly impossible to actually go through an entire box of the stuff without resorting to the "quick!-make-pesto-before-it-all-goes-bad!" strategy. All told, it's not too expensive to make amazing simple pizzas for dirt-cheap, and deluxe slightly-more-complicated pizzas for not too much more.

This pizza falls into the second category. I actually made this a few weeks ago (obligatory referral to the bleating excuses that I have made in previous posts affirming that yes, I AM still cooking, but yes, I also similtaneously am too lazy to blog most of the things I make). I wasn't even going to post the recipe. But the next day, when I brought in my leftovers, I was met with a universal reaction of disgust.

CLAM pizza? I might as well have brought in roadkill sandwiched between two pieces of Wonderbread. I found myself constantly having to defend my (apparently) odd recipe choice. I didn't think it was that strange.

Really.

I'd had clam pizzas at lots of places, usually with some incarnation of white sauce. Granted, I knew that this was not exactly something that you could pick up at Little Caesar's, but I certainly didn't think the combination strange enough to warrant an involuntary gagging sound. It's just like the clam sauce that you would have over pasta, people! The same basic meat+sauce+carb combo is still intact, I promise! It's just a slightly different variant! Now would you please put away your torches and pitchforks?

Given the reaction, I figured I really had no other choice but to blog it, with the hope of alleviating prejudice for the poor overlooked clam pizzas of tomorrow.

Obviously, if you are not a clam fan to begin with, this recipe is not for you. But on the off chance that you are fond of an occasional plate of Spaghetti alle Vongole at your local Italian restaurant, I beg you to consider this:

Pesto Clam Pizza
(pesto recipe adapted from the amazing 101 recipes)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 package of Trader Joe's refrigerated pizza dough (I like the herbed version, but the whole wheat is also quite good)
• 1 large bunch of basil leaves
• 1 head of garlic, separated into peeled cloves (from the above picture, you can tell I used two, but you all know my feelings on garlic at this point)
  
• 1/2 cup grated parmesean cheese
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• A few tablespoons water
• 1 6.5-oz can of chopped clams
• 3 tablespoons dry sherry
• dash of white flour
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese (optional)
  

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Take pizza dough out of the fridge and let rest on the counter. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Mince a third of the garlic. Add 1/3 of the basil leaves and chop them into the minced garlic. Add the next third of garlic along with 1/3 of the parm cheese. Mince until integrated. Alternate chopping the remaining basil, cheese, and garlic into the mixture until the final overall consistency is a fine mince.

3. Drizzle in the lemon juice and olive oil, and stir. Add a few tablespoons of water as needed, in order to achieve a thick pizza-sauce consistency.

4. Open the can of clams and drain the clam juice into a medium-sized saucepan. Add the dry sherry and stir over low heat for 1-2 minutes. Stir in a dash of white flour to help the sauce thicken.

5. Turn the heat to medium-high, stirring occasionally, until the clam-wine sauce has thickened. Add in the reserved clams and stir until heated through. Remove from heat, salt and pepper to taste if needed.

6. Use olive oil to grease a baking sheet (or use a pizza stone if you are lucky enough to have one) and hand-stretch the pizza dough to an approximate 12" diameter. Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes.

7. Spread the pesto mixture in a thin layer over the semi-baked crust, then spread the clam sauce mixture over that. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top, if desired.

8. Put back in oven and bake according to the package until the crust has browed.

Convinced yet?

Shrimp and Cabbage Spring Rolls

Oy.

It pains me to realize that this blog is in critical danger of meeting the fate that most New Years(ish) resolutions face - extinction. There are lots of reasons for that which I could get into here, but the fact of the matter is, it's always life that tends to get in the way, isn't it?

The time for cooking (or the time to set aside the time to devote to the completeness of the ritual) has been in short supply as of late. There is little space left over between interviews and applications, airports and bus shelters, reading and making endless barrages of words with varying importance.

So in the meantime, there have been meals made of pretzels and mustard, hastily eaten sandwiches in rish hour traffic, days that I subsist on coffee until 5 PM. And, god help me, during one particular day of weakness - a microwave dinner.

I know, I know. There's room for improvement, clearly. I have quite a backlog of photos on my camera from past meals that I just haven't had the time to document. And, quite frankly, most of the recipes that I've attempted in the past few weeks have been subpar, at best.

When we moved from Michigan to the Pacific Northwest in 2005, my grandparents moved with us. Early on, my mother instated the ritual of taking my grandparents shopping for groceries in Chinatown every other Saturday. While I could never drag my sleep-deprived carcass out of bed early enough to ever come along (I use the term "early" in a way that could only be applicable to high school and college students), I could always count on finding a few extra Tupperware containers in the fridge nestled amongst the newly purchased bags of oranges and apples. Sometimes they would be jia li jiao (curried meat turnovers), or tsung you bing (green onion pancakes). Although all of these foods were definitely welcome visitors to my stomach, chun juan (fried spring rolls) were the key to my heart - and my grandmother's tour de force. Somehow, she had mastered the perfect alchemy of cabbage, carrots and dried shrimp, bound together with just the right combination of sauce, salt, and sweetness.

Now that my grandmother has passed away and my grandfather is back in Taiwan, I'm pretty much on my own when it comes to fulfilling my craving for Chinese treats. When I was struck by a longing for spring rolls the other day, I was initially stymied by not having a recipe. After a little experimentation, the ultimate lesson became clear: never underestimate the power of nostalgic tastebuds.

Shrimp and Cabbage Spring Rolls

INGREDIENTS

• 1 head of green cabbage, sliced thinly
• 2 large carrots, shredded
• 2 stalks green onions, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups dried shrimp (xia mi) - can also be substituted with 1 lb cooked and chopped coldwater shrimp
• 1/2 cups dried shitake mushrooms (or three large portobella mushrooms, sliced and cooked)
• 2 heads garlic, finely chopped
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsp black bean paste (salty, not sweet)
• 1 tbsp rice wine (or a dry sherry)
• 1 1/2 tsp white sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 package dried spring roll wraps

INSTRUCTIONS

Filling:

1. If using dried mushrooms and shrimp, you will need to presoak them before for a few hours until they are soft enough to chop. You might also get away with soaking them for less time in hot water.
2. Mix soy sauce, black bean paste, wine, and sugar into a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Saute garlic and sesame oil over low-medium heat until garlic is browned. Add mushrooms and shrimp and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
4. Add cabbage and carrots, turn to medium heat and stir fry until almost tender. (5-7 minutes)
5. Add green onions, and sauce. Saute for an additional 2 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.

Making:

1. Prepare a large pan of hot water.
2. Reconstitute a spring roll wrap in the water for 30 seconds, or until soft. Do not oversoak (or use water that is too hot), or the wrap will dissolve and tear.
3. Drop in 1/8 cup of filling towards the bottom third of the wrapper.
4. Fold in the sides, and then roll upwards to form a wrap.
5. Eat fresh, or fry in a pan with a little bit of canola oil. Makes about a dozen spring rolls.

This was the perfect recipe for a big dinner with people that have a variety of food preferences, since the ingredients can be prepared separately.

Spring roll wraps in themselves are vegan, so the recipe would be a good substitute for egg rolls (minus the shrimp, obviously). Obviously there is also quite a bit of latitude with the vegetables for the filling - I used the more traditional cabbage and carrots, but there is certainly a lot of room for experimentation. Portobellas can be used in conjunction with the shitakes for fungophiles. For people who like seafood, you can substitute oyster sauce for the black bean sauce.

I ended up preparing all the ingredients separately (though you will need to probably make multiple batches of the sauce), throwing few pans of hot water and stacks of wrappers onto the table, and let everyone assemble their own wrapsm which probably wouldn't be kosher from a public health inspection viewpoint. But hey, let's not split hairs because let's face it, they're pretty damn delicious, germs or no.

spinach and mushroom bread pudding

All right, I'll admit it.

I'm bad with bread.

Most of the time, I try to avoid bread, knowing this. If I had my way, I would pick up a freshly baked loaf every day. I get depressed at the notion of bread that is doomed to the fate of resealable plastic ties. In general, my rule is, if the bag it comes in seals, then it isn't worth eating.

Naturally, this poses a problem for the feasibility of my bread consumption. It does not keep well. And, while the tortilla challenge of last week was entertainingly delicious (in which I successfully burrito-ed, cheese quesadilla-ed, and enchilada-ed myself to glory, FINALLY managing for the first time in my adult life to finish an entire bag of tortillas before the last few dried out), there's only so much love that I can give to sandwiches.

I know, I know. 'But sandwiches are delicious! And versatile!' you're saying. And yes, these this is true. Soon I will buckle down and try to come up with a good grocery list for a week-long sandwich challenge. Unfortunately, the sandwich's structure is not, shall we say, renowned for its longevity or constitution. So, since every given day usually involves running around for several hours in and between unrefrigerated places, the glory of the intricately stacked sandwich tends to make a remarkably swift transition to Sogville.

Despite all of these things, sometimes I can't resist. I walk past the bread in the bakery, and I'm doomed. In this particular instance, creamy roasted pepper soup was to blame. I had soup on the brain, knowing that the clock was ticking on the opened carton after making these babies.

So, despite my better judgment, I got a french baguette. I sawed off a fourth of it, and had a blissful soup experience.

And then I promptly forgot about the rest of it.


Cleaning my kitchen this afternoon, I stumbled upon it. Or rather, I practically cracked my knuckles against it in passing, since at that point, it was creeping its way towards the consistency of petrified wood.

After uttering a colorful menagerie of salty language, I was about to toss it into the bin when I dawned on me: bread pudding.

Spinach and Mushroom Bread Pudding

INGREDIENTS:

7-8 oz. firm tofu (I used half of a 15.5 oz twin pack)
2 tablespoons mustard (if you can, try to grab Trader Joe's Garlic Aioli Mustard - heaven!)
1 tsp peppercorns, crushed

1 cup almond milk
4 oz crimini mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup basil, chopped
1 head garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced

1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp rosemary

3-4 cups stale bread, cubed (i guesstimated with 3/4 of a stale baguette)

2 cups spinach leaves
9 slices of fresh mozzarella cheese

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Saute mushrooms over medium heat until tender. Set aside.

Mash tofu, almond milk, shallots, garlic, and mustard together until well incorporated.

Add peppercorns, thyme, rosemary, and salt to taste.

Stir in spinach and mushrooms.

Add bread cubes and basil. Toss until well incorporated. Prod one of the cubes to make sure that it seems to be softening - if not, then add a bit more almond milk.

Spread into 9x13 baking pan and place mozzarella slices on top.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 min, or until the cheese is brown and bubbling

(p.s: i realize i've been bad about logging groceries. i've stopped doing huge weekly grocery runs because i was tired of having my mushrooms be shriveled or my basil wilted by the time i got round to the recipes i wanted to make. so instead, i've been just running to the store(s) before cooking, since we're lucky to be so close. today i grabbed mushrooms (half of a package at $1.69), garlic aioli mustard ($2.49), almond milk ($1.69).

Cauliflower Pepper Curry

.


hello beautiful friends!

so sorry for being quite MIA in the past week. a fatal combination of house guests, laziness, and a renewed inspiration to make work had culminated in a bit of stagnation, cooking-wise.

but as a peace offering, i have the recipe from the cauliflower pepper curry that i made for the second time in a week. so take that as an endorsement; this stuff is good.

this recipe is a great illustration of one of my favorite food policies: "more pepper". (the others being, 'more mustard', and 'more garlic'.)

Cauliflower Pepper Curry

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 can of coconut milk (14 oz)
  
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp peppercorns, crushed
• 1 tablespoon curry leaves
• 1 bunch spinach, chopped
• 1 head cauliflower, chopped
• 2 vine-ripened tomatoes, cubed

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add mustard seeds and cover, until the seeds have stopped popping. Add cumin seeds and cook until browned (1 min).
2. Stir-fry cauliflower until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook for an additional one minute.
3. Pour in coconut milk and scrape bottom of pan to release spice. Stir in salt, peppercorns, and curry leaves. Reduce and simmer for about 5-8 minutes, until cauliflower is tender.
4. Add spinach, continue to simmer until cooked (about 5 minutes).
5. Stir in tomatoes. Raise heat to medium-high, and boil uncovered for 3-5 minutes until tomato is warmed, and some of the cauliflower has broken down to thicken the sauce.
6. Serve over basmati rice, if desired.
   

Bon appetit! Was a great, simple meal that could be left unattended for stretches of time. Perfect for listening to the State of the Union address and chipping away steadily at a cable-knit scarf that I have been working on since December.

There are a lot of things that I could say about my feelings (or lack thereof) on politics, and political leaders, and rhetoric, and public relations. Clearly, there are many things about our nation's shared situation that are less than ideal, and things about my own situation that are the same. In some ways, the last year has caused me to become a skeptic. Skeptical about things working out, about the seemingly inexorable slide of our country towards desperation, about things falling apart more than they come together.

As I made dinner tonight, I was a bit surprised to find that despite these precious feelings, I now have more gratitude than ever before. I no longer feel helpless. I no longer feel as if the things that happen to me are solely a result of unpredictable, inscrutable factors.

I could focus on the negative. I could grouse about tuition costs, about squeezing in hours at work at any given opportunity, about always rushing endlessly from place to place with burning calves and lungs. About millions of things, really. But the truth is, I don't. I'm recklessly, stupidly grateful to have a job, to have the opportunity to work and be paid in exchange, to have faith in my ability to do things well, in good friends and in a warm cat on my lap. I'm grateful for having the will and health to put in the effort to make food for myself, to experience the satisfaction in preparing it for subsequent consumption. In exercising a conscientiousness and a certain joy in converting raw ingredients into something worth having.

There are a lot of cliches that exist about the therapeutic effect of making food, about cooking to save yourself. I think I can buy into that to some degree, but it goes deeper than that. It's not just cooking that's saving myself. It's me. I'm saving myself. And small things, small things are saving me.

groceries, week 3

oof, it's been awhile. life has been busy! these are the groceries from two sundays ago - didn't do a formal grocery shopping trip last sunday since i was in a frenzy at the prospect for cooking for 7.

as it turns out, i'm impossible at holding onto receipts for longer than a week, but i do remember that the bill for everything above came out to about $33. most of the last week was just making burritos and enchiladas in various forms, since i challenged myself to finish an entire package before they slowly withered into submission in my fridge crisper drawer. you know what i'm talking about.

but the short list (sans individual prices). bought more items from trader joe's than normal, so it stretched my dollar a bit more than usual.

• whole wheat flour
• tortillas
• red cabbage
• yellow popcorn
• green onions
• italian parsley
• avocado
• portabella mushrooms
• crimini mushrooms
• yellow sweet onions
• mexican blend cheese
• coconut milk
• artichoke hearts
• soy sauce
• tomato and roasted pepper soup
• cauliflower
• basil

the last week and a half have yielded a lot of mediocre food and initial lukewarm results from new recipes. you can't win 'em all, eh? lots of deadlines and readings and makings have also led to a lot of dinners consisting of random vegetables and popcorn. having company for the weekend also threw off the clear delineation between weekly budgeting, but business should be resuming to normal soon!

there was a single notable success with a pepper curry recipe, which i will have to post later (and cross my fingers that i remembered to take pictures of it. all of these meals lately have been blending together!)

French Onion Shrimp Enchiladas

Alright, so you might as well pencil these in the day after you make the French Onion Soup. It has been my experience that every soup recipe always yields slightly less than it purports to make. Slightly less, in that it is always, always just slightly less than a full bowl that you could justify sitting down to without making something else to accompany it.

Needless to say, after the previous night's endeavors, I wasn't really in the mood to put forth a whole lot of effort into dinner. And then it dawned on me - enchilada sauce.

French Onion Shrimp Enchiladas

(makes four)

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 pound coldwater shrimp (I used frozen, but obviously you can use fresh)
• 1 can black beans
• 1 medium onion
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 4 medium-large tortillas, slightly warmed
• 3/4 cup leftover french onion soup (see this recipe)
• 1/3 cup sharp cheddar cheese

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Saute shrimp over medium hear in medium-large pan until fully cooked. Add onion and continue to cook, until onion becomes slightly transparent. Add spices and black beans. Simmer for a few more minutes, and salt and pepper to taste.

Scoop a few spoonfuls of soup into the bottom of a dish (I used a 9-in pie dish).

Roll the filling into tortillas, and place into pan. Spoon the remaining soup over the tops, making sure to drench all of the enchiladas evenly. Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 min, or until the cheese is bubbling and becoming brown.

Perfect. A little spicy from the taco-esque seasoning a little sweet from the caramelized onions. I was a little worried that the flavors would clash a little bit, but a lot of the mushroom flavoring from the soup was absorbed by the cheesy topping - and the onions inside and out of the enchiladas brought everything together pretty nicely. If I were to make it again (and if I had had some on hand), I'd suggest using Gruyere cheese - a little throwback to the more traditional french onion soup.

Vegan French Onion Soup

As a kid, you learn quickly that a good rule to live by is, "if it takes good, it is probably bad for you".

But of course, as we grow older, we learn another valuable life lesson: "there are always exceptions to the rule", and "rules are made to be broken".

Vegan French Onion Soup

[from Foods For Long Life]

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 cups water
• 1/2 pound crimini mushrooms, cut in half
• 2 stalks of celery, cut in four pieces
• 1 large carrot, cut in four pieces
• 8 peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 cloves of garlic in skin, cut in half or smashed
• 1 tablespoon Tamari soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 large onions, thinly sliced (about 10 cups)
• 2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon dry thyme
  salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

Start with the broth. Combine water, mushrooms, celery, carrots, peppercorns, the bay leaf, and crushed garlic cloves in a large pot. Simmer covered, for about an hour.

Meanwhile, slice onions. Saute with olive oil in a medium-large saucepan over medium-high heat, until they start to turn translucent. Turn down the heat to medium-low. Add 1 tsp sugar, and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the onions start to caramelize. Be careful near the end not to stir too often or too infrequently - if you stir too often, the onions won't brown, and if you stir too infrequently...well...you know what happens. Once the onions have turned brown, add crushed garlic and thyme.

Once broth is done simmering, strain the vegetables out of the stock. Add the stock to your pan of (now caramelized) onions.

Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Okay. Admittedly, this recipe takes awhile, about an hour and a half, with all of the simmering and caramelizing action that is going down. So don't attempt this recipe after a fifteen hour work day and your stomach is threatening to digest itself. In fact, I think it's pretty safe to say that it is probably a "strictly weekend" sort of recipe.

But think of the rewards! Don't lie, I know I had you guys at "ten cups of onions".

vegan fudge brownies

hello friends!

so this is the point (cerca week two, to be optimistic or cynical, depending on your point of view) in the year when new years resolve is starting to weaken a bit.

though i am certainly far from throwing in towel, i'm starting to sense to feast-famine pattern of postings that is likely to start occurring, with emphasis on "feast" on these things called weekends, during which i occasionally manage to capture that rare beast known to some as "spare time".

ok, there will be no more gratuitious use of quotation marks for the rest of this post, so you can put your rotten tomatoes away.

what i am really getting at here is that though i am cooking consistently throughout the week, i will definitely need to make a more protracted effort to make sure that i'm posting in some semblance of real-time - with a liberal definition of being within the week.

but, as a show of my good feelings (and attempt at appeasement), here is the most amazing brownie recipe i know of. say what you will about vegan foods, but these brownies are by far the best i have encountered. something about the creative substitutions for dairy that really does the trick if you are into the idea of dense baked goods - which i am certainly in favor of. caution - these are heavy. as in, can use as a doorstop heavy. or, can eat for breakfast and be sustained for a good few hours heavy. not that i've done that for the past two days, or anything.

Vegan Fudge Brownies

INGREDIENTS

• 1 16 oz package silken tofu
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup dark cocoa powder
• 1 cup Earth Balance

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Puree tofu until smooth (in food processor, blender, or by hand). Add brown sugar, salt, and vanilla.
3. Melt margarine in a saucepan over low heat. Whisk in white sugar and cocoa powder until smooth.
4. Combine cocoa mixture with tofu mixture until well incorporated.
5. Fold in flour.
6. Pour into pan, bake at 350, until toothpick comes out clean (usually around 30-40 min).

Voila! In terms of difficulty and time commitment, probably not too much more or less than your standard recipe (unless your recipe consists of: opening betty crocker package, adding eggs and water, and baking. and even then, still not too much more).

But trust me. It's worth it. Just a note, you might want to make some coffee during the last five minutes while these babies are baking to have with your first piece.

(You can thank me later.)

feelings

groceries, week 2

whew! one week over, with success! just barely eeked in under $40, having had to run to grab some chocolate sorbet and more Earth Balance, which put me at $38.12. not bad, considering that included in this week's menu was a couple of group meals - one for 8, one for 3. i'm realizing now that i didn't document either of these meals for the sake of hospitality - which is something that guests in the future will just need to get over.

this week's recipes of note:
banana bread
spinach quiche
cajun mac n' yease
mushroom and barley pie
breakfast salad
curried quinoa

a few of these are still works in-progress (or I didn't photograph them!), so the actual recipes should be making a reappearance here sooner or later.

this week's groceries:

Madison Market:
fuji apples - $1.24
kidney beans - $0.99
yellow onions - $2.46
crimini mushrooms - $2.69
roma tomatoes - $3.16
tofu - $2.29
earth balance - $3.49

Trader Joe's:
sumatra coffee - $4.99
arugula - $2.29
artchoke hearts - $1.99
pizza sauce - $2.29
pizza dough - $1.29
mozarella - $4.29

Total: $33.46


Off to do some more Sunday baking. Hint: chocolate and tofu is involved. Get stoked.

Mushroom & Barley Pie

everyone has at least a few staple foods that they always have on hand. for some people, it's Top Ramen. Others have more nutritious go-to items, like carrot sticks and granola bars. Some people (and these friends are the best kind to have!) always can be counted on for having freshly ground coffee or beer on hand.

my current cooking repertoire is well-perfected, but admittedly...unambitious. pasta, rice, and quinoa are my go-to items, usually augmented with an inordinate amount of garlic (by other people's standards), clams, or a handful of standard vegetables like onions, tomatoes, or mushrooms.

SO. the resolution is to start trying recipes that contain most of the staples that i already have on hand, supplemented with a few other inexpensive ingredients.

i picked this recipe because i have always had a soft spot for savory pies. i blame reading this on reading too many redwall books as a kid - i remember skipping over lengthy descriptions of battle scenes to drool over the descriptions of the epic feasts that the animals would throw after they inevitably vanquished whatever bad guy(s) was in town. (am i alone on this? am i a nostalgic idiot sometimes? these questions are beside the point.)

but i digress. point is, i have a lot of spare time to spend on the internet, i may or may not have googled "redwall pasty recipe" because i'm subject to incredibly persuasive and completely random food cravings...and here we are.

Mushroom & Barley Pie
[adapted wildly from a smorgasbord of sources, most prominantly from What Smells So Good? and Smitten Kitchen]

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup barley
6 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 head roasted garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup feta cheese
1 (1-pound) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 teaspoon water and a pinch of salt

The night before: soak barley in 6 cups water. The recipe can use pearl barley, but using hulled barley leaves the bran intact/is less processed/has more fiber, blah blah. If you use pearl barley, you don't have to presoak.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Bring barley (still in water that you presoaked in) to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until tender (around 1 hour). Drain and cool. (Reserve the barley water! You can water it down, add a little bit of honey, and drink it on its own.)

2. Take pastry out of the freezer to thaw.

3. While barley or farro cooks, cook onion in large saucepan over medium heat for 1 minute, then add the mushrooms. Cook on medium-high heat until mushrooms are soft (about 5-8 minutes). Cool.

4. Add barley to mushroom/onion mixture, then add feta and roasted garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

6. Roll out thawed pastry into two 9x12" sheets. Spoon filling over pastry, leaving a 1" border.

7. Brush border with egg wash, then place the second sheet on top. Press edges to seal, then crimp edges. Brush the top of the pie with remaining egg wash. Cut steam vents on top of pie.

8. Bake on middle rack of preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or under pastry is puffed and brown.

In the pie that I had made, I'd added some sun-dried tomatoes, which turned out to be an awful idea - the tomatoes completely overpowered the other flavors, so I've omitted it in the recipe above.

Another thought is that though I had been quite conservative with some of the ingredient quantities from previous recipes, it still made an enormous pie. An enormous pie that my vegan roommate can't really help me finish. So, if any of you out there are keen on having any of the leftovers and are willing to come to me, you know who to call.

Also, today is FINALLY when I'm allowed to shop for groceries again. Hallelujah!

spinach breakfast salad

Don't get me wrong. I love breakfast foods. I love breakfast foods with a reverence and respect that is usually reserved for dudes with golden halos. Crispy almost-burned hash browns give me shivers. I am probably never going to procreate, lest I be tempted to trade my first-born for a perfectly browned pancake.

That being said, there is one drawback to the all-American breakfast. Once you're done with your Denny's slammer breakfast of pancakes, sausages, eggs, biscuits and gravy, all dunked liberally in butter, you're only prepared to do one thing: go back to bed.

Being as I had a manic day ahead of me, I didn't have the time to indulge in the wonderful world of breakfast. What I did have, however, was a bag filled with freezer-burned vegetarian sausage patties, some spinach that was on the verge of wiltage, and an assortment of random vegetables.

So, in the spirit of experimentation, extreme hunger, and low expectations (I should have thought to snap a "before" picture of the sausage patties - they were in pretty sad shape) - I threw it all together. And it was delicious! So delicious, in fact, that I tried making it again, this time with a freshly opened package of veggie sausage. And guess what? It wasn't as good. The excess water that came from the melted freezerburn actually resulted in the creation of some meatlike gravy that became the perfect substitute for salad dressing. No olive oil required. So file this one away as a recipe to salvage the saddest foods.

Spinach Breakfast Salad

INGREDIENTS

2 cups spinach, chopped


1/4 cup carrots, preferably shredded (I only had baby carrots)

3 stalks of green onions

1 tomato

5 sausage patties, with freezerburn (I used Morning Glory veggie sausage, but can obviously be of the Real Meat variety as well)

Salt and pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

Cook sausage on medium heat until brown. Remove, leaving liquid in pan.

Chop all vegetables and sausage. Throw all the veggies into the pan, and toss to coat.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

So yeah. Not the fanciest of recipes. But, I think the advertising euphemism would be, 'easy'. Takes ten minutes to make, tops. And let's face it, when was the last time that you've ever seen a recipe that called for x recipe, freezerburned? Yeah. Didn't think so.

p.s; sorry for the dearth in posts. am actually cooking quite a lot, but haven't had the time to update. will be catching up, today and tomorrow!

rum balls

I was not having a good day.

Sunday, (that is, yesterday), I woke up late. Normally, this would not be a big deal, all things considered. Though I'm notorious for cramming my schedule to the brim with various obligations, I consider my Lazy Sundays to be sacred, serious business.

Except for this Sunday, which was, non-coincidentally, the day before the first day of winter quarter. This is also normally not a big deal. One of the many perks of being an art student is, well...work is play. There are no tests, no menial assignments, no group activities that inevitably require spending far too much time in the vicinity of the Axe-wearing population. Wait, did I say 'wearing'? I actually meant, 'drenched'. In fact, just working on my thesis work these past couple of quarters has, in effect, totally divorced me from the academic life cycle of the typical college student. Until I decided to start and finish a minor in two quarters.

On this Sunday, I not only needed to order textbooks (because, oops, forgot that Real college classes require those), and try to remember what it's like to be an actual college student - I also had signed up to make dinner for friends. Eight friends. It wasn't until after the invitations had been haphazardly issued that I realized: my apartment doesn't even have eight chairs. However, what it lacked in furniture, it compensated for in filthiness (a combined effort from: my propensity for cooking complicated meals, evenings that often result an impressive volume of recyclables, and a cooperative laziness in that whole "taking-out-the-trash" activity that I hear that mature, grown-up people do sometimes).

Needless to say, there were about five or six full trips worth of trash and recyclables to take out. In my slightly deranged haste, I forgot my keys on the kitchen table when I took out the first load.

Of course, the "oh shit" moment of realization dawned on me right when the deadbolt was clicking into place. I panicked. Not only was my roommate at work, I also didn't have my wallet. Or a coat. So I did the only thing that I could have done, given the circumstances. I took out the damn trash.

On my way back in, I frantically flagged down my sassy neighbor to see whether she had my building manager's phone number. I was positive that she would, given that she's the type to hang out on her balcony to put the drivers of illegal parked cars in their place. So I fully expected that she would be able to help me out. What I was not expecting was for her to point towards the floor above us (we have an open courtyard layout), and say, "Oh. Joe? He's right there."

I wish I was joking when I confess that Handel's Messiah actually starts playing in my head when this happens. Looking up, I behold the first glorious sight of my grizzled, bandanna-wearing landlord waving with his epic ring of keys - one of which could let me back inside my warm (slightly less smelly) apartment!

I was so giddy with relief (and harried, as I still had a mess of an apartment to contend with, and a meal to make), and so preoccupied with entertaining thoughts of what I would have done had Joe not been conveniently to the rescue that - I did it again.

Now, this was not my proudest moment. But, I figured, I had just seen Joe. It would be embarrassing to come crawling back to his apartment, but it wouldn't be beneath me. So, I ashamedly went up and timidly knocked on his door. Then waited awhile. Then, thinking that perhaps I had knocked too softly, knocked again. Then waited some more.

When it became clear that he wasn't home, I contemplated my options. And by options, I mean "trying to finagle the screen out of the only outfacing window to our apartment". Only thing was, in my hurry, I miscounted the windows. A pertinent point that becomes clear minutes later, as my neighbor judo-death-chops his hand through the venetian blinds to give me the stank-eye. Just as I am getting the screen off his window. To his apartment. Once we both get over nearly pooping ourselves in surprise, he turned out to be a pretty nice guy. A pretty nice guy who also happened to have Joe's phone number on his fridge.

So, a quick call and an hour and a half later, I was back. In my warm, even less smelly apartment. And I really could have used a drink. But, as I had been up for less than two hours (1.5 of those which were spent waiting to be let back in), I decided that making these would probably be better form. And hot diggity, what a great decision that was.

Rum Balls
[only slightly tweaked from Everyone Likes Sandwiches]

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups pecans
• 2 1/2 cups vanilla cookies
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
• 4 tablespoons molasses
• 1/2 cup amber rum

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Toss pecans on a baking sheet, for about 10 minutes, or until you can smell them. Cool, and chop coarsely.

While pecans are toasting, crush the cookies into mostly powder.

In a large bowl, combine chopped pecans, cookies, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa.

Add the molasses and rum, and mix well.

Try not to nip from the bottle.

Chill for at least 1 hour.

Try not to eat the dough.

Roll mixture into bite-size balls and roll in powdered sugar.

They were perfect. Smashing helpless cookies to smithereens with a blunt object? Great outlet for pent-up frustration. No baking required, which was particularly helpful in my current state of mind. Bite-sized, and an easy candy alternative. Oh, and did I mention that they pack a bit of a punch?


Good thing I made a double batch. More than enough for me, and apology gifts for my next door neighbor and building manager. Everyone wins!