Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy 4th of July...and some tasty treats to share

Remember the crispy tofu I made the other day? I decided to make a sandwich out of some of the leftovers. I heated the tofu in the oven so it crisped up again. Then I smeared a sourdough sub roll with Veganaise, mustard, and bbq sauce, added the tofu and some sliced tomatoes. It was delicious!

My mother-in-law's birthday day was this weekend and I made Indian food for her special meal. It all turned out pretty well. The Curried Chickpeas the Greens were quite flavorful. The Cabbage and Pea Curry was yummy, though not bursting with flavor. The Biryani was not my favorite - there was nothing wrong with it but it didn't have much flavor for what was in it!I will post the recipe for the Chickpea and Greens Curry as it was the best from the meal. All of these Indian recipes can be found in Appetite for Reduction. I also made a coconut banana cream pie for dessert which was delicious but soupy - I would modify the recipe next time but the taste was fabulous! I forgot to take a picture and then when I served it up, it was so soupy that it wasn't worthy of a pic! I modified the recipe quite a bit - the original recipe for the vanilla coconut pudding is from 500 Vegan Recipes.

Curried Chickpeas and Greens (modified from Appetite for Reduction)
2 t oil
2 t mustard seeds
1 onion, diced
4 cloves minced garlic
2 T minced fresh ginger
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 T curry powder
2 t ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
1 t garam masala
1 t salt
1 (12 oz) can crushed tomatoes
2 1/2 cups torn kale, removed from stalk
1 1/2 cups chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Preheat 4-quart pot over medium heat and add 1 t oil. Add mustard seeds and cover. Heat until seeds pop. Add remaining oil, ginger, garlic and onion. Cook until onion is lightly browned. Add tomatoes to deglaze the pot. Add spices. Add kale and stir. Add beans. Simmer for about 10 min or until heated through and kale has cooked down. I don't like wilty kale so I cooked it until the kale was cooked but still had a crunch to it. Serve over rice.

Coconut Banana Cream Pie
1 single pie crust, baked
1 recipe filling (recipe below)
1/2 cup coconut
2 bananas

Heat a small skillet over medium heat and add coconut. Toast until lightly browned. Removed from heat and set aside. Slice bananas and place in the bottom of the baked pie crust. Prepare filling. Once filling is done, pour over sliced bananas in pie crust. Top with toasted coconut and chill until set. Serve.

Filling:
1/4 cup plus 2 heaping T cornstarch
1 1/4 cups vanilla almond milk, divided
1 (14oz) can coconut milk
3/4 cup plus 2 T sugar
1 T vanilla

Combine cornstarch and 1/2 cup almond milk and whisk until smooth. Set aside. Heat remaining almond milk, coconut milk and sugar in a pan until it begins to boil, stirring constantly to prevent scalding. Remove from heat and stir in cornstarch mixture. Stir until thickened.


I wanted to make something patriotic-looking for the festivities today so I made this creamy lemon pie. We of course haven't eaten it yet since it is 6am but I did taste the pudding filling last night and it's yummy! We will be enjoying a bbq today with family - we will be feasting on veggie burgers and homemade vegan hot dogs, along with corn on the cob, baked beans, potato fries, veggie sticks, and fruit salad! Then we will finish out he extravaganza with this yummy red, white and blue pie. Happy 4th of July everyone!

Lemon Vanilla Pie with Berries(original recipe from 500 Vegan Recipes, modified a bit)
1 single pie crust, baked
Strawberries and Blueberries for garnish
1 recipe Lemon Vanilla Pudding - recipe below

Pudding:
3 cups almond milk
3/4 cup plus 2 T sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 T cornstarch
1/2 cup plus 2 T lemon juice
1 T vanilla
1 T lemon zest

In a saucepan, heat 2 cups almond milk, sugar and lemon juice. Meanwhile, combine remaining 1 cup almond milk and cornstarch and stir until smooth. Add cornstarch mixture to heated milk and continue to cook and stir until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and lemon zest. Pour filling into prepared pie crust. When cooled, top with sliced strawberries and blueberries. Chill until set. Serve.

2 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, looking at that sandwich is making me soooo hungry! YUMO!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vegan SJ - the sandwich was as good as it looks! Delicious!!

    ReplyDelete

Crispy Herbed Potato Stack

Crispy Herbed Potato Stack
I was going to try a recipe for herbed scalloped potatoes and at last minute decided to do something fast and easy. I made up the recipe and it was yummola! I layered sliced russet potatoes in a baking dish, drizzled with olive oil, and then sprinkled with coarse sea salt, fresh ground pepper, basil, rosemary, paprika, and garlic powder. Then I baked them at 425 fr about 45 minutes. They were crisp and very flavorful!

My thrown-together salad today - after discovering I had no leftovers for lunch!

Tamale Fixings

Tamale Fixings
Plain pintos (for Keith), pintos, corn and onions; corn, jalepenos and Daiya; mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, and chard

Making these was a bit time-consuming but kinda fun! They didn't turn out as good as I had hoped - the outer tamale part (not the filling) just wasn't as flavorful as tamales I have had in restaurants. I have another recipe I will try for the dough next time. Tamales are one of my favorite foods so I won't give up on this one!

"Buttermilk" Blueberry Pancakes

"Buttermilk" Blueberry Pancakes
I modified one of my favorite pancake recipes to make it vegan and then I added blueberries. Turned out quite yummy. Soymilk sours and thickens well - very similar to buttermilk. I have been really impressed with it's ability to substitute for real buttermilk.

"Buttermilk" Blueberry Pancakes

Egg replacement for 1 egg
1 1/4 cups soured soy milk (put 2 T vinegar into a 2 cup glass measuring cup. Add enough soy milk to equal 1 1/4 cups)
2 T canola oil
1 cup flour (I wouldn't recommend whole wheat or whole wheat pastry - it really takes away from the fluffiness of these pancakes)
1 T sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
Blueberries, optional

Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir just until combined. Heat griddle pour about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Sprinkle blueberries on pancakes after ladling onto griddle. Cook just until golden on both sides.

Veggie and Seitan Lo Mein

Veggie and Seitan Lo Mein
Overall, this was fabulous! However, I don't think the seitan added much so I would just leave it out next time. The lo mein also needed about double the sauce so I would simply do that next time for added flavor. This was especially spicy and yummy with some Sriracha drizzled on top. I made our favorite veg egg rolls to go with this and it was truly a Chinese treat!!

Veggie Seitan Lo Mein

I really did my own thing for this recipe so I am just going to outline the instructions and include the sauce recipe. I heated oil in a large skillet and added 3 minced cloves of garlic and about 1 cup of half-moon cut onions (I was out of green onions but next time I would use green onions as I like them a lot in Chinese food) and about 1 cup matchstick-cut carrots. After about 5-6 minutes, I added about 1/4 lb of whole green beans. I cooked these veggies until tender. Meanwhile, I cooked a 16oz package of chow mein noodles. Once the veggie mixture was cooked, I poured the sauce on the veggies, heated through and tossed with the noodles. Next time I would double the amount of sauce and have adjusted amounts below to reflect double recipe.

Sauce (Source:Adaptable Feast)
3 T soy sauce
3 T rice wine (I used 3 T rice vinegar and 1 t sugar as I didn't have any rice wine)
3 t sugar
4 T black bean garlic sauce
Mix all ingredients and toss with above mixture.





Chinese Broccoli Wontons in Ginger Soy Broth

Chinese Broccoli Wontons in Ginger Soy Broth
Pretty yummy. I found that steaming the wontons worked much better than the recipe suggestion to boil them. The broth was very mild and a bit too mellow for us. Still pretty yummy though. I added extra veggies to the wontons and scallion to the broth. The seasoning in the wonton filling was quite tasty!

Chinese Broccoli Wontons in Ginger Soy Broth (Source: Vegan Yum Yum)

(As usual, I modified several things so it's not exactly the recipe in Vegan Yum Yum!)

1 cup chopped broccoli
3/4 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1 T oil
1 t fresh ginger, minced
1 clove fresh minced garlic
1/2 t hot chili sauce (such as Sriracha)
1 t hot Chinese mustard
2 T plus 1 t soy sauce
4 cups water ( I think this might have been more flavorful had I used vegetable broth or faux chicken broth???)
6 slices fresh ginger
1 T mirin (I used a splash of cooking wine as I didn't have mirin)
1 1/2 t sugar
2 t rice vinegar
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup chopped scallions
16 wonton skins

For filling: Heat oil in skillet and add broccoli, ginger, garlic, carrot, onion and cook until veggies are crisp tender. Add chili sauce, mustard, 1 t soy sauce and stir to combine. Remove from heat and set aside.

To make wontons, take one skin and place in diamond shape. Fill with 1-2 t filling. Fold in half to make a triangle and moisten edges with water and pinch sides to seal. Set triangle in front of you with point up and take the 2 side points and bring them together in front to cross. Set aside and prepare remaining wontons. When finished, place wontons in a steamer basket and steam over pot of boiling water until translucent.

Meanwhile, in a pot, combine remaining ingredients (except wontons) and simmer 10-15 min.

Place 3-4 wontons in bowl and ladle broth over wontons. Serve.