I used to not be able to make biscuits that were worth eating. At one point, I had settled for soaked biscuits, which are ok, and they are certainly "fast" to make. They still were a bit too dense and play-doughy for me, though.
If I was prepared to set up the dough ahead of time, I might make Angel biscuits--you know those yeasted things. They are kind of a cheat, though. To me, a biscuit is a quick bread and it should be ethereal in its tenderness. So, my secret now to the perfect whole wheat biscuit that melts in your mouth? I listened to Renee. I barely touch the dough. And I got a pastry cutter. No more attempts in the food processor, no more using butter knives. Here's my go to recipe: Fluffy Whole Wheat Biscuits Preheat oven to 450. 2 cups white whole wheat flour 5 T. of cold shortening of choice. I use coconut oil. 2 1/2 t. baking powder 1/2 t. baking soda 1/2 t. salt 1 c. plant based milk with 1 t. apple cider vinegar (let sit five minutes or so). Cut the shortening into the flour, add the other dry ingredients, stir in the milk mix. Put out on a floured surface, bring it together and pat it out. Cut it however you like. I do a square, using my pastry scraper, and then cut it into nine square biscuits. Bake for 12 minutes. I recently started experimenting with homemade plant milks. I had made hemp seed milk before, but I'm trying to cut out fat (well, except for biscuits) and wondered about oat milk. That's what got used this morning in the biscuits, and I think I'll start making this regularly, as it has less aftertaste than even plain unsweetened soymilk when you make gravy with it. It certainly beats paying $2 bucks a quart, too. Here's how I made the batch for this week: 1 cup rolled oats 4 cups filtered water pinch of salt Combine in a big jar. Put it in the fridge overnight. Give it a little shake when you sneak in the kitchen now and then. Puree in blender. Strain. Use in this recipe for Fat Free Vegan Sage Gravy from the Happy Herbivore. This week's experimental milk might be rice milk. I'm starting to cut the soy milk in our smoothies with these homemade milks, too. I need to consider cutting my dependence on expensive milks, perhaps. I do like that the soy milk is fortified with B vitamins and iron, but we eat so much nutritional yeast and we take iron supplements, so I probably should just make the leap. It would save several bucks a week.
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8/19/2012 0 Comments Cooking Together, Cooking ApartA while ago, Renee asked me to keep a look out for Korean rice cakes so she could make some of this stew you see to the left, which is from Herbavoracious' site. We found the Tteok first at the big Chinese grocery on University (not Sam's, sadly). Then, we found out that the Oriental Superstore (which is pretty tiny, but packed with goodies) in Jacksonville has 'em. If you decide to make this, you will also need to purchase some kochujang, which I have to say we haven't used in anything else yet. Instead of fresh shitakes, we wound up using two packages of dried, refreshed sliced shitakes. This was pretty tasty, although I think either the kochujang or the shitakes gave it kind of an odd after-taste. I did like the rice cakes, and they made me think of orecchiette pasta a little. Any time I find them, I have to get some round dumpling, Gyoza, wrappers. I made some vegan potstickers this past week. Inside is TVP, cabbage, onion, garlic, ginger, and carrots. You get a dozen wrappers for only 170 calories, and I only used 180 calories worth of TVP in the filling for the entire batch (52 dumplings), so for 12 dumplings, it will run you probably in the neighbor hood of 300 calories. Not bad for lunch. I've got a lot of pictures of the process on this one and on the stew above that Renee and I made together--I may do longer blogs on those later. I made the vegan "goat cheese" from Vegetarian Times recently. It reminds me of Boursin cheese. Dani's comment was "tastes like cashews. It tastes good, but like cashews." No big surprise there. We ate half of the batch on crackers and then I made a vegan goat cheese and Italian "mocksage" (Isa Moskowitz's Italian Feast Sausages from Vegan Brunch without the oil in them) pizza. I would do this again. The goat cheese is not low fat and it's kind of a pain to make, but it was yummy. Tonight is pizza night again, but I think it's back to veggie shreds for now. This was dinner last night and was transformed into lunch today: Hatch Green Chile polenta (with a splash of Raimondo's chipotle oil in it), topped with garlicky sauteed kale and black beans that were also bathed in some of Raimondo's jalapeno vinegar. On top of all of that is some raw tomatillo salsa. This is one of the best things I've put in my mouth in a long time. We had the polenta cut in triangles and browned at lunch today, but topped with the same stuff. 8/19/2012 1 Comment She Ain't heavy...she's my sisterWell, the above title carries with it several meanings. But mostly the fact that I have not blogged here in awhile, so Angel has been carrying most of the weight around here on our little blog home. Without boring you with the gory details, suffice it to say I have been up to my eyeballs is figurative crap. But through all of that, I have still been cooking and still losing weight. I stepped on the scale here at home on Friday morning while getting ready for work...are you ready for this? I weighed 166 pounds! I haven't seen anything below 170 in years. YEARS. So, again without boring you with all the details, how about a recap of all the veggie yumminess I have concocted since we last chatted? In February, I finally made my own Seitan Log O'greatness... with encouragement from Angel that it was tasty. It wasn't too bad, but I haven't rushed to make another one. Then I made this vegan bread pudding, after Angel gifted me with some vegan egg replacer. Topped with fresh strawberries and followed by a drizzle of Dark Chocolate Balsamic Vinegar from Raimondo Winery, it's worth doing again! I finally found a way to make oatmeal that even I will eat, thanks to the Sugar Free Mom. Thanks, Mom! G'vetch, from our fave PV. Will DEFINITELY do this again...great on a chilly evening, over rice. From Herbivoracious, Rice Vermicelli (bun) with ginger grapefruit sauce. This is seriously good...no, seriously GREAT. This has so much going on and is so luscious and fresh, you will forget that it's good for you. Really. It made me moan out loud...several times. This recipe came out of the book, but if you search the site, it might be there. I'll leave that up to you. I got a microplane, and wondered how I ever cooked without one before...I mean, you don't even have to peel the ginger with one of these! How awesome is that? From PV, something I had wanted to try for awhile, and that was baking my polenta rather than cooking it on the stovetop, stirring, stirring. I will do it this way henceforth; so sayeth the Queen. And more recently, homemade Piroshki with a slaw dressed not with the usual slaw dressing, but a tasty dressing of Raimondo Winery's Organic Picual EVOO and their White Grapefruit Balsamic vinegar. Really, please go visit Raimondo's site and check them out, then place an order. You won't be disappointed. I won't get any kick-backs or anything. They just have an awesome product line. And, if ever you find yourself in Gamaliel, Arkansas, stop by around 3 p.m. for a tasting. Certainly, this is not all inclusive, but it gets you somewhat up to speed. Next month, we'll be checking cholesterol numbers again. Fingers crossed! Renee' 7/24/2012 1 Comment The Vegan RicoWe recently went to New Orleans, where there is a new place--Cafe Carmo (you can read about it here). Originally, I had said this was a non-negotiable stop, because of their vegan options, but we wound up not going (which I was actually fine with this time around, as we went to Bennachin, an African restaurant that also has great vegan options. I'll share a recipe from there sometime soon for the black-eyed pea fritters).
Carmo will pretty much veganize anything on their menu, apparently, which in a city that prides itself on fried things often only found in swampy areas is pretty amazing. The Vegan Rico description caught my eye: Vegan Rico: An open-faced, breadless sandwich made of a grilled plantain patty topped with melted cheese, spicy smoked 'n' pulled pork, salsa fresca, avocado and our tangy sweet spicy “Rico” sauce. Veggie: dairy cheese & vegan meat; Vegan: vegan cheese & vegan meat I had to make this. Here's what i did: Soy Curl Carnitas: I used this Cooking Light recipe as the base for my smoky pulled pork. I used an entire bag of Butler Soy Curls and added a chopped up chipotle in adobo, some Louisiana hot sauce and cumin at the end, as well as salt and pepper to taste. This all goes in the crockpot on high until the sauce is fairly well cooked down and it tastes right. You can also add liquid smoke, smoked salt, and/or smoked paprika for more smoky flavor. Plantain patties: After doing some research, I discovered that most recipes call for boiling the plantains. I did this by cutting the ends off, then cutting two plantains in half and bringing the pot up to a boil. The goal is to get them tender, so the time will depend on the ripeness of your plantains. Think about how you make mashed potatoes. Pull them out and let them cool until you can handle them to peel them. Mash them with a potato masher and add: 1 minced jalapeno (seeds or not--up to you) 1 minced garlic clove Chopped cilantro (or parsley if cilantro tastes like soap to you) 1/4 c. minced onion 1 Flegg (1 T. ground flax + 3 T. water. Add after it has gelled up) 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour Salt and pepper to taste Divide the mixture into four equal portions. You may need to wet your hands down to shape the patties, which is fine. Brown on both sides in a skillet sprayed with non-stick spray. To build the salad (let's face it, this is not really a sandwich): Put salad greens on a plate. Top with the plantain patty. Pile on your spicy "pulled pork" and top with sliced avocado. I don't know if this tastes like the one at Carmo. I do know that I've made this twice and both times we've gobbled it up. The heat of the soy curls and the sweetness of the plantain patty just work together. 3/20/2012 2 Comments I think I need to refocus!We got a little side-tracked. Renee reports her numbers are up from last time, so she's rededicating herself to going animal free to get those numbers back down.
My most recent numbers are good. My total cholesterol was 162, with my HDL 51 and my LDL 93. I was pretty happy with those numbers, but I'd love to see them get even better. D. expressed surprise the other day that I, the former cheese queen of the house, have given up cheese with nary a complaint, really. I might eat cheese once a month these days, and often it happens if we are out somewhere and there really aren't vegan options, but there are vegetarian options. Tonight, we had some great Ginger Tofu from Neal Barnard's Get Healthy, Go Vegan. Last night, we did some seitan chimichurri and mixed grilled veggies (shrooms, slices of sweet onion, bell pepper quarters, and roasted garlic cloves). I cut back the oil to 2T (from 1/2 cup) and swapped out lime juice for the lemon juice. I think next time, I may try no oil at all. This was the second time I made this--last time was camping last summer. One of my goals is to use the indoor grill more often (and of course to use the outdoor one now that the weather is warm). And, I scored a bottle of Raimondo's White Grapefruit vinegar Saturday! Argenta Market has the best selection of Raimondo wines, vinegars, and oils. This vinegar is so yummy and I look forward to a lot of salads with just it (it's mild enough that you don't really have to cut it with oil if you're a vinegar lover). Renee and I have both been picking new things out of Passionate Vegetarian. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to sample the stew she made (pictured in her most recent post) and for my birthday in 2011, Dani got me a pretty tagine that I had yet to use, so I had to try out CD's tagine recipe from PV. Problem was, I didn't have a heat diffuser yet (and you shouldn't cook with a clay tagine on the stovetop without one). So, I quickly ordered one and decided to make the tagine in the crockpot (slow heat, covered, ceramic--sounds like crockpot to me!). It was quite tasty, even though I had to make a swap here and there and I so did not do the complex couscous method. If you make it, leave room in the freezer for leftovers--it makes a ton. I threw in a bag of sliced Japanese eggplant that Renee grew this summer--yum! Stacy got me a gnocchi board for my birthday last year, and I hadn't used it yet either. I decided it was time, and you can see my leftover gnocchi from last night here (it was good with some veggies in it for lunch today). My soy curls came today, so it was experiment time. I had some leftover enchilada sauce from earlier this week, and I doctored it up to make it BBQ sauce. Looks like pulled pork, doesn't it? Even better on a bun with some coleslaw and corn on the side. The bread here is no-knead whole wheat. My next soy curl experiment is likely to be carnitas in the crockpot.
2/4/2012 1 Comment More Crescent Dragonwagon! Yum!So, it seems I have fallen off the face of the earth. Or maybe you just THOUGHT I did since I haven't posted lately. Our family has been very busy lately. There have been a lot of changes in my own household of late, and Angel has been up here in the Northern part of the state, helping our Mom and myself split time while keeping my Dad company during his recent stay in rehab to get stronger before his next round of chemo. Consequently, Angel and I have had lots of quality time to eat together. After she had spent the night with Dad one night, she came home with me and I told her, "I have some leftover seitan stew from PV, which is even better than it was the first time around." She graciously accepted my invite and helped me eat up some of the leftovers. As we were about to chow down, she asked, "Did you take pictures for the blog?" to which I replied, "No, but I will right now!" So, here we have PV's "Deep December Ragout of Seiitan, Shiitakes (sorry, just used white buttons; still yummy) and Winter Vegetables". I pretty much followed the recipe as it is written, except I didn't have any zucchini, the mushroom sub and used dried parsley instead of fresh. We also had the salad, which was dressed with White Grapefruit Balsamic Vinegar and Organic Picual EVOO from Raimondo's Winery and focaccia bread that I had picked up somewhere. I typically make my own, but like I said in the beginning; things have been a little crazy around here lately. If you have a copy of PV, I HIGHLY recommend that you give this one a try. You will not miss the meat. AT. ALL!
1/3/2012 1 Comment Seitan BourguignonI have not taken a picture of this either time I made it (maybe tomorrow at lunch, unless I inhale it before I think of taking a picture--again). I do this in the slow cooker.
1 loaf of Seitan (I use one of the prepped loaves from the Chicago Diner recipe) cut into chunks 1 bag of frozen pearl onions 1.5 cups broth/stock (I freeze my seitan cooking liquid and use it here with a tablespoon of "No-Chicken Broth" stirred in) 1 cup of decent red wine 1 container of baby bella mushrooms, cut into quarters pinches of thyme and Italian seasoning, as well as some dried parsley Throw all of that in the slow cooker, pop the lid on and cook it (I tend to throw it in around noon and set mine for six hours. When I'm ready to serve it, I do a bit of cornstarch slurry and thicken it. Serve over polenta or over parsley potatoes. 1/1/2012 1 Comment Happy New Year!Since Crochet Renee and I made our resolution back in September sometime, I reckon we just need to stay the course. We went to a great wine, olive oil, and vinegar wine tasting (hey, that's all vegan) during the holiday, and I suspect we may make that a yearly tradition. Dani and I broke open a bottle of the Almond Champagne around 9 last night (after having a glass of tempranillo after dinner). I can report that so far everything we have tried at home has been as good as the samples at Raimondo winery.
I started working on 2012 freezer stores last week. A batch of seitan was made (dinner last night was a seitan picatta where I used a bit of Raimondo's meyer lemon infused olive oil to swipe the pan before browning the slices of seitan), and yesterday I made a double-batch of mocksage/fauxsage, as well as froze four can-sized bags of cooked navy beans. I got my order from iHerb last week (nutritional yeast, vital wheat gluten, and some other necessaries) so I should be set for a bit. If anyone wants to try out iHerb, remember this: Feel free to share your iHerb unique referral code, JIX581 or your email address [email protected] with anyone who has never ordered from iHerb before. Print your referral code, twitt it, post it on your face book, or simply email it to your friends and relatives. They will save $5 on their first order. They have a great selection, so if you aren't looking for TVP, vital wheat gluten, or nooch, you'll still find something I bet. And, any order over $40 ships free! I'm off to goof off some more before work starts back up Tuesday. We're having Crescent Dragonwagon 11/30/2011 1 Comment Chili and Cheeze CrackersChili is not really picture pretty, but it sure is tasty. It has been "cold" for these parts (not by Michigan standards, but by Arkansas standards), so I decided it was time for a pot of chili. This was the result. This is vegan--the "ground meat" you see here is actually TVP crumbles. I soaked 1/3 cup each of pintos, black beans, and kidney beans last night, then this morning I threw the drained beans, a chopped onion, three garlic cloves, some chili powder, a 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes, a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes in my crockpot. To prep the TVP, I put a cup in a bowl with garlic and onion powder, a few dashes of liquid smoke, and a hefty bit of chili powder. That got put in the crockpot, too, after it rehydrated for a few minutes. I also rinsed out the bowl and threw the rinse water in the crock pot. It doesn't get any easier than that. To go with the chili, I decided to make some vegan cheez crackers from the Simply Heavenly! monastery cookbook. I've made these before, and I usually use the pasta maker to get the dough really thin. I decided to roll these by hand this time, as I knew I would blog about it and wanted to show you how thin I was able to get them by hand. Here's the recipe: 2 cups flour (I used white whole wheat) 2 teaspoons of baking powder 1/2 cup nutritional yeast 1/2 teaspoon of salt 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon of chili powder (the best is chipotle chili powder, but regular is ok) 2 Tablespoons of oil 3/4 cup water Mix this up and knead it a bit. The consistency should be play dough like and it won't really be sticky. Roll out in small batches and get it as thin as you can. I used a trick from Julia Child and oiled my hands, the rolling pin and the cutting board instead of using more flour. Cut as you like and put on baking sheets. Sprinkle with salt. The recipe says to bake these off at 375 for 5-7 minutes, but my cooking time on these is always longer (much longer) to get them crisp. Just keep an eye and nose on them so they don't burn. Maggie says that she'll pass on the vegan stuff, but she'd love some treats. She's not peed in my shoes or on the bathroom rugs lately, so maybe this treat thing is working out.
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The Two Fat SistersRenee and Angel welcome you to their blog. Hopefully we can change our name some time. In the meantime, watch as we try to get there. Archives
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