Besides Breads

Two Thanksgiving Dinners

2010-11-27T09:43:00.001-08:00

On the actual Thanksgiving day we were hosted by Kim and Gregg. Kim made lots of delicious food! Mark brought a loaf of bread and I made this turkey cake:

It's a flourless raspberry chocolate cake.

The next day, Mark and I thought we should also celebrate with our own traditional Thanksgiving dinner:

Stuffing, cranberry-orange sauce, gravy, turkey's insides, stuffed turkey, candied yams.

The turkey is made of seitan:

And it is stuffed:

The poor thing had to watch us first eat is insides, then cut him and eat his sides....

Greek Zucchini Pie

2010-11-21T21:17:00.000-08:00

We got some Bulgarian Feta cheese. It tastes somewhat rancid. Apparently, that's normal, but we still find it hard to ingest. So I looked for a recipe that would use it as a non-major ingredient, and also include the 2 zucchinis I had in the fridge. Luckily, such recipe indeed exists, and it is superb! Both easy to make, and yummy, and the Feta's rancidness is greatly diminished.

Since I only had 2 zucchinis, I scaled it down a bit, but other than that I followed the recipe quite faithfully.

Chia seeds

2010-09-11T22:21:00.001-07:00

What a nice little seed!
I like soaking a tablespoon of them in about 1/4 cup water and leave it in the fridge for 20 minutes, then add them to a melon shake and drink it right before going for an energetic jog.

If I had a smoothie joint, I would definitely offer this little, energy-filled, boba replacement...

Coconut Potatoes

2010-07-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I wanted to make something with potatoes and coconut milk. A google image search produced this Indian casserole (after sifting through all the mashed sweet potatoes with coconut milk). I omitted the mushrooms, simply because I didn't have them, but otherwise, I made it as recommended. They turned out really good - spicy and creamy, and they go well with naan.

Here's how it was done:
You can get the chili-vinegar paste from an Indian grocery store, but it's a lot more fun to make it yourself. Just put the following ingredients in a food processor:

1/4 c dried red chilies
2 T wine vinegar
1 t tamarind paste
1/2 t cumin seeds
1/2 t peppercorns
1/2 turmeric
1 t roasted garlic
a small chunk of ginger (~1 cm)
a sprinkle of cinnamon

Puree everything, and your casserole is pretty much done!
Next you will need potatoes (I used about 6 medium to small potatoes), and some green onions (I used 4 big ones from our garden). Amounts may vary according to your needs and taste.

Mix 1-2 T of the paste with a can of coconut milk, add some salt to taste.
Layer potato slices in a casserole dish
Sprinkle chopped green onions
Pour 1/3 of chili-coconut mix
Repeat twice more
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 1 hour

A few days ago I made a summer version of this dish -- a lot less baking time -- by dicing the potatoes, and cooking them in the microwave for about 5 minutes in a covered bowl with a few drops of water. Then I cooked them on the stove with the coconut-chili mix and the green onions in a large pan for a few more minutes. It was much faster, especially since I already had prepared chili paste.

Candle Nuts

2010-06-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

Mark's recent visit to Tempe -- and thus to our favorite Asian market -- resulted in a small bag of weird nuts - candle nuts. We tried them - they didn't taste very good. So I looked it up and found that they are mostly used as a thickening agent in Indonesian sauces. The most appealing - and least meaty - recipe I found was that of egg sambal. It seemed simple enough and didn't require too many weird ingredients. Still I had to modify it, and the result was very tasty.

Here's how I made it:

Put 4 eggs to boil.
In a medium pan I heated up 2 T peanut oil, and sauteed:

1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 t roasted garlic (can substitute with some crushed garlic)
1 t grated ginger (instead of the galanga root)
1 T vegetarian red curry paste (figured it would be an excellent substitute for shrimp paste and red chilies)
1 t tamarind paste (instead of sugar and lime juice)
1/2 cup coconut milk
6 candle nuts, ground (I used mortar and pestle, and it worked wonderfully!)

That's it! It's ready in minutes. The only thing that took too much time was peeling the darn eggs!
To accompany the sambal, I made Mark prepare pizza dough, of which he rolled out 5 pita-sized rounds, rubbed them in oil, and I cooked them in a small non-stick pan. They came out so soft and delicious, and were perfect for the sambal.

Best Palak Paneer EVER!

2010-06-02T22:58:00.000-07:00

As the title suggests, this is by far the best palak paneer I have ever had. I had a few store bought ones, I had some in restaurants, and it never really appealed to me all that much. There were plenty of Indian dishes far better than this. I even tried making one myself, and it wasn't anything more than blah. But this time - with a food processor on hand, not forgetting to add the cashews, and using our own grown spinach - it came out SO much better!
I followed this easy-to-follow recipe from Mahanandi, with some home-made paneer.
The only thing I was missing was the cilantro-ginger-garlic paste, so I made it from scratch by processing a few garlic cloves, some cilantro leaves, and a small piece of ginger - at rough ratios of 3-2-1, and I have no idea how it compares. But who cares? The overall result was delicious.

Don't put in too many salted cashews!!

Needless to say we had it with yummy fluffy naans that Mark baked.

Wild Thing

2010-05-05T22:03:00.001-07:00

We got some wild rice and weren't quite sure what to do with it. So I made something up:

It was very yummy and quite easy to make. Wild rice is good!

Basically, I just cooked the wild rice with some brown rice (added the brown rice about 15 min through). At the same time I cooked whatever veggies I had in the fridge: mushrooms, edamame, corn, green onions, parsley (I think I put a bit too much of the latter) with some spices (I used chicken spice [=oregano, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, black pepper]) and salt and pepper to taste. The nuttiness of the rice perfectly compliments the juiciness of the veggies.

Coco-Lime Cupcakes

2010-05-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

Another amazing cupcake from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. Awesome juicy-fresh frosting!

Fennel Awesomeness

2010-04-27T20:27:00.001-07:00

When you have a lot of one kind of the same vegetable, you might want to enlarge your repertoire of dishes that contain it. But then you have the one simple delicious dish that you can make over and over again. For example, we had lots of sugar snap peas, which we used for stir fries and cold noodle Thai salads, but mostly, we ate them as a salad, by simply blanching them and then adding salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. They are delicious as they are simple.

We just started exploring the possibilities with fennel, and only used it thrice* so far, but I already know what my favorite fennel recipe is:

Roasted fennel with balsamic vinegar and olive oil!
So simple: just cut the fennel in half or quarters, place it in a casserole dish, spray olive oil on top, smother with drizzles of vinegar, sprinkle some salt, and cover. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes or until nice and soft all the way through. We baked it at the same time Mark's Best Roasted Potatoes Ever were baking, and enjoyed a very yummy dinner.

--------------------------------------------------
* The first time out of the tree was a failing attempt to make this very recipe -- covering the casserole dish is crucial!

Carrot Cake (Low Fat)

2010-04-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, while we still lived in NC, Robin brought the most delicious carrot cake I have ever had over to Mark for his birthday. It's his favorite cake, and it's very low fat. Even though I had the recipe (developed by Mark and Robin), I could never make it myself, because I did not have a food processor. But now I do! So I made the cake:

Here's the recipe, which I modified slightly to make it a bit less low-fat, but also a bit less wasteful, as I do not know what I would do with extra yolks:

In a large bowl combine:

1 egg
6 egg whites (this is where I just used 3 eggs)

Beat, then add:

3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 1/4 c unsweetened apple sauce
2 t vanilla extract

Beat some more

In a separate bowl combine:

2 c minus 2 T all purpose flour
3 t baking powder
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 t cinnamon
1 T cocoa powder

Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix only till incorporated, then add:

1 lb shredded carrots
2 c raisins

Pour into three 8" pans lined with wax paper and bake in a 350 degrees F preheated oven for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let cool, and in the meantime prepare the frosting:

2 8oz packages of fat free cream cheese
2 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 t vanilla extract

beat well, and spread on cakes.

For decoration, I used solid glaze:

2 T butter
1 c powdered sugar
a drop of almond extract

All mushed together with a fork, then colored and shaped as carrots. I got 4 large yummy carrots.

Mark's Gross Dinner

2010-03-03T19:34:00.000-08:00

Mark always makes fun of me for cooking new, weird things all the time. He finds it unusual that everytime I cook something it contains new combinations of ingredients and that I keep making new things, instead of making the good, old, tried-and-perfected dish. Hence, everything I cook is bound to be "gross". Well, last night he made a "gross" dinner. It was delicious :)

For some unknown reason he decided to try and combine ingredients in a way he has never tried before. Moreover, he did that without following any recipe!
Basically it's whole wheat pasta with asparagus and other veggies, sauteed in olive oil. The veggies include fennel (mostly leaves -- the bulbs are still very small) and parsley from our garden. Also featured are tomatoes, olives, and lots of garlic.

Thai Red Curry

2010-02-27T13:23:00.000-08:00

Making Thai red curry feels like cheating. Well, if you use red curry paste it does. You hardly do anything, and you get a rich and complex flavor. No herbs and spices needed (well, except for the ones in the red curry paste) - I'm not used to that!

I basically followed this recipe, adding whatever vegetables I had on hand: broccoli, carrots, water chestnuts, and - of course - delicious sugar snap pea from our garden.

I started by mixing 3 T of red curry paste I got from Lee Lee's (the one doesn't contain any animal ingredients) with some basil and 2 cans of coconut milks. This made it very soupy, as evident in the pictures. Once the mixture was gently boiling I added the veggies and tofu, and simmered till the broccoli stalks were soft enough for me. Can't get much simpler than that, and still qualify as making dinner from scratch, can it?

Served it on long grain brown rice.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows

2010-02-18T18:03:00.000-08:00

Doesn't the name make it sound really good? Well, if that wasn't the case for you, how about a picture?

The authors of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World have struck again! [Actually it was a long time ago, I'm just starting to catch up.] This time with a cookie book: V egan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.
For the same reason I love making cupcakes from VCTOTW, I also liked making these cookies - it's so simple, and yet looks so sophisticated and tastes so delicious and special. I had to wait till Valentine's Day to justify such decadence, just because it looks that way. But now I don't think I need any excuses for making it again.

Soymilk

2010-02-15T21:57:00.000-08:00

I never thought I would actually have to milk soy beans to get their milk out, but that is exactly what I was doing!
I followed the instructions here. With a few exceptions, of course...
At first I removed the outer layers of the beans after they've soaked, per said instructions. A lot of them were very easy to peel, and practically came off of their own free will. Most of them, though, were more resistant. After awhile, seeing how many more beans I still have to peel, I decided to read the post and comments again, just in case I missed something. Sure enough, I did! One of the commenters mentioned that he doesn't remove the peel, and it may even add some fiber if you leave it on. Good enough for lazy me!
Other than that, I followed pretty much exactly, and here's what I got:

One quart of rich, creamy, soy-tasting drink. It was not the same as Silk or most other store bought soymilk, but it did remind me the soymilk-black sesame drink (minus the black sesame flavor) I got from an Asian store. I guess that makes sense. The soy flavor is pretty mild, and overall, I think it's a darn good drink!

I'm not sure I want to do it again, though. It was A LOT of work. And A LOT of dirty dishes to wash afterwards. I'm going to try another version, that cooks the beans before extracting the milk. We'll see if I like that method better.

Happy Tiger Year!

2010-02-14T18:21:00.000-08:00

I was invited to a new year party this week, but because I'm lame, I didn't go. It seemed like it would be a lot of fun, though: The guests were to bring a dish they considered to be Chinese, and their favorite Chinese quote. The best quote contributor will be the winner of a grand prize and two shots of sorghum wine!

So I thought that this dish would be a good choice:

Plus, it contains noodles, which are known to bring good luck to their New Year eater.
It's based on Bittersweet's recipe, but adapted to what I had on hand. Also, although I LOVE soba noodles, I decided to try acorn noodles - they turned out to be very good indeed!

Here's the original recipe as well as my adaptations:

Fish-Free Dashi

4 Cups Vegetable Stock
1 Heaping Tablespoon Instant Wakame Flakes [didn't have any, omitted]
3 Fresh Shiitake Mushrooms, Finely Chopped [chopped some brown beech mushrooms instead]
2 Tablespoons Tamari or Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Barley Miso Paste [used whatever miso I have at home]
1 – 2 Scallions, Thinly Sliced [no scallions, oh well]

The instructions say to mix all these ingredients together, bring to the brink of a boil, and then pour it over cooked noodles and vegetables. As I mentioned before, I used acorn noodles (yum!) and the vegetables were snow peas from our garden (yum!) and carrots. Both veggies were cooked in boiling water for just a few seconds.

I liked it. Mark didn't care much for it. I suspect it's the miso. I doubt it was the absence of Wakami flakes, as Mark doesn't like seaweeds at all. Hopefully he will get the good luck anyway.

Oh, as for the quote, here's my favorite:

"A book is like a garden you can carry in your pocket".

Yogurt

2010-02-01T20:13:00.001-08:00

As I opened the yogurt container, I couldn't help admiring the contents. As I spooned some of it into a bowl, I was amazed by its smooth texture and creamy consistency. It really was the most beautiful yogurt I have ever seen.

Doesn't it look awesome?

And to know that I made it all by myself - well - that's something to be proud of, don't you think?

The fact that it's incredibly easy to make it should not diminish the pride, either. All you need is milk, some yogurt, and a thermometer!

Heat 1/2 gallon of milk (fat content of your choice) in a pot over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, so it doesn't get burnt on the bottom. When the milk gets to about 160-170 degrees F (I take it to 170, but not a degree more), you can remove it from the heat and finally stop stirring (it takes about 15-20 minutes, and the milk starts to foam, but it should not boil).

Then let it cool to 120 degrees. To me this step takes about 40 minutes.

Once it's cool, transfer a bit of the warm milk to a small bowl containing 4 tablespoons of yogurt to make it a bit more liquidy, and then pour the yogurt into the warm milk, making sure it's mixed well.

Now cover the pot with the lid, wrap the whole thing in a big towel, and just let it sit overnight and the bacteria will do their thing.

Next morning, you'll get a nice wabbley yogurt. You will need to drain it, and you can drain it for as long as you like - mine was drained for 1.5 or 2 hours, and the product fits exactly in a 32 oz yogurt container. You can use a white sheet or a pillowcase.

You see - you can do it over and over again, if you just use the last of your yogurt to make a new batch. - A very small anna calls it a neverending yogurt. I followed her instructions pretty much to the point, except I found that going up to 190 degrees makes my yogurt look grainy (though it still tasted smooth), so I only go up to 170 degrees, as mentioned above.

Simple, ha? If you like yogurt, and don't like the jello-like texture store-yogurt has and/or don't want to pay too much for Greek yogurt, you should give it a try!

Eggplant Bake and Chickpeas on Mustard Greens

2009-12-30T21:54:00.000-08:00

Having a veggichop is marvelous! Last night, for example, I made two dishes that required fairly extensive chopping, and this little manually-powered gadget got it ready in a matter of a few pulls of the handle. What did I chop with it? Walnuts, garlic, and tomatoes. Why? To make this dinner:

I'm not sure it's clear from the picture what this dinner included: chickpeas in balsamic glaze over mustard greens and an eggplant bake. I made up the recipe for the eggplant bake all by myself, and I have to say, for someone who only cooked eggplant twice before in all her life, it turned out darn good! [The photo really doesn't do it justice. I should fire the incompetent photographer.]

First, I sliced the eggplants into 1/2" thick rounds, and salted some of the water out of them (line in a colander, salt, wait 20 minutes, turn over, salt again, wait another 20 minutes, soak the liquids). Then I pan fried them with just a tiny bit of oil, and squeezed more water out of them as they became softer, using a fork. Then I arranged them in a baking dish, and topped them with chopped tomatoes, chopped walnuts, feta, garlic powder, and oregano. [I put garlic powder because I realized too late that garlic would probably be good in this dish. I should have chopped some together with the tomatoes. Instead I used it all in the mustard green concoction.] Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or so (I cooked the greens in the meantime, with some walnuts in them -- my variation) until the feta starts to brown just a little bit. That's it!

Potato Broccoli Soup - Non-Pureéd

2009-12-30T21:34:00.000-08:00

The cold nights just won't leave us alone... And they obviously call for hot soup. Mark wanted to have potato broccoli soup, but he doesn't particularly like pureéd soups, which is all you can find all over the web. So we had to make up something, and this is what we did:

5 smallish potatoes, non-peeled and cut into 1" cubes
3 smallish broccoli heads, cut into small florets, stems cut into small pieces
4 stalks of celery, thinlishly sliced
2 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic
8 cups of veggie broth
thyme
oregano
salt
pepper
umami flavoring (MSG)

Sauté onions in a large pot with olive oil on medium heat. Add the garlic, and after a few minutes the celery. When it's all nice and fragrant, add the veggie broth, and potatoes. Bring to boil and lower heat to simmer. When potato is fairly soft, add the broccoli stems and all the spices. When the potato and broccoli are nice and soft, add the florets. You can serve with some sliced almonds and potatonion bread, if you wish. Mark thought the soup was perfect. I thought it could use a little more flavor. Maybe lemon juice?

Mustard Greens and Feta Ebelskivers

2009-12-29T22:47:00.000-08:00

These are my first true ebelskivers:

Aren't they cute?
I was afraid they wouldn't come out right, because I overloaded them, but somehow it worked!
The recipe calls for spinach, but I used mustard greens, because we have plenty of it, while our spinach is yet to grow. My less successful ebelskivers are actually better for showing the greens:

They were very fluffy and spicy (from the mustard) and the ones that had a lot of feta inside them were the best.

Chanukah, Hanukka, Channuckah?

2009-12-21T20:39:00.000-08:00

I never know how to spell it in English! Someone really needs to find a standardized way of spelling this holiday...
We ended up celebrating the holiday of lights only after it was over - this past Saturday. I made sweet potato latkes, and Mark made oven-baked sufganiot (yeast doughnuts). We lighted 9 candles, to symbolize the 9th night of Hanuka (See? Another spelling).

Of course, everybody knows that one is supposed to eat fried food on Hannukah, to commemorate the miracle of the oil that lasted 8 days instead of just one night. However, we don't like to cook with a lot of oil, and we don't even have a deep-fry pan, so we made the latkes on a non-stick griddle with hardly any oil, and the doughnuts in oven.
The doughnuts turned out very good, though resemblance to actual doughnuts is fairly faint. I guess they were more like yummy, fluffy sweet rolls with some raspberry preserves.

Cold Nights Call for Hot Soups

2009-12-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

We had two new kinds of soup recently:

Navy Bean Brown Rice Soup

1 lb dry navy beans, soaked over night
2 celery sticks - sliced
4 tomatoes - chopped
1 onion - chopped
8 cloves of garlic - copped
1 cup of brown rice
carrots - as much as you please - chopped/sliced
bay leaf
veggie broth
crushed red pepper
dried parsley

Start cooking the beans - start at least two hours before your meal time - in 6 cups of water. After about an hour, add the rice, and start cooking the other ingredients in a frying pan: Heat some oil, add the onion, and cook till it browns a bit. Add the garlic, then the celery and carrots. Add this veggie mix to the beans and rice, as well as the tomatoes, and cook on low. Add veggie broth and a couple more cups of water. Also add spices: bay leaf, parsley, crushed red pepper, and salt.
This soup can fill you up by itself, but we prefer to serve it with some delicious bread.

Sweet Potato Leek Soup

3 cups of sweet potato, finely diced
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 leeks, cut to rounds
4 cups of veggie broth
2 t cumin
2 t crushed red pepper
1 can coconut milk (400 ml)

In a big pot, heat some oil, and brown the onion. Add garlic, then leek. Cook for a little while, then add the spices. Stir for a few seconds, then add the broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes, and simmer for 10 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are soft. Puree and return to pot for reheating and add coconut milk.
I have spoken before about the amazing combination of leeks and sweet potatoes, and indeed, adding the coconut milk makes it even more heavenly.
We ate it with some yammy bread.

Citrusalad

2009-12-06T19:40:00.001-08:00

Our garden veggies are growing and getting crowded, so we have to thin them. Unlike the pea plants, which we can't eat and had to compost, the salad greens thinnings could be used for this Asian-ish salad. It just so happened we had 2 oranges and a grapefruit sitting in the fridge -- perfect!

The recipe for this salad is from the Vegetarian Times:

2 oranges, primed

1 grapefruit, primed

mixed salad greens, a handful, coarsely tore (the original recipe calls for chopped arugula)

sesame seeds, toasted

peanuts, crushed, roasted

[the original recipe also called for chopped mint and shallots, neither of these were available at the time of preparation. I believe it's good as I made it, but I'm sure these missing ingredients could add more complexity and character]

salad dressing: 2 T agave nectar, 1.5 T lime juice, 1 T soy sauce, salt, crushed red pepper

Toss greens and citrus with dressing, top with nuts and seeds.

Pretty, ha?

We're going to eat it with onion Sicilian pizza!

Cry-Baby Cake

2009-12-05T17:57:00.000-08:00

I made this for Vanessa's Baby Shower:

The idea was taken from here.

I baked the head in a ceramic bowl (that I made!). The head is a basic vanilla cupcake recipe from the best cookbook ever - you know - Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. It also made 4 cupcakes. The belly is the basic chocolate cupcake recipe from the same book. It made 1 cupcake in addition. The arms and legs are Golden Cremes (Twinkies that don't contain lard). Vanessa is a redhead, that's why the hair is so orange.

And here is the guest of honor, preparing to serve the baby's head after mercilessly cutting it to pieces:

We had lots of fun: good food (I didn't feel like I ate a lot, but I was full pretty quickly! And that's after I ran 11.5 miles just a few hours before! I guess not seeing how much food you're consuming makes you not realize how much you really eat), nice activities - we painted wood blocks, onesies and socks for the baby. The creativity was flowing like the mulled cider, wine, beer, and sparkling lemonade that were offered. As we ate the cake, Vanessa opened the gifts, and it was cool to see all the cute and/or practical items people gave.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing

2009-11-22T17:54:00.000-08:00

Doesn't it sound perfect for the season?
It's, of course, from the best cupcake book ever - Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, though, as always, I don't make the frosting vegan.

They are for Anna's birthday tomorrow. Hope they turned out good and that she'll like them!

Stout Cake with Irish Cream Frosting

2009-06-21T22:21:00.001-07:00

As per Kevin's request, the double birthday party cake I baked was a cake version of the chocolate stout cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World*. Just like the coconut cake I made based on the coconut cupcake recipe from the same book, the stout cake turned out DE-LI-CIOUS! Very moist, rich and chocolaty. Of course, Irish cream frosting doesn't hurt :)

It seems that converting a cupcake recipe into a cake is not that hard - you just double the ingredients, and lengthen the baking time:

1.5 c soy milk
2 t apple cider vinegar
2 c plus 4 T all-purpose flour
2/3 c cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 c stout
1/5 c sugar
2/3 c canola oil
1 T vanilla extract

In a large bowl, combine soy milk and vinegar. In a separate bowl, sift all the dry ingredients besides sugar. Mix the sugar and stout into the milk, add oil and vanilla and whisk until well mixed. Add dry ingredients into large bowl and beat for about 2 minutes. Pour batter into a lightly oiled 9" cake pan (I like to use spring-form and line the bottom with parchment) and bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool and frost.

Irish Cream Frosting (not vegan):

1 stick butter
3 c powdered sugar
3 T Irish Cream

Beat everything together until smooth.

* People in my lab must have realized I like this book, so they gave it to me as a farewell gift!! :)

Apricot-Glazed Almond Cupcakes

2009-06-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

Another cupcake from the great book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World! I think I will have to get this book! This time it was for Tanja's birthday.

Ingredients:

1/4 c oil (though the book calls for 1/3 c)
3/4 c sugar
1/4 c yogurt
3/4 c soy milk (or almond milk!)
1 t vanilla
1 t almond extract (recipe calls for 2, but my extract is way too strong)

mix it all together, beating well, in a large bowl, then sift in:

1 c + 2 T flour
1.5 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

mix until batter is smooth (but don't overdo), then fold in:

1/3 c almond meal

Pour into a muffin pan, filling 2/3 of each cup. I only got 11 :(

At the center of each cupcake put 1/2 t apricot jam, pressing slightly so it'll level with the batter.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 24-26 min (don't test with a toothpick, it will be sticky).

When cupcakes are cool, glaze with a bit of apricot glaze (1/2 c jam + 1 T water, heated up and stirred well), and top with sliced almonds.

Broccoleek Quiche

2009-06-11T23:19:00.000-07:00

When you buy leeks, make sure you get at least three. This way, after you make leek-walnut pasta, you can also make some mini-quiches:

Here's how you make them:
In a pan, over medium high heat, with a bit of olive oil, saute:

1 leek, sliced diagonally
1 broccoli crown, divided into mini-florettes

Salt it to taste

In a blender, blend:

1 package of soft tofu (15 oz)
2 T tahini
2 T nutritional yeast
2 T corn starch
1 t turmeric
1 t salt
red hot pepper flakes to taste
soy milk as necessary (up to 1/4 c)

When smooth and yummy, add the sauteed veggies (mix, don't blend!). Pour into a muffin pan (oil it a bit, if you're not using a silicone pan. And if you oil it, you might as well add some breadcrumbs to add crunchiness).

Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-35 minutes or till a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.

I served it with some marvelous jicamagic, this time made with with golden bell pepper instead of red (hence the yellowness of the whole plate).

Nutty, Leeky Pasta

2009-06-07T23:00:00.000-07:00

A quick-and-easy supper:

Leek and Walnut Pasta

pasta of your choice (3 servings)
1 T butter
2 leeks, sliced diagonally
1/2-3/4 c walnuts, chopped
salt to taste
shredded or grated parmesan or romano cheese

Melt butter in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add leeks and saute until soft, stirring occasionally. Salt to taste. Add walnuts, stir for a couple of minutes. Add pasta, and stir for a few more seconds.
Serve topped generously with cheese (and if you're like me, you'll need to add more salt).

Cupcakes and a traffic light

2009-06-05T23:25:00.000-07:00

In the past month or so I baked two types of cupcakes (I know, not amazingly productive). They are both taken from the delightful book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World (although they're not completely vegan, I deveganized them a bit)

Green Tea Cupcakes:

The cupcake is sitting on a plate made by my cousin, Orna

1/2 c yogurt
2/3 rice milk
1/4 t vanilla extract
1/3 c canola oil
1/2 t almond extract
1 1/4 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
3-4 t matcha tea powder
1/4 t salt
3/4 c granulated sugar

Whisk all wet ingredients together, then sift dry ingredients in and mix in gently until incorporated. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes (until a toothpick inserted through the center of one cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely and then top with glaze.

Green tea glaze:

2 T butter
1 c confectioners' sugar
1/8-1/4 t matcha tea powder
1-2 T milk (I used soy)
1/4 t almond extract
a drop of vanilla extract

Fluff the butter with a fork, mix in the matcha powder with the sugar and combine with the butter till crumbs form. Then add 1 T milk and extracts. Beat. If too thick, add a bit more milk, 1 t at a time.

Grapefruit Cupcakes:

This is an adaptation from the book's "orange pudding cupcakes". I just replaced the orange juice with grapefruit juice, omitted the pudding (just because of laziness) and completely changed the topping.

1/3 c canola oil
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c soy milk
1/2 c freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/3 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

Combine wet ingredients and sugar, and 1 T flour (helps emulsify). Beat until combined. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients, then add them in 3 batches to the wet ingredients. Beat until smooth (but don't over do it). Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-22 min. Cool completely and top with glaze.

Grapefruit glaze (inspired by green tea glaze):

2 T butter
1 c confectioners' sugar
1-2 T grapefruit juice
1/4 t almond extract
drop of vanilla extract

Prepare as described for green tea glaze.

UPDATE: Reducing 3/4 cup of grapefruit juice to 2 tablespoons gives the glaze an incredible peachy color and an intense citrus flavor -- highly recommended!

And now for something completely different:

Traffic Light Parfait:

It's basically just kiwi, mango, and strawberry, layered, with some yogurt mixed with honey in between. Honey yogurt is good!
I think I need to get some tall wine/champagne glasses for this dessert!

Potatoes

2009-06-02T19:21:00.000-07:00

What do you do with 10 lbs of potatoes?
We got a 10 lb bag of potatoes from the Ranch Market for $1 again, and we decided that this time we will use all of them before they go bad. It's not so easy for a couple who also gets a bunch of other vegetables that need to be eaten. But we did it!
First, Mark made delicious roasted herbed potatoes. They were the best roasted potatoes I've ever had! Flavorful and crisp, but not at all oily or greasy.
Next, I made some papas a la huancaina and moussaka.
Mark also made a potato pizza!
The rest of the potatoes went into a soup:

This soup basically has all kinds of vegetables: potatoes, tomatoes, green onions, and corn.

If you end up with 10 lbs of potatoes, here are some other ideas for you to try:
pierogies
potato bread (I can't believe I don't have a link for that!)
potato torte (kosher for passover!)
gnocchi

Paneer Butter Masala

2009-05-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

I made paneer again. Actually, I also made ricotta at the same time :)
Anyway, as good as the Shahi Paneer is, we thought we should try it with something new. So I found this recipe and tried to simplify it and adjust it to the ingredients I had on hand. It came out really good, though not incredibly different from Shahi. It was nice to have the cashew crunch and the added bell pepper flavor, but it is a bit more complicated to make than Shahi, so it's good to have a choice.

Here's how I made it:

1 T oil
1 onion - grate with a grater or grind in a food processor
1 t minced garlic
1 t minced ginger
1 t ground chili
1/4 cup milk
1 T ground cashew (a handful of whole cashews will be good)
2 tomatoes - grated, or peeled and pureed
1/2 t garam masala
1 t cumin
1/2 t sugar
salt

Heat the oil on medium-high and cook the onion, the garlic and the ginger, until onion is transparent. Add chili, cook for another minute. Add milk, cook 2 minutes, add cashew, cook another 2 minutes, add tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes or so, after adding garam masala and cumin, salt and sugar. Add 1/2 c water and cook on low for another 10 minutes.

While this is simmering, prepare the following:

1 T butter
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 bell pepper, jullienned
2 hot peppers, cut to a size of your preference (if it's too hot, you can cut it to large pieces so that you can remove before eating)

Saute the onion in the butter over medium heat. When cooked, add peppers. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Add sauteed onion and pepper to the tomato masala.

Now all you need is to add the cubed paneer and let it all simmer for a couple of minutes. Serve with naan or whatever other bread you like.

NOTES:

Feel free to add more water or milk if it seems too thick to be absorbed in the paneer.
I found that grating the onion and tomato with a grater is a very easy way to get the same result as with a food processor, if you don't have such an appliance, or don't feel like cleaning it.
This dish comes out thicker than Shahi, so can be easily eaten with chapati, or other, non-absorbant bread.

The Best Vegetarian Moussaka

2009-05-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

I have ever made. True, it's the only one I've ever made. Still - it was pretty darn good!
It's kind of a lengthy process, though, requiring many dishes that later need to washed, so I wouldn't be making it every day. It's also not the best dish to make in the Phoenix summer - the oven was on for a little more than an hour! But the 99.99 cents only store had eggplants, and we've been wanting to make something with eggplants for a while now. Plus, we needed to use up the 10 lbs potato bag we have, so moussaka it was!

I kinda made up the recipe as I went, considering a bunch of recipes I found online, and adding ingredients I felt would be appropriate. I also tried to make the process as efficient as possible.
Here's what I used:

For the layers:

2 eggplants
6 small-medium potatoes

For the Tomato-Walnut filling:

1-2 T olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 can (28oz) diced tomatoes
1 T minced garlic
dried herbs and spices: oregano, thyme, sage, paprika, salt
1 large handful of walnuts, coarsely chopped (Genius! How could anything with walnuts be possibly bad?)

For the Feta-Bechamel:

1/2 c milk
1 T butter
1/4 c flour
1 generous handful of feta (another spark of genius!)

The efficient cooking:

Preheat oven to 400F
Slice the eggplant about 1/4", spread them on a large cutting board and salt them. let them "sit" for 1/2 hour
Slice the potatoes to the same thickness and arrange on an oil-sprayed cookie sheet, salt and bake for about 20 minutes.
Start cooking the filling: Heat oil on medium, chop onion and saute until softened.
Add tomatoes, garlic, herbs.
This is the time to chop the walnuts and add them in. When it start bubbling, reduce the heat and simmer.
While the filling is simmering, rinse eggplant slices and arrange on another cookie sheet, and bake 15 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350F.
Now it's time to make the feta-bechamel: In a small sauce pan melt butter, add flour and stir till well-mixed, then add milk and keep whisking until smooth. Then add crumbled feta.
Lightly oil a casserole dish and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Arrange 1/2 of the potato slices in one layer over the breadcrumbs, cover with about 1/2 cup of filling, arrange about 1/2 the eggplant slices, and cover with another 1/2 cup of filling, then repeat with potatoes, filling, eggplant, filling. You shouldn't have too much of the filling left by now, but that's okay - just top it all with the feta-bechamel sauce and Bake for 30-40 minutes until top is golden-brown. Let cook for 10 minutes or so before serving.
To be even more efficient, wash the dishes while it's baking. You should still have time to rest before it's ready :)

Papas a la Huancaina

2009-05-08T23:24:00.000-07:00

Took me ages to learn how to pronounce it! The first time I had it I couldn't believe it was really made of potatoes - it tasted completely different than anything else I have ever tasted. It was delicious. When my friend Gissella gave me the recipe, I couldn't believe I will ever be able to create something as good, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Here's what they say about it:

The history behind this dish goes back many years ago, during the construction of a railroad from the capital city Lima to the mountain area. This enormous work was in charge of a number of crews that worked at 2000 m.a.s.l. You can imagine how a project of this magnitude can wear down even the toughest worker.In consequence, people (especially women) from the Huancayan population would approach the crews with meals for lunch. Among these people, one woman stuck out because of the dish she brought: nice potatoes with a delicious cheese-based sauce and some hard-boiled egg pieces. The sauce consisted of crushed cheese mixed with minced "rocoto" (a sort of aji) and diluted with some milk. This particular dish was a hit and crews would expect this woman's arrival, calling out:

"A que hora llega la papa de la Huancaína" (What time does the Huancayan's potato arrive?)

With time, the recipe evolved. Rocoto was changed for ají and oil began to be included in the preparation. With the advance of technology, the ingredients began to be mixed with the aid of blenders, in contrast to the original mortars. However, one thing did not change, and that was the uniqueness of this dish.

Interesting, ha?
OK, here's how to make it, courtesy of my Peruvian friend:

4 small potatoes
3-4 oz queso fresco
3-4 oz feta cheese
1/2 c milk (or so)
4 saltine crakers
2 T salsa de aji (pepper paste) OR 2 banana peppers
salt & pepper

Cook the potatoes, slice and arrange them over some lettuce.
Blend the other ingredients in a blender and pour over potatoes.
Serve with hard boiled eggs and black olives.
Best to eat at room temperature.

*Note: blending in yellow aji paste will make it very yellow, I used fresh pepper here.

Rice And Black Bean Cakes

2009-04-25T23:38:00.001-07:00

What to do when you have leftover rice and 1/2 can of black beans that you need to use? Rice-and-black-bean-cakes of course!

I took the recipe for the cake from here, but modified it a bit:

I doubled the recipe and got 6 medium sized cakes plus 1 gigantic one
I used white rice, cause that's the leftovers I had
I didn't have ground chipotle, so I put some chile and cayenne
I didn't have chipotle in adobe sauce for the tofu sauce, so I put some jalapeno - it turned out pretty good!
I topped it with some corn kernels mixed with salsa.

I think it came out quite tasty, and it wasn't too hard to make - probably would be even easier with a food processor :)

Vegan Crustless Asparagus Quiche

2009-04-22T20:23:00.001-07:00

The recipe is taken from here, but I made a couple of modifications:

I added 1-2 T tahini (from my experience, it adds deliciousness)
I made it without a crust, just 'cause I'm lazy
I oiled the pie dish and covered it with breadcrumbs

A crust is a good thing to have when you make a quiche, especially when it's still hot - it's hard to get it out of the dish without having it all break into pieces otherwise. I think that making mini quiches in a silicone muffin pan would work better when there's no crust. I will try it sometime with corn or mushrooms, or corn AND mushrooms!

It's easy to make (basically blending everything) and the batter is YUMMY!!! I could probably eat it all uncooked - which means that it could possibly make a good cold soup :)

Coconut Birthday Cake

2009-04-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

Mark likes coconut cakes for his birthday, mostly because his favorite, carrot cake, is hard to make without a food processor to process all the carrots, and we don't have a food processor. Coconut is his other favorite. Last year I made this one. Mark liked the frosting, but agreed with me that the cake itself was a bit too dry. This year I made the cake using a recipe from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World" topped with the same frosting I made last year. The recipe was for coconut-lime cupcakes, but I removed the lime zest to make it straight coconutty. I also didn't have coconut extract, so I put almond extract instead, and it came out almondy as well. I think next time I'll put less almond, or remove it altogether. Another alteration was substituting coconut oil for regular vegetable oil.

I basically doubled the recipe from VCTOTW and this is what I came up with:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 can (15 floz) coconut milk
1/2 c soymilk
1.5 c sugar
2 t vanilla extract
2 t almond extract (coconut extract in original recipe, I think you can just leave it out, since the cake tastes coconutty anyway)

Mix all together in a big bowl, then add:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

Mix all together until combined, then add:

2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut

Stir it in until combined, and pour into 9" spring form pan. Bake at 325-350 for about 40-45 minutes, until it's no longer jiggly and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.

I cut it horizontally in half and put icing in the middle. I also put coconut cream (1/2 can coconut milk + 2-3 T brown sugar + 1 t vanilla, brought to a gentle boil in a saucepan over medium heat), but it's not really necessary.

This is probably the best coconut cake I ever had - very moist and rich - though I don't care much for the frosting. I could probably eat it straight without any additions. Or I would try the VCTOTW lime frosting (1/4 c lime juice for a cup of fat and 2 cups of powdered sugar), or some sort of cream cheese frosting. If you like coconut, you should try it - it's fairly easy to make - took me less than 20 minutes to put it in the oven!

Lasagna From Scratch

2009-04-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

But I mean really from scratch. Noodles, sauce, even ricotta! The only thing we didn't make from scratch is the mozarella, and the Romano we sprinkled on it. It was SO good. I have to thank a fellow student in ceramics class for sharing the recipe for ricotta. I didn't realize how easy it is to make, and how much better it is than store-bought ricotta! It also holds much better than regular ricotta, but that's probably because it's not traditional ricotta (usually made out of whey produced during hard-cheese making), but a whole-milk ricotta. This makes it more chunky and gives it more substance.

And this is how you make it - I recommend you try it at least once, because it's both fun and easy!

1 gallon milk (I used 2%)
1 quart buttermilk (I used fat free)
2 T salt

Pour everything into a large pot, and bring to boiling, stirring constantly, over high heat. It takes about 20 minutes. Stirring is very important, otherwise the milk will burn at the bottom of the pot. The added benefit is stronger arms. When it reaches the boiling point, and the milk is foaming and starting to rise, remove from the stove. You'll find curds floating in whey. Empty the content of the pot into a large strainer lined with cheese cloth (I use a large measuring cup to do that, gradually. I aslo fold the cloth multiple times so as little curds as possible will pass through). Once most of the whey passed through and mostly curds are left in the cloth, transfer to an air-tight container for later use (e.g. lasagna or calzone) and/or consume immediately. Don't throw away the whey. Although you won't be able to make more ricotta with it (as I learned the hard way - you can only use hard cheese whey for that) you can still use it to make delicious breads, or even drink it straight (some suggest adding spices) or, according to Rebecca, cook oatmeal with it. Also, you can whey your rose bushes. Enjoy!

Cheers!

2009-04-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

That's right! I made cupcakes with beer!

It turned out really delicious! So much so, that Clint already asked me for the topping recipe. His girlfriend, Danielle, gave me the recipe for the cupcakes (which, in turn, is taken from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World) so he didn't need it from me. However, I did modify it a little bit: I put 1/4 cup of oil instead of 1/3 cup, and 1/3 cup of beer instead of 1/4 cup. I think it was a good substitution, don't you?

I topped it with chocolate mousse, also from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. It was so good! What I made was enough for the cupcakes and a few more generous servings of mousse desert.

Vegan chocolate mousse:

15 oz extra firm silken tofu (I actually used regular soft tofu from Fresh & Easy)
15 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips - melted
2 T maple syrup (I only used 1, and added about 3 heaping t of powdered sugar, because I was afraid the mouse won't be firm enough to stand on top of the cupcakes)
1 t vanilla
1/4 c soy milk (I put a little less, and substituted the rest with Irish Cream (not vegan, but can be easily veganized at home, or just left out) just because I have some from making the suggested Irish Cream frosting from the cupcake recipe link above. BTW, if you do it, put a lot more than 2 T, otherwise it won't taste like Irish Cream at all. I put around 6 T the second time I made it).

Blend tofu and milk in blender until smooth, add syrup, vanilla, and melted chocolate and blend more until smooth, creamy and delicious.

** although these cupcakes are vegan, my version of them is not - both because of the Irish Cream and because of the beer I used (I understand Guinness is not vegan, because part of the manufacturing process involves using some fishing by-product. Well, that's the last time I by this brand! Now I need to think what to do with the 4 bottles I have left...). These two items could be easily substituted, or completely omitted in the case of the Irish Cream.

A Fancy Midweek Dinner For Absolutely No Reason

2009-03-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

Well, there is one reason - that I decided to get a roll of polenta. I've been wanting to try it for a while, and finally did. Since it doesn't go by itself, I had to come up with something to put on it, so I figured out something that incorporated vegetables we had in the fridge, it came out quite good: Polenta with goat cheese and caramelized onions on crusted tofu, sitting among fire-colored vegetables. I'd say delicious, but I'm not sure Mark would agree. He thinks the polenta should be enhanced further. I thought the goat cheese and caramelized onions were very good for it. You should try it and see which one of us is right!

I really ought to get some green herbs for decoration...

It's very easy to make:

Polenta:
slice 1/2" slices and fry them in a pan with a tiny little bit of olive oil, spread some goat cheese on top and put in the toaster oven to melt, then top with caramelized onions.

Crusted Tofu:
cut tofu (~9 oz) to 1/2" thick squares, and dry.
In a small bowl combine: 2 T soy sauce, 1/2 T oyster sauce, and 1/2 T mustard.
ladel sauce on tofu pieces, both sides, then dip the edges in the bowl, and transfer to a plate with 1/4 c Italian bread crumbs. Fry in a pan over medium - high heat with a little bit of olive oil until golden brown and crisp.

** I kept the tofu and the polenta in the toaster oven while I worked on the other stuff, to keep them warm, and added the goat cheese just a few minutes before we sat to eat. **

Fire-Colored Vegetables:
Dice 1 red bell pepper, 1 orange bell pepper, and a tomato (or use cherry tomatoes). Saute in a pan over medium-high with some olive oil, adding the tomatoes last. Spice it up with some herbs - oregano, basil, thyme - and salt and pepper.

Caramelized onion:
Cut 1/2 onion to thin wedges and saute in a little bit of butter. When it softens, add a little bit (1 t) of sugar. keep sauteing until golden brown.

It may seem like a lot of things, but really, it's quite simple! I liked it a lot.

Food in Switzerland

2009-03-07T22:06:00.001-08:00

First of all, Luxemburgerli:

Sweet, little melt-in-the-mouth thingies. The passion fruit was the best! Can only find them in Switzerland. Fortunately, there's one place in Tempe that sells something similar (the French macaron)!

On my last night, there were no hotel rooms available because of the carnival, so I stayed with Flore, a graduate student in Mathias Koelliker's lab. She was so nice, and made me some ratatouille! She should know how to make it - she's French!

Of course, it was accompanied by a glass of wine :)

Here's how I think she made it:
2 zucchinis
1/2 orange bell pepper
1/2 yellow bell pepper
onion
tomato

they were all coarsely chopped, and cooked in a pan, adding them leisurely, one at a time, starting with the onion, of course. Olive oil was added liberally, and also herbes de Provence mix. Simple and quick! Serve with rice.

Tortilla Black Bean Casserole

2009-01-31T21:51:00.000-08:00

This is Mark's favorite casserole:

1 chopped onion
1 chopped green bell pepper
14 oz canned tomatoes
3/4 c salsa
1 T garlic
2 T cumin
2 15 oz cans of black beans, drained
1 c corn or more. The more the better
8 corn tortillas
1.5 c shredded cheese

In a LARGE skillet, over medium heat, combine first 6 ingredients, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Stir in beans.
Spread 1/3 of the mix over bottom of 13x9" pan. Top with 1/2 the tortillas, 1/2 c cheese, 1/3 of the mix, remaining tortillas, 1/2 c cheese, last 1/3 of the mix. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes in 350 degrees F. Sprinkle remaining cheese and wait for 10 minutes or so before serving.

** I don't follow these directions very closely, that's why I ended up topping it with some more tortillas. There's also tortillas at the bottom! Either way, it's yummy!

A Match Made in Heaven

2009-01-26T22:36:00.000-08:00

Yes - sweet potatoes and leeks! Can anything be better than a combination of these two divine vegetables?

This sweet potato leek gratin was taken from The Vegetarian Times. It's not yet online, so here's what you do:
Slice 1-2 sweet potatoes (2 lb) - 1/8" thick, set aside

In a small non-stick pan over medium-high, heat 1 T olive oil, and saute for about 8 minutes:

3 leeks, white and light green parts chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 T chopped rosemary
salt and pepper

Layer sweet potato slices alternately with leek mix, so you end up with 3 layers of sweet potato and 2 layers of leeks. Sprinkle 1/3 c vegetable broth. Cover with foil.

Bake in 450 degrees F for about 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle a mix of:

3 T breadcrumbs (Italian, or just add some Italian herbs and garlic powder)
1.5 T rosemary
2 T romano or parmesan cheese (optional)
1.5 t olive oil

Bake uncovered for 10-15 minutes more (until breadcrumbs are nice and golden-brown).
Wait a bit before serving (officially 8 servings, but for us it was 4).

The cheese is optional, so it qualifies as vegan. It's delicious, and pretty easy to make -- the hardest thing was to slice the sweet potato :)
So try it!
[Leeks for a reasonable price can be found at Lee Lee's.]

Pierogies with Sauteed Onions

2009-01-08T18:46:00.000-08:00

We made them a while ago and froze them. The two times we ate them before were served with garlic - butter sauce. It was good, but we wanted to try buttered onions, and it turned out to be good as well! The onions' sweetness came out as they sauteed in the butter, and it was most complimentary to the flavorful pierogies. Yes, they were flavorful! Mark made the dough himself, and filled them with potato-onion filling. Much better than Mrs. T's, if I may say so. No offense.

Chestnut Soup

2009-01-05T20:53:00.000-08:00

We found some cheap chestnuts at Lee Lee's. They come in a 3 lb bag. I love chestnuts.
But these cheap ones are SO hard to peel...
They make a yummy soup, though!

After peeling a bunch of them, with Mark's help, and getting our thumbs sore as hell, we both enjoyed a delicious and rich soup with some yammy bread.
I didn't follow the recipe exactly, simply because I didn't have all the called-for ingredients, but it was very good nonetheless.
Here are my substitutions:

Spanish cooking wine instead of Marsala wine
Milk and melted butter instead of cream
No mushrooms (though I'm sure they would have added a delicious kick)

So don't get cheap chestnuts from Lee Lee's! Get better (fresher? a different variety?) at Trader Joe's, or better yet - get them already cooked and peeled in a jar! :) Then this recipe could qualify as fairly easy.

I Heart Sweet Potatoes

2008-12-29T23:29:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe in a fellow Friday-Illustrator's blog, and I had to try it, using the leftover cooked sweet potatoes I had from making the hanukah balls.

The only thing I did different was that the sweet potatoes - both white and orange - were already cooked (in the microwave), and I used fresh tomatoes (3) and some tomato puree. It was really yammy.

Thai Pumpkin Soup

2008-12-28T19:12:00.000-08:00

It was time to relieve the fridge from some of the tupperware that occupied it, so I decided to make a soup out of pumpkin puree and coconut milk, and it turned out surprisingly delicious (not surprising that the flavors blend so well, but that I managed to get something tasty out of them). It's also super easy and ready in less than 10 minutes!

Everything goes into the pot:
about 1 c of pumpkin puree
about 1/2 can of coconut milk
about 1 T of peanut butter
some salt, ginger and garlic powder
about 1 T of brown sugar

warm it all up while stirring and add some water to get the desired consistency. When it's hot enough for you, pour into a bowl and sprinkle with some roasted peanuts and then drizzle some soy sauce (I know it sounds weird, but it's really good - even Mark liked it, and he's not a fan of creamy soups).

French Bakes

2008-12-24T18:20:00.000-08:00

Mark's been craving french fries for a while, but he can't find anything in the store that looks remotely healthy, so he decided to make some from scratch.

He also made some out of sweet potato, for me. Yammy!

I know some people consider potatoes as a vegetable side, but I had to make a real vegetable side, so I used up the green beans we had left, and topped them with some sauce. The recipe is taken from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook (Sundays as Moosewood, I think it's called). It's basically just boiled beans and onion (yes, boiled onion... Mark didn't appreciate it), and the sauce is just butter (1T), flour (2T), a cup of water from the boiled beans, salt, pepper, chives, lemon juice (1t) and 1/4 cup of yogurt (that I used instead of sour cream). I liked it, but I don't think I'm allowed to make it again, not with boiled onions, at least. ;)

Smile - I Made Cheese!

2008-12-14T21:27:00.000-08:00

Paneer, to be exact. Second time is the charm, apparently! This time I added a bit of vinegar, as suggested here, and it turned out much better than my first attempt. Actually, it was STUPENDOUS! Yeah, I'm very proud of myself :)

This time the medium I made for it to flow in was also much better than the thick, chunky sweet potato curry I made last time. Indeed, Shahi Paneer, as the name suggests, is the perfect medium for my cheese!

It was somewhat spicy, so it's good I had a glass of lassi handy to put out the fire!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi, In White

2008-12-14T21:08:00.000-08:00

Sweet potatoes are so good just as they are, simply cooked, with a bit of salt. But they're also awesome as gnocchi.

We had them with just melted butter and sage. Simple yet delicious!

Pumpkin Soup

2008-12-05T22:03:00.000-08:00

What could be better than a nice, warm, flavorful pumpkin soup on a cold winter night? Especially when it's so easy to make!

I took the recipe from here, but modified it somewhat, so here are the ingredients:

1 c pumpkin puree
1 1/3 cup vegetable broth
1 T peanut butter
onion powder
garlic powder
ginger powder
thyme
parsley
salt & pepper
1/4 c evaporated milk or cream

Combine everything but the in a sauce pan over medium-low heat, reduce to simmer when it starts to jump out (I mostly covered it, but not completely), and add the milk when it's hot enough for you (for me it was within about 15 minutes). Cook on low a few minutes more, then serve.
I sprinkled some crushed roasted peanuts on top and ate it with some bread sticks that Mark made a few weeks ago. YUM!

A Pineapple Upside-Down Cake In A Tea Cup

2008-12-03T19:19:00.000-08:00

That's right!
Inspired by the chocolate cake in a mug that bakes in under 3 minutes and doesn't leave too many dirty dishes, I wanted to make use of the few pineapple slices I had from the last time we made some pina-colada smoothie. I couldn't find any recipe for a quick, individual-serving pineapple upside down cake, so I decided to make it up myself.

So that's what I did:
I put a slice of pineapple in a tea cup (wide and short with non curving sides), and a cherry inside the hole and sprinkled some brown sugar on top of that (1 t). In a little bowl, I combined:

2.5 T soymilk

0.3 t apple cider vinegar

and let it sit for a minute or two until it curdles
(can substitute with 2.5 T buttermilk)
Then I added:

1.5 T sugar

1/4 t vanilla

salt

3/4 T oil

and mixed it well

Then I added - without mixing at first:

4 T flour

a little less than 1/4 t baking powder

a sprinkle of baking soda

I Made sure the baking powders are equally spread within the flour by mixing it slightly with a teaspoon, and then started mixing a little more vigorously (but not too much) with the wet ingredients. The mixture then went on top of the pineapple and into the microwave. About 1 minute later it started to rise, and I took it out 40 seconds later.

It was good. Not very delicate - I think taking it out of the microwave a few seconds earlier might have been better. I will continue to experiment and see if it can be improved somehow. Also, if you have any suggestions for making it more light and fluffy, I'll be glad to hear them. All said, it was fairly good, especially for something that take so little time and effort!

(The batter recipe is taken from here and roughly divided by 10).

Jicamagic

2008-11-24T16:58:00.000-08:00

Jicama is such a wonderful root! Peeling it is so much fun! It's worth eating it just for that, but it's also quite tasty, especially in this delectable salad.

This recipe is really good, and it's the best I've ever tried (admittedly, I only tried two). For this recipe I am willing to forgo my winter-summer foods rule, and have salad in winter. It's so easy to make and can make a great left-over lunch.
I altered the recipe a little bit: regular mustard instead of dijon, 1/2 can of beans instead of 1, more corn kernels, green onion instead of regular onion, jalapenos instead of green chilies, and no lemon peel. Those adjustments were mostly made due to inavailability of ingredients, convenience, or sheer laziness, but the result was still VERY good.
I can't recommend this salad enough. Try it!!

Squashy Spaghetti

2008-11-04T16:31:00.000-08:00

Squash season is here, but with the temperatures still pretty high, stews are not the best option. Spaghetti squash is an excellent solution!

This is the best way we know to eat spaghetti squash. You will need:

1 spaghetti squash
1 onion
2 medium sized tomatoes (or 1.5 cups)
fresh basil
a bunch of black olives (12 or so)
1/2 lb or so Panela (or less than 1/2 lb Feta) cheese

Cook squash according to your preferred method (I like to half it, seed and place the half in a pan with 1/3 c water, cover with a plastic bag and microwave for 7 minutes. Repeat for the other half).
In the meantime, chop onion and saute in a bit of olive oil. When golden brown add tomatoes and cook until they're slightly warm. Don't overcook.
Scape the spaghetti out of the squash, add onion-tomato mix, chopped basil, coarsely chopped olives and cheese, and mix it all together. Don't forget salt!

It's very delicious and light (you might want to have some nice dessert later, like a pumpkin roll).

Mushroom Polenta

2008-11-04T16:25:00.000-08:00

This is a case where the food doesn't look very pretty, but it's tasty, quick and easy to make, so thought it would be good to share with all of you busy people.

The polenta is made as previously instructed. The mushrooms go like that:
Slice them, saute them in some olive oil, add salt and parsley flakes, maybe some freshly crushed black pepper, and keep sauteing until they're cooked (takes about 5-10 minutes). Toward the end you can add some heavy cream for extra richness (highly recommended, even if I didn't here).
Pour the mushrooms on top the polenta and sprinkle with shaved Parmesan or Romano.

Cupcake Ant

2008-11-04T16:20:00.000-08:00

In celebration of Rebecca's passing her comps, Dani and I made a little cupcake ant for her.

Dani made the cupcakes. They turned out really moist and tasty. She said she followed this recipe exactly. We assembled it together in the Fewell lab, and it went much better than I had anticipated.
Congrats, candidate Rebecca!

Soba X 2

2008-10-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

That's right! Soba noodles are so good, we had them TWICE last week. (Yeah, I know, it's been a while...).
The first one was SOOO good, you just have to try it. Really - it has lime, mint, and mango - how much better can it get?

You can find the recipe here.
I think it was a bit too sour, so next time I will use less vinegar and maybe dilute it a bit.

The second soba noodle recipe was okay, but nothing to rave about, especially after eating the first one. If you have near-expiration spinach and have no bananas, this recipe will be a good use for it.

I have to admit, I modified the recipe a little bit, so maybe it could be better if you follow it directly. I used teriyaki sauce instead of soy sauce, and mirin instead of sherri. Can't see why these modifications wouldn't make it better, really, but who knows?

Hunting Mousse, Again

2008-09-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I did have some silken tofu leftover, and I did find this interesting concoction, so I had to do it.

I did make my life simpler by using 1/2 a can of sweetened bean paste (we got it ages ago, thinking we'd make some dessert dim-sam, which never happened) - it's made of adzuki beans, and so I didn't have to add any sugar.

It was delicious!

Hunting Mousse

2008-09-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Well, this hunting is more animal-friendly than Sarah Palin's. It's vegan.

6 oz silken tofu
1/3 c bittersweet chocolate chips, melted
powdered sugar to taste (~2 T)

Blend the tofu in a blender and add chocolate and sugar, blend some more, add sugar if not sweet enough for you.

This should make 2 small servings plus a whole lot more in the blender for the person who makes it :)

P.S. - I guess I'm also a cereal killer...

Broccoli Pesto Pasta

2008-09-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

Again, we had some broccoli we had to use before it went bad. I found this recipe in the VT magazine, and it was nice and easy. We used almonds instead of pine nuts because that's what we had. It was very complementary.
I can't find this recipe online yet, so I'll give general instructions below.

What you'll need:
Broccoli crowns, florets separated
Spaghetti
Nuts, roasted
Parmesan or Romano, shredded
3 T Olive oil, divided
1/4 c lemon juice
6 cloves garlic
Salt

How it goes:
Spread the broccoli on a cookie sheet, sprinkle or spray 2 T or so olive oil and roast for 30 minutes or so.
While it's roasting, make the dressing by combining lemon juice, garlic, 1 T olive oil and salt in a large bowl.
Cook pasta and drain, transfer to large bowl and toss to cover with the dressing.
Coarsely chopped the roasted broccoli and add to the pasta.
Sprinkle cheese and nuts.

Enjoy!

Anniversary Restaurant Review

2008-09-08T17:52:00.000-07:00

We don't go out a lot to eat for a number of reasons, but for special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries we make an exception. This past weekend such special occasion occurred - it happened to be our first anniversary! So we went out 5 (!!) times. Vegan every time, too. It was awesome.
Here's a summary:

Friday night: Chakra 4, phoenix, AZ. Sorry for the over-exposure of the lavash + pattes and marinated veggies. It was very dark. One of the pattes was hummus, the other black bean with sunflower seeds. It was ok, but nothing special. The Morroccan stew and quinoa was very good.

Saturday morning: Green Carrot Cafe, Cottonwood, AZ. Oh, my god - it was AWESOME!!! We started with a savory dish: Southwestern wrap. It had potato, onions and god knows what else, but it was so good! And it was all wrapped in a deliciuos tortilla. Yum! We finished with a sweet delicacy: polish crepes with raspberry jam, strawberries and whipped cream.

Saturday night: Raw Cafe Bliss, Sedona, AZ. This is where we had our first raw food experience, the day after we got married. We liked it SO much that we decided to come back every year. First, I asked for their raw tortilla chips, which, last year, were probably the best thing I've ever had. I was disappointed... They keep changing the recipe, she said. This year they weren't half as good. They weren't crispy at all, and their flavor was off. Too bad. I hope that they will someday go back to the original recipe. Both entres were awesome. The zucchini pasta alfredo was my favorite, but it failed to arrive with nut "meat"balls. I complained, and the waitress gave me a nut patte instead, saying the meatballs are dehydrated forms of the patte, and they ran out. It was very good. The alfredo sauce is also made of nuts, and is very rich and filling. The enchilada was also very good. I have no idea how they made the tortilla. Probably the same way they made the chips. It was soft and filled with raw goodness: dried lettuce (!!), fresh tomatoes, and god knows what else. It's a mystery to me how raw food is made. But it's delicious. It was covered with yummy tomato salsa and some nut sauce to act as cheese.
For dessert we had a double chocolate pie. The chocolate part was very creamy and tasty, and the flavor had no trace of avocado, even though that's the ingrediend that gives it its creamyness. I didn't particularly like the crust, but it was ok.
After dinner I felt so full. It must be all the richness of nuts.

Sunday morning, Green Carrot Cafe, Cottonwood, AZ. It was so good, we had to go back and try the other menu items. Again - awesome! On Saturday I deliberately didn't take any of the tofu scramble dishes, because I had bland experience with them in other restaurants. After Saturday's experience I felt a bit more confident in trying the tofu scrumble wrap. I was not disappointed at all. It was very flavorful and delicious. It was wraped in the same kind of yummy tortilla. That was our savory dish. For dessert, we took the special: some kind of bread (banana? hazelnuts?) stuffed with (vegan) strawberry cream cheese and topped with strawberries and blueberries. (Forgive the bites and disorder - The excitement took over). It was tasty, yet not too sweet.

Sunday evening: D'lish, Sedona, AZ. After the stuffing experience we had the night before, we decided to go light and only oredered one dish and one dessert. I chose the Jamaican pineapple burger, which was very delicious, and Mark got the carrot cake, not pictured here due to mere neglect.

We didn't just eat all day while we were in Sedona, of course! Check out our hiking pictures!

Not Yucky And No Soba

2008-09-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

We got non-soba noodles for the yakisoba we intended to make (see previous post). They weren't really the ones one is supposed to use (round egg noodles), but they were purchased at a Japanese store. That surely counts, doesn't it?

We kind of followed this recipe from someone who really misses real yakisoba he had in Japan, assuming it should be authentic. We were amazed to find out how much sugar this recipe calls for! And that's in addition to the oyster sauce where the main ingredients are water and sugar! No wonder the guy is addicted!
Anyway, it turned out really good! Despite the excess sugar, it's not as sweet as you'd expect.

We used a vegetable that was new to us, some Chinese cabbage that looks like this, and a new mushroom (again, new to us, not to science): brown beech mushroom. These mushrooms are SO cute! And lovely-tasting, too!

That's how we made it:

Cooked a package of Japanese noodles (they were of medium thickness and made of wheat, don't know how much was in the package), but not all the way - they're still supposed to be stir-fried.
In a large frying pan over medium heat heated and lightly fried:

1 T sesame oil
9.5 oz cubed firm tofu

When tofu was golden-brown on the outside, added:

1/2 green bell pepper, julienned
6-7 baby carrots, julienned
sprinkle of salt

About 3 minutes of stirring later, added:

One package (150 g) brown beech mushrooms, separated (YUMMY!)
3 Chinese cabbages, leaves cut diagonally

After about 3 minutes of stirring everything together I added about 3 T of the sauce I made ahead of time:

1 T (vegetarian) oyster sauce
4 T soy sauce
4 T sugar
1 T honey
1 T sesame oil
3 T mirin
red pepper flakes, to taste

When the vegetable were nicely coated with the sauce, we added the cooked noodles and the rest of the sauce, and cooked for a couple more minutes.

MMM.... Yukisoba...

Not Yakisoba, Yummy Soba!

2008-09-04T18:21:00.000-07:00

We wanted to have yakisoba. don't ask why. So Mark went to the store and got soba noodles. Alas, yakisoba is not supposed to have soba noodles in it. The absurd! So I looked for a recipe that uses soba (buckwheat) noodles. I found this one, but I didn't have fiddleheads (I didn't even know they existed!) so I made it with broccolli instead.

Soba noodles are SO good! It's hard to believe, considering kasha is not the most flavorful grain you can find... The noodles really taste good just by themselves, but adding the sauce and the vegetables make them even better.

These are the ingredients we used:

10.58 oz soba noodles (can use 8 oz - we didn't put all the noodles in the sauce)
1 T sesame oil
1 crown of broccolli, florets separated
6-7 baby carrots, julienned
9.5 oz firm tofu, cubed
about 7 dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated by soaking in hot water (they were awesome!!)
1 T lemon juice
1 T sesame oil
2 T soy sauce
1 T sugar

Cook the noodles and drain.
In a large frying pan, over medium heat, heat sesame oil and fry the tofu till lightly browned. Add the broccolli florets, the carrots and the shitake mushrooms, salt and stir until broccolli is cooked, but still crisp.

In a large bowl combine lemon juice, sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar. Add the cooked noodles and the stir-fried vegetables and serve!
Also delicious cold on the next day!

Zucchini Pasta

2008-09-01T16:15:00.001-07:00

It is not one of those raw pastas. It's just regular pasta with a single-ingredient sauce. I learned it from my Italian-chef-brother-in-law, Sandro. It's very simple and quick. If you can't see how this could possibly be delicious - try it! I assure you - you will be surprised at how amazingly good it is!

Bowtie or other large and short pasta
2 large zucchinis (or whatever little squashes you have - I used Gray Mexican)
1 T butter
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Yes, that's it!

Cook pasta.
While it's cooking, saute the zucchini in butter until translucent.
Sprinkle salt and pepper
Mix pasta in.

Sour Grapes

2008-09-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

What to do when you find that the grapes you got are way too sour to eat fresh?
Luckily, I wasn't the first person with this problem. I decided to follow one of the suggestions given here.

The suggestion included sausages, but I completely forgot about it! It was delicious and filling even without it.

Polenta:
1 cup cornmeal
4 cups water

Mix together and bring to a boil while stirring. It will be ready withing minutes. Add:
1 T butter
Gorgonzola - as much as you want (of course, the more the better!)
Salt to taste

Sour Grapes:
Remove from stems (half if too big) and add to caramelized onions in a large frying pan.
It is ready when the grapes are soft (5-10 minutes)
sprinkle some chopped rosemary and balsamic vinegar.

The best thing to do with sour grapes!

Taco Salad

2008-09-01T15:59:00.000-07:00

1 lb meatless crumbles
1 c dark red kidney beans
8 oz taco sauce (Ortega is recommended)
2 cloves garlic, chopped

Cook on medium-high heat till done and add to a bowl with:

Lettuce, coarsely chopped
4 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
1/2 c olives, chopped
1/2 cheddar cheese (super sharp Hoffman is recommended), chopped or shredded

Makes 4 servings

Serve with sour cream and tortilla chips -- Salud!

Rice Kalabush

2008-08-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking... There are so many beautiful cooking/baking blogs out there with wonderful photos. Probably by the millions. Why should I continue with this blog? It certainly doesn't get read by the masses. Why load the world wide web with yet another mediocre cooking blog? I have contemplated on quitting. But then it occurred to me that by having this blog I end up trying to create nice-looking and tasty dinners. It kind of "forces" me to do so. So if I get something out of it, why not keep doing it?

One such nice-looking and tasty dinner was the one I made last night:

I wanted it to be quick and easy and use whatever vegetables we had in the fridge and needed to be used immediately.
I titled it rice kalabush because I used kielbasa as a proteinaceous topping and kalabush (meaning a prison in Turkish, I think) sounds close enough. Also, this could be a good prison food :)

The ingredients I used (feel free to substitute with whatever vegetables you have and need to use:

Chopped 1/2 onion
Chopped 1/2 green bell pepper
Chopped 3 large roma tomatoes
Coarsely chopped 5 large white button mushrooms
Chopped ~1 c fresh spinach
2 Tofurky kielbasas, sliced 1/2"
1 cup corn kernels
1 T oil
1 T vegetable broth powder
1.5 c non cooked rice
Salt

The way I made it:

Cooked the rice
In a large frying pan over medium-high, heated oil and sauted onion
Added the kielbasas, until both sides were browned, then pulled them out and set aside
Added the green bell pepper
Added the rest of the vegetables
Added vegetable broth powder and salt
Cooked until it seemed juicy enough to soak the rice in, reduced heat to low
Added the cooked rice, stirred, took off flame
Served, topped with kielbasa slices

Even though the vegetables are full of flavor, it might be worthwhile experimenting with some spices. Maybe paprika?

Hanging Pasta and Crazy New Dishes

2008-08-19T17:57:00.001-07:00

I never liked this clothes drying rack I got - it's very small and the access to most of the "wires" is very inconvenient. So I was happy to find a better one in IKEA and try to use the old one as a pasta drying rack.

It worked out very well for the hanging and drying parts, but then, taking the pasta off was a mess. I guess this rack is good for nothing!

The pasta turned out very good, and we had it with a black-cherry-pesto sauce, this time not overdosing it with pasta. It was delicious! I adapted it to the ingredients I had on hand, so the recipe goes like this:

in a large frying pan over medium-high heat combine :

1/3 c olive oil
1/2 c chopped basil
1/8 c chopped garlic
1 chopped scalion
2 c grape tomatoes, cut in half

Reduce heat to low when it looks about ready, and add 1/2-1 c walnuts.
Stir well and mix with the 2 servings of pasta. Top with plenty of good, grated Parmesan or Romano cheese.

Isn't it lovely?

The pasta was served in the dishes I got from a friend as a late-wedding-gift that was totally unnecessary since we got married secretly. But I appreciate it and think their craziness gives them some charm. So thanks, Kelly!

Monkeying Around

2008-08-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

I found this monkey sitting against the cushion on our couch. The cushion looked significantly slimmer and not well at all. Turned out the monkey sucked the fluff out of it!

The next day, apparently, the monkey was done sucking fluff, and tired of not being able to see anything, him being so small, he climbed up to the top of the couch:

He didn't seem to be at all remorseful about practically killing the cushion... Since the lives of two other cushions are at hand, I decided to find him a new home. He now lives with a one year old. Hopefully she will resist the urge she naturally has to stick fingers in mouths and eyes of people when dealing with him.

Stewed Mushroom Quesadilla

2008-08-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

I had it first at the El Rodeo Restaurant in Raleigh. The one on Hillsborough, not the downtown one. They share the same name, and probably owners, but differ significantly in quality. It was so good, I did not believe I could ever make it myself. I kept getting pretty much the same thing whenever I went there (how I miss all those prospective-student-lunches and lab-outings!).
Finally I decided to give it a try, and was very surprised to find how easy it is!

It may not look very good, but believe me - it is delicious!

Here's how you make it:

Cut mushrooms into medium-sized chunks
Saute the mushrooms in a bit of olive oil
Add salt and oregano
Stir until the juices exuded from the mushrooms have all evaporated
Remove from heat
Warm up a griddle, and with the help of a flipper (spatula) spread a little bit of olive oil (1T for 2 large tortilla is plenty)
Now here's a trick I saw somewhere online. It yields great crispy quesadillas, and yet, quesadilla cooking shows never use it: You flip the tortillas every 10 seconds until they start to bubble and tan a bit
Now you have to be fairly quick: On half of the tortilla spread Mexican cheese, mushrooms, and cheese again, and fold
Press with the spatula and flip after a few seconds and press again until all cheese is melted

Serve with your favorite salsa!

Sipping in the Arizona Nights

2008-08-14T18:05:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do that for ages: sit outside, in the shade, in the nice warm evenings of Arizona, and sip some cold smoothie. What a bliss would that be?!
Well - I could finally do that last night! Yay!

It's a cantapear smoothie: 1/2 cantaloup, 2 small ripe pears and a bit of almond milk. I guess any milk would be great, since the one I used doesn't taste like almonds or anything. It was delicious.

Gorgoncoli Risotto

2008-08-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

You guessed correctly - we had Gorgonzola and broccoli to consume before they expire. For some reason it's recommended to finish up the cheese within five days from opening the package. As if there's a risk it would get any greener... Anyway, I thought a risotto made with sticky rice would be a simple and quick dish to prepare, and it could use the single crown of broccoli left from the night before.

In a medium sized pan, saute the broccoli in a couple of tablespoons of cooking wine until it's soft but still crunchy (about 3-5 minutes).
Mix one teaspoon of cornstarch in one cup of milk and add to the broccoli.
Add the chopped cheese to the pan and mix until it's all melted and you get a nice, thick, fragrant sauce.
Add the rice, mix and serve.

An easy way to cook sticky rice:

Soak 1 cup of sticky rice in 1 cup of water for ten minutes or more in a bowl.
Microwave covered for 3 minutes.
Stir and add a little more water if necessary (for risotto you can add half a cup without any fear).
Microwave covered for another 3 minutes.
It should be ready by now, but if it's not, stir again and microwave 1-2 minutes more.

On the side we had some fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil salad. Together it made for a very cheesy dinner!

Pasta Brocconzola

2008-08-11T18:46:00.001-07:00

This was a collaborative idea of Mark and myself.
It turned out very yummy, and, despite its gourmet appeal, it's very simple to make!

Caramelize an onion, set aside.
Cook pasta
Saute broccoli (2 crowns) in the same pan
Toast walnuts
Chop 4-5 sun-dried tomatoes
Mix everything together and add the Gorgonzola (3"x2" block, diced. Can use blue instead)
Grate Parmesan or Romano
Serve immediately - makes 5 large servings (leftovers are also very good - I just had it for lunch)

I liked it with some ground nutmeg sprinkled on top. Mark didn't.

Stormy Summer Night II

2008-08-08T18:21:00.000-07:00

That's what we had for dinner last night:

Light and summery, right? Well, guess what - it rained on us. Again.
:)
Landlord said he fixed it today.

They're easy to make:

Cut tofu into 1"x0.5"x3" slices and marinate it for at least 15 minutes in the same sauce used for the cold Thai noodles, except, omit the peanut butter.
Julienne baby carrots (~0.5 carrot per roll).
Julienne a cucumber (1 Persian cucumber per 10 spring rolls).
Chop some green onion.
Cook rice noodles, rinse and let cool.
Soak rice spring roll wrap in warm water for a few seconds (get it out when it's still stiff - it will soften more later. If you leave it too long, it'll tear).
Pile the filling ingredients in the middle of the wrap. (I find the nicest result is achieved when you start with a bit of the vegetables, then tofu, then some more vegetables, and finally the noodles).
Roll!
Use the marinade as a dressing.

Filling and refreshing at the same time!

Stormy Summer Night

2008-08-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got an email from Vegetarian Times (they started sending me emails after my subscription ended, probably to get me to renew it, which I certainly did), and it enticed me with this recipe, so I tried it. I have to say, I'm not very good at following recipes, especially when I just read them and then try to recreate them from memory. So I completely forgot about the salt and pepper and cheese inside the tomato! And about the baking time! It came out soft and runny. But doesn't it look pretty? Besides, we could finally tell what chervil tastes like!

The salad is spring mix with raspberry-walnut dressing, topped with strawberries, macademia nuts and Gorgonzola cheese bits (you have to cut it small - it's really strong). Yum!

As we were munching, I felt tiny droplets of water on my feet and heard a weird tapping noise seemingly coming from under the floor. Turned out our nice sun roof was leaking! It was raining real hard outside and we got a free sample. :)

Cannelloni and Cashew-Crusted Tofu

2008-07-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

These might not seem like they go well together, but we didn't really have them together, so there!
It's been awhile since I got to update this blog, so things have accumulated a bit.
We had the cannelloni because Mark wanted to make pasta, and we needed to use some ricotta, but we didn't want to leave the oven on for about an hour to make a lasagna. Did you know that the only difference between cannelloni and manicotti is that the latter is made with a pre-shaped tube?

It's pretty simple to make: we used one container of ricotta (I guess it's about a pint), lots of mozzarella, and some herbs and garlic. It was enough for 9 cannelloni (4 servings).

I've been wanting to make the cashew-crusted tofu ever since I found something similar here. It was good, but not as good as I expected. Probably my fault; I never claimed to be a great cook. Also, the sweet-n-sour sauce was too chunky because of the kind of preserve we got. But I like cashews, and I could definitely taste the cashews here, so that was good. Maybe if I used a firmer type of tofu it would have worked better... Actually, I think that next time I will try it with the wonderful mock chicken I like so much!

More Than Just a Fruit Salad

2008-07-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

Trying to find a quinoa recipe for dinner last night, I stumbled upon this one, and decided to have quinoa for dessert instead. We had a relatively light dinner (leftover pizza and some red corn on the cob), so a nice nutritious dessert was fitting.

I have to say I modified it quite a bit, not because I know better, but because I didn't have some of the ingredients. So mint and flax seed were out, though I'm sure they would make a good addition. I also omitted the avocado - just because I don't like it - and replaced the almonds with pecans. Mmm... pecans... Oh, and I halfed the recipe. One cup is enough for 4 small (dessert-like) servings.
I really liked the idea of cooking the quinoa in orange juice. Very refreshing! It served well as lunches too!

Cocolime Sorbet

2008-07-10T18:27:00.000-07:00

Someone brought limes to the lab. I took 4 and made this out of the juice:

This is how I made it:

Juice from 4 limes (about 1 c)
1 c coconut milk (1/2 can)
2 c sugar
3.5 c water

Boil sugar and water till sugar dissolves, add juice and milk.
Put in large flat taper ware container and freeze.
Four hours later use a hand mixer to blend the frozen edges with the less frozen center.
3 hours later use the hand mixer again to homogenize the sorbet and make it nice and creamy.

That's it!

It came out pretty sweet. I think next time I will use half the sugar and maybe only 2 c water and an extra cup of coconut milk.
The hand mixer really works well and subsequently makes it very easy to scoop the sorbet. An excellent idea I found on an Australian website.

Green Power

2008-07-07T18:13:00.000-07:00

Inspired by madcap cupcake again, I made this green smoothie and, as she promised, it was delicious! Certainly surprising. Even Mark, after tasting it, admitted that it was "...interesting...".
I am looking forward to having some more this evening!

After I had it, like Popeye, I had a burst of energy in me and I decided to lash it on the toaster oven. It looks almost like new now (which is also thanks to the magical powers of baking soda).

Also, I made the perfect summer food: cold Thai noodles with sugar snap peas and mandarins. It is one of Mark's favorite dishes. It is very good, and doesn't require too much cooking.

This is how it goes (4 servings):
You choose a tapper ware container that will be big enough to hold about 10 oz of tofu cut into 3/4" cubes, such that the marinade will cover it completely.

You put in it:
2 T peanut butter
3 T sesame oil
2 T brown sugar
1/3 c lemon juice
1/2 c soy sauce
1 t minced garlic
1 t minced ginger
crushed red peppers to taste

and mix it well.
Then you put the tofu cubes in it to marinate for at least 15 minutes in the fridge.

You cook the noodles (I use an amount that fits in between my index finger and my thumb) and wash them with cold water to cool them down.

You add frozen sugar snap peas (about 1/2 bag) to the noodles (they will bring each other to the right temperature), a small can of mandarins (or 1/2 14oz can) and the tofu in its peanut sauce, and mix it all together. It tastes great as no-heating-required leftovers, too!

We later watched the movie Chocolat and of course, we had to have some:

Everything in Gold

2008-06-30T17:57:00.001-07:00

I was really looking forward to trying the black rice we got a couple of weeks ago at the Asian market, so I decided to have it with some golden Thai curry. It was weird!

Black rice is kind of nutty, somewhat reminds me of wheat berries. It wasn't necessarily appropriate for the curry. But by the time I finished my portion I decided that I like it anyway!
It was good! (well, I am known to love weird things).

Inspired by Susan's pineapple sorbet, I made this one with some coconut milk:

(yes, I made the cup)

The coconut milk diluted the pineapple sweetness, so I think that I will add some more sugar next time I'm having it. It was very refreshing nonetheless!

Quiches

2008-06-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

The first thing I learned to cook when I became vegetarian was quiche. Last night I took it one step further and made it almost vegan. I found this recipe in this great blog. All the recipes there look so awesome (and they're super healthy), but I had to start somewhere, and these quiches looked like a good thing to start with, since I had some silken tofu leftover from the vegan mousse I attempted (very easy, by the way: just blending silken tofu with melted chocolate chips!).

I knew these were going to be yummy when I finished filling up the muffin cups. I started licking the bowl and then devoured all of its contents. This is such a great use for tahini!

I didn't make them completely vegan because I didn't have nutritional yeast - I used grated Parmesan instead.

I think I was too impatient, and took them out of the oven too early. They could probably use an extra minute or two. But I just couldn't wait to try them, since the batter tasted so good.
Even Mark liked them, and he doesn't like quiche. But of course, these are healthy, low-fat quiches.

Mexican Delight

2008-06-23T17:30:00.004-07:00

Last week when I brought left over fajita people in the breakroom couldn't take their eyes away from it - wondering what the hell is it that it smells so good...
We had it again last night.

By the way, we [deliberately mis-] pronounce it "fa-jai-tuh".

They're very simple to make:
1 onion
3 red bell peppers
1/2 can (28 oz) petite diced tomatoes
1/3 of the yummy meat replacement I told you about (or any of your favorite mock chicken) cut into strips

Cook everything in a big pan starting with onions, then meat then peppers and finally tomatoes. Shouldn't take too long.

Load on tortilla laid with yummy cheddar cheese (Hoffmann super-sharp for me, please!), drizzle a good amount of taco sauce, and roll!

This recipe is good for 4 servings at least

Summer Foods

2008-06-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

Summer solstice is today, but for me summer started at the beginning of three consecutive days of more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit, which happened sometime during last week or so. Summer time means summer foods, and this is exactly what we had last night.
[Mark always makes fun of me when I talk about winter foods and summer foods, but I do believe that distinction is appropriate: who wants to eat a hot soup when it's so hot outside you could easily boil it there?]

Last night's summer food was a quinoa salad. Very simple and tasty: quinoa, tomato, cucumber, olives, basil, green onions and goat cheese, all tossed together and dressed with balsamic vinaigrette.

Chinese Stir-fry with the Best of Meats

2008-06-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

My favorite mock meat is the one we get at the Asian Market, Lee Lee. It's called Vege Ham (though it may be flavored differently). I like the chicken flavor, and I swear - if real meat tasted so good, it would have been much harder for me to become vegetarian! It is delicious! As a former co-worker of mine used to say: "It's am-AAAA-zing!!!"
I recommend even the non-veggies among you to try it! The only problem with it is that it comes in a gigantic roll:

And it's really hard to cut when frozen (as it should be kept all the time, I assume). Mark is using his body-builder muscles to tackle that problem. We only use about a third for each time we make something, and, for example, last night's dinner gave us today's lunches and some other day's lunches as well. One third is a lot! In a good way, of course.

Last night Mark made his usual Chinese stir fry: broccoli, red bell pepper, onion, shitake mushrooms, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots. And the chicken-flavored VegeHam, obviously!

I wanted to use the new black rice we got, but found out that it's better for desserts (but also for salads, interestingly). I'm going to try it anyway with some Thai stir fry some time.

More Pasta

2008-06-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

It's not that we're having pasta all the time... We just had Indian the night before and sandwich bread before that. But Mark is a bit enthusiastic about his pasta maker, so on Monday he made some ravioli. I made the filling, trying to make it a bit more sophisticated and colorful, with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil. Alas, not only did the colors failed to show through the dough (as you can see in the picture - I'm already violating the rule in set in the subtitle), but my additions didn't even significantly change the flavor of the ricotta! Maybe I should have used sun-dried tomato paste?

The pasta itself was very good, and even Mark had no complaints :)

Hair of Angels

2008-06-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

This pasta was made by Mark (from scratch, of course!) on Thursday night, but I forgot to post it on Friday, being busy with work and that kind of silly stuff. So here it is - better late than never?

It's just semolina flour and water, from what I understand. It was my job to cook it, and I'm afraid I overdid it. It was still good. The best thing about fresh homemade pasta is that leftovers are never dry - even if you just warm them up in the microwave (as we did on the weekend), they still taste just as fresh as on the first day!