Weekend Seitan & Belmont Street Fair

Organic IPA

Remember how I despise hot weather? Oh, you don't? What are you doing? It's the theme of my site come May. Welcome aboard! When my birthday passed in early September, I thought we could put the hot hot behind us, but it returned last weekend. September is actually flying by for me, but I'm still talking about it like it's been weeks and weeks already. Anyway, the point here is that I started out the hot weekend on a hot Friday meeting some vegan pals for happy hour at Hopworks Urban Brewery for an organic IPA. It's an eco-brewpub with all organic brews located on SE Powell, a quick bike ride from my dwelling.

I was having an uber social evening and met up with PPK pals at the Bye & Bye for dinner, but my first round of vegan friends for the night sampled the tofu ricotta'd vegan pizzas Hopworks offers and the feedback seemed to be fairly positive:

I liked the looks of the crust.

Keeping with the PPK-ness, here's another dish from Isa's in-progress 'Healthy' Cookbook -

Braised Seitan and Cabbage (simmered seitan from Veganomicon)

More seitan, more Isa -

Tempeh Scramble from Vegan Brunch,

with more seitan and more veggies I want to name at the moment.

Returning to the heat portion of the weekend, besides these dishes I hid in my cool apartment to make.

A quick venture to the SE Belmont Street Fair. It wasn't super crowded, thank goodness, but it was too warm out for my liking. I walked around, said hi to folks I knew and stopped by my favorite table - the sale at Tao of Tea.

I have a cute tea set from stopping by a few years ago at home~

Picked up a small jar of loose leaf Roasted Mate for $2, heck yeah.

Fair.

Who remembers the old Paradox sign? I do, I remember when I'd go there at least once a week when I lived in the neighborhood, my first couple years in PDX...

The vintage store next to Paradox had a sale out front (the newer one) -

cute to see at a fair table!

My favorite part besides the tea - this giant circle of grass in the middle of the street! Traffic was blocked off for a few blocks, just the way it should be for a street fair, hint hint, Hawthorne.

Oh, Portland.

Chick O'fucking Stick Chocolate Chip Cookies

Embarassingly out of cocoa powder?  Grind up some Chick O Sticks!

My friend Katie Jayne was in town this past weekend for some vegan pub crawl shenanigans.  Since it was her birthday the weekend before, I decided to bake her a little something special.  While I was at Fred Meyer on an errand, I thought "What can I put in her cookies to make them awesome, since she's so awesome"????? 

Walking past the candy aisle, inspiration hit.  Later that night, Ms. Strawberryrock got to stirring, I got to throwing things in the bowl, and Chick O Stick chocolate chip cookies were born.

If you haven't had this candy before (I hadn't before moving to Portland) - think vegan, think the inside of a freaking Butterfinger bar, think coconut, think picking it out of your teeth but it's still worth it, good.  Both Voodoo and Sweetpea feature treats made with this candy - check out glorious Sweetpea layer cake Kt from Sweetpea made for my birthday last year!

The birth process:

Chick O'Fucking Stick Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from the holy Veganomicon, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Romero

2.5-3 cups flour

2/3 cup ground Chick-O-Stick candies (approximately two whole sticks, I ground them in my Magic Bullet)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cups canola oil

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 teaspoons ground flax seeds

1 spoonful creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup soy milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

½ cup to 3/4 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda and salt.

In a separate large bowl mix together oil and sugar. Add the flax, peanut butter, soy milk and vanilla and mix well. 

Fold in the dry ingredients in batches. Use a wooden spoon or your mixer to incorporate the ground Chick o Sticks.  Add more flavor if needed.  Add the chocolate chips gently.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and flatten into a disc that's about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 5 minutes, then set them on a wire rack to cool completely.  

**In reality we should have added a little more flour - so just add more till the dough looks right, duh.**

The proud mixer

Me and Katie Jayne!

Sure, the cookies have melted down candy in them, but that makes them awesome!

Chicken Seitan Parmigiana with Roasted Broccoli

The week before I made this meal, I had been busy after work and missed dining at home. Not just cooking, but the practice of changing out of my officey clothes, feeding my two cats and winding down in the kitchen. Weekend hit and it was time to lose myself in my kitchen for a couple hours, while entertaining side projects like cleaning and petting cats while things simmered and roasted.  

I recall channeling my Italian parents and after successfully making boiled seitan (which is actually simmered) for the first time in years and thinking about the mozzerella teese in the fridge, I set out to make Chicken Seitan Parmigiana.  In the same afternoon, of course.

Mangia!

The boiled seitan was made with vegetarian chicken style bouillon cubes and based on the recipe from Veganomicon.  I used fresh thyme, rosemary, dried bay leaf, extra pepper, garlic and nutritional yeast.  After it was done simmering I put aside some in the broth, froze a tray of broth ice cubes and cut off a section for the parmagiana cutlets.  

Here they are, freshly...pan-fried in extra virgin olive oil:

I can't say that I'm a fan of kneading bread dough, but I don't really mind seitan.  It's more forgiving, for sure.  Savoury productivity.

After simmering:

The breading station:

The fundamentals of vegan Italian breading go as follows - dip in flour, dip in a water or soymilk cornstarch slurry, dip in pulverized breadcrumb mixture.  

My third mixture was of homemade breadcrumbs, various herbs, black pepper, sea salt and nutritional yeast.  Doing this takes me back to making real animal cutlets and dipping them in egg and flour as a little one....and I say that fondly.

Ready to pan-fry:

Pan-friend, and served with homemade red marinara over multigrain and flax penne, roasted broccoli with olive oil, garlic and sea salt and mozzerella teese, ready for melting.  Using teese really made the meal memorable was was the best faux cheeze I've tried for the job.

Melted, sliced and shortly, devoured.

Truly no need for dessert following this.

Seitanic Jambalaya (with pink beans and eggplant)

Seitanic.

Flipping through Veganomicon looking for recipes to utilize the huge pot of small pink beans I'd cooked on Sunday, I found myself stopping on the recipe for Seitanic Jambalaya with Red and White Beans.  If you have an Amazon account, you can view the recipe online, but surely you have this cookbook or can request it from your library.  It's my go to vegan cookbook.  

Now, this is one I somehow  skipped as a recipe tester for the book and it was reaching out to me.  Obviously Mardi Gras recently passed and the internet's been buzzing about Cajun food, as does my younger sister Jenny on a regular basis.  I like heat but don't find myself cooking many Cajun-style dishes.  I've made gumbo once and cajun coated tofu

and potatoes a few times, but that's it.

I made a full version of the recipe and fed my friends during our weekly LOST viewing, which also included the premiere of ANTM and they seemed to enjoy it.  It makes a ton!  If I hadn't fed folks, I'd be eating this for a week!  I used an organic cajun spice blend, fresh thyme and found my first jambalaya stick-to-your-ribs-with-savoury-rice good.  Whatever that means, it was true.

I used Trader Joe's new organic long grain white rice, my soaked small pink beans instead of red and white, two green bell peppers, one stalk of celery, threw in some diced eggplant and because I'm a hater, subbed extra garlic and a bunch of onion powder for the onion.  I know, I know, I know, I'm ridiculous, but it's my kitchen.  I did find myself baking it an additional 15 or so minutes to let the rice fully cook.

For the seitanic contribution, I made two large baked seitan cutlets based on the Veganomicon recipe the night before the jambalaya cooking.  This is my go-to seitan recipe from the go-to vegan cookbook.  I can also see diced steamed sausages being great in this.  I also used vegan chicken-style buillion cubes  and added diced garlic, bay leaf, shallot, black pepper and crushed red pepper to my broth.  Of course it's easy to make your own Chicken-Style broth powder as well, like with Bryanna's recipe.

For more vegan New Orleans and Cajun style cooking, 

I encourage you to visit Kittee's site, Paku Paku.

Next up for my giant vat of pink beans - Brown Rice Spaghetti with Bean Balls and Homemade Marinara.  I quickly made a new batch of Walnut-Miso-'Parmesan' last night for sprinkling~

Asian. Grilled. Tofu.

Tofu. Marinade. Cast Iron Grill Pan. 

Side of Hoisin'd Veggies. Long grain brown rice.  

Lunch.

Lunch, lunch, lunch.

The Asian Marinade recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and Veganomican can be found here.

I don't really feel the need to talk much on this post, I've left the message to the grill lines and fu.

ho

Best Wishes to all during the end of December 2008!  I don't really celebrate anything myself, besides time off from work and the possibility of snow - and Portland had a White Christmas!!

According to the National Weather Service Forecast Office, this was an event - the probability of it happening was less than 0.08%.  End of the world, thanks!  It's now turned to rain and in the 40s again, but I was happy for real, inches of snow while it lasted and extra time away from work.  I really don't hate my job, I just prefer not being there.  Shocker.

Bittersweet chocolate and peanut butter tofu mousse

Food wise, I've been soaking beans, eating Thai, baking cookies and playing with my

new Vita-Mix.  Recently I learned that I could turn my homemade Roasted Garlic and Red Wine Marinara into tomato sauce silk.  I also took 3/4 of a block of silken tofu and blended it with chunks of bittersweet chocolate, almond milk, peanut butter, vanilla and a little bit of sugar to see if it would mousse it up, and it absolutely did.  No need to melt the chocolate beforehand! I let it set in the fridge for a couple hours and then enjoyed this vegan classic.

Chili sin Carne ala Mole - from Vegan with a Vengeance

Using soaked small red beans and black beans, I made this recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance.  I used the last of my locally made Cast Iron Seitan sample and added carrots and yellow bell pepper.  I've never had seitan in chili before and call me a fan.  

This was my Christmas eve dinner above - with a Full Sail Limited Edition Lager Recipe #1 and side of gluten free cornbread.  The only gluten free part of the meal was based on the Veganomicon recipe, using Bob's Red Mill gluten free baking mix for the flour.

Vegan Lunch Special Soup from Pad Thai Kitchen

On Christmas Eve, I ended up meeting a few friends for lunch at Pad Thai Kitchen on SE Belmont.  It's proven to be a reliably vegan friendly Thai restaurant.  

Vegan Pad Thai lunch special, with tofu and vegetables

Citrus Glitters 

From the Isa and Terry Vegan Cookie Book test kitchen - 

here's a slide show of what I've made so far.

Almond Soy Latte from Tiny's in SE Portland.

Snow Serpent from another time...

V-I-T-A L-O-V-E & Snow day Love

Ladies and Gentleman, I've been using a Vita-Mix. I know, my life is changing!

I have found myself complaining when pureed soups aren't quite smooth and I encounter a teeny piece of noticeable onion or fresh herb, and this baby is smoothing things out in every way possible. Vita Mix users - share your ways with me! I'm sure to be documenting my usage here.

Veganomicon's Creamy Tomato Soup

Chunky

Smoothy

Vita-Mix, you rule for sending this to me for review! The biggest perk of being a food blogger, ever.

Snowed In - Lower Fat Gluten Free Mac and Cheeze - Leftovers Edition

Making Snow Angel Dogs this weekend...

soup stuff.

Tomato, Rice, Roasted Garlic & Navy Bean Soup from 

Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook.

Made with my old favorite, Muir Glen Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes.  I can recall being 21 living on my own in East Cambridge, MA and first learning to cook - and finding a way to eat these once a week.  They were constantly on sale at Harvest Coop and Whole Foods and I couldn't resist.

These days, I break them out a few times a year for soup or homemade sauce.  Rest assure I haven't broken my old addiction completely and typically have one can in my cabinet.  

This soup recipe is one of my favorites since testing for the cookbook. I typically find myself making half the recipe and it feeds me for many meals.  But then again, I'm not big on leftovers. I'm also an evil person who subs onion powder for onions and adds a bunch of minced garlic.  

a day in the life of a pie on the bus.

here's my friend the local peach and rainier cherry crumb pie riding the #9 in se portland.

it was sunny so it wore this protective layer. just for a while. it liked the pink.

in its powdered sugar glory, before being eaten at a vegan potluck:

and the evolution - chopped peaches and pitted rainier cherries. I added the peaches because rainier isn't typically a stand alone pie filling cherry.

crumb topped and pre-baked. the pie was totally homemade, holla. the crust is from Veganomicon.
Next time I'd go with a more traditional lattice crust, since the filling was more sweet than tart, somewhat surprisingly.

and baked, before the dusting of the powdered sugar.

bonus farmer's market haul from Saturday, which makes me warm inside:
I went to the PSU market and picked up the following for:

box of peaches $3
hot pepper 75 cents
sweet corn 2 for $1
fava beans $1 a bag (not totally filled pods..a sale!)
fresh basil $1
tomatoes $3.50/lb
zucchini 50 cents

and a handful of blackberries picked on the welcome home...

and since the oven was warm post pie baking, I roasted some garlic.


coming soon: photos from a delicious meal at Portland's newest vegan restauarnt, and PPK test kitchen cookies.

Heart of Tofu

I could start out this post inserting 'tofu' into cutesy love songs that include the word 'heart', but I'm not that type of gal. Well, Blondie's 'Heart of Glass' is in my head right now but tofu just isn't fitting in.

I've done the cookie cutter tofu thing before over the past few years, and have also done so with the infamous chickpea cutlets before baking, and it just felt right the other night.

I took my block of fresh firm tofu from Ota, drained it, pressed it, carefully sliced it, whipped out the heart-shaped cookie cutter (which actually used to be a circle), put it in some VWAV/Veganomicon Italian marinade and then baked.


Sesame seeds were added during the last 10 minutes of cooking. I've been enjoying them a lot lately. The baked tofu is served with some more chickpea quinoa pilaf (with white and cranberry beans) and some kale raab I cooked in the extra Italian marinade.