More festive foods

I saw a recipe for something like "maple mustard glazed potatoes and green beans" in VWaV while I was planning my x-mas dinner contributions and spending time with the family. I thought it looked pretty yummy, but we ended up going with the standard amandine preparation anyway. I knew I'd make it for myself eventually, but alas, when I returned to my apartment I realized I had left the cookbooks at my parents house. Arg! Anyway, I decided to improvise my own recipe and it was *awesome.* It included: maple syrup, dijon mustard, olive oil, red pepper flakes, lemon juice, black pepper and sea salt. You whisk it up (the mustard makes the whole thing emulsify perfectly). I poured the mixture over some veggies in a casserole dish and baked until tender at 375 degrees. I've already made this again using brussels sprouts and I think the monster butternut squash on my kitchen table awaits a similar fate. Maybe also beets...or sweet potatoes. These are great on their own, but some leftover veggies/sauce + cranberries + pecans + baby spinach = best...salad...evvvver.



New Years Eve food included some store bought taro and red bean steamed dumplings and massive amounts of fried veggies (onion rings, sweet potato fries, whatever else was in the crisper...?) for no especially good reason other than perhaps a latent desire to give all of my otherwise healthy young guests some early coronary events. Anyway, my friend Momo and I created a very effective deep-fried assembly line and the best dish of the night was really his idea: champagne tempura batter! We dipped some baby bella mushrooms and some green beans in it and I have to say, the mushrooms were really the star here. I mean seriously, perfectly puffy, golden, fatty, little mushrooms. Nom. Nom. Nom. Everything was served with an impromptu aioli (roasted red pepper, vegenaise, white beans, garlic, basil, sea salt, pepper).

Champagne tempura:

*1-1 1/3 cups liquid: we used almost all cold champagne, but you can use water too. If you use champagne you'll probably need more liquid.
*1/2 cup AP flour
*1/2 cup rice flour
*2 tbs ener-g egg replacer powder
*pinch salt
*pinch sugar
*pinch red pepper powder

*mix egg replacer with liquid, whisk until frothy, add rest of ingredients.
*dip your veggies (mushrooms strongly suggested,) and roll in panko if desired.
*fry in canola or safflower oil.
*remove veggies from fryer, drain.
*finish with lots of black pepper.

Enjoy! And happy new year!

Vegan Japanese...ish

Vegan sushi: spicy chickpea roll (mashed chickpeas, veganaise, sriracha, scallions, tamari, cucumber), mango nigiri with cilantro, and an "elephant roll" (peanuts, avocado and red pepper, black and white sesame seeds sprinkled on top). Use toasted nori sheets, keep your hands very wet when working with the sticky stuff, and don't forget to to prep that rice with rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt, it makes a BIG difference. Oh, and I just rolled these guys using a big ziplock freezer bag since I didn't have a bamboo mat-- and it worked out pretty well. Still need some help? These nice ladies explain it all. It's actually really fun and pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Will certainly be making again soon.



Perfect vegan tempura: Used this recipe from veg web except I used half AP flour and half rice flour. I battered my veggies (1 sweet potato, 1/2 bunch broccolini and 1 onion) and then dredged them in panko bread crumbs. Fried in some veg. oil (peanut might be even better next time) and served with a simple dipping sauce (tamari, mirin, scallions, sesame seeds).

Fun Fact: shojin ryori is the name of a traditional vegan Buddhist cuisine . While the above especially bastardized meal is in no way an example of it, it's interesting to read about. As Buddhism affected Japanese culture, vegetarian cooking in major cities and temples influenced Japanese cuisine. Not hard too imagine when you think about all the soy and gluten preparations made famous there. (Agedashi tofu!)

For more Japanese food check out The Vegan Ronin's blog with some seriously yummy looking pictures.