50 posts tagged “sides”
October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge comes to us from Jaden of Steamy Kitchen, who has graciously offered a recipe from her new cookbook The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.
I was lucky to enough to find a window in my schedule to complete both challenges. The vegan Pho Ga was very interesting to make. I only had time to make the short version of the recipe. You can find the long version of the chicken pho recipe here, and beef pho recipe here on Jaden's Web site. I toasted the same spices but used vegan faux meat (chicken breast) and soy sauce and hoisin sauce. I also added lots of shiitake mushrooms to add more flavor. The pho came out really tasty and the rice noodles simply were glorious in this soup.
Now I must get back to my work again. These beautiful foods can at least keep me a little more content now.
For more delicious Vietnamese Pho, check out the Daring Cooks blogroll.
The September Daring Bakers' challenge has been chosen by Steph of A Whisk and A Spoon. She wanted us to make our own puff pastry in our home kitchens. What a great idea! I've always wanted to make homemade puff pasty and I saved about a dozen different recipes. I finally got to make it this time. I don't know what I would do without this lovely Daring Kitchen.
The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.
Since I have made homemade croissants before, I'm not intimidated by the "laminated dough". It was actually really fun making this kind of pastry dough. For the full recipe with detailed instructions, click here.
(Makes 4 servings)
1 jar water-packed artichoke hearts, well drained and chopped
1/2 package Tofutti cream cheese
1/2 package Tofutti sour cream
3 tsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. capers, well drained and roughly chopped
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
A pinch of red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
I still have some leftover puff pastry in the freezer. I'm looking forward to making another batch very soon.
For more mouth-watering vols-au-vent, check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll.
After almost eight months of trying different vegan/vegetarian restaurants in the country, I must admit NYC is still the place to find the best vegan food. So much ethnic diversity and spoiled palates absolutely help to make NYC the one and only true vegan paradise. Even Long Island is up and coming in the vegan food scene. Cornucopia Natural Foods, a local healthfood store in Sayville, has just expanded its business to include a cafe. We have been really happy with the vegan food there, especially the juicy and tasty veggie burger is so delightful. We are determined to try to recreate the burger at home to satisfy our stomachs.
Back to NYC, it is a pity that we haven't had an opportunity to get some falafels yet, mainly due to the worsened traffic condition and time constraint. We did, however, visit the much renowned Candle Cafe. A pre-warning first: if you don't want to spend much money, skip this place and try the falafels sold on the street. Even though Candle Cafe is considerably cheaper than her sister restaurant Candle 79, you will not be able to walk away without at least spending 70 to 80 bucks for a proper meal. It is in Manhattan after all. We liked the food much better than in Candle 79.
We ordered French fries and sauteed broccoli (with a creamy basil sauce) as sides.
I was going to order the Pomegranate Grilled Tofu at first but changed my mind completely once I saw Tuscan Lasagna on the menu. So far this is the first vegetarian restaurant we have been to that actually serves lasagne. I figured that I had to try it once. I was rather disappointed with the lasagna though. The tofu ricotta was too wet and the whole thing was quite bland and watery. The only thing I liked was the Swiss chard underneath the lasagna. We did get the Pomegranate Grilled Tofu (with couscous and roasted veggies) as takeout which was great. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo before digging in.
Hubby ordered the Artichoke Wrap, which was really good. It was very vegetable-oriented and the soy cheese was not over-powering. The avocado and tofu inside created a good balance. We highly recommend it.
Besides all this, we also ordered a sweet potato soup and a split pea soup for takeout. They were both very tasty as well.
Now we are still in NY and I am recovering from a sore throat (not swine flu). Hopefully we can drive up to Vermont in a couple of days. Until then, take care and God bless.
I have been cooking but it has become rather hard to keep up posting more often. We always seem to have many things piling up onto the to-do lists. "It's always something" has been such a cliche in our household now. I didn't have time to come up with any new recipe. Nor did I participate in any cooking contest like I planned. I cooked from cookbooks and my recipe collection. Alas! 'Tis life. We ought to be grateful for what we have though. My husband and I have begun our little "self-compliment" group, inspired by LaidOutInLavendar. It is not easy at all. Gosh, I never knew it could this hard to say a few nice things about ourselves without feeling weird or discouraged. But we are trying. It's much easier to compliment each other, but when it comes down to the self-compliment... I guess we just don't know ourselves well enough.
Anyway, here comes the food porn, as usual. The first thing is from VwaV, page 28, "Fronch" Toast. It was great, but next time I will definitely add some cinnamon and nutmet to make it more traditional.
The second thing is Bryanna's Hunan Tofu. I made this before, a long while ago that I can't even remember. This time I didn't even fry the tofu beforehand because I wanted more of a soft and juicy texture. It turned out even better than I remembered. Surely a keeper!
Moonstruck (1987) is definitely my all-time favorite movie. I guess by now I've seen the movie like 20 to 25 times. I've tried watching this movie every day for 10 days straight and I'm still not tired of it. Nowadays there is almost no chance of seeing such a cute, lovely and family-friendly movie that makes you drool over the Italian food and feel all so romantic like a high-school kid. Therefore, I made my Moonstruck Minestrone to commemorate all the happy feelings this movie has instilled in me.
D's Moonstruck Minestrone
(makes 6-7 servings)
1 large yellow onion, halved and then sliced thinly
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced
3 large stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 cups cauliflower florets, cut into bite size
2 cups tomatoes, roughly chopped and juice reserved
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 medium cabbage, cut into bite-size pieces
7-8 cups water
4 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 bay leaves
3 tsp. Italian herb seasoning
1/2 cup canned red kidney beans, drained
1/2 cup canned chickpeas, drained
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Saute onion, garlic, celery, carrots and cauliflower over medium heat for about 9-10 minutes until they soften a little.
2. Add tomatoes and cover. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
3. Uncover, add water and cabbage. Turn heat to high to reach a slow
boil and stir in the tomato paste and herbs. Mix well and reduce heat
to simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes.
4.
Add beans to the stock and heat through. Cook another 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm (and now you can watch one of your favorite movies while eating it).
Besides the minestrone which I really love, I'm also extremely fond of coconut pies. This time I made the V'con basic single pastry crust again and made the Lime Sucker Coconut Pie (Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, page 200). This pie has the perfect balance of sweetness of the coconut and fresh tanginess from the limes. It rendered me completely defenseless.
I don't know whether it's the weather change or my mood change, but I've been craving for tasty and healthy eats and treats. I've been cutting down my sugar intake recently. People in my family don't show any exemplary resistance when they are faced with a plate of warm bread pudding smothered in thick cream. I'd gladly eat chocolate pudding for breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days straight. But, sugar does make people sick, especially too much sugar. When our food is overly acidic and our body fails to rid itself of the excessive acids as a result of over-working for decades, we will feel it. Stomach ulcers, heartburns, migraines and diabetes are just some common results. So, I am trying to do a little better with sugar. Apparently, with the dietary shift come the different cravings. I'm currently on a spinach and green beans kick. Oh, did I mention before that I'm a huge dill lover? There's just nothing like the smell of fresh dill weeds.
The spanakopita pie was very naturally created because I had some leftover filling from making the pot-stickers a couple of days ago. I just love the spinach, tofu and pine nuts mixed together and drowned in the aroma of dill.
Then I saw Heidi of 101 Cookbooks made this new dish: Vibrant Tasty Green Beans. I love green beans and I love dill even more. How could I ever resist such a lovely combination of the two? So this is the healthy yumminess delivered as promised.
We are staying outside St. Augustine right now. There are only two healthfood stores in St. Augustine. I certainly won't see Whole Foods any time soon. But amazingly, we got what we needed in Publix. Staying in a hotel room equipped with a microwave oven certainly helps a lot. This VeganMoFo entry is about a vegan microwave lunch. This is what we made by steaming broccoli in a tupperware with water. Then we mixed packages white beans and water-packed artichokes in, and added loads of herbs and Earth Balance and salt and pepper. The dish turned out amazingly delish. I don't know how but this is better than a lot of restaurant food we have been eating.
So here I am, looking at these gorgeous food photos once again. Next time when we are in the city, we will visit Pure Food & Wine. This is one of the appetizers we ordered, grilled seitan chimichurri. The seitan was amazingly tender. My omni brother-in-law highly enjoyed it. I will definitely consider making this at home. I also ordered edamame but I forgot to photograph it.
We didn't plan it this way at all, but we're still staying in my in-laws' house. So the VeganMoFo had to kick off in my mother-in-law's kitchen. We've been way too busy with our own business and now we somehow got ourselves involved in another greater family matter. We haven't been shopping much or cooking a lot at all. So this first entry will be perfect to show how people can have a good and fast vegan meal without doing too much. Of course, the abundance of vegan food in NY is very helpful. I'm still astounded how easy it is to grab these vegan essentials like Earth Balance, vegan cream cheese, vegan ice cream and stuff in almost any supermarket on Long Island.
The first plate is roasted peppers with cilantro and garlic and some really good roasted artichokes. I'm so in love with roasted artichokes now.
To all the VeganMoFo participants: Have fun!
