April 05, 2004:
Once again, a half-baked recipe for my own reference. Try at your own risk. Items marked with a ~ are estimates. (Just wait until I come out with the cookbook that has measurements that are actually accurate.)
Gardenburgers
I bought a box of gardenburgers similar to this from Trader Joe’s, and they were very good, but I just hate paying $3.50 for four lousy burgers. Not that I’ve analyzed how expensive my homemade ones are going to be.
~2 cups chickpeas
~2 cups cooked rice (I used white basmati - brown rice is always good, too, if I had thought about it earlier I would have used that.)
1 block mori-nu firm silken tofu
~1 box croutons (that is to say, prepared breadcrumbs I’ve found for sale all have dairy in them. So we crunch the croutons - YMMV)
Equivalent of three eggs (I use ground flax seed)
~1 tablespoon soy sauce
~Couple of shakes of liquid smoke
~1 teaspoon kitchen bouquet
~2 teaspoons paprika
~1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
~2 teaspoons pepper
~1 teaspooon salt
~1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 red pepper
1 stalk broccoli
1 can corn, drained well
1-2 cups finely chopped cabbage
1 cup finely chopped onion
~1 cup finely chopped string beans
Cook and mash chickpeas; add rice, tofu, croutons and egg replacer, stir well. Add seasonings and mix thoroughly.
Chop the red pepper into tiny squares and the broccoli into tiny florets. Combine all vegetables; mix well into chickpea mixture.
Shape and freeze. Reheat by frying with a little bit of oil.
Other vegetables probably wouldn’t go amiss, here. I toyed with the idea of putting in my last sad bit of daikon radish, but it was looking pretty tired.
Once Brian gets back with the extra croutons, I guess I can see if my recipe works ^_^
Liana | 4 comments
March 03, 2004:
Original recipe can be found on Rachel’s journal.
Slice cube of extra-firm tofu into rectangles about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. (Result should look like a loaf of bread. Slice thicker if you like the taste of tofu, thinner if you want them to taste less tofu-y and more like a commercial product.) Press as much water out of tofu as possible. (I use two flour-sack towels and a bunch of big books.) Brush slabs of pressed tofu with bouquet garni. Alternately, I suppose you could marinate them here. Haven’t tried that yet.
Heat up enough oil to cover the bottom of a frying pan. Add dash or two of soy sauce. Fry tofu slabs on both sides until crisp; drain on paper towels.
Heat up barbeque sauce (thinned with water if you like; heated up with hot sauce if you like); pour over tofu slabs. Coat and serve. For optimal husband happiness, serve on toasted rolls spread with vegan mayo and topped with grilled onions and peppers, with potato chips on the side. If you’re feeling really saucy, some homemade marshmallows would not go amiss for dessert.
Verdict: mm. Now, I’m not going to try to serve these to my dad anytime soon, because he’d probably disown me, but I’d serve these at my theoretical restaurant. They’re much cheaper than Gardenburger Riblets, a favorite of Brian’s, which is what I was trying to imitate; that particular product has this “OK, this is weird, it’s almost too much like meat” taste, while these are tofu slabs through and through, but between the thin slicing, oil and sauce, I think they’re a decent homemade replica. Plus, they’re quick, and even though I bought a different, more expensive ($1.99 as opposed to my usual $1.19) brand of firmer tofu to make these with, it beats the heck out of Brian spending $8 for three boxes of Gardenburger riblets ^_^
Liana | 3 comments
January 29, 2004:
For posterity.
2 small onions
1 large package firm tofu
3 tablespoons oil
2 largish potatoes
1 can coconut milk
1 cup soymilk
2 cans spinach
1 can green beans
1 can corn
2 tsp curry powder
1 tablespoon tumeric
1 tablespoon coriander
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon ground red pepper
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Splash of lemon juice
Chop the onions into little pieces and cook in the oil until transparent. Cut tofu into one inch cubes; press as much water out of the cubes as possible. Sautee with oil and onions until lightly browned on two or three sides. Chop potatoes into small, 1/3 inch cubes; add to onions and tofu. Add coconut and soy milks until mixture is almost covered; cook for ten minutes. Add spinach, beans and corn and all spices; stir very well and cook until potatoes are cooked. Add a little splash of lemon juice, stir and serve to happy husband. Spice amounts, especially, may have to be adjusted, as I am estimating them after the fact - I think the salt especially might be off, because as this recipe makes quite a bit a person needs quite a bit of salt.
Somewhat eclectic - somewhere between palak paneer and kitchen sink - pretty inexpensive - very good with basmati rice and red lentil dal. (Recipe for that is still classified.)
Liana | 2 comments
February 21, 2003:
Okonomiyaki for dinner tonight. Tentative recipe posted in the extended entry.
Aside from that, nothing much else is going on. Very glad that spring break is this next week. very, very glad.
Okonomiyaki, Viva City style
A lot of these measurements are estimated. That’s why this is version 1.0. I actually wouldn’t make this if I was you, nor any other version 1.0 recipes I may post here; I’m writing it down so next time I’ll know what to tweak. ^_^
1 can corn
1/2 head cabbage
Any other fillings (we used red pepper this time, was very good)
3 eggs or equivalent of 3 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk or water
Okonomiyaki sauce
Mayonaise
Chop the cabbage very finely. I estimate we ended up with about three, four cups of chopped cabbage. Next time I make it I’ll check. Chop and add any other fillings–these should be pretty well chopped up. Add corn and all the liquid from the can, then add all the other ingredients except the sauce and the mayonaise. The texture shouldn’t be soupy or thick; the batter should be like pancake batter and the filling ingredients give it extra bulk and thickness. It’s not hard to estimate if you’ve ever seen it, is the problem. Heat up a frying pan over low medium heat (two if you have them, which fortunately c2 does) and add a little vegetable oil to each pan. Spoon the okonomiyaki batter into the frying pan(s)–you can make this one big pancake or about three little pancakes per pan. The pancakes should be about 1/4-1/2 inches thick, probably closer to 1/4. Let them cook for about 10-15 minutes, then turn over and cook another 10-15 minutes. Once they’re brown on both sides they’re done, but really I like them overcooked and crispy on the outside. They’re supposed to be a little moist on the inside, by the way. Serve with okonomiyaki sauce (or tonkatsu sauce for us vegetarians, which doesn’t contain fish and has a similar taste–maybe a little less mellow, if I remember okonomiyaki sauce right) spread over the top and mayonaise on the side. Serves four.
Next I swear I’m going to come up with a good udon broth. Udon is pretty cheap here, 99 cents for a packet of dried udon. Sushi.come has a yummy broth for the udon, but personally I found their udon to be a little overcooked and not quite salted enough. (I continue the grand family tradition of being a food snob, I’m afraid.)
Liana | no comments
February 09, 2003:
So I’m putting recipes in the extended entry now. Whee. Considering that my recipes are largely useless until I have them refined a bit, I figured it’s best not to subject people to them.
Vegan Oden, Hideko-style
Oden is a sort of low-class Japanese winter comfort food, and this here is about as close as I can get it to what my host mom Hideko used to make. For those of you who don’t care about skipping the animal products, I’ve added some in parentheses.
Large pot of water, the larger the better
One large sheet konbu
Soy sauce
(Dried bonito flakes)
Two large potatoes
One daikon radish
Two carrots
One cake brown konnyaku
One package firm tofu
Two packages fried tofu cutlets
(Hard-boiled eggs)
(Some sort of meat, I guess)
Mustard
Seven-spice powder
Dried udon noodles
Start simmering the water, throw in the konbu. (Konbu, now, is this flat seaweed. I failed to find it at Meijers but I did find it at the Asian market up by the laundromat. Comes in flat, dark green sheets about the size of a piece of paper, with white stuff on it. Not using a real recipe, I just tossed in one and a half large pieces.) Add the bonito flakes, I think. Honestly I have no idea when to put the bonito flakes in because I don’t use them. Add a good bit of soy sauce, about three nice long shakes. Peel the carrots and chop each one into about three large chunks. Peel the daikon and chop into disks about half an inch thick. Peel or not peel the potatoes as you like (I like potato peels) and chop them into nice big chunks, about four or five. Boil the carrots, daikon and potatoes for about five minutes or so, then put them in the main pot with the konbu.
Chop up the konnyaku. A note on konnyaku: I don’t like it and I don’t know why anyone would. Its sole benefit is that it’s filling without having any calories, but you have to eat it to enjoy the filling effects. It’s a traditional part of oden and so I included it, but I fully intend to never buy any again. In any case, chop it up. I got mine from the Asian market and it came in a sort of little pillow-form. The idea with oden is to have nice big chunks of things that you pick up with chopsticks and dip into mustard, so these should be about 3/4 inches thick or so. Chop up the firm tofu into nice-sized chunks and chop the fried tofu cutlets into big chunks. A word about the fried tofu cutlets - they’ve just started to show up at Meijers here and they’re very useful. Can’t find them, then just add more regular tofu. Here, I suppose is where you would add hard-boiled eggs, meat, whatever. Hideko made these little egg omlet things that were really good, but I don’t think I could recreate them even if I was going to add egg. Toss everything in the pot. About now I’d go ahead and take out the konbu, as it should be pretty strong at this point. Simmer for hours. I didn’t pay attention to how long I simmered everything, honestly. Test the daikon - when it’s soft and juicy and delicious and doesn’t have a strong radish taste at all, it’s done. Serve with seven-spice powder and some mustard on the side. Have a trash can available when people don’t like the konnyaku.
When all the good stuff is gone you’ll have some nice broth leftover which I put udon noodles in. This is more of a thing to do with nabe than oden, I think, but I don’t really care so I did it anyways. In a separate pot, boil some water and add a good deal of salt, let’s say two or three teaspoons? Add the udon, boil five minutes. Drain, rinse. Add to the broth. Serve. Nearly cry because you haven’t had udon for the longest time and it’s soooo good to slurp noodles again. Wonder how to make kitsune udon…
Oden is fun because it’s pretty versatile. It’s like my dad says, cooking isn’t a science, it’s an art. Though directions should, I suppose, be a little more scientific than artistic… Next I want to get my nabe pot from home and make nabe. ^_^
Liana | one comment
February 07, 2003:
Tempeh: it’s got the strong taste everybody loves in natto, and none of the stickiness, softness, sliminess, or weird cheese-like threads coming from the beans. All I’m saying is that the Indonesians got fermented soybeans right.
So, today I wrote my paper on “Ukigumo,” old Meiji-era Japanese novel, and in the novel one of the characters mentions oden, as in if another character is so darn hoity-toity why does she like cheap oden? Since then I’ve just been craving oden, which is basically a cheap Japanese winter dish. Traditionally oden is made up of vegetables like daikon, potatoes and carrots, tofu, hard-boiled eggs, little egg pancakes and fish dumplings all simmered in a seaweed-based broth. Once everything has its last breath simmered out of it, you bring the whole deal to the table and everyone grabs what they want and eats it with a little mustard. My host mom made it a lot and now it won’t get out of my mind. Much like the Sakana song that they play in the fish section of the Heiwado supermarkets which has taken up residence in my mind since earlier this morning. So here I am in America, craving this Japanese food you can pick up at 7-11 there but here no one has ever heard of. Luckily, one of the things I picked up in Japan was a cute little nabe cookbook (and it really is cute!) with a recipe for oden in it. Also there’s some oden information online and, well, it’s not all that hard to make. So if you’re interested in sampling poor Japanese comfort food, come join me on Sunday. It’ll be fun, really.
My favorite Japanese pen and the Japanese moisturizer I brought back ran out of ink and moisturizer, respectively, yesterday. We watched a pair of videos about Japanese marriage in my Anthro class the other day – one set in Shiga Prefecture – and seeing the familiar houses and landscape, for the first time I really understood the word natsukashii. I understand that the box of cookies and brownies I sent for about seven of my friends back at JCMU still hasn’t arrived, 12 days later. Here in Ann Arbor we’ve got an outing planned and a weekend to enjoy; the snow falls, the cats cuddle and my one committment-phobic roommate asks “so if he, like, gets down on one knee and you think he’s going to ask you to marry him, what would be best to do to get him to stop?”
Liana | 2 comments
January 30, 2003:
Every so often I’ll get into this weird frame of mind, hit the Grad Library, and take some issues of the Ladies Home Journal from the 1940s up to the little desks (with a view of the Law Quad, preferably) on the fifth floor so I can read the cooking articles. Never mind that it’ll be a cold day in hell before I allow lard into my kitchen or decide that my future success will be made or broken by the quality of my cakes; there’s just something about Ann Batchelder’s columns that makes this tofu-loving couscous-cooking girl wonder, just for a moment, just what new sorts of uses one could put Jello towards in this day and age.
I always thought I was alone in this.
It’s good to know that I’m not.
Liana | one comment
I made a bet with Brian a while back, which was that I could create a recipe for vegan lasagna that would be good enough that even my mom or dad would eat it without complaint. Luckily, I have a whole year to perfect my recipe. If the year passes and I do manage to create the perfect recipe, he takes me out on a date. If not, then I take him out on a date. Well, round one shows promise, but I don’t think I could get my mom to eat it even if I neglected to tell her about the tofu…
Liana’s Vegan Lasagna, Round 1
One box of lasagna noodles
Two jars of cheap spaghetti sauce (ah… I think mine was Meijers brand “chunky garden” sauce…)
One can of diced tomatoes (don’t remember how big the can was… 15 oz perhaps? Not the small size)
One package of frozen spinach
One jar of artichoke hearts (personal preference… I LOVE artichoke hearts and they were on sale ^_^)
Basil, oregano, salt, pepper
Two pounds of tofu (I bought one box of soft tofu and one box of extra firm… I was hoping for some texture variation but it didn’t make a big enough difference)
Vegetable oil (probably olive oil would have been better?)
Commercial egg replacer (I don’t know if this did anything for my poor recipe, but all the recipes I’ve seen for some sort of ricotta filling include an egg, so…)
Preheat the oven to 350. Boil a pot of water, add some salt and the lasagna noodles once it boils. In a large saucepan over medium heat, mix together the spaghetti sauce, the can of diced tomatoes (drained, at least I drained them–not necessary, given that I didn’t end up with enough sauce for my taste) and the artichoke hearts. Add a few shakes of dried basil and oregano, some salt and pepper and a little bit of vegetable oil–next recipe it’ll say “olive oil” because I’ll be sure to have mine with me– then add the block of frozen spinach. Make your boyfriend stir the sauce so the spinach block melts but the sauce doesn’t bubble over and make a mess while you prepare the tofu stuffing.
Tofu stuffing: Drain tofu, mash with hands. Add a lot of salt. I added perhaps a little too much salt, I didn’t really pay attention. Add some pepper, some oil, some basil.
Put it all together–standard lasagna procedure. A little sauce on the bottom of the pan, layer like so: noodles, sauce, filling, repeat. Bake for about 30-35 minutes.
Analysis: Let’s have this scale where one star is awful, four stars would get it on the menu at Seva and five stars is the sort of thing my parents would eat seconds of: about three stars. Not bad at all; I thought it was great. Right now it’s probably a five-star recipe if you’re feeding it to vegans (Eric freaked out about it–in a good way, I mean) and a three-point-five star among vegetarians (Brian liked it).
I was kind of hoping that soft tofu and extra-firm tofu, mashed together, would have enough texture difference to create variety, but it didn’t quite work out, once mashed up the two were very similar. It’s OK, though, it had about the same texture and look as ricotta cheese. Even salted and spiced, though, it’s not as convincing as it should be–though it’s a lot more convincing than one might think. It needs to be more spreadable, I think. I’ll figure something out.
Vegan cheese being what it is, that is to say utterly disgusting, I left the mozzerella out. I honestly don’t miss the taste too much, but it does do a great job of kind of binding everything together and making it lasagna instead of a jumble of noodles, sauce and filling. Not entirely sure how to deal with that. I thought about using natto to recreate the stickiness and stringiness. For about two seconds.
I love making cheap sauce into something really good. I suppose you could skip that and just buy good sauce in the first place. In any case, I need more of it. mmm.
So, I’ve still got eleven months, right?
Liana | 3 comments
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