Raleigh!

By Monica on July 4th, 2008

So I spent the better part of last week in Raleigh, NC.  While certainly not the vegan mecca of PDX, there were way more food choices than I’m used to in Illinois.  Go North Carolina!

Up first was a stop at Mellow Mushroom for some Spring Water Dough Pretzels with marinara:

And an amazing pizza aptly called the “Mega Veggie”, loaded with sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, onions, green peppers, black olives, tomatoes, banana peppers, broccoli, artichoke hearts, and tofu.  The tofu is really not radioactive, the sun was just that bright!  Mellow Mushroom was a really fun place, good food, very veg-friendly with knowledgeable staff, and  we got to sit outside enjoying the gorgeous NC weather.  I’d go back in a heartbeat.

The next day it was off to the State Farmer’s Market in Raleigh, an amazing 225,000 square feet of gorgeous local produce and plants.  Peaches and melons were in season, tomatoes (which won’t be in IL for another 2 months!), squashes, peppers - it was amazing!

There are even a ton of fresh beans, which I would have loved to take home with me, but I didn’t think they’d fare so well in the cargo hold of the airplane!

As if that weren’t enough, there were pineapple trees for sale!  I’m a pineapple fanatic, so the prospect of being able to grow these suckers was enough for me to move to NC right then and there!

Our next stop was Spotted Dog in Carrboro.  Admittedly, we ended up there only because the THREE other restaurants on our list were all closed for various, strange reasons.  Apparently divine intervention wanted us to have these faux wings:

and this imitation chicken BBQ sammich with beer battered french fries.  Both were pretty good, even though I thought the wingz were a bit overpriced at ~$8 for the portion you see above.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised that Raleigh, technically being a part of “the south”, was as veg-friendly as it was.  I didn’t find bacon in every single vegetable dish like I have in Florida and Georgia, and most places had vegetarian sections of the menu.  Again, go North Carolina!

But lastly, I’m going to leave you with a recipe for Rhubarb Ice Cream, about the only thing I’ve managed to cook since coming home.  It doesn’t look very appetizing, I’ll admit.  What it does, however, is taste like a rhubarb pie in ice cream form.  And if that isn’t the best thing EVER, I don’t know what is.

Rhubarb Ice Cream (inspired by AllRecipes)
3 cups sliced rhubarb
2 cups sugar*
1t lemon juice
1 cup coconut milk

Place rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice in a small saucepan.  Bring to a slow boil and cook until rhubarb is tender, about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and (carefully!) transfer contents to a food processor or blender.  Process just until rhubarb is in pea sized chunks, or your desired chunkiness.
Whisk in coconut milk.
Process per the instructions on your ice cream machine, and then freeze overnight to let harden a little more.
*This is very, very sweet.  Use less sugar if you’re concerned with diabetes or you know, tooth rot!

Hot Hot Hot !!!

By Monica on June 12th, 2008

It’s said that Illinois has two seasons: winter and construction.  I’m adding a third season, which follows a never-ending winter, and that season is “Blast Furnace”.  We’ve gone immediately from below freezing into muggy, humid, clothes-sticking-to-you high 90’s.  And I am not a summer person… So my kitchen has stopped churning out breads and baked goods and has instead focused on foods which are quick and do not require turning the oven on.

I think I am officially the last blogger remaining who hadn’t tried V’Con Chickpea Cutlets yet, so let’s start there.  I definitely appreciated the easy alternative to seitan, I tried them on the 2nd day (as recommended by other bloggers), and I didn’t have any trouble making the cutlets.  I don’t think I’ll make them again, they were just kind of mediocre for me - but I did enjoy the innovative recipe.

Like most, I’ve been eating a lot of veggie burgers lately too, especially since Ray recently got himself a big ole’ griddle pan.  Now the notorious Rayburger has been upgraded to Grilled Rayburger, ooooo, ahhh!

SusanV’s Cherry-Chocolate Mousse Pie, perfect not only because it’s tasty as can be, but also because it requires no baking or heat whatsoever.  I even phoned this in with a store-bought graham cracker crust, shame on me.

And lastly, Rootbeer Floats.  You know you want one.

P.S. - If I have any readers in the Raleigh, NC area, please email me.  I have a few questions for the locals.  Thanks!

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:

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?