Your Vegan Mom

My Weekend, or Paul, I Am So Sorry For What I Am Always Dragging This Family Into

So I attended my first and last small town festival on Saturday.  There were legends of the confederacy t-shirts and a "Stop Gay Adoption" petition table, not to mention the attractions that we had come for - a tiller race and pea shucking contest.  While that bit was almost as fabulously surreal as the band of Korean retirees line dancing to Michael Jackson's "Beat It!" at the Lotus Festival in Echo Park a few years back, I've got to say that it didn't quite merit 3 hours of driving with an almost two year old.  Have I mentioned that I now take back all my smug youthful idealism and completely understand  the mini-van with the dvd player?  That's not the first step on the path to racist t-shirts and petitioning for hateful social policy is it?  Oh yeah, there was also a quilt show.  

      

Pulled Tofu Sandwiches

With just over a week left in Louisiana, I am making every effort to get out and enjoy this state as much as possible. Most days, as the sun gets low, I have been packing up my family and a super simple dinner and taking it to one of Shreveport's many gorgeous parks. It may seem as if all of my easy dinners are one handed affairs, and while that's not entirely true, a meal sandwich sure does come in handy when you're dining outside in the Bayou State. It's good to have a hand free to bat away the mosquitoes. 

This sandwich consists of: 

big crusty rolls 

1 package firm tofu, frozen and defrosted 

about 1/2 cup barbecue sauce 

about 1/2 cup water 

kale slaw 

vegenaise 

As you probably know, when you freeze and defrost tofu it changes the texture. You can squeeze the excess water right out of it with your hands. It gets more spongey and rugged - making it a good candidate for shaving thin and soaking up barbecue sauce. It becomes chewier and a bit heartier. I quickly browned this shaved tofu in a bit of oil before adding some diluted barbecue sauce (about a cup I'd say, but enough to cover the tofu in a medium sized skillet). Simmer the tofu in the sauce until most of the liquid is absorbed/ evaporated, about 10 minutes over medium-low. While the tofu is simmering, toast your rolls and make your slaw (though you could also make the slaw as far ahead as yesterday.) 

For each sandwich, I shredded a leaf of kale and half a carrot. Then I moistened the vege with some vegenaise and chow chow (I love all of the pickles and preserves you find here.). With this sweet spicy relish from the farmers market here, I found that my slaw didn't need anything else, but by all means, please, taste it. Add salt, or perhaps hot sauce if it needs more zing. Or if you don't have chow chow, use any ol' slaw you desire. 

To assemble the sandwiches: butter your rolls with vegenaise and cram in as much barbecue and slaw as you can comfortably fit.  There were enough fixins for 3 large sandwiches.  Please bring vinegary Louisiana-style hot sauce for garnish.  

Happy, happy summer, my friends.

Baby Farm Labor

is surprisingly ineffectual.  He certainly did enjoy himself some blueberries though.  Desmond stopped at each bush, ate berries, and murmured a little satisfied, "mmn," before moving on to the next plant.  When we got home I made a pie.  Desmond has continued to do his part in the eating.  And I'm bringing some to a friend, but we're still gonna have some blueberries to contend with.  What's your favorite way to eat them?

Hebler Organic Blueberry Farm

Seitan Soft Tacos

When I bought that basket of half a dozen hulking green tomatoes from the farmers market last week, I hadn’t really thought through precisely how many servings of cornmeal crusted fried green tomatoes that constituted.  We’ve eaten a lot.  Delicious.  I totally get it.  I feel ever so slightly more southern now.  But even if I weren’t out of canola oil AGAIN, I would still feel like it were maybe time to take a break from the frying.  So last night, one of them big ol’ tart suckers got blended into a bright, fresh sauce for simple soft tacos.  

Since I already had a batch of seitan in the fridge, taco-making was easy.  I sliced up some of that seitan, browned it in skillet (with a teensy bit of oil), threw in the sauce and let it simmer for...oh, say...10 minutes... until the seitan had soaked up some of the sauce and it was all quite bubbly and tasty.  Then I scooped some into softened corn tortillas, topped it off with slices of avocado and ate them with Scrabble and beer.  This deliciously easy dinner made me think that maybe it’s high time I resume my  goal of posting a weekly simple dinner recipe.  Here's the sauce:

Green Tomato Simmer Sauce

1 large green tomato, roughly chopped

1 spring onion, green and white parts, also roughly chopped

small handful cilantro

1 fresh cayenne chile (or 1/2, depending on how hot you want it)

1 clove of garlic

1/4 c. lime juice

1/4 c. olive oil

1/4 c. tequila

1/4 c. water

little swirl of agave

pinch of salt salt and pepper

pinch of oregano

Process all that in a blender until pretty smooth.  

Peaches, and plums, and summer

After extensive research on the subject I have returned to my original hypothesis:  just add bourbon and pecans.  That is the secret to southern cooking.  Oh and let me tell you, does this ever work out well when you're making a simple early summer fruit crumble.  At this time of year, as peaches and little tiny plums are showing up in the market, but are maybe not quite at their eat-over-the-sink peak, tossing them with some bourbon and sugar and baking them with a rich crunchy pecan topping is just the right thing to do.

A fruit crumble has got to be my favorite summer dessert because it is so easy. You don't need a recipe.  You don't need a mixer.  You don't need to wrap and chill pie dough.  Cut up some fruit, enough to fill the pan.  Toss it with some sugar if it's not too sweet, some bourbon if it's not too juicy, or a little squeeze of lemon juice if it's really, really both.  Put that in the pan you've chosen (I used 4 medium peaches and about a pint of tiny tart plums for a 9 x 9.  You can really fill it up because the fruit will cook down.) Get out a smallish bowl to make your topping.  The general rule of thumb is equal parts flour, butter, and sugar, but I dumped in about 3/4 c. of chopped pecans, added some spelt flour (maybe 1/3cup?), some sugar (1/2 cupish), molasses (say a tablespoon), and a scant 1/4 cup of butter (that's a bit less than half an earth balance stick). I crumbled that up with my fingertips, put the fruit in the pan, topped it with the crumbly mixture, and baked it uncovered at 350 for about 45 minutes.  So flippin' good.  Man alive do I love summer.