Dancing Down the Moon

Vegan MoFo: Cookeh is Mahn!

I've long said that Whole Foods--or at least the mammoth WF flagship store here in Austin--is not a grocery store, it's an 80,000 square foot amusement park.  Known to many as Whole Paycheck, it's not the place to go if you're looking for a bargain.  It is, however, the perfect place to find new and interesting foods, especially if you're a vegan, and pick up those treats you love but can't get your hands on everyday.

This is doubly true for me, as I live at the far South end of Austin and WF is downtown. I make it there perhaps once every two months, usually when I need inspiration or am looking for something new and weird I've seen online or in a magazine...or when I absolutely have to have a Big John Cookie.

What can you say about a 99-cent, saucer-sized chocolate chunk oatmeal cookie almost an inch thick that eats more like a cake--or an entire breakfast--than a cookie?  Oh, yeah, here's what you can say:  YUM. OMG YUM.

Whole Foods also sells vegan brownies (delicious) and donuts (never tried them but I hear they're awful), vegan peanut butter fudge, and in the dessert cooler, vegan parfaits, mousse, and cakes. Today I was feeling frisky (and I made the mistake of shopping hungry) so I picked up a cookie, a pint of their wonderful pomegranate sorbet (store brand, so it's not as outrageously priced as, say, Nadamoo), and a slab of something called Cookies 'n Cream Cake.

I love the parfaits, but the cake slice...well, it tasted good, but it was throat-searingly sweet.  It's two layers of somewhat dry dark chocolate cake sandwiched with buttercream and cookie bits, and like I said, it tastes great, and overall had a good texture, but was so sweet it nearly turned my face inside out.  I think maybe one layer of buttercream would have been sufficient, maybe with a dark chocolate ganache in the center.  I think in the future I'll stick to the parfaits, which are chunks of chocolate cake, raspberries, and a luscious vegan chocolate mousse (probably the same general formula as the filling for my Mooless Mocha Pies**).

Never go to Whole Foods hungry unless you're planning to sit down in one of their food courts and enjoy something from the many prepared meal bars.  I understand the tofu breakfast tacos are to die for, and I've had several tofu dishes from the buffet line as well as the hot bars and they've all been fabulous.  Occasionally they offer Field Roast's hazelnut crusted cutlets, which are in my opinion one of the best vegan foods on Earth; they didn't have any today, but they did have at least half a dozen vegan main courses in addition to the international selections, taco bar, sandwich bar, and pasta bar.  

I also advise against going to WF when you're in a hurry.  It's best to take your time, wandering the aisles and looking for exciting new ingredients.  Wear good shoes, bring your reusable bags, and get into the flow of the crowd, seeking the Zen of grocery shopping (and ignoring the screaming yuppie larvae who tend to run around the Healthy Living section chasing each other with organic cotton stuffed animals). Make a list, otherwise you'll forget half of what you came in for, overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of the selection. 

And above all, set a spending limit.

** - Mooless Mocha Pies, along with many other tasty recipes, are available in my ebook Bell, Book, and Spoon, available for $5 from Lulu.  This is a shameless plug. But I'm quite proud of my little cookbook, so please check it out.

Vegan MoFo: Peace is in the Pudding

 

This is one of my favorite easy desserts, based on a Hawaiian coconut pudding recipe called Haupia. In honor of our President's call to action today, I give you,

Nobel Peace Parfaits

(also known as "Suck it, Haters!")

What You Need

1 14oz can unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 c sugar
1/3 c cornstarch
1 c nondairy milk (vanilla flavored is best)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp salt

Several crushed gingersnaps
Chocolate syrup or vegan caramel
A few shreds of toasted coconut, if desired, for garnish

Let's Get it On

1. Combine everything but the vanilla in a saucepan over medium-low heat and whisk until combined.

2. Keep whisking as you bring to a boil, then cook for about a minute, stirring constantly. Be sure you get to where there are bubbles breaking the surface; cornstarch doesn't thicken to its full potential until it reaches a boil. The pudding will thicken very quickly once it gets to that point, and if you're not careful it'll scorch. The whole process should only take about five minutes.

3. Remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla, stirring well. Let cool a few minutes and try not to dive into it facefirst.  Chill for one hour with a sheet of plastic wrap pressed against the surface to prevent a skin from forming.

4. In a wine goblet, glass, or other see-through dish, sprinkle a layer of crushed cookies, then spoon in some pudding.  Drizzle a bit of chocolate syrup, then add more cookies, more pudding.  On top drizzle a bit more syrup, and garnish with a half-cookie and some coconut, if you like.  Serves 3-4 depending on size of dish and appetite.

Some vegan puddings taste a bit soy-ish, but this one doesn't--the coconut flavor covers the soy. I often make puddings with almond milk instead of soy, and that would be great with the coconut too. This recipe isn't too incredibly sweet, so it would lend itself well to embellishment. You could also make a parfait with layers of banana, pineapple, or berries. 

I see the pudding as the soft, gooshy sweetness of world peace influenced by our Commander-in-Chief, with the crunchy spiciness of dialogue and the occasionally bitter but ultimately delicious syrup of cooperation. 

Okay, I just made that up. But trust me, peace never tasted so good.

Vegan MoFo: Spice, Spice Baby

I just wanted to get that song stuck in your head.  Mine is an evil laugh.

When I was growing up the only time I was ever really aware of the existence of spices was during the holidays.  Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger were brought out for cookies, pies, cider, and candle scents; the rest of the year our meals were mostly flavored by herbs, all dried, mostly parsley and oregano.

This is not to malign my mom's cooking--she's a great cook--but American food, focused as it is primarily on meat and dairy and processed vegetables from the post-WWII era of "canned goods will set you free!", simply doesn't have a whole lot of flavoring except salt (tons of salt) and fat (mostly bits of pig).  The only "ethnic" cuisine we consumed was Tex-Mex, which is how I developed my deep and abiding love of cumin.

I imagine that part of the reason for the lack of spices in typical American fare is that, at least in the South, a lot of our ancestors were from Europe, and spices simply do not grow there (or here).  Chili peppers, allspice berries, and vanilla are the only widely used spices I can think of offhand of that are indigenous to the Western Hemisphere, and this was before the European Powers that Be thought of heading west.  (Even if they had, white people once tended to be scared of chili peppers, you can't really put vanilla in a sausage, and nobody really knows what to do with allspice.)  Hence, the conversation:

European Powers-that-Be:  Man, our food sucks.  Anyone know how to find India?
Explorers: What's in it for us?
PTB:  You'll get to bore the shit out of fifth-grade history students...and there's pepper!
Explorers:  Throw in a free boat and you've got a deal.

The PTB weren't only after flavor, of course; spices also were (and still are) reputed to possess myriad health and spiritual benefits.  Nutmeg, for example, was thought to cure the plague, and just about every spice has been known as an aphrodisiac at some point or another and human beings, regardless of culture or creed, are serious about getting it on. 

For culinary purposes, if you use the leafy part of the plant to flavor food, that plant is called an herb; if any other part (seeds, pods, rhizomes, bark) is used, it's called a spice.  Coriander seed, for example, grows into the plant whose leaves we call cilantro; then there are plants like nutmeg, which are two spices in one, as the outer  membrane of the nutmeg has a different flavor and is known as mace.

Even nowadays, when culinary eclecticism has reached a fever pitch (I myself make hummus quesadillas and curried potato burritos on a regular basis), there are a great many spices that Westerners are, unfortunately, strangers to.  Spices are expensive precisely because they only grow in limited areas and, unlike herbs, usually cannot be used straight from the plant.  Ginger is a notable exception, but most spices, like cardamom, and anise, all have to be dried and in some cases, like "green" peppercorns, brined.  Vanilla in particular goes through a lengthy harvesting and curing process that accounts for its price tag.  Luckily with most spices less is more.  Using too much of any one spice will overwhelm a dish. 

It's no surprise, then, that the people of India and other areas where spices originated are alchemists in the art of flavor.  The term "curry," for example, refers to a particular type of dish, while "masala" (as in garam masala) is a blanket term for a mixture of spices that varies from region to region and even house to house in the Subcontinent.  Each family passes down its recipe, and the idea of premade curry powder is virtually unknown, as cooks add pinches and dashes of individual spices to create layers of tastes that blend together seamlessly.

I've only been studying Indian cuisine for about a year, but it absolutely fascinates me, particularly the use of spices and herbs.  I can definitely taste a difference in my cooking when I use the knowledge I've gained from reading up on Indian food and trying out the techniques.  If nothing else, paying more attention to your spicing means that you devote more energy and care to your food, and that's a good thing in our convenience-crazed world.  Not to mention that when you don't eat meat or dairy, it becomes even more important to learn to season well, as you can't rely on animal flavors to drown out all the subtleties of the veggies in a dish.

Here are a few pointers I've gathered, along with a couple of recommended reads on the subject. 

1. Buy whole spices when you can and grind them yourself.  Whole spices will last (in airtight containers away from direct heat or light) for a good two years, but once they're ground they release their volatile oils, and the flavor goes flat in six months or less.  Don't believe me?  Take one of those crappy jars of ground cinnamon and compare the scent to a stick you smash with a hammer. 
2. When it comes to grinding, I prefer to have an electric coffee mill dedicated to spices rather than using a mortar and pestle, because I get a finer and more uniform grind without giving straining my wrists.  Hint: unless you get a mill with a metal bowl, do not use the same mill for grinding coffee.  Plastic absorbs oils from the spices and will never stop smelling like them, so unless you like turmeric spiked coffee, keep the grinders separate.
3. One of the most important techniques in Indian cooking is frying spices; there are two basic methods, dry frying and oil frying.  They're what they sound like.  In the first you toast the spices in a pan without oil, moving them pretty constantly until they just barely start to change color.  In the second you do the same, but in the oil you plan to cook with, infusing the oil with the spices as well as toasting them.  Either way, a good rule of thumb is to stop frying when the mustard seeds are popping.  (Also, get a splatter screen.)
4. I prefer to avoid cheesecloth bags and spice balls because they don't allow the whole pods/seeds to circulate throughout a dish, but they do eliminate the need to pluck whole cardamom pods from your food before serving. 
5. I don't care how authentic it is--never, ever cook with asafetida.  Just take my word on it.  Few things in this world stink like that.  Dear god.

Recommended Reading - Books

The Flavor Bible by Karen Page & Andrew Dornenburg - I admit I haven't read this one yet, but it's high up on my wish list.  The book allows you to look for complimentary spices for various ingredients and dishes.

Laxmi's Vegetarian Kitchen - an older book with a lot of great recipes and, more importantly, techniques for using spices.  Also includes handy information about Indian dining etiquette. 

Herbs and Spices: the Cook's Reference, edited by Jill Norman - absolutely gorgeous interior photography and a comprehensive reference guide.  

Websites

The Epicentre

The Spice House

World Spice Merchants

Slashfood's articles on Spices

Vegan MoFo: A Shortcut to Mushrooms

Wow, that didn't take long--the third day out on the MoFo and I've already missed a post.  I can claim extenuating circumstances, however; H1N1 has stormed the gates of Austin and my best friend has been very ill, which led to my developing a fever that, thus far, hasn't turned into anything dramatic but has had me beached at home.

At any rate, here's a quickie recipe. It's hard to find good single-serving recipes; usually eating solo either means having tons of leftovers or doing a lot of math. This entree is easy, fast, and oh so tasty.  When I made it this past week I served it over a boxed rice pilaf (cheating, I know, but I don't really like rice and had had the box for a long time so I wanted to use it up). I also hate vinegar, but in this case the stench was totally worth it.

Portabello Mushrooms with Balsamic Awesomeness

• 1 portabello mushroom cap, sliced thinly
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• salt to taste

1 - Heat the oil in a skillet for a couple of minutes, then add the shrooms and cook about 5 minutes until they give off lots of water and start looking kind of slimy, as mushrooms are wont to do.

2 - Add the remaining ingredients and cook another 4-5 minutes.  Serve over rice, on a salad, on a baked potato...whatever sounds good. See how easy that was?

Vegan MoFo: Ambiendi Aloo Mattar

Welcome to Vegan Month of Food!  For the month of October I'll endeavor to post every weekday on the subject of vegan food--recipes, recollections, reviews, all sorts of fun stuff about cooking and eating (with a minimum of creed-thumping, I promise).

(For a full list of MoFo participants, check out Kittee's big list.  Everyone needs more awesome food blogs to read.) 

You can check out last year's entries for an idea of what to expect here in 2009.  Don't worry, there will be other posts going on during October that have nothing to do with food, but in a wild departure from my usual once-or-twice-a-week blogging habits you should see at least five posts per week until November.

Today, a recipe of sorts to start things off, born of a dilemma:

It's 12:15 on a Tuesday morning.  You really should have been in bed two hours ago.

Say you're a young woman with chronic insomnia who has taken her nightly sedatives, and though they've kicked in enough to make you do weird stuff, they haven't actually knocked you out yet.  And say you're hungry, but there's basically nothing in the house to eat except some frozen vegetables, a few canned goods, and your savior: a lone Russet potato that weighs in at over a pound.

Time is of the essence.  You know that within twenty minutes you'll be on the ground drooling, much like at the end of your last birthday party, but this time without the aid of twelve Rum & Diet Dr Peppers and a strapping Viking lad to grope from the passenger's seat on the way home.  Plus, you're lazy and don't want to put forth a huge effort for a midnight snack.

You've also spent the evening reading a massive tome on the history of India as well as watching the over-the-top Bollywood-styled spectacle of Bride & Prejudice.  Obviously there has to be curry.

You gather together:

the giant potato
a handful of frozen chopped white onion (rinsed, since it's been in the freezer awhile and might have the Freezer Funk)
1 T garlic-infused oil
1 tsp cumin seeds (all spice measurements approximate)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2-1 tsp salt, to taste
1/2 to 2/3 cup frozen green peas

First, you whip out your trusty serrated peeler and denude the potato of its outer vestments, because you're just pervy like that.  Chop the potato into bits about 3/4" in size; the smaller the bits, the faster they'll cook.

You dump the potatoes into a zip-up plastic steamer bag (a box of which you keep around for just such an occasion, because hell if you're heating up the stove to boil water, and people can bitch about using plastic in the microwave all they want, but the same people who do that also tend to eat hormone-laced meat that wastes resources and clogs their colons, so they can jolly well shut up and let you use one damn plastic bag now and then, after all you use organic cruelty-free cleaning products and reuse sponges and rags and shopping bags and drive a fuel-efficient car and don't even wear makeup, dammit, everybody's got to pick their battles, and if it's a difference of one plastic bag between you eating healthy veggies and ordering pizza, well, plastic bag it is! and everyone can just kiss your dimpled yet shapely white ass, and...oh, the delicious savory taste of self-righteousness!  Wait...potatoes.  Yeah.  Potatoes taste way better than self-righteousness.).

Anyway, mumbling ironically about "freakin' hippies," you put the potatoes in the steamer bag and nuke 'em for 8 minutes.  If you had an aversion to said bags you could always stovetop-boil the potatoes, which would take twice as long but cost fewer karma points.

You are briefly distracted by the cat, who jumps onto the counter while your back is turned and lays waste to your spice rack. 

After standing the bottles back up and hosing down the cat with the spray bottle, while a string of obscenities hangs in the air between you and the cat's retreating backside, you heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onion, mustard seeds, and cumin seeds, stirring until the onions become

translucent and the house begins to smell like curried paradise.  The potatoes will be a bright yellow, as if someone had sauteed Big Bird, but of course you wouldn't do that, because Muppets are not vegan.  Add the remaining spices and stir-fry another minute.  Then, you dump in the potatoes and mix it all together, letting the taters get a tad brown around the edges in the oil mixture.  When the taters start getting some nice color, add in the peas and cook the whole mess two or three more minutes.  Salt to taste.

Now, if you were an enterprising young gal with some form of flatbread available you could make quite a handsome wrap out of this stuff, or spoon onto one side of a tortilla and fold over, then fry lightly in the pan for a non-queso-quesadilla.  You could serve this with a variety of other dishes including various forms of tofu.  You could even stuff it into a blanched bell pepper and bake the whole shebang together for a delicious entree, garnished with chopped cilantro and perhaps some cashews. (It would probably serve two, depending on what you do with it.)

It is, however, past midnight, you have no pants on, and we all know you're going to eat it from the pan standing over the stove.

Or, if your meds are working by now, you can dump half in your trusty Buddha bowl and the other half in a container for tomorrow's lunch along with a hastily-browned Boca Chik'n patty to help power you through the workday.

Regardless, you fill your belly with curried aloomattar goodness and fall asleep sitting up in your chair while watching season 3 of Bones.  You know, the one with the guy from the Whole Foods-type chain who ends up baked in a giant compost pile?  Yeah, that one's cool.

Third Degree Secrets of a Kitchen Goddess

As much as I love being a baking maven and batting my eyes coquettishly when someone asks me how my treats come out so delicious (okay, I don't do that, but I really wanted to use the word "coquettishly"), I feel it is my duty as a cruelty-free baker to share my knowledge and expertise beyond the simple exchange of recipes.  There's more to creating tasty tasty wonderment than just following a list of ingredients and steps.  Baking is a science, yes, but more importantly it's a craft.

And so, dear reader, I have decided to share the most vital secrets of my baking success in the hope that you, too, will fill your home with the tantalizing smells, lively textures, and scintillating flavors of vegan baking bliss.

In order to bake well in the Sylvan School of Culinary Awesomeness, you must observe the proper rituals.  Apparel and accouterments are of utmost importance.  Your baking garb should include:

1 - A bandana, which you will wear around your hair, preferably printed with skulls, which you wear ironically.  Ponytails are adequate, but a bandana will keep both hair and sweat off your face so you don't accidentally wipe your forehead with a handful of cookie dough.  In the absence of skulls a heart-print bandana may be substituted, but it, too, must be worn with suitable irony.

2 - A beat up top that shows off any tattoos you may have. 

3 - Pants.  Please do not bake naked.  A 400 degree metal oven rack to the thigh is no one's friend.  At the very least invest in a long apron, which is cute and can lead to naughty kitchen shenanigans if you're into that sort of thing.  (In case of shenanigans, do not leave anything boiling on the stove.)

4 - A clean dish towel, tucked into the waistband of your pants for wiping up spills and drying off wet things.  You can try wearing it slung over your shoulder like they do in cheffing school, but it's just going to fall off and annoy you.  For extra credit, stick an oven mitt in your pocket for easy access.  If you use it to wipe up something off the floor, leave it there, please, and get a clean one.

5 - Remove jewelry from hands and wrists.  Not only is cake batter hard to get out of the nooks and crannies of a pentacle, nobody wants to bite down on your Pagan bling in the middle of a cupcake.  This is also why it's best to bake without fake fingernails.

Ritual paraphernalia in addition to the standard cooking equipment:

1- A huge glass of ice water, as baking is thirsty work.  Be sure to refill it frequently, and take breaks often during a baking marathon.  The heat and activity can be draining, especially if you tend to taste and nibble all those sugary treats as you work. 

2- A squirt bottle of room-temperature water with which you will attempt to keep the cats off the counter. 

3 - Suitable ritual music.  Suggestions:  P!nk, Joan Jett, Brandi Carlile, the Gipsy Kings, or possibly a mix of gloriously awful 80s pop.  Above all, don't bake while listening to sad music.  Baking is magic, and like all magic, your thoughts and emotions influence the outcome. The atmosphere you bake in should reflect how you hope people will feel eating your treats:  try to foster happiness, love, and fellowship.  The idea is to encourage, not to force, but offering food to those you love is a form of love, so save the emo tunes for a rainy day.

4 - Your recipes.  For best results use a cookbook protector; one that props the book up so you can see it more easily is ideal.  If you work from a personal cookbook invest in page protectors, as there is no way in hell you're going to keep your recipe clean.  The best cookbooks are those spattered with batter and smudged with fudge.

5 - An oven thermometer.  Ovens are dirty liars.  They're as reliable as a bipolar squirrel.  Even an expensive oven may veer off temp as it cycles.  A thermometer is a five-dollar investment that will save you a lot of tears.

Additional Advice from the Trenches:

1 - The secret to stress-free baking is mise en place, also known as having your shit together before you start.  Set out all the ingredients you need and put them away one by one as you use them; that way if you forget to add the flour, you'll know before the cake comes out soup. 

2 - Pinch bowls are useful for pre-mixing spices, whisking up egg replacer, and keeping last-minute ingredients at hand until they're needed.

3 - If you're measuring something thick or viscous like peanut butter or molasses, spray your measuring cups with nonstick spray before you start.

4 - Sifters suck.  Screw sifters.  Either run your dry ingredients for a second or two in the food processor, or do what I do and use mixing bowls with lids.  Combine the dry stuff in a bowl, lid it, and shake the holy crap out of it until everything is aerated and evenly distributed.  Tap the lid a few times before removing it so it doesn't poof all over you.

5 - Clean as you go, especially if you're making more than one recipe.  If you live in an apartment where counter space is at a premium this is doubly important, because one second you've got a clean kitchen and the next every surface is covered in dirty dishes. 

6 - Write in your cookbooks.  I take a pencil and jot down a quick note when I try a new recipe, so next time I'll know if it turned out well, if I made any substitutions, or if there are any errors. You'd be surprised how many mistakes end up in the print version of a book.  Some cookbook authors have sections for errata on their websites or on their forums; if a recipe comes out wrong, try to find out if anyone online had the same experience.  It might not be you.

7 - Replace your baking powder if you don't use it within six months.  Baking powder is a combination of acids and a base (as in, cream of tartar and baking soda) with cornstarch added; the chemical reaction between the acid and base creates CO2, which is how it leavens baked goods. Once you open it, it loses its leavening power more quickly than baking soda alone.  I harp on this because I've had old baking powder kill more than one batch of yummies. 

8 - Speaking of science-y stuff, invest in a copy of Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food.  It's a textbook on the chemical and physical reactions in baking and the basic techniques that define different baked goods; even if you're not a fan of Alton Brown, this book is incredibly informative and gives you a good understanding of how baking works.

9 - For the love of all that's holy, do not bake while drunk.  Just because Julia Child could do it doesn't mean we all can.

Questions, comments?  Go forth and bake!

Radioactive 'Fu and Rice of Blah

There's a lot going on in my life, at least internally, at the moment.  For the last couple of weeks month my eating habits have been fierce wretched, and I've been stuffing myself with fast food and junk and avoiding exercise to a pathological degree.  This week I've pulled things back together and am now off caffeine, off sodas (for the moment), way down on sugar, and hauling my ass back toward veganism.  I'm also doing an herbal cleanse--nothing extreme, just a detoxifying kit I've done before with good results.

Meanwhile I'm trying to cook again, and let me tell you, it's hard. It amazes me how quickly my conditioned response to "what's for dinner?" becomes "drive thru." I have to physically force myself not to look at fast food joints as I drive past. 

Wednesdays are a free night for me; I don't go to Nia, I don't usually have any plans, so I have the time to make a more complex dinner if I want instead of throwing something together before I fall over. Tonight I decided to try two new recipes, one I'd been eying for months and the other that was, well to be honest, Sleep Cooking.

(For more on Sleep Behaviors, read this post at Dancing Down the Moon wherein I discuss the pros and cons of Ambien.)

I've had Nava Atlas' Vegan Express for a long time and only tried a handful of recipes out of it, but the Thai Pineapple Fried Rice has intrigued me since I first bought the book.  It has a fairly long ingredient list for me (usually if it's more involved than "potato, salt, pepper, heat" I shy away), but I figured, what the hell? 

It's similar to a Pineapple Cashew Quinoa recipe in Veganomicon, which I think I'll try next.  I'm an oddball in that I don't especially love rice--with the exception of the heavenly basmati they serve at the Clay Pit here in Austin, and a couple of recipes I've used to enormous success, it's just not my thing. And, as I suspected, if I were to make this again, I'd cut way back on the rice and leave the veggies at the same portions. 

(Both cookbooks, incidentally, are available via my Amazon affiliate store, Shopping Towards Ahimsa.)

As you can see, the rice is beautiful, featuring a rainbow of tasty colors.  It also smells fantastic.  Unfortunately it turned out painfully bland, which I think was due to my own error as well as a total lack of added salt in the recipe.  (Two tablespoons of soy sauce in a whole dish is just not enough salt for a NaCl slut like me.)

I also think my curry powder might be partially to blame, and next time I'll invest in better quality. There are as many formulas of curry powder as there are recipes using it, and the run-of-the-mill McCormick stuff is, well, CRAP.  Do yourself a favor and buy curry powder from either an online shop or an ethnic market, or at least someplace like Whole Foods with more than one variety.

Thirdly I accidentally bought an 8oz can of pineapple instead of a 16, and believe you me, it makes a  huge difference in the flavor. And don't skimp on the cashews, either; they make the dish much more satisfying.

Here, then, is a recipe for Thai Pineapple Rice, modified for those of us who want a higher veggie-to-starch ratio. 

What You'll Need

A
1 c basmati rice, rinsed
1 1/2 c water
1/4 tsp salt

B
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 c diced onion (or just dice up a medium-sized onion and don't screw around with measuring)

C
2 c broccoli (small florets, frozen is ok)
1 c diced carrot (that's like 2 carrots, or a handful of baby carrots)
1 diced red bell pepper

D
1 can petite diced tomatoes, well drained
1 16oz can unsweetened pineapple chunks, well drained

E
1 c light coconut milk
2 T soy sauce
1 tsp curry powder
2 tsp fresh minced ginger (jarred is your friend)

chopped cashews

Let's Get it On!

1 - Combine (A) in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Back heat down to a low simmer and cover, cooking until the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes.  If you suck at rice like I do, keep a sharp eye on the pan so it doesn't stick or something else terrible.

2 - About ten minutes before the rice is done, heat the oil in a great big freaking pan and cook the onion until golden.  Now, you could leave the oil out to lower the fat, which I did, but I think that was a mistake; that little bit of healthy fat distributed throughout the whole recipe is not that much but it adds a nice depth of flavor.

3 - Add (C), crank the heat, and cook about 4 minutes until the carrots are starting to soften and the broccoli is insanely green.

4 - Add (D), cook another minute or two. While that's cooking combine (E) in a measuring cup and whisk with a fork until blended.  This will keep the curry from clumping up on you, and makes it easier to mix into the rice.

5 - Stir the rice into the pan, then pour (E) over and stir the whole thing carefully (face it, no matter how big your pan is there will be rice and bits of carrot everywhere) until everything is all mixed up.  Taste for salt.  Seriously. 

Serve sprinkled with chopped cashews.  Makes enough for six or so.

Really, this stuff would be a meal in itself, but the other night while I was high on Ambien I decided to marinate some tofu, using the Curry Tofu recipe from Veganomicon.  It's been hanging out in my fridge since then, so I browned it in a pan with a tablespoon or so of olive oil.  It was fabulous, but as it was cooking it seemed to get yellower and yellower and yellower, until I had...

RADIOACTIVE TOFU OMG!!!

  I think next I'm going to try the aforementioned quinoa recipe and see if I like it better...of course, it's going to take me eighty years to eat all of this rice, and by then I'll probably be sick to death of Thai Pineapple Anything.

Oh--and just FYI--on a completely unrelated yet still foodish note, asparagus roasted in the oven with olive oil and salt/pepper is the awesomest awesome that ever awesomed.  Pair it with some roasted red potatoes and possibly an Italian marinated 'fu dish, or a fakey meat of some kind, and you've got a little slice of heaven that will make your pee smell funny.

Ten Things I Love, Kitchen Edition

If you're a habitual reader of my other blog you know that when I have writer's block I do a "Ten Things I Love" list, citing stuff that makes me happy; sometimes they're themed lists, most of the time not. 

Last week I redecorated my kitchen.  It needed a change, and I was sick of looking at all the cobalt blue, so I gave all my dishes away to a friend and started from scratch (extremely cheap Ikea scratch).  I bought a quart of paint and went to town. 

As I've said and written many times, the home is the most vital sacred space we have (next to our bodies, of course), and if your home doesn't inspire you, it's hard to live an inspired life.  I wanted my kitchen to reflect my beliefs about the sanctity of food and cooking--but also to rekindle my enthusiasm for both of those things.  The process of cleaning, reorganizing, and changing so many things about such a small space did the trick, and now I love spending time there.

Rather than simply showing photos, I thought I'd list ten things that I love about my newly redesigned kitchen (with photos and links where appropriate).  This is a link-heavy post, but I thought that would be easier on everyone than loading up your screen with pics.  Click on any link to see what I'm talking about or find out more about a particular product I'm gushing over. Links should open in new windows.

First, here's a quick look:

Out with the old,

In with the new!

Now to the details:

1 ~ I love the paint.  (Here's a closeup of the design.)  It's a bit wobbly in places because those were some awkward angles to hold my arm at, but overall it turned out fabulously.  The wall color is called "Garden of Paradise," a low-VOC satin from Lowe's, and the vines are done in regular old craft paint like you'd buy from Hobby Lobby.  I did the design freehand both behind the stove and over the sink.  The green tones down the pink stain over the cabinetry, which my apartment management seemed to think was a great idea to match the "Texas pink granite" of the countertops (which looks nothing like Texas pink granite, just FYI).  As someone pointed out to me, green and red are opposite one another on the color wheel, so it makes sense that the pink would be balanced by green.

2 ~ I love the cabinets now that the doors are off.  I saw the idea here on Apartment Therapy and thought, "Eureka! There's something I can do that won't get me in trouble with the landlord!"  I took the doors off their hinges and stashed them in my storage closet so I can put them back up when I move.  The whole kitchen looks bigger and brighter now.

3 ~ I love my cheap-ass dishes.  The white set is from Ikea, called Faldspar or Fenugreek or Fragnarok or something like that, and they were $25 for the set of 18 pieces.  They feel wonderful in my hands, and food looks fabulous on them.  That's the problem with blue dishes--blue just doesn't make food appetizing.  The green bowls came from Bloodbath & Beyond, and they're hand painted (most likely by indentured four year olds in Indonesia or something).  The red bowl is a Buddha Bowl, a birthday gift from my BFF, which also has a wonderful feel in the hands.  Switching to white dishes made a huge difference in how I feel about eating at home, silly as it may seem.

4 ~ I love my big spoon!  It was three dollars at Fiesta, a local Hispanic grocery chain, and came unfinished.  It's enormous--far too large for me to use in any practical sense, but I just loved the look of it and thought it would make a great talismanic piece hanging in the kitchen.  That was a year ago; it's been hanging there plain for a long time, but I decided to paint it to match the walls of the new kitchen, to bring some of the green color to that side of the room.  It came out beautifully, in my opinion.

5 ~ I love my pot rack.  I've spoken about it before, but it's one thing I didn't change because I was already thrilled with it.  I put it up a couple of years ago; it's simply a curtain rod from Lowe's with some S-hooks, hung with some hardcore wall anchors.  It freed up a lot of cabinet space and looks great.  The print above it is another favorite of mine, and is new; it, too, came from Ikea, and was on sale for five dollars, already framed and ready to hang. 

6 ~ I love my bizarre plastic corner shelves.  Remember these?  A few years ago they were on some infomercial, and of course my mom had to buy some, so now I have two.  They're plastic, but can hang in any corner--you press them against the wall and twist the knob, and little blades shoot out from the corners that hold the shelf in place.  They're not exactly fine home decor, and I wouldn't put any serious weight on them, but they were free.  They really jazz up that particular corner and let me make use of some wasted space.  One is a sort of simplified kitchen altar, and the other holds a vase I've had forever that just happens to go with the new color scheme.

(Both #5 and #6 can be seen in this image, along with the border version of my paint design.)

7 ~ I love my Pushmi-Pullyu.  No, it's not a wacky Dr. Doolittle animal, it's a baking tool that the aforementioned BFF made for me in her Workshop of Mass Construction.  You may have seen similar in culinary stores:  a notched stick with a hook on one end that pulls out the oven rack, while the notch pushes it back in so that you don't have to use a potholder and risk burning yourself (or bend over, if you have a bad back) checking on baked goods.  It's handmade and hand painted, even with my name, if you look closely.

8 ~ I love the salt cellar I ordered--one of the splurges for the new decor--from the Food Network.  It's the same design as the one Alton Brown uses on Good Eats, and it's a joy to use; the silicone seal keeps the salt dust-free, and the hinged lid stays open so you can pinch, spoon, and scoop whatever variety of salt you prefer.  Mine's full of kosher salt and I keep it right by the stove.  It even comes apart for easy cleaning.  I call it a splurge because it's a small device for twenty dollars, but I love it so much it was worth every penny.

9 ~ I love the print of Curlin Reed Sullivan's Kelley Nirvana that I won in the Spring Goddessfest raffle several years ago.  When I got her she was problematically framed, so I took her apart and reframed her in wood that matches my apartment.  She could really be at home anywhere in the house, but for some reason she always struck me as a kitchen wench, and now that the kitchen's all done up in green, she looks much happier.  (You can see her hanging in the first pic of the kitchen above, to the left of the stove.)

10 ~  I love this wee bell that my darling friend Laurie (BFF, Overseas Division) gave me a while back from her current home, the Czech Republic.  The bell hangs over my stove, depicting the Sun holding a coffee cup and announcing, "Good Morning, Dear!" It has a sweet little ring, and tapping it makes me think of my long-missed and much-loved friend.  Laurie also gifted me with my spice toaster, a handy gadget for the blends of seeds that I often grind up for soups and curries.

Most of all, I love that my new kitchen is made up of my own creativity as well as that of my friends and other artists I admire.  My grandmother's wood trivet hangs above the Harvest Goddess I sculpted last year.  The tile trivet my father made for me sits alongside my spice collection.  Laurie's bell, S1ren's Pushmi-Pullyu, and the handmade blue apron my dear Lorrie (I know a lot of people with similar names) made me for my last birthday are all reminders of my friends, and the two heart-shaped plaques (and most of my cookware) remind me that my mother loves me. 

My next project is to get my Book of Feasts organized, and after that...I'm moving on to the bathroom!  Muahaha!

All in all, I'm so happy I decided to repaint and reorganize--it's given my little apartment kitchen a new lease on life, and has me more inclined both to cook and to clean up after myself.

Any questions about the pictures, or stuff I used, or anything?  Just comment and I'll do my best to respond in a timely manner.

Milking It (and Other Cheesy Puns)

Since yesterday I posted on mock meats, I thought today I'd devote some time to other substitutions for animal products that I'm fond of and use a lot.

As I've said, I don't like fake cheese, and I have yet to try one that didn't make me want to sandpaper my tongue--but that rule has its exception in Tofutti's soy cream cheese.  Granted, I never liked plain cream cheese just to eat, but I missed baking with it, until I discovered the fake stuff is just as awesome as the real thing.

I have yet to try the Follow Your Heart brand (makers of Vegenaise) of faux cream cheese, but I understand it's good as well, perhaps better.  The nonhydrogenated variety of Tofutti is of course what I'd recommend, though it's harder to find.  Tofutti's stuff works beautifully in frostings, which was the reason I tried it in the first place, but this past weekend I discovered its utility in another perennial favorite:  cheesecake.

I'd never tried making a vegan cheesecake before, and this was a discerning audience--my Witchy women's group.  I chose the Chai Cheesecake recipe from Hannah Kaminsky's gorgeous dessert cookbook My Sweet Vegan (I've plugged her blog before, and I'm doing it again--it's beautiful and a great read). 

Oh.  My.  Goddess.  It was phenomenal.  I'll never doubt the potential of fakey cheeses in cooking again, I swear.

There are also a variety of nut and bean milks out there on the market, and whether you'll like them is largely a matter of personal taste.  Almond milk (Almond Breeze brand, both vanilla and chocolate) is my favorite for cooking, baking, and drinking; second is Silk's vanilla flavor.  I usually keep a package of plain unflavored soy milk boxes, the kind you put in a kid's lunch, in the pantry for savory cooking so I don't have to buy a big carton and risk it going south on me.  I tend to buy my milks in the shelf-stable cartons anyway.  I'm planning to branch out into oat milk and hazelnut, as I've heard both are yummy too. 

Silk also makes a great coffee creamer that can be used as a substitute for heavy cream in recipes. 

When it comes to replacing eggs, there are several ways to go; if you're new to the idea I'd recommend buying a box of Egg Replacer powder (Ener-G is the most popular brand, but I believe Bob's Red Mill also makes one), which is usually made of potato and other starches.  You mix it with water as per the box's instructions, and I'd recommend letting it stand a few minutes to gel before adding it to the recipe, but that's optional.  A box of the stuff will last you forever and it virtually never goes bad.

You can also use flaxseed blended with water as a sub for eggs, as well as soy yogurt, bananas, or silken tofu.  Each has its own starring roles:  flaxseed has a bit of an Earthy taste and is best in things like cookies, where the others serve well in softer and cakier goods.  Soy yogurt is probably my favorite overall.

Silken Tofu is one of the greatest ingredients a vegan cook can learn to work with--with it you can make puddings, pie fillings, cheesecake, dips, fake ranch dressing (ranch dressing is pretty much EW to me, but I know some people miss it), smoothies, you name it.

For specific formulas and further recommendations check out this article on the Post-Punk Kitchen website. 

I'm also quite fond of lite coconut milk in both baking and cooking; one of my favorite easy desserts is homemade pudding made with coconut milk (recipe forthcoming), and one of my favorite soups, Thom Kha, is a Thai soup with coconut milk, lemongrass, ginger, and mushrooms or tofu.  Yum yum yum.

Oh, and then there's ice cream! 

In the soy-based department I'm a sucker for Purely Decadent's line of premium flavors--they're the vegan Ben & Jerry.  Their Mocha Almond Fudge and Chocolate Obsession are to die for. 

There's a new trend toward using coconut milk for dairy substitutes--the coconut milk yogurt is delicious, if expensive, and so is the ice cream.  Locally we have a brand called Nada Moo that I love, but there's also Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss, and even Turtle Mountain, makers of Purely Decadent, now have a line. 

Then there's straight-up fruit sorbet, my current love--Haagen-Dasz makes several flavors that are vegan, including my personal favorite, raspberry, which is smooth and silky and makes me swoon from sheer fruity goodness. 

There you have it.  Substituting dairy isn't that hard at all--the only thing I have yet to find is a fakey cheese for things like pizza that I can stand, but new products are coming out all the time.  Cheese is really the only dairy I haven't completely kicked yet, but I'm working on it.  Everything else has been pretty darn easy and actually fun to experiment with.  Veganism isn't as huge and scary as it's made out to be; it just requires an open mind when it comes to food and a willingness to leave the comfort zone of stuff that squirts out of mammals' mammaries or a bird's vag.  It also requires patience with yourself, knowing that you're not going to be perfect and that there's always room to improve. 

Faux Sizzle

You hear, on the vegan internet, that eventually after you stop eating animal products, you start finding them disgusting and even the smell makes you gag.

I'm still wondering when that's going to happen to me.  I can't help it--cooking flesh smells good to me.  I was raised on the smell of Sunday barbecue and fried chicken.  That's part of the problem I had kicking the critter habit; meat tastes good, and it's part of our culture.

Neither of these things are good excuses, they're just fact from my perspective.  A lot of things taste good (high fructose corn syrup) that people really shouldn't eat, or are part of our culture (homophobia) that shouldn't be.

At any rate, one way I can tell I'm having a bad day emotionally is if I start craving meat.  Luckily there are a wide variety of substitutes out there, and some of them are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing--eventually.  I've had way more success with fakey meats now than I used to, because the memory of eating flesh has faded enough that I'm not so critical of the fakes. 

A lot of new veg*ns rely very heavily on meat substitutes, and new vegans do the same with fakey cheese, although since most fakey cheeses are absolutely disgusting it's a less widespread phenomenon.  Many longtime veg*ns and health-food veg*ns decry the nutritional value of the meat analogues; they claim, quite rightly, that they're way overprocessed, often made with GMOs, and full of salt and preservatives.  There are also some studies suggesting too much processed soy protein isolate can be detrimental to your health (although from what I've seen, soybeans themselves and tofu, given that they're far less processed, are spared much of the wrath). 

Here's the thing to remember when it comes to a vegetarian diet:  eating too much of anything can be bad for you.  A varied diet getting its nutrients from a variety of sources, with an abundance of plant foods in their least-possibly-processed state, is almost always healthy, though the individual person may need to tweak for particular elements that they need more or less of.  If you're worried about not getting something, look for plant-based sources, or at least a vegetarian supplement to get yourself balanced.  See a nutritionist (one that isn't heavily prejudiced toward flesh-and-dairy based diets) if you're really worried.  But for most people, going veg gives more energy, a feeling of being more alive, and a "clean" feeling on the inside that leads to greater well-being--and those are just the physical benefits, not to mention the spiritual.  It just takes some experimenting to come up with what's right for you.

So no, you definitely don't want to have meat analogues at every single meal, but they can be invaluable both for transitional veg*ns and for people who need occasional time-saving easy meals, as well as for those who actually miss meat.  The longer you stay vegetarian the more likely  you are to branch out and try less processed protein sources like tofu, tempeh, and friends--I'm living testimony to that.  You also learn to make your own veggie burgers when you have time, and come up with short-cuts in cooking that work for your own lifestyle. 

When I'm having a jones for cow or chicken bits, here are my favorite options:

Morningstar Farms - I like their vegan "chicken" and "steak" stir fry strips.  I also occasionally nuke one of their barbecue Riblets, which are also made by Gardenburger.  Gardenburger's products aren't as prevalent here in Texas, so I haven't tried as many, but I understand that their burger patties tend to include more vegetables and grains and less processed soy.

Boca - Their Chick'n patties and their veggie crumbles have bailed me out of many a meat craving.  I like their vegan burger because it tastes like the food service burgers I got in elementary school.  *laugh*  Boca also has very convincing breakfast sausages that come in handy when my mom wants to make her Sunday morning lumberjack breakfasts during my visits.

Veggie crumbles are fabulous--being a Texan girl, usually the first thing I crave is beef tacos, and they're easy to fake with the crumbles and a heaping helping of taco seasoning.  They're also great for sloppy joes (or the Italian equivalent, sloppy Guidos)  and spaghetti sauce if you grew up with the meaty variety.  If you're looking for a less processed version you can try TVP, textured vegetable protein, which is basically all veggie crumbles are anyway, just with seasoning added.  TVP is great in soups substituting for bird bits.

Vegetarian Plus - A more expensive brand found at Whole Foods and other places like that, they make a Vegan Black Pepper Steak that's just awesome.  I haven't tried their other products, but they make everything from "fish filets" to "chicken drumsticks." 

Field Roast Grain Meat Co - Man, *everything* they make is wonderful, from the Celebration Roast itself (a stuffed seitan roast with squash and mushrooms that is absolutely incredible with gravy for Thanksgiving--it kicks Tofurky's ass) to their cutlets crusted with hazelnut and herbs (available at deli counters in places like Whole Foods), to their sausages.  This brand has the advantage of being less processed than a lot of the national brands, and made with fewer weird ingredients.

Less convenient than frozen analogues but still really easy are the Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon, which are delicious and don't take much effort to throw together and put in the oven.  Most veg cookbooks have at least one burger recipe, and most of those freeze well, so you can make one batch and have them ready to thaw and nosh. 

Next on my agenda is to try making my own seitan--I'll be sure and blog the experience.