Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Revenge of the NERD (National Expendable Recipe Day)

Posted by Mickey Z on 03/14 at 05:28 AM
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  1. After I stopped eating meat, a girlfriend gave me Molly Katzen’s Enchanted Broccoli Forest. I’m not big on following recipes---it kind of takes all the fun out of cooking---but there’s one that I liked, and still use years later. This is my version. It has eggs, but I suppose they can be left out or substituted.

    In a wok or stir-fry pot cook diced onions and sliced potatos in olive oil till almost soft. Add chopped garlic. Add sliced green (or yellow, or red) peppers, zucchini and/or anything similar. This is a good time to add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the new ingredients are almost soft. Add sliced tomatoes (better without skin, but not necessary. Can also be peeled, canned tomatoes). Season again. Add croutons---homemade always better. Stir in a few handfuls of fresh (!) spinach and make as many indentations in the vegetables with the back of a large spoon as there are people eating (up to four). In each indentation crack an egg and cover the pot. Cook until eggs are desired consistency.

    Posted by Keir from The Hague  on  03/14  at  07:08 AM

  2. Good morning Mickey & Keir,

    Thanks for the tofu...bbq will be first.

    Here’s a nameless concoction that’s good with pasta or rice

    1 medium Eggplant
    3 (or so) portobello mushrooms
    2 or 3 garlic cloves minced
    2 tspn chili flakes

    ~Cut the eggplant into large cubes and the mushrooms into thick slices
    ~soften / fry the eggplant and mushrooms over medium heat with a generous amount of olive oil (I like to use virgin olive oil if possible)
    ~add the chili flakes & garlic after 10 minutes and continue to cook for about another 10 minutes

    The cooking time is all about the texture you like. If you like it as a sauce, cook until the eggplant comes apart a little more, and you can add a little bit of veg broth near the to make it saucy.

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  03/14  at  09:19 AM

  3. I have a vegan question: is regular pasta vegan?  I can’t remember if there are eggs in it.

    Posted by JOS (Ol' Valentino Leathernuts) from Chicago  on  03/14  at  10:16 AM

  4. oh yeah...how about bagels?  I am not sure if I could live without them.

    Posted by JOS (Ol' Valentino Leathernuts) from Chicago  on  03/14  at  10:17 AM

  5. and one more thing...I was at the pre-St. Patrick’s Day downtown Chicago parade and captured this shot with my cell phoen camera:

    Photo Hosted at Buzznet.com

    not sure if that worked…

    Posted by JOS (Ol' Valentino Leathernuts) from Chicago  on  03/14  at  10:20 AM

  6. JOS, I’ve always seen that pasta and bagels only have eggs in them when it says so on the label. Neither really need them at all, far as I can tell. Unless you just like eggs that much. Only thing I miss about eggs is the sunny side up experience, which let’s face it, no vegan dish can replicate. But as for a binder in baked goods, they’re easily replaced.

    Anyone have any requests? Side dishes, entrees, desserts? I have so many cool vegan cookbooks, hard to decide… though I think after work I must give up my vegan tetrazzini recipe, to lay to rest the idea that dishes w/o meat are only ‘side dishes’. So unless the place burns down, I’ll see you all later this afternoon/tonight…

    Posted by James from work  on  03/14  at  10:27 AM

  7. Requests, ok I’ll bite:

    - Vegan banana bread with walnuts...(I’d like to have a go at it without the dairy & eggs)

    Valentino that’s some pretty good timing - now if only the truck were on fire and there were a man with a big top hat on brandishing a shillelagh or some such… smile

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  03/14  at  11:00 AM

  8. Amelopsis...I have to say it was very good timing.  As far as I remember there were plenty of men with tops hats...no shillelaghs, which was weird.

    Here in CHicago they celebrate St. Pats for three weeks before the actual day...I was at another parade last weekend where I guy on a float was brandishing a blowtorch and lighting of fireworks.  It is all so strange when you are dead sober.

    Thanks James...what I need to know is if H&H bagels have eggs...if they do, I’ll have a problem ever fully submitting to veganism.

    Posted by JOS (Ol' Valentino Leathernuts) from Chicago  on  03/14  at  11:22 AM

  9. I think H&H has a specific egg bagel; all others are clear…

    Damn, I know I should be more open minded about other cities, but how do you people deal with living in cities w/o the origninal H&H? I mean how do you cope?

    Amelopsis, later tonight… damn it, NERD is going to get me fired!

    Posted by James from work  on  03/14  at  11:27 AM

  10. Three weeks! The parade here comes and goes with barely a mention although the Irish community does always make a good show of it, it never permeates into the rest of the community to a great extent - other than the pubs and bars all doing record business. 
    The only way most in attendance are sober, is if they’re dead, so I can well imagine it being a little surreal.  (yeah - I’m stereotyping and generalising)

    What are H&H bagels?

    And - can’t wait for CatLady’s tettrazini later.

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  03/14  at  11:34 AM

  11. Yeah, because lord knows, you have to come to a Danish boy for authentic vegan Italian cuisine.

    Posted by James from work  on  03/14  at  11:41 AM

  12. When in Ireland I avoid towns on St. Patrickday, people puking everywhere, sleeping with head off kerb or crucified on a fence or wherever their friends have left them, it´s like something out of a 15th century French novel.

    My recipe you´d want:

    300g mushrooms
    5-6 tomatoes
    3 cloves garlic
    2 onions
    brown sugar
    oregano
    parsley
    black pepper
    penne
    butter

    soften the chopped onions with a sliced clove of garlic for 5 minutes in some olive oil, add tomatoes, brown sugar oregano and black pepper and simmer 25 till thick. After 10 minutes, heat a little butter (sometimes use olive oil with a red chili thrown in a week beforehand instead) in a frying pan with a garlic clove sliced and sautée the mushrooms for 15 minutes. Add to the tomao sauce and cook for 5 minutes, then serve with penne.

    Posted by Owen from Barcelona  on  03/14  at  12:28 PM

  13. #2: Corn on the cob served with limejuice squeezed over it and sprinkled with chili powder.

    Posted by Owen from Barcelona  on  03/14  at  12:30 PM

  14. Oh missed your #9 James - bagel explanation. There’s always a bagel brouhaha between Montreal bagels and Toronto bagels. I don’t get it.

    Owen that corn on the cob is like a yummy Indian thingy, only the street vendors offer up a choice from some unkown medley of different masalas and the corn is roasted...mmmmakes my mouth water just to smell it.

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  03/14  at  12:44 PM

  15. “Spaghetti alla Puttanesca” or “Whore’s Pasta”
    The name of this robust pasta dish originated in Naples after the local prostitutes.
    It was popular because it can be prepared with simple pantry items and requires little effort.

    One 28 once can of drained whole tomatoes,
    juice discarded

    One quarter cup olive oil

    4 medium garlic cloves minced

    One half teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (or to taste)

    8 large black olives (about 2 ounces) pitted and chopped
    (Kalamatas - or just regular black olives will do)

    8 large green olives (about 2 ounces) pitted and chopped
    (Spanish Queens - or just regular green olives will do)

    2 tablespoons drained capers

    1 pound spaghetti (or long thin pasta)

    Salt to taste


    Heat oil in large skillet.
    Roughly chop tomatoes
    Add garlic and pepper flakes, medium simmer until garlic is golden
    Add tomatoes, olives and capers to the pan
    Simmer occasionally stirring to break up tomatoes until the sauce thickens
    (10 to 15 minutes)
    Salt to taste (olives and capers could be salty so taste, eh, taste…)

    At this point you should not be looking around to notice you have not started boiling the water.
    If you have forgotten to put water on to boil, slam your fingers in your kitchen cupboard -that’ll learn ya!

    Cook and strain pasta and toss it with the sauce. (mix well)

    Serve it up in warm pasta bowls and eat like an Italian Whore!

    The ease of creation and mix of salty and spicy flavours makes it a personal favourite of mine.
    Some monsters add anchovies but we all know anchovies should never be added to anything.
    There are a few variations of this recipe to be found with a quick Googling.

    Posted by Youngfox from the kitchen  on  03/14  at  12:51 PM

  16. Puttanesca Pasta is one of Stella Leatherface’s favourites too ;)

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  03/14  at  01:03 PM

  17. Amelopsis: http://www.hhbagels.com/Home_page.htm

    Not sure if they live up to the hype, as the whole big deal is their being so fresh delivered around the city each day.

    The problem with both of those cities’ bagels is that neither one of them have New York water, which is supposedly the secret to it here. About bananna bread, I could dig up specific recipe somewhere, but more helpful is to discuss egg subsituting in general. Check back…

    Youngfox, that sounds damn good, and black olives can improve just about anything.

    Posted by James from work  on  03/14  at  01:06 PM

  18. Um - is NY supposed to have delicious water or something??

    Egg substitution talk sounds very useful for me.  I see the stuff on the shelves but really don’t like to blow cash on stuff like that unless I have some word of mouth indicator of whether it’s good or not.  ‘Alternative’ shopping options are still a little pricey around here and can be hard to come by for some things.

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  03/14  at  01:21 PM

  19. New York water allegedly has an element that makes it unique for baking. The amazing bread here is evidence.

    Hello everyone. Thanks for all the recipes and excellent food talk. The Cat Lady has been holding down the vegan fort, I see. I just walked in, eating a kale salad at the moment.

    The mention of the word “whore” reminded me that when I was kid, everyone I knew pronouced that word: “hoo-ah.”

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  03/14  at  02:04 PM

  20. From food to food for thought: Looks like the far right corporate media has concocted a reason to invade Venezuela.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  03/14  at  02:13 PM

  21. JOS...I think that pasta usually does NOT contains eggs. Noodles usually do have eggs as an ingredient.
    Mickey, I think that some of your water comes from up here near Albany. GE contaminated the Hudson with PCB’s for many years. They are now struggling with a clean-up plan.

    Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  03/14  at  02:47 PM

  22. Chavez is playing a dangerous game....Yes I suppose that any attempt to assert National Sovereignty is dangerous if the plan does not include being a toadie to the Western Govt’s & Corporations...they’ve made certain of it.

    Posted by Amelopsis from Canada  on  03/14  at  03:49 PM

  23. Anyone have a link to a good article explaining the Venezuela/Chavez situaton?

    Stay tuned for egg substituting and other vegan, etc....

    Posted by James from work  on  03/14  at  04:46 PM

  24. This might help, James.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  03/14  at  06:10 PM

  25. “The problem with both of those cities’ bagels is that neither one of them have New York water...”

    It’s all about the water...one thing I may try is H&H’s worldwide delivery service...not fresh, but it has to be better than the crap I get here.

    I have an announcement to make...I have een officially offered a job and I start full time on Thursday!

    I talked about it before, but it is with a small company, we can wear jeans to work, and I think I am going to love it.  So I am extremely happy.

    I want to thank you, Mickey and everyone here for the support you gave me over the past few months.  You guys kick ass.

    I hop to be the first in a long line of lucky Expendables.

    Posted by JOS (Ol' Valentino Leathernuts) from Chicago  on  03/14  at  07:08 PM

  26. Excellent news, Valentino. I’m psyched for you, my friend.

    Captcha sez: born.

    G’night, all…

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  03/14  at  10:12 PM

  27. Hey congratulation, JOS, I know what all that’s like all too well. And thanks for that Znet link about Venezuela-- my brother’s best friend is from there, and as an immigrant is very pro-America in general, and hard to talk to about Chavez and stuff.

    Now I’d like to talk about egg substitutions if you don’t mind. I’ll summarize the points that Isa makes in her section about it in Vegan With a Vengeance, which you should all go out and buy so I don’t feel like I’m taking advantage of her. There’s so many recipes I could type out from her book, it’s so hard to choose. It’s great because she tries not to make you buy really exotic ingredients, working wonders with lots of things you might already have around the house.

    She doesn’t have a bananna bread recipe, but that vegweb site Mickey suggested for tofu on the main post has plenty to search in.

    Many will simply say “use this much egg replacer”, which is great in the case of bananna bread-- as bananna is often used for that itself. Half a bananna blended equals one egg. So often bread needs no eggs at all. But sometimes it can impart a rather, well, bananna-like taste to things, so be careful what to use them in.

    The only specialty sort of item out there is that Ener-G egg replacer stuff, which she’s not so crazy about. It can taste chalky in cakes and cookies and it can add too dense a texture.

    Then there’s simple flaxseeds ground up to a fine texture. One tablespoon to 3 tablespoons of water. Beat the ground seeds in a bowl with water til it becomes a gelatinous mixture, sort of like an egg white. In some recipes you can just leave the flax in the blender, saving the extra bowl. They work best in pancakes and other whole grain sort of items.

    Then there’s either silken tofu, or soy yogurt. Whiz either one in a blender, adding a little water to get it to blend well. In some recipes you might need to add some sort of starch so it won’t be too moist or fluffy.

    Okay, on to that tetrazzini recipe.

    Posted by James from Hell's Kitchen  on  03/15  at  07:30 AM

  28. As much as I wanted to put in something from VWAV, this is a favorite of recent years I’ve adapted from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak. Lots of wonderful dairy-free things she does with nutritional yeast. Nutrional yeast is awesome, easy to impart cheesy texture and taste to things with it. It’s sold in bulk bins at health food stores, but I often get the Kal brand in the yellow cannister. Make sure to get the flakes not the powder, it works much better.

    Okay now Tetrazzini is a main dish casserole type of thing tha typically uses chicken or other such meat thing, and all kinds of miscellaneous stuff thrown in here, but the main idea seems to be the cream sauce. It makes officially 6 servings, but somehow at my party it fed about 30 or so. I’m not so god with math. And so:

    a pound of spaghetti, broken in half-- use some sort of whole grain kind because why not?
    2 tablespoons or so of olive oil
    one big red bell pepper, not green because I don’t like green pepper and it doesn’t have as much vitamins and things
    4 cups or so of mushrooms, whatever kind, but it’s best to use at least two different varieties
    Lots of black olives, maybe Kalamata, like 3 or 4 cups or so.
    As much fresh garlic as you can stand-- keep it coming, I say
    Teaspoon or so of salt
    Tablespoon of onion powder
    Whatever other seasoning you feel like throwing in
    One cup of any kind of flour
    Half cup nutritional yeast, but I use more to make it creamier
    4 cups of non-dairy milk, soy, rice whatever
    At least one cup of frozen peas, but esp. if not using an sort of protein option, I’m thinking of using shelled edamame next time to make it heartier. Bam!

    Okay so cook the spaghetti, drain it and put it aside in large bowl. Pre-heat an oven to 350 degrees and oil a 4-quart casserole dish. Heat the oil in a skillet or whatever and saute the mushrooms and red pepper.

    Now deal with the non-heart attack-inducing cream sauce. Combine flour, nutri-yeast, the seasonings, and half the milk in a blender until smooth. Pour over cooked mushrooms & peppers, mix well and cook til thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in olives and peas and/or edamame. Pour all this over the pasta and add in some protein option thing, tossing gently. Spoon into prepared casserole dish and bake until hot, bubbly and golden brown on top, about 30-45 minutes or so.

    While there’s so much stuff in here that it’s fine as it is, you could add in some protein option like cooked beans in, or some sort of seasoned tofu, or chicken style seitan if you have it (if you don’t know what seitan is, look it up or ask me later), but what’s really cool is to to top it with some sort of prepared tempeh. For NERD Part 2 I could chat about my favorite tempeh recipes, or the ongoing non-dairy mac n’ cheese experiments or any number of things. Damn it, I was going to be a successful fiction writer until I started screwing around in the kitchen all day! Maybe I should start a cooking show to rival both Isa and Emeril. But have fun with this and oh yeah, go vegan and all that. For the animals, the environment, and for Mudge.

    Posted by James from Hell's Kitchen  on  03/15  at  07:34 AM

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