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| Vegan Pho with seared carrots, zucchini, red bell pepper, and tiny shiitakes |
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| Pho the next day: chickpeas and red bell pepper |
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| Tempeh asado with Oaxacan-style mole from Viva Vegan |
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Pretty Pictures
Hi all, long time no blog. There's a recipe in the works, but I haven't written it down yet. So in the meantime, here are a couple of pictures from over spring break. Excuse the quality; I left my SLR in California so I had to use the iPhone:
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
A variation of mushroom walnut pâté that I have conveniently failed to photograph
No pictures. Sorry, guys. I do however have a very delicious pâté to share with you that started out based on the Veganomicon mushroom pâté recipe and then evolved into something very different. Basically, I have nothing to show you so you'll just have to take my word for it. Really I'm just blogging this now at nearly 2am because otherwise I'll forget so sorry for any brain malfunctions along the way.
You Will Need...
2 cups walnuts
2 T olive oil
1 pound cremini mushrooms (quartered)
1 medium red onion (chopped)
3 T fresh sage (chopped)
1/2 t salt
freshly ground pepper
balsamic vinegar
To Assemble...
Get out a really large pan over medium heat and dump the walnuts in. Stir sort of frequently. Whenever you remember, that is. When some bits start getting black and you think "oh shit it's going to burn" dump it all in a food processor and pulse until it's the texture of uncooked polenta. Yes, that is the first analogy that came to mind.
Now add the olive oil to the pan. It should still be hot so just toss in the onion. Sauté the onion until it's sort of translucent, then add the mushrooms and sage. Cook the mushrooms until they stop releasing water. Make sure all the water evaporates. Somewhere along the way, add the salt. It helps de-water the mushrooms. Now dump the contents of your pan into the food processor. You can turn off the stove now.
Turn on the food processor. You know that bit in the lid that you can dump stuff through while it's still running? Keep it open to avoid a steam explosion. Your pâté should be roughly the texture of a pâté at this point. Grind lots of pepper on it. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar to taste. I probably use about 3 tablespoons. Mix again. You can eat this immediately straight out of the food processor or you can refrigerate it a couple of hours in a pretty container to let the flavours meld a bit.
The End. Good night.
You Will Need...
2 cups walnuts
2 T olive oil
1 pound cremini mushrooms (quartered)
1 medium red onion (chopped)
3 T fresh sage (chopped)
1/2 t salt
freshly ground pepper
balsamic vinegar
To Assemble...
Get out a really large pan over medium heat and dump the walnuts in. Stir sort of frequently. Whenever you remember, that is. When some bits start getting black and you think "oh shit it's going to burn" dump it all in a food processor and pulse until it's the texture of uncooked polenta. Yes, that is the first analogy that came to mind.
Now add the olive oil to the pan. It should still be hot so just toss in the onion. Sauté the onion until it's sort of translucent, then add the mushrooms and sage. Cook the mushrooms until they stop releasing water. Make sure all the water evaporates. Somewhere along the way, add the salt. It helps de-water the mushrooms. Now dump the contents of your pan into the food processor. You can turn off the stove now.
Turn on the food processor. You know that bit in the lid that you can dump stuff through while it's still running? Keep it open to avoid a steam explosion. Your pâté should be roughly the texture of a pâté at this point. Grind lots of pepper on it. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar to taste. I probably use about 3 tablespoons. Mix again. You can eat this immediately straight out of the food processor or you can refrigerate it a couple of hours in a pretty container to let the flavours meld a bit.
The End. Good night.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Back From The Dead!
First of all, I'd like to apologise to choirqueer. I was going to make the epic soup of epicness tonight but I have too many things to finish in my fridge and you can't take soup on a plane.
Now, I've got a huge backlog, but I don't really have the time or energy to post all of it. I'm sorry. Most of it is terribly unimpressive anyway since I've been buried under endless work.
A Seriously Belated Thanksgiving Post
When I first became a vegetarian, my family told me, "you're going to have to cook for yourself, you know. We're not changing our lifestyle." They ended up cooking for me anyway. When I became a vegan, they said the same thing and meant it. Then thanksgiving came along and it was suddenly "you poor dear, you're taking the red eye home from California, what can we make for you?" I love my family. Thank you for existing.
What ended up happening was that I had to sauté kale and bake only two pies while my parents produced cranberry chutney (which has been made vegan since I found out where gelatin comes from over 10 years ago), mashed potatoes with cayenne and cumin from Vegan Soul Kitchen, green beans with caramelised onions and toasted pine nuts, vegan sausage brown rice stuffing, and a chanterelle-filled masterpiece vaguely inspired by this recipe. So without further unnecessary babbling from me, here's the food.
Kale. We tossed this with a sesame ginger vinaigrette that my dad created some time last year. I have to admit, I didn't really eat this because I eat kale all the time as it is, but the entire family loved it.
Potatoes which are always the highlight of my thanksgiving. These were topped with vegan parmesan and then baked until browned. I still have the leftovers in my dorm fridge.
Also visible in the potato picture, these are the green beans. Nothing fancy. Sautéed with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Always fabulous.
Everyone loves my mom's stuffing. She made it a bit differently this year with brown rice and red quinoa instead of wild rice and sour cherries instead of craisins, but it was every bit as awesome as always.
Mom's amazing spiced ginger-cranberry-orange chutney. If I could eat this with a spoon, I would. And now on to the best part of my meal:
This was a complete surprise to me. I provided the recipe, but I know my dad did a lot of tweaking. The best bit was the chanterelles. I've had Whole Foods gift cards a lot this term and I kept trying to get chanterelles for just one dinner, but they were always out. Through some amazing turn of events, my mother found chanterelles at Costco, made the dish, and stuffed it in puff pastry shells. I love them.
My loaded plate pictured with the caramelised onion-miso gravy I improvised that day. Now, on to the desserts!
Cosmos Apple Pie from the new pie book. I have to admit, I am probably the only astronomy student ever not to have seen or read Sagan. I should probably remedy this. Anyway, this pie was awesome despite being pulled out of the oven and then rebaked a million times throughout the day (omnis don't really need to eat, right?).
This pumpkin pie was not as much of a success. Unfortunately, my dad for the first time in 5 years decided to read the manual for our oven and got it into his head that pies are supposed to be baked on some weird setting called intensive. The result? The top was done and the bottom was liquid. I ended up scraping the filling out and turning it into a smoothie (in which I rediscovered how much I hate bananas and threw it out). Oh well. I'm blaming dad.
My aunt's pears poached in red wine. I actually don't eat these because I'm the only one in my family who doesn't like them. However, they are beautiful and photogenic.
So thanksgiving's over and I'm going home for break in less than a week. You know what that means? It's almost Christmas! You know what that means? Doctor Who Christmas Special and Neil Gaiman on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! I should be posting a lot more in the next few weeks trying to perfect brownies for presents. If I don't post, slap me.
Now, I've got a huge backlog, but I don't really have the time or energy to post all of it. I'm sorry. Most of it is terribly unimpressive anyway since I've been buried under endless work.
A Seriously Belated Thanksgiving Post
When I first became a vegetarian, my family told me, "you're going to have to cook for yourself, you know. We're not changing our lifestyle." They ended up cooking for me anyway. When I became a vegan, they said the same thing and meant it. Then thanksgiving came along and it was suddenly "you poor dear, you're taking the red eye home from California, what can we make for you?" I love my family. Thank you for existing.
What ended up happening was that I had to sauté kale and bake only two pies while my parents produced cranberry chutney (which has been made vegan since I found out where gelatin comes from over 10 years ago), mashed potatoes with cayenne and cumin from Vegan Soul Kitchen, green beans with caramelised onions and toasted pine nuts, vegan sausage brown rice stuffing, and a chanterelle-filled masterpiece vaguely inspired by this recipe. So without further unnecessary babbling from me, here's the food.
Kale. We tossed this with a sesame ginger vinaigrette that my dad created some time last year. I have to admit, I didn't really eat this because I eat kale all the time as it is, but the entire family loved it.
Potatoes which are always the highlight of my thanksgiving. These were topped with vegan parmesan and then baked until browned. I still have the leftovers in my dorm fridge.
Also visible in the potato picture, these are the green beans. Nothing fancy. Sautéed with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Always fabulous.
Everyone loves my mom's stuffing. She made it a bit differently this year with brown rice and red quinoa instead of wild rice and sour cherries instead of craisins, but it was every bit as awesome as always.
Mom's amazing spiced ginger-cranberry-orange chutney. If I could eat this with a spoon, I would. And now on to the best part of my meal:
This was a complete surprise to me. I provided the recipe, but I know my dad did a lot of tweaking. The best bit was the chanterelles. I've had Whole Foods gift cards a lot this term and I kept trying to get chanterelles for just one dinner, but they were always out. Through some amazing turn of events, my mother found chanterelles at Costco, made the dish, and stuffed it in puff pastry shells. I love them.
My loaded plate pictured with the caramelised onion-miso gravy I improvised that day. Now, on to the desserts!
Cosmos Apple Pie from the new pie book. I have to admit, I am probably the only astronomy student ever not to have seen or read Sagan. I should probably remedy this. Anyway, this pie was awesome despite being pulled out of the oven and then rebaked a million times throughout the day (omnis don't really need to eat, right?).
This pumpkin pie was not as much of a success. Unfortunately, my dad for the first time in 5 years decided to read the manual for our oven and got it into his head that pies are supposed to be baked on some weird setting called intensive. The result? The top was done and the bottom was liquid. I ended up scraping the filling out and turning it into a smoothie (in which I rediscovered how much I hate bananas and threw it out). Oh well. I'm blaming dad.
My aunt's pears poached in red wine. I actually don't eat these because I'm the only one in my family who doesn't like them. However, they are beautiful and photogenic.
So thanksgiving's over and I'm going home for break in less than a week. You know what that means? It's almost Christmas! You know what that means? Doctor Who Christmas Special and Neil Gaiman on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! I should be posting a lot more in the next few weeks trying to perfect brownies for presents. If I don't post, slap me.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Liebster Awards!
I appear to have won an award on the internets from two wonderful people Farmersmarketvegan and Choirqueer! Apparently it's an awesome award thing to make people smile for blogs that have less than 200 followers (or I'm assuming, few comments). So onward with my picks for this MoFo. I have to admit I've been horribly lazy with keeping track of blogs so I only have 3 picks these will be based on posts that changed my life. Sorry, guys. I can't not pass this on, but I also haven't kept up with anything. In no particular order:
- http://manicbeans.blogspot.com/ had me with the gorgeous pictures of food in LA. As a recent transplant to Pasadena from Boston I've been bemoaning the absence of culture and delicious food here. However, as this blog shows, this is not the case! Now my only problem is that Doomie's will be closed when I'm in town tomorrow.
- So I know I just received a Liebster from this wonderful human being, but I have to say http://choirqueer.wordpress.com . I was just browsing and found choirqueer's recipe for paneer which interestingly, as an Indian food-hating Indian, is the one thing I miss as a vegan. A+.
- And then there was http://cookbookaficionado.wordpress.com. Specifically, the tofu bacon. Crispy, greasy, salty, and amazing. I've been eating this stuff in sandwiches for a week!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Vegan MoFo Day 10: Another scramble
Well, actually this was last weekend's scramble. But I'm posting it now because I never got around to posting it then. Never let anyone tell you silken tofu is good in a scramble. It isn't. It's very reminiscent of the gelatinous jiggly scrambled eggs that made me want to puke as a vegetarian.
I sautéed the scramble with some garlic, cumin, nooch, white miso, and rice vinegar if I remember correctly. Also, heirloom tomato and spinach. The flavours were good. The texture was just... ugh.
I sautéed the scramble with some garlic, cumin, nooch, white miso, and rice vinegar if I remember correctly. Also, heirloom tomato and spinach. The flavours were good. The texture was just... ugh.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Vegan MoFo Day 9: Losing steam/plague eats
So basically, I'm not going to make it to 20 posts this month. And I'm okay with that. Sorry if you're not. I have too much on my plate as a student right now. I'm sorry, guys.So on to today's topic: What to eat if you're sick and a college student? Right now I'm really sad because falafel is on the menu tonight and even though CDS falafel is awful, it's better than 90% of what other things they serve. And I probably won't be able to eat it due to illness. Boo.
Anyway, therein lies the problem. Yes, school provides one vegan option a day. However, what do you do when you're at school and all you want is vegan comfort food because you're ill and tired and everything hurts. Well, I make soup. Since I'm feeling so awful I went to Trader Joe's and picked up a couple of instant miso soup bowls. They're not the greatest, but they do the job and my fridge is pretty empty. That shit is expensive and I'm not going to sit around eating it all day. So I present to you the world's simplest sick soup.
You make it like so: Take a mug. Place a tablespoon of chicken flavoured broth powder in mug. Pour boiling water in mug. Immediately stir in heaping tablespoon of miso. Add garlic powder and shichimi (or spicy condiment of your choice) until you can taste it. Inhale. This has dual effect of you being able to taste it and you being able to breathe for a short time.
This is not an impressive soup. Therefore, it looked prettier with hipstamatic. Don't judge.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Vegan MoFo Day 8: Salad of deliciousness
I ate this salad pretty much every day this week. It's nothing fancy. Just lightly wilted baby spinach with a handful of cranberries, the Vegan Diner tomato dressing, Trader Joe's goddess dressing, and a slab of grilled seitan from Whole Foods. Not cutting up the seitan was a mistake since this is a very deep bowl. Basically, awesome salad. Pretty good for all store bought ingredients (except the dressing which I made myself). I kind of want to eat this forever.
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