K.I.S.S.
Sometimes lunch is a simple affair. Simple is good. Today I was trying to find enough energy to make something more than toast when I happened to catch one of Celine’s last posts at Have Cake Will Travel.
Seitan bacon. Mmmmmmm. And it looked easy.
Thirty minutes later I sat down to enjoy a yummy, yummy sandwich — a real Montreal bagel, toasted, with seitan bacon, tomatoes, and a couple slices of Sheese. Very, very yummy. I’ll be making that bac’n again. (Tomorrow in fact, since there’s some left. 
)
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*
Learnin’
Know what I never look at in bookstores? Cooking magazines. At best there are maybe two veg-focused magazines on display, and they rarely excite me. The others…the others are full of things I don’t eat, so why bother?
Or so I thought. Um. I’m an idiot. Yes they’re full of things I don’t eat, but I kinda get a kick out of ‘veganizing’ recipes, so why should that prove an obstacle? And besides, they’re not just full of things I don’t eat…they’re also full of information. *swoon*
I like learning. Nah, I love learning, and cooking is one area where I certainly have a lot to learn. Imagine my delight, then, when yesterday for the first time in many ages I wandered into my local bookstore and checked out the cooking mags. I left with two. The one that got me all excited? Cook’s Illustrated. If you haven’t seen it before, it’s kind of a cross between a normal cooking magazine and Consumer Reports. The people who create it run a test kitchen, and they take a methodical, scientific approach to cooking. They tackle culinary questions like “what’s the best way to cook baby spinach” or “what’s the best chocolate cake recipe,” and try every variation imaginable until they find the answers. (It’s almost exhausting to read the descriptions of their labours.) Then they publish the results, complete with recipes. And yes, a lot of those results apply to vegan cookery just as much as to non-vegan cookery.
A five minute read-through of my copy felt like a three-hour cooking lesson, minus dinner at the end. But lunch…lunch I could do. The best way to learn is to apply lessons while they’re still fresh, right? And I can see myself trying and adapting a lot of the things in this issue.
But back to lunch. There was an article on making the best oven fries, and there were a couple of articles involving baked chicken. I went with those, because yum, fries! And also because I’ve tried making crispy faux chicken a few times in the past few months and haven’t been happy with any of the results — the coating always turns out a bit soggy, and I don’t care how tasty it is — soggy just isn’t acceptable.
Here’s the gist of the oven fries article: For the absolute best results, [1] Cut russet potatoes into wedges, [2] soak the wedges in hot water for 10 minutes and then drain and dry them, [3] in a baking pan season 4T of oil with salt and pepper, [4] spread potatoes evenly, [5] bake covered tightly with foil at 475F for 5 minutes, [6] remove the foil and continue baking 20 to 30 minutes, turning once.
Honestly? I burned mine. My bad — I cut my potato into too many wedges, so that they were too thin and cooked super-fast. Also my baking sheet is thin and crappy and doesn’t heat evenly, so that some fries did okay while others burned. C’est la vie. (Besides, I have thirteen more potatoes to play with!) The soaking and steaming did create a noticably better texture than I’ve managed with my usual oven fries recipe though; there were no ‘hollow’ fries. And seasoning the oil rather than the cut potatoes? Sheer genius. I was skeptical, but it worked perfectly.
Now for the chik’n. I used a PC meatless chik’n breast. It occurred to me that maybe past attempts hadn’t done as well because I hadn’t thawed the faux meat fully before prepping the meal, so this time I let the cut thaw overnight and made sure it was dry to the touch before starting. I think fake meats tend to hold more moisture than real meat, which may add to the challenge of creating a crispy coat. Anyway, I sliced mine in half to create two thinner cutlets, and then I breaded them. To do this I prepared one flax egg (1 T ground flax whisked into 1/4 cup hot water), and dipped both sides of each cutlet. Then I pressed these into panko (japanese breadcrumbs) seasoned with 1 T of nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper. The two tricks I picked up from Cook’s Illustrated were these: [1] Cook the chik’n on a rack set over a baking pan, and [2] spray the breaded cutlets lightly with oil before baking.
The results? Best breaded chik’n so far — crispy and lightly browned. The rack made a big difference in ensuring that both sides crisped up. My only excuse for not thinking this up myself is that my normal baking pans don’t have racks. Fortunately my housemate pointed out that my wee toaster oven pan does have such an insert, so I used that and it worked perfectly. I did forget two things while making these — I didn’t dredge the cutlets with flour before breading them, and I didn’t spray the baking rack. Neither proved major issues, and the finished product tasted wonderful topped with a raw tomato sauce (half a tomato, diced; a few basil leaves, minced; one garlic clove and one teaspoon capers, squeezed through a garlic press; salt and pepper to taste).
As lunches go, yum. As learning experiences go, likewise yum. And I still have a bunch more recipes and techniques eyemarked for trying. Is it dinner time yet?
Randomness
Today our nice local veggie people dropped off our nice local veggies. I’d ordered basil (mmmm, pesto!), but to my surprise I didn’t find a bunch of cut herbs — I found an entire plant! A nice, bushy little basil plant, complete with roots. It doesn’t get fresher than that. Given that just yesterday I bought seeds to grow my own, I have to admit I’m tempted to plant it and see what happens. It’s so fresh and healthy looking. I can go without pesto for a bit…
On another random note, today I realized just how much my eating patterns have shifted in the past four months. I was cleaning the fridge (*shudder*), and found no less than three unopened packages of tofu, plus another of veggie ground. Three of those were significantly past their best-before date. Apparently I’ve really moved away from eating fake meat and tofu. It’s not that I don’t enjoy them — I’ve just been eating more beans and nuts, and meals more centered around vegetables than meat substitutes. I miss my tofu though — tonight I’m making tofu quiche dammit. There’s still pie dough left over from a massive pie-making foray (veggie and curry pot pies, mmmmmm), so it shouldn’t be too difficult. The pies were supposed to stock the freezer, but there are only two left! I used this recipe for “no fail pie crust”, and it delivered as promised even with my substitution of 1/3 whole wheat flour. The best part was not having to roll the dough (except for the pie tops). Once upon a time I was pretty darned good at making and rolling pie crusts…but then I didn’t do it for years and now I’ve lost the knack. 
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…
Thai delights
Tonight I’m having a belated Valentine’s dinner with someone, and so spent part of this morning preparing this:
It’s a Thai dish calld Laab Nuea, and it’s soooooo tasty. It’s one of the only dishes I make using prepared ‘veggie ground’, and in this case combines that with lime juice, shallots, coriander, basil, and mint. Oh, and galangal, which is a lovely relation to ginger, with a hint of sweet mustard. It’ s hard to describe, but fortunately not that hard to find.
The man who passed this recipe on to me served it with jasmine rice, which was divine. I’ve also enjoyed it immensely in wraps. Tonight we’ll have it with Basmati, and a Thai mango salad. [Edit: The mango salad was divine!]
Hawt!
Okay, first off? Raw parsnips really do taste like particularly awesome little carrots. I don’t know why I never tried eating them raw before. It seems likely that the big ones are less sweet and tasty than the little carrot-sized ones I had lying around, but still — why did nobody tell me I could eat them this way?Anyway, tonight I made my own horseradish, and then used that to make Roasted Parsnips with Horseradish (as lusted after earlier this week, and easily veganized). I’d never had horseradish before, and was surprised by the tasty heat of it. I have Sooper Sekret plans for the remainder, involving lots of garlic and a fresh baguette. Stay tuned.
Speaking of garlic, Lee Valley’s nifty-looking ‘garlic twist‘ isn’t as easy to use as a garlic press. I was kind of disappointed. Their kitchen calculator, however, makes me very happy indeed.
I digress — back to those parsnips. They were fantastically easy to make (even allowing for the unexpected DIY horseradish necessity), and even my housemate R liked them. They were kind of spicy and sweet and savoury at the same time, but the flavours were very well balanced. They’re hard to describe — go make’em for yourself and see. The only change I’d make is to use a little less Earth Balance next time. And I’d make more, because there are none left.
Along with these I made the baked potato chips I mentioned in my last post. Thank goodness for my cheapo plastic mandoline — slicing the potatoes was surprisingly easy. My only problem was that they cooked unevenly, so that I wound up with many overdone and a few underdone. They were tasty, though not that much better than good store bought chips. If I make these again, I’ll use small yams instead of regular potatoes, and maybe some other tubers. Also I think they’d be fabulous tossed with wasabi salt. See? Each kitchen experiment spawns a half dozen others!
Last on the dinner plate were a couple slices of faux tuna, sauteed in sesame oil. I’m a sucker for new ‘fakes’ — I love taste-testing them, seeing how well they hold up in a range of dishes. This particular faux tuna (by Kuan Yin Hsiang Vegetarian Diet Co, in Taiwan) didn’t taste much like fish, but there was a slight sweetness that did kinda, sorta remind me of tuna. Overall the flavour was very nice, and completely without the strong gluten aftertaste that puts me off of many fake meats. So yes, while it didn’t make me scream “tuna!”, it was much better than many others I’ve tried. I devoured most of it in yummy wraps over the past two days (‘tuna’, tabbouleh, red pepper, shallots, and baby spinach). It held up well in ’steak’ form too. I’ll definitely be picking up more the next time I’m in Toronto. (It’s available from the little store in King’s Cafe restaurant, in Kensington Market.)
