Reminiscing...

...couldn't help myself.  miss you all so much it hurts!!!

Vegan Clam Chowder

I didn't forget about you Veganbobegan! I have to share this recipe. If you feel like splurging on the somewhat expensive bits, I promise it is amazing. I got it from my sister's friend. Not sure where she got it from originally. It is delicious beyond reason and might even pass for authentic clam chowder for non-vegans. The seaweed is an essential ingredient since it gives it a lovely seafood taste.

Vegan Clam Chowder!

Ingredients

4 cups of cashews

3 Veggie bullion cubes

Olive oil for sautéing

1-ish cup of coined carrots

1-ish cup of onions

1-ish cup of chopped celery

A few cubed red potatoes

1 - 2 Tbl Thyme

2-3 Tbl Ground Fennel Seeds (or if you want to go really fancy you can add in some fresh fennel and sautee it with the other veggies)

Salt and pepper to taste (needs a decent amount of salt if not using bullion cubes)

7 cups of water

Seaweed - One good handful of each: wakame, dulse, arame or some other stringy kind

1. Soak cashews in a blender with enough water to cover them

2. While the cashews are soaking, sauté the onions, carrots, potatoes and celery in the bottom of a big pot on low heat.

4. Once the veggies soft and the onions starting to look clear, dump in the water and add the bullion cubes (or you could just use veggie broth instead) and spices.

5. Bring this to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer for 15-30 minutes.

6. Blend up the cashews into a creamy consistency

7. Add the seaweed to the hot soup and let it hydrate a little bit.

8 Add the cashew cream to the simmering soup, make sure to do this at the end otherwise the oils will get all separated and weird. Simmer for another couple minutes until it reaches a nice servable temperatures and remove from heat.

9. Serve. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This makes a huge amount of food. Great for dinner parties and such, or just half the recipe and you'll still get some leftovers. I also recommend buying the seaweed at a Japanese market. It will be significantly cheaper than anything you can get at a health food store (for example, wakame at kokua was 7.99 same size bag from japanese store across the street 1.99). It might also lead to misinterpretation and a new interesting ingredient (in my case, black miscellaneous noodles instead of arame hah! Still tasted alright) Enjoy!

Black Bean & Tofu Chipotle-Lime Fajitas with Herb-Infused Tortillas

Fajitas:

3 bell peppers (green, yellow, red, orange)
1 onion
1 tomato
1 lime
1 cup black beans
1 package of firm tofu
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup Chipotle Cholula
1/4 cup Louisianna Hot Sauce
Chile Powder to taste
Cayenne Powder to taste
Onion Powder to taste
Garlic Salt to taste
fresh cilantro

Herb-Infused Tortillas:

2 cups flour
4-5 tblsn vegetable shortening
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4-1 cup warm water
excess flour for rolling out tortillas

Cook Tortillas first so they can steam while you prepare the filling:

Chop fresh cilantro and dry on parchment paper in oven at 200 degrees for 5-10 minutes, or until cilantro crumbles in fingers without turning black. Set aside. Mix dry ingredients, then add shortening. Cut shortening into dry ingredients (I use my hands) until mixture has a crumbly, cornmeal appearance. Add warm water a bit at a time and knead. When dough is no longer sticky, knead for 3 minutes, then set aside with a towel for 10 minutes. After, split dough ball into 12 smaller balls. Roll out tortillas on a floured surface, turning every few seconds to prevent sticking. When tortillas are rolled out, wet a paper towel and run over the surface of the tortilla. I like to use fresh dried cilantro and dried thyme. Sprinkle herbs of choice on sticky side, then dust with flour and roll with pin to seal. Cook on a med-high castilla for 5-10 seconds on each side. Wait until dough bubbles begin to turn a golden brown. Store in a towel so tortillas can steam.

Fajita Filling:

Mix cholula, Louisianna sauce, and seasonings. Cut up tofu and marinate for a few hours. Soak and cook the black beans. Cut onion in half - dice one half and cut 2nd half in large chunks. Dice tomato. Cut up fresh cilantro. Mix diced tomato, onion and citantro with cooled black beans. Set aside. Cut up bell peppers. Add vegetable oil to a frying pan, then add bell peppers, onion chunks, and marinated tofu. Season with sauces and seasonings to taste. Cook until onions are clear and bell peppers are cooked but not soggy.

Cut lime into slices. Take herb-infused tortilla and fill with bell pepper filling and black bean filling. Season with lime juice from slices to taste.

Chilaquiles, PDX Vegan Deeeeluxe Style

Chilaquiles are a recipe my abuelita taught me that basically involves frying up a bunch o' tortillas that need to be used up pronto, and whatever else you can toss in with 'em, plus some yummy sauce over everything.  They are amaaaazing hangover food (grams didn't teach me that.)

Basic recipe is as follows...

Ingredients

-Oil for frying

-Stack o tortillas, cut into strips of whatever shape & size you like (3-4ish tortillas per eater? I dunno, I usually eyeball it)

-Garlic chopped up

-Onions chopped up

-Some sort of sauce--I usually mix a can of El Pato sauce with some salsa or enchilada sauce.  Pretty much anything with a tomato/chiles base works.

-Salt

-Pepper

-Lime

-Cilantro

Optional:

-Cumin (adds some nice flavor)

-Fresh tomatoes

-Avocado

-Garlic Jalapeño "Sour Cream"

-Greens (chard, kale, etc.)

-Tempeh or veggie sausages

-Beans on the side ('specially if you have no other protein)

What'cha do with 'em

Fry the tortilla strips in oil til they get crispy.  Grandma always deep-fries, but I usually try to dry-fry with just a bit of oil.  Takes a while.  Practice yer Spanish in the kitchen with yer eagerly waiting friends while you wait.  When they're starting to get crispified (the tortillas, not the friends), make a hole in the center of the pan, drizzle a lil' more oil and add the onions and garlic to it.  These can be put in at any time, I just don't like 'em to get overcooked.  About minute later, add yer sauce.  Just mix it all up together until the sauce soaks in and it starts to get crispy again.  Add salt & pepper to taste and then squeeze some lime juice over the whole deal.  Garnish with cilantro, (avocado, etc.) and you will have something like the deeeeeeelicious looking picture that Kelsey took in my kitchen. =)

¡Buen provecho!

This recipe makes my tofu say: MISO YUMMY

Get it!?! I called Big Dawg to get that tasty miso recipe so I could rub it all over my tofu and bake it in the oven. He didn't have one so I improvised:

1/3 c miso

~2 tbsp oil (I used grapeseed, it's all I had)

~2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (recipe called for rice, but alas...)

~2 tbsp soy milk

~2 tbsp bragg's

salt

honey

powdered ginger

garlic would have been good (but I didn't have any)

THESE ARE ALL APPROXIMATIONS as I just dumped a bunch of stuff in a bowl and got to mixin. I brushed this all over thinly sliced firm tofu then topped it off with some delicious nutritional yeast. I flipped 'em once after about 15-20 minutes at 450 (may require more or less time depending on how well you press the extra water outta yo' tofu), put on more miso, more nutritional yeast and added sesame seeds - let them cook for about 5 more minutes and voila, heaven! Then I exclaimed: YOUSO YUMMY, MISO TOFU. I even took a picture but I can't figure out how to upload it...?

How to Cook a Tofurky Roast that You Forgot to Thaw Before the Big Feast

So it happens, right?  You waited til the last minute to read the package on the Tofurky Roast?  Then you realize it shoulda been thawing for 24hrs already but you've only got an hour and a half until it's s'posed to be the star of the show?

I frantically googled to find a sneaky trick for this debacle and found none!  So here's what we did, and hopefully someone else in a frozen Tofurky googling-frenzy will discover our solution to save the day.  You're welcome. =)

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Follow the package instructions, but bump up the temp to 430-ish degrees.  Leave it in there for about 45 mins to an hour, then take it out of the oven and CUT THE ROAST IN HALF.  This may require sawing through some still-frozen stuffing.  Put the inside facing up, put the foil back over the top, and continue cooking for the remaining time.  Voilà!

The resulting roast may be a tad bit dryer than a thawed Tofurky, but it was still hella yummy and we didn't have to wait a billion hours for it to cook (as per the box directions for a frozen roast).

Yay!  Three cheers for vegan procrastinators!