Manchurian-ish Mushrooms

We've been in "Mexi-mode" lately almost exclusively with my testing and restesting recipes for the cookbook. On Friday, I was looking at the website TasteSpotting and decided to do a search of the word "spicy", 'cause that's how I roll. One of the recipes that came up was for Manchurian Mushrooms. The picture was so drool-worthy that I had to go look at the recipe. I sounded absolutely amazing. I sent the recipe and picture to both Brett and Selina (she and I have very similar tastes). Brett, who claims to be "Asian-ed out" took one look at the recipe and agreed that we should try it and soon. Selina was on the same page as me and wanted to make it as soon as possible.

I started from this recipe here. I didn't have some of the stuff on hand and I wanted to make sure that the mushrooms were spicy to my liking and the sauce was sweet to Brett's liking so I tweaked the recipe and provided it below.




You may note some new serving ware here and there. My Nanny Beth (among others) wanted our food to look nicer since we put pictures of it online, so she got us these "rooster bowls" which look really cool with Asian food and some plates for us to use for our "Mexican presentations". Now all I have to do is learn how to use a camera and get some sort of eye for "food fashion". Hell, I am just the cook, Selina, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE PRESENTATION UP TO ME FOR THE COOKBOOK. It would just be bad. You've seen my titles for things and my lack of skill with the camera, you do not want that. :-)

Well, here she be.

The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

J&B's Manchurian-ish Mushrooms
1 pack button mushrooms, rinsed and quartered
3-4 cups peanut oil for frying

Spicy Batter:
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp corn masa
2 tsp (or more!) of chile-garlic sauce (I used Huy Fong)
4 Chiles Japones, crushed with a mortar and pestle (you could also use a food processor or coffee grinder, or just crush them up with your fingers)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
1 cup water

Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Slowly add the water and mix well, making sure to work out all the clumps.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 small red boiler onions, chopped *
3 banana peppers, seeded and sliced *
2 small green bell peppers, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces *
1 head broccoli, cut into florettes *
1/2 yellow summer squash, cut into large chunks **
1 head Georgian Fire garlic, sliced *
2 tbsp alfalfa honey *
3/4 cup organic ketchup
4 tbsp sweet chile sauce
3 tbsp shoyu (or other soy sauce)
4 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (for garnish, optional)

Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.

Add the onion, peppers, broccoli, and squash and saute stirring often for about 6-8 minutes.

Add the garlic and stir fry for another 3-4 minutes.

Turn the heat down to slightly below medium.

Add the honey, ketchup, chile sauce, and shoyu. Combine well.

Let simmer on low while you batter and fry the mushrooms.

To batter and fry the mushrooms and finish up the dish:

Put your peanut oil in a heavy bottomed small skillet and turn heat on the low end of high (does that make sense?).

Dip the mushrooms pieces in the batter and once oil is heated carefully drop them in the hot oil.

Fry for 6-8 minutes or until mushroom pieces are deep golden brown. Transfer to paper towels to drain the excess oil. Repeat this process until all the mushrooms are fried.

Put the fried mushrooms into the sweet and sour sauce and stir to coat evenly. Top with cilantro. Serve immediately.

This was really freakin' good. It tasted like something you would get from a restaurant. It isn't the least time consuming of the recipes here on Veg*n Cooking, but it is well worth the effort.

'Til next time!

Random Eats of Late

I have been cooking lately - mostly variations on favorite tried and true recipes, but I have been lazy and too overwhelmed to blog - well not anymore! Not only will I share these variations of tried and true recipe, I hope to post the new chili recipe Brett and I made sometime this week. A new recipe! Wahoo!















First off, our Everything Granola Bars. We have worked with the ratios and nut/seed combinations and I think we have them how we want them. I highly recommend trying these and playing around with the recipe until you find the way you like 'em best. We found a combination so tasty that we have eaten these for breakfast (and even snacks) for a couple of months now. Oh, and check out our "newsed" new plates. A little brightly colored for my taste, but I love the swirly and Southwestern feel to the plates (cups, bowls, etc). My Dad and step-mom Stacey got some new dishes and split the set between Brett and I and my step-brother Zac. We certainly didn't need a whole set when half of the set included four place settings of each. Wahoo for hand-me-downs!

Next up: J. Finally. Baked. Bread. !!!!!















Check out these two gorgeous ciabattas! I followed the recipe provided by the super cool Jessy from Happy Vegan Face, I used all purpose flour for the "sponge" and local, Missouri-grown whole wheat pastry flour for the rest of the recipe.















Check out the air pockets! We had this delicious bread with some pasta and St. Louis-made Zia's pasta sauce.

The verdict on the breadmaking? Why the hell did I wait this long?! This wasn't hard at all and I don't even have a stand mixer, so I just used my hands. Brett and I have agreed that flour tortillas should be the next mission.

I do have to thank Selina (from Vegans Rock!!!) for helpfully dealing with my frantic text message inquiring as to whether my dough should have been as sticky as it was. Selina, you should change the name of your blog to Selina Rocks!!!

And now on to one of our favorite Asian meals in our "rotation", Veggie and Egg Fried Rice.















We originally got this recipe from Leng over at A Fat Cat Who Created A Vegetarian, and have since made it our own.

I love fried rice since you can throw in whatever veggies you have on hand.

To make this version of Veggie Fried Rice, we sautéed about a third of a head of red cabbage (not local, but purchased from the Root Cellar), 2 carrots peeled and chopped, one yellow onion, sliced thick (not local, but purchased from the Root Cellar), 1 head of broccoli florets, chopped, edamame, and green peas in canola oil in a very large skillet over high heat until the veggies begin to char. Then whisk together 2-4 tbsp shoyu (or other soy sauce), 2 tbsp of hot or sweet chili sauce (we use sweet chili sauce), and a pinch of black pepper. Add half to the veggies and stir constantly for about one minute. Add about 3 cups of day old, cooked long grain brown rice and the remainder of the sauce. Mix well.

We also added 2 local eggs to our veggie fried rice for some extra protein and brain food. To add the egg, scooch the rice and veggies to one side of the pan. Crack the eggs and scramble. Cook thoroughly and then combine the eggs, rice, and veggies.

It is a quick, yummy, one pan dish!















This is my bowl with the requisite big 'ol squirt of sriracha.

And for our lunches, we have been digging on lots of homemade hummus and falafel.















My favorite plain old garlicky hummus. The only thing that makes this better is a good couple of dashes of cayenne on top. I would rather have sumac, but I haven't found any in CoMo yet.















A yummy plate of baked falafel. I experimented a little this time and used dried cilantro flakes in place of the ground coriander and added a tablespoon of raw sesame seeds to the mixture. They turned out really, really well this time.

Well, Brett and I are taking a much needed night off together to do something we rarely do - sit in front of the "boob tube" all night. Seriously, I don't think there is anything that Brett and I need more right now than some serious snuggle time. We picked up some "reinforcements" for our evening: a locally made Uprise Bakery baguette, some garlic and herb Boursin cheese for Brett, some local Goatsbeard Farm herbed goat cheese for Brett, some super spicy cracked chili hummus for yours truly, and some olive tapenade for us to share. We've also got massive quantities of fruit waiting to be washed and cut. No dinner for us, just a night of munching - though our choice in snacks wasn't too bad.

We'll probably also work on making newspaper pots while we watch. Nothing likely double-duty, eh?

Tomorrow? Wednesday night is for the worms! We will be starting another working tray for them. We'll also (hopefully) be planting our second round of seeds! We've gathered all the needed materials, what has been missing of late is the time to actually do it. When we start more seeds, we'll also take pictures so I can do a garden update.

I apologize for the sporadic nature of my blog posts and comments on others' blogs, I've been really lazy with the computer lately, it has been the last thing on my mind.

Song of the Day:
Golden Pond - Chris Thile

'Til next time.

Jessy's Broccoli with Spicy Peanut Sauce

I have been wanting to make Jessy's (from Happy Vegan Face) Broccoli with Spicy Peanut Sauce since I saw her post about it awhile back. I've just been waiting for the local broccoli to come back around. I found some when I went to the Root Cellar, and I knew her recipe was exactly what I wanted to do with it. Since we had such an abundance of local veggies around, we decided to load the stir-fry up with other veggies rather than use rice. The only thing we did differently than Jessy for the sauce was to use sesame chile oil instead of regular sesame oil. This peanut sauce is one of the best I've ever had!















This picture does not do the meal justice. I should have stirred the sauce in before photographing it, but it smelled so good and I was hungry.

In the stir-fry we used a head of local broccoli, 1 cup of local shiitake mushrooms, 1/2 a local golden zucchini, about a 1/2 cup of local yellow and purple wax beans, about a cup of local okra sliced into 1/2 inch coins, local onions, and petite bell peppers from our container garden. The peanut butter used in the sauce was made at an intentional community about an hour and a half south of us. Wahoo for local food and Jessy's killer sauce.

I also want to mention that Brett and I are going to start rating our recipes somehow and will create a favorite recipes index as well. We don't post recipes on this blog unless we liked them, but there are so many that we can't remember them all. Now, there are a lot of recipes for a reason. It is because we like to try to eat as locally as possible, which often means working with a lot of the same ingredients. If you don't change it up, eating this way can get stale fast. Not to mention, we already had a lot of recipes before I started the blog.

Oh, and if any of you try the recipes from this blog, let us know what you thought, you guys can contribute to the rating system too.

I will try to get on tomorrow to post the weekly local booty update. Brett's mom and grandma are coming to visit this afternoon and tomorrow, Sundays we watch football, and Monday is Brett and I's 6 year anniversary. So expect the garden update to be a little late, but we will get it done.

'Til next time!

Veggie and Bean Burros

So I was telling Lindsay (the Happy Herbivore) yesterday that I should have named my blog 'What Will I Think To Stuff Into A Tortilla Next.' It's so true. Now, we all have our 'things', for some it's pasta, others bread, for me it is tortillas in pretty much any form except those that contain lard or lots of icky preservatives. I am also passionately addicted to guacamole. Who knew what wonder and beauty would come from mixing avocado, garlic, lime and just a couple of spices, it's amazing.

Anyways, I'm done waxing poetic about guacamole, but you shouldn't be surprised that it is an accompaniment to the dinner that is the subject of this post.

Upon reading the ingredients list of this recipe one might find it a bit odd, but trust me, all these veggies work very well together and with the seasoning combination. I would have never thought to put broccoli or cauliflower in Mexican had I not had fajitas with broccoli and cauliflower at a place in Illinois that were out of this world. I think, more than anything, the spice combination is what is important.

Note: Again, if you don't want to use a tortilla, you could always just serve this over rice, quinoa or millet. I also had some left over navy beans so I threw them in here too, you could use just black beans or just navy beans too if preferred.

Veggie and Bean Burros

(Makes enough filling for 4 burros.)

1/2 cup navy beans, cooked

1 cup black beans, cooked

can chopped green chilies, drained

1 zucchini, roasted and sliced

1 cup cauliflower, cooked

1 cup broccoli, cooked

seasoned roasted yams

cumin

Mexican oregano

ground coriander

chili powder

salt

tortillas
guacamole

salsa

In a medium sized bowl, mix together warmed beans, green chilies, and spices to taste.

In a separate bowl, combine all the veggies except the yams.

Layer bean mixture, veggie mixture, and yams in a warmed tortilla. Roll up and fry if you like.

Top with guacamole and salsa.

I hope everyone enjoys their Friday!

'Til next time.

Pineapple Quinoa Stir-Fry with Cashews and Adzuki Beans

I had looked at the Pineapple-Cashew-Quinoa Stir-Fry in Veganomicon a few times, but always passed over it as the flavoring just didn’t seem to do it for me. But I really liked the idea of a stir-fry with pineapples, quinoa, and cashews in it. So I thought about improvements awhile to see what I could come up with.

I ended up, big surprise, going with a sweet and spicy sauce (it is a great compromise, the spiciness pleases me, the sweetness pleases Brett and the combination works great), and I added more veggies and some adzuki beans.

I must say, this was a huge hit! And it was loaded with protein; you got quinoa, cashews, and adzuki beans. Brett and I both loved this and he even came up with an idea for a variation for a fruity breakfast stir-fry. I was impressed, it sounds fantastic, I think we’ll have to make it for a weekend brunch sometime soon to see how it turns out.















Pineapple Quinoa Stir-Fry with Cashews and Adzuki Beans
Serves 4-6 (leftovers = yummy, easy work lunches)

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water

Sauce:
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp brown rice vinegar
hot chili oil (to taste)
4 tbsp agave
1" ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tbsp brown sugar
juice of 1/2 a lime
red pepper flakes
cornstarch mixed with water

Stir-Fry Stuff:
4 carrots, peeled, cut into rounds, and boiled
1 cup snap peas, cooked
1 cup broccoli, cooked
1 can organic pineapple pieces
1/2 cup raw organic cashews
1 1/2 cups cooked adzuki beans

Rinse quinoa very well before cooking.

Bring 2 cups water to boil, add quinoa, reduce heat and cook, uncovered until water is absorbed.

While quinoa is cooking, bring a pot of water to a boil, add carrots and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add snap peas and broccoli, cook for a few minutes until all the veggies are soft. Drain.

In a small sauce pan heat water, add garlic and ginger and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients aside from the cornstarch/water mixture.

Once quinoa is cooked, transfer it to a large skillet. Add veggies and beans.

Drain pineapple juice into pan with sauce and add the pineapple chunks to the quinoa, veggies, and beans.

Bring sauce to a boil, add cornstarch/water mixture and stir frequently until desired thickness.

Remove from heat.

Stir in to quinoa mixture and top with cashews.

'Til next time!

Tofu, Veggie, and Rice Noodle Stir-Fry

So those of you out there, uncomfortable with the last entry, wondering if you still want to visit my blog, can breathe a sigh of relief that this one is about food. Though don’t say you weren’t warned, I added the ‘Other Random Musings’ part for a reason. :-)

We went to the store last night after work and got another load of grub. A little embarrassing but, I have a recipe I have wanted to try from over at Authentic Deliciousness’ blog, which called for parsnips. I have to be honest, I had never seen a parsnip before, I knew nothing more about them than that they are root vegetables. So at the store, the labels are not exactly in the spots they should be, as I ended up with a rutabaga, Googled ‘parsnips’ when I got home, and well, it wasn’t one, so I Googled other root veggies to identify this one. Since it is a root vegetable I think it will work for this meal. And hey, we get to try rutabaga right?

Anyways, I was planning on making VeganYumYum’s Pan Fried Tofu, Kale, and Stir-Fried Noodles, but ended up going a different way with it. What I hadn’t realized when I picked out this recipe was that it was simply tofu, kale, and noodles with a sauce. That would not fly in my house, as I mentioned earlier, we are pretty picky when it comes to tofu. And the sauce, while pretty good, was missing a bit of something, and only called for ¼ teaspoon of hot chili sauce, I mean, come on! I also like to buy my greens organic and there was no organic kale available, so we got red chard. So I changed up the sauce a bit, added more veggies, and cut the tofu in half.

Tofu & Veggie Noodle Stir-Fry
1 tsp coconut oil
½ package firm tofu, pressed, and cut into small chunks
1 bunch of chard, cut into bite sized pieces
½ red bell pepper, diced
¼ onion, diced
1/2 cup broccoli, cooked
½ cup snap peas cooked
½ package of rice stick noodles

Sauce
¼ cup water
¼ cup shoyu (or other soy sauce)
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1-2 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tbsp rice vinegar (seasoned or unseasoned would work, I used seasoned)
1-2 tbsp agave nectar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp stone ground brown mustard
1 tsp or more hot chili sauce (I would start with this depending on how spicy you like things, I used 2 tbsp, but I’m a spice freak)
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Press tofu and cut into small chunks.

Whip together the sauce. Reserve half the sauce for the stir-fry, and marinate the tofu in the other half of the sauce for about a half hour. You can use this time to chop and cook the other veggies.

Cook rice noodles according to package directions, set aside.

In a large skillet, heat a couple of tablespoons of water. Add bell pepper and onion and cook until translucent.

Heat coconut oil and add tofu, stir-frying over medium high heat until tofu crisp. Add cooked broccoli, snow peas, and remaining sauce.

Add chard in small batches, covering with a lid to help with the chard.

Serve over hot rice noodles.

Well, my Mom is coming for a visit today, haven’t seen her for probably six months or more, so I’m pretty excited. I’m also taking her out to lunch. Now this might not mean much to you all out there, but this is the first time I have ever been able to afford to take her out, when I was in college it was always the other way around, so I’m proud to take her to the tea room here in town she likes. They aren’t the most vegan friendly place, but if all else fails I can munch on their amazing sweet potato chips and have a nice pot of Earl Grey tea. As I’m sure you could tell by the picture of the groceries with the two boxes on it, we are fans of the Earl Grey.

‘Til next time!

Happy Friday!

So I am really looking forward to this weekend, as I will be using Veganomicon for the first time! I am really excited about it. Stay tuned to see how my first dance with V-Con goes!

Last night’s dinner was a yummy General Tao’s Tofu stir-fry. Something kind of funny about this though. I guess Veggie and I are on the same wavelength, because she made it this week as well too. We even adapted our recipes from the same one on VegWeb. What an interesting world, I guess some of us veg*n’s think alike, eh? Anyways, you might pop over and check hers out as her photography is generally much better than my own, not to mention, I don't have a picture of the stir-fry because of user error.

You see, I often take multiple pictures when I photograph my recipes to make sure that I get a good picture. Well, I was going through them on my computer, found the one I wanted. At least thought I selected the one I had chosen, and then deleted the rest. Well, I went to upload the photo, and it was one of the grainy, bad pictures, and I lost the rest as I had already deleted them. Argh.

But anyways, I went a slightly different direction with this, opting for a spicier, savory sauce, so my recipe for the sauce is quite a bit different from the template I started out with on VegWeb.

Here she be (in the words of Wilbur)!

General Tao’s Sauce
onion chopped (I diced up about a quarter of an onion)
diced red chilies to taste (dry if possible, substitute crushed red pepper if can't find chilies)
cayenne pepper to taste
1-2 tbsp ginger, minced
1-2 tbsp garlic, minced
2/3 cup vegetable broth
2-3 tbsp shoyu (add a bit at a time, and then add more if needed)
3-6 tbsp sugar (more or less depending on your desired level of sweetness)
1-2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1-2 tbsp corn starch
splash of hot chili oil for good measure

Sautee onions, garlic, and ginger. Mix all ingredients together. Add cornstarch to thicken shortly before serving.

General Tao’s Tofu Stir-Fry
Tofu:
1/2 block tofu cut into small cubes that has been marinated in a bit of General Tao's sauce for at least 30 minutes
corn starch
pinch sugar
egg replacer for one egg
peanut or sesame oil

Stir-Fry:
General Tao's Sauce
onion, chopped
broccoli, cooked
cauliflower, cooked
edamame, cooked
Hot, cooked brown Basmati Rice

Mix together egg replacer (mixed with water according to package directions) and coat tofu in it.

In a small bowl, combine corn starch and sugar. Cover tofu in dry mixture. Heat some peanut or sesame oil in skillet and fry tofu until golden brown.

Top hot cooked rice with cooked veggies, tofu and desired amount of sauce.

You know, stir-fries are very good, but I’m a bit stir-fried out. I probably won’t devote an entire week to a particular type of food again, but I got a lot of good recipes to add to my collection.

I want to thank those who gave me suggestions on good vegan cookbooks, it was very helpful. I have placed an order for Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan on Amazon, and will probably look into getting Vegan with a Vengeance in a couple of weeks once I have tried a few things from V-Con and ED&BV.

Well, I am a bit tired after a long week of dealing with data (sounds so fun I know), and lugging a nice, big load of grub home from the store, so I’m off to make a quick dinner and to listen to Democracy Now!

Happy Friday!

Teriyaki Tofu

Last night I decided to move away from sweet Asian sauces a bit to make something more savory, as both Brett and I felt like we had eaten a lot of sweet foods this week. So I went for a Teriyaki Tofu Stir-Fry, and it turned out spot on. I was impressed with how much my homemade version actually tasted like teriyaki sauce, since, as I said in a previous post, sometimes I make things sweeter, spicier, and tangier, than they are made “authentically”. But this sauce seemed pretty authentic.

I also loaded this stir-fry up with veggies because I felt like we haven’t had as high of a veggie intake lately as we should. This is one thing I love about stir-fries; they are a perfect way to get a nice, healthy dose of veggies.

Teriyaki Sauce
1/3 cup mirin (Chinese Rice Wine)
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup shoyu
1-2 tbsp minced ginger
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tbsp brown rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
3 tbsp brown sugar
1-2 corn starch dissolved in water (depending on desired thickness)
red pepper flakes

Heat all ingredients except for corn start and water mixture on stove. Stir frequently while waiting for sauce to boil. Once boiling, add corn starch and water mixture, stirring frequently until desired thickness.

Teriyaki Stir-Fry
tofu, cut into small pieces
Teriyaki Sauce
onions
bell pepper
snow peas
broccoli, cooked
edamame
Hot cooked, brown Basmati Rice
peanut oil

Heat peanut oil in skillet and fry tofu until it begins to brown. Add onions and bell pepper. Cook until onion and peppers begin to get soft and tofu is done to your liking.

Throw all the veggies over some brown Basmati rice, top with the sauce and enjoy!

I probably won’t have a post tomorrow as I feel like being lazy tonight which means…..Amy’s Pizza. I really do like Amy’s products; there is a vegan bean burrito Amy’s makes that I love taking to work for lunch when there are no leftovers to take.

I wanted to end this post asking for a bit of wisdom from the seasoned vegan cooking community out there. As I have mentioned before, I am just starting my vegan cookbook collection. So far I have Veganomicon. I want to get one more regular cookbook and one dedicated to desserts to start. I am thinking about Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan or Vegan with a Vengeance for my regular cookbook choice (anybody have suggestions for which I should get?), but am stumped for ideas for where to start in the way of vegan dessert cookbooks.

Any advice will be most appreciated!

‘Til Friday!

More Muffins and Crispy Sweet and Sour Seitan. But First........

Breakfast wasn’t too exciting yesterday morning, I just cut up some fresh fruit (diced apples, diced pear, sliced bananas, sliced kiwi fruit, and orange segments), I splashed the cut fruit with some fresh squeezed lime juice. I use the lime juice for a bit of flavor, but more importantly, it keeps the fruit from oxidizing. I sprinkled on a little sugar and had this yummy fruit with a bowl of vegan granola and soy milk. You know one of the many things I love about fruit? It looks (and tastes) pretty all on its own, you don't have to do anything to it at all, its like one of those women who can roll out of bed, do nothing, and still look amazing - the words of a true fruitaholic.

Moving on. I was excited from my success with muffins on Saturday, I decided to make another batch of a different flavor yesterday. I think I am starting to get this whole muffin making thing down, because these turned out good as well. I ended up making one batch of batter and doing it two ways. Part of the batter was turned into Apple Cinnamon Muffins; the other portion was turned into Apple Cinnamon Raisin Muffins. Nothing really special or different about the two except raisins, but both were very good. The muffins turned out sweet, but not overly so, and were nice and moist. They go very well with coffee for a nice light breakfast (this also happened to be my breakfast this morning).

I usually like to use applesauce in place of oil wherever I can, but yesterday ran out of applesauce and ended up doing half applesauce half oil instead. You could always replace the additional oil in this recipe with applesauce.

Apple Cinnamon (Raisin) Muffins
1/4 cup Earth Balance (melted)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
cinnamon (to taste)
just a dash of nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup soymilk
2 peeled diced apples
Raisins (as many as you like)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Add the moist ingredients and then slowly fold in the apples and raisins.

Fill muffin cups (or greased muffin tin) about 2/3 of the way full and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

For dinner last night, I made a modified version of VeganYumYum’s Crispy Sweet and Sour Seitan and it was so, so, so good. The next time you get an urge for something sweet, sour, crispy, and a bit spicy, give this a try. It satisfied even the “super particular when it comes to vegan food” omni, also known as Brett.

I followed her recipe for preparing the seitan exactly, but deviated on everything else. I made some modifications to the sauce and added some veggies and served it all over brown Basmati rice.

Sweet and Sour Sauce
2/3 cup veggie broth
6 tbsp brown rice vinegar
6+ tbsp sugar (Brett likes things pretty sweet, so I put more than this in there, but for everyone else [who is not a hummingbird] start with this and add more if you need more sweetness)
2-4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp ketchup (next time I am going to try tomato paste)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
dash cayenne or crushed red pepper flakes
pinch salt
corn starch mixed with water to thicken

Combine all ingredients except for corn starch and water mixture and heat, stirring frequently.

Turn up heat to where sauce is boiling and add corn starch and water mixture to sauce. Stir frequently until at desired consistency. Remove from heat immediately.

Crispy Sweet and Sour Seitan with Veggies over Basmati Rice
VeganYumYum’s Crispy Seitan recipe
Sweet and Sour Sauce
Chopped onions (I cooked them with the seitan)
Broccoli, cooked
Cauliflower, cooked
Hot, cooked brown Basmati rice

Prepare rice according to package directions.

Prepare sweet and sour sauce.

Start cooking broccoli and cauliflower.

Make the crispy seitan and add the onions while cooking.

Serve crispy seitan, veggies, and sauce over brown Basmati rice.

I really liked the way the seitan was done for this recipe. It gave it the flavor of a fried mushroom. I am going to be thinking about other things I can do with this crispy seitan as the flavor and texture are wonderful. It took Brett a little while to grow to like tofu in anything except a scramble, preferably a scramble stuffed into a tortilla, but he has warmed up the seitan very quickly. I can probably thank this recipe for that.

Well, that’s all for now!

Weekends = Lots of Cooking, Pictures, and A Long Post

Well, it's the weekend, which means that I have more time to cook.

Let's start off with Friday. I ended up making some nachos to use up the ingredients I still had on hand. This was a nice, tasty, quick meal, which was much appreciated after a long week at work and lugging home a mighty heavy load from the grocery store. I simply sautéed diced leftover marinated seitan (see the fajita post) in olive oil with some chopped up onion. I heated up the leftover black bean puree (see the flatbread post). I seasoned up some leftover brown rice I had. Then I got out some blue corn chips, spread 'em out on a plate, and topped them with the above stated ingredients. I popped it in the oven (set at 300 degrees) for a few minutes for everything to get nice and warm. Then I topped the nachos with some tofu sour cream, chopped up green onions, sliced black olives, and some salsa (not shown in the picture). It was good.

Yesterday, for breakfast I made some cinnamon raisin oatmeal. It was hearty, sweet and delicious. Oatmeal is very filling, which is something I forgot, since it has been awhile since I've had it. Neither one of us could eat more than about half the amount pictured. I over estimated our oatmeal appetites a bit, but hey, you live and learn, right?

Sweet Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal

2/3 cup regular rolled oats (not instant)

1 1/3 cups plain or vanilla soymilk (or rice, oat, etc)

raisins (as much as you like)

dash nutmeg

pinch salt

cinnamon (to taste)

brown sugar (to taste, but I used lots)

sliced almonds (optional)

Bring oats and soy milk to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Stir in the rest of the ingredients except the almonds. Let boil for five minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, let stand five more minutes. Top with almonds before serving.

I spent the rest of the morning doing a bit of baking, but before I get to that, I just wanted to give a big thanks to Happy Herbivore for so kindly fielding my questions about vegan and healthful baking, it was a big help!

First, I made a vegan apple coffee cake, per Brett's request. Well, he didn't really request it, he won't do that, but he said he thought apple coffee cake would be good, I thought it could be easily veganized, and that someone out there had probably already done it. With a few short minutes of web searching, I happened upon Julie Hasson's recipe for Crumble Coffee Cake. I made only slight modifications to the recipe. For the cake, I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose white flour. And I also added up a peeled, diced up apple. This is a delicious recipe, it's not too sweet, and it truly does go well with a nice, warm cup of coffee.

Notice I have small versions of that really cool plate too.

I have been getting tired of having granola bars for breakfast at work, so I decided to try my hand at muffin making. You know, I'm not sure why anyone would make muffins from a box or package, they are really easy to make from scratch! I made plain 'ol blueberry muffins, and topped a few with some sliced almonds. These turned out so good, I'm not sure they will last long enough to make more than a couple of breakfasts for work. These could also double as a dessert, snack, meal, etc. - hehe. I modified this recipe from Recipe Zaar.

Vegan Blueberry Muffins

1/4 cup Earth Balance (melted)

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup soymilk (plain or vanilla)

fresh or frozen blueberries (thawed if frozen)

sliced almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.

Combine wet ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Slowly stir the wet ingredients with the dry in the bigger bowl. Fold in the blueberries.

Fill paper muffin cups (or greased muffin pan) 2/3 of the way full with batter. Top with sliced almonds if desired. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

And for dinner, something completely different. I made a tofu-veggie stir-fry with peanut sauce and served it over rice noodles. I had heard or read somewhere that the reason home made stir-fries never tasted like what you get at the restaurants is because people don't use peanut oil at home. Well I think they were right, I used peanut oil for my stir-fry last night and it turned out much better than anything I've made in the past.

Tofu Peanut Stir-Fry over Rice Noodles

Peanut Sauce:

1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter (no salt added if possible)

1/2 cup hot water

4-6 tbsp shoyu (or other soy sauce)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 tbsp lime juice (start with one and add more if desired)

4 tbsp brown rice vinegar

4 tbsp brown sugar

a bit of regular sugar if you like it sweeter

pinch of cayenne

Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan on the stove. The peanut butter will melt and ingredients will then blend easily. Keep over low heat, stirring occasionally, adding a bit more water here and there if it starts to get too thick.

Tofu Peanut Stir-Fry:

Peanut Sauce

1/2 block firm tofu cut into small pieces

bell pepper, chopped

onion, chopped

broccoli, cooked

cauliflower, cooked

crushed peanuts

bean sprouts (optional)

green onions (optional)

peanut oil

Hot, cooked rice noodles

Cook rice noodles according to package directions.

Sautee tofu in peanut oil until browned. Add to peanut sauce and simmer while preparing the veggies.

Sautee onion and bell pepper in peanut oil until they begin to caramelize. Add broccoli and cauliflower. Cook a few more minutes.

Layer veggies and tofu with peanut sauce over the rice noodles. Top with bean sprouts, green onions, and crushed peanuts.

That's all for now.

Give Seitan A Chance

I decided to give seitan another try last night. Brett and I had a bad experience with seitan earlier this year, which gave me a bad impression of this “wheat meat”. We had attempted to make BBQ Seitan sandwiches, and tried out a new BBQ sauce, which was perhaps the most disgusting stuff I’ve ever had. After that experience, I decided I didn’t like seitan. Well, while browsing all the many food blogs out there, I kept coming across seitan recipes, so I decided to give it a second chance. When prepared properly, it isn't too bad, just like tofu. Many people don’t like tofu because they have had poorly done tofu dishes - same applies to seitan and probably most anything else.

So I went for a seitan fajita and put a little broccoli and cauliflower in it, along with the more traditional fajita veggies. This might sound odd, but I had a veggie fajita done that way when I was in Illinois recently and it was good. I also marinated the seitan overnight to allow the flavors to really soak in, but it would probably be fine just to marinate it for an hour or so as well. And I didn't have any of those small tortillas, so I used regular sized flour tortillas. I served the fajitas with a basic guacamole and blue corn tortilla chips.

Seitan Fajita Wraps

Basic Fajita Marinade:

juice of 1/2 a lime

1-2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. white vinegar

1 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. shoyu

dash cumin

dash cayenne pepper

dash chili powder

pinch salt

pinch sugar

Mix all ingredients.

Pour over thinly sliced seitan and marinate overnight.

Simple Guacamole

1 ripe avocado

juice of half a lime

1 clove garlic, minced

cumin (to taste)

cayenne (to taste)

salt (to taste)

Seitan Fajitas:

marinated seitan strips

thin strips of bell pepper

thin strips of onion

thin strips of fresh jalapeno (optional)

broccoli florets

cauliflower florets

olive oil

flour tortillas
tofu sour cream

salsa

guacamole

Heat olive oil in skillet. Add bell pepper, onion and jalapeno and sautee for a few minutes. Add broccoli, and cauliflower. Cook for a few more minutes until heated through and veggies are done to your liking.

In a seperate pan, heat oil and fry seitan strips for a few minutes.

Heat up tortillas and layer with veggies, seitan, tofu sour cream, guacamole and salsa.

Roll up like a burrito, and if desired, brown on all sides in a skillet.

That about does it!

Not Sure What To Call the First Entry

If anyone ends up reading my blog, I think they will come away with a few things. First, I love to cook, read, and rant. Secondly, I am not very creative with titles for things. When I was still in college, I would tend to name my papers something along the lines of "Whatever Class This Is Paper One", I usually got good grades, but the title had nothing to do with it. I better never write a book - nobody would spend $21.95 on a book called "Jennifer's Book One". Ha.

Anyways, I started this blog after browsing through many other food blogs, and decided that I would enjoy having a (mostly) food blog as well. I am a (dairy-free) vegetarian who eats mostly vegan so a tiny fraction of my recipes are not completely vegan. Hence why I called this blog Veg*n, as I understand this encompasses both vegetarians and vegans. I will try to make sure to denote whether it's vegetarian or vegan, though I'm sure most vegans out there are very careful to make sure they don't consume any animal products, so this shouldn't be too much of an issue. As I said, I love to cook, and I am always looking for advice, feedback, and other recipes, so this is my contribution - I hope you enjoy.

This blog will mostly consist of my various food adventures, but you may get a rant from time to time, as I am an environmentalist and peace mongerer, and with the current state of affairs, people like myself seem to have a never ending stream of things to rant about.

Now down to business, the food! Tonight I will be making Kung Pao Tofu, which is very good. I found a basic recipe and had to have my way with it so it ended up being essentially a template that I used to create my own recipe. This recipe is vegetarian, not vegan, as it has honey in it. I am sure that you could substitute something else for the honey. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this vegan and still have the same sweet and spicy flavor, let me know. I would like to work with other sweetners, but am not sure what has a similar flavor to honey.

I scaled this recipe so that there was more sauce, I'm not sure about anyone else, but most of the Asian recipes I have come across are very skimpy on the sauce, you generally have to make more than one batch anyway, so I went ahead and changed it for the entire recipe. The dish isn't the same if there isn't enough sauce to soak into the rice.

This is good as a leftover as well, I will be taking it to work for lunch this week.
















Kung Pao Tofu
1/2 block of tofu cut into small cubes
4 tsp. hot chili oil
honey (to taste)
4 tbsp. Mirin (Chinese Rice Wine)
3 tbsp. cornstarch
8 tbsp. shoyu
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. sesame oil
2 tbsp. white vinegar
dash cayenne
1 tbsp. minced ginger (fresh or jarred)
1 clove garlic, minced
brocolli cooked (as much as you like)
snow peas (as much as you like)
onions diced (as much as you like)
2 tbsp. olive oil
Hot, cooked brown rice or other grain

Marinate tofu with half of the Mirin, cornstarch and hot chili oil, add 2 tbsp. tamari or soy sauce. Set in fridge to marinate for about a half hour.

Mix remaining rice wine, cornstarch, and soy sauce with a dash of cayenne, sugar, sesame oil, honey, vinegar and hot chili oil for the sauce.

Heat olive oil in medium skillet. Cook tofu until crisp. Remove from heat.

In a large skillet or wok heat olive oil, add garlic, onion, and ginger. Cook about one minute. Add brocolli and snow peas. Cook another minute. Add tofu and sauce and cook a few more minutes, heating through.

Serve over rice or other grain, I like to use brown rice, but you can be creative and use whatever you like.

Well, that's about all I have for today. Have a safe and happy New Years.