Chinese-ish.

Was in the mood for salty and sweet Chinese food today and came home to make the following:


Vegan Dad's recipe for Pan Fried Tofu in Plum Sauce. Absolutely delicious.


Veggie chow mein based of this recipe from the MediterrAsian website. I substituted vegetarian mushroom "oyster" sauce for oyster sauce and added Thai dark sweet soy sauce.

Chilaquiles Casserole and Coffee-Cinnamon Tea Cake

I was craving mexican food this week and waited patiently to make this today. It's loosely based off this recipe. I made my own red sauce (recipe below), added an extra can of black beans, substituted chopped spinach for zucchini and used Daiya vegan cheddar. It turned out really yummy and satisfied my craving.

Red Sauce for Chilaquiles Casserole

Soak 5-6 dried chili peppers in hot tap water for about 20 minutes. I used a combination of anaheim and pasilla.

In a blender combine these ingredients and puree until smooth:
1 14oz. can diced tomatoes
soaked chili peppers and about 1 cup of the soaking liquid (you may add more if sauce is too thick)
2 cloves garlic
small handful of cilantro
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
salt to taste
pinch of sugar


Yum.


I also made a cake today. I used kittee's vanilla cake recipe but used brewed coffee for the liquid part of the batter instead of water. I also added a bit of cinnamon. The coffee flavor didn't come out as much. If I had coffee extract or espresso powder, it would have been better but still this is very good, especially with tea.

Potato & Kale Enchiladas

My friend Cynthia and her mom are wonderful cooks and today I got a recipe to make mole for enchiladas. The mole sauce is very simple to make with dried new mexico and pasilla chiles. Instead of baking the enchiladas in the oven, the tortillas are coated in the sauce, filled with cooked potatoes and kale and then pan fried in a little bit of oil to give a slightly crisp exterior. These are delicious!

Mole recipe from Cynthia's mom:

Ingredients:

Dried New Mexico chiles - about 5 or 6, remove seeds
Dried Pasilla - 1 or 2, remove seeds
1 garlic clove
small handful of cilantro
pinch of dried oregano
salt to taste

-Soak chiles in hot water until soft. (While these are soaking you can make your filling. I just boiled 2 large potatoes and mashed them with sauteed kale and onions and seasoned with salt and pepper.)
-After chiles are softened, blend all mole sauce ingredients together in the blender. (I added most of the water that they were soaking in to help them blend better into a nice thick sauce.)
-Pass mixture through a sieve into a pan.
-Simmer sauce with a little bit of oil for about 10 minutes.

To make enchiladas:

8 corn tortillas, softened in the microwave for about 20 seconds (or you can do this in a dry pan over heat)
olive oil

-Heat a little bit of olive oil in a pan. Dip one tortilla into the mole sauce and coat both sides. Place dipped tortilla on a plate and fill with about 2 TB of potato/kale mixture. Close up tortilla and place into the pan and brown on both sides. Do this with the remaining tortillas until you've used up the filling.


You can see the nice crust it forms from pan frying. Yummy!

Easy Weekend Food.

Today was all about simple, easy to prepare food. The risotto was oven baked which left me with not much to do as the oven did it for me! I threw in a few handfuls of bagged broccoli slaw in with the risotto for some color. The cauliflower was tossed in a bit of olive oil and I popped that in the oven on a sheet pan while the risotto cooked. The chickpea dish was simply canned chickpeas tossed with garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, mint, parsley and salt. Everything came out delicious.
You can find the risotto recipe here. You may omit the nutritional yeast if you don't have it. Tastes just as good without it. I left out the margarine which didn't affect the flavor at all. Make this, it's so good!


The coconut pudding was from The Vegan Family cookbook and has silken tofu, rice milk, coconut milk, cornstarch and sugar which simply got blended together, boiled and then refrigerated until chilled.

Szechuan Style Noodles.

Yummy salty, spicy szechuan noodles for dinner tonight. This comes together in under 30 minutes. Here's the link to the recipe which I adapted:
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianchineserecipes/r/szechuannoodles.htm

Cowboy Chili.

I finally got around to watching 'Brokeback Mountain' last night and aside from the fact that it made me weep, it put me in the mood for a hearty cowboy style chili. Got this recipe from Country Living website and veganized it by using tvp soy chunks instead of beef. It used corn masa mixed with water to thicken it in the end as well as pureed chiles that have been soaking which gives the chili an amazing red color. I'll post the recipe here with my substitutions.

Vegan Cowboy Chili

1 TB olive oil (plus a little more for later)
1 cup tvp chunks (plus boiling water to rehydrate)
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
14 oz. veggie broth or water
1 TB chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
2 cans beans (any kind), drained and rinsed
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
2 dried ancho chiles or any dried chiles you prefer
1 TB masa harina de maiz
1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1 TB cider vinegar
1/4 tsp sugar


Directions
1. Rehydrate tvp chunks: Put tvp in a bowl and pour boiling water to cover. Let sit for a little while. You will know that they are hydrated when you squeeze a piece between your fingers. It will be soft. If it's still firm, let soak longer. Drain water and setr tvp aside.
2. Rehydrate ancho chiles: Place them in a bowl and pour boiling water over them about a cup.
2. Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven. Saute onions on medium high until translucent about 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 more minute. Add tvp chunks after they have been drained. Add a splash of olive oil and stir around to coat.
3. Add vegetable broth, chili powder, cumin, beans and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30-40 minutes or longer.
4. Puree the chiles: Remove and discard stems. Place softened chiles and the soaking liquid in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth -- 2 to 3 minutes.
5. In a small bowl, whisk the masa and water together. Stir masa mixture into the chili. Add ancho chili mixture, salt and vinegar and sugar. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Season with more salt and pepper if desired.