Day 101 - The Persian

The Persian

The Persian features the Pistachio Rose Water Cookies filled with Rose Water flavored Vanilla Ice Cream and rolled in chopped pistachios.

No one has tasted this, not even me, so I can't attest to the flavor of this one, but it's certainly easy enough to assemble, and it's a pretty sandwich, with all those chopped pistachios....

I'm waiting to serve this one to Alysha, the rose water queen, since this has rose water in both the cookies and the ice cream.

But I'm going to hazard a guess, based on all the other ice cream sandwiches and say that this one gets....

SFO: 10

Day 100 - BBQ Black-Eyed Pea-Collard Rolls, Vanilla-Yogurt Pound Cake, Vanilla Ice Cream, and The Classic

BBQ Black-Eyed Pea-Collard Rolls

Now, who'da thunk that you could use collard green leaves to roll things up just like you use cabbage, lettuce and grape leaves? I always assumed collard would be too tough, too assertive-tasting, but the truth is, these leaves are perfect for stuffing! I+T have you boil them covered for six minutes, and once cooled and drained, they are wonderful, huge, pliable (though somewhat delicate) foundations for a roll.

This recipe uses yesterdays Backyard BBQ Sauce as the binder for a filling that also includes black-eyed peas, mushrooms, and chopped collard greens.

Following the directions exactly yielded me twelve beautiful rolls, which tasted great with the chive-y mashed potatoes I made.

My ex-neighbor and friend, Darcy, loved the BBQ sauce and the rolls (and brought me those amazing lilies you see in the background)!

SFO: 8

(As much as we loved these, I think they might be a little scary for your average omnivore. It's a lot of green up front, and then nothing too familiar inside. Maybe for a Southern omnivore, I'd up this to a 9.)


Vanilla-Yogurt Pound Cake

My second try at Veganomicon pound cake!

The first one, with rosewater flavoring, was relatively successful, although there was that lump of undercooked batter at the bottom...

This one also had an undercooked lump, although a much smaller one. I admit, I kept that sucker in the oven until the skewer came out absolutely clean, but I guess I could have left it in another few minutes.

My guess is that this is a result of what I consider to be an unusual instruction in the recipe: "beat with electric beaters for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, until a very thick batter forms. Don't overmix."

I have to say, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes in my book is already way overmixed. Typically in a recipe like this, the instruction would be to mix just until combined, which in my experience is maybe 30 seconds. Next time I make this, I'm going to try that....

That said, it's a pretty loaf, and a tasty one.

SFO: 10


Vanilla Ice Cream

Back to the ice creams...

I still haven't been able to achieve a great texture since the peanut butter ice cream, but this certainly gets the job done. Flavor is fine, and as a filling for an ice cream sandwich, the texture issues slide by unnoticed.

SFO:7
(People are tough on off-texture ice creams...)


The Classic 

What could be bad? Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies filled with Vanilla Ice Cream and rolled in chocolate shavings!

Actually, I was a little concerned that these delicate, not-quite-crispy, not-quite-chewy cookies might not be able to withstand being the bread for an ice cream sandwich, but they performed quite well! In fact, they were unusually light and made for a dainty frozen dessert. I really liked this one!

SFO: 10
(I realize I gave this ice cream a 7 for texture issues, but in this context, they don't bother me.)

Day 99 - Backyard BBQ Sauce

Backyard BBQ Sauce

I love making things like this, sauces that usually come in jars but when you make them from scratch, they obliterate the memory of the jarred versions.

I'm not sure about this one, though....

It's easy enough to make. And I cooked mine for a good long time. I pureed it for a nice, even consistency. But the flavor was... um... weird.

I think I'm going to blame the liquid smoke. It's a hefty amount to add, 2 teaspoons. That stuff is strong. And it gave the sauce a fake, otherworldly kind of taste, at least to me. (Note: when I served it to my friend Darcy - see tomorrow - she did not have the same reaction.)

Also, the tomato presence seemed overwhelming, so at the end of the process when I was invited to "adjust the flavors," I did add a little more sugar and vinegar. But just a little.

Note to those sensitive to heat: that teaspoon of red pepper flakes packs a wallop. It doesn't kick it into the realm of the inedible, but at that level, this is not a mild BBQ sauce. If you just want a background heat, I'd consider reducing that measurement by a half.

SFO: 10

Day 98 - Spinach-Noodle Kugel

Spinach-Noodle Kugel

This is how unobservant a Jew I am. I didn't even think to make this kugel recipe until my friend Daniel asked me if there were any Passover-related recipes in Veganomicon. Didn't even occur to me to look! Well, he asked just in time for me to run out and get a box of matzoh so I could make this on the second night of Passover. Right after I got home from that movie screening. (FYI, I performed in a concert on the first night of Passover - I warned you I'm unobservant!)

Before

I've never used rombi pasta before. It's so cute. It's like mini lasagna noodles, torn in random pieces. It'd be sweet to make a mini lasagna with them. But for now, it's all about kugel.

I didn't grow up with savory kugel. Well, maybe there were a few potato kugels, but the noodle kugels were always sweet, with cottage cheese and raisins. Mmmm. Still, I was very interested to see how this would taste....

Survey says: meh.

I think it's all that matzoh. Matzoh is amazingly unflavorful. It's OK as a vehicle for butter, but so is tire rubber. And the tofu just doesn't do what eggs would have done to bind this casserole. This whole dish seems to have a blank space where flavor is supposed to be. 

Some extra salt helped, but....

After

Wait, stop everything!!

Typo alert! I'm rereading the recipe as I'm writing this, and I've just discovered I've made a giant mistake. As have I&T. There's onion in this recipe! But it's hidden/invisible! First of all, it's incorrectly indented in the list of ingredients, so it's really easy to miss. And it's nowhere to be seen in the instructions. I'm sure if I&T meant there to be onion in this, they would tell us to sauté it, but there's no mention of sauteeing, or of onions at all, in the recipe. But now this makes perfect sense - onions would certainly leave a blank space where flavor was meant to be. 

Argh! Typos!!!

SFO: 5
(in this version without onions, it's not really safe for anyone...)

Day 97 - Spinach Linguine with Basil-Cilantro Pesto and Artichokes

Spinach Linguine with Basil-Cilantro Pesto and Artichokes

Yesterday, I was wondering how I was going to use my new Basil-Cilantro Pesto... Duh! In this, of course! Thank god I didn't waste half of it, slathered on some random piece of bread!

Everything I&T write in the intro to this recipe is true:

1) "You will be craving this from now on, mark our words."
2) "...red onions add just a hint of sweetness, color, and texture. Don't replace the red onions with regular ones unless you really have to."
3) "This also makes a great fast and fancy meal..."

a) It is delicious and crave-worthy.
b) The red onions are amazingly sweet - not maple sauce sweet (boo!), but just sweet enough to make you think, Wow, is all that sweetness coming from the onion? and then you run through the list of ingredients and realize, Yes!
c) This does come together in a snap and seems a lot more labor-intensive than it is, i.e. great effort/results ratio. Definitely worth pulling out when you want to dazzle but don't have much prep time.

For the record, when assembling the pasta and pesto, I had to add quite a bit of pasta water to loosen the pesto. I was adding it by the tablespoonful, and I would say I probably ended up adding
around 1/2 cup, all told.

In conclusion, yum and yummer! As much as I love parmesan and want to put it on everything, this dish was completely satisfying and delicious without it, and I can't recommend it highly enough!

SFO: 10

Day 96 - Basil-Cilantro Pesto

Basil-Cilantro Pesto 

I thought it would be nice to replace the memory of another recent pesto with this one....

And what a great idea! This is a much more familiar and happy-making pesto for me. The addition of cilantro is nice. (As long as you're not one of those people who taste soap when they eat cilantro - I'm not.) And the substitution of almonds in place of pine nuts is completely successful. I went easy on the fresh garlic - one large clove. I think the lemon juice here accomplishes what the parmesan covers in regular pesto - a little bit of zing. 

This pesto is nice and bright and yummy! Now, what am I going to put it on....

SFO: 10

Day 94 - Kabocha-Udon Winter Stew

Kabocha-Udon Winter Stew

Given that spring is already upon us, I figured I'd better cook this before it got positively balmy!

Unfortunately, it seems as if kabocha squash has run its course this season. The only winter squash options for me at the store were butternut and acorn, so I went with butternut because it's easier to peel. (I know that supposedly you don't have to peel kabocha, but I don't enjoy eating that skin...)

I appreciate the reference in the recipe to the joys of shopping in Asian markets, because I definitely have the experience of oohing and aahing over everything and then going home either empty-handed or with stuff I already know how to use. So it was fun to pick up a few new things for this dish. Namely, fresh udon noodles and fried tofu pouches! 

I think I may have made a little mistake in the tofu pouch dept. I bought the ones that are pre-seasoned to make inari, those sweet, rice filled pouches you get in sushi restaurants. Ah well, so my stew was a little sweeter than it should have been. What with the shiitake mushrooms, kombu, and shoyu, there was plenty of umami to counterbalance it.

One of the recipe directions I was confused by is the one regarding the preparation of the leeks: "1 large leek, washed well and sliced into 1/2-inch lengths." I'm pretty sure if they meant 1/2" half moons, they would have said. So I literally cut 1/2" wide strips the length of the leek, about 4 or 5 inches long. It seemed weird at the time, but once they were cooked in the stew, it didn't seem so crazy anymore.

As warned, the butternut took longer than kabocha to cook to tenderness, but there didn't seem to be any ill effect to the rest of the ingredients. 

This stew was amazing! Salty, sweet, lots of depth, but also really clean-tasting, like all great Asian stews. This is nothing like the American or European stew tradition - no unctuousness whatsoever. Just a clear broth with lots of flavor, beautifully cooked vegetables, and some tofu pouches for fun. Oh, and udon noodles! How could I forget! Those thick, white noodles - fatter than any noodle should be, but fun to slurp. I love this!

SFO: 9
(some omnivores might be scared of the tofu pouches, but they can pick around them)

Day 92 - Pistachio-Rose Water Cookies

Pistachio-Rose Water Cookies 

If I didn't already have a nickname for Alysha ("Scary"), I would dub her "Rosey" because she does love a rose-flavored thing. When I taste roses, it brings me right back to my grandmother's bathroom, not something I care to think about when I'm eating. But when she tastes roses, she swoons. So whenever I'm cooking up a rosey something, I want her here.

These ingredients are easily combined. The fun part for me was rolling the dough into balls and then pressing them into the chopped pistachios. It's a very effective method of covering the tops of cookies with chopped nuts! (So basic, but I'd never done it before.)

As for cooking time, I've had my experiences with other Veganomicon cookies where I think I've undercooked them, but once cooled, they seem well-timed. In this recipe, I&T write: "Bake for 13 minutes; they will be soft but that's okay, they will firm up as they cool." So I thought, I'm going to override my concern that they will be underdone. I'm going to take them out at 13 minutes. 

Big mistake. They were significantly underdone. In the lead-in to the recipe, these cookies are described as "light and airy, chewy and crispy all at once." No, no, sort of, and no. In the future, I'll go by my friend Barbara's baked goods doneness radar: Can you smell them from outside the oven? Then they're done.

As for taste, they're actually pretty good. What seemed like an egregious amount of rosewater actually balances out nicely with the vanilla and lime flavors, and cardamom, which usually kills a sweet for me, exists peacefully in the background. 

That terrible aftertaste I've been complaining about I now think was caused by baking powder with aluminum. (I did a little googling to see if anyone else had the same complaints, and aluminum seemed to be a common culprit.) I switched baking powders, and so far, no aftertaste! Yay!

I should add that Alysha's a fan of underdone baked goods (see Rosewater Pound Cake episode), so these totally worked for her. And I'll bet if I had left them in another couple of minutes, I'd have been a fan, too.

SFO: 10
(even with my quibbles, there's nothing here to prevent an omnivore from maximum enjoyment)

Day 91 - Homemade Vegetable Broth, Broccoli-Potato Soup with Fresh Herbs, Sweet Basil Pesto Tapenade, and Fresh Rosemary Focaccia

Homemade Vegetable Broth

Well, it's about time I made this recipe, after all my griping about the taste of commercial vegetable broth. And what is there to say? Of course, it's a million times better than that other stuff, which is so, I don't know, tomato-y? Heavy. Fake-tasting. This stuff tastes fo real.

And yet, it's awfully sweet. I wonder if some of the suggested optional add ins, like bay leaves and peppercorns, might have mitigated some of that sweetness.

I ended up with about 6 cups of broth, which means there was quite a bit of evaporation, considering I started out with 9 cups of water. Those 6 cups were chock full of flavor, with a rich medium brown color, not the orange of store-bought veg stock. (see photo) 

Someday, when I'm a real cook, I'll make homemade vegetable broth all the time. But for now, I might just lean on those handy little bouillon cubes. They may not have all the delicious depth of this broth, but they also don't have the tomato-y-ness of the packaged broth, and they get the job done....

SFO: 10


Broccoli-Potato Soup with Fresh Herbs

I know Marcy's a sucker for potatoes, so this soup seems right up her alley.

Here's another easy soup that's big on flavor. Yes, Broccoli and Potato get top billing, but the Herbs are the real stars here.

When I start the soup, I'm smelling smells and thinking, "That tarragon is going to be very dominant!" But then I add my flavorful and sweet veggie broth (yup, all 6 cups), then the potatoes and then the broccoli, and once that's cooked, the tarragon had found its place.

But wait, it's not over! A fistful of fresh mint and then another one of dill get thrown in at the last minute! It's pretty startling the difference this makes. Well, I should qualify that: the mint sort of settles into the background. In fact, I couldn't really distinguish it. But the dill becomes the MVP in those last five seconds!


Unfortunately for me, I'm not a dill fan, so this was a turn for the worse for me, but I think for all you dill lovers out there, this will be very happy-making. 

My aversion to dill aside, this recipe is solid. It's a yummy, creamy, chunky bowl of herby goodness.

SFO: 10


Sweet Basil Pesto Tapenade

Wow. I don't know what to say. This is probably the first recipe in the book that left me scratching my head. And scraping my tongue. 

There must be a misprint in the ingredients for this recipe because it tastes so crazy to me, I'm thinking it can't be the authors' true intent. 

The recipe starts out very straightforward: basil, walnuts and garlic, chopped in the food processor. Then olive and walnut oils, grated lemon zest, salt and pepper... and maple syrup?? OK, maybe a tiny splash, for that "lightly sweetened" taste. But there's 1/3C of maple syrup in here! That amount tips this over into dessert. It's super sweet... and super salty at the same time. And I usually love the salty-sweet combo, but here, it just tastes crazy. KA-RA-ZY!

Marcy and I stared at each other upon tasting it, speechless.

If you dare to try this, I recommend starting out with 2T of maple syrup and then see if you want any more. I'm guessing 2T would be plenty.

SFO: 0
(not safe for anyone, as written)


Fresh Rosemary Focaccia

In my culinary adventures, I've done my share of bread baking. Yeasted breads, I mean. And I've learned some good tips along the way. So when I read this recipe, I found it very confronting. There were so many things I knew would lead to certain unwanted results.... Do I make the adjustments to get the results I know I'd prefer? Or do I follow it to the letter?

Since this exercise is to cook every recipe as designed, I did just that. (With one exception: I used my mixer to knead the dough.)

FYI, I went with my typical 50/50 white and whole wheat flour split.

The first fork in the road that I struggled with: I wanted to combine all of the ingredients minus the salt, which I know prohibits autolysis, and then let the dough sit for the 20m autolyse process. But no, I added everything and kneaded. (Incidentally, the salt is left out of the recipe directions, but I'm assuming they must expect us to add it with everything else.)

Next, cover with a dish towel. Hmm. I wanted so badly to cover with plastic wrap, as every other bread recipe I've ever made has instructed, but I did as told. Result? A not very well risen dough ball with a dried out exterior. :-(

I let the dough rise for an extra 10 or 15 minutes, to see if it would rise a little more, but there wasn't much change, so I proceeded. I've never punched down or rolled out focaccia dough, but that's what I&T told me to do, so punch and roll I did.

The final fork, sprinkle with salt and rosemary leaves first, THEN brush with oil? I just couldn't follow that one, because I'd be brushing all the salt and rosemary right off! So I brushed with oil, then I sprinkled the salt and leaves, then I sprayed more oil, just in case there's a reason to want oil on top. (Never too much oil in focaccia!) And I couldn't bear to lay a dishtowel over that oily dough! It'd absorb it all! So I put my foot down and used my trusty plastic wrap.

OK, I guess I did veer away from the recipe a teensy bit at the end, but so much less than I longed to!

In the oven, the bread's rise was rather impressive. Perhaps the short rise time leading up to being baked accounts for the big oven growth.

And the bread turns out fine. I just think focaccia here is a misnomer. This bread tastes strangely like a quick bread, with a very soft crumb and crust. Well, in fact, it IS a quick bread! A yeasted quick bread. The more authentic focaccias (focacce?) I've made not only have risen for twice as long, but also they've included a sponge/starter, developed overnight at a minimum, so these two processes are incomparable. As are the results.

Is this loaf edible? Tasty, even? 
Absolutely. 

Is it cute? 
See for yourself. 
  
Is it focaccia? 
I don't think so....

SFO: 10
(just call it something else... Fauxcaccia?)

Day 89 - Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic and Navy Beans

Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic and Navy Beans

This recipe makes a TON of soup!

It really doesn't get much more stripped down than this barebones recipe. The only labor intensive part of this prep is dicing an onion and roasting a couple of garlic bulbs. Otherwise, you're just dumping mostly canned ingredients into a pot and stirring.

And that's pretty much what it tastes like. I mean, there's nothing offensive about this soup, but I'm glad I wasn't serving it to a big group. Maybe the quality of the soup rests on the quality of the canned tomatoes, and mine weren't up to snuff (although I should mention my personal food bible, Cook's Illustrated, recommended the brand I used).

One disappointment with this soup is the way the rice performs. Again, maybe basmati wasn't the best match here, but it was the long grain brown rice I had on hand. By the time the soup is cooked, the rice is completely blown out, so it resembles less rice than ground chicken or turkey.

The bigger disappointment is the overly acid taste of the soup. Here is where my cooking experience came in handy. I know that adding even a small amount of sugar to a tomato sauce can really cut the acidic taste, so for my second bowl, I tried adding just a pinch of sugar to the soup, and it totally worked! The soup was so much more palatable!

I added about a teaspoon to the leftovers, and I have to confess, eating it a day later, I'm enjoying it a lot more than my first taste yesterday. It's still not something I'll probably make again, but it's nice to know that there's a recipe in here for a big soup that's made up entirely of pantry staples. (Plus it's quite low in calories!)

SFO: 10

Day 79 - Banana-Date Scones and Hummus with Caramelized Shallots

Banana-Date Scones

Yessssssssssssss! 

And this, from a non-scone-fan.

When I hear the word "scone," I think of choking down dry crumbles of floury mass, tempered only by slatherings of dairy and jam. I guess that's probably what scones are: an excuse to eat clotted cream or butter and sugary fruit spreads.

Well, that all stops here. These are moist and delicious - no toppings necessary! And they are sweetened only with nature's candy, no white sugar here! Dates, bananas, and brown rice syrup provide all the sweetness these scones need.

I do not enjoy eating dates out of hand, but I sure do like them in breadstuffs! It's a bit of a chore to chop the sticky little mothers, but it's strangely fun and satisfying to toss the pieces in flour to separate them.

I didn't have rice milk on hand, but I did have coconut milk (not the canned Thai kind but rather the soy milk kind) which acquitted itself nicely.

Typo alert: Listed in the ingredients  following the spices is 1/2 teaspoon salt, however in the directions, there's no mention of salt. I put it in anyway with the spices, and I think the typo is that it was omitted in the directions.

These are so easy to make and couldn't be more delicious. I ate one still warm (yum) and then I tried one that had cooled down (also yum). Then the next day I tried another one per I&T's suggestion, split and toasted with vegan margarine (extra yum). I've shared them with two friends who've also given big thumbs up.

Now, I know I just said how great these are, but I want to talk about something that I'm finding is affecting my experience of all of the baked goods in this book. As wonderful as they all taste while you're eating them, I can't help noticing that they all leave me with a similar aftertaste, one that I don't experience with non-vegan baked goods. It's a chemical kind of taste, which leads me to think it might be the baking soda and/or powder. And that makes me wonder... Might there be something in eggs that somehow masks or absorbs this chemical taste? Anyone who's also found this aftertaste or has any knowledge of this phenomenon, please weigh in!

SFO: 10

Hummus with Caramelized Shallots 

You would think that by combining the deliciousness of hummus with the deliciousness of caramelized shallots, you'd create this amazing superfood that would conquer the world with its nuclear deliciousness.

And yet, I fear this is a case of diminishing returns. What I love about hummus, the interplay between creaminess and salt and tartness, is overwhelmed by the sweetness and unctuousness of the shallots. 

Don't get me wrong, it's edible. I'm eating it. It's not going to waste. But is this preferable to plain old hummus? I say no.

SFO: 10

Day 77 - Savory Buckwheat Crepes, Potato-Spinach Blintzes, and Mushroom Gravy

What a rare treat to have Jonathan over! He's a wonderful actor with whom I've had the privilege of performing in two shows. In one of them, we shared a huge dressing room that became known as "Gerry's Deli" because our third roommate used to bring bags and bags of antipasti and wine and serve it to the entire cast, who'd assemble on our couches. All that to say, Jonathan and I have enjoyed food together, but cooking for him brings it to a whole new level. As a fellow Jew, I knew he'd appreciate this old world treat, blintzes.

Savory Buckwheat Crepes

Jonathan got very excited about the idea of buckwheat crepes. I think it has to do with his fondness for kasha. While the buckwheat flour here doesn't really provide that strong kasha flavor, it does lend a weight that your average crepe doesn't have.

I&T warn that the buckwheat variation is a little trickier to execute, but I can't say I felt challenged by it. Again, I used my cast iron skillet, which, when properly greased, works great for crepe-making. I wonder if my pan was a little too hot, though, because I was finding it difficult to achieve a thinness of crepe. I'd pour in the batter, then swirl and swirl, but it was like I couldn't swirl it fast enough to spread it out super thin. Also, this batter is thicker than the plain one, so that might account for this issue.

But hey, this is Eastern European food - it should be hearty like peasant, no?

The crepes on their own taste great, although I have to say, they're a little on the sweet side...

SFO: 10 


Potato-Spinach Blintzes

Here's another Brunch dish that I'm repurposing for dinnertime, this time as an entree. I'm doing the Potato-Spinach variation because I knew that I was making the Mushroom Gravy, and I thought mushroom on mushroom would be overkill.

I&T say to use "1 pound of cooked, chopped fresh spinach" but I find that somewhat confusing. One pound of fresh spinach, cooked and chopped? Or cook a $#!tload of spinach and then weigh 1 pound of it? In any event, I took the easy way out and defrosted a one pound bag of frozen chopped spinach, and it worked great. The filling came together nicely. 

Typo alert: I think that it must be a mistake when they write "1/2 pound Yukon gold or other waxy potato (about 2 medium-sized potatoes)." Two medium sized potatoes weigh closer to a pound. A half pound of potatoes would make a meager amount of filling for 8-10 blintzes. I think I ended up using even more than a pound of potatoes for my filling, and yes, in an effort to used up all the filling, I overstuffed the blitzes, but not by much. I made eight gigantic blintzes. But given the weight of the crepes, the overstuffing seemed proportionate. 

As for the assembly, I wasn't particularly happy with the way it was going following I&T's directions. That might work for a more delicate blintz, but these were gezuntah blintzes and Jonathan had a much better idea: fold the top side over the filling, then fold over the right and left sides, then roll to seal on the bottom. Much tighter and cleaner. The ones that I folded that way were more likely to "seal" in the panfrying portion of the process.

Again, here's another potato dish that's amazingly satisfying. The buckwheat crepe combines really well with this savory filling. There's still a protein punch missing here, but you're so full and happy, you really don't care. As suggested, I served a green salad with this, which I'm going to assert is mandatory. Without something light like that on the plate, I might feel like I was going to starch hell.

SFO: 10


Mushroom Gravy 

I had high hopes for this one...

I have no complaints about the cooking process. It's really straightforward and simple, once you get past all the slicing. But the flavor... meh.

I think I need to try making it again with bouillon/a different broth. I used the Trader Joe's low sodium vegetable broth, which I just don't like. It's too... orange. Is it tomato that makes it so orange-y? Whatever it is, it has too assertive a flavor, and I think it ruins whatever I put it in, especially something particularly susceptible, like this sauce. The broth is such a big component. Maybe I just need to make I&T's homemade veggie broth recipe already...

SFO: 8
(nothing offensive here, but it doesn't compare well to a dairy-mounted mushroom sauce)

Day 76 - Smoky Grilled Tempeh, Sautéed Collards, and Cheater Baked Beans

I've got the calorie counters back! David and Trey are getting a healthy rendition of a down-home Southern feast. And luckily, one of us is actually from the South and can appreciate that. (You can probably figure out who...)
 
Smoky Grilled Tempeh

This is virtually identical to the Hot Sauce-Glazed Tempeh recipe, and it's great in all the same ways. The blanching of the tempeh removes most of the tempeh funkiness, and the marinade provides some flavor but doesn't overwhelm it. (I'd actually love to get MORE flavor into the tempeh. I wonder if a longer marinade would help, or maybe poking holes in the tempeh, although that might compromise the hold-togetherness of the cakes.)

In any case, these are nice and firm and meaty and savory, and these non-vegetarian guys were very happy to go back for seconds.

SFO: 8
(I'll say it again, I still think tempeh is going to be a tough sell for certain omnivores.)


Sautéed Collards

You just have to make this recipe with the tempeh recipe above, because the marinade from the tempeh becomes the sauce for this! It's mandatory!! It's sort of revolutionary to cook collard greens as little as this. We're so used to eating brown collards, cooked within an inch of their life, but these are actually green and have some bite. You'd think they'd be too bitter or chewy, cooked only for 12 minutes, but no, they are terrific! And think of all the vitamins and minerals you've spared from pot death!

SFO: 10


Cheater Baked Beans 

I have always hated baked beans. I'm convinced that baked beans are what ruined the whole legume family for me as a kid, since they're the only beans I was exposed to, and I couldn't get far enough away. They were mealy and slimy, and the flavor was confusing... Are they sweet? Salty? Porky? What's going on in there??

Well, I love these beans! They are delicious! Maybe it was because I was actually making them and I could see what was going into them and understand the things I was tasting. Or maybe it's because they taste a million times better than canned baked beans. 

I&T prefer these to the canned version because "they aren't cloyingly sweet." I actually find the sweetness of these more pronounced but more palatable. The ingredients here taste vivid and fresh, the canned beans taste muddy and blech.

The combination of these three dishes was great - tempeh for heft, collards for the veggie component, and these beans for sauce, sweetness, and creaminess. Perfect!

SFO: 10

Day 74 - Samosa Stuffed Baked Potatoes and 5-Minute Mango Chutney

Sue's here! She's such a good friend and easy-going eater. She came over once and tried some of my not-ready-for-prime-time food inventions, and she was so sweet about it.... Hopefully this will make up for that.

Samosa Stuffed Baked Potatoes

This is in the Snacks, Appetizers, Little Meals, Dips, and Spreads chapter, but I'm not clear which category it falls into, because these are Hearty with a capital H! I decided we would have a little Indian feast and that these would be the main attraction, and now I can't imagine serving them as anything but entree or side dish. I went with I&T's suggestions 100% and served them with Sautéed Spinach and Tomatoes and the chutney below. 

One good thing about this recipe is that you can pre-bake the potatoes the day before, which I did, letting them get to room temperature before starting the scooping out process. After that, it's pretty easy to put these together. I love the old Indian fried seed technique.

Here's a picture Sue took of me with the assembled potatoes about to go in the oven!

These are so filling and delicious! Two potato halves make for a very satisfying meal. Sue thinks that they are totally safe and friendly for all eaters, but I'm going to take a point off for this entree version, in honor of those omnivores who think the main attraction needs to have a protein presence.

SFO: 9



5-Minute Mango Chutney 

I appreciate that I&T acknowledge the inauthenticity of this recipe. It doesn't really resemble any classic chutney that I've had, which is not to say it doesn't taste great, especially with these potatoes. Mine came out rather watery, which was the biggest difference from the thick, marmalade-like chutney I'm accustomed to. I expected the asafetida to overwhelm the dish, but with this small amount, it's just an interesting background flavor. 

While this is a nice and relatively simple recipe, I think if I'm going to go to the trouble to dice a mango, grate ginger, mince garlic, and chop a jalapeño, I'd just as soon add all the other ingredients and cook it long enough to have a "proper" chutney.

SFO: 10


PS Sue was very happy with yesterday's Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies! Two thumbs up!

Day 73 - Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oops, no picture of these! I was just feeling like I needed to make some cookies today, and my friend Sue, who's wheat-free, is coming over tomorrow, so I thought it would be nice to be able to offer her one or five.

I didn't have oat flour on hand, so I put some rolled oats in my Magic Bullet, and voilà! It's kind of amazing that ground oats will substitute for flour in a cookie recipe. That said, the consistency of these cookies is unique, sort of like a lace cookie and veering toward tuile.  Not a complaint, just an observation.

The instructions say to bake these for 10-12 minutes. My first batch looked so underdone at 10 that I went to 12, but after letting them cool and tasting one, I wondered if maybe I should have taken them out earlier. The second batch only went for 10m, even though they looked not quite ready. Both batches were completely edible, but in the end, I think I preferred the 12m batch. These benefit from a bit of crunch, vs. more chew. Maybe 11m is the answer.

After rereading the recipe, I wonder if maybe I made these too small. I&T describe them as dense and crumbly. Mine were thin and either crispy (12m) or chewy (10m). Also, they say the recipe yields 18 cookies and I had more like 30. That should have been a tip off....

SFO: 10
(no one passes up a cookie)