Happy Sunday - it's time to braise!

Hopefully, some church-going readers found the punny humor in the title.  It's better than the original title I had floating about in my brain: Praise Satan!  Er...Braised Seitan.

Let's back the Blasphemy Train up a moment and talk about dinner - Braised Cabbage with Seitan from Appetite for Reduction.

Every once in a while, when I put my menu together on the second glass of wine of a Friday night, I come back to it after I've bought all of the ingredients for the delectable meals I've chosen and thought to myself, What was I thinking?

As such, the only meal on the menu I had even the remotest desire to make tonight was this braised dish. Part of the reason I wasn't terribly interested in my menu was because I'd kind of gotten going out for dinner on my brain, but after spending about $100 on groceries, I just couldn't justify it.  Besides, next week is Mister's birthday, so we may go out to celebrate then.

Anyway, I grabbed the seitan and cabbage from the fridge and started the basmati to steaming.  I sauteed the seitan until it was nice and browned and almost looking a bit crispy, then stirred in the garlic and thyme for a moment before finally layering on the cabbage and two cups of vegetable broth.  It smelled amazing - I love the way things smell when they include thyme.

You can even see how the 15 minutes of braising time plumped the dried leaves back up to beautiful dark green, well, leaves.  You can also see how it kind of looks like the seitan lost most of the beautiful brown color I sauteed onto it, can't you?

I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a little disappointed in this dish.  I don't know what went wrong, but it didn't taste nearly as flavorful as it smelled.  Here's what I've come up with so far:

1. my tastebuds are burnt out from San Francisco
2. Pacific Organic Vegetable Broth is not flavorful enough for braising
3. I should have used baked seitan instead of the kind that comes in a tub with liquid

The reasoning behind #1 is that it seems like nothing tastes like much of anything after those four days of extremely well-seasoned meals, but I think this is probably BS and if I look back over the last 10 days of posts I'll find evidence otherwise.

#3 makes a certain amount of sense in that I know the recipe I use to make seitan produces irrefutably flavorful seitan and broth usually enhances it, since it's a little dry from not being stored in broth.  Also, unless you prepared store-bought seitan in a very special way, it usually just takes on the flavors around it.  In this case, that is going to lead inevitably to....

The unavoidable culpability of #2.  I'm sorry, Pacific Foods - I love you, you know I do, but your broth kind of sucks and the only reason I bought it is because I used up my Trader Joe's broth on the Granada Paella last night and the only broth Essene carries is yours.  I'll be sticking to your nutmilks from here on out - I hope I didn't hurt your feelings.

chili; it's not just for dinner anymore

I know we're not quite a full month into "official" winter, but I have to say something:  I am really getting tired of the bitter cold.  I can't remember a winter being this consistently painfully cold.  I am truly fearing February, especially since it seems to rain a lot, too.  Rain and cold are quite possibly the worst combination, aside from rain + cold + wind.  Yup.  That one's definitely the worst.

Anyway, the great thing about winter is that it snows!  I love snow and it never stops making me happy.  I love snow so much that I chose to walk home, a mile, through it last night.  I feel like I should make some smarmy comment about going up hills with no shoes on, too, but I'll stick with walking a mile in the falling snow.  By the time I got home, I was covered - my hat, my hair, my coat, even my purse - covered with "snowflakes that cling to my nose and eyelashes."  Yes, they did that, too, as well as stealthily flying up my nose.  I could have done without that.

I stopped for a couple of pictures because it just looked so beautiful.

freezing at the train station.
it always seems colder there.

 

walking home through Washington Square

After I shook off the coating of snow that had accumulated on me during my traipse through the city, I changed into my Cozy Clothes - yoga pants, slippers, and a hoodie.  The problem with changing into Cozy Clothes, though, is that frequently I lose my motivation to cook once I'm comfy and warm.

So last night, we heated up the Potato-Spinach Curry and basmati rice that had been hanging out in the fridge for one day short of Too Long.  Having given it time to let the flavors thoroughly meld, I have come to the conclusion that it needs a lot more salt, maybe 1.5 tsp, but we'll see what happens next time I make it - I think a little improv is in order.

Tonight, I returned to dear Isa for our dinner:  Classic Black Bean and Veggie Chili from Appetite for Reduction

this is what dried out limes with no juice look like:
fuzzy flowers, like lime asters

I don't know what went wrong with the lime, but I cut it open, massaged it a little, but when I tried to squeeze out the juice, I might possibly have gotten ten drops from then whole lime (both halves).  Instead, the insides just turned out and created a dry little fringe around the edge.  Despite my dismay that my lime was dried out, I thought it looked pretty neat, so I took a picture to share, in case you've never seen this before (I know I haven't!).

Mister and I agreed that there was too much broth.  Very, very good chili, but we both prefer it to be less soupy because according to Mister, if utensils are involved in chili at all, they must be forks.  But normally, we just use tortilla chips to help the chunky chili to our mouths.

It was a little hotter than I might like to make it in the future - I keep forgetting that Isa is one of those people who likes things spicier than me.  Next time, I'll use 33% less chili powder and 100% less broth.  I don't think it was necessary at all - the juice from the tomatoes should be sufficient.  It was a great way to defrost from tonight's walk home, though.  Since my Spicy Threshold is pretty low, despite years of training, when I eat food like this it really warms me up, making it a perfect meal to repeat often between now and the Great Thaw (aka late Springtime).

be careful! that's vegan!

Vegans eat such weird food.  It's no wonder people get so worked up over what to feed a vegan.  I mean, seriously - what if the supermarket runs out of vegetables?  What if the pasta market dries up? 

I've mentioned before how differently people can react to the "challenge" of feeding freaks like me.  Some of my more magnificent tales include creative chefs at all levels of cuisine not only accommodating my diet, but also welcoming the opportunity to branch out and flex their utensil-wielding wings.  Other people wring their hands and don't quite know what to do, so they make their best effort and hope it's good enough.  I have a pretty firm stand on showing genuine gratitude for all such efforts, so it is, in fact, always good enough.  Worst case scenario?  There's always a Luna bar or something similar hiding in my purse somewhere.

Bless my mother's heart - she has made countless efforts over the past 8 years to learn how to expand her cooking repertoire to make my holiday dinners as tasty as theirs.  Today wasn't any holiday (although, I did accidentally trick Mister into thinking it was until we were on the train), but we headed out to my hometown for a little friends-n-family time.

First, we stopped in at a Starbucks next to a train station on the way to my parents' home to spend a little time catching up with old friends.  I had a delightful, dairy-free Americano, but I couldn't help being distracted by my friend's peppermint tea - it smelled so good!  It is always amazing to me how some people are able to click so quickly it's as though little to no time has passed since the last meeting and you can all just launch into fun and ridiculous stories and conversation.  This was really the first opportunity Mister and I have had to sit down and get to know my friend's husband, but it was disarmingly easy to talk to him as though we'd all been close friends for years.

After we had all drained our happy red cups, my friends dropped us off at my parents' house on their way to the next adventure in their day.  After spending some time playing with cellphones (examining Dad's, since I plan to replace mine next month and showing Mom how to use some special features on her new phone), my cousins arrived and the food consumption began.  There was an enticing spread of olives, hummus, and bready things upon which to spread the hummus.  This kept our mouths occupied until dinner was ready.  My mother prepared a generous dinner of salad, fresh bread, baked ziti, and then she went to the trouble of making a vegan stew.  It was tasty and full of winter-warming veggies like yams and chickpeas.  Okay, chickpeas aren't a vegetable, but they are tasty!

She sent the leftovers home with us, so I shouldn't have trouble with WorkLunch for a few days (other than finding time to eat it)!  Sorry the stew is still in the tupperware - I wasn't interested in washing another dish just to make a pretty picture.

I really appreciate that she did that after I hesitantly expressed my disinterest in her nice, cheesey baked ziti.  She doesn't get me sometimes, but she sure does try to work with me and she did a great job.

This isn't completely related, but I figured I might never have a better segue to my post on omni-vegan foods than that, so let's move over to that subject.

I always laugh a little when people look agog and wonder (with big eyes) what on earth I eat.  Apparently, they've never had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Clearly, spaghetti with marinara sauce is completely outside of their culinary worldview.  I'm not completely sure how they've lived this long without eating rice, but I suppose it's possible.  Our culture (America) is so focused on putting meat and/or a dairy product on everything we eat, it is positively mind-blowing to someone to suggest it is not only possible, but relatively easy to NOT eat those things.  People can't even fathom eating a meal that does not include a chunk of Dead Bird or Fried Cow.

Want to know something ironic?  I've never eaten so good as I have since giving up meat, and then eschewing dairy and eggs.  Eating what everyone else was eating was so safe that I never bothered branching out and trying new things.  I had my "safe" edible animal dishes and had no interest in learning what a non-canned yam tasted like.  Eggplant?  Why would I put that in my mouth?  Pumpkins are for carving, not for eating.  Zucchini was only worthwhile when soaked in tomato sauce and sprinkled liberally with Kraft Parmesan cheese[stuff]. 

My ability to cook, as well as the pleasure I find in doing so, are completely rooted in becoming a vegetarian.  Let me tell you about the first meal I ever made for Mister while we were dating.  It was the last meal I made for Mister for about two or three years, by the way.  I made my three favorite things (I think they might have been the only things I knew how to make): breaded Tyson chicken nuggets, white Minute Rice, and Campbell's Chunky Potato soup.  I look back now and understand why Mister was horrified and wouldn't let me cook for another few years (until his mother, a great cook, had given me at least five cookbooks).  I don't know if I would have learned to cook if I hadn't changed my diet.  Why would I when I had become so skilled at making Velveeta Shells 'n' Cheese?

Yes, I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons I lost about 20 lbs when I went veg was partially due to giving up my crown as the Processed Foods Queen.

Anyway, whenever people get themselves all worked up about what on earth vegans eat, I want to make a list of all the things they probably eat on a fairly regular basis that are vegan.  Hopefully, this list will help omnivores realize that they won't actually melt or implode if they eat definitively vegan food (like seitan or tofu), since their systems are already used to things like:

Apples and other fruit
Bread (most brands sold in grocery stores are vegan)
Cereal
Dolmas (okay, most Americans probably don't eat these frequently, but it's a great thing to point out to my half-greek family)
Energy Bars like Clif and Luna bars
French Fries (except McDonald's)
Grape Jelly
Hummus
I'm not really going to go through the alphabet, but I'm sure I could if I tried because there are a ton of things in even the most limited supermarket that vegans can eat.  Sure, it might take a little creativity, but we're good at that and happy to help you!  Even the most meat-oriented omni has surely eaten salads, PB&J, pasta pomodoro, oatmeal, soup, toast, pasta salad, etc.

Something I've always gotten a kick out of (as well as used as a resource) is PETA's list of vegan foods you might not expect to be vegan.  VegNews recently published an article on vegan candies.  I just made a list that went all the way to H, but seriously - the more you think about it, the more surprisingly vegan foods you will uncover.  The reason no one knows what vegans eat is because they aren't used to thinking about the food they already eat as vegan, because they are not vegan.

Speaking of not being vegan, my mother gave me a picture she had unearthed from my younger years (when I was definitely not vegan). 

The quality is pretty crappy, but hey - it's a picture of a photograph (do you remember, back when you used film and someone else had to make that into pictures you actually held in your hands?).  That was me (on the right) with my best friend when I was around 15.  I was wearing my then-boyfriend's football jacket and feeling pretty teenaged.  A plaid flannel shirt is sticking out from under it because that was pretty "in" back then, with the whole grunge scene being hot.  They're also warm and comfy, and appear to be back in style - I love how trends recycle...it's so green of them.

one-pot wonders

Please tell me I'm not the only person who has watched That Thing You Do! [over and over].  Remember how they called themselves the One-ders before they hit it big?  And how everyone thought they were the Oh-Nee-ders but it was supposed to be a clever wordplay?

Yeah, well, I fought every impulse in me to keep that stupid pun "clever wordplay" out of the post title.

I have an entire cookbook devoted to One Dish Vegetarian Meals, so I really shouldn't be that impressed/excited by the one-pot nature of tonight's and last night's dinners, but I am completely psyched - I don't think it occurs to me how many pots, pans, and dishes I dirty in my nightly cooking endeavors until I make a meal this easy to clean up.

Last night I made Savory Tofu and Vegetables over Tomato Couscous from the Sept 2007 issue of VT magazine.  There were a few reasons this recipe caught my eye: for one, the tofu is sauteed with the artichoke hearts in the marinade from the artichoke jar.  Marinades are kind of a new thing for me, and it might not have ever occurred to me to use the marinade in the jar if this recipe hadn't put the idea in my brain.  I also liked the idea of steaming the couscous with the juice from a can of tomatoes...yes, I really can be that dense simple-minded.

It was very good for dinner last night, as well as lunch today.  There was one thing that stood out to me as somewhat bizarre, though - it was not cloyingly sweet by any stretch of the imagination, but it was far more sweet than it was savory.  That really surprised me, especially considering how downright tangy the artichokes and their marinade were.  I can only attribute it to the length of time I cooked the leeks and carrots (could have begun the process of caramelizing) and the tomato couscous.

In contrast, tonight we had Smoky Black Bean Tostadas with Garlicky Greens from the March 2009 issue of VT magazine.

As you can probably tell, I forewent the crisping of the tortillas to make fragile (read: super-messy) tostadas in favor of riceless burritos.  For a more attractive picture, click the link, but I'm pretty happy with the way these came out.  I made a few changes to the recipe to make it the friendly one-pot wonder that it was: I just sauteed everything, including the salsa, together.  Also, because I had some leftover and because it's fun, I quartered and sliced a link of Tofurky Kielbasa and I think that really benefited the final product.