Your Vegan Mom

On a tastier note...

is our traditional breakfast on the open fire. (Seriously, with breakfast and a setting like that, can I be bothered to take a better picture? I'm working on it though. For the time being, I apologize for the ho-hum photography.)

When I was a kid, my family would spend any major or minor holiday during the warm 3/4 of the year on the beach. In the morning, my dad would make huevos rancheros for my mom and brother and me, and my little family would enjoy the cool quiet of the early morning before the beach filled up with kids and beach chairs and the seemingly ever-present sound of Vin Scully on the battery-operated radio. By midday all the aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas, granddads, and hangers-on would have trickled in for the ensuing barbecue. The beach would be crowded and hot. But I love to think about those tranquil mornings with my family and some spicy breakfast fare.

Inspired by that tradition, this dish has become our vegan holiday breakfast.

Soyrizo Breakfast Tacos
2 bricks firm tofu
1 tube soyrizo
1 large sweet potato (pre-cooked in the microwave and chopped up)
1-2 Tbsp. canola oil
salt & pepper
a dozen corn tortillas
1 avocado
hot sauce
1 lime cut into wedges

Heat the oil in a large cast-iron skillet over a medium hot fire. Squeeze in the soyrizo, crumble in the tofu, dump in the sweet potato, season with salt and pepper, and stir. Wrap the tortillas in foil and throw the packet on the grill to warm. Let the tofu mixture crisp up a bit. Stir it occasionally while you slice up the avocado and lime and sip some coffee. To serve: put a large scoop of the tofu mixture onto a warm corn tortilla and garnish with avocado slices, a squeeze of lime, and a dash of hot sauce.

It's a holiday somewhere, so please, serve this with orange-guava mimosas.

P.S.
In L.A. County, Dockweiler and Cabrillo Beaches have firepits. In the O.C., several beaches have firepits, and it seems that you're permitted to bring your own barbecue, though they spell it barbeque, but again with a setting like that, who can be bothered to spell correctly? (Please see my own notes about misspelling on this site here.)

Now, after having done a little research for you, I have discovered that you're officially not allowed to have alcoholic beverages on the beach. Your Vegan Mom does not suggest that you shirk the rules, just enjoy your mimosas safely and discreetly.

Oh also, if you burn easily or simply don't want to make breakfast, Cafe 101 makes excellent no huevos rancheros.

Happy Holidays.

Out Sick

So Desmond and I kicked off our first Father's Day weekend with a cold. This, of course, calls for Magic Soup. There is no picture because this is not a pretty dish. It is not meant for company. To be honest, it's not even meant to taste good, but it will make you feel better. And if you eat it at the very first signs of getting sick with your vitamin C and zinc and echinacea, you're not going to get it. I know that is a powerful statement, but it is a powerful soup.

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic
1 inch hunk of ginger
1 fresh chili
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 dried shitaake mushrooms
2 Tbsp. white miso paste
Dash of tamari
Juice of 1 lemon or lime
2 c. water
1 block extra firm tofu
1 small (about an inch in diameter) bundle soba noodles, broken into bite size pieces and cooked

Directions:

Put the water in a pot over medium heat with the mushrooms.

Mince garlic, ginger, and chili. Squish them into a paste with the salt and sugar in a mortar and pestle if you're feeling earthy, or in a blender with a little bit of the water if you're not. Or, if you're making a big batch of broth to freeze in ice cube trays to have on hand when you're sick and don't feel like making yourself soup, then a blender is good for this case too.

Stir the garlic-ginger-chili paste into the pot. Add the tofu. Let this mixture simmer for about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the miso and lemon juice. Add cooked noodles. Fish out the mushrooms, slice them up, and return them to the pan.

Eat it while it's hot.

Now, I should note this "recipe" is comprised of approximations. This soup changes a bit whenever I need it. If I'm not feeling well, I'm not going to the store for fresh chilis, for example. If I don't have them, I use dried chili flakes. Sometimes the soup has mushrooms, sometimes it has noodles. Sometimes it doesn't, but it always has the garlic, ginger, spicy, miso, and tofu. From there, play with it until it's palatable. Also, if I really don't feel good, I skip the paste step, just chopping that stuff coarsely, letting it simmer in the broth, and then straining it. Or in more dire cases, simply eating around the pungent chunks.

Anyway, I won't say, enjoy, because if you're following this recipe then I assume you're not feeling well. So, rest up and eat your soup.

The Food Section and An Early Father's Day Photo

Today's L.A. Times has a respectable food section. I found time to read every article, even during a particularly busy day. Even the one about milk frothing gadgets. I really shouldn't ever read the gadget column because now, of course, I need a stupid freakin' frother. Don't worry Paul, I'll get over it. But I have always been curious about those inexpensive little wands from Ikea...

There's an enticing article about breweries in Santa Barbara County that has me fantasizing about a weekend excursion when the baby is old enough to stay over night with his grandma. Don't have a baby? Take the train. Go, drink beer. Do it now. While you still can.

I love Amy Scattergood's frequent contributions to the food section. Her column this week on making a basic vinaigrette is indispensible if you use bottled salad dressing and still an inspiring read even if you have mastered this simple sauce.

And that Lebanese restaurant sounds like it has interesting appetizers for the vegans. I cut out a recipe for muhammara some time back and had forgotten about it. I must have your walnut-pomegranate dip.

Speaking of dining, all right, eating, in the O.C. here's a picture of the boy and his dad eating at Mother's over the weekend. Paul always gets the tempeh bacon cheese burger with the tempeh patty. I varied from my usual lunchtime club sandwich to try the fake chicken taquitos. Being part of a market and all, I feared that they would be from the freezer section, but they had that not-perfectly-crisp, toothsome corn tortilla wrapper with a mild soy chicken filling that marked them as recently made with love, just for me. Plus, they came with a generous heap of quacamole in addition to rice and beans and salsa. Like Scoops, Mother's is one of those places that makes me happy just to think of. I'm glad that I live in a city that can support these businesses. I love you Los Angeles.

P.S. Now can we have vegan donuts? And cannoli? And a really good drive through with fresh squeezed lemonade and big fat veggie burgers?

You Can Buy Happiness.

And it only costs $2.00. I was incredibly disappointed to have my second attempt to visit Casa de Sousa on Olvera Street thwarted. It wasn't open. Saturday, and they weren't open. Last Sunday, we called and we just got somebody's voicemail. There's a vegetarian Mexican cafe at the Pueblo de Los Angeles and I haven't been. I'm wild with envy for anybody that's actually had the chance to experience it. Anyone?

As I'm not willing to simply go home without getting my promised vegan treat, I convinced Paul to take a family detour to Scoops. (It really didn't take a lot of convincing. Paul concurs that my hero, Tai Kim sells joy at his ice cream shop behind L.A. City College.) That's strawberry-passion fruit on top and peanut butter-coconut on bottom. The fruity flavor tasted like the haunting memory of my grandma's homemade strawberry ice cream. I think the passion fruit brings out the strawberry's strawberriness rather than exerting its own tropical flavor. It was perfect.

At first bite the peanut butter was prominent in the second scoop, but every third bite or so the coconut would coyly come forth. That man can come up with a successful flavor combination. And I've never had the same flavor twice. In addition to a wide selection of traditional dairy-based ice cream, and a couple flavors of sorbet, Scoops always has four vegan choices. It justs makes me happy to think of the existence of this place.

On top of that creamy delight, my day started with Paul's oatmeal-chocolate chip pancakes. It's my favorite cookie, in pancake form:

ingredients:
1/2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
1 c. soymilk
1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
a dash of salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. oil
1 large handful of chocolate chips

Combine oats and soymilk. Let soak for about 5 minutes. Add oil and vanilla to this mixture. Combine dry ingredients and add to wet. Let the batter rest for 5 - 10 minutes while you heat up the griddle. Cook on medium-high.

Happy Saturday.

Kumquat Salad

It makes me crazy to think of fruits and vegetables that I haven't tried. And so I was surprised to discover, through a conversation with the Gourmand, that there are actually a number of foods that I have consciously avoided for various silly and complicated reasons. As a vegan, I'm really not willing to limit my diet any further, and so on Sunday I set out to leave my farmers' market comfort zone.

That's why I bought kumquats. I know Cindy, kumquats are not one of those delicacies that we discussed, it's probably not even the peak of their season, but kumquats are one of my last relics of childhood displeasure, and there they were spilling so cheerfuly out of the farm stand. That really is a cute fruit. Even in name. Especially in name. Kumquat?

And so I filled a bag and brought them home. Last night I minced a couple and threw them into a salad with the rest of the baby chard leaves (see below), a big roasted beet, a half of an avocado, and toasted pecans. I dressed this with a basic vinaigrette of white wine vinegar, dijon mustard, olive oil, and salt and pepper. I think I love you little kumquat...I bet you would be delicious in baked goods, and cocktails, any thoughts?