Panama January 11, 2010

We are off…. If I get the chance to post anything, as I will be cooking I surely will!!!  HAPPY NEW YEAR and see you in the Spring!

Last Hurrah January 9, 2010

We are off to Panama in THREE days… the nerves have settled and the excitement is kicking in.  My only sadness is leaving my family of meows…

But we had one last group dinner and of course I took not one picture, yes not even the final product… but I’ll share some my meal anyway:

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Thai Red Curry Squash Soup (vegan)

I roasted the rest of my squashes halved and with the skin on in a 375° oven for about an hour…. 3 baby butternut, 1 large carnival, and 1 large acorn.  Once roasted I scooped out the flesh and added a can of coconut milk, 3-4 T Thai red curry paste, s&p, and veggie broth.  Once boiled I blended in batches.  For whatever reason I don’t love coconut milk like I used to, but everyone seemed to love this soup more than me.  So in the end it was a winner.

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Pistachio Crusted Baked Tofu (vegan and some gluten-free*)

I’ve made this many times but haven’t posted it in awhile…

1. Food process fresh bread slices and raw pistachio nuts with some seasoning, I just used s&p, until a somewhat chunky bread crumb is made.

2. Press tofu for ~30 minutes and slice 1 block into 8 pieces.  Marinade the tofu with ~2T tamari.

3. Make a marinade using vegenaise, mustard, maple syrup, and tamari.  I just add a little of everything, taste, and adjust as necessary.

4. Assemble… dip the tofu in the marinade and then coat in the bread crumbs pushing them into the tofu to make a thick layer.

5. Bake in a 400° oven for about 20 minutes until the bread crumbs are browned and slightly crispy.  This is a hit!

* I topped a couple pieces with bread crumbs made of food processed nuts (pepitas, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, alomnd meal, pistachios, and walnuts) for our gluten free friend.  I tasted this and it was just as delicious!!!

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Pea Dumplings

I found this recipe online and decided it was a must make… pea dumplings.  I haven’t made dumplings except once a couple years ago.  I pretty much followed the recipe but read the original post for tips on making dumplings.  The recipe posted below is the original with the modifications I made.

2 cups frozen peas
ricotta cheese, 1 container
2 tablespoons olive oil
dash sea salt
1 small onion, minced
1/3 cup chopped naked goat cheese
zest of one large lemon

1 package of eggroll wrappers

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Salt the water (as you would pasta water) and add the peas.  Cook until bright green in color and puffy, about a minute if the peas were frozen, less if you started with fresh ones.  Drain the peas and run under cold water for one minute to stop the cooking.

With a food processor blend the peas, ricotta cheese, and salt into a puree. I like a bit of texture, so I don’t go too far. Return the mixture to a big bowl and stir in the onion, goat cheese, olive oil, and lemon zest. Taste. Add more salt if needed.

Fill the dumplings using an assembly line technique – a dozen at a time (for the most part following the instructions on the wrapper packaging). Place twelve wrappers out on the counter, drop a very scant teaspoon of filling onto each wrapper, rub the perimeter of each wrapper with a wet finger seal, fold (most packages have diagrams), and set aside on a plate. Do the next dozen and repeat until all the filling is used up.  I bought eggroll wrappers and cut them into 4 squares.  I folded 1/2 of them into envelopes, but to make them with more filling I placed about 2T of filling in the square and used another square of wrapper making ‘ravioli-type’ dumplings.

Set up your bamboo steamer, rub each dumpling with a bit of olive oil, arrange the dumplings in a single layer (being careful not to overlap), and steam for about six minutes – until the dumplings are tender and transluscent. Then pan fry until they are nicely browned.  Top with a bit of salt seasoning.  YUM!!!

I served these with a hot and sour sauce using white wine vinegar, apricot preserves, chili paste, tamari, and a bit of water to thin it out.

Mexican Mash January 5, 2010

Mexican Mash

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received two jars of Picante sauce, medium and mild, to sample and rate within a cooking recipe I create.  Here is my creation…

• Dried Red Beans, 1 1/2 c
• Large Buttercup Squash
• Onion
• Garlic
• Purple Kale
• Chard Stems (because I had them)
• Toasted Slivered Almonds, 1/4 c
• Toasted Almond Meal, 1/4 c
• Chocolate, 4 oz
• Jar Medium Picante Sauce
• Jar Mild Picante Sauce
• Cayenne Pepper, ~1/2 tsp
• Paprika
• Salt
• Butter, use oil for a vegan approach

Raw Red Beans

Buttercup Squash

Kale, Garlic, Onion, Chard Stems

Step 1: Cook dried beans, I used my pressure cooker making things quick and easy.  Slightly undercook as they will finish cooking in the oven.

Step 2: Peel, deseed, and chop squash.  Toss in olive oil and roast in a 400° oven for 20 minutes until mostly cooked and slightly browned.

Step 3: Caramelize onion, garlic, and cayenne pepper in butter over low heat for 30 minutes.

Step 4: Add both jars of Picante Sauce, kale, chard stems, paprika, salt, chocolate, almond slivers, and almond meal.  Mix well and add squash and beans with some of their liquid if needed.  Place in a 250° oven and cook for ~2 hours until everything is cooked through and beans are soft.

Serve on its own, with sour cream and avocado, inside a burrito, inside tacos, inside a quesadilla, with chips, or any thing else you can think of.  Even though it all looks like a pile of mush it tasted rather delicious.  Yay picante!

Kale, Sauce, Almonds, and Chocolate Added

Beans and Squash Added

Mexican Mash

Zuppa January 5, 2010

Italian Sausage Soup

I’m not one for many fake meats and seitan doesn’t normally appeal to me, but the flavor of italian sausage is one I love and seitan italian sausage is amazing!  I was going to make this soup vegan but in looking for vegan half and half I only found soy creamers full of not-so-good ingredients so I stuck to the normal stuff.

• Vegan Italian Sausage, sliced into small rounds
• Onion, roughly chopped
• Garlic, chopped
• Crushed Red Pepper, 1 tsp
• Veggie Broth, 4-5 c
• 1 Yam, cubed
• 1 Russet Potato, cubed
• 1 Sweet Potato, cubed (not a yam but a real white sweet potato, I only used it because the store had it)
• Half and Half, 1 c
• Mushrooms, sliced super thin
• Bunch of Lacianto Kale, pulled of stem and in bite sized pieces
• S&P
• Oil

Sausage, Kale, and Shrooms

Sweet Potato, Yam, and Russet Potato

Sauté onion, garlic, and crushed red pepper until onion ins translucent.

Add broth and boil.  Once boiled add the yam, potato, and sweet potato; cook until they are fork tender.

Add the sausage, shrooms, kale, half and half, and S&P.  If there is still not enough liquid add more broth.  Simmer until the kale is wilted and the italian sausage has flavored the soup.

Simmering Away

Squash Soup January 5, 2010

Squash Soup

This soup is super delicious and easy.  I recommend using a sweet squash as that is the main component of the dish.  I forgot to take pictures of the process but due to the simplicity there really is no need.  I made this soup for 5 people so I used 4 squashes.

• Squash, I used 3 baby delicata and 1 medium buttercup
• Veggie Broth, I used Imagine brand; you want something thick and rich like this (I used about 6 cups total through the recipe)
• Olive Oil
• Thyme, ~1-2 tsp
• S&P
• Raw Cashew, 1 1/2 C

Step 1: Peel, half, and deseed squash.  Coat in olive oil and roast in a 400° oven until tender ~30 minutes.

Step 2: Once the squash is cooked roughly chop and add to a large pot with ~4 cups veggie broth, salt, pepper, and thyme.  Bring to a boil and cook a bit.  Then blend in batches using more veggie broth if needed.  The soup should look like baby food.

Step 3: Blend the raw cashews with veggie broth on a 1:1 ratio (1 1/2 broth, 1 1/2 cashews).  Let blend until smooth, it will become a cream.

Step 4:  Add most of the cashew cream to the soup.  Find the consistency you want using more veggie broth if too thick.  Heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes on low heat.

Step 5: Serve and with the small amount of remaining cashew cream garnish the soup.

YUM, this is by far the best squash soup I’ve ever made.  I recently learned about cashew cream and it is a great thickener, I will be experimenting with it more in the future.

Pasta Pasta January 5, 2010

I grew up on this meal, different veggies, but same concept.  It’s easy and perfect when you need a filling but simple dinner.

• Portobello Cap
• Zucchini
• Onion
• Garlic
• Chard Stems (because I had them leftover)
• Beet, precooked
• Pasta
• Pecorino Romano
• Feta
• Olive Oil
• Pine Nuts, toasted
• Pepper

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this besides step 1 and the final product.

First prepare your veggies.  Then sauté the onion and garlic.  After they start to soften add the zucchini.  I like my zucchini soft so I make sure to add this first.  Then I add the chard stems, beet, and portobello.  Meanwhile the pasta is cooking.  Once the veggies are finished I add the cooked pasta, toasted pine nuts, feta cheese, and pepper.  Serve with pecorino romano.

zucchini added to onion and garlic

Delicious Dinner

Veggie Burgers December 30, 2009

This is something I’ve been wanting to master for quite some time, but I’ve never had enough of a thought process to make it actually happen.  This recipe is based off of Molly Katzen’s Lentil and Walnut Burgers.  The ‘meat’ was similar in look and texture to real ground meat and these are the best I’ve ever made.  I topped them with cheese and did the first veggie sautéing in butter, but you can easily omit this for a vegan meal!  Overall I would rate these burgers high, so try them!  Also you can freeze the meat for later use, or in patties for an easy meal.

• 1 cup dry lentils
• 1 3/4 cup water
• butter or oil
• 1 medium onion, food processed
• 3 cloves garlic, food processed
• mushrooms, food processed (I used about 15 dried mushrooms which I rehydrated)
• 1 large stalk celery, food processed
• 3/4 c walnuts, food processed
• s&p
• dry mustard (optional)
• dry sherry (optional and be careful to only use 1 tsp max)
• bbq sauce
• worcestershire sauce
• agave
• 3/4 cup wheat germ

Lentils

Dried Local Shrooms

Ingredients minus BBQ Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, and Agave

1. First cook lentils: boil lentils and water, lower heat, and simmer partially covered ~30 minutes until soft and liquid is gone.  Place in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher.

2. Sauté the onion, garlic, shrooms, celery, and walnuts in butter or oil.  Once they start to soften add the dry mustard, sherry (very little), bbq sauce, and worcestershire sauce.  I added the agave as their was a bit of a bitter taste.  Feel free to vary your seasonings though to suit your tastes.

Sauteing

3.  Add the veggie sauté to the mashed lentils and mix well.  Season with s&p.

Veggies and Mashed Lentils

4. Also add in the wheat germ which will give it a thicker and more binding consistency.  Let this chill for at least an hour in the fridge.

'Meat'

5. Heat some oil in a skillet and make small slider patties.  Fry on each side until nicely browned.

Sliders

Flipped

6. I topped one slider with feta and the other with cheddar.  We enjoyed these with some baby greens, ketchup, vegenaise, and tomato slices.  And of course with some pickles and chips!  We enjoyed this dinner two nights in a row and I still had enough meat to freeze for another dinner.  My sliders are in the picture below and for Josh I made him two double stacks!

Dinner

Pizza December 28, 2009

We went out to brunch this weekend and I enjoyed this delicious pizza…. spinach, goat cheese, caramelized onions, cherry tomato, and figs!

pizza

Beautiful Boulder Creek

Snack December 28, 2009

This has been my snack for the past week…

: )

It may look weird but it’s pretty delicious…. toasted soft roll, grapeseed oil vegenaise, tomato slices sprinkled with salt, raw cheese slices, and bread & butter pickles. YUM

Lobster Rolls, Slaw, Salad Hand Rolls, and Oat Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting! December 25, 2009

Our Christmas Eve and Solstice Celebration dinner was amazing.  My original dessert was going to be carrot cake but somehow I messed up the batter and it turned out to be a huge failure.  The cream cheese frosting was already half made so I figured some nice bran muffins would suffice.  In the end I think I’d prefer the muffins so all ended well.  Oh and everything except the dessert was vegan!

Lobster Rolls, Slaw, Avocado, Salad Hand Rolls, Menage a Trois Wine, and Oat Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting and Pomegranate Seeds

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COLESLAW

I made this early in the mornings so it would have a chance to marinate.

• Shredded Cabbage, I used a cone shaped cabbage.  Don’t know the name of the variety but this is my favorite kind.  More leaf than hard veins!
• Grapeseed Oil Vegenaise
• Bubbies Bread and Butter Pickle Juice
• Salt

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Lobster Tail

LOBSTER ROLLS

• 8 oz. Lobster Tail
• Grapeseed Oil Vegenaise
• Scallion Greens, sliced
• Lemon Juice, ~1 T
• Salt
• Celery, mined
• Soft Rolls or Hot Dog Buns

Steam lobster tail.  (I undercooked it and realized it after I dumped the water out, so I grilled it on the gas burner until I thought it was done… only to find it slightly still undercooked, so lastly I quickly sautéed the meat in some butter.  In the end the grilled and butter flavor were a great!).  Once the lobster was done add the above ingredients and chill.  Slice the soft rolls and lightly toast in a skillet with some butter.  Fill with lobster salad.

About To Be Lobster Salad

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Salad Hand Rolls

I recently received some soy wrappers as a gift from my mom and wanted to make vegetarian hand rolls with them.

• Jicama, matchsticked
• Roasted Sweet Potato
• Roasted Brussel Sprouts
• Shredded Beet Salad
• Raw Radish Slices
• Artichoke Hearts
• Pomegranate Seeds
• Baby Frisee
• Baby Swiss Chard
• Snow Peas with Olive Oil
• Green Beans
• Diced Celery

I made different combinations of the above ingredients only using pomegranate seeds in them all.  I didn’t use a dressing but let the pomegranate juice combine everything together.  My only addition would have been some feta cheese.

Salad Hand Rolls

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OAT MUFFINS

This is a recipe my dad passed along to me.  I’ll post the original and then add the substitutions I made.  I also did 1.5 times the recipe listed to make my muffins a bit bigger.

• 1 C Oat Bran (I used all the oat bran I had which was less than I needed so I coffee grinded some rolled oats for the rest)
• 3/4 C Flour
• 1/3 C Brown Sugar
• 1/2 t Baking Soda
• 1/4 C Oil (I used mashed banana)
• 1 Egg
• 3/4 C Milk (I used plain yogurt)

Mix the dry ingredients; mix egg, milk, and oil together; add to dry ingredients.  Scoop into cupcake holders and bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes.  Easy enough!  You can also add walnuts, pecans, raisins, dates, blueberries, ect to the batter.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 8 T Butter, room temperature
• 8 oz. Cream Cheese, room temperature
• 2 3/4 C Confectioners’ Sugar
• Tiny Pinch of Salt
• 1 t Vanilla

Put the butter and cheese in the bowl of a food processor or electric mixer.  Process until the mixture is smooth and free of lumps.  Add the confectioners’ sugar, salt, ad vanilla.  Process until smooth.  Chill until the frosting has a good spreading consistency, about 1 hour.

Dessert