dense food, concentrated flavas

The good news is, the cherries dried perfectly, and they're ready to turn into cake flowers and scone fillings and oatmeal mix-ins, yum!

There's bad news, though. See... I think I have two enemies in the kitchen. Or at least, two things are making themselves apparent as factors I need to watch out for. The first of these is vegetable stock cubes/overly salty broth, which just seems to stomp all over any delicate flavour in it's path (I sincerely don't know why I even have that box in my cupboard!!). And the second is impatience.

Two cases in point: I come home last night to see my innocent little crock of very recently born sourdough starter just LAVA-ing all over the top of the coffee maker. How very exciting, I figured - it was ready! At the very least it was about 3 times the size it used to be and smelling really nice and making a respectable yeasty mess of my kitchen, so I threw together a sponge for rye bread and went to bed. Then this morning I made the rye bread, which rose not at all and came out of the oven as dense as a log (despite smelling great). Completely inedible. I had a piece and I felt like I ate a rock! I hate wasting food so I'm going to have a supply of caraway breadcrumbs pretty soon, but I've never had bread turn out so badly! *sniff*

(note to self: sourdough starter is ready when a white foam shows up. no sooner, silly girl!)

My other enemy, salty broth, reared it's ugly head for what I thought would be a lovely counterpart to fresh caraway-rye bread - the Tomato Dill Lentil soup from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. First off I threw in more broth than the recipe called for, to use it up. Then I had to substitute a bunch of stuff - dried dill for the dill seeds, brown sugar for molasses, dijon mustard for mustard powder, etc - and maybe after all that I was silly to expect perfection, but it came out really heavy. I had to water it down a TON, and the flavour was good, it just didn't have a fresh tomato and dill kind of thing going on, so that was sad.

On the plus side, I made fajita-y type things the other night with refrieds, peppers, onions and sour tofu cream that were really excellent, and I'm closing with that so I don't feel like a total complain-y susan. Yay mexican! At least I know there's no such thing as too much hot sauce. :D

Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Kale Enchiladas

It's official. I'm obsessed, and seriously considering trying every single recipe in the Veganomicon. (maybe I've just got a thing for crossing off titles in the front of the book with a little pencil, haha).

I made the enchiladas!

Worst photo ever. I don't care, it's the most delicious photo, taken by me already slightly tipsy on whiskey-coke and just about mouth-gasming all over the place for the Sour-Cilantro Cream as it mingled with the firey enchilada sauce and by some miracle of chemistry the two together tasted like something quite like but much much better than cheese. This will haunt my dreams for a while, I just know it...

I made the filling with sweet potatoes and black beans, because Ben-sen and Co. are irresponsible vegetarians and they need more protein in their lives, and also, potato? why stop there? Sweet potatoes are sweet, and mexican food without beans seems sacriligious somehow. I really couldn't imagine this dish without the creamy sweetness and earthy tones that were there. Like, I know it would be awesome, but I'm glad I made it this way.

Also, I used firm (not silken) tofu in the cilantro cream and I left out the oil and just whipped the bejeezus out of it for a long time with a stick blender - the result being a perfect smooth dolloping consistency and I hardly feel bad at all for inhaling the leftovers. Would it be wrong to make a batch, swirl in some salsa, crumble some chips over top and call it soup? I see that in my future, I really do... some summer night for sure.

And here's the centrefold ------

Kick. Ass. I cut off the tip of my left index finger while making this and I really really didn't care. The roasting green chiles were punching through the air and I was Kitchen Warrior™, holding my hand at a funny angle to rip apart kale and trying not to bleed all over the place too badly. I didn't even realize there was part of my nail missing until I closed the oven door and started the timer. What a rush! (this is what happens when you say you can pull off dinner for five in 1.5 hours, oy!)

And dessert? Oh, there's dessert! I made the Mexican Chocolate Rice Pudding from VwaV, since I wanted something low-key to finish with, and I'd never tried rice pudding before, and I am sooooo glad that peoples were too stuffed from dinner to even think about the pudding in the fridge, 'cause now I have bowls upon bowls of luscious, spicy chocolate ricelove to eat all by myself. Chocolate ricelove with cayenne in it, even. Leftovers have never been a more tempting prospect... :o

Chile Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu (and glee!!!)

I just got the V-Con!!!!!!!!

I rode the bus home with this silly stupid grin on my face, poring over everything like a kid at christmas, and within 2 seconds I found the perfect recipe for a quick after-school dinner that would pair with a fiesta grapefruit/bell pepper/lime salad I'd made the day before. So I whipped up the Chile Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu in about 2 minutes (the only snag being my oven deciding to die - alas I had to pan-fry), and had the best dinner I've had in a while. I'll admit I've been craving just those kinds of flavours, but the breading is so light, and paired with some limeade (and extra hot sauce) I was totally at a picnic table watching a june afternoon go by (never mind that it's freezing outside).

This is my first Isa/Terry book! I feel like dancing! *dances all over kitchen*



......now I just have to somehow forget about reading it cover to cover tonight, and work on things that are due tomorrow. Phooey. (You won't be seeing the last of me, beautiful V-Con! I'll probably cave and make cookies from your pages, in oh, about 3 hours of boring drawing. mwahahaha!)