PPK Caravan

On Friday night, Daiku and I hit vegan pay dirt- we got to have dinner with 20 fellow PPK-ers in New York! Since this is VeganMoFo, I will bring you mostly food photos in this post, but to get to see some of the gorgeous people we got to meet, you can see more photos here.

For dinner, we went to Caravan of Dreams, located in the East Village. I had never heard of the place, but Terry assured me that it had been around forever. The menu is full of intriguing dishes, including tons of raw food options. I'll give you some of the dishes we managed to photograph, along with grades.

Spinach-potato soup. B.

Indonesian salad. Not so Indonesian. Seriously, macadamia nuts? C-.

Tempeh Reuben. Sandwich: B+ . Pickles: F. Seriously. As a pickle lover, it saddens me to report that pickles this bad even exist.

Organic vegan beers in huge never-ending bottles? A+ !

Desserts were solid. But they were all decorated the same! And had a bit of a "health-food" flavor. B.

Getting a coffee that repeatedly formed an "orb of doom" after we'd spent the whole night talking about Japanese horror movies? Priceless.

Afterward, those of us who hadn't ordered dessert at Caravan of Dreams walked over to Atlas for some vegan soft serve and other assorted goodies.

Everything in the display case (brownies, cakes, cheesecakes, cupcakes) was vegan!

Chocolate-hazelnut cake with a gooey fudge-y middle layer. B+

The soft serve was vanilla, but you could play around with your flavor by choosing various mix-ins. I chose coconut. A-

The best part of the evening was meeting such wonderful and cool on-line friends, including Isa and Terry, vegan authors extraordinaire and all around cool persons. Here's the best part of VeganMoFo: vegan food, the good, the bad, and the weird, tastes better when you have awesome company to share it with. Other than blogging, the Post-Punk Kitchen forums are what have allowed me to keep my veganism -and my sanity- intact!

Check out the blogs of some of the people at the dinner:

Isa & Terry (The PPK blog)
Suzie (One Chubby Vegan)
Melisser (The Urban Housewife)
Jason and Laura (Supervegan)
Gwenlet (Eating Well and Eating Well)
(anyone I missed?)

Restaurant Info:

Caravan of Dreams (100% vegan, raw and gluten-free selections)
405 East 6th Street
(212) 254-1613

Atlas Café (vegan soft serve, crepes, and baked goods from Vegan Treats)
73 2nd Avenue
New York NY 10003
(212) 539-0966

More NYC food, still to come...

PPK Caravan

classic NYC vegan grub

I love VeganMoFo! I don't think I have ever posted every day this many days in a row - this is a blogging lesson for me: shorter, concise posts rule!

So this is another vegan food flashback post. Long before New York City was the vegan mecca that it is today, long before seemingly every store and restaurant offered vegan fare, there was this humble little jem of a breakfast: a bagel (nice and crusty and chewy, the way it's supposed to be) with a smear of Tofutti cream cheese and a cup of "that" coffee. You know, the coffee that you can get from a deli, a streetcart, or a bagel shop, and nowhere else? The coffee that has a unique yet undefinable taste? The coffee that only costs $.75? Yeah, that coffee.

I remember walking around the city with my friends oh my god, was it really 10 or 11 years ago and getting bagels with Tofutti. I wasn't yet a vegan, and neither were most of my friends, but somehow, Tofutti was the cool thing to get. Back then, it was one of the few vegan convenience foods you could find. Now, even though there is an embarrassment of riches, with restaurants, cafes, and markets offering bigger and better selections of vegan goodness, this is the only breakfast I wanted on my first morning in Brooklyn. I ate it, like every good commuter, on the subway.

More NYC food to come...

classic NYC vegan grub

Maxine's Mexican casserole

A few weeks ago, I heard about Maxine, a cow that escaped slaughter in Queens, New York, and made news because she was found running through the streets of the city. Fortunately, this cow's story had a happy ending- she was captured by animal control, and sent to live out her days in Farm Sanctuary. Like the other animals there, many of whom have similarly escaped slaughter, she reminds us that animals are sentient creatures and have a strong will to live. They don't want to die, period.

Since VeganMoFo in a lot of ways is about getting back to basics, I want to make sure I visit the "why vegan" issue. Veganism is great for health, great for the budget, great for the environment, great for learning to cook, hell, it's even done wonders for my skin. But the real reason that I went vegan is because of animals like Maxine. One look in any animal's eye, one day spent with any animal, is enough proof that they don't want to be your dinner. They don't care if they're grass-fed, open-pasture, super duper happy humanely raised animals. They still don't want to be your dinner.

Today I saw this video about Maxine on the Luminous Vegans blog. It literally made me cry. This is the reason for going veg. This is the reason for VeganMoFo.



Of course because it's VeganMoFo, I will tie this back to food. Here's a dish that could easily have beef in it. But it can just as easily have no beef (or dairy, or any other animal products) in it. The taste is there, the texture, the nutrition, the looks. Why eat beef when you just plain don't have to?

Maxine's Mexican Casserole

serves 4 (I am not going to give a recipe with exact measurements, because this is flexible and actually a great way to use up what you have or what you prefer, so just mix it up as you see fit)

Take:

• a bunch of corn tortillas (even better if they're stale, because smothering and baking them makes them delicious)
• some leftover tomato sauce or enchilada sauce or any red sauce. or green sauce. just sauce, ok? (we used leftover pasta sauce, the flavor was just fine)
  
• a bunch of black beans, or whatever beans you have in your kitchen
• a bunch of tofu, tofu feta, tofu ricotta, or whatever seasoned tofu crumbles you have
• some lightly steamed kale (or any greens, perhaps leftovers from last night's dinner?)
• some chopped onions or scallions
• other assorted goodies- we used pickled jalapenos, but you can use olives, corn, whatever sounds good for some added crunch and flavor
  
• some hot sauce and/or chili paste
• some seasonings- we used cumin, coriander, oregano, black pepper, chili powder, and dried jalapeno pieces

Then get to work layering them in a small, deep casserole dish while your oven pre-heats to 375 degrees. (Our dish was about 6 or 7 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep)
Start with the tortillas, then layer in beans, sauce, and greens to your liking. We made about 4 generous layers. Top your final layer with remaining tortillas, a bit of sauce, and some chunks of your tofu cheese.
Bake for about 45 minutes, covered with aluminum foil. Take the foil off for the last 5-10 minutes to the the top nice and crunchy.
Serve topped with tofu sour cream or whatever you like.
Eat, and raise your glass in honor of Maxine and all of her brothers and sisters who weren't as lucky.

P.S. I'm working on downloading and sorting NYC photos - I'll post about my trip soon, I promise!

Maxine's Mexican casserole

veg on veg

Well, if it wasn't for VeganMoFo, I probably wouldn't be blogging at 10:30 at night, right after getting back from a long drive and a weekend away from home. But this is the month of vegan food, darn it, and I'm nothing if not dedicated!

Tonight, I want to talk about "veg on veg" - one of my favorite types of meals. Veg on veg is a meal that simply involves vegetables, vegetables, and more vegetables. Anyone who knows me knows that I love grains, beans, and tofu. They know that tempeh holds a special place in my heart and that I love experimenting with seitan. They know that I love baking, whether a big loaf of bread or a decadent dessert.

But sometimes, you don't want any of that. Sometimes, your vegan heart just wants to sing about the love for produce. Pure, unadulterated, produce. So you end up with a meal like what you see above.

This was a meal that Daiku and I shared last week, consisting only of produce. The main course was a dish of roasted vegetables: butternut squash, potatoes, carrots, and onions. I love throwing onions into roasting winter veggies, because they caramelize and lend a great sweet flavor to everything. The veggies were very simply seasoned with olive and chili oils, salt, pepper, a dash of cinnamon, and a touch of sage.

To go with them, we had a simple green salad dressed with a robust dijon vinaigrette. The slight heaviness of the dijon mustard and white balsamic vinegar paired well with the heartiness of our roasted veggies.

As a final accent, we had a dish of fresh cranberry sauce that I whipped up while the veggies were roasting. I cooked some cranberries with orange zest and frozen apple juice concentrate until the berries had burst and the sauce had thickened up slightly. (Cranberry thickens up even more as it cools and sets.)

So there you go: veggies, veggies, (fruit), and more veggies. Veg on veg, one of my personal favorite aspects of veganmofo.

veg on veg

VeganMoFo and Lattes...

Greetings from Brooklyn! I didn't think I'd be blogging from here, but I just had to jump in and join VeganMoFo after I heard about it. (Check out the huge and growing list of participants on Isa's blog here) Basically, it's the Vegan Month of Food - a blogging event where we all agree to blog about vegan food every day for the month of November. Since I've already blogged for the first two days, I figured it's not too late to jump in on the third day (or night).

I like this idea, because it will keep me on my toes- perhaps by blogging every day, I can finally get to put down all those ideas that float around my brain all the time. All the aspects of vegan food- fun, friends, family, memory, comfort, invention, taste, health are fair game. What was my first vegan cookbook, my first vegan recipe, my first vegan restaurant? My first taste of tofu? (Can I even remember?) This month will be one of exploration centered on this topic.

I haven't had a chance to download any of my current NYC photos yet, so instead, I thought I'd use my first VeganMoFo post to talk about...

...this here big ol' foamy soy chai latte. It's such an elegant and comforting drink, but so easy to make at home. It's one of those concoctions where convenience items (store-bought soymilk, hand-held frothers, microwaves) come together to form a creation worth singing about. Sometimes, vegan food (well, drink) is just this easy:

• Step 1: Brew some chai tea, either from scratch or a teabag, to desired strength
• Step 2: Sweeten to taste, I like agave nectar
• Step 4: In a separate glass, pour some full-fat soymilk. (I find homemade or unsweetened soymilk does not work well, neither does rice milk or any nut milk that I have tried.) Microwave for 30 - 45 seconds, until hot but not boiling.
• Step 5: Using a hand-held frother (such as this), foam hot soymilk to desired consistency
• Step 6: Pour the foamed milk into sweetened brewed tea.

Enjoy! And join VeganMoFo!

Go to Katie's blog for more ideas
And join the MoFo Flickr pool and post your photos

VeganMoFo and Lattes...

headin' to NYC...

After a busy couple of weeks, Daiku and I are heading to New York City, partly for fun (a friend's birthday! a PPK get-together!) and partly for work (a symposium! galleries!). We'll be back on Monday with a full report.
.

headin' to NYC...

in honor of world vegan day...

I bring you PRODUCE!

There is a lot of good to being vegan, and real gains for everyone involved, but one of the funnest aspects of it is all the close encounters of the produce kind that we get to experience. The more I get to know about fruits and veggies, the more fascinated I become with the intricacies and infinite variety that they represent. So without further ado, I bring you just some of the produce that I have played with in the last month or so. I know my posts tend to be picture-heavy- I can't help it, it's the art history teacher in me! To get the full effect, turn down the lights, grab a cup of something warm and soothing, and enjoy the show!

While visiting my mom in Virginia last month, we went to an Asian supermarket that I love because I always see tons of out-of-the-ordinary produce there. Here's some bitter melon. I'm ashamed to say that I don't know much about these- does anyone have a recipe for me?

Here's some tindora. What is tindora? They look kind of like little cucumber-shaped melons, but I have no idea what they would taste like. Anyone? Ferris? Ferris?

Here's a cutie little Thai green eggplant- beautiful pattern, isn't it?

Later, back home, Daiku returned from the farmers market one day with a huge bag of these tiny baby eggplants. After oohing and aahing over them for a couple of days, we put them to good use in stir-fries, sandwiches, and stews.

Another impressive bit of produce from Daiku's trip to the market, this huge bunch of habañero peppers. Considering these are the hottest peppers known to human-kind, and that we usually use, say, 1/2 of 1 for a whole batch of chili, what would we do with these...? Daiku has been busy making and preserving habañero sauces and relishes, but we still have quite a few to go through!

Even at a normal old supermarket, it is fun to come across beautiful produce. Case in point, this multi-colored bunch of organic radishes- white, pink, purple and red. I loved their sweet taste, and made sure to eat up every last bit, including the radish greens, which make a wonderful, slightly spicy addition to sandwiches and salads.

Pretty, eh?

The first day of November means our summer garden is definitively done. This funny little orb-shaped cucumber was the last one produced.

We brought this little bundle of greenness in a couple of nights ago, since there was a frost warning. Peppers, a few different types of tomatoes, and a garlic bulb. Last year, we had tons of fun with green tomatoes, and we probably will this year as well.

Does it seem to you that there are always new varieties of squash to discover? My love of yellow and orange veggies knows no bounds, and so I love collecting as many squash as possible. Look at this flamboyant little guy. It was called a Turban Squash...

... you can kind of see why in this shot! I have had it around for 2 weeks, and I just don't know how I'm going to bring myself to cut into this beautiful vegetable and cook it. So for now, it sits proudly on our table, adding a fall glow to our living room. Sigh.

I saw these huge pink tubers sitting at last Friday's market. When I asked the woman selling them what they were, she said "winter radish," promising that they were sweet and you could cook and mash them like potatoes. She even gave me a sheet full of recipes for them! Well, of course, I couldn't resist, since I love radish in all its forms.

Including its gnarly forms. When I cut into it raw, it was tremendously hot and spicy, almost hard to eat. So, as advised, we steamed a part of it...

...and made these maki that you might remember from our Halloween party. Next time you make maki, try steaming some radish or turnip, and dying it pink using the juice from your jar of beet/horseradish, for that beautiful pink color. (You do have a jar of Polish beet/horseradish in your fridge at all times, right? I don't want to hear about it if you don't!) The radish/beet/horseradish combo is surprisingly appropriate for sushi, and the appearance and texture remind me very much of tuna.

Finally, we have this pod-like creature. The owner of a Middle-Eastern grocery store gave us this piece of carob to try last time we visited his store! I'd never seen carob other than wannabe chocolate chips and cocoa powder, so seeing it in its natural form is very intriguing for me. We haven't done much with it- it's only one pod, after all, but sucking on it is really fun, because it's sweet! I want to come up with ways to eat and cook with carob that have nothing to do with chocolate, rescue it from its fate as a poseur, as it were. Anyone have any recipes to share? Something savory, perhaps?

So, that's my little tour of the wild and wacky world of produce. I will bring you recipes for all these, and more soon. Meanwhile, have you hugged a vegan today?

in honor of world vegan day...