On the Town: Lunch at Jyoti Bihanga (VeganMoFo)

Jyoti Bihanga is a wonderful vegetarian restaurant in Normal Heights (my eclectic lil neighborhood in SD) that holds a special place in my heart.  It’s the first veg eatery I ever went to and I still love eating here.  Their menu is consistent, offering a nice array of traditional dishes done with vegan/vegetarian flare. 

Though their base menu has been the same for as long as I’ve been frequenting the joint (no complaints!), they always offer a different daily special and have soups that change on a daily basis.  I have never had a soup here that I haven’t loved.  It’s stuff that would make even the Soup Nazi (let me hear all the Seinfeld fans!) proud.

My sister and I walked to Jyoti’s for lunch before heading out for some treasure hunting (i.e. thrift store shopping) and just wanting something light, I opted for soup and salad.  The soups of the day were an Indian lentil, creamy potato (vegetarian, not vegan) and “chicken” noodle.  I ordered the chicken noodle and their green salad.  Jyoti’s has a great selection of house-made vegan dressings, but my favorite is their lemon tahini.  

Many moons ago it was a Jyoti Bihanga's salad that made me realize I love raw beets.  Thank you Jyoti Bihanga! 

 

The soup came out next and looked just like traditional Campbell's, though loaded with more goodness and absent from the gross animal stuff.  It really hit the spot.  I can’t wait for my next trip back to this little gem so close to my apartment.  I’m lucky though in that I have a few vegan dining options walking distance from my place and even more that are just a short drive.  Hopefully I can get out more and report on some of those places as well. 

With a wink and a smile,

VVG

Creamy Avocado Pasta care of "Oh She Glows" (VeganMoFo)

It was just last week that I discovered the blog “Oh She Glows”.  Check it out!  With so many great blogs out there containing original recipes, it is usually some time before I actually make something from any of them.   But after reading Angela’s post on her 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta and with a ripe avocado beckoning me, I had to give her novel idea a try.   

Boy am I glad I did!  This recipe really only takes 15 minutes and it is downright delicious.  The sauce can easily be put together in the time it takes your pasta to cook.  The food processor does all the work for you, much like when making a pesto. 

Minor changes I made to Angela’s recipe for my purposes…

-     I used soba noodles that had a green color to them (I’m assuming they had spinach in them.  I threw out the package a while ago).

-     I only used a few small basil leaves because it was all I could get out of my dying plant

-     I added ½ a shallot to the sauce before blending, just for kicks

-     I topped my helping with a fresh tomato (I have lots on hand at the moment but you won’t hear me complaining one bit)

I used two garlic cloves (the recipe calls for 2-3) but I think next time I’ll just use one clove as long as it isn’t too wimpy in size.  This is a raw sauce so the garlic was pretty powerful. 

Because this makes two servings and should be eaten right away, I toted this to my mom’s house for our weekly sewing sesh and she loved it.  This recipe will definitely be in rotation during avocado season.  Thank you much, Oh She Glows!

On the Town - At the Farmers' Market (VeganMoFo)

Aren’t farmers’ markets just the greatest?!  Even if I don’t end up buying anything at one, the experience of meandering through the aisles of fresh produce, greeting the jolly farmers and inhaling the aromas of freshly prepared global cuisine is enough to lift my spirits.  

I'm seeing red!

I headed to my farmers’ market this afternoon to get some strawberries before their season ends here in San Diego.  Since I started buying strawberries at the farmers market I have been ruined for all grocery store strawberries (much the way I have been ruined by home-grown and CSA tomatoes).  These precious babies are most often picked the very day they are sold and their dark red hue proves it.  

This trough of strawberries only set me back $6.  While in season, I usually buy this amount every 2-3 weeks, eat 2/3 of them during the remainder of the week and then freeze that last third for times when strawberries are no longer in abundance. 

Another buy from today’s market was a bag of juicy Valencia oranges.  Only $3 for these babies.  I’m set for oranges now for a couple weeks.  Again, the quality of the oranges I get at the farmers market is exponentially better than at Sprouts (my favorite health food store chain). 

 

I do very little with fresh seasonal fruit other than eat it straight so no fancy plans for this haul.  Fruit is arguably my favorite food on earth so when it’s great like this I enjoy it pure and simple.  

With a wink and a smile,

VVG

Cooking through my CSA: Cabbage (VeganMoFo)

More CSA food posts!  It just shows that one small, biweekly CSA share can easily provide enough veg for one to two people for two weeks.  The CSA I’m currently cooking from is one I picked up on September 25^th!  I eat veg from it every single day and still have produce left to use.  My next pick up will be this Sunday.  It’s always rather exciting. 

Other dishes I have made with my CSA vegetables that have not been featured on le blog are Spicy Thai Noodles (used bell peppers and cabbage in that one), Tortilla Soup (bell peppers and onion), salads galore (lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers and onion sprouts) and my favorite breakfast of late - toasted sourdough bread, spread with some mashed avocado, topped with sliced tomatoes and onion sprouts (tomato and onion sprouts from CSA). 

I got one HUGE head of cabbage in this box and although I have tossed some shredded cabbage into salads, the Spicy Thai Noodles I mention above and the fajitas I just made, I needed to make something that would really feature the cabbage while getting most of it off my hands, in the most delicious way possible.  With this expanse of cabbage, it only seemed fitting that I make my version of one of my favorite Whole Foods dishes - the Fumi Tofu Salad.  

The prepared foods bar at Whole Foods is a vegan dream and one of the first things I ever tried there was this Fumi Tofu Salad.  When I tasted a sample I just had to have a bowl of it.  This seemingly simple cold salad of tofu, cabbage and nuts has a great flavor profile that had me justifying spending $6 for a small container of it.  The last time I bought the salad from Whole Foods I held onto the ingredients label and vowed to try my hand at it so I wouldn’t have to continue shelling out buco bucks for the stuff.  I think I’ve done a fair job at it too.  Eat your heart out Whole Foods!

It is rather important that you use good quality tofu since it remains raw.  For this, I use tofu from the San Diego Soy Dairy and it’s labeled “firmest”.  The texture is so dense that I don’t need to press it.  If you’re using extra firm tofu, I’d recommend giving it a long, hearty press. 

Ingredients:

Salad

One pound extra, extra firm tofu (buy local if available) cut in small cubes

One small head green cabbage, chopped or shredded

¼ cup slivered almonds

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 bunch green onion, chopped

Marinade

2 ½ tablespoons olive oil

2 ½ tablespoons tamari soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon natural sugar

Equipment:

Large, shallow container with a tight fitting lid (true Tupperware is best for this)

Procedure:

1.  Mix all the marinade ingredients together in your large dish

2.  Place the cubed tofu in the marinade and toss to coat (I put the lid on and shake the heck out of it!)

 

3.  To your container, add the remaining salad ingredients

4.  Toss to coat all ingredients and allow to sit for at least an hour before eating.  This should last about 4 days in the frigidaire.

5.  Voila!  Homemade Fumi Tofu Salad at a fraction of the cost of Whole Paycheck.

 

Cooking through my CSA: Peppers (VeganMoFo)

Who doesn’t love peppers?  They’re versatile, flavorful and gosh darn beautiful.  I mean LOOK at these babies.

The purple bell pepper in the upper right is my fave, but don't tell the others

Bell peppers may not be as exotic as some of the other CSA items I have been challenged by, but because I get peppers in just about every one of my biweekly CSA boxes it can be difficult figuring out ways to highlight them in my cooking.  The little green ones are Padron peppers.  I have gotten these a few times in the CSA and they have varying heat levels depending on how mature they are.  Each time I get them (this is the third time now) they get spicier.  The peppers pictured above were about the heat level of a jalapeno.  With these (and the ½ onion I had left after making my Tomatillo Enchiladas) I decided to make some ridiculously easy fajitas. 

I cheated here and used a store-bought fajita seasoning packet.  These packets are dirt cheap, especially when bought on sale.  When I cook using a packet like this, it reminds me of when my dad made chicken fajitas for our family at home (he uses the seasoning packets as well).  I love throw-back meals like this.  In the future I’d like to make my own fajita seasoning blend to mimic these flavors.  For a batch this size, I only use about 1/3 of one seasoning packet. 

These come together in a flash, so have your tortillas and fixins ready.  This is a viable option for a weeknight meal when you come home starving, plus it only uses one pan to boot!

Ingredients:

3 medium bell peppers (whatever colors you have on hand), sliced

2-3 Padron peppers, or moderately spicy peppers, chopped, optional

1 small or ½ a large onion, sliced

1 cup chicken style seitan (I used Gardein strips)

1 Tbsp fajita seasoning

1-2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil

Splash or two of water

Flour or corn tortillas

Fajita fixins (sour cream, salsa, cheeze, tomatoes, lime juice and/or cilantro would all be divine)

I used homemade sour cream (recipe from THIS amazing cookbook), limes, sliced cabbage (CSA) and chopped tomatoes (CSA).

Equipment:

Large, heavy-bottom skillet

Procedure:

1.  Sauté sliced peppers and onions in oil on high heat until they start to brown and soften

2.  Add a splash of water to deglaze the pan and add your fajita seasoning, cook a few minutes

3.  Add your chik’n and cook for an additional 5 minutes or so.  If you like your fajitas a little saucy, add more water as needed.

4.  Layer the pepper, chik’n mixture onto a warm tortilla and top with your favorite fixins 

5.  Devour

 

Happy eating!

Food and Film: Milk-plus ala "A Clockwork Orange" (VeganMoFo)

For my first Food and Film post I wanted to make something in the theme of “A Clockwork Orange”.  I can’t say enough great things about this 1971 classic, so if you haven’t seen it, what are you waiting for?!  

The opening scene of the movie is done in perfect Stanley Kubrick fashion, taking place in the Korova Milkbar where Alex DeLarge and his droogs drink milk-plus which would “sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence”.  Of course I don’t condone any of the dirty doings that Alex and his gang perform in the movie, but I wanted to channel that beautifully disturbing and haunting scene.  To do this, I decided to do a play on milk-plus, creating a liquor-laced milkshake with an orange twist. 

Milk-plus is basically plain ‘ol milk laced with a hallucinogen called drencrom.  In lieu of drencrom, I used whiskey (scotch to be particular).  I think bourbon would be nice too.  Scotch is just what I had on hand.  Feel free to use whatever your favorite whiskey is.  Then, just to be a bit literal, I added a splash of orange liqueur. 

So make up your rassoodocks, whip up this delicious take on milk-plus for yourself and your favorite droogs and watch “A Clockwork Orange” at your next movie night!

Milk-plus ala "A Clockwork Orange"

Makes one drink

Ingredients:

2-3 scoops of your favorite non-dairy vanilla ice cream, slightly softened

2 ounces whiskey

1/2 ounce Triple Sec

a splash of non-dairy milk to thin, if necessary (I didn't need to use this)

Orange peel or some orange zest, if you're feeling fancy

Equipment: 

Immersion blender (use a larger blender if you're making these drinks for more than two droogs)

Clear cocktail glass

Procedure:

1.  Place the softened ice cream in your blender and add the alchohol

2.  Blend away

3.  Taste for potency and adjust to your liking

4.  Garnish with orange peel or zest, if using

5.  Pop "A Clockwork Orange" in your DVD player and drink up!

Channel Alex DeLarge with this tasty drink

Cooking through my CSA: Tomatillos

My latest CSA loot.

The best thing about participating in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is also one of the most challenging and that is figuring out how to make a great dish using produce you aren’t very familiar with, and some cases have never even heard of! 

Now, living in southern California I had heard of and seen tomatillos prior to opening my latest CSA box.  The weekly farmer’s market that my work runs has a fantastic Mexican food vendor who sells the most amazing spicy tomatillo salsa.  However, until receiving these firm green tomato look-alikes in my box, I dismissed the idea of buying and cooking with them myself.  The husks threw me off and made me think that the little boogers would be too tedious.  Wrong!  Removing a tomatillo husk is by far and away easier and less messy than removing fresh corn husks. 

Because the farm with which I participate puts out a weekly newsletter letting its subscribers know in advance what they can plan to see in their weekly or biweekly box, I knew the tomatillos were a comin’.  So, I consulted my pal, Google, for tomatillo cooking ideas. 

Being a lover of Enchiladas Verdes (said in my most overly annunciated and dramatic pseudo Hispanic accent) I decided to roast the tomatillos and blend them up into a green sauce for enchiladas.  You can adjust the heat level by playing with the peppers you use in this.  I wanted something more mild since this was to be used for the enchiladas.  If I were making this as a salsa I would have used jalapenos, habaneros or some Caribbean Red peppers.  I enjoy my salsa muy caliente!

Blended Tomatillo Salsa/Sauce

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh tomatillos, husks removed

1 onion, skinned and quartered

2 medium to mild peppers (I used pardon peppers but Anaheim would be great too)

3 cloves garlic, peeled

½ cup chopped fresh cilantro intact

Juice of one lime

2 Tbsp olive or canola oil

Salt to taste

Water to blend, if necessary

Equipment:

Oven, set to broil

Roasting pan or baking sheet

Food processor or blender

Procedure:

1. Place the husked tomatillos, onion quarters and garlic cloves on an oiled baking sheet and broil in the oven for 10 minutes.  Flip and broil another 10-15 minutes until tomatillos are charred, soft and starting to ooze. 
2. Remove from oven and let cool enough to handle.
3. Remove the seeds from the broiled tomatillos and discard.  Place charred, seeded tomatillos in your food processor or blender with the garlic and onion.  Blend.
4. Add cilantro, lime juice and as much water as you need to get the consistency you want.  If you plan to use this as a salsa, go easy on the blending.  If using as a sauce to top enchiladas like I did, blend away adding a few tablespoons of water to get that saucy consistency.  Set aside.

Now onto the enchiladas…

These are highly customizable based on your tastes and what you have on hand.  I used a combo of potatoes, beans, sautéed peppers and onions, tomatoes and cheddar daiya.  I think it would be great fun to use a homemade block cheese (many recipes in The Ultimate UnCheese Cookbook!) or a cashew/nutritional yeast based cheesy sauce for the filling and/or topping. 

Enchiladas Verrrrdes

Ingredients:

About ten 8-inch tortillas (I used flour which are not so authentic for enchiladas but very easy to handle)

1 can beans (I used pinto but black, refried or red beans would also be tasty)

1 large russet potato, cubed and boiled

1-2 bell peppers, sliced

1 small onion, sliced

2-3 average size fresh tomatoes (if tomatoes are out of season, skip them.  They aren’t essential)

Vegan cheese of some sort, divided in half

Equipment:

Oven set to 325°

Large glass baking dish (go go gadget Pyrex!)

Medium to large mixing bowl

Procedure:

1. Boil your cubed potatoes until just fork tender.  Set aside in a medium to large mixing bowl
2. Sauté the bell peppers and onion in 1 Tbsp canola oil until softened, season with salt and pepper and mix with potatoes, chopped tomatoes (if using) and ½ of the vegan cheese.  Now is a good time to preheat your oven to 325°.
3. Mix the filling (potatoes, sauteed peppers and onions, tomatoes, and 1/2 the cheese) together to combine.
4. Assemble the enchiladas.  Spray a large glass baking dish with cooking spray or coat with oil.  Pour 1/3 of the tomatillo sauce on the bottom of the baking dish.  Place filling into each tortilla (don’t overstuff!) and roll setting each tortilla seam side down in the dish.  Repeat until your dish is full of rolled enchiladas.  You should have about 10.
5. Pour the remainder of the tomatillo sauce on top of the enchiladas and top with the remaining cheese. 
6. Cover with foil and bake at 325° for 20-25 minutes.  Remove foil and let bake uncovered for another 10-15 minutes, depending on how saucy your enchiladas are.  The enchiladas are done when the cheese is melted (or bubbly if using a cheese sauce) and the sauce has baked into the tortillas.  
7. Devour.