Skipped meals

It's been inordinately insane here at VV headquarters. You've missed a few of my meals. Allow me to fill you in.

Canadian winters are awesome for some things, namely cooling things off quickly. Put it outside and it'll be cool in no time! 
 

This pie was stupidly good. I'm not a food photographer and this photo looks particularly gross, but trust me-- vegetables in pie format are an experience unmatched. I can't believe I actually bothered to make this pie, as I've been thinking about it for months. My good pal Kevin made this pie a few months ago and gave me a slice. His was a ten (at least), and my first attempt here was a 7.5-- but still stupidly great. The recipe can be found here.
 

Oh yeah, I had a party for Lunar New Year. I forgot to take photos, so I staged these ones after the fact. 
 

One of my lovely guests, Laura, suggested it would be fun to put flowering tea in the Crystal Head vodka bottle. She was right. After the guests left, Bruce begged me to make cookies, so we made these peanut butter pillows. Also stupidly good and highly recommended. 
 

I wish a few things about this soup. I wish a) that I copied down the recipe that I made up, b) that I took the time to make this next-day soup like I did the day before, c) that I put enoki mushrooms in this soup. Basically, the soup I made for the Lunar New Year party was perhaps the best soup I've ever made and I have no idea how to recreate it.  DAMN, though! Some day I'm just kickin' it, I will make this happen again. The main culprits: shitake mushroom/kombu dashi/broth, shitakes, kombu, turnip, cabbage, yam noodles (they have 0 calories and are awesome), carrots cut in rolling wedges a la Cooking with Dog, and fried tofu balls. I think I threw in some sake and some soy sauce too. The first soup (complete with enoki mushrooms) simmered for hours. This was obviously part of the awesomeness.  

I was teaching at the nutrition school this week, and I got the students to track where their food came from for a few days. I was so stressed out I hardly made a decent meal for myself all week, rather opting for mass amounts of sauerkraut and homemade garlic mayo delivered on various carby vehicles. A couple days ago, I grabbed a stir fry pack from the health food store which contained a lot of peppers. I don't generally buy peppers during the winter because they come from far away, but since the stir fry mix is cuttings from vegetables that would otherwise be thrown out, I feel it's okay. Anyway, this looks pretty hilarious-- like a plate of Chinese food with red sauce-- but really it's just a simple stir fry with beet-stained tofu. 

Tonight's awesome meal contained onions (I had one tiny one in the crisper) and sesame oil since Bruce is at work. Here we have balsamic-maple brushed baked tofu, maple-nutmeg mashed turnip, arame and carrots with onion, cabbage and black and white sesame. Oh yeah, and pickled beets, 'cuz they're the bomb. 

Root vegetable stir-fry and other dandy rigs

The other day I saw a recipe for a root vegetable stirfry and it blew my mind a little. I'd never thought to do that. What a wicked idea! So I set out to appropriate it. Although Bruce still claims to not like vegetables, there are certain vegetables he likes even less than others, and turnip is one of them. This root vegetable stir-fry had a ton of turnips which he didn't even notice. Carrots, beets, turnips, and parsnips sliced thinly and stir-fried with a sweet and sour sauce (mirin*, soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, ginger, sesame oil).  Turnip, rest your weary battle-worn body. You have prevailed once again! Let it be known that I've always had faith in you. Bruce also hates toasted sesame oil "right up there with mushrooms and onions" and he still liked this which was great.

I decided to make cinnamon rolls out of sugar cookie dough at 1:30 in the morning. I'd been thinking about making these for months. Bruce got leftovers for breakfast. "You're dandy," he told me this morning. "Of all the rigs, you're the dandiest." 

Awww :)

*Mirin is a sweet Japanese rice wine. Hopefully you can easily get it at Asian groceries, or I'll be screwed next time I have to buy this without a discount. It's pretty expensive from a health food store.

Scotian Kimchi Chigae

I have a headcold. I've been working diligently to burn this cold out of my system with fiery foods. I've been making insane hot toddies, employing all sorts of food cures: Garlic, ginger, black pepper, cayenne, sriracha, lemon, honey, shitake mushrooms, miso, sauerkraut, umeboshi plum, licorice, thyme, fennel, a ton of tea and lots of vegetables. Last night, after having to miss one of the two actual workdays of my week where I have to go outside, I really wanted to make sure it didn't hang around and stop me this week. I tried to recall the spiciest dish I've ever eaten, and I fondly remembered the kimchi ramen soup I'd eaten in Korea with my brother. 

Unfortunately, it's almost midnight, and I don't have any kimchi.... But I do have sauerkraut! Kimchi is, put simply, spicy sauerkraut. I'm certainly oversimplifying it here, as there're many special methods to making it, but when you break it down, this is what you've got. I turned to one of my most trusted authorities on Korean cooking, the girls from Crazy Korean Cooking to show me the ropes.

Here's my version:


Scotian Kimchi Chigae

1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
2 lrg. cloves garlic, sliced
1T. minced ginger 
2 c. sauerkraut, chopped, juice reserved
2 carrots, sliced thinly
1 lb. tofu, cubed
2 c. broth (in my case-- homemade shitake/kombu)
3 tsp. gochu  (Korean red pepper powder)
1 bundle of mung bean noodles

In a pot, heat the sesame oil. Add garlic and stir for a minute or so. Add cubed tofu and fry for 4 minutes or so. Add chopped kimchi, gochu powder and mix to combine. Add carrots, ginger and, broth, and some sauerkraut juice. Bring to boil. Cover and lower to a medium-low for 15 minutes or until carrots are tender. If much of the broth has evaporated, add some more sauerkraut juice. Add the mung bean noodles and simmer for a couple of minutes- they only take a couple of minutes to soften. I chopped up the shitakes from my broth and threw 'em in, for extra immune-boosting and flavo(u)r-flav.

While this soup didn't boast the complex flavours of Kimchi Chigae, as the kimchi tends to be left for a long time to ferment with the gochu, kniting the flavours together in a magical way, this soup was certainly awesome in a pinch, and I'm pretty pumped on my hilarious Nova Scotian bastardization  (with all due respect) of this wonderful, medicinal dish. If you're sick and you don't have any sauerkraut, it'll do in a pinch. I noticed my head clear quite a bit last night, but this morning, it's about 80% gone (the congestion, not my head). Pretty amazing. I've only had this cold for a couple of days and now it's practically gone. BURNINATING THE COLLLD!

RATatouille, Nine Jewels and a Whore of a Meal

Yesterday we made a crazy brunch before we went to Beach Meadows beach in Liverpool with friends. We made some Indian homefries, Caesar salad, and Puttanesca Scramble (ok, Bruce made eggs!) that looked nothing like the one from Vegan Brunch for several reasons I could explain but I won't. I was full all day, but in a good way.



I'm about to pick up my fourth CSA box tomorrow and so far I've been doing a pretty killer job making sure nothing rots despite the fact that we pretty much get too many vegetables for us to consume. If we ate three meals, it'd be easier, but we don't really do that. Anyway, following this suggestion from Buy Local NB (New Brunswick) facebook group:

Ratatouille-a summer vegetable delight! Add olive oil to your favorite glass roasting dish, toss in quartered tomatoes, chunked onions, whole garlic cloves and chunked peppers. Roast for 10 min at 400 degrees. Now add in cubed zucchini, eggplant and fresh basil, oregano and a little thyme. Roast for an additional 10 min. Serve with pasta, rice or my personal favorite, new potatoes!

I made some Ratatouille for the first time. There is is, pictured above! It was pretty bomb and helped me use up a lot of vegetables before the next box arrives!

And lastly, here's a supper from a few days ago. It's an Indian meal from my favourite Indian cookbook called North Indian Navratan Shak. The Navratan parts means "nine jewels" which refers to the common number of vegetables in the dish. I actually had all the vegetables on hand that this recipe called for: potatoes, eggplant, broccoli, celery, carrots, string beans, tomato and onions-- but I used green onion instead of white onion as Bruce abhors onions. Anyway, this dish is pretty large and insane but we ate without rice or anything so we ended up eating about 3 cups of cooked vegetables each which means we each ate 6 servings in one meal!. Niiiice!

I grunt, you grunt we all grunt for Blueberry Grunt!

Hot damn! Why did it take me 31 years to bother making Blueberry Grunt?! OMG! It's so easy! So delicious! So perfect! A bit of biscuitty goodness in a hot, sweaty mess of sweet berries. It's almost too good to be true. It takes about 25 minutes from start to finish. Go pick some berries, buy some berries, steal some berries from the supermarket-- whatever you have to do to get berries and make this dish! When I made it, I felt like it was a right of passage for me... another Nova Scotian woman knows how to make a grunt.

If you're not from Nova Scotia or don't have relatives from there, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Blueberry Grunt is a traditional dish from my home province and was made all the time by early settlers here-- possibly the Acadians. The Acadians call this Blueberry Fungy which I'd never heard of until staying with my friend Randy's family in Clare. Apparently it's also called Slump although I've never heard anyone call it that. It used to be made from apples, rhubarb, strawberries as well, but blueberry's the one that stuck. It's was traditionally eaten as a main meal, and has more recently become dessert material. Lately I've been keen on the main meal position.

Here's the recipe I used, adapted from a recipe on the Select Nova Scotia website which is, thankfully, a government website whose purpose is to promote local food; and the Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens cookbook compiled by Marie Nightingale.



Blueberry Grunt!

gruntiness:
2 c. local blueberries
1/4-1/2 c. organic/unrefined sugar
1/4 c. water
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

dumplings:
3/4 c. light spelt flour (or whatever you have)
1/4 c. coconut flour (if you have this, I urge to to try it)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. organic/unrefined sugar
1 tbsp. shortening, margarine, or coconut oil
enough almond milk to make a soft biscuit dough-- probably 1/8-1/2 c.

Combine the grunt ingredients and boil in a large pot on medium heat until you've got some juice flowing-- about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, sift together flours, baking powder, sugar, salt. Cut fat into the flour mixture. When it's all clumpy, add enough milk to make a soft biscuit dough (not too wet! less is more!) Drop biscuit mixture into the barlin'* berries by the spoonful, put the lid on the pot and cook for 15 minutes with no peeking. Usually makes about 8-9 dumplings. Eat it warm. You don't even need a bowl. Get a potholder and eat it right of the pot if that suits yer fancy. Some folks eat this with ice cream or whipped cream. Coconut ice cream would be pretty incredible. Holy hell this dessert is fine!



Today I made some Blackberry Grunt (pictured above) with some berries I picked in the park with my friends the other night.

This grunt was equally mindblowing. Thanks, settlers, for settling in such a rad spot and being so handy with the berry recipes.



*barlin' is how some old folks from the area pronounce "boiling" as in "Honey, the kettle's a'barlin'!"

A carby vehicle for garlic

I needed a vehicle for garlic as I have a little cold. I'd been incredibly hungry all day and I wanted an insane amount of carby foods which wasn't a supersmart idea nutritionally, but it's what I wanted. This meal looks a bit ugly, but here it is. I ate this whole plateful-- everything is local-- mixed yellow beans, corn, carrots and broccoli with a nutritional yeast sauce, roasted potato wedges with a tonne of garlic, and garlic bread with parsley. It was pretty dope. My cold feels less intense today which is amazing.

Pesto pasta is fantastic!

I love pasta. I could eat a lot, but I probably only eat it once a month. Today, wanting to make the basil from my CSA box into pesto before it rotted, I made some pesto according to this Jamie Oliver "recipe," substituting sunflower seeds for pine nuts and sesame seed/nutritional yeast cheese for the parmesan. I like his recipes because they're vague. Anyway, this pasta dish is simple. I used kamut penne, steamed some carrots and zucchini and chopped up some kalamata olives. I ate almost twice this amount because I couldn't help myself.