Vegan MoFo Day 26: Raw Food circa 1969

My maternal grandmother struggled with debilitating arthritis, and tried a number of alternative health approaches. For a time, she experimented with a raw diet, using the "No-Cook" Book by John H. Tobe. I don't think she stuck with it for long, and I don't remember it having any significant results. When my grandparents passed away, this book found its way to me.

Tobe's book is not vegan. He includes some dairy, eggs, honey, and quite a bit of fish - all raw. However, there are many vegan recipes. I'm glad to have the book for sentimental reasons, but I have never really put it to work in the kitchen. I suppose the idea of raw food from 1969 didn't seem too appealing. However, strengthened by Vegan MoFo, I decided to give it a go.

The recipes are organized into menus for every day of the year. Thus, I turned to October 26. The breakfast looked intriguing - grinding corn, millet, oats and rose hips together, mixing with water and allowing to set overnight, and then adding fruit and nuts. However, I decided to go with the lunch item: Pineapple-Stuffed Tomatoes. You simply make a salad of fresh pineapple, walnuts, and celery (he gives no amounts - just eyeball it), and stuff into tomatoes which you have hollowed out with a spoon. Flavorless, hard October tomatoes actually work well here, as their primary role is to provide a stable salad bowl.

The dressing is as follows: 1 pint cider vinegar, 1 t dill seed, 1/2 t celery seed, pinch of mustard seed, 1 clove garlic, 1 T agave nectar (original recipe called for honey), 1 t salt, 1/2 t paprika, 1 c oil (Tobe calls for sunflower seed oil, but I used a mix of grapeseed and flax oils). Whiz this in the blender until smooth. Spoon a small amount onto each tomato.

The finished product was delicious, and encourages me to try more recipes from this book!

Vegan MoFo Day 25: I have your pot roast, right here...

In a dark corner of my reptilian brain, there is a little spot known as "pot roast." It rears its meaty, overcooked head on grey, drippy, autumn days. I now have a way to feed it.

After seeing multiple positive comments on Facebook, I bought yet another new cookbook: Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food by Alicia C. Simpson. I've only made one recipe so far - the "Wait-For-You Stew," but this one is a winner. It's very close to my ancient memory of pot roast. It came together quickly and easily, and bubbled along in the crock pot while I cleaned the house. The recipe has an error. It does not list the liquid needed for making the seitan. I just added water until it looked right. Also, I added more of all the vegetables and half a chopped onion which was sitting, alone and drying out, in the refrigerator. The flavor was very satisfying and the texture of the long-simmered seitan was perfect. I am looking forward to leftovers tomorrow, and to making this again.

Vegan MoFo Day 24: Gluten-Free Cookies

My office always has a big Halloween party, and I have been thinking about what to bring. I have a gluten-free colleague, and, understanding the challenges of parties without appropriate food, I want to make something that she can eat. While cleaning house today, I decided to experiment.

Happily, Joni recently posted a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie that calls for coconut flour - and I have coconut flour in the pantry from a past baking adventure. I pulled out a bowl, and in no time flat I had a super-tasty xgfx cookie dough. (Some xgfx dough, especially if it involves bean flour, can taste nasty when raw. Not this one!) You can see the results above. I can't imagine anyone objecting to this cookie, vegan or gluten-free or not. The texture is a bit sandy, but in a perfectly good way: think back to the pecan sandies of your childhood. (If you have rice-flour-sandiness trauma, it is not like that.) Thanks, Joni!

Bonus MoFo: Bread Results

The Italian All Saints bread is out of the oven. As you can see from the mashed crumb in the photo, I didn't wait for it to cool before I cut into it. Too bad, bread perfectionists! It's really nice - super-crunchy-crispy crust, and very soft innards, no doubt because of all the olive oil. There is only a slight sweetness from the raisins. It is definitely more savory than sweet. The combination of flavors from orange rind, lemon rind, and black pepper is wonderful. I'm putting a big star by this in the cookbook.

Vegan MoFo Day 23: All Saints Bread

Today's MoFo post is sliding in late in the day.... My plans for yesterday were waylaid, as I broke a tooth and had to attend to it. It was a fragile tooth, due to some antique fillings, and my meal really had nothing to do with the break. I was enjoying some Gobi Manchurian at an Indian place near my office. I am an obsessive fan of this dish, and not even breaking a tooth will deter me from finishing my plate.

With a temporary crown in place, I am back in the culinary saddle. As I type, a loaf of pane co' santi, an Italian bread for the feast of All Saints (Nov 1) is rising in the kitchen. Photo above. I found this already-vegan recipe in a Catholic cookbook called A Continual Feast by Evelyn Birge Vitz. It contains a ridiculous amount of olive oil (1 cup per loaf), raisins, citrus rind, anise seed, toasted nuts, black pepper, and other things. There's not much sugar in it (2 T), so it is not a cakey item. I will be very interested to see how this turns out!

Vegan MoFo Day 22: What's for supper?

On a Wednesday night, in a busy work-week, late in MoFo, I don't have much for you. But dinner had to be on the table, nonetheless. We made Jo Stepaniak's classic "Greens & Noodles" from Vegan Vittles. I cut back the soy sauce, as the original recipe is a bit salty for me. I shelled some leftover boiled peanuts and threw them in, along with a spoonful of the Bakon seasoning I bought last weekend. With collards and boiled peanuts and bakon seasoning, it was a very Southern dish, despite the udon noodles!

Alongside, we made one of our favorite recipes from Isa Moskowitz's Vegan Brunch: Lemon Pepper Tofu. It's such an easy, quick, and pleasing recipe! It is not necessary to press the tofu, but I used my TofuXPress, and, boy howdy, did it make for a nice result.

In other important news, Yvonne alerted me that pizza with vegan Teese mozzarella is now available at Italia Pizza on Woodland Street in East Nashville. Needless to say, I'll be heading that way very soon! Gluten-free friends, take note: their website says they will have a gluten-free crust in the near future.

Onward, MoFos!

Vegan MoFo Day 21: Beans of the Dead

The Day of the Dead (All Souls, November 2) is approaching. This year, I have been looking for different recipes to add to my Day of the Day repertoire. My first test run was an Italian cookie called fave dei morti: the beans of the dead! From what I read, these tiny cookies (made to be the size of a fava bean or lima bean) were given to the poor, or put out for the dead to "eat", or simply enjoyed. As you can see, I didn't do a great job with my bean-shaping, but I can work on it between now and 11/2. Taste-wise, these micro-cookies are great! I started from a recipe in Evelyn Birge Vitz's A Continual Feast, and made a number of changes:

Blanch 2/3 c almonds (or buy them already blanched): Pour boiling water over them, leave one minute, drain, pop the skins off. Put them on a baking sheet in a 200 F oven for 10 minutes to dry.

Grind the almonds till fine in a food processor: pulverized bones of the dead. Then add 3/4 c flour, 3/4 c sugar, 1/2 t salt, and 1 t cinnamon, and continue to grind until very fine and powdery.

Mix 1 T ground flaxseed with 3 T hot water unti it gets goopy, and add to the food processor. Then add grated rind of 1 lemon, 1/4 c vegan margarine, 1 t vanilla, and 1/2 t almond extract. Pulse briefly until it comes together in a ball. (I think oil - even olive oil - would work well in this recipe instead of margarine. And I saw recipes online that called for different alcoholic additions - anise liqueur, grappa, etc - if you want to vary the flavor.)

Pinch off bean-sized lumps of dough. It is sticky, so keep your hands wet. Flatten into desired shapes and place on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes. The time totally depends on the size of your beans, so keep an eye on them. Hungry ghosts will likely be circling the oven, waiting....