Long beans | Eggy tofu on toast | Orange-mango smoothie

Madison has a fantastic, award-winning farmers market that covers both sides of the four long stretches of sidewalk that circumnavigates the State Capitol grounds. When our kids were young, it was a Saturday morning ritual for our family to trek to the market by 8:30 a.m. to avoid the huge crowds of the later morning, and buy veggies. We always ran into people we knew, and the excursion was as much a social as a shopping venture. After the market we'd head to the Civic Center for a free Kids in the Crossroads theater performance.

The market has only increased in popularity over the years, and now it seems even 7 a.m. is too late to avoid the masses. So we now shop at one of the many smaller markets that have sprung up all over the city. The west-side market we frequent is in a parking lot, but what it lacks in scenic charm is made up for with convenience and great vendors, many of whom sell organic produce. We were at the market on Saturday when I saw something I'd not seen before at the market.



Madison is home to a large population of Hmong families, and many of these transplanted citizens have continued their family heritage of farming, selling their wares at local markets. In addition to typical veggies familiar to Mid-Westerners, they often sell more unusual Asian vegetables, and as we walked along the row of market stalls, I excitedly rushed up to one that had bunches of long beans. The smiling vendor asked if I'd ever had them, and I said yes, but I'd never seen them at the market before. He laughed, and said that's because most people wouldn't know what they were! I bought a big bunch for dinner. As we walked the rest of the market I found Yellow Finn potatoes, and Anaheim peppers that drew me in with their fragrance. I started cooking a dish in my head, and really looking forward to dinner. My resulting long bean dish is not authentic Asian fair, but a yummy concoction of what I felt like eating, with Asian influences. You could make this with regular green beans if you're not lucky enough to find long beans at your local Asian market. When cooked, long beans are a little chewier and firmer than green beans, but still tender.



Long beans with tofu, potatoes and peppers

• 1/2 of a 14 oz. pkg. extra-firm tofu, sliced into small slabs
• 2 med. yellow potatoes, 3/4-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup low-sodium veg. broth or water
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• oil (1 tablespoon or less)
  
• 1 bunch long beans, ends removed, chopped into 2-inch lengths
• 1 green Anaheim pepper, chopped
• 2-3 Roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1 to 3 teaspoons Sambal Oelek, or red curry paste
• 1 to 3 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon natural sugar
• juice of 1/2 lime
• crushed roasted peanuts

1. Place the potatoes and stock in a large wok. Lay the tofu on top of the potatoes. Cover, and cook until the potatoes are tender but still firm. Remove to a plate, scraping out all the stuck on bits with a spatula. (The stock will have evaporated.)
2. In a small amount of oil, cook the garlic in the wok. When it starts to turn golden, add the beans and pepper, and stir-fry a few minutes until the beans are crisp-tender.
3. Add the potatoes and tofu, tomatoes, sambal, soy sauce and sugar, and stir-fry a minute or two until the tomatoes are hot. Check seasonings.
4. Mix in the lime juice and place in a serving bowl. Sprinkle with peanuts.
5. If desired, pass small bowls of chopped cilantro, chopped parsley and extra peanuts at the table.

lunch, the next day with additional tomatoes and hot sauce

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The green Owl revisited


photo by Betsy Haynes

In the short time we've been visiting Madison, we've been to The Green Owl four times! Yes, we like it there, but it's also the only vegetarian/vegan restaurant in town, and everyone wants to go there with us, because, you know, we're vegan. Every time we go we try something different, and this was the case last week when we went for our third visit. I was feeling kind of overfed, from all the eating out we've been doing, and wanted a simple meal, so I chose the Basics Plate, a macrobiotic supper of kidney beans, brown rice, and steamed kale topped with lemon-miso-tahini sauce. It was just what I wanted and I really enjoyed it.


photo by Betsy Haynes

But then I was tempted by dessert. My friend Betsy ordered the vegan angel food cake with raspberry sauce, and I got chocolate lava cake. The vegan angel food cake falls into the "how did they DO that?" category for its uncanny resemblance to regular angel food cake. My dessert was yummy but not so startling as the cake. I would love to have the recipe for the angel food cake, just so I could see what was in it! READ ON.

GUESS WHAT: Sadly, the angel food cake eaten by my vegetarian (but not vegan) friend wasn't vegan after all. Well that explains why it was so real, and also lets me off the hook trying to reproduce it. I received a very apologetic note from Jenny Capellaro, the Green Owl's owner, who was very upset that we had somehow gotten the impression that the cake was vegan. She really intends that people avoiding all animal products can feel safe eating in her restaurant.

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What else are we eating?



I was tempted to make vegan fried eggs, à la Zoa, for dinner, but realized that with the limited "vacation pantry" we're working with, that wasn't possible. I don't have vegan mayo or Earth Balance, nor do I have a food processor. So I opted for just the "white" of the egg, made from plain sauteed tofu finished with Indian black salt (kala namak). I placed it over avocado on lightly-toasted sourdough bread. It tasted so much like egg, with the richness of the avocado subbing for the yolk, it was kind of freaky. With the addition of steamed broccoli from the farmers market, and a cucumber and tomato salad, it made a satisfying light supper for a hot evening.



Thanks to our recent tenant, our garden is bursting with tomatoes, and there's parsley and basil growing in pots on the deck. My husband jokes that everything we make has to have tomatoes, so I made a salad with sweet English cukes from the farmers market and tons of yellow and red cherry tomatoes from the garden, plus parsley and basil. The veggies are so fresh and flavorful they need only the tiniest bit of simple dressing.

From there to here | Tire safety | Safe sunscreen?

Buffy, standing up through the opened top of her Gogo soft pet carrier

Buffy was ready to roll when we started our four-day road trip from Seattle to Wisconsin. She had a new soft harness, new lightweight pink collar and her favorite dog carrier to ride in, and I guess she was as pumped as a 17-year-old miniature poodle can be. The first day was pretty exciting for her, and she had a little trouble focusing on the necessary tasks of sleeping and staying calm, but the last three days she was an easy rider. She liked the motels, too, though we humans learned that carpets in the dog-friendly rooms are disgusting. They don't smell bad but they are covered with scary spots and look terrible.



Our first night was spent in Missoula, Montana, where The Good Food Store provided our supper. I had a bean burger, and Ken had a tempeh reuben. Mine was just OK — too salty and bread-y for my taste. I know I could have removed the bun, but I was lacking in discipline and overate, instead.



Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were our lunches of convenience every day of the trip. Each morning I'd repack the cooler with ice, and make two sandwiches for the road — we carried coconut milk yogurt, fruit, carrots and the pb&j in the cooler. We also had a bag of homemade trail mix and some additional pretzels. Dinners we planned to find when we stopped each day.

The scenery in Montana was gorgeous. We were surrounded by mountains, and open land in a thousand shades of soft green and apricot. Remind me to take some photos on the trip back.


Our second night was spent in Sheridan, Wyoming. We had Chinese takeout in our hotel and then went for a walk downtown. The rodeo was happening while we were there, but, you know, vegans don't go to rodeos, so we strolled down the main street to soak up the Wild West feel of the place. The stores were all closed for the rodeo, but Buffy was delighted to just walk around and window shop, and so were we.



How about a pair of gold cowboy boots to go with that wedding gown?



The street was filled with sculpture of every kind from abstract to very literal. The one above is called Granny's Garden, I think.



The rodeo is a pretty big deal and most of the shops had Rodeo signs in the windows.



The above is a bar window.



Even the shops selling non-cowboy-like Tevas and cool socks had ropes and guitars.



If I were a leather-wearing kind o' girl I'd want these boots.



The shops may sell modern goods but the buildings are beautiful, old and historic.



The mint is an icon. Be warned, though, that it's full of stuffed, previously-alive animals.







Wyoming (especially western Wyo.) was a beautiful ride. The third day was scheduled to be our longest as we made our way through Wyoming and South Dakota, and everything was going well until somewhere east of Murdo, S. Dakota, when we blew a rear tire and had to pull onto the road shoulder. The first thought we had was, "OMG where are we?" It felt like the middle of nowhere - flat, open land, few cars. It didn't help that it was 95˚ without an inch of shade. (Why aren't there any trees?) We felt cooked. And, I think we were still a little creeped out by the plague of flying grasshoppers we'd encountered at the last rest stop. There were still grasshopper bodies embedded in the windshield wipers.

A guy in a pickup came to our aid and changed the tire. He was wearing overalls, cowboy boots, and called his wife "mama." In exchange for his efforts he received a monetary reward and our extreme gratitude. I was desperate to photograph him for this post but was too shy to ask if it was OK. I guess I'll never be a photojournalist. :)



Buffy was relieved to be back on the road again but we were shaken, and every road-sound seemed like an impending catastrophe. By the time we reached Sioux Falls, S. Dakota, we were too exhausted to go find dinner so we ate our "emergency" udon soup bowls. The next morning Ken replaced our 9-year-old tires with new ones manufactured in 2010. (See below for a short, informative video about tire age and safety.)



Our first dinner at home was Indian takeout from a neighborhood restaurant. The next day we went to the farmers market and bought summer squash, green beans and cucumber to add to the broccoli and tomatoes growing in the garden our tenants had planted in the backyard. We also bopped into Trader Joe's for greens, carrots, avocados, canned pinto beans and sourdough bread because it was way too hot to cook, and the only thing we could possibly do was make a big salad. You can see the summer squash grated into the vegetable mix. I dressed the salad with balsamic vinegar and let the rich avocado stand in for oil.

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Are your tires too old to be safe?
Even tires that are purchased "new" may be years old and unsafe. Old tires are subject to tread separation and can be deadly, according to this report. This isn't what happened to our tire, but having our tire blow out focused our attention on just how safe our tires were as we traveled at high speeds on the highway.



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Is your safe sunscreen safe? Is anything safe?
I was a little disturbed to read recently that number 4 on the American Cancer Society's report on knowledge gaps for 20 suspected carcinogens list is titanium dioxide. This is an ingredient that often replaces dangerous ingredients in the newest sunscreens. Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are listed in the sunscreens noted as safe by EWG (Environmental Working Group). My new sunscreen has both. Anyone know anything about this?

Wrapped and ready | Family dinner | Getting testy

Cinnamon rolls wrapped and ready to go to the sale.

This past weekend I participated in another world-wide vegan bakesale — held at Sidecar vegan store in Seattle. The bakesale raised funds for Pig's Peace Sanctuary, a non-profit organization that provides a safe home for unwanted, abused or neglected animals in need. I'm merely a contributor to the sales but the hard work of organizing and running them is done by Bethany, who writes the blog, Spotted Devil Cat and his Vegan Assistant. For this sale I made nearly three dozen vegan cinnamon rolls. Making them wasn't nearly as hard as packaging them, since each item needs to be individually wrapped. I tried to make the packaging attractive by adding a ribbon and ingredient list but it takes so much time, and also I feel guilty about the packaging. I used the last of my roll of cellophane, and then moved on to plastic sandwich bags, ugh.

To make the rolls I used the recipe for Outrageously Easy Big Bread with a few small changes. The ingredients and recipe are all over the Web so I think it's OK to list the ingredients here. The filling was my recipe, but it's so simple it doesn't feel right to claim it.


Baked and smiling sweetly (but not too sweetly.

Dough

• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 cups hot water
• 1/4 cup evaporated cane juice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt plus 1 teaspoon Indian black salt (or just use sea salt)
• 4 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2 cups unbleached flour
• 1/4 cup canola oil or corn oil
  

Filling

• 1 cup evaporated cane juice
• 1 cup finely ground almonds (or almond flour)
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Follow the directions in this recipe link for mixing the dough.

1. Let the dough rise for 2 hours, covered with a damp towel, then punch down. Divide the dough in half.
   
2. Roll one half to an approximately 11 x 17 rectangle. (I rolled mine on a floured piece of parchment paper.)
3. Mix the filling ingredients together and spread half the filling on the dough, leaving 1/2 inch uncovered at each long end.
4. Roll up into a long log, pinching the last edge to seal.
5. Cut into 3/4 inch slices with a serrated knife, and place on parchment paper in a large baking pan to rise, covered with damp towel. (Leave at least 1 inch between rolls.)
6. Repeat with second half of dough.
   
7. When doubled in size, bake for 20-25 minutes in a 350˚F oven.
8. Remove to a wire rack to cool. (Frost or glaze if desired. I like them plain.)

update: The sale raised $1,240 on Sat, $530 on Sun, for a total of $1,170!!!

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Dinner for eight



We had a family dinner Sunday night with one of the families contributing a delicious tomato- pesto pasta, my husband making a green salad, and me making roasted cauliflower and white bean salad, kalonji and sunflower seed bread, and rice pudding. The salad came from Herbivoracious, a Seattle-based vegetarian blog that has many interesting vegan recipes. I enjoyed the salad very much, and found it easy to make. (I doubled the recipe.) I didn't have the orange-scented olive oil in the recipe but used TJ's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar which was recommended as a substitute, and it worked well. And I used basil and olives.

tip: Instead of mincing the garlic, I grated it on my microplane zester. I don't like chomping down on pieces of garlic, and the zester puréed the garlic so it mixed easily into the dressing. I was careful not to get my fingers too close to the grating surface but was still able to grate all but the very end of the garlic cloves.



The bread was based on the same recipe as the cinnamon rolls (above) but with a slightly different ingredient list. This bread requires no kneading and is incredibly easy to make. Tastes great, too! It makes two loaves.

• 1 tablespoon dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 cups hot water
• 3 tablespoons evaporated cane juice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt plus 1 teaspoon Indian black salt (or just use sea salt)
• 4 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2 cups unbleached flour
• 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 to 4 tablespoons lightly toasted kalonji
• 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
  

The kalonji seeds added an exotic flavor to the fragrant, soft bread, and the sunflower seeds contributed to the rich texture and taste. (see above for a link to directions.)

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Testing 1, 2, 3 ...



Our dessert was (a lowered sugar and fat version of) Frangipane Rice Pudding, a tester recipe for Celene Steen and Joni Marie Newman's newest cookbook-in-progress. It's been ages since I've had rice pudding, and this easy version was a treat. Of course there was also an assortment of baked goods from the world-wide vegan bakesale but I forgot to take a picture.

Eggplant salad with ume-tahini dressing

The salad as served on an 8" plate to company.

We recently had friends come for dinner and I planned an Asian-inspired meal with seitan and broccolini in a sweet and sour sauce over rice. I wanted to have a salad first, even though raw vegetables aren't usually found on Asian menus. I wanted the salad to have some connection to the main course so I looked through a Japanese cookbook, and found a recipe for eggplant salad — just eggplant, no greens. It had a dressing similar to one I used to make when I was following a macrobiotic diet and I was using many traditional Japanese condiments, like umeboshi. I decided to pan-grill (in a regular cast iron pan since I don't have a grill pan) the eggplant and serve it at room temperature on top of salad greens, with a umeboshi-tahini dressing and toasted sunflower seeds.



Some people blanch when they see "weird" ingredients like "umeboshi paste" listed in a recipe. It sounds so exotic and obscure. But is using umeboshi really so different from using all the other wonderful foods and condiments we've adopted from other countries? It's just another powerful flavor source that's good for your health as well as your palate. Look at all the Mexican foods like chipotle in adobo, or salsa verde, or Middle Eastern foods like felafel or tabooli. At one time they were considered exotic and strange.


The dressing.

Umeboshi plums and paste are made from a very small, round fruit closely related to the apricot, that is pickled with salt and shiso leaves. You can buy them whole or as a more convenient-to-use paste. It may seem expensive but it goes a long way, and I don't buy it very often. It has a salty-sour taste that goes especially well with the bitter flavor of tahini. (I even have a fabulous recipe for tofu cream cheese that uses umeboshi and tahini.)

The eggplant was cubed, soaked, patted dry, pan-grilled and cooled to room temperature before hitting the greens. The dressing was drizzled over all, and the salad was topped with toasted sunflower seeds. (I'm going to put in a plug for the Bob's Red Mill sunflower seeds I recently purchased. Maybe I was just lucky but these are the smallest, freshest, sweetest sunflower seeds I've ever bought. They're delicious raw or toasted and I love them.) I made enough salad for four people but the ingredients are flexible so use whatever quantities you wish. The dressing is very flavorful and goes a long way, but if you like your salad loaded with dressing or want leftovers, you can easily double the recipe.


The salad (missing carrots) served in a big bowl to me for lunch.

Eggplant salad with umeboshi-tahini dressing

• 1/2 medium eggplant (cut the whole eggplant in half lengthwise)
• canola oil
• salad greens
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin sticks
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, toasted in a pan
• 1 teaspoon umeboshi paste
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup or maple syrup or 1-1/2 teaspoons brown rice syrup
• 1 tablespoon water, more if needed

1. Cut two 1/2" thick steaks from the eggplant half. Cut each steak into 1/2" cubes and soak the cubes in water for 10 minutes. This is supposed to get rid of bitterness. Drain the eggplant and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Place about 1 tablespoon of oil into a cast iron (or other heavy) pan and heat. Add the eggplant and brown on one side over medium heat about five minutes. Turn and brown the other side. Remove eggplant to a plate and let cool to room temperature while you make the dressing.
3. Place the umeboshi, tahini, lemon juice, sweetener and water in a small dish or measuring cup. Mix to a smooth and creamy consistency. Add more water if necessary to achieve a creamy dressing that will drizzle from a spoon. The amount of water depends on the texture of your tahini.
4. Toast the sunflower seeds.
5. Place the salad greens on four individual plates or bowls. Divide the eggplant into equal portions and mound in the center of the greens. Artfully arrange the carrots. Drizzle dressing over all. Top with sunflower seeds.

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Day-glo bread and other misc. stuff



Here's a bread to which I added turmeric to give it a golden hue (and because it's supposed to have so many health benefits). It actually came out a lot more golden than I expected, and looks kind of weird. (I haven't photographed the inside but believe me, it's BRIGHT.) It tastes good, though. It's got rye flour in the dough for a little extra flavor, and sesame seeds on top.



I've been making English muffins from my no-knead bread dough, and having sandwiches for breakfast. I'm trying to eat more in the early part of the day and less at night, and these hearty breakfasts seem to really stick with me. I've found that a thinner muffin bakes up more successfully so pat your dough to no more than 1/2" thick. This particular sandwich had a veggie burger, avocado, English cucumber and Russian dressing. Just looking at it now gives me hunger pangs. I've also had muffins with cannelini beans, avocado and salad greens. My current vat of day-glo no-knead dough seems a little too wet for successful English muffin making, so I'm using it for regular loaves. The muffin above was made with the previous batch of dough, which explains its normal hue.



This is kablooey — a tester recipe for Celine and Joni. It is kind of like tabooli but made with buckwheat.

Bread, pizza - fast and delicious / kale salad

Last night I attended a book talk by Zoë François who is on tour promoting her book, "Healthy Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which she co-wrote with Jeff Hertzberg. I'm not such a big bread eater but I do love to bake bread. I like to experiment with different flours and methods to create beautiful breads with great texture and flavor. I've made naturally fermented breads (no yeast or starter) as well as made my own sourdough starter to create deli-style rye breads. I've made bagels, pita, tortillas, soft pretzels and naan. I usually make my own pizza dough, and sometimes I make crackers. I've made bread that took days to make from start to finish, and I once even hand-built a large ceramic bowl to mix large batches of dough in because I couldn't find one I liked.

Now I'm having fun making bread that takes almost no effort or time, á la Zoë and Jeff's technique. As I 've mentioned in a previous post, a fairly wet dough is mixed up right in a storage container, and left two hours to rest. A hunk of it is quickly shaped, rested and baked on a stone, and the remaining dough is stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks so it's ready to use anytime. As the dough ages, it develops more character and sourdough flavor. When the dough is used up, a new batch can be made in the container without washing it first, to jump start the sourdough qualities that give the bread its character.



I've got a bread (pictured above) on the counter, and dough for one remaining loaf stored in the refrigerator. A few days before the loaf above was baked, dough from the same batch was used for pizza. I made these things using the master recipe from the book mentioned above. I've been making whole grain breads using this method for quite a while but I had been treating dough meant for pizza a little differently - using more flour in the mix for a firmer dough. It's a lot easier to get the pizza from the peel to the stone when it's got some body. I used the wetter dough for the pizza (shown below), and had some difficulties which I meant to ask Zoë about last night but completely forgot. I sprinkled extra flour when I formed the crust, and lots of cornmeal on the peel so the pizza would slide onto the stone, but when I tried to transfer the pizza to the hot stone in my oven, it wouldn't go without leaving the toppings behind! I finally gave up and cajoled it into a pan.



It seemed to me the extra moisture in the dough steamed the crust in the pan, making the texture a bit more spongy than the crispy, chewy effect I look for in my crust. It was still good, but not perfect. I thought about next time putting the sauce and cheese on the crust, sliding it onto the stone, then quickly adding the bulkier toppings while the pizza is in the oven. I don't like this idea because for one thing, it sounds dangerous, and for another, the oven heat will escape, and the oven should be hot when the pizza first goes in. I've got some more experimenting to do or questions to ask. Or maybe I should just wait for Zoë and Jeff's next book to come out. They're working on one about pizza and flatbread!



The pizza, by the way, had a very thin layer of Follow Your Heart mozzarella topped by a sprinkle of Daiya mozzarella. This combination produced the best tasting pizza I've had in quite a while. The real stars of the topping, though, were broccoli slices and mushrooms. To go with the pizza we had a salad of massaged lacinato kale, shredded carrot, baby salad greens and edamame. The kale was very thinly sliced (roll into a thick wad and slice crosswise) and rubbed with olive oil and a little salt. The edamame was sprinkled with umeboshi vinegar and left at room temperature for a half hour to marinate. The salad was dressed with olive oil and lemon.



You can visit artisanbreadinfive.com to get more information about making artisan no-knead breads. It really does take about five minutes to mix it up — but there's still the resting and rising that any bread must go through. The big difference is the dough waiting in the refrigerator to be baked into the next great loaf.

note: The seeds on this loaf are black mustard, caraway, dill, and crushed red pepper. The mustard seed was surprisingly delicious in this combination!

Raw portobello mushroom larb salad / veganmofo 2009

© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

We took a raw cooking class recently, and I promised to post a recipe for one of the dishes. I prefer to post recipes after I've made them myself to see how they turn out in my kitchen; that's why you had to wait for this recipe. We ended up getting home last night much later than we planned, and no one felt like making dinner. I had marinated mushrooms for the salad earlier in the day, and although it was supposed to be a starter for our dinner, it ended up being the whole meal, except for some peanut butter on crackers. The recipe is supposed to serve two as an entree or four as a starter, and I'd say that's accurate.

Larb is actually a spicy Lao meat salad. In this recipe, it's been transformed by Chefs Heather and Lois of Chaco Canyon Cafe, into a raw, vegan dish.


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking (portobello mushrooms about 4" in diameter)

I started with two large (about 4" in diameter) portobello mushrooms. Chef Heather said she removes the stems when she prepares the salad at the restaurant, and uses them in other dishes. She doesn't use the stems in the salad so as to preserve the optimal visual appearance necessary at restaurants. At home, she said, she removes the stems, slices and uses them in the dish. I followed her advice, and after trimming the ends, sliced up those stems. The taste and texture of the stems was so close to the caps that I could see no reason not to do this again. The more mushroom the better.


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

The most exotic ingredient in the marinade was kaffir lime leaves, which I have eaten before but have never personally purchased. You can find these at Asian markets or, maybe, natural foods stores. In Seattle, all the PCC Coop stores carry them in little plastic packs in the fresh herbs case. Kaffir lime leaves grow as double leaves, and you just separate the two leaves to use them. These leaves are pretty tough so cutting them small is important. You just roll 'em up and slice thinly, then continue to a small mince. (The lime perfume as you cut them is incredible.) How small you cut them depends on how powerful your blender is. If you have only VitaMix-envy and a regular blender, you might want to mince pretty small. I used a Kitchenaid blender and it blended everything perfectly even though I got tired of mincing before I should have. Only you can judge what's best for the kitchen equipment you have.


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

The other ingredient that required mincing effort was the dulse. If you can find dulse flakes, you just have to measure, but if you use actual dulse, as I did, mince away. Half a cup of lime juice sounds like a lot but it only took two limes to get that much.

If you want the dish to be truly raw, you should use Nama Shoyu, which is organic, raw, unpasteurized soy sauce. If you want the dish to be gluten-free, you'll need to use Tamari, which is not raw but is wheat-free. I used Tamari because that's what I usually have in the house. I reduced the tamari to 1/3 cup and replaced the rest with water because I wanted the mushrooms to be a little less salty than I remembered from class. This worked well for me. Although not on the ingredient list, you can add dried ground chili if you want a spicy result.

I didn't think my mushrooms were soft enough after only an hour of marinating, and I think they ended up marinating about about four hours on the counter. You can marinate them in a shallow dish, or, as I did, in a plastic zip-close bag. I put the bag in a large dish (just in case anything should leak) and flipped it every so often. After the mushrooms were removed from the marinade, I jarred the rest of the liquid in the refrigerator to use as a marinade for something else, like tempeh. Or, you could start another batch of mushrooms.

As I was writing out the recipe I saw I made a mistake when making the marinade. The shallot was added to the blender instead of to the mushrooms. Oops. It tasted great to us but next time I'll try to do it right!

Portobello mushroom larb salad

• 2 portobello mushrooms, washed and sliced 1/4 inch think
• 1 small shallot, peeled and shaved paper thin
• 2 kaffir lime leaves, minced
• 1 teaspoon dulse flakes
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 2 tablespoons raw agave nectar
• 1/2 cup Nama Shoyu (I used 1/3 cup tamari plus water to equal 1/2 cup)
  
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 green onions, sliced thinly on the diagonal
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, washed and minced
• 6 leaves fresh basil
• 1 quart mixed salad greens, washed
• peeled grated carrots

1. Clean and prepare mushrooms and shallots. Place in a sealable container
2. Place kaffir lime leaves, dulse flakes, lime juice, agave nectar, Nama shoyu and water in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour over mushroom and shallot mix.
   
3. Cover and allow to marinate on the counter for one hour or in the refrigerator overnight.
4. Prepare the green onions, cilantro and basil. Place in a large salad bowl with the salad greens and toss. Use some of the marinade (to taste) as a dressing and toss to mix.
5. Place salad on plates or bowls and top with mushrooms and shallots. Garnish with a mound of shredded carrot.

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Don't forget to enter the cookbook giveaway!
© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Bon appetit - Pizza Pi and salad

Vegan pizza takeout from Pizza Pi in Seattle

We decided to do a dinner and movie night out. Actually, back in Wisconsin, we'd switched to movie and dinner, in an attempt to economize when movie prices started rising. We'd go to an inexpensive 4 o'clock show, and then out to eat. That seemed to work in Wisconsin, but apparently it doesn't work so well in Seattle. The 4 p.m. show we went to cost us $19. This was our first movie since moving here, and we picked a theater close to home that was showing the film I wanted to see - Julie & Julia. We almost walked past the Seven Gables theater because it looked like a large house on a residential street complete with a hefty set of front steps. My husband spotted the movie sign and up we went into a large house of sorts with a box office and theater and other lounging rooms. The place was old, and slightly decrepit, but "arty" in a very cool way, if you know what I mean. It was also packed, and we stumbled in the dark up the center steps of the theater to claim a couple of seats in the very back. My seat was not very comfortable - sprung springs and forward slanting, but I made due in the name of art. I mean, I can be as artsy as the next person. But still, trying to stay on the seat was sometimes competing for my attention with the film. There was another little thing - the screen. It was so small and far away. Plus, there were at least 10 previews (I'm not kidding), and I was very much missing our Sundance Theater in Madison.

We loved the film, and all the actors were terrific. My only complaint was that Julie Powell and her husband couldn't have possibly eaten all that butter and cream and not put on weight. "Julie" SAYS she gained weight but the tiny and adorable Amy Adams shows no outward signs. Meryl Streep was fabulous as Julia. I will have to rent some videos so I can watch the real Julia Child. I think I love her. The whole movie was wonderful.

We were feeling pretty good after this film but as we headed back to the car we saw tickets being placed on windshields. What? Did we overstay the two-hour limit? What? What? What? Yes, there was a ticket on our car, and it soon became clear why. There were multiple, stacked parking signs on the street - you know the kind - and we'd spent some time trying to decipher their meaning. We finally thought we'd got it worked out when we decided it was okay to park from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for two hours, except on Sunday. What we missed completely was the top sign that said "no parking AFTER 6 p.m." The ticket was for $44, making this the most expensive movie we've ever seen. As we drove away, I was wishing that the seat had at least been comfortable and the screen, bigger...

We went home to organize dinner because we didn't really have a set plan - the kind that involves reservations - and we were feeling a bit deflated after the ticket. No one really wanted to cook so I said I'd make a salad if he went out for a pizza. Going out for a vegan pizza isn't an option we've ever had before, so the novelty was kind of appealing. He went off to Pizza Pi to pick up the broccoli and mushroom pizza we ordered, and I went to see if there was anything left in the refrigerator to make into a salad. I've always wanted to be able to do this - order out for pizza like any normal family might. La-di-da.


Surprisingly elegant homemade salad from the dregs in the fridge

In the fridge was a bit of romaine, a few baby carrots, a small hunk of cucumber, baby beets, very soft yellow pear tomatoes on their final day of life and some leftover cashew-dill dressing I had made a few days before. This was not going to be a Julia-quality gourmet meal, but out of respect for her memory, I cut those veggies as carefully as I could. Elegant little strips of julienned beets and perfectly cut spears of cucumber. (The dressing, by the way, was made by blending cashews with water, olive oil, rice vinegar, sugar, dill, lemon, salt and possibly other stuff until it was creamy, smooth and delicious.)



The pizza surprised me at first because it never occurred to me that it wouldn't be whole wheat. It looked just like regular pizza from Pizza Pit except it was a little under-baked. It was a bit limp instead of crisp but the crust was nicely chewy and the toppings were fresh and good. Pizza Pi uses Teese for the cheese topping. We re-heated some slices in the microwave (yes, we have our first microwave in the rented house) and they improved greatly. It wasn't quite as good as homemade but it was good and I'm sure we'll be having it again. The salad was perfect.