Really Excellent Marinade

This is a simple post for a marinade I've been making for tofu and seitan.  It's tangy and just a little spicy, and can be adjusted accordingly. I've put it on veggie burgers and it's good with roast potatoes too! It's made with items I always have on hand: Pickapeppa Sauce, a great vegan Worcestershire sauce replacement (Worcestershire sauce has anchovies in it, FYI); Cholula Hot Sauce; and Soy Sauce.

I used some of the sauce to marinate baked seitan, and then made a vegetarian Reuben sandwich with the seitan:

 

Yum!

I wanted to share this sauce with you because I also discovered that it makes an excellent flavoring for seitan! Some of you might know of my troubles with seitan. I just can't give up on making it right. Well, my latest attempt to make a batch of seitan yielded some unusual results, so this post kicks off a series of posts documenting my experiments with seitan.  Stay tuned for recipes for seitan and one that uses seitan!

Yours in experimentation!

Really Excellent Marinade, Flavoring and Sauce
Makes about 2 Tablespoons of sauce--enough marinade for a block of tofu or a loaf of seitan
Takes 10 minutes

1 1/2 Tablespoons Pickapeppa Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Cholula Hot Sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

Mix Together.  Tastes even better the next day.

Queen Elizabeth Cake

This might be the best vegan dessert I've ever made.

A few weeks ago, a friend mentioned a craving for something called Queen Elizabeth Cake. Her grandmother would make it at Christmas-time. I was intrigued, especially when I heard it was a date cake topped with a broiled coconut icing!

I did some research because of the name of the cake. There are many stories about the cake online. Some say it was a recipe made by Queen Elizabeth (there's debate about whether the younger or the elder), and the only cake she made herself!  Some stories say the recipe came together during the war. The cake contains a very little amount of butter or eggs, which would make sense if ingredients were rationed. Another part of the story is that the recipe was sold as a fundraiser.

I'm not sure what to make of all of these stories. It seems to be a very Canadian cake though as I can't find the recipe in British cook books. It's kind of like sticky toffee pudding in cake form.

When my friend made it, it was so good!  Really moist cake, dotted with dates, not too rich!  And the frosting was so good!  Creamy with lightly toasted coconut!  When I saw the recipe, I knew this cake would be perfect for vegan experimentation. It's a simple recipe, and the flavor comes from the ingredients, dates and coconut, not so much butter and eggs.

The vegan version is dense and moist, I upped the amount of dates from the original recipe, and substituted coconut oil for butter.

Enjoy!

Queen Elizabeth Cake

Adapted from Amy Murphy's recipe (Thanks, Nanny Murphy!)
Makes 1 cake

Takes 1.5 hours

For  Cake:

1 1/2 cups baking dates, coarsely chopped

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped, lightly toasted walnuts (or pecans or hazelnuts or almonds)

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon white vinegar

For Icing:

5 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp Coconut oil

1/2 cup dried coconut (I used unsweetened)

3 tbsp coconut milk (perfect to make alongside a thai curry or kuku paka)

In a heatproof bowl, pour 1 cup boiling water over the dates. Cover and let soak for 1 hour.

Mix the ground flax seed with the 1/4 cup of water.  Mix together thoroughly and let sit for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Grease a square glass baking dish (make sure yours is broiler proof--mine wasn't, so I used a spring form pan, lined with parchment paper and foil.  I didn't do this on purpose, but I always end up ripping the lining, and thought a double layer to protect against the cake running out the bottom!)

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1/2 cup of nuts.

In another bowl, beat together coconut oil and sugar until well-combined and fluffy.  Add vinegar and the flax seed mixture and beat well. Add the dates and water and combine.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until it just comes together. Pour into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until a tester comes out clean.

When the cake comes out of the oven, place an oven rack on the slot second to the top, and turn the broiler on high. Boil together in a sauce pan on medium high heat the brown sugar, coconut oil, dried coconut, coconut milk, and 1/4 cup of nuts. 

Boil for three minutes and quickly pour over the still warm cake before the mixture becomes hard. Broil for about 5 minutes, watching carefully to make sure the coconut doesn't burn.The frosting will bubble madly!

Take the cake out and let cool. You will have this pretty lacy topping for the cake.

 

Eat! It's even better the next day.

Kim Chi Update--Day 5

Readers of my last post on vegetarian fish sauce will know that a big jar of kim chi has been brewing in my refrigerator.  Today is Day 5, and we took a little out today to eat with our hot lunch--whatever's in the fridge jap chae!

I will post a recipe for this bowl of yummy sweet potato noodles as soon as I remember to write down what I did, but in the meantime, the kim chi is amazing!  I will post a recipe for that soon too, but I mostly followed David Chang's recipe, veggifying it.  It's so good!  Not too spicy or too salty, and just starting to develop that awesome fermented flavor.

We ate it on little fried tofu squares, too.

So good!!!

Mushroom Pot Pie

Last week on Top Chef Masters, my favorite, Carla 'Hootie-Hoo' Hall won with a chicken pot pie she made for Jimmy Fallon's birthday.  It looked so good, filled with Carla love, and the judges enjoyed it so much, I knew I had to make a veggie version for Sunday night.

In this recipe, the components are cooked separately and then assembled on individual plates rather than baked together as a pie.  It's complicated, but friends, it is so worth it.  You have complete control over all of the ingredients, so the veggies are perfectly cooked, the gravy is savory goodness itself, and the crust, is flaky and golden. 

Unlike many Top Chefs, Carla does a really detailed job writing her recipes up!  One day, I am going to make the pea salt everyone loved so much! Also stay-tuned, there will probably be an easier all-in-one dish version coming soon!  Meanwhile, for beautiful, delicious, individual 'pot' pies...

Mushroom Pot Pie

Adapted from Carla Hall's Chicken Pot Pie recipe

Makes 6 servings

Takes 2 hours

6 inch square piece of kombu*
2 dried shitake mushrooms
2 onions, diced
3 carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 sprigs thyme
8 parsley stems
1 bay leaf
1 pound cremini mushrooms
1 shallot, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
5 oz. peas (frozen or fresh)

For Crust:
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 pound vegan shortening
 
For the gravy: 
1 stick (1/4 cup) vegan shortening
1/2 cup flour
leaves from 8 parsley stems

In a quart of water, soak kombu and dried mushrooms for at least 3 hours and up to overnight.

Roughly chop the soaked mushrooms.

In a large pot, saute half the onions, carrots, celery, thyme, all of the parsley stems, the soaked mushrooms, and the bay leaf.  Once the onions have become translucent, add the kombu liquid (including the kombu), and an additional quart of water.  Just before it comes to a boil, remove the kelp pieces.  Once it comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and let simmer for at least an hour on a back burner while you take care of everything else.
 

Mix the water, salt and sugar and refrigerate.  Cut the shortening into the flour until it is like course meal.  Pour in the water and form into a dough ball, adding more flour, if necessary, to make a solid ball that doesn't stick to your hands.  Divide into 6 balls, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

In a large skillet, on medium high heat, saute the shallots, garlic and mushrooms until they are all coated with oil and evenly distributed throughout the pan.  Then, leave them alone so that they begin to brown.  Stir once every 2 or 4 minutes until the mushrooms release their juices, Saute for an additional 2 to 3 minutes.  Transfer mushrooms to a bowl.

In the same skillet, adding more oil if necessary, saute the remaining onions and celery.  When they've become translucent, add the remaining carrots and thyme, and saute a little longer, don't let the vegetables brown.  Add a few ladles of the simmering broth, and simmer the vegetables until they are tender, about 10 minutes.  Just before they are done, add the frozen peas, cooking for just a few minutes.  Transfer the vegetables to the mushrooms.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Roll out the dough on a floured board into 6 6-inch circles.  Lay them out onto greased parchment paper molded around a ball of aluminum foil or parchment paper.  Top with a little dough ball to give the appearance of a domed cover for the goodness underneath.  Lay the scraps of dough on another baking sheet.  Glaze the crusts with milk, soy milk or just water.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, changing their position in the oven half-way through.

While the crusts are baking, in large skillet, heat remaining shortening until melted, then add 1/2 cup of flour, stirring until the flour no longer smells like flour, but kind of toasty.  Strain the stock and add to the flour and shortening, whisking continuously until there are no lumps and it thickens up.  Add the vegetables and stir.  Keep warm until your crusts are ready.

To serve, divide the crust scraps between 6 plates, pour the veggies and gravy over and top with the crust.  Yum!

We went traditional London-style and ate our pies with mash!

Best Sunday night TV dinner ever!

*Kombu is used to make dashi, Japanese stock for soup.  The seaweed adds umami, but doesn't really have a flavor.  You can find it in Asian grocery stores and also in many health food stores. Before soaking, rinse it in water to remove the white residue.

Curry Turnip Noodle Soup

Turnips are abundant this time of year, and I have been pickling them and making them into curries.  I first got inspired to make curried turnips a few years ago when my mom made a sambhar with turnips.  At first I did not appreciate the sharp nasal tang of the turnips with the sambhar, but the taste stuck with me, and this fall, I experimented with making my own curried turnips.  So good!  Gently braising the turnips brings out their sweetness, and so the final product is sharp and sweet and spicy and salty.  I love curry noodle soups, so I thought this was a chance to see if it would all work together. 

It did!  This is a fusion recipe that brings together East Asian, Indian, and turnip tastes into a hot bowl of yum.

Curry Turnip Noodle Soup

Makes 2 big bowls of soup

Takes 30 minutes

1 bunch turnips, quartered (stems and leaves cleaned and saved)

1 tsp. curry powder (I use sambhar powder)

1 small onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, sliced

pepper

salt

spaghetti (I had some opened already!  any noodles you like will be fine - rice noodles, soba, udon, etc)

Start a pot of salted water for the noodles.

In another pot, saute onion and garlic on medium high heat.  When they've softened, add turnips and brown, taking care to ensure they don't burn.  Then add sambhar powder and pepper, and saute until the sambhar powder is very fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add 1/2 cup of water, turn the heat down, cover and simmer for 25 minutes or until turnips are soft, but still maintaining their shape.

Meanwhile, cook noodles in pot of already started salted water according to package directions.  For the last minute of cooking add the cleaned turnip greens.  When finished, drain, reserving 2 cups of the pasta water.  Equally divide the noodles and greens between two bowls.

When the turnips are soft, add the pasta water and check for salt.  Add more sambhar powder if necessary.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  When you are happy with the taste, pour the turnips and their broth over the noodles and greens in the bowls.  Happy slurping!

updates

It is August--the summer is slipping away!  At least, it feels that way, and I am committed to squeezing out the season from this month leading up to Labor Day.

I don't have a new recipe for you, but some updates.  You will have seen in a previous post that reader Olivia's mom has been making a gluten-free version of my summer puttanesca!  Now, reader JORJ writes in that she has made the summer puttanesca too.

Yum!  We had a discussion, and we both agree that while penne or cavatappi works for a regular puttanesca using canned tomatoes in sauce, that for the summer version, a smaller pasta is better.  Orecchiette or shell pastas, I think, would do better with the juices and chunks that result from using fresh tomatoes.

I have also been cooking up some quinoa recently.  After one semi-disastrous attempt to make quinoa by just boiling it, I made the radicchio and rutabaga quinoa from earlier in the year.  And the rinsing and then boiling and then steaming method worked so well!  The quinoa was beautiful and fluffy.

We have been eating our jars of peaches that we made a few weeks ago.  They are so delicious!  Especially the jars that have a slightly crushed pod of cardamom and a little bourbon.

Peaches and tomatoes and beans and corn!  This is the best month of the summer.  Enjoy!

Aloo Paratha

Aloo (Potato) Paratha is one of my favorite foods.  I often make myself sick eating Aloo paratha, yogurt and mixed pickle.  So it is important to only make myself 2 parathas, and only eat 2 parathas, and not gobble up everyone else's.  It's actually quite easy to make, and so delicious, you don't really need anything else to eat with.  A simple dal, leftovers, anything.  The dough works best when it is rested, so it's easy to make what you want to eat the parathas with while the dough naps.

Aloo Paratha
Makes 9 parathas

Takes 1 hour

2 cups whole wheat chapati flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup water

some oil (canola or vegetable)

2 large potatoes, quartered (Those long Idaho potatoes work really well)

1 small green chili, chopped very fine (Serrano and the small green chilies work well)

1 handful cilantro, chopped fine

salt

Mix the flour and salt, and then add the cup of water.  Mix together to form a sticky dough.  Oil your hands, and turn the dough ball out onto a floured surface.  Knead until it is smooth and no longer sticky, adding flour as necessary.  Let rest for 30 minutes.

Starting the potatoes in cold, salted water, bring to a boil and cook until when you stick a fork in them they slip off.  Drain, and let cool completely.

Divide the dough evenly into 9 balls, let rest for 15 minutes while you get the potatoes ready.

When the potatoes have cooled completely, add the cilantro and chili, to your taste.  The chili will not make a huge impact on the spiciness of the finished paratha.  If you want more spicy, add some chili powder.  Check for salt, and add to your taste.  

Grease your hands with oil, and divide the potatoes into 9 balls.

Flatten the dough into thick circles and place the potato balls into the center.  Wrap the dough around and pinch the dough tight.

Let rest for 15 minutes while your griddle (tawa) heats up, admire your handiwork.

On a floured surface with a floured rolling pin, roll into thinnish circles.  You can begin cooking the first ones as you roll the others out.  Make sure that you do not stack the rolled out parathas on top of each other, because they may stick together.  This is not a big deal because if they do, just combine and redivide into balls and roll out again.  But you've made such pretty parathas, your work deserves to be honored.

It is important that your tawa is the right temperature, hot but not too hot (on my stove 4.5 out of 5), and your first paratha will be a bit of an experiment.  Put it onto the tawa and let it be for a couple of minutes (roll out another paratha), it should begin to puff!  Turn it over, the cooked side should be nicely browned in spots.  When the second side is finished, take the paratha off the heat and rub with a little ghee or oil.  

Serve to your ravenous fellow diners immediately, or if they are patiently waiting for you, place on a plate on which you have put a paper towel, and cover with another plate.  They do make chapati warmers in India, but if you don't have one, this works fine.  As you make a stack, you can just ghee one side of the paratha because the other side will get the ghee from the paratha below.

We ate these with really simple spinach and chana masala.  I'll post a recipe for that soon!