olive divinity

Just a quick product review for tonight. Since there are no Trader Joe's locations anywhere near where I live, I love going there whenever I'm traveling. While at my mom's last month, we decided to try their mixed olive bruschetta, a savory mixture of "black, brunettte and green olives with red peppers in olive oil." This stuff is, in a word, divine. It packs a salty and savory punch, and so a little goes a long way.

My favorite way to eat the stuff was as a topping for these crispy and flaky roti. The buttery flavor of the bread complemented the piquant olives perfectly. Trader Joe's has several types of olive spreads, and so far I have liked every one that I've tried.

Here are some other ideas for what to do with any olive bruschetta or tapenade type things you happen to have on hand:

• they are a great starter for pasta sauces, just sauté some with onions or garlic before adding your other ingredients, or just toss straight up with pasta
• as a stir-in for dips- whether bean-based (like cannelini bean dip or hummus), or cream-based (try stirring some into cashew cheese or Tofutti cream cheese)
• a sandwich spread, especially good for heated sandwiches like panini or grilled sandwiches
• mixed with a little bit of oil and citrus juice and vinegar to make a great marinade for veggies, tofu, or tempeh, or as a topping for grilled foods
  
• as a way to add quick flavor to any soup, stew, lentils, or beans that you are cooking
• add-ins to nut pâtés (olives and walnuts go especially well together)
• a spread for pizza, to replace or be added to tomato sauce, or used as a pizza topping
  
• and of course, just straight with bread, veggies, or crackers as an appetizer

Summer is a great time to experiment with olive pastes, and I hope these ideas inspire you to try them out!

olive divinity

party, giveaway, and news!

birthday lilies

Hi everybody! In this post I want to share some birthday wonderfulness with all of you. Usually, I don't make a huge deal out of my birthday, but this year we had a group of friends come together, and the results were too fun and too delicious to keep to myself. So here are some scenes (and recipes) from our little partay this past weekend:

Do you remember my vegan ceviche from last year? I decided to make it again, with a few tweaks to the recipe. Once again I used sliced jarred hearts of palm because of their pretty shape, great taste, and eerie resemblance to calamari. This time, I marinated together:

1 jar of hearts of palm, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
2 ripe but firm avocados
1/3 large red onion, sliced thinly
1/4 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
1 small jalapeño pepper, minced finely
the juice of 2-3 organic lemons, plus 1/4 c. fresh-squeezed orange juice
splash olive oil
sea salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and a tiny smidge of powdered coriander

this is what it looked like after a few hours of marinading in the fridge

and this was the ceviche in martini glasses, ready to be passed around at the party

for an entrée, we finally whipped out the Camellia red beans that Kittee had sent us back around Mardi Gras, and Daiku made his famous New Orleans red beans & rice

here it is, served with white rice and garnished with chopped parsley and Tobasco sauce. These beans are so simple, and yet taste so otherworldly, they make me fantasize about traveling down south. Mmmmm.

We also decided to pass around tapas-style potatoes. To make them, we simply steamed these tiny white potatoes, and then tossed with coarse sea salt, parsley, and truffle-scented olive oil,

and served with this improvised aioli sauce comprised of vegannaise mayo, lemon juice, garlic powder, and paprika.

My friend Heather baked a birthday cake for me by veganizing her favorite orange pound cake recipe! Gorgeous, no? This cake was so good, full of orange juice and zest, spiked with orange liqueur, and topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar. I am so grateful to friends like her, willing to step outside of their food/baking comfort zones and making this vegan birthday girl very happy indeed! (another baked treat veganized by my friend Rachel, but devoured too quickly to be photographed: banana bread! I have to get a picture of this some time soon, Rachel has perfected the art of making her banana bread create a pudding-like layer at the bottom... words would not do it justice)

Of course, I had to bake too. I'd been craving tiramisu cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for way too long to hold out any longer! These little guys were composed of golden vanilla cupcakes soaked with an espresso/Kahlua mixture, topped with dollops of cream cheese frosting and cocoa powder and finished off with dark-chocolate covered espresso beans. Oh my.

The term 'food porn' was invented for moments like this!

Our party fell on the night of Black Out For Earth Hour - and thanks to a reminder by Tracy, we managed to turn out our lights from 8 to 9 to participate in this event for the environment! As you can see in the above photo, this hour turned into a kind of campfire moment- we all sat around with only candles for light, eating, drinking, and sharing funny stories. It was so fun!

birthday spring bouquet

* * *

Ok, I promised to share my exciting news with you guys, so here it is!

But first, the small matter of the pool. I had a lot of fun reading your guesses as to what I was going to say. I don't want to choose one winner! So I've decided that everyone who guessed can be a winner. The prize? Some of my beloved sourdough starter so that you guys can have as much fun at home baking sourdough bread (and pancakes and biscuits and waffles and pizza...) as I do!

I've even created a blog email address for this event: wherestherevolution (at) gmail (dot) com. So if you made a guess on this blog, would like some sourdough starter and instructions in the mail, and live in the U.S. (I had to it this way, I'm not sure about the advisability of mailing live cultures through international mail), email me with your address! I will wait 1 week, or until the first 10 requests have come in, whichever happens first, to mail them out.

Ok, without further ado, here's the news:

Daiku and I are moving* to England!!

(woo woo!)

*Ok, it's not a permanent move, but for 5 months starting in late August or September, we will be living in Canterbury. For a time at least, we will be British Bloggers, and I can't wait. So all you Brits out there, please, I could use all your advice! And when I come over, I hope you know there will be meet-ups galore! This vegan's going international, yo.

a map showing Canterbury, in the southeast corner of England (click to enlarge)


birthday begonias

party, giveaway, and news!

quick update

Hi everybody,

Just a quick post to say I haven't disappeared, I'm just a little buried in schoolwork right now! I have lots of blog posts up my sleeve, but it might take a few more days before I'm back to regular posting. For now, check out my sidebar- I've updated my links and added a large number of really cool blogs and websites that I hope you'll have fun browsing!

One last thing before I go- if you're looking for a recipe to make, make the caesar salad from Veganomicon- NOW! The croutons are awesome (especially if made with *cough*sourdough*cough*) but the dressing itself is the star. So creamy and garlic-y, it's perfect as a spread for bread and sandwiches, as a dip for veggies (or even fruit- try it on apple slices!), as a topping for beans, or just to eat out of the jar if you happen to be stressed, under a lot of deadlines, and hungry!

Have a great week, and I look forward to catching up with everyones' blogs soon.

quick update

food for hot days

being kids at the apple orchard

My friend Sharon flew back to France today. It's difficult when one of your best friends lives an ocean away (actually, most of my best friends live 100's or 1000's of miles from me- what the hell?) but I'm glad we got to spend some time together when she came up to Syracuse last week.

Here's some of the food that we ate during Sharon and Dorota's visit that I remembered to photograph... so many other great things such as stuffed eggplants, pancakes, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin oatmeal cookies shall survive, unphotographed, in our memories!

The day they arrived was a really hot one, and I knew that after driving for a few hours, they wouldn't want anything hot or heavy. My solution? Three types of hummus: regular, roasted red pepper, and a raw zucchini one (clockwise from left in the above photo). The zucchini hummus was very delicious, but I wish I could have figured out a way to make it a bit thicker. I like my hummus nice and thick, this way, it's perfect as a sandwich filling too. Everyone raved about it, though, so I'll be making it again.

Here is the hummus in breakfast form: served with sliced veggies (cucumbers, daikon, tomatoes, olives, and fresh tarragon) and some fresh-baked pita. We buy our pita bread from a local Egyptian market called Jerusalem, where they bake them every day. You can get white or whole wheat, and they are magnificent.

Sushi dinner. Daiku, Dorota, Sharon, and I had great fun rolling these with various fillings. I used some of the leftover veggies to make a salad, and we also had cold soba noodles in a ginger/sesame broth on the side. Another hot weather winner.

Finally, we have a French Farmhouse Fricassee, courtesy of this website. I'd been looking for recipes using tarragon, which is one of my all-time favorite herbs, since I'd picked up a big bunch to make Melody's tester salad dressing. This is a crockpot recipe that will make your house fragrant all day long as it cooks, without generating any heat. We used tempeh, and loved the result, but I'd suggest cutting the tempeh into smaller pieces than the recipe suggests, so it can better soak up the flavors.

Here's the recipe:

Adapted from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, by Robin Robertson (Harvard Common Press, 2004).

Fricassees are usually made with meat, but this stick-to-your-ribs recipe uses tempeh, seitan, or tofu along with slow-cooked early-autumn vegetables, shallots, and white wine to make a fragrant stew that warms the senses and the soul.

No fine mincing required: the veggies are chunky, and the recipe practically makes itself whether you use a slow-cooker or not. Imagine your kitchen filling with the appetizing fragrance of a French farmhouse!

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 shallots, quartered
1/2 cup dry white wine
12 ounces tempeh, seitan, or extra-firm tofu cut into 1/2-inch thick slices (we used tempeh)
8 ounces baby carrots, halved lengthwise
8 ounces small red potatoes, halved (we used white potatoes)
8 ounces green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (we used yellow wax beans)
One 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon or parsley leaves (we used tarragon, including a bit in the cooking as well as at the end)

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shallots, cover, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and cook for 1 minute to reduce slightly. Transfer the shallot mixture to a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, or a large heavy-bottomed soup pot.

2. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in the same skillet over medium heat. Add the seitan, tempeh, or tofu and cook until lightly browned on both sides, about 10 minutes, then add to the slow cooker along with the carrots, potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, and stock; season with salt and pepper. Stir to combine, cover, and cook on Low for 8 hours if using slow cooker. If using stovetop, heat to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook, covered, for 35-40 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

3. Just before serving, stir in the tarragon or parsley.

Serves 4.

* * *

Sharon, if you're reading this, we miss you!

One year ago today: what I was blogging about on 2 September 2006 (gasp! was the tART contest really 1 year ago??)

food for hot days

Party!

Daiku and I threw an end-of-the-year party a couple of days before we left Syracuse. We weren't sure exactly how many people would end up coming, so we made enough food to feed an army! In addition, many of our guests brought food and drinks to share, making for an abundance of food. So sit back, relax, and enjoy photos of our delicious vegan spread. (I take full responsibility for some of the pictures being blurry, which might have been because of the lighting, or a hostess who combined an entire day of baking and cooking in a steamy hot kitchen with a little too much red wine...)

Veggies julienned, ready to be rolled into sushi. In the back, cucumbers. In the front, daikon, colored pink with the addition of a few drops of beet juice.

Various maki. Our friends, Heather and Eric, came by early to help. The four of us had a great time rolling sushi together. It is a great opportunity for talking smack- "oooh, you think you can stuff some more rice in there?" "Oh yeah, that's not gonna fall apart." "Um... do you need help?" We filled them with varying combinations of: rice, avocados, cucumbers, daikon, carrots, and chili sauce. We left the rice out for some of them, making just veggie maki.

Caribbean black bean and kale wraps, made by Heather. These were from a Moosewood Cookbook recipe, and she kicked them up several notches with the addition of orange liqueur. Spicy and delicious!

Fattoush salad, from a Nigella Lawson recipe: romaine lettuce, mint and cilantro, scallions and avocado, jalopeno and freshly toasted pita chips, topped with a lime/olive oil dressing. Green goodness.

Bruschetta made with market-fresh tomatoes, red onion, and basil topping freshly toasted baguette slices that had been rubbed with garlic.

Jambalaya made with smoked tofu and chick'n strips in front, a chickpea/spinach/tomato dish with cumin and other spices in the back.

Veggies with two kinds of bean dip, courtesy of Trac.

Fruit salad, courtesy of another guest.

Moroccan spiced meatballs with BBQ sauce. (These are the best vegan meatballs ever! I posted about them back in the fall)

AND DESSERT!

Coconut-lime cupcakes with lime buttercream frosting from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World." These were bursting with flavor- so good!

Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes, also from VCTOTW. These were a flavor revelation- now the top contender for my favorite cupcakes yet from this book.

I also baked green tea cupcakes, but instead of green tea glaze, I topped them with the same lime buttercream frosting as above. It actually worked perfectly for flavor, but I forgot to take photos!

The party was fun, and it was good to see so many friends before leaving Syracuse. We sent people home with leftovers and yet still had a packed fridge for the next couple of days. Oh well, that's not the worst thing in the world....
.

Party!

artichokes and abrasions

Well it looks like I tempted fate. Just when I promised to blog every day, life got in the way, big time. Yesterday, Daiku and I took our bikes out for a spin. We hadn't even gone one block when I had a major spill. I don't even know what happened, but...

I got cut up pretty badly. I realized that my doctor had admonished me to get a tetanus shot over 2 years ago, and I hadn't gotten around to it yet. So we went to the hospital to get my cuts cleaned up and to get a tetanus shot.

A few hours later, I came home looking like a burn victim, as you can see above. I could barely move my hands, and my wrists, elbows, and legs were in loads of pain too.

And all I wanted to do was blog about artichokes! So enough about injuries and hospitals and trauma. On to artichokes! These beautiful vegetables are one of the many signs of Spring's arrival that I have gotten to enjoy in the last week or two.

Daiku and I decided to simply steam them in water with a bit of lemon juice. Now artichokes taste just wonderful on their own, but it is fun to dip the leaves into something delicious every once in a while. Most dips, like melted butter, however, are too runny for me. I like something to really cling on to the leaves.

So I came up with a recipe for a sublime artichoke dipping sauce:

The picture is not too great, since my camera batteries died right before I could get a good shot. But make this sauce next time you're enjoying artichokes, and you will not regret it:

(makes enough for 4 large artichokes, the quantities can easily be increased or decreased according to need and taste)

• Melt 1-2 TB vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance) and 1-2 TB extra virgin olive oil together over medium-low heat
• Add 1-2 sliced large garlic cloves, and allow to heat through until fragrant
• To this mixture, add 1/4 - 1/2 cup of dry white wine, increase the heat a little, and stir, allowing some of the wine to reduce, about 5 minutes
• Add 1/4 - 1/2 cup of very fine breadcrumbs, stir until heated through. Add the juice of 1/2 a lemon and up to a teaspoon of lemon zest. Serve warm with artichokes.
• Dip away and enjoy!

Don't forget to remove the thistles when you are done with the leaves- they expose the succulent artichoke heart!

The inner workings of artichokes- what a work of art...

Since we had made 4 artichokes, we had 2 leftover to take to the office the next day for a picnic lunch. (Along with some leftover hummus, veggies, and bean soup)

Here's Daiku enjoying his artichoke.

And here's me, pre-injured hands.

Later that day, we bought my new bike.

My bike and me, in happier days. (Don't worry, this was just a display ride, the first time I brought the bike home. I always wear a helmet!)

So that's my story. Eat artichokes. Stay up-to-date with your tetanus shots. Be careful on your bikes. And, as cheesy as this sounds, don't take anything or anyone for granted, because life comes at you fast.

artichokes and abrasions

chili and the dish that had no name

Today, I bring you two recipes. One is for a wonderful chili that will surprise your tastebuds and the other is for a vegan Iranian dish that, sadly, has no name! But you'll love it nonetheless.

Daiku's Sweet 'n Smoky Chipotle Chile

Chili is a great meal that can be prepared quickly. We love to experiment with flavors and ingredients. One thing we usually don't include is t.v.p., since the taste and texture are not among Daiku's favorites. This week, Daiku made this chili, sweetened with just a hint of raisins and molasses to offset the spicy, smoky chipotle heat. The flavors play off each other superbly-- not too sweet, not too hot, just right. You couldn't get much healthier or more filling than this, and all in under 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

olive oil
1 TB cumin
1.5 TB chili powder
black pepper to taste

1 medium onion, chopped
1 chipotle pepper in adobo, chopped
1 large carrot, sliced

1 15 oz. can diced tomato
1/2-3/4 cup frozen corn

1 28 oz. can black beans
1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans
water, as needed

handful chopped cilantro (we used frozen)
handful raisins
2 TB molasses

1/4 cup refried bean mix

Directions:

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add cumin and chili powder to toast and bring out flavors. Sprinkle in some freshly cracked black pepper.

Add in the onion, chipotle pepper, and carrots, and sautee until softened slightly, or around 5 minutes. Add corn and tomatoes.

Add beans and as much water as needed to get the desired chili consistency. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

When the chili has warmed through and the flavors are melding, add cilantro, raisins, and molasses. We don't often have fresh cilantro available, so when we get a good bunch, we puree some of it with water and salt and store in the freezer. For recipes like this, we break of chunks of the frozen puree, but of course if you have fresh cilantro, use it.

In the final moments of cooking, add in about 1/4 cup of dried refried bean mix and water, enough to thicken the chili to your preferred consistency. Dried refried bean mix is one of those time-savers in the kitchen- you can reconstitute some for a quick lunch burrito, or use it to thicken and flavor chilis and other bean dishes. It is a completely natural product, and we buy it from the bulk bins in our food co-op.

Garnish with avocados, soy sour cream, fresh cilantro, and/or oyster crackers to serve. Enjoy!

* * *

Next, I bring you another vegan Iranian recipe. If you are thinking that I've been eating a lot of eggplants lately, you are right! I found a super deal on organic eggplants at the market- one of those great moments when the organic produce looks better and even has a better price than its conventionally grown counterpart. So I bought 2 big ones and now you get my unending string of eggplant recipes! Did you know that eggplants are great for your skin and help to counteract the signs of aging? Maybe I've subconsciously been gobbling them up because I have a birthday coming up... sigh.

So here's an Iranian dish that is naturally vegan. After my mom finished describing it to me and giving me detailed instructions on how to make it, I said, "that's great! what is it called?" We were both surprised when my mom couldn't remember! So either this dish has no name, or we are being forgetful!

That Iranian Dish That Kinda Reminds You of Baba Ganouj

Ingredients:

1 cup raw walnuts
1 clove garlic (2 or more if you're brave and don't have to go to work or school the next day!)
juice of 1 lemon
1/2-1 tsp. angelica powder (click here for a previous post where I describe angelica and show a photo of it)
water, as needed

1 large eggplant
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

To make walnut paste, combine walnuts, garlic, lemon juice, and angelica in a food processor (or the magic bullet!). Add enough water to make it into a thick paste. Add salt and pepper to taste. At this stage, you can store the paste, covered, in the refrigerator. The flavor will only improve.

To make the eggplant, you can roast it, but to get a truly smoky flavor, it is best to broil it, or even better, charbroil it. This is where it comes in handy to have a gas stove, but the clean-up is a bit of a drawback! If you like eggplant as much as I do though, the smell of its skin being charred to a smoky crisp is like heaven. I put it over a medium flame and cooked each side until the skin was burned to a crisp. I then tilted it so the end was also cooked. (You might have to finish the eggplant off with a couple of minutes in the microwave depending on the thickness of your particular eggplant.)

Let the eggplant rest. When it is cooled off, the burned skin will come off easily.

Mash up the eggplant and mix with the walnut paste. Add salt and pepper and a final squeeze of lemon juice.

The basic walnut paste is a base to many Iranian recipes. There are many variations, using ingredients such as pomegranate juice or molasses, olives, bitter orange, cinnamon, etc. but the angelica is absolutely essential. It is a great master recipe to have in your repertoire, and can also serve as a dip or sandwich spread.

Traditionally, this eggplant dish is eaten as a condiment or side, but we made it the focal point of our dinner, served with brown basmati rice and a side of steamed Chinese broccoli. I am still trying to perfect the brown rice pilaf technique, and will share it with you once I have it.

Enjoy!

chili and the dish that had no name