Archive for February, 2007
Stewart’s favorite cookie is oatmeal raisin, so when Vegancore recommended these over on the PPK, I tried them immediately. Out of all the vegan food blogs I read, I think I’ve been reading her the longest. When she said that they were the “…holy grail of oatmeal cookiedom. Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside with lots of cinnamony goodness,” I was in the kitchen measuring ingredients in 15 minutes.
Hoo boy, these are good! The recipe is available as a sample on VeganFamilyFavorites.com. You definitely should try these. I made the smaller versions - 11-12 minutes in the oven was perfect for a crispy outside and chewy inside.
Giant Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies
1 Cup vegan margarine, softened
1 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
3/4 Cup Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Egg replacer for 2 eggs
1 1/4 Cups Flour
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
3 Cups Oats (rolled)
1 1/2 Cups Raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large mixing bowl, beat margarine, brown sugar, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add egg replacer eggs and beat until well blended. In another bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to margarine mixture until well blended. Stir in oats, raisins, and nuts (if using). On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or a nonstick cookie sheet) drop the dough by 1/4 cupfuls and pat down slightly. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Let stand for 3 minutes before removing from baking sheet.
Makes 2 dozen giant cookies
Variations:
For smaller cookies, drop the dough by tablespoons onto the baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Makes 5 dozen.
February 21st, 2007
I love recipes that are easy, quick, made up of ingredients that you already have, and downright tasty. It’s hard to get all those in one recipe, but Esme over at the PPK did just that with this simple and delectable pasta sauce.
You can use any variations you want to tweak it to your liking. Hope this gives you some ideas for a quick but satisfying lunch or dinner!
Esme’s Sauce
Serves two
2 Tbs Tahini
2 Tbs Miso (any, but sweet white is nice!)
2 Tbs Soy Sauce
2 Tbs Olive Oil
2 Tbs nutritional yeast or mustard
2 Tbs Lemon Juice or Vinegar
A few cloves of garlic (I left this out)
2 Tbs Mirin (optional)
*All amounts are approximate, play around!
Boil the pasta, drain it, put the pot back on the warm stove. Make the sauce in the hot empty pot, then add the hot pasta back to it. The heat of the pan and the pasta helps melt down the tahini and miso.
This is great with any green thrown in (I used spinach) or really any other vegetable you want. Enjoy!
February 21st, 2007
I’m not as risotto-obsessed as you may think; this is another PPK test recipe. Lemongrass, ginger, basil, mint, shallots, lime, and all sorts of other tasty stuff. This one is stirred as opposed to baked. While I love the creamy texture of stirred risotto, I can never seem to cook it quite enough. The middle is always a little too dense since after 50 minutes of stirring I give up and serve it.
Oh well. It was good anyway! I’m excited to find a use for my leftover lemongrass. Any suggestions? (It’s dried.)
February 19th, 2007
This is another test recipe for the Post Punk Kitchen’s forthcoming cookbook, Veganomicon. Her first book, Vegan with a Vengeance, is my all-time favorite cookbook. I can tell you honestly that this one will be every bit as useful, dependable, and amazing as the first. I swear they’re not paying me to promote the books. They’re just all so great!
This recipe, man, I can’t even tell you how much I liked it. It’s basically breaded, fried eggplant, stuffed with tastiness and tofu ricotta, then smothered with a delicious marinara sauce. I’d buy the cookbook for this recipe alone.
I know there are a lot of people who dislike eggplant, but I wonder how many of them have tried it fried or baked with olive oil. Eggplant really takse on a different character when cooked this way - it’s really quite divine. It’s buttery, soft, almost creamy, but it does take a lot of oil to get it that way. I think it’s worth it.
I’ve been making some other test recipes that I haven’t told you about yet. Here is a dessert and a quick bread:
Tea Poached Pears
Whole Wheat Soda Bread with Millet and Currants
February 18th, 2007
I saw lotus root at Whole Foods and couldn’t resist experimenting with it. I also picked up some LightLife Steak Style Strips. One of them was a mistake.
Vegancore had positively reviewed the “chicken” version of these strips, so I thought I might give them a shot. The store only had the “steak-style” ones, but I bought them anyway, thinking they might be alright. Even if they hadn’t been exceedingly salty (and I do love my salt), the flavor was off-putting. Not in a “these taste way too much like meat” sort of way; they just weren’t very good. Both Stewart and I ended up picking them out altogether. I don’t often buy fake meat products, and this experience reminded me why. Seitan, tofu, or nothing at all would have been much better.
The lotus root was neat, though. It came pre-prepped in a bag filled with water. Had it not been prepped, I think I would have had to remove the skin and soak it in lemon water to keep it from oxidizing. It was really easy to use this way, I just drained the liquid, sliced it up, and tossed it in the wok.
The flavor and texture was very close to water chestnuts - crisp with a slight tang. I thought it was good in the sauce I made, but Stewart didn’t care for it. He doesn’t like water chestnuts either, so I wasn’t surprised.
Lotus Root Stir Fry
Serves two
1 6″ Lotus Root, peeled, chopped into 1/4″ thick discs, then each disc quartered
1 Large Carrot, chopped into thin coins
1/2 Cup Peas, frozen
1 Cup + Chopped Seitan (optional)
1 Recipe of Basic Stir Fry Sauce (below)
Oil
Heat a wok or large pot to near smoking. Add oil, and when heated, add carrots. Cook for 2 minutes, until beginning to color. Add lotus root, and cook until carrot is just tender. Add peas, sauce, and seitan if using, heating cooking until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and serve over rice or noodles.
Basic Stir Fry Sauce
Covers enough veggies for two people
1/2 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Tamari
2 Tbs Seasoned Rice Vinegar
2 tsp Mirin
2 tsp Toasted Sesame Oil
4 tsp Cornstartch
Whisk together and add to any stir fry after you are pretty much done cooking it. Stir well until it begins to thicken. Turn off heat and serve over rice or noodles.
This sauce is great on its own, but it also stands up to cusomization. Add orange zest/juice, fresh ginger, chilies, maple syrup, garlic - whatever floats your boat.
February 16th, 2007
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