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Thursday, January 12, 2012

A Hit and Miss: Vegan

I have been craving cornmeal something fierce lately and while cornbread might be tasty, it was polenta that I had my eye on. I was also craving the bright taste of cilantro. While thumbing through a copy of Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson, I stopped on a recipe called Cilantro Pesto. My mom made basil pesto all the time when I lived at home. She would spread it on homemade pizza crust and top it with cheese. Pesto pizza was one of my best friend's favorite meals when she'd come to our house for dinner. She'd request it all the time. Her parents are Chinese and I would always ask for extra white rice. Her mom was always smiling about how much plain rice I would eat there. For my friend, it was old news, but for me, we never got rice like that. I felt the way about her mom's rice as my friend did about my mom's pizza. Their place was also the first place I tried and fell in love with Asian greens. Mmmm! So, I knew that I loved pesto, but would cilantro pesto be as good? We'd see. This seemed like a perfect topping to the polenta though.

The recipe was pretty easy: 1 cup tightly packed fresh cilantro leaves, 1/4 cup raw almonds, 2 large garlic cloves (peeled) and half a tsp of salt go into a food processor. With the motor running, slowly pour in a steady stream of 1/4 cup of olive oil.
cilantro pesto ingredients
cilantro pesto, done
 The food processor does the work, yet again, and I scrapped the pesto into a Tupperware for later. 

Vegan Planet is a book that I actually went to a bookstore to buy. I believe Chapters actually. I now buy most of my books online if it's something specific that I am after. Hey, I'm a busy girl, can you blame me for the convenience? Interestingly enough, I was inspired to purchase this book after looking it over at another great friend's place. We met in our first year of university and just clicked. We both had a love for entertaining and our personalities were very similar: driven, independent, and strict with ourselves but also just wanting to let loose and have fun too. She was always an inspiration to me. She became a vegetarian and I used to sit in her apartment, flipping through her cookbooks. There was one recipe in this book that would always catch my eye (although I don't know which one that is now) and when she moved away, I bought a copy of this book. 

We once hosted a huge dinner party for about 20 people in her small apartment near the university. We decided to do chicken peanut satay, rice, and some other sides. We were very ambitious... I remember having 2 roasting pans filled with raw chicken and we cut and skewered and my dad helped us BBQ everything at their old house where I was living too at that time (I loved that Heidi had her own place!). We had to transport everything back to her apartment. We also bought candle holders and other decor pieces on a student's budget. We made it a Tiki kind of theme. We even put sand around the candles! Oh, and the elevator at her building only stopped on every second floor for some reason. Her floor wasn't one of the lucky ones...
We slaved in the kitchen, decorated the apartment, changed into our tropical dresses and waiting for guests to arrive. I met so many new people that night and everyone was having a fabulous time! The food was awesome, wine flowed freely, and we partied the night away! I woke up early in the morning, laying on the balcony, with the sun rising. The apartment looked like the aftermath of a college party...wine bottles everywhere, people crashed all over the place, and rice in the carpet. I recall having such a fun time but being sooo tired and wine still in my veins. I vividly recall Heidi getting up, looking hungover and exhausted, saying she needed to clean everything because her and her friend were going to the beach that morning. I definitely thought they were crazy, there was no way I could stomach being anywhere but cold and dark at this point and my own bed seemed like a good place. My friend was a determined spitfire though and her and her friend loaded up giant Rubbermaids with all the dirty dishes, carried them down a flight of stairs to the elevator, and brought them in her trunk to her friend's mom's place to load them in her dishwasher! 

It's these memories that I can look back on and truly smile and be thankful that I have you in my life. Amazing how time flies and how we change and grow. She walked down the aisle at my wedding a year ago as a treasured bridesmaid, and I will soon be doing the same for her this summer. I love you.

Yes, I know, but what about the food? boy, you people sure are pushy! I'm done reminiscing (for now) so polenta time. Basically, polenta is just cornmeal in boiling water. The key is to whisk whisk whisk the boiling water while adding the cornmeal in slooowly so that lumps don't form. I still haven't mastered this yet. I usually just look up online how to cook this and the recipe I happened to find said to keep stirring this with a wooden spoon until the polenta comes away from the sides of the pot...oh, that should take about 35-65 minutes. Um, excuse me? Yah right. I went to the gym once today already and these guns are loaded baby. Instead, I just stirred it for about 5 minutes (okpolenta into a greased bread pan and stuck it in the fridge.
cooking polenta
 Half of my dinner was (mostly) done and I was ready to try something to make the next portion. I have to say that sometimes menu ideas come together in my brain in such a harmonious way that I can do nothing but go with it. I wanted to create a meal like I pictured a southern summer BBQ picnic. Instead of corn on the cob, which isn't in season, I had the polenta. I didn't have chimichurri sauce but I had cilantro pesto. I was going to make some sticky, saucy ribs as the main and some bean dip to serve on the side.
polenta and cilantro pesto
 The bean dip was actually a vehicle to use up leftovers, plus a way to get some protein and iron into my husband in legume form. I figured he could use this as wrap filling or dipping vegetables in for his lunches. I wanted to use black beans but apparently I had used up my last can. Fava beans went into the food processor instead (drained and rinsed). No need to wash out the bowl either if the flavours won't mind mingling. I wouldn't make muffins after cilantro without a wash but a bean dip would be fine. Leftover fresh salsa, leftover jalapeno salsa I had made, coriander, cumin, and salt and pepper all got blended together and set aside.
fava bean dip
You can't have ribs!" I can hear you shouting "You're eating vegan this month!" Tut, tut, I tell you. The industrious vegan has no intention of giving up the flavours of most dishes and has cleverly devised schemes to recreate many meaty meals in veggie form. I was actually really giddy to try out this recipe. The recipe was called Seitan BBQ Ribs and I found it here, on the Food.com website.
Basically, you made the seitan dough first and would bake it in a pan. Then, you'd grill these "ribs" on a BBQ or stove top grill pan, brushing them with BBQ sauce! Awesome! I absolutely love trying vegan and vegetarian food so I was game. First, all of the dry ingredients get mixed together (vital wheat gluten, paprika, nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic. salt)
seitan rib dry ingredients
 Next, you combined all of the wet ingredients (water, tahini, liquid smoke, soy sauce).
seitan ribs wet ingredients
 Wet mixes into dry and you've got your gluten ball, ready for pressing into the bottom of a greased square pan. To make these look like ribs, you need to score the dough with a sharp knife. First in half, then those into eighths.
seitan ribs, unbaked
 So far so good. I was like this seitan recipe way better than the last one I tried. No messing about with boiling the hunks like dumplings and storing them like little floating brains. Nope, just into the oven, and out of the oven. They also smelled really great while baking... I am not in love with liquid smoke. This vegan trial is the first time I've ever bought any and my little glass jar of liquid hickory is like a jar of liquid sunshine or gold. I would dab this on myself like perfume if it was socially acceptable! Well, maybe in another city, but not Winnipeg. I would definitely like to try other smoke flavours but this was all that Superstore had. Even more now, I want to own my own smoker.
seitan ribs, baked
 Since all that was left to be done with the ribs was to glaze them in BBQ sauce, I decided to pan fry the polenta first. A little bit of PAM in a pan and I sliced up the polenta right in the bread pan and just pulled out as many pieces as I'd be serving with dinner.
polenta strips
 "How many ribs did you want, C?" I grinned "half a rack? a whole rack?" Hahaha, I was hilarious. Actually, I was having a lot of fun with this recipes, I'm not going to lie. I gave C half the pan and I took a quarter for myself since it looked filling. I glazed one side with BBQ sauce and then placed that side down on the hot oiled pan. The recipe calls for doing this on the BBQ (it's winter and ours is in the front porch) or using a grill pan (we're eyeing cast iron ones but have yet to own one). So, a frying pan would have to do.
"ribs" getting sauced
 After a couple minutes, I flipped them over and glazed the other side with BBQ sauce. Oh, these were smelling so good!
Seitan ribs, flipped once
 Ok, one more flip and more BBQ sauce brushed on.
second flip
 These were now ready to serve, nice and hot!
seitan ribs done
 Doesn't this look good? I usually photograph C's plate since there is more food there. Some peas for a little bit more greenery and this was a very hearty, filling, and satisfying meal. Cholesterol free too!
BBQ rib dinner
The texture wasn't like beef or pork ribs...it was spongy and dense but I liked it. I will definitely be making this again. So easy, and the seitan could even be made ahead of time and left in the fridge until you're ready to add the sauce.
cross section of ribs
 Now for the miss. I haven't been missing much on the vegan diet. I have been missing eggs though. Something fierce. I would normally eat eggs for weekend breakfasts, dinners as omelets, in baking. I wanted an omelet but not for another month. I had seen recipes online for things called "nomelets" and vegan omelets and I was getting desperate. They sounded promising and the photos looked like real omelets. I found the Mori-Nu silken tofu at Bulk Barn and was hopeful.
silken tofu
 The tofu went into the food processor with nutritional yeast, turmeric for colour, salt, pepper, and paprika.
omelet ingredients
 Blend, scrape down sides, blend, scrape down sides.
omelet mix
 Now, the idea was to carefully pour the mix into a hot pan and then spread out the mixture with the back of a spoon. This didn't work so well. The texture was thick but liquid-y and didn't set with heat in the same way that an egg or a pancake would. It just stayed soft and mushy. I followed the recipe and topped my nomelet with some fresh spinach, mushrooms and Daiya cheddar cheese (vegan).
nomelet uncooked
 I covered the omelet with a pot lid and let it cook through. Apparently.
"cooked" nomelet
 Now, you're suppose to carefully flip half of the nomelet over onto itself. Easier said than done. The whole thing was a wet, jiggly mess. Still, I marched on, determined to eat this disaster. First bite...hmmm? Not good. Watery, flavourless. I wasn't wasting calories and taste buds on this mush. C made sauteed Swiss chard with garlic and fresh tomatoes so I ate that and pitched the nomelet. I will rarely throw out a meal so you know this just wasn't good. Well, no whole egg vegan substitute yet.
nomelet and sauteed swiss chard with fresh tomatoes

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