Vegan MoFo Day 2: Yeasted Oatmeal Muffins

Some years ago, I visited friends in Oceanside, California. While there, they took me on a visit to the headquarters of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. This esoteric group runs (or, at least, ran at the time) a lovely vegetarian cafeteria, staffed mostly by elderly ladies who were as friendly as they were hard of hearing. I have two cookbooks from this community. The older one, the New Age Vegetarian Cookbook, dates from 1968. Here is a veganized version of their oatmeal muffin recipe.

2 c unbleached flour

1/2 c rolled oats

3 T brown sugar

2 t vegan shortening

1 t salt

2 1/4 t dry yeast

1 c nondairy milk

Scald the milk. Pour over oats, sugar, shortening, and salt. Stir together and cool to lukwarm. Add yeast and flour. If it is too dry, add more liquid. You want this to be a little more moist than typical bread dough. Spoon into greased muffin cups. They should be half full. Cover and let rise until the cups are full. My kitchen was cold on the day I made these, and it took about 45 minutes for them to rise. Bake approximately 20 minutes at 440 F.

Vegan MoFo Day 1: The Countess rides again...

This year for Vegan MoFo, I am going to explore recipes from old vegan or vegetarian cookbooks. I will write more about some of the books and authors as the month progresses. I am out of town for the first few days of November, so I am going to start by throwing up some recipes - which is what it is all about, anyway.

The oldest vegetarian cookbook I own is Countess Constance Wachtmeister's Practical Vegetarian Cookery, from 1897. The good countess was an early member and ardent supporter of the Theosophical Society, which promoted ethical vegetarianism.

Her asparagus pie recipe, in its original form, is little more than a description and required some light-handed veganization, but we thoroughly enjoyed the results.

Make enough pie crust for a top and bottom layer. I always use my mother's recipe: 2 c flour, 1 1/2 t salt, 1/2 c oil, 1/4 c nondairy milk. Stir together with a fork and roll out between sheets of wax paper.

Remove tough ends from 2 lbs of asparagus (perhaps minding this guidance), steam for about 5 minutes, and place inside the bottom crust. Make a simple white sauce by cooking together 2 T vegan margarine and 2 T flour, and then adding 2 c milk and continuing to cook, whisking regularly, until thick. Flavor the sauce with salt, black pepper, and nutmeg to taste. Pour over the asparagus, and seal with the top crust. Bake until done. I baked mine for about 30 minutes at 400 F.

Vegan MoFo Day 31: MoFo Inspiration

Whew! We made it to the end of another Vegan Month of Food! I've noted so many good ideas from the MoFo bloggers. It will take me a year to work through them. Today, I procured ingredients for the top two recipes on my MoFo list: Kim's Cream of Mushroom Soup and Dianne's Welsh Rabbit. Above you can see the Cream of Mushroom in process. It is everything you once loved about Campbell's, but about 1000 times better. The Welsh Rabbit will follow in the next day or two. Tonight, while waiting to load up the neighborhood children with candy, we'll be enjoying Jeffrey's Tater Tacos. Have a fun, safe Halloween, y'all!

Vegan MoFo Day 30: Yellow Rose Anticipation

Being big fans of Joanna Vaught's Yellow Rose Recipes, we were excited to test for her second book. After she made a decision not to continue with the project, I carefully guarded my precious print-outs of test recipes. There are so many excellent ones, including the best hummus ever. Really. Above you will see a photo of a bean salad, which I am making again tonight for a work party. If you have been living under a rock with no wifi access to the vegan internet, Joanna is about to release the tested recipes in zine format. Such good news!

Vegan MoFo Day 29: New Reinhart Book

Yesterday, I received a copy of Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day in the mail. Here's the FTC full disclosure part: I was a tester for this book, but no free copies were involved. (There were literally hundreds of testers, so tester copies weren't possible.) I made almost all the recipes, and enjoyed them immensely. I have been a big Reinhart fan ever since Brother Juniper's Bread Book, which remains a favorite.



The good news: In the introductory material, Reinhart clearly states that substitutes for dairy, eggs, and honey will work well in the recipes, and mentions some specifically, e.g., agave for honey. He was always open to my veganizing during testing. The less useful news: Individual recipes don't have vegan suggestions, and - especially with eggs - some substitutions work better in certain cases. If anyone needs input on a specific recipe, let me know. I am happy to share my experiments with you. Above you see the challah, which worked shockingly well with Ener-G Egg Replacer, which I do not normally enjoy in baked goods. I replaced the egg yolks with 1/4 c Ener-G whisked together with 1/2 c soy milk. I think the vanilla in the dough cancelled out any possible off-taste from the Ener-G. Instead of an egg wash, I brush the tops with some dark coffee, into which I had mixed a spoonful of maple syrup. With the chocolate babka, I replaced the eggs with a mixture of mashed banana and ground flaxseed, again with success. Every recipe was a little different - and some were already vegan.



It's a great book - really a must-have, in my opinion, if you are interested in baking.

Vegan MoFo Day 28: French Lentil Cassoulet, Not Quite a Review

Attention FTC: Amazon sent me a free copy of Robin Asbell's New Vegetarian for review. I haven't made anything from it yet, but it did inspire my dinner tonight. It looks like a good book. While not vegan, there are lots of vegan recipes and suggestions for vegan substitutions. And the entire dessert chapter is vegan. Chocolate raspberry napoleons, anyone?

I significantly transmogrified her French Lentil Cassoulet recipe based on what we had in the house and needed to use up. I more or less followed her technique with a lot of changes in the ingredients - which is something I often do to cookbooks. Here's what I did:

Cook 1 c French lentils in water to cover, with a bay leaf, for 30 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, melt some vegan margarine in a heavy pot, and fry some butternut squash cubes, a couple of chopped potatoes, and a chopped onion with 1 t sage and 1 t thyme. Add 4 chopped garlic cloves, and 1 bunch of Lacinato kale (ribs removed, and chopped). Then add a 28 oz can of tomatoes, 1 c of water, and a bouillon cube or some broth powder. Add the cooked lentils, dried parsley, salt, and pepper. Cover and cook another 20 minutes or so, until the potatoes and squash are as soft as you want them.

In a food processor, whiz up 3 cloves garlic, 3 cups bread crumbs (I used homemade from the freezer), 1 cup almonds, 3 T olive oil, 1 t thyme, and a little salt. Put this in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, and stir until the mixture is dry and toasty. Spoon over cassoulet right before serving.

Vegan MoFo Day 27: Butternut Squash Fries

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a mention in the newspaper of making oven fries from butternut squash. As I have an abundance of butternuts, sitting in a closet waiting to be used, I paid attention. I have made unusual oven fries before, turnip fries with chili pepper being a particular favorite, but never winter squash. I hauled out my trusty, deadly mandoline, and (carefully, carefully) put the squash through the crinkle-cut setting at 1/4 inch. I then applied a little olive oil, Goya Adobo (salt, pepper, garlic, turmeric), and smoked paprika. 15 minutes at 400F, flip, 10 minutes more. They are like sweet potato fries in many ways, but very sweet and creamy on the insides. I'll definitely do this again.