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Food Blog Vegan MoFo

#VeganMoFo Day 9: What’s Creamy Without Cream?

While it’s my understanding that many nut-allergic folks can eat seeds, which might make sunflower seeds and sesame tahini fair game–not to mention coconut, which is classified as a tree nut by the US government despite being botanically quite different–I’d like to meet this particular challenge by avoiding that altogether. With rice.

Creamy rice dishes don’t require actual cream, just a different cooking technique (and, to a certain degree, the right kind of rice). Risotto, traditionally made with arborio rice, is simmered and stirred while liquid is added a little bit at a time; the grains release starch into the liquid as they cook, and the whole thing comes out creamy without anything even pretending to be dairy.

Wanting to try a different recipe, I consulted my mountain of cookbooks and landed on the one in the Crossroads cookbook with leeks, cherry tomatoes, and corn. Well, and it’s supposed to have a cashew cream, which I omitted. And the choice of cooking fats is a sensitive one when it comes to allergies, so choose wisely. I used coconut and olive oil.

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I also made my own stock with the scraps from the leeks and corn cobs, though I am not sure how much it really added to the end result, since I didn’t simmer it terribly long (about an hour).

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The end result was rich and creamy without any cream, plus it used some super seasonal produce from the market! Colorful, too. I made a meal of it with some wilted kale and baked tofu (made with a spicy seasoning salt a friend brought me from Hawaii). Delicious.

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Food Blog Vegan MoFo

#VeganMoFo Day 23: What, Exactly, Distinguishes “Fancy Food” From Everyday Food?

My guesses? 1. Ingredient quality, and 2. Presentation.

But I went ahead and looked for something showy from the Crossroads cookbook anyway.

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This beet salad with apple, Kite Hill ricotta, walnuts, microgreens, and balsamic vinegar is super pretty and super tasty. I did NOT make it as sweet (or complicated) as their recipe: toasted walnuts instead of candied; plain balsamic vinegar instead of an agave-sweetened reduction. I don’t care for salads that are too sweet, and the textures and flavors of the base ingredients offered plenty on their own. And they’re all fancypants organic, locally grown, blah blah blah. (I suppose the vinegar could’ve been a fancier kind, but it’s our go-to not-too-cheap balsamic anyway.)

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I did like their method of cooking the beets: in a sort of light brine with peppercorns, thyme sprigs, bay leaves, and a little vinegar. The aroma and the taste are really nice and mellow.

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Food Blog

Thanksgiving 2015: My food photography skills need work

The food was good. Maybe too many carbs, but we were super excited about making pasta. And bread. And gnocchi. So it just kind of happened. I did my best to surround all that with vegetables. Whatever, it’s the holidays, we’re not usually so indulgent!

My mom did all the bread, the pasta, and the gnocchi. I made pretty much everything else, or we worked together to complete the recipes. (I also made the vegan butter we used, Miyoko Schinner’s recipe from Homemade Vegan Kitchen.)

Antipasti

  • Baked ricotta (Kite Hill + a scoop of Miyoko’s double cream chive, with lemon zest and olive oil, inspired by this)
  • Roast romanesco cauliflower with cippollini onion agrodolce (modified from Crossroads cookbook)
  • Pesto foccacia (from VeganBaking.net)
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Primo

  • Savory pumpkin-stuffed ravioli with sage brown butter and toasted black walnuts
  • Sweet potato gnocchi, also with sage brown butter
  • Braised broccoli rabe with garlic

I don’t really have a recipe for any of these. The pasta dough was Vegan Homemade Kitchen; the filling was me absolutely winging it and doing a decent job. To be honest, I don’t even remember what all I put in there. The gnocchi, my mom’s first attempt, was based on the recipe in Crossroads, IIRC.

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Secondo

  • Seitan roulade with a sundried tomato glaze and stuffed with eggplant, pesto, and homemade croutons (inspired by this roulade from Vegetarian Times)
  • Potato gnocchi with homemade basil-walnut pesto
  • Kale and cranberry beans (based on a recipe from Crossroads calling for butter beans instead)
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Dessert

  • Pumpkin parfait (from Crossroads, minus the ginger syrup)
  • Biscotti with black walnuts, dried cherries, and lemon zest (modified from a recipe in Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar)
  • Cocoa-hazelnut medallions (Nutella-inspired and warped from this recipe)

The photo of that parfait is garbage, but it was pretty lovely. What you can’t see in the blur is the layer of gorgeously moist spice cake, pumpkin mousse, coconut whipped cream with vanilla bean, and almond-pumpkin seed brittle. It was like a deconstructed pumpkin pie and it was fan-fucking-tastic. The other two were as tasty as they look.