Cook Now, Study Later

  It feels like forever since I wrote my last post. This past week dragged on way too long. I had exams in two different classes yesterday, so I spent most of the weekend studying after working the 5am opening shifts at Starbucks. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but I'm working towards a Masters in Nutrition and Registered Dietitian certification. I applied to Hunter College in Manhattan, so I'm still waiting to hear if I've been accepted to the program. For the past year, I've been taking the pre-requisite science courses at my local community college. I was also busy playing homemaker this week, since my mom was visiting my grandpa in Florida for his 93rd birthday. I always cook my own meals, but this week I had to feed my dad as well. He was born and raised in Sicily, so he really only has a taste for dishes with familiar Mediterranean ingredients. In addition to Italian food, I can usually serve him Greek or Middle Eastern style dishes, but Asian is out of the question. I made the "French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme" and "Chestnut Lentil Pate" recipes from Veganomicon one night. The soup was nice, but next time I would add tiny pasta and give it a spicy kick with cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes. I used a bag of organic roasted chestnuts that I bought at a Korean market in the pate and substituted green lentils. I served the pate with melba crackers. It had a subtle sweetness from the chestnuts, but the nutmeg was a little overpowering for me. I also made a side of "tempeh bacon" from Vegan With a Vengeance, which is one of my favorite recipes. Another night I adapted a recipe for a chickpea, artichoke, and almond salad from Vegan Yum Yum by adding crushed tomatoes and serving it over whole wheat pasta. I had made this variation once before, and it was definitely better the first time. I think I overcooked the pasta a bit, because I usually prefer mine to be chewy "al dente" style.

On Friday night I picked an unassuming recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance, because it sounded healthy and I had most of the ingredients on hand. I made "beet, barley, and black soybean soup with pumpernickel croutons" (which is author Isa Chandra Moskowitz's interpretation of the classic Russian borscht). The soup had a beautiful magenta color, and interesting sweet, sour, and earthy flavor. I didn't have pumpernickel bread, but substituted some dense, chewy German dark rye bread for the croutons. These, as well as some fresh dill, rounded out the dish. My picky father actually ate two large bowls of this soup!
                


















Tonight, Danny and I made a vegan version of "Addictive Sweet Potato Burritos" from AllRecipes.com, which we served with arugula salad and Trader Joe's sweet potato chips. We substituted black beans for the kidney beans and added some sweet plantain. They were good, but to make them really addictive I would add a lot more plantain, some brown rice, and corn. After dinner we baked up "Chocolate Chai Cupcakes" from VegWeb. They had a nice moist consistency, but the chai flavor was not strong enough (I even used three tea bags). I don't bake often, so I've never made frosting before. We attempted a recipe for "fluffy" frosting, but it turns out that coconut oil is not a good substitute for shortening. The frosting tasted good, but didn't really thicken, so we were unable to pipe it. If anyone has suggestions for making good frosting, let me know!

It seems as though I've tested a ton of recipes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's books this past week. Some were hit or miss, but overall her recipes are solid. I just remembered that I also tried the "chickpea cutlets" with "mustard sauce" from Veganomicon last weekend. I was actually really grossed out the first time I tasted the cutlets. I'm not a fan of vital wheat gluten, so the gumminess that it gave the cutlets turned me off. The mustard sauce was also overpowering, because I used a strong Dijon mustard and the capers were too vinegary. The next day I baked the leftover cutlets in the toaster oven, and they seemed to cook through more in the middle. I spread some tahini on them and then the mustard sauce and voila! the taste and texture had improved tenfold. Next time I make them I might try baking them instead of pan frying them and serving them with a different sauce. I had a gallon of this mustard sauce leftover, but found a great use for it! My new favorite salad is romaine lettuce, orange wedges, kalamata olives, chopped Medjool dates, and hemp seed with the mustard sauce as a dressing. If you don't want to whip up the mustard sauce, I've had this salad before with a simple olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

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!

This is How We Roll [Sushi!]

I usually stick to simple recipes, but I was feeling a little adventurous lately. Danny and I used to enjoy going out for sushi when we could eat fish. Now the "vegetarian sushi" we order with a skimpy cucumber and carrot stick per roll just doesn't cut it. We decided to create or own Japanese dining experience, complete with wooden takeout chopsticks. The first recipe listed in Veganomicon is for "Spicy Tempeh Nori Rolls," which is a vegan take on the "spicy tuna roll." We chose this recipe as well as the "Yamroom" version, which is stuffed with mashed Korean sweet potato and shitake mushrooms. I prepped the spicy tempeh mixture and steamed the sweet potatoes and
mushrooms ahead of time, then brought the ingredients to Danny's house for the assembly. There we cautiously followed the instructions for making perfect sticky sushi rice, which was actually super easy (but you MUST use white rice that is labeled "sushi rice" on the package if you want it to stick nicely!) While the rice was cooking, we sliced carrots, cucumber, and avocado into long, thin sticks. After the rice cooled, we laid out our bamboo mat with a sheet of nori seaweed on top, spread on some rice, and piled on the fillings. Now it was time to roll: with a few flicks of the wrist Danny had created a perfect photo-worthy maki roll. Feeling competitive, I attempted an inside-out roll (the kind you usually see in Japanese restaurants, with the white rice on the outside). I rolled in the wrong direction the first time, so I couldn't get the roll to stick. The inside-out roll was definitely more time consuming, and our tummies were rumbling, so we stuck to the tried-and-true rolling method. In the end, we successfully created 9 maki sushi rolls, enough for dinner and leftovers. The "Spicy Tempeh Roll" was filled with the spicy tempeh mixture, carrot, cucumber, avocado, and sprouts. The "Yamroom Roll" was filled with mashed sweet potato, shitake mushrooms, and carrots. We included sesame seeds inside and outside the rolls for flavor and garnish, and we served them with pickled ginger, wasabi, and tamari soy sauce. We included small side dishes, like miso soup, cucumber and wakame seaweed salad, and a carrot salad. Overall, the process took awhile, but it was really fun and the sushi turned out so flavorful! What are you waiting for? Get rolling!!

Pumpkin: Not Just For Pies!

It pangs me to see all of the pumpkins that go to waste after Halloween. Sure the best pumpkins for Jack O' Lanterns might not be the tastiest, but they are still food! Aside from pumpkin pie and other pumpkin-y desserts, pumpkins have other great culinary uses! I prefer to roast cheese pumpkins or sugar pumpkins until they are sweet like butternut squash. As mentioned in my last post, I used my giant Long Island Cheese Pumpkin to make roasted pumpkin, corn, and sweet onion served over wild rice with a lemon, mint, and sunflower seed dressing. This recipe was a fusion of two of my favorite recipes of all time: 101 Cookbooks' Roasted Pumpkin Salad and Bon Appetit's Wild Rice with Roasted Butternut Squash, Leeks, and Corn. The pumpkin roasted up with unbelievable sweetness, and I still had 3/4 of the pumpkin left afterwards (plus all of the seeds, which I plan to roast)! Yesterday I pulled the remaining pumpkin out of the fridge and roasted all of it. I used some of it towards Mark Bittman's Autumn Millet Bake, and the rest I intended to roast and puree (for future use in pies and other desserts). When you hear "millet" you're probably thinking bird food (and indeed I used to feed it to my parakeets). Millet is gluten-free, highly nutritious, and was once considered a sacred grain in ancient China. In the recipe above, I toasted the millet before baking, so it has a nice texture that is a little crunchy and soft at the same time. So back to the pumpkin--the portion that I intended to puree seemed too stringy and tough for pureeing, so I plan to test out Veganomicon's Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelized Onion and Sage Crumb Topping later this week. So far everything I've tried from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's cookbooks has been amazing, so I'm crossing my fingers for this one! Can you tell that the winter weather has me on a comfort food kick? Tonight I even tried Vegetarian Times' recipe for ginger tea to warm my tummy. When I lived in South Korea, a coworker of mine was give a thermos of homemade ginger tea similar to this by one of her students. Koreans drink ginger tea to protect the immune system and ease digestion. The version I made was super-spicy, so I diluted it with more hot water and added raw honey (consuming an occasional tsp. of honey is the only thing that prevents me from being a "strict vegan"). I will leave you with one last recipe before I go...I recently purchased four bags of Arrowhead Mills puffed cereals for only $1.50 each at Big Lots and the only thing I could think of to do with them was make granola bars. I used VegWeb's Creative No Bake Chewy Granola Bars recipe as the base and tweaked it a bit. I used a mixture of puffed brown rice, millet, and kamut. I used cashews, flax seeds, and hemp seeds as the nut/seed portion and medjool dates and figs as the dried fruit portion. I used agave as the liquid sweetener, almond butter, and a pinch of cardamon to complement the cashews and dates. So far the half dozen or so people who have tried them couldn't stop eating them. The recipe seems pretty versatile, so next time I might try a peanut butter and chocolate chip combination.