Well, that’s another Vegan Month of Food complete! As usual, I kind of lost motivation about 3/4 of the way through. I didn’t post anything yesterday because I just wanted to eat pizza for dinner, not try to figure out what to do with rose water, sorrel, or jaggery (the three secret ingredients I have left). I had fun trying all the new ingredients – some are definitely going to make their way into my regular rotation (guava cake, jackfruit carnitas, roast salt “chicken”, zaatar).

Tonight’s dinner was leftover pizza, salad, and a snack of some roasted pumpkin seeds in honor of Halloween. Nothing very exciting.  So I’m gonna close this one up with photos of the oyster mushroom kit I grew. I’m probably very easily amused, but I found it quite interesting watching the mushrooms grow. At one point I could see a noticeable difference even hourly. It would be cool to set up a time-lapse camera to record them growing.

Tonight’s ingredient I’ve never tried before: hot paprika pulp!

It appears to be Turkish, but I decided to make a Hungarian-style goulash stew instead of trying to find a Turkish recipe. Snow in October definitely deserves a good stew.

I used onion, garlic, carrots, potatos, turnips, tomatoes (some of the organic CSA ones I canned over the summer), caraway seed, Better than Bouillon, pepper, some of the paprika pulp (which has a really nice flavor with just the right spiciness level), and seitan. I also made a cashew cream with dill and lemon juice and salt- a spoonful got blended into the stew and the rest served as a garnish.

One of the things about being vegan that you don’t realize before you become vegan is how exciting it is to discover restaurants that have items actually labelled “vegan” on their menu. Another thing you don’t realize is how you will quite happily go far out of your way to eat at such a place. And so I ended up in Phoenixville, PA (about a 45 minute drive from Philadelphia) at Thai L’Elephant.  Check out their website- an ENTIRE VEGAN MENU!  Not four items labeled “vegetarian” and you have to ask about if it has fish sauce or not…I love thai food and I get really tired of interrogating waiters about ingredients so it’s nice to have things labeled vegan.

I got the Fuji Dumplings (green apples, leeks, and mushrooms), the Tom Yum Jay soup (hot and sour lemongrass broth), and the Basil Mock Duck. Everything was really good and I’ll definitely be going back sometime. It’s a little too far to make it a regular thing, but it’s nice to know it’s out there.

(Sorry for the crappy phone pictures!)

Tonight’s ingredient I’ve never tried before: “Fried Chicken Steak” from May Wah.

I’ve been saving these for an evening when I needed something quick and easy. They’re basically breaded soy-chicken cutlets that just need thawing and a quick pan-fry. I decided to make some pasta shells with fresh tomato sauce, salad with italian dressing, and garlic bread to go with. Wish I had a bit more sauce to pour over the cutlets, but they were tasty anyway.

Tonight’s ingredients I’ve never tried before: Dried Bean Thread and Wolfberries!

The dried bean threads looked a bit like yuba skin, and I’ve had soup before in Chinese restaurants with wolfberries in it, so I decided to make soup. The only recipe I was able to find online for the dried bean threads was something gross involving pigs feet, but it did say to fry the bean threads first and then soak them so they remain a bit more solid. So that’s what I did.

I tasted the wolfberries before I put them in the soup, and they tasted a little bit fruity and a little savory- almost like a sundried tomato.  I also put ginger, garlic, onion, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, vegetarian mushroom sauce, and carrots in the soup, and topped it with chard and radish tossed with chili oil, agave, and rice vinegar.

It looks pretty but was just meh. The bean threads tasted weird and I think I fried a few of them too much. The wolfberries were ok but nothing outstanding. Wouldn’t make this one again, and I think I’ll just stick to the regular yuba skins from now on.

Tonight’s ingredients I’ve never tried before: “Soy Chiken” and Apricot and Long Hots Pepper Jam!

Honestly, this “Soy Chiken” scared me a bit. Upon opening you discover some almond-shaped dried patties in powdery seasoning-stuff. You boil all this in water and then simmer for 25 minutes and then let it rest for 5. It seemed like a recipe for grossness but it was pretty good. I also dredged the patties in seasoned flour and then fried them after the boiling part was over. The flavor was tasty, but the texture was a little too moist for my liking. If I made these again I’d probably squeeze out some of the water before frying.

To go with these I made oven-roasted turnips, cauliflower, and garlic (roasted in Earth Balance because I somehow managed to run out of olive oil- the horror!- but am just too damn lazy to go to the store just for oil), and also Israeli couscous and a warm escarole salad with radish, carrot, and leeks and a blood orange olive oil and basalmic vinegar dressing. The pepper jam had such a nice flavor on its own- perfectly sweet and spicy – that I didn’t even add anything to it but just warmed it in a pan to make it more sauce-like.

Tonight’s ingredients I’ve never used before: Za’atar and Pakistani green chili sauce!

One of my favorite restaurants near my workplace for lunch is Manakeesh. Their name is their specialty- Lebanese flatbread called Manakeesh. They have quite a few vegan options- my favorite is the Za’atar  Manakeesh. So when I found Za’atar at Penzeys Spices I knew I had to try making my own! It was pretty easy, and it turned out well although I think I should have rolled the breads out thinner since they puffed up quite a lot while baking. They still tasted great though!

Usually when I make bread I get impatient with the kneading part and stop when it looks like the dough is blended well enough. But this time I forced myself to keep kneading for the whole ten minutes called for in the recipe. It was actually kind of relaxing. I’ve been a little frantic lately and it was an interesting exercise to just BE and just KNEAD- all you have to do for the next ten minutes is knead, nothing else, you don’t need to think or plot or plan, just keep kneading. Bread as meditation…and I think it turned out better for having been kneaded for the proper length of time!

Bread alone might make a tasty meal but it does not make a healthy meal, so I also made a chickpea salad (with dried chickpeas cooked in the pressure cooker, chopped onion, tomato, cucumber, lots of preserved lemon, fresh lemon juice, some of the Pakistani green chili sauce, salt and pepper) and also one of my all-time favorite dishes- stuffed grape leaves.

Tonight’s ingredients I’ve never tried before: Chinese white rice cake  (nian gao) and vegetarian salmon!

I had planned to make this on Friday night, but it turned out that the rice cakes needed to soak for 12 hours prior to cooking. Oops! So they were ready for Saturday. Even after soaking, they seemed quite hard, but they softened up a lot when combined with other ingredients and absorbed some of the sauce they were cooked in.

I made a simple sautee of napa cabbage and leeks from the CSA with lots of ginger and garlic and soy sauce and some sesame oil and chili oil, then added the rice cakes. They’re a little bit like really thick stubby rice noodles.

The salmon had a sort of seaweed “skin” to it. I didn’t want it to just get mushy in with the veggies and rice cakes, so I seared it in a cast iron skillet along with a simple glaze of miso and mirin, then drizzled it with hot chinese mustard mixed with agave nectar.

I’d definitely make both the rice cakes and salmon again!

Tonight’s ingredients I’ve never tried before: hominy and Dominican red beans!

I decided to make chili- one of my favorite fall foods! I served it with corn chips, guacamole, chopped onions and pickled jalapenos.

Tonight’s ingredients I’ve never tried before:  Pomegranate Molasses and Vegetarian “Chicken Legs”

Tonight’s dinner basically revolved around a craving for more of those awesome homemade oven fries. I decided to make a BBQ sauce with the pomegranate molasses, to go with the “chicken legs” from May Wah. I added a whole bunch of stuff to the molasses – ketchup, hot sauce, mustard, salt, pepper, vinegar, agave nectar, chipotle chili powder, dark soy sauce, smoked salt…I think that was it. I’d definitely get the pomegranate molasses again- it has an interesting tangy fruity flavor. I usually use blackstrap molasses for BBQ sauce so it was nice to try something different.

The “chicken legs” had little wooden sticks inside that I guess were meant to be like a bone. I’m not sure how I feel about this whole idea of replicating eating something off a bone, but they tasted damn good! I also made a big salad with arugula, kale, and chard from the CSA, also carrots, radishes, banana peppers, persimmon, onion…

Yum yum.