I won 2nd Place at Veggie Conquest 6! Kale battle

I really should be cleaning up the giant mess I made in the kitchen, but instead I feel like gloating about my silver medal performance at Veggie Conquest 6. Veggie Conquest is a NYC based vegan cooking competition based on a theme ingredient and takes place every few months. This is the 5th event I've participated in.

The theme ingredient for VC6 was kale. The secret ingredient is unveiled the week before the competition to both the tasters and the chefs.

Now mind you, when I'm drowning in kale in the summer, I can think of lots of things to do with it. For this challenge, I was trying to come up with ways to highlight the greens. It wasn't easy. Usually I'm sneaking kale into something, or just eating it steamed with some miso-tahini sauce. Not really award winning stuff.

So what I pulled off was a Tuscan Kale flat bread topped with a kale tomato sauce (tomatoes were the ones I canned last summer from my CSA,) gourmet mushrooms, roasted leeks, and crispy kale. I made a kale slaw from the red & green stems with some red pepper. And because I like to dip my crusts in stuff, I made a miso-tahini-kale hummus sauce that was really just the sauce I like to put on kale blended up with kale in it. The judges pronounced it bitter and unnecessary, but it was a pretty green color and made a good dip. The kale was raw in it, so it was admittedly a little vegetabley.

Here's my 90 taster portions. Bite sized pieces with the slaw and hummus.

Now for the round-up...

These kale Croquettes were lovely and the sauce on top was delicious.

Next up were kale quiches that had a wonderful tofu cream sauce. The shallots were a nice complement.

Then the first place winner with kale rice cakes.

Next up, third place winner with Kale summer rolls.

And from a guy who had never had kale before, we had a mushroom and kale bisque.

Finally, I got to yammer on about how I put three different kinds of kale and all their parts into this dish. Big thanks to my chef friend Jamie for suggesting the use of color (not that you can tell from the green plate - the judges had the more colorful fiesta ware.) The kale slaw was a really pretty purple, red, and green. I liked my ironic kale garnish which the judges picked up and ate with the slaw.

Prizes are cool...

I got a herbal soap and salt scrub from Chrissannthemum Herbs & Well Being, a gift certificate to Integral Yoga, Organic Ville French Dressing, and Cinnamon Vanilla ice cream from Raw IceCream Company. Good think the ninja claims to be allergic to cinnamon..mine all mine....

Darn good freezer pizza - Tofurky Pepperoni Pizza

Now, I'm not going to tell you this rivals a pizzeria pizza, but it's vegan and it came from the freezer.

For a frozen pizza, the Tofurky Pepperoni is quite tasty. Not a microwave pizza, but 12 minutes in a 420 degree oven and you've got yourself a nice lunch for a rainy Sunday.

It's got a whole wheat crust that doesn't taste like whole wheat. The Daiya cheese is noticeable, but it's not overly cheesy. It's definitely meaty, though. No lack of Tofurky pepperoni chunks. It's not sliced like "normal" pepperoni, but in chunky bits. Very satisfying. The pepperoni is on the spicy side so no need to dump on any hot sauce which is my usual tactic for less flavorful pizza.

If you want to venture out into the real world for some non-frozen vegan pizza, there are an increasing number of options across the US. Check out this link for the ones that made the short list and vote for the Best Vegan Pizza.

Can't decide on Mexican or Pasta? Have both...

There was a pasta dish on the cover of Vegetarian Times in 1997 that featured black beans and cilantro with pasta. I've long since purged the magazine, but I was trying to get something similar. Here's my faked version:
Beany burrito pasta - 2 servings

4 oz angel hair pasta (approx 1/4 package)

1 tsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 TSP chopped green chilies

3/4 cup (about 1/2 can) red kidney beans

1 cup tomatoes chopped with juice

2 TBS fresh cilantro chopped

Squeeze of fresh lime juice

Boil water for pasta and cook according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, saute garlic and chilies in oil. Add beans and crush a bit. Add tomatoes and juice and simmer a few minutes. Add pasta and stir until coated. Serve and top with fresh cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

I did find a link to the original recipe for Southwest Pasta Pg 45 Aug 1997 Vegetarian Times

Month of bean cutlet - Sundried Tomato and Porcini Mushroom

More bean cutlets. January is now officially the month of the bean cutlet. The one on the left is sun dried tomato and the one on the right is porcini mushroom. OK, I agree they look the same, but both have a nice subtle taste of their signature ingredient

Sun dried tomato cutlet

1 cup cooked white navy beans

1 cup rehydrated sun dried tomatoes soaked in 1 cup boiling water

1 tsp salt

1 TBS Italian seasoning

1 tsp dried basil

2 TBS olive oil

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten

Porcini Mushroom Cutlet

1 cup cooked white navy beans

1 cup rehydrated porcini soaked in 1 cup boiling water

1 tsp salt

1 TBS Parisian bonnes herbes seasoning

2 TBS olive oil

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten

Blend the beans with mushroom or sun dried tomatoes salt, seasoning, olive oil. Mix together with bread crumbs and vital wheat gluten and kneed for few minutes. Split into 4 pieces and form into flat cutlets. Fry in 1 TBS oil for 5 minutes per side.

More experiments in bean cutlets...Black Eyed Peas and Mazoh

Yup, it's yet another variation of the vcon chickpea cutlets. This time it's black-eyed peas and mazoh. Red swiss chard with lemon tahini miso sauce, mashed potatoes, and skulking in the back of the photo is a portabello mushroom with Penzey's Chicago Steak Seasoning. Black-eyed pea and mazoh cutlets

1 cup cooked black-eyed peas

1/4 cup water

2 TBS soy sauce

2 TBS olive oil

1 TBS Herbes de Provence

1 tsp hot paprika

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten

1/2 cup mazoh meal

Blend together the beans, water, soy sauce, olive oil, herbs, and paprika.

In a medium bowl mix together bean mixture, wheat gluten, and mazoh. Knead a few minutes. Break into 4 pieces. Flatten out into cutlets and fry in a little canola oil for about 5 minutes a side until golden brown.

Snow Day! Warm up with a vegan hot toddy.

Technically the office was open today, but I really needed a snow day. Justifiable since I couldn't actually get out of my apartment until someone came by to shovel the snow from my blocked doorway.

Anyway in between cleaning out the pantry and reading some Chelsea Handler, I thought this scene (me in my PJs on the couch with the ipad) would be a whole lot more sophisticated if it included a nice hot beverage.

The unopened bottle of kahlua I found at the back of the pantry was a bonus. When choosing your boozing for your vegan hot toddy, you can always check out barnivore for the latest in what's vegan and what's not.

Vegan mocha with Soyatoo

1 cup vanilla soy milk

2 TBS Dutch cocoa

1 cup brewed coffee

2 TBS Kahlua

Vegan whip cream

In a medium saucepan, mix cocoa with soymilk and heat, but do not boil. Add a generous splash of kahlua to a large coffee mug, add brewed coffee halfway, fill to within 1/2 inch with hot cocoa, then top with whip cream. Yum.

Black bean & black olive cutlet

Happy New Year everyone! So far I'm making good on my resolution to blog more which means I'll have to make stuff other than tofurky cheesesteaks and tofu rancheros to keep you interested. Experimental cooking also helps with 2 other resolutions of eating better and taking my lunches to work. We'll see how long this lasts...

This black bean and black olive cutlet is a modified version of the vcon chickpea cutlet inspired by the black olive seitan at Sacred Chow in NYC. Both the black beans and olives are surprisingly subtle flavors in the finished cutlet.

I wanted to make something with black eyed peas for new years, but I only had dried and although they're soaking now, I wanted some cutlets sooner rather than later. Can of black beans to the rescue. It's still beans and vegans need fried hangover food, too. I went to Phish at Madison Square Garden last night, not that I need an excuse to be hungover on New Years Day.

I used kalamata olives, that had pits in them. Luckily I had this handy cherry pitter that made popping the pits out a snap. If you're ever in a cooking gadgets store and debate the cherry pitter, just throw it in the cart, then store it at home in the gadget drawer with the can opener. You'll use it more than you think.

Black Bean & Black Olive Cutlets

1 cup cooked or canned black beans

1/3 cup chopped black olives (about 12)

1/4 tsp basil

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp dried chives (optional - I get them from Penzys and use them all the time)

1 tsp parsley

1 TBS soy sauce

2 TBS olive oil

1/4 cup vegetable broth or water

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten.

Canola oil for frying

Blend together the beans, olives, herbs, soy sauce, olive oil and broth. Add to medium bowl. Add bread crumbs and gluten and mix together until combined. Then knead in the bowl for a few minutes. Ball it together, then divide into 4 pieces. Flatten the pieces out with your hands to make cutlets. Fry until browned and crispy, about 5 minutes each side.

The cutlets are well seasoned, so you don't need a sauce for this unless, you just like things saucy. For a main dish serve with mashed potatoes and greens or as a sandwich with a little sriracha vegenaise. Also delicious pulled apart and eaten with your fingers, straight off the cooling rack.

Happy New Year!

Great pate, mom, but I gotta motor if I wanna be ready for that party tonight...

Things I've never made before: pate, chestnuts, and lentils. Here they are all fancied up together into a rockin' appetizer. It's the chestnut-lentil pate from the Veganomicon. Couldn't be easier and is really quite sophisticated and yummy. Bring this to your next holiday soiree.

The best vegan pate I've had is faux-gras made by Ella, the Regal Vegan. She brought this to the Our Hen House launch party and I kinda sorta camped out by it after I helped set up the raffle prizes. What? I was hungry and it really is that good.

Vegan cookbooks, lip balm, rescue chocolates, cloth diapers, and River made my recipe!

So I came home to not one, but 2 new vegan cookbooks. Amazon pre-order is the way to go when you want to give yourself a gift you'll forget about by the time you get it.

Just in time for the holidays Isa's new book Appetite for Reduction offers a whole bunch of easy recipes that are easy on the waistline. Jerk asparagus, eggplant dengaku, buffalo tempeh oh my!

In Color me Vegan Colleen Patrick-Goudreau invites you to eat the rainbow of the fruit and veggie world. Red-Beet Burgers; Orange-Carrot Fries; Yellow-Cashew Cheese; Green-Avacado Pudding; Blue-Blueberry Ketchup and more!

Yes, you really do need a new cookbook or 2...

Now for some vegan lip balm from my lip stuff.

Brea is vegan and most of the lip balms can be made vegan even though the normal formula uses beeswax. Mmm Candy Cane...

I also popped by a meet up event in NYC tonight for Rescue Chocolates

Sara makes the most awesome vegan chocolates and proceeds go to animal rescue organizations.

If you've got rugrats and are interested in cloth diapering, my friend Patti (who is also a serious scrabble opponent) has a blog called The Clothspring and she's got a giveaway going on for some flannel diapers. Check it or pass it along to someone with rugrats.

And last but not least, the ever awesome River of wing-it vegan made my eggplant ballz from the last veggie conquest. It's on her MoFo after-post.

Ciao!

Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes

This is adapted from my high school boyfriend's mom's recipe for Tasty Kakes - Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes.

I wasn't sure how to handle the 4 eggs it called for, so I hadn't attempted to veganize it before. I used 1/2 ground flax seed and 1/2 tofu for the eggs, and soy milk instead of milk. The cake part should be spongy but firm and almost chewy, so this combo seems to have worked out OK.

Here's the original recipe that's a little worse for the wear. I love handwritten shared recipe cards.

My vegan baking arsenal.

Vegan Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes

2 TBS ground flax seeds

6 TBS water

1/2 cup tofu

1 TBS shortening or vegetable oil

1 cup soymilk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup peanut butter

12 oz vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a rimmed cookie sheet or jellyroll pan. I lined mine with a silpat and canola oil spray and flour. (At this point you should also make sure you've got some room in the fridge to put the sheet pan in to cool.)

Blend together the flax seeds, water, tofu, and oil and set aside.

Mix together the soymilk, vinegar, and vanilla and set aside.

In a large bowl combine sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Add the soymilk mixture and blend until incorporated. Add the flax/tofu mixture and blend again scraping down the sides to combine.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and spread out to the edges. The batter will form a thin layer over the entire pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. When done, a toothpick will come out clean and the top will feel spongy; don't let the sides get browned.

Spread a thin layer of peanut butter over the hot cake. I don't actually measure the peanut butter, but I used just over 1/2 a 16 oz. jar to cover the top.

Put cake in fridge until peanut butter has set and firmed up. About an hour or so.

Melt the chocolate chips and pour over the cake. Put back in fridge until chocolate has set. About another hour or so.

Cut into 2 inch squares. Enjoy with a nice big glass of chocolate soymilk. Yum.

Seitan Piccata with collard greens and chive mashed potatoes

Vegan meat and potatoes doesn't get better than this.

Seitan from the Yellow Rose Recipes and piccata from the Candle Cafe Cookbook. My summer CSA is over, so I'm using up the last of the hardier veggies. The collard greens got a bit frozen in the fridge, but turned out good. I stripped off the tough stems and chopped them up, then sauteed them in garlic and veggie broth with a bit of liquid smoke. The potatoes are mashed with earth balance and soy milk and dried chives.

Triple Truffled Orzo Mac-n-Blue Scheese

Opulence. I has it. Oh, the sweet and smoky aroma of truffles. Real truffles are a luxury that can blow through an entire weeks grocery budget for one small piece, but using truffle oil and truffle salt amps up the flavor without breaking the bank.

Decadent yet super easy, this orzo mac-n-cheese is takes about 15 minutes to make. I'm sure it would make a great side dish, but I had this for dinner.

There's a store in Grand Central called O & Co that has a great selection of truffle products and their olive oil and balsamic vinegars are a staple in my kitchen as well. I used a few chopped summer truffles in olive oil mixed with some chopped up blue scheese and a little tofutti cream cheese. I cooked and drained the orzo, then dumped it over the scheese and truffle mixture and mixed it around so it got a little melty. Then I added a little black truffle oil and some truffle salt.

So good and so easy. One day, I'll have to get my hands on some fresh truffles. Until then, I'll get my fix from the truffle oil and truffle salt.

Totally Vegan Philly Cheese Steak

There is a technique when it comes to philly cheese steak making. I've been making them a long time and this works for all fillings.

You can make it with packaged vegan deli slices (the picture on the box is not what you're looking for in a cheese steak - see above for a real cheezy steak)or home-made seitan; daiya cheddar or nooch sauce; vegenaise or tofu mayo, but at the end of the day, it's all about how you pull it all together. Here's my tried & true vegan cheese steak that never fails to cure my greasy meaty craving.

Start with a flat skillet and a little canola oil on medium heat. Add about 1/2 onion sliced in thin half moons.

Saute the onions until they are translucent, then shake on some oregano or italian seasoning.

Saute a little more until almost browned. Then spread the onion out around the pan and lay on 5-6 philly style deli slices (or thinly sliced seiatn.) Let brown a minute, then flip them over bringing most of the onions to the top as well. Then with 2 spatulas, rip the slices into bite sized pieces and heat through.

Pile the chopped faux meatiness into a strip down the middle of the pan and top with cheese (Tofutti American).

Toast a sub roll (or baguette or onion sub roll-yum) until just warmed, and spread on any condiments, I like vegenaise and ketchup and sometimes a little sriracha hot sauce on it. Then place the toasted roll over the pile in the pan.

Let sit a minute as the cheese melts to the bread.

Now here's how to get it out of the pan intact. Place a piece of foil over the roll and hold the foil and sandwich in place with one hand and using the other hand, flip the pan over so now you're holding the foil and the whole sandwich in your hand. It will be hot, so you may need a potholder over the foil if you've left it on the pan too long. Also have a plate ready to plunk the sandwich down on.

Slice in half and enjoy. If you like mushrooms and/or peppers on your steak add them when you saute the onions. You can also make a pizza steak, by spreading pizza sauce on the bread (toast it with the bread to warm) and using a mozzarella style cheese.

World Vegetarian Day and Our Hen House launch party

Yesterday for World Vegetarian Day, I managed to convince a few co-workers to order vegan dim sum from Buddha Bodai in Chinatown (NYC). It was kind of last minute and the skeptics stuck to the spring rolls and fried dumplings. So I ordered a bunch of other stuff to share like eggplant with black bean sauce, watercress dumplings, "shrimp" rice rolls, fried oysters (mushrooms) and sticky rice wrapped in bamboo. I think the variety worked out pretty well, and most people liked what they tried. The vegan cheesecake was super awesome.

Then after work I walked up to Moo Shoes for the Our Hen House launch party.

"Our Hen House is a central clearinghouse for all kinds of ideas on how individuals can make change for animals. With a blog, podcast, and video page, we identify opportunities, report on successful activists and enterprises, and brainstorm ideas ranging from the brilliant (if we do say so ourselves) to the farfetched."

So check our Our Hen House for all goings on in animal advocacy. Jasmin filmed Veggie Conquest 4 (Potato battle) for Our Hen House which I participated in. You can see my stellar communication skillz here.

So back to the launch party...I thought it started at 7, but it really began at 8, so I ended up volunteering to help set up. Marlene (aka Isa's Mom) and I helped organize the raffle prizes. Too bad we didn't win any of them, but there was a ton of cool vegan swag! The raffle included vegan pottery, a whole slew of books and cookbooks, gorgeous vegan jewelry, gift certificates to vegan stores and restaurants, and original artwork from Dan Piraro.

I did pick up a cool Our Hen House tote bag and some rescue chocolates. I'm giving away the tote and any of the chocolate I manage to keep from the Ninja, so pop in a comment for a chance to win.

Saving the bounty of summer with home canning (that's really in a jar.)

Just in case you're wondering...25lbs of tomatoes is a whole lotta tomatoes. I got this copier paper sized box of plum tomatoes from my CSA, Rexcroft Farms, which held the most perfectly ripe unblemished tomatoes I'd ever seen. Not a bad one in the bunch. So how to save this little slice of summer? Home canning is the key. Yup, just like grandma used to make.You really just need a big 'ole pot and some tongs, but I picked up this canning set which included all the gadgets that made it really easy. I'll bet you can find one at a yard sale. My mom swears there's one in the garage somewhere. You also need mason jars with lids and I recommend a basic canning book if you've never done it before. It's easy, but kind of a lot of work. I know I can just buy a can of tomatoes for a couple of bucks, but I'm really proud that I did it myself. Peeling and coring the tomatoes took the most effort, but I think it's gonna be worth it. Put the tomatoes in the jars, add a little lemon juice, basil, and salt then process in boiling water for about an hour and voila, home made canned tomatoes. The 25 lb box made 12 quarts of tomatoes.Aren't they pretty? It's hard not to want to open them up right now, but I'll be glad in January that I saved them now.