Homemade udon
Last week found me daytripping to Toronto, with the promise of a potluck at a friend’s house to round out the day. I wanted to make something fun and different, and that’s when I remembered Cookbook Catchall’s post last month about udon.
I looooove udon. Noodles in general, but udon in specific. They’re chewy and tasty and full of yum. And also, it turns out, just about the most fun thing ever to make. Why? Because you get to dance on your food!
Seriously! I used this version of the recipe, because after mixing and kneading your dough you wrap it up well in plastic and a towel, drop it on the floor, and start dancing on it. You use your entire body weight to knead it. It sounded a little complicated at first, but proved to be a super-easy recipe. I made them the day before the potluck, boiled them, then tossed them with a little sesame oil to keep them from sticking. The next day I used them in a random stirfry of beet greens, ‘frenched’ yellow and green beans, green onions, and sesame seeds, all tossed with a sauce made up of garlic, ginger, tamari, sesame oil, and vegan oyster sauce. Everybody loved it. I’ll be making these again…a lot.
Homemade udon
Recipe notes: Half the recipe fed five people handily as a side dish. The only alteration I made was in the amount of water, because my dough needed twice the amount of recommended water to shape up.
Wandering Stratford
I have a fridge full of veggies, and no time to cook*. The weekend saw me skivving off to Stratford (the Canadian spin-off, not the UK original) with one of m’darlings for a couple days of pre-birthday fun. It was nicely uncrowded and even fairly un-touristy at this time of year, particularly considering that it was Mother’s Day weekend. We stayed at the lovely Glenwood B&B, saw The Music Man at the Stratford Festival, and had a wonderful time browsing some of the interesting shops around town. If you ever make it there, check out Quark Soup and the amazing toy store, Family & Company! They’re well worth a romp or two, and it doesn’t matter how old you are.
The chocolate shops proved a tasty diversion too. The first (Rheo Thompson) was not terribly vegan-friendly, but the second (Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory) offered one of those happy vegan experiences that make time away special. We showed up, made our usual “do you have anything without eggs or dairy” request, and promptly got a personal, friendly tour of the half dozen options available to us. The Power Hounds (dark chocolate coconut clusters) were soooooo good. I’m not sure it’s a good thing that I just discovered they have a shop in nearby Kitchener, and another in downtown Toronto, and yet another in the very airport I’ll be passing through on Wednesday…
But really, the culinary highlight of Stratford? VegOut. It’s a little vegan cafe just off the main strip. Great location, even better food. If we’d been Good And Responsible Food CriticsTM, we’d have ordered a few different dishes to share, so that we could report back on the full range of offerings. We didn’t. In place of long excuses, I’ll give you three words:
Fish. And. Chips.
Okay, let’s make that four: Vegan. Fish. And. Chips.
Yes, you read that right. They offered battered fake fish, complete with vegan tartar sauce. It mimicked real fish and chips well enough to suit my rusty memory. In fact I liked these far better than I ever liked the real thing — most F&C always seemed to be made with either low-quality fish, or come over-battered or over-greasy. These were crispy, well-filled, fried but not greasy, and very tasty. The fries were equally good. We both ordered the same thing without even hesitating. Then we went back later for dessert. 
The apple-raspberry pie was wonderful — nice tart apples, a good crust, and I even got to enjoy that crust since it was heated in an oven rather than a microwave, and thus wasn’t soggy and gross. The soy hot chocolate was the most chocolatey I’ve had outside my own kitchen. M’darling found his chocolate-peanut butter ‘cheesecake’ less rich than the versions we’ve had at Vegetarian Haven in Toronto, but enjoyed the couple bites he managed to steal of my pie.
I took no camera and thus took no photos. Just take my word for it — the food was fabulous and you too should go there if you ever have the chance. We found the place through HappyCow. Travelling? Need to find a vegan or vegetarian restaurant? You should check out HappyCow, and add reviews of any new places you find too!
So those were the highlights of the weekend. Tomorrow I’m off to Toronto, and Wednesday I’m off to Boston. At this point I’m not even sure when I’m back, but certainly by this time next week. Cookery, photos, and assorted blathering to resume then, or sometime near then. =)
* Which is killing me, because our eagerly-awaited grill just arrived. Literally. It’s still in a big box in front of me, and all I want to do now is grill and eat everything in the house. *g*
Stick to yer ribs
The awesome folks over at What the hell does a vegan eat anyway? got me lusting last week, when they posted pics of a rib recipe (veganized, bien sur) from Gourmet magazine. Mmmmmm. But lacking the key ingredients (black vinegar, seitan, and the ability to deep fry things), I figured I’d take a stab at a baked tempeh version.
OMG. I bet the original version is even better, but these are yummy. The sauce reduces to a rich, savoury-sweet glaze full of ginger and caramelized shallots and garlic. I served them with steamed dandelion greens and garlic-celeriac mashed potatoes the first night, and balsamic mushrooms, cornmeal potato cakes, and a spinach/kale mixture the next. My omnivore housemate liked them a lot — he felt they really did have a certain ‘ribness’ going for them.
Damn, I’ve gone and made myself hungry.
Mini quiche
It’s confession time again — in my pre-vegan days I never liked quiche. The sheer egginess of it always appalled me, even before we discovered that I was allergic to the damned eggy things.
But y’know, virtually everyone I know loves quiche, so I thought maybe it was time to give it another whirl. A vegan whirl. SusanV at FatFree Vegan Kitchen gets all the credit for this. Her crustless quiches looked good enough to tempt even me. How can you go wrong with tofu?
I wanted mine to have crusts, though, so I used the last of a large batch of whole wheat Never Fail Pie Crust to line eight mini tart pans and two pot pie pans. These I filled with the quiche mixture. My own was a leek and mushroom version — I used 2/3rds of a leek, finely chopped, in place of bell pepper. The mushrooms were sliced very thin. I used almond butter in place of tahini, thyme in place of rosemary, a bit of extra oil. Realistically these were all fairly minor alterations. The one change that I think made a real difference was using regular firm tofu instead of silken. A couple commenters mentioned that their mini quiche didn’t firm up completely, so I figured a firmer tofu might be the answer.
The results? Everybody who ate them liked them. Even my omnivore roommate declared them ‘quiche-y.’ The larger quiches (in the pot pie pans) proved to have a better, moister consistency when reheated. The little ones were a nice size for lunches. While tasty to start with, they were all noticeably tastier a couple days later. Mmmmmm. My only problem with them was that the leek greens ‘bled’ a little of their colour, so that the quiches weren’t the soft, buttery yellow I would have liked. Next time I’ll know to use only the whites, or maybe try shallots instead.
Giving peas a chance
Pea soup is proof that I’ve grown up. As a kid I hated the stuff — it tasted just awful to me. (Well, except for canned Habitant pea soup, which was really nothing more than lard and salt. ***shudder***) Fortunately my taste buds matured along with the rest of me, and now it’s a Good Thing. Especially since it’s easy to make in a slow cooker, and I love my slow cooker. It asks for virtually no attention from me while it does its thing, and fills the house with mouth-watering smells. Though I eventually learned not to put things on to cook late at night — those mouth-watering smells literally woke me up in the wee hours, starving!
The secret to this recipe is the broth. Soaking sundried tomatoes and smoked chipotle peppers together with the bouillon creates a wonderfully rich liquid. (Can you say ‘umami‘?) I don’t find much heat from the peppers either, as long as you don’t break them up.
Lentil lurv
For some strange reason there’s a conspiracy of lentils this week. I certainly didn’t set out to make an all-lentil dinner, but that’s what I ended up with. How can you go wrong with lentils, though?
First there was lentil soup. Lemony lentil soup. I had a small heap of lemons in the crisper, and a shiny new bag of beluga lentils (which at 24% apparently boast the highest amount of protein of all the lentils). I figured these had to go together. The results? Zingy! Fabulously zingy. I won’t be getting scurvy anytime soon. Served with sweet potato fries, it was very hearty. This might be my new favourite soup; the recipe’s below.
And after dinner? Lentil cookies. As soon as I knew such a thing existed, I had to make them. And omg, yum! Fresh from the oven they were light and crispy on the outside, and full of cranberry-cherry tastiness. Instant love. The original recipe is easily veganized (sub Earth Balance for butter, egg replacer for the egg). For extra flavour I simmered my lentils in light coconut milk with a goodly pinch of nutmeg and maybe a half teaspoon of mace. (Vanilla rice milk would probably be equally good.) I also toasted my oats in the toaster oven while doing other things. (325F, stirred twice, maybe 6 minutes?) For some reason my cookies took an extra couple minutes to bake, but that might just be an oven variation. Regardless, these are fabulous, particularly when toasted for a few minutes to crisp them up. I suspect they’ll make my top-3 list of cookies long before I finish eating them all. Besides, they have protein and fruit in them, so they’re healthy, right?
Say ‘Sheese!’
Some days call for comfort food, and for that it’s hard to beat macaroni and cheese. I found myself in the mood last week, had a block of Sheese in the fridge, and so took a stab at ‘veganizing’ my old macaroni and cheese recipe. It turned out better than the original dairy version.
And just because I’m clearing the camera of photos, here’s a pic of my slow cooker from last week, all set to make lentil and wild rice stew…
And now if you’ll ’scuse me, I’m off to make lentil cookies. Yes, you read that right. =)
Green is the new black…
…and cabbage is the new kale.
By which I mean, simply, that cabbage is my new challenge. Kale now officially has a thumbs-up from me, as I can list three ways I like to eat it. (Kale-arame salad, in that Sooper-Sekret-soon-to-be-revealed dish, and as a pizza topping), In fact yesterday I bought two bunches at the market, thereby proving that the apocalypse is nigh.
Which brings us back to cabbage, which now takes over kale’s spot in the challenge limelight. The word ‘cabbage’ brings to mind two things: coleslaw, and nasty-smelling cabbage rolls. Ick2. But surely there’s a way to make it both edible and tasty? Because wow, the list of ways in which cabbage is supposedly good for us is…impressive.
Attempt #1 at Cabbage Love involved just nibbling on it raw. In moderate amounts, quite tasty. In larger amounts, my gut protested.
Attempt #2 involved shredding a quarter of the Cabbage O’Doom (it’s as big as my head), then adding a grated yam (as sweet as a carrot!), and a goodly amount of grated celery root. All of this I tossed with a maple-balsamic vinaigrette. Verdict? Not bad. Definitely tastier than KFC coleslaw. (How do they make it that unnatural dayglo green?) It was still a little bit too hard to crunch through, though — just a little too ‘raw.’ Maybe a finer shredding of cabbage would have helped with that; I’m not sure.
Attempt #3 — Alton Brown to the rescue. (For those just passing through, I recently acquired pretty much every episode of Good Eats on DVD, which explains my obsession with him as a research tool. 
) I took a look at this recipe, hit the market for apples, and had a go. My own tweaked version (see below) proved remarkably tasty, adding cranberry juice for zing and colour, and toasted walnuts to make it more nutritionally complete for a main dish. I’d make it again, and might even serve it to others. It’s certainly pretty.
Attempts #4 and #5 are yet to come, because thus far I’ve eaten cabbage every day for a week, and still have just over half a cabbage left. Egads, and I thought the kale was neverending! But I need to find a way of replicating the yummy marinated cabbage that a local restaurant serves as an appetizer. Also a fabulous orange-cabbage dish that we had in Cuba.
I’m your huckleberry
Somehow today went south — Deep South. A craving for cornbread (and a hot pepper going spare) led me to this Alton Brown recipe for cast iron cornbread. I had to have it. And besides, I realized that I had that episode of Good Eats, so bonus! First it was groceries, then a half hour of watching the show and chilling, then into the kitchen to make the bread myself. Mmmmm. His version was super-easily veganized (see below), and the only addition I made was the aforementioned hot pepper, which proved to be remarkably mild. My housemate actually suggested adding cayenne next time, so that shows just how unspicy it was. Good though, especially with a little Earth Balance. The cast iron method gave it a nice, moist consistency, but with a crispy crust. Yum.
The rest of the meal? Spicy pinto bean sausages, and a side of what may be the absolute best kale recipe ever. Seriously, I’m stunned by just how good the kale was. Over the moon impressed. That said, it needs a couple important tweaks to make it perfect, and I’m out of kale, so y’all have to wait a bit before I reveal it further. (See, all this Southern food is giving me a drawl.)
The sausages were super easy to make, surprisingly light, and definitely sausagey in taste. Better than most store bought vegan sausages. I’d have to do a side by side comparison with some of the Tofurky sausages to decide. Let’s be honest though — homemade is almost always better. I’ll make these again, though I’d probably make them smaller for double the quantity. That would make them more like breakfast links. I definitely want to try the original spicy Italian version too, though I’ll just use those seasonings with Isa’s bean-based version when I make them, because I’d rather have real beans in my sausages than chickpea flour.
Incidentally, why did nobody point out Everyday Dish to me? A YouTube veg cooking series? *squee!* (Those crepes must be mine, and soon.)
On a completely unrelated note, I’ve discovered that strawberries sliced onto homemade bread and blackcurrant jam is a special treat. Omg, yum. I honestly meant to take pictures, if only to show off the bread, but I was hungry, and then there was none left.
That’s enough for now. Friday is Pi Day, so the theme will be ’round.’ I’m already plotting. And already on the round theme…
The spice of life
In the beginning, there was the snowstorm. We’ve had 37cm of snow since yesterday evening, and the whole world is white. I did manage to get as far as the market, though, and staggered home looking like a vegetable-laden snowman. Errr, snowwoman.
Cold weather calls for hot soup. Well, hot chocolate, then hot soup. I decided to fight the chill with Isa’s Ancho Lentil Soup, because it sounded tasty and I had some leftover pineapple kicking around for once (and let’s be honest, I was eager to try out the new cast iron grilling pan I found during my rambles).
Thus began a bit of an adventure. See, I had no ancho chilies with which to make the spice mixture. Nor, for that matter, a seranno pepper. I did have chipotle peppers, though, and what I thought looked like a hungarian pepper, and even a bag of evil-looking dried red chili peppers. And if worst came to worst, I had a box of White Death (aka White Chilli Powder, which is actually made from dried green chillies — it’s spicy as all hell). Surely some of these would serve as workable substitutes?
To be safe, I did some research, and thus became Edumicated about hot peppers, their chemistry, and the Scoville heat scale. Aha, a non-subjective means of comparing different hot peppers! Excellent! Comparing Wikipedia’s chart with a variety of other charts, I deduced that my chipotles were roughly twice as spicy as the ancho chillies called for in the recipe. Okay, thought I, I’ll just use one instead of two, and the spice levels will balance out. Right? And my hungarian pepper promised to be roughly equal in spiciness to a seranno, so that left me all set for soupy goodness.
Oh, I was so very, very wrong.
I made my spice mixture (homemade chili powder, yum!) and started my soup. I added a few extra veggies, because why not? Eventually I took a taste, and *poof!*, my taste buds combusted.
*gasp gasp wheeze* Egads, the spice! And I hadn’t even added the hungarian pepper yet! I can’t explain it, but my single tiny chipotle pepper was a veritable dynamo of fiery spice. Too much spice.
Thus began education effort #2: How to neutralize spiciness in an over-spiced dish. *sigh* But hey, the internet is my friend, and I discovered some good tips:
- Add honey. Doing so definitely took an edge off the heat without actually adding any sweetness.
- Increase the volume of ingredients. Add ‘neutral’ ingredients to mitigate the spice. Hmmm. Sadly I needed to thicken my soup, and most of the ‘neutral’ ingredients these sites mentioned were dairy products. Still, I had some cooked rice kicking around, and that struck me as a potential solution. I pureed it with some water and soup, added the mixture, and the spice level dropped a few notches.
- Add a potato. Peel it, cut it in half, and drop it in. Remove it once it’s cooked. I tried it, and the potato absorbed a small amount of the spiciness.
- Add lemon juice. This I didn’t do, because the original recipe called for adding lime juice at the very end, and I figured that would serve.
The resulting soup? Still spicy, but finally edibly spicy. Even more so once I added the lime juice the recipe called for — it added a lovely burst of flavour, and took the spice down one last notch. Ha!
Then came the grilling of the pineapple, which was easily the best part. Fun, pretty, and tasty. Et voila, a very unusual twist on lentil soup — all yummy, spicy, tropical flavours.
I think I’d try it again, but hopefully with fewer spice issues. And possibly with a bit of coconut milk…mmmmm…
