Your Vegan Mom

Viva Vegan!

 
Quick Red Posole

Normally when I sit down with a new cookbook, I get out my little post-it tabs and mark recipes that I want to try.  But as I leafed through Viva Vegan!, Terry Hope Romero's new latin vegan endeavor, my sticky pad sat idle.  The problem was, however, not lack of interest.  I was paralyzed with excitement.  I want to make every single recipe in this cookbook.  Every one.  

So I started with tacos - soft corn tortillas folded around "tempeh asado" with shredded cabbage and sliced radishes and avocado.  Psychological games were played to angle for the last tart, flavorfull strips of grilled tempeh marinated in beer and lime juice and spices.  Then Paul resorted to just plain stealing while I put the baby to bed.  Next time I'll make more.

After I made the Quick Red Posole for dinner one Tuesday, I had leftovers for breakfast for the rest of the week.  This posole is essentially a quick vegetarian chili with the addition of hominy corn, but it was tasty and hearty and satisfying.  

Though a bit more time-consuming, the Potato-Chickpea Enchiladas with Green Tomatillo Sauce were similarly comforting.  

And there's currently seitan cooling in the fridge to go into a green posole with swiss chard or maybe arroz con seitan or shredded into tacos or maybe just grilled with some plantains on the side.  With flan for dessert or maybe churros.  Did I mention that I want to eat everything that this Terry Hope Romero says?  

Tempeh Asado

Tip: Steaming tempeh in a microwave is fast and less messy.  Place the sliced tempeh in a glass microwave-safe bowl with a lid and add 1/2 cup water.  Toss the tempeh to moisten.  Cover and microwave on high 5 to 6 minutes, or until the tempeh has softened and absorbed some of the liquid.  Drain the excess water.  Your tempeh is now ready to marinate!

• 1 (8-ounce) cake tempeh

Marinade

• 1/3 cup light-colored Mexican beer or vegetable broth
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely grated
• 1/2 rounded teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, crumbled by rubbing between your palms (releases flavor and eliminates any coarse leaves)

1. Slice the entire tempeh cake in half length-wise, then slice it into thirds.  From here you can either slice each third on a diagonal to form triangles (good if serving as an entree) or leave as rectangles for use in sandwiches or tacos.  Steam the tempeh in either a steamer basket, a covered sauce pan with 1 cup of water over high heat, or a microwave as directed above.  Be sure to drain it of any excess water before adding to the marinade.  

2. In a square pan or glass baking dish, whisk all of the marinade ingredients together.  Add the tempeh and flip each piece over a few times to help it absorb the marinade.  Let sit for 10 minutes at room temperature.  While this is going on, you can heat a cast iron  grill pan over medium high heat.  If pan-frying the tempeh, generously oil the pan with peanut or canola oil.  Using metal tongs, place the pieces of tempeh on your grill or pan, taking care not to crown the pan.  Brush with some of the extra marinade.  Grill on each side for 3 or 4 minutes, flip and keep brushing with marinade, using up the rest of the marinade on the tempeh as it cooks.  Tempeh should not cook for more than 6 to 7 minutes total, or it may become too dry.  

3.  Serve hot tempeh immediately.  To serve in tacos, cut the tempeh into squares as directed above, grill, and coarsely chop the hot tempeh into bite-size bits.  Serve in soft corn tortillas with sliced radishes, chopped cabbage, salsa, and a sprinkle of lime juice.  

 From the book, Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero.  Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group.  Copyright 2010.  www.dacapopresscookbooks.com

Berry Lemonade

 

We live in a four-plex with a narrow shared backyard.  Since three of the four households here have kids, summers are dreamy times when kids runs amok with only occasional interference from moms and dads.  We put water in the kiddie pool last week.  And the neighbors pushed over their slide.  Then the eldest discovered that if we run the hose through the old laundry line support, we can have a trickling water fall running onto the slide and swooshing into the pool.  Shoes have not been worn since.

And clearly, in this summer space, there is a great need for lemonade.  We happily helped ourselves to some fragrant yellow fruit set out in a cardboard box at the edge of a lawn down the street.  And Desmond and I went berry crazy at the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sunday.  So when some more pals popped by yesterday to play in our jury-rigged backyard oasis, Paul and Desmond whipped up some berry lemonade.  It was mostly made with strawberries, and a few stragglers from the pint of squishy boysenberries that we gobbled up as soon as we got home from the market, but you can use any combination of berries you like.  With Fathers Day Sunday, I think it is an appropriate time to mention, that Desmond and Felix have one rad dad.  I love that guy.  And his summer drinks are pretty great too.    

Berry Lemonade

• 1/2 cup lemon juice (or the juice of 2 - 3 lemons)
• 1/2 cup maple syrup 
• 3 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups of hulled (That means take off the stem.) berries

Put all ingredients in blender and process until smooth.  Strain if you like, we don't, and serve in a big pitcher with lots of ice.  

Perfect Oven Fries

 

The ability to pull a perfectly crisp and brown little wedge of potato from your oven is one of the primary skills of a successful adult.  Do yours stick?  Never quite crisp up?  Brown unevenly?  Let's work this out together.  

1. Choose your potatoes.  If you don't like to peel (I don't), buy organic ones.  Any variety will make a good oven fry, but I'm partial to yukon gold's creamy interior and golden hue.  I figure about 8 to 10 ounces of potato per person or 2 to 3 smallish potatoes.        

 

2. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 400 degrees.  Cut your potatoes.  Start by slicing about 1/2 inch off one side to make a flat base.  Now cut the rest of the potato into 1/2 inch slices.  Then cut those slices into 1/2 inch sticks.  For even cooking, they should all be about the same size.  

 

3. Dry them well.  The moisture combined with the starch from the potato is what will glue them to your cookie sheet.  You don't want that.  Pat them dry in a clean kitchen towel.  Also, please refrain from adding salt until they're cooked.  The salt will draw out moisture and make them stick.  So, again, to prevent sticking, dry them well and hold off on the salt.  

 

4. Spread them out in a single layer on a jelly roll pan.  Drizzle them with oil, say... two or three  tablespoons for a sheet's worth, but there's no need to get measuring spoons dirty.  

 

5. Toss them around with your hands to evenly distribute the oil.  When you're done, rub the leftover oil into your hands - why would you pass up an opportunity to moisturize?

 

6. Put them in the oven.  After 20 - 25 minutes, turn them over so that they brown evenly.  Cook for another 20 - 25 minutes.  Remove from oven when they are good and brown.  

7. Sprinkle with salt.  Serve with ketchup or vegenaise or malt vinegar or pink sauce (ketchup and vegenaise, perhaps spiked with sriracha).  

(All except first photo by Dorka.)

Ice Cream Balls

 

I have a bit of a thing for ice cream bon bons.  Last summer we froze dozens of tiny ice cream balls and experimented with different combinations of chocolate and dipping methods.  But it's kind of a pain.  There were always swirls of melted ice cream slowly spiraling out from each gingerly dipped ball, endangering the fragile environment of melted chocolate.  And then there's the tricky issue of chocolate to ice cream ratio, and the even more problematic proportion of time spent making to time spent eating - not satisfactory.  And then the Rice Dream people came out with these little bites.  My effortless bon bon eating dream had come true.  I bought them once.  They were perfect.  And then, to be honest, I haven't thought about bon bons since.  It turns out, that like so many mild obsessions, this one was primarily fueled by the elusive quality of the quarry.  

But then yesterday, yesterday Desmond and I, well really Desmond, Katie Lee, and I came up with the most ingenious solution to my need for tiny ice cream.  Ingenious, because perhaps the only thing I love more than tiny hand-held ice cream is a good dipping sauce, and maybe the only thing I love more than a good dipping sauce is toasted pecans and velvety warm dark chocolate dripping from them.  Oh good land, I'm happy.  

 

Ice Cream Balls with Hot Fudge Dipping Sauce
Makes 12 balls or 4 3-ball servings with sauce

The flavor combinations are limitless.  Next time, like probably tomorrow, I'm going with coconut vanilla ice cream coated in toasted almonds.  

• 1/2 pint vanilla soy ice cream
• 1 cup toasted pecans
• pinch of salt
• 4 ounces dark chocolate 
• 1/2 cup soy creamer
• 1 tablespoon non-dairy butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and put it in the freezer to get good and cold.  In the meantime, put the ice cream in the fridge to soften for about 15 minutes.  Pulse the nuts and the salt in a food processor to make coarse crumbs.  Put the ground nuts in a small dish.  

With a cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop out an ice cream ball, roll around in the nuts, and place on the cold cookie sheet.  When all your balls are formed, place in the freezer to firm up for about an hour.  

Shortly before serving, make your sauce: chop up the chocolate and place in a heat proof bowl.  Gently bring the creamer and butter to a boil - that's two minutes in a pyrex measuring cup in my microwave, or you can do this in a small pan on the stove if you prefer.  Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate.  Tap once on the counter and let sit for a minute.  Add vanilla.  Stir until smooth.  Serve with ice cream balls to dip.  

Do you have little soy sauce dishes designed for all the sushi that you don't make?  Those are perfect for a little pool of hot fudge sauce.