Pie, UGH

Why, oh why, did I try to make a pie with no recipe? It was a disaster in my opinion but my love thought it was fine. I wanted it sweeter and firmer, and the damn fruit was too mushy for me.

The Problems

• Frozen Fruit (My love's parents gave us some frozen fruit about two weeks ago, the problem we are moving in about two weeks and I refuse to travel with frozen anything or throw it away)
  
• No Sugar
  

The frozen fruit was soggy by the time I was finished baking it and I used Agave Nectar as my sweetener and should have used more. Then I didn't make enough cornstarch water (which should have thickened my pie).

Next time I will do it with fresh fruit, add either cranberries or agar flakes, make sauce with brown sugar.

I would add a recipe but I really don't have one and I wouldn't dare add the steps I took to get to my outcome. When I do it again I will post that recipe.

Tofu Scramble or “The reason I just might stay vegan forever…”

I love eggs. I'm just gonna put that out there. I'm also slightly allergic to them. They make me feel bloated and a little sick to my stomach. Nevertheless, before I went vegan, I was willing to feel sick for the sake of eggs. In fact, if there's one thing I've missed in the past month it's a nice cheese and veggie omelet on Saturday or Sunday (or knowing me Saturday AND Sunday morning). So a few weeks ago, after having eaten steel cut oats, which are delicious in their own right, but are not comparable to eggs, every weekend since going vegan, I finally tried making a tofu scramble. I had been hesitant to replace eggs with tofu as a breakfast food because I was sure I'd be disappointed. As it turns out I was very wrong. With the right spices and veggies, tofu is a great breakfast food. I've already experimented with scrambled tofu four or five times and it's been delicious every time. Here's my favorite veggie/spice/tofu combo so far, but feel free to be creative!

Ingredients (Serves 4):

1 14oz pack of extra firm tofu, drained and patted dry (You can press it, too, if you prefer your tofu chewier rather than softer.)

1 medium yellow onion

1 red or orange bell pepper

1 8oz package of white mushrooms

4-5oz. Vegan Cheese (I prefer Pepper Jack Veggie Cheese)

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

¼ Tsp Cajun seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Cooking Instructions:
Chop up veggies the way you like them chopped. (I realize this seems like a total cop out, but for this recipe it really doesn't matter as long as you don't dice veggies in really thick chucks that are going to take longer than normal to cook.) Coat a large, preferable cast iron skillet with one TBSP olive oil and preheat the pan on medium heat. Add onions and allow 2 to 3 minutes for them to begin sweating. Add peppers and mushrooms. Use tongs to mix the vegetables and cover the pan for another 2 minutes or so, allowing vegetables to soften. Uncover veggies and, using your hands, crumble tofu into the pan. Use tongs to mix the tofu in with the veggies and add seasoning. (Quick side note: Since I like my food on the spicy side, I love using a little bit of Cajun seasoning in my tofu scramble, but if you're not into that, oregano and basil are also delicious options.) Allow the tofu and veggies to cook for about 2 minutes and then add cheese. (I find that Veggie cheese that comes in slices melts quickly and is delicious with this recipe.) Once cheese has melted transfer scramble to plates and serve.

I've found tofu scramble is particularly good served alongside whole wheat toast with Earth Balance or some polenta.I bet it would also be great with grits. Of course, I always have breakfast with a big cup of strong coffee and some OJ if I've remembered to buy it. Do what makes you happy!

Curried Potatoes

This post is long over due. I, aDeana the non-vegan of this lovely duo, tried my hand at a recipe I found on Vegetarian Times website. I had my eyes on it for quite some time and bought potatoes with this recipe in mind. Here's a link to the recipe. The ingredients are pretty standard and the instructions are very straight forward. I have no pictures because they have a picture and it really does come out exactly like the picture.

A few things I did a little different.

• Fresh tomatoes were out of my price range so I just bought two cans of whole peeled unsalted tomatoes. I coarsely chopped them over the pot when they were to be added.
  
• I used regular curry from the regular supermarket nothing special.
  
• No need to go out and buy a jar of Minced Garlic (though you never know when you may need minced garlic) just use your food processor, if that seems like too much work than just dice the garlic as fine as possible.
  
• I did not have the required Jalapenos (hey you try living in the Bronx in an Italian neighborhood and show me some fresh Jalapenos that aren't prepackaged. I really just want to be able to buy two fresh jalapenos Is that really too much to ask.) I had a limited budget so just opted out and the dish was just fine.
  

Things I want to try next time

• Make more curried – So it didn't come out as curried as I was hoping it would. The dish was good for what it was but it lacked the curry flavor I enjoy as a half Jamaican woman.
  
• Try with Jalapenos – I know that won't make it more curried but it will add spice and that's always nice.
  
• I want it with more carrots I love them and they should be in everything along with broccoli.
  
• Try with Fresh Tomatoes
  
• Maybe try with more beans - I like black beans and having more only makes things better to me.
  

I think if I make it again with the changes I listed above I can get a thicker more stew consistency. This dish came out looser, like soup.

Breaded Seitan - Our First Experimentation

I've been eating vegan for about 10 days, and until now my girlfriend, aDeana and I have kept it pretty safe and simple. Two weeks ago we made vegan chili and then last weekend we made an easy stew using navy beans, peas, corn, and packaged mixed seasoning. So far I'm loving the way animal-free eating is making my body feel. Since I'm making an effort to keep my diet balanced, drink a lot of water, and take my vitamins, I feel energized and upbeat. I'm prone to acne, and my skin has cleared up noticeably since I started eating vegan.

Anyway, this weekend, we were able to try out two restaurants in NYC, Mana on Columbus between 91st and 92nd and Blossom Cafe on Columbus between 81st and 82nd. (We tried these on different days despite their close proximity to one another.) The food at both places was delicious, although I should mention that Mana is not a 100% vegan restaurant. Their menu has a small seafood section, but they don't use eggs or dairy in any of their recipes. After eating at Blossom Cafe, I was inspired to try cooking Seitan for the first time.

Tonight we started with a vision but no recipe. Kickin' it freestyle. (Thanks, aDeana...) We used West Soy Chicken Style Seitan. We knew we wanted to try lightly frying the Seitan in vegetable oil, so we began by making a basic breading. We also wanted it a little bit spicy, so we cut up a canned jalapeno we had hanging out in the fridge from our chili adventure and sauteed it in the oil before we started frying the Seitan. I honestly don't think this made much of a difference in the end, but it was worth a shot.

When we first started dredging the Seitan pieces in the breading, aDeana pointed out that although the Seitan had been packed in water and therefore was wet, the breading was not adhering to the pieces once they were in the oil. I had read somewhere that cornstarch and water make a good vegan egg substitute, so I gave it a shot. I'm not sure exactly what the ratio was, since I didn't measure, but I would guess about 2:1 water to cornstarch. This made it a big difference in how the breading stuck to the Seitan. Good thinking, aDeana!

As far as we're concerned, this recipe was a huge success. The Seitan was delicious and could easily have been mistaken for a chicken tender, although that wasn't necessarily what we were going for. We served (and by served I mean ate, since we were the only ones there), the Seitan with Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Cous Cous (an extremely common staple in our meals) and Trader Joe's Frozen Sweet Corn (ditto). We topped it off with Trader Joe's Curry Simmer Sauce. Yeah. We love Trader Joe's.

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoons Bread Crumbs
• 1 Tablespoon Flour
• 2 Teaspoon Garlic and Herb Seasoning (This is a pre-packaged seasoning from some random farm in VT or something, but I think it has garlic powder, lemon pepper, and vegetable flakes.)
  
• 2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 Black Pepper
• 1 Package West Soy Chicken Style Seitan
• 1 Canned Jalapeno, seeded and diced
• 1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil

Steps for Cooking:

1. Mix the breading ingredients together and place the blend on a plate or another clean, flat surface.
2. In a shallow bowl mix together water and cornstarch in a 2:1 ratio.
   
3. In a frying pan, heat vegetable oil over medium heat until hot. (To see if oil is hot enough for cooking, try dropping a little bit of the breading into the pan. If it sizzles, it's ready.)
   
4. Dredge seitan pieces in corn starch and water mixture, cover in breading and place in pan with hot oil and turn pieces making sure all sides of each piece is golden brown.
   

After Frying
Plated

Margaret's Lunch

Yay, Leftovers!

Today I ate the leftover seitan tenders for lunch in a sandwich and it was truly awesome. I used veganaise, an amazing new discovery of mine. In order to spice it up a little I added some of the aforementioned garlic and herb mixture along with some cayenne pepper to about 2 Tbsps of veganaise. I spread the herb "mayo" on vegan bread, added some baby spinach, shredded carrots, and the seitan tenders and thoroughly enjoyed last night's dinner all over again.