Vegetarian Red Beans & Rice- oxymoronic?

A dear friend taught me how to make red beans and rice one winter. It ignited an obsession with Southern food, a food genre I had never been exposed to living here in the Midwest. Being me, it was only inevitable that I would attempt to make a vegan version of it. I am here today to report my results:

3 cans red beans. Put the juice in.
(Dried are better, but you have to boil them for and hour -in broth- or soak them overnight. I was hungry.)
4 bay leaves
1 large sweet onion
4 cloves garlic
1 green bell pepper
1 seranno pepper (1/2 or less if you don't like spicy)
1 jalapeno pepper

Here is the smoke:
Wortchshire sauce
1 adobo pepper (in chipotle sauce, from the can)
liquid smoke (cost $2 !)
---all to taste--- I'd say about a tablespoon of each
Salt/Pepper

boil it up with 1 cup brown or white rice and 3/4 cup vegetable broth for about 45 minutes.

Top with chopped tomatoes and sour cream if you choose.

This recipe I created turned out much better than I had expected. I feared it being bland in lieu of the salted pork belly and sausage, or fake smokey. It was well rounded and tasty, like Zatarans but from scratch. I am pleased.

*A special thanks to Kevin Murray.

Strawberry Chiffon Pie

Before September is upon us, prepare yourselves for uses of the endless strawberries coming our way here in Utah.



1 baked pastry shell

Stir together:
1 envelope gelatin (fruit based ya?) + 1/3 C cold water
3/4 c sugar
3 egg yolks
3 TBS lemon juice
dash of salt

Cook over medium heat until it boils.
Stir in 1 1/2 C crushed strawberries
Cover and chill several hours until it's spoon-able.

Beat 1 C whipped cream until stiff peaks form.
Fold into the strawberry mixture.

Spoon into the baked crust and chill for 4 hours.



This pie is light and creamy without being too sweet. It reminds me of homemade ice cream where it is more about the fruit and cream than suuugggaaaaar. I never liked pie until I started making them!

(Recipe is from, "Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book", 2002 Meredith Corporation, Des Moines, Iowa. Twelth Edition.)

Fried Chicken

Dip pieces of a thawed broiler chicken in 1)milk 2)egg 3)flour+ salt and pepper (apply liberally).
Heat up 1/4" oil, fry for about 12 minutes on each side until golden brown.



This is how my dad remembered his mom making it. Totally worked

MEMEME

I'm doing a post about myself, because I need a me day.
Things I like besides cooking~

knitting

Balcony and porch dwelling

Riding my bike!!

Believe it or not, public transportation.
Cars are not a sustainable practice, AND being a passenger is pretty stress free!

Cleatis, my bird
She commands love.

Eating Pizza.
Featured above, the best pizza I've ever had- Brooklyn, NY

"This American Life" brought to you by Ira Glass

Go Jazz, Go Jazz, Go Jazz, Go!!

Science fiction, tough characters, AND poker

UK hip hop <3>

Nostalgic travel memories

(This might have been the most awesome moment of my life so far.)

Beach house dwelling!
And being with the little ones in general

Fam time

Scott has stuff on him. lolz

I didn't mean for the last impression to be of my brother instead of myself. However, Jenny and I PUT all that stuff on him, and I've never laughed harder. Goofing off= life necessity.

K now I feel better having reminded myself of some things that bring me joy!

Vegan Lasagna

Vegan lasagna! My friend and fellow cook, Adam, taught me one lovely Monday evening how to make vegan lasagna. Furthermore, he showed me an easy and awesome way to make sauce from scratch!


The gist of it is of course- layers of boiled noodles, vegetables, sauce, and "cheese".


The vegetables: we did layers of mushrooms, broccoli, spinach, and zuchinni. You could do anything.


The "cheese": Sour supreme, mashed up firm tofu, nutritional yeast, basil

The sauce (my favorite part!):
Mince a carrot, a stalk of celery, half an onion, and a clove of garlic, and sautee them in a small amount of olive oil.
Make an X slice on the bottom of four tomatoes and place them in the sauteing vegetables stem down. Add a small amount of water and a lid. Soon the skins of the tomatoes will peal right off! Mash them up and add 1 can of tomato paste (4 oz I think). Salt/pepper/etc. to taste.
(I'm so pleased with this sauce!!)


Lacee and I cooked this batch up together! It was fun. I believe we are kitchen compatible. She had some great ideas.


Cooking is the most when friends come over to eat it.

Day to Day Eats

By request, I am doing a post about the stuff I eat day to day; the non planned fixed up some grub food. Interested or not, here it is.

Above: Tofu and egg scrambler

TOFU SCRAMBLER
Sautee a bunch of veggies of your choice (onions, chilies, bell peppers, broccoli, potatoes...)
Mash up some firm tofu in the pan
All you really need to spice it is tumeric, salt and pepper.
Nutritional yeast is amazing if you have it!





Morning Star brand soy bacon, salad, and sourdough toast.





Zatarain's is $1 at Smith's in the rice section.

Add some black beans and onions, top with tomatoes, sour cream, and hot sauce!




Tasty bites is instant Indian food. People usually reserve it for camping but it's great any time! Cook some rice and heat up the pouch. $3.

I'm drinking chocolate Silk soymilk (YUMMY) and eating grapefruit.




I'd never tried gnocchi so I bought some (pre-made in the noodle section, $4). Making it from scratch sounds difficult, but maybe I'll do it sometime.


I'm a fan of gnocchi now!





Morning Star chick'n has the best fake meat texture I have ever had, and I've tried a lot of fake meats! I will be buying again, to put in everything. The only downfall is most Morning Star products aren't vegan.

Arugula, chick'n, green beans, and bruchetta

BRUCHETTA
Toast artisan bread with olive oil brushed on it in the broiler.
Mix tomatoes, shallots (sliced tiny), garlic, fresh basil, olive oil, salt/pepper
(I like avacado too.)



Vegetarian hot dog, BBQ chips, and tea.



Salad, spicy potato wedges, and fry sauce.


POTATO WEDGES
Slice potatoes into wedges (haha).
Stir them around in some vegetable oil
Add a bunch of spices (I got a mix from an African market with cloves and MACE. Holy cow! It's great!) Make sure you get a decent amount of salt I guess.
Broil them for about 20 minutes.

SPECIAL SAUCE as Training Table likes to call it
Mayonaise
BBQ sauce
Ketchup



You have to go out once in a while. Jill went with me on a crazy shopping splurge and then we went to Acme Burger for a snack. Half and Half sweet potato shoestring fries.

Cobb Salad to share.

I eat different things all the time. Variety in food is perhaps my greatest pleasure. This week I have been eating Thai soup a lot at Channon Thai Cafe on 9oo South and 300 East. It's definitely my new favorite place.

What things do you guys like to eat all the time?

Samosas

(These pictures did not turn out well... I need to invest in a better camera!)

Samosas are an Indian appetizer made from fried pastry dough stuffed with curried potatoes and peas.


This was one of those rare occasions where I actually followed a particular recipe. It came from the most beautiful recipe book I have ever seen filled with colorful pictures of India.

The recipe called for 1 tsp. cayenne pepper. Usually anything that calls for cayenne asks for just a dash! But I wanted to trust the recipe...

Grinding up the cardamom made me feel pretty cool.



"Dry frying" was a new technique to me. The seasoned mashed up potatoes cooked in the frying pan for about 8 minutes, without any liquid or oil, until the spices became fragrant. This totally worked! My complaint in the past about Indian food I cook has always been that I can't get the spices to blend well with the other ingredients.


I served them with homemade mint chutney:
1/2 onion
1 serrano chili
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tart apple or mango
1/4 C. fresh mint
1/4 C. cilantro
a little water
---blend---




Thoughts

Although we all agreed that these were delicious, the dough turned out to be grueling to make. It was so elastic that it was difficult to roll thinly, and to get it to go into a perfect, stuffable circle. However, the dough was flaky in a different way than I've had at restaurants. You can decide if 3 hours is worth it. I'm glad I made them once, but I'll probably get takeout next time I'm craving.

This chutney was more spicy than the sweet chutneys I'm used to. I liked it!!

It seems that every wonton and dumpling recipe I've seen uses egg to seal the dough. This recipe used cornstarch mixed in water. I think this worked better than egg, and it's vegan! Cornstarch it is from now on.

Falafel

For the falafel balls I used a box mix that you add water to and fry.

Tzatziki sauce:
plain yogurt
lemon juice (it's worth it to use a fresh lemon whenever possible)
dill (fresh)
cucumber (chopped into little cubes)
garlic
salt/pepper

Prep time: about 15 minutes

Peach Cobbler

I made it with yellow cake mix and marcaspone (substitute cream cheese). I just put big dallops on top so that the sour would complement the sweet. Also, I recommend using WAY less sugar then recommended in any standard recipe. Cake and peaches are already sweet.



Served warm with plain yogurt. Again sour with the sweet. This desert takes probably 5 minutes to prepare and the recipes are all flexible and similar.
Voila!

Rice, Kim, Aloe

Let's talk about rice.

Why? Because it has so much potential for being an every day staple.

First, purchasing short grained rice-

You could get the supermarket Nishiki kind. That's fine. However, if you get something from an Asain market, it will be leaps and bounds less expensive, have a better texture and be generally more delicious. If you're trying to be Asian for no apparent reason like me, a meal consists of stuff on top of rice, so you might as well make it count!

A huge bag like this at my market is $18. I can't usually read what is different about the bags of rice, so I get something that has a semi-transparent look to the bag as such. (I think the selection has to do with where the rice is grown and how fresh it is.) You can store rice for a year.

Second, rice cookers are great!

1. They cook the rice perfectly. 2. They keep it warm and good for about 48 hours so you can eat it throughout the day.

This is my dream rice cooker. It is $200 but pays for itself in texture (if I had $200). You can set a timer on it to make the rice at a specific time. Anyone want to get me a birthday present?

This is the rice cooker I actually have. It's still a Zojirushi. It's a hand me down and works perfectly. It's easy to clean, and cooks pretty quickly. The rice never sticks. No complaints.

We always have rice ready-made in the cooker on hand, a blessing when hunger strikes.

Thirdly, wash your rice!

It makes it more sticky without being mushy.

Here's how: Pour the rice into the rice cooker removable pan. Pour lukewarm running water and drain it as you mix it around with your hand. When the water runs clear it is fully washed. The way I learned to measure rice is to fill the water to just touching the top of your hand when you place it palm down on top of the rice.

Yes, rice is rice, but you haven't had rice like this! Good staples equal everyday happiness.

KIM

Kim is Korean toasted and season seaweed.

Look for Korean writing on the packaging, not to be confused with Japanese nori, used for sushi. It comes in big sheets you can cut down or in pre-packaged bite sized pieces.

It is light, salty, and melt in your mouth. It's a little greasy on the fingers. I compare it to popcorn as a snack food.

Grab a little rice with the kim. Awesome instant snack!

Once opened, It keeps pretty well in the freezer for a few weeks if it's in a sealed container. People fall in love with kim.

To wash it down, I highly recommend aloe vera juice.

This juice is smooth. It has small chunks of aloe in it that are surprisingly not weird and satisfying. Even though it is sweetened with pear juice (like every other juice cocktail) I have heard that Aloe is really healthy. I could drink gallons of this. Hopefully, I have now given you the courage to try it out.

And remember to love your rice because it will love you in return. (I'm cheesy.)

*I use a lot of adverbs and contractions in this blog. Normally, this is discouraged in writing. I guess I am trying to go for a more colloquial or speech feel.

**I need improvement on my photos, I know.