Not every recipe is a winner

I set out to make a really delicious "greens themed" red chard quiche, homemade crust and everything.  I threw in a bunch of stuff I thought would make a magnificent dish (tofu, soaked cashews, miso, mustard, tamari, tarragon, red pepper flakes, daiya, nooch, chard, onion...) and really couldn't eat more than one slice.  It was too rich, too salty, too soft, just too much.  I liked the crust (I used Julie's recipe from Vegan Diner), but wish I had twice as much.

I think I went wrong  with the cashews, miso, and tamari.  Maybe I even put in too much nooch.  I think I'll leave quiches up to the professionals and stick to following tried-and-true recipes in the future.

I couldn't even make it look delicious.  I think the hot sauce made it worse!

Matt, on the other hand said it was good.  Lucky him- he gets to take the rest for lunch this week!

Quiche fail.

Blackberry Cream Crepes

Inspired by the amazingly-dark purple blackberry syrup I made from the berries Matt and I picked last week, I decided to make Blackberry Cream-filled crepes for dinner.

The crepes were crispy around the edges and soft in the middle, textures which paired well with the richness of the blackberry cream cheese filling. The syrup on top gave the dish just a perfect amount of additional sweetness. As I devoured my crepes I was reminded of why they remain a favorite for lazy Sunday mornings. They're easy to make, filling, and really have that 'wow' factor. Just have a look at the color of that dollop of filling I plopped on top.

I usually make these with blueberry jam, which has pretty much the same effect. Here were my steps. (I didn't actually measure the ingredients!)

Crepes
makes 8 med-large crepes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp Ener-G egg replacer
1 3/4 cups almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp canola oil

Filling:
3-4 tbsp vegan cream cheese
2-3 tbsp jam or fruit syrup (your choice!)
2 tbsp vegan yogurt

powdered sugar to sprinkle on top
fruit syrup to drizzle on top

1. In a medium-sized bowl mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and egg replacer. Add almond milk, vanilla, and oil and mix until smooth. The batter should be thinner than pancake batter. If it's too thick, add more almond milk.

2. Heat up a non-stick pan to med heat. A cast iron pan works beautifully. Use cooking spray each time you pour a crepe into the pan and before flipping it.

3. Pour about 1/3 cup batter onto pan and move the pan around until the bottom is evenly coated in batter. Let cook for a few minutes until it browns on the underside and isn't runny on the top. Spray the top with canola oil. Flip and continue to cook a few minutes. Transfer to a plate when finished and keep warm in the oven while you're making the rest.

4. While your crepes are cooking, mix together the ingredients for the filling. I find stirring it with a spoon, and then using a whisk to fully incorporate the mixture works best.

5. When your crepes are ready, spread about a tbsp of jam along the center of each and roll them up, from one end to the other.

5. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and drizzle with fruit syrup.

VeganMoFo: Mom's Banana Bread

Recipe: Banana Bread
Family Member: Mom by way of Grandma Jane

Brief Description: We always had fruit in my house growing up. Bananas *ahem* ripening faster than they were eaten was a common occurrence. My mom would peel them when their peel was pretty much black, toss them in a zip lock baggie and keep them in the freezer until she was moved to make a huge batch of banana bread. Then, she’d encase the beautiful finished loaves in plastic baggies, and keep them in the freezer until it was their turn to be defrosted on the counter and devoured. A perfect process, me thinks, especially when the results are so tasty.

We don't seem to have the problem of bananas ripening too fast in our household. However, after returning from Florida following a delightful Thanksgiving at my mom's, we were left with a quite brown banana and a quite brown pear. Banana bread! Er. Banana Pear bread! Ohhhh my! This bread is goo-ood!

Original Ingredients:
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
3 tbsp sour milk (2 tbsp milk, 1 tbsp lemon juice)
1 cup mashed banana (~2 bananas)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

Original Directions:
1. Combine sugar, shortening, eggs, sour milk, and bananas.
2. In separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Incorporate into other mixture.
3. Fill two greased bread pans ¾ full and bake at 350* for 50-60 minutes.

Vegan Notes: I find sweet breads like this easy-peasy to veganize. Just sub non-dairy milk for milk and applesauce for the eggs (about 1/4 cup per egg). Voila! For ease and thrift, I often just use vegetable oil in place of the shortening as well.
(Note: This particular incarnation of my mom's recipe is more aptly titled "Gluten-Free Banana Pear Bread with Pecans!" I used oat flour this time and a combination of brown sugar and evaporated cane juice for the sugar. This is just how things are done in my kitchen. There's rarely any getting around substituting ingredients! Waste not, want not, and all that. You'll also notice I made four mini pans instead of two regular sized ones. I cut the baking time down to 30 minutes.)

VeganMoFo: Grandma's French Breakfast Puffs

Recipe: French Breakfast Puffs
Family Member: Grandma Jane

Brief Description: These calorie-dense sugary treats were saved for special weekend breakfasts in my family. They really should be enjoyed right out of the oven. Sugar. Cinnamon. Butter-like substance. You can’t go wrong. This time I made mini puffs (15 min at 350*) and halved the recipe.

Original Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup milk
1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg

6 tbsp butter
½ cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Original Directions:
1. Beat together 1/3 cup butter, sugar, and egg. Add milk.
2. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Add this mixture to the butter mixture. Combine.
3. Fill greased muffin tins ¾ full and bake at 350* for 20-25 minutes.
4. While the puffs are baking, melt 6 tbsp butter in a heat-safe bowl. In another bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
5. When the puffs are finished baking, dip each one in the melted butter completely, then coat each in the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Eat!

Vegan Notes: I did what I often do in baking recipes and subbed canola oil for the butter in the first mixture. For the butter needed the second time in the recipe, I used Earth Balance. I used EnerG Egg Replacer for the egg, and since I just finished up the last of the almond milk in the fridge, I used soy creamer for the milk.
Open up!

VeganMoFo: Aunt W's Baked Oatmeal

Recipe: Baked Oatmeal [GLUTEN FREE]
Family Member: Aunt W

Brief Description: Tasty and hearty, with a hint of sweet, baked oatmeal is a truly comforting breakfast dish, perfect to warm you (and the kitchen) on a cold morning. This Pennsylvania Dutch recipe, comes from my Aunt W who lives near Amish country. She's a great cook and this is one of my favorite recipes of hers. My dad made this for Doc and me when he came to visit us in Philly. Soooo Yummy and I don't even really like oatmeal!

Original Ingredients:
1½ cups Oatmeal (not instant)
1/3 cup sugar (white or brown)
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup raisins
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ cups skim milk
1 egg
1 tbsp oil
½ peeled apple chopped or shredded

Original Directions:
1. Mix all dry stuff together in a mixing bowl
2. Mix all of the wet stuff, egg and chopped apple together
3. Pour the mixed wet stuff, into the mixed dry stuff and mix
4. Pour mixture into a baking dish or pie plate, cover and refrigerate overnight to allow oatmeal to soak-up the milk
5. Preheat oven to 350F
6. Take it out of the fridge and sprinkle with a little cinnamon
7. Bake uncovered for 35-45 minutes until firm
8. Slice into wedges. Serve in a bowl with fresh sliced fruit and milk, or plain with maple syrup
9. Enjoy!

Vegan Notes: I used vanilla almond milk in the place of the diary milk and applesauce with a dash of EnerG Egg replacer to replace the egg. I also halved the recipe since it was for just the two of us. We topped the DELICIOUS baked oatmeal with vanilla almond milk and maple syrup.

VEGANMOFO 2009: Brunch Extravaganza!

I'll let the photos speak for themselves, well, the captions will help too.

Blueberry Blipes (half-way between blintzes and crepes)

Lemony Roasted Potatoes (Veganomicon)

Broccoli Quiche (Vegan Brunch)

Applesauce

Virgin Bloody Marys

Baked Oatmeal

Tempeh Sausage Puff Pastries (Vegan Brunch)
Thanks for taking the photos, DocDufresne!

Recent Gatherings

As you may know, I coordinated a dinner at Dahlak, a local Eritrean/Ethiopian/Indian restaurant a couple of weeks ago. We had sixteen folks attend the dinner and their company was a pleasure! It was great to meet new local vegans as well as catch up with some friends. We all enjoyed a delicious all-you-could-eat vegan meal. Here are the photos from the event:

A sampling of the delicious fare.

All vegan!

If you decide to go to Dahlak (and I think you should!), I recommend speaking to the owner, Neghisti Ghebrehiwot. She is so pleasant and was thrilled to have the business we provided with her. She was completely sympathetic to our dietary needs and knows exactly which dishes are appropriate. She also owns the West Philly location, which seems to be more popular.


This past weekend I also attended a wonderful vegan brunch potluck at a friend's home in Center City. The food was absolutely fantastic! So fantastic that I was too busy eating what was on my plate to notice that as new people were showing up, so were additional dishes. By the time I had the chance to take photos of the later-arriving dishes, they were almost gone! Here are the photos I did manage to take:

DocDufresne and I made Belgian waffles.

The waffle station.








There were 3 quiches, one omelet, and a tofu scramble. They were all different and awesome!

I wasn't the only one anxious to try all the dishes. I had difficulty squeezing in to take these last few photos!

Muffins, Soup, and a Cute Andydoodle

I made Triple-Berry Muffins with Crumb Topping the other day. Recipe was mostly based on Blueberry Muffins with Crumb Topping recipe from Vegweb. I don't have a large muffin tin (and wanted big muffins), so I used my popover pan and as you can see, the resulting muffins weren't able to stand up on their own. Oh well! They were gooood.





Tonight I made a tres yummy soup.

Creamy Cauliflower, Potato, and Roasted Garlic Soup
(topped with sundried tomatoes, sauteed oyster mushrooms, and garlic rosemary-infused olive oil)
makes 5-6 servings


Ingredients:
1 head garlic
2 tbsp Earth Balance
2 tbsp flour
6 cups unsweetened soy milk
2 Russet potatoes, cubed
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1-2 tbsp onion powder
1 package oyster mushrooms
1 clove garlic
more evoo
lemon wedges
sundried tomatoes, cut into thin strips
salt and pepper to taste

1. Pull off as much skin on the garlic head as possible. Put in an oven-safe container and cover generously with oil. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. (Or speed up the process and pull apart the cloves, leaving the skin on. Cover in oil and back for about 10 minutes.)
2. Melt the Earth Balance in a pan over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour and then the soy milk.
3. Add the potatoes and cauliflower and cook until soft.
4. Peel the garlic cloves and add to the soup pot. Add the rosemary and onion powder.
5. Saute the mushrooms in a pan in a little olive oil. Set aside in a bowl.
6. Crush a clove of garlic and add to 2 tbsp olive oil in the small pan used for the mushrooms. Cook on the lowest eat possible for ten minutes.
7. Blend the soup, either with an immersion blender, or in batches (after cooled) in a regular blender.
8. Add salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste. Top with sauteed mushrooms and infused oil.



Also, cute pictures of Anderson.

Breakfast 2/21/09: Jam-filled crepes and chai lattes

Today I made jam-filled crepes and chai lattes for breakfast. Check out the photos and recipes below (both originals!).

Crepes
makes 6 med-large crepes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp Ener-G
1 3/4 cups water
1 tsp vanilla extract
several globs of Earth Balance
Canola oil (spray works best)
6ish tbsp your choice of jam (orange marmalade is wonderful)
powdered sugar to sprinkle on top

1. In a medium-sized bowl mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and egg replacer. Add water and vanilla and mix until smooth. Do not over mix.

2. Heat up a non-stick pan to med heat (or if you're lucky an electric skillet- 350 degrees) and add a glob (~.5 tbsp) EB per crepe. The bigger the skillet/pan, the more crepes you can fit.

3. Pour about 1/3 cup batter onto pan and spread around with a plastic spoon as thinly as you can. Let cook for a few minutes until brown spots appear on underside. Spray upside with canola oil. Flip and continue to cook a few minutes. Transfer to a plate when finished and keep warm in the oven while you're making the rest.

4. When your crepes have all been cooked, spread about a tbsp of jam on each and fold both ends to the middle. To get the crepe to keep its form, use a little jam as glue under the last fold.

5. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Enjoy!


Chai Lattes
makes 2 good-sized mugs
Ingredients:
3 cups water
2 bay leaves
4 pieces crystallized ginger
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp whole black pepper
2 tsp whole green cardamom, crushed in fingers
~1/2 tbsp black tea leaves (amt. depends on taste)
1/2 tsp whole cloves
2 tbsp sugar (I like it sweet!)
1/3 cup soy creamer
powdered cinnamon to sprinkle on top

1. Place bay leaves, ginger, cinnamon sticks, black pepper, cardamom, and water in a pan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat a little and continue to boil for 10-15 minutes.

2. While the mixture is boiling, place creamer in a blender and blend for about 30 seconds. Set aside to get nice and frothy on top.

3. Turn the stove off and add the tea leaves, cloves, and sugar to the pan. Stir and then steep for 3 minutes.

4. With a large spoon or ladle, pour the tea mixture through a tea strainer and into two larger mugs.

5. Spoon half the froth into each mug and then pour the remaining creamer carefully into the mugs so as to not disturb the froth! Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve hot!