Pantry Raid day 12-More chicken style cutlets….

I froze a few cutlets that I made from the yellow rose recipes http://www.yellowroserecipes.com/.

They reheated beautifully. I had some broth heating up, so I plopped them in it to thaw them. Dredged them a little flour and seasoned salt, and sauteed in a little olive oil. Then made a quick gravy with the broth and some arrowroot starch. Served with rice and some peas and corn. I was hungry and it was good, so I had about one bite left before I realized I forgot to snap a photo. Oops.

I’ve been tagged!

I’ve been tagged. I feel so special. 🙂 http://acupofjoanna.blogspot.com/

Ooops, I did it again! Got tagged that is…by http://cuppapixie.blogspot.com/

Rules:
Link the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links.
Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 things about me…

1. I am addicted to grocery shopping. It’s been 11 days and I keep thinking of things I need to pick up to make this or that. However, I still have PLENTY of food already in the house that needs to be experimented with so I am refraining from further consumerism.

2. I am totally enjoying blogging about vegan food. I started one blog earlier this year and didn’t know what to write. Then one morning, vegan dance if you want to, vegan leave your friends behind…got stuck in my head and I just needed to put my cooking energy out into the world wide webs. I took vegan MoFo very seriously and had a blast with the Iron Chef challenges. My own personal month of purge is keeping me entertained.

3. I love facebook. I keep posting my blog and when a bunch of high school friends comment on vegan scrapple, I get happy. You can friend me if you want to. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1134427063&ref=profile
I love Scrabble, even though Isa beat me. I think she cheats.

4. My husband is a ninja. In fact I think I will start referring to him as the ninja. The PS3 is broken, so despite our alternate schedules, I do get to spend a little more time with him.

5. I adore indie music. I’m not all that punk (I like Jeff Lewis’s CRASS songs better than CRASS, sorry. That’s probably too much confession.) Despite my nerdy career as an insurance accounting manager, my secret cool dream job is personal vegan chef for an indie band.
I DVR New York Noise on NYCTV and burn all the songs. http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycmg/nyctv/html/music/nynoise.shtml Currently the ninja has The National on constant rotation in the car. Artists I’m currently addicted to and wouldn’t have otherwise heard of are Beirut, I’m from Barcelona, Suburban Kids with Biblical Names and Simian Mobile Disco. My favorite show was Arcade Fire with LCD Soundsystem last year.

6. I love Jane Austin. I love Jane Austin BBC mini-series even more. I have the roku that plays the streaming Netflix on the TV. There’s plenty of the old version BBC productions to be had and I’m currently watching Sense and Sensibility. I’ll tolerate Keira Knightly P&P, thanks to Matthew MacFadyen (watch MI-5) but nothing beats 1995 Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy. The Bridget Jones Darcy revival also had its merits.

7. I heart New York.

Sorry for the chain letter, but I am tagging…
http://marriedveganyogini.blogspot.com/
http://mobettavegan.blogspot.com/
http://heathenandvegan.blogspot.com/
http://thepotatovine.blogspot.com/
http://whatwouldgingerdo.blogspot.com/
http://veganelbows.blogspot.com/
http://grow-peace.blogspot.com/

All these are awesome sites!!

I think I got tagged in a freezer thing awhile back…I’ll get on that, too.

Pantry Raid day 10 – Tortilla disaster = Crepes!

So I had a bag of Bob’s Redmill masa harina hanging around the pantry and I thought I’d try my hand at tortillas. What a disaster. The recipe on the package says 2 cups masa harina and 1 cup water, adding a few TBS more water if needed.

I’ve made tortillas before with my mom’s tortilla grill press thingy. It’s two heated non-stick surfaces with a hinge (like a flat panini press), and you just press down on the dough and voila, tortillas. She also had some kind of tortilla mix that I think I just added water to. Those bad boys turned out great.

Yesterday didn’t work out at all. I tried adding too much water, then some more masa harina, and no matter what I did, every time I flattened them they fell apart. And there was no salt in them, so even the marginally OK looking ones tasted terrible.

So not one to waste a good dough ball of cornmeal, I improvised. Since it was already 2 cups cornmeal and 1 cup water, I tossed the dough in the blender and added about a cup and 1/4 rice milk, 2 TBS arrowroot, and 1 tsp salt to vaguely resemble the vcon crepe recipe. Blended it up and stuck it in the fridge for about an hour.
Then I made cornmeal crepes out of the batter. These are awesome. I filled 4 crepes with fajita chix, green chilis, rolled them up and stacked them in a mini loaf pan. Then topped them with a jarred enchilada sauce mixed with some soft tofu. Freakin‘ yum. I’m so happy I messed up these tortillas.
And because I like to flip things out of molds….

Pantry Raid Day 9 – Vegan Scrapple!

OK, this is version 2. Lessons learned from version 1: too much liquid makes it fall apart, too much spices is better.

What I’m trying to replicate is RAPA scrapple from Sussex county Delaware. I know scrapple is supposed to be a Pennsylvania thing, but believe you me, slower Delawareans love their scrapple. This is as hometown local as local flavor gets.

Scrapple sounds gross. Omnis who didn’t grow up with it are generally grossed out as well, and don’t always like it when convinced to try it. Scrapple is made from meat parts leftover from making sausage, but the meat part isn’t what gives it the flavor or even the texture, so what the heck, why not make it vegan!

It seems some people already did. I found a recipe in Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes, that was adapted from Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey. So mine is further adapted from that.
Cornmeal and spices are the true stars of this dish, so if you’re freaked out by the idea of scrapple, just think if it as a savory polenta cake.

Vegan Scrapple
1 1/2 cups crumbled extra firm tofu (previously frozen, thawed, and water squeezed out)
1/2 cup TVP
1 Onion finely chopped
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 cup polenta
1 tsp each, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, marjoram (optional), salt
Big pinch or a few grinds fresh black pepper
3 cups of vegetable stock (mine was previously made roasted vegetable broth with bouquet garni of above spices)
Flour for coating and a little oil for sauteing and frying.

Mix the tofu and TVP together, and break the tofu into tiny crumbles. The dry TVP will soak up the extra liquid from the tofu while you’re preparing the polenta.

In a 3 qt pot, saute the onion and garlic in a little oil. Add the polenta and all the spices, and add the broth a cup at a time. Cook on medium high and stir until bubbly, then turn down to low.
Cook polenta until it is the consistency of thick mashed potatoes. When it’s done, you should be able to pull it off all sides and pile it in the middle of the pan. Basically if you channel some Close Encounters of the Third Kind and can make a Devil’s Tower sculpture in the pan, then it’s done.

Remove from heat and mix in the tofu/TVP mixture. Grease a loaf pan and spread in mixture. Let chill for at least a few hours, or even better overnight so the flavors meld.

Slice off about 1/2 inch pieces and fry in a little oil on medium heat for 8-10 min and the flip and cook another 8-10 min. It should be crispy on the outside and mushy on the inside.
Yum I ate 3 pieces already.

Pantry Raid day 8 – Buffalo pizza

OMG, two things not generally vegan that taste great together. Pizza topped with buffalo chix and blue sheese. I gotta eat this now… It’s just pizza dough, sauce, marinated chicken style seitan, blue sheese I got from Food Fight!, and a little basil tofu.

There are a bazillion basic pizza dough recipes, this is what I thew in the bread machine today. Turns out this is one of the best batches I’ve made (I make pizza a lot.) I think the gluten REALLY helped. I rolled it out and stretched it thin without tearing it. Also I didn’t add as much flour when rolling, just enough to dust the silpat and rolling pin.

Pizza dough
1 1/8 cup water
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS sugar
3 Cups KAF white whole wheat
3 TBS vital wheat gluten
1 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast

Place ingredients in bread machine and turn on dough setting. Or if you’re not blessed with a bread machine, you could do it the old fashioned way…

Mix dough ingredients together and knead until smooth elastic ball forms. Coat large bowl with olive oil and place in kneaded dough. Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down and knead briefly into ball. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. For 4 personal pizzas, divide dough into 4 pieces and roll out to desired thickness.

Today’s pizza sauce:
2 TBS olive oil
1 small onion chopped
4 cloves garlic chopped
1/4 cup port wine
1 TBS Penzeys Pizza Seasoning (contains salt)
1 TBS sugar
1 big can crushed tomatoes

Saute onions and garlic in oil until almost browned. Deglaze with wine. Add seasoning and sugar. Add tomatoes. Heat until bubbly and let cool before topping pizza. You “can” use it hot, but it’s easier to work with if you let it cool down on the stove before topping dough.

Buffalo chix
1 chicken style seitan cutlet sliced into bite sized pieces http://www.yellowroserecipes.com/
Enough Franks hot sauce to cover (I didn’t measure, about 1/4 cup)
Let marinate a little while (mine was in the fridge about an hour)

Saute in a little vegan butter until browned.

Today’s tofu basil topping
1/4 cup soft tofu
1 TBS chopped basil (previously preserved in olive oil)
Big pinch salt

Blend together.

Assembly:

Roll out dough. If you’ve got a pizza stone, put a little cornmeal on the pizza peal so it slides off onto the stone easily. Otherwise, put a little cornmeal on a baking sheet or pizza pan and spread the dough out. Top with sauce, crumbled blue sheese, plop on dollops of tofu basil, add chix pieces. Space around so that each bite will have a little of each topping. Put in preheated oven and bake about 10 min.

Pantry Raid day 7 – Pasta again

I forgot my lunch today and my boss was supposed to take me to a lunch meeting, but we got busy. So, I managed to survive on some snacks I had in the office. Oatmeal with raisins, sesame stix, trail mix, fruit leather, vegetable broth, a granola bar and a larabar. Now, that’s actually plenty of food, but not an actual meal. So when I got home, I was starving and wanted something hearty and filling.

Good thing I had some leftover pasta already waiting. Now, I rarely just reheat, so I added some soft tofu that made kind of like a rose sauce. Also some basil that I had previously chopped up and mixed with olive oil. Then just because I’m a sucker for my fancy olive oil, I drizzled some of that over it. I could actually taste it with the other sauce stuff. Just goes to show that good olive oil is worth it.

Pantry Raid day 6 Fajita burritos

Slice thin and marinate 3-4 chicken style seitan cutlets in fajita marinade. Saute 1/2 onion and 1/2 green pepper in a little oil. Add marinated seitan and saute until browned. Toast a tortilla, add filling, a little rice and beans, roll up and enjoy!

Or put a little oil in a cast iron skillet, lay on the tortilla, put filling on half, and fold over. Cook until browned, and flip and brown the other side. This also reheats well in the toaster oven or microwave.

Serve with some chipotle veganaise. Just add 1 canned chipotle or some chipotle powder to some veganaise to your desired heat level. Yum…

Fajita marinade
2 TBS fajita seasoning
2 TBS broth or water
1 TBS lime juice
1/2 cup corn oil

Pantry Raid day 4 – My own intervention

Photographic proof it’s time for a purge. Those plastic tubs get stacked in a closet in my 1 bedroom apt. They are sort of arranged by category.

Seriously, I’m like my own intervention.

Go Obama/Biden! I wish I could go to Georgetown, DE to the returns day parade. Biden has never missed one and is expected to be there with Obama this year. Historical moment.

Pantry Raid Day 3 Leftover Lunch

Roasted vegetables will last for over a week in the fridge. I know ‘cuz I’m eating them for lunch. Roasted fennel, butternut squash, potatoes, carrots, celery, eggplant, mushroom; much of what went into last weeks Iron Chef stuffed potatoes. Throw in some brown & wild rice, and a chickpea cutlet (what doesn’t go with chickpea cutlet) and I’ve got a pretty satisfying lunch in a bowl. Way better than any prepared meal from the freezer section.