More testing...

I know. It's mean to post testing photos, but I can't resist. Here is another biscotti recipe for Isa and Terry's cookie book, and a chocolate cinnamon babka (yes, vegan babka) for Peter Reinhart.

Faux Korean Noodle Lunch

I swear I haven't disappeared. My life was taken over by work and Thanksgiving for a few weeks. Today for lunch I made a fake Korean dish to use up some of the items in our kitchen, loosely inspired by ideas from Copeland Marks' The Korean Kitchen.

I was very happy with the results and am recording what I did as much for my future use as for the benefit of anyone reading this. Here goes:

Rehydrate half a package of Soy Curls according to package directions. Drain well and press out excess liquid. Mix the Soy Curls with sesame oil, soy sauce, and chili powder to taste. (Korean chili powder is really hot. As I was feeding someone who does not like incendiary food, I used not-hot-at-all American chili powder and it was fine.) Set aside.

Heat a small amount of oil in a large pot. Chop two small sweet potatoes and several ribs of celery (including the leaves). Stir fry these vegetables until they begin to soften. Meanwhile, combine 3 cups of water, 4 small scallions (white and green parts) and 3 cloves garlic in a blender and blend very well. Add this green liquid to the pot, bring to a boil, and cook 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Then add a small handful of somen (Japanese wheat noodles) and cook a couple more minutes until the noodles are done. Add salt and black pepper to taste, and stir in the Soy Curls (or put them on top if you are feeling fancy).

Election Cobbler

The camera is away from home again, but I am sitting here biting my nails over the election. Last night, as I had a bunch of apples (from a relative's trees) and the need to do something ... anything... to keep from refreshing the internet news every two seconds, I made cobbler.

I like fancy cobblers, but this is your plain-jane, straight-up cobbler, the way my Great Aunt Cora did it. This recipe is so easy, you can make it with your mind full of election paranoia (and even with a few drinks in your system, if the evening calls for it).

Preheat your oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 pan. Mix together 1 cup self-rising flour (I did 1 cup white whole wheat flour + 1 1/2 t baking powder + 1/2 t salt), 1 cup sugar (Zulka unrefined, in my case), and 1 cup milk (Almond Breeze unsweeetened original). Pour this into your pan. Spread a quart or more of prepared fruit (peeled, chopped apples) over the batter. Dot with marg or coconut oil or give it a spritz of canola oil. Into the oven for 1 hour. It's done.

Now, you can add all sorts of spices and extracts to the batter and/or the fruit. You can pre-cook the fruit if too hard, and add sugar to it if it is too tart. Eat with ice cream, mimiccreme, soyatoo. Do what you will. But it's plenty good plain and unadorned.

Day of the Dead

Today being the Day of the Dead (All Souls), we made kittee's fabulous recipe for Pan de Muertos (the bread of the dead).

Other Sunday cooking included: braised radishes, cabbage (with onion, garlic, ginger, and panch paran), mixed greens (greek-style with olive oil and lemon), and cranberry relish (just because, even though it goes with nothing else I made). I also made a tofu and vegetable roast as a test recipe for the much-anticipated Yellow Rose Recipes II. Joanna has kindly put a version of the recipe on her blog.

Trance-Channeling Nigella, or making Lahmacun

At the insistence of the wonderful Mat Winser, I picked up a copy of Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking. Boy howdy, was he right. We just made Lahmacun for lunch - little Turkish flatbreads, with a "meat" topping. We veganized with a super-secret test seitan which performed beautifully, but I think any tasty and soft-ish seitan (like this recipe) would work. Thanks Mat!