Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes

One of my favorite recipes from Vegan Brunch is actually something I usually eat as a late lunch.  The Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes are so good, there are never any leftovers.  Maybe I also like them because I grew up in a little town called Chesapeake in Virginia.  I don't know, but I do know these babies are so delicious, it'll knock your socks off.

For some reason I was a little bit intimidated when I first saw this in Vegan Brunch.  It's silly to think about that now because they're so easy to make.  I don't know, sometimes when I see a recipe that's recreating a vegan version of something I had never even considered attempting, my brain gets all wonky and can't compute all of a sudden.  These don't taste exactly like crab cakes, but they are a good vegan substitute.

These cakes are moist and full of flavor.  Even if you've never had or never liked the real thing, you should try these.  They're addictive.  Squirt a bit of lemon on them before you eat them and you'll get a nice pop of fresh flavor.  I usually find that I want a bit more of the sauce than the recipe makes so I make about a batch and a half of that.  I'm a bit of a sauce whore, so maybe that's just me.  If you're not, you'll probably be okay with just the regular amount.

I add a bit of dulse flakes to mine because I happen to have a huge never-ending bag of it.  I like the taste of seaweed, but if you don't, then skip that part.  I'm also a bit curious to add some Old Bay Seasoning to these next time I make them.  I remember everyone putting that on seafood of all kinds back in Virginia. I think there were even some Old Bay flavored potato chips.  Those were good.  You definitely can't get that flavor here in Canada.  I have seen some of the seasoning in a couple of places, though.  Mmmm... now I want to make these again.

Isa has the recipe up on the PPK blog, but since my copying and pasting skills are alive and kicking, you could also just read it here.

Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes (Makes 10)

Make ahead: Make the entire mixture and the remoulade the night before. In the morning, form into cakes and pan fry.

For the cakes:
8 ounces tempeh (use the nori tempeh if you can find it, but plain soy tempeh is fine, too)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bay leaf

3 tablespoons Vegenaisse
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard (stone ground Dijon works, too)
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 cup very finely chopped red bell pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspooon salt
fresh black pepper
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs, plus extra for dredging
Optional: 1 finely chopped nori sheet or 1 tablespoon kelp granules (I use dulse)

Oil for pan frying

For the remoulade:
2 tablespoons Vegenaise
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard (stone ground dijon works, too)
1 tablespoon hot sauce
2 teaspoons capers (try not to get too much brine)


Lemon wedges for serving

First we’re going to steam the tempeh to get the bitterness out and also to infuse some flavor with the soy sauce. Crumble the tempeh into a saucier or small pan in little bits. Add the water, soy sauce, oil and bay leaf. The tempeh won’t be fully submerged, but that’s fine. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, let boil for 12 to 15 minutes, until most of the water has evaporated. Stir once during boiling.

Transfer contents to a mixing bowl, remove bay leaf, and mash with a fork. Let cool for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to hasten the cooling process. Make sure the tempeh is barely warm before you proceed, or the cakes may fall apart when you cook them. Add the mayo, mustard, hot sauce, vinegar, chopped bell pepper, spices salt and pepper, and mix well. Add the bread crumbs and nori and use your hands to incorporate.

Once you are ready to form the cakes, preheat a thin layer of oil in a heavy bottomed non-stick skillet (cast iron is great) over medium heat. Pour a few tablespoons of panko into a bowl. Scoop a little less than 1/4 cup batter into your hands and form into a ball. Flatten between your palms and then roll the sides gently with your hands cupped to smooth them. You should have ten 2 1/2 to 3- inch patties. I do them in batches of five. Press them into the panko to lightly coat. They don’t need to be thoroughly covered, just a little bit for some texture.

Fry a batch of five cakes for 4 minutes on one side and flip when dark golden brown. Fry for 2 minutes on the other side and transfer to a paper towel or paper bag to drain. Do your second batch and in the meantime make your remoulade by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Serve with lemon wedges.

Review: Lunch at Annapurna Vegetarian Indian Restaurant

Oh, look. Another post about what I had for lunch today.

Today I ventured through the rain over to Annapurna Vegetarian Indian Restaurant. Interestingly enough, I've never been here even though it's only a few blocks from work. Why? Because under the previous management (and in the old location just a block down the street) the place was never open! How the heck to people expect to get customers when you're always closed at lunch or dinner times!? I mean, seriously. Well, all of that's fixed now. Annapurna's in a new location and is open! For reals.

Lunch was that stuff! A really wonderful lentil dahl soup, even better than at Sejuiced along with an egglplant dish, channa masala, rice and a spiced mixed vegetable and potato type of thing. I was also brought some vegan bread in a little basket. It was like naan with nothing on it. I'm on a cleanse so I couldn't eat the bread, but I bet it was just as good as the rest of this.

For lunch there's just the lunch buffet, but that's fine. It's $9.95 for all you can eat, and really, that's quite reasonable for Kitsilano. More than half of the buffet is vegan, which is really exciting. Everything tasted really fresh. No reheated frozen vegetables here. Each of the dishes had identifiable pieces of fresh chopped herbs in them, too. It's not often you see that and especially not in buffet items. Nothing was OMG the best ever, I must tweet this!, but it was really delicious. I'm definitely going to start adding Annapurna into my lunch rotations.

The restaurant was clean and the host/server was very polite and friendly. I really hope that people start to realize that this isn't the same Annapurna as before. I almost wish they had changed the name just so people would think it was a new restaurant. There was only one other table of people when I came in for lunch and that's just really too bad. I haven't been in for dinner, yet, but I don't live far so I'm definitely putting that on my to-do list. I took a peek at the dinner menu and there are so many items with a notation for being vegan. I love Indian food, so this is pretty rad. James and I are constantly at a loss of where to for dinner on nights we don't feel like cooking or just feel like going out.

So, if you live in Vancouver, go check out the new and improved Annapurna. If you don't do it for yourself, do it for me. I need more awesome places to eat lunch so I definitely want this place to succeed.

Holy shamoly.  I just went to their website to link them and I noticed they have delivery.  Oh, man.

Broccoli and Tofu with Black Bean Sauce

There's a restaurant in Vancouver called Foundation.  It's one of those uber-hipster places that blasts hip hop super loud in a dark restaurant and all of the menu items have these weird names.  They have pretty decent food, though.  Most of the menu is vegan and the portions are usually so huge I can get two full meals out it.  People around here either love that place or hate it.  I get bored of their food sometimes but then I branch out and try something that's a bit different than what I usually order and I love it again.

That's what happened with this one particular dish.  I forget what it's called on the menu, but it's this broccoli and tofu thing with black bean sauce over brown rice.  I don't eat tofu very often anymore, but sometimes I get a craving on for this.  Last night was one of those times.  I just started a cleanse and this is something I'm allowed to have so I decided to try and make it myself last night.

I think I did a pretty good job, actually.  It's pretty darn close and definitely really yummy.  I'm kind of excited to eat the leftovers.  I do think that the sauce could use a tablespoon or two of soy sauce to liven it up a little and make it a tad saltier.  I can't have fermented things on my cleanse, so I just added some salt.  It was still good, but I think the soy sauce would have been better.

I also kind of screwed up the broccoli.  I started steaming it a bit too early so it got too soft.  You could probably just cut to the chase and saute it with the tofu if you wanted or just steam it for a few minutes and then add it to the pan with the tofu towards the end.  Either way, it was still delicious.  I think you could use this sauce for a lot of different veggies, actually.  It might be great as a base for a Chinese type stir-fry with some snow peas, baby corn and water chestnuts.  Yum!

Broccoli and Tofu with Black Bean Sauce

1 can of black beans, rinsed
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
2 teaspoons lemon juice
salt to taste

1 block of tofu, drained, pressed and cut into cubes
1 head of broccoli, chopped
brown rice

Cook your rice and start to steam or saute the broccoli.  Saute the tofu in some olive oil in a pan, preferably a cast iron skillet if you have one.  You can saute the broccoli with the tofu if you want.  I usually saute the tofu over medium heat for 10 minutes or so until it's just starting to get golden brown.

In a medium-sized bowl, mash the black beans with a potato masher or a fork until there aren't any whole beans left, but not so much that it's a puree.  In a pot over medium heat, heat up the vegetable broth with the garlic, thyme, cumin, chili powder, cayenne and lemon juice.  Let that simmer for about 5 minutes then add the mashed black beans.  Stir everything together and mash the beans a bit more with the back of a spoon.  Simmer the whole thing over low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, to let the flavors blend together.  You can add a little bit of water if you need to keep the sauce from getting too thick.  Stir in the salt and remove from heat.

Put the brown rice on a plate and top with the broccoli and tofu and then some sauce.  Eat and enjoy.

An Ode to My Kitchen Helpers

Since most of the US is doing Thanksgiving today and probably not really thinking about food except for the awesomeness they just ate and the leftovers to come, I thought I'd do something a little different today.

This post is an ode to my kitchen helpers aka my cats.

Cats always love boxes.  Usually my three get tired of a box after about two weeks.  The exception is this Cuties box.  I think it's so appropriate that Phoebe loves this box so much.  Piper gets in it sometimes, too but not nearly as much as Phoebe.  Actually, she even loves being carried around in the box.  Whenever I have people over, they love seeing how much she likes that.  The cuties box is next to my kitchen island and has a great view of all of the action in the kitchen.  This is generally where Phoebe hangs out when I'm cooking.

This is probably about when something got dropped on the floor and eagle eyes is waiting to see if I'll notice it or not.

Paige prefers the heights.  We have these weird little side things on our counters that are perfect little cat perches.  Paige is very polite and doesn't usually try to bust in on the food preparation.  She just likes to supervise from her perch.

Piper, however is the mischievous one.  I frequently have to shoo her away from the counter when I'm preparing food.  She gets really excited thinking that surely this is going to be the time she gets some.  She usually sits either on top of the refrigerator or on a perch like Paige.  When she's not sitting and watching, she's usually doing things like hiding behind this plant hoping I don't notice her eyeing whatever I'm chopping.

Tamales Rock Your World

I love Mexican food.  Even before I lived in Texas, it was one of my favorite types of food.  I think I would probably have something Mexican three to four times a week when I lived in the US.  Now that I've living in Vancouver I pretty much have to make things at home if I want decent Mexican food.  People are always telling me about this "really great" or "authentic" Mexican place in town.  Then I go there and it tastes horrid.  There are a couple of places I can tolerate, but they have more of Canadianized Mexican food, definitely not anything like what I was used to.  Luckily, I love cooking this kind of thing at home, too so it works out alright.

Tamales, still wrapped with fresh guacamole, salsa and nopalitos (cactus).

I do find that some ingredients can be quite hard to find in this city.  That's kind of odd because there are so many different ethnicities living in this city that usually it's super easy to find most food things.  It wasn't until I was in Toronto for a wedding a couple of months ago when I finally saw some corn husks and Mexican chocolate.   I was stoked.  I'd been looking for corn husks for a while because I love tamales.  Pretty much immediately after we returned from the trip, that's exactly what I made.

I'm kind of lame lately and I keep forgetting to take photos of my food.  When I made the tamales I also made the Chocolate-Chile Mole Sauce from Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan and Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa, but neither of those are in the photos so just pretend.  These pictures are actually from reheating frozen tamales recently so I just put some salsa on top.  I froze some of the mole, too, but I had completely forgotten that I did that when I reheated these.  Oh well, more for next time, I guess.  I'm going to give you my salsa recipe anyway because it goes really, really well with these.  Just pretend that you know what it looks like.

That being said - tamales freeze very well.  Just put some in a container or a freezer bag and you're good to go.  When you want to eat them again, just take out however many you want to eat and steam them again.  Easy peasy.  I won't lie, making tamales can be a little bit time consuming, especially if it's your first time.  They're really delicious and totally worth it, though.  Because they freeze so well, you might want to consider making a double batch so you have lots in the freezer for later.  It's up to you.  This already makes 15-20 tamales depending on how big you make them.

Unwrapped tamales with plain old salsa, guacamole, tortilla chips and nopalitos.

Update: Daiya put my tamale recipe on their site! How awesome!!! Go check it out by clicking here.

Tamales

A bunch of corn husks
1 lb large poblano chiles (It's okay to use canned green chiles if you want.  Keep in mind these are NOT hot like jalapenos)
2 Cups masa harina
6 Tablespoons Earth Balance or other vegan margarine, softened
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

2 1/4 Cups vegetable broth
5 Cups corn (fresh or frozen)
3 Cups, packed vegan cheese (I use Daiya)


Soak a bunch of corn husks in a big bowl of warm water for about 2 hours.

In a heavy pan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally char the outside of the chiles.  This will take a few minutes.  You want them to be black in places.  Remove the chiles from the pan and set aside to cool for a couple minutes.  Immerse the chiles in a bowl of really cold water and begin to peel the charred skin away.  Once you've skinned them, deseed them and chop the chiles into a small dice.

In a food processor, blend the masa harina, Earth Balance, sugar, salt, baking powder and pepper until combined.  Add the broth, corn and 1 cup of vegan cheese and blend until a moderately smooth paste is formed.  It's okay if there are still chunks of corn.  You want that, actually.

Now, take the largest corn husks and set them aside.  Tear some of the thinner husks into little strips.  you're going to use these to tie the ends.  In each husk, flatten 1/3 cup of dough and make a little indention in the middle.  Place 1 tablespoon of chiles and 1 tablespoon of vegan cheese in the middle and press the sides over it so you've created a filled tamale.  Wrap the dough in the corn husk.  Pinch the ends together and tie them off with the strips you've made.  This might take a little bit of practice, but don't worry, you'll get it.  It's okay if you have to use two overlapping husks to fully wrap the tamales.  You don't want ANY dough to be sticking out or you'll have a huge mess later.

Once you've formed all of your tamales, get some water boiling in a large pot with a steamer basket with a lid.  Place the tamales inside the steamer basket and once the water is steaming, start the timer for 1 hour.  You might have to do this in two or three batches depending on how large your pot is.  Try not to lift the lid while the tamales are steaming, but please make sure to check that there is still water at the bottom of the pot a few times during the process.  You'll probably have to add more water once or twice.

Once the tamales are done, remove them from the steamer and let them sit for about 10 minutes before you start unwrapping them.  You need to let them cool a little first or else the tamale will stick to the corn husks.  Wait just a bit and they'll come out beautifully.

Don't eat the husk!  Unwrap, smother with mole and/or salsa and enjoy!

Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa

12 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
6 large garlic cloves, peeled
2-3 serrano chiles, seeded
2 avocados, diced
1/2 Cup fresh cilantro
2 Tablespoons lime juice (fresh if you can)

Preheat a heavy pan over medium-high heat, preferably a cast iron skillet if you've got one.  Cook the tomatillos, onion, garlic and chiles until charred about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes before transferring to a food processor.  Process until no large chunks remain.  Add the remaining ingredients and process a little bit more just to combine.  Chill for a bit until the temperature is to your liking.  Serve on top of tamales or even just on tortilla chips.  Yum!

Seattle Loves Vegans

I love Seattle.  I wish I could meld Seattle with Vancouver so I could live in both places at once.  That would be rad.  Until I figure out how to do that, I'll have to settle for visiting every now and then.  Luckily, I have an awesome friend down there to give me an excuse for doing just that.  Every time I visit we always end up eating ourselves silly.  This past weekend was no exception.

I was really looking forward to going to Squid & Ink for lunch on Saturday.  That was always one of my favorite places.  I was so sad to find out they went out of business.  I'm crying little vegan tears over that one, let me tell you.  They had a flipping awesome menu at that place.  I hope they try and open up again in a better location.  I'll drive down for the grand opening.

Another of my favorite places is the Georgetown Liquor Company.  This is a great little vegetarian and vegan place that serves some amazing vegan tamales and lots of awesome sandwiches with field roast.  The Picard is a favorite.  They didn't used to open until 2 or 3 on Saturdays and it killed me to wait that long for lunch each time.  But, awesomely, now they're open at 10am for brunch!!!  And man, what a yummy brunch it is.  I wish I had remembered to take photos of the food before we decimated it.  It's not exactly photo-friendly lighting in there anyway, so maybe it wouldn't have worked.  Seth and I both had the Chicken Fried Steak.  That's a lovely piece of breaded seitan covered in delicious gravy with a side of roasted potatoes and toast.  I am SO going back for that.  James had the Vegan Eggs Benedict which he seemed to really like.  It was plated really nicely.  I had a forkful and it was quite tasty.  Almost all of the brunch stuff is vegan or easily veganizable by just substituting the cheese for vegan cheese.  Another cool thing for brunch is the make-your-own bloody mary bar.  Sweet.

Dinner was at India Bistro.  This was my first time eating there, but Seth assures me he goes there at least once a week.  I can see why.  I asked the waiter about an item on the menu containing dairy and he volunteered that it was a vegan item.  Big props to them for not only knowing what vegan is, but for having a bunch of vegan options on the menu.  Yay!  When you go, order the Bhindi Masala.  It's the seriously THE BEST Bhindi Masala I have ever had in my entire life.  Most places overcook the okra and it ends up slimy.  This was cooked to perfection.  James had something with dairy in it, so I didn't try his, but Seth had the Aloo Gobi and that was also really wonderful.  I will definitely not be sad about going back there again.  Oh, and the naan is also vegan.  Yeah, I know right.

A tradition for my Seattle trips is a trip to Mighty-O Donuts.  I go there every Sunday on my way back to Vancouver.  I always get a few donuts to eat there and a bunch to take home with me.  I got 4 of the chocolate raspberry donuts this time.  Those are my absolute favorite.  Such a moist chocolate donut with real raspberries in the glaze.  We also got a few of the seasonal pumpkin spice donuts.  So tasty.  I love that I can get lattes made with rice milk here, too.  I wish more places in Vancouver offered that as an option.  I still have two donuts left from my haul, but I'm not sure if they're going to last the night.

I still have two donuts left from my haul, but I'm not sure if they're going to last the night.

Tofu Scramble and Herb-Roasted Potatoes.

I could eat breakfast all day long. I kind of love those days when I don't really much in the cabinets for dinner except breakfasty things. It's almost like a treat to have breakfast for dinner. It's kind of funny how that is. I remember even as a kid loving turning meals on their heads and having breakfast at the wrong time of day.

It's dinner time and all I want is breakfast, so here's a photo of tofu scramble and herb-roasted potatoes that I actually did eat in the morning last weekend. Both of these recipes are from Vegan with a Vengeance. It's funny because when making tofu scramble, I usually like to just fly by the seat of my pants and throw in whatever I feel like and any leftover bits of veggies that might be hanging around in the fridge. For some reason I wanted to go exactly by the recipe this time. I don't typically add nutritional yeast to my scrambles unless it's just a little sprinkle on top; for that matter, I don't usually add carrots either. The only thing I always require is hot sauce for the potatoes. And sometimes for the scramble, too.

This is a mighty fine way to start the day, though. If you've never made roasted potatoes or tofu scramble, I highly recommend checking out the recipes in Vegan with a Vengeance. That's actually where I learned how to make both of those things.

Now, if only I could figure out how to get my cats to make dinner for me for a change...