Black-eyed peas with chipotle remoulade

Susan, from FatFree Kitchen, has done it again - her recipe for Black-eyed pea cakes with chipotle remoulade looks tasty and low-fat, making it a must-try for the near future. I've never done black-eyed pea cakes, but I do use a chipotle/mayo mix occasionally as the base for pizza (equal parts vegannaise and vegan sour cream, plus added chipotle, as much as you like & adobo) and think the use of silken tofu in the place of mayo and sour cream is maybe brilliant (this last innovation, from the what do I know? blog. I say yum!

Chipotle Remoulade

2-3 canned chipotle peppers, plus a spoonful of the accompanying sauce
1 package (12 ounces) silken tofu
2 tablespoons soy milk
juice of 1 lime
a dash of salt

Place the chipotle peppers in the bowl of a small food processor. Whiz for a few seconds until they are chopped. (You may have to scrape the sides down.) Add the tofu and whizfor 2 minutes, until tofu is smooth and no longer grainy. Add the soymilk, lime juice and salt as you’re whizzing.

- copied from here

possible bagel flavors

peanut butter & jam
raisin-cinnamon
pumpkin
chocolate chip

onion
sundried tomato (and caper)
plain
seeded

Pizza with potato, onion, and oregano

Again, this is a melding of several tasty-looking recipes, and is recorded here as a reminder: I have not yet made this. Taking Isa's excellent pizza dough from Vegan With a Vengeance, topped with what Saveur calls 'melted onions' - losing the fontina, and adding in its place a drizzle of miso-based white sauce in an attempt to provide the complex and savory bite of fontina, hopefully this combination will delight and warm!

THE DOUGH
copied from this blog, but amended)

1 cup warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 (1/4 oz) packet of active dry yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil (and more for drizzling)
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
cornmeal for dusting

My directions for making this in a bread machine:

Add ingredients in order listed: yeast, sugar, oil, water, flour, salt. Set machine to the dough setting. When it's done, add a bit of oil on top so it doesn't dry out, but leave it in the machine to rise.

Let rise for 1 hour, then punch down and knead for another minute, dusting with flour if necessary. Form into a ball again, place back in the bowl, and let it rest for an hour or two.

Form into 1 or 2 crusts by stretching and/rolling.

TOPPINGS:
- Miso-based sauce
- Melted onions
- Potato (1 yukon gold, sliced 1/16" thick - but wait to do this 'til just before assembling the pizza, or else do ahead and immerse in ice water so it doesn't get brown)
- Fresh oregano

THE SAUCE
I think Esme's special sauce would work here. It tastes not a bit like good pecorino or the fontina called for the in the original pizza recipe, but in any case, is rich and creamy with a similar earthy savor, and would add a whole set of notes to this simple pizza.

Esme’s Special Sauce, which I amended here for a lighter touch with the miso and soy sauce (her recipe calls for everything in equal amounts) is so simple:

In a small bowl mix up the following:
2 T tahini
1 T white miso
1 T soy sauce, tamari or Braggs
2 T olive oil
2 T nutritional yeast
2 T lemon Juice or vinegar
A few cloves of garlic, finely minced or pressed.

MELTED ONIONS

4 thinly sliced or minced onions
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
1 t sea salt*

*Amended from original amount of 1 T - commenters agree that's too much, and I do not like too-salty anything! In any case, the miso & soy sauce have their own salt. I may just leave this salt out altogether.

Directions: Stew on low heat for several hours. The goal is to have the onions break down into an onion jam. Saveur suggests topping your small saucepan with a circle of parchment paper, cut to fit, which will keep the onions moist.


TO ASSEMBLE PIZZA
Preheat oven to 475-500F

1. Lightly spread sauce on pizza base to within 3/4" of edge.
2. Now put on a layer of the onion jam, not too thick!
3. Top with a layer of thinly sliced yukon gold potato (1/16"); brush olive oil over the top of this.
4. Sprinkle fresh oregano and cracked black pepper.
5. If you want, drizzle just a bit more of the sauce over the top (this may make the pizza too wet or heavy, so be very judicious here).
6. Bake 8-10 minutes or until pizza is golden brown.

Vegan linguine with porcini, walnut, and fresh sage

Disclaimer: I haven't made this yet. I'm just planning here. But via Saveur, I find an intriguing no-knead pasta recipe/technique that looks good, though it calls for 1 egg per person. I have another vegan pasta recipe I'll sub in, since I'm not sure that just subbing a flax egg here will work. Bryanna Grogan Clark's recipe has worked well for me in the past, so I'll use that, but (gasp) use the food processor for kneading. Actually I find that she does give food processor AND bread machine options for the kneading, so I'll just go with that (nothing like taking the long way round the block!)

1 lb pasta dough, formed into linguine and dried

topping: This is adapted from another Saveur recipe

FOR THE SAUCE:
1 1/2 T extra-virgin olive oil
10 oz. porcini or other earthy mushrooms (portabella would work too),roughly chopped
1 cup soy creamer (unsweetened!)
1 15 1/2 oz can of cannelini beans, drained and rinsed well
1 s onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c walnuts
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
2 T fresh sage leaves plus extra for garnish
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Fry onions in 1/2 T olive oil over medium heat until they're crisp and brown, but not burned. For the last few minutes, saute sage leaves as well, then remove from pan. Now use the same pan to dry-fry your walnuts 'til they're toasty but not burnt; remove and roughly chop.
2. In the same pan, heat to medium high, then add your mushrooms. Cover and cook for a few minutes, until they release liquid and brown, becoming very fragrant; now immediately lower heat to medium.
3. Add 1 T olive oil, and garlic, saute for 30 seconds being careful not to overcook the garlic.
4. Add cannelini beans, saute until beans start to split and soften.
4. Add soy creamer and optional red pepper flakes, lower heat to medium low, and let the liquid cook down to thicken slightly, then fold in fried onions, sage, and walnuts.
5. Serve over linguine, topped with additional fresh sage leaves, cracked pepper, and a sprinkling of sea salt if desired.

Spicy cashew tomato soup

This is a real keeper - creamy, garlicky, with a memory of heat - perfect with the spinach rolls I made (too bad the rolls themselves weren't all that great). But we'll definitely be making this easy soup often. I found it here, and have added my few adjustments in italics.

Soup
1½ cups cashews, soaked in water for at least a few hours to aid processing
3 cups water or vegetable broth, to increase the vitamin quotient
1 can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes or stewed tomatoes
1 tsp. cumin seed
1 tsp. fennel seed
1 tsp. coriander seed
1 serrano chile next time I'll try a couple of chipotles in adobo for variation - I usually have those around, though the serrano was very good, too.
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
~ Juice of ½ lime or lemon I used 1 whole lime plus its zest
¼ tsp. salt
Optional seasonings and garnishes
~ Pinch or two of cayenne pepper
~ Curry powder
½ tsp. dried basil
½ tsp. dill I added a healthy Tb of this AND a pinch of curry powder - but I did so earlier
~ Chopped cilantro or Italian parsley leaves, for serving I skipped this
Steps

1. In a large bowl using an immersion blender, blend the cashews with the water. Blend or chop the whole tomatoes with their juices.
2. Grind the cumin, fennel, and coriander in a mortar and pestle or clean propeller grinder.
3. Mince the chile, being careful not to touch your eyes, mouth, or skin while doing so. (Use plastic or rubber gloves if you have them.) Discard the seeds inside the chile if you want less heat. Wash hands thoroughly when done. actually I put this in my food processor, then after it got pretty well pulverized, added onion. I realized too late that the pepper gets added to the soup later, but it worked really well anyway. I wanted to be sure the serrano got really well chopped up, because last time I used it, Mike and I both got little flame-bites un-uniformly through whatever dish I'd made. for some reason the serrano is harder to tolerate for me than other pepppers (like ghost chilies - we both love the heat!
4. In a stockpot, heat the oil and sauté the onion for a few minutes, then add the celery and continue cooking. When the celery has softened, add the garlic, chile, and spices. Cook another minute or two before adding the tomatoes and cashews. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, being careful not to burn the cashews on the bottom of the pot.
5. Add the lime or lemon juice along with the salt. Adjust the flavor, if desired, using some of the optional seasonings and garnishes. Serve with cilantro or parsley, if you wish.

Tempeh koftas and spinach rice

I keep forgetting to post a picture of our 'spice rack' - but believe me, without it I would not be nearly so likely to experiment as I do with different foods (especially various regional recipes of India). It's so amazing being able finally to walk over to the shelves with a set of small pinch bowls, and measure things in - just like that! I suppose to appreciate that, you'd need to know that where we lived before, even with a small pantry (size of a coat closet), I had bags and boxes of rices, flours, seeds, and spices. I could never find anything, and ended up buying more or something or other all the time! When we moved to Texas last month, I asked Mike to put up some shelves in the kitchen:


That's Maggie on the bottom shelf - and all the shelves are now completely filled up! In fact, I have 2 smaller spice racks over on the counter (and a shelf-full of all those duplicate spices, because believe it or not, for once I have that rare thing - enough kitchen cupboards!) We ordered a bunch of canning jars and sealer lids, then filled'em up. Flours and rices are kept in a cupboard (it would be hard to put a 20lb bag of basmati on those shelves even if they are large!) Maggie's food was up there for a while because we are still trying different foods out with Daphne, our other cat, and while Mags hated Daph's food, Daph would make a beeline (kittyline?) straight for Mag's food, which has allergens we thought might be bothering her (corn products or chicken). The great news is that she's been so much better since we moved here. We still do not know what made her so ill that we nearly lost her, but it's great to see her on the mend.

Anyway -- to the food! I've only been cooking once a week, with Mike doing all the rest, so that I can focus on my literature review. When I do cook, then, I really like to have fun with it. I consider it lots of fun to find good looking recipes, chop, slice, prep, measure - that part is as good as the eating part to me, though I certainly wouldn't turn that down, either. Tonight, it was koftas -an Indian-spiced meatball in a tomato-yogurt sauce, accompanied by a turmeric tinted brown basmati with spinach and peas. I won't lie - it was a lot of work. But as I said - I consider it a blast!

Tempeh Koftas
The original recipe came from here, but in fact turns out to have been an adaptation of another recipe! I'll copy it here because I want to make some adjustments.

Meatballs:
12 oz tempeh
1/2 cup chickpea flour (besan)
1 cup vital wheat gluten
1 onion, shredded
1 tbs vegan worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp browning sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs ginger, minced
2 serrano peppers, seeded & minced
1/4 cup cilantro
1 tbs cumin seed
2 tbs coriander
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbs plain soy yogurt

Sauce:
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp cumin seed
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, grated
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp garam masala
2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup soy yogurt
1 cinnamon stick
9 whole cloves
9 cardamom pods

Meatballs:

Boil the tempeh for about 10 minutes and allow to cool. Grate tempeh and onion and combine with all remaining meatball ingredients. Note: I just ran both through the food processer. Knead until all ingredients are combined and the dough becomes sticky. Set the refrigerate the dough for at least an hour or up to overnight. Note: one hour worked just fine. I think at this point you could form the meatballs and freeze them, as I plan to do.

Pour a tablespoon of vegetable oil onto a cookie sheet and put the cookie sheet into the oven. Note: or spray with oil, then spray the meatballs as well. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Form into 1 tablespoon sized balls, making about 35-40 balls. Small sized meatballs hold together better and have a much better texture. Don't make them too big.

Pull out the preheated cookie sheet and swirl the oil around, just to coat. Place the meatballs on the sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes, turning the meatballs every 5 minutes or so, until the meatballs are evenly browned and slightly crispy. Note: I turned the oven up to 375F, didn't turn as frequently, and cooked about 10 minutes longer than called for. I like my meatballs firm!

Sauce:

Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds and cook until they begin to pop. Add the onion. Saute, stirring often until the onions carmelize and turn brown. Add the tomatoes and ground spices. Tie the cinnamon stick, cardamon and cloves into a piece of cheesecloth and add to the pan. Saute for a couple of minutes. Stir in the yogurt and combine thoroughly. Note: at this point you could add about a cup of veg broth or tomato sauce and stir, if you like more sauce. Pour the sauce into a 9x13 casserole along with the meatballs. Stir to coat, cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Spinach Rice
This recipe came from here, and we both thought the lemon could be doubled. We added salt at the table (I tend to use no salt or very little in cooking, and serve food with a lemon wedge).

Ingredients
2 c brown basmati rice
2 c frozen chopped spinach
1/2 c cilantro leaves, chopped
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1/2 c frozen green peas
1 tsp whole cumin
1 tsp garam masala
1 TB lemon Juice
2 TB oil (I used olive)
2 green chilies (serrano)
4 garlic cloves
1/2" ginger (I used 2 TBs)
1/4 tsp turmeric
Salt to taste

Directions

Wash and soak the basmati rice overnight in 4 c. water (or at least 2 hours).
Chop the garlic, ginger, onions and green chillies finely.
Mince the ginger, garlic and chillies (seed the chillies for less heat).

Measure frozen spinach and peas into a bowl, add in the chopped cilantro, and set aside.

In a pressure cooker (or large heavy saucepan with a tight lid), add the oil and cumin seeds. Once they start spluttering, add the onions and saute till they turn translucent.
Add the ginger, garlic, green chillies and saute for a minute.

Add the chopped spinach, cilantro, green peas along with salt, garam masala and turmeric.
Stir, then add in the soaked rice and all the water and stir all the ingredients together.
Bring to a boil, cover, and cook til done (it's ok to check it!)

Add lemon juice after taking it off the heat - and as I said, serve it with lemon wedges.

Tamarind rice

2 tsp oil (I used olive)
1 c white basmati rice
2 c water
1/4 tsp turmeric
--
1 1/2 - 2 Tbs tamarind paste
1 1/2 c hot water
1/4 tsp turmeric
--
2 tsp oil
SPICE MIX
1 tsp channa dal
1 tsp urud dal
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
pinch - asefoetida (heng)
5-6 cashews
1 sprig curry leaves
--
3/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1. Heat oil in saucepan, add rice and 1/4 tsp turmeric; stir 'til rice begins to look less transparent. Now add the 2 c water, bring to a boil, then lower heat to a high simmer (3 or 4) until the water's gone and the rice is just cooked.

2. Spread rice onto a cookie sheet to cool, set aside.

3. Mix tamarind puree with hot water, 1/4 tsp turmeric, and a pinch of salt. Set aside.

4. In a large and heavy pan, heat oil. Sautee the Spice mix for 2-3 minutes, then add in the tamarind water.

5. Boil mixture until it reduces to about 1/2 the original volume, and thickens (not a lot, just a bit). Turn off heat and add pepper.

6. Combine rice with sauce, top with chopped cilantro.

We found this needed a bit of salt, but that's ok. We tend to cook with less, and add at table.

Vegetable Kurma

Equipment needed: pressure cooker (but you could just simmer things longer, as I may do)

Ingredients:

2 Tbs oil (I used olive)
--
Measure into separate bowls
1 stick cinnamon
4 cloves
2 star anise
--
1 L onion, chopped
--
1 Tbs ginger garlic paste (if you don't have this, just finely chop, then grind, equal parts of fresh ginger and garlic)
--
1 L tomato, chopped
--
1 L carrot, cubed
1 c green beans, chopped into about 2" pieces
1 medium potato, cubed
--
salt to taste (start with 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric
--
Ground masala
Grind into paste:
5 (or more) green chilis
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp aniseed
6-8 cashews
3 Tbs coconut
1 Tbs coriander (cilantro) leaves
--
1 1/2 c water

Instructions
1, Heat oil in a pressure cooker or large, deep (and heavy) pan. Sautee cinnamon, cloves, and star anise for about 2 minutes.

2. Add chopped onions, sautee for another 2-3 minutes, then add ginger garlic paste and cook for a minute.

3. Add tomatoes and sautee until the tomatoes get a bit soft, then add green beans, carrot, and potato.

4. Add salt, garam masal, and turmeric, then the ground masala. Now, sautee for 2-3 minutes.

5. Add water, close pressure cooker, and cook 'til the rocker starts, then remove from heat. Let sit for 5 minutes, then cool under running water.

6. Serve over rice. We had this over tamarind rice - it's not a low-calorie meal!