E's Sweet but Sassy Spaghetti, Meaty Balls, and Deliciously Sexy Heart-Attack Garlic Bread

Not only did I cook this weekend, but E did as well. He felt a hankering for italian food towards the end of the week, so he ended up whipping up a very inspired variety of italian cuisine on Friday night.

I have to say: there are a handful of eating habits that I used to possess that I am so thankful have changed. One, for example, is my sudden, fiendish love of beans, after years and years of detesting them. The other (and more relevant one with regard to this meal) is that I've finally gotten over my squeamishness about eating chunky cooked tomatoes. I don't know why I ever *HAD* a squeamishness. But for years and years, I loathed chunky tomato-sauces, and I'd use my handheld blender to zap everything tomatoey into smoothness.

No longer! Needless to say, E's sauce was particularly pleasing to me because it reminded me of how far (and how positively) my tastes in food have changed in just a few years.

Anyways, this is a really damn good sauce. I actually wasn't expecting it to be quite so orgasmically-tasty as it was. (Not that I thought it was gonna taste like regurgitated dog food, but I thought it would just taste like a pretty standard spaghetti sauce.) It took a long time to cook, but the end results were WELL worth it. It was chunky, it was hearty, it was sweet (but not *too* sweet), and it was delightful. I highly recommend.

To go with the pasta, he also whipped up some "meat"balls. When I was little, I had a long-standing hatred of anything meat-related in spaghetti, but I'm happy to say I've grown out of that as well (and I mostly have faux meatballs and faux ground-beef to thank for that). So needless to say, I looked forward to chowing down on some of these as well. And they didn't disappoint. They were flavorful, rich, and a wonderful contrast to the sweeter spaghetti sauce.

Last but not least, E split a half a loaf of fresh italian bread and whipped together garlic bread for us. This was like that so-bad-for-you-that-you-wanna-rub-it-all-over-your-nekkid-body kind of garlic bread that comes in the freezer section of the grocery store and is like 3-inches thick with butter, but WAYYYYY WAYYYY WAYYYY better. (I mean, look at how sexy it looks by candlelight--*picturing it with a bottle of wine, sweet-talking me into the sack*) I kinda miss the artery-clogging breads of yore, so it was nice to eat a veganized (and fresh) version of one, despite the fact that I'm mildly horrified now that I know how much vegan butter he used. Heh heh.

E's Sweet but Sassy Spaghetti Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 c. chopped onion


• 1/2 c. chopped green pepper


• 1/4 c. chopped celery


• 2 cloves garlic, minced


• 1 T. olive oil


• Two 14.5 oz cans of chopped tomatoes, undrained


• 1/3 c. water


• One 6 oz can tomato paste


• 2 T. snipped fresh parsley


• 1 t. crushed dried basil


• 1 t. crushed dried oregano


• 1/2 t. crushed dried marjoram


• 1 t. vegan sugar


• 1/2 t. salt


• 1/4 t. black pepper

DIRECTIONS
In a pot, cook the onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic in the hot oil until tender.

Stir in 1/3 c. of water, tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, herbs, sugar, salt, black pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes, stirring occassionally. Uncover and simmer for 10-15 minutes more until it has reached desired consistency, continuing to stir occassionally.

E's Meaty Balls (*Growr*)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pkg gimme lean "ground beef"


• 1/4 t. garlic powder


• 1/4 t. dried oregano


• 1/4 to 1/2 t. fresh, chopped parsley.


• 1/2-3/4 T. olive oil

DIRECTIONS
Put all the herbs and garlic powder in a bowl with the gimme lean. Mix and mash with hands.

Heat about 3/4 T. olive oil in skillet until very hot. Roll gimme lean mixture into 1.5 inch balls. Place balls in hot oil and fry on all sides, turning often, until browned (that sounds so dirty--growr). Takes about 7-9 minutes.

E's Deliciously Sexy Heart-Attack Garlic Bread
INGREDIENTS:

• 1 c. vegan butter/margarine


• 2 cloves fresh garlic, crushed


• 1 t. fresh chopped parsley


• 1 loaf italian bread

DIRECTIONS

Let butter sit out for a bit to soften. Add garlic and parsley to butter and mix well. Slather, quite generously, the butter mix on the italian bread that you have sliced lengthwise. Place bread under broiler until it's just beginning to turn brown on the edges and the butter is melted. Eat. Hopefully do not die immediately of clogged arteries. ; )

Red Wine-Drizzled Vegan "Salmon" on a Bed of Quinoa

Ok. The vegan "salmon" finally.

I whipped it up Saturday night as planned. I wasn't sure what to expect and probably am not the best of judges as to whether or not it tasted convincingly salmony since I've only had salmon once (and it was back in like sixth grade or something). But E said that it tasted fairly similar (and he was a salmon addict as recently as a few years ago, so I figure he's a pretty good judge). And I can at least attest to the fact that I was pleasantly surprised.

Consistency-wise, the vegan "salmon" is the spitting image of Tofurky, for those of you familiar with it. Taste-wise, it's like a mildly fishier version of Tofurky, wrapped in seaweed.

I enjoyed it (though I wasn't amazingly blown away by it), and it had already grown on me even more by the second day I had it, so I suspect it's something that I will probably get again (though next time, I think I may try THIS RECIPE but veganized).

And it's uber-easy to prepare--just thaw it out (and that's probably even optional as well) and fry it up in a frying pan with some oil or vegan butter and whatever spices make your pallet tingle.

Or if you want to take the slightly more complicated route with it, you can try out my recipe instead. (I've adjusted the quinoa recipe so that it makes less actual quinoa--that way the quinoa-mushroom ratio is much better--when I prepared it, I thought there was too much quinoa and not enough of the extras.)


INGREDIENTS:

The "Salmon"

• 1 package vegan "salmon"


• 1-2 T. vegan non-hydrogenated butter


• 3-4 cloves garlic, roasted

The Quinoa

• 1 to 1.5 c. uncooked quinoa


• 2-3 T. chopped fresh parsely


• 1/2 c. toasted pine nuts


• One 12 oz. package of baby portabella mushrooms, halved or quartered


• 3-6 cloves garlic, roasted


• 1-2 T. vegan non-hydrogenated butter

The Red-Wine Reduction

• 3/4 c. vegan red table wine (I used Yellow Tail Cabernet-Shiraz)


• 3/4 c. balsamic vinegar


• 2-3 T. vegan non-hydrogenated butter

DIRECTIONS

The Quinoa
Cook quinoa in a rice cooker (or on the stove) using a 2:1 ratio of water to dry quinoa (i.e. if you're making 1 c. uncooked quinoa, include 2 c. water). Once it is nearly done, take 1-2 T. vegan butter and use it to fry up your mushroom in a pan until they are tender but not overcooked. Remove from heat. When quinoa is done, add it to the mushrooms and mix. Add in the parsley, pine nuts, and roasted garlic. Stir and set aside.

The Red-Wine Reduction
Pour your red wine and balsamic vinegar into a small pot. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat to low. Simmer until the mixture is reduced by half or so (about 20 minutes?). Before serving, add 2-3 T. vegan butter and mix until it's melted and blended in. (This makes quite a bit--we ended up with leftovers--so if you are a minimalist, you may want to cut these measurements in half.)

The "Salmon"
Melt 1-2 T. vegan butter in a pan on med-low heat. Add the roasted garlic. Once butter is melted, toss in the "salmon" (cut into medium-sized pieces on a slant--a small "salmon" should yield about 8-10 pieces or so). Cook until both sides are slightly browned.

Serve...
the "salmon" over a bed of quinoa, with the wine reduction drizzled over both (just don't use *TOO* much as the balsamic vinegar is fairly potent). Finish with a side of roasted asparagus, cooked in olive oil with roasted garlic, and drizzled with a bit of fresh lemon juice.

Fantastic Holiday Feasting

I must say, it was surprisingly refreshing to go a whole week without blogging at all, without being bored out of my mind so much that I find myself obsessively rifling through the same blogs over and over to see if they've updated, without neurotically checking my comments again and again and again due to the very same boredom. I must say, I look forward to the day that I no longer have the boredom and the internet connection driving me to update so regularly.

But despite all that, I must admit, it is good to be back.

The holidays were a fantastic lovefest of vegan foodery. I had Christmas celebrations at my place, and I am very pleased to say that the spread was one of the most fantastic, tasty, and vegan ones I've seen, thanks to the generosity of my mom, sisters, and brother. Food numblies ranged from vegan stuffed shells (stuffed with vegan cream "cheese," spinach, and walnuts) and vegan stuffed peppers (packed full of potatoes, tomato sauce, and vegan meat crumbles)--both pictured above--to veganized paprikash and veganized green bean casserole, and of course a very large and glorious salad and way too many desserts.

My belly had a damn good evening.

Of course this means what I'm sure you've all realized at this point anyways: you can expect some lovely holiday recipes this week.

And it wouldn't be a good first blog-entry of the year if I didn't mention New Year's Resolutions of some sort or another. So let it be said: this year, my resolutions are a) to figure out a way to gorge on twice as much home-cooked food without gaining 50 lbs. and b) to make me a man-sized robot love slave. Just you wait.

As for the first recipe of the year, I can think of no better one to start the year off with than this. I used to make a wicked vegetarian paprikash from one of my down-home vegetarian cookbooks I have lining my shelves. So this year, when the holidays rolled around, my Hungarian ass decided that it was about damn time I tried to tackle a veganized version of this recipe--I mean, I grew up on paprikash, and I adore the stuff. And given that more than half of my immediate family is now vegetarian, it seemed fitting to tackle this endeavor.

I was a bit nervous about the dumplings as I've always had problems with dumplings. But god bless ye, Vegan Chef, because your vegan dumpling recipe kicks ass. They came out infinitely fluffier than the original dumpling recipe I used to use for the non-vegan version of this paprikash, and (despite the trickiness of "cutting in" the "butter") they were actually a lot less of a pain in the butt to make.

The end result was truly kick-ass, I must say. I think my very Hungarian grandma would've been proud of this veganized version, it was that tasty. If I could remember something Hungarian to say here other than the Hail Mary (which I couldn't spell anyways), I'd insert it right now, but since I can't, I'll just move on to the recipe. Enjoy.

Mushroom Paprikash with Dumplings

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 c. vegan sour cream


• 2 t. all-purpose flour


• 1/4 t. pepper


• 1/8 t. salt, or to taste


• 2 T. vegetable oil


• 1.5 c. chopped onions


• 3 cloves garlic, minced


• 1.5 T. paprika


• 7 c. quartered white mushrooms (two 10-oz containers)


• 1 c. vegetable broth


• 1 Quart water


• 2 cups unbleached flour


• 2 t. baking powder


• 1 t. salt


• 3 T. non-hydrogenated margarine



• 1/4 cup soy milk, rice milk, or other non-dairy milk of choice

Optional:

• 1/4 batch of homemade seitan from Vegan with a Vengeance (minus the lemon zest listed in the recipe--it was a bit overpowering and disjointed in comparison to the rich flavors of the rest of the paprikash)

-or


• A couple packages of lightly-marinated pre-made seitan

DIRECTIONS

In a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, flour, pepper, and salt. Set aside.

In a large pot, heat 2 T. oil over med-high heat. Add onions and garlic—cook until softened (2 mins). Add paprika and cook ‘til absorbed. Add mushrooms and stir until coated with paprika mixture. Add broth and bring to a boil—reduce heat and simmer uncovered, 20 mins. While mushrooms cook, prepare dumplings.

Dumplings: In a large pot, place the water, and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, place the flour, baking powder, and salt, and stir well to combine. Using a pastry blender or a fork, cut in the vegan margarine until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Stir in the soy milk, mixing to form a manageable dough (I had a bit of trouble with this--my tip is to gradually add soy milk in excess of the 1/4 c. quantity until the dough begins to stick together well enough).

Knead a bit. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and begin to pinch off chunks of dough about 1/2" in diameter. Make sure to get a little additional flour on the dumplings to prevent them from sticking together when you boil them. Carefully drop the dumplings into the boiling water, cover, and cook for 10 minutes without lifting the lid.

Remove the dumplings from the water with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a large bowl.

The End: Add dumplings to the cooked mushrooms. Stir in the sour cream mixture. If you're going to add the optional seitan, add this as well. Cook until heated through.

The flavor tends to mature overnight--the end result is that you'll have a damn good paprikash meal but even better leftovers.

Serves about 6.

Things to Do with Barbecue Sauce

I had decided this weekend to try out a BBQ ribz recipe that Ms. Dorklepork had recommended, but being the airhead that I often am, I had been spending the whole last week thinking it called for vital wheat gluten flour when in reality it called for just vital wheat gluten. Needless to say, I was not pleased when I realized this on Saturday night and was only equipped with the former and not the latter. But I decided f- it. I had a nice big batch of Barbecue Sauce with a Bite whipped up from the PPK, and, well, I couldn't just let it go to waste, dammit. So I improvised.

Using my brainiac skills (and praying that even though there are large differences between unwashed gluten--which the original recipe called for--and gluten FLOUR (differences that I'm not even sure of but know exist), a Christmas miracle might take place and the ribz might not end up tasting like dog poo), I decided that I'd take my chances and try to substitute in my wheat gluten flour.

Thank all things thankful, it worked out ok. In the end, the ribz were scrumptious (though I *DO* plan on one day trying out the original recipe to see if it blows my version away) and the only thing I would change about them would be to half the sizes on them all as the best parts were the ends, and the very middles were a little bit more chewy instead of yumbly and tough and grrrrristly. So I'll include that little variation in with this recipe.

(Oh yeah, and them potatoes in the back--those be mashed potatoes I made with the chickpea gravy from Vegan with a Vengeance, which was tasty but did not blow me away as I'd hoped based on the book's recommendations...)

BBQ Sauce with a Bite

Ingredients

• 12 oz tomato paste


• 1/2 cup tamari or Braggs (I used 1/4 c. Braggs and 1/4 c. soy sauce)


• 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses


• 2 T. brown sugar


• 1/4 c. nutritional yeast


• a few chipotles in adobo


• 1 t. liquid smoke


• dash of cocoa powder

Directions

Mix the tomato paste, tamari, molasses, brown sugar, nutritional yeast, chipotles in adobo, liquid smoke, and dash of cocoa powder in the bowl. Stir with fork till completely blended. This tends to make a fairly thick sauce. Thin with water as desired.

(Original recipe HERE)


Vegan Barbecue Ribz


Ingredients:

• 1 c. vital wheat gluten flour


• 2/3 c. of water


• 2 T. soy butter


• 3 T. peanut butter


• 7 Tbl spoons nutritional yeast


• 1 cup BBQ sauce


• spices to taste (onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, etc)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat soy butter and add the peanut butter, mixing it so that it's consistent throughout. Mix the wheat gluten flour, nutritional yeast, and spices in a dry bowl. Add the water and knead until almost all of the dry powder is absorbed (you may have to add a tiny little bit to pick up everything). Do not over-knead. This dough is really sticky.

Form the dough into a flat, square shape about one-half inch thick. Add one-half of the peanut butter mixture to the top of the flattened dough. Use your fingers to poke the peanut butter mixture deeply into the dough (it is goopy and messy, but DO IT!). Do this for about 30 seconds. Turn the dough over and pour the remaining half of the peanut butter mixture onto the dough, again using your fingers to poke into the dough.

Use a pizza cutter to cut one-half inch strips of dough. Make them as long or as short as you like them (though if you originally form your dough into a rectangle, I recommend halving the rectangle and THEN cutting the 1/2" strips--the end result would be rips half the length of the ones pictured above, which I think would offer up the ideal consistency). Lay out on a lightly oiled baking pan. Bake for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, use a spatula to turn the ribz over. Spoon or brush on BBQ sauce and return to the oven.

Bake for another 5 minutes. Remove and turn the ribz over again. Spoon or brush on some more BBQ sauce.

Bake for another 5 minutes. Remove and enjoy your hot, sweet and sticky "ribz!"

Makes enough for four.



(Original recipe from VegFamily.com)

* * * * * * *

Even after all the ribz, I still had a ton of BBQ sauce left over. So Sunday night, with a package of tempeh sitting in my fridge getting ready to expire, I decided to whip up some barbecued tempeh to use up the excess sauce. I used a long skinny package of tempeh (whose brandname is eluding me), but I'm sure you could make do with whatever. You'll just end up with different sizes and shapes.

The end result was surprisingly delicious, and I definitely recommend the roasted red pepper topping as it seriously made the dish. Not only was it tasty, it was also ridiculously ridiculously simple, as you will see. So chalk this up as another highly-recommended quickie.

L's BBQ Tempeh



INGREDIENTS

• 1 package of tempeh


• About 1 - 2 c. of BBQ sauce (preferably the homemade kind above, thinned out to a slightly more marinade-ish consistency with water)


• 2 red peppers, roasted

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350.

Slice your tempeh into 4 slices--first slice your chunk in half, right down the middle. Then slice it through the skinniest part, effectively thinnng out each of your slices and cutting them into two thinner slices.

Spray a bread pan with a bit of non-stick oil. Pour in some BBQ to cover the bottom of the pan. Add two slices of tempeh, side by side. Use a spoon to brush some more BBQ sauce on top of them. Layer your other two slices on top of these two slices. Pour the rest of your BBQ sauce on top. Cover the pan with foil.

Cook in the oven for 50 minutes, turning the slices over half-way through. Remove the foil and cook for 5-10 more minutes.

To serve: Place one of the slices on a plate. Top with roasted red peppers. Place another slice on top. Top this with roasted red peppers as well. Serve

Makes enough for 2 tempeh "steaks."

Braised and Coffeed Seitan with Pine Nuts & Punky Mashed Taters

Oh glorious anger when my blog entry somehow doesn't get saved.

*Pitiful sniffle*

Anyways, as I mentioned yesterday, I was in the mood to do a bit of fall-cooking this weekend. So, inspired by the coffee-marinated tofu and seitan that What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyways blogged about recently (yet one more reason I love you, Coffee!), I decided to track down some sort of coffee marinade of my own and do a bit of experimentation.

And there are a BUTTLOAD of coffee marinades on the internet, folks--who'da thunk it!

But after much roaming around, I decided to fiddle with THIS RECIPE. I had most of the ingredients, and it sounded like the kind of recipe that would make you feel all warm and cozy from the inside out.

I was not far off. If there's only one thing you take away from reading this little ramble about the seitan recipe I made this weekend, it's this:

IT TASTES LIKE CHRISTMAS!

I kid you not.

As I'm sure you can figure out, it's totally all about the cinnamon and cloves--they make you wanna sing carols and string popcorn around a Christmas tree.

I cannot wait 'til the holidays roll around, because I am *so* whipping this recipe out and wowing my friends and family with it. It is damn fricking good, ladies and gents. Damn fricking good. *AND* it's damn simple, to boot.

I was a bit leery at first, because it's a strange variety of ingredients. And after it marinated overnight, there was a weird film of scum along the top of the marinade (kinda like when Lake Erie is not looking so clean), and it had a strange kinda boogery slimey consistency (I can tell I'm *REALLY* getting your tastebuds going with *this* description). But lo and behold, this stuff knocked our socks off.

The seitan holds the marinade wonderfully, and it cooks up really delicately and tenderly. The final result is a rich and roasty, ridiculously tender seitan that will melt on your tongue with a wonderful Christmasy bouquet of flavors and put any fatty, gristly hunk of animal flesh to shame. Good stuff.

BRAISED AND COFFEED
SEITAN WITH PINENUTS



INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup strong coffee


• 1/2 medium onion, diced


• 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar


• 3 T. packed brown sugar (I used light)


• 1 T. soy sauce


• 1 T. teriyaki sauce


• 2 cloves peeled garlic


• 1/2 t. ground cinnamon


• 1/2 t. ground ginger


• 1/4 t. ground cloves


• 1/4 t. crushed red pepper flakes or to taste


• Two 8/12 oz. packs of seitan (or you can make your own)


• 1/4-1/2 C. toasted pine nuts

DIRECTIONS:
Toss all the ingredients except for the seitan and pine nuts into a food processor. Process until pretty well-blended. Remove marinade and place in large, sealable container. Drain seitan. Place seitan in marinade. Refrigerate overnight (or at least a few hours).
To prepare: Heat up a large pan. Scoop out the chunks of seitan and toss into pan. Add enough marinade to the pan that it covers the bottom and the seitan is sitting a tiny bit deep in it. Cover and heat at medium heat for about 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. (This is considered stovetop braising, apparently--alternately, you could braise the seitan similarly in the oven.) Serve topped with the toasted pine nuts.

Serves 2-4 (depending on how hungry you are)

PUNKY MASHED TATERS



INGREDIENTS:

• About 4-5 blue potatoes


• About 4-6 little white potatoes


• Soy milk


• 1-2 T. vegan margarine


• 1 clove garlic, diced real tiny or pressed


• Dried rosemary


• Pine nuts

DIRECTIONS: Cube all your potatoes (but don't peel the skins off!). Toss into a pot of water. Boil potatoes until tender (about 15 minutes or so). Drain potatoes. Mash them up with a fork (but not completely--chunky mashed taters are da best!). Toss in about 1-2 T. of vegan margarine and your soy milk (how much you add of the latter will depend on how whippy you like your mashed potatoes, so I've not included measurements). Add garlic and dried rosemary. Top with toasted pine nuts.

I don't really know that the blue potatoes taste any differently or better than normal potatoes, but they SURE IS PRETTY!

(I didn't originally intend this dish to have pine nuts since the seitan already did, but since there were leftovers of the pine nuts, I just thought I'd toss some on top when I went back for seconds. Holy mother of god--I never would've guessed that some simple pine nuts could add so much to a potato recipe!)

(Blue taters are the COOLEST--even if
they DO look more purple than blue!)
Serves 2-4 (also depending on how hungry you are)

Really and truly, this is a damn good cold-weather meal. So store it away in the back of your brain (or in the back of your recipe box), and when you get in the mood to get yourself excited about winter and Christmas, pull this baby out.

Merry seitan to all, and to all a good night!

Tempeh Loaf and Taters

This weekend was my weekend to cook, so I decided to try out this loaf I'd been eyeing for a while and then settled on some good ol'-fashioned (almost) scalloped potatoes as a side.

Prepping this dinner made me realize that one of the basic standards I have for cooking is that things should be tasty but not take gratuitously long to cook. Unfortunately, this took me 2 hours--just to prep! I suspect it was partially just bad planning on my part--both were a bit more complicated of recipes, and were I cooking each on their own, they might not have seemed quite so complicated and time-consuming. But together, they took ridiculously long to prepare, and given that it was nice outside and I was inside lurching around a kitchen, they reduced me to a whiny mess of a cook.

The problem is, while I may have enjoyed one or the other dishes on their own, given the amount of time I spent on them, they really should've tasted like manna. But they didn't...

Spinach and Roasted Red Pepper Layered Tempeh Loaf

(No, this picture was not taken in the 1970's--my house is just VERY dark and un-camera-friendly at night.)
This recipe makes not one but *two* loafs. Unfortunately, I was unable to enjoy this perk upon realizing that one of my packages of tempeh was moldy. Meh. Bad start.

This loaf ended up being perhaps the busiest set of instructions I've had in preparing a meal. I like short and sweet and simple, I've realized. Once everything was situated, it was fun making the actual loaf itself: smooshing and wedging and jamming it into a loaf pan.

The results tasted strangely similar to a good meatloaf, but with roasted red pepper and spinach housed within. Not bad, and definitely makes for good leftovers. But next time I'd use more spinach.

Recipe: HERE

Verdict: B