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.

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 ingredient I’ve never tried before: Citrus Spare Ribs! (from May Wah)

I needed to make something quick and easy tonight since I’m busy getting ready for an art show tomorrow. So I decided to try out the frozen citrus spare ribs. Feels like we’ve been eating a lot of faux-meat products lately. I don’t often buy this sort of thing but it’s nice to have something quick and easy to prepare once in a while. I had some nice bok choi from the CSA, so I sauteed that along with plenty of onion, garlic, and ginger.

I also added some vegetarian oyster sauce and some chili bamboo shoots that were leftover from last weekend’s tremella soup. The spare ribs had their own sauce included. I don’t know why they are called ribs since really they are just little chunks. I also made a quick slaw of daikon radish, carrot, hot chili oil, rice vinegar, and agave nectar.

This was a nice, tasty, quick stirfry. I probably wouldn’t get the citrus spare ribs again though since I prefer to just make my own sauce!

Tonight’s ingredient I’ve never tried before: Jackfruit!

I was really happy when I came across canned jackfruit in a local Indian grocery. I had read things on the internet before about how it makes an excellent vegetarian “carnitas” style filling for tacos and burritos. I perused this recipe, although I didn’t follow it exactly but used it as a general guideline for what to do with a can of jackfruit.

First I sauteed some onion, garlic, poblano pepper, and dried chipotle pepper until soft, then added the jackfruit, some Better Than Bouillon, chili powder, garlic powder, oregano, salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, and agave nectar. The jackfruit starts out in chunks but as it cooks it breaks down into very thin strips that resembles pulled pork. It didn’t have much flavor on its own, but absorbed the flavors of all the other ingredients really well.

I served this filling on homemade corn tortillas along with organic greens from the CSA, homemade pico de gallo, pickled jalapenos, and guacamole, green salsa (from a jar), and Tofutti sour cream. The filling was seriously delicious and I found myself picking chunks out of the pot to snack on while I was making the tortillas. Definitely will be adding jackfruit to the rotation- it makes a nice change for a taco/burrito filling from the usual beans or seitan.

Tonight’s ingredient I’ve never tried before: guava paste!

I picked this up at a local big supermarket, in the aisle with all the Mexican/Jamaican stuff.  When I looked for recipes online the first “recipe” said to cut squares of guava paste and squares of cheese and skewer them with toothpicks for an appetizer. There were actually quite a few recipes for pastries with guava and cream cheese. I wanted something sweet, so I settled on this simple guava cake (http://www.cubanfoodguy.com/recipes/recipe-guava_cake.htm)

The texture of the guava paste is similar to fruit leather, although perhaps a little moister and stickier. It is sweet, but not too much so- maybe even slightly savory. I can definitely see it pairing well with cheese and want to try making little rolled appetizers of guava paste filled with cashew cheese.

The guava cake recipe was just a basic white (vanilla) cake. You cut strips of guava paste and lay them in between two layers of cake batter. When the cake bakes, the guava paste starts to melt and ooze and becomes more jelly-like. I followed the recipe exactly except I substituted the two eggs with egg replacer. The batter ended up really dry, more like a cookie, so I just added some soymilk until it was a more cake-like consistency.

This cake was awesome- simple but delicious. I’ll definitely be making it again!