mind your b's and q's

we don't need to extol the joys and virtues of outdoor grilling to you all - you probably rocked the coals all summer long! well, to celebrate our recent move as well as the summer's end (oh, and what a summer it was), ryan and i threw a little bbq in our new backyard last weekend! our new place is small, so we couldn't host the rager of years past, but i still think it turned out pretty grand.

the best part? a few hours before the bbq was slated to start, a handful of friends (lauren, michael, halimah and stina) presented us with a wedding/housewarming gift that made our jaws drop: a brand new gas grill! what a generous, thoughtful and rad gift that truly will keep on giving. ryan and michael set it up right then and there, and we proceeded to use it all though the night! it was such a luxury to be able to fire it up for the 2nd and 3rd waves of guests, or when people wanted midnight snacks. that kind of spontaneity just isn't possible with the charcoal grill.

as for the food, we wisely kept it pretty simple: some chips, a few salads (green salad, pasta salad and a guest vegan potato salad from our brother steven!), and grillables. chicken and steak for the meat eaters, and homemade vegan sausages and bbq'd tofu for the vegetarians, featuring BBQ sauce that ryan whipped up from scratch. when that dude's southern roots shine through, they really shine! the sauce was killer, the beers were cold, the mood was high. we ate, drank, told jokes, watched baseball, played cards, and no doubt kept our neighbors up until saturday turned into sunday and we all fell into our beds.


dang, just look at those sexy grill marks! anyway, it really is time to let the summer go, isn't it? the autumn is here, so let's embrace it! unpack your leggings and sweaters, and expect some cozy recipes to come....

love,
emily

3 for the week

whoa! hey guys...where have i been? it's been nearly 2 months since my last post, a wee statistic i'm not so proud of. but i have a few good reasons for my absence, as listed below:

1. laziness and inertia. these factors simply cannot be discounted, for they are powerful and can creep in without you hardly noticing.

2. like sissy lauren, i too have been enjoying some dairy products in my diet. and so i've been asking myself, "what to do about this vegan food blog?" while it has been fun to experiment with new ingredients, a lot of the food coming out of our kitchen is still totally vegan. nevertheless, i have been second guessing myself about writing here. like - do i disclose? and if so, how? and should we rename the blog, or just keep on keepin on? i can sometimes overthink things. anyway, looks like i just came out, so at least that part is out of the way. as for what to do with/call this blog, well that is still under discussion. i will just assert that the mindful addition of milk, eggs, and cheese to my diet has really been fun and exciting, and the lil pangs of guilt i felt at first are long gone.

3. i got a new job! a really good job, one far away from cappuccinos and customer service. a 9 to 5er, in fact! my livelihood is now earned behind a small desk in a tiny, cozy office that's mine all mine. i keep the heat cranked to 70 F, drink french press coffee, do my work, listen to music and stare at a computer all the live long day. so when i come home, often the last thing i want to do is look at another screen. i'm sure many of you can identify. the day-job has led to other wonderful quality-of-life improvements, including evenings and weekends full of freedom. from this stable schedule, healthy things have arisen - namely going to the gym more and cooking way more than i used to.

in fact, one of my new favorite traditions is using sunday night as my alone time/recovery from the weekend revelries, preparing things to eat throughout the week. see, i made this pact with myself that i would only buy lunch out once or less a week. and for the past 8 weeks, i've totally stuck with it! going out for lunch just adds up too quickly, you know what i'm saying? it's also an easy way to eat all kinds of crap that you don't even want.

so while ryan is at work, adam is at band practice, and lauren is out potluck-ing, i pad around in my pajamas (even at 8PM! what a funny old lady i'm becoming), thumb through cookbooks and make food until i am simply too tired to continue.

for the past few sundays, i've made three things for the week: granola, a soup, and an entree. usually i eat some of the entree for dinner on sunday too. there's nothing like instant gratification, especially when good smells have been circling around you for a few hours.

this process is so meditative for me. i listen to a succession of records that i pull from the shelf without even looking - everything sounds good when you're alone and cooking. if i'm feeling jaunty (and not too hungover), i'll nurse a glass of wine or vodka soda. with any luck, i have my ingredients out and a plan at least half formulated in my head. if not, i figure it out as i go.

this past sunday, i started with a "braised tofu" recipe by mark bittman. i use the quotes to highlight my skepticism - ok, i don't even really know what braising is, but i don't think it is the right bit of vocabulary for this recipe. i'd just skip the pretense and call it a coconut tofu curry, since that sound great to me (i crave something with coconut milk in it at least weekly). regardless, the recipe starts with a cool technique that i've never used before to start a curry: you puree canned tomatoes with onion segments until it's all, you know, pureed up. this mixture the base for what i came to think of as indian gravy.


then you heat it over a medium flame and stir in a touch of olive oil, S&P, and 2 tablespoons of curry powder (i used 1 tblsp of garam masala and 1 of "bawa spice," a homemade curry made by our dearest halimah). i put some jasmine rice on at this point, since to me a curry without rice just seems naked. you know how to make rice, right? cool.

let the curry gravy briskly simmer for 15 minutes. then add 3 cups of chopped vegetables (in this case blanched cauliflower, broccoli and peas) and 1 pound of cubed tofu. cook longer, 7 more minutes?

the final and best step is adding in the can of coconut milk. it's so extravagant pouring the silky, rich cream all through the pan. my cast iron was almost overflowing! i had to resist the urge to sip right from the side of the cast iron.


lunch & dinner for the week! next time, i might add some red pepper flakes for a little more kick, but it's alright. big red aka sriracha peppered this batch right up.

as that was finishing up, i started a tomato soup, also from bittman. full disclosure: 99% of the recipes i've been making since christmas are from mark bittman's "how to cook everything vegetarian." it is so, so good, and extensive, and clear, and he's got this funny dad sense of humor that i find touching. so the tomato soup was from there, and pretty basic, and i will choose not rehash every step of the process here. but, come to think of it, it turned out super well, so i'll just copy the recipe below...anyway, what makes a better lunch that tomato soup? there is nothing better.

so as discussed in the past, the granola part is easy; i don't even use a recipe anymore. i just dump some oats in a bowl and stir in a drop of vanilla extract, a splash of veggie oil, a bigger splash of maple syrup, the tiniest pinch of salt, and whatever else we have around (this week it was hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, pepitas and golden flax seeds). spread the mixture out on a pan, and toast at 350F for 20 minutes, stirring every once in awhile. these twenty minutes provide a good time to have a small dish of the curry and/or soup.

when it's all done, i admire the lovely simplicity of the fresh granola. screw a $5 box of cereal.

at this point, maybe 9 or 9:30, i'm usually on the last round of dishes. even though we have a dishwasher in this house, i kind of look forward to doing the dishes, as the act brings some closure on my kitchen session. everything is packed nicely in tupperwarees in the fridge, and i feel accomplished. the food in those containers is a gift that the me of sunday is giving to the me of all week. and, there is a certain feeling of safety that comes with knowing that there is a stash of well made food in your possession that is ready to go when you are. it makes the dawning of another monday not something to dread, but something to anticipate. well, anticipate lunch time, at least.

Tomato Soup by Mark Bittman, from "How To Cook Everything Vegetarian"

ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon of fresh thyme, or (more likely) a big pinch of dried thyme leaves
S&P
3 cups of diced canned tomatoes
2-3 cups of veg stock or water
soy/rice milk, creamer, cow milk, heavy cream, or sour cream (optional)

- heat the olive oil gently, and add the tomato paste. stir it around for a minute or two.

- add the onions, carrots, and turn the heat to medium. stir and heat this mixture up for a few minutes. add the thyme, and S&P.

- pour in the tomatoes, juice and all, and bring the mixture up to a low boil. lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. the tomatoes should start to break apart.

- add the stock or water and let it get hot again. try it. are the carrots and onions tender? if so, the soup is done. if you like creamy soup (and how i do), put your immersion blend to work. then if even creamier is your goal, slowly add a vegan or non vegan creaming agent until you acheive your desired shade of light red. i added in two very small dollops of sour cream, which helped to smooth out the flavor in a subtle way.

- obviously, if the veggies aren't tender yet, keep cooking it til they are. and if you're in the middle of other stuff, or have the time to develop a deeper flavor, you can keep this soup on a very low simmer for as long as you want. i let this batch go for 20 or so extra minutes.

it sounds too simple to be true, but this soup is tomatoe-y perfection...best comfort food!

love,
emily

ravioli: an undertaking of socialist proportions

please, dear friends: do not attempt to make fresh pasta alone. it's far too large and daunting an undertaking (at least until you're a pro at rolling it out like this lady). the real way to do it is to call a few friends, ask them to pick up some vino and an extra pound of tofu. while they're on the way, get the flours, water and oil mixin in the food processor into dough (use this incredibly simple and foolproof recipe from vegan dad!) if there's more than 4 of you dining - double it. the masses always eat more than you think they will. especially when the food prep takes 2 hours.

yes, unless we did something terribly wrong, making fresh ravioli takes a few hours. put out some olives to nosh on and drink some cheap beers to fill your tums in the patience-testing interim. get the girls on pasta duty, assign a boy on dish duty, and get another flipping records while the pasta dough rests, dries, gets filled, then rests again. yes! employ your friends. from each according to their ability, and whatnot.

first shot of the new kitchen, a few of its dedicated workers buzzing about:


so, let's break it down: ravs takes a few extra steps than even regular fresh pasta. and let's put it out there now - yes, throwing some 99 cent dried pasta in boiling water til al dente will do for most every night of the week. this is for special times when you really want to get semolina flour all over your pants.

also, for these big projects, you might want to call in a non-human sous chef. meet our newest kitchen helper - eiffel!!

he may be an american bulldog but he barks with a french accent. we ask him for advice concerning haute cuisine.

pasta time: first, make the dough. click that link from vegan dad and don't overthink it. regular flour plus semolina flour, a little salt, olive oil and water all up in the food processor. don't be a naysayer, it will turn into dough! knead til smooth. we took the easy way out and used the standing mixer with a dough hook.

if it's kind of sticky (ours magically wasn't), knead in some extra flour. then cut the dough into a handful of equal sized pieces and roll it out - you can use a rolling pin, old-italian-lady style, or be all new fangled and break out the pasta machine. start on the widest setting, roll a piece of dough through a few times, then turn it a bit tighter, a little bit more each time. if you want the pieces of dough to be wide, fold the long skinny piece onto itself to make a double wide. keep going til the slabs of dough are nice and thin. not so thin you can read through it, but almost...

then let it sit for awhile. 20 minutes or so? it sucks, just eat some more olives.

next comes the fun part. scoop in some nice lumps of tofu ricotta (add spinach to be even more healthy). damn if tofu ricotta isn't so so super deliciously good, and rumored to be at least sort of close to the real thing. we know that's probably not true, but whatever! we'll eat it right off the spoon.


with intent, place little scoops of the tof ric in a neat grid pattern across one big slab of well rested dough. space 'em about 2 inches apart, like this:


then, draw lines between them with water - use a pastry brush or your finger! then, without waiting too long so the water doesn't dry out, carefully lay another piece of dough on top and press down. press firmly and create a good seal! if you don't, these babies will explode when dropped into the inevitable cauldron of boiling water. so once you've made a big flat of ravs (poke out any air holes), cut them up with a pizza cutter. then crimp the edges with a fork. you don't need a silly tool to make it pretty, just a plain old fork. looks so profesh!


here's the bad news: now these have to rest for another 20 minutes or so. the good news is that this is just about how long it takes a huge pot of water to boil. without fail, water. takes.forever. it's also about how long it takes for this dude to make a killer big salad:

while smiley is washing greens and chopping 'maters, drop the ravs in, poke them with a wooden spoon so they don't stick together, and give them between 5 and 8 minutes at a rolling boil. eat one to test it! you will undoubtedly be starving by now.

omg, you're done! dress with olive oil and garlic or a light sauce. we used a lovely jar of homemade fresh tomato sauce that our friends over at tastebuds made and generously gifted to us. you don't want to get too heavy on homemade pasta, or, what's the point. don't drown all your hard work with the soulless contents of a prego jar, k?

and sorry to all, but the best shot of the finished product has a bit of shredded parm on top. you'll all live right, i know ya will. don't get caught up in the details, dammit. eat...eat up!!

cheers for carbs!

xo,
emily & lauren

late spring score

i won't play modest mousy here: when it comes to matters of the kitchen, when i'm on, i'm on. yesterday, the first real day off from work i've had in nearly 2 weeks, i made it my beeswax to spend a good part of my day cooking. first, after a relaxing morning in bed, a trip with ryan to the clark park farmer's market. the farmers' tables aren't as loaded as they may be in a month, but there was plenty to contemplate. we walked away with a canvas bag full of: organic brown eggs (for ryan), herbed homemade chips from the amish man (the first stand in the park if you're coming from baltimore ave. - also, try his mint iced tea!), a big leafy bunch of lacinato kale, two glowing red tomatoes, and a pint of the season's finest: strawberries. good lord, these strawberries are so melt-y and sweet, they make supermarket strawberries cry with shame.

back at home, ryan made some crazy amazing looking omelette, and i whipped up a big old tofu scramble, studded with some onions and roasted red peps. nothing too out of the ordinary, but a hearty breakfast nonetheless:


ry left for work around 3:30, and i biked downtown with him. i met up with my co-worker (and soon to be new housemate!) RJ, and we vented and laughed about work stuff over very, very tall pints of lager at oscar's - best dive bar in the city. we parted ways in the early evening and i savored my slow and somewhat wobbly bike ride back west. the sun was low in the sky, and a gentle breeze kicked off the river. it was the kind of moment i so often dream about during the cruel winter months, buried under blankets on the couch.

when i got back home to an empty house, i was invigorated and inspired to make something special with my farmer's market scores. i decided to really do it up in an everything-from-scratch, multi-step, multi-dish fashion. i didn't have a plan, but a quick rummage through the fridge brought on a slew of fresh ideas. i started prepping some ingredients, popped in a "jazz masters" cassette tape, and then a magical thing happened: i entered kind of a culinary trance, where one idea effortlessly transitioned to the next, and before i knew it, every burner on the stove was occupied, things were marinating in little dishes, and the image of the finished plate was formed in my mind.

and it reminded me of how cooking a meal is like writing a story: you need to give yourself a bit of structure or few character sketches, but the real beauty happens when you fill in the spaces between the plot points, when you loosen your grip on your brain and let it roam. stream of consciousness, kitchen-style, is when you put the cookbooks away and let the food just happen. a lot of the time, it's hard for me to get in this mode, but gorgeous produce and bountiful staple ingredients helped me let go...

much to my surprise, lauren came home from work (i thought she was dining with a friend), which snapped me a bit out of my stove-top reverie. she poured us lovely little grapefruit & gin cocktails:


and helped set the table while i flipped the last few things in the frying pan. she waited patiently while i plated, and then we sat down to what was one of the most creative, satisfying meals i've made in quite a long time:

quinoa w/ crispy leeks topped with chipotle scented lacinato kale & tomato salad, pan fried seed encrusted tofu with spicy crema,
and fresh corn griddle cakes with a minty balsamic macerated strawberries

one little recipe to share for the strawberry topping:
(it's best to make this first, before you even start prepping or cooking anything else, so the strawberries can soften up, with the help of the vinegar, and sweetend up, with the help of the sugars they release)

- mash 6-8 ripe strawbs in a non-metal bowl.
- drizzle about 1 tsp of the best balsamic vinegar you can get (the kind i used is super special, procured on lauren's trip to italy a few years ago)
- toss in about 1 tablespoon of chopped up fresh mint.
- crush up a couple black peppercorns with a mortar and pestle (or, okay, a twist or two of the pepper grinder), and add to the bowl.
- mix everything up and let it sit for as long as possible.
- try not to eat it all before it makes its way atop your griddle cakes, or whatever other lucky dish gets graced with this most luxurious condiment

love,
emily

the tof hoag

every city seems to have a little deli, market or restaurant that makes "the best" vietnamese style tofu hoagie. tofu hoagie = marinated tofu, shredded carrots and daikon, sprigs of cilantro, thin slices of jalapeno peppers and a hefty dash of sriracha. i've only sampled the wares in chicago (too greasy) and seattle (the insides were great but the bread was so crusty it hurt my mouth), but i still feel confident in naming west philadelphia's fu wah mini market (47th & baltimore ave.) the victor.

fu wah's hoagie rolls are always soft and fresh, the tofu is juicy, the vegetables are crunchy and everything is proportioned just right. each bite is a salty, spicy, zippy flavor explosion! and at $3.75 (remember when they used to be a flat 3 bucks? those were different times), you can throw in a bag of dirty chips and have yourself a wholly satisfying lunch for 5 dollars.

the outside lunch time world can be a cruel place for a cash strapped vegan. chinese food is usually gross, soups are made with chicken stock or cream, sushi is way expensive, and veggie sandwiches and salads are infuriatingly overpriced. tofu hoagie (or tof hoag, as we sometimes abbreviate) and the fine people at fu wah: i salute thee, for standing as a vegan beacon of light in the dark, meaty streets of philadelphia.

love,
emily

Brunch + Munch

a few day's ago halimah mentioned that brunch might be her new favorite meal. i thought she was effing crazy! i mean, i love brunch like no other; the tofu scramble, the bloody maries, the toast topped with tofutti cream cheese, the goddamn home fries, etc. but do i love it more than i love dinner? or lunch for that matter? or even.....dessert?!

tuesday may have changed my mind. while brunch, for me, is usually eaten at mi-lah, the royal tavern or one of the other (few) restaurants with halfway decent vegan options around here, tuesday i rolled out of bed at the crack of noon and thought, "today, today i will make brunch". there was no other choice, really.

friends and housies have recently been cooking more eggs in the kitchen - scrambled and fried mostly - and it allllmost brought me back to those non-vegan days. the runny yolk, the melted cheese, mmm. did i just think "mmm"? NO! instead of missing that old egg+cheese on a bagel, i quickly got grossed out when bert dropped an egg on the ground and i almost slipped on the albumin. i set out on a quest to develop some sort of vegan fried egg. the result, while nothing really like a vegan fried egg, was worth the journey. brunch, i love you so.



behold: pan seared tofu stuffed with garlic, onion, avocado and tofu-mustard "yolk" topped with creamy mustard sauce, microgreens and more avocado. add some veggie bacon and toast and you got yourself a brunch. i dare you to charge me $9 for this, the abbaye.

dinner at momma's

last night, lauren and i drove to maryland (we still call it delaware) to have dinner with our mom and her husband kevin and with our grandparents who were visiting from yonkers. hardly 5 minutes through the door, i destroyed a snack of homemade hummus and pletzels (more on these later...like when we get the recipe from grandma). then we sat around and had cozy present exchange time. around 8 we cracked a bottle of champagne, toasted to 2009, and proceeded with a three course feast!

we started with a shiitake and scallion soup adapted from the candle cafe cookbook. i actually prepared this dish the previous evening and it was ridiculously simple. basically you just soak an ounce of dried shiitakes for half an hour (this makes the broth), then add some fresh shiitakes, a couple splashes of soy sauce and a bunch of scallions and simmer briskly for another 30 minutes. i also added some arame seaweed, and finally spiked the broth with rice wine vinegar, cayenne pepper, hot sauce and white pepper. it was mild and very, very mushroom-y.

the next course was one of my favorite dishes of all time. you see, my mom's husband kevin is a great cook, specializing in the szechuan style of chinese cuisine. the man can make a mean cold sesame noodle...creamy, spicy, and just perfect, i am infatuated with them. some time back when he and my mom first started dating, he made a big batch of these and instantly won me over. i hope and pray that one day he will share the secret technique with me so that i can make them literally every day. behold these golden sesame threads (two thirds devoured):

the entree was another kevin specialty: orange sesame glazed tofu and peppers. the smoke alarm went off four times as the wok sizzled loudly over a super hot flame. we peeked over his shoulder at the dancing fire, oil and tofu, as lauren sang a little mantra, a la Unk "now wok it out, wok it out..."

as far as i can tell, this is the way it goes: get the wok oil (peanut oil!) super hot, and rock those tofu triangles in batches until crisp friedness has been achieved. lay them on paper towels to let them rest and cool. the green peppers and scallions get a quick tour de wok, followed by sliced ginger, orange peels, and dried hot peppers (totally edible but not for the faint of heart). then everything gets thrown back in and doused with the OJ sesame glaze. once it's all coated and shiny, serve with a mountain of white rice and attack with chop sticks.

by the end of the meal, i was kind of too full to move but happy as i'll ever be. i'm tempted to vow to never go to a crappy chinese restaurant again, so unholy it is to compare greasy broccoli or salty bean curd to the light, perfectly seasoned dishes we savored at the table that night...