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lettuce wraps

February 4, 2013

by eatafood

i looooove lettuce wraps. in my pre-veg days, when i was a wee baby, we used to get this with duck at restaurants for special occasions. it’s pretty easy to put together, and there’s a nice social aspect to eating them. make each wrap as you are ready to eat them, with the sauce, filling and lettuce all out on the table for people to take for themselves. if you’re hungry, i would make this as an accompaniment to something else because it’s not super filling.

1/2 long eggplant, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1/2 block flavoured tofu, diced

3 dried shitake mushrooms (soaked for 30 minutes), diced

3 brown mushrooms, diced

4 tbsp diced water chestnuts

3 scallions, sliced

2 inch piece of ginger, minced

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp rice vinegar

1 tsp black vinegar

2 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp chili bean sauce

pinch chili flakes

iceberg lettuce, leaves separated

hoisin sauce

You want everything in this evenly diced.

First things first, dice your eggplant, put in a colander and salt it. let sit for 15 minutes. Shake off all the salt and blot with a clean dishtowel. In a large pan, heat enough oil to cover the bottom. throw in your eggplant and brown. add mushrooms and let them release their liquid. Add celery, carrot, shitakes, tofu, waterchestnut and cook until carrots are just cooked. add garlic, scallions and ginger. let cook for a couple minutes then add all seasoning. mix evenly.

To serve put a tablespoon of hoisin sauce in the bottom of your lettuce leaf, then add filling. wrap burrito style and eat!

poppyseed, green onion, mustard pull apart bread

January 28, 2013

by eatafood

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appetizer / more / snacks

so this tasty bread is based closely on a recipe here from Smitten Kitchen, but changed up a teeny bit (added a few things, made it vegan, y’know, the usual). it’s half fancy pull apart bread and half cheesey onion poppyseed buns from Gunn’s bakery in Winnipeg.

DOUGH

4 tbsp earth balance butter

1/4 c. plus 1/3 c. dark beer

2 1/2 c. unbleached flour + more for rolling out

1/3 c. rye flour

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

2 eggs worth of egg replacer

In a saucepan, heat 1/4 c. beer and 4 tbsp of butter and cook JUST until it has melted. Remove from heat and add remaining beer. In a mixer (or a bowl) mix wheat flour, sugar, yeast and salt. with the mixer on, slowly add your wet mixture until just mixed. then add rye flour until combined, followed by the eggs. then if you’re working by hand, knead your dough on a well floured surface for 5 minutes. if you’re using a mixer, put in your dough hook and let knead 3-4 minutes. put in an oiled bowl and cover. let rise until doubled (just under an hour).

FILLING

3 tbsp earth balance butter

1 heaping tbsp dijon

1 tsp yellow mustard

1 tsp hot sauce

1 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp smoked paprika

lots and lots of black pepper

4 tbsp poppyseeds

2 c. daiya (i use pepperjack)

3 scallions, sliced thin

Melt butter and remove from heat. then mix in mustards and hot sauce. in a separate bowl. mix cheese with all your spices, poppy seeds and scallions.

ASSEMBLY

oil a small loaf pan and put aside for later.

once your dough is ready and your fillings are mixed and at hand, roll out your dough on a well floured surface until it’s roughly 20 x 12 inches (keep turning your dough as you roll it out and add flour as needed). brush the entire surface of your dough evenly with your butter mustard mix, all the way to the edges. then cut into 5 strips (so they are about 12×4). take one strip, sprinkle roughly a 1/3 c. of the cheese spice mixture over your dough. then add another strip of dough on top and repeat with all remaining pieces. once the top piece is on and the cheese is used up, use a SHARP knife to gently cut the stack into 6 pieces. don’t rush this part! take your pan and stand it up on it’s end (vertically) and carefully stack your segments in the pan. put the pan the right way and shift them around gently so they sit evenly. cover and let rise for 30 minutes. preheat your oven to 350.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until top if golden. let cool, then eat it all.

POT PIE!

January 25, 2013

by eatafood

comment 1

broccoli / carrot / comfort / meals / mushrooms / potato

this is my first attempt at a potpie. i’ve never made one, and barely eaten them. so i made one crazy delicious mistake, and made this into more of a pot-cake than a pot pie. why? it is huge. there is a TON of a filling and it’s very deep. i always like a lot of filling to crust (or veg to starch) when it comes to any food, so i was okay with this mistake, but it makes it tricky to serve.

CRUST

i used the crust recipe from Veganomicon, since i have no pie crust recipes in my arsenal (i don’t actually like pie). it made a bit more than i needed, but i figure i can make mini pot pies in muffin tins another time. WHO KNOWS. here it is!

4 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. cornmeal

4 tsp. sugar

pinch of salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 c. cold shortening, cubed

1 c. cold water with 4 tsp apple cider vinegar

whisk all dry ingredients together, then cut in shortening with a pastry cutter, until incorporated and you have mostly pea-sized pieces. then add water, stir and add more cold water in small bits as needed until a rough dough forms. shape into 2 balls. roll each ball out separately on a well floured surface until you have a circle bigger than your pan. lay each layer on a sheet of wax paper, and stack them (with paper between them) on a baking tray. chill in the fridge, covered with plastic until you’re ready to assemble.

FILLING

2 small carrots, diced

1 leek, rinsed well and sliced thin

10 brown mushrooms, sliced

1 large red potato, diced

1/2 c. chopped broccoli

1/4 zucchini, diced

1/3 c. peas

1/4 c. soy curls, soaked (then squeezed dry and then tossed with 1 tsp. garlic powder, big shake cayenne, a few drops liquid smoke, 2 tsp bragg’s, 2 big shakes nutritional yeast)

6 cloves garlic, minced

parsley

1/4 c. flour

4 tbsp butter

olive oil

1/2 c. white wine

2 tsp. each mustard seeds, mustard powder

big pinch chili flakes

1 c. broth

nutritional yeast

black pepper + salt

in a large bottomed pot, melt your butter. whisk in flour to make a roux, stir frequently and let it cook for 5 minutes. add a glurg of olive oil and put in your leeks and mushrooms with a pinch of salt. saute until mushrooms have shrunk a bit. add soycurls and cook for a minute. add zucchini and carrots. let cook for a few minutes until the zucchini softens. add broccoli, peas and white wine. scrape at the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to get all the roux up and mixed into the wine. add herbs, spices, garlic and hot broth. let it cook for a few minutes, you want the sauce to be thick. if it’s too runny add a few shakes of nutritional yeast and let cook a bit longer.

ASSEMBLY

preheat your oven to 375.

if you want to be crazy like me, get a deep cake pan and grease it. if you want to be less crazy, get a large pie pan (maybe 2) and grease those. lay your first circle of dough into your pan and let it drape to the bottom. gently press into the edges until you have a smooth crust. leave a 1/2 inch overhang and trim the rest. pour in your filling and smooth evenly. top with your other dough and press edges of the top dough and bottom dough together. cut excess from top, then go around the edges crimping the layers together between your fingers. cut 2 small vents in the top. bake for 45 minutes or until top is golden and crunchy. let rest for 15 minutes of a wire rack to firm up before serving.