Vegan MoFo 2014 - Newsday Tuesday Two-fer!

It's another Newsday Tuesday, and today it's a two-fer!  Do radio DJs still do Two-fer Tuesdays?  I had a love/hate relationship with them because sometimes you'd get 2 songs by Adam Ant or The Cure or The Smiths, and sometimes you'd get 2 from The Eagles or something.

I made two more recipes from Cookin' Crunk today:  the twice-baked potatoes and the Mint Julep Brownies.

The taters took a while because of the baking, but if I'd done it right (cooking the leeks while the taters cooked), it might not have taken so long after that.  I was distracted and didn't pay attention to what I was doing, so it took longer than it should have.  But luckily it didn't affect the outcome.

These were so good!  They were totally worth the time and effort, though they really weren't that difficult.  I would totally recommend making these.  Though now I have pretty much a whole leek to use up, and I'm not sure what to do with it.

I made the brownies while I baked the tatties.  They didn't turn out quite so well.  I don't know why, but they didn't bake all the way through.  I had them in for an extra 10 minutes and they were still nearly raw, so I had to put them back in the oven.  Even after an extra 20 minutes, they're still gooey, and they're meant to be cake-like.  Mike liked them, but I can't take them to work like I'd intended.  And since I'm not a huge brownie fan, Mike will probably end up eating most of them (and he's already eaten about 1/3 of the pan).

Vegan MoFo 2014 - Sunday Baking: Whole Wheat Beer Bread

It's Sunday baking day!  Today I made the Whole Wheat Beer Bread from Cookin' Crunk.

Warm bread always means jam piece for me.

Beer breads are pretty great - you get freshly baked bread in about an hour, and you don't have to knead!  This came together so quickly that I actually had to do some other stuff while my oven pre-heated before I put the beer in because I didn't want to mess up the chemical reaction by having it sit around before going in the oven.

So, as you can see, I used Innis & Gunn Toasted Oak IPA*.  I had a wee taste of it before I poured it into the bowl, and it was super hoppy.  That really comes out in the bread.  Unfortunately, what I can't handle with beer is the hops part, so I thought the bread had a bitter note to it.  The slice on the right is a bit thicker than the slice on the left, and I almost gave up on the bread because the bitterness overwhelmed the sweetness of the jam.

Apart from that, it's got a lovely texture - slightly dense (without feeling like a brick), moist, and soft.  It definitely has potential, and I think it's my mistake that makes it not fantastic.  Since this is the first time I've made this, I'm gonna assume it's the particular beer and not the recipe itself, because I have had beer breads I've enjoyed.  I might try this again with a less hoppy beer.

*Innis & Gunn are Edinburgh brewers, and most if not all of their beers are vegan.  Woot!

Vegan MoFo 2014 - Newsday Tuesday: Cookin' Crunk Breakfast Lasagna

It's Newsday Tuesday!  I can't remember if I explained why I chose to do my food experimentation on Tuesdays.  It's not just because it rhymes.  Mike works late on a Tuesday, so I have more time to make stuff without someone else constantly asking me when dinner will be ready.  He's usually home at the weekend, so Tuesday is pretty much the only distraction-free day I can do stuff like this.

Today's recipe cuts two carrots with one knife as it's also part of my project, Cooking Through Cookin' Crunk.  If you're new to the joint, I'm attempting to make all of the recipes in Cookin' Crunk before I turn 40.  When you think about the time frame (I started last year and have another 5 years to go), it doesn't seem very ambitious.  But having this project has helped get me out of a cooking slump a couple of times, so it's better than letting my cookbooks moulder on the shelf while I eat 18p ramen all the time.

I almost didn't make tonight's recipe - I've been sleeping really badly lately and got home exhausted and already hungry, which is a terrible combination for cooking something with this many steps.  It has so many steps!  You have to

1. make cheese sauce
2. peel, slice, and cook the potato
3. slice and cook the sausage
4. make tofu scramble
5. layer and bake everything

But if you overlap some steps (make the sauce while the tatties cook) or make stuff ahead of time (the recipe kinda assumes you've already made the sauce), it actually comes together pretty quickly.  It's not a regular weeknight meal (OK, technically it's breakfast), but it's not a half-day project.

As you can see, we had this with some garlicky asparagus on the side.  I figured we needed something green.  Obviously this isn't really pretty, and, as per usual, it's dark and shadowy.  Sorry 'bout it.

For those of you in the UK, I used the Fry's slicing sausage/polony.  It probably affected the taste because it doesn't taste anything like US breakfast sausage, but it was still tasty.  And that was the only substitution I made!

So, yeah, this was super delicious and totally worth the effort.  I would absolutely make this again, and from the way Mike was all but licking his plate, I think he'd be OK for me to make it again.  Plus, now I have 2 days' worth of breakfast and I was able to use the leftover cheese sauce in the burritos I made for my lunches (leftovers from taco night, woo!).

Cookin' through Cookin' Crunk - fried green tomatoes and cauliflower creole

 

Those of you who know me know that my journey to veganism was a lot faster than my journey to liking vegetables and fruit.  The potential reasons for this are plentiful - possible childhood trauma (the only veg we had at home was boiled-to-death canned or frozen stuff), being a supertaster (I'm one of those people who can taste cucumber), personal preference/texture issues, who knows.

But I've always had a problem with tomatoes.  I started out not being able to eat anything other than ketchup (catsup?), then progressed to being able to eat completely smooth tomato products.  I've now reached the point that I can have small diced tomatoes, but only cooked.  I can't eat raw tomatoes.

So, as you can imagine, the Fried Green Tomatoes recipe was kinda daunting for me.  A thick slice of tomato - brrr.  But I bought those green tomatoes at the farmers market (lookit that wee one!  it's so tiny!), put on my big girl pants, and made some fried green tomatoes.

I have to say, they were alright, but I probably wouldn't make them again unless they were for someone else who really loves them.

I made the Fried Green Tomato and Tofu Sandwich with them, and that was pretty good, but it was more the tofu than the tomatoes that I was interested in.  The coating on the tomatoes gave it a nice crunch, though.  This used the Sweet & Spicy Marinated Tofu, which was really easy to make and was very, very tasty.  I can see it going into regular rotation.

Dinner tonight was Cauliflower Creole.  I did it in stages, so it probably took longer than it would have if I'd made it as written.  This was fantastic.  I don't think it really mimicked shrimp creole all that well (at least texture-wise - I've never had shrimp creole to compare the taste), but whatever, it was tasty as hell.  I served it with the remaining tofu and some brown rice.  I would definitely make this again.

My shrooms went off, so I didn't get to make the cream of mushroom soup.  I'll buy more shrooms and make that this week since I cubed the tofu chicken to use in a recipe that also requires the cream of mushroom soup.

Cookin' through Cookin' Crunk - curried sweet tater fries

Oh man, I'm so used to only blogging during VeganMoFo that I almost went to find a MoFo banner to top my post!  Unfortunately I no longer have that to fall back on.

So, yeah, as most people who know me are aware, I usually only post during VeganMoFo.  But one of my 40 Before 40 goals is to cook through Bianca Phillips's book, Cookin' Crunk: Eatin' Vegan in the Dirty South (to give it its full title).  One reason is because I've never cooked every recipe in a cookbook before.  Another reason, which I may have mentioned already, is that it's like it was written for me - a book full of recipes for classic Southern dishes.

Today I made the Curried Sweet Tater Fries.  I bought one giant sweet potato instead of 2 normal-sized taters.  I baked instead of frying, which took a lot longer than I expected (about 90 minutes, I think).  I think I might not have had the heat up high enough.  We ate them with some Sainsbury's LoveVeg Indian spinach and lentil burgers and the tahini sauce in the book.

They came out a bit floppy, but Mike and I really liked them.  The sauce was the perfect accompaniment.  I left out the cayenne because I've become a bit of a spice wuss, but they could've used a touch of spice.  I should've thrown in a bit of chipotle powder.  Regardless, they were super tasty, and I could definitely see myself making them again.

I went to the farmers market today and bought green tomatoes, spaghetti squash, and loads of tofu.  I've already started marinating two blocks of tofu - one for Tofu Chicken and the other for Sweet and Spicy Tofu.  I'll fry the tomatoes and use them and the S&S tofu in the Fried Green Tomato sandwiches for my lunch tomorrow.  I'll use the spaghetti squash later in the week - it's a big bastard so I can probably get two dinners out of it.

Cheesy burger mac

It's the last day of MoFo 2013!  I feel like this MoFo has gone by faster than others, because there are so many things I didn't get around to.  I think I also got so caught up on making stuff from Cookin' Crunk that I ignored my other theme, which was to cook from my pantry.  I think I actually have more stuff now than when I started!

Today's post is a bit of a cop-out because I actually made this yesterday.  I had a long, exhausting day today, so I don't feel like cooking.  But yesterday, along with all the ice cream shenanigans, I also made Cheesy Burger Mac from Cookin' Crunk!

This recipe has three components - the cheese sauce, the burger, and the macaroni.  I made the Basic Cheese Sauce and boiled the macaroni while the Ground TSP Beef was cooking, so it all came together pretty quickly.  I'd say I was in the kitchen for about 30 minutes, which is good for me.

I threw some frozen peas in with the macaroni towards the end of cooking, so I just ate this as a one-bowl meal.  It was really tasty, though I kinda wish I'd put more cheese sauce in mine.  Oh well.  It works well as leftovers, though the pasta does soak up the sauce.  I could definitely see myself making this again (probably later this week since I have enough of everything for another batch).

And since I didn't take a picture of the food, here's a picture of Zebby.

Southern Saturday - sweet potato hash

It's the last Southern Saturday of MoFo!  I can't believe it's almost over (and almost October).  Since I'm nowhere near finished cooking through Cookin' Crunk, I might keep blogging about my experience.  I've at least liked everything I've made so far, and I've loved quite a lot, so I'm looking forward to the rest of it.  A lot of it is stuff that takes advanced prep, multiple steps, or loads of ingredients (some of which I might not be able to get here), so it might not come as thick and fast as the recipes I've made for MoFo.  That said, I have to make food for a work potluck at the end of October, so I might take a range of stuff to that (since I can usually only eat the hummus and bread).

I meant to do more today, but I was out and about and hauling things around a lot, so I just made one dish for brinner - Sweet Potato Hash.  I didn't take a picture because, frankly, it ain't pretty.  I honestly can't remember if I'd ever had corned beef hash pregan.  Surely I must have, but maybe I blocked all occurrences of it from my memory because of that time my dad fed us dog food and told us it was corned beef.*

Mike and I both loved this, so much so that we finished it all off before it even got cold enough to reheat.  I thought I'd have to use it up as leftovers tomorrow, but it was gone pretty quickly.  I used the ground TSP beef from the book, so I did all the prep and the beginning stages of cooking while that cooked.  Apart from grating the sweet potatoes, it was pretty easy.

I would absolutely make this again.  It was super delicious and really homey and comforting.  In fact, I still have some TSP beef left, so I might make a personal-sized serving while Mike's at his game!

*Unfortunately, true story.  Or so I'm told.  Apparently, dad could only afford a potato and a can of dog food.  I was probably too young to have understood what corned beef was and that dog food was different and not to be eaten, but maybe he felt the need to lie to us in case mom asked what we'd eaten and we told her dog food (even though none of us could've read the label at that age - my now 32-year-old sister wasn't even on solids yet).

New stuff from Sainsbury's and another Cookin' Crunk recipe down

I found a new thing at Sainsbury's today!  They have their range of meatless alternative frozen foods, and they've recently come out with an Indian Lentil and Spinach quarter pound "burger" (along with a bunch of other stuff that wasn't vegan).  I pretty much couldn't resist, so I bought a pack and had some for dinner.

I served them with some spinach (cooked from frozen with lemon juice, salt, and garlic granules), boiled new potatoes, and Creamy Tahini Sauce from Cookin' Crunk.

The burgers were pretty tasty, and I could see myself buying them again.  I might try to make my sides with more Indian-style spices the next time I make these.  I loved the tahini sauce - it's slightly similar to Isa's Classic Vegan Caesar dressing - but I had to add a lot of water to get it to sauce consistency.  Regardless, I would absolutely make this again.  It went really well with the potatoes and spinach, and I imagine it would work in loads of other applications.

Oh, before I forget, in their wee Jewish section, Sainsbury's sell these chocolate wafer things (like the inside of a Kit Kat but twice as wide) that are vegan!  They're super delicious.  Now they just need to bring back the mini-latkes.

Granny's Corn Casserole

I went to my local hfs, Real Foods, and spent ages trying to decide if I wanted to buy any delicious, delicious processed convenience foods because I could not figure out what to make for dinner.  I had already decided to buy some cream cheese (Sheese brand, fwiw), nooch (finally replenishing my stock), and marshmallows (more on those at a later date), but that obviously didn't help with dinner.  Then Mike called to ask me something, and while we talked we figured it out.

We decided on chickpeas and broccoli - I already had frozen chickpeas, and he bought broccoli.  When I got home and started cooking, I decided to use the cream cheese I'd just bought to make Granny's Corn Casserole from Cookin' Crunk.  It turned out super quick and easy - apart from chopping the roasted red pepper that stood in for the pimento, there was almost no work required.  It took about 5 minutes to throw together, which is always a bonus.

It tasted alright, but I think that was down to using a lesser cream cheese.  I bet it would've been great if I'd bought Tofutti, but the only one they had was the herby one (which probably would've been fine).  I liked it, but I think I would've preferred the version she mentions in the intro.  I might see if I can recreate that one myself!

Sick day comfort food

I stayed home sick today, so I pretty much took it easy.  I had enough energy to make cornbread because I knew in the long run it would make me feel better.

This is the Jalapeno-Buttermilk Cornbread from Cookin' Crunk, but without the jalapenos.  I mostly left them out because I didn't have any.

For dinner, I cooked some black-eyed peas with a bit of veg broth, soy sauce, liquid smoke, garlic and onions.  I used some cavolo nero kale in the Mess O' Greens recipe.  And of course, I had it all with more cornbread.  It was delicious, though I think actual greens would work better in the greens recipe.  I also left out the turnips because I didn't have any.

The meal was really delicious, and I'd definitely make the cornbread and the greens again.

Sundae Sunday - Vegan Dublin Mudslide

My favourite pregan ice cream was Ben & Jerry's Dublin Mudslide - Irish cream ice cream, chocolate chocolate chip cookie* pieces, and coffee fudge ripple.  I'm pretty sure it was the last non-vegan thing I ate intentionally while I lived in the US**.

One of the things I put on my 40 before 40 list was to veganise the Dublin Mudslide.  It doesn't seem like something that would be terribly difficult when you think of it as just veganising some ice cream.  But when you consider the various components, having to veganise those, and the amount of time it would take to make them regardless of their animal content, it's a goddamn project.  For the vegan version, not only do you have to figure out a way to make the ice cream, cookies, and fudge swirl vegan, you have to make your own Bailey's Irish cream!

I got a bug up my butt today and decided to just do it.

I started by making some Irish cream liqueur - I used the recipe in Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations.  I then made the cookies - I used the soft baked chocolate chip cookie recipe in The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur but switched out 1/4 c of the flour for 1/4 c cocoa powder.  I used my modified V'con ice cream base for the ice cream, adding 1/4 c of the homemade Bailey's to a vanilla recipe.  I used this recipe for the fudge ripple with some instant espresso added for the coffee element - my original attempt ended in chocolate syrup, so it was the wrong consistency.***

The final product was good, but it wasn't Dublin Mudslide.  *sadface*  I'll probably make this again, but I'd make the following changes:

1. Use the homemade Bailey's instead of rather than in addition to the soy milk (so the full soy cream and 1/2 c Bailey's), and add a bit of coffee flavour to the ice cream itself.
2. Leave the chocolate chips out of the cookies (I honestly don't remember chocolate chips in the cookies in the original).
3. More coffee flavour and more sweetness in the fudge ripple.

I think these changes would make it much more like the original.  I made about a liter of Bailey's, and I still have some cookie dough (it would be pretty easy to pull out most of the chocolate chips), so I could probably make this again soon.  For science.

*The description I read said chocolate chocolate chip, but as I mentioned in my post, I don't remember the chocolate chips.
**I had a hard time adjusting to life in the UK as a vegan, so I went back to ovo-veg for a couple of weeks until I found my footing.
***My 2nd attempt almost failed too.  The original recipe calls for maple syrup, which I probably wouldn't have used even if I had it.  I tried to use light corn syrup, but to my great surprise, it wasn't sweet enough, so I added in some golden syrup.  Next time, I'd go with all golden syrup, or maybe agave.

Southern Saturday - Mike's birthday party

It's Southern Saturday - yaaaay!  Mike's birthday was yesterday, but no one could come round then, so we had people over today.  I made Tofu Scramble Enchiladas, Caramelized Cabbage and Onions, Un-fried Corn, and Buttermilk Ranch (as a dip) from Cookin' Crunk, and French vanilla ice cream from "A La Mode" to serve with the yella cake I made yesterday.

I served the ranch with carrot batons and crisps, but no one ate the crisps.  I don't even know if anyone other than Mike ate the ranch because I was busy in the kitchen making the rest of the food.  I did get to try it, and it was really tasty.  There's loads left, so I'll get to try it with the crisps tomorrow.

I made the enchiladas with Quick and Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food enchilada sauce, Viva Vegan! tortillas, and Tesco smoked cheese.  They fell apart a bit, but they were super tasty.  If I make these again, I would probably use store-bought tortillas just to avoid the hassle.  Because some of my tortillas fell apart before we could fill them, I still have filling left!  I might have to make a mini batch of tortillas and have breakfast tacos at some point.

I really, really liked the corn.  It was nice and creamy with a good balance of sweet and salty.  I usually don't get to eat corn as a side because Mike isn't a huge fan, so I try to make it when I'm feeding multiple people.  Having made this, I now really want to try the corn casserole.

The cabbage was OK, though I'm not a huge fan of cabbage at the best of times and usually only eat it in stir fry.  However, it was so stupid easy to make.  This would be a great side for a weekday meal.  I would maybe use a bit less sugar and just let it caramelise on its own if I made it again.

The ice cream was a bit of a mission.  I didn't read the recipe through and realised after I'd already put some of the ingredients together that I didn't have margarine.  I had the coconut oil mentioned as a suitable substitute, but it was solid!  So I boiled some water and melted the oil enough to pour it out, but I put it in the mix at the wrong stage.  In spite of all the setbacks, it was really good and was the perfect accompaniment to the cake.

Everyone seemed to like the food, and we had almost no leftovers.  And because of the dishwasher, I was able to clean as I went, so the rest of the cleanup won't be too bad.  Woo!

Yella cake

Today is Mike's birthday, but we're celebrating tomorrow.  But it's no birthday without cake (except my birthday because I didn't make my own), so I made his birthday cake tonight.

Of course, I made the Yella Cake with Fudgy Frosting from Cookin' Crunk because it's well suited to birthday cake.  It looks like the kind of cake you'd make with a box and a tub!

I almost had a disaster when I went to make the frosting - I didn't have enough icing sugar or margarine!  I supplemented somewhat by adding a bit of Speculoos, but it would've been fine without it.  As with most frosting recipes, I still had more than enough even when I didn't have enough ingredients.

I really liked the flavour of this, but it was a bit denser than I was hoping for.  I wonder if maybe that's because it doesn't have any baking soda.  I was tempted to add a bit, but I wanted (for once) to follow the recipe.  It was still tasty, just not as fluffy as I expected.

I'll be doing loads of recipes from this book tomorrow.  Or at least, I hope I will - I might end up getting lazy and/or running out of time.

Southern Saturday - Biscuits and Gravy

My Saturday theme is Southern Saturdays.  One of my 40 before 40 goals is to cook my way through Cookin' Crunk by Bianca Philips.  I've already made a few recipes, and I thought this would be a good way to get some more stuff out of the way.

I figured what better way to start (blogging, at least) than that good ol' Southern breakfast (or, if you're me, brinner) staple, biscuits and gravy.  Seriously, biscuits and gravy is one of my death row last meal foods, so how could I not make these?

I used the Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy with Sage recipes.  Like Bianca says, every Southern cook has a biscuit recipe in their arsenal, and hers is really similar to the one I usually make.  The only difference is that I usually use white flour.  The only change I made to her recipe was to make cat-head biscuits instead of rolling and cutting.  For the gravy, I used some leftover Tempeh Sausage Crumbles from VwaV that I made the other day in place of the Gimme Lean called for.  I also cooked the gravy in the skillet used for the sausage because that's the way gravy should be made.

Despite using all whole wheat flour, the biscuits were soft and fluffy.  I honestly expected to like them less than I did, but they were great.  The gravy was delicious and was perfect with the biscuits, though I think I prefer white gravy.  I would definitely make this again.  I think I'll try the Chocolate Gravy next time!