Tiny Planet Yum

Well, my apologies for the lack of posts as of late. My camera went kerplunk and it’s been hard for me to invest $ in a new one when this one is less than a year old. I’ve sent it off to the happy place for a repair, but in the meantime, I’ve borrowed a friend’s camera in order to bring you this snap of the current state of my tire garden.

My goal with this garden was to be able to throw together a fresh salad in a moment’s notice, without a trip to the store or farmer’s market. So most of my veggies are salad-inspired, although several are cookable, such as zucchini and kohlrabi. And of course I have herbs.

I have a total of 10 tires growing a variety of veggies, from cabbages to radishes to arugula to onions. Here’s how it went down: I called a local tire place and asked if I they could donate some old tires for the cause; they gladly complied. I washed them out thoroughly with Simple Green to get rid of any gross road dirt or heavy metals. Then I bought a very sturdy serrated knife/saw from the hardware store and cut the outer wall of one side of each tire, in order to provide the most surface area. (Special thanks to my dear friend Michael for all the help in cutting that rubber! It was no easy feat.)

I have special circumstances in my yard: the sunlight is scant. I set six of my tires in the center of the yard, where it gets about five hours of sun. I placed four other tires in two spots that had less measurable sun exposure.

So far, predictably, the greens, like spinach, rape, and arugula, are doing well. Also, my red cabbage plants are out of control! Zucchini is also growing like something from outer space. The turnips, onions, and radishes are faring well. Also, all my herbs are looking good. But kohlrabi, peas, peppers, and tomatoes seem to be less spunky, although still looking healthy. Carrots and eggplant are having a tough time, still appearing as mere sprouts even after six weeks from sowing. I attribute the lack of success with some of these plants to the limited amount of sunlight. And will take these learnings and apply to next year’s planning.

I learned in my research for this stuffed garden space that bushing plants, as well as root plants, are best for the limited amount of space. I’ve somewhat violated this wisom by trying out some vining veggies in hopes of trellissing for maximum space utilization. So far it is too early to see how my deviations will pay off. Stay tuned!

OK, I have been on a quest lately to perfect the vegan “Twinkie Cupcake.” This isn’t an original idea. I was inspired by a recipe for vegan twinkies made blogosphere-famous by Schmooed Food (recipes from the vegan lunchbox) - fun site that recreates a lot of children’s standards in a vegan incarnation.

I tried the recipe as it was written (mostly), and…I don’t know, the cake part was a little heavy. And the filling, while tasty in its own right (malt=yum), was not the fluffy texture one would expect in a “twinkie.” And besides that, the whole thing begged for some contrast (like chocolate ganache frosting, for instance).

So in my own test kitchen, after several attempts, I devised a winner! One friend who ate one of these lovelies told me it was too good to associate with the name Twinkie. I felt bad that he had a negative impression of this sacred childhood classic, but I got the point.

This is mostly an adaptation and combination of several recipes, since I am not chemistry-savvy enough to be a truly original baker…

Here goes (makes two dozen cupcakes):

The Cupcake

(adaptation of Chez Bettay’s vanilla cupcake recipe)

• 2 cups plain soy milk, (you can use vanilla flavored, too, but may want to adjust how much vanilla extract you add!)
  2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  3 cups unbleached white flour (type of flour is important - whole wheat pastry flour just doesn’t do well in vanilla cupcakes)
  3 tablespoons cornstarch
  1-1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
  1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
  1/2 teaspoon salt
  1 cup Earth Balance (or other soy margarine), soft
  1-1/2 cups granulated sugar (I use Florida Crystals - organic and US grown/produced)
  1/2 tablespoon coconut extract (this gives a richer flavor, but your cakes will not taste like coconut)
  1-1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract (try to use the best you can find. Good Vanilla makes a big difference!)

Preheat the oven to 350.

Add vinegar to the soy milk and set aside (mixture will curdle)

Sift together the dry ingredients (flour through salt), except sugar.

Using a hand blender on a low setting, cream together the margarine and sugar, and slowly add the extracts. Then slowly add the soy milk/vinegar mixture. Now you are ready to blend in the dry ingredients. Blend just until it is all wet, as you don’t want to over mix (this will affect fluffiness!).

Fill your paper or aluminum muffin cups using a 1/4-cup measuring scoop. Helpful hint: spray the muffin cups with spray oil (I use spectrum’s canola, largely flavorless) for ease of removing the cupcake from it’s paper after baking.

Bake for about 30 minutes, but you may want to start checking them around the 25 mark depending on you oven.

The Filling

(adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Moskwitz)

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance (or other soy margarine)
  1 cup non hydrogenated shortening
  1-1/2 cup caster sugar (this part is important! - if you can’t find any in the market, buy it online)
  1/2 cup malt powder (get this at home brew shops, light is preferred)
  3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  1/2 teaspoon of coconut extract
  1/4 teaspoon salt

Using you hand blender, cream together the shortening and margarine. Add sugar and malt powder and blend well - for at least five minutes. Finally add your extracts and salt and blend for one more minute.

The Icing

(this one is all me, from years of ganache-making)

• 8 oz of semi sweet chocolate, chunked up into small bits
  1/2 cup soy milk

In a small frying or sauce pan, bring soy milk to a simmer, slowly add the chocolate and remove from heat. Stir constantly until all the chocolate has melted.

Putting it together:

You have to wait for these puppies to cool before you do anything, or the filling will seep into the cake and wow, what a let down.

Here’s what I do: I jab my finger into the top center of the cooled cake, all the way to the “floor,” to create a well. Using an icing bag fitted with any large opening tip, I fill each cupcake with that gooey, creamy filling.

Then (timing here is important), I take the still warm small pan of ganache, tip it to the side to get some depth, and carefully dip each cupcake into the chocolate. Then set the cupcakes in the fridge for about 15 minutes to set the ganache.

Finally, take the icing bag of filling mix, fit it with a star tip, and make little flowers on top to hide the dent you made to house the filling. (the ganache alone just won’t do the trick). If you’d like , you can dust the final product with confectioners sugar or cocnut to make it extra pretty.

Voila! Chocolate-dipped twinkie cupcakes! My first semi-original baking recipe. Only don’t go blaming me when you gain 10 pounds! While these little gems may be vegan, they are NOT low fat!!!

Ok, so for reasons I’ve alluded to in my last post, I’m trying to be animal-product free, at least until farmer’s market season starts, when I can be sure to get farm-fresh eggs.

It’s been a great challenge and I actually am feeling great. But being the adventurous sort that I am, I’ve gotten a bit tired of tofu, seitan, beans, nuts and nutritional yeast for my protein sources. (Well, that’a a lie. I’m still not tied of nutritional yeast. That on popcorn is like an addictive bag of cheetos, only less styrofoam-ish and without the dayglo color!)

And so… recently I found out about the virtues fu. How come no vegans ever mention fu? I found out about it from the Just Bento site, which isn’t even neccessarily vegetarian, (though healthy bent, for sure). Fu has about 1 gram of protein for every 15 calories. And NO fat. What are we waiting for?!? Let’s all get busy and start singing the praises of fu! Alert the skinny bitches for inclusion in Skinny Bitch 2.

Fun fu

So fu comes in many shapes and forms. When you find them in the grocery, you’ll notice that they actually have odd little names, reminiscent of anime characters, such as matsutake, chikuwabu and komachibu. It’s a great pantry staple, as it’s dried and just hangs out in there til you’re ready for it. One day you’re out of tofu and beans, you’re debating a trip to the grocery at some god awful hour, where you’ll have to resort to some late-night, corporate-stocked store, and just then your little buddies in the pantry speak up, having been waiting on the side lines for this, their savior moment: “hey, remember me? That dried-bread-looking stuff? It’s time…”

So you soak this dried-bread-looking stuff in water, just about 2 minutes is enough. You sort of squeeze it out then. And add it to stir fries or soups. That’s about it. It is essentially wheat gluten and has no flavor at all, yet it absorbs the flavors of whatever you cook it with, much like it’s dense cousin tofu, but even more absorb-y.

Not to be confused with TOfu

For instance, one of my favorite ways to cook it is to braise it in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, garlic, chili paste (just a touch) and mushroom broth, and it ends up so flavorful!!! (And with a chewy sort of texture that will satisfy any flesh-gnawing urges.) I then add another couple of tablespoons of liquid and toss in some prepared rice*, a handful of greens, and mushrooms, simmer until all the liquid is absorbed, and then I have a steaming little exotic gourmet plate of low-fat, high-protein and high-fiber goodness. It’s an excellent, filling, and healthy meal in !Less Than 10 Minutes! In other words, a great thing to have in your repetoire if you are busy person in need of a quick protein source, such as myslef.

Happy fu, dancing in a pan
(they DO kinda shimmy as they simmer!)

Another quick meal with some fu protein added: Miso soup! Just boil a couple of cups of water or broth, add a little soy sauce, toss in some dried seaweed (I like wakame, myself, but the seaweed is of course entirely optional), possibly some bok choy or mushrooms (I love mushrooms, can you tell?), and add your fu for some protein punch. Toward the end of cooking (once the dried seaweed and Fu are fully reconstituted, about 5 minutes), remove the pan from the heat and take about a quarter cup of the broth and mash in your miso paste until well blended (fully boiling the miso kills off beneficial enzymes). Pour that miso concentrate into the cooling soup, along with a dash of sesame oil, if you’d like. The fu soaks up the flavor of the broth and miso and adds some interest and texture to this healthy soup. (I also like to spoon in some prepared rice*, to cool it off and complete the meal at the same time!)

(Well, maybe I blogged too soon about no vegans shouting out fu’s many attributes: I noticed that always inventive and inspirational SusanV has a version of Oden, using fu and root vegetables. This savory stew looks to be a scrumptious soup-fu combination, too! I’ll have to try that one next!)

So get to your nearest Asian grocery. Go snooping near the dried stuff, like the seaweeds and mushrooms. Chances are good you’ll find some fus to experiment with! Let me know what you come up with!

*Rice (a footnote - or foodnote?)

So I’ve long been a fan of Helen Nearing’s Simple Food book. Helen, along with her famous husband Scott, was a renowned “back to nature”-ist, well before hippies even existed. Helen’s book is a great collection of common sense advice and the most impossibly simple recipes of wholesome good sense. Sometimes with such vague details as “place in a hot oven,” so you’ve got to figure it out yourself, possibly through a ruined dish or two. From her basic recipe, and my own experimentations (as I found the cook times and proportions just weren’t working for me) comes my essential staple of Baked Rice. I make this rice on a Sunday and it carries me as a base for a few breakasts, lunches, and dinners throughout the week.

Crazy-Easy Baked Rice (from Helen to me to you)

2 cups short grain brown rice (or 1.5 cups short grain brown and .5 cups wild rice for a little extra crunch in your texture)
4 cups veggie or mushroom broth
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 to 2 teaspoons salt
1 to 2 teaspoons white or black pepper (or a combination of both - preferably fresh ground, of course)
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (optional)

This is so easy, it might become a staple in YOUR kitchen: Simply put all ingredients in a casserole dish and cover. Cook for about 50 minutes to an hour at 350 and you’ve got this yummy rice supply to add to tofu scrambles, burritos (with beans), soups or stir fries… or Fu (see, full circle after all!).

Well, it’s always a challenge to make something 100% organic, but I think I succeeded this time with these yummy breakfast muffins! Even my Earth Balance Margarine was organic! This yummy recipe was from adorable Kittee Kake’s all-vegan website: Cake Maker to the Stars. She calls these muffins “Scotter’s muffins” after their creator. Kittee also has an amazing ‘zine loaded with tips. If you visit her site (which I encourage you to do!), you may note that Kittee’s muffins look far more fun and appetizing than my own, as they are perky pink. I decided to opt out of the food coloring, figuring this may ruin the whole “all natural” effect I was going for!

The Review

I’ve been very curious to experiement with Vegan baking, as it seems that after I sample some vegan goodie I am usually thinking: “well, this isn’t bad for a vegan cookie…” Like it’s good in spite of itself. But I believe these muffins officially escape the vegan stigma, being great enough to stand on their own! In fact, I fed them to coworkers and did not tell them until later. People seemed pretty surprised.

The strawberries infused this little muffin with a delectable moistness, and the coconut added a great nutty quality, and just a bit of richness, without tasting at all like coconut. Super yum.

One thing I would recommend to mitigate any heaviness that the whole wheat pastry flour might cause: I added a 1/4 cup of vital gluten flour to substitute for a 1/4 cup of the wheat pastry flour. This makes baked goods more spongy. Also, next time I will soak the strawberries in some agave syrup, since the were a little tart in the muffin I ate.

To Vegan or not to Vegan

Now is a good time to state my position on vegetarianism: I can not claim to be vegan or even vegetarian, as I do occasionally eat animals (especially fish), and animal products (especially cheese) but I feel that knowing what I do about factory farming’s impact on animals and the environment, I should be trying my damnedest to only buy animal products from local, family farms (for which I am limited by season at the moment, with farmer’s market season kicking off next month). And while one could argue that cheese is not especially cruel to the environment, you can’t always be sure where your cheese is coming from (once again, the factory farm thing, not to mention icky hormone infused milk products). Plus, it has been shown that people who eat only vegetable matter are less prone to obesity and many diseases, so in the interest of my health and the health of the environment, I try.

I find that the general public seems to get a little nervous if I mention something about eating vegan. I think it’s because they fear I am judgemental, so I want to really emphasize that I am not in any way prostelytizing that anyone should do the same. Vegan to me is more of an aspiration, something I strive to do and allow myself some slips. Just a personal challenge for me to try to tame my consumption patterns to more closely fit my ideals (the same goes for shopping and recycling — just trying to meet the contant challenge to live my life free of the pressure to consume/waste that seems to permeate my culture). And I view this blog as a fun way to help me meet my aspirations.

In my hobby of researching foods that are good for the environment, I stumbled upon Teff. Teff is a tiny little grain that comes from a native grass of Northeastern Africa . This super grain has been supplying the peoples of that region with a potent source of fiber, iron, protein, thiamin and calcium for many centuries. Because of it’s ability to grow in harsh environments, India and Australia also cultivate Teff.

But perhaps most impressive is that Teff has a very short growing season and a very high yield. A pound of Teff seed can produce a ton of grain in only 3 months. Because of this, many agriculture groups are looking to Teff as an alternative crop.

Teff flour is used in making the traditional ethiopian bread called injera. That spongy flat bread used to scoop up spicy stews in Ethiopian Restaurants. Teff is recently finding it’s identity in the US diet as a super grain for vegetarians.

I wanted to experiment with some Teff recipes, but wanted to use the whole grain, so injera was out. There is no sortage of Teff recipes on line. (See Mighty Foods and Marilee’s Pages and CyberMacro). But I settled on an interesting recipe in The Artful Vegan that not only uses the whole grain, but includes a traditional berber spice mixture to liven up a scrumptious stew of mushrooms and fava beans. The dish was made complete with accompaniments of carrot chutney and vegan raita.

Vegan Gourmet - The Recipe Review

This meal took a long while to prepare, as with most of the recipes in The Artful Vegan (courtesy of the Millenium Restaurant in San Farncisco), but the meal really was amazing, with the sort of adventurous flavor combinations one would expect from a fine dining experience. Totally worth the effort for a meal to impress. I wasn’t too keen on the Teff cakes themselves, as they were largely flavorless. (I would add more salt next time.) But they were a suitable accompaniment to the spicy stew, soaking up the flavor and adding a nutty, crunchy texture to the mix. The carrot chutney was a big hit with me and my dinner guest: hot and sweet and easy to prepare. Creating the Berber spice mixture involved toasting a variety of spices, including clove, cinnamon, cardamon and chili, then grinding it all with garlic and ginger. I’d advise making extra, as it’s smoky, nutty curry-like flavor can elevate a simple dish of bean and rice to an exotic, gourmet level.

Note on Ingredients

Fava Beans: now appearing at your local grocer! Coming now from Washington State, California, and Florida, I suspect I’ll see some by June in my local midwestern farmer’s market. A little labor intensive to prepare (you have to shell, blanch, AND peel the beans), but well worth the effort.

Teff: I found two Domestic resources for Teff: The Teff Company, who grow in Idaho and sell on line, and Bob’s Red Mill . Bob’s also sources their Teff and Teff flour from Idaho, and is widely avaiable at many health food stores.

Well, it’s spring time in Michigan. It’s been difficult to get excited about it, since nature has pulled some cruel tricks, dumping snow past the solstice. But today I am willing to believe: spring is really here! Sunshine is streaming through the kitchen windows and crocuses have poked their colorful heads through the unfrozen soil of my dormant flowerbeds. Another sign of spring: English peas and asparagus are debuting at the markets, and my mind is abuzz with bright green menu plans!

But first, here it is Sunday morning. Need fortifying vittles for this last day of my weekend. Hopefully with leftovers, so Monday can go a little smoother. Looking in the pantry for something to inspire, my eyes land on the big bag of Arborio rice I keep for risotto.

Boil with soy milk, toss in some diced organic pears, a stick of cinnamon, organic sugar, vanilla, some walnuts, and voila: a hearty, tasty breakfast porridge!

Prep pointers: This concoction was inspired by The Complete Vegan Cookbook’s recipe for rice pudding, and takes near constant stirring for the latter 5-10 minutes of cooking.

A note about ingredients:

• Sugar: Florida Crystals are the only organic sugar produced in the US. If you can’t find it at your grocer, complain! Or at least try to buy fair trade sugar (available at most food co-ops).
• Arborio rice: This is the best rice to use for puddings because of its creamy consistency. While some wild rice is grown in Michigan, most of the US rice crop comes from California, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas. Arborio rice in particular is usually imported from Italy, but Della Rice of Arkansas produces a superior Arborio variety, milling their products in small batches - usually available at quality grocers.
• Soy Milk: I prefer to use Eden Soy, since the milk is organically produced in Michigan, the company was founded in Ann Arbor, and they have a strong commitment to local agriculture.
• Pears: After generations of insecticide-enabled production, Michigan has recently been producing organic pears, thanks to advances in organic pest control! Before 2002, the pesky pear-killing insect known as psylla necessitated harsh chemicals to allow the fruit to grow.