Posts filed under 'technique'
This isn’t a traditional wonton soup. I suppose a vegan wonton soup wouldn’t really be considered traditional anyway, but I really took some liberty with the recipe. The wontons are stuffed with one of my favorite greens, Chinese broccoli, and chopped seitan. I tossed the filling in a chili-mustard sauce for a salty, spicy kick. The slight bitterness of the Chinese broccoli really balances the piquant heat of the dressing, creating a really yummy dumpling.
I wanted the wontons to be the star here, so I made a very light ginger-soy broth to float them in. I only covered the wontons about half-way with the soup base, so really, this isn’t so much a soup as fresh dumplings lightly dressed with an aromatic broth. In fact, the broth is quite plain on its own, but it works very nicely with the flavorful dumplings.
Chinese broccoli is fantastic, and if you’ve never had it, I wholly recommend a search of your nearest Asian grocer to find some. It’s a vegetable chimera of all of my favorite things; the florets of broccoli rabe, the stems of asparagus, and leaves like tender collard greens. It has a mild flavor with a sweet and slightly bitter bite, and it’s perfect for stir-fries or any other hight heat/quick cooking method. It’s also quite good for you, and its complex (but not overwhelming) flavor is a nice change of pace from regular broccoli or simple spinach.
Folding wontons isn’t hard, so as long as you can find the wonton skins, you’ll be good to go. The brand I used here is called Twin Marquis, and I know they make both vegan and non-vegan wonton skins and gyoza wrappers. Look for the white (not yellow) square wrappers. The round ones are gyoza skins, much better for pot stickers; even though they’re similar, they’re a good deal thicker than the wonton skins. Either way, check the label for eggs.
If you have leftover wonton skins, you can make extra wontons and freeze them in one layer on a cookie sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag for long-term storage. Just drop them directly into boiling water when you’re ready to cook them. You can also wrap the skins up tightly and store them in a fridge for a day or two. Fill them with anything you like (spinach and tofutti cream cheese? Tempeh sausage?), fold in half and seal shut. Pan fry them in 1-2″ of oil until cripsy and golden brown on both sides. It’s a wonderfully tasty and quick appetizer or snack.
Chinese Broccoli Wontons in a Light Ginger-Soy Broth
Serves Four
16 Wonton Skins
Filling
1 Tbs Oil
1-2 tsp Fresh Ginger, minced
1 Cup Chinese Broccoli, thinly sliced
3/4 Cup Seitan, chopped fine
1/2 tsp Hot Chili Sauce, more if desired (like Sriracha)
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1 tsp Tamari or Soy Sauce
Ginger-Soy Broth
4 Cups Water
5-6 Fresh Ginger Slices
1 Tbs Mirin
2 Tbs Tamari (or soy sauce)
1 1/2 tsp Sugar
2 tsp Rice Vinegar
1/2 tsp Salt, plus more to taste
1/4 Cup Chinese Broccoli Leaves, packed (sub: spinach or collards)
Filling: Begin by chopping the Chinese broccoli very thinly with a sharp knife, from the base of the stem up towards the leaves (just like chopping scallions). Heat a large pan with oil and add the ginger. Once the ginger becomes fragrant, add the broccoli and seitan, stirring well and cooking until the broccoli is bright green and tender-crisp.
Transfer the broccoli-seitan mixture to a small bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients. Taste and adjust to your liking. Set aside while you make the broth.
Broth: Heat all of the broth ingredients together except the greens in a small sauce pan, until sugar and salt is dissolved and the ginger has had time to infuse into the broth. Taste and add more salt if desired, but remember this is a mild broth that is only meant to be a complement to the wontons. Once the broth has begin to simmer, turn off heat and toss in greens. Cover and set aside.
Fill the wontons: Place 1-2 tsp of filling in the center of the wonton. Wet the edges of the wrapper with water (a finger dipped in water works great) and seal into a trianlge, removing as much air as possible from the dumpling. Make sure edges are secured.
Set the triangle in front of you, pointing up. Wet one of the bottom corners. Hold the corners, one between each thumb and forefinger. Begin to bend the wrapper, as if you were forcing it into a horseshoe shape. Don’t change your grip, and resist the urge to fold the corners over. Bring the two ends together, crossing them slightly, and press to seal. Going from the triangle shape to a completed wonton is one fluid motion.
Your dumpling should look like a fun little fish-boat-hat. Like this:
You can now freeze your dumplings, or cook them right away.
To prepare the soup: Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Re-heat your broth to steaming, if necessary. Gently lower the wontons into the boiling water and cook until they become translucent, about 2-3 minutes if the wontons aren’t frozen, longer if they are. Remove them from the water with a spider (or other slotted spoon device) and place them into the hot broth.
Take care to remove and discard any dumplings that have opened up during cooking. If they open, water gets inside, washes all the flavor away, and you’ll be sad if you serve it or eat it. It will taste like watery mush, and I promise you won’t be happy about it.
Ladle 3-4 wontons into a bowl and add a small amount of broth, enough to half-way cover the wontons. Make sure to get some greens in there, too. Serve immediately.
March 5th, 2008
There ain’t no shame in a cheeseless pizza. But I didn’t know that until I started eating them.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and it seemed every little strip mall (of which there were many) had it’s own independently-owned pizza place. They all made different styles of pizza, and they were all really freaking good. When we ordered pizza, we didn’t have to choose between huge pizza chain restaurants–none of them ever made pizza I really loved, anyway–we could pick a from several small owner-operated places. The pizza place nearest to my house was always everyone’s favorite. Lucky me! I’ve been trying to recreate their crust for a while now. Today was the closest I’ve ever come.
It’s rare that I post a recipe that isn’t either totally made up by me, or at least heavily adapted. This recipe, however, is straight from 101cookbooks.com, and I can’t thank Heidi Swanson enough for taking the time to adapt and post this wonderful dough recipe to her website. She got the recipe from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, a book that I’ve heard nothing but glowing reviews of. I’m about to buy a copy of it for myself. She’s whittled the many-page recipe down to the basics, and that’s what I’m sharing with you.
I’ve been searching for a crust: thin but not too thin, tender but not doughy or bready, crispy but not cracker-ish. Sometimes you needn’t look hard nor long to get the what you’re looking for. I typed in “best pizza dough” into google, and wham! The first result was Heidi’s page. I read it over, thinking that surely the first result wouldn’t be what I needed, but soon I was convinced that this was serious pizza dough. Even if it didn’t replicate what I was looking for, it’d still be damn good.
And it didn’t let me down.
While I’m going to re-post the recipe that Heidi posted on her blog, I have my own write-up, step-by-step photos, and tips below. But I do encourage you to take a look at what Heidi has to say as well, and if you’re really interested in all the details, pick yourself up a copy of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.
There are a few things you need to know about this pizza dough: it needs to be prepared a day in advance, it makes enough for 6 pizza crusts, it preforms best on a pizza stone, and it’s not hard if you follow the directions carefully.
The dough does a slow rise/ferment overnight which gives it not only a lovely flavor, but an unbeatable texture. It’s a process you just can’t rush. The good news is that you end up making enough dough for six pizzas, and it can be frozen easily (directions below).
I’m going to urge you, just like Heidi does, to pick up a pizza stone. (If you’re really feeling fancy, get a pizza peel, too.) Pizza stones are great for all sorts of things. They cook frozen or fresh pizza perfectly, they’re great for flatbreads, and for re-heating food. Since they absorb and radiate heat, they also help even out hot and cold spots in your oven; just leave the sucker on the bottom of your oven all the time and everything will cook and bake more evenly. I picked up a wooden peel, too, because my local kitchen store was having a sale. I got the soapstone pizza stone and wooden peel for $25. Now I can not only make really good pizza, but feel really cool doing it at the same time. Surely that’s worth a one-time $25 investment!
Peter Reinhart’s Napoletana Pizza Dough
For six 6 oz Pizza Crusts
4 1/2 Cups (20.25 ounces) Unbleached High-Gluten, Bread, or All-Purpose Flour, chilled
1 3/4 (.44 ounce) tsp Salt
1 tsp (.11 ounce) Instant Yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces) Olive Oil (optional, I include it)
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces) Water, ice cold (40°F)
Semolina Flour or Cornmeal, for dusting
In a large bowl, combine all the above ingredients. Mix well with your hands until all the flour is absorbed and a sticky, wet dough has formed. At this point, decide if you’re going to knead by hand or with a stand mixer. While I love kneading by hand, I used a stand mixer. This dough is very soft and sticky, and I don’t use my kitchenaid enough.
By Hand
Dip a metal spoon in cold water and beat the dough with it, re-cooling the spoon as you go. While beating the dough, spin the bowl in the opposite direction with your free hand. Reverse the spin every-so-often. “Knead” the dough in this fashion for 5-7 minutes, until a smooth but still very sticky mass has formed.
Stand Mixer - My preferred method
Using the dough hook, beat the dough for 5-7 minutes on a medium speed, or until a smooth, sticky mass has formed. While the dough is being kneaded, it should look like a tornado; it should clear the sides of the bowl, but still be attached to the bottom of it, forming a dough tornado up the dough hook. If the dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl, add flour, little by little, until the sides release. If the dough isn’t sticking to the bottom of the bowl, add water, little by little, until it does.
Scrape the dough out onto a well-floured surface.
With a wet chef’s knife, cut the dough into 6 equal hunks. Each hunk should weigh 6 oz, if you’re anal like that. Generously dust the dough with flour.
Flour your hands well and gently shape each hunk into a sphere. If the dough is sticking to you or anything else, use more flour.
At this point, prepare any dough you want to freeze for later. In a small bowl, add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Roll the dough ball in the oil and place in a freezer bag - one ball per bag. Freeze immediately for up to three months. The day before you want to make pizza from the frozen dough, remove it from the freezer and into the refrigerator to defrost overnight.
The dough you’re going to use within in the next three days should be placed on parchment paper, covered in oil, and wrapped with plastic wrap. Let dough rest in the refrigerator overnight, or for up to three days.
Through the magic of the internet, time passes immediately
Two hours before making the pizza, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it sit on the counter at room temperature. 45 minutes before making the pizza, pre-heat the oven with the pizza stone in the bottom (or on the lowest rack) to 450-500º F.
Press dough, still on the parchment paper, into a disc. Remove the plastic wrap and dust liberally with flour.
Gently press the dough out, enlarging it into 9″ - 12″ in diameter. My dough was really soft, so pressing sufficed. If your dough is firmer, you can try picking it up and spreading it over your knuckles, or just using a rolling pin.
Now for a fun trick. I’ve always had trouble getting soft, uncooked pizza dough onto a peel (or the back of a cookie sheet) and into the oven without destroying the pizza. Here’s how I’ve learned to do it successfully. Dust the top of the dough (which will soon be the bottom) with cornmeal.
Place the peel over the top of the dough.
Flip the dough over, so the bottom of the dough that was coated in cornmeal is now laying on the peel. Give the peel a little shake, the dough should slide freely! If it does, you’re in luck.
Top your pizza mosdestly - 3-4 toppings including sauce! We like to top our pizzas with tomato sauce, sundried tomatoes, pineapple chunks, and pine nuts.
Check to be sure your pizza still slides easily on your peel. If it does, gently slide the pizza off the peel onto the hot stone with small but firm jerks of your arm. Bake at 450º for 5-8 minutes, until crust is lightly browned around the edges.
Top with freshly chopped herbs and a drizzle of olive oil. Enjoy!
December 28th, 2007
Stewart and I went apple picking a couple weeks ago, and in the little farm store we saw pumpkin whoopie pies. Stewart asked if I would make them, and when I said yes, he bought a sugar pumpkin to increase the chances of me keeping my promise.
I’ll be the first to admit that these aren’t perfect. Don’t get me wrong, they’re really really tasty, but the verdict is that they’re not exactly like traditional whoopie pies. I need to work on the batter recipe, because these are more like soft cookie pies than whoopie pies. I think with an even softer, spongier batter, we’ll be in business, but these are perfectly serviceable cookie-whoopie pies if you want to give the initial test recipe a shot.
I used homemade pumpkin puree, but the canned stuff will work fine. The homemade version is easy, but obviously more time consuming than opening up a can. As far as I can tell, the only difference between the canned puree and the homemade is the color. Homemade pumpkin puree is considerably lighter and brighter. I’ll include the preparation for the puree at the end of the post.
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Makes 18-24 Small Pies (36-48 pieces)
1/2 Cup Non Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening
2 Cups Sugar
2 tsp Molasses
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 Cups Pumpkin Puree
4 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Tbs Ener-G Egg Replacer
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375º. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Cream shortening and sugar together, using a stand mixer if available. You can also do it by hand. Add molasses and vanilla and beat well. Add pumpkin puree and whip until incorporated (don’t worry if the fat doesn’t mix in completely).
In a separate bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients and mix well. Add this dry mix to the wet until all incorporated. It will make a stiff batter.
I find it easiest to use and ice cream scoop that has a release lever to drop the dough onto your cookie sheet. The scoop I used holds 2 Tbs.
Wet your fingers and gently flatten the dough balls. This will prevent your pies from tipping over by creating a semi-flat surface for them to rest on.
Bake for 10-13 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, and the tops spring back when pressed in the center.
Remove cookies from the cookie sheet as soon as they come out of the oven to prevent over-baking. Cover them with a towel or plastic wrap to keep moisture/steam in, as this will prevent a hard crust from forming. Prepare the filling while your cookies are cooling.
Cream Cheese Filling
1/2 Container Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
2 Cups Powdered Sugar
2 Tbs Earth Balance
Whip ingredients together until smooth. Set aside or refrigerate until use.
I put my filling in a zip-top bag and sliced off the corner to pipe the filling into the center. You don’t need that much filling per pie. Make sure the sides of the cookies that were touching the cookie sheet are the side that touch the filling.
Traditional whoopie pies are chocolate. I think these would be awesome with some mini chocolate chips mixed in, or perhaps some melted chocolate drizzled over the top. Store them wrapped in plastic wrap or in an air-tight container to keep them soft.
If you’d like to read about how to make your own pumpkin filling, click the link below the last photo!
Homemade Pumpkin Puree
Makes 3-4 Cups
1 Sugar Pumpkin, 3-4 pounds
1-2 Cups Water
Preheat oven to 400º F.
Slice pumpkin in half. Scoop out the seeds and strings–if you’d like to save the seeds, place the seedy pulp large bowl and set aside, otherwise discard it. Place pumpkin cut-side-down on a rimed cookie sheet or inside a large roasting pan. Add 1-2 Cups of water and bake for 90 minutes, or until flesh is very soft and the skin has darkened. Scoop out the soft flesh into the work bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth.
Tip for Seeds
Place the pulp and seeds in a large bowl and cover with a generous amount of water. Squeeze the pulp to separate it from the seeds. The seeds will float. Use a slotted spoon to skim the seeds from the top of the water. Dry the seeds well and roast and season if desired.
October 26th, 2007
I saw this cake on FatFree Vegan Kitchen a few days ago, and I was devastated. I had, the night before, sat down and eaten every peach I had because they were all ripe and I hadn’t come up with a plan for them fast enough. Peaches and pears, the most elusively ripening fruits in the universe! “Not yet not yet not yet not yet not yet NOW! Too late!”
So I sliced them all up, divided them between two bowls and my husband and I ate them in one sitting. Now, it’s not that I didn’t enjoy them just as they were, unblemished, sweet and juicy. But when I read Susan’s post the next day, my heart sank. I wanted that cake! I wanted it right then!
Thankfully few days later I got another round of peaches from our CSA. And then a miracle happened - the ripened to perfection on the coolest day we’ve had in a long while. Why, it was downright chilly today! I could actually use the oven! The gods of ripened fruit had smiled upon me, and I was going to have my cake!
This sounds like the set up for bad news, but I assure you, there is no bad news. The cake is delicious. And the recipe is easy. I made it as Susan wrote it (with the optional added sugar, because I apparently am just begging for adult onset diabetes) and it worked out great! I think next time I will add some dollops of earth balance over the peaches to balance the sugary glaze with a savory note, but I’m seriously nit-picking here. This is a gem of a cake. You need to make it!
I discovered last week, however, that peeling a ripe peach can be a messy process. The darn things are downright unforgiving if you mishandle them. They will turn to mush in your hands, leaving you with a pile of glop roughly assembled around a pit. Granted, it’s a tasty pile of glop, but it’s glop nevertheless.
I know everyone says blanching peaches is the way to go. The skins come right off and all is well in the world. But I don’t want to blanch my peaches! I apparently cannot be troubled to boil water. It is a pain in the butt, right? For peaches? I don’t want to cook them, I want to eat them. Below is a tutorial for those of you who desire pretty peach slices without blanching. Now you have no excuse not to make Susan’s cake!
Begin by using a small, sharp paring knife to cut along the peach’s natural divide. Insert the knife until you feel the pit, then move the peach around the knife (not the other way around!) until you have a clean cut dividing the peach.
Place your thumbs were the stem of the peach was and gently pry the two halves apart. If your peach is overripe, you may have some trouble here, as the force you need to use will crush the peach before it separates it. Take your time if this happens, but just ripe peaches will separate fine
Now you have the two halves, one side containing the pit. This isn’t really a step, I just like adding in photos for no reason, apparently. Sometimes you can pry the pit out with your fingers at this step, but some peaches won’t let you win that easy. You might need loosen it a little more before you try, as shown in the next step.
Cut the pit-side in half, running your knife up along the pit. With really ripe peaches, you need to be careful even holding them. I definitely have accidently made thumb prints in the sides of what was otherwise a totally unblemished peach simply because I grasped it too roughly.
Now you should be able to pry these to halves apart. Again, be gentle.
You’re almost done. Try separating it from the other end if it begins to get mushy on you. Also, don’t lick the peach juice off your hands in front of guests!
Remove the pit and toss it. Or, you know, don’t toss it. Collect them and play games with them. The more adventurous among you can carve them into the likeness of Abe Lincoln. I’m not kidding.
I wouldn’t mind a peach pit ring. I’m a size 5.
Now cut the peach pieces you have so you have eight even slices.
The slices will be small enough that you can easily peel the skin off with your fingers. I’ve tried peeling the skin from larger slices, and it just doesn’t work.
Now all you have to do is make that cake!
August 10th, 2007
Everyone is asking, so here are the tutorials!
How to Make a Marzipan Yarnball
How to Knit Marzipan
June 6th, 2007
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