Your Vegan Mom

PuPu Platter: where I pile a lot of different topics on the plate

My dad, at my dining table last Sunday, reading aloud from the March issue of Vegetarian Times magazine: "Hot Chick of the Month: Your Vegan Mom!"

Me, yelling from the kitchen: "Hot Click, Dad!  Click.  Like website."

Did you see it?  I figure since March is almost over, I ought to mention it real quick.  I was very grateful that they edited out all the stupid things I said in our brief interview and wrote a sweet little paragraph about this blog.  Thanks. 

If you haven't read it yet, it's on page 22.  I'll wait.

Also, 

• Did you notice that Silk no longer exclusively uses organic soy beans?  To be honest, I was always pleasantly surprised that such a big company did, but now they've pulled this sly switcheroo that just leaves me kind of icked out.  They have a separate new organic line, but I'll stick to Wildwood or Trader Joe's organic from now on, thanks.  Or ideally, homemade, but that just doesn't always happen these days.
• Have you visited C'est La Vegan?  It's a beautiful new blog written by the popular baker behind the vegan cupcakes at Leda's and photographed by her husband.  Also, you'll find a link there to her on-line bakery.  I can tell you that her oatmeal cookies are perfect, and I bet the pecan bars and almond loaves are too.  Quarrygirl just did a nice write-up about her as well.  
• And for your next vegan baked goods smack down, maybe you should get some treats from Vegan Bake Sale to put head to head with C'est La Vegan's wares.  And invite me over, please. Vegan Bake Sale was officially launched yesterday by the lovely baker that pens Cute and Delicious - which, by the way, totally lives up to its name.  These people make me feel so lucky to live in Los Angeles.  
• I think these lipbalms would make great easter basket stuffers.    
• Whole Foods has extended their vegan pizza offerings and Desmond and I have since had lunch there almost everyday.  Also, at the Pasadena Whole Foods yesterday there was a vegan calzone on offer.  My dream has come true.  
• Shojin is celebrating their one year anniversary all month (as in for the next 5 days, sorry) with nightly dinner specials and a blow out on Sunday involving a vegan sushi chef. 
• Happy Weekend!  

Egg Replacer: the hunt for a vegan easter tradition

If I was feeling a bit ho-hum about Saint Patrick's Day, I have no qualms whatsoever about easter.  A giant rabbit that hides colorful eggs filled with candy in your backyard!?  How fabulously surreal is that? 

Also, it's one of those holidays with a family craft tradition - like baking christmas cookies.  I loved those cups of brightly colored dye and wire egg dippers and little shrink wrappers.  But really, does anybody think that hiding hard-boiled eggs in the hot sun is a good idea?

So I've been gradually trying to figure out what our easter making tradition will be.  This year we started with sugar cookies (from Joy of Vegan Baking) decorated with melted chocolate (crammed in a ziploc bag, corner poked with a tiny skewer hole).  But we have lots more experimenting to do.   

There are candy molds and cakes to be baked and maybe when Desmond is older we'll do something with wooden eggs. 

My yoga-practicing pal made cadbury eggs, and even though I always thought the store-bought ones were gross, I bet hers were rad and I want to eat them.  

I'll get back to you with more experiments in the coming weeks.  

How about you?  What do you put in the easter basket?

Boxty on the Griddle

I was going to let St. Patrick's Day slip past.  It's not my favorite holiday, what with all the pinching and artificial food coloring, but then Desmond and I were in the park, this absolutely dreamy park filled with rolling green hills, and little stone bridges, and huge oak trees, and this tribe of 3 to 6 year olds ran past, hunting behind trees and under rocks for leprechauns, spying them just about everywhere, while their pigtailed sprite of a mama chased after them all and suggested they thank the leprechauns for the treats they left, and I thought okay, I guess I can get into that sort of holiday.  So I went home, put on the stepdad's CD (He plays accordian and sings in a popular Irish band - yes I was just burned at the family stake for admitting that I'm not too into St. Patrick's Day.), and made boxty.

If you've never had them, Boxty are Irish potato pancakes that vary so much depending on who's making them that they can even come as a loaf.  The stepdad remembers the nice old lady down the street cutting wedges from a round cake to fry up as needed for a visiting neighborhood kid.  But in pancake form, they're big or little, fat or thin.  I've only ever come across them as a thinnish sort of hearty Irish alternative to the crepe.  In this form, they can be wrapped around a filling and accompanied with a sauce. (I was going to braise seitan and mushrooms in a good stout - but I couldn't bring myself to braise, or cook with beer, or make seitan, or go to Whole Foods - maybe next year when I'm not pregnant.  But maybe you should do that.  It would still make a great boxty filling.)  So I threw some gorgeous new asparagus in a hot oven to roast while I flipped pancakes.  I put some thinly sliced, super firm tofu in a pan with a bacony marinade to cook like the tempeh bacon.  And I ground cashews to make a creamy mustard sauce to put on top.  This is not the sort of meal that I would make on an average Tuesday, but I managed to get the family entertained for a couple hours while I had a leisurely time in the kitchen.  ("Hey, why don't you run to Ikea and buy the couch?"  Will get rid of three boys for a good three hours.  You should try it.)  And thankfully, there was a pretty great meal waiting for them when they returned.       

Boxty
1 lb. of russet potatoes
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar 
1 1/2 cups soy milk 
1/2 teaspoon salt
butter for frying (vegan Earth Balance)

Boil half of the potatoes until soft, and mash.  Grate the remaining raw potatoes, and set aside in a colander to drain a bit.  Add the vinegar to the soy milk, let sit for a few minutes until thickened, and stir  Stir together the mashed potatoes, the grated potatoes, the flour, the baking powder, and the salt.  Slowly stir in the buttermilk (soymilk + vinegar) to form pancake batter.

Add a little pat of butter to a non-stick skillet and heat over medium-low.  Cook the pancake for about 4 minutes on each side, until it's beginning to brown around the edges, and appears mostly dry.  Flip, and cook on the other side.  Keep on a plate in a warm oven until all the pancakes are cooked.

Mustard Cream Sauce
1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
1 cup soy milk
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Grind the cashews in a food processor to a fine powder.  Add the soy milk, mustard, lemon juice, and salt.  Whir until smooth.  Pour into a small sauce pan and heat gently.  The sauce will thicken as it cooks.  If you let it get too thick, you can whisk in more cold soy milk.    

Tofu Rashers
8 oz. super firm tofu (labeled sometimes as tofu steak, drain if not incredibly firm)
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons tamari
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 cup vegetable broth

Slice the tofu into thin strips, and place in a single layer in a large cast iron skillet.  Mix together the liquid ingredients and pour over the tofu.  Bring to a simmer, and turn the heat down to low.  While it cooks, flip the tofu once or twice and move the pieces around occasionally so that they cook evenly.  Let cook until all the liquid has cooked away/ been absorbed and the tofu is browned.  

Roasted Asparagus

Heat oven to 425.  Snap tough ends off of asparagus.  Wash.  Toss with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt in a roasting pan or a lipped baking sheet, big enough to hold them in close to a single layer.  Bake for about 12 minutes, depending on how fat your spears are.   

To serve: fold one boxty over a few spears of asparagus and a slab of vegan rashers.  Drizzle with the mustard cream, and serve.  With good beer.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  

   

  

Vegan Cupcakes in South Pasadena

A new bakery opened recently on Mission in South Pasadena.  This is noteworthy because My Sweet Cupcake stocks three vegan flavors on Thursdays and Saturdays.  They are delicious.  

My Sweet Cupcake
954 Mission St.
South Pasadena, CA 91030
(626) 441-4010

Simple Comfort

I'm pregnant.  And it's hard to cook.  The smell of most everything makes me want to throw up, what I make doesn't taste good, and I'm tired.    

I have frequently come across the advice that you should put away meals in preparation for the arrival of a new baby, but I say do it sooner.  If there's any danger of becoming pregnant at some point in the near future, go ahead and put on a pot of soup.  

Unfortunately, I do not have a freezer full of nutritious single servings.  I have convinced Paul to make us dinner every night until the nausea passes, and last week I temporarily solved the problem by spending 85 dollars at Whole Foods on already prepared meals and snacks that lasted me a day and a half.  Oh, but it was a good day and a half.  That's also the day that I splurged on the ten pass at the local indoor playground that has free wifi, and coffee (which you can't drink because you're pregnant.)  So with my kid entertained and my bowl of Amy's No Chicken Noodle, I staved off the pending hormonal breakdown.  But of course, I can't live that life of luxury everyday.

Assuming you too have not heeded my advice about stockpiling healthy meals, I've found an alternative. This soup is the simplest of simple comfort foods.  As a matter of fact, if you're not eleven weeks pregnant, or two years old, this probably won't interest you.  I remember from the last time we did this, that I had the palate of a toddler for about nine months, and this time around it kind of comes in handy, since I'm already cooking for one kid.  This soup makes a perfect lunch for Desmond and me, with a bowl left over for when I'm hungry again, which is all the time.  From chopping to eating it takes maybe 20 to 25 minutes.  There are a couple of key happy pregnant woman factors at work here: no garlic or onions (puke), no long simmer time filling your home with delicious savory aromas (puke), plus it actually contains a bit of nutritive variety that I can stomach because it's cut up really small.  I have come a long way from week 8 when I would eat only cold pears, soda water, peanut butter crackers, and inari sushi.    

Toddler Soup

makes 3 grown-up size helpings

1 cup diced vege, for me that was 4 smallish carrots and 2 small celery stalks
about 1 T. olive oil 
1 quart vegetable broth (I've been using the Rapunzel powdered vegetable broth that you buy in a little jar in health food stores.)
1/2 c. small dry pasta
1/2 c. shredded seitan (I've been using White Wave chicken-style seitan, because I am not cooking.  One package made me three pots of soup.) 
a handful of shredded greens (cut up really small if you're cooking for a toddler or pregnant woman)

In a medium saucepan heat the olive oil over medium heat.  When it's good and hot, throw in the carrots and celery.  Saute for 3 or 4 minutes, until they get a little bit of color.  Add the vegetable broth, and stir to scrape up any browned vegetable bits from the bottom of your pan.  If your broth is not already hot, then wait for it to come to a simmer before you add your pasta.  Once the pasta is about cooked, add your seitan and greens.  I have used both baby spinach (just stir in at the very end, until wilted and bright green) and russian kale (add before the pasta is done so that it has time to become tender, a couple minutes will do), but any cooking green you fancy will work, just adjust adding time accordingly.  Taste for seasoning, and serve.  I add nothing, by the way, but I'm really into the simple comfort of this soup.  You might like a squeeze of lemon juice, or a bit of salt and pepper, or a shake of hot sauce.  

But please, give me a week or two before we talk about hot sauce again.