Farm-to-School Week, Cooking Demonstration, and a Simple Dumpling Recipe

Hello readers!  Lots and lots of things have happened since last I updated…a numbered list should serve us well in this next endeavor:

1) I just got back from a week-long trip to New Orleans.  Having been to New Year 2010, I thought I would be prepared for the mayhem of Halloween.  I, indeed, was not.  Wading through a massive ocean of inhuman visages, sounds and smells, I made it out alive with enough energy to write a blog post for all my friends (that’s you!) to read.

Thankfully, there was plenty of downtime for my darling Ladée and I to cook several delicious meals.  Unfortunately, there isn’t any photo documentation of what we made, so you will have to make do with very detailed, verbose descriptions:

• Veganomicon’s chickpea cutlets with a cauliflower-broccoli purée
• Sushi with homemade seitan katsu, green onions, haricot-verts and carrot
• Canned lentil soup, cold, eaten on the Mississippi River at the end of Canal Street

Yum!

2) I finally got a lovely little Cuisinart from my dear friend SB.  Needless to say, a great deal of the foods I’ve been preparing have been purée, blended, mashed, and baby food-ified.  This little thing has cut down cooking time by so much!  Cashew spreads have never been easier!

3) I got the opportunity to do a cooking demonstration as a part of the DC Farm-to-School Week!  Here I am at the Kickoff celebration, creating a beautiful geometric apple sculpture.  Unfortunately, people kept coming up and eating it, so there’s really only one shot of it:

Yes, that is me, wearing traditional French chef attire: a red cardigan, a blue button-down checkered shirt, and skinny jeans.

SB did me the great honor of asking me to do a cooking demonstration for a class of second graders at a certain Chinese immersion public school in DC.  Here are a few snapshots, courtesy of SB:

I think some of the children were scared of me…but the majority of them seemed to like me and the recipe, so I’ll count it as a success!  If you can’t surmise from the photos, we made vegan dumplings with tofu, carrot, green onion, garlic, fresh shiitakes, and some soy sauce.  Simple but delicious, especially if they are steam-fried!  The kids themselves did a really great job folding the dumplings, and some of them got pretty creative with it.

The recipe is included below.  Happy folding!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp canola oil, plus more for frying

1/2 block firm tofu, crumbled

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, minced

3-4 shiitake mushrooms, diced

2-3 tbsp soy sauce (more to taste)

1-2 tbsp rice vinegar (more to taste)

1 medium-sized carrot, grated

1 stalk green onion, chopped

2-3 sprigs cilantro (more to taste)

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

wonton wrappers

water for sealing dumplings and steam-frying

Tools:

cutting board

sharp knife

wooden spoon

spoon to scoop

frying pan

Steps:

1. Heat canola oil on medium high.  Add garlic and sauté until golden and fragrant.

2. Add ginger and sauté until golden.

3. Add mushrooms and sauté until they release all their water.

4. Add soy sauce and rice vinegar and sauté for one minute.

5. Add tofu and sauté until it releases all its water.

6. Add carrots and sauté for one minute.

7. Turn off heat.

8. Add green onions and cilantro and stir.  Allow mixture to cool.

9. Using a small spoon, scoop a small amount of the filling into a wonton skin.

10. Moisten the edges of the wonton skin with water, then fold and seal dumpling.

11. Repeat until all skins are used.

12. Heat canola oil in a pan on medium heat.  Add dumplings and fry for one minute.

13. Add about a half cup of water and cover pan until dumplings are cooked.

14. Garnish with a sprig of cilantro.  Serve with soy sauce.

Wasabi pea gnocchi in a ginger-miso broth with pickled eggplant

Sometimes, a cook is struck with inspiration out-of-the-blue.  I’m not sure how such a project landed in my head, but I decided I would make gnocchi.  Maybe I was craving something light and airy; maybe I just wanted to try my hand at making pasta again.  For some reason, I can’t seem to use flour to make anything besides roux–pasta, dumpling skins…none of them have turned out as well as I had hoped.  I did make a flatbread with relative success, but I’m pretty sure the measure of success is relative to my other misadventures.

In any case, I’d never made gnocchi before, and I soon discovered that, like other dumplings, they require a great deal of preparation time, or someone who loves you enough to sit at a table and cut them for half-great deal of preparation time.  A. has perpetually demonstrated his unerring support for my culinary adventures, particularly those that push dinnertime to around 10pm.

Also, hand-made gnocchi, much like other hand-made dumplings, are a task best suited to a life unburdened by employment.  What a blessing it is to have all the time in the world to roll dumplings while browsing for jobs online (i.e., watching things on Netflix, i.e., watching videos of cute animals doing cute things)!  Of course, the unfortunate aspect of it is that, with this sudden surge in free time comes an increased attention to the number of dollar bills flying out of bank accounts and into grocery store cash registers.

(Interestingly enough, the little neighborhood Latino grocery store has slowly begun appealing to the novel gentry around town.  During the past several visits, I’ve witnessed the sudden appearance of a small section of organic dry goods, as well as several brands of organic tofu.  But this is discussion for another time.)

So, there are three parts to this recipe: the gnocchi, the broth and the pickled eggplant.  Let’s start with the easiest:

Pickled Japanese Eggplant:

1. Pause the video of “pug puppies playing.”
2. Go to a Japanese grocery store.
3. Buy some pickled eggplant.
4. Come back home and finish watching “pug puppies playing.”  Watch related videos until your loved one arrives.
5. Spread a bunch of stuff around the counter and muss up your hands to look like you’ve been preparing for the meal for hours.

For the gnocchi:

1 cup potatoes, steamed and mashed

1/2 cup sweet peas

1 tablespoon flaxseed plus 3 tablespoons water, mixed (This is to replace the egg as a binder.  I suppose you could use one egg in lieu of this mixture, but I don’t play that game, mmkay?)

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons wasabi paste

2 teaspoons ginger

salt and pepper to taste

1. Buy a food processor, as using a blender sucks.
2. Blend everything except the flour.
3. Now, since blending dough is a horrible idea in a blender, I poured everything out, mixed half of the flour in right quick, then added the rest of the flour and mixed it.  Alternatively, if you have a food processor, you could add the first batch of flour and blend until just mixed, then pour everything out and mix in the rest.  NOTE: Don’t knead the dough excessively, just enough for the flour to get mixed in!  I made that mistake, and the gnocchi got too chewy (i.e., they developed too much gluten).
4. Chill the dough.  This makes it easier to manipulate.
5. On a floured surface, roll the dough into a string (or several strings, in case your table is not long enough…but you knew that already) about a half-inch thick.
6. Cut the dough into pieces, a little over a half-inch each.  Press the gnocchi into the tines of a fork, just enough for it to make an impression (hopefully with a very friendly demeanor, since first impressions are the most important) and curl a little bit.
7. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil.  Boil the gnocchi until they float to the top.

Now, the ginger-miso broth (best prepared while your loving partner is rolling out that dough):

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons minced ginger

about 2/3 cup vegetable broth (I cheated hardcore and used vegan boullion)

1.5 teaspoons miso paste (I should mention that I don’t measure things to a T, so you might want to start with a little, then adjust to taste)

a dash of agave nectar or some other natural sweetener

a little sesame oil to sautée the garlic and ginger

1. Heat the oil.  Add the garlic, then the ginger.  Sautée until fragrant.
2. Add the broth.  Reduce to a simmer.
3. After the broth has reduced to a desirable quantity, add the miso pasta and mix well.
4. Leave on a low simmer until read to serve.

To serve, place a small handful of gnocchi on the plate, drizzle enough broth to cover, garnish with sweet peas on the outside (of the gnocchi, not the plate, duh…why would you put it on the outside of the plate) and a bit of pickled eggplant in the center.  Enjoy with your special someone, who must really love you if s/he just spent several hours indulging in your unemployment-fueled culinary adventure.  If alone, search for “chinchilla dust bath,” view, and pour yourself another glass of crisp white wine.

Una danza entre las estrellas: la carta

Click here to see the forthcoming dinner of the century of the week

Quic-pics: Polenta with home-made seitan medallions and tomato sauce, asparagus and red pepper risotto

Upon browsing the picture folder on my desktop, I found some lil’ treasures I forgot to post: polenta with home-made seitan medallions and tomato sauce, and an asparagus and red pepper risotto AM and I made a month or two ago.

As far as the polenta is concerned, the recipe is pretty straightforward–three parts water, one part grits, a few dashes of olive oil.  Stir until the consistency is creamy.  The seitan medallions were basic seitan, with a gluten-to-mashed-white-beans ratio of about 1:2, as I recall (but I have a poor memory nowadays, so don’t quote me on that), to which I added a variety of dried herbs and nutritional yeast.  The tomato sauce began as a balsamic and red wine reduction, to which I added crushed tomatoes with rosemary and thyme.

“What the hell is that thing on top?” some of you might ask.  Other might say, “Oh, that is an artichoke heart marinated in red wine vinegar.”  The latter group, in this case, is correct!  Good job.

AM and I made risotto with asparagus and roasted red pepper.  My seitan medallions made a guest appearance, as you can see.

The risotto is also quite straightforward–we achieved a delectable creaminess through the addition of a simple cashew purée, which we added towards the end of cooking.  A note to the risotto-wary: risottos are best done with a sous-chef, or at least someone to talk to you while you stand hunched over the stove stirring and stirring.  Here I am demonstrating how to perform this step with a left hand:

Alternately, you can create a risotto tag team, as evidenced by this picture of AM’s arms (they are actually probably my arms, judging by the shirt, but let’s just pretend):

Happy Friday, have a lovely weekend!

Onigiri with miso tempeh filling

可愛いですね?  (Cute, reet?)

おにぎり are delicious balls of rice which may or may not be stuffed with delicious fillings.  おにぎり are made with sushi rice (including rice vinegar, sugar, and some salt) and can be accented with a strip of nori, or other assorted decorations.  The only requirement is that the onigiri look adorable.  That is what makes them very Japanese.

I was inspired by the おにぎり on Makiko Itoh’s website Just Bento, where she introduced her readers to a very precious and convenient shortcut to rolling onigiri into lovely, lovely shapes, such as a triangles and circles.  Please refer to her Onigiri FAQ for tons of information regarding おにぎり.  Aww, they have faces and are pandas!!!

I really wanted to re-create the tempeh filling AM and I used in our sushi the other day, but, unfortunately, I am all out of umeboshi paste.  Instead, I mashed the tempeh with some green onions, kombu-infused soy sauce and black pepper.  Simple, but delicious.

Following Itoh’s directions, I used a teacup and some plastic wrap (If the end result weren’t so cuuute, I’d say shame, shame…) to begin my おにぎり.  I made a hole in my little scoop of rice and put some filling in, then covered it up with a bit more rice.  Wrapping it all up together in the plastic wrap, I made an extremely delightful-looking lunch, accompanied with a tiny roll of sushi filled with some lo baak gou for a little bit of a Peranakan flair:

(Note: Those small black dots are not sesame seeds, as I don’t have any, but chia seeds!  Gotta make it just a little more vegan-weird, reet?)

These おにぎり were almost too 可愛い to eat!

…But not quite, so I just ate them all.  Happy Hump Day!

Peranakan Vegan: Lo baak gou (savory daikon cake)

As most of you already know, the Hsu family is descended from a long line of ethnic Chinese who settled in Penang, Malaysia, many generations ago.  They are members of a community called the Peranakans, or the Straits Chinese.  My ancestors were probably wealthy merchants, or perhaps very fancy, regal people on the prowl for humid adventures on the Malay Peninsula.  In any case, we arrived some time in the past, and played a very integral role in the creation of a delicious regional food culture–Nyonya cuisine (nyonya means madame or auntie in Javanese, as most of you already knew).  From this delightful mélange of Chinese and Malay influences comes the first in a (hopefully) long line of veganized Nyonya dishes: lo baak gou, or savory daikon cake.

Many Nyonya dishes are quite meat-and-seafood heavy, so veganization will be a fun little challenge.  As a point of reference, I consulted my brain-bank (i.e., memory) for my grandmother’s recipe: shredded daikon, rice flour (regular and glutinous), dried shrimp (he bee), shiitake mushrooms (doong gu), and Chinese sausage (lap cheong).

So, I started with shredded daikon (around 4 cups) and rice flour (one cup regular and one cup glutinous).   A food processor would have been helpful for the shredding of the daikon, but since all I have is a crappy blender, I did this by hand–this was the opposite of fun, so I recommend that you use a food processor for this if you have one.  Squeeze the water our of the shredded daikon as much as possible, and reserve for later use.  I soaked some pre-sliced shiitakes in warm water, then diced them up and threw them into the mix.  I saved the mushroom water to add to the mix later on.

Now, the challenge was what to use instead of sausage and dried shrimp.  Normally, I am not the biggest fan of imitating the presence of meat, but for the sake of my memory of Grandma’s beloved lo baak gou, I figured I’d approximate as much as possible, at least this first time around.  I used TVP (ahh!), enhanced with kombu-infused soy sauce, five-spice powder, pepper, achiote molido (for color) and a touch of agave.  The result was a salty, briny flavor at least a little bit reminiscent of dried shrimp.  I guess.  I mixed all of these ingredients together in a bowl, adding the mushroom water and daikon water until the mixture was a thick paste, not too liquidy and not too firm.

I poured the mixture into an aluminum baking pan and steamed it for an hour, until a knife came out clean.  After letting it cool, I sliced of rectangular pieces and pan-fried them until crispy, then garnished with some Sriracha and chopped green onions.  Behold the result:

Hopefully, Grandma will be proud.  Alternatively, she may be thoroughly unimpressed and take it upon herself to veganize it the “right” way.  Through thick and thin, I can always count on my elders to tell me I’m doing something wrong and fix it for me.  Hurrah for old people!

Sushi filled with maitake, avocado, Japanese cucumber, and umeboshi-spiced tempeh

Since turning vegan, there have a great deal of things I don’t get to partake in anymore (DUH, you say.), one of which is ravenously devouring a boat of sushi.  This was best accomplished around American holidays (Valentine’s Day Boat, New Year Boat, Tree Day Boat), and best done with someone you are not dating, so as to avoid looking like a complete eatin’ monster in front of him or her.  And, don’t kid yourself, you’d eat the complementary salad and miso soup just because it’s in front of you.

Unfortunately, such days of near-psychotic gluttony are fewer and farther in between for me.  For the time being, I’ll leave the depletion of ocean creatures to my flesh-eating friends.

Where does that leave me, though?  How could I completely give up sushi, a wonderful, magical food that allows me to inhale everything in front of my mouth yet masquerade it all as a practice in austere aesthetic and culinary appreciation?

Make my own, duh!

I was inspired/completely overwhelmed at H Mart out in Wheaton.  Besides spending a week’s worth of salary on all sorts of wonderful Asian foodstuffs (look out for some veganized Malaysian/Nyonya favorites!), I picked up some fresh, organic maitakes, a Japanese cucumber and a rolling mat.  Having been inspired by the Veganomicon’s use of tempeh, I brought some to A’s place to somehow turn into a yummy filling.  The original recipe calls for veganaise (or another tofu-based mayonnaise thing-thing), which has never really flown with me…so we placed our faith in some experimentation.

A. rounded things out nicely with some semi-firm tofu and some umeboshi paste.  I whipped the tofu, (raw) tempeh and umeboshi paste into a spreadable consistency, and rolled it up along with everything else I brought.  A. sprinkled some Japanese basil on top, along with the typical black and white sesame seeds.  The result was spectacular.  See for yourself: 

We made it at A’s house, so we were missing a few important items, such as a sharp, serrated knife.  Instead, we used scissors, which explains the rolls’ ragged look and also explains why Masaharu Morimoto left a death threat signed in pretty, calligraphic blood on my door.  Happy Thursday!

Curried rice noodles with dino kale and spicy panfried tempeh

Summers in Washington, DC, are heavy and slick with the sweat of suited government interns.  The forecast predicts highs of ninety and above, and I can only wear my one pair of shorts so many times until the threads melt from my body.  If anyone can suggest a thrifty thrift store where I can find some pants to cut up, please do let me know!

Two days left until the end of the school year!  After waiting so long for this moment to arrive, I’m a little disappointed by my lack of excitement, though a soon-to-be state of joblessness is certainly cause for apprehension.  Quarterlife crisis, jeez, let me chill out for just a week!  On the plus side, Le seitan au vin will definitely be getting a lot more attention in the weeks to come, so look out!

Before getting to the titular dish, I just need to briefly mention my favorite comfort food at the moment–creamy red lentil, quinoa and polenta mash.  I’m going to call it mash since, despite requiring no mashing, the word “mush” seems to have a negative connotation around these parts.  This dish is super easy and is a great hangover accompaniment, as I discovered this morning.  I started with the quinoa (as it takes the longest to cook), then added the red lentils and, finally, the yellow grits.  I threw in some nutritional yeast, along with some Bragg’s and some dried herbs and black pepper.  The three main ingredients go so well together, especially texture-wise.  Normally, polenta/grits don’t have a lot of fiber (or much of anything), so the addition of some healthy lentils and quinoa also makes sure you don’t add on a feeling of gross fullness to a throbbing head.  Just make sure you measure the water out appropriately, and add more as needed.  Stirring consistently is a must.

Anyway, curried rice noodles, kale and tempeh.  The curry was easy enough–just a simple sautée of garlic, dried arbol chiles, and onions with turmeric, garam masala, cumin seeds and a dash of Bragg’s.  I was going to use coconut milk, but its state of freshness was a little dubious, so I used water and a little bit of cornstarch to thicken up the curry.  I mixed in the rice noodles (I used vermicelli, though udon would also be tasty) and immediately threw it onto some shredded dino kale to “cook” it a little bit.  For the tempeh, I used the spicy marinated tempeh recipe from the Veganomicon.  Instead of grilling the tempeh, I panfried it until lovely and crispy.  Altogether, it was quite a satisfying (read: filling) dish.

To be honest, I really enjoy the taste and texture of raw tempeh.  The fried version was a little much for me.  The next time I make this, I think, at most, I’ll add some agave and thicken the marinade into a glaze, then just brush it on some lightly toasted tempeh triangles.  Who follows recipes to a T anyway?  Happy Sunday.

What do you think?

Yesterday, I took my last exam for GWU ever!  Well, technically, it was for DCPS, since it was one of the Praxis II’s, but if I want a masters I have to take it.  One important caveat, however, is that I don’t have to pass to get the degree.  With that in mind, I had A and my friend G over for dinner, then went to bed around 12:30am.

Turns out the test was a joke.  Not caring at all and not even cracking open a study guide really helped me stay on task and finish on time.  I expect a decent score, and hopefully a teaching license that I can tack up to my wall and be done with all of this DCPS nonsense.

After the exam, I went with my friend J to Vegetarian Soul Exodus on Georgia Ave (a few blocks north of the Howard U. School of Medicine).  If you want to be stuffed to the gills with some awesome vegan soul food, check it out!

While shoveling food into our faces, we actually managed to have some conversation.  I was very pleased to hear that Le seitan au vin does indeed have some readership!  With that in mind, I’m proposing something to all of you loving readers…how about, instead of me getting all irritated with having to recall and write down recipes, I just post some pictures of what I made and give you a little background on the dish?  Hear me out…

Food, at least for me, isn’t only about refueling our bodies with nutrients.  It isn’t even really about feeding ourselves something tasty.  I have my own ideas about what food is, but, when I sit down and blog about the things I make, I’m much more motivated to share the series of events and circumstances that brought such meals to my (or our) table.  For a minute, let’s make believe that food isn’t just a pit-stop on some fabulous trip we’re taking.  Let’s imagine that food is the fabulous trip, and we’re all, just for a minute, proverbially taking the same fabulous “candy tab” to enjoy the journey together.

Sound good?  Cool.

Here’s a sandwich I made a few weeks ago, with some home-made seitan (duh!).

Seitan, when made in huge batches like I always seem to do, is a great go-to protein for workday lunches.  I had it on top of a slice of multi-seed bread, some raw dino kale, raw bellas, and topped with a home-made barbecue sauce.  I topped it all with some basil leaves, which I arranged to look like sails on a boat.  This step, I believe, was the most important of the construction of this open-faced sandwich.

Since being with A, I have found myself eating a lot more bread that I had been for the past year.  My carbs of choice are usually pasta, rice or some other grain (quinoa being my absolute favorite, although technically not a grain).  I have, however, opened myself up to some hot, hot loavin’ as of late, and I must say that it feels pretty damn good.

A recently discovered 52 Loaves, by William Alexander, which explores “one man’s relentless pursuit of truth, meaning and  a perfect crust.”  Diane Rehm repped it like whoa on NPR, so it’s probably worth checking out. Personally, I can’t wait for A’s Amazon shipment to come in, so I can “borrow” his copy for an extended period of time.  Six-thousand years of bread-history (breastory?  breastory.) should be an awesome summer read…

…But not before I get my hands on the Encyclopedia of Pasta by Oretta Zanini de Vita.  In a similar vein of 52 Loaves, the author approaches her carbsploration within a slightly more academic framework, which is super sexy in my nerd book.

Librarian friends: let me know if either of these books ever get ordered.  As soon as they do, I’m swooping down and snatching them up for myself.

Seitan Medallions in Mushroom Gravy, Courtesy of Vegan Soul Kitchen

Last week was my birthday, on which I turned the big, big, big 24!  The fact that I am still able to rouse myself from the bed without slipping and shattering my hip (then using my old-person whistle to call out for help) is a wonder to me.

Sadly, however, time seems to have taken its toll on my memory, as I seem to have forgotten that I have a blog beloved by many.  I have been terribly inconsistent over the past few months, for a number of reasons, the first of which is clearly dementia.  Secondly, I announced my resignation from DCPS, so I’ve been scrambling to and fro trying to find someone to hire me.  Thirdly, I have been seeing someone wonderful–A.

I asked A to choose a recipe to make for dinner on my birthday, and he chose the seitan medallions with mushroom gravy from Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry (Are you reading?).  Making the seitan from scratch, plus the gravy and the salad you see below, seemed like it would be a pain in the culo, but cooking with a dashing sous-chef has its definite advantages!

Altogether, it took A and I about two hours to complete the meal.  Instead of baking or boiling the seitan, I chose to steam it, which, for me, produces the best texture–firm, but moist.  Terry calls for a home-made mushroom stock, but I used some vegan boullion instead, which worked just fine.  A liked it as well, but thought that it was perhaps a little too salty.  He was definitely wrong–Algernon LeBon-Hsu doesn’t make mistakes.  Take a look here:

Absolutely delicious!  Following the dinner, we went down to Larry’s Lounge on 18th, where my friends and I proceeded to hang out in Larry’s basement.  Feels ok to be 24.