[VeganMoFo!] Day 12: Two-Step Tofu

It's VeganMoFo! What's VeganMoFo? Find out at http://www.veganmofo.com

Some days you just need to eat something without having to put too much effort in, right?

1/2 block of tofu, mashed up in a bowl

your favorite peanut sauce

1. Dump peanut sauce all over the tofu

2. Mash it up again.

I've been eating tofu this way since before I stopped eating meat. It's still my favorite way to eat tofu. Okay, maybe it is my second-favorite. I'll share my favorite later in the month.

In case you were wondering, this is my favorite peanut sauce: House of Tsang Bangkok Peanut Sauce. It is very hard to find. There is one grocery store around here, the Malvern Wegman's, which carries it. The only other places I've ever found it are the South Side K-Mart in Indianapolis, and a Korean market in my parents' hometown which has recently gone out of business, to the great chagrin of those of us who have been shopping there for over 20 years.

It's the best peanut sauce I've ever had. I can't even make peanut sauce as good as this stuff, so if I can find it and afford it, I usually don't even bother. It's just that good. It used to be called "Padang Peanut Sauce", so when I saw this stuff on the shelf and the other stuff no longer there, I freaked out a little bit, but then I bought this and it turned out to be the exact same thing.

[VeganMoFo!] Day 10: I really really really like popcorn. (and Vulcan Fire Salt.)

It's VeganMoFo! What's VeganMoFo? Find out at http://www.veganmofo.com

As you might have guessed from the title of this post...I really, really, really really really like popcorn. Really. A lot.

A couple years ago, I discovered that I could pop popcorn on the stovetop. I knew, in theory, that it was a thing that could be done, but I had never actually tried it, out of fear that I might set something on fire or something silly like that. But then I learned how to actually do it without burning anything, and my life has changed forever. No joke.

It's taken a little tweaking to get the proportions and strategies just right, but this method yields exactly the amount of popcorn I want to eat, at the ideal level of crispness for my personal preference.

2 Tbsp plus a teeny bit more vegetable oil (canola oil is fine, but do not use olive oil!)
a little bit less than 1/4 cup popcorn kernels

Before you start, make sure you have the bowl in which you're going to serve the popcorn ready and sitting right next to the stove. When the popcorn is done popping, you're going to want to get it out of the pot RIGHT AWAY, so have that bowl ready and waiting!

Put the oil in a small-to-medium sized saucepan/pot. Turn the heat to medium, a little on the low side if you know your stove runs hot.
Put 4 unpopped kernels in the pot. Cover the pot.
As soon as all 4 kernels have popped, put the rest of the kernels into the pot. IMMEDIATELY remove the pot from the heat.
Now dance around the kitchen shaking the pot for 30 seconds. Keep the lid on and keep those kernels moving! Some may start to pop while you're doing this. That's fine.
Return the pot to the stove. The popcorn will start popping like mad very quickly, if it hasn't already. DO NOT go do something else...stay right there with the popcorn! As soon as you can count to 3 between pops, it's done. Remove it from the heat RIGHT AWAY and pour the popcorn into the serving bowl. Do not leave it in the pot even for a minute or it will burn.

TA DA! Popcorn!

Popcorn in my favorite purple popcorn bowl.

My current favorite way to season popcorn:
1 Tbsp melted Earth Balance soy butter
1 1/2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp smoked cumin
a few shakes of garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp Vulcan Fire Salt

What's Vulcan Fire Salt? Oh, it's just THE BEST STUFF EVER. You can order it from The Spice House, which is an independent, local-to-Chicago business that sells every imaginable spice and a few you couldn't possibly have imagined, like...this one. A friend of mine works there, so I got The Grand Tour when I went to visit Chicago last year, and when I saw that a thing called Vulcan's Fire Salt existed, it was obvious that I needed to become one with it. It's amazing. If you like anything at all spicy, give this stuff a try.

4.5oz jar of Vulcan's Fire Salt from The Spice House. Ingredients list is shown: Salt, Louisiana chile, garlic, Habanero Chile, shallots, pepper, lime, Pimenton, cumin, allspice & vinegar.

[VeganMoFo!] Day 9: Smooth Like Smoothie

It's VeganMoFo! What's VeganMoFo? Find out at http://www.veganmofo.com

Tonight I was in the mood for something a little sweet. Not a lot sweet, but a little sweet. I had some berries in my fridge that were getting ready to cross over from "food" to "not food", so I put them to good use in this simple smoothie.

~1 cup berries

1 banana

1 Tbsp peanut butter

~1 cup soy milk

~1 tsp raw ginger

Place all ingredients in blender. Blend. TA-DA!

[VeganMoFo!] Day 8: The Caper of the Chunky Monkey, episode 2

It's VeganMoFo! What's VeganMoFo? Find out at http://www.veganmofo.com

Previously on CQ's Vegan Food! In Space!: Yesterday I posted about my preliminary attempts at Chunky Monkey Cookies. I mentioned that they were no-bake cookies, and that I would report in on their effectiveness after they'd sat overnight.

AND NOW, THE CONCLUSION!

They are not no-bake cookies. I came back this morning, poked 'em, and they just sort of...globbed at me.

Not to be outdone, I fired up the oven and baked them for 10 minutes at 350F. I let them cool, then put them in a giant tupperware container and brought them to my a cappella group's rehearsal. The container was full when I went to rehearsal, with about 35-40 cookies in it. This is what the container looked like at the end of rehearsal:

This is because I realized, toward the end of rehearsal, that I hadn't actually eaten a cookie myself, so I made a mad dash, grabbed the container with the last cookie in it, and disappeared into the night.

[VeganMoFo!] Day 7: The Caper of the Chunky Monkey, episode 1

It's VeganMoFo! What's VeganMoFo? Find out at http://www.veganmofo.com

A few months ago, I encountered a recipe for "chunky monkey" cookies, combining chocolate and bananas and nut butter into a tasty-looking little blob of cookieness. I decided I wanted to try this myself, so in keeping with my typical culinary practice, I looked up a bunch of different recipes, said to myself, "hmm, that looks interesting," then ignored them all and did it my own way.

These are no-bake cookies, but they'll have to sit overnight, so stay tuned for Episode 2 tomorrow to find out if these are actually as delicious as I think they're going to be ;-)

3 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 - 3/4 cup peanut butter (any nut or seed butter should be fine)
2 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar

Mash the bananas in a large boil. Add the melted coconut oil and peanut butter. Stir together until you've got a nice creamy mixture (you can use a hand mixer if you want; I just used a wooden spoon and pure determination). Add all the other ingredients and combine thoroughly. Spoon heaping teaspoons onto cookie sheets and let sit overnight.

[VeganMoFo!] Day 6: Fennel-Walnut Spaghetti

It's VeganMoFo! What's VeganMoFo? Find out at http://www.veganmofo.com

Have you met my buddy Fennel?

We are the best of fronds!

:)

This morning, I had this beautiful fennel sitting in my fridge and decided to make a pasta dish that would highlight its unique, sensual flavors. This is what I ended up making.

noodles (I used multi-grain spaghetti, about 4oz before cooking)

1 Tbsp olive oil

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 bulb fennel

1/4 tsp Hungarian paprika (leave it out if you don't have it, but I was sure glad I had it!)

1 tsp fennel seeds (not essential since there's already plenty of fennel, but I'm always happy to put more fennel in with my fennel!)

a handful of parsley, chopped

several handfuls of spinach leaves

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

salt and pepper to taste

Boil and drain the noodles according to package instructions.

Remove the fronds from the fennel (I put mine back in the fridge to use for soup later on!). Slice the bulb into bite-sized pieces. Don't worry about the tough parts; they'll soften up when you cook them.

Heat the olive oil medium-low in a large pan. Add the garlic and let it cook for a minute or two; it's cool if it starts to brown a little but don't let it burn. Add the chopped fennel, and the paprika and/or fennel seeds if you're using them. You could add a little salt and pepper now, or wait till the end. Saute, stirring frequently, for several minutes. It will start smelling reaaaaaaaaally good pretty quickly. Add the parsley and spinach, stirring them in with the fennel, and then add the lemon juice, cooking till the greens wilt. Add the balsamic vinegar and stir in the nutritional yeast, then turn off the heat and taste for salt and pepper. 

Combine the fennel mixture with the noodles and stir well to evenly distribute.

[VeganMoFo!] Day 5: Dim Sum!

It's VeganMoFo! What's VeganMoFo? Find out at http://www.veganmofo.com

Last night I met up with my friends Amy and Ronald, who I know from the Post Punk Kitchen message boards. Both are visiting from overseas, so it was great to get to hang out with them in person! I've met both of them before, but not in a long while. We had dinner at New Harmony, a Kosher Chinese restaurant in Philadelphia with an all-vegan menu. New Harmony's specialty is the "all-you-can-eat dim sum". They have a menu of options, so you can select your favorites, but I usually just tell the server to "bring us whatever's good" and let them work their magic. 

We each started with a bowl of wonton soup.

Then the dim sum fest began!

vegetable pancakes! These are fried and served with a mayonaissey sauce.

spring rolls and scallion pancakes!

stir-fry! tofu, broccoli, bok choy, carrots, and zucchini in a gingery-garlicky sauce!

taro cakes! Taro is a sticky root vegetable and it's one of my absolute favorite treats.

bao! These are doughy dumplings stuffed with vegan pork.

dumplings! I don't remember what was in them, but it was tasty.

There was also another dish of little round dumplings in assorted colors and configurations, but I seem to have not taken a photo of it.

dessert! The fried coconut triangles are simply to die for!!!