Posts filed under 'appetizers'
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Hello July!
I’ve been sitting on this tamarind glaze recipe for a while. It needed something summery, something involving a grill, and something you can eat with your hands.
It needed seitan kabobs!
Who doesn’t love a kabob? You can put anything you want on a kabob, and these are no exception. I made my own seitan chunks (based off of Susan’s Seitan Ribz from FFVK) and added some freshly blanched broccoli, but any veggie that floats your boat, tofu, store-bought seitan… if it’s vegan and you can poke it with a stick, it’ll probably work. Because this recipe? It’s all about the sauce.
I LOVE this sauce.
I used to have to drive to a specialty Indian grocer to get tamarind concentrate (I prefer it to the pulp, if you have a choice), but I recently saw it sitting at Whole Foods near the grilling sauces. The brand I use is called Tamicon, and it comes in a little yellow and red tub. It keeps forever. Buy some.
The base of this glaze is the tangy tamarind concentrate and sweet, sweet agave nectar (also available pretty much everywhere nowadays, near the honey). I give it a little depth with tamari, and some spicey notes with cumin and ginger. It’s awesome. And if you have a whisk, or a fork for that matter, you can make it.
Tamarind Seitan Kabobs
Makes 10 Kabobs (3 Pieces of Seitan Per Kabob)
1 Recipe Seitan, below
1 Recipe Tamarind Glaze, below
20 Broccoli Florets, or 20 Veggie Pieces, your choice
Wooden Skewers, with pointy ends
Seitan Cubes
1 Cup Vital Wheat Gluten
2 tsp Smoked Paprika
2 Tbs Nutritional Yeast
2 tsp Bill’s Best Chik’Nish Seasoning, optional
3/4 Cup Water
2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 Tbs Soy Sauce
Vegetable Stock, for simmering
Tamarind Glaze
1 Tbs Tamarind Concentrate
1/4 Cup Agave Nectar
1 Tbs Tamari or Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Ginger
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Molasses
Black Pepper
Begin by making the seitan. In a medium bowl, combine the gluten with the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the wet ingredients and knead for a few minutes. With a large knife, divide the seitan in half, and in half again. Continue to cut each piece in half until you have about 30 bite-sized chunks of seitan.
Place a large skillet (one that has sides) on the stove and fill with 1-2″ of vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer, then add the seitan cubes. The stock should be about level with the seitan, the same amount of liquid you’d use for braising. GENTLY simmer (no boiling allowed!) for 8-10 minutes. When the seitan chunks are done, they should be larger, paler, and springier than when you started. Remove the seitan chunks with a slotted spoon. Set them aside until they’re cool enough to handle.
Save the braising broth to blanch any vegetables you’ll be using on your kabobs.
Blanch any veggies in the leftover broth and drain and set aside. Stir together your tamarind glaze and set aside.
Begin assembling your kabobs. Be careful with smaller pieces of veggies (especially broccoli), as they’ll split and fall off the skewer if they’re not large enough. I like to alternate veggie/seitan/veggie, but it’s your kabob, so make it the way you want!
At this point, you can refrigerate the assembled kabobs for later. Wrap them up and they’ll be ready for grilling whenever you (or your party guests!) are ready for them. Everything can be made a day ahead, even the sauce, so all you’ll need is a few minutes to grill before serving.
Speaking of the grill, here are a few tips:
If you’re grilling outside, soak the skewers in water for a few hours before assembling the kabobs. This will prevent them from, um, catching on fire.
Larger pieces of veggies will stay on the skewers more securely
Like all sweet glazes, be careful or they’ll burn! Add the glaze towards the end of grilling, not right away.
This will work just as well in a grill pan inside.
Once you’re ready to grill, unwrap the kabobs and throw them on. Everything is already cooked, so you don’t need to worry about anything other than 1) heating the kabob up 2) getting some nice grill marks and 3) caramelizing the sauce a little. I failed at getting grill marks, but the kabobs were still pretty.
Grill for a minute or two on each side, then brush the sauce over the kabobs. When the sauce starts to sizzle and bubble, your kabobs are done. Serve immediately with lots of napkins.
July 11th, 2008
I can’t tell you how pleased I am with these. I had NO idea how easy it was to make pot stickers. And not just any pot stickers, but the best pot stickers I’ve ever had. The filling I chose is a spicy ground setian mushroom mix, with fresh ginger and chilies. The possibility for fillings are endless, though, so feel free to play around and stuff these puppies with your idea of a good time. Cabbage and carrots? Go for it. Chinese five spice tofu? Yum. Tempeh with cilantro and mint? Yes please.
See what I mean? If you can dream it up, you can put it in a pot sticker once you know the basics.
I made my own seitan for this, and if that makes you nervous, relax. You can use store-bought seitan, but making your own baked seitan is really, really easy. It takes a little bit of forethought (it bakes for about an hour and a half), but if you’ve got the time it’s super easy to prepare. The recipe I used was inspired by the Seitan O’ Greatness, but mine is more mildly seasoned so I can flavor it up for the pot sticker filling.
You’ll also need to find the right wrappers. My favorite are Japanese Gyoza wrappers. They’re easy to work with and easy to find. They’re sometimes sold in standard grocery stores, but you’re pretty much guaranteed to find them at any well-stocked asian grocer. The ones sold in my neck of the woods are egg free, but it’d be wise to read the label to verify before you pick them up.
Pot stickers need not stick to your pot. This is the perfect dish for your non-stick skillet. In a regular omlet-sized pan (10-12 inches) you can fit 8-10 pot stickers. They won’t even pretend to stick. If you don’t have a non-stick pan, I recommend a well-seasoned cast-iron pan. Either way, choose something with a lid.
Easy Baked Seitan
Makes approximately 4 Cups
1 1/2 Cup Vital Wheat Gluten
1 tsp Salt
2 Tbs Nutritional Yeast
1 Tsp Smoked Paprika
1 Cup Water
2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 tsp Mustard
1 Tbs Tamari or Soy Sauce
Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
Mix the dry ingredients together until well combined. Mix the wet ingredients together. Add wet to dry and knead the dough for a few minutes. Let it rest for 3-5 minutes, then form the dough into a log. Roll the log up in aluminum foil, pinching in the ends. Bake for 80-90 minutes. Remove and let cool.
Mushroom Seitan Filling
Makes enough for approx. 24 Pot Stickers
2 Cups of Chopped Seitan (roughly half the log)
10-15 Cremini mushrooms, roughly chopped (about 2 cups)
1 Tbs Oil
1-2 Cloves Garlic, minced
1-3 tsp Fresh Ginger, minced
2 Hot Green Chilies, deseeded and minced
1 Tbs Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Rice Vinegar
2 Tbs Water mixed with 1 Tbs cornstarch
Roughly chop the seitan and add it to your food processor. Process until it’s ground uniformly, it should look like breadcrumbs. Remove the ground seitan to a large bowl. Process the mushrooms in the same way. Heat the oil in a skillet, adding the garlic, ginger and chilies. Fry for a few minutes until the garlic begins to turn golden (don’t burn it), then add the mushrooms. Saute until softened, then add the ground seitan. Stir in the soy sauce and vinegar and taste. Season if necessary. Turn off the heat, and once the pan has cooled a bit, add in the water/cornstarch mixture and stir well. This will help the filling stick together. Let the filling cool a bit before you get going.
Now we’re ready to make some pot stickers!
Place one of your wrappers in front of you. Place 1 packed tablespoon of filling in the center. Wet the edges of the wrapper. I keep a little bowl of water next to me for this. Keep your stack of wrappers covered with plastic wrap while you’re working so they don’t try out.
Gently fold it in half.
Begin to press and seal the edges, forcing out as much of the air as you can.
If desired, crimp the edges. This makes sure they’re sealed tight, and it looks pretty, too.
Once you get the hang of it, start filling more than one at the time. Here I’m making two at a time, but I actually find it easiest to make four at a time.
Arrange them in your non-stick pan that has been lightly coated with oil. Place them over medium high heat and cook until the bottoms are browned and crispy. If you want a really golden bottom, add a drizzle of oil to the pan (but this is optional). You can lift them up to check on them as they’re cooking, as the photo above shows.
Once they’re as brown as you’d like, add 3/4 cup of hot water to the pan and cover immediately with a lid. Turn the heat up to high.
Set the timer for 7 minutes. Then give a peak. You want most or all of the water to be evaporated. If there’s still some water in the pan after 7 minutes, remove the lid cook until the pan is dried out and the bottoms have re-crisped. If desired, you can mist them with water or oil if they seem to be drying out.
Once they’re crispy again, slide them out of the pan:
Ideally, you want the non-brown sides to look like they’ve been shrink-wrapped. If you didn’t get all the air out while you were filling them, an air pocket might have developed. While this isn’t a tragedy, the ones that don’t have this pocket will be easier to eat (the filling won’t fall out as easy). Here’s a comparison of one with an air pocket, and one “perfect” one:
Not that big of a difference, but pot sticker experts would prefer the one on the right.
Want to see what the inside looks like?
They’re really delicious. The wrapper is soft and chewy, the bottom crispy-crunchy, the filling hot and savory… the mushrooms add a nice depth but don’t overwhelm. They’re just downright tasty.
I like to serve them with a dipping sauce–you can do the standard gyoza sauce, which is soy sauce mixed with rice vinegar, and sometimes a bit of sugar. I also like tonkatsu sauce, which is a thick Japanese steak sauce made from fruits and veggies. It’s sort of sweet, so I think it balances well with the salty filling.
I also served these with some sauteed Chinese broccoli, but any green would work. I tossed them around in a hot wok with some oil until wilted, then added a splash of soy sauce, a pinch of sugar, and some sesame seeds on top. It’s the perfect accompaniment.
Really, they’re better than take-out.
February 7th, 2008
I love versatile recipes. This simple chickpea mash can be made into an elegant hors d’oeuvre or eaten plain with a spoon in your pajamas. I must confess, the latter is usually how I eat this dish, but I didn’t think you wanted to see a picture of me in my pajamas on my couch eating mashed chickpeas. So you get to see the fancy version.
While it looks fancy, it’s dead easy. Mash the chickpeas with yummy stuff (recipe below), place a small amount on a cracker, add a slice of a fun veggie, something leafy, and voila! Party food!
I got these breathtaking radishes (I never thought I’d describe a radish as breathtaking. Ever.) from my CSA. They called them “storage radishes.” I don’t know about you, but something called “storage radishes” doesn’t exactly excite me. Imagine my surprise when I sliced one open and was greeted by a shocking pink center. Storage radishes? That’s really the best they could do? What about “Super Awesome Party Radishes” or “Ridiculously Fun Magic Radishes”?
When I sliced them I thought that they looked like watermelon, and sure enough, a google search for “watermelon radish” yielded photos that look very much like these. Watermelon radish is a much better name. In terms of taste, they’re mild and crispy, and a teeny bit sweet. Personally think that makes the perfect as a garnish, since they won’t overwhelm any other flavors in your dish.
There are a few different ways I eat this chickpea salad.
As Hors d’Oeuvres, shown. As a simple dip with crackers or veggies. On open faced-sandwiches. Or–my husband’s favorite–chickpea melts: spread the chickpea salad on slices of bread. Top with your favorite vegan cheese, and bake at 350º F for 10 minutes. Broil to finish, serve immediately.
I use a prepared vegan mayonnaise in this recipe. There are a few different brands out there, but for this I recommend Vegenaise. Nayonaise is a little thinner and has more tang, and while I like it on sandwiches, it’s not the best match for the chickpea salad. I hear Trader Joe’s has an accidently vegan mayo (I think they just bill it as Low Fat, but it happens to be vegan), but I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t recommended it.
Feel free to be creative with your toppings. Carrots, chives, sesame seeds, paprika.. whatever. Think about color, texture, and flavor. There are a million different (and easy) ways to make party food look fun without over-complicating things. But if you can find watermelon radishes, I highly recommend them. They look like regular white, round radishes, but the long root has a pink tinge. Here’s a photo of a whole watermelon radish.
Chickpea Salad
1 15oz can Chickpeas, rinsed well
3-4 Tbs Vegenaise (vegan mayo)
2 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
1 tsp Mustard
1 Tbs Nutritional Yeast
1/2 tsp Paprika (sweet, hot, or smoked)
1/2 tsp Salt
Fresh Craked Black Pepper
Mash all the ingredients to form a chunky spread. Refrigerate or serve immediately.
December 17th, 2007
A quick post, which is really more of a complaint. Freakin’ sweet potatoes. I have pounds and pounds of them thanks to my winter CSA storage share. Healthy and tasty, but I still ask more of them. I wish they’d be just a little more like regular potatoes when they cook. I wish that I could get the darn things to crisp up a bit without having to burn them. A slight char is a-okay with me (I tend to order my fries well-done), but a charcoal fry isn’t exactly my cup of tea.
Don’t get me wrong, these spiced sweet potato fries were really good. But they were also kind of mushy. Parts of some of the fries were approaching a crispy, but those parts were more rapidly approaching burnt. Anticipating the mush, I did some research ahead of time to try and prevent it, but it didn’t help much. I cut them fairly thin, baked them at a high temperature, and finished them off under the broiler. I didn’t want to fry them (which apparently doesn’t work much better, anyway).
The spice mix I whipped up for these was really tasty, and I think it’d be good over all types of potatoes, or even over popcorn. Use a rubber spatula to get the last of it out of your mixing bowl and over the fries. It gives a mild heat and flavor to the potatoes, but if you’re looking for really zippy fries, double the spices.
Sweet Potato Fries
Plenty of fries for two
2-3 Medium Sweet Potatoes, peeled
Oil and Spice Rub
2 Tbs of Earth Balance, melted (vegan margarine)
1/4 tsp Paprika
1/4 tsp Chili Powder
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 tsp Salt
Black Pepper
Preheat oven to 450º F.
Slice potatoes into thin fry shapes with a large chef’s knife. Mix melted earth balance and spices together and toss the potatoes in it. Place oiled/spiced fries on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper (they might stick to foil). Do NOT crowd the pan – you want space between every fry. Bake for 20 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.
Place potatoes under the broiler, turning every minute or so and keeping a close eye on them. Broil them for as long as you can without incinerating them. Serve immediately or you’ll lose any crispiness you achieved. Goes great with ketchup or a creamy vegan mayo.
December 8th, 2007
I’ve wanted to make stuffed artichokes for a long time, but the idea of prepping artichokes always gave me a dull headache. My mom used to make them all the time when I was younger, simply steamed with some melted butter. We’d fend for ourselves once we got to the artichoke heart, covered in spiky fuzz (the choke), a clear reminder that we were really eating an overgrown thistle.
But when you stuff artichokes, it’s usually best to remove the nasty choke ahead of time to make room for stuffing, which also makes eating the artichoke a little less complicated. That way, when you get to the heart you can dig right in without getting a mouthful of fuzz.
If you’ve never eaten a whole artichoke before, let me implore you to try it, and to not eat the leaves. Well, that’s not entirely right. You eat part of each leaf, scraping off the flashy bit at the base with your bottom teeth. Or your top teeth. Just make sure you don’t pop a whole leaf in your mouth. Set an empty bowl on the table to collect the spent leaves.
The leaves start off with only a little of the good stuff on the bottom. The artichoke may seem like a tease, giving you only tiny tantalizing morsels at first, but I promise you; this is one vegetable that puts out in the end, every time. The closer you get to the center, the more edible the leaves become. You’re finally rewarded with the heart of the artichoke, and what a delicious treat that is. It’s well-worth messily eating your way towards it.
But before you can eat it, you need to prep it. There are two things you need to know, right off the bat. The first is that artichokes oxidize, turning color once the cut edges are exposed to air, much like apples and potatoes do. Keep a cut lemon nearby and rub the exposed edges of the ‘choke with it to prevent this. The second thing to remember is to keep the ‘chokes away from anything made of aluminum of iron – this will also cause the artichoke discolor. Use stainless steel knives and cookware, or anything else that’s non-reactive, such as glass. Ready?
Remove the bottom few rows of leaves with a knife. These are the toughest and can be discarded.
Remove the stem of the artichoke, so it can stand upright. Rub the bottom with lemon juice.
Slice the top inch or so off. It’s okay if it’s not perfectly flat.
Rub lemon on the cut edges to prevent discoloration.
Cut the tips off any leaves that still have their points. They have sharp bits on the end that you want to remove before eating.
Gently spread the leaves apart with your fingers to expose the center. Sometimes the center leaves are purple as shown, but sometimes they’re just a delicate yellow.
Remove the leaves, scraping them out with a spoon. The sharper the edge, the better off you’ll be. If you have a melon baller, use that. My 1/2 teaspoon measure worked better for me than a regular spoon.
Now you should see the top of the choke, the fuzzy part you don’t want to eat. Use your spoon to scrape out the fuzzy bits out until you reach the smooth surface of the heart.
Be careful not to remove too much of the heart, as that’s the best part of the artichoke! Take your time, and be sure to sqeeze lemon juice down there while you’re working.
While you’re prepping ‘chokes, let the finished ones sit in a bowl of cold lemon water.
Stuffed Artichokes with Herbed Sundried Tomato Stuffing
For two artichokes
2 Artichokes, prepped as shown above
Stuffing
2 Cups Breadcrumbs
4-5 Tbs Fresh Chopped Herbs, I used Marjoram
1/3 Cup Chopped Sundried Tomatoes, oil packed
1/4 tsp Salt
Black Pepper, to taste
Olive Oil
Broth for Steaming
3 Cups Water
1 Vegetable Bullion Cube
3-4 Lemon Slices
1 Bay Leaf
Black Pepper
Toss all the ingredients of the stuffing together, save the olive oil. Drizzle the olive oil into the stuffing mixture until just moistened.
Fill the center cavity of each artichoke with stuffing. Use the remaining stuffing in between the leaves of each choke. Spread the stuffing out as evenly as you can, stuffing in as many leave crevices you can get into.
Place broth ingredients in the bottom of dutch oven large enough to fit the ‘chokes. Set the ‘chokes inside, making sure the broth level only covers an inch or so of the bottom of the ‘chokes. Simmer, covered, for 30-45 minutes, or until the leaves are tender and can be removed with a gentle tug.
Preheat oven to 350º, and bake the steamed chokes for 10-15 minutes until the stuffing is crispy and browned. Serve immediately.
December 5th, 2007
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