This week's book: Chloe's Kitchen

So my first cookbook pick for spring was not terribly springy, but after spending 30 minutes looking through the book in the store, I found I couldn't leave without it. Chloe's Kitchen, by Chloe Coscarelli, has a lot of recipes that look promising, and while I never trust a cook who is thin as a toothpick, that doesn't mean that there's not potential here. Paul made the comment that Chloe is like the Giada of vegan food...he has a point. She's quite pretty and has tiny hands.

My first two forays into cooking with Chloe were the spinach artichoke dip and the Bastilla, a Moroccan pastry dish. One was super simple, the other somewhat more involved. The dip turned out pretty well. I'm not usually a fan of tofu based dips, so it's not a surprise to me that I felt a little middle-of-the-road about this one. It tasted good, but it was not a terribly "convincing" alternative for my meaty/cheesy in-laws. The bastilla, however, was excellent. Full of Moroccan spices like cinnamon, ginger and turmeric, this flaky pastry dish was a satisfying easter dinner entree for the vegetable inclined.

I'm always a bit hesitant to work with filo dough because it is so delicate and I am so not...but this was no problem. Chloe's instructions were spot on, easy to follow, and the final product was actually pretty, looking something like this one. The filling's base was crumbled tofu mixed with onion, mushroom and spices. This was alternated in layers with an almond/sugar blend that offered a complimentary sweetness to the dish. I got the sense as I was making Chloe's version (spelled bistilla?) that I could swap out just about any filling and this would turn out to be beautiful and delicious.

A couple other recipes I plan to try from this book are as follows:

• Tomato-Basil Bisque with Pumpernickel Croutons
• Orange Crispy Tofu
• Mongolian BBQ Seitan
• Pineapple Not-so-fried Rice
• Jalapeno Cornbread Poppers with Whipped Maple Butter 
• Minted Couscous with Arugula, Butternut Squash and Currants

My Kale Salad

I have read so many blogs and books in the last few years as I've been teaching myself to cook and eat vegan and get all the nutrition I need. While everyone has their own idea of what you should eat more and less of, what you should NEVER eat, and what you should always eat, it seems to me that there are a couple consistent pieces of advice for vegans out there:

• vegan junk food is still junk food (Oreos, anyone?)
• eat beans every day
• eat dark, leafy greens every day

With these things in mind, I've really been trying to stick to eating a big salad at lunch. Sometimes this is a pretty normal looking salad (for me, that is...) with a couple types of greens, some seeds, nuts and maybe a little dried fruit. Other days, however, I'm jonesing for a KALE salad. The first time I got my kale on was experimenting with some of the many recipes provided by Gena on her site/blog Choosing Raw. One of these was a miso peanut dressing massaged into kale with some chopped up red pepper. This was pretty good, but I kept on searching for the right mix, eating my way through kale chips and kale smoothies along the way.

Back in February, I stepped out to Social Kitchen in Birmingham with my friend Anna, where we shared a kale salad that was absolutely amazing. The kale was fresh and light. It was mixed with a simple vinaigrette, pickled red onions, pine nuts, a little shaved parm and quinoa. I think there may have been some rehydrated golden raisins in there too. It was superb. Truly. Anna doesn't even like kale and she gobbled up her half of the salad like a champ. Full disclosure: we also had the fresh made (hot!) donuts to finish off our meal. Which is to say, it wasn't all as healthy as the kale. Ahem.

The quest for kale salad apparently is not an exclusive pursuit anymore. Even so, dining on kale at a restaurant made me realize that I really needed to get my own kale salad going at home more regularly. Here's the recipe I've been working with. It is a conglomeration of recipes, so cross-pollinated that I'm pretty comfortable calling it my own.

6 large stems of kale, stems removed, shredded or thinly sliced
1/4-1/2 t salt (to taste- I use sea salt for this recipe)
1/2-1 T olive oil

1/2 apple cut into matchsticks

1/2 c cooked quinoa

1 T. hemp seeds

2 T crunchy sesame sticks
1-2 T dried cherries

After chopping the kale, place in a medium sized bowl, sprinkle with some of the salt, and massage the salt into the leaves until all the leaves are bright green and starting to soften (2 minutes?). Add more salt as needed, but taste to be sure it's not too salty...if it is, add more kale and massage further. Once the kale is soft and green, mix in your quinoa and olive oil. Toss to coat kale and distribute the quinoa. Finally, add hemp seeds, sesame sticks, and dried cherries, tossing it all one final time.

For me, this recipe is the perfect blend of nutrition (kale, thank you), salt, sweet, and crunch. It's a great lunch, and if you don't hoover the whole bowl, the leftovers are great the next day (though the sticks will be softened a bit).

So gone so long...

It's been awhile...but thought I'd share something that I cooked up last week. It was pretty damn good. A Toronto-based restaurant chain Fresh published a couple cookbooks that I love-- Fresh and Refresh. I know-- such creative titles! But do not be dissuaded- they make great food. In any case, the restaurant showcases primarily simple foods like rice and noodle bowls, fresh juice tonics and salads. The cookbooks offer all of the best recipes from the restaurant. This is great for someone like me who, not living in Canadia, never gets to this delicious food outside of the rogue trip to Toronto.

Anyhow, some of their popular menu items include this wicked "crispy tofu." It's cubed tofu with a crunchy coating...it's the texture that tofu lovers (and haters, incidentally) long for. I noticed another little recipe in the book last week for tofu "steaks," which is to say triangles rather than cubes. Fancy, I know. So, I decided to give it a shot. There are two keys to Fresh's take on crispy tofu: 1. Marinate. 2. Nooch. The marinade for the steaks has freshly ground coriander, garlic, Tamari and water. The coating is a combo of nooch (nutritional yeast), wheat germ (wha??) salt, pepper, garlic powder (I think). The method is frying in a bit of oil. I usually minimize the oil for my conscience's sake, and I find they come out just right by frying in just a tablespoon of sunflower oil. Super crispy and flavorful tofu. It is possible! The texture of the steaks is even better, because they are sliced somewhat thin (1/4 in.), and they almost firm up after marinating and frying. It's bizarre and delicious.

This week I made a red pepper sauce for dipping and served the steaks with a side salad and risotto cakes. It was a great meal, full of flavor.

Speaking of which, did you know that you can make risotto in the oven? I used this recipe by Ina Garten last Sunday, threw in some mushrooms, asparagus, peas and tarragon, and it was super easy. I don't know that I'll ever make risotto the old fashioned way again. Seriously. So good and only 15 minutes of work.

Did you also know that you can use leftover risotto for fun little risotto cakes the next day? Because of the viscosity of the risotto, you don't even need to add anything to it to form little patties when it is cooled. I quickly press mine in some fine whole wheat bread crumbs just to have a nice brown crust, but that is optional. Pan fry for a few minutes on each side (they will be delicate once they get hot, so be careful), or spray each with a little olive oil and bake for 20-25 minutes, flipping 1/2 way through, until browned and hot. They're a nice treat, especially served over a big green salad.

Party Prep: sweets!

For tomorrow's Christmas wine party, I've got a few sweets on the menu. I knocked them out this afternoon...

Gingerbread Whoopie Pies (yet to be frosted)
Chocolate Stout Cupcakes
Tahini Lime Shortbread Cookies

Soupeteria

Tonight was cauliflower soup from Supernatural Everyday. It calls for a bunch of white cheddar mixed in and to top, but I replaced it happily with to delicious effect.

Paul was pleased, as you can see. I love simple soup meals by candleight!

Thanksgiving at Home

This year Paul and I decided that we'd host as many people as would visit for Thanksgiving. As luck would have it, somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 people joined us for dinner on Thursday. Zoinks!

There are a couple interesting things about organizing a meal for this many people. Paul kept saying "We've had tons of people over at once, just not family, so this shouldn't be too hard." I agree-- I've cooked a meal of sorts for 30-40 people at my house, but that was more along the lines of a rotating appetizer bar, not a sit-down meal. To that end, you can see my earlier posts about the deliciousness that took place in my kitchen this week-- successfully, I might add. Also of interest is that 18 of twenty people who attended are not vegan or vegetarian.

Of course, everyone knows that the most delicious parts of thanksgiving are those that are served alongside of the turkey. For heaven's sake-- the reason everyone has so much left over turkey after the big feast is that turkey is really-- well, it's a bit bland and a bit dry, and the only way people usually enjoy it is slopped in gravy or cranberry sauce.

But when the first follow-up question for our invitation was "What will be served?", I knew that if I wanted to make this special meal for my family, I'd need to either cook a bird myself or serve one someone else had cooked, even if I wouldn't touch it. So I caved, and far more quickly than I wish I had.

When I went to visit the turkeys at the local organic farm where I picked ours up, I stopped by the huge flock of turkeys just out in front of the processing buildings. Standing there for a moment, I heard the buzz of the electric prod as they separated another 8 or so birds from the flock and herded them toward the "red room," as they proudly call it. There, the birds would be shocked to death, hung to drain out their blood, then boiled and de-feathered. In my arms I held dinner for 18, and on the other side of the fence were beautiful white and rouge birds clucking around in the funny way that only turkeys can. I didn't feel barbaric-- I knew that I was capitulating to the wishes of my family and others I'd come to love and I'd come to terms with it already-- but I did know that I'd never do this again.

After a year of being vegan, I told my husband that I would likely never eat meat again, and I definitely won't after this thanksgiving. To take it a step further, however, I don't think I'll ever prepare meat again after this week (in the past, I've done so on special occasions for loved ones). In the last year and a half, I've watched my friends move from "Really? NO meat? NO cheese?" to "Wow, this is really good," and "You really don't need the cheese on that," and "I don't really eat much meat anymore." I would like to see more of the same from my family, but this is the stuff pipe dreams are made of.

In any case, I regret my decision to serve a turkey for Thanksgiving, but more than that, I regret that I'm the only person in my family and in my circle of friends who seems moved by the cruelties and abuses of animal farming. Even in my visit to this local farm that is about as salt of the earth, natural, and unabusive as they come, that belongs to a family whose livelihood rests upon the well-being and slaughter of the flock-- as I looked through that fence at the turkeys who were waiting for slaughter over the next couple days, it all felt so wrong.

Paul's first vegan cooking!

Paul made some delicious food tonight- pomegranate glazed tempeh, eggplant and sweet potato from Supernatural Everyday. Delicious!

We split the recipe for four between 4 of us, and it was sufficiently filling. Elizabeth thought it might be just a little too tart because of all the pomegranate molasses, and we thought a solution to that might be serving it over brown rice or adding in a smidge more maple syrup. It was already so sweet, though, so maybe not. Of course there's always the option to add more oil, but there was already about 1/3 cup in there and it seemed like a bit much.

In any case, another success from SNE. I'm loving this cookbook more and more each time I use it.