Dinner with Aaron and Erica / veganmofo 2009

We had dinner with our son Aaron and his girl friend, Erica. Whenever we eat at their apartment, we know the food will be great, and we weren't disappointed. Aaron & Erica had eaten at The Farm Cafe in Portland, OR, and wanted to re-create the meal they had there. Lucky for us the recipe for this fabulous dinner was online, and with the link to Everyday dish TV (plant-based cuisine), you, too, can enjoy this delicious meal of Herb-Crusted Tofu with Mushrooms Marsala, and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Yesterday I said I prefer to post recipes after I personally try making them in my kitchen, but Aaron said he followed the directions, and the recipe worked really well. He recommends watching the video because he said it differs slightly from the written instructions, particularly for making the marsala sauce. Aaron said that following the video will give you a meal that tastes just like the one at the restaurant. Our meal was accompanied by brussels sprouts and was delicious. Try it.

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Soy Curls at last
I've had Soy Curl-envy for a long time now as I've read all the rave reviews of this product and seen the photos of delicious-looking soy curl dishes. I just couldn't find them locally in Wisconsin and never got around to ordering them. I must have forgotten we moved to Seattle a few weeks ago, and all things vegan are now within my grasp. So I went to the Soy Curl Web page to discover what I already suspected - Soy Curls are sold at the Sidecar vegan grocery. My husband and I were planning a walk around Green Lake but we walked to Sidecar instead, and got some Curls, some Daiya cheese, some vegetable soup base and a lot of exercise.



My husband made Soy curls with asparagus and quinoa from Vegan Yum Yum except he used broccoli, green beans and sweet red peppers instead of asparagus. The verdict? Very tasty with a nice texture for those moments when texture is on your mind, if you know what I mean. Soy Curls are made from whole soybeans and contain no weird additives, and they're very low in salt. I see great potential here. We didn't try the Daiya, yet, but we will, soon.

FYI


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Bake sale!!!
If you're in the Seattle area this weekend and craving baked goods, stop by Sidecar for a vegan bake sale to benefit Sidecar for Pigs Peace Sanctuary. I've set aside today as a baking day for brownies, blondies and crackers, but I can't wait to buy the stuff other people make.

Where: Sidecar For Pigs Peace
5270 B University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

When: Saturday October 10
and Sunday October 11
1 PM to 4 PM

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Don't forget to enter the cookbook giveaway! Who wouldn't want a copy of "Love Soup" by Anna Thomas?

Raw portobello mushroom larb salad / veganmofo 2009

© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

We took a raw cooking class recently, and I promised to post a recipe for one of the dishes. I prefer to post recipes after I've made them myself to see how they turn out in my kitchen; that's why you had to wait for this recipe. We ended up getting home last night much later than we planned, and no one felt like making dinner. I had marinated mushrooms for the salad earlier in the day, and although it was supposed to be a starter for our dinner, it ended up being the whole meal, except for some peanut butter on crackers. The recipe is supposed to serve two as an entree or four as a starter, and I'd say that's accurate.

Larb is actually a spicy Lao meat salad. In this recipe, it's been transformed by Chefs Heather and Lois of Chaco Canyon Cafe, into a raw, vegan dish.


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking (portobello mushrooms about 4" in diameter)

I started with two large (about 4" in diameter) portobello mushrooms. Chef Heather said she removes the stems when she prepares the salad at the restaurant, and uses them in other dishes. She doesn't use the stems in the salad so as to preserve the optimal visual appearance necessary at restaurants. At home, she said, she removes the stems, slices and uses them in the dish. I followed her advice, and after trimming the ends, sliced up those stems. The taste and texture of the stems was so close to the caps that I could see no reason not to do this again. The more mushroom the better.


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

The most exotic ingredient in the marinade was kaffir lime leaves, which I have eaten before but have never personally purchased. You can find these at Asian markets or, maybe, natural foods stores. In Seattle, all the PCC Coop stores carry them in little plastic packs in the fresh herbs case. Kaffir lime leaves grow as double leaves, and you just separate the two leaves to use them. These leaves are pretty tough so cutting them small is important. You just roll 'em up and slice thinly, then continue to a small mince. (The lime perfume as you cut them is incredible.) How small you cut them depends on how powerful your blender is. If you have only VitaMix-envy and a regular blender, you might want to mince pretty small. I used a Kitchenaid blender and it blended everything perfectly even though I got tired of mincing before I should have. Only you can judge what's best for the kitchen equipment you have.


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

The other ingredient that required mincing effort was the dulse. If you can find dulse flakes, you just have to measure, but if you use actual dulse, as I did, mince away. Half a cup of lime juice sounds like a lot but it only took two limes to get that much.

If you want the dish to be truly raw, you should use Nama Shoyu, which is organic, raw, unpasteurized soy sauce. If you want the dish to be gluten-free, you'll need to use Tamari, which is not raw but is wheat-free. I used Tamari because that's what I usually have in the house. I reduced the tamari to 1/3 cup and replaced the rest with water because I wanted the mushrooms to be a little less salty than I remembered from class. This worked well for me. Although not on the ingredient list, you can add dried ground chili if you want a spicy result.

I didn't think my mushrooms were soft enough after only an hour of marinating, and I think they ended up marinating about about four hours on the counter. You can marinate them in a shallow dish, or, as I did, in a plastic zip-close bag. I put the bag in a large dish (just in case anything should leak) and flipped it every so often. After the mushrooms were removed from the marinade, I jarred the rest of the liquid in the refrigerator to use as a marinade for something else, like tempeh. Or, you could start another batch of mushrooms.

As I was writing out the recipe I saw I made a mistake when making the marinade. The shallot was added to the blender instead of to the mushrooms. Oops. It tasted great to us but next time I'll try to do it right!

Portobello mushroom larb salad

• 2 portobello mushrooms, washed and sliced 1/4 inch think
• 1 small shallot, peeled and shaved paper thin
• 2 kaffir lime leaves, minced
• 1 teaspoon dulse flakes
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 2 tablespoons raw agave nectar
• 1/2 cup Nama Shoyu (I used 1/3 cup tamari plus water to equal 1/2 cup)
  
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 green onions, sliced thinly on the diagonal
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, washed and minced
• 6 leaves fresh basil
• 1 quart mixed salad greens, washed
• peeled grated carrots

1. Clean and prepare mushrooms and shallots. Place in a sealable container
2. Place kaffir lime leaves, dulse flakes, lime juice, agave nectar, Nama shoyu and water in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour over mushroom and shallot mix.
   
3. Cover and allow to marinate on the counter for one hour or in the refrigerator overnight.
4. Prepare the green onions, cilantro and basil. Place in a large salad bowl with the salad greens and toss. Use some of the marinade (to taste) as a dressing and toss to mix.
5. Place salad on plates or bowls and top with mushrooms and shallots. Garnish with a mound of shredded carrot.

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Don't forget to enter the cookbook giveaway!
© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Vegan cooking class with Chef Paul Tseng

The last cooking class we took at the Willy St. Coop with Chef Paul was a Chinese cooking class with vegan options, and it included seafood and chicken. This class was called "Vegan All the Way" and it was pretty amazing. I'm trying to remember the order of events, but when I think back to the class it seems like Chef Paul was doing five things at once, so I'll do my best to describe what he did. On the menu was polenta with toasted almonds and herbs served with roasted red pepper sauce, roasted vegetable moussaka with tempeh, and braised belgian endive with tofu, fresh pineapple and summer vegetables. Also, marinated mushrooms with fresh lentil pasta.


The ingredients ready to go

Paul made the pasta dough early on because it needed time to rest before being rolled out. I've never see pasta like this before - it contained cooked, cooled red lentils.


The chef works the lentils into the flour.

After the dough had rested, covered with a damp towel, it was rolled into a thin circle, sprinkled with flour, rolled up into a tube shape and cut into about 1/4" wide strips. More flour was sprinkled, the noodles were flipped around to unfurl them and they were cooked in a large pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes. The button mushrooms were quartered and marinated in soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, scallion, sweetener, salt and pepper. These were probably the best noodles I've ever tasted with a texture that was both chewy and tender.


Fresh lentil pasta with marinated mushrooms

Somehow, at the same time he was kneading the pasta dough, Paul also had slices of eggplant and zucchini for the moussaka roasting in a hot oven, and polenta cooling in the fridge — and a red pepper charring on the gas stove. For the polenta, coarse cornmeal was cooked in vegetable stock until thick. After removing it from the heat, lemon zest, toasted almond slivers, olive oil, minced fresh herbs, minced shallot, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper were added, and the mixture was packed into a large, shallow, round pan and placed in the fridge to set up. Roasted red peppers, minced garlic and olive oil were pureed with a stick blender, and then enhanced with fresh herbs, salt and pepper. The polenta, still slightly warm, came out of the fridge, got cut into triangles and was served with the sauce. Delicious and elegant.


Polenta triangles with roasted red pepper sauce

On to the moussaka. Onions and garlic were sautéed then cooked with cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne, seeded and diced tomatoes, chopped tempeh and lemon juice. It was simmered to reduce the tomato liquid. The roasted eggplant and zucchini (mentioned earlier) were layered with the tempeh mixture in a glass baking dish. The dish was topped with a mixture of garbanzo flour, dried herbs, oil and bread crumbs. The moussaka was baked until the topping was golden.

The end of the moussaka. It's hard to remember to
photograph things when they look and smell so good.

The last thing on the menu was braised vegetables. This dish contained fresh ginger, garlic, jalapeno, fresh pineapple, carrot, brussels sprouts, summer squash, asparagus, firm tofu and vegetable stock. (It was supposed to have endive and not brussels sprouts but a substitution was made to accommodate availability.) It's intended to be served over steamed rice but we ate it straight up. This was really delicious.

Braised vegetables

The layers of flavor, gorgeous appearance and heavenly aroma of the food prepared in this class were an inspiration.


Our teacher seeding tomatoes and saving the juice

One of the things we also learned in class was not to waste anything. For example, even the tough stems that are snapped off the bottoms of asparagus stalks can be peeled and cooked! And all of the vegetable trimmings can be made into stock or composted.

Don't forget that tomorrow is the deadline for posting comments about why you would like to own a copy of "Peta's Vegan College Cookbook." I'll announce a winner on May 21.

Spinach and mushroom enchiladas with tomatillo sauce

I've only been to Mexico once, and it wasn't what I'd consider a "real" travel experience. I went to a conference in Cancun with my husband. He was a keynote speaker and the conference organizers had offered to bring the spouses of the main speakers to the conference all-expenses paid. At first I declined the invitation, not being a fan of large resorts in artificial settings, but then I had a last minute change of heart, and decided it would be more weird to not go than to go. After all, it was January and cold here, and January and warm there.

The resort was pretty much what I expected, but I did my best to be friendly and join the other spouses each day for beach going, shopping and relaxing. I took the bus to the tourist malls and bargained for jewelry (a bracelet that I still wear every day), and soaked up the rays and breezes on the beach. I do love to walk for a couple of hours on a beautiful beach, but the previously storm-battered and sadly eroded beach was not what I had envisioned. It was very narrow and filled with cabanas, and the sand at the water's edge, where I like to walk, slanted at about a 45˚ angle and was mushy instead of firm. After a short stroll, one leg hitting the sand at a much higher point than the other, my hip began to ache, and instead of enjoying the sight of miles of ocean lapping at sand, I envisioned a chiropractic adjustment table in a sterile room, and knew it was time to return to my cabana.

The resort was unwilling or unable to make vegan food accommodations beyond plain pasta with no sauce, so we opted to bus into town for our meals. We found a small chain of natural foods restaurants that served amazing local foods. The meals were so delicious that we tried repeatedly to lure other conference attendees to come with us, but they were all frightened of the word "natural" and chose to eat at the hotel instead. Interestingly, a large number of the group started disappearing. We later found out they had succumbed to dysentery and were recovering in their rooms. Although we ate enthusiastically, neither one of us ever had any problems. I just wish I had taken notes and photos so I could remember and recreate the wonderful traditional Mexican food we ate.

And this brings me to Rick Bayless. At first glance, Mr. Bayless seems to cook only animal-based Mexican dishes—with lots of chorizo and lard. Not exactly vegan food for thought. But, if you look beyond that first impression, you can find lots of inspiration for amazing meals. He was recently in Madison for a fund-raising event at which I was supposed to help, and I was really excited to meet him and watch him cook in person. At the last minute, I was unable to attend. I was very disappointed, but had a post-event opportunity to purchase one of his (signed) cookbooks for half-price. There were two choices, and I poured over each one, trying to determine which I was more likely to use. I chose "Mexican Everyday" instead of "Authentic Mexican 20th Anniversary Edition," because it contained meals you could make in 30 minutes. But the latter contained a treasure trove of information and would be a wonderful reference book. He provides so much insight into the flavors, ingredients and techniques involved in authentic Mexican cuisine, it's relatively easy to adapt the dishes into vegan versions without losing the fabulous taste. Plus, for many of the dishes in the book I selected, he offers vegetarian alternatives. And the side dishes and vegetables sound amazing. For example, you can skip the pork but make the Smoky Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Guajillo Salsa. I'm looking forward to substituting tofu, tempeh, seitan, beans, avocados and eggplant or other veggies for the animals, and using the preparation methods and sauces from the book, to create exciting flavors.



Our first try was Tomatillo-sauced enchiladas with spinach and mushrooms. We had only a few tomatillos in the house so we supplemented them (as per Rick's suggestion) with bottled tomatillo salsa. For the spinach we used a 12-ounce bag of chopped frozen spinach. We used eight ounces of white mushrooms, and we substituted vegetable stock for chicken stock and left out the shredded chicken (which is listed as optional in the recipe). We have lots of frozen jalapeños and other hot peppers from our garden, and we used those instead of fresh. This dish was easy to make and so delicious I had to force myself to stop eating. And following Mr. Bayless' easy method for softening corn tortillas, the tortillas were so much better than any we had prepared before. If you would like the revised recipe, e-mail me.

Mushroom and walnut paté

My husband and I attended a "vegetarian side dish" cooking class recently. The food was vegan and very tasty but had too much salt and oil for me. After years of eating healthy and delicious vegan cooking, my taste buds have become more sensitive, and when I sampled these foods all I could taste on the first bite was salt and oil. I think that most people would have found them delicious, but for me they were much too intense. I may season foods more heavily when cooking for company, but personally, I prefer to taste the foods themselves rather than the seasonings. One of the things we made in class was a walnut paté. The recipe only had 1 teaspoon of salt, which doesn't seem excessive, but it also had 3/4 cup of vegetable broth from a box. That stuff tends to be really salty unless you get the salt-free kind or make your own. And the recipe had 1/2 cup of oil in addition to the walnuts. So, using the teacher's recipe for inspiration, I've revised it to suit my taste, and if you make it, I hope you'll do the same and suit your own preferences.

I started by substituting mushrooms for half of the walnuts, and altering seasonings as well as ingredient proportions.

Walnut and mushroom paté
1 cup walnuts
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups chopped mushrooms
1 large onion, chopped
2–3 large cloves garlic, minced
2 slices whole grain bread, cut in 1/2 inch cubes
1 to 2 level teaspoons white miso
1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
1 teaspoon natural sugar (sucanot, rapidura)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (more if you want it hotter)
1 teaspoon dried rosemary (rubbed between hands to release oils)
1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions (optional)
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

-Toast the walnuts in a 325˚ oven for 10 minutes or until starting to brown.
-Grind walnuts in a food processor.
-In a wok or large skillet, sauté onions and mushrooms in the olive oil until onions are translucent. Add garlic and sauté another minute. Add bread cubes and rosemary and mix together. Turn off heat.
-Place the miso in a glass measuring cup. Add the sugar, cayenne and vinegar. Stir until the miso is dissolved.
-Add sautéed veggies and miso mixture to food processor and purée until smooth.
-Taste for additional salt and pepper. When all seasonings are whizzed in, add the parsley and pulse a few times to distribute evenly. If you are using green onion, add with the parsley.

Place in a bowl and sprinkle generously with paprika and minced parsley or green onions. (These patés always look too beige or grey and need a little help to look as good as they taste.) Serve as a dip with veggies or chips, or a spread with crackers or bread.

note: I just had a sandwich of paté piled with salad greens and a spritz of lime on whole wheat toast and it was delicious.