Chew on This: Vegan Brunch!

I'm back in action! I've recovered from last week's wisdom tooth extraction for the most part, and I ate my first solid food meal on Saturday morning. For about seven days I stuck to a liquid and soft food diet, which forced me to get quite creative towards the end of the week:

• I made mashed sweet potatoes by roasting 4-6 sweet potatoes until tender in a 450 degree oven, then removing the skins and blending them with 1 tbs. mellow white miso, 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar, and 2 tsp. cinnamon. This mash makes up the top layer to NYC Candle Cafe's Paradise Casserole, but it is delicious on its own! I also sauteed ripened plantains in coconut oil and mashed those for another sweet, yet healthy sidedish.
• I turned this black bean hummus recipe into a black bean mash by cutting the amount of lemon juice and cumin in half to make it less pungeant and more appropriate as a sidedish.
• I adapted this recipe for So Healthy Chocolate Mousse by using 3 tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder, 3 tbs. agave nectar, omitting the orange zest, and including 2 soaked medjool dates and 1 tsp. raw coconut oil combined with about half of a dark chocolate bar, melted. I used Green & Black's Espresso dark chocolate, which gave the mousse a nice depth of flavor.

To celebrate my transition to solid foods on Saturday, I cooked up a vegan brunch with Danny. We attempted our first tofu scramble by following the recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance, adding spinach at the end. It was not nearly as delicious as the tofu scramble I tasted at 3 Brothers Pizza, but it was worth repeating. Next time I would add extra onion and reduce the amount of cumin and nutritional yeast (I have an aversion to cumin and cilantro, but I'm trying to develop a taste for both). I also baked skillet corn bread from Veganomicon in my cast-iron skillet. I added sweet corn kernels and used spelt flour in place of all-purpose flour. The corn bread had a subtle sweetness and held together nicely. (It's seriously adddictive...I ate most of the loaf myself in 2 days!) I served the cornbread with Earth Balance and a drizzle of pure maple syrup. Lastly, I prepared some sweet-and-sour aduki beans, which I had made once before by following this  recipe for black eyed peas. I considered including tempeh bacon and hash-brown potatoes in my brunch, but I didn't have the ingredients on hand and I try to avoid using too much soy in one meal.

                                        

A year or two ago, I would have spent most of my recovery glued to the Food Network. However, I recently discovered that vegan cooking is developing a strong representation in online videos. Since subscribing to Spork Online, I have found several other similar projects:

• Vegucating Robin - chef Gavan Murphy, aka "Healthy Irishman," teaches Robin Quivers about vegan cooking in short online episodes
• I'm Vegan - a series of short documentary profiles that feature vegans from all walks of life
• The Post Punk Kitchen - Isa Chandra Moskowitz taped this cooking show in her small Brooklyn aparment prior to the release of her now-famous cookbooks
• Heavy Metal Vegan Cooking - the male version of the Post-Punk Kitchen
• Everyday Dish - I found these free vegan cooking videos on YouTube, but the website offers a subscription service similar to Spork Online.
• Vegucated - "a guerrilla-style documentary that follows three meat- and cheese-loving New Yorkers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks and learn what it’s all about"; due to premiere in spring 2011...look for screenings near you!
• You can find a ton of other vegan cooking shows by doing a Google or YouTube search!

A Very Vegan Birthday

                           

My birthday was this past weekend. I didn't plan on doing anything special, but some of my coworkers from Starbucks surprised me during my shift Friday night. Katie brought me some amazing oatmeal-banana-walnut-chocolate chip cookies from Sal's Meat Market (who knew an Italian deli could make such delicious vegan cookies?) Mary came for a visit and sneakily placed some of her famous cupcakes in the fridge. They were chocolate with green frosting, topped with yellow frosting piped Oreos that looked like sunflowers. And of course they were as delicious as they looked! Tabitha and Dan got me a Calico Dragon bag that boldly states "Vegan for Life" on one side and has cute cartoon animals labeled "Not for Human Consumption" on the other. I checked out the website and a portion of all proceeds go to animal charities, and the bags are made by a woman in China who is able to support herself and her son through her business. On Saturday morning, my mom and I set out to use up my big box of Hodgson's Mill Buckwheat  Pancake Mix to make a few batches of vegan waffles. In my house we probably make pancakes or waffles only once a year, so we had to dig deep in the garage to find the dusty waffle maker. For the most part, I followed the recipe on the box to a tee (replacing the dairy milk with coconut milk and the egg with 1/2 of a mashed banana). I don't like plain pancakes or waffles though, so I had to throw in some frozen blueberries, chopped walnuts, and a dash of cinnamon. The batter wasn't runny like I remember Bisquick batter to be, so we literally had to spread it on the oiled waffle maker with a spoon. The first set of waffles was so thick that they split when we opened the waffle maker, and we could have stuffed them to make a waffle sandwich. The next few came out a bit lighter and crispier. In the end, they were tasty and we topped them with Earth Balance, organic Vermont maple syrup, almond butter, and raw cinnamon honey. Yesterday was my real birthday, so my mom, Danny, and I went to 3 Brothers Pizza Cafe for dinner. Danny and I have been going there nearly once a week recently, and we wanted my mom to try it for the first time. We started with eggplant rollantini, which was stuffed with tofu-cashew ricotta and topped with Daiya mozzarella cheese and nut parmesan. The dish was so fresh and delicious, and my mom was really impressed with the resemblance to real cheese. We then shared our favorite custom pie: whole wheat crust, tomato sauce, tofu-cashew ricotta, broccoli rabe, grilled portobello, and grilled eggplant. We even brought a few slices home for my dad to try and he had no idea he was eating vegan ricotta cheese. Last night, my aunt, uncle, and cousins came over for birthday cake. I baked a Mocha Fudge Pudding Cake from Jae Steele's Get it Ripe cookbook. Danny and I baked it the day before: it was a really quick and easy recipe, but its ability to hold its shape was questionable. The cake batter consisted of spelt flour, cocoa powder, ground espresso, agave nectar, coconut oil, soy milk, and vanilla extract. Once the batter is transferred to a baking dish, you pour 2 cups of hot coffee over the batter. The batter was pure liquid, and even after baking for an hour the cake came out bubbling like molten lava. Once I refrigerated it overnight, the cake settled and formed a nice thick pudding on the bottom. I served it over vanilla soy ice cream, and it was a big hit.