Posts published during August, 2009

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August 28, 2009

More Daiya adventures

Because we know people (hey!) we got to sample Daiya in yummy pizza form and also got some of each flavor of shreds to take home. I did a couple of bullshit things with them last week because I’d already done the weekly shopping. But this week I could plan for it.

What’s an easy thing to do with melty vegan cheese? Quesadillas! Kevin fried up the chorizo with onions, I made a quick salsa and corn & pepper salad. Sometimes the best food comes from improvisation.

stretchy daiya

stretchy daiya

What else do you do with yummy vegan cheese? Lasagna! This is the spinach lasagna from Yellow Rose Recipes. I made a half batch so we wouldn’t be swimming in it. Worked really well and the leftovers reheated nicely in the oven.

Okay, so I know you’re intrigued. So where can you get this magical Daiya cheesy stuff? Oh look! Cosmo’s has it in stock. Seriously, get on that. Heck, Teese is on sale this weekend, so get some of each.

This post brought to you by the letter Manhattan. I blame it on all typos and general weirdness. My tongue is kinda numb.

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August 27, 2009

A first try at Roti

This was my first try at making Roti. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever even eaten this particular flat bread. I saw the recipe for Mama Nadia’s Caribbean Roti in Vegan Fusion World Cuisine when I was making up my grocery list and thought I’d give it a try. The recipe called for spelt flour but I used unbleached all purpose with some barley flour mixed in instead.

They aren’t as hard as I thought they would be. But I did have a lot of trouble with the filling busting out. Probably because I didn’t feel like hauling out my mixer and kneaded by hand. I hate kneading by hand. Actually, I hate putting my hands in the food in such a way that gets the food under my fingernails. Anyway, I should have let the mixer do it. I think the dough would have been smoother, developed a little more gluten and then the filling wouldn’t have busted out. But still, they came out pretty well. And were tasty. The recipe suggests serving with mango chutney. I didn’t have any so I just mixed up a quick sauce of apricot jam mixed with a little soy sauce. That seemed to work out just fine.

Resting roti balls

Resting roti balls

Filling the roti

Filling the roti

Frying up the roti

Frying up the roti

Roti with apricot sauce and green beans

Roti with apricot sauce and green beans

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August 26, 2009

Blueberry Coconut Cupcakes

Blueberry coconut sounds kind of strange, doesn’t it? They were the answer to the question “what can I make for a dessert without going to the store.” And they were tasty too! I especially liked the effect of rolling the frosted top in coconut. It makes them look extra special.

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August 24, 2009

And I’ve never even been to Seattle

Recently a friend made a trip to Seattle and brought back a ton of Mighty O Donuts. I think it’s funny that through the magic of traveling friends, I have now had Ronald’s Donuts from Las Vegas and now Mighty O’s without having visited either city.

Mighty O’s are cake-like doughnuts. I don’t have a problem with that. I like both cake and raised. Even though they were a day old, the doughnuts were still fresh and lovely.

Kevin picked the lemon poppyseed. It had nice sharp lemon flavor and a light glaze on the top.

I went with the Lots o Chocolate flavor. Chocolate cake, chocolate glaze. Mmmm. The glaze was sort of reminiscent of the flavor of Entenmann’s chocolate covered doughnuts. But not as firm. It got a little melty. Of course, what do I know. I haven’t had Entenmann’s in many years. Anyway, this doughnut was rich enough for a chocolate snob like me.

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August 22, 2009

Polenta is easy!

I don’t know why I always thought polenta was hard to make. Maybe it’s just made out to be a big pain in the ass. In reality, it’s not that bad. You need to whisk steadily as you add the cornmeal, but after you’ve got it all in there and the lumps are worked out, you really only need to stir every so often. Not constantly as some recipes would have you believe. And talk about budget food! I mean, how much is cornmeal?

This is the Polenta with Fresh Corn recipe from The Vegan Gourmet. I took advantage of the fresh white corn at Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market and even super-sized the corn by using 3 ears instead of two. I also was able to make use of the sage I have growing outside my kitchen. On top is a bit of Daiya cheese that we didn’t even bother to melt. And some roasted asparagus and summer squash.

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August 21, 2009

Adventures in Soy Curls

You may have seen or heard of Butler’s Soy Curls in shops or on other blogs. They are awesome in their simplicity: soy beans. And guess what? They’re really easy to use too! I just rehydrate with warm water and use in recipes that call for seitan or TVP.

Here’s a recipe from A Vegan Taste of Thailand that called for TVP. I think it’s called Soya Mince with Rice Noodles and Peas. The sauce base is coconut milk and red curry paste. I used yellow curry paste instead. Still delicious. This is the only one of the “a vegan taste” series that I own, but I’ve been pretty happy with it. I know the various books get so-so reviews on amazon.com. But they are fairly inexpensive, so the risk is pretty small. I should try another one soon.

And here, I was easily able to substitute the Soy Curls for seitan in this Persian Seitan in Pomegranate Sauce from The Vegan Epicure. Bonus, I was able to use some of the Pom Wonderful Pomegranate juice sent to me a while back. I usually just make this dish with pomegranate molasses. I was hoping using the juice would have it turn out a little less brown, but I didn’t get the concentrated flavor from it that I like. So I ended up adding the pomegranate molasses anyway. We just ate it over bulgur.

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August 20, 2009

South Indian Food Love

You know, it actually took moving to Atlanta before I had really good South Indian food. The few places I tried in San Francisco in the 90s were definitely of a Northern sort, and gringoed to boot. I will say that I’ve been back to SF since and discovered perfectly lovely South Indian food between Union Square and the Tenderloin.

Atlanta, though, has a ton of South Indian options. Even so, sometimes I like to cook it. I’m too lazy to bust out enough dishes to fill a thali, but recently I did manage two dishes and dosas. I think a full out scratch recipe for dosas isn’t hard, but making them from a box, a box less than $1, is way easier. It’s pretty tasty for a mix and will do when you’re feeling lazy from making two other dishes.

Both of these dishes come from Healthy South Indian Cooking. This is not even a vegetarian cookbook, but it has many, many vegan recipes. I’ve gotten so I don’t mind some meat recipes. Usually they can easily be veganized.

This is a blurry Potato Okra Mandi. I accidentally made two things that were pretty soupy. D’oh. This one is full of sour tamarind goodness. I’m not usually a fan of okra, but they don’t slime up in this dish.

I thought Beans Kootu was more dry last time I cooked it. Heck, it probably was. At least it wasn’t a full on soup. Sugar snap peas in a coconutty bean sauce.

And here it is all together with the dosas.

Speaking of Indian stuff in Atlanta, one of my favorite places to stock up on supplies is Taj Mahal Market. Spices, beans, mixes, chutneys, thali, etc. This week I made a quick trip up there during lunch for black mustard seeds and came back with that plus red lentils, tamarind paste, saffron, black salt, coconut milk, two dosa mixes, young jackfruit in brine, roasty tasty (peanuts covered in a bean flour coating, not fried) and rose spread:

Even if you don’t need anything, it’s worth stopping in for a browse.

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August 9, 2009

Vermont Sourdough with increased whole grain

You people might be tired of looking at these, but I’m still amazed every time I open the oven and pull one of these loaves out. I did that? This time I went with the Vermont Sourdough with increased whole grain from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread. And again, it’s about perfect. The rye flour in it doesn’t weigh it down at all. It does take some planning to produce a bread like this, but it’s totally worth it.

I enjoyed my first slices with a raw kale salad and marinated grilled tempeh. A pretty healthy lunch.

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August 8, 2009

Slip & Slide Party

It’s not as dirty as it sounds. Well, yeah, it was dirty. But in the muddy kind of way. Danielle and Matt hosted a slip & slide party to celebrate her art show at Youngblood. We brought over our soft serve machine and I cranked out a huge batch of vegan waffle bowls. Yep, vegan waffle bowl sundaes. We know how to do things in Atlanta.

Here’s my waffle bowl making station. The vodka gimlet helped when I wasn’t pouring them all over the floor. D’oh.

Here’s a lovely waffle bowl sundae. Mmmmm….

Oh, and this isn’t the little plastic sheet of a slip & slide. This was an inflatable, 2-lane slip & slide, with palm trees and a pool at the end. Insane!

Oh, you need action shots? Here, they’re taking a cue from Wipeout and spinning around before heading for the slide. Kevin didn’t quite make it.

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August 2, 2009

Cookie Time

Most of yesterday was spent busting out cookies for Danielle Distefano’s art show opening at Youngblood. If you didn’t come down last night you missed the cookies, but the show runs through August 31st. So you can still check out all the lovely ladies. And I dare you to get out of Youngblood without buying something.

So what about those cookies? These cute little guys are Almond and Rosewater cookies. I even made Kevin decorate some of them.

Kevin suggested we do some thumbprint cookies. These are kind of a pecan shortbread filled with strawberry jam. All filled by Kevin!

Sometimes, you just have to make something ridiculously decadent. Chick-O-Stick white chocolate chip cookies are absolutely decadent. Where the heck do you get vegan white chocolate chips? From Cosmo’s of course! Chick-O-Sticks? Your local gas station or convenience store.

These were a last minute decision. How can you make a bunch of cookies without including any chocolate? So I made a batch of cappuccino cookies with chocolate chips.