So Delicious Coconut Milk!

Whoa, dudes. This is major news. A new certified vegan, certified gluten free, non-dairy beverage has hit the market and I am ALL OVER IT!

Sure coconut milk has been around for millions of years, but this is different.

A BIG OL' CARTON OF IT!

I am thoroughly enjoying this. I may now reduce the amount of cans of pure, full fat coconut milk that I buy in favor of this thick and lucious beverage.

Thick is the key word here. It is really thick and rich. I am very excited to try some cooking and baking with this stuff, as I am confident that it will behave quite nicely. By the glass...not so sure, unless I am really into some brownies or cookies...it's a bit too much for straight drinking (however it did pass the Kahlua test quite nicely).

Available in unsweetened, original, and vanilla. I got mine at Whole Foods for $4.69 a carton.

Hello There!

I know, I know...it seems I have been neglecting this blog. I'm sorry. Celine and I have been feverishly finishing up the 500 Vegan Recipes book, and I have been so busy in the kitchen, I haven't had much time to play in the blogosphere.

I promise that after the first of May, I will have a lot more leisurely cooking time and more time for blog posting fun!

To whet your appetite, here are some pictures of a few (16 out of 250!) things I have been working on:



1. Piled High Strawberry Pie, 2. Seitan Poppers & Buffalo Sauce, 3. Black Bean, Corn & Roasted Chile Quesadillas, 4. Peach Cobbler with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, 5. Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge, 6. Chile Relleno with homemade Enchilada Sauce, 7. Stuffed Artichokes, 8. Seitan en Croute, 9. Currant and Walnut Veganzola, 10. Salsa Fresca, 11. Nacho Queso, 12. Coconut, Lemon and Herb Tofu with Udon, 13. Yalanchi Dolmas, 14. Avocado Spring Rolls, 15. Home Made Inari, 16. Green bean almondine

Oh, and don't think I forgot about the burgers! Once this is all said and done, the Burger book WILL get it's final proofing and then available for all to enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge

(The lighting in this picture is really bad...the actual fudge is much more peanut butter colored with marbles of chocolate throughout!)

Brought to you by the fine folks over at MaraNatha

Their Organic Creamy No-Stir Peanut Butter really is like no other I have tried. The flavor is so rich and peanutt-y. Most likely this is because of their small batch roasting process. It's so nice to have an all natural peanut butter that doesn't separate. It sure makes candy making so much easier. If you haven't tried it yet...you should. I bought mine at Whole Foods, but I have seen it in traditional grocers as well.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge (From 500 Vegan Recipes)
Made with coconut milk, this fudge is very creamy and moist!
Take extra special care when bringing the mix to a boil, because if the temperature isn't just right, your fudge will not set, and it would be very sad to have wasted all those ingredients!!!

Nonstick cooking spray
1 1/2 cups (384 g) creamy no stir peanut butter
1 cup (176 g) nondairy semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon (15 ml) pure vanilla extract
1 cup (235 ml) full fat coconut milk
3 cups (300 g) granulated sugar

Line an 8-inch (20-cm) or 9-inch (23-cm) square baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment and lightly spray with nonstick spray.

In a large heat resistant mixing bowl, mix together peanut butter, chocolate chips, and vanilla.

In a saucepan, mix together coconut milk and sugar. Bring to a FULL boil. (Big rolling bubbles, not little ones.) Boil for exactly one minute.

Pour the coconut mixture into the peanut butter mixture and stir vigorously until well combined and the chocolate begins to melt. It won't completely melt, and thats okay, it will marble with the peanut butter as it hardens. You have to work very quickly as the mixture will begin to set almost immediately.

Immediately pour into the foil lined pan and let sit to cool and harden completely...about an hour.
Cut into small squares and enjoy.

Yield: About 36 pieces

Spring has Sprung!

And lemons are definitely on the menu! I've been going lemon crazy lately. Lemons, lemons, and more...lemons! All I think about is lemons.

Here's a tester from the 500 Vegan Recipes book.



No crazy equipment needed here. The un-traditional addition of pectin makes this frozen treat soft and scoopable straight out of the freezer!

Gelato au Citron et Framboises (Lemon Raspberry Gelato)
2 cups (470 ml) vanilla soymilk
1/2 cup (120 ml) fresh lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup (200 g) evaporated cane juice (granulated sugar)*
2 tablespoons (28 g) nondairy butter
1.75 ounces (49 g) premium fruit pectin (like Sure-Jell) found in the canning section of the supermarket**
6 ounces (170 g) fresh or frozen raspberries

Into a pot, add milk, lemon juice, zest, sugar, and butter. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Stirring often to prevent over flow. Simmer for ten minutes. Add in pectin and whisk vigorously to dissolve completely. Continue to simmer about 2 more minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in berries and pour into an airtight container. Freeze overnight. Enjoy!

*I admit that this is very, very sweet. Feel free to cut back on the sugar if you choose...me? No way!

***After some tester experimentation, it appears that the canning pectin we use here in the states for jam and jelly making is quite different from that found elsewhere in the world. "PURE" pectin is a bit too powerful here, and I will do some experimenting with the amount of "Pure" needed to make the mix work. For now, DO NOT USE PURE PECTIN, only use the mix available at stores which has added dextrose and citric or fumaric acid added to it.

500 Vegan Recipes!

Well here she is! So pretty, isn't she? And guess what? She's now available for preorder from Amazon. Scheduled for release in January, 2010.

You are all in for a real treat here. 500 recipes! Celine has jam packed this baby with every kind of baked treat imaginable...savory breads, sweet biscuits, granolas, crackers, pies, cookies...not to mention her amazing veggie dishes and faux meats that will rock your socks off! And then there's me...you already know what to expect from me...new spins on traditional classics and comfort foods, reinterpretations of ethnic cuisines from around the world, and even some guiltless creations too! There's a big focus on scratch cooking here and we plan on filling your bellies with many delicious meals that come from the heart.

We will have a little of something for everyone in this book. Clearly labeled gluten free and soy free dishes, low fat dishes and dishes under thirty minutes.

Until the official release date, stay tuned for sneak peaks and teaser recipes. And of course, there's always the flickr page to tempt your tastebuds with pictures from Celine, myself and all of the fabulous testers.

Thanks for all of your support over the years...I could have never done it without all of you encouraging me along the way!

New and Improved! Imitation Bacon Bits

The old recipe was good…but this one is better!

2 tablespoons (30 ml) liquid smoke
1 scant cup (205 ml) water
1 cup (96 g) TVP granules
1/4 teaspoon salt
A few drops red food coloring, optional
3 tablespoons (45 ml) canola or other vegetable oil

To a measuring cup add the liquid smoke, then fill to get one cup water.In a microwave safe dish, mix together Liquid smoke mixture, TVP and salt. Cover tightly with plastice wrap and microwave on high for five minutes. Carefully remove the wrap. Preheat a frying pan with the oil. Add reconstituted TVP to the pan and toss to make sure it all gets coated with oil. Pan fry until desired crispness. Stir them often. You don’t necessarily want to “brown” them, rather dry them out. Right around ten minutes. Allow to cool completely before transferring to an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator. Should last at least a week.

Yield: About a cup

Deep Dish Pizza Dough and Bread Bowls

Well, hello there! It's been a while, I know. Celine and I have been feverishly working on and testing for 500 Vegan Recipes, and oh boy, are there some awesome foods coming out of our test kitchens! Check out the pictures over on the flickr pool.

I thought I'd share one of those 500 with you guys, after all I haven't posted a new recipe here in almost a month!

This is actually two recipes in one. This dough makes an awesome cast iron deep dish pizza, but more interestingly, it makes virtually indestructible bread bowls for soup! One of the testers stress tested a bread bowl with five bowls of soup and reported absolutely no leakage. I don't necessarily recommend eating five bowls of soup in one sitting, but you can rest assured that you will safely make it through one or two!


Home Made Bread Bowl filled with Rustic Potato Leek Soup


Deep Dish Cast Iron Pizza topped with Bechamel, Basil and Tomatoes

1/4 ounce (1 packet) active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil
additional olive oil

Mix together yeast, sugar and warm water. Let stand ten minutes. In a mixing bowl, mix together flours and salt. Add in yeast mixture, water and olive oil. Adding more all purpose flour if too wet, more water if too dry, a little bit at a time. Your goal is a soft elastic dough ball that is easy to handle and not sticky. Knead for about 10 minutes. Divide into two, form into a ball. Brush with a light coat of olive oil, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for one hour.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Punch down the dough, knead an additional 2-3 minutes and form into a pizza crust. Bake with your favorite toppings for about 10 minutes, or until crust is a nice golden brown.

Yield:2, 10 inch crusts

Note that I made mine in a cast iron skillet and my husband made his on a cookie sheet. They both cooked for the same amount of time, but he pressed his out much thinner so he got about a twelve incher, while mine was only about 9 inches. Both yielded excellent results.

Bread Bowl Variation
I made up a double batch of this dough. With the remaining two pieces, I formed them into balls (skipping the second knead), cut a few slits across the top, baked at 400 for 15 minutes, removed, brushed with nondairy butter, baked an additional 5 minutes…BREAD BOWLS FOR SOUP!

And the winner is...

(From the justthefood.com Forum contest)

AND THE WINNER IS! (Selected by a random number generator.) #20!



Bethamphetamine says:
"I gotta agree with afoolsays on the salt thing. Especially if you're making your own food at home, it just brings out so much flavor. I can't live without it!"

CONGRATULATIONS! I will send you an email to get your address and send out your $50 Gift card to Whole Foods Market. YAY!

I had so much fun reading all of your entries. It seems a lot of you guys really like beans! Nutritional yeast didn't get nearly as many votes as I thought it would have, but vegenaise harnessed a few (that's one of my faves!)

Some noteable entries included:
VeganSpinz wrote a love poem!
"Here's my sappy Vegan Love Poem (in honor of Valentine's Day):
Oh my love has blossomed this year
For this ingredient it is so clear
It's enriched my soups and sauces with ease
Makes an outstanding Mac 'n' Cheeze
It's even perfection just by itself
And never lasts very long on my shelf
I love it raw, roasted, and in a saute
Not for a person who's allergic, but hey?
You can't blame me for loving a nut like you
The incredible, edible (egg?)...NO, cashew!"

And pandawithcookie?
"My favorite vegan ingredient is the love I put into all my baked goods. That way I don't have to use egg replacer."

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!

Check back often for new contests.

Bac'uns

I know that some of you had been asking about non-hydrogenated imitation bacon bits...from there I invented my own, but they weren't exactly the same as the store bought stuff...My gift to you, Bac'uns, by Fronteir Natural Products. Organic and nonhydrogenated vegan bacon bits. Hickory flavored. They'll get the job done.

Are you ready for some Football?

Make the seitan today...make the sandwiches for the big game tomorrow!



Steeler "Cheezesteak" Sammies
For the Seitan
2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tbsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups water
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/3 cup ketchup

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients. Ad wet to dry and incorporate well. Use your hands and knead together the dough. Let sit for about 10 minutes. Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Maneuver the wet mushy mass into a log shape in the center of a large piece of aluminum foil. Roll it tightly into a log, about 2" in diameter, twisting the ends nice and tight. Repeat with the other piece. Place both logs in the oven, directly on the racks and bake for 90 minutes. Slice into thin pieces, about the size of a stick of gum.

For the Cheezy Sauce
(makes about 2 1/2 cups)
2 cups soy creamer (any kind of faux milk will work, just won't be as thick, just don't use vanilla!)1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp white miso
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp ground mustard

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Place in a saucepan and on LOW heat, heat until it thickens, constantly stirring so it doesn't get clumpy or scorch.

For the Sandwiches
2 large white onions, sliced or diced (whichever you prefer)
2 red or green or yellow bell peppers, sliced into thin strips or diced (whichever you prefer)
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying
French Rolls

In a large frying pan, preheat about 3 tbsp of oil, you may need to add more later as you cook more, start by sauteeing some of the onions, some of the peppers and some of the seitan...at ratios you like for your sammies. Pile it high on the french rolls and drizzle with cheezy sauce!

GO STEELERS! (they are playing, right?)