Po'boys

I'm not from the south, or even from the US, so my idea of what a po'boy is, is probably incorrect. However, I think something coated in cornmeal and fried till it's crispy topped with a spicy mustardy remoulade sounds pretty divine. Add some coleslaw and a yummy soft bun and BAM! Dinner.

Coleslaw
1/2 head of red cabbage, shredded
roughly equal amount of shredded carrot (I used pre shredded, probably about 3c)
1 tsp salt
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp agave
1 tsp coriander
fresh ground pepper to taste

Mix em all up in a bowl and let sit while you prep the rest.

Remoulade
1/4c grainy mustard
1c vegenaise
1 + tsp of hot sauce (I used Franks Red Hot)
1 tsp vinegar (I used apple cider, too lazy to find the white)
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp paprika
1 - 2 tsp cajun seasoning

Mix em all up.

Tofu
1 pkg tofu, pressed
1c flour
1 c almond or soy milk
2 c cornmeal mixed with 1 tbsp cajun seasoning
canola oil for frying

Slice up the tofu into relatively thin slices. I did about 10 slices, then sliced those in half. Pour enough canola oil into the pan to come about halfway up the tofu slices and heat to med-high. Preheat your oven to 200.
Dredge the tofu slices in flour, then milk, then in cornmeal, shaking off the excess. Carefully place slices in pan (I used tongs because I hate getting spit at!). Fry for a few minutes per side until golden brown. You'll have to do probably 2 or 3 batches, so place the done slices on a plate in your pre warmed oven, preferably on a slice of paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

To assemble
Slice a roll (you could do a sub roll, I did kaisers). Slather the bottom with remoulade. Place a few slices of red onion on top. Top that with a few spoonfuls of coleslaw, then with three or four slices of tofu. Spread a little more remoulade on the top half of the bun, put it top, and enjoy! I meant to put some lettuce on there too, because what sandwich isn't made better through lettuce, but I forgot. Whatever. This was delicious anyway.

I served with a nice simple salad with balsamic dressing. Have I shared the recipe for that?
1/3 c olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
fresh ground pepper to taste
Use a fork to beat it all together until it's totally emulsified.

Not yet dressed, but looking good anyway.

Meal Planning Monday: Week 2

Well that whole thing went swimmingly for me last week, so I think we'll do this again!

I can't really get posts out in a timely fashion but I did get Ian to take pictures of many of the foodstuffs that emerged from the kitchen last week; not that I want to do a daily post about them but I like to share delicious food always. However, objective 'eat out less' was achieved, as was, for the most part, objective 'eat all the food that gets purchased.'The notable exceptions were that I never ended up feeling like eating kale salad, but thankfully kale holds over pretty well; and the macaroni and cheese recipe made WAY TOO MUCH. I might cut it in half next time. We still have about half a casserole left of it, but it's late enough now that I'm going to have to chuck it.

This week's meals

Stuffed portobellos, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, steamed carrots
Ricotta gnocchi & caesar salad
Lemon roast potatoes on the BBQ, grilled zucchini, leftover 'slaw
Roasted mushroom & white bean soup, green salad, garlic bread
White bean & kalamata salad, roasted cauliflower, green beans
Penne with roasted asparagus & balsamic glaze, kale salad

Vegan Raspberry Curd

I'm making a lot of cupcakes in the very near future. A friend is getting married in June and asked me to do them for her (and her 150 guests!). How could I resist? She's been really easy about flavour selection, her main request being the chocolate stout cupcakes with whiskey ganache and irish cream flavour icing. She was also partial to lemon cupcakes, regardless of what filling or frosting adorn them. I decided that maybe raspberry curd would be a nice way to go with the lemon. Lemon + raspberry = classic combination, right? Well it's freaking delicious. Loosely based off the VegNews lemon curd recipe (which I will also be using for some of these cupcakes).

Raspberry Curd
3/4 c coconut milk
1/3 c sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 heaping cup whole, fresh raspberries (I 'measured' them in a glass measuring cup, which goes up to one cup but has some space at the top - I filled it nearly all the way up. Probably looking at about a cup and a half of raspberries)

Whisk together everything but the raspberries over medium heat in a small pan until smooth; add in the raspberries and continue to whisk together, breaking up the raspberries as you whisk. They will cook down once the mixture starts getting warm. Let it start bubbling a little and then turn the heat down to low and continue to whisk, cooking for 5ish minutes or until it's thickened and the raspberries have totally broken down.

Take off heat, strain into a glass container, and refrigerate until cool. Then use it to fill your cupcakes or spread on toast or whatever it is you do with your curd.

Meal Planning Monday: Week 1

I hate how easy it is to not meal plan and then end up eating out a million times per week. It's wasteful, not very healthy, and not very economical. Time to jump on the meal planning bandwagon. 

Dinners
Mango baked beans (AfR),steamed broccoli, green salad
Macaroni & cheese (Pioneer Woman), cauliflower, asparagus
Crockpot chili, cornbread, kale salad
Tofu po'boy sandwiches and grilled parm eggplant
White bean & kalamata salad, grilled portobellos and zucchini
BBQ Tempeh and Citrus Salad

It's a big salad week, evidently, but it's already four thousand degrees here in Guelph (*almost* makes me wish we lived near the lake) and slaving over a hot stove is not my idea of a gay ol' time. Also, Dash has been enjoying the simple delights of iceberg, cucumber, and red pepper salads with simple balsamic dressing, and you can never go wrong by adding more greens! Anyway, this list will take us through Saturday, and since these guys are all to serve 4 people (with the exception of chili, some of which we will freeze for later, and tofu po'boys, which will lose their glorious crunch) we'll have our lunches made too!

Early Summer Food & Drink plus some other stuff.

Food & Drink is one of my favorite magazines. It's not particularly (or sometimes, not at all!) veg friendly - they seem to think that a vegetable stir fry is vegetarian despite containing oyster sauce - but it does have beautiful photography, fun entertaining ideas, and great flavour combinations that I yearn to replicate in a veg friendly fashion.

Ian suggests that perhaps Oysters are 'the vegetables of the sea.'

This current issue has a recipe for 'Bang Bang Chicken Noodle Salad,' the peanut sauce for which sounds divine and for which I suddenly found myself having a craving. I more or less kept the sauce as is, just switching agave for sugar and leaving out the coriander (Ian is not a fan); I also used Thai rice stick noodles instead of vermicelli, forgot to use the mint, and chopped up some napa cabbage in lieu of bok choy.

The recipe is not yet online, but here's my slightly modified version of it; keep your eye on the Food & Drink website for the original, if you happen to be a chicken or coriander eater. I didn't think to take any pics because we were starving, but it's really not that pretty unless you want to style it instead of just mixing all of it together in a bowl, and I wasn't about to do that.

Peanut Sauce
1 c natural peanut butter (sorry Kraft. You're for toast only.)
1/4 c rice wine vinegar
2 cloves of garlic crushed
2 tsp agave
1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp finely grated ginger
1/3 c tamari
1/2 c water

Mix all of those together with a fork or whisk in a bowl or measuring cup. It'll be quite thick.

Salad
250g rice stick noodles
1/2 english cucumber, julienned
2 large handfuls of shredded carrot
10 or leaves of napa cabbage, rolled up and then sliced thinly
2 green onions, sliced pretty thinly

Cook the rice noodles according to package directions. Rinse them in cold water and put in a bowl. Throw everything else on top and then add the dressing and use tongs to mix and get all the noodles and vegetables coated in sauce. Serve. If you want to beef it up, some grilled Asian style marinated tofu would be delish, or I bet even some chickpeas might work in it.

I mention 'other stuff' in the title. Fiddleheads are in season! If you find them in your local grocery store, make sure to pick them up. They're a great spring veggie (really a baby fern frond) and go well pretty much wherever you would use broccoli or asparagus. Tonight we had grilled BBQ tofu (was supposed to be jerk, but we couldn't find the jerk sauce), coconut milk & ginger mashed sweet potatoes, and steamed fiddleheads for dinner.

I made crock pot chili last night. I wanted it for lunch today so I popped everything in the crock pot at 11pm and set it to high for 8 hours. I woke up at 5:30 am and absolutely could not get back to sleep because damn, girl, that chili smelled so good. Not a photogenic food, nor did I have time as I shoveled some into a container to take to work this morning anyway, but here's the recipe. Slow Cooker Chili (note: I used a half cup of navy beans instead of chickpeas because I think chickpeas in chili is weird. I also added some cayenne for a bit more heat.)

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Well, there are no words other than to say, this shit is delicious.

Three little maids from school are we

Cupcake Recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

1/2 c Earth Balance, room temp
3/4 c sugar
1 c 'milk'
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 c flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a cupcake pan.
Mix together the milk and apple cider vinegar. Beat the margarine until fluffy, a few minutes. Beat in the sugar and continue to beat for a few minutes. Then add in the milk mixture and vanilla. Sift in all the dry ingredients and mix until no lump remain.
Divide among cups, bake for 20 - 22 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 5 minutes before setting on a rack to cool completely before frosting.

They came out pretty flat. Perfect canvas for frosting, really.

Frosting also from Vegan Cupcakes but modified because I hate the mouthfeel of shortening

1 c Earth Balance (I used the new soy-free one, and it was great!)
3 1/2 c icing sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 - 3 tbsp 'milk'

Beat margarine until fluffy, then add in the icing sugar in 1 c increments, adding milk as needed. Beat in vanilla and beat until icing is smooth. I never got it perfectly smooth, probably because I used only margarine instead of half marg and half shortening.

Mix 2 tbsp sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon and dust top of frosted cupcakes with it. Nom.

Pert as a school girl well can be

Whoopie Pies and Lemon Cupcakes

Potluck staff meeting. My choice of foods to bring? Whoopie Pies (vegan AND gluten free!) and Lemon Cupcakes. Obviously.

Plate of delicious treats.

I was going to veganize a recipe for Grand Marnier Cupcakes (chocolate cupcakes filled with Grand Marnier ganache and topped with a Grand Marnier buttercream) and just plain old chocolate whoopie pies, until I received a request for lemon cupcakes. But I waaaant that Grand Marnier!! Solution? Grand Marnier whoopies!

Onwards...

Vegan Gluten Free Whoopie Pies - adapted ever so slightly from The Sensitive Pantry
(I am too scared to make my own GF flour since this is my first foray into the kingdom of GF, so I purchased a 'muffin and cake' GF flour.)

Preheat oven to 375

2 c GF flour
1/2 c cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp instant coffee

Sift all those dudes together and set aside for a minute

1 c 'milk'
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Mix together in a measuring cup and also set aside.

6 tbsp Earth Balance, softened
1/2 c sugar

Beat these together until light and fluffy. Add in the flour mixture and the milk mixture in 2 batches each. Beat in 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp chocolate extract (if you have it. You could just add more vanilla if you don't).

Place in rounded tablespoon scoops onto parchment lined baking sheet. The original says you should get about 28 - 30 cookies out of this. I got 24. That's always my problem. Oh well.

Bake for 8 - 9 minutes, remove from oven and let cool.

Grand Marnier Ganache

2 oz soy creamer
6 oz semi sweet chocolate, chopped
1 tbsp Grand Marnier

Heat the cream and then add the chocolate and stir until melted. Stir in the Grand Marnier. Allow to cool a bit and then spread about a teaspoon or so on the flat side of half of the cookies. You'll have some left over - that's okay, because you can heat it up a bit later and drizzle it on the tops!

Frosting

Traditional Whoopie Pie frosting seems to be primarily made of shortening. I hate the mouthfeel of shortening so we're just going to with a regular vegan buttercream dressed up with some Grand Marnier and orange peel.

1/2 c Earth Balance, room temp
2 c icing sugar
finely grated zest of 1 orange
2 tbsp grand marnier
1 tbsp soy creamer (or and alternate milk if you don't have the creamer)

Beat the Earth Balance until fluffy, then add half the sugar and a bit of the creamer. Beat until relatively smooth, then add the rest of the ingredients and beat until it's normal frosting consistency. Pipe onto the ganache side of the cookies.

Place the other half of the cookie on top and gently mush down. Eat! Share! Enjoy!

So, the lemon cupcakes. I pretty much just made Isa & Terry's vanilla cupcakes but added lemon peel; I also made a lovely lemon curd to fill 'em with and then just a small amount of lemon buttercream to pipe on top to cover up the curd. I actually made two batches, and made a marshmallow frosting to grace the top of the first batch, which was quite delightful also, but I can't remember how I made it. It used Ricemellow Creme is all I recall. I'll make it again at some juncture just so I can share it, because it was really good.

Lemon Cupcakes (adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World Vanilla Cupcakes)

1 c almond milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 c flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c canola oil
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp lemon juice
finely grated zest of a lemon - a tablespoon or so

Preheat to 350 and line your tin with papers.

Mix the milk and vinegar and let sit for a few minutes. Meanwhile, sift together all the dry ingredients. Make a well in the centre and add in all the wet ingredients and stir until fairly well combined, though not all the lumps have to be totally gone because no one likes a tough cupcake. Place in the oven and bake for 20 -22 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool about 5 minutes in the tin before removing and letting them hang out on a rack till completely cool.

When they're cool, dig out some holes because you're going to fill them with a tsp or so of lemon curd! Yum!

Lemon Curd - From VegNews

3/4 c coconut milk
1/2 c fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp turmeric
1 tsp lemon zest (I added more because I like SUPER lemon, probably almost a tbsp)

Over medium heat in a small pan, whisk together everything except the zest. Once it's warm, turn the heat down to low and keep whisking until it's pretty thick. Take it off the heat and mix in the zest. Let it cool before spooning into the cupcakes! *Note: this starts off a fairly innocuous colour but it WILL turn the most obnoxious shade of yellow you've ever seen. I can only assume this is due to the turmeric, so if you don't care about colour, you could probably leave it out if you don't have it on hand.*

It's cool if it goes over the top a bit, the frosting will cover it up!

Lemon Buttercream - I only made a half recipe because I only wanted to pipe a bit on; if you want mountainous swirls, double it!

1/2 c Earth Balance, room temp
2 c icing sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp soy creamer
1 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 lemon

Beat the Earth Balance till fluffy. Add half the sugar and beat until mixed in; add everything else and beat until smooth and frosting-y. Pipe onto cupcakes. Om nom nom.

I added a little yellow gel colour to the frosting because I thought it would be pretty!