Vegan Mofo #14: Peruvian Corn Puree with Fried Tofu...

Corn is a staple food in Peru, it’s been around since the time of the Inca’s. There are two main varieties, one that grows near the coast that has a slightly bland flavor, and one that grows in the mountains that has a sweeter flavor. Though I don’t typically eat much corn when I’m at home, we did eat quite a bit of it while we were there. It’s cheap, filling and plentiful which makes it such a relied upon crop. Fish too is a staple food in Peru, what with Peru having such a long coastline fish and seafood are abundant. Peruvian cuisine is an interesting blend of South American tradition, Inca influence, Spanish influence, with some Indian and Asian influences due to various waves of immigration over the years.

For this recipe I used tofu in place of fish, and though it doesn’t have an overly fishy taste I think ti works really well here. I kept the tofu a little on the bland side because the corn puree has so much flavor. The planks of tofu make the perfect little scoops for eating up the corn. Though this is a relatively simple dish you’ll be immediately impressed by the powerful flavor punch!

Peruvian Corn Puree with Fried Tofu 

2 tsp Olive Oil (or more as needed)
1 16oz Bag Frozen Yellow Corn thawed
2 ½ Cups Water (or more if needed)
½ Bunch Cilantro
1 Red Onion Diced
2 Vegan Chicken Bouillon Cubes
½ tsp Ground Cumin
½ tsp Smoked Salt
1-2 tsp Sriracha
1 lb Extra Firm Tofu drained and pressed for 1 hour.
1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste
Kelp or Dulse flakes if desired
Lime Juice and extra Sriracha to serve

- Place the thawed corn in a high-speed blender with 1 cup of water and blend on medium for a few seconds until you have a chunky puree.

- Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the onion and saute until nice and golden. Add the cumin, smoked salt, bouillon cubes, sriracha and a ½ cup of water. Whisk together and simmer for 2 minutes or until bouillon cubes have dissolved.

- Add the corn puree to the pan with the onions and spices and stir to combine.

- Blend the cilantro and the remaining 1 cup of water together on high, until completely smooth. Add the cilantro mixture to the pan and stir to combine with the corn. Simmer for 10 minutes. Taste for salt and heat and adjust seasoning as needed.

- Divide the corn puree among serving bowls, wipe out the pan and fry your tofu.

- Heat the remaining oil in your pan over medium high heat.

- Slice your slab of Tofu into 3 pieces. Slice each piece into 3 more pieces so you have 9 planks of tofu.

- Place the flour in a shallow bowl and season with sea salt, pepper and either kelp or dulse.

- Dredge each plank of tofu through the flour until it’s coated on all sides.

- Carefully place each plank of tofu into the hot pan and fry until golden brown on each side. About 5-6 minutes a side. Make sure to flip at least once, to prevent burning or sticking.

- Serve each bowl of Corn Puree topped with a few planks of tofu, a drizzle of lime juice, and a bit of extra sriracha if you like things spicy. Enjoy!

Our 8 Year Anniversary...

The 25th of August was me and my Husband’s anniversary, and though our celebration was pretty low key this year we did start the day off right with a delicious breakfast. I didn’t go all out this year as I tend to do some years because I didn’t get home from work until 8am and then we had a little overnight getaway planned. I chose three simple - yet tasty - dishes from my new copy of Mastering the Art of Vegan Cooking by Annie and Dan Shannon (of Betty Goes Vegan fame)

A combination of something savory and something sweet sounded just right to me and so I started with the Cinnamon Peach Skillet Rolls. Yes, these are exactly what they sound like, Cinnamon Rolls filled with sliced peaches with a peach glaze. Oh my god! I don’t know why I don’t make Cinnamon Rolls more often! They are a bit time consuming but always so worth the effort. Unfortunately my cast iron skillet wasn’t near big enough to accommodate the rolls and so I ended up just baking them in a glass dish, but that’s okay, they were amazing regardless. We each ate 2 right out of the gate, and they didn’t survive longer then a second day, that’s how fantastic these were.

For the ‘main’ course I made the Tofu a la Goldenrod which is a simple plain seasoned tofu scramble served over toast and drenched in a milk based gravy. It probably sounds weird, and if you’re like me you might even think that sounds slightly disgusting, but trust me, it was soooo good! The only reason I even made it was because it was simple and I thought I could at least utilize the tofu scramble even if I wasn’t interested in drenching it in gravy but I’m really glad I took the chance on this dish as it was super filling, and so unexpectedly wonderful. I loved the flavor combo of the tofu, the toast, and the savory gravy.

As a side I made the Roasted Red Flannel Hash, which is a standard Hash of potatoes and beets baked in the oven with red onion and some spices, there’s even kale thrown in there for good measure. This was pretty good too, though I thought it could use a bit more salt, but that’s me.

It was a fantastic way to start our anniversary, and the perfect opportunity to try out some new and interesting recipes.

Peaceful Easter 2015...

I trust everyone had a lovely Easter weekend. Mine was relaxed and uneventful. The week of Easter I came down suddenly with a horrible flu that had me in bed for three days. It took me quite by surprise since I’m rarely sick and haven’t had the flu since I was about 12 years old. In the past ten years I’ve only vomited twice, once due to excess of alcohol, and once due to nervousness, and so it took me some time to recover. Though I was mostly better by the time Easter came around I chose to stay home rather then celebrate with my husband’s family. I felt I needed a little more recovery time and so I enjoyed the afternoon reading in the sun, and made a nice, but small dinner for the two of us to enjoy when he returned from his family’s party.

You know how much I love to go ‘all-out’ for holidays but since I’d been sick - and my appetite hadn’t returned at all yet - I wasn’t in the mood for preparing a grand dinner. Instead I pulled out my copy of “Vegan Holiday Kitchen” by Nava Atlas and chose a few simple dishes to make for dinner.

Moroccan Vegetable Soup

The first thing that caught my eye in the book was the Moroccan Vegetable Soup with Matzo Balls  Technically it’s from the Passover Chapter not the Easter Chapter but close enough I reasoned, and besides what better food to eat after being sick then a warm comforting bowl of soup? This particular soup contained leeks, potatoes, carrot, celery, turnip, tomatoes, cumin, turmeric, dill, parsley, and of course matzo balls which I made separately. The soup was also suppose to have mushrooms but for some reason the thought of mushrooms turned my stomach, and so I left them out.

Matzo Balls 

Moroccan Vegetable Soup with Matzo Balls 

I really enjoyed this soup and it was so easy to prepare. I loved the combination of flavors and it was a really hearty meal, but If I’m being honest I like Nava’s traditional Matzo Ball Soup better. I made that last year for Passover and it went over like gangbusters.

Moroccan Flavored Tofu with Apricots and Olives 

Quinoa 

For our main meal I made the Moroccan-Flavored Tofu with Apricots and Olives from the Rosh Hashanah Chapter. Since I made Moroccan soup I thought I’d keep the North African theme, and besides this sounded so good. Tofu with olives and apricots, I loved the idea of a sweet, salty, tart dish. The dish uses pre-baked marinated tofu, and so I picked up some Italian-style Baked Tofu from the store. Under normal circumstances I probably would have just baked my own tofu but since I was still recovering I was happy for the short-cut in prep time. In addition to green olives and apricots the dish also had onion, green onion, garlic, broth, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, lemon juice, agave, slivered almonds and parsley. Nava suggests in the book to serve this over Quinoa which I did. Just a simple pot of boiled quinoa seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley. Man was this dish fantastic, I can easily see making this regularly.

Moroccan Flavored Tofu over Quinoa
with Moroccan Carrots 

For a side dish I went with the simple Moroccan Carrots also from the Passover Chapter. These were super simple saute carrots cooked in oil, garlic, lemon, parsley, chives, salt and pepper. I left off the sliced almonds, but loved the touch of lemon zest added to this dish. These carrots were beyond perfect, I only wish I’d had a bigger appetite so I could have eaten more.

Moroccan Carrots 

For dessert I actually picked a recipe from the Easter Chapter and went with the very simple - but super delicious - Strawberry Snack Cake. This is basically a vanilla cake with a strawberry topping. You make the topping by cooking strawberries with sugar and water and cornstarch until it’s thick then pour it over the cake. Unfortunately my topping didn’t want to stay put and it kind of dripped and spread out all over the plate but the cake was nonetheless delicious. I especially loved the idea of it because it was light and fluffy, the perfect dessert for an early Spring day.

Strawberry Snack Cake 

So that was our Easter. Perfectly peaceful and though I didn’t eat much, what I did eat I enjoyed. It was my first real meal for the entire week, as I’d previously only been able to keep down some watermelon and toast.

I hope everyone else had a great holiday and if you haven’t tried out any recipes from “Vegan Holiday Kitchen” you should give it a look, so far everything I’ve made out of this book has been fantastic!

Celebrating The Lunar New Year 2015...

Thursday was Lunar New Year, if you celebrate it I hope you had a good time. I typically don’t celebrate Lunar New Year, not because I don’t enjoy it, but because since moving to Illinois I often forget when the holiday is upon us. Living in Vancouver it’s hard not to know when the Lunar New Year is beginning. The signs are all over, the minute you enter Chinatown, and I used to spend a lot of time in Chinatown. I’m sure the Lunar New Year is a popular event in Chicago’s Chinatown but outside of that, not too many people around these parts seem to care. Then of course in many years previous I have actually been on vacation during the Lunar New Year, so it’s hard to celebrate when you’re in the jungle, or hiking a mountain. This year however our vacation is coming a month later then usual, and so I was free to celebrate.

Honestly, I was really tired from a long night at work, but I didn’t want to let that stop me from making and then eating something delicious. The meal I ended up whipping together is in no way ‘traditional’ but it’s Asian - or at least Asian fusion - and I think it did a pretty decent job of putting together a rather impromptu feast using mostly what I had on hand already.

One of the first things I decided to make was the Mongolia Beef from Lane Gold’s book “Vegan Junk Food” man this book never lets me down! I chose this because the recipe was simple, fast, I had everything on hand - including a bag of beefless tips in the freezer - and it’s been an oh-so-long time since I had Mongolia beef. I have to say this dish really exceeded my expectations. It was so full of flavor considering it had a short ingredient list. The sauce was rich, sweet and salty and thick. Absolutely perfect, like the kind of dish you’d order in a Chinese restaurant. Without doubt I will make this again and again.

Also from “Vegan Junk Food” I made the Takeout Orange Tofu. Again I chose this because it was simple, relatively quick, and had a relatively short ingredient list. Also I love orange tofu, - used to love Orange Chicken - haven’t had it in ages, and I remember years ago Bianca from “Vegan Crunk” made this and said it was delicious and I’ve always meant to give it a try. Well, I’m pleased to report that she wasn’t wrong, and this dish did not in any way disappoint.  Again it had a thick, rich, sweet sauce, that was reminiscent of every Asian restaurant I’ve ever been too. Perfect, I’ll be making this again and again for sure. The only thing I did differently is I added some diced green bell pepper to the mix only because the sauce made more then I needed for the tofu, and I didn’t want it all to go to waste.

Lastly also from “Vegan Junk Food” I made the Takeout Fried Rice. This was a no brainer. You HAVE to have rice, and I love fried rice, and my husband loves rice in any incarnation, period. So even though I’ve made a million fried rice recipes in my time I chose Lane’s because 1) I already had the book out and 2) It was quick and easy and called for very few ingredients. I thought this version was really good, though I’ll admit I added some green onion to it. I probably would have used a bit more liquid, because the rice came out a bit drier then I like but otherwise this was great.

Now, once I got started on this Lunar New Year’s Feast I Couldn’t stop there, because what’s an Asian celebration without some noodles? I dug out my copy of Donna Klein’s book “The Chinese Vegan Kitchen” flipped to the Noodle chapter and promptly made the Sichuan Style Lo Mein with Sesame and Garlic. Now I love a good Lo Mein, and any noodle dish that includes a peanut or sesame style sauce is okay in my book, but DAMN these were some amazing noodles! No lie, I could have eaten the entire pan myself. This ingredients list is a bit longer then others I’ve seen - mostly stuff needed to make the sauce - but it comes together almost as quickly as it takes you to boil the noodles so no worries.  I did add ½ a red onion, ½ a green bell pepper, and a ½ cup of sliced mushrooms to the dish just because I had these things laying around and I am trying to clean out the fridge as best I can before we leave for Europe. I would probably add that amount of veg again in the future because I think it worked really well, and also next time I think I’ll use the full amount of chili paste. I aired on the side of caution this time around and didn’t go with a full 2 tsp but felt for a dish called Sichuan it could have been spicier. That was my bad.

Now, no feast can be just protein and carbs, you need a little veg in your life, the greener the better. So using “The Chinese Vegan Kitchen” still I made Klein’s Chinese Broccoli with Vegetarian Oyster Sauce. This is a super simple side, you basically just saute Chinese Broccoli - or Gai Lan - then simmer it in a quick sauce of Vegetarian Oyster Sauce, rice wine, ginger, cornstarch, soy sauce and peanut oil. So good! I love Gai Lan!

Lastly I also made Klein’s Spicy Hoisin Glazed Green Beans. I chose this because I love green beans, I love hoisin sauce and this reminded me of a green bean dish I used to order all the time at restaurants around Vancouver. This type of green bean, or Sichuan style green beans have always been one of my favorite side dishes in any Chinese restaurant so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make them. Again it’s basically simply sauteed green beans that are simmered in a sauce of hoisin, garlic, peanut oil, soy sauce, chili paste, and sesame oil. So good!

I really wanted to make an appetizer and dessert as well, but I’ll say it, I was lazy. I wanted to make tapioca pudding, and Spring Rolls but I didn’t have the proper ingredients for either. I did however remember that the last time I was at Super H Market - the Korean Market in Niles, IL - I bought a pack of Vegetarian Spring Rolls. So I dug those out of the freezer and baked half the package. Really you’re suppose to fry them but my burners were all being used up at the time. Baking Spring Rolls is definitely healthier but doesn’t get the crispy. Oh well, still delicious for a store-bought roll.

So that was our Lunar New Year. I hope you had a good time celebrating, and I wish you Peace, Love and Prosperity for the New Year!

Breakfast For Dinner: My Husband's Birthday Celebration 2014...

My Plate

December 30th is my husband’s birthday, and it’s a particularly terrible time to have a birthday if you ask me. With Christmas just barely over, and New Years right around the corner most people are full, tired and ready for the holidays to be over - myself included - the last thing anyone wants to do is go to another party, eat another massive amount of food, and have to shell out more money for more gifts. December is an especially bad time to have a birthday if you live in Chicago, because it’s so damn cold you can’t even have the consolation of being able to go out and do anything nice. Forget outdoor activities in -20 degree weather. So, with this in mind I always try to give my husband the most special birthday I can think of. We’re not big on gifts since we normally by whatever we want whenever we want but I try to pick him up a few surprises that he might not purchase himself. I offer to make him anything he wants for his birthday dinner, and since it’s his day we can do whatever he wants. This year it was simple, we saw some movies, had dinner, went bowling. Bowling is always something that happens on his birthday, because it’s something he enjoys but I do not, except since it’s his birthday it’s the one day of the year I voluntarily and un-grumpily go along.

Last year for his special birthday dinner he wanted sushi. This year, he wanted Breakfast for dinner. Breakfast is probably his favorite meal, and he loves breakfast foods but since I am so rarely in the mood to eat in the morning I don’t normally make breakfast. At first I was disappointed that he wanted breakfast. I was hoping for more of a challenge, I was hoping for something decadent, but it’s his birthday after all and after taking some time to think about it I realized what a relief it would be to make a simple meal after having made so much decadent food already.

So breakfast is what I made, specifically he requested Banana Stuffed French Toast and some kind of Tofu Scramble. He also said he wanted Sweet Earth Bacon and Field Roast Breakfast Sausages, but wasn’t more specific then that. I like to have a little freedom to play around with and so that was a good enough guideline for me.

Field Roast Breakfast Links
Sweet Earth Hickory Sage Smoked Bacon 

I decided upon the Stuffed Banana Berry French Toast from Lauren Ulm’s book “Vegan Yum Yum” I’ve made this before - and posted about it - and we’d both loved it so it seemed the right choice. The only trouble was that the french bread I’d bought was a few days too old and so it was hard as a bloody brick. Needless to say that after much effort I could not cut the bread properly to ‘stuff’ it and so I simply used it to make regular french toast and topped it with the berries and bananas. Still good. I should have known better and picked up a new bread but oh well. My husband offered no complaints as he scarfed down 4 pieces!

Stuffed Banana Berry French Toast 

Since I had never made Lauren Ulm’s Tofu Scramble before and my husband didn’t give me a specific scramble that he wanted I decided to make the Tofu Scramble with Seitan Sausage also from “Vegan Yum Yum” This is a simply seasoned scramble packed with protein. Not only does it have tofu, and seitan but black beans too! Plus broccoli, shredded carrot, wine vinegar, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, turmeric, mustard seeds, and cumin seeds. I really liked the idea of these seasonings and though it’s not how I normally make tofu scramble I have to say this was absolutely delicious!

Tofu Scramble with Seitan Sausage 

Then I decided that breakfast just couldn’t be breakfast without some kind of fried potato and so I dug out my copy of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s book “Vegan Brunch” and decided on her Peruvian Home Fries. It seemed a fitting choice considering we were just in Peru in September. This potato hash uses Peruvian Purple Potatoes, Coriander Seeds, Red Pepper Flakes, Red Bell Pepper, Red Onion, salt, cilantro and oil. I loved the flavor combination on these potatoes, the coriander seeds tasted great and I liked the little pop you got when you bit into one. Though red pepper flakes are used in this dish these potatoes are not spicy, as most Peruvian food isn’t spicy. There is just enough red pepper to give them some flavor without lending much heat. I could have gobbled up the entire skillet if I wasn’t already so full.

Peruvian Home Fries 

Then there was the plate of Sweet Earth Hickory and Sage Smoked Bacon and The Field Roast Breakfast Links. Both of which cook up nice and easy and taste great, especially when dipped into some ketchup and maple syrup. All in all I’d have to say this was a damn successful breakfast dinner, unfortunately by the time we were done eating we were both too full for the cake I’d made. So instead we’re having the cake tonight as the coup de grace to our New Years/Birthday Pizza Party. Until tomorrow!

Our Mini Boxing Day Feast 2014...

My Plate

After the gluttony of Christmas Eve and Christmas my husband and I are normally too full and tired to do anything for Boxing Day. Which is okay with me. This year however I went a little overboard with plans for delicious Christmas Day appetizers. I overestimated my ability and underestimated my time. In the end I wasn’t able to make all of the things I’d initially wanted to, but some of them were already half prepared and sitting in the fridge. So not wanting to let anything go to waste we decided to have a mini mid-day feast on Boxing Day this year.

One of the things I was most excited about were the BBQ Chip Crusted Tofu Bites from Lane Gold’s book “Vegan Junk Food” I’ve been wanting to make these for a while and it just seemed like the perfect omni-friendly finger food. Too bad the omnivores didn’t get any, since it was only my husband and I on Boxing Day. These were actually very simple to prepare. All you do is cube tofu, dredge it in cornstarch, make a batter with flour and water then dip them, then roll them in crushed up BBQ chips. Then you fry them in a deep skillet. To some it might sound strange, to some it might sound gross but trust me, these were incredible! My husband and I couldn’t stop eating them. Since the tofu is first frozen, then thawed, then fried I thought the resulting texture was very ‘chicken’ like, in fact these reminded me a lot of chicken in flavor as well. Since the bites are fried they didn’t have an overly BBQ chip taste, it was more of a subtle sweet, tangy spice which was perfect. We served these with the Creamy Vegan Ranch also from “Vegan Junk Food” which I’d mentioned us having on Christmas Day with the hot wings.

BBQ Chip Crusted Tofu Bites

Next I made a recipe that I’ve been dying to make ever since I first got the Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg’s book “Spork-Fed” It’s the Pear, Fig and Sage Tarts with Roasted Garlic Aioli. These have always appealed to me, and for every party I consider making them but my natural aversion to working with pastry dough and puff pastry always makes me second guess myself. Not this year though, this year I was determined to try all those things I normally put off trying do to my perception of their difficulty. Surprisingly this was actually a very quick and easy recipe to make. It came together fast, and though there are only a few ingredients these little puff pastry bites tasted amazing. So full of flavor! I was so happy that I finally got around to making them. The sweet pears combined with the earthy figs and the tart and tangy aioli provided a truly wonderful flavor combination.

Pear, Fig and Sage Tarts with Roasted Garlic Aioli

Next I made the Coconut and Lime Sietan Skewers also from “Spork-Fed” I’ve been wanting to make these for quite a while too and just never get around to it. I so rarely have occasion to make appetizers for just my husband and I that I normally skip over the appetizer section in most cook books. This too was a super simple recipe to put together. Though it requires the advanced prep of making seitan - unless you use store-bought. I decided to do home made seitan and made a batch of Thai inspired seitan sausages a few days earlier. Since I cooked the sausages by steaming rather then boiling I thought sausage shapes would be easier to steam, and easy to skewer. Otherwise I may have just done chunks which would have looked more authentic. Of course taste is the most important thing and these tasted pretty damn good. They weren’t my favorite but they were good and my husband loved them. My favorite thing about them was the super simple coconut milk, and lime marinade, and the fact that once the skewers are cooked you roll them in coconut flakes. Who doesn’t love coconut in a savory concoction? I think they would have been even more delicious with a side of peanut dipping sauce.

Coconut and Lime Sietan Skewers

Lastly I decided to make the Seitan Baby Back Ribs from Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman’s book “The Complete Guide To Vegan Food Substitutions.” This is another recipe that I’ve been wanting to try for years but have always found it intimidating. Much to my surprise the recipe is actually rather effortless. You make a seitan dough flatten it out into a pan coated in BBQ sauce, drench the top with more BBQ sauce and then bake. Simple enough. Once the seitan has baked you can then eat it as is, or grill or broil it to make It seem more ‘authentic.’ Since I prepared the baked ribs several days in advance I decided to pop them in the broiler for a few minutes on Boxing Day. I decided against using the optional fake bones just for convenience. Unfortunately I should have paid a little closer attention to the ribs when they were in the broiler. I left them in a touch too long and they got a little crispy on the outside. No matter though, we just cut the crispy part off, slathered some more BBQ on top and went to town.

 Seitan Baby Back Ribs

When I was an omnivore I never much cared for pork products, but I always loved ribs. Even though I haven’t had ribs in years and don’t miss them in the slightest I have to say these seitan ribs were delicious! The texture is very close to what I remember pork ribs being like, and the flavor was fantastic. My husband and I were so full that we could only manage two thin slices each, but the leftovers made great sandwiches the next day!

So that was our mini-feast, and after we were fully stuffed we washed it all down with a couple of beers, watched an episode of “Hannibal” and took a nice long food-coma inspired nap together. Hope you all had as relaxing a Boxing Day as we did.