Chile Rellenos

Let me just state, I love Mexican food. If you haven't noticed. Which given my few posts is probably hard to tell. But I do. It probably has something to do with being born and raised in California. My favorite way to make a lovely meal is to saute veggies in lime and chilies. Once you have flavorful veggies you can make anything from tacos to enchiladas to burritos to casseroles.

One thing I was missing was Chile Rellenos.

If you have never had these lovely entres you are missing out. Mild peppers are fire roasted and the skin removed. Then deseeded and stuffed full of cheese and fried in a corn meal breading.

Just look at these beauties!



Cali's Chile Rellenos
Ingredients:
4 Poblano Peppers
4 oz Soy Cheese - Jack or Mozerella
1/2c Soy Milk
2t Corn Starch
2T Chickpea flour
1c Corn Meal - for dredging
1T Adobo spice with cumin
1T Cilantro, dried
2t Chipoltle Chili Powder
Oil for frying

Directions:
Roast the clean whole peppers, flipping until all the skin is blackened. Place in a bag to steam for 20 minutes.

Mix together the soy milk, cornstarch and chickpea flour until well blended in a flat container. I used a pie tin.

Mix together the corn meal and spices in a different pie tin.

Remove the peppers from the bag and gently peel the thin tough blackened skin off each one. Make (or use a torn spot) a thin slit down the length of the pepper and across the top. Remove the seeds and stem gently. Stuff with cheese and other fillings of your choice and close up as much as possible. Place in the soy milk mixture and gently spoon the milk over the entire stuffed pepper. Gently place this soggy pepper in the corn meal and cover completely. Fry in the oil for 5 minutes per side.

Serve with rice and beans.

Honestly, I filled mine with leftover Lightlife Smart Ground that I had made tacos out of earlier in the week. So yummy!

Also earlier in the week was Seitan Ribz and twice baked potatoes. I just love the seitan recipe from Fat Free Vegan.

Promised Pictures and an appetizing array.

At the end of December I was cooking and baking up a storm. Promises of pics were made. And yes, I will now provide said promised images of such goodness.

Our brunch from VWaV

Bread made into small savory loaves

Cinnamon Swirl Bread that made awesome Fronch Toast for Angel and I.

Banana Bonanza Bread. This was awesome in a large loaf form. I need to make it this way more often since I prefer it over the little loaves or muffins that I normally make (in an attempt at portion control).

Basic Chocolate Cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. I would have prefered cream cheese but LB loved these.

Lasagna, sorry, leftovers was all I got a picture of. Man that was good stuff!




And now, some recent foods!

Breaded Tofu Fillets.
Marinate firm tofu in Malt Vinegar and Dulse powder with a splash of lemon for 15 minutes to 4 hours. Mix a batter of 50/50 beer to flour. Dip the slices in the batter and then into bread crumbs. I baked mine at 350 for 20 min each side but you could easily fry these fillets up nicely. Went well with some veganaise doctored with minced pickles, lemon, paprika and garlic.



Tonight's dinner was so awesome, I overate hugely. Just look at that plate. Ugh!

Chickpea Cutlets, that I actually measured the ingredients for! Yay! (Ok, so I only measured because I quadrupled the recipe, hush! At least this time I did measure.) Mashed potatoes, peas, brown mushroom gravy, garlic roasted brussel sprouts and a roll with Earth Balance.


So yummy, now I must fall into a chickpea induced coma... erm, sleep I mean!

Ubiquitous Holiday Post!

First, Happy Holidays! May you be surrounded by who and what you love in good health and good cheer.

Now, onto food!

Which of course would be made better with pics but I have yet to purge all the pics from my camera and thus, we are without food pr0n. Sorry! I hope to be able to slap some in a bit later today. Honest!

Brunch. mmmm Last weekend I made brunch from Vegan With a Vengeance. Scrambled Tofu and Herb Roasted Potatoes. So darn good. The cookbook always returns an awesome finished product no matter which recipe I pick or how I mangle creating it.

Chickpea Cutlets. This is the third time I have made them and they just keep getting better. This time I used the VitaMix to smoosh up the chickpeas. It is a fine line between mash and hummus, but luckily I did not cross it! I also kneeded the dough for about 7 minutes. Ok fine, the KitchenAid mixer kneeded it as I did dishes but I supervised! Then into the oven they went. Oh so darn good. Chewy, crispy as I made them thin and so tasty. I would eat these ever day.

Quiche of which there will never be a pic of. Why? Because the two of us scarfed down the entire pan in one sitting. Christmas Eve dinner was so good, we had no leftovers. Which is saying something as I really do NOT know how to cook for only two people. First I started with a simple batch of Jasmine Rice simmered with a veg bullion cube. Next I sauted up half an onion, four cloves of garlic, one bunch of chard and 15oz mushrooms (10oz white button and half a 10oz container of Baby Bellas). My VitaMix then pureed up some Extra Firm Silken Tofu with olive oil, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, mustard and basil. The rice went into the bottom of a casserole dish (to which I should have slathered in Earth Balance but didn't), the tofu mixed into the mushrooms and it all went atop the rice. Bake for 45 min at 350. Oh so darn good.

Christmas morning dawned with me climbing out of bed before 9. *Sigh* The urge to bake and the inability to sleep combined to result in a plethora of products. I made Banana Bonanza Bread, one batch of yeast bread turned into a sweet loaf and a savory bunch of mini loaves, VCTOTW chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting, Gingerbread dough (which is still in my freezer! meep), lunch for LB of Mac & Cheese w/ MSF Veg Dogs & Peas, lunch for me of Tempeh smokey strips lettuce and veganaise on a mini loaf of savory bread, dinner of Lasagna in case friends came over, garlic bread, salad and warmed wine.

Of course despite all this, I have to make chocolate chip cookies for A when she arrives. Thankfully our friends did come over for some holiday cheer and I loaded them down as they left.

My Lasagna was basically just a toss together kind of thing. Tofu Riccota from Uncheese Cookbook, sauted mushrooms and spinach layered over a simple sauce of Fire Roasted tomatoes (canned but I blended them up a bit to make it saucy!). I did top it with some soy cheese at the end. So darn good but not a creamy lasagna. I think I may have to play with it a bit more and get it creamier. Perhaps an easy white sauce over the tofu. I do have leftovers of which I will have to take the pictures of, because we ate about 7pm and I was starving!

All in all? Lots of cooking. But as I have the rest of the year off, it doesn't seem like a bad thing. Happy holidays all!

Dumplings

What is it about winter that makes you crave some warm, rich and flavorful soup? My ultimate comfort soup is Seitan 'n Dumplings. With not those puffy biscuits but warm slippery lumps of broth soaked goodness. My mother used to make dumplings on a 50/50 egg to flour ratio. I spent years as a vegan wondering how to replicate this. Luckily a friend from a now defunct message board came up with my salvation.

So without further drooling, here is the recipe for Krista's Soggy Dumplings!

2c Flour
1t Baking Powder
1t Salt
4t Earth Balance Margarine
1 1/2c Unsweetened Plain Soy Milk

Mix the dry ingredients together and cut in the Earth Balance. Gradually add soy milk until the flour is all absorbed. The dough is sticky, thick and not at all liquidy. Drop thin flat dumplings into boiling broth. Once they come to the surface you can dish up a bowl or let it simmer for 10-20 minutes.

I added these to a lovely onion, celery, carrot and leek soup. Unfortunately I had no seitan so I added a can of Navy beans. Made things creamy and focused all the attention on the sweet carrots and lovely dumplings. Man, I love those things.


Hopefully this picture isn't too washed out, unfortunately my monitor is!

mmmm Bread!

I was inspired by A Veg*n for Dinner's bread post. Though I am not quite capable of winging it that much, I based it off of the Outrageously Easy Big Bread I have made in the past. I started at 7:30pm and made half a batch of bread. Below is my rather long loaf and some little animal friends. A Bear who will make a great sandwich tomorrow and a poor little bunny who did not even get to cool down. LB and I ate Mr. Bunny while he was still glistening with buttery goodness.

mmmm buttery (read: Earth Balance margarine) goodness!


And a close up of our favorite yeast friends! Don't they look delicious?


My first experience making a yeast bread was taught to me by my mother when I was about 12. She led our 4H cooking group and we made large sized teddy bears out of an entire batch of dough. They got raisins for eyes, nose and belly button. Since these guys are (were) so little, I did not do more than puncture the appropriate spots. Sorry little animal breads, I will find something suitable next time!

I also whipped up a batch of Fudge that is sitting in the fridge right now awaiting a proper consistency for me to cut it into chunks and devour it. Though I might bring some into work. Just to prove I can be nice. When I want to. I did make this with Silk Mocha Soy Milk. It sounded like a good idea at the time! Will let you know how it tastes, with pictures later.

My secret recipe

So we all have that one recipe. Something woefully unhealthy, chalk full of things not normally kept in the house but so darn good you just have to indulge once in a while. Well, this is mine.



Now, you may be thinking; 'That doesn't look like much.' but you would be sadly mistaken. Its rich, creamy, savory, decadent and just damn good. This recipe came about four years ago. Each time I make it its slightly different because I am a chaotic cook who rarely measures and almost never writes anything down. My husband, who I call LB, always asks for this as his special request meal. When his mother makes the omni version of this, spaghetti carbonara, its full of bacon, egg, cheese and cream. Personally I have never had the omni version so I tried to extrapolate from the scent and look for a vegan version.


Vegan Bacon Spaghetti
Ingred:
2T Olive Oil
1/2 med Onion, Diced
2 boxes LiteLife Smart Bacon, separated and sliced into 1/2" strips (or Seitan bacon)
Garlic, Diced (5 cloves is my normal amount)
8oz Shitake Mushrooms, Chopped
8oz White Mushrooms, Chopped
10oz Baby Bella Mushrooms, Chopped
1c Water
1 Veg Bullion (Knor Veg)
Spices to taste: Thyme, Garlic, Pepper
Spaghetti or Angel Hair Pasta (2 large handfuls, broken in half)
4oz Vegan Mozzarella cheese
4oz Better Than Cream Cheese
2c Unsweetened Soy Milk, plain
1/4c Vegan Parm or Nutritional Yeast

Directions:
Saute onion and smart bacon in a large pot over medium heat until onions are translucent. Add garlic and saute 1 minute more. Add in 1/2c water to deglaze the pot and then add the mushrooms. Stir gently and as infrequently as possible because stirring breaks up the bacon.

Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the pasta to preferred done-ness. Drain the pasta in a colander and set aside.

Add the remaining 1/2c water to the mushroom mix along with the bullion and spices. Simmer on medium low for 5 min or until the cheese sauce is done.

In the pasta pot, bring 1/2c soy milk up to medium heat, add cubed soy cheese, cream cheese and parm. Stir well to incorporate. Gradually add the milk as the cheese melts and the sauce thickens. Once all the milk is incorporated, gently add in the mushroom bacon mixture and stir. Next add in the pasta and fold in gently.

Keep on a low temperature for five minutes for the sauce to set. Serve with garlic bread and a hearty appetite. This serves six. Sometimes.



I am completely sure that this could be all homemade. But it is so much work as it is already. It would be a two or three day job to make this without store bought vegan cheese or Smart Bacon. Doable, but I am way to lazy for that.

Now you have my secret recipe, be careful with it, its power should only be used for good.

Tortilla Soup

Some times, you crave something warm, savory and just a bit tangy. That describes Tortilla soup perfectly. It is lush with flavors of tomatoes, peppers, beans and lime.



Then you top it with fried corn tortilla strips, avocado, green onions and lime. What more could you want? A second bowl full!

Tortilla Soup
Ingred:
2T Olive Oil
1/2 medium Onion, Diced or Minced
1/2c Celery, Diced (heart w/ leaves preferred)
1 Bell Pepper, Diced
1-3 Hot Peppers, seeded and diced
1 Lime, zest and juice
Garlic (5 cloves)
8c Water
2 Bullion Cubes (Knor Veg)
2c Beans; soaked dried cooked beans or rinsed canned
28oz Petite Diced tomatoes, canned with juice
1c Corn, frozen kernels

Optional toppings:
Cilantro
Corn Tortilla, julienned and fried
Avocado
Green Onion

Directions:
Saute the onion, celery, bell pepper and hot pepper in the oil till the onion is translucent. Add in garlic, lime zest and juice, saute making sure not allow the garlic to burn. Add in water, bullion, beans, corn and tomatoes. Add spices to taste; cilantro, garlic, salt, cumin, chili powder and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes or more.

Serve topped with a lime slice, fried corn tortilla strips, green onion and avocado.


For whatever reason this soup slipped off my menus. That made me sad when I realized it. Its so tasty, so full bodied and so darn easy. The fried tortilla strips actually take longer to make than the actual soup chopping and sauteing. Well, mine do because I use very little oil and do them in batches. Plus I like to salt mine after I pull each batch from the oil. They are like a little special treat just to crumble into the soup and get a crunchy zippy bite.

Make this soup. Make it tonight!