Food Mystery!

One of our readers has written in with a wonderful food mystery on his hands — there’s a certain almond bread he remembers from back in the 1970s, and he is hoping to find the recipe to share with his family.

Now, I’ve run this question past a couple of food-savvy friends, and checked my own cookbook library, but the bread isn’t ringing a bell…

Can you help?

Here’s the story.

Gary from California writes:

(I’m paraphrasing a bit here, to combine a couple of emails)

Hi:

Every time I see someone with Italian Recipes I look in VAIN for a recipe my Godmother used to make. Nobody in the family bothered to get it from her and write it down.

I am now the only one left of the Grandchildren, and am teaching my boys and their familys to cook different Italian dishes, breads etc.

I believe it was called “Ocenti“… a small sweet bread with an almond flavor and topped with sugar … may have been a regional recipe.

She was from Lamporo, located in Vercelli, Piemonte, Italy.

It didn’t taste like a yeast bread but more like a roll, it was about 4 inches long shaped liked a log, cut at an angle on the ends. She would make 2 indents on the top using the sides of her hands so it had 3 humps on the top, sweet, light almond taste with sugar on the top.

If you have anything close to this recipe… I would be forever thankful as I have been looking for the recipe since 1971 when she died.

I am now 70 yrs old and would like to give this recipe to my family.

Hope this information helps, and looking forward to hearing from you with some GOOD NEWS!

Thank you again for taking up your valuable time in trying to help me.

Gary

Now, I’ve run this question past a couple of chef friends, and the bread isn’t ringing a bell in any of their memories. We did wonder if maybe “Ocenti” might be a half-remembered variation on “Osso d’ Santi” — sort of in there somewhere between the “Osso dei Morti” cookies/biscotti that are traditionally baked for All Souls’ Day, and the “Pan de Santi” bread for Easter — but that’s pure conjecture, with no basis in fact. Another theory — could “Ocenti” have been “Occitani” (as in Occitan Valleys) originally? No way to know… and I’m just throwing it out there, in case someone can confirm (or rule out) any of these wild theories.

My friend, the bread-loving Guilherme Zühlke O’Connor, who lived for some time in Italy, says that “by the description it could be a variety of breads or pastries, almonds (and bread for that matter) are very popular over there.” Without more to go on, it was hard to say…

So then I got hopelessly lost (and very hungry!) browsing the beautifully photographed bread recipes at Il mondo di Milla and Academia Barilla / Italian Food Academy.

And I’ve flipped through my cookbooks on Italian cuisine without finding any bread that looks like it might fit the bill…

Nothing.

So, over to you!

Can you help Gary to find that old family recipe? Does the long-lost Italian almond bread sound like a recipe you know and love?

If you have any idea of what it might be, please leave a comment — Gary and his family would be grateful, and I’d love to know as well!

My mother just gave me the old battered notebook in which my grandmother wrote down the recipes she collected through her married life. It is more than 70 years old, according to Mum, and it’s obviously been well used through that time.

Most of the recipes were handwritten in pencil and are fading badly, and the pages are crumbling away beneath my fingers…

So go the family memories, as time rolls on. My grandmother is long gone, and my mother, the youngest of her siblings, is now well into her senior years. Of the large family who enjoyed the dishes that Grammie prepared from her personal recipe collection, there are only two left: my mother and one of her brothers.

Over the next few months, I’ll be trying to transcribe these old recipes so that they are not lost – and I’ll post the best of those recipes here on DomestikGoddess.com.

(If you’re not already a subscriber and you want to follow along, click here to get blog updates by email (you can choose between a weekly round-up or “as it happens” delivery) as I share my grandmother’s old recipes — along with oodles of other Domestik goodies.)

If you’re a granola bar fan, you probably have figured out by now that most of the store-bought granola bars are not much better than candy bars, for nutrition and calories. And let’s not even get into the issues of over-packaging, mysterious ingredients with long scientific names, and the cost of those little snacks…

In short, I decided to start making my own.

So I looked up about five or six different recipes for granola bars in my extensive collection of cookbooks (it’s a weakness, what can I say) and did a “mix and match” of ingredients to come up with the following recipe.

Next time I will probably leave out the brown sugar, as they’re just a tiny bit on the sweet side for my taste. And maybe chopped almonds instead of sliced, for more of an almond-flavour punch. And maybe some raisins — you can’t go wrong with raisins in granola bars, but I just didn’t happen to have any this time.

Anyway, here’s the recipe I came up with — enjoy!

Chewy Granola Bars

Pre-heat oven to 325°F. Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper, or with waxed paper sprayed with oil.

Combine and set aside:

1 cup oats
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
1/2 cup sliced blanched almonds
1/4 cup finely chopped almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds, hulled, not salted
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

In a heavy saucepan over low heat (or in a large glass bowl in the microwave), combine:

1/4 cup almond butter (you could also use peanut butter)
1/4 cup liquid honey
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp butter

Bring just to the boiling point, stirring to dissolve the sugar. This will only take a minute or two. Set it aside.

Whisk 1 egg white into the warm “granola glue” liquid.

Stir in the dry ingredients.

Press the mixture firmly into the prepared pan.

Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes.

Allow to cool completely in the pan before cutting into pieces of whatever size you like.  I cut mine into 1-inch x 4-inch bars, similar to the size and shape of the granola bars you might buy at the grocery store.

As the owner of a retired racing greyhound, and not being opposed to the occasional adult beverage, I was semi-thrilled to discover there’s such a thing as a Greyhound cocktail. Here’s the mixology on it, if you’re feeling like a fruity-refreshing summer drink for patio sipping:

I’m only semi-thrilled to learn about the Greyhound Cocktail, though, because I also discovered that there are quite serious (as in, potentially life-and-liver-threatening) possible interactions with medications and grapefruit juice — and grapefruit juice is a key ingredient in the Greyhound cocktail. Guess I’ll just have to stick with the (admittedly delightful) company of a long tall dog, instead of a long tall beverage! But, you know, you could have one for me if you’re so inclined…

Happy Canada Day!

Photo: Phillie Casablanca

We’ll get to the low-key-Canadian-patriotic celebrating stuff in a minute.

First, I want to say thanks to all you lovely Internet People who sent emails, noticing that the Domestik Goddess was uncharacteristically quiet and wondering if I’d died… got me all misty-eyed, some of you!

“Rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated,” to crib from Mark Twain.

The truth is that I’ve been working super-long hours on a big new project, and it’s almost done. Well, done enough that I can come back to the real world now that the end is in sight! (Did I just call the Internet the “real world”?!?) Anyway, today I celebrated that long-awaited “Almost Done” milestone (and Canada Day, too) by spending a little quiet quality time with dogs, food and the traditional Maritime icons of beer and music…

Healthy Outdoor Exercise

The best part of the day for me (and, frankly, the most productive) was taking my dogs for a long long long walk in the gentle warm rain. Three white-tailed deer stood and watched us wander out from the woods trail into the open fields, and didn’t seem at all troubled by the presence of the dogs. I do believe that they couldn’t even see the Golden Retriever over the tall grass, and they think the long-legged Greyhound is just another deer!

Here are the dogs, at home — I didn’t have the camera with me, so you’ll just have to imagine the deer:

Food!!

For supper, I invented a new recipe. The dish is too simple to deserve to have a name, but it turned out very well for something so very healthful and high-fibre/low-calorie, so I thought I’d share it here:

Cooked chicken breasts (I had some waiting in the freezer, previously cooked for just such an occasion): thaw and slice thin. Thin-slice some carrots, celery, yellow bell peppers, and onions. Heat a splash of olive oil in a giant frying pan, throw in the veggies and cooked chicken, and sort of stir-fry them for a few minutes until the carrots start to soften. Salt and pepper to taste. I also sprinkled on just a touch of cayenne. Then splash in just enough gingerale to moisten, and cover the saucepan. Let it simmer until heated through. At the last minute, toss with about a tablespoon of lemon-poppyseed salad dressing. Serve over flax/whole wheat spaghettini.

The Traditional Brewski

And afterwards, a refreshing glass of Dooryard Summer Ale. Yes, that really is the name of a beer — I’m not making it up. It’s an organic wheat ale made by Picaroons, a micro-brewery here in our region.

What goes with a brew?
Tunes, of course!

Sing Along!

Because this is Canada Day, I was digging deep at Blip.fm for some dusty Canadian classics and having a great time doing it — but the song that summed up the whole mood of the day, for me, is this one by Julie Doiron that I heard for the first time today on CBC radio’s all-day CanCon programming, part of the Canada Day celebrations.

Here’s my new favourite song, “Nice to Come Home” by singer-songwriter Julie Doiron for your listening pleasure:

And there you have it.

If you’re not Canadian… so sorry you didn’t get a holiday today!
(Your turn is coming, right?)

And tell me, my fellow Canadians — how did you celebrate? Drop a note in the comments (since I’m not actually dead, and thus able to read it) and share the joy. And if you blogged about your Canada Day celebrations, leave a link so I’ll be sure to come visit your blog and read all the festive details!

Mmmm… Chris Perrin is back this month with his recipe for Braised Asian Lemon Seitan to make you tastebuds do a Happy Dance, while you feel all healthy and full of nutritional virtue! When our favourite certified cook isnt busy serving up veg*n goodies at DomestikGoddess.com, Chris writes for BIAO Magazine, food-blogs at Blog Well Done, and is working on his own vegan cookbook. Enjoy!   ~ Jen

Braised Asian Lemon Seitan

Braising is one of my favorite cooking techniques. It’s a wonderful way to get a bunch of flavor into a dish and it’s really simple. The good news is that seitan, my favorite vegan meat replacement, with its firm texture, stands up to braising extremely well. In fact, a good braise can loosen the sietan, make it more receptive to the juices you’re cooking it in, and improve the overall texture.

For those not familiar with the term braising, it means cooking food partially submerged in a flavorful liquid. The most important part is the “partially submerged”. The food is not completely covered by cooking liquid (that’s boiling or stewing). Instead, the food is usually covered half way so that the bottom is in the liquid, while the top is exposed to the air. The second most important part is “flavorful liquid” because whatever you are cooking will absorb the tastes of the liquid in which it’s cooked. Good braising liquid makes for a great braised dish. We’re going to use that to our advantage!

Photo: moria

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
1 package seitan
1 lemon, juiced and zested
6 green onions
1 medium onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce (can substitute regular)
1 tablespoon Sichuan bean paste
8 tablespoons broth*

*Depending on the size of your pot, you may need more or less broth. The key is that the food is only covered halfway with liquid.

Put two tablespoons of olive oil in a high sided skillet over high heat and wait for the oil to get hot. Add the seitan and lemon juice and cook 5-6 minutes per side. Sauteing the seitan first gives it a better flavor and improves the texture after the braise. Remove the seitan from the pan and set aside.

Cut the greens of the green onions into 2 inch pieces and finely slice the whites of the green onions.

Put the final tablespoon of olive oil in the skillet, turn down the heat to medium-high, and let it get hot. Once hot, add the diced onions, green pepper, carrot, and the whites of the green onion. Saute until the green onions turn soft, maybe 5-6 minutes. Then add the green onion and cook for 30 seconds.

Add the soy sauce, dark soy sauce, bean paste, lemon zest, and the seitan. Then start adding the broth. You should need about 8 tablespoons, but pour slowly to make sure the food is only half covered. Mix well.

Cover the skillet and let the liquid come to a boil. Cook uncovered for 3-4 minutes after that and then flip. Cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Serve in a nice bowl over rice or noodles and enjoy!

For more of what is going in Chris’ lunchbox, on his dinner table, and on his party menus, as well as thoughts on food and culture, food in the media, and even the occasional recipe featuring meat, check out Chris’ food blog, Blog Well Done.

What could be better on a cold winter night than hot Cajun? This month, our certified cook Chris Perrin offers his recipe for a Seitan Jambalya to warm you from the inside out! When he’s not feeding veg*n goodies to us here, Chris writes for BIAO Magazine, food-blogs at Blog Well Done, and is working on his own vegan cookbook. Enjoy!   ~ Jen

Seitan Jambalaya

I have been on a real Cajun kick recently and for some reason, I cannot seem to stop making jambalaya. Since I’ve made it a habit to share my culinary obsessions on DomestikGoddess.com, I see no reason not to talk jambalaya! So today, we are headed to the bayou, but it will be a vegan bayou, thanks to our good friend seitan.

Still, the key to making this dish work, though, is not my favorite use for wheat gluten, but rather liquid smoke. Traditionally, most Cajun food is made with andouille, a smoked sausage, which blesses whatever it is cooked in with a slightly smoky flavor. Until we can find a good source of ready-made smoked seitan, we need to fake that andouille flavor and liquid smoke is just the thing to do it. Still be careful with it. Liquid smoke is potent stuff and a little bit goes along way.

Ingredients:

Photo: RBerteig

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package commercial seitan
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon black pepper
1 onion, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup, white rice or cooked brown rice
1/2 can of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon cayenne
2 cups veggie stock
Salt to taste

Add the olive oil to a skillet and let it get warm. Add the seitan, 1 tablespoon of black pepper, and the liquid smoke and cook, stirring occasionally, until the seitan browns. This should take about 3 minutes.

Remove the seitan. Add the onions, celery, green peppers, and garlic. Cook until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the rice and toast for a minute. Then add the tomato sauce, cayenne pepper, and the remaining black pepper and continue cooking for another 2 minutes. Finally, add the veggie stock and cook covered for 25 minutes or until the rice is cooked and has absorbed all the liquid.

After the rice is done, add the seitan back to the dish and stir to incorporate. Cook until the seitan is warm, about 3 minutes.

For more of what is going in Chris’ lunchbox, on his dinner table, and on his party menus, as well as thoughts on food and culture, food in the media, and even the occasional recipe featuring meat, check out Chris’ food blog, Blog Well Done.

Is there such a thing as a non-tasty shortbread cookie?
We think not!

But when you make these sweet delights with brown sugar and cinnamon… ah, that takes the classic shortbread to a whole new level of yummy.

Shortbreads can be frozen in air-tight plastic containers, to be pulled out later when company comes over unexpectedly — but don’t count on having any cookies left over to freeze unless you make a double batch.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Shortbread Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup (dark) brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups white flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon (or more, to taste)
icing sugar (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350°F, and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.

(Yes, you’ll want to use parchment paper — it helps to keep the cookies from browning too much on the bottom. Did you know that you can use parchment paper more than once, sometimes even a couple of times? True. And if you’re out of parchment paper, you can substitute waxed paper instead — not quite as good, but it will work in a pinch.)

Cream together the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla, beating until it’s very light and fluffy. Beat in the flour, cornstarch, and cinnamon until it’s all well-blended into cookie dough.

(For some reason, my corn starch always seems to have tiny lumps in it, so I like to put it through a sieve on its way into the mixing bowl.)

Form the cookie dough into 3/4″ balls between your (clean!) hands and place them on the lined cookie sheet. They can go quite close together because the cookies don’t tend to spread out very much as they bake. Flatten the balls — just a little, just enough so they don’t roll — using the bottom of a glass or the heel of your hand.

Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then remove from the baking sheet and cool them on a wire rack.

Optional: when the shortbreads are cool, dust them lightly with icing sugar. This is something I don’t usually bother to do, except when I’m trying to be fancy, but it does makes them feel and taste a bit like cinnamon-enhanced polvarones (only a lot less work).

This recipe makes about 40-50 ladylike little cookies.

Comfort food! Today, our favourite food writer Chris Perrin offers a vegan version of the classic Reuben sandwich, along with a recipe for vegan Thousand Island dressing… If you’ve been following his tasty contributions here each month, you’ll know that Chris has a cook’s certification from the Kansas City Culinary Institute, writes for BIAO Magazine, food-blogs at Blog Well Done, and is working on his own vegan cookbook. Enjoy!   ~ Jen

Vegan Reuben: A Tasty Classic Gone Meatless

Lately, I have been on a sandwich kick which is a bit odd because before being veg, I took sandwiches for granted. They were everyday fare, something to grab on a busy day when I needed to shovel something quick. But now lunch meat is no longer a viable option, you know, because of the meat and all, and vegetarian sandwich slices are still a little ways off.

Sometimes, I just miss a good hearty sandwich piled high with fixings.

Fortunately, where there is a will, there is a way and even without meat there can still be sandwiches. All I need is a little ingenuity, a little planning, and two packages of good ol’ seitan.

Vegan Rueben

This motivation to make this sandwich actually grew out a craving for sauerkraut which sounds as just as weird as it was. The only problem in making it is the lack of any sort of faux corned beef. The good news is that corning some seitan is an easy process, but it does take over night. Still that means if you get to corning now, you can be having tasty reubens tomorrow!

Vegan Corned Beef

To make corned beef, all you need to do is a make brine (salted water) and soak the seitan in it over night. If you have real meat, just triple the water, brown sugar and salt and soak the meat for 3-14 days instead of overnight. Also, add some saltpeter if you have it or the meat will not be that lovely pink color.

6 cups of water
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon cloves
3-5 bay leaves
1 tablespoon juniper berries
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon all spice powder
2 packages of seitan

Pour all ingredients except the seitan into a pot and boil for five minutes. Set aside to cool.

Pour the brine into a plastic bowl and add the seitan. Put into the refrigerator overnight to brine.

(See, that was easy, wasn’t it?)

Vegan Reuben

The following recipe makes 16 sandwiches.

Once the seitan is ready, it is time to make the sandwich. Reubens are pressed sandwich so make sure you have a skillet and something you can set on top of the skillet (consider a second skillet) and something with some weight to it (usually a few cans of beans or veggies.)

2 packages corned seitan
16 slices of rye bread
8 tablespoons of vegan thousand island dressing (see below) or Dijon mustard
16 slices vegan Swiss cheese
8 tablespoons of sauerkraut
8 tablespoons of olive oil

Heat oven to 350°F. Lay the seitan out on a cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. Let the seitan cool.

Layout all 16 slices of bread and coat each with half a tablespoon of vegan thousand island or Dijon mustard. Add the seitan to one half and the vegan Swiss on the other. Put the sauerkraut on the top of the cheese and fold the sandwich. (By the way, order does matter.)

Bring a skillet to heat over a medium high flame. Coat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Place two sandwiches in the skillet and top with a second skillet or cookie sheet and then put a weight on the second skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then flip. Cook for another 1-2 minutes and remove the sandwiches.

If you are not vegan and you are using real Swiss cheese, make sure that the Swiss melts. Vegan Swiss cheese takes forever to melt, so just make sure the sandwich is heated all the way through.

Once the first set of sandwiches is done, wait about a minute for the skillet to get hot before repeating for the second set of sandwiches. Repeat until all reubens are done.

Serve with fries or chips and you will never miss regular reubens again. Oh, you will also end all your sauerkraut cravings!

Vegan Thousand Island Dressing

When it comes to reubens, I am a mustard fan, but I know a lot of people like their Thousand Island dressing. Here is a recipe using vegenaise, which is a mayonnaise replacement made from canola oil.

1/2 cup veganaise
6 ounces of tomato sauce
1 tablespoon vegan sugar
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sweet pickles, finely diced
2 teaspoons sweet pickle juice

Blend all ingredients in a bowl until well incorporated.

For more of what is going in Chris’ lunchbox, on his dinner table, and on his party menus, as well as thoughts on food and culture, food in the media, and even the occasional recipe featuring meat, check out Chris’ food blog, Blog Well Done.

We’re into the season of veggie harvest and hearty soups! Food writer Chris Perrin brings two new vegetarian recipes to the table (haha!) to keep good company with your soup bowl… If you’ve been following his tasty contributions here each month, you’ll know that Chris has a cook’s certification from the Kansas City Culinary Institute, writes for BIAO Magazine, food-blogs at Blog Well Done, and is working on his own vegan cookbook. Enjoy!   ~ Jen

Pumpkin Panini and Apple-Seitan Sandwich

Despite the fact it signals the end of the growing season, Fall is the time for one last culinary celebration. Gone are the spring vegetables, the tomatoes, and the peaches. Still, every autumn, the Earth erupts forth in a great bounty of fruits and vegetables in such great quantities that the ground must know it will produce nothing for the next five or six months.

Okay, that might be a little overly dramatic, but how else can you explain the flood of apples, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, and other gourds that invade grocery stores across the country every October? The problem, though, is that most of Fall foods are usually thought of as desert (pumpkin pie) or are much maligned (cranberry “sauce” from a tin can.) Even the most inventive thing done with the mighty apple tends to be chopping it up and throwing it into a salad.

Photo: jslander

That all changes today. Today, we are going to elevate Fall fare into the fantastic. We are going to make sandwiches! (And they’re going to be veg friendly, too.)

Pumpkin Panini

Pumpkin is a nutritious vegetable that really does not get the credit it deserves as a savory ingredient. When roasted it has a satisfying, meaty flesh that has a subtle earthy flavor and is not nearly as sweet as you might think. This particular sandwich is paired with good mozzarella cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and basil for a pumpkiny twist on an Italian favorite.

• 1 small sugar pie pumpkin or about a pound of regular pumpkin
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 16 sundried tomatoes
• 12 basil leaves
• 1 loaf of vegan bread, cut into half inch slices
• 4 tablespoons of vegenaise or mayonnaise
• 1 medium tomato, sliced thinly
• 1 cup of shredded mozzarella (vegan or regular)

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Prepare the Pumpkin

Wash the outside of the pumpkin thoroughly and pat dry. Cut into quarters and remove the seeds and stem. Coat with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Bake the pumpkin for forty minutes or until fork tender. Remove and set aside to cool. Once cool, cut into thin slices roughly the same width as the tomato. You may choose to remove the pumpkin’s peel or leave it on as you choose.

Make the Spread

As the pumpkin is roasting, prepare the sun dried tomato mix. The idea is to have a chunky spread, not a sauce. To make it, put the sun dried tomatoes, two tablespoons of the tomatoes’ oil, and the basil into a food processor and pulse. Add the olive oil one tablespoon at a time until it reaches a consistency you like.

Make the Panini

Construct the sandwiches by taking a slice of bread and spreading a tablespoon of vegenaise on one side and a quarter of the shredded cheese on the other. Starting this way will help to water proof the bread for the cooking ahead.

Stack the pumpkin, one-quarter of the sun dried tomato spread, and two slices of tomatoes on the cheese side in that order. Sprinkle a little kosher salt on the tomato and top with the other slice of bread.

Finally, to make this a panini, pull out a skillet and coat in a bit of your favorite nonstick cooking spray or olive oil. When the pan gets hot, put two sandwiches on it and press them with a second skillet or a cookie sheet weighted down with cans. Cook this way for two minutes, then flip sandwiches and cook them weighted down for two more minutes. If the mozzarella is not fully melted, put the sandwich in the oven for a few minutes.

Serve with pumpkin bisque for an awesome pumpkin meal.

Apple/Seitan Sandwiches

Photo: mharvey75

Many years ago, before I stopped eating meat, my friend V introduced me to this sandwich, which she made using good mild summer sausage. I have changed it to use seitan, my favorite of the vegan “faux meat” products.

• 1 package store bought seitan
• 2 tablespoons sausage spice mix or 1 tablespoon each of black pepper and thyme and a pinch of red chili flake
• ½ cup of Dijon mustard
• ½ cup of apple cider vinegar
• Hard rolls or French bread cut into quarter inch slices
• 1 apple, cut into long slices
• 4 slices Swiss cheese (vegans: use vegan parmesan)

The first thing to do is change the flavor profile of the seitan slightly. Because seitan is an Asian dish, it is normally flavored with soy sauce, but that flavor can be lessened by boiling the seitan. Also, boiling tends to soften seitan and make it easier to chew.

To do this, bring a pot of water to boil. Use water, not broth, but flavor the water with sausage spice mix. Boil the seitan for about 5 minutes. Take it out of the water and bring back to room temperature.

While the seitan is cooling, mix the mustard and the cider vinegar in a bowl with a whisk.

Construct the sandwiches by covering the bottom of a roll or a piece of bread with seitan and adding a piece of cheese, a few slices of apple, and topping with the mustard/vinegar mix.

For more of what is going in Chris’ lunchbox, on his dinner table, and on his party menus, as well as thoughts on food and culture, food in the media, and even the occasional recipe featuring meat, check out Chris’ food blog, Blog Well Done.

Photo: trekkyandy

My friend Paul, who cooks professionally at a local hotel, is always on the hunt for recipes that put a tasty twist on the traditional.

Last year, at Thanksgiving, he made an amazing pumpkin pie — we’ve been having a lot of fun trying to figure out how to make it even better, ever since.

What’s the result when two food-obsessed minds are put to work on one recipe?

A rich and delicious pumpkin pie for a special holiday dinner, that’s what!

Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie

Make (or buy) a single pie shell. Cook it as usual, and set it aside to cool while you prepare the pumpkin pie filling, as below:

Ingredients

1 ½ cups sour cream (sorry, but no — the low-fat kind won’t do!)
1 ½ cups cooked pumpkin (solid-pack canned, or homemade with liquid drained off)
3 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg (best if fresh-grated from a whole nutmeg)
¼ ground ginger (or a pinch more, if you like ginger as much as I do!)
¼ salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Gently heat 1 cup of the sour cream in the top of a double boiler, stirring occasionally.

Whisk together the pumpkin, egg yolks, brown sugar, spices, salt, and the remaining ½ cup of sour cream until it’s combined — then whisk it into the hot sour cream in your double boiler. Continue to cook over simmering water, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens and reached 170°F. (Paul actually uses a thermometer for this step; but I just “ballpark it” at about 6 or 7 minutes of cooking time.)

Remove from heat and cool quickly — take the top of the double boiler (the pot with your pumpkin mixture in it) off the bottom pot of hot water and put it into a bowl of ice water for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Beat the egg whites in a clean glass bowl with an electric mixer, just until the point where they will hold soft peaks — don’t over do it!

Fold the beaten egg whites gently but thoroughly into the cooled pumpkin mixture. Pour the filling into the cooled pie shell, levelling out the top with a knife or spatula. Bake at 375°F about 40 or 50 minutes (this will depend on how much moisture was in your pumpkin, as that can vary) — until the filling is set, and just a bit puffed up around the edge of the pie.

You can serve this pie at room temperature — cool it on a rack for about 2 hours — or make it a day ahead and serve it chilled. If you’re going to keep it in the fridge overnight, do let it come to room temperature first, then cover the cooled pie with a piece of plastic wrap for storage.

Bored with the same-old-same-old supper? Food writer Chris Perrin is back with a new recipe, and a new ingredient to challenge our cooking comfort zones — not seitan this time, but the mysterious miso… Chris has a cook’s certification from the Kansas City Culinary Institute, is a columnist for BIAO Magazine and at many foodie websites, and is hard at work on a vegan cookbook.
Enjoy!   ~ Jen

Yellow Miso

A lot of people ask me why I do not eat meat. I think they expect me to launch into a diatribe about how meat is murder and animal rights. No one ever expects me to reply “Because I love to cook.”

I cannot say I am unsympathetic to moderate animal righters, but at the same time there are so many other, equally valid reasons for adopting a veg*n diet: economic, environmental, and health reasons top this list, but I think my favorite still has to be how much I have learned about the art of cooking.

To this end, when I became vegan, one of the first things I did was make a list of new ingredients and started cooking with them. This list included things like tempeh (fermented soy beans), parsnips (which I had never had), celeriac (an Emeril favorite), and Durian (don’t, just don’t.)

Photo: Schellack

So here is my challenge to you: Live the spirit of me (as a vegan) and try something new tonight. You can even cook meat! Although, if you really want to set yourself up for a challenge, try to cook a completely vegan meal. No milk, no cream, no butter, no eggs…just weeds and grass! Well, maybe some fruits or veggies.

The last time I went looking for a new ingredient, I ended up with a container of yellow miso, which looks approximately nothing like I thought it would and smells far worse than I could have imagined. Still, when cooked, it becomes mild, a little salty, a little sweet, but comfortingly earthy.

Try this dish, which uses eggplant and miso together. Serve over basmati rice for a satisfying meal.

Miso Eggplant Bowls

4 Japanese eggplant or one medium-sized eggplant, cut into cubes
1 medium onion, cut into 1 inch squares
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots, cut into quarter thick slices
1 tablespoon of Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon of corn starch
6 tablespoons of vegetable broth
2 tablespoons of yellow miso
½ tablespoon of sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

If you have time, start by coating the eggplant in salt and letting it rest for an hour. This will pull out the some of the moisture and make it more firm. After an hour, use a paper towel to knock the salt off and pat the eggplant dry. Omit salt from the rest of the recipe.

Into a skillet over high heat, put the olive oil and the onions. Sauté until they start to turn translucent. Add the carrot and sauté for 2-3 minutes.

Put the eggplant into a bag with the rice wine and the cornstarch and shake to coat. The rice wine will add a little acid to the dish and help preserve the color of the eggplant’s skin. Add the eggplant to the dish and sauté until soft all the way through, which can take 7-10 minutes.

Add the broth, the miso, and the sugar. Cook, stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens to your liking.

For more of what is going in Chris’ lunchbox, on his dinner table, and on his party menus, as well as thoughts on food and culture, food in the media, and even the occasional recipe featuring meat, check out Chris’ food blog, Blog Well Done.