VeganMofo 2013: Day 4–Why vegan? Wednesdays

Hi everyone!  Hope you’re having a rocking good time reading VeganMofo posts.  I’ve been posting links to my page on Facebook and have had to explain that Mofo isn’t Mofo.  Lol.

 

Anyway, I was thinking last week that it might be cool to get some other non-blogging vegans to answer a quick questionnaire on why they’re vegan (for one, it’s always interesting to hear why people are vegan AND it gives me a chance to be lazy with post-writing!  AND I’ve been sick for the last two days, getting out of writing is good.)

 

This week we have Susan.  I met Susan ages ago through mutual vegan friends.  She runs the awesome Eating for Animals and is a veterinarian – who cares about animals more than them!

 

Who is your favourite vegan cookbook author?

Robin Robertson is my number one. Plus as well as writing so many fantastic cookbooks she also has excellent taste in TV shows and is a total cat lady. Bonus!  Dreena Burton and Julie Hasson are also close to my heart.

What's your current favourite recipe? 

I try and cook a new recipe almost every night (eternal quest of trying to cook through all my cookbooks), so it is hard to say! The Mac and Cheese from Vegan Diner, Berry Patch Brownies from Let Them Eat Vegan, and the Miso Potato Tofu Stew in Vegan With A Vengeance are a few that come to mind.

I'm currently obsessed with Mexican food. What's your favourite cuisine?

I am a pretty big fan of them all. Thai and Japanese would be at the top of my list. I swoon for a good Pad See Ew or Eggplant Dengaku.

I've always been a fan of Iron Chef French, which Iron Chef would you want to be? 

I haven't watched Iron Chef for a long time, but I think Iron Chef French as well. If only because my favourite episode ever was set in a French castle and the Chairman wore the most hysterical ceremonial cloak ever.

Finally, and most importantly... Why are you vegan?

For the animals, plain and simple. The fact that the food is amazing is a pretty big bonus. ;)

 

Thanks for participating Susan! 

 

Thursday’s blog post is currently a mystery.  Hopefully today will bring inspiration!

VeganMofo 2013: Day 3.1 - Wherein Cam attempts to destroy the kitchen with jets of boiling hot TVP-lava

In preparation for my forthcoming 135km Cape to Cape Hike in WA, I decided I'd do a few posts this month while testing out some recipes for my newly purchased JetBoil Flash.

There really aren't many options I've found in Australia for dehydrated camping food. For the last hike I did, I took mostly canned soup and beans and used solid fuel and a mini camping saucepan to heat, but that approach is way to heavy for the 5 day Cape to Cape. Enter the Jetboil! 400g of high powered cooking fire that can be used to rehydrate meals right in the cup.

After browsing around hiking sites on the web for a while (a few of which were run by vegan hikers), I decided that recipes based around TVP, red lentils, couscous and quinoa were probably the best way to go. I figured TVP would be a good place to start. I found a few recipes to blatantly steal take inspiration from.

I assembled the ingredients below and started the JetBoil up with two cups of water.

I discovered the JetBoil has a handy indicator on the side of the insulation that turns to yellow when it's hot. It is, however, a little redundant, as once it starts to boil, the huge volume of skin-scolding steam raging from the top of the cup is a bit of a give-away.

After my water was boiled, I turned off the heat (most recipes said to put it on low, but there really appears to be little difference between "low" and "full raging inferno" on this thing. I am using the large 230g gas cylinder and it is full, so perhaps the gas flow rate is a little higher than with the usual 100g cylinders. 

Into the cup, I placed to rehydrate:
1/2 cup TVP
1    tsp vegan "beef" stock
1/2 tsp garlic powder
pinch of salt

After 2 minutes of standing, I realised that there was not nearly enough TVP for the volume of water, so I decided to heat it a little more, both in an attempt to boil off some of the water, and encourage expansion of the TVP. In retrospect, this was where it all started to go horribly wrong.

While hunting through the kitchen cupboard looking for other tasty ingredients to add, the JetBoil erupted into a volcano of molten TVP lava. The handy sipper lid served as a funnel to eject said lava in a geyser directly over the gas control (as well as the floor and cupboard). I initially ran over and stuck my hand into this stream of boiling lava to turn off the gas, but a quick brush with the erupting contents made me realise that this approach would see me returning to work on my day off to have some ED intern bandage up my arm and make a referral to the Burns Unit.

 By the time I grabbed a tea towel and went back after the gas control, the volume of water left in the jetboil had diminished to the point that the raging torrent of TVP-steam was now just a trickle.

In the delirium that followed my near death experience, I didn't get any decent pics of the soggy TVP strewn marsh the kitchen had become. After cleaning up the mess, I threw some of the olive oil, chili powder, tomato paste and nutritional yeast into what remained of the TVP in the JetBoil - it actually wasn't too bad, though I'm not entirely sure it was worth the collateral damage to the kitchen and to my pride.

VeganMofo 2013: Day 2–the mac and cheeze-ening

Hi everyone.  Hope you had an awesome first day of Mofo! 
My theme for Mondays (and the official Monday theme for Mofo) is ‘Mac-and-Cheese Monday’.
I usually make a white sauce and add nooch to it for my go-to Mac and “cheese”.  It’s pretty much my favourite comfort food (and lazy food, happy food, I’m hungry food, I’ve had a shitty day food, etc).  Back when I ate meat and dairy it was still one of my favourite things to make.
So, today’s Mac and Cheese.
We used this product called Cherub Dairy-Free Cheesey Sauce Mix that Cam picked up ages ago from Green Edge.  Looks like it’s a product of Angel Food (NZ).  I think we still have a meringue sachet from this company in the cupboard.  I should see if that is still any good….
                          
I also used the novelty home brand pasta from Woolworths.  I buy the novelty shapes a lot.  Cam never seems to mind, so I don’t have a problem with it.  I have been known to use novelty shapes before.
I also added broccoli (I have this rule that I won’t eat mac and cheese without a substantial green vegetable – in my mind it makes up for the lack of healthiness of everything else in the meal).

The verdict?  Cam quite liked it.  We added a fair bit of salt to it (probably because we’re salt fiends) but it seemed a little too subtle for my taste.  Next time I make it (I have enough mix left to make a cup of sauce) I’m adding nooch and a little powdered mustard.
I’ve used a few different Mac and “Cheese” recipes in the past – the lower fat New Farm Mac and Cheese recipe from the original Get Sconed blog site was good (now the version online is gluten free).  There’s also my ye olde standby (bastardised from a scalloped potato recipe from long long long ago).  Now I tend to add a few drops of liquid smoke to that.
What’s your favourite Mac and “Cheese” recipe?  Or do you prefer to use a mix? 

VeganMofo 2013: Day 1!

Hi everyone!  Welcome to my attempt to do VeganMofo for an entire month (for the millionth time).  I’m aiming for about five blog posts a week.
To prepare for Mofo-ing I did a whole lotta cooking yesterday.
I soaked and cooked 1kg of black beans – turns out that makes approximately 14 cups of cooked beans.

(12 cups of which are now in the freezer in 2 cup servings!) Beans – taste great, not so attractive sitting in the pressure cooker.
I also made a whole lot of sofrito using Terry’s recipe from Viva Vegan – we eat a LOT of burritos, etc (I’d call it Mexican, but I’m sure that it’s not very authentic).  That also went into the freezer in 1cup servings.  I spent a good 30 minutes chopping up onions!  Luckily no one was home to see how teary I got.
So, the first dinner of Mofo was Burritos!  And seeing as this meal was going to be my first Mofo2013 post, I thought I’d make some exciting extras: a fresh salsa and pickled red onions (the pickled red onion recipe is from Viva Vegan – OMG, so freaking good.  I frequently eat them out of the container). 

Pickled onions before and after.  Hot pink and so so good.
You can spy my salsa in the second pic.  It’s a variation on my usual bruschetta recipe: 3 tomatoes, 1 small red onion, juice of half a lime, 1 large handful of coriander, about 3tsp salt.  Chop up and mix together – it’ll be ready to eat after about 20 mins of sitting.  The juice is so salty but soooooo amazing.

Yum. 
The bean filling was:

• 1 cup or so of sofrito (basically whatever I had left after freezing the rest)
• 2 cups of black beans
• 1 tsp of smoked paprika, garlic powder, oregano, cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 5 drops of liquid smoke
• 1 chipotle in adobo (it was the last of the tin, so I just added the 3T of adobo that was left to the mix)
• 1 red capsicum, chopped into 1cm square pieces (or so)
• 5 mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• juice of half a lime

Heat up a deep frypan on the stove.  Cook up the sofrito.  Add the capsicum and mushroom and cook for about 3-4 minutes on high. 
Add in your beans (I used the measuring cup straight from the pressure cooker, so there was a fairly large amount of the cooking liquid in there). 
Lower the heat to medium and add in your spices, the chilli, liquid smoke and hot sauce.  Cook for about 15mins.  The mixture will want to stick to the bottom of the pan.  Don’t be too rough – you want some whole beans in there!
Once the liquid’s reduced, squeeze your lime juice in.  Turn it off and stuff your burrito. 
I tend to put about half a cup of beans on the bottom, then a large amount of pickled onions (or however much you like), and then top it off with salsa.  I frequently add Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, but we’re out :(

So that’s my go to recipe for burritos.  What’s your favourite recipe for burritos or tacos?
Tomorrow: Mac and Cheeze Monday!

Mofo 2013

So I signed up for Vegan Mofo again this year.  I have time for once (I'm not travelling, and I'm not studying)!  I'm hoping to do 5 posts a week.

I was thinking of a theme a week, and the only one I have confirmed in my mind is: one woman, one kilo of beans - I'll take one kilo of dried black beans and make five or so meals with it.  I'm hoping to not do Mexican for every meal (must Google other bean recipes!).

I might also do the Mac and Cheeze Monday idea (I have a fantastic recipe that I eat FAR too frequently, so it's a good chance to try other recipes).

Hopefully someone will read this - otherwise hello sounds of silence!

Vegan Hot Pot

So after we went to lunch on Sunday, Susan and I hit up the asian grocery stores in the valley.  We visited a Thai grocer and Burlington.  I stocked up on the lamyong fake meats (they had the 'good' veggie 'ham' FINALLY) and bought this interesting package:

Mixed!  Woo!

So I made it for dinner on Monday night after my usual bike ride (72.1km so far this year).

I opened the package to reveal this tiny ziplock bag:

Not suspicious at all

It was the hot pot broth.  I added it to 2000ml of boiling water (why not say 2L?) and then chopped up the hot pot 'meats':

There's fake prawns ('frawns'), fake sausage, tofu and other more seafoody things

It didn't say to chop them up, but I'm a cheapskate.

Added to the broth:

BLURRY!

I chopped up cabbage, cauliflower, pak choy and carrots to put in with the soup and then put it all together.

Hot! Pot!

It was pretty good.  We added a dash of Kikkoman Soy sauce to each bowl.  We only use Kikkoman as directed on the little bottle ;)

The broth: could have been a little saltier (thus the soy), but pretty much reminded me of hot pot/won ton broth.  As a carb freak, I knew I should have added in rice noodles (we definitely need bigger soup bowls - not enough depth to add noodles on top of the veggies you can see sticking out).

The fake meats: tasted pretty much the same as other fake seafoods I've had (the non-seaweed based ones).  Reminded me a lot of the fake meats you'd find in the Laksa at the now defunct ID Cafe in the Valley (sniff).

It was a nice change for dinner.  We have leftovers for dinner tonight, so hopefully it will be just as good.

Kuan Yin revisit

Kuan Yin has been a favourite of ours ever since we discovered it at least 9 years ago.  Late in December I discovered that they now have a blog (and a Gold Coast outlet that we have yet to try - when there's Yum Cha to have at Mermaid Beach, why would you go elsewhere? ;)).  They now do desserts!  So Susan (of Eating for Animals) and I decided to go and try out the desserts.

Of course, they were out of desserts today (sigh), but we still ate all the foods (WARNING: photos taken with my Galaxy 2, so the photos only give you a vague idea of how good it tasted).

First we had the intriguingly named Phantom Chips - taro and sweet potato rolls.

Phantom Chips

This is the Peking 'Duck" roll.  The 'Duck' is quite crispy, but the roll is done up fairly loosely so the filling is want to escape.  If I was making it I'd be rolling it up a lot tighter....

Peking 'Duck' Roll

'Duck' Roll close view

This is the 'Chicken' Wings.  They serve it with a side of chips, so perhaps they should be renamed 'Chicken' Nuggets?

Spicy, and good

They also do a Spring Roll.  It's significantly longer than the Spring Rolls you're used to.  They're served with a spicy sauce and served in a champagne glass.  Kind of hilarious for a non-alcoholic Asian cafe.

Spring Rolls

We also had the classic Fried Dumplings.  Always tasty.  Always falls apart.

Dumplings

Michael (the owner) said that they should have the Chocolate dessert on the menu next weekend.  I'd suggest going on Friday/Saturday so you can actually get one!