Day 148 - Dijonaisse, Apricot BBQ Sauce, Baked BBQ Tofu, and Chocolate Chip Walnut Pound Cake

Dijonaisse

After my second experience making the Silken Mayo, I thought I had unlocked the key to the magic of the recipe, i.e. maple syrup vs. agave nectar. Alas, this batch was on the sweet side again. I think I'll just cut back a little on the syrup next time, as I have a lot of variations on this recipe yet to do....

I love mustard and I was hopeful for this, but it was only OK and languished in my fridge unused.

SFO: 4

Apricot BBQ Sauce

I love a fruity sauce. And I love apricots. This should have been a hole-in-one for me, but it ended up being only OK. I think I know why.

First of all, it was probably too early in the season to be cooking with apricots. They just didn't have that great apricot-ty flavor yet.

Second, I think there's something up with my liquid smoke. The flavor is just too overwhelming. I either need to cut back on the amount or change brands.

When it was time for tasting this sauce and adjusting the seasonings, I found I needed more maple syrup and more salt - it just seemed, I don't know, blah.

In the end, it was fine, but not the fruity wonder I was expecting.

SFO: 9

Baked BBQ Tofu

Hmm. Again, another recipe that should've been a winner but just didn't register.

First you bake slices of pressed tofu in oil and soy sauce. The tofu gets somewhat leathery, but not really fried. And then with all that oil in the baking pan, you pour the BBQ sauce on and keep cooking it. I couldn't help thinking that this dish would have benefited from removing the oil before adding the sauce.

It's possible that my results were skewed because I cooked this in a smaller pan than directed; the pieces seemed cramped during the first stage of cooking. (Who has a 9x18 baking pan anyway?)

Here's Alysha with some tofu on her plate, and the other picture is the baking pan with the tofu covered with BBQ sauce.
 
SFO: 3
Chocolate Chip Walnut Pound Cake

Definitely my favorite pound cake variation in the book so far!

I went out of my way not to overmix this, and the results were much better. So I'm going to declare a typo. Do not mix the pound cakes "with electric beaters for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, until a very thick batter forms." This is a recipe for a disastrous lump of uncooked batter at the bottom of your pound cake. Mix just until combined, maybe 30 seconds. The end.

If your oven is like mine, you can probably expect to cook the cake for 70 minutes or more. 

Otherwise... yum!

SFO: 10

Day 109 - Maple-Mustard Dressing, Spicy Tempeh and Broccoli Rabe with Rotelle, and Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies

Seth is back, braving the vegan wilds. And coincidentally, the main event is tempeh again.

Spicy Tempeh and Broccoli Rabe with Rotelle

By and large, this is a great recipe. Great interplay of flavors, textures, a little on the dry side, but if that doesn't bother you, you should be happy here. I just have a couple of quibbles.

First of all, typo alert. In the instructions for the tempeh steaming liquid, the vinegar is omitted, so don't forget to add that 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar to the tempeh liquid.

Secondly, I+T seem to think that broccoli rabe is the same thing as broccolini, and I disagree. The vegetable I've seen sold as broccolini has a broccoli rabe appearance but unlike broccoli rabe, it is very mild tasting, like American broccoli. 

Seth commented that this dish was very familiar-tasting to him, reminding him of the sausagey version. That bodes well for the SFO score....

SFO: 7
Even though this rang a happy sausage bell for Seth, I'm still downgrading a bit, because I think dyed-in-the-wool meat eaters will still balk at the tempeh substitution.


Maple-Mustard Dressing

In my opinion, this dressing carries an overly heavy maple wallop (not unlike that crazy pesto), but at least this is edible. And paired with the right salad fixin's, it satisfies. But don't kid yourself. This dressing is sa-weeeeet. Not something I see myself repeating, FYI.

SFO: 10
 

Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies

This is a dense little cookie! As I+T say in the recipe, there's no spreading when baking, so whatever shape you create when you put them in the oven, that's what you'll be taking out of the oven.

The flavor is good. Good. Not great, but good. And strangely, the raspberry participation is all but obliterated by that loudmouth, chocolate. We had to fight hard to find any berry presence. 

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 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 62 - Almond-Quinoa Muffins

Almond-Quinoa Muffins

Well, no one's going to confuse this with a coffee shop muffin. It definitely screams "Healthy!" That said, it comes together quickly, and it boasts a mere 1/4 cup agave nectar (or maple syrup) as its sugar quotient.

As usual, I've used half all purpose flour and half whole wheat pastry flour, as I've had great luck with this ratio in the past. I also happened to have red quinoa on hand, which I&T say looks "particularly charming here." See for yourself. :-)

The only quibble I have with this recipe is that it says to pour the batter into the muffin cups. There is nothing pourable about this batter. It is so thick, it can only be spooned. 

And in the typo department, the directions refer to adding baking soda, which is not in the ingredient list. Hmmm... missing ingredient or typo in the directions? I think I may have found an official (could this be the Terry?) response to the question here, which is: just use baking powder.

These muffins don't really brown, so determining doneness is a little tricky. My toothpick was dry at 20m, but I let them go a little longer, and I think they could have gone longer still.

The finished product is moist, just slightly sweet, and has that health-food-y quinoa taste. It's not bad. It's just not the dessert-y cupcake muffin we've become accustomed to in recent years. I like the almond undertaste. According to this nurtition website, this muffin has 114 calories, made up of 7g fat, 13g carbs, and 2g protein. Not bad! Maybe I'll have another....

SFO: 10 

Day 21 - Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, Poppy Seed-Cornmeal Roti, Mashed Spiced Sweet Potatoes, and Holiday Cranberry Sauce

Tonight was Book Club, aka Jeff's Book and Cook Club. See, after I cooked my way through Martha's book, I missed the constant dinner parties and entertaining, so I invited a bunch of friends to be a part of a book club for which I would provide meals inspired by whatever we just read. And here we are over two years later, celebrating our 18th selection/dinner together. 

Notice I didn't say "book" in that last sentence, because tonight was a Wild Card dinner. After every eighth book, we have a Wild Card selection, i.e. something that doesn't fall into one of the categories we regularly cycle through, namely: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Epic (anything over 500 pages), and Classic (anything published before 1965). For example, our first Wild Card entailed reading a month's worth of The New Yorker. Tonight's Wild Card selection entailed watching four specific Woody Allen movies. 

I know, I know, it's not a book. It's not even a magazine. It didn't involve reading in any shape or form, but it was what the group voted for, so tonight we had Chez Woody with a meal inspired by those four movies. It was a decidedly un-vegan meal, but I did manage to incorporate four recipes from the book!

Our cocktail hour brought The Annie Hall-way of Finger Foods, mostly non-vegan selections, descriptions of which I will spare you, but I did include what I called Self-Hatred Hummus, as a nod to Woody's line in the film that sums up his basic ideology: "I would never wanna belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member."

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

I hate bell peppers. Unless I'm forgetting something, they're the only food I absolutely despise. I can smell, taste, sense them a mile away. If a pepper passes over a pot while it's cooking, the whole dish is tainted for me. It's not just a taste thing, it's also an indigestion thing: bell pepper is the awful taste that keeps on giving.

And if you know anything about this book, you know that it is positively RIDDLED with bell peppers. So how am I going to handle this? Like any good, self-hating, rule-following Jew, I'm going to prepare all the recipes verbatim, even those with the dreaded peppers. Hopefully, there will be people around me to enjoy them. I will taste everything, but chances are 99.9% that anything with peppers will not get a second bite from me. (FYI, this doesn't apply to jalapeño or serrano or any chile peppers. Those I'll eat.)

That's why I dubbed this dip Self-Hatred Hummus. Because I would never want to eat it. But other people did, and evidently it was fine. That's Adinah posing with it above.

SFO: 10

Poppy Seed-Cornmeal Roti

The first course was inspired by the film Crimes and Misdemeanors, which is a film almost completely devoid of food and food references. In one scene, Woody and Mia are eating take-out Indian, and he jokes, "How's the Tandoori Mouse?" So in a desperation move, I went Indian for this course. I made this Carrot Pachadi recipe and served it with the Poppy Seed-Cornmeal Roti.

Poppy Seed-Cornmeal Roti is the recipe that ate my afternoon. It's not that it's so hard, it's just time-consuming. I hadn't done the math, but if you're making ten of something that needs to be cooked for 3-4 minutes on both sides, that's 60-80 minutes of cooking time! And that doesn't even include the painstaking process of brushing and folding and sprinkling of crumbs and multiple rollings that these require. Oy.

And to add insult to injury, after all that work, I think I must have made one or more very big mistakes here. While the flavors were really nice (though could've been saltier... I know, broken record), the rotis were tough and dried out, not even remotely "soft, flaky, buttery" as described.
 
Here are my guesses for where the bad turn happened: 1) I rolled them too thin. 2) My pan was too hot. 3) I didn't wrap them or reheat them well. 4) I over-kneaded them to begin with. 5) I increased the recipe by 50%.

1) I saw the instruction to roll into "as thin a circle as possible" and went for it.
2) In retrospect, I realize I should've turned the flame down when I saw the big black spots forming on the breads. I mean, little black spots are good, but big ones? My bad.
3) I wrapped them in a damp dish towel as they were being made, and rewarmed them tightly wrapped in foil, all as directed, but I think the damage may have been done already.
4) I let my KitchenAid mixer knead for me (with the dough hook). And maybe I let it go on too long. 5-6 minutes of kneading by hand might not mean 5-6 minutes of machine kneading.
5) Upping the recipe by 50% should have set me up for 12 small rotis. What I got were 10 very large rotis. This makes me think #1 is at least one of the culprits.

Also, I assert that there's a typo in here.  It has to do with the oil. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons in the crumbs part of the recipe, plus more for brushing. However, there is also an instruction in the recipe to coat the just-kneaded roti dough in a tablespoon of oil before it rests. I think that that tablespoon is meant to be factored into the 2 tablespoons that it appears are meant to go into the crumbs.

Here's the problem: when you add 2 tablespoons of oil to the crumbs ingredients, you don't get crumbs, you get paste. If it were 1 tablespoon to coat the dough ball, and 1 tablespoon for the crumbs, I think the crumbs would end up with the right, crumby consistency.

And should I even address the ludicrous "typo" that says these take 30 minutes? Simply cooking 8 rotis takes between 48-64 minutes, and that doesn't include assembling the ingredients (5m), kneading (5m), resting time (10m minimum), and rolling and folding and brushing and crumbling (1,000,000m). Even if you roll out the next roti while you're cooking the last one, you will need to set aside about an hour and a half for this recipe. Trust me.

As for the taste, delicious. Even tough and dried-out, my book club buddies enjoyed this. That's my cousin Harriet nibbling on one.

SFO: 10

(I'm not going to punish this recipe for my own mistakes. If made well, I'm sure anyone would be happy to eat them.)
 
Mashed Spiced Sweet Potatoes

The main course got its inspiration from Hannah and Her Sisters, which begins and ends with two consecutive Thanksgiving dinners. There's a no-brainer! 

Mashed sweet potatoes always have a place on the Thanksgiving table! As for I&T's take on them, it's easy, straightforward, traditional even. The only thing distinguishing these from your average Thanksgiving side dish is the absence of butter (enter vegetable oil). Very tasty, and a good candidate for making ahead. Reheats well.

SFO: 10 

(Even Tracy ate it!) 

Holiday Cranberry Sauce 

One of my favorite Thanksgiving ingredients is fresh cranberries. I was so excited to see that they were still available in the stores. I was curious to try this recipe because of the agar addition. I've never used a thickening agent for cranberry sauce, but it must be because there's more liquid (apple cider) and less sugar than your typical versions. 

Warning: watch this pot carefully! Evidently apple cider with agar in it really loves to boil over. It happened to me twice!

As for the taste, good. The apple cider doesn't change the flavor profile too much. The cranberries dominate. The agar doesn't seem to bind this a whole heck of a lot. It was soupier than my traditional version. Ultimately, not preferable, but fine. Annie liked it.

SFO: 10

(It's safe to serve to anyone, but I won't be using this recipe come Thanksgiving.)  

P.S. Dessert was a non-vegan French Apple Cake inspired by Midnight in Paris. I almost made the Apple Galettes from the book, but I thought it might be too much to take on....

Day 13 - Mediterranean Olive Oil and Lemon Vinaigrette, Cheezy Sauce, Mac Daddy, and Spaghetti and Beanballs

This was a big day for Veganomenkrantz! Two meals, with two different sets of challenges!

PART ONE - The Cousins from D.C.

My first cousin, Stacey, is in town, visiting from Maryland, with husband David and children Sam (12), Ben (11) and Hannah (8). It so happens that they keep kosher, so the good news is, a vegan meal takes all the guesswork out of it. Everything's kosher! And Stacey and David are very open-minded eaters (unlike another of the cousins, I'm told). It was going to be interesting to see what the kids would and wouldn't eat. Macaroni and "cheese" seemed like a good bet, but I had a lot of emergency back-up plans in place.

Mediterranean Olive Oil and Lemon Vinaigrette

At the last minute, I realized I needed a dressing for the simple salad I put together. Luckily, I had all the ingredients on hand for this. It's very straightforward, very herb-dense. I would say that while the juice to oil ratio is on the healthier side, it's not a dressing that will emulsify like an oilier version. (A little mustard might have helped with that.) Also, it's relentlessly tart - a blip of agave might mitigate that.

SFO: 10 

(really, n/a)

Cheezy Sauce

This is the big sauce for the Mac Daddy, and I was very anxious to see how I&T approximated cheese sauce. It's very convincing! I used a very orange-y vegetable broth (actually half broth, half water) so my cheezy sauce was quite orange. There's a big garlic presence here. And the mustard, though only a small amount, really stands out flavor-wise.

I don't know anything about nutritional yeast (although I just googled it), so I was curious to see it in action. The flakes basically melt into the sauce, and I'm guessing what they provide is flavor and maybe color. So the main thickener here must be the flour, although it's interesting that I&T are able to get away with a 4:1 ratio of flour to fat. I thought the standard ratio was 1:1 for thickening. Yet another way in which I&T have come through for the fat-averse.

All in all, I'm impressed. It's not cheese sauce, no one will ever suspect it's cheese sauce, but it's a great-tasting, similarly-textured alternative. Cool!

SFO: 6

(I think this could be a tough sell because it's hard to explain what exactly it is. It can be scary when the main ingredient is something most people haven't heard of...) 


Mac Daddy

Here is the casserole itself! The components are a pound of extra-firm tofu, seasoned and crumbled to ricotta consistency, 3/4 pound of cooked macaroni, and two recipes worth of Cheezy Sauce. It's very easy to assemble, and the look is almost right. (Obviously, the sauce doesn't behave in the oven like a real cheese topping would. Maybe a crumb topping would have helped here.)

Flavor-wise, I'm going to say the same thing about this that I said about Cheezy Sauce. It's not a perfect imitation, but it's a "great-tasting, similarly-textured alternative." (Maybe that needs to be an acronym here. GTSTA. Or NAPIBAGTSTA. I'll get back to you on that.)

Now the real test was going to be the children. The first to taste it was Sam, who was already grooving on the smell from the oven. He gave it... a perfect 10! Wow!! Next was Ben, who was a little less excited ("7") but still happy to eat it. And then there was Hannah: "2. No wait, 1."  Ah well, it would have been too easy if they all liked it. For the record, the adults were pretty satisfied. That's Sam with a mouthful. :-)

SFO: 7

(This is the rough average of all our ratings put together.)


 



And here's Hannah with her fall-back-plan muffin. (Which she said was a 10.)






 


And here's the whole family (that's Ben with the book). It was so great to see them all and to share this food adventure with them! Thanks you guys!!








PART TWO - Tracy C.

One of my all-time best friends, Tracy C. has a very unique attitude about food. There are things she's really happy to eat, and things that are completely out of the question. Which I guess describes everybody, but Tracy has some pretty basic things in the second column, i.e. pretty much anything that could be described as a sauce, condiment, dressing, or creamy in any way. So cooking for her presents specific challenges... Luckily, tomato sauce is one of the few loopholes, and spaghetti and meatballs is one of her favorite things. So trying this recipe on her was a no-brainer. And there's no one better in the role of SFO barometer.


Spaghetti and Beanballs 

After my experience with the Black Bean Burgers, I had really high hopes for how these beanballs would turn out. The burgers' combination of mashed beans and wheat gluten was really yummy and the texture was excellent! Alas, similar ingredients here resulted in a much different outcome....

There must be a typo or mistake in this recipe, because the consistency of these is all off. They don't hold together in the pan. The first issue points to the beans department. The recipe says to use a "20oz can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained, (about 3 cups)." First of all, I could not find a 20oz can of beans. So I found a 25oz can of beans, drained them, and used 4/5 of them (by weight). This did not equal three cups of beans. It was probably closer to two. Would more beans have helped here? I'm guessing no. I think the number that's off is the amount of wheat gluten. Or the bread crumbs. Also, must they be dried bread crumbs? Because I used fresh....

I knew something was wrong when I was kneading. It was quite wet, and I wasn't seeing any of the gluten-y strands forming. It's dense enough that the balls can be shaped successfully, but it's certainly not firm, as I&T say it should be. So when you try to brown them in oil, they start disintegrating. Boo.

My next issue is what could only be described as a missing instruction in the pan frying version of the recipe. You are told to pan fry them in 1/4 inch of olive oil (see photo). Then, you add 1/3 cup of sauce to the pan with the beanballs, cook them fifteen minutes longer, and then serve them with "sauce." Can you picture it? That "sauce" is one part marinara to 10 parts olive oil. No one wants to eat something swimming in that!?! The missing instruction must be to drain the oil off, right?? I got out my baster, and sucked as much out of the pan as I could.

Meanwhile, the only way to get the beanballs to hold a shape was to fry them to the point of burnt. At least the burnt ones had some flavor to them... that's right: to add insult to injury, these are not  particularly well-seasoned either.

Geez, I feel like I'm being so harsh, but I had such high hopes for these being a happy introduction to vegan food for Tracy. Is there an official I&T recipe correction? Or do they stand by this recipe as written?? Hmmm.

Look at Tracy - she's being such a good sport. She even ate the beanball!

SFO: 0

(not even safe for vegans)

Day 11 - Silken Mayo Dressing and Applesauce-Oat Bran Muffins

Silken Mayo Dressing

Yet another example of the magical powers of I&T to transform a bunch of unsuspecting ingredients into a whole new thing. With a little help from oil and vinegar, a block of tofu becomes mayo! Amazing!

Now, if you haven't already figured out by looking at my name (or the name of this blog), I'm Jewish, and therefore I'm mayo-resistant. It must be a cultural thing. The only times I've ever used mayo are to make chicken salad or tuna salad, or maybe to add a teeny tiny amount to cole slaw or to stir into a much larger amount of mustard on a turkey sandwich. So unfortunately, the wonders of this recipe are wasted on me. I now have 2.5 cups* of mayo and nothing I want to put it on. I forced myself to eat a salad dressed with it, so it wouldn't have been for naught. I would NEVER have put mayo on a green salad, but this was actually okay.

If I were comparing this recipe to commercial mayo, I'd say that it's almost identical in texture (a little more pourable) and color, and it skews sweet, something I've never liked in a mayo. Next time I make this, I think I'll ease up on the agave nectar.

But here's the thing: the caloric difference between this and commercial mayo is crazy! My math may be off, but I think 2.5 cups of Hellmann's mayo is about 3600 calories, and 2.5 cups of Silken Mayo Dressing is 700 calories! And a lot of them are protein! I mean... come on! Give it up for I&T!!

(For those of you out there who are not vegan and have never experienced homemade mayo, you need to try it asap. It bears no resemblance to Hellmann's. It's deluxe and delicious and tastes like France, and even this mayo-hater was entranced. I should mention, 2.5 cups of it are 4920 calories, but they're worth it.)

SFO: 7

(Close enough to mayo and far enough from tofu to convince a meat-eater, but not quite a slam dunk.)

*Typo alert: Opposite of yesterday's overstated Marinara Sauce yield, this dressing makes almost twice as much as the 1.5 cups I&T says it yields.

Applesauce-Oat Bran Muffins

My cousin Stacey is in town this weekend, visiting from Washington DC, and I'm having her and her clan over for lunch on Monday. Since there are three chilluns on the guest list, I thought Mac Daddy, i.e. Mac and "Cheese," would be in order, but Stacey suggested that a better idea might be to serve Mac with the "cheese" on the side. Uh oh! Sounds like a challenge! Perfect SFO judges, right??

Always one to tempt fate, I'm going to make the Mac Daddy anyway, but I'll have a safety stash of plain macaroni ready to go, in case the Daddy doesn't go down. And just to be sure they don't go hungry, I made a batch of these muffins!

Here's another easy-to-assemble, lightened-up baked goods recipe, very light on the oil, heavy on the good-for-you (oat bran, applesauce, and whole-wheat pastry flour). Really, this recipe comes together so quickly, there's no reason not to whip up a batch of muffins anytime you think of it!

The result is moist and delicious. The only caveat is that there's a hefty dose of ground cardamom in this recipe: it's an unusual spice, and if you're not familiar with it, I could understand if you were put off by that unfamiliar taste in an otherwise familiarly-flavored muffin. Personally, I prefer cardamom in savory applications, but even so, it doesn't ruin these muffins for me. I'm just going to take off a point or two when it comes to the SFO.

For the record, I baked these with the convection setting on, and they were done a little earlier than I&T's 28-30 minutes. As my friend Barbara taught me, when they start to smell, they're probably done, or almost done.

SFO: 9

(One point off for the big cardamom presence.)

Day 10 - Marinated Italian Tofu and Mushroom Marinara Sauce

Marinated Italian Tofu

I had a package of tofu in my fridge nearing extinction, so I thought I'd whip it out tonight and try one of I&T's cooking methods for this vegetarian standby.

Those people who knew me in the 90's remember that I was a diehard vegetarian for the better part of that decade... so I put in some major time with tofu back then, since it was one of the only games in town for us veggies. But it had been a while since I pressed a block of tofu, and I couldn't remember the best way. I had stuck it in a colander with a can of tomatoes on top, but then I did a little googling, and I found this. Genius! This REALLY gets the job done!

I decided to bake it, since I've never really embraced my cast iron grill pan, and I've been putting off pulling it out. (It's so hard to clean between the ridges!) 

I should mention that the baking version takes longer than the grilled version. Add about 15 minutes. (The parchment was my idea, not I&T's.) And I did opt for the extra credit broil at the end.

The result? Good. Very respectable. Of course, I wasn't dressing it up with any sauciness or folderol. I just ate it as is. They nicely straddled the line between tender and chewy, with enough flavor from the marinade to be tasty and little enough flavor to be able to be a supporting character in another ingredient's vehicle.

SFO: 5

(Eaten alone, these are great for vegetarians but not likely to convert a meat-eater. In the context of a more specific meal, I can see these getting a higher SFO score.)

Mushroom Marinara Sauce

Well, there's nothing unusual about this marinara recipe: it's very straightforward and very good! Tons of garlic, and a sprinkling of dried herbs. I have to confess, after my "internships" with Martha and Cooks Illustrated, I was very haughty about fresh herbs over dried. I&T don't seem to traffic in fresh herbs, and I thought this was going to be a problem for me, but I'm surprised to learn that dried herbs taste good too! Who knew?

Typo alert: I do have one gripe about the recipe as printed. It says that it yields 5 cups. But I'm here to tell you, it doesn't. It's not even 4 cups. When you do the math, it makes sense: the only ingredient with heft is the 28 oz can of tomatoes. 28 ounces is 3.5 cups. In weight, and in this case in volume. I can't imagine a 28 oz can of tomatoes that could yield 5 cups of sauce. I added a whole lot of mushrooms to this sauce, and I still ended up with less than 4 cups total.

SFO: 10

Day 8 - Spicy Peanut and Eggplant Soup

Spicy Peanut and Eggplant Soup

Nice. Not my cup of tea, but nice. I'm not really clear about this flavor profile, but if I had to guess, I'd say African. There's peanut butter, but it's not your classic Asian peanut butter treatment, i.e. sesame or hoisin flavors. Instead, it's heavy on the tomatoes, with ginger and eggplant and cilantro, and as I mentioned when I made the Spinach with Tomatoes, the tomato-ginger combo is not my fave. Still, this is a solid recipe that turns out a solid soup. More like a stew, actually.

I do have a gripe though. It has to do with I&T's alleged cooking time: 1 hour, 20 minutes. Not even close! I mean, if you do the math, the shortest possible time from start to serve is 2 hours. What's more likely is 2:20-2:30. Granted, the last half hour is spent waiting for the soup to cool (flavors to meld?) before you're "allowed" to salt it. (And you know I salted it. Liberally.) So it's not like you're spending 2.5 hours solid over the stove. But still, that's a significant time difference. I think I'm going to classify this as another typo alert.

About that salt, again there's none added in the body of the recipe. There may be some in the tomatoes or the peanut butter you use, but there's no extra addition. And this really needs it. I made the mistake of tasting this dish before the first big simmer. Ugh. It tasted like nothing! Then I tasted it again after the last ingredient went in, and after all that simmering, it had a much broader, more interesting flavor, but still, no salt! Is this just salt-crazed me? Unfortunately, I ate this solo, so I couldn't ask someone else for a reality check, but there are leftovers, and I will be quizzing some lucky person.
 
I ate it, as suggested, with jasmine rice, which was perfect. And I definitely recommend using all the optional garnishes: the chopped cilantro (not really a garnish, it goes in with the lemon juice), the cilantro leaves and the chopped peanuts. They really boosted the flavor!

Incidentally, I&T describe this soup as being "naughty," i.e. not low fat, and "outrageously rich and savory." I didn't find it to be that heavy. The overwhelming flavor here is tomato, and therefore it skews to the acid side of things. The flavors that I associate with rich and savory and heavy (salt, fat, cream) stayed in the background, so this dish didn't feel like it weighed me down. Of course, I didn't check the calorie count....

SFO: 7

(There's nothing that screams scary-vegan about this... no weird grains, beans, or soy products... but I find the flavor profile to be quite unusual, so that's why there are points off. Funny, I give vegans credit for generally embracing unusual flavors, and I assume that meat-eaters will be turned off by them. I acknowledge that there are both adventurous meat-eaters and fussy vegans out there, but I'm sticking with this rating anyway.)

Day 7 - Black Bean Burgers

Black Bean Burgers

Typo alert!

There is a grave typo in this recipe, as well as a second, possible omission. After doing a little internet snooping, it seems as if there are quite a few known typos in Veganomicon. There's been much discussion on various chat boards, so I've tried to notate in my cookbook as many I could find, and as for the rest, I guess I'll have to uncover them on my own. I'm sure I don't have a first edition (it was printed in 2007) as some of the discussed typos have been corrected, however many of them remain, even in the Kindle version, which I also own. A lot of them are grammatical, but some, more crucially, affect the food itself. 

 Like today's.

This burger comes together easily, exactly as described. I found it interesting how I&T treated the garlic (grate on microplane) and onion (grate on box grater). Both techniques render these vegetables basically liquid, which is actually a nice way to add moisture to a burger while getting access to all that flavor. Clever...

The possible omission I alluded to above is, again, the absence of salt. Yes, there's salt in canned beans, but it's my belief that I&T intended us to salt this burger base, at least a little. 1/4 teaspoon maybe?


The big problem comes in the description of forming the burgers. The instruction is to roll the mixture into six firm balls, then press each one down to form a 1 1/2" thick patty. I should have realized there was a problem, as the balls themselves were roughly 1 1/2" in diameter. I pressed on the balls lightly, and I ended up with a roughly 3/4"-thick slider-sized thingamajig. Of course, they were too thick to behave in the skillet as intended. I left them in much longer than the projected 5 minutes on each side, and they were still not quite cooked through when I felt I had to take them off, as they had browned to their limit. I feel quite sure the recipe should have read: form into 1/2" patties. A thinner patty would have flattened into a full-burger-sized burger, and it would have cooked through, given the same treatment.

And yet... and yet... even without salt, even with the weird shape and undercooking, they were still amazing! Awesome flavor, awesome texture, great, great recipe! I can't wait to try these again, with the proper thickness!


SFO: 9

(So close to a 10, and extremely high marks for a homemade veggie burger. The chunky beans offer a nice meaty texture, but the burger is not quite meaty enough to warrant a perfect score for non-vegans. But VERY close...)