My Favorite Plant-Based Cheeses

 

In the intervening decade or so since I started this blog,  many vegan-friendly, plant-based cheeses have come and gone (looking at you, Nacheez & Nacho Mamma). Fortunately, being in the Bay Area, there are always a lot of enterprising locals who create amazing vegan options. 

BAY AREA ARTISANAL PLANT-BASED CHEESE

Miyoko's Creamery - so many options!  I love the Sharp English Farmhouse - it's one of my favorites for eating with bread or crackers. https://miyokos.com/collections/all 

• Liquid Mozzarella - this stuff is great for pizza, but it also works for open-faced toasted cheese in the toaster oven, and on nachos.
• Roadhouse Cheddar - this is amazing stuff.  It tastes just like cheddar cheese log cheese, but in a good way.  Maybe I'll make a nut log with it this holiday season. 
• ALL THE CHEESE WHEELS:  the "Double Cream Classic Chive" tastes like goat cheese. The Sharp English Farmhouse and Smoked English Farmhouse are also favorites.  They are ALL good.

Vegan Butcher's Son Feta - packed in salty brine with a bay leaf or two, this feta tastes exactly like the dairy based version to me (granted, it's been 15+ years since I've eaten any dairy cheese). It's got a great texture - crumble it onto salads, eat with crackers or fruit.  You can buy it in person or through delivery services at   https://www.thebutchersveganson.com/

The Uncreamery - Smoked Gouda, Truffle Brie, Ghost Pepper Jack -- great right out of the white paper.  This stuff is so delicious with a nicely uniform, delicate texture.  It never lasts long enough in my house to cook with it, ymmv. https://www.theuncreamery.com/ or any number of stores, including Rainbow Grocery.

OUTSIDE THE BAY AREA

Portland-based Vtopian makes a lot of amazing cheeses.  Any time I am in Portland, this is a required stop and I always end up eating Vtopian cheese with bread for my meals on the road trip home.  You can visit them in Portland, or find their cheese in stores all around the Bay Area (SF's Rainbow Grocery has an awesome selection): https://www.vtopiancheeses.com/ 

Bandit Barn Cat --great with bread, dried fruit and on sandwiches.  This savory delight is wrapped in black ash and white paper, this cheese is so delicious and tastes like a blue cheese.  I purchased this at the vegan grocery at Little Saint in Healdsburg, and there may be options near you. https://eatlikeabandit.com/products/barn-cat

Renegade Foods makes amazing plant-based salame (not GF) -- https://renegadefoods.com/ - also available at SF's Rainbow Grocery.

NON-ARTISANAL CHEESES FOR COOKING: not all vegan cheeses possess the cultured, tang and texture that makes them ideal for eating with bread or as part of your charcuterie. However, there are quite a lot of non-artisanal cheeses that work pretty well cooked in your broccoli rice casserole, nachos or macaroni and cheese. 

Nachos - I like Violife and Daiya shredded cheeses.  They melt pretty well under the broiler of my wee toaster oven. 

Open-faced toasted cheese tastes just like I remember it (plus my version of Grandma Clark's Pottsville Relish) when I use thin slices of Daiya's Grilling Cheese Block (I'm also a fan of Daiya's "Smoked Gouda" and "Jalapeño Havarti").

Product Review: Nacheez - It Even Fools the Cats!

At Berkeley Vegan Earth Day, I had the opportunity to sample and bring home two jars of Nacheez - a vegan "queso" style cheese to pour over nachos.  I had all sorts of ideas about steamed broccoli and mac-n-cheese but to be honest - both jars of Nacheez Spicy ended up on Nachos.  My friend Scott (an omnivore) & I had nachos with 1 bag of organic tortilla chips, 4 chopped up spring onions and some spicy organic salsa - that made a pretty good dinner.  The Nacheez is mostly nutritional yeast based, and pretty low calorie - 1 jar is 7 servings, at 20 calories per serving that's 140 calories per jar.

To be honest - I didn't even sample the mild version.  The spicy version isn't too spicy but it has a nice flavor with bits of peppers in it, smoky, cheesy and rich.  My cats went loco when I heated up the nachos and while my friend & I were eating them.  George, especially, was all over my lap, begging for cheesy goodness. 

Right now, it's available at Never Felt Better Vegan Boutique and at Food Fight! (they do online orders).

This is totally NOT the sort of thing that I would have bought based on anyone's review or seeing it on a shelf.  I never bought the non-vegan versions but this stuff is way better in flavor than the horribly oily orange non-vegan queso stuff that gets slopped on tortilla chips. 

I'm all over Nacheez - looking forward to getting my hands on some more - but it does seem kind of silly for me to order it from a Portland store when it is made 100 miles away in Sacramento... so I guess I'll have to wait for it to show up here.

Marshmallows

Vegan marshmallows are the height of decadent vegan junk food, right?  I've always been a big Sweet & Sara marshmallow fan since they are easily picked up at Whole Foods.  Vegan Essentials had a discount, so I picked up some Dandies with my last order.  I also took advantage of a Groupon for Sweet & Sara and bought a bunch of stuff I haven't tried yet from them.

There are some distinct differences between the two marshallows -- the Dandies are big, round & puffy like their gelatin-derived cousins.  Perfect for putting onto a stick and melting.  They are lighter and fluffier.  The Sweet & Sara marshmallows are denser, chewier & have a richer vanilla flavor - their strawberry marshmallow is pretty fantastic, too!

THE S'MORES TEST:   The shape of Sweet & Sara's marshmallows makes it really easy to use scissors to cut it in half across the middle for two flat squares to lay out on a graham cracker, with chocolate on the other side.  I just slide that into the toaster oven on "broil" and by the time the marshmallows are puffing up, the chocolate is melted just enough and I snap the cracker in the middle and press the two sides together.  The lower profile of the Sweet & Sara marshmallow works better in the toaster oven.

The Dandies marshmallow got kind of crispy (still delicious) and works better for the outdoors s'smores, toasted on a stick version.

THE FONDUE TEST:  Since they are so big, I usually find myself snipping up the Sweet & Sara marshmallows into little squares to dip into melted chocolate & chill as a super yummy treat!  They are just too big to eat whole with fondue.  As they are fluffier and not quite as rich, the Dandies work really well in fondue.

RECOMMENDATION:  Buy them both!  I like Sweet & Sara for toaster s'mores and Dandies for fondue, but both have excellent & distinct flavors.

Other Sweet & Sarah treats I tried included the Cinnamon & Hazelnut biscotti - they were delicious - they had a rich crumbly texture like pecan sandies, weren't too busted up in shipping and went really well with my coffee.  I'm half-Italian by heritage, so that makes me a dunker - these cookies stand up pretty well to the dunking test (just don't dunk the same area more than twice or you will have mushy coffee).  I also tried a sample of the Rocky Road - that was quite delicious but I prefer making that kind of treat at home since it's so easy to toast some pecans/almonds, chop up marshmallows and melt chocolate.

Two Vegan Bake Sales!

VEGAN BAKE SALE #1
Coming up this Saturday, Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary is having a vegan bake sale. Find them on Saturday from 11 to 2, on the Front Sidewalk of PETA Office, 554 Grand Avenue, Oakland.

VEGAN BAKE SALE #2
The next EBVB is coming Saturday, February 26th! It will be held, as usual, in front of Issues Shop in Oakland, and run from 11am to 3pm.

If you're interested in doing any of these, please email ebveganbakesale@gmail.com.

Raw Brussels Sprouts & Enoki

This tasty little raw vegan entree of shredded brussels sprouts features little enoki mushrooms, lemon juice, nama shoyu, olive oil, black pepper, garlic, marinated in dehydrator at 105 for a couple hours to make the sprouts & mushrooms nice & soft.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 stalk of brussels sprouts - trimmed & shredded by knife for 1.5-2 cups volume
• 1 package enoki or similar little mushrooms, ends trimmed
• 2 Tb fresh Meyer lemon juice
• 1 Tb nama shoyu
• 1 Tb sesame or olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Carefully cut up the brussels sprouts with a very sharp knife to the smallest shreds you can make without taking off a fingertip or fingernail.  
2. Trim the little mushrooms - use as much of the package of mushrooms, to taste (and depending on the amount of veg!)
3. Whisk together the lemon, nama, oil & garlic - taste & adjust.  If you prefer a sweet/sour, add a little dash of rice vinegar and agave.
4. Toss the dressing with the veggies and put into a small gratin dish or other non-plastic low edge dish, warm in dehydrator at 105 for 2-3 hours til wilted.

Persimmons are BACK! - Persimmon Bread Pudding for BREAKFAST!

If you're like me - an avid forager & kitchen witch - you might wake up one morning to discover that 40 of the 212 persimmons you harvested and have spread out on cookie sheets, trays and the little cardboard trays that once held pint and half pint canning jars - are ripe and already have been discovered by the ants.  Fortunately, the ants never get farther than under the little crown of four leaves at the stem and are easily evicted under running water.

After filling six dehydrator sheets with sliced persimmon, and putting 11 cups of persimmon pulp into freezer bags - you then discover that the gallon bag of croutons and the decidedly non-vegan chicken parts rescued from the freezer of a friend moving to Portland (to pass along to another friend for chicken stock - hey, the chicken is already dead!) - are taking up so much space that you don't have much room for more persimmon pulp in the freezer.

Then, the next morning - say, today - you wake up and find that only 3-4 persimmons, small ones at that, are really super ripe and it's not worth adding them to the dehydrator when you can kill two birds with one stone by using up some of those fabulous sourdough croutons.

Ladies & Gems - I give you:


Persimmon Bread Pudding


INGREDIENTS:

• 4 cups bread cut into 1"-1.5" chunks (last night's leftover baguette baseball bat is ok!)
• 3 cups almond milk (regular or vanilla)
• 2-3 small Hachiya persimmons so ripe that you have to take care not to pierce the skin with your fingertip
• 1/3-1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 Tb ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground clove
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup raisins or currants or dried cranberries (or some other dried fruit - chopped dried apricots, nectarines or apples might be nice!)
• 3/4 coarsely chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pour almond milk into your blender up to the 2 cup mark.
2. Cut hachiyas in half and scoop out pulp with a big tablespoon, straight into the blender.
3. Check the level - add more almond milk to bring it up to 3 or 3.5 cups.
4. Add maple syrup (reserving 3 TB), cinnamon, clove, vanilla to the blender cup - put the lid on and process til smooth.
5. Pour custard onto bread crumbs in a large mixing bowl - let soak 5-10 minutes, depending on how tough your bread is already.  You want it to absorb a lot of the liquid and there will still be some liquid floating around.
6. Mix in raisins and toasted nuts gently - don't mash up the bread!
7. Transfer to a lightly greased gratin dish or baking dish - the depth of the dish affects the cooking time and the final outcome.  If you like a soft, custardy bread pudding, use a deeper dish - if you like it to be a little more chewy and crispy, use a more shallow dish.
8. Drizzle reserved maple syrup on top.
9. Bake in 375 oven for 20 minutes - the bread pudding will bubble and get puffy - it will settle a bit after it cools.

Eat it warm or cold!

Vegan Pizzelle Cookies!

I loved making pizzelle cookies as a kid with my sister & brother - we always had fun mixing up the batter with different extracts like anise, almond, orange or lemon - and dusting the hell out of the cookies with powdered sugar.  We always broke off the edges of the overly large cookies and ate all our mistakes.

As a vegan, it's often challenging to modify some recipes - most pizzelle cookie recipes use equal amounts of fat and sugar, and an amount of flour that is equal to both.  However - no liquid - so it's the melted butter and egg that provide the moisture, making for a very sticky, thick batter.

The other trick is in getting to know your waffle iron - you know the kind with waffle grids on one side and pizzelle cookie grids on the other.  These pieces of equipment can be tricky as the temperature settings are far from precise - mine has "dark" and "light" with a small arrow in the middle and turns almost all the way pas the word on each side!  Always start on the "light" side - and increase the heat if your cookies aren't coming out crispy enough (don't forget - they get crispy after they cool and you can put them back in the hot iron to cook a bit longer so they are crispier).

The right amount of batter & pressure are also important - if you use too much batter, your cookie will separate in the middle when you try to open the cooker.  If you use too little - it'll be very thin and crispy, and perhaps not full size.

SPECIAL TOOLS: 

• pizzelle iron
• silicone brush 
• wood or bamboo tongs 
• a disposable bamboo chopstick 

 INGREDIENTS:

• 1.5 c flour
• .5 c canola oil or melted coconut oil
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 c smooth, unsweetened applesauce
• 3.5 tsp Ener-G egg replacer
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• (optional) 1 tsp anise extract or 1 tsp almond extract
• (optional) dried Meyer lemon zest, crushed
• Spectrum vegetable shortening (for the pizzelle iron)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Mix the sugar & fat til blended. 
2. Add the applesauce and other liquid ingredients.
3. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the wet ingredients.
4. Preheat your pizzelle iron!  Once it is hot, make ONE pizzelle - if you find the iron is too hot and make a mess - you'll have less to clean up!
5. Using a silicone spatula - put a tiny (like 1/8 to 1/4) dab of shortening on the plates - use the silicone brush to move it around as it melts.
6. Measure your batter - use a 1/4 measure or a spoon so you can determine the right quantity and make it consistent.
7. Press down lightly - don't overdo it - and let the pizzelle cook.  After a minute or two, gently pry up the cooker to check - if the pizzelle is starting to pull away from the cooker, it's ok to use the chopstick to pry it down a bit. 
8. When the cookie is lightly browned, remove it to a cooking rack with wooden tongs. The pizzelles will be soft when you take them out and crisp up as they cool!  
9. Lay flat for cookies, or roll them into tubes for cannoli or cones for ice cream before they cool too much.

For cannoli - check out the Millennium Cookbook - there's an insanely caloric recipe in there for filling.

One last tip - don't overclean your cooker!  It needs to be wiped to remove any excess oil, and use the bamboo chopstick to loosen charred bits.  Scrubbing the plates in soapy water  will just make your cookies stick more next time.

Stuffed Pattypan Squash on Couscous

As any gardener knows - if you blink, your squash will get HUGE.  My sunburst (aka pattypan) squash got to be quite ginormous.  So, of course - I immediately decided to stuff them! 

After reading through some recipes, I decided - you can pretty much stuff the squash with whatever you want as long as it won't be overcooked (or undercooked) by the time the squash itself is cooked to your liking.

4 Overgrown Pattypan Squash:  

• use a melon baller to scoop out the seeds and pithy part, leaving about 3/4" thick squash all the way around.  
• steam the squash (not necessary to steam caps), til they were just tender then removed them to a baking sheet.

Here's what I stuffed into the squash:

• sauteed garlic (3-4 cloves)
• chopped sweet onions & sweet red peppers - about 1.5 cups
• very small cut up cauliflower florets - about 2-3 cups
• squash - about 1.5 cups cocozelle cut into 1/4" bits
• "Savvy Stir-Ins" Shitake Mushroom & Herb seitan bits - about 1/2 package
• 4 cups vegetable stock, use as needed
• vegan worcestershire sauce, 2-3 Tb
• olive oil as needed
• fresh or dried herbs - I used fresh rosemary & sage

1. I first softened up the garlic, onions & peppers, then added the cauliflower & squash -  til they started to sweat a bit, then mixed in the Savvy Stir-ins (make sure you bust them up really well).  
2. Deglaze with veggie stock, turn down the heat and simmer.
3. Add stock til the savvy stir-ins are soft and the veggies are where you want them - and you should get a nice rich dark sauce.  You can always thicken it up with some instant gravy, arrowroot, flour or other starch.
4. Fill the squash and roast for 15-20 minutes til bubbly and squash very soft.
5. Serve squash on bed of couscous - prepared to your liking.  I cooked my couscous with my homemade veggie stock, next time I might mix in some Ras al Hanout or some Bharat into the couscous for a little excitement.  Yum!

Plum Coffee Cake

Tomorrow is the East Bay Vegan Bake Sale - I wanted to make something that could be made for a reasonably affordable amount (making the final product cheaper!) and which could be made in quantity and that would use some of my fresh/local yummy ingredients.  Originally, I thought of making my favorites - lemon bars, chocolate peanut butter cups and such but since I haven't had a good coffee cake lately ... well...

A coffee cake with plum topping seemed like the ideal choice - and being too lazy to convert my grandmother's Bavarian Coffee Cake recipe (I swear! I will do it one day soon!) - I took inspiration from VeganYumYum's Apple Pie Coffee Cake recipe.  Here's my spin, resulting in ...


Crumble Top Cherry Plum Coffee Cake:


FRUIT TOPPING:
1 qt bag of plum puree (that good stuff leftover in the jelly bag from making jelly last summer with the cherry plums)
1 c succanat

Set puree & succanat on the stove on low to simmer - reduce til thick, at least reduce by 50%.

CRUMBLE TOPPING
1 c oats
1 c flour
1/2 c dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c melted coconut oil
1 tsp cinnamon

Blend all ingredients til you can cake them together with your hands and crumble into bits - yum.

CAKE

2 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/2 c unbleached flour
1 c unrefined granulated sugar
1 c succanat
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt

3 tsp Mexican cinnamon (ceylon cinnamon)
2 tsp ground cardomom
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
2/3 c canola or grapeseed oil (or a blend)
2/3 c plum puree
1 1/3 cup almond milk + 2 tb apple cider vinegar
3 tb En-R-G Egg replacer
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients - should be very thick, almost like a dough - it will rise and goodness will happen.  Lightly oil your pan(s) - I decided to use a springform pan and two tart pans.  Press down the dough with a nice flat silicone spatula, push the sides up a tiny bit like a border.  Ladle in your cooked down plum goodness.  Sprinkle on the crumble topping.  Put into the oven at 350 - you want the cake to cook all the way through, and rise, so don't take it out too soon or you'll have soggy centers.

Tomorrow I'll take the coffee cakes and a dozen or so dark chocolate chipotle caramels, over to the East Bay Vegan Bake Sale.  11a-4p, 20 Glen Ave, Oakland (just off Piedmont)  in front of a shop called "Issues."

Chipotle Soft Caramels

One thing that I have most missed in my vegan diet is caramel - I have always loved caramel and caramel & chocolate is truly an awesome treat. After looking over many many recipes for vegan caramels - many from a Daring Bakers challenge - I realized - it's a lot of guess work. Despite the fact that the top of my candy thermometer (no, not granddad's candy thermometer, mom!) busted off after arriving at the cabin this weekend - it still worked well enough for me to use in my first experiment with vegan caramels.

A major discrepancy was in the amount of invert syrup/agave to sugar, and the temperatures required. The bottom line is this - for soft caramels, you really want somewhere between soft and firm ball - you don't want more because you'll end up with something that will pull out fillings and crowns.

Here's my recipe - your mileage may vary, you should definitely experiment!

2 cups sucanat
1 cup Golden Syrup
1/4 cup maple syrup

Mix together well, and while it is working up to 275 degrees, mix together:

1 cup coconut milk (from a can - shake well!)
1 cup cashew cream (I used Mimic Creme this time)
1 chipotle pepper, toasted and ground in the spice mill
1 vanilla bean (slit the pod, scrape into pan, add pod)

Let the cream mixture warm up - ok if it simmers a bit, just add more coconut or cashew cream.

Keep a brush and water handy - when you stir the sugars, keep in mind, this reduces the temperature so don't stir too often. Use the brush dipped in water to wash down the sides of the pan after you stir. Once it gets to 275, pull it off the burner and add 2 Tb of coconut butter.

Next, add in the cream mixture while stirring - take out the pod piece - and then let it heat up to about 245.

Pour it into a pan lined with parchment paper - moisten with coconut butter if you want to feel safe - and let cool. If it's 40 degrees outside, by all means, set it out on the porch like I did (just pray the racoons and bears aren't around looking for dessert).

This came out super killer yum. Once I dip it in chocolate, I'll try to remember to take some pictures. I promise.

Vegan Persimmon Salad Dressing

On a whim - I grabbed a container of persimmon pulp and put it in the blender as I was whipping up a salad dressing.  It was REALLY good - so, I did it again with similarly awesome results.  While this isn't exactly a recipe - here is a list of the ingredients I put in, correcting to my taste.

• 2 c persimmon pulp
• vinegars of your choice (I like orange champagne, rice wine and apple cider vinegar in salad dressings)
• nutritional yeast
• 1/4 olive oil (use even less olive oil than you normally would, if at all)
• 2-3 purple shallots (not the long skinny green onion kind)
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 2-4 Tb coarse prepared mustard
• fresh or dry herbs
• pepper
• salt or a dash of soy

Puree the heck out of it - add vinegar or other liquid to make it thinner, nutritional yeast to make it thicker.  Got a tomato? Throw it in!  :)

I threw in 1-2 (hard to tell) smoked red jalapenos packed in olive oil (about 2 cups survived my attempt at smoking on the fire pit).  Came out super smoky and yummy!

Collard Greens & Golden Chanterelles

Collards don't need to be prepared with fat and meat - they are a fantastic and versatile vegetable that can tolerate long cooking periods without falling apart.  After reading through some traditional recipes, here's my current favorite way to prepare my collards.

Ingredients:

• 1 large bunch of collards 
• 5-8 cloves of garlic
• 1 white or yellow onion
• 1 cup dried chanterelles (or other dried mushrooms like shiitake, but for black trumpets or porcini, use 1/2 cup due to stronger flavor)
• 2 red Pimiento de Padron peppers (or other mildly spicy red pepper)
• 1-2 small sweet red peppers (or Anaheim)
  
• 2 Tb tomato paste
• 1/2 c apple cider vinegar
  
• water, to cover
• salt, to taste
  

Instructions:

1.  Prepare the collards by cutting out the thick ribs.  Reserve the ribs for broth or to chop into fine dice to cook as a separate dish.  Roll up the leaves lengthwise and cut off 1/4" - 1/2" strips.
2. Place all collards into pot and cover with water, turn on high heat.
3. Add vinegar.
   
4. Fine dice half onion, thin slice remaining half and add to pot.
5. Crush dried mushrooms in your hands to break up large pieces before adding to the pot, along with finely minced peppers and tomato paste.
6. Bring to a boil, add water as necessary and then reduce to simmer until broth is thickened.  You can serve with a slotted spoon (reserving the broth for other uses) or cook down until there is nearly no broth left (more goodies on the greens).

Note: this could take a couple hours on simmer.  Get this started early and let the scent fill the house while you prepare the rest of your meal.

Golden Chanterelle Risotto

Risotto is one of my favorite dishes - I don't make it nearly often enough and when I do, I always make plenty to eat for several days after. Since picking a wonderful bounty of chanterelles last weekend with my friend Scott -- instead of dry sauteeing and freezing them as I often do -- I've been making up delicious chanterelle dishes every night so that my friend can develop a taste for them and will want to go hunting more with me all winter.

Golden Chanterelle Risotto

• 3 c Arborio rice
  
• 1 lb Golden Chanterelles (chop the stems into discs, thinly slice the tops)
• 1 Delicata squash, roasted & chopped into 1/2" chunks
• 1-2 shallots chopped (the small red onion variety, not spring or Welsh onion variety)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 2-3 yellow carrots, diced
• 1 bunch of radish greens, chiffonaded (or sub a cup or so of other savory greens arugula, white mustard or kale)
  
• 1/2 c dry cooking sherry
• 1 T dried thyme
• 3-4 T fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 c. of the tiniest cherry tomatoes you can glean from your garden
• salt, to taste
• black/white pepper, to taste
• olive oil, as needed
• saffron (optional)
  
• 8 c veggie stock

1. STOCK: Pour veggie stock into a stockpot at the back of the stove and start to warm up on low.  You want to keep this at a simmer while you're actually adding it to the risotto.  I threw in the stems from dried thyme for extra flavor - stems from other herbs might work nicely, too.
2. SQUASH: Start to roast your delicata before you start the risotto - they cook up pretty quickly and the squash does not need to go into the risotto in the first part of cooking (unless you want it to cook down and blend in more).
3. SOFFRITO: Sautee carrots, garlic & shallots in several Tb of olive oil on med-high until softened - but don't burn!  Add chanterelles & cook until the chanterelles start to release all their liquid and then add the dry cooking sherry, radish greens, parsley and dried herbs.  Once the greens are a bit soft, scoop all the veggies out with a slotted spoon (I like to use a mesh disc with bamboo handle for stir fries that I picked up in an awesome Asian  housewares store on Clement St).
4. TOSTATURA: Add a few more tablespoons of olive oil to the reserved juices in the pan and stir in the risotto.  Cook on medium til the rice is transluscent - you'll hear a clicky-clicky sound that is different from when it is first put into the pan.
5. COTTURA: Add your first ladle of broth and stir in the reserved veggies & delicata squash.  Stir the risotto gently to keep it from sticking, and once it has absorbed the broth a bit, add more.  The trick is to always keep the rice just slightly covered with broth and don't cook it on too high a heat or it will stick.  This is the stage when the rice releases the starch and starts to look creamy. 
   
6. ALL'ONDA:  don't forget to taste your rice! You want it to be "al dente" - not totally mushy but cooked with a little "bite" in it.   Just before it gets to the "al dente" stage is when you want to toss in those tiny cherry tomatoes -- the bigger they are, the earlier they should go in - but you don't want them to cook - just to warm up so that they burst with warm tomato goodness when you take a bite of risotto.
   
7. The last stage is MANTECATO - when butter & cheese are added, but that is up to the cook - not necessary in my vegan kitchen when the risotto is so delicious without!  I just add salt, pepper and in this case - some saffron.  Stir in the additional spices and serve.
   
8. LEFTOVERS - you want leftovers, trust me.  Remember to "heat gently" - you don't want to overcook the rice.  Short spurts in the microwave work, or leave it out to warm to room temperature and then heat in a pan adding a little hot water/broth in small amounts just like you did to cook it.  Warming it in the oven (with cheese on top if you insist) also works pretty well.

Persimmon Cookies

After reviewing 2 dozen recipes for persimmon cookies online, it seemed that they were all so very similar, despite claims of individual authorship or creation.  One website has three different persimmon cookie recipes - which all have the same ratio of the same ingredients!   For further analysis, I pulled about 18 of them into an excel spreadsheet and organized the ingredients so that I could see the patterns.  You can download my spreadsheet as a 2 page PDF (printable as horizontal-legal).

With few exceptions, the basic persimmon (or even pumpkin) cookie looks like this:

Basic Persimmon Cookie

• 2 c flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
  
• 1 c sugar
• 1/2 c fat (shortening/butter)
• 1 c fruit, pureed
• 1 egg (or replacer of your choice)
• 1 c raisins
• 1 c nuts (optional)
  
• salt (from a pinch to 1 tsp)
• cinnamon (1/2 to 1 tsp)
• ground cloves (1/4 to 1/2 tsp)
  
• other spices - ground nutmeg, vanilla, cardamom

Instructions: cream sugar & fat.  Sift dry ingredients together in separate bowl.  Add persimmon & egg to creamed sugar/fat & reblend.  Add dry ingredients.  Add raisins.  Spoon onto cookie sheet, bake 12-15 minutes.

RESULT: I made a 4x batch of this recipe and my conclusions and taster responses are as follows:

• Scott: tastes like Thanksgiving/Xmas, can't tell if it's persimmon or pumpkin
• Scott's vegan co-worker: approved.
• Front neighbors: offered that if they were millionaires, they'd give me the start-up cash to go into business creating my own line of foods.
• Me:  too sweet and not persimmon-y enough.

After thinking about it - and running some ideas past my friend Lacey (author of "I Can't Believe It's Vegan" and partner in new vegetarian wine bar in Oakland called Encuentro) in a chat session last night - I decided on these modifications to the recipe, including omitting nutmeg.

Vegan Persimmon Cookies, Take 2

• 2 c AP flour
• 1/2 c Sucanat
• 1/4 c shortening
• 1.5 c persimmon pulp
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 T flax meal + 3 T water
• 1 c raisins
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t ground cloves

Cream sugar & fat. Puree persimmon in blender, add baking soda/powder/salt/spices & blend again. Add persimmon to sugar/fat & cream again. Whip flaxseeds & water in blender or food processor til frothy. Add to wet mixture & combine thoroughly. Add flour & mix till combined, scraping the sides and bottom. Add raisins. Spoon onto silicone baking sheet liner with teaspoon, rounding batter with fingers or spatula. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. Optional: top cookie with 1/4 tsp size of persimmon paste.

RESULT:  if you overbake, the cookies are a bit dry.  The persimmon flavor comes through a bit better; the cookies are more cake-y than crisp/chewy.  I am going to do another batch with 1/3 c shortening instead of 1/4 c to see if that improves texture a bit. I am also going to do a version with granulated maple sugar instead of Succanat.  I'll just update this blog entry instead of starting over.

Green Enchiladas

The first time I made green enchilada sauce, it was with a recipe from "The Vegetarian Table: Mexico" by Victoria Wise.  I always found that it didn't make quite enough sauce for my tastes and frequently used more tomatillos than she recommended.  After a recent review of recipes for green enchilada sauce across the internet, I have come to the conclusion that the recipe is fairly basic and should bear the personal touch of the person preparing it.

I defrosted the roasted green Anaheim chiles from a few weeks ago - that yielded about 5 c of roasted, peeled peppers.  After shelling out some bucks for tomatillos and onions at Rainbow Grocery, I was ready to go!  You can modify the amount of ingredients to taste, and remember - it's easier to add than to take away ingredients.

Green Enchilada Sauce

• 5 cups roasted & peeled green Anaheim or Poblano chiles 
• 2 cups vegetable broth
  
• 3 small-med white or yellow onions (mine were just smaller than tennis ball size), peeled and quartered
  
• 1 - 2 lbs husked tomatillos, halved or quartered
• 5-6 cloves of garlic, peeled
  
• 1 c raw pumpkin seeds
• 1 pint yellow cherry tomatoes
• 1 bunch of cilantro, stems trimmed off
  
• fresh parsley, stems trimmed off
  
• fresh leafy greens - Romaine, white mustard, arugula (careful with strong flavors like spinach)
  
• sea salt
• 1 Tb coriander seed
• 1 Tb cumin seed
  

Instructions:

1. Pour 2 cups vegetable broth into a sauce pot, add garlic, onions & tomatillos, add water to cover and bring to a boil.  Let simmer til onions are transluscent and tomatillos are soft.
2. Heat up a dry cast iron skillet, spread the pumpkin seeds in a single layer and heat til they start to pop.  Turn down the heat if necessary to prevent burning.  Use a wooden spoon to keep the seeds moving as needed and pop/toast as many as you can.  Put into a separate dish.
3. Put cumin and coriander seed into the hot pan - warm and slightly toast but don't burn - then put spices into coffee or spice grinder and pulverize, set aside.
   
4. Check your veggies - add half of the cleaned cilantro to the water to soften, and turn down the heat if your veggies are soft.
5. Mix in the roasted peppers with the veggies in the pot.  
6. Reserve 1/8 c toasted pumpkin seeds and put rest of toasted pumpkin seeds into food processor or blender, add water from veggies to get it moving when necessary, until all seeds are ground.
7. Continue adding veggies & cooking broth til all is processed and smooth. Add yellow cherry tomatoes and leafy greens -- I used white mustard because it was in my garden, you might try romaine (it's got Vitamin C!).  
8. Add about half of the ground cumin & coriander.
   
9. Taste - adjust cumin, coriander, salt and cilantro as needed.
10. Return to pot and heat on medium, stirring.  Cook down if necessary, or add more water/broth if necessary.  Taste and adjust as needed. 
11. Make a batch of enchiladas and freeze or can the rest of your sauce!

YIELD:

• 1 medium size pan of enchiladas
  
• 4 - 16 oz jars
  

Green Enchiladas
Enchiladas are one of my favorite things to make because they are so easy and you can put whatever you want into them.

Ingredients:

• 1 package corn tortillas
  
• 1/2 yellow onion, minced
• 1/2 package Westsoy seasoned seitan strips, julienned
• 1 c yellow cherry tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 c chopped cilantro leaves

Instructions:

1. Sautee onions and garlic with oil or broth til translucent.
2. Add cherry tomatoes and cook til they start to split.
3. Add seitan and cilantro.
4. Stir and add broth or water to deglaze when it starts to stick to the pan.
5. Warm up the tortillas in the microwave for 20 seconds, or steam them - you want them to be soft but not cooked so that they don't crack when you roll them up.
6. Lay tortillas in the sauce - get both sides wet with the sauce, then lay the tortilla over your casserole dish. Put down a line of fillings along edge and roll up the tortilla, put it in the casserole pan.  
7. Once your pan is full of tortillas drenched in sauce and filled with seitan, cover with a little more enchilada sauce and bake for 15-20 minutes while you set the table or make your guacamole.
8. Sprinkle with toasted pumpkin seeds and serve!
   

Late Summer Vegetable Soup

Fresh tomato juice is one of my favorite soup bases - it just tastes so good, doesn't it? Since I am getting ready to go on a road trip, I wanted to clear the fridge and what better use for 2 quarts of fresh tomato juice than a soup (OK, bloody marys, but that's not dinner - well, not without spicy dilly beans). So, this soup turned out really amazing - it's all about putting together the right things and not overdoing it, right? And, wanting to make some space in the fridge, I found a quart bag stuffed with ice cubes of tomato juice and added those, too...


Late Summer Vegetable Soup

Step 1: Saute in olive oil, in heavy bottom stockpot:

1/2 large white onion, minced fine

Step 2: when onions are softening and getting clear, add:

2 10-12" squash (1 zucchini & 1 coccozelle in this case), diced

Step 3: as zucchini are starting to brown, add

1 c frozen peas
2 c green beans chopped in 1-2" segments

Step 4: as everything starts to soften, add broth ingredients

3 quarts fresh tomato juice
1.5 quarts chanterelle broth (simmer 1-1.5 c. dried mushrooms, strain & reserve the mushrooms)
2 c of fire roasted red pepper juice (just happened to reserve after peeling & seeding peppers)
1 c orange tomato curry ketchup (some left from last fall's recipe)

Step 5: finely mince or julienne mushrooms, add to broth

Step 6: chiffonade into pot with scissors 2 handfuls of kale (red russian winter and lacinato), stems trimmed, more kale is good - depends on what you have (chard, arugula, parsley would all be good)

Step 7: add herbs, salt & pepper to taste:

1 t. dried tarragon
1 t. dried sage
1 t. dried marjoram
1 t. dried savory
1 T. dried rosemary
1 t. powdered garlic
1 t. black pepper
1 T. salt

Step 8: cube 16 oz block of extra firm Nigori tofu into 1.5' chunks, stir in gently

Step 9: prepare 2-3 c orrechiete pasta in salted water with olive oil (to keep it from sticking together - you aren't tryig to get sauce to stick to this pasta, so it's ok) - once broth is about where you want it, still thin - add cooked pasta to soup

Step 10: eat yummy soup and bring some to work in a nice big quart size mason jar.

YIELD:
Serves A FREAKING LOT! Ok, about 8 quarts. Get eating!

Fried Green Tomatoes Po-boy Sandwich

I remember a dear friend once asking me - "Where do you get green tomatoes?" - and when I said only from my garden, she got confused, thinking I meant some kind of heirloom - rather than unripe tomatoes. The idea of eating unripe tomatoes had never occurred to her - but there are so many things you can do with them - including frying and pickling them.

Fried green tomatoes are tangy and delicious - firm and unique. You can fry up ripe tomatoes the same way, but getting unripe tomatoes is something that requires timing and perfect seasonality.

I like to make a thin batter of flour & water to dip my sliced tomatoes, and then roll them in a mix of corn flour and wheat flour, black pepper, salt and paprika - and then fry them in canola or peanut oil. These were delicious topped with Green Zebra tomato jam and with the Fig-Tomato Chutney.

So, naturally - the next day, I decided to make a sandwich out of them.

Fried Green Tomato Sandwich:

• Leftover fried green tomato slices from the fridge
• Fresh bread - poboy bread would be idea, but Semifreddi's seeded sourdough baguette and ciabatta have worked pretty well
• Harissa (roasted red pepper spread) for the bottom piece of bread
• Add tomatoes - cut to fit on the bread
• Sprinkle salt & pepper if desired
  
• Add fig-tomato chutney
• Add fresh arugula - cut or tear pieces so that they don't just pull out of the sandwich when you eat it
• (vegan) garlic aoili on the top piece of bread
• fold your bread and eat it!

Vegan/Gluten-free & Soy-Free Mexican Chocolate Cake

After reading up on some vegan flourless chocolate cakes and applesauce cakes, I mostly adapted from this recipe on Karina's Kitchen blog, I have to offer you this persimmon chocolate cake which is vegan, gluten-free & soy-free, low fat and made without refined sugar but which tastes so rich and delicious, and is so easy to make that I made three of them.

Ron's Birthday Cake
Put dry ingredients into your mixing bowl or food processor cup:

3/4 c. sorghum flour
1/4 c. amaranth flour
3 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 cup organic sucanat
1 Tb dry Ener-G Egg Replacer
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
4 Tb Xocolatl cocoa powder (or regular cocoa powder)

Mix to blend dry ingredients, then addwet ingredients:

1 c persimmon puree
4 oz. melted dark chocolate
2 tablespoons Spectrum Organic Shortening
1/2 c raw agave nectar
2 tsp champagne vinegar
3 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp coffee extract - or - 1 Tb instant or finely ground coffee
1 tsp almond extract

Blend until smooth, then pour into prepared springform pan. Bake in pre-heated 350F oven till firm - about 30 to 35 minutes, depending on the size of your pan and altitude. Cool on a wire rack. Chill or eat right away with your fingers and call it a "test," before making another one.

I'll be serving this with a persimmon sauce that I made with 1 c. persimmon, 1 c. water, 1 c. sucanat and cooked down to nearly persimmon butter consistency.

Vegan Doughnuts & Candied Apricots

Just as I was pulling out the last jars from the hot water bath, my friend Eric popped over with a half dozen doughnuts from Voo Doo Doughnuts in Portland as my reward for visiting his kitty while he was on a road trip. Putting aside my excitement - I actually managed to chocolate dip a tray of candied apricots first - but have to do it in two batches because I ran out of chcolate.

YIELD:

• 38 dark chocolate dipped candied apricot halves
  

DOUGHNUTS! Eric confessed two things - there's nobody over 35 in Portland, and they have a bizarre passion for doughnuts in general. Though he isn't generally a doughnut person, he said he likes what they're doing with vegan doughnuts and brought me 6 yummy confections in a pink box (as we all know - "good things come in pink boxes") -- a maple bar (my favorite!), a crazy purple fantasy frosted concoction, a yummy looking chocolate covered mystery, one covered with crushed oreos and vanilla frosted with coconut flakes.

And, yes, I did take pictures.

Cucumber Salad with Pickled Carrot & Red Onion

SUMMER POTLUCKS are one of my favorite events - a great chance to improvise and use whatever fresh produce I can get at the farmer's market. Today, I got some amazing cucumbers, carrots, radishes and red onions. So, I thought it might be nice to pickle the carrots and onions, and then add that all to the cucumbers - that way the cucumbers are still nice and crispy and will pickle slightly in the vinegar brine, making the leftovers more of a pickle than a salad.

1# carrots, peeled & cut up
1 med red onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic
spices - anise seed, dill seed, mustard seed, black pepper, salt, clove
3/4 c. sugar
1 c. apple cider vinegar
2-4 T. sea salt
fresh ginger - big chunk, peeled and sliced thin
1-2 serrano chiles

6 cucumbers
1 bunch radishes, sliced thin
1/2 bunch parsley
1 bunch peppermint

1. Peel & cut up the carrots - I have a coarse grater that makes 1/2" wide shreds - or julienne the carrots into small sticks about 1 1/2" to 2" long.

2. Drop the carrots into 3 c. boiling lightly salted water and simmer for about 1 minute. Drain into a colander, rinse with cold water and then thoroughly drain (a casserole dish lined with a clean tea towel folded to fit or paper towels works great). Leave the carrots and occasionally turn them to drain better.

3. Add spices to water and return to boil, boil it down about 1/3 or so. Add the apple cider vinegar, return to boil and then add the onion slices, serrano & ginger. Simmer about 3 minutes.

4. Remove the towel from the dish where the carrots are resting - pour on the onions & brine & spices. Stir together and let rest.

5. Using a zester, remove some of the cucumber peel - it makes a nice edge and will help the cucumbers keep some shape. Halve the cucumber and cut into 1/4" thick slices. Add to carrots & onions, toss gently to mix and cover.

6. Scrub & thinly slice radishes (reserving the greens for eating later - yum!) and add to the salad.

7. Chiffonade parsley & peppermint - toss into salad. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to serving bowl. Store remainder of salad in large mason jar, make sure it is covered with brine - should keep a week in the fridge (unless you eat it all).