Your Vegan Mom

Fig Tart

Our best pals are in town, and I am beside-myself excited.  I made a tart this morning to celebrate - my favorite tart filled with my best pal's favorite fruit.

I remember a few years ago in the LA Times food section, Russ Parsons talking about how easy it is to make frangipane (that puffy almond-y paste) in the food processor, and when I looked at the recipe I realized that it would totally work with flax-y goop in place of the egg, but it took me until now to actually try it.

It works.  Beautifully.

So, here's Your Tuesday Tip:

Any vegan can tell you that 1 tablespoon flax meal + 3 tablespoons water = 1 flax egg, which works well in most baked goods - cookies and muffins and pancakes and such.  If you let it sit for about 5 minutes and then whisk it up, you will see that it has created an egg-like gel that will work as a binder. 

But you should also know, that if you need to replace an egg yolk, in say a sweet tart dough, you can just cut the water in half.  So 1 tablespoon flax meal + 1 1/2 tablespoons water = 1 flax egg yolk.

Armed with flax eggs and vegan butter, a half dozen figs and a bag of almond meal from Trader Joe's, you have everything you need to veganify and fig-ify, Dorie Greenspan's excellent tart recipe.  

Creamy Basil Salad Dressing, a Brief Treatise on Raffi, and the State of Being Cool

Paul says that kids don't understand that their parents used to be cool.  That it's their fault that they aren't any more.  They made them this way.  

I say Raffi is awesome. That I just sort of missed the window to appreciate him the first time around.  In all the concert videos circa 1981, I've been looking for my mom and little brother.  They were there, Man.  I missed out because I was too cool.

After the boys sat glued to the couch through several youtube clips this morning - well, glued except for the two-year-old's dancing hands - he has this little chugging dance that starts at the elbows.  If the rest of him isn't glued to the couch then he'll bend at the waste a bit and bob up and down, maybe with an occasional sway while he chugs the arms.  That boy loves to dance.  

But as I was saying, after several riveting clips, it occurred to me to make a Raffi Pandora station so that we could do something else while we listened to the Raffi and and so that provided the soundtrack of our morning.  It was good.  Pandora played us lots of Elizabeth Mitchell which is lovely and several tracks from Barenaked Ladies' kids albums and I discovered that I totally dig Barry Louis Palisar.  

So we rocked out to Raffi and friends and cleaned the house and got everybody ready in leisurely fashion because for once we had no plans before noon.  At one point I sat down and drank a glass of water and read the issue of Everyday Food that arrived in the mail this morning during a suspicious bout of quiet that I decided to just take advantage of and pay for later.  Which is precisely what happened when I found the boys and their cleaned up, dressed, and previously ready-to-go selves sitting in a pool of mud in the backyard.  Of course.  

So I stripped them down and hosed them off and scrubbed the splatter from Felix's forehead.  Naked boys chased each other around for a bit with the hose set to mist and then we toweled off and got dressed again.

And now.  Now, the house around me is relatively clean (Thank you, Raffi.) and quiet (Thank you, Julia.) - I just dropped Desmond off at his best pal's house (only a little late after the whole mud pit set-back) and Felix is having a nap and I have had lunch - a leisurely quiet lunch enjoyed all to myself.  (That lunch up there - it's leftover pizza and a really big and delicious salad full of fresh lettuce, cherry tomatoes and corn and olives and chickpeas and some leftover pasta and the creamy basil salad dressing - were you wondering when we'd get to the salad dressing?) 

This leisurely quiet lunch gave me time to think about Raffi and losing one's cool once one becomes a parent.  I was going to see what you thought about all this - if Raffi is certifiably not cool and I have therefore lost all perspective or if in fact you just loosen up and become more open once you become a parent because... well sometimes you have to go with the flow and sometimes the soundtrack to that will be Baby Beluga, but then I took a break and went and listened to some more of my new hero, Barry Louis Palisar, and I'm here to tell you that holy poop that man can be annoying (disturbingly, frightfully annoying).  So I have determined that I still have my critical faculties in tact.  And therefore, Raffi and I are cool.  

Though something else Paul says is that if you have to tell people that you are a thing (as in an old roommate informing us that she was funny) then it's probably not true.  Dang that Paul has some smart things to say.  Now go eat your salad.  

Creamy Basil Salad Dressing
makes: 1 1/2 cups
takes: 5 minutes 

• 1 packed cup of fresh basil leaves
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled
• 1/2 cup of soy milk
• 1/2 cup of vegenaise
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (or the juice of one nice lemon)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Whiz all ingredients in a blender until smooth.  Chill before serving - it will thicken up a bit in the fridge.  

TIP: The easiest way to measure the vegenaise is to get out your liquid measuring cup - measure the 1/2 cup of milk and then scoop the vegenaise into the milk until it measures a cup.  

BLT

The BLT is a sandwich I feel strongly about.  There is a right way to do it.  And while many would insist that way involves bacon, according to Paul, the B stands for beer, which is absolutely what you should serve this sandwich with.

Apart from beer, you need good crusty bread.  A soft crusted sandwich loaf will absolutely not work here.  There is a deli near my house that sells prepackaged vegetarian BLTs on whole wheat sandwich bread with yellow mustard and cheddar cheese.  Despite its proximity to my house and even its other reputable vegan offerings, I cannot patronize this establishment.  

Just before serving, you slather two slices of that good bread (lightly toasted if not super fresh) with your favorite vegan mayonnaise (which is vegenaise, of course).  The act of slathering is important here.  Your finished BLT should ooze and drip.  This is not a polite sandwich.

On top of one slice of slathered bread you place several slices of beautiful ripe tomato.  This is a summer sandwich.  Make it now while tomatoes are juicy and sweet.  You should be eating a BLT at least once a week until the tomatoes run out.

On top of the tomato you will arrange your slices of smoky braised tempeh.  The order matters.  The mingling of tomato juice, mayonnaise, and then the sweet, smoky, saltiness of the tempeh forms a sort of essential dressing within the sandwich.

Now on the other half of bread mash a quarter of a soft, ripe, oily avocado.  You can, of course, make a BLT without avocado, but it's always better with.  Take one big billowy leaf of lettuce - the sort with a nice little crisp rib near one edge - and fold it in half.  (I know an even more reputable sandwich shop that once used a handful of soft, peppery mixed baby greens for the L.  I don't eat there anymore either.  The pliable crunch and mild fresh flavor of leaf lettuce is a supporting, though essential, element of the BLT.) Gently press the lettuce into the avocado. 

Place the lettuce and avocado half on top of the tempeh and tomato half and devour.  Often.   

[A quick note on the kid-friendliness of this sandwich - the five year old will not touch it, but the two year old is a sandwich-stealing super fan.]  

I seem to be on vacation.

Today we are recovering from a nine day weekend.  (And when I say today, I mean last Monday, but like I said, I seem to be on vacation.)  The movie that Paul is working on had a brief hiatus, so we just took the whole week off.  We visited with cousins.  And played on the beach.  We took a trip to the California Science Center and then ran around the Rose Garden.  We swam.  And played with friends.  And had a picnic dinner at the Huntington Gardens (one of my all time favorite summer things to do).  We rode the ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier and went to the Kidspace Museum in Pasadena.   

And then crossed two things off my summer to do list when we went to Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark and came home to make pickles.  

A couple weeks ago Desmond insisted, insisted, that pickles grew on trees.  I, of course, immediately scheduled this field trip.

And this farm makes an excellent field trip.  Way more than just farm labor tourism (Oh!  But it's that too!  Do you see Paul and Felix up there working on their farm-labor-is-fun attitude adjustment?), small children dig and scoop in a giant sand pit while goats climb nimbly overhead on wooden planks.  Animatronic chickens sing totally inappropriate songs to your vegan children (Desmond comes home singing, "What do you do with a drunken chicken?  What do you do with a drunken chicken?"  Nothing vegan, it turns out.) Kids clamber up into the driver's seat of a real live (and completely stationary) combine or slide down the shoot in back.  We visit with real live chickens and cows and horses and a couple emus.  We have a picnic on the grass.  And then willingly pay eight dollars for Desmond to mine for gems, we're just so caught up in our surreal bucolic morning.    

It was a good week.  Here's the rest of our summer to do list.  What's on yours?

• Take the train to Little Tokyo.  Have lunch at Shojin and run around this secret garden.
• Join (and actually participate in) a summer reading club (I have mixed feelings about this, but Desmond is all into it this year.)  (Too late.  We've gone once.  It's already almost over.  Maybe next year.)
• California Science Center.  Picnic in Rose Garden.  (There's a Chipotle across the street if you haven't packed a picnic.  Maybe someone in your group will be as nice as Paul and run over to pick up lunch while you and the kids play in the Family Discovery Room at the Ecosystems Exhibit.)
• Natural History Museum (We can't wait to visit the new Dinosaur Hall!)
• LACMA and lunch at Real Food Daily
• La Brea Tar Pits and lunch at Veggie Grill
• visit the turtles and have a picnic at Caltech (the campus is pretty and fun to explore and not too far from our house - I wouldn't drive across town for this one)
• Swimming Lessons for Desmond (He's doing so, so great!)
• Leo Carillo Beach (lunch?)
• Manhattan Beach (We usually walk up and get lunch from Wahoo's, but I'm open to more interesting lunch suggestions.)  
• Laguna Beach (Zinc Cafe is pleasant and I've never been to Taco Loco, but I was just looking at their menu and it looks like the perfect place to have lunch with sandy feet.)
• Cabrillo Aquarium
• Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica
• Noah's Ark at the Skirball
• bike day at the big park near our house
• plant an avocado tree?
• Audobon Center at Debs Park

 

Grilled Tempeh Sandwich

On Saturday we bought beds.  (Thank you for your help!)  Momentarily, I wondered what I would do with all that mental space freed up from bunk bed obsession.  Then the mail arrived, and with it, Saveur's sandwich issue.

So, now I'm thinking about banh mi and pimiento cheese and Lebanese flat bread and tortas and finger sandwiches.  Let me tell you, it's a mental improvement.

My current favorite sandwich is this grilled tempeh number.  It's how I want to eat this summer - barely cooked, colorful and fresh, and easily packed off to the park.  We have the best park in our neighborhood.  Last night, Desmond and Felix and I sauntered over there after dinner and there were two men playing acordians as the light turned pink and kids played.  There's often a man blowing giant bubbles and one of the musicians from last night sometimes puts on old timey puppet shows set to music.  This sandwich does not look portable - it's very at home on a plate, but I wrapped up the other half and ate it two hours later sitting on the couch with a glass of wine and a pile of cookbooks.

So, so enjoying all this mental space. 

Grilled Tempeh Sandwich

Makes: 2 big sandwiches
Takes: 20 minutes 

• 1 8-ounce block tempeh
• 1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup corn kernels
• 1/4 cup minced onion, soaked in cold water
• juice of half a lemon
• 1/4 cup basil mayonaise (recipe below)
• a couple handfuls of wild arugula
• 4 slices of really good bread

Slice the block of tempeh into thirds and then cut each third into half so that you have 6 rectangles of tempeh.  In a cast iron skillet, or even better on an outdoor grill (in that case rub the tempeh with oil and salt), brown the tempeh in a couple tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

While the tempeh is browning, halve or quarter the cherry tomatoes,and toss them with the corn, onion (drained and rinsed), lemon juice, and salt to taste.  

Slather each slice of bread with basil mayo and arrange grilled tempeh slices on one half of bread.  Pile the tomato salad on top.  Scoop a handful of arugula onto the other half. Put that sandwich together and enjoy.  

Basil Mayonnaise
Makes: about 3/4 cup 

• 1/2 cup vegenaise
• a handful of fresh basil leaves (More precise?  I used 18 large leaves.  I counted.  For you.)
• 1 clove garlic
• pinch of salt

Throw all that in the food processor or blender and puree until smooth.  Or, if, like me, you decide that you don't feel like dirtying any appliance, then finely chop the basil and mince the garlic, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and mash it into a paste with the flat side of your big knife.  Mix the basil and garlic paste into the mayo.  Or, if you happen to have some pesto in the fridge, just mix a heaping tablespoon into the mayonnaise.