Vegetable Goulash

I’m visiting La Dolce Vegan for dinner tonight with Sarah Kramer’s Vegetable Goulash. But had to make a few alterations to the recipe. The marjoram got left out, since I didn’t have any; a bag a baby carrots was the sub for the chopped carrot; I am not that fond of pinto beans so I used a can of great northern beans; a 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes subbed for the large, diced tomato and I used smoked paprika in place of regular paprika. Now after all those changes, I am sure you are wondering if it was still good. I am happy to report that it was. However, I could have used a bit more paprika. I only used the minimum of 1 tsp, since the smoked paprika can be a bit overpowering. Another teaspoon would not have hurt it at all, so it was a bit under seasoned for me. That was alright, though, since it you could really taste the vegetables. And the cauliflower absorbed the all the flavors, so it was not at all bland. I will definitely have to keep this in mind for my lunch box, when and if I ever get a job again.

New Year’s Day Food and Dinner Tonight

Hope you all had a happy New Year’s Day. TeddyBear and I just basically did nothing on the 1st but watch some football or play on our computers. I had food for noshing, since neither of us wanted to make any formal meals. Unfortunately, neither he nor I felt very well on Tuesday or Wednesday, so we didn’t stay up and toast the new year. First time in a long while I haven’t done that. However, I did do the cherry juice and Asti Spumati for breakfast and it was really good. Nice to have something different. I also had the Coconut Pie Pancakes from La Dolce Vegan and if you are into coconut, you have to try them. For the day we had some bread and topping for bruschetta, crackers (Back to Nature Classic Rounds) and some Gee Whiz Spread, Oreos, and some strawberry ice cream for the TeddyBear. Neither one of us ate much, but we were really not hungry either. One day a year won’t kill us.

For dinner tonight I had something that was intended for New Year’s, but we never got around to them. “Rib” patties for Vegan McRibs. I must confess the McRib is one of my pregan weaknesses. I used to work at McDonald’s as well and can still tell you how they are made. For the patty I used this recipe from Celine at Have Cake, Will Travel; but instead of making them into “ribs”, they were made into long patties for a submarine bun. The BBQ sauce is a new recipe, it is from here (minus the hot sauce and liquid smoke). It has a really good flavor, is easy to make and also doesn’t make a lot; winner on all three accounts. For the sides there are steamed corn and Cheater Baked Beans from VCON. If you haven’t tried them yet, you really should. They taste as good as any baked beans one may buy in a can and at least you are sure they are vegan. Since I didn’t have a light molasses (blackstrap molasses is all I keep around), I mixed equal parts of blackstrap molasses and dark agave for the light molasses in the recipe. It seems to work just fine.

That is all for this week. See you on Monday.

Curry Marinated Chick-Fu

The great experiment worked, kind of. The good news is that it didn’t fall apart and dissolve in the marinade (the Curried Tofu marinade from VCON). The bad news is that it wasn’t absorbed by the chick-fu and just kind of sat on top. It baked up alright, but really didn’t taste very good, because all you got was the concentrated spices in the marinade. I guess this means that if we want to season our chick-fu then we need to make a batter of some type, season the batter, coat the chick-fu and then fry it or bake it. The side dish was actually much better. It is the last of the Cinnamon-Spiced Baked Vegetables from La Dolce Vegan that was steamed with the Spiced Lentils & Rice. Not bad actually. If I had more the baked vegetables, it could have been a meal of its own.

And now for some housecleaning. No anole sightings today. Don’t know if he is still here, but I am going to catch him if he is. Vegetation, anoles are related to the skinks you have in Australia. I guess you could call them cousins, but these are from the Bahamas. If anyone is looking for a fairly easy, mostly foolproof recipe for seitan that doesn’t make a lot, will have a recipe up for you in the next few days. I have all the pictures needed to make the tutorial about how to make the Burmese Tofu, both the rice and chickpea/yellow split pea flour versions. That will be up in the next week as well. The TeddyBear is off work the next two weeks, so my postings will be around the theme of “What do you feed an omni?” and I may not be posting everyday, due to us eating a lot of leftovers. I also do not plan on posting for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or New Year’s Eve or Day either. Since these holidays are late in the week this year, I may also not post on the following Friday as well. It will depend on what we ate.

That is all for now and have a good weekend.

Eggplant Bharta

This is another recipe from La Dolce Vegan. And it was really simple and quick. Prep to dinner was about 20 minutes, more or less. Of course, that did include a few cheats. I used frozen, chopped onions; bought pre-chopped tomatoes and ginger juice in place of the grated ginger. And the shortcuts didn’t seem to affect the flavor, either. The hardest thing to do was to prep the eggplant. I didn’t salt it, since was not sure it needed that to be done. I am still getting used to cooking with eggplant, this is only my second dish so far. The first was a vegetarian taco filling from Parade Magazine (really good, but makes a ton, so keep it for parties, bottom of the page). Since I wasn’t sure if the skin should be left on or not, I did go ahead and peel the eggplant (if that was wrong, please let me know). The whole thing only takes about 15 minutes to cook and then layer over rice and dinner is on the table.

The best thing about this dish is that the spices are not over done. It is spicy, but not in a really burn your mouth sort of way. In fact if you were to leave out the cayenne and the hot pepper, (dare I suggest) kids might even like this. That is assuming, of course that they can be enticed to try eggplant. And if you don’t like hot and spicy food, then go ahead and leave out the cayenne and the hot pepper. I don’t think it will hurt the dish at all. Especially since the recipe calls for 1 Tbsp of cumin. However, if you don’t like cumin or Indian seasonings, this is not for you.

Now if you don’t have La Dolce Vegan in your cookbook library and want to try this, don’t despair. Just google “eggplant bharta” and I am sure you will find a ton of recipes on the web. They probably will all be somewhat different, so if one doesn’t sound good to you, then keep looking. I am sure you will find one that does.

The really only bad thing about the dish is that it doesn’t photograph very well. Unfortunately, don’t think there is much I can do about that. Haven’t decided what dinner will be tomorrow night, so you will just have to stop by and see. Until then.