Popcorn 101 February 10, 2008

I love popcorn!  (The kind you make at home, not the stuff they serve at movie theatres).  There is something about making popcorn that makes one feel young again.  Maybe it is because I have memories of the popcorn maker and how excited we would get as kids when my mom would bring out the blessed appliance!  The first one we had was one of the dome ones – where you used oil and melted butter on the top while it was popping.  We then updated to an airpopper – and we almost held our breath until the popped corn came rushing out the funnel.  The advent of microwave popcorn took something away from the entire experience, plus it just didn’t taste fresh.  Popcorn all of a sudden became just another processed food filled with strange chemicals and additives – instead, of a special treat.

Lately there has been a bit of “popcorn renaissance” going on at my house.  I have thrown out the microwave popcorn and have returned to the good old days of making popcorn in a large pot, with oil, on the stove.  I have also been playing with toppings other than simply “butter and salt”.  I have listed some of my favorite recipes below.  So go pop some corn, snuggle into the couch, and enjoy this mid-winter break!

My Personal Favorite

Plain and simple!  I melt a little Earth Balance and then toss it onto the popped corn and then sprinkle a little nutritional yeast on top – mix – and eat! You could also try spraying the popcorn with olive oil – you just need something so the yeast will stick to the kernels.

Spicy Parmesan Popcorn (The Garden of Vegan – Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer)

A very grown up way to enjoy popcorn!  Delicious and nutritious! 

1/4 cup flax oil

2 tsp spice mix (2 tbsp chili powder; 2 tsp onion powder; 2 tsp cumin; 2 tsp garlic powder; 2 tsp oregano; 1 tsp paprika; 1 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp cayenne).

1/3 cup soy Parmesan cheese

large bowl of popped corn.

Stir the flax oil and spice mix together first; add to popcorn; then add Parmesan and mix. 

Ooey-Gooey, Feeling Sorry for Yourself on a Saturday Night Popcorn

Shredded soy cheddar cheese

Earth Balance Spread

Salt

Popped Corn

You might have to play with the quantities until you have the proportions right.  The amount of cheese and Earth Balance I use seems to vary with how sorry for myself I am feeling.  Place soy cheddar and earth balance in microwave, heat until melted, pour over popped corn.  Add salt to taste.

101 Ways to Eat Tofu… January 29, 2008

 Okay, not quite 101 ways to eat tofu – but you can find some recipes below that will get you started. I feel that I need to champion that grossly misunderstood block of white, jiggly stuff that is also known as tofu. I looove tofu! In all it’s glorious forms (shaken, stirred, fried, steamed, baked, pureed). It is an amazing versatile addition to any kitchen and once people can get over their squeamishness they will be surprised at the possibilities.

I do not quite understand the hesitancy that arises when people wax poetic about how disgusting tofu is. My first response is that they have never had it cooked properly to have that many bad associations with it. My second response is that there are far more disgusting things that people put in their mouths and label haute cuisine – steak tartare, caviar, foie gras – are a few that come to mind. So, why does everyone pick on a humble little product made of coagulated soy milk?

Tofu on its own is completely tasteless. So, years ago when tofu was first introduced to the Western world you might have had an overenthusiastic health foodie serve you steamed tofu – with nothing else added – which is not the way it is meant to be tasted. The best thing about tofu is its sponge like properties. It soaks up absolutely any flavor that you put on it, or that you add it to. Try at least one of the following recipes on for size and see if it doesn’t change your mind about tofu, or introduce someone in your household or family to these recipes and see if their opinions change. Happy cooking!

Tofu Chimichangas (The Garden of Vegan – Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer)

1/4 cup Braggs

3 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast

1/2 tsp each onion and garlic powder

1 cup water

1 lb. firm tofu, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, chopped

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 tbsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

6 tortilla shells

2 cups vegan refried beans

1 cup soy cheese, grated

1/3 cup olives (optional)

In medium bowl stir together Braggs, nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, and water. Add tofu and let marinate for 1-2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350 F. Drain the marinated tofu and set aside. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, saute the garlic and onions in oil until onions are translucent. Add tofu, chili powder, and cumin. Stir together and cook for 8-10 minutes while mashing tofu with wooden spoon. Set aside. Place tortilla shells on a flat surface. In the middle of each shell evenly divide the tofu mixture, beans, soy cheese, and olive. Wrap up and place on baking sheet/dish. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until tortillas are browned. Serve with guacamole and salsa.

BBQ Baked Tofu (Veganomicon – Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero)

1 jar of BBQ Sauce (the original recipe use a BBQ recipe in the book, but I usually just use a jarred sauce)

1 lb tofu, drained and pressed, cut width-wise into eighths

2 tbsps peanut oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

Preheat the oven to 350. In a 9×18 inch (preferably glass or ceramic) baking pan, dredge the tofu in the peanut oil and soy sauce to coat on both sides. Bake for 15 minutes, then flip the slices and bake for 15 minutes more. Meanwhile prepare whatever sauce you are using. When tofu is done baking, pour the BBQ sauce over it. Return to the oven and bake for 15 more minutes. Remove from the oven and serve.

Fried “Egg” Sandwich (The Garden of Vegan – Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer)

This is my all-time favorite breakfast sandwich! Delicious, nutritious, and easy to make!

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/8 tsp each pepper and salt

2 slices firm tofu (about the size of your bread)

1 tsp olive oil

Vegannaise

Sprouts/Lettuce/Tomato/Avocado – or anything else you might want to add.

On a small plate stir together the nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper. Dip both sides of the tofu into the mix to coat. In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, saute the tofu in oil until browned. Flip and cook other side. Assemble sandwich using toasted bread, mayo, tofu, and whatever vegetables you want. You can serve it either open-faced or sandwich style

Who Knew? December 5, 2007

Last night’s dinner – a rather thrown together affair, but one that came out just right.  I usually eat with my kids at 5:00 or 5:30.  My day usually starts at 6:00 a.m., so I am ready to call it dinner at that time.  Yesterday worked out differently – at least for a week night.  First of all my husband said that he would actually be home for dinner.  He travels a great deal, and on many of the nights that he is not traveling he is eating dinner with clients in lavish steakhouses. 

Secondly, my husband had a rather odd request that he wanted “some sort of bean and couscous dish – maybe with some mint or basil thrown in.  You must have a recipe for something like that in one of your vegan cookbooks”.  Odd for my husband, because he is a full blown carnivore.  If he could figure out how to have steak for three meals a day he would do it – thankfully the idea of steak smoothies have not caught on!  Although, to give my dear husband a break – his palate has expanded to include – tofu, and tempeh, and a greater assortment of vegetables over the past few years.  However, one thing he has refused to grasp onto is the whole “bean thing”.  So, after I picked my jaw up off the floor – I got to work – or I at least thought about getting to work.

Problem #1 – the cookbook that has an awesome bean salad recipe in it is at our cabin.  So, on to plan B – which is to say I began to improvise.  I can do this – I wrote a bloody post on the concept yesterday – so I should be able to pull something out of my hat.  The first thing that needs to happen when you begin to improvise in the kitchen is to give yourself permission to not follow a recipe.  We have become an nation of expert-followers – and are often hesitant or unsure what to do if there is not one in the vicinity.  I know what flavors work together – plus,  I have certainly cooked enough beans in my lifetime to be able to pull something together. 

So, what to do.  Can of black beans in the pantry, excellent (okay, I live in a small Manhattan apartment so I don’t actually have a pantry – but it sounds so grown up), frozen corn in freezer.  I have olive oil and red wine vinegar, salt and pepper so I can throw all that together for some sort of dressing.  Perfect, shallots in the cupboard, I will add one of those.  I will pick up some cilantro, couscous, red peppers, and some kale to serve as a side-dish.  The peppers were a bust at the market 11.99/lb – which is a tad bit ridiculous – so I found a jar of roasted red peppers in my fridge that will work just as well.  I get home throw everything together except for the couscous (and kale, of course), to let the flavors have some time to meld in the fridge.

Feed the kids at their usual time – I am going to eat with my husband after the kids are in bed.  I make the children ravioli and roasted green bean (amazing! Recipe to follow), and kiwi.  I tell them that the green beans are “green bean french fries” and serve them with ketchup.

Kids are in bed.  Remove bean mixture from refrigerator and bring to room temp.  Boil some water – add some couscous and vegan margarine.  Remove from heat, let sit for five minutes.  Mix couscous and bean mixture.  I get a little crazy at the end and slice an avocado and add pine-nuts to the mix – and voila!  Sort, of a kitchen sink approach, but it all worked out in the end.  I never did make the kale.  The roasted green beans I made were incredible (thanks to Veganomicon) I finished the rest of the batch off, which must have been about 3/4 of a lb. 

So, a relatively quick and easy meal.  The green beans were wilting in my refrigerator and my first thought was to steam them and do the usual toss in vegan margarine and watch my children, and myself, try to gag them down.  I am not really that fond of green beans, but for some reason feel compelled to buy them.  Anyway, I have become a devotee after one simple recipe from Veganomicon for roasted green beans- I know it sounds crazy, but trust me.  Preheat oven at 400; trim green beans; toss in olive oil, salt, and pepper (I also added some bread crumbs – but you could just as easily add vegan parm, or nutritional yeast); throw them in the oven for 15 minutes – and then come out crunchy, and tender, and yummy, and just go out and buy some green beans and try them…

Let’s talk about food… December 4, 2007

In particular, let’s talk about vegan food – in all its yummy, naked glory!  Because really, what else is vegan food but fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains – with some odd amounts of soy matter thrown in for good measure.  However, I think that the concept of vegan food still tends to scare the masses.  It is as if some giant vision of beige mock mystery meats or jiggly steamed tofu are permanently linked to the idea of veganism.  And, I do believe that many vegans become hooked on the idea of trying to replicate non-vegan meals that the dependence on soy products, mock meats, etc come into play.  It is like a friend of my always says “I never worried about how I ate until I became a vegan – now I obsess if I am eating the right combination of foods”, which is pretty ironic considering that a vegan diet is completely and perfectly healthy!

In order to help “kick it up a notch” (as my friend Emeril would say – who recently kicked it up a notch himself by removing himself from the Food Network before the final death knell peals) I hope to add some spice and stability to the vegan kitchen by introducing the art of improvising in the kitchen. 

We all have a tendency, especially when starting something new, to stick to the tried and true – so we follow menus, and recipes, and formulas religiously – hoping that we will finally get it right.  Here is where the art of improvising comes into play – where you can finally call a recipe your own, and hopefully soon enough you will cooking an abundance of meals without even consulting a cook book.  My Baba was a great cook – maybe not along today’s standards of cooking where it seems as if everyone is trying to outdo the last person with exotic ingredients and endless preparations (honestly, if a recipe has over 15 ingredients it must be pretty special before I even look at it).  I don’t think we need to keep reinventing the wheel, instead I believe it makes more sense to concentrate on choosing some specific methods/recipes and learning them really well and seeing where they lead you.  Nigella Lawson says that cooking is about doing something over and over again, and I so agree – so roll up your sleeves and hop right in.

Here are two quick and easy basic recipes that you can use in a variety of ways. 

Roasted Peppers - Add these peppers to tomato or bean soups; a bowl of white beans, or any bean salad; potato salad; hash-browns; scrambled tofu; pasta casseroles; pesto; salsas; bruschettas – on other words – they work in pretty much anything!

4 large red/yellow peppers (or a combination).

1 1/2 tbsps olive oil

Kosher salt

Black Pepper

Additional seasonings – thyme/rosemary/cumin/paprika/oregano/basil/cilantro (it is your recipe – you decide what you are in the mood for).

Preheat oven to 450.  Slice peppers into about 4-5 slices per pepper, cut off any white bits that remain.  Place the peppers in a bowl and add olive oil, add salt and pepper and any seasonings and mix thoroughly.  Place peppers on cookie sheet – skin side down.  Roast peppers for about 30 minutes.  The peppers should be tender and slightly browned around the edges.  Serve right out of the oven, or at room temperature.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes- I have seen a lot of recipes for these tomatoes and many of them are indeed “slow roasted”, averaging about 9-10 hours of roasting time.  Now while I believe that good things come to those who wait, I also believe that sometimes you have to go out and make things happen.  With that in mind this recipe kicks the oven temp up a bit, but doesn’t lose out on any of the great tomatoey taste.  These are ready in about 2 1/2 -3 hours.  Think:  come home, put tomatoes in oven, feed kids dinner, give kids bath, check on tomatoes, put kids to bed, make an appetizer plate – roasted tomatoes, crusty bread, olives, stuffed grape leaves (from deli); pour a glass of wine, or two – look like a domestic genius!

These tomatoes can also be added to pizza, pasta, soup, risotto, bruschetta, pesto, salsa – again- be creative!  The best thing is they last in the fridge for a week, or in the freezer for 2 months.

4 lbs ripe tomatoes (about 30 plum or 12-16 regular)

Olive oil

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Black pepper

Preheat oven to 325.  Slice plum tomatoes in half, or quarter regular tomatoes.  Toss tomatoes with olive oil to coat.  Place tomatoes cut side up on baking sheet, sprinkle with sugar, salt, and pepper.  Roast tomatoes for 2 1/2 to 3 hours until they are slightly browned and have lost most of their liquid.  They should be quite shriveled, but should also retina their shape when you pick them up.  Let cool to room temperature.  Be creative!

Both recipes are adapted from The Improvisational Cook by Sally Schneider.  While not a vegan cookbook, has tremendous recipes and ideas.  I particularly like her flavored oils and dressings.