The Village Vegan

2009-05-09T03:42:00.001+02:00

Hello again!

Can you believe that 5-min lunch photo from a year ago was more or less the last food photo I took? Don't know what happened there!

Anyway, I'm graduating next week, and hopefully I'll have more time to spend resuscitating my blog thereafter! I still read all of your lovely blogs, though commenting seems be another thing I've let go by the wayside...

The five-minute lunch

2008-03-06T13:34:00.004+01:00

This is what I had for lunch today. Leftover brown rice, chopped little gem lettuce, leftover caramelized lemongrass tofu, mandarin orange segments, and sesame-soy dressing.

Pretty good for 5 minutes, right?

Normally I make a big batch of hummus on Sunday, and have that for lunches throughout the week. But I decided to change things up a bit this week, and I made a batch of caramelized lemongrass tofu instead. It keeps beautifully in the fridge-- I actually prefer the toothsome texture of cold tofu to the squishy one of warm tofu-- and I've been putting into pho and rice noodles salads and now this for lunch.

What did you have for lunch? Leave me a comment and let me know!

P.S. Thank you all for your comments on my "why veganism?" post. I'll address that topic again sometime soon!

100: the best chewy oatmeal raisin cookies ever

2008-02-29T16:26:00.002+01:00

So, I wasn't going to blog today. I'm tired, it's raining, the pictures wouldn't come out right...but then I realized that it's the 29th of February, and I won't have the chance to blog on this day for 4 years. Plus, I made the best, chewiest oatmeal cookies I've ever had, and if that doesn't deserve some sort of mention, then I don't know what does!

Oatmeal cookies are my favorite kind of everyday cookie, as long as their chewy. I've tried so many recipes, and none of them have ever really come out right. I spotted this recipe from Nick Malgieri via David Lebovitz's website a while ago, and I knew I wanted to try it. First, because it's David Lebovitz and his blog is totally cool, and oh yeah, his recipes ain't bad either. And he says they're chewy. And the whole batch only has 2tbsp of fat! Most oatmeal cookie recipes call for 1 cup of butter!

Well, I was not disappointed. These are as chewy and delicious as any I've ever had. There's no way anyone would ever guess that they're actually (sort of) healthy. The search for the best oatmeal cookie is over!

I made these as written, with the substituion of a little flax for the egg. (Sorry, David. It's not like I substituted tofu for the oats or anything!)

And oh yeah, this is my 100th post!

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (makes 24)

1 cup flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons margarine, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
substitute for 1 large egg
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 cup dark raisins (or dried cranberries)

2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper, foil, or silicone mats

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and set the rack on the lower and upper thirds of the oven.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and granulated sugar until smooth. Mix in the brown sugar, then the egg, applesauce, and vanilla.

4. Stir in the dry ingredients, then the oats and raisins.

5. Drop the batter by rounded tablespoons 2-inches apart on the baking sheets and use a fork to gently flatten the dough.

6. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they "look dull on the surface but are moist and soft". Rotate baking sheets during baking for even heating.

Don't bake them until they look golden brown. Really! Resist temptation!! Take them out of the oven as soon as they look slightly blond and are no long wet on the top. Otherwise you'll have crunchy oatmeal cookies. Blech.

Storage: Once cool, store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

Red Pepper Soup with Sumac, Basil, and Lemon Yoghurt

2008-02-26T19:40:00.007+01:00

Mmm, caramelized peppers and onions. I never used to like bell peppers, but a few weeks ago I realized that cooking them slowly over low heat until they're golden and caramelized and meltingly sweet turns them into something all together wonderful. Since then, my kitchen has been seeing lots of bell peppers.

This lovely, light soup comes from Suzanne Goin's Sunday Suppers at Lucques (highly recommended!). She instructs you to chill the soup, but I didn't. It was delicious hot, but it would also be nice cold as a light starter for a late summer or an autumn meal. The red peppers are a nice change of pace from tomato-based soups. If you'd like to make this a bit heartier, I think that navy beans or those big, white broad beans would be a good choice.

Don't forget to add the sumac and basil-- they really make the soup! I also added a little bit of tahini to the yoghurt, because I don't exactly dig soy yoghurt.

Red Pepper Soup with Sumac, Basil, and Lemon Yoghurt (serves 4 as a starter or light lunch)

Olive oil
1 small sprig rosemary
1 chile de arbol, crumbled (I used crushed red pepper)
2 cups diced onion
1 tbsp thyme leaves (or 1 tsp dry)
1 3/4 lbs red bell peppers
2 tsp ground sumac
1/4 tsp granulated sugar
1 cup (soy) yoghurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp sliced basil
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Heat a large pot over high heat for 2 minutes. Add some olive oil, the rosemary, and the chile. Let them sizzle a minute or so, then add the onion, thyme, 1tsp salt, and a good dose of pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook about 10 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is soft, translucent, and starting to color.

While the onion is cooking, cut the peppers in half lengthwise, throught the stems, Use a pring knife to remove the stems, seeds, and membranes. Cut the peppers into rough 1-inch pieces.

Rase the heat back to hight, and add the peppers, 1 tsp sumac, sugar, 1 tbsp salt and more freshly ground black pepper. Saute for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until the peppers start to caramelize slightly.

Add 6 cups water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low, and simmer about 30 minutes, until the peppers are cooked through and tender but not mushy.

Puree the soup (I used an imersion blender).

Meanwhile, stir the yoghurt, lemon juice, and 1/4 tsp salt together.

Garnish the soup with dollops of yoghurt, a sprinkling of sumac, and the basil.

Stuff.

2008-02-19T15:38:00.004+01:00

I think I'm happier as a vegetarian than as a vegan.

At any rate, I could NEVER even think about eating meat, but it's pretty easy for me to think about eating dairy. (Actually, I've had dairy on several occasions since I started this blog and my vegan diet last year.)

But just writing that made me feel horrible and guilty.

Ugh.

(Edit: I should probably write up a whole post about this, because it's been something I've been thinking about for a while. But the guilty part doesn't have to do with other people or what they think. It's just that I think that veganism is probably better for the environment (which was actually my primary reason for the vegan diet) and, of course, for the animals, which has become more important to me as time goes on. But I still really want to eat cheese from time to time. Not a lot of it, not every day, but sometimes-- yes. I feel like this is a case of "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak". Hence the guilt.)

Swedish Cinnamon Rolls

2008-02-11T17:31:00.001+01:00

Cinnamon rolls are one of my favorite sweet treets. I've been looking for the perfect cinnamon roll for a long time. (These are fantastic, but sometimes you just want a plain cinnamon roll, you know?)

Well, I found it.

These Swedish cinnamon rolls (Kanelbullar) are perfect. Which is to be expected, since cinnamon rolls are somewhat of a national obsession in Sweden-- they've even got a national Cinnamon Roll Day (Oct. 4th.) They're very light, and not as sweet and heavy as typical American cinnamon rolls. There's a hint of cardamom in the dough, and-- very important for their authenticity-- they're baked individually in muffin wrappers and topped with pearl sugar. Think of them as a more elegant version of their American counterparts.

Anyway, here's the recipe. I hope you'll try it! (And yes, the really do only take 10 minutes to bake.)

Swedish Cinnamon Rolls (makes 12)

18 g fresh yeast (or 2 tsp dry-- but fresh yeast is so much better!)
2/3 cup (soy) milk, warmed
2 tbsp yoghurt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup margarine, in small pieces

Crumble the yeast into a bowl. Mix in the warm milk, and stir to dissolve the yeast. Add the remaining ingredients, and knead for about 10 minutes, until a smooth, soft dough has formed. Cover and let rise for 30 or so minutes, until doubled in size.

Make the filling by mixing together:
2 tbsp margarine, softened
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

Put 12 muffin papers on a baking sheet. Roll the dough into a 12x10 in rectangle. Spread the filling over the dough. Roll the dough up starting from the long side, and cut into 12 1'' slices. Place each slice in a muffin paper. Cover and let rise for 60 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Brush the cinnamon rolls with (soy) milk, and sprinkle with pearl sugar. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

hanging in there

2008-02-02T17:15:00.000+01:00

Hello again! Thank you so much for your suggestions about cooking and such. I finally got sick of a steady diet of pb, toast, and apples. This week many big salads full of whatever vegetables I could lay my hands on were consumed. Not the most creative cuisine ever, but it's much healthier than toast and pb!

Anyway, I made a sort of meal plan for the coming week, so now I HAVE to cook. It's not the healthiest stuff ever, but I have some vegetables to use up, and not much time this week. It's the last week of the semester here in Germany, and I have two exams. Then I have two months of no classes, but I'll have to write two papers (one 15pg, the other 25-- in German!) during this time. But I'll certainly have more time to cook.

And-- my daffodills!! Aren't they pretty? I bought them exactly two weeks ago for less than 2 Euros. They were about 10 cm tall, and just two weeks later, they're about 30cm and in bloom. Pretty nifty. They live on my windowsill. (That's the view from my window, the street where I live.)

Ok.

2008-01-20T14:36:00.000+01:00

Ok, guys. Help me out here. Ever since coming back from winter break, I've had no motivation to cook. None. Nada. Zip zap zero. What's going on here? Seriously, I made a huge pot of soup last week, and a stir fry a few days ago, and that's all the cooking I've done. I've been living off of bread and apples, and I'm kind of sick of it. Ok, I'm really sick of it. This is not like me at all-- I usually cook pretty well and semi-fancily-- and it's kind of upsetting to be eating store-bought bread 3x a day.

How do you get your cooking muse back when it's gone? Any cool recipes I should try out?

Thanks!

remembrances and resolution

2008-01-01T02:39:00.000+01:00

(Isn't "remembrance" such an official sounding word?)

In 2007, I...

...really became committed to vegetarianism (though I'd been vegetarian for 5 years)
....discovered food blogging
...became really interested in veganism
....started a vegan blog
...starting thinking about how my choices affect the environment
...got a wonderful internship at a first-teir national magazine and learned quite a lot
....worked 60 hours a week at 3 jobs in the summer
...realized how hard some people really have it
...had a summer with absolutely horrible moments, but some really nice ones too
...moved to Germany for my junior year abroad
....after looking forward to it for years ended up thoroughly hating the first few months
....then decided it wasn't perfect and wasn't exactly what I wanted, but why not enjoy it anyway?
...started learning another language (one that has a different alphabet and is written from right to left and that is totally impractical for me!)
...spent NYE at home sick!

In 2008, I plan to....

...do more for the environment
....travel to a new country in a new continent
...learn to take better pictures
...knit more
...more books, less internet
...listen to more new (for me) music
...eat healthily, insert usual resolutions here
...get another magazine internship
...try more new things that I think I won't like
...think about other people more
...do more things instead of just thinking about them

(I'll probably proptly forget about most of these plans, but oh well. It's 3 am and I'm sick, so I decided I'm allowed to post gratuitous, self-absorbed lists on my blog!)

2008

2008-01-01T01:22:00.000+01:00

2007. It came and now it's gone.

Happy New Year! Here's to hoping this is a peaceful, happy, healthful year for all of us. I know I'm excited to see what this year has in store.

Thank you so much for reading and commenting on my little blog over the past year. I've had lots of fun and I can't wait to see where my blog goes in the coming year. "Discovering" food blogs was definately one of the highlights of 2007 for me-- I've loved reading and learning from your blogs.

holiday cookies

2007-12-22T21:58:00.000+01:00

Hi! Remember me? I haven't been posting much, but I've definately been cooking...seven kinds of cookiies, to be precise. I feel like Martha Stewart or something.

Molasses crinkles, cantuccini, x cookies (my favorite!!), cornmeal-cherry cookies, peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate blocks (dark chocolate, cashews, apricots, and cranberries), and chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons.

Whew! (I've linked the the recipes I adapted from)

I think the tins looked really pretty.

See? This stuff is xxx, people!

Pumpkin-Black Bean-Chipotle Soup

2007-12-13T23:44:00.001+01:00

Ok, so it's not much of a looker, but this soup was good. Really good. If-I-ever-wrote-a-cookbook-this-would-be-in-there kind of good. You should try it!

I saw this post over at smitten kitchen, which made me want to try a pumpkin soup other than the coconut milk and red curry one I usually make. Deb describes her soup as "big, beefy, and bold", with toothsome chunks of ham. Well, obviously my soup isn't beefy or ham-filled, but I think it has a similar feel, though it tastes very different than the recipe that inspired it! It's thick and hearty and packed with flavour-- in this case, chipotle and cilantro, two of my very favourite flavours. I left some of the beans whole to give it a bit more texture.

I hope you'll give this recipe a try!

Pumpkin-Black Bean-Chipotle Soup (serves 4)

4 1/2 cups black beans (about three 15 1/2 ounce cans), rinsed and drained

1 15 1/2 ounce can whole tomatoes, fire roasted if you have them

1 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 cups chopped onion

2 garlic cloves minced

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tsp good chili powder

2 chipotle chiles in adobo, minced, with 2 tbsp of the adobo sauce

1 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper

4 cups vegetable broth

16-ounce can pumpkin pureé (about 1 1/2 cups)

3 to 4 tablespoons Sherry vinegar

1/2 cup of chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish

Coarsly pureé 3 1/2 cups of the beans and the tomatoes tomatoes.

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot heat the olive oil over moderate heat. Add the onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, and salt, and cook, stirring, until onion is softened and beginning to brown. Add the chipotle and adobo sauce and cook for another minute. Stir in the bean pureé. Stir in broth, and pumpkin until combined and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 25 minutes, or until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Just before serving, add the rest of the beans and vinegar and simmer soup, stirring, until heated through. Season soup with salt and freshly ground pepper. Add the chopped cilantro.

Serve soup garnished with cilantro sprigs.

Pumpkin challah

2007-12-04T14:49:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone. Happy December. I didn't mean to disappear for such a long time...so much for nablopomo. Oh well. At least I can say that I posted more in November than in any other month! Anyway, last week I was really busy writing a paper about metaphysics in German. It was really hard-- re-writing it in German was almost as hard as writing it in the first place-- which was kind of discouraging. Though to be fair, I don't use metaphysical German in my daily conversations.

Anyway, on to better things: pumpkin. I'm still working on using it up! I only have 3/4 cup or so left, which I think I'll eat for dinner. Thank you for your suggestions. I made pumpkin waffles, a really, really amazingly yummy pumpkin-black bean-chipotle soup (I'm definately posting the recipe for that) and this....pumpkin challah!

I'm so pleased with this bread. Pumpkin challah is a Sephardic challah, which I'd never made before. It's really good. It has the same texture as normal challah, but with a hint pumpkin-spice flavour. But it's not too sweet or overpoweringly spicy-- I had some today with baba ghanoush, for example, and it tasted great.

When I make challah, I always, always make a 6-strand braid. First of all, it looks much prettier than a 3-strand braid in my opinion, and it's really fun to braid. It also makes a higher loaf than a 3-strand braid does, which I like. I hope you won't be intimidated, and will try to make a 6-strand loaf, too! It's really easy. I know thoughts of having 6-strands tangled in front of you can seem dizzying, but there are only 4 steps, so it's not that hard. Just look at this diagram, print it out and have it in front of you, and you'll be all set. If you google, you can find lots and lots of videos on how to braid 6-strand challahs, too.

Anyway, the recipe. It's adapted from Maggie Glazer's A Blessing of Bread: The Many Rich Traditions of Jewish Bread Baking from Around the World.

Pumpkin Challah (makes 1 large loaf)

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground ginger
3 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup warm water
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup raw sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soy yoghurt

Mix the yeast in the warm water along with the spices and 2/3 cup of the flour. Let the mixture stand for 10-20 minutes. Whisk the sugar, salt, oil, yoghurt, and pumpkin in a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast sponge. Stir in about 2 cups of the remaining flour, then start incorporating the rest with your hands. You might need a bit more or a bit less. The dough should be soft but not too sticky. Knead for 10 minutes. Dough should be smooth. Place the dough in a clean, oiled bowl, cover, and let it rise in a warm place until it has tripled (2-3 hours).

Punch the dough down. On a lightly floured surface, cut it into 6 equal balls of dough. Roll each one into a rope about 3/4'' in diameter. Try to make the ends of the ropes taper. Braid into a 6-strand braid-- see link above. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and rise until at least doubled in size, about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Brush the loaves with soymilk, and bake then for 40-45 minutes, until they are deep golden brown and hollow when tapped on the bottom. Take them out of the oven and brush them again halfway during baking.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin.

2007-11-27T13:28:00.000+01:00

I was planning on making a pumpkin streusel cake for Thanksgiving, but then I ran out of time. Now I have lots and lots of roasted pumpkin to use up. (You can't buy pumpkin puree here.)

I've already make pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, and tonight I'm making a pumpkin-black bean-chipotle soup for dinner. I can't wait. But I still have half the pumpkin left!! Please please please leave me a comment with your favorite recipes using up lots of pumpkin!

The pumpkin bread, though. So good. I used Celine's recipe. I followed it almost exactly-- the only changes I made were decreasing the sugar to 2 tbsp and I using oil instead of margarine. This bread is great. It's a gorgeous shade of yellow, subtly pumpkin-flavored, and good with both sweet and savory spreads.

(I hate my oven, though. Actually, I don't have a proper oven, just an oversized toaster oven that heats only from the top. See how the top of the loaf is nice and risen, and the bottom is dense and un-risen? I suspect this is due to said oven, because this never happened when I made bread in a proper oven. It still tastes good, but it's annoying.)

Is this already old news?

2007-11-27T12:51:00.000+01:00

Hi. Have you all recovered from Thanksgiving craziness?

My Thanksgiving wasn't really a "real" Thanksgiving, but the food was pretty good nonetheless. I ended up making (you can assume I made appropriate substitutions if needed):

(Tasty. But brown.)

Radicchio salad with grilled pears (inspired by Sunday Suppers at Lucques)

Dried tomato stuffed mushrooms

Touch-of-Grace biscuits

Tart, spicy cherry chutney

Herbed cranberry-sourdough stuffing

Mashed potatoes with caramelized onion gravy

Glazed, roasted Brussles sprouts with apples and onions

Apple pie

It was pretty good.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T18:49:00.000+01:00

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you that celebrate it! I hope you're all having wonderful, food-and-fun filled days. Don't stress out about the food-- it will be delicious even if it isn't exactly like you might have planed. I can't wait to read your blogs and see what you've made.

Today isn't a holiday here, of course, so I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday. (That means that I'll get to peek at your menus beforehand, and make last minute changes to mine if the inspiration strikes! Right now my big dillema is, David Lebovitz's amazing, most requested ginger cake, or Lucque's pumpkin streusel cake. Hmmm.)

There are so many things I am thankful for...not the least of which is the very dilema I just mentioned. I know I sometimes forget what a priviledge it is to have the luxury of ample food and, indeed, so many choices I don't know what to make!

waffling around

2007-11-21T16:26:00.000+01:00

Posting every day for the entire month of November?? What was I thinking? For the last few days I've been eating but not really cooking, and no one wants to hear about endless pieces of bread with hummus or strange salads composed of things I found lurking in the back of the vegetable drawer.

Today, though, I was walking home from class and thinking about breakfast (I have class every day at 8:15 am, and I don't like eating beforehand) and I realized I hadn't told you about my favorite waffles. Since, of course, I need a picture of the waffles, this was a perfect excuse to make and eat said waffles.

Will you believe it when I tell you that, until a month ago, I'd never made waffles and eaten them probably three times in my life? I don't have a waffle maker at home, or funds or space to obtain one, but one of my roomate here does. A few weeks ago my other roomate asked me to make waffles, which, of course, I gladly agreed to. Lolo to the rescue! I made these, minus the blueberries, and my roomates kept gushing on and on about them and wouldn't believe me when I said they didn't have eggs or milk.

Since then I've been making waffles about once a week, and I'm using a variation of lolo's recipe-- it's basically the same, just healthified a bit. I think I'll experiment with pumpkin waffles next!

My favorite way to eat these is with a sprinkle of sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Waffles (makes approx. 6-- serves 2)

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 Tbsp sugar

7 Tbsp soy yoghurt, any flavour (I use plain)

2/3 cup soy milk

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp oil

Begin preheating your waffle iron. Combine the dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Whisk the wet ingredients together, then fold them into the dry ingredients, using as few strokes as possible. Grease your waffle iron, and then waffle away!

If you want to make these ahead of time, cook them until they're slightly less brown then you'd like, then freeze them. Reheat them in a toaster for a quick and delicious breakfast.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-18T13:28:00.001+01:00

I love Thanksgiving. I think it's probably one of my favorite holidays. It's not as stressful as Christmas, and I love Thanksgiving food. Stuffing...pumpkins...apple pie. Yum! I know that a turkey is usually the star of the Thanksgiving table, and obviously I wish people wouldn't be eating turkey, but I know most people don't share my opinion and I don't expect people to ditch the turkey just because I of me. I just take more of the yummy side dishes.

Anyway, I've been planning my Thanksgiving menu for far to long. Thanksgiving isn't a holiday in Germany, of course, so it will just be me and one or two friends. And we'll be eating on Sunday, not Thursday, but oh well.

This is what I think I'll make:

Green salad with balsamic vinaigrette and dried cranberries OR beets with roasted chickpeas and a dijon vinaigrette

Roasted garlic mashed potatoes
Stuffing
Stuffed mushrooms
Roasted, balsamic-glazed Brussles sprouts with apples and onions
Cherry relish (can't get cranberries here)
Caramelized onion gravy

Pumpkin Streusel Cake from Sunday Suppers at Lucques
Apple pie, if I can be bothered

Ok, so I need your opinions: which salad do you think I should make? And, I know this is enough food, but do you think it will be "satisfying" since there really isn't a main dish? Let me know! And tell me what you're making for Thanksgiving!

Mrs. Badmouth's Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls...

2007-11-18T13:12:00.001+01:00

...are really, really, really good. Do yourself a favour and go make them now! I follwed the recipe exactly, except for the glaze: I mixed tofu cream cheese with pumpkin butter and used that instead of a powdered sugar glaze.

(Excuse the bad pictures...it was dark by the time I finished these.)

Groan.

2007-11-16T07:54:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I really think that professors assign homework for their own amusement. (Bazu, is this true?) For example, in one of my classes today the teacher was giving out the homework assignments. Then he paused, smirked, and said, "And your last assignment is to write a fax to the Wailing Wall, i.e. to G-d" (in Hebrew). Then, when the whole class said, "oh no" all at once he just sort of laughed. How do teachers even think of these things? I guess it's more fun to correct than grammar exercises.

Anyway.

I'm always discovering wonderful new (at least new to me) blogs, and I thought I'd share some of my newest favorites tonight. Check them out if you haven't already. I hope you'll find some new favourites of your own, too! What are your favorite blogs?

Arabic Bites -- a wonderful blog about Arabic/Middle Eastern food, by sisters who live in the Arabic Gulf

My Mom's Recipes and More -- tasty home cooking, all the way from Israel!

Smitten Kitchen -- where to even start? All beautiful, all delicious, all the time. Really. Incredible.

Vegan Visitor -- this is the most beautiful vegan blog I've ever seen. I'm surprised it isn't more well-known, because it totally deserves to be!

Shutterbean -- just too cute. And delicious and crafty, too. Plus, she loves Trader Joe's as much as I do!

simple apple yogurt cake

2007-11-15T12:16:00.000+01:00

I've never been the kind of person who had to polish off a bag of chips all at once, or who couldn't stop until they'd eaten the whole batch of cookies, but this cake was really, really hard for me to stop eating. It's so simple and so good, and you probably already have everything in your pantry, so it's perfect for cake-necessitating emergencies. Because I know you have these kinds of emergencies all the time, right?

This is a lightly spiced apple cake-- really, the apples are the star-- that was inspired by this post at La Tartine Gourmande.

Simplest Apple Yogurt Cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 cups sugar
2/3 cups plain soy yogurt
1/3 cup oil
2 tbsp apple sauce
1/4 cup apple juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
2 tbsp raisins
1 tbsp boiling water
1 tbsp rum

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease an 8" or 9" springform pan. Put the raisins in a small bowl, and add the boiling water and rum

Mix the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. In another bowl mix the wet ingredients. Add the we ingredients to the dry and fold with a rubber spatula, until they are almost mixed, about 3 strokes. Add the apples and fold a few times to distribute the apples evenly.

Spread the thick, apple-filled batter in the prepared pan. Sprinkle the soaked raisins on the top of the cake, and bake for 40 minutes, or until a tooth pick comes out without clumps of raw batter on it.

Enjoy!

snack time

2007-11-13T11:59:00.000+01:00

Snack time! Aren't these apple slices beautiful? To be honest, apples and peanut butter isn't one of my favorite snacks-- I far prefer salty to sweet-- but it's fast and, at the moment, mostly-seasonal.

What are your favorite snacks? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Chocolate Bread

2007-11-12T21:30:00.000+01:00

Finally, a real recipe! This is one I highly recommend. It tastes a lot better than the photos look, really, I promise.

I've been having the biggest craving for chocolate bread for quite a while. And not just any chocolate bread. Specifically, a yeasted, not-too-sweet chocolate bread with a tender, fine crumb and a very dark-chocolate taste. I'm not really sure why, because I don't think I'd ever had a bread like this before. But, you know, cravings are your body's way of telling you what it needs (ha!), and they are not to be ignored. Especially not when they are for delicious things like chocolate. So chocolate bread it would be.

Of course I couldn't find a recipe for the bread I wanted. I did find one that looked somewhat close, a recipe for Balthazar's chocolate bread. So my recipe is a very loose interpretation of their recipe.

And it was really, really good.

This is a slow rise bread, which gives it a really great, almost brioche-like texture. But please don't let that scare you! It really isn't any more difficult than an ordinary bread. I promise.

Oh, and if the mention of "chocolate" wasn't enough to convince you...this tasted really, really chocolatey, and as far as chocolate goes, it was actually pretty innocent calorie-wise. And you can let it rise in the fridge over night, and just pop in in the oven when you wake up in the morning. Thirty minutes later you'll be enjoying a piece of warm, tender chocolate bread, studded with little pockets of melted chocolate. Yum.

Ok, enough with this restaurant-menu description stuff. Get cooking!

(Oh, and it really is important to use good quality chocolate, and for the chocolate to be chopped, not in chip form! )

Chocolate Bread

Starter:
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1/8th tsp yeast

Mix all ingredients and let them sit at room temperature for 6 hours. The mixture should be bubbly and have expanded somewhat.

Dough:
the starter
approx. 2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
6 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
scant 1 cup lukewarm water
2 tbsp margerine, cut into small pieces
4 oz. 70% chocolate, chopped
optional: 1/2 cup dried cranberries or diced dried apricots
turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top of the bread

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Put the starter and all dry ingredients through salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast water and begin to knead, either in the bowl if it's large enough or on a board lightly dusted with flour. Sprinkle on the margarine pieces, and knead them in. Knead for 10 minutes. Just before the dough is done, sprinkle on the chocolate chunks (and dried fruit, if using) and knead them into the dough.

Cover the dough with a cloth or plastic wrap and let rise for until doubled in size, about 3 hours.

Now shape the bread. Line a baking sheet with parchement. Gently punch down the dough and cut it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a smooth, round roll. Place the rolls into the pan. It's fine if they are touching a bit.

You could also bake this as a boule, or you could bake it in two small, greased loaf pans.

At this point you can either let the dough rise for 2 hours at room temperature, or you can cover it and let it rise in the fridge over night. Just let it sit out at room temperature while the oven preheats the next morning if you do that.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Brush the dough with soy milk and and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Reduce oven to 350 degrees. Bake until the bread has a slightly hollow sound when you tap tops with your finger, 40-45 minutes. Turn the bread out of the pan, and put it on a wire rack; let cool completely. Wrap tightly in plastic and store up to 3 days or freeze up to 1 month

six weeks ago

2007-11-11T16:39:00.000+01:00

Brunch

2007-11-10T23:05:00.000+01:00

Isn't brunch a wonderful invention? Sure, I know, it was probably invented for commerical reasons, but still. It's so nice that for two days of the week other people finally understand that it's ok to eat "not-breakfast" foods for breakfast! Or that it's ok to have your eggs (in this case, scrambled tofu) at 3pm if that's the way you roll. Every coupe of weeks New York Magazine does 21 question interviews with interesting/semi-famous New Yorkers, and one of the questions is "Brunch: pro or con?". I just don't get the con-sayers.

Anyway, this is what I had for brunch today: home fries, guacamole, mushrooms, tomotoes, and rolls. Not pictured are the waffles and the chocolate cranberry bread (though I think that last one might be making an appearance here tomorrow...just sayin'.)

Yum.

I hadn't had home fries in forever, and they really hit the spot this morning. And isn't home fries a great word? Home fries. It has such a nice sound. (But what's the difference between home fries and oven fries? Two minutes of googling seemed to reveal that home fries are often not fry shaped and sometimes cooking in a skillet, while oven fries are usually baked. But home fries sounds so much better, so these are definately home fries.)

I'm sure you wanted to read all of that.

Spicy Herbed Home Fries

3 large potatoes

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp hungarian paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp dried thyme

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1/4'' slabs. Cut each slab vertically into 1/4'' slices, so that the potatoes end up looking like, you know, fries. Mix the potato with the remaining ingredients, and spread them in a single layer on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cooked and crispy.

Simple Couscous Salad

2007-11-09T21:09:00.000+01:00

I made this salad for lunch a couple of days ago. It was simple, fresh, and healthy. It's not fancy, but it really hit the spot. I could also see this making a really good appetizer in those endive leaf "boats".

Mediterranean Couscous Salad (serves 2)

1 cup couscous

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 cucumber, sliced

2 tomatoes, diced

1/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved

4 green onions, trimmed and thinly sliced

2 roasted red peppers, sliced

1 spicy chili, sliced (optional)

1/2 cup "protein" (e.g. leftover marinated tofu), if desired

sea salt and pepper

lemon juice

olive oil

Bring the vegetable broth to a boil. Add the couscous, cover, and turn the heat down to low. Simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let the pot sit, covered, for 5 minutes. Uncover, fluff the couscous with a fork, turn into a bowl and let cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables-- trim them and slice them into bite sized pieces. When the couscous has cooled, add the vegetables and salt and pepper to taste (start with 1/2 tsp salt). Juice lemons into the salad and add some olive oil to form a dressing. I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but it really depends on how juicy and sour your lemons are. I would say you could start with the juice of 1 1/2 lemons and 1 tbsp of olive oil, and adjust to your personal taste from there.

Enjoy!

boring. ignore.

2007-11-08T23:25:00.000+01:00

I think I was a little bit crazy to sign up for this NabloPoMo veganmofo thing.

I am sick and tomorrow I have a test.

I hope I'll be back with something more interesting soon!

The End.

Petits pains à l’ail et au persil

2007-11-07T11:09:00.000+01:00

When I was younger and people would invite my family over for dinner, it felt like we always had the same thing to eat: spaghetti with marinara sauce (from a jar), green salad with Italian dressing (from a bottle), and garlic bread (with garlic powder and Kraft parmesan cheese). Now, of course it was lovely to be invited over to dinner, and of course we're very lucky to have food at all, so I'm really not complaining about that, but....well, you catch my drift. We've all experienced foods we're not so fond of, right?

Anyway, maybe because of this, I don't make garlic bread very often. I love bread and I like garlic, so this is the only explanation I can thing of.

Now, forget about this horrible excuse for garlic bread. Imagine a tender, homemade white bread, spread with a butter flavored with fresh herbs and garlic. Imagine that the bread is folded around this butter to create flaky, flavorful layers. Now we're talking.

I've been eyeing this recipe for a while, and today I ran out of bread and had all the ingredients to make this garlic bread. And boy am I glad that I did! You should make this right now, it's that good. Thanks, Fanny! (By the way, check out her website...Fanny aspires to be a pastry chef, and you can tell that she's well on her way by the wonderful creations she produces!)

I hardly changed the recipe, but I'll post it here with grams converted into cups since most American kitchens don't have a scale.

Small Garlic and Parsley Breads (makes 4 petite, individually-sized breads)

1 1/4 tsp dry yeast or 7 g fresh yeast
1 cup warm water
pinch sugar
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
herbed "butter" (below)

Mix the yeast with the water and the sugar, and let it sit for a few minutes. The top should be foamy. Whisk the flour and salt together in a mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture and knead for 10 minutes, until you have a smooth, firm dough. Cover with a cloth and let rise for 1.5 hours. When the dough has risen, gently deflate it and divide it into 4 portions. Proceed with rolling and folding as outlined here.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Let the breads rise for 45 minutes, then bake for about 25 minutes, until golden brown.

Herbed Butter

1 bunch parsley, minced (or a mix of herbs)
6 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp margerine, softened

Mix all ingredients together.

Turkish Dolmas

2007-11-06T23:02:00.000+01:00

Well, I was going to post about something really yummy that I made today...but that will have to wait until tomorrow because it deserves a photo in natural light. Sorry! But I was looking through some old pictures, and I can't believe I never showed you these really tasty Turkish dolmas I made in July. They were filled with a spiced rice-currant-pine nut filling, just like at the Turkish restaurant where I used to work.

Ok, boring post, I know. I'll be back tomorrow, though!

radish stirfry

2007-11-05T11:42:00.000+01:00

All appearances to the contrary, I didn't have brown and magenta sludge for dinner, really, I didn't!

What do you make for dinner when basically all you have in your fridge is a huge bunch of radishes and scallions? Radish and scallion stirfry! I never would have thought of stirfrying radishes-- or cooking them at all, actually-- but then last spring I was at the Union Square Greenmarket, and someone was passing out samples of radish stirfry. It was pretty good-- but I like my version, which I topped topped with a tangy, citrus-y peanut sauce. The soy sauce that I have here is very, very brown and syrup-y, and sadly it makes everything I put it in quite brown. But this is really a good recipe, I promise!!

Peanut sauce isn't exactly the best thing for you, but it's really quick and flavourful, and it can't hurt that much if you only have it once in a while, can it? And it keeps in the fridge for a couple days, and it's great with rice noodles or tofu for a quick supper. Yum!

Peanut Sauce

1/4 cup natural peanut butter

1/4 cup water, vegetable broth, or coconut milk

1 tbsp soy sauce

juice of half a lime

1 clove of garlic, smashed

1 thai chili, minced, or less, if you don't like spicy foods

grated ginger, to taste

1 1/2 tsp brown sugar

Blend all ingredients together until smooth.

Banana-Coconut Bread

2007-11-04T12:52:00.000+01:00

I've been wanting banana bread for a long time. I don't really know why-- normally I don't even like bananas, but banana bread has been sounding really good. So I bought bananas last week, and they were finally ripe enough for bread today. Then, of course, I had to decide on a recipe. There are thousands of recipes for banana bread out there! I ended up settling for one from a cookbook by my absolute favourite cookbook authors, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. I know I've written about them before, but really, all of their cookbooks are amazing! They don't focus on a specific country, but rather flavours: home baking, flatbreads, rice... Most of the recipes are from Asia, though, and the books are part cookbook, part travel guide, and part beautiful photography. I've liked every recipe I've ever made from one of ther books.

Anyway, banana-coconut bread it was. With a hint of rum and a crackly demerara sugar crust. Yum.

Banana-Coconut Bread (makes 1 loaf)
adapted from HomeBaking: the Artful Mix of Flour and Traditions from Around the World

3 large, over-ripe bananas
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
4 ounces margerine, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp vinegar (I used apple cider)
2 tbsp dark rum
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
demerara or other coarse, raw sugar for sprinkling on top

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. and butter a loaf pan. Whisk the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt together in a small bowl. In a medium bowl, cream the "butter" and sugar for several minutes. Add the rum and vinegar and mix for another minute. Starting with the banana mixture, add the banana and flour mixtures alternately, about a cup at a time. Do not over mix. When the last cup of flour is barely incorporated, use a spatula to fold the coconut in using several swift strokes. Scrape the thick batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and sprinkle the top generously and evenly with the demerara sugar.

Bake for 50-65 minutes, until the top is golden and a tooth pick comes out cleanly. A 9x5 loaf pan will take less time to bake than an 8x4 pan.

Enjoy!

veganmofo: CHEWY Double-Chocolate Cookies

2007-11-03T00:30:00.000+01:00

Every day for a the month of November I'm going to write a post a day about something related to food as part of the Vegan Month of Food project. Ok, I'm starting 3 days late, but do we really have to talk about that?

Anyway, for my first post I give you chewy double-chocolate cookies. These were really chewey, really chocolatey, and really, really good. I'm not going to tell you how many I ate tonight. Ok, four. And two at breakfast. But we don't have to talk about that either, do we?

The recipe is from Orangette. I made the obvious substitutions: margerine for butter and plain soy yogurt for the dairy yogurt. And I used 1/2 a cup of white sugar instead of 2/3rds, but otherwise I followed the recipe exactly.

Festive Fall Salads, part 1

2007-10-30T20:42:00.000+01:00

On Sunday the clocks went back an hour in Europe. I like fall, but I'm still getting used to darkness at 5pm. I never eat before 7pm, so I guess I'll just have to accept the fact that I'm going to have horrible, blurry, unnaturally lit food photos until March. Oh well.

Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about was salads.

Just because it's fall doesn't mean you have to give up interesting salads until spring rolls around. No. Fall salads are just as fun and flavourful as summer salads. And no, I'm not talking about cabbage and potato salads! There are so many wonderful fall fruits and vegetables that are just begging to be put into salads....apples, pears, cranberries, squash, chicory, pomegranates, citrus....

Anyway, for dinner tonight I had a tasty and colourful salad of mache, pears, and chickpeas with a pomegranate-green olive dressing. Yummy. I used mache because it's ridiculously cheap in Germany, but red leaf lettuce works beautifully too.

This combination of vegetables also works really well with dried cranberries and a balsamic vinaigrette.

I don't believe in measuring vegetables for salads, so I'll just give you approximations, because you should be experimenting with festive fall salads, too!

Mache, Pear and Chickpea Salad with Pomegranate-Green Olive Dressing

Mache - several large handfuls per person

Chickpeas - about 1 cup cooked chickpeas per person

Green olives with pimento - 10-12 olives per person

Pear - one small pear per person

Red onion

Other vegetables as desired - I used cucumber because I had to use some up

Pomegranate Dressing (recipe follows)

First things first: wash and dry the mache. Peel, core, and slice the pear. Slice the olives, red onion, and other vegetables, if using. In a large bowl toss the mache (only!) with most of the dressing. Put the dressed salad on dinner plates. Spread the chickpeas over the middle of the salad. Arrange the other ingredients on top, and drizzle with the remaining dressing. Enjoy!

Pomegranate-Green Olive Dressing

pomegranate molasses - about 2 tbsp

juice from the green olives - about 3 tbsp

water - about 2 tbsp

olive oil - about 2 tbsp

Mix all ingredients, adjusting to taste. You could also use unsweetened pomegranate juice instead of the pomegranate molasses and water.

Weekend Eats

2007-10-21T19:19:00.000+02:00

Well, some of them.

Cherry-Apple-Cardamom Roll

Mache Salad with Pink Grapefruit, Avocado, and Red Onion. So good!!

BBQ Pomegranate Tofu from Vegan With a Vengeance

It's Apple Pie Season!

2007-10-18T12:45:00.001+02:00

One of the nicest things about autumn (besides colorful leaves and hot apple cider and all that stuff) is that suddenly you WANT to turn on your oven and start baking again. And apples are cheap (well, in Germany they aren't, but that's another story) and pies are fun, so...apple pie.

This pie crust is easy and really, really good. Flaky. Earth Balance softens much faster than dairy butter, so if you use EB you really have to keep it cold. Cut it up first and put it in the freezer until you need it. I'm not kidding.

I like my apple pies to taste like apples, so I used a lot less sugar than most recipes. Feel free to increase if you like, but I have a feeling that if you use really flavorful apples you won't need to. I used a mix of granny smith and jonagolds. But you can use whatever you like-- just not red delicious, please!

For a really excellent tutorial (with pictures) on how to roll out pie crusts, please click here.

Apple Pie (makes 1 9" pie)

Crust:
2 cups flour
2/3 cup Earth Balance, cut into small cubes, and very very cold (I think I used 1/2 cup and it was still great)
pinch of salt
up to 1/2 cup ice water
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Mix the flour with the salt. Working quickly, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like coarse cornmeal with some larger chunks of butter still left. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the vinegar and some of the water. Swiftly mix the water into the flour (I use a fork and then my hands) until it is just moistened. You don't want a gloopy dough-- some crumbly bits are quite ok. Divide the dough into two parts. Flatten each one into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for at least an hour.

When you are ready to proceed, turn your oven on to 400 F, and prepare the filling:

7 baking apples
1/4 cup brown/turbinado sugar
3 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Soymilk and more turbinado sugar for brushing the pie

Core, peel and slice the apples into 1/4" slices. Combine with the remaining ingredients.

Roll one of the dough disks into a circle large enough to fit the bottom of the pie pan. Place the dough in the bottom of the pan. Don't add the filling yet. Roll the second disk into another circle. Now you can add the filling. Place the second dough circle on top of the pie, and crimp the crusts together. Cut a few artistic slashes in the top of the pie, then brush with the soymilk and sprinkle with the sugar.

Bake for 60 - 70 minutes. You'll probably need to cover the crust with foil to prevent it from getting too brown at some point, so keep an eye on your pie. Let cool before serving.

Pale Green Avocado on Triangular Bread

2007-10-16T18:10:00.000+02:00

German bread really is amazing. Now I need a triangular loaf pan, too.

Hello Again

2007-10-11T21:17:00.000+02:00

Hello from Germany again! Italy was wonderful-- warm, sunny, blue skies, terracotta roofs, lots of olives, tomatoes, basil, pasta. My favourite food highlight of the trip was a really, really incredibly delicious pasta puttanesca. But there was a grapefruit sorbet that was really good too... Oh, and I got to see how Italians make pesto, and crostini and bruschetta, and gnocchi, and a sort of vegetable-bread soup. All of this was very tasty, too.

Needless to say, I took hundreds of photos. I'll post a few here once I sort through all of them.

But for tonight I'll just post a part of my super-simple dinner from tonight. I don't really have a recipe, but if I did it would go something like this: take 6 or so nectarines (never mind if they're slightly tired looking from sitting in the fridge for a week), and slice them. Heat a bit of "butter" in a frying pan, and add a little raw sugar and a pinch of salt. Let the sugar melt into the butter for a minute. Toss in the nectarines and sautee for a few minutes. Done!

Heirloom Tomato Tart with Capers, Olives, and Caramelized Onions

2007-10-01T21:45:00.000+02:00

This is another recipe from my new favorite cookbook, Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table. It's SO GOOD; really one of the best things I've made in a long time. The original recipe called for anchovies, but I just added a few more capers and everything worked out fine.

Also, I, um, didn't have puff pastry on hand (and I couldn't go out and buy any because German stores are all closed on Sunday), so I whipped up a simple pizza dough with 1 1/2 cups flour. I'm partial to rectangular tarts, but of course you can make a round tart if you really want.

I also forgot to buy arugula, so I didn't make the salad that Suzanne Goin suggests. I made a balsamic reduction instead. (Boil balsamic vinegar until it is reduced by half, but not more, or else it will taste burnt.) But arugula salad would go really, really well, so make that to go with this!

Unfortunately it was night by the time I finished this, so the pictures are blurry and dark. Oh well.

Tomato Tart with Capers, Olives, and Caramelized Onions (makes 2-3 main dish servings or 6 appetizer portions)

1 tbsp olive oil
6 cups thinly sliced onions (6 onions)
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves (or add 1 tsp dry)
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
soymilk for brushing said pastry
3 medium heirloom tomatoes, mixed colors
4 tsp capers
1/4 cups Nicoise olives, pitted and cut in half
basil leaves for garnish

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over high heat. Add the onions, thyme, 1 tsp salt, and some pepper. Cook 10 minutes, stirring often. Turn the head down to medium and cook for 15 more minutes, stirring often and scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, until the onions are a deep golden brown. Let cook completely before you made the tart, so they don't melt the pastry.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Place the defrosted puff pastry on a parchment lines baking sheet. Use a paring knife to score an 1/4 inch thick border around the edge of the pastry. Brush the border with soymilk, and spread the carmelized onions evenly within the border.

Core the tomatoes. Hold each tomato on its side and slice it into 1/4 inch thick round slices. Place the tomato slices, just touching but not overlapping, on top of the caramelized onions. If necessary, cut some of the slices in half so they fit, placing the cut side of the slices flush with the border. Season the tomatoes with salt a a few grindings of black pepper.

Arrange the olives and capers over the tomatoes and onions.

Bake the tart 10 minutes. Turn the sheet pan, and bake another 10 to 12 minutes, until the crust is deep golden brown.

Garnish with the basil leaves to serve.

Monday Morning

2007-10-01T16:42:00.001+02:00

Leftover apple pie makes it a lot better. So does knowing that you're going to Italy (Tuscany) for a week tomorrow. Three cheers for cheap European airlines-- you can't beat 40 EUR round trip, taxes included. Stay tuned for the VV Tuscany edition!

Aubergine Raita

2007-09-28T19:27:00.000+02:00

Last night I had vindaloo curry for dinner. I wanted to make a raita to go with it, so I did a quick search for raita recipes just to check the proportions. I was planning on making a cucumber raita, but my search resulted in several recipes for eggplant raita. And boy am I glad they did! The eggplant raita that I ended up making was good. Really good. As in
"I'll-make-this-for-dinner-again-tonight" good. It's very cool and creamy and flavourful, kind of like an Indian baba ghanoush.

As always with eggplant, make sure that the oil is really, really hot before you put the eggplant in. Otherwise it will absorb quite a lot of oil, making this dish not very healthy.

Also-- salting the eggplant is optional. I think it does make eggplant less bitter, but I know not everyone agrees with me on this account. So do as you see fit.

Don't use too much garam masala-- you really only want just a hint of it.

Eggplant Raita

1 medium eggplant
2 cups plain, unsweetened soy yoghurt
1 tsp sugar, preferably unrefined
3/4 tsp salt, or to taste
1/4 - 1/2 tsp garam masala
olive oil
Tempering:
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 red chili, chopped
Cilantro leaves, for garnish

Slice the eggplant into 1/4" slices. Generously sprinkle both sides of the slices with salt, and let sit for half an hour. When this time is up, rinse the slices and press the water out.

Meanwhile, combine the yoghurt, sugar, salt, and garam masala in a bowl. Heat the oil-- enough to coat the bottom of the pan-- in a skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is really, truly hot place the eggplant slices in the pan. Let them cook until they are golden, approximately 3
minutes, then flip and let the other side brown. Remove them from the pan and let them drain on a mesh rack or paper towels. Let them cool slightly.

Now make the tempering mixture. Pour out the excess oil, leaving about 1 tsp in the bottom of the pan. Put the mustard seeds in the pan and cover. When the seeds have stopped popping, add the chili and briefly saute until the chili is slightly softened, about 1 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Mix the eggplant with the yoghurt. Smooth the surface, then sprinkle the tempering mixture on top. Garnish with the coriander. Let chill before serving.

Devilishly Yummy Kabocha Pancakes

2007-09-26T18:22:00.000+02:00

I hardly ever make pancakes, but I've wanted to try these ever since I saw them about six months ago on Ben's blog, A Decadent Conspiracy. I had half a squash in my refrigerator last weekend, so I finally got the chance to make them as a nice Saturday breakfast. They were so ...devilishly yummy!

I roasted the squash with a tiny bit of raw sugar and a drizzle of oil until it was soft and carmelized and then pureed it. I also topped the pancakes with candied pumpkin seeds-- they were caramel-y, salty and spicy and a great contrast to the soft, sweet pancakes. The recipe for the pumpkin seeds is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Sunday Suppers at Lucques. They would also be great on soup (which was what the cookbook intended them for) or just as a snack.
Of course, you don't have to be as complicated as I was. I think these would be great with canned pumpkin puree and a few chopped pecans on top. And then they would really only take 5 minutes to whip together!

I had to add a bit more soymilk than the original recipe called for. This made 9 pancakes, which would be a hearty breakfast for 2.

Salty-Sweet Candied Pumpkin Seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (or the seeds from one squash)
2 tsp margerine
1 tbsp turbinado sugar (or just use regular granulated)
1/4 tsp cumin
generous pinch each of ground cinnamon, paprika, and cayenne pepper
1 tsp honey (or agave)
Kosher salt

Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add the pumpkin seeds and sugar, then sprinkle the spices and a healthy pinch of salt over them. Toss the pumpkin seeds to coat them well and cook a few minutes, until just after they begin to pop and color slightly.

Turn off the heat, and wait 30 seconds. Add the honey, tossing well to coat the seeds. Spread on a plate and let them cool.

Plum Cake

2007-09-21T18:59:00.000+02:00

Sometimes, even though it’s summer, it’s chilly and rains. So you compromise by having a big, summery salad for dinner and an autumnal plum cake for desert.

Plum cake (Pflaumen Kuchen) is really popular in Germany, and no wonder: you can get really good plums here. Use small, dark purple, Italian plums here.

This cake is yet another variation of the batter I used in the rhubarb muffins—this is rapidly becoming one of my favorite recipes because it’s so adaptable and it is always really high and light.

Plum Cake

3 cups all purpose flour
Scant 1 cup sugar
1 ¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground ginger
3 ¾ tsp baking powder
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
1 2/3 cups plain soy yoghurt (preferably the unsweetened kind)
¼ cup oil
¾ cup unsweetened apple sauce
10-12 Italian plums

Crumb toping:
2 tbsp soy “butter”
½ cup flour
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon

Wash the plums, cut them in half, and set aside. Pre-heat the oven to 400 F. Cut the butter into the flour and sugar for the crumb toping, then set aside. Lightly grease a 9”x13” pan. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and using a rubber spatula, fold the wet ingredients in with a few swift strokes. Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Arrange the plum half, cut side down, in rows over the top of cake. Sprinkle with the crumb topping. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Golden Spaghetti

2007-09-18T17:19:00.000+02:00

A few days ago someone gave me a big bag of home-grown chilies. Now, don’t get me wrong: I love chilies and spicy food in general. But there’s probably 40 chilies in that bag, which is a little bit much for one person! So I’m going to be eating a lot of spicy food this week. I don’t even know the names of a lot of these peppers. The big red ones are mildly spicy and have a strong pepper flavor. The golden ones are spicier, like a mild jalapeno but still have really good flavor. The small red ones are Thai bird chilies, and they are very, very hot.

Anyway, tonight I used up a few in a really tasty pasta sauce. I know pasta is supposed to be a student staple, but I hardly ever make it—maybe once a month at most. But I enjoy it when I do make it.

I used the golden peppers in the sauce, but really, any chili would do. Those round cherry peppers or even red jalapenos would make a nice substitute, I think. I like my food really spicy, so feel free to use less peppers if you would like!

So, 3 chilies down, 37 to go. Let me know if you have any suggestions on how I might use them, please!

Golden Chili-Tomato Spaghetti (serves 2)

Olive oil
2 cloves garlic
3 yellow chilies
12-15 cherry tomatoes, or 3 regular sized tomatoes
½ tsp salt
6-10 basil leaves, cut in a chiffonade
¼ cup soy Greek yoghurt, tofutti sour cream, tofutti cream cheese, or other creamy, non-sweet substance
Spaghetti or capellini, enough for 2 people

Peel the garlic cloves and cut them in half. Cut the chilies vertically in half. Remove the seeds and membranes. Slice the chilies fairly thinly. Heat the olive oil in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the chilies and garlic and sauté for a few minutes.

Start the water for the pasta. Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes: if you are using cherry tomatoes (that was what I had on hand at the time) cut them into quarters; if you are using regular ones cut them into eighths. Add the tomatoes and salt to the chilies, turn the heat down to medium low, and cover the pot.

When the pasta water boils, add the spaghetti and cook according to the package directions. A few minutes before the pasta is done, the tomatoes should have broken down to a saucy mixture. When this happens, take the sauce off the heat. Stir in most of the basil and the yoghurt/cream cheese. Drain the pasta and mix with the sauce. Serve garnished with the remaining basil.

Summer is Ending

2007-09-14T14:59:00.000+02:00

The weather in Heidelberg hasn’t been that great. It’s been cold, damp, grey, and has rained every single day. Heidelberg is in a valley with a river running through it, so I’ve been told that this weather is, unfortunately, typical. But yesterday the sun deicded to poke through the clouds, and it looks like we’ll be having a sunny weekend. So instead of making yet another soup, I happily decided to make a dinner highlighting two of my favorite summer fruits and veggies that won’t be around much longer: tomatoes and peaches.

(Below: a very tasty lolo tester recipe: Squash, Apple, Cranberry Soup)

I won’t post a recipe for the stuffed tomatoes, as I followed a recipe from La Tartine Gourmande nearly exactly (a gorgeous and inspiring blog; I want to make nearly all of her recipes!). I didn’t have savory, so I used fresh basil instead.

And what better way to showcase fresh peaches than in a shortcake? (Actually, I wanted to make SusanV’s peach upside down cake, but I don’t have an oven proof skillet here.) But the shortcake was really good. The biscuits have an interesting texture due to some coarsely ground cornmeal. This recipe was adapted from a cookbook I’ve blogged about before, Sunday Suppers at Lucques.

I should point out that I do use honey, so this recipe calls for a little bit of honey. But you could easily substitute raw sugar or maple syrup or orange marmalade...

Cornmeal Shortcakes with Peaches and Honey Greek Yoghurt (serves 4)

Yoghurt:
2 8 oz containers plain soy yoghurt
2 tsp – 1 tbsp honey

Line a sieve or colander with cheesecloth or unbleached paper towels. Place it over a bowl. Pour the yoghurt into the sieve and let it drain for 4-5 hours, until it is thick. If it is really, really hot let it drain in the fridge. Otherwise it will be fine at room temperature. When the yoghurt is as thick as you would like, mix in the honey. Store it in the fridge if you won’t be serving it at once.

Shortcakes:
¾ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup stone-ground cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
2 tbsp raw sugar
2 tbsp cold “butter”, in small cubes
¼-1/3 cup vanilla soy milk

Preheat the oven to 425 F

Combine the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, work the “butter” into the flour until it resembles coarse meal. There should still be small lumps of butter. Make a well in the center, and pour in the soy milk. (Start with ¼ cup and add a little more if you need to). Using just a FEW, swift strokes, fold the wet ingredients into the dry. Stop before it looks entirely mixed.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured cutting board. Shape it into a circle. Cut into quarters. Place the shorcakes on a parchement-lined baking sheet. Brush each one with a little soymilk and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake about 15 minutes, until light golden brown.

Peaches:
3 – 4 peaches
Pinch of sugar

Cut each peach into 8ths or 12ths, depending on size. Peel, and let macerate with a little sugar for at least 10 minutes, until the juices start to flow.

To serve slice each biscuit in half. Place the bottom half on the plate, spoon on the peaches with their juices, and top with a generous dollop of yoghurt. Put the top half of the biscuit on and serve.

Settling In

2007-09-09T12:48:00.000+02:00

So I've been in Germany for a little over a week now. I'm not sure if I really like it yet-- I wish I had gone to Berlin, as Heidelberg is charming but after 2 days you've seen everything-- but hopefully things will improve when my classes start. That's not until the middle of October though. I'm taking a language course right now.

Anyway, unfortunately I can't upload any pictures (I don't have internet at home yet, and I can't upload from the library computer), but hopefully I'll have some soon.

I've done some important things like trying to decorate my room (which is in the very charming old town and quite large-- too bad that now that I have all this space, most of my things are in the US) and finding a cheap asian market. 500g of tofu for €0.75! I'm still looking for a Turkish grocery store. When I was in Berlin I lived off of cheap turkish olives and flat bread, mmmm....

Another interesting thing about Germany is that people here don't drink tap water at all, even though it's perfectly safe, just bottled sparking water. It's really cheap, 19 cents, but you also have to pay a deposit of 25 cents for every bottle, which you get back when you take the plastic bottle back to the store. This is clever because it forces people to recycle, but it's still a plastic bottle.

And it's definately autumn here. It's cold and grey and rains every day-- which definately isn't my favourite kind of weather. Now that I have to cook autumn foods, I only want summer ones!

Procrastination

2007-08-30T06:33:00.000+02:00

So I'm leaving for Germany in about 10 hours. Needless to say, I'm not packed yet. As a matter of fact, I'm sitting on my bed eating an avocado half that has a bit of soy sauce in the middle, because I was thinking about blogging and I remembered bazu once wrote about something like this on her blog... So much better than packing.

Anyway, I'll see you all in a week or so. Aufwiedersehen!

When I was on vacation....

2007-08-29T04:35:00.000+02:00

...I:

1) Took pictures of flowers
2) Made jalapeno poppers
3) Actually finished a craft project

These were all good things.

Water for Thought

2007-08-21T18:49:00.000+02:00

The numbers, from Time Magazine:

1.1 billion - people around the world that the U.N. estimates lack safe drinking water, a number that could reach 5 billion by 2025

8.25 billion - gallons of bottled water (31 billion L) Americans drank in 2006, a 9.5% increase from the year before.

$10.8 billion - amount spent on bottled water last year — all for something you can get virtually for free

4,000 - tons of CO2 generated each year — the equivalent of the emissions of 700 cars — by importing bottled water from Fiji, France and Italy, America's largest suppliers

Less than 25% - percent of water bottles recycled, leaving 2 billion pounds (900 million kg) a year to clog landfills.

If American tap water were unsafe, I could understand why people would want to drink bottled water. But the infuriating and depressing thing is that all of this waste is unecessary-- American tap water is safe. New York City water is among the cleanest in the world.

Is it really too hard for us to take 20 seconds to fill up a bottle with tap water before we leave for work in the morning?

Also, how hard is it to throw your plastic bottles into a recycling bin?

Suppers

2007-08-20T18:04:00.000+02:00

A few days ago, on August 16th, I turned 20. I can't believe I'm not a teenager any more!

I was given a copy of a cookbook I've been wanting for a long time,
Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table (Suzanne Goin), as a birthday present. I recomend it highly! It's diveded into seasons, and there are about 8 menus (salad, first course, main, desert) for each season. Most of the first and main courses use meat, but lots of them could be made to be meatless fairly easily. But I'd have totally bought the book for the salad recipes alone-- they all sound so delicious, flavorful, and unusual. And the book has some of the best food photography I've seen anywhere.

Anyway, I ended up making a meal inspired by the book: arugula salad with summer fruit, cannelli bean puree with carmelizes peppers, onions, and charmoula, gnocchi with fresh corn, sage, and mushrooms (didn't get a picture of this), and a plum-nectarine galette for dessert. I'm visiting some relatives in California, so I had to adjust my cooking to their tastes, but it all turned out quite well. The salad was really, really good-- probably my favorite dish, and the only one I followed directly the book. Hmm.

I'll try to get the recipes up in the next few days...

Harry Potter and....Waldemart

2007-08-11T05:38:00.000+02:00

A great way to spend two mintues...

Directions

2007-08-11T03:56:00.000+02:00

This is my last night in NYC for a year. Although I'm (mostly) sure I'll have a positive time in Germany, right now I'm rather overwhelmed with preparations to leave: packing, leaving my three jobs in the same week, and saying good bye to friends-- several of whom I'm not sure when (or if) I'll see again.

I'm not actually going to Germany until the 30th, but I have to move out of my apartment by Sunday, so I'm going to be staying in NJ with some friends until then. It's lovely of them to host me-- but I will be living with other people so I'm not sure how often I'll be cooking or updating the blog.

I've also been thinking of the direction this blog is going to take when I'm in Germany. Obviously I'll still be blogging primarily about food, but I'm sure that I'll want to write about life in Germany. I'd like to change the name (but not the link) of my blog to something more suitable, but I'm not sure if that would be too confusing. I know I've already done this once before-- why can't I ever make up my mind? But I don't want to start another blog, as I'm pretty attached to this one.

I hope this post wasn't overly self-indulgent. I'll blog about food next time, promise!

The Last Supper (in NYC, that is): a pizza topped with things I didn't want to go to waste, most notably some carmelized onions and a portabella mushroom.

That reminds me, I can't believe how much food I have left! It felt like I never had anything, but actually I have a lot of food that's probably going to be going to waste.

New Books

2007-08-08T03:05:00.000+02:00

In an uncharactaristically spendthift fit (more on that later), I've gone and ordered a bunch of books I've been wanting for a long time. Perhaps this was not the cleverest thing I could have done, as I'll be moving to Germany for a year in just a few weeks and books are quite heavy, but I'm worried about finding enough English reading materials (I love reading-- right now I'm working on Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation As a Basis for Social Policy which is really thought-provoking) and I figure these books should keep me going for a while.

The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter (Peter Singer)
Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Post-Contemporary Interventions) (Frederic Jameson)
Development as Freedom (Amartya Sen)
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman)
World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms (Thomas Pogge)
The Glass Palace: A Novel (Amitav Ghosh)
and The Septembers of Shiraz (Dalia Sofer)

Actually I can't say I've been wanting that last one for a long time, as I just read about it in last week's NY Times literary supplement. But it sounded interesting and I can read it on the airplane.

I'm not going to say how much I just spent -- but suffice it to say I've gotten free shipping.

Now I feel bad for ordering from amazon , but that's another story. (Normally I buy from used book sellers, but I'm pressed for time because of the move-- is that a good excuse?)

Chinese Cabbage Slaw with Tangy Apple Vinaigrette

2007-08-07T05:22:00.000+02:00

I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite salad dressing. I suppose I have olive oil and lemon juice the most, because it's so fresh-tasting and easy, but there are so many other dressing I like: pomegranate molasses with olive oil, orange juice and red wine vinegar, soy-ginger with toasted sesame seeds, Caeser salad dressing, Italian vinaigrette....I'm getting hungry just writing that down!

But I have to say that this Tangy Apple Vinaigrette would probably have a good shot at being a favorite. It works beautifully on sturdy greens-- in fact, I often use it on cabbage, as you can see in the picture-- and it uses one of my favourite sweeteners, apple juice concentrate. Don't be scared by the vitamin C-- all vitamin C is is asorbic acid (the stuff that makes citrus fruits sour). It makes the dressing tangy without being too liquidy. (In fact, this trick works with a lot of other recipes.) Just open up a capsule and use the powder inside. (Don't use the actual capsule.)

I should note that this dressing was inspired by a (non-blogging) friend.

Tangy Apple Vinaigrette (makes 1 cup)

1/2 cup lemon/lime juice (I use 2:1 lime:lemon)
1/2 cup regular olive oil (or up to 1 cup if you like the tradition ratio of oil:acid in your salad dressing)
1 T sugar
1 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
2000 mg vitamin C powder (probably 2 capsules-- but use less if you use more lemon than lime)
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup apple juice concentrate

Mix well.

For Cabbage Slaw:

Use approximately 1/2 cup to 1/2 a head of slivered Chinese cabbage. Stir to coat. Keep at room temperature for a couple of hours, tossing occasionally.

Also, this is one of the best things I did with that seitan:

Quick BBQ Seitan

seitan
bbq sauce

Slice the seitan. Put into a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add enough bbq sauce to coat. Heat until the sauce is bubbling and the seitan is heated through.

Although I try to cook simply, I don't usually cook that simply...but hey, this was actually really good.

Pepperoni Seitan

2007-08-07T05:10:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago (on July 4th, to be precise-- was that really over a month ago?) I made my first batch of seitan. The boiled stuff never sounded particularly appealing to me, so I decided to make Lachesis's baked seitan with pepperoni-esque seasonings. Now I'm wondering why it took me so long to make this. It was really, really, really good! I thought it might taste like pepperoni bread, but it didn't-- the texture is completely different without being too meaty.

The spices I used were a sort of mishmash from a bunch of recipes I'd seen floating around the net. I know I was inspired by SusanV's Veggeroni and another recipe that I can't for the life of me remember.

This made a pleasantly spiced-- but not spicy-- seitan. Obviously the spice possibilities are endless!

Pepperoni Seitan

1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp hot smoked paprika

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 tsp mustard seeds (I used black, because that's what I had)

1 tsp fennel seeds

2 large cloves garlic, minced

3/4 cup cold water

4 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari

2 tbsp tahini (or peanut butter)

2 tbsp bbq sauce

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and knead for five minutes. Shape the dough into a sausage-like log, and wrap completely in foil. Twist the foil at the ends. The foil should be snug, but not skin-tight around the seitan, as it will expand during baking.

Place the log directly on the oven rack and bake for approximately 75 minutes. When it's done, unwrap and let cool.

Enjoy!

Spiced apricot chickpea couscous

2007-08-05T19:11:00.000+02:00

This is one of my very favorite 20 minute meals: it's quick, cheap, and oh-so-tasty. Plus you can pretend you're in Morocco when you're eating it. What more could one ask for?

The chickpeas make this more of a complete meal, but it's also very nice without them as a side dish. As always, feel free to add whatever vegetables you want!

Spiced Apricot-Chickpea Couscous (serves 3 as a main dish)

1 cup couscous

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large clove garlic, minced

1 small onion, chopped

1 cup cooked chickpeas

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped

3/4 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cayenne

salt and pepper to taste

Bring the vegetable broth to a boil. Stir in the couscous, turn the heat down to low, and cover. Simmer for two minutes, or until all the water is absorbed. Immediately turn the heat off, fluff the couscous with a fork, cover again, and let stand for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Sautee the garlic and onions for a minute or two, and then add the chickpeas. Sautee until the chickpeas are warmed and the onions and garlic are tender, about 4 minutes. Add the spices and the dried apricots and cook for another minute.

Combine the couscous with the apricot mixture. Adjust the seasonings, and serve.

Enjoy!

Simple Strawberry Sorbet

2007-08-04T17:28:00.000+02:00

I love sorbet. Unfortunately I don't get to eat it as often as I like, because that stuff is expensive! (In Manhattan, at any rate.) A few weeks ago I threw together this quick strawberry sorbet. It's not as creamy as the store-bought kind (I don't have an ice cream maker), but it was cheap, quick, and just as fruity. Perfect for a hot summer day.

Simple Strawberry Sorbet

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 lb strawberries, washed and hulled

Heat the sugar and water together until the sugar has dissolved. Let cool.

Meanwhile trim the strawberries, and cut them into halves or quarters if they are really large. Mix the sugar syrup with the berries and puree. It's ok if there are still a few small chunks. In fact, this is a good thing.

Place in a flat, shallow dish (I used a 9x9'' baking pan) and put in the freezer. As the mixture freezes, use a whisk to beat in the ice crystals from the outside of the pan. Do this every 30 minutes or so.

If you'd like the sorbet to be even smoother, throw it in a heavy-duty blender right before serving. (I don't have a blender, so my sorbet is still a bit crystallized...it was yummy though!)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go take a batch of blueberry muffins out of the oven. (I think the cooking bug has bit me again!)

Well...

2007-07-27T15:36:00.000+02:00

...ok, so I don't even know where to start!! When I began this blog, I was really hoping that I'd get to update every few days or so, but obviously that isn't happening. I'm having my busiest summer yet (interning at a magazine, and also babysitting and working at a restaurant to make money-- more than 60 hours per week!) I suppose I should be honest and say that you should expect normal Village Vegan posting to resume again at the end of August.

Actually, I'm really excited to resume at the end of August: I'll be blogging from Heidelberg, Germany! I'm moving to Germany for a year to do my junior year abroad. I'm really excited.

I've barely cooked at all in the past few weeks. There have been a few good things, like that carmelized lime-ginger tofu, a strawberry sorbet, dolmades, and super-chewy oatmeal cookies, but that's about it. I'll try to blog about those soon!

And, as always, I find your blogs fabulous and inspiring-- I'm not giving those up until August, no way!

SOS!!

2007-07-17T04:15:00.000+02:00

So, I offered to make a meal for a friend who recently had a baby, and they want it to be something freezable. Now, the problem is that nothing that I make would be very good frozen, so I'm really stumped as to what to make!

I did think of stuffed peppers or dolmades, but do you think those would be too mushy when reheated?? (And how would you reheat a dolmade, anyway? I suppose I could freeze the rolled leaves before boiling, and give them instructions on how to boil them, but that's getting pretty complicated.)

Does anyone have any brilliant ideas? (Yes, I know lasagne or marinara would freeze well, but I'd like to make something a little more exciting than that!)

Thank you!!

Summer Vegetable Saute with Garlicky Dijon Vinaigrette

2007-07-17T02:09:00.000+02:00

I'm not going to say this dinner is beautiful to look at or astonishingly original, because-- well, it isn't. But it's healthy, cheap, seasonal, and fast. It takes less than 20 minutes from start to finish. And for a working-day dinner, that's all I ask for.

Obviously you can use whatever vegetables you choose. I used broccoli, zucchini, and yellow summer squash, because that's what I had. I think Swiss chard or another leafy green would go very nicely here. I'd say use around 2 cups per person, if you use "light" vegetables like I did. I would have added some chickpeas if I had had them to make this a more complete meal, but oh well.

I served this over couscous, because it's such a quick-cooking "grain".

Summer Vegetable Saute with Garlicky Dijon Vinaigrette (serves 2)

Vegetables-- about 2 cups per person-- washed, trimmed, and sliced

10-12 basil leaves, cut into a chiffonade

Olive oil

Salt

Vegetable broth/water

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 large clove garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil over high heat in a wok, or large, heavy-bottomed skillet. Add the slowest-cooking vegetable(s) first (in my case, broccoli), and saute for a few minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables. If they start to stick to the pan, you might need to add a bit of water or vegetable broth. They will only take a few minutes to cook. Add some salt if you want.

While the vegetables are cooking, make the vinaigrette:

Roughly chop the garlic clove, then sprinkle some salt over it and mash with the blade of the knife until it turns into paste. (This really works! It's so cool.) Add half the garlic to the vegetables, and put the other half into a small bowl or jar. Add the mustard and vinegar and mix. Slowly pour in the oil, mixing all the time. Add salt and pepper to taste.

By this time the vegetables will be done. Pour most of the vinaigrette over the vegetables, add most of the basil, mix, and take off the heat.

Plate the vegetables. Drizzle on the extra vinaigrette, and top with the remaining basil leaves.

Produce

2007-07-14T21:27:00.000+02:00

It's been so hot and I've been so busy that I really haven't had the time or energy to cook in...well, way to long. But here are some of the good things I've gotten from the greenmarket across the street from where I live.

And coming up soon: Old-fashioned Oatmeal Cookies, and a really good vietnamese noodle dish with carmelized lime-ginger tofu.

July

2007-07-12T03:15:00.000+02:00

July really isn't the month for my blog, is it? Already the 11th, and this is only my 4th post!

Anyway, I was checking a blog I read, two peas, no pod* the other day, and was completely surprised to see that cristy had bassed on a little blog "award" to me. Apparently I'm supposed to pass it on to 5 other people. It was really, really, really hard to choose just 5 rockin' girl blogs, but here goes (in no particular order):

Where's the Revolution?
Life, Love, Chocolate
Once Upon a Tart
Lifestyles of the Chic & Vegan
Kitschenette/The Red Kitchen

*I'll have you all know that cristy and paul's blog, based in Australia, is most definately a rockin' blog, and one that covers topics from vegan cooking to politics to academia to parenting.

Apricot Danish Pastry (a novel)

2007-07-04T18:33:00.000+02:00

Ok, so here's the recipe for the danish pastries. But I have a secret to tell you: it's really, really, ridiculously easy. This recipe is more or less straight from the pages of Baking With Julia. All I did was substitute earth balance for butter, more soymilk for egg, and decrease the sugar.

The only trick to making the pastry is that you absolutely must keep the dough cold. Earth Balance melts much, much quicker than (dairy) butter, so I cannot stress enough how important it is for the dough to be chillled. If the EB begins to look soft or melty at all, pop the whole thing into the freezer for a few minutes. This sounds fussy, but trust me, if you want your pastry to be flaky the butter must be kept cold. (All the folding and rolling creates layers of dough separated by layers of butter. When you put the pastry into the hot oven, the butter melts, leaving spaces between the dough layers, which is what makes the pastry flaky. If the butter isn't kept cold, these layers will not form, and instead the butter will get mixed into the dough. You'll have a tender, bread-like creation-- it won't be flaky.)

Even leaving the dough at room temperature to rise makes the earth balance too soft, which is why the dough needs to rise overnight in the fridge.

Anyway, if you keep everything cold enough, I think you'll find this fun and easy to make.

Apricot Danish Pastry (makes 12-- but it's easy to freeze half the dough and make just six at a time)
Pastry:
2 tablespoons of sugar
¼ cup of tepid water
1 tablespoon of dry active yeast
3/4 cup of (soy) milk at room temperature
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
8 oz. (two sticks) of butter (I used Earth Balance)

Filling:
about 1/2 cup of apricot jam (100% fruit type)
12 preserved apricot halves, syrup reserved

Glaze:
reserved syrup

Icing:
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tbsp reserved syrup

Place the water, milk, sugar, and yeast in a bowl and leave for a few minutes to foam.

Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter into 1/2 inch cubes and mix into the flour mixture. Create a well in the center of the bowl and pour in the yeast mixture. Fold the dough together with a few gentle strokes. Be careful to handle the dough as little as possible. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and leave the the refrigerator to rise overnight, or for 8 or so hours.
(The closed fold is on the right in this photo.)

After the dough has risen (it won't have risen dramatically), lightly coat a large cutting board, pastry cloth, or wax paper taped to the table with flour. Place the dough on the surface, and shape into a rough square. Roll it into a 16 in. square, and fold into third, like a buisness letter. The closed fold--like the spine of a book-- should face your left. (If the butter begins to soften at any point in the rolling-folding process, imediately pop the dough in the freezer for a quick cool-down.) Roll the dough out again into a 10x24 in. rectangle. Fold it in thirds again, the closed fold to your left, and roll out into a 20 in. square. Fold the square in thirds, so that you have a long rectangle, and turn the closed fold to your left. Roll the dough out once more into a 10x24 in. rectangle, and fold it in thirds again. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before proceeding.

After the dough has chilled, take it out of the fridge and cut in half. If you want to freeze half the dough, now is the time. (Note-- the apricots are enough for the full amount of pastry, so if you're only using half the dough, you'll only need 6.)

Lightly butter a cookie sheet. Roll each half of the dough into a 10x15 in. rectangle, and cut into 6 5 in. squares. Use a ruler. Put a dollop of jam in the center of each square, and an apricot half on top of the jam. Turn each corner of the dough up, so that they form a frame around the apricot. Use a bit of force to press them in. Place the pastries on the cookie sheet(s), and leave to rise for about half an hour, until the pastry is slightly puffy. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 400 F.

Right before baking, brush each pastry with the reserved syrup. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Place on a rack to cool.

Mix the confectioners sugar with the syrup, and drizzle on each pastry after they have cooled a bit.

These are best enjoyed right away, but if you must keep them for a longer period, refresh them in a 350 F. oven before eating.

Danish Pastries

2007-07-03T06:47:00.000+02:00

I made Danish pastries today! The corners were supposed to be all cute and folded up as below, but for some reason they flopped over as soon as they hit the oven. Maybe they weren't long enough? Anyway, the taste was still great, and the pastry was really flaky. I was going to post the recipe tonight, but I'm quite tired, so I'll write it up tomorrow if you're interested.

Fresh Corn and Tomato Soup

2007-07-01T20:18:00.000+02:00

I'm not really a soup person, but this really hit the spot: a light, summery soup that's surprisingly filling. And fast.

Fresh corn really is best, but in a pinch I suppose you could use frozen.

Fresh Corn and Tomato Soup (serves 4-5)

5 ears of fresh corn, husked (much preferred), or else 3-4 cups frozen corn

1 onion, chopped

4 large tomatoes, chopped

8 cups vegetable broth

2 tsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper

Sour cream and fresh dill for garnish
Hot sauce of your choice, for garnish

Slice the kernals off the ears of corn.

In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, saute the onion in the olive oil for about 5 minutes, until soft and golden. Add the corn kernals and saute for 3 more minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, until the corn is tender-crisp. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Serve, garnishing each bowl with sour cream and dill springs, and hot sauce to taste.

Enjoy!

Simplicity

2007-06-30T06:05:00.000+02:00

Roasted beets with orange vinaigrette

I think this is the prettiest dinner I've had in a long, long, time-- and it's all due to the natural beauty of fruits and vegetables. There were only half a dozen ingredients in this meal, and they were all simple and natural.

It tasted pretty good, too.

Cherries

2007-06-27T01:42:00.000+02:00

I ran out to the little fruit-stand on the corner of Broadway and 111th to pick up some oranges. I ended up coming home with 2 lbs of cherries, 2 lbs of green grapes, 2 lbs of strawberries, and 3 oranges. Whoops. But, it's fruit, so I really can't feel guilty! And it was only $11, which really isn't bad for more than 6 lbs of summer fruit.

So, dinner tonight was a big bowl of cherries, so sweet-tart and juicy that I ate them over the sink, straight from the colander. I'm sure I could have made all manner of fancy desserts and sauces, but simple is good. The perfect summer dinner.

(Much prettier in real life-- the light wasn't good this evening.)

Perhaps I'll have some strawberries later on this evening.

Roasted Vegetable Sandwich

2007-06-24T01:53:00.000+02:00

I've been seeing roasted veggie sandwiches popping up all over the blogs I read. And who can blame these cooks-- sandwiches like those are perfect for the weather and the produce available now (at least in the northern hemisphere). Anyway, here is my little formula for a perfect roasted veggie sandwich.

I think a good sandwich of this sort has four crucial components:

1) Good, crusty bread that can stand up to a dressing without going soggy (i.e. no pre-sliced sandwich bread)

2) Vegetables, roasted with a hint of seasoning or marinade

3) Pickly, vinegary things-- olives, sundried tomatoes, capers, an acidic dressing, pickled cherry peppers, pepperoncini...

4) Some sort of spread or dressing to hold it all together-- hummous, olive tapenade, sundried tomato spread, mashed avocado, pesto, even a simple viniagrette

You can also add cheese, of course. The possibilities are endless! My next sandwich is going to be a southwestern one, with grilled onions, zucchini marinated in a lime dressing with cumin and chili powder, pickled jalapenos, and guacamole as the spread. I can't wait to try.

This sandwich is a sort of mediterranian version. I hate eggplant and zucchini, but they taste really good here, I promise! It's important to salt and mostly-peel the eggplant, otherwise it will be horrible and bitter.

Pressed Roasted Veggie Sandwich (makes 4 generous sandwiches)

4 sturdy rolls (i used Portugese rolls) or 1 boule-shaped bread
1 medium eggplant
kosher salt
2 medium zucchinis
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
2 char-grilled red peppers, either from a jar, your grill, or your gas burner
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes
1/3 cup kalamata olives, halved
Italian-style viniagrette or pesto
(12 basil leaves, cut in a chiffonade, if using viniagrette)

Peel most of the skin off the eggplant, leaving only a few strips to help it keep it's shape. Slice the eggplant into 1/4" slices, layer them in a colander, and cover with generous amounts of salt. Let them sit for 1 hour. Meanwhile slice the zucchini into thin slices. Preheat the oven to 400. Rinse the eggplant, squeeze the excess water out, and place the slices in a bowl with the zuccini. Pour the olive oil, vinegar, and salt to taste over the vegetables, and mix. Lay the vegetables on an oiled cookie sheet in a single layer. (This amount of vegetables just fit onto my cookie sheet.) Roast until tender but not mushy, about 15 minutes. If you are going to char your own peppers, do it now. (I did!)

When everything is cool, slice the rolls/bread, and remove most of the fluffy insides-- you need lots of room for all those vegetables. (Save for breadcrumbs). Spread one or both halves of the bread with the viniagrette or pesto. Just don't put too much on or else the bread will get soggy. Layer on the peppers, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, and olives and basil, if using. Top with the other half of bread. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and put in the fridge overnight, weighted down with something heavy on top.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon-Rhubarb Muffins

2007-06-23T03:17:00.000+02:00

These muffins have it all: a tender, moist crumb studded with ruby-red pillows of butter-soft rhubarb, and just the right amount of cinnamony sweetness to bring all the flavours out. You only need 8 oz. of rhubarb, so this is the perfect recipe to use up any leftovers you might have.

And, without further ado, the recipe.

Cinnamon-Rhubarb Muffins (makes 12 large muffins. Adapted from Fine Cooking No. 85)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 cup toffuti sour cream, or plain soy yoghurt, the tartest you can find

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/4 inch slices (8 oz.)

1 1/2 tbs. sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Turn the oven on to 400 F., and line a muffin pan with paper or foil baking cups. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients with a whisk. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Lightly fold the wet ingredients into the dry with a spatula until they are just mixed. This should take no more than four folds. Gently stir in the rhubarb. The batter will be very thick. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups. It should mound a bit higher than the tops of the cups.

In a small bowl, mix together the cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top of the muffins. Bake the muffins until they are golden brown, spring back most of the way when gently pressed, and a pick insterted in the center comes out clean, 20-24 minutes. Let cool in the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Dried tomatoes...or how to fit three pounds of tomatoes in a cereal bowl

2007-06-21T02:33:00.001+02:00

I don't know about you, but I find it a little hard to fork over $3 or $4, or even more, for a tiny jar of dried tomatoes. I adore dried tomatoes, but I haven't had them for nearly a year because I can't afford them. And then, suddenly, it dawned on me that they are ridiculously easy to make at home. My mom makes them every week in the summer, with a dehydrator, but an oven dries things out too, right? So, my weekend cooking project was making oven dried tomatoes. It was a breeze--if you've got an oven and know how to slice tomatoes, you can make them at home for much, much cheaper than store bought. And you can make them just as chewy, salty, and oily as you like. And to think that I've been depriving myself of dried tomatoes for so long.

The sad thing about dried tomateos is that that shrink. A lot. Pounds and pounds of tomatoes are reduced to a tiny bowlful. Right now they are $0.69/lb (in Manhattan, at any rate), which isn't super-cheap, but it's certainly cheaper than those little jars. I can't wait to dry tomatoes in the summer, when they are really in season. The active time needed to make them is only 15 or so minutes, but they do have to dry out in the oven for up to 8 hours, which is why they are a good weekend cooking project.

Since these are dried in the oven, they should be called oven dried tomatoes, but somehow that lacks a little something. They did hang out in the sun while the oven was heating up-- does that count?

As always, the quantities below are completely flexible. I dried 2 1/4 lbs of plum tomatoes, and they fit nicely on a cookie sheet, so that's what I'll specify in the recipe.

Dried Tomatoes

2 1/4 lb plum tomatoes
1 tsp salt
tiny pinch sugar
1 tsp (approx.) dried Italian herbs
2 tbsp (approx.) olive oil

Turn the oven on to 200 F. Wash the tomatoes and slice into 1/4'' slices-- don't go any thinner or they will get crunchy in the oven. Spread them in a single layer on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt, a tiny bit of sugar, and the Italian herbs. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake until they are the right texture-- not wet, but not crunch. They should feel like soft raisins or dried apricots. I'd say that will take around 7-8 hours.

They will keep forever in ziploc bags in the freezer. I knew I'd be using my little handful of tomatoes up right away, so I just put them in the fridge. Next time I might put them in a jar with some olive oil.

Going, going, gone!

2007-06-17T15:50:00.000+02:00

Strawberry-Rhubarb Coffee Cake (lolo's recipe)

Humble Pie

2007-06-13T19:49:00.000+02:00

Last night for dinner I had a whole-wheat tortilla (from the grocery store), refried beans (from a can), avocado, and salsa (from a jar). That was a pretty humbling dinner for someone who thinks she can cook! I did slice the avocado myself, though...

But, I do have cooking plans for the weekend. I'm really excited about them, and I can't wait to blog, assuming all goes well.

Oh, can anyone help me think of a fancy dessert that isn't terribly expensive? I'm going to this reception at the New York City Ballet, and they said people can bring dessert. I was thinking cupcakes, but all my cake decorating supplies are at home, and I don't really want to buy more. (If I were lolo*, I'd make little ballerinas and ballet shoes out of marzipan. But, well, I'm not lolo.)

Speaking of lolo, I have the priviledge of testing some of her recipes for her new cookbook...they are soooo yummy! I made this Soy-Mirin Glazed Tofu the other day, and it was really, really good. And I don't even like tofu.

*veganyumyum.com Blogger is being dumb and won't let me add links, for some reason.

Fennel-flecked Potato Samosas

2007-06-13T03:58:00.001+02:00

This recipe is adapted from my favourite Indian cookbook, Mangoes and Curry Leaves, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. (My favourite cookbook authors, ever!)

The potato filling tastes delicious on its own, and it can be made up to 48 hours in advance. The filled samosas freeze beautifully. Just put them on a cookie sheet, pop in the freezer until frozen solid, and toss in a freezer bag until you're ready to eat them.

Fennel-flecked Potato Samosas (makes 16-- serves 8 as an appetizer or 3-4 as a main)

For the filling:

1 lb potatoes, peeled

1 tbsp oil

2 tsp minced garlic

1 cup chopped onion

2 green serrano chiles, seeded, deveined, and chopped

1/2 tsp black mustard seeds

1/2 tsp tumeric

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup packed minced coriander leaves and stems

In a large pot, boil the potatoes until tender. Drain and let cool for 20 minutes. Use a fork or masher to break the potatoes into small pieces. Set aside.

In a wok or large skillet, heat the oil on high until hot. Swirl to coat the pan, and toss in the mostard seeds. Cover the skillet tightly (this is important, unless you want to be picking mustard seeds off the kitchen floor for weeks) until the mustard seeds stop popping. Lower the heat to medium-high, add the tumeric and garlic, and stir fry for about 30 seconds. Add the onion, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the chiles and cayenne, if using, then stir in the potatoes and salt. Press the mixture around the ban until the mixture is hot and the chiles are soft. Allow to cool to room temperature before proceeding.

Samosa dough:

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tbsp oil

up to 1/2 cup warm water

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp fennel seeds.

Stir the flour, salt, and fennel seeds together. Stir in the oil, and then add water until a kneadable dough forms. Knead the dough for five minutes. (Don't skimp on the kneading, or else the dough will be impossible to roll out). Cover and let rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 hours.

When ready to proceed, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece out to a 6'' circle on a lightly floured surface. Be sure to keep the dough covered at all times. If a piece doesn't want to roll out completely, set it aside for a few minutes. When you come back to it, the dough will have relaxed and it will roll out to a 6" circle.

To shape the samosas, put a circle of dough back on the cutting board, and cut in half to form two semi-circles. Refer to the pictures for how to shape the dough. Be sure to keep a little dish of water near you, and use your finger to brush water on the cut surfaces so they will stick together. Also, use a little force to pack the filling into the samosas-- they'll hold more than you think.

When the samosas are all formed, preheat the oven to 400 F. Brush the samosas with oil on both sides, and bake for 15 or so minutes or until golden brown, flipping halfway through.

If you like, serve with a traditional tamarind sauce. (Really good-- a beautiful blend of tart and sweet.)

a golfball-sized lump of tamarind

1 cup hot water

2 tsp oil

1/2 tsp black mustard seeds

pinch cumin seeds

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

Chop the tamarind as finely as possible, and soak in the water for 10 minutes. In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat the oil until hot and toss in the mustard seeds. Cover the pan until they stop popping. Using a sieve, strain the tamarind water into the pot, pressing the tamarind to extract all the water. Add the salt, sugar, and cumin, and boil for 2 minutes, until slightly reduced and thickened.

Enjoy!

Samosas: An Illustrated Guide

2007-06-12T02:17:00.000+02:00

Fennel-flecked potato samosas. Very nice. Let me know if you want the recipe, and I'll type it up.

Cranberry-Coconut Granola

2007-06-09T17:03:00.001+02:00

I can't believe people pay $5 or $6 for those little bags of granola they sell at the grocery store! If you know how to turn the oven on, use a measuring cup and a mixing spoon, then you can make it yourself for just pennies.

This particular recipe was a bit of an experiment using one of my favorite vegan sweeteners: apple juice concentrate. I think that this 100% natural sweetener has been overlooked for far to long, and I'm on a mission to find good uses for it! I haven't actually used it in baked goods yet, but maybe that should be my next experiment. Anyway, it sweetens the granola perfectly, though it doesn't leave much of an apple taste behind.

This cranberry-coconut-sunflower seed combination is one of my favourites, but obviously granola is endlessly flexible, so feel free to use whatever you'd like. I think any kind of nut, seed, or dried fruit would taste yummy in granola. I think for my next batch I'm going to try a coconut-apricot-almond combo.

One word of advice: it really is important to stick around the kitchen while the granola is baking and stir it every few minutes. Towards the end of the cooking time the granola can go from toasted to burnt in just seconds! But it makes your house smell great, so it's worth the stirring.

Cranberry-Coconut Granola (makes 5 cups)

1/4 c. oil
pinch salt
1/4 c. unsweetened apple juice concentrate
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 cups rolled oats (regular or quick, not instant or steel cut)
1 c. unsweetened coconut
1 c. sunflower seeds
zest of one orange
2/3 c. dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all ingredients except the cranberries, and mix thouroughly in a large mixing bowl. Spread over a cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes for the first 15 minutes or so, and then watch carefully for the last 5. When it is a little lighter than you think it should be, it's done. (The mixture is extremely hot, so it will continute to darken even after you take it out of the oven.) Stir in the dried cranberries, and store in jars after the granola has cooled completely.

Enjoy!

Gingerbread muffins

2007-06-08T05:46:00.000+02:00

I'm so proud of these muffins, because I made the recipe up as I made them, and somehow everything worked out. The texture is quite nice, and they're just sweet enough. (Yes, I know it's nearly summer...but I just had a huge gingerbread craving. Mmmm.) I think the crumbly topping puts them firmly in the muffin (as opposed to cupcake) camp.

Gingerbread Muffins (makes 12 muffins)

2 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 tsp dried ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/3 cup sugar

pinch salt

1 cup applesauce

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Topping:

1/4 cup oats

1/4 whole wheat flour

4 tsp brown sugar

4 tsp vegetable oil

3/4 tsp cinnamon

tiny pinch salt

Mix all the ingredients for the topping together.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Mix the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, whisk the wet ingredients until combined. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the wet ones in, mixing with a few swift strokes until combined. Scoop the batter into a greased muffin tin. The batter should come just short of the top. Generously sprinkle the topping onto the muffins, pressing it down gently. Bake for about 20 minutes-- use the toothpick test. Cool in the muffin pan for a few minutes, then remove and place on a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!

Spring salad

2007-05-31T04:12:00.000+02:00

I know salad can get pretty ho-hum. Lettuce with some sort of dressing-- nothing to write home about. But then there's the kind of salad that really stands out. Monday's salad was one of those salads: red leaf lettuce with thinly sliced radishes, petite peas that were poached for about 30 seconds, chopped spring onions, chunks of avocado, a sprinkling of salt, a generous amount of lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil, and some roasted garlic croutons to top it all off. Something about this flavour combination was really good. Really, really good. One of the best salads I've ever made...so simple and so fresh and spring-tasting. Mmm. I'll definately be eating this until radish season is over! I had hummous and crackers on the side, but I think this could easily be turned into a main-dish salad with the addition of some chickpeas or something like that. Thank you, Food and Thoughts, for the inspiration!

And I tried Bazu's fennel. SO GOOD. Try it, now! You won't be disappointed. I didn't really believe that the fennel could be a whole meal, but it can be. It's really filling and so yummy.

Chocolate Cake

2007-05-29T01:52:00.000+02:00

This is the best chocolate cake ever. Ever. It's an adaptation of an adaptation of the recipe from the Candle Cafe Cookbook, though by now it hardly resembles the original recipe, which called for 1 cup of oil. It's deeply chocolatey, moist, with a perfect crumb. And you can mix everything in one bowl and you don't need a mixer. Heavenly. Oh, and it's fat-free and uses only whole wheat flour. Don't let that prevent you from trying this cake-- it really does taste as good as any full-fat one, and I'm not exagerating. I promise. Ok, now that I said all that, someone will probably try the recipe and hate it. What I'm trying to say is, this is a really, really good cake, at least I thought so!

I made this at midnight during finals week, and I didn't feel like making frosting, so I warmed about 1/2 cup of peanut butter and swirled that onto the cake before baking.

The Best Chocolate Cake (serves 8)

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup unsweetened cococa powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup vanilla soymilk (maybe a little bit more)
3/4 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Sift the dry ingredients if you're feeling fancy. If you aren't just mix them together with a whisk. In a large bowl, mix the wet ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. (You might need a touch more soymilk.) Pour into a lightly greased bundt pan, 2 cake pans, or muffin tins. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick cups out clean. (Cupcakes will take closer to 15-20 minutes.)

If you're feeling decadent, top/frost with:

Chocolate Ganache

4 cups chopped dark chocolate (or chocolate chips)
1 cup vanilla soy milk
1 tbsp strong brewed coffee
1/4 cup maple/agave syrup

Put all ingredients in a double boiler over simmering water until chocolate is melted. Take the chocolate off of the hot water, and mix with a rubber spatula to combine. Let cool. When cool, beat with a mixer. Chill for about one hour, and then frost the cake.

Pho

2007-05-28T20:03:00.000+02:00

Pho is so easy to make that I feel a little bit silly posting a "recipe" for it. The ingredients list should be taken as a general guide-- it's up to you to find the proportion of lime/noodles/garnishes that you like!

Anyway, this is one of my very favorite quick lunches or dinners, because it takes less than 20 minutes from start to finish (unless you want to go crazy and make vegetable broth from scratch-- more on that later). I like it both with and without tofu. If you have some left over asian-ish flavoured tofu, throw that in-- it tastes great and makes it more of a complete meal.

Now, about the broth. The cookbook that this recipe was inspired by instructed the cook to make her own vegetable broth, which isn't exactly condusive to a quick supper. I usually make it with frozen or canned veggie broth, or even cubes, and it still tastes wonderful. So do as you like.

Pho (serves 2)

4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup water, or to taste
2 star anise
2 clove
1/2 inch chunk of peeled ginger
1 lime
1/2 lb thin-to-medium rice noodles
3 scallions, sliced
2 thai bird chiles, or other spicy chile, chopped (red looks prettiest)
1/2 lb bean sprouts
Generous handful of cilantro, chopped
Asian basil leaves
Lime wedges

Put the vegetable broth in a medium sauce pan, and bring to a boil. Add the water (it will simmer for a while, and get too concentrated without the extra water). Put the spices and ginger in a spice bag, and put in the broth. (Or just put them in the pot, and fish them out before serving.) Let simmer on lowest heat while you prepare the rice noodles.

Prepare the rice noodles according to package directions. (Mine are about 1/4'' wide, and take around 8 minutes to cook.) While the noodles are cooking, prepare the garnishes.

When the noodles are just-tender (don't over cook!), rinse them with water until the water runs clear, then drain. Put into bowls (the bigger the better!), squeeze the lime into the broth, and pour the hot broth over the noodles. Top with garnishes of your choice.

Enjoy!

Vegetables? You bet!

2007-05-24T18:15:00.000+02:00

I've just moved into my summer housing, after being stuck in a horribl, kitchenless room for a week. It's so nice to finally be able to unpack, and to think about cooking, and going to the greenmarket today and buying vegetables-- rhubarb, lettuce, fennel, and green onions for sure-- and then going to Trader Joes, and stocking up on pantry supplies. And then coming home and making a big, fresh, green salad, or maybe trying out bazu's yummy-looking fennel recipe. Maybe I'll make muffins or bread. It's amazing how much being out of the kitchen for a week has made me appreciate it!

Ok, so now I'm back from grocery shopping-- I really had to restrain myself with those veggies! I wanted every green thing I saw, but if I had bought everything I wanted, it would have spoiled before I finished it. It's amazing how much you can crave vegetables after basically not eating them for a week. (It's kind of funny to think about craving vegetables, isn't it? I mean...veggies are what Americans are supposed to hate. But I'm glad that we like them!)

Anyway, for my first meal I made Vietnamese pho. It's really easy and very fresh tasting. I'll post the recipe tomorrow if people want it. And I'm making bazu's fennel tomorrow for sure!

Kitchenless

2007-05-21T00:17:00.000+02:00

Sorry this blog has been so boring as of late. I'm staying in university housing over the summer, so I'm in the process of moving. I have no kitchen and no fridge until Friday. I'm definately in kitchen/cooking withdrawal...I'm already dreaming of what I should cook on Friday. Seriously, though, I don't think I'll ever want to see another slice of bread or peanut butter after this week. Anyway, I'll be back on Friday!

Crispy Lemon-Dijon Tofu with Capers

2007-05-16T03:10:00.000+02:00

I have a shameful confession to make. Tofu is not one of my favorite foods. But, with the help of many blogs and cookbooks, I think I'm beginning to discover some of the many good properties of tofu. The first dish I ever made with tofu was a stirfry, with silken tofu from the aseptic box. I had no idea that there was a difference between silken and regular tofu. Suffice it to say that that stir-fry wasn't exactly the best thing I'd ever eaten. Then, I progressed to scrambled tofu, which I really like, mainly because I've found a nice blend of spices to use. Today I decided to try my hand at marinated and baked tofu. Sucess! I love tofu now! I have lots of ideas for variations on this theme that I can't wait to try out. This version was inspired by an article about crispy chicken breasts from Fine Cooking magazine.

I'm not going to lie: since you need to press and marinate the tofu, this isn't one of those meals that you can throw together 5 minutes before the guests arive. But, it isn't at all hard, even though it does have a number of steps. Note that for best results, the breadcrumbs should be smaller than the ones you see in my picture (lots of mine were too big to stick).

Crispy Lemon Dijon Tofu with Capers (serves 3)

Bread Crumbs:
1/2 lb firm country-style bread
2 tbsp olive oil

Using your fingers or a food processor, turn the bread into medium-fine crumbs, about the size of small oat flakes. In a 12'' skillet over medium-high, heat the olive oil. Add the crumbs and sautee until lightly golden, about 6 minutes. Let cool-- they can easily be made in advance.

Tofu:
1 1lb block of extra-firm tofu
5 tbsp capers, rinsed and minced
Zest and juice of one lemon (cut lemon into wedges after zesting)
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dried thyme
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt
Breadcrumbs from above

Rinse the tofu and cut along the short side into approx. 6 slices. They should be about 1/2'' wide. Press for several hours. When pressed, prepare the marinade. In a shallow dish (I used a piepan), combine half the chopped capers, the mustard, the oilve oil, juice of half the lemon, half the thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Coat the tofu with the marinade completely on both sides, and let it marinate over night, or up to 24 hours.

When ready to proceed, preheat the oven to 400 F, and lay a cooling rack on a baking sheet. Mix the bread crumbs with the rest of the thyme and capers. Dredge the tofu slices with crumbs, covering all sides completely, and lay on the rack. Bake until golden, approximately 20 minutes. Serve with the remaining lemon wedges.

Enjoy!

Nepal

2007-05-12T22:39:00.000+02:00

The other day I was taking a study break and flipping through my favorite Indian cookbook, Mangoes and Curry Leaves. I came across an interesting-sounding recipe for Nepalese simmered soybeans. I never knew that edamame were used outside of South Asian food, so I immediately wanted to try the recipe. What with studying and all, I didn't get a chance to until today. It was really good and so pretty to look at! And the lightly-spiced soybeans (between a soup and a curry) came together in 20 minutes while the rice was cooking. Definately a keeper.

Nepalese Simmered Spiced Soybeans (serves 4)

1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 spicy red chile, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
2 cups soybeans, fresh or frozen
1/2 cup chopped coriander

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onions, ginger, garlic, and chile, and sautee over high heat for about two minutes. Add the spices and stir briefly. Add the chopped tomato and stir-fry for about 1 minute. Add the water and soybeans. Let the mixture come to a boil, and then simmer for about 10 minues, or until the soybeans are tender but still firm to the bite. Stir in the coriander (the coriander is a crucial component of the dish, not just a garnish). Serve with plenty of rice to soak up the sauce.

Enjoy!

Apple Strudel.

2007-05-07T03:07:00.000+02:00

Don't believe people who say strudel is hard to make. It's really, really easy-- easier than apple pie, because you don't actually roll the dough, and you certainly don't have to worry about keeping everything ice-cold. And the whole shebang only uses two tablespoons of added fat.

The recipe is adapted from a lovely Austrian blog, Dinner for One. Please look at her blog for excellent photos and even a short video clip about how to stretch the dough.

Apple Strudel (serves 6-8)

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
150 ml warm water

Mix all the ingredients together. Knead for 10 minutes. Brush the ball of dough with oil, put back in the bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rest for at least one hour and up to overnight. It's very important to knead it for the full time and to let it rest because it makes it much easier to strech.

After the dough has reasted, prepare the filling:

6 granny smith apple, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup melted butter

Mix everything together except the butter. Then prepare to stretch the dough. Be sure to take off any watches or rings that could tear the dough. The stretching process sounds really complicated, but it takes about three minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 F and brush a large baking sheet with oil.

Sprinkle a cloth tablecloth or a very large tea towel with flour. Begin shaping and stretching the dough with your hands-- don't put it on the cloth yet. Grasp it by the edges and let it stretch down. Keep moving your hands around the circumference of the dough. When the dough is too large to comfortable stretch like this, drape it over the backs of your hands, and stretch it by moving your hands apart. When the dough is too thin to hold and stretch, gently lay it on the cloth. Stretch the edges out, moving around the table to keep it even. The dough is supposed to be thin enough to read a newspaper through, but it's quite tasty even if it isn't that thin! When the dough is stretched as thinly as possible, trim off the the thick edges. Brush with most of the butter. Spread the apple filling over the dough, leaving a 2-3 inch border without apples on the long edge farthest from you. Using the cloth, roll the dough away from you. The first fold should be about 3'' wide. Put it on a baking sheet brushed with oil, brush the strudel with the rest of the butter, and bake till golden brown, about 20 -25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Eastern Europe...

2007-05-06T02:13:00.000+02:00

Food-wise this was a rather uninspiring week. And as I have finals coming up this week, it probably won't be much better! So I've eaten lots of pita and hummous and salad this past week. There were only a few photo-worthy meals, namely blini and strudel-- I must have been getting in touch with my Eastern European side! I LOVE making strudel. It's faster than apple pie, lots, lots healthier (only 2 tbsp of oil for two apple strudels), and fun to make. The blini were really good, too. I couldn't believe it: none of them stuck, not even the first one! I used a cast iron pan, and I only oiled it once at the beginning. That's what the recipe said to do, and I was sure I'd need to put more oil on it, but I didn't.

As you can see, I made two strudels, a poppyseed and an apple. The poppyseed strudel was made with a slightly sweet, slightly yeasted dough. They were both good.

Spice mix for a tofu scramble. Aren't spices pretty? This photo make me wish I were in Morocco!Not a bad way to start the day...

Julia's French Apple Tart

2007-04-30T04:55:00.000+02:00

I have a soft spot for Julia Child. The first cookbook I ever got, for my 11th birthday, I think, was her Baking with Julia. This recipe is adapted from that cookbook. It's really very easy, and looks stunning, so do give it a try!

French Apple Tart (serves 8)

For the crust:

1 1/4 cup flour

4 oz. cold butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup ice water

Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Add the butter and, using a your fingers (or a pastry cutter, if you prefer), cut it into the flour until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Be patient—this takes a while. Break up the shortening and add it in bits to the bowl. Still working with the pastry blender (or your fingers), cut in the shortening until the mixture has small clumps and curds. Switch to a wooden spoon and add the ice water, stirring to incorporate it. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and fold it over on itself a few times—don't get carried away. The dough will be soft, but it will firm sufficiently in the refrigerator.

Flatten into a disk, wrap in wax paper, and chill for at least two hours.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a circle about 1/8 inch thick and fit it into a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the extra along the sides of the tart pan, so that most of the sides have a double wall of pastry. Use the back of a knife to decorate the edge by pressing it diagonally at each flute or at 1/2-inch intervals around the tart.

Chill the tart for at least 30 minutes. Line with foil, fill with pie weights (or beans), and then bake in a 400 F oven for 20 - 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Place on a rack to cool, lower the heat to 375 F, and proceed with the filling:

6 Granny Smith apples

1/3 - 1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Pinch of cinnamon

1/2 cup fresh, fluffy bread crumbs

2 teaspoons (approximately) fresh lemon juice

Peel and core the apples, cut each one in quarters, and cut each quarter into 6 pieces. Put the apples in a large bowl and toss with the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and bread crumbs. Add just a squeeze of lemon juice to start—you'll be able to adjust the flavor later. Spread the apples on a jelly-roll pan and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the apples give up their juices, start to form a sauce, and are soft enough to mash. Scrape the apples into a bowl and mash with a potato masher or a heavy spoon. Don't be overzealous—a few small lumps and bumps will add interest to the filling. Taste and add more lemon juice if you think it needs it, then cool the filling for about 15 minutes.

Spoon the puree into the cooled tart shell and smooth the top with an offset spatula. The filling should come to just below the rim of the shell. Make the topping:

2 large Granny Smith apples

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (or more to taste)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Confectioner's sugar, for dusting

Peel, core, and quarter the apples (cutting from end to end), then cut them into slices that are 1/8 inch thick. As you work, toss the slices with the lemon juice to prevent discoloration. Save the smaller pieces from the ends of the apples—they'll make good packing and "even-outers."

Working slowly and carefully and starting at the edge, arrange the apples in a circle on the puree. The slices should overlap and the points should just touch the shell. Since these will shrink, make a well-packed circle. Lay on another circle overlapping the first by just about 1/8 inch, tucking a few small pieces under the circle to level it and trimming the slices as necessary so that they fit. You'll probably have enough room for two circles and a center rosette. For the rosette, choose a large, thin slice of apple, cut it into a round, and place it, propped up slightly, in the center of the tart.

With a light hand, evenly brush the apple slices with the melted butter and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.

Put the tart on a parchment- or foil-lined jelly-roll pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the 375 F oven, or until the top is beautifully glazed and the apple slices are edged in black, a stunning effect. Transfer the tart to a cooling rack. Just before serving, remove the tart from the pan and dust its edges with confectioner's sugar.

Enjoy!

A failure and a success

2007-04-25T14:48:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I made green rice with leeks and roasted chiles. It sounds really good, and it was, but it came out looking dreadful! I was imaging a place of creamy green rice. What I got was beige mush. Yes, mush. The recipe called for at least 1/2 cup too much cooking water for the rice, and it was so mushy I didn't even dare stir in the parsley/cilantro water to make it look green. Fortunately it still tasted good, but this was really a disappointment because it wasn't a quick recipe. I didn't even bother taking a photo. Maybe someday I'll try it again because rice with roasted chiles, leeks, and herbs is really a good combination.

But on to better things.

Fortunately, what were, hands down, the best cinnamon rolls I've ever made helped erase the sting of the rice disaster. The recipe is adapted from a recipe on Cloudberry Quark's blog. Cloudberry Quark blogs all the way from Finland, and has lots and lots of yummy ideas...have a look at her blog! Plus, her pictures of the cinnamon rolls are lots better than mind. The recipe calls for lingonberries, but unfortunately I couldn't find any, so I substituted cranberries. But by all means use lingonberries if you can find them. And don't skimp on the cardamom-- that's what gives the rolls an authentic Scandanavian flavor. The recipe was written in metric measurments, and I didn't change them. Just look at the metric side of your measuring cup. (Yes, even the flour gets measured in a pyrex measuring cup!)

Spiced Rolls with Cardamom, Apple, and Cranberries (makes 10 large rolls)

For the dough:
300 ml milk (I used vanilla soy)
2 1/4 tsp yeast
approx. 800 ml flour
100 ml sugar
2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 cup butter at room temperature

For the filling:
1/3 cup butter at room temperature
150 ml dark brown sugar (I didn't really pack it in)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
2 tart apples, grated, excess liquid pressed out
200 ml frozen cranberries, red currants, or lingonberries

Milk for brushing on top

For the dough: Heat the milk to lukewarm, add the yeast and a pinch of the sugar, and let sit for a few minutes. Mix half the flour, the remaining sugar, and the cardamom in a large bowl. Stir in the milk mixture. Work in the softened butter (I used a wooden spoon), and then slowly add the rest of the flour until a soft dough forms. Because of the butter, the dough should be very soft-- not like bread dough. It will stick a bit to your hands, but lift cleanly off the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough for about 8 minutes. Let rise until doubled in size, about at hour.

Meanwhile, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and spices for the filling. Prepare the apple. Butter and flour two 9in cake pans or pie plates.

Gently press the dough down, and place in on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out until it measures approximately 20in x 11in. Spread the brown sugar mixtures over the surface, and then sprinkle with the grated apple and frozen cranberries.

Tightly roll the dough up from the long side. (I.e. you will have a 20in long log). Cut it into 10 2in slices. Carefully place the slices in the prepared dishes, leaving space between for them to rise. Cover with a tea towl, and leave in a warm place to rise for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 F. Bake the rolls for about 20 minutes, the remove and quickly brush with the milk. Put back in the oven and bake for 5-10 minutes more, or until golden on the top.

Enjoy!

Spätzle

2007-04-23T14:50:00.000+02:00

No, those aren't worms, I promise! A week or so ago I felt like making spaetzle, a German dumpling/noodle. Unfortunately, the orginal version calls for lots of eggs, but with the help of this German vegan website, I was able to make a very nice vegan version that still has the doughy, dumpling-like quality of the original kind. If you speak any German, have a look at that site...it has hundreds and hundreds of very yummy sounding vegan recipes!

All the späztle I tried in Germany were really big and doughy compared to the kinds I've tried in the US. The dough isn't as thick as bread dough but it's pretty close. You use this spaetzle press thing which looks like a potato ricer to make them. But I know I've read somewhere that you can spread the dough over a cutting board and scrape it off in little strips into the boiling water. If you have a colander or seive with really wide holes or a food mill I imagine you could press in through that as well.

Spaetzle

Please don't feel the need to use exactly these amounts of flour or water! The dough should be thicker than pancake batter, but not as thick as bread dough, so about as thick as biscuit dough.

1 cup corn flour

4 tbsp softened 'butter'

2 cups white flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp soy flour
approx. 1 1/4 cup water

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients together to form a smooth, moderately stiff dough. Liberally salt the water, and then press the dough into the water using a potato ricer. You will probably have to press in 3 or 4 batches. After you press the dough into the water, immediately stir around with a large slotted spoon or else they will clump together. They will float up to the top when they are ready. This takes 2-3 minutes-- just try one to make sure it is done. I can tell you from experience that over cooking them makes them quite tough! Take the finished spaetzle out of the water, and mix with a tiny bit of butter to keep them from sticking. Repeat until no more dough remains.

In Germany these are traditionally served (at least in Baden-Württemberg) with copious amounts of cheese (bleh!), or lentils (SO GOOD! Just mix cooked lentils with sauteed onion, salt, and vinegar. Sounds weird but seriously the best way to eat them), or a mushroom sauce. I served them with a mushroom stroganoff-esque sauce. I just sauteed lots of onions and mushrooms until soft, and mixed in Tofutti sour cream, a little veggie broth, chopped parsley, peas, and sprinkled with pepper and paprika.I know that sounds really complicated, but the spätzle really take less than 20 minutes to make! I'd be interested to hear if anyone tries these!

on the side

2007-04-20T02:34:00.000+02:00

Sometimes, like tonight, I can't decide what I want for dinner, so I just make a bunch of side dishes instead. This might not be the most efficient way of cooking, but it sure tastes good. I love side dishes! Tonight I had hummous, tabouleh, and kisir (Turkish bulgur salad for dinner). Mmm. (But not photogenic!)

I didn't used to like tabouleh, but a few years ago some Egyptian friends visited my family and made us 'real' tabouleh. It was perfect-- a parsley salad with bursts of fresh tomato, bits of chopped spring onion, a little bulghur for texture, all bathed in a tangy lemon dressing. Such a change from the kind of bulgur that you can usually find here, which is a bulgur salad with a little parsley for color.
But I do like bulgur, which is why I made the kisir. It's better (and look more red) when you use pomagranate syrum (sometimes called molasses-make sure it is sour) instead of lemon juice, but I didn't have any.
Kisir

1 cup fine bulgur (the kind of bulgur usually available at normal grocery stores is not fine. It's perfectly ok to use coarse bulgur, but you might have to adjust the soaking time or amount of water)
1 cup boiling water
3 tbsp ajvar (red pepper paste. You can buy it at whole foods, middle eastern stores, or if you're like me your mom makes it for you ;-) ) Use tomato paste if you don't have it.
1/2 cup chopped parsley, mint, and dill (use a mix of what you have/like)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic,chopped
oil for sauteeing
2 tbsp olive oil
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cucumber,chopped (I didn't add since it's not in season here)
2 scallions, chopped
juice of 2 lemons (or 2 tbsp of pomegranate syrup)
Salt, za'tar, cumin, and cayenne peper to taste

Pour the boiling water of the bulgur, cover, and let soak for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, saute the onion and garlic until very soft and brown. Chop the vegetables and herbs. When the onion mixture is almost done, add 1 tbsp of the ajvar and cook for a minute. Put the cooked bulgur in a bowl and add the rest of the ajvar. Knead with your hands for a minute, until the bulgur is red. I hate touching food like that, but you really can't get it red enough with just a spoon. Add the onion mix, chopped herbs and vegetables, spices, pomegranate syrup, and olive oil and stir (with a spoon!). Enjoy!

Russian Apple Pancakes 2

2007-04-16T02:02:00.000+02:00

I must have been really out of it last night, because I totally forgot to post the recipe! Here it is:

Russian Apple Pancake (makes one large apple-filled, carmelized pancake. Serves 2 for breakfast, or 3 for dessert)

(from HomeBaking)

Please note that the dough will be very think. It shouldn't be as thick as bread dough, but it will be noticeably thicker than normal, un-yeasted pancake batter.

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon vanilla soy milk
1/4 tsp dry yeast
3/4 cup flour: I use half whole wheat, half white
2 tablespoons sugar
Mix the above ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir for one minute, cover, and let sit for 30 minutes to 2 hours.

When ready to proceed, stir in:
2 tablespoons vanilla soy milk (sometimes needs a tiny bit more)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tblsp melted 'butter'

Let the dough stand for 6 to 8 hours. When ready to proceed you will need:
1 large or 2 small, tart apple cut into 1/4'' slices (not thicker but not thinner, or else they will burn to a crisp...read my previous post!)
2 tsp sugar
Generous amounts of cinnamon sugar
1 tbsp butter

Turn the broiler on. Melt the butter in a 8-9" heavy-bottomed, oven-proof skillet over medium high. Toss the apples in a stir a few times to get the slices coated in the butter, then spread evenly over the bottom of the skillet and sprinkle with the sugar. The apples should completely cover the bottom of the pan, because if the sugar gets on the bottom, it will burn. Turn the heat to medium-low, and evenly spread the dough over the apples. Cook until the top of the pancake has turned from looking wet and shiney to dull and spongy. This will take 8-10 minutes. Be patient. Run a knife around the edges of the pan a few times to keep them from sticking. When the top no longer looks wet, sprinkle with generous amounts of cinnamon sugar and pop the skillet under the broiler for 2 minutes, or until the sugar on top melts in. Flip the pancake out onto a plate (the apple side will be on top). You have to do this immediately, or else the carmelized sugar on the bottom of the pan will make all the apples stick to the bottom of the skillet, but be very, very careful because the skillet will be extremely hot.

Enjoy!

Also, I have a burning question: what does nutritional yeast taste like? I want to make some recipes that call for it (seitan pepperoni, "cheese", etc.), but when I went to buy it, I opened up the bin to scoop some out and it smelled so disgusting and yeasty in a horrible way that I felt sick!

Carrot Quick Bread

2007-04-16T01:49:00.000+02:00

I love this trusty recipe. It's super-easy and it always works (well, almost always...read on). And even though it tastes deliciously moist, it has only 1 tablespoon of added fat, no animal product, and uses whole-wheat flour! And it bakes up beautifully in muffin tins, a loaf pan, or a bundt pan. What more could you ask for?

Please note that the carrot mixture must be completely cool before you can proceed with the recipe. I made the mistake of not letting it cool once before adding the flour, and I ended up with completely inedible carrot play-dough!
Carrot Quick Bread/Muffins/Cake (Makes 2 loaves, 20 Muffins, 1 Bundt Cake, or any combination there of).

2 cups grated carrots (5 medium)
2/3 sugar
1 1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 cup raisins
1 tblsp 'butter'
Mix the above ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 5 mintues. Take the mixture off the heat and let cool until room-temperature. This will take about 4 hours, and the cake is even better if you can let the carrots rest over night. But it's great even if you don't have time for that.

Preheat the oven to 275 and combine the following ingredients:
1 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/8 cup white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts, if desired
Stir this mixture into the carrot mass until just combined. Sometimes I find I need to add a touch of extra liquid. Distribute the dough into oiled pans, and bake for 70 minutes if using loaf/cake tins or 30 min for muffins.

Enjoy with a cup of hot tea! If feeling decadent, spread with cream cheese.

Russian Apple Pancakes

2007-04-15T02:58:00.000+02:00

(Don't be put off by the less-than-glorious appearance. These were so good!)

I think yeasted pancakes are seriously under-rated. I know most people adore the flap-jack kind of pancakes, but I've never really been into them. Yeasted pancakes, however, are an entirely different story. I love the faintly-yeasted taste, the wonderful smell as they cook, the doughy but satisfying texture. Mmm.

This is the second time I made these apple pancakes. The first time, the apples (they go on the bottom of the pan) were burn to a crisp. Seriously. They were pitch-black and crumbly. Somehow the dough part on top escaped untouched by the crisis below, and was cinnamon sugar-y, apple-y perfection. I knew I'd be trying this recipe again. I changed the way I cooked them a little bit this time, and although some of the apples still stuck to the bottom of the pan, this was, believe it or not, a vast improvement from the last time. I think I know what I have to do next time to make it even better.

This recipe is adapted from HomeBaking: the Artful Mix of Flour and Traditions from Around the World, by Jeffery Alford and Naomi Dugoid. Alford and Dugoid are hands-down my favourite cookbook authors, ever. They travel the world, especially Asia, and produce delightful cookbooks that are part cookbook, part travelogue, part photography book. Beautiful.

ho hum

2007-04-14T02:50:00.000+02:00

For some reason I really didn't feel like cooking this past week. I don't know why. I drooled over food blogs as much as usual, but I was just too tired/uncreative to cook for myself. So I ate lots of simple salads, hummus and pita sandwiches, and so on. But today I had to cook, because there was half a can of coconut milk in the fridge that wouldn't stop calling my name. So I made a simple but tasty curry sauce/soup that I served over rice noodles. So easy and quite good. I liked it because I only used half a can of coconut milk and made up the rest of the liquid with veggie broth, so it wasn't as rich as a typical curry. I'm low on vegetables, so I was only able to put tofu, snowpeas, and bamboo shoots in it. I LOVE bamboo shoots...whenever I go out to Asian restaurants, I'm always too full to finish my food, but I somehow manage to pick out all the bamboo shoots (and baby corn and mushrooms, too). Tonight my bamboo shoots had to come from a can, but if you can, you should buy fresh ones. They are SO good. The bamboo is this weird yellow colour, but after you slice it and blanch the slices, it's amazing.

Tomorrow I hope I'll be able to go buy gluten to make the baked seitan everyone's been raving about, and maybe try one of those cupcake recipes, too...

Hot Cross Buns

2007-04-11T02:27:00.000+02:00

Hot Cross Buns

These lovely, subtly spiced, and lightly sweet buns are great at any time of the year! Serve with tea, or split, toast, and spread with butter. I tried to measure the amounts of flour and liquids I used (just for you guys!), but you might have to adjust based on the moisture in your flour/kitchen. You know. The instructions are really long, but that's just because I was feeling talkative. These are easy, easy, easy. Makes 12 buns.

For the starter:
3/4 cup warm water (not too hot! or you will kill the yeast)
1/4 cup soymilk (I used vanilla)
2 tsp yeast
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp sugar
Mix these ingredients together unthil thoroughly blended. Let the starter sit for 30-40 minutes. It should look bubbly.

For the dough:
About 4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, or to taste
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 oz. cold butter (I used Earth Balance) cut into small pieces
Zest of one lemon
Zest of one orange
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup dried fruit (currants are traditional, but I don't care for them and they are expensive, so I used lots of chopped dried apricots and dried cranberries, and a few token currants)

Mix the 3 1/2 cups flour, salt, sugar, zests, and spices in a large mixing bowl. Rub (or cut) the butter into the flour, as though you are making a pie crust. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, and pour in the starter. Mix with a wooden spoon as much as you can, and then knead the dough, sprinkling in more flour as knead, until smooth, about 5-7 minutes. You probably won't need more than 4 cups of flour. This was a beautiful dough to need-- soft but didn't stick to the hands. When the dough is smooth, sprinkle the dried fruit over the top and knead a few more times to mix that in. Place in a warm place, cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap, and let rise for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, or until almost doubled in bulk.

When the dough is risen, divide into 12 pieces. Shape each piece into a roll. Cut an x in the top of each roll, using either a knife or scissors. I cut about halfway into the roll, but I think that was a bit to much-- I'd shoot for 1/3 or 1/4 of the way through the roll next time. But don't just score the top, because the x will close up as the rolls rise if you do that. Place the rolls on a greased cookie sheet, cover, and let rise in a warm place for 30 or 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450'F. Right before they go into the oven, mix together 2 tblsp flour with 2 tbsp water to form a paste. Pipe a little cross in each x right before the rolls go into the oven. (I thought this sounded gross, but you can't taste it at all-- it just helps the x to stand out. But you could easily skip this step.)

Bake the rolls for 12-15 mintues. Right before they are done, heat up 2 tbsps agave nectar/golden syrup/honey/simple syrup. Brush this on the rolls as soon as they come out of the oven.

Enjoy!

Vegan cookbook overload!

2007-04-09T23:46:00.000+02:00

If yesterday was Easter, then today is Christmas...yes, bazu was right! My cookbooks from Amazon arrived a good 5 days before they predicted! I'm so excited!

I've made lots of recipes from VWaV and The Candle Cafe Cookbook before, but I'd never even looked at VCTOtW. Normally I never buy a book without looking at it first, but I'm glad I took a risk and bought this one! (It wasn't really a risk...I'd seen all your beautiful photos and great reviews!) The recipes look really, really good, and there are so many! I don't know where to begin! Though I probably won't be making very much frosting, because recipes that call for 1 cup of butter and 4 cups of powdered sugar make me feel slightly faint. Oh, and the cookbook itself is even a cute little square shape.

Ok, I'm off to browse recipes!

Happy Easter!

2007-04-09T02:14:00.000+02:00

I hope you all had a lovely Easter/Passover/spring day!

As far as cooking goes, this was definately a good weekend. The highlight was definately hot cross buns, a traditional British treat that can be enjoyed by vegans and non-vegans alike. Honestly, this was one of the most successful things I've baked for a long time (even better than the pumpkin muffins from yesterday). The buns were buttery, sticky, spice-y, citrus-y, fruit-studded goodness. They're even better the next day, split in half, toasted, and slathered with butter. Mmmm. I've you've never had a proper hot cross bun (the kind usually available in the US are not proper, because they've got icing on top, which is never to be found on a British bun. You can't exactly toast icing, can you?) do yourself a favour and make these! The recipe is at the end of the post.

(That's not meant to sound self-indulgent, it's just that these were really good!)

I also made a glass noodle salad. This was super easy and lots of fun to make. And it was fat free! Which was good, because the buns definately were not. Glass noddles are so much fun to cook. You start with a tiny bundle of white threads, which you put in hot water. Five minutes later, you've got delightfully stretch, 4-feet long, translucent noodles. I made a simple lime-soy sauce dressing for the salad. I wish I had had more veggies to put in it, but I didn't. Next time!

And finally, I made a composed salad of avocado, pink grapefruit segments and red onion, with a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of salt on top. Normally I'm not one for composed salads--they seem so fussy-- but this one was really easy and tasty. Citrus segments are so easy to make, but they make a dish seem so fancy. I would serve this at a dinner party any time.

Actually, I'm pretty tired, so I'll post the recipe tomorrow if people are interested!

weekender

2007-04-08T03:25:00.000+02:00

I love lazy Saturdays....waking up a bit later than usual, taking time to make breakfast, and maybe exploring the city later on. Today I went to Purl and Knitty City because I needed to get some yarn for a baby sweater I want to knit, and I took a bunch of photos. It's nice to see signs of spring, like flowers at the Union Square Greenmarket, even though it's still freezing outside!

I finally perfected a muffin recipe, I think. Pumpkin Cranberry muffins-- light, fluffy, with just the right amount of crumb. Mmmm.

Walking around the Village/Soho/Union Square you sometimes see very interesting/pretty sights....

Too bad Sacred Chow was closed....I would have like to try a sandwich!

You still can't buy strawberries or anything, but the farmer's market is getting lots more fun.

There was a stand selling this lovely hand-made yarn...well, I thought it was lovely...until I noticed the coolers of lamb meat they had on a table. Isn't that sad?

Then I headed over to Purl. This place so so pretty! I love who ever styles their windows. I didn't end up buying my yarn there, because it's kind of pricy, but it was fun just being there, and looking at the handpainted and the bamboo and other interesting yarns. The fabric side is more affordable, fortunately!

I saw this wierd...scupture?...outside of a SoHo spa.

I don't usually take pictures of people's windows, but I love the way this woman displays her orange KitchenAid and bowls in her window. I'm sure she probably has a great sense of style!

I do have some more cooking-related things to share, but this post is getting pretty long, so I think I'll save that for another day!

Rice and beans

2007-04-05T02:17:00.000+02:00

Today was a rice and beans kind of day. It's cold and rainy and rice and beans just seemed like a good thing to make. But that didn't mean I wanted bland rice and beans! Rice and beans is one of those fun dishes where you can come up with a million different versions. Tonight I made coconut rice with citrusy black beans topped with pickled red onions tonight. It sounds complicated, but it took less than 30 minutes. (Take that, Rachel Ray!!)

Due to bad lighting, the pictures aren't the best...

Coconut-citrus rice and beans
Serves 4
Rice:
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
scant 1 cup coconut milk
2 cups water
1/2 tsp tumeric
3/4 tsp salt

Mix the coconut milk, water, and tumeric in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the rice and the salt. Cover tightly and let simmer for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, make the onions:

1 red onion, thinly sliced into rings
salt
cider vinegar
1 tsp sugar

Mix onion with a little salt and the sugar. Cover with vinegar and let sit for at least 15 minutes. The onions will keep in the refrigerator for about a week. Next, start the beans

1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp oil
2 15 1/2 oz. cans black beans
1/2 chopped cilantro (save some sprigs for garnish)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 small chipotle in adobo (or to taste), minced
1 lime
lime wedges and avocado slices, if desired

Sautee the onion and the garlic in the oil until slightly golden. Add the chipotle and the cumin, and cook for another minute. Mix in the cilantro, lime juice, and blackbeans, and simmer until hot. By this time, the rice will be done. Garnish with cilantro springs, lime wedges, and avocado.

(Check out lolo's blog for a completely different take on this dish!)

Oh, and you know what? Amazon says my cookbooks won't arive until the April 12-14!!! I want to start making cupcakes NOW!

And, I've been wondering: does anyone know where you can buy blackstrap molasses?

spinach and a shopping spree

2007-04-04T00:50:00.000+02:00

I had a bunch of spinach that I needed to use up, and not a lot of time, so I made a no-brainer for dinner: pasta with spinach. It was good, though. I carmelized an onion, added some garlic, a little bit of crushed red pepper, and deglazed the pan with balsamic, then quickly sauteed the spinach and mixed it with whole-wheat pasta. I think the sweetness of the onion contrasted nicely with the sharp and spicy flavours of the garlic and chile. And it only used a teaspoon of oil! If I had had cooked chickpeas, I would have thrown a few in, but I didn't. It wasn't the most photogenic dinner, but...

The chocolate pie from the other day was good, but could use some improving. The flavour was great, but the texture was really, really dense. It feelt like eating congealed chocolate, which wasn't really the texture I was going for. Anyone know how to lighten up a chocolate tofu pie? Do you think it was because I used mori-nu silken tofu and not the refrigerated silken tofu?

And!!! I finally decided it was time to use up a gift card that I've had since my high school graduation (!!) so I ordered Vegan with a Vegeance and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World! I can't wait until they come! I've been using VwaV for ages (I keep on checking it out from the library, so I was planning on getting that, but amazon had one of those buy two together sepecials, which I couldn't resist. I've actually never looked at VCTOTW, but I've seen so many beautiful and delicious looking photos on your blog that I know it's going to be great.

Coming up tomorrow....something that uses a lot of cilantro!

an experiment

2007-04-01T05:58:00.000+02:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I needed to make a dessert today to bring to a lunch tomorrow. I decided to overcome my fear of tofu and make a chocolate pie (with tofu in it). It was well...hmm...an interesting experience. Tasty, but interesting. First, here are the photos (I haven't cut the pie yet, of course. Hopefully I'll be able to get a picture of a slice tomorrow).

I didn't use her recipe exactly, but the look and feel of the pie was definately inspired by Isa Chandra's Chocolate Smlove Pie. The recipe appealed to me because it looks great, and since the pie is baked, it looked like it would have a cheesecakey sort of texture. I basically followed her recipe for the pie filling, except I subbed flour for the arrowroot powder. I also used a little bit less chocolate, because I was using a really good 72% dark chocolate (from Trader Joes. Only $3.99 for 17oz, and it's vegan!) The filling was GOOD. Of course, the chocolate overpowered the tofu. I never would have guessed there was tofu in it. The filling was so good, and so thick, that I had serious doubts about baking it, but I decided to go ahead because I had already mixed up the crust. After about 15 minutes in the oven, the top of the pie was really dark and dried out, so I covered it and but let it continue baking, because the crust wasn't done yet. I took it out as soon as the crust looked done, which was after 30 min or so. The pie was never jiggly at all, it was really thick all along, so next time I would pre-bake the crust and not bake the filling. Also, I'd use even less chocolate.

I made a peanut butter carmel topping too, but I didn't have maple syrup or brown rice syrup, so made the carmel the old-fashioned way, by melting sugar in a pot. It was fun! The sugar was all melted and golden after about a minute, so I poured some soymilk in (instead of cream) and it got all foamy and bubbly, like it does with cream, but then the sugar sort of separated into a ball. I put it back on the heat, and fortuately it melted back into the sauce. This was a very yummy sauce.

And as you can see, I put coconut on the pie instead of nuts. The crumbs of the filling that I tasted were pretty good, so I hope the finished product is ok. I think it should be fine, but I'd definately change things a little bit next time.

Spinach!

2007-03-31T01:55:00.000+02:00

When I saw spinach on sale at the grocery store yesterday, I knew immediately what I'd be having for dinner tonight: Spanish Braised Spinach with Chickpeas. This is my very favorite spinach recipe (and I love spinach), and one of my favorite things to eat, period. I'm not going to say it's the most photogenic dish, but it's bursting with flavor, so I hope you'll give it a try. I adapted the recipe from a (omnivorous) cooking magazine that I really enjoy, Fine Cooking. I veganized it and reduced the fat. I know it looks like it has a lot of oil, but I've found that's the least you can use and still get crisp, golden toast (if you don't use enough oil you get dry, burnt toast). For the bread, I just use what I have on hand...anything from sourdough to baguette. I usually just eat this on its own, but I'm sure it would make a good side dish for a protein like tofu or seitan. Bon apetite!

Spanish Braised Spinach With Chickpeas (serves 3 as a main or 6 as a side dish)

20 oz fresh spinach
1 can (15 1/2 oz) of chickpeas, or use cooked
2 tblsp olive oil
6 large cloves garlic
1 cup water
3 slices regular sized bread, or 6 slices of baguette
1 scant tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
2 tblsp vinegar
1 tblsp water
salt and peper

Wash and trim the spinach, and corsely slice. Set aside. Cut three of the garlic cloves in half/thirds, depending on side, and chop the remaining three. In a skillet, heat the olive oil on medium-high until quite hot. Put the bread and garlic slices in the hot oil (the oil needs to be hot, or else the bread will just absorb all the oil). Cook until the bread is golden brown, and then flip over. Do the same with the garlic. You want bread that is a deep gold on both sides, and soft garlic. This usually takes 5-6 minutes. Lift the garlic and bread out of the pan.

Put the chopped garlic and the cumin in the pan, and sautee for about 30 seconds. Add the spinach in baches until it is wilted. Add the cup of water and the chickpeas, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, chop the bread into small cubes. Set one slice aside. Mash 2 (or 4) of the slices of bread in a bowl with the garlic, a tablespoon of water, and the vinegar. Add to the chickpeas. Simmer until most of the water is evaporated. Check for seasonings. Sprinkle the remaining bread cubes over the top as a garnish.