Spiced Carrot Dip

I recently have been enjoying a spiced carrot dip.  This is my attempt at recreating something I ate at a farmers market in Monterrey.

Recipe (yields about 2 cups):
1 lb carrots
1 clove garlic
1/2 - 2 tsp sweetener (e.g. sugar, honey, agave) [depends on the sweetness of the carrots]
1 T olive oil
1/2 tsp each cumin, ginger, chile
1/4 tsp each cinnamon, cayenne (or less depending on heat/spice tolerance)
2 - 4 T orange juice (may substitute 1 - 2 T lime or lemon juice)
salt and pepper to taste

Boil carrots with garlic clove until tender.  Remove and add carrots and garlic to food processor, reserve cooking water. Process with other ingredients until smooth. Adjust thickness to desired consistency via cooking water and/or juice additions.

Serve warm or cold with dipping agents (e.g. pita chips, pretzels, pea pods).

First Carrot of the Season

Carrot Time!

Garden Fresh Gazpacho

Gratuitous Gazpacho Close-Up

I made some Gazpacho utilizing the harvest's from my garden.

Gazpacho (serves 6):

1 cucumber: peeled, seeded and chopped
2 poblano chiles: seeded and chopped
1/2 onion: finely chopped
1 clove garlic: minced
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
2 large tomatoes chopped
2 cups tomato juice
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tsp dry oregano
2 T red wine vinegar
1 tsp hot sauce
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients.  Remove a third of the gazpacho and blend and return, or blend in-situ with immersion blender. Adjust consistency with tomato juice to your liking.  Chill before serving.

Let the Harvest Begin

The First Harvest of 2010 (not including lemons from the Winter):
Radishes of the French Breakfast persuasion:

Biscuits and Gravy

V*gan Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits and Gravy:
Seitan Sausage (adapted from Vegan Dad):

- 1/2 C refried beans
- 1/2 C vegetable broth

- 1/2 C apple juice
- 2 T tahini
- 3 T soy sauce

- 1/2 tsp ground fenugreek
- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 1/4 C vital gluten
- 1/3 C nutritional yeast

- 1 T light miso
- 1 tsp each thyme and sage ground in mortar and pestle
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- 1 tsp smoked paprika

 

Combine all ingredients except gluten.  Then mix in gluten with spoon. Once well combined form the mixture into 10 portions. Roll them into sausages. Wrap in foil.  Then steam for 25 minutes.  When cool enough to handle chop one cup of sausage.

Biscuits ~ 15:
- 2 C all-purpose flour
- 1 T baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/3 C vegetable shortening
- 1 C milk curdled with 1 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 425 F. Mix dry ingredients. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles crumbs.  Mix in curdled milk until the flour is moistened.  Turn dough onto floured surface.  Knead for one minute. Push the down into a circle approximately 3/4 inch thick. Cut dough with a 2 inch biscuit cutter. Place biscuits, slightly separated, onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 15 - 17 minutes or until golden brown.

 

Gravy:

2 1/4 C milk (of your choice) warmed
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
dash of cayenne
2 T flour
2 T butter, margarine, oil

Heat fat until liquid over medium heat.  Add in flour and whisk constantly until the mixture smells nutty.  Whisk in milk until no lumps remain. Add remaining ingredients. Whisk often until gravy reaches a boil. Then add 1 cup chopped sausage. Remove from heat. Serve over biscuits.

I've been cooking, but have done a poor job documenting it.

I have been making my own whole wheat sandwich bread for the last couple months (with and without my own sourdough culture).

And other stuff.

I made the dosa below sometime ago. I used long grain white rice and red lentils (tandoor dal). I googled dosa and then combined, tweaked the recipes to then mostly make-up my own.  I did ferment it over night. They were tasty, but probably a little thick.

Dosa - A Southern India Delight

Super Easy Broccoli Soup with Seitan Meatballs

A while ago I saw a television cooking program hosted by Gordon Ramsay.  His recipe for broccoli soup was incredibly simple.  It was broccoli, water and salt. I decided to make something very similar.  I had made some seitan sausages that were lacking flavor, so I decided to reinvent them as meatballs.  The results were great.

Broccoli Soup ~ 3 servings
1 lb broccoli, coarsely chopped
1 T salt
1 T olive oil
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 T yogurt

Bring 8 cups of water to boil with salt.  Add broccoli and cook until tender.  Remove broccoli from water and put in blender.  Add about 2 cups of water from the boil.  Blend. Add pepper, oil and yogurt. Season to taste and add cooking water to achieve desired thickness.

Seitan balls (6):
1 C shredded seitan ( I used the grating disk on my food processor)
1/4 C cracker crumbs
1/4 C gluten
2 T flax seeds blended in 1/4 C water
1 T soy sauce
2 T ketchup
1 tsp Italian seasonsings 

Form into balls and bake on slightly greased sheet at 350F for about 30 minutes or until slightly browned, flipping once.

Apple Juice'd Tofu and Eggplant !! An Chinese Take-Out Inspired Dish

I like to make things that remind me of Chinese take-out.  This usually involves sweet and salty.  Homemade Americanized-Chinese food lends itself to orange-something, but I find that if I use orange juice from-the-carton and cook it I don't necessarily like it.  I am also not keen on using / preparing fresh squeezed. However, I usually have apple juice on hand and I like the way it tastes when cooked.

Recipe:
10 oz marinated and baked tofu
1 large eggplant, diced, salted for 30 minutes, rinsed
1 red pepper chopped
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 inch of ginger peeled and minced
1 tsp sesame oil
1 T vegetable oil
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2/3 C Apple Juice
1 - 2 T soy sauce
3-4 T chopped cilantro


Saute onions for 5 minutes in vegetable oil. Add eggplant and cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes and cook for one minute. Add the remaining ingredients and cook about 5 more minutes until the apple juice has reduced by about half.  Take off heat and add cilantro. Serve over your favorite whole grain.

Salt Risen / Rising Bread - Round 3: Success

                                                                                 

  

  

Clostridium perfringens: a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, anaerobic, spore-forming bacterium of the genus Clostridium. In the United Kingdom and United States, C. perfringens bacteria are the third-most-common cause of food-borne illness. It also is responsible for the flavor and rising of Salt Risen Bread.

Does this sound tasty to you? It did to me. If so, continue on:

Background:
Once upon a time I was reading about sourdough starters and I came across salt risen / rising bread. There were some details, etc but what really caught my attention was where the fermentation was described as smelling like rotten cheese and that the bread was supposed to sorta, kinda taste like cheese. I was sold. I tried and failed.  Now, about a year later I am at it again with all sorts of ideas that are not rooted in experience or know-how.

Recipe:

Starter:
1 T organic polenta
1/4 C organic whole wheat flour
1/4 C organic cornmeal
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp sugar
1 1/3 C water (I boiled it and then waited for the temperature to fall to 140F)
- Combine all ingredients, cover and keep near 100F for 8 - 16 hours.  When its bubbling and some of the ingredients have formed a 'cloud' over the rest, its time to make the sponge.

Sponge:
Starter
1 C milk or water at ~ 115F
2 C AP flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 T sugar

- Mix to combine and cover. Keep at ~ 100F until it approximately doubles in volume. Took about 4 hours for me.


Bread:
Sponge
4 C AP Flour
1/2 C shortening
3/4 tsp kosher salt

Mix everything knead for about 5 minutes by hand. Shape and let rise in bread pans covered until double in volume.  (I may have not waited long enough for double ~ I was at about 3 hours of rising time). Bake at 375F for 30 - 40 minutes until golden brown.

Notes:
I used a heating pad placed inside of closed coller to keep the starter warm.  FYI: Leaving a heating pad on all the time is, perhaps, a bad idea. My cooler wasn't big enough for the starter or the dough in loaf pans. To keep these stages warm I put them in my oven on top of the heating pad and I would heat up a cast iron skillet on my stove top for about 10 minutes and then place in the oven about every hour or so to keep it cozy.

It really did smell pretty rank during the process. Which I delighted in mostly because it was nature and science at work.  According to the tasters it had a cheese-y flavor.  If you are concerned about the whole bacteria thing check out this medical journal article (PDF LINK - Page 28), from what I gather they deem it safe, but please feel free to make your own decision.  There was a marked time investment to a successful load and it was delicious, but I am not sure I'll be making again it any time soon.  Overall I had fun making the bread and getting to tell people its risen by "food poisoning".

It swirls to the left: Cinnamon Raisin Bread

INGREDIENTS (makes 2 loaves)

- 2  1/2 tsp active dry yeast

- 3/4 cup sugar

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

- 1/4 c cornstarch

- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
 - 1 1/3 cup warm water

- 1 cup soymilk

- 6 cup AP flour

- 2/3 cup brown sugar

- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- 2 cups raisins

Mix together ingredients through AP flour.  Add AP flour 2 cups at a time until incorporated. Knead until shiny. Add raisins. Let rise one hour or until doubled. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together. Divide dough in two. Roll into rectangles. Spread cinnamon sugar mixture over rectangles. Roll up. Seal seam. Place in loaf pans and let rise one hour. Bake at 375 for 30 - 40 minutes. Until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped on bottom. Cool on rack.

Autumn Harvest: Acorn Squash Soup in Whole Wheat Bread Bowl

I recently harvested a bunch of acorn squashes. I made some empanadas with one of them, but have no pictures to share. I then made a batch of acorn squash soup.

Fragrant, Creamy Acorn Squash Soup:
- 3 Acorn squash (halved, seeded baked at 400F for about 35 minutes. Cool slightly and scoop out flesh)
- 3 cored, peeled, chopped ginger gold apples
- 4 peeled, chopped carrots
- 2 onions, chopped
- 4 c vegetable broth
- 1 c apple juice
- 1 1/2 T Garam Masala
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 T fresh ginger, grated
- 1/4 tsp ground clove
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 4 seeded, chopped serrano chiles

Place the onions, carrots, chiles and apples in a pot with some oil and cook until soft. Then add the fresh ginger and cook about 1 minute. Add dry spices, cooking and stirring for about 30 seconds. Then add liquid and sqaush. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Then use an immersion blender and puree. Ta-da.

I made a simple whole wheat dough and draped it over steel bowls and baked to make these shells.

General Tso's Hobo Tofu

Time to make some Americanized Chinese Food I thought.
Course of Action:
1. Search internet for recipes.
2. Process recipes through brain.
3. Create new masterful recipe.
4. Produce: General Tso's Hobo Tofu.

First I flavor inject the tofu with vegetable broth and stuff. Then I cut it up, coated it with cornstarch and fried it. Then I made the hobo sauce: sugar, ketchup, vinegar, bbq sauce, soy sauce, mushroom sauce, ginger, garlic, onions, peppers, sesame oil and cornstarch slurry to thicken. Add some vegetables. Ta-da. I call it hobo because of all the low-brow ingredients.

Tofu with Georgian Ketchup

The country not the state. Here is a beautiful, quick dish made from fresh vegetables (zucchini, carrots, summer squash & kohlrabi), home-marinated tofu and tkemali a sauce made from plums. It is refreshingly tart and easy when you can just pour out the bottle. Georgian cuisine is really tasty and most dishes are easy to prepare as well as adaptable to the veg*n diet. This is a pretty good book if you are interested: "The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia"

Gluten Delivered for Cheap - Make Your Own Seitan

If you, like me, enjoy seitan but don't enjoy it price or availability at your local market you'll inevitably want to make it yourself. Then after spending time sifting through all of the seitan recipes you've collected, you'll know that you are going to need some vital wheat gluten. Roadblock: This wheat protein can be expensive and hard to find too. Solution: semi-bulk purchase from the internet. I've purchased the gluten for about $3.50 lb (5.5 lbs at a time w/ a subscription) with free shipping here. It's the best deal on gluten I could find and my local stores don't carry it.