San Francisco

By Monica on May 7th, 2008

This week I have an excuse for being AWOL - I was in San Francisco! So prepare yourselves for a slew of dark, blurry restaurant photos and commentary from a visitor who wasn’t quite ready to come back home to the very opposite state of Illinois yet:

The Boudin sourdough bakery on the wharf was a stone’s throw away from our hotel, so the smell of fresh bread lured us in more than once, and we even succumbed to a sourdough turtle.

The “California Veggie” sammich, sans cheese, and the roasted tomato soup bread bowl. I’m still skeptical, but the cashier vehemently insisted the tomato soup was vegan.

In China Town we stopped at Lucky Creation Vegetarian for lunch. It was a tiny place, absolutely packed, but the food was incredible and lunch for two only cost us about $20! Spring Rolls:

Ray’s fungus platter… (technically it was the mixed veggie platter, but contained more varieties of mushrooms than I knew existed.) As an avid mushroom hater, it was hard for me to watch this being eaten, but Ray said it was excellent.

And my Sweet & Sour Imitation Pork, which was gluten based. I hadn’t had a sweet & sour dish since I was a kid and this was like a nostalgic return to the Chinese take-out of my youth, except much, much better. I loved this place!

Saturday morning we literally stumbled across the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. I saw the tents from our passing streetcar and we abandoned our plans and jumped off at the next stop. Given that my hometown farmer’s market is open for 3 months per year and features 6 or so vendors mostly selling sweet corn, you can understand my excitement over a real farmer’s market.

I would kill to have fresh herbs like this available locally, much less for a buck! Consider me thoroughly envious.

What I was not expecting was that we’d spend hours here, literally eating our way through the farmer’s market aisle by aisle! In addition to all the vendors offering samples of their produce (which we bought a ton of to snack on at the hotel), Alive! was there with some tasty raw selections:

I opted for the cucumber spritzer and Ray had a strawberry chocolate parfait:

And just to make sure we left good and stuffed, Asparagus Tempura:

Dinner was at Herbivore on Divisadero. Sadly, Herbivore is getting a pretty poor review from me. The service was horrendous; never before have I had a meal served in the order of entree, then salad, then finally the drink you ordered 45 minutes ago, then dessert with no silverware until the adjoining table of strangers takes mercy on you and gives you their unused forks. The food gets a solid C, unfortunately everything was extremely bland including this Gnocci with Basil Pesto:

And the Red Curry. Maybe it’s me, but I don’t expect “bland” out of any kind of pesto, nor any kind of curry?

Strawberry Rhubarb pie, my personal favorite variety of pie. Good, but nothing noteworthy.

And finally, the German Chocolate Cake which we also found disappointing. The saving grace of our Herbivore meal was the ice cream that accompanied dessert, made locally by Maggie Mudd. We agreed it was the best vegan ice cream we’d ever had - kudos to you, Maggie!

Lunch the following day was at Las Margaritas on Fisherman’s Wharf. After walking up and down the San Francisco hills for a few days, sometimes something quick and close to the hotel is appealing, even if it’s just a veggie burrito:

Or some veggie fajitas. Actually, Las Margaritas had a decent vegetarian menu selection for being in the middle of a tourist trap, and more importantly, they offer a 60 ounce margarita!

The last night we were in town, we trekked out to the Mission District and ate at Weird Fish, which could perhaps be described as a pescatarian restaurant? They serve only vegan food and seafood. Weird Fish, indeed! However, the service was great, the restaurant is quaint and comfortable, the food was phenomenal, and they even get bonus points for having the Joy Division discography playing in the background.

Buffalo Girls Wings. I am confident in saying that these are the best seitan ‘wings’ in the history of the world. Ever. (Also, I again apologize for the shameful photos.)

The Tofu Fish & Chips with Sesame Ginger Sauce. Note to potential patrons, the two piece order is plenty, three was obscene! (But we still ate it because it was amazing, heh.)

And lastly, Cheezecake with Raspberry Rhubarb Sauce. The trip to Weird Fish is worth it if for this alone. I never thought I’d say it, but they even have the Chicago Diner beat on their cheezecake.

I won’t bore everyone with the obligatory sea lion pictures and whatnot, but we had a great time. It is such a treat to visit progressive, green, veg-friendly places like San Francisco, but it does make it a bit hard to come home. While I re-adjust to the culture shock, I promise to catch up on all your blogs this week!

Seitanic Sauerbraten

By Monica on April 23rd, 2008

First, I apologize for being AWOL last week. I have no valid excuse, shame on me! Hopefully a seitanic version of a Sauerbraten-Style Stew will make up for it. I love the contrasting sweet and sour flavors of sauerbraten and make several versions. Wikipedia says horse was the traditional ‘meat’ used in this German dish, thankfully I’ve never made that version and think I’ll stick with gluten!

Sauerbraten in the crock, ready to go in the oven. Feel free to use red cabbage if you fancy.

And Sauerbraten finished, heaped onto some bread dumplings. You could also enjoy it as a stew, or put it over some wide noodles. As usual, I’m partial to dumplings though!

Seitanic Sauerbraten Stew
1 lb. seitan, cut into 1″ cubes
1t salt
1/4t ground cloves
1/4t white pepper
1 1/2 cups veggie broth
1 1/2 cups No-Beef Broth
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 bay leaves
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 small head cabbage, coarsely shredded
1T packed brown sugar
1t ground ginger

Mix all ingredients in a 4 quart dutch oven, or ovenproof crock. Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, or until cabbage is tender. (You can make this on the stove a bit quicker, but the flavors don’t meld together quite as nicely.) Enjoy!

Also, I finally got around to the ‘Nomicon Snobby Joes that have been making the blogger rounds lately. Shamefully, I put them on cheap white buns because that’s all Po-Dunk Grocery has and I’ve not been ambitious enough yet to make my own buns. Please ignore the refined, nasty, white buns and focus instead, on the delicious lentily goodness that is the Snobby Joe:

Irish-Italian?

By Monica on April 10th, 2008

A new fusion food?  No, that’s just what came out of my oven last night:  Tofu Stuffed Shells and Irish Soda Bread!

Every year as St. Patty’s Day approaches, my mother becomes exuberant over the availability of Irish Soda Bread.  After St. Patty’s Day passes, she mourns the loss of her favorite morning snack.  Growing weary of her complaints everyday, I tried making a loaf last night.

As it turns out, this is my kind of bread-making:  No rising, no kneading, no patience required.  It comes together in less than 5 minutes and goes straight into the oven.  Couldn’t be easier, pretty darn tasty, and using whole wheat flour makes it just a wee-bit more nutritious and filling for a morning snack.

Irish Soda Bread
1 1/2 cups plus 2T soymilk
1T plus 1 1/2t white vinegar
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
1t baking soda
1t salt
1/2 cup raisins, optional

Combine soymilk and vinegar in a small bowl and set aside.
Sift together flours, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl.  Form a well in the center and add soured soymilk, stirring until the mixture becomes a dough firm enough to shape.  Knead raisins in.
Place dough on a parchment lined baking sheet and form into a n 8″ ball, about 1″ thick.
Make some crosses across the top, about 1/2″ deep, which will make it easy to tear the bread into portions after baking.
Bake 40-45 minutes at 425 degrees until you have a firm, golden brown top and bottom.

And onto the Stuffed Shells!

Above are the naked little fellas before being covered in sauce and sent into the oven.  I use this Joanne Stepaniak inspired tofu ricotta for stuffed shells, manicotti, and lasagna.  It’s easy, delicious, and I always have the ingredients on hand.  Plus, every omni I’ve ever served it to is amazed that it’s actually tofu, they’re actually eating it, and they actually like it!

Tofu Stuffed Shells
16 oz box stuffed shells
2 lbs tofu (I prefer 1lb extra firm, 1lb soft), patted dry and mashed
4 cloves garlic, minced
2-4T soymilk
2T olive oil
3T lemon juice
1T sugar
2T chopped fresh parsley
1T dried basil
2t onion powder
Salt & pepper to taste
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained - or 3 cups fresh
4 cups of your favorite spaghetti sauce
Vegan Parmesan, optional

Prepare the stuffed shells according to package directions, drain, rinse, and cool.
In a large bowl, mix the mashed tofu, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, sugar, parsley, basil, onion powder, salt, pepper, and spinach together.  Add just enough of the soymilk to give you a ricotta-like consistency.
Line a 9×13″ baking pan with half the spaghetti sauce.
Commit right now that the best way to do this is with your hands, and messily stuff each shell with approximately one heaping tablespoon of the ricotta.  Line them up in your pan.
Cover the shells with the remaining pasta sauce and sprinkle with vegan Parmesan if you like.
Cover pan tightly with foil, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Buchty

By Monica on April 2nd, 2008

Buchty, Czech baked donuts, also known as “a delicious, but gross misuse of butter”. If your arteries are just too clean these days, look no further.

These donut-style mini-cakes are extremely dense and rich, and stuffed with your favorite homemade jam or preserve. These aren’t quite as fluffy as the egg and butter laden buchty I ate as a kid, possibly due to the veganization, but they are still sinfully rich, flakey, and moist, with a very sweet, crunchy exterior… Kind of a donut-croissant!

Buchty
1/2 cup soymilk
1 packet dry yeast
2 cups flour
1/4t salt
4 Ener-G eggs
1/2c sugar
3/4c Earth Balance, separated
Your favorite jam or preserves
Confectioners sugar

Warm the soymilk slightly, add yeast and dissolve.
Into a large bowl, add flour and salt.
Whisk Ener-G eggs into the yeast-milk mixture, then add to the flour. Mix well.
In another bowl, whisk together the sugar and 1/2 cup EB until it is light and creamy. Fold this into the dough. Dough will be very sticky! Cover and let rise for 45 minutes.
After dough has risen, tear off a tennis ball sized chunk and work it into a round shape. Poke two fingers into the dough to make a small well, fill it with 1T of jam, then cover up the well and pinch it closed.
Fill up all the donuts this way and let them rise for another 15 minutes.
Grease a 9×13″ baking pan. Melt the remaining 1/4c EB. Place the doughnuts close together in the pan and drizzle the melted EB on top.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, until golden brown. When done, tear dougnnuts from each other and serve warm or cooled, sprinkled with confectioners sugar.

In the ‘other food that won’t kill you’ category this week, we had a Mexican Pasta Casserole from VegWeb. I used TVP as the taco “meat”, added black olives, omitted the vegan cheese, and doubled the recipe to make an extra casserole for a rainy day. Easy, easy, easy!

I also found a recipe on VegWeb for a seitan “Chicago Italian Beef”. I went into this pretty skeptical. I tried the recipe as written, then doubled the giardiniera, added more garlic, and more fennel. I was still disappointed, though the seitan did improve drastically after letting it marinade in the “aus jus” for 2 days after cooking. Looks good though, no?

And then with some melted vegan mozzarella, which I am absolutely done buying. This cheez had been sitting around in my refrigerator for a long time and now I’m finally rid of the waxy, flame retardant crap. Good riddance! (The ‘beef’ was also better without its overpowering grossness!) But again, looks good, no?