the truculent vegetable

We're moving!

2010-02-26T08:54:00.000-08:00

I'm finally switching all my blogs over to Wordpress! That includes this one!

So head over HERE. Please and thank you! =)

Korean Pancakes

2010-02-11T09:32:00.000-08:00

Or some approximation of the above. Basically, my idea of a Korean pancake is to make some type of batter, put kimchee and mushrooms it in and cook it.

I still have kimchee hanging around my fridge so I really wanted to use it up somehow.

The first time I did these things I used this lovely recipe here. I really liked the idea of using mung beans instead of flour. My only mistake was using beans that still had their hull things on them. Once ground up, it didn't affect the texture, but it made them green. Which was totally fine by me but yeah.. .some people get turned off by the green colour. Can't imagine why.

Anyway, today I wanted to do them again (because I STILL have kimchee hanging around) but I didn't have nay beans (besides, even if I did, I couldn't make them today because the beans take forever to soak. Forever = over night). BUT then I remembered that I saw THIS recipe here. This one called for flour, water, eggs and assorted other stuff. Having flour, egg replacer stuff and assorted other things, I decided to go with this recipe. And can I say, I love this method for flipping big pancakey things over. It works so well (even if I nearly burned my hand off).

And hey, look! I remembered to take a pic of it!

I have discovered the BEST spinach recipe

2010-02-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

I'm not a huge fan of spinach in general. Raw spinach tastes bitter to me and cooked spinach looks.. gross...

But then I saw THIS AWESOME RECIPE recipe and I had all this left over spinach because people keep buying spinach in my house so....I decided to try it.

OMG IS IT EVER GOOD.

So good that I've now had it two days in a row and I ate it all up before I could go find my camera to take a picture of it.

I know this is a rather lame post but I just HAD to share my enthusiasm for this super awesome and simple recipe. Now I need to go buy more spinach! Whooooooo!

Well, I MEANT to post more food stuffs

2010-01-28T07:56:00.000-08:00

I even had all the pictures ready and I promptly forgot to post them. Silly hockey getting in my way again.

ANYWAY!

First off is crisp dulse! Dulse is this awesome seaweed that sort of resembles bacon almost once it's been fried. Basically when you buy it, it's a little smooshy so you just put some oil in a frying pan, turn the heat to around medium, put the dulse in the pan and fry it until it's (a different shade) of brown. Takes a couple of minutes. I initially used the dulse with these twice baked potatoes (the recipe's from the Conscience Cook) but then I discovered that the dulse is still super awesome by itself. If quite salty.

I also did this potato recipe which comes from SeasaltwithFood. (the link takes you to the recipe). Was super pleased to find out that you could boil and fry (erm, attempt to fry in my case) potatoes in the same pan!

AND FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm a huge fan of smoothies (just not a huge fan of having to haul out all the ingredients to make it all the time). I made this one using cashew cream (another "recipe" from the Conscious Cook which involves blending pre-soaked cashews) and a bunch of frozen fruit I had in the freezer. SO GOOD. And such an easy way to down those otherwise mostly yucky nuts!

The tale of the vet and the vegan

2010-01-12T07:44:00.000-08:00

So I found a cat. I can't keep the cat 'cause everyone has allergies and I have a lot of non-cat compatible animals. Anyway, being the responsible person that I am when it comes to my animals, I took this cat (who I dubbed Anze after Anze Kopitar of the LA Kings) to a new cat near me. Now, I'm not exactly picky about my vets. I feel that I don't have to like them on a personal level a lot, but as long as they do an adequate job with my animals, I will keep going to them.

Well... when the conversation runs thus:

Vet: (after some lecture on how cats can't eat venison or salmon) venison tastes really gamey. I'm sure you know...?
Me: uh, I'm a vegan.
Vet: I live with a vegetarian and let me tell you, if she ever went vegan, I would kill her.
Me: *sits and listens to a whole spiel on killing vegans whilst wondering if the vet is ever going to look at the cat*

... needless to say, I wasn't a happy camper after this conversation. I'm thankful the cat isn't staying with me so I won't have to deal with this vet ever again.

I get a little tired and irked by these lectures I get some people. Particularly people who have no business giving me a lecture about it. You're not my doctor, or my parents or anybody who should give a hoot about what I eat. If you want to eat meat, that's fine. I don't hate you because of it. I don't judge you because of it. I might judge you for acting like a jerk and charging me over $200 in mostly needless vet fees... But I'm not about to judge for your eating choices.

Vegetarians eating meat? Huh?

2010-01-11T12:56:00.000-08:00

I saw this while zipping through my latest copy of Newsweek. I was surprised and interested to see that many people who called themselves vegetarians would go back to eating meat that they determined was "ethically raised". I'm not about to get on my soapbox about this. People are vegetarians for many different reasons, but this doesn't really help the cause of vegetarians who chose not to eat meat because they feel that it's wrong to eat another animal - regardless of how it's raised.

No More Sacred Cows
By Jennie Yabroff | NEWSWEEK
Published Dec 31, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Jan 11, 2010

The latest cookbook by Mollie Katzen, author of vegetarian bibles The Moosewood Cookbookand The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, includes recipes for spinach lasagna and vegetable tofu stir fry with orange ginger glaze. It also includes a recipe for beef stew. No, not "beef" stew, in which some soy-based protein substitute is dressed and spiced to look (and sort of taste) like meat. Beef stew. With real beef. From a cow.
Considered one of the chefs most responsible for the mainstreaming of vegetarianism in the 1970s and '80s, and a vegetarian herself for 30 years, Katzen began eating meat again a few years ago. "Somehow it got ascribed to me that I don't want people to eat meat," Katzen said. "I've just wanted to supply possibilities that were low on the food chain."

For as long as people have been foreswearing meat, they've also been sneaking the occasional corn dog. The difference is, vegetarians used to feel guilty about their sins of the flesh-consumption. Now, thanks to the cachet attached to high-end meat, they are having their burgers without sacrificing the moral high ground.
The word "flexitarian," meaning someone who mostly eats vegetarian with the occasional cheesesteak thrown in, has been around for a while. But only recently have former vegetarians been so smug about their forays to the dark side. "There is something almost primal about it," writes lapsed vegetarian Tara Austen Weaver, describing her first meat-buying expedition in The Butcher and the Vegetarian. "I haven't actually hunted dinner myself, but I set my sights and claimed the prize I sought." The "primalness" of the meat-eating (or meat-purchasing) experience comes up a lot in these conversion narratives, which inevitably take place at a quaint, family-run butcher shop. Some of these shops are even run by former vegetarians and vegans, such as Fleisher's, the upstate New York store where Julie Powell (of Julie and Juliafame) learned to carve up a steer for her forthcoming Cleaving.

Buying only grass-fed, sustainably raised (and incredibly expensive) meat allows former vegetarians to maintain the same sanctimony they expressed with their old "I don't eat anything with a face" T shirts. In response to an article by Jonathan Safran Foer about his decision to give up meat, a Brooklyn meat moralist wrote, "lovingly raised meat is not as hard to find as [Safran Foer] seems to think—at least not if you have the good fortune to live near a farmers' market. Almost all the sheep and cattle and most of the pigs and chickens raised by the farmers who sell at those markets have spent their lives in the fields, free to run, graze and root as their natures dictate." This is the argument used by born-again carnivores like Katzen: eating meat is not ethically wrong. Eating ethically wrong meat (i.e., the cheap, mass-processed, hormone-stuffed burgers and steaks that constitute 80 percent of the meat sold in the U.S.) is wrong.

While it's true that sustainably raised, grass-fed beef may be better for the consumer, it's hard to argue that it's ultimately better for the cow. What these steak apologists seem to be missing is that no matter how "lovingly" the cow was raised, no matter how much grazing or rooting he did in his life, he gave up that life to become their dinner. Carnivores who only ate the flesh of animals that had died of natural causes at the end of long, satisfying lives might have a claim to moral superiority, but what to call them? Corpsevores? And if these organic farm animals have such great lives, isn't the more humane thing to eat a cage-raised, industrially processed chicken? At least we'd be putting it out of its misery.

Find this article at
http://www.newsweek.com/id/228720
© 2010

Still inspired to cook!

2010-01-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I still felt super inspired to cook so I made a few things...

First up was this random soup thing. I sautéed shallots, garlic and ginger. Then I added the vegetable broth and Korean chili paste (I bought some for kimchi. Will have a post about that once it's all fermented and ready to actually eat). I then put in reconstituted mushrooms (reconstituted in soy sauce), normal mushrooms, broccoli and cabbage. After a minute or so I added the noddles.

Around 4:30 I got really hungry so I just threw some tofu into the oven.

This is supposed to be like fried tofu only it's baked to make it healthier. Just pre-heat the oven to 400C, cut the tofu into squares, toss it in a bowl with some oil (I used peanut oil) and a bit of salt then put it on a pan in the oven. Flip them over after 10 mins and wait another 10 mins and then presto! Serve with soy sauce.

Now actually, I kinda lied. I was going to make couscous for dinner and I thought the tofu would be great with the couscous. only, the tofu finished cooking first and I left the couscous until later when I was following one of my multiple hockey teams.

THE COUSCOUS

(I promise i'll get better at plating my food before I take a picture of it. I'm still not used to making it actually look presentable)

What I used

1/3 cup veggie broth
1/3 couscous

Cut up veggies (red onions, red peppers, broccoli, mushrooms in my case)
minced garlic
cayenne
lime juice

olive oil for frying the veggies

Start off by cooking the couscous. It's very quick. Boil veggie broth. When it's boiled put the couscous in. Turn off the burner, put the lid on the pot and leave the pot on the burner until we need the couscous later.

While the couscous is sitting there soaking up all that veggie broth, fry the veggies (and the garlic). I really like the veggies not-mushy so I cook them at a fairly high heat until the veggies are quite brown. Add the cayenne at some point in there. Once there veggies are pretty fried, add the lime juice. Fry another min or so.

Once done, take your couscous, fluff it up a bit, put in a bowl and add the veggies on top. Voila.

Oh hey, I'm feeling industrious again

2010-01-05T15:14:00.000-08:00

Yup. Apparently I was still feeling industrious this morning so I set off to cook something. Or several somethings actually.

First up I made this soup thing for my dad. He's got a cold and I figured he could do with something super spicy. I fried up some onions, ginger and garlic then added some vegetable stock. Next I shredded some red cabbage (hence the red colour) and carrots. After that I added some hot pepper seeds, ground cayenne and a bit of chili oil. And finally, I added some cilantro (fresh coriander) after I put it in the bowl.

I'm told it was good. I didn't actually really eat any (aside from taste-testing it before) but apparently it was good!

And after that......... I was still feeling like cooking! I made a crappy lunch of soup using one of flavored packages things you can buy. It was pretty awful so I then made a baked potato in the microwave. I swear chives were invented so I could put them on a baked potato. YUMMY.

And AFTER THAT! I made vegan tokoyaki! I have never heard of this before despite nomming on quite a bit of Asian food in my lifetime (vegan and not vegan). The original is deep fried squid in this batter. The not vegan version uses mushrooms. I got the recipe from The Vegan Ronin. I don't have a picture of them because everyone ate them before I could find my camera (it's okay, they didn't look as pretty as the ones by Vegan Ronin). The only changes I made to it was I used a normal onion I had left over from earlier and I added garlic powder by accident instead of ginger powder (I added ginger powder as well after I realized my mistake).

I had some problems getting the batter to cover the mushrooms (maybe because the mushrooms were wet?) and then because I don't have a pan for deep frying I had some minor issues getting the balls to keep their shape while frying them. But the important thing is they tasted amazing. I didn't have any of the condiments to go with it but they were so awesome in their own. Next time I think I might actually cook them in a Yorkshire pudding tin (apparently in Japan, they actually have special molds to cook them and when I saw a pic, they reminded me of Yorkshire pudding tins). If they weren't so unhealthy, I would definitely make these again tomorrow :D

Corn Chowder Soup/Stew

2010-01-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

Whoa... haven't posted here in a while. Believe it or not, I have been eating. Believe it or not, I haven't been particularly creative with regards to food lately.

I finally felt like making something worthy of posting here though.

I've made this corn chowder soup from Isa of the Post Punk Kitchen's "Vegan with a Vengeance" book before (I love that cookbook. Most awesome ever). Today after battling through the wind and cold that is Canadian winter, I decided I could really use some of the awesome soup again.

I don't have the recipe on hand, but it involves carrots, onions, potatoes, corn (obviously) and some yummy spices like thyme and rosemary (and cayenne!). I left out a few things from the original like maple syrup and lime juice and bell peppers. It was super quick and easy to make.

As you might be able to see from the picture, it turned more into a stew than a soup. Which made it even nicer to eat after I came in from freezing my fingers off watching a pile of kids play shinny hockey outside.

Oh and being still hungry afterwards, I hunted through the fridge and found some leftover angel-haired pasta. I just tossed it with some olive oil, garlic and dried basil. Not as nice as the soup, but not bad either :D

Pasta Salad for the Wiiiiiiiin!

2009-12-03T14:44:00.000-08:00

Confession. I actually don't like pasta. It's bizarre because I love noddles but pasta and I haven't gotten along in... well, a long time. Interestingly enough however, pasta salad and I get along.

I was wondering why one of my previously awesome hockey teams was failing so epically the other night and then suddenly I was like "I want pasta salad". No really. It was like "why are they so bad these days? They used to be so good. There is no reason why they should be - PASTA SALAD!".

Not the best picture, I know. In all honesty, I had trouble taking a picture of it because I would keep eating it before I could find the camera. This is actually the second batch after the big revelation.

What's in it

Cooked pasta (these spiral doodad ones are pretty good).
Free tomatoes
grilled eggplant
grilled red peppers
kalamata olives
artichokes

For the dressing bit

olive oil
balsamic vinegar
basil
parsley
garlic
dried tomatoes

I really don't measure stuff so it was all just piled in there. I could eat this stuff all day if I actually didn't eat it all in one meal....

Being sick sucks...

2009-11-23T20:19:00.000-08:00

Thankfully I'm all better now but I haven't really eaten anything so there's nothing really to post here...My mom made these fantastic pumpkin/cranberry muffins though... and I did eat some so.... yay!

Mayo/Mustard "Chicken" Sandwich

2009-11-12T15:02:00.000-08:00

I'll admit to spending way too much time staring aimlessly inside the fridge trying to get my brain to come up with something to make for whatever meal it is. Usually, I just end up grabbing anything that's either already made. But the other day, I decided to actually make something. I had some faux chicken in the fridge that needed to be eaten. I also saw some vegan mayonnaise lying around as well as some Dijon mustard. I threw the faux chicken in the frying pan and was just going to add the mayo mixed with the mustard to the bread afterwards...only when I tasted it, I discovered that I put too much mustard (read: it didn't taste good). not wanting to waste it, I figured I'd throw it in the frying pan and see if that would make it taste better. Magically, it did. So I just mixed the mayo/mustard mixture in with the faux chicken and let it fry for a while. When it was done, I just threw some lettuce on a piece of toast and added the chicken. Presto!

Adventures of a vegan in a grill-style restaurant

2009-11-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

Obviously being vegan and eating out is hard. Of course, you just know you're asking trouble if you end up eating at a grill style restaurant. Don't ask how I ended up in there. It wasn't my idea.

Well, I think that's what the restaurant was trying to be. It was hard to tell.

The building used to house a Thai restaurant about five years ago. Clearly when the previous owners left, they didn't take all their decorations with them as small Thai mural still hangs over one of the windows. Upon walking in the waitress asks if we had a reservation to which we replied no. She then proceeded to look around like we were stupid not to make a reservation. Yeah, we really need a reservation when the place is practically empty. Please.

ANYWAY. After squinting down at the menu (the lighting was practically non-existent that it was impossible to see in there), I discovered that surprise, surprise, there was nothing to eat. Well, that was a lie. The ONE thing that edible on that list was pasta with tomato sauce. How creative.

Now, something you should know about me. I hate pasta. I used to eat it as a kid then got turned off it. It's taken me a long time to get back into it and even then, it takes a lot of effort to make the past a good. Two things are key to good pasta 1) it needs to be chewy. Not mushy. 2) the sauce has to be great.

Of course, the pasta tonight was neither. I swear it was left in the pot for five hours and the sauce was disgusting. I ended up just eating the bread rolls - at leas they were hot. And not mushy.

To make my night worse, the "live music" was louder than the music I'm subjected to at arenas for hockey games. And it was just as bad.

So all in all... ambiance was horrible (bad lighting, left over Thai decorations in a restaurant that tries to be semi-Italian and the music was awful) and the food was worse.

Three hours on and I can still taste the pasta sauce. GROSS. GROSS. GROSS.

When life gives you noodles....

2009-11-07T08:04:00.000-08:00

eat 'em.

I recently went on a small noodle shopping spree. I don't know why, but this coldish greyish weather really makes me feel like having soup or noodles.

Because I was totally hungry this morning and soup was going to take too long to make, I made a noodle stir fry thingy.

Basically I just fried up some mushrooms (button + some left over oyster mushrooms) and some left over fried tofu in sesame oil with some added chili oil. Once half way cooked, I added a mixture of sweet and normal soy sauce and pushed them to the side. I then added the soba noodles (which were already cooked when I bought them) and added more soy sauce (of both types). I waited for them to break apart and get all nice and brown. When done, I just put them in a bowl and quickly fried up some snow pea pods.

Very yummy =)

Whoo first post!

2009-11-05T19:03:00.000-08:00

Two have my biggest passions are hockey and food (no, not food served at hockey games. That's just gross). Last year I started blogging about hockey and after giving it a lot of thought, I decided that I wanted to start a food blog too.

As the sidebar thingy says, I'm a mostly vegan. I say mostly because I do occasionally lapse. Really try not to obviously.

I'm really not sure how this is going to work. While I love to cook, I'm rather short on time and creativity these days. I'm hoping though, that this will keep me inspired to cook more. We'll see!

Until I find something to cook I'll just leave a picture of some my new favorite tea

It's apple and cinnamon with black tea. Super yummy and perfect for these colder November days.