Hungry Hungry Hippos

Nogification Agent

2011-09-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

In general these proportions will make a good nogification agent; add to smoothies etc.

8 vanilla : 6 cinnamon : 2 cardmom : 1 nutmeg : 1 ground cloves

Based on this recipe:

Egg-Free Egg Nog
Serves 5

1 quart soymilk
6 ounces Mori-Nu silken tofu, extra firm
6 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup Amaretto, Southern Comfort, brandy, or alcohol of choice (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and blend until creamy and smooth. Chill before serving.

Thai Peanut Noodles (V*)

2010-06-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

This is a very quick and easy to make recipe. Excellent for lunches, but also scales well to dinner! These directions are for the lunch-sized version.

You'll need:
- fresh garlic
- fresh ginger
- onion
- vegetables (e.g. broccoli, mushrooms, bell peppers, etc.)
- better than boullion
- soy sauce
- peanut butter
- Thai sweet chili sauce (optional)
- Thai rice noodles
- tempeh/tofu/seitan (optional)

Put a pot of water on to boil. While you're waiting, sautee some onions, garlic, and grated ginger in sesame oil. Once the onions just start to wilt, add in whatever other vegetables you want -- I really like bell peppers, mushrooms, and broccoli. If you want some protein, you can add tempeh or tofu or seitan (or something similar) at this point, too. Dissolve some Better than Boullion in water and add that to the veggies, along with a splash of soy sauce. Once that's nice and hot, add a few spoonfuls of peanut butter (chunky is best!) and a dash of turmeric. If you have any sweet chili sauce, add that, too (or spicy chili sauce, if that's your thing). Mix everything together and cook it down for a few minutes so that the sauce is not too watery. Once the water you put on earlier is boiling, turn off the heat and add the noodles. Cook for about five minutes until the noodles are soft, then drain them and add to the peanut sauce. Coat the noodles thoroughly, and then enjoy!

Maita's quick yeast bread

2010-05-19T14:54:00.000-07:00

Posting this here so it will stop being an email in my inbox:

Tripling this recipe yields 1 pika.

Ingredients

5 cups white all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons yeast (or 2 x 7g pkts)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups warm-hot water
1/4 cup cooking oil

Mix the warm-hot water together with the yeast and the sugar in a bowl. Leave this until it gets nice and foamy.

Then, mix in the flower, salt, and oil. You want to add enough flour so that the dough is no longer sticky, but not more than that--the amount may be slightly different from the given 5 cups. You can use up to half wheat flour/half white flour---no more. You may need a bit more water if you're using some wheat flour.

Knead for 5 minutes until dough is "elastic and smooth."

Leave in bowl covered with a damp towel until the dough has doubled in size--around a half hour.

Punch the dough down and divide into two pieces. Form these into loaf-like long cylinders and place on a baking tray.

When the loaves have risen again--poken them gently with a finger leaves a little dent---slit them open on top with a sharp knife for that artisinal look. You can also sprinkle on a bit of flour.

Bake at 400F for 40 minutes. At the beginning and a couple times during baking, spritz the bread/pans with water, which allows them to expand more (since the crust doesn't set as quickly) and makes for a crispier crust.

This recipes was inspired by this one.

2010-01-27T09:09:00.000-08:00

Lentil Barley Soup

this is very very easy to make

1 cup dried lentils
1/2 cup barley
4 cups veggie broth
2 cups water
carrots + celery + onion + any other vegetables you want
2 teaspoons curry powder

Rinse the lentils and barley.
Throw it all together, bring to a boil, turn down to simmer,
cover and cook for about an hour

feeds probably 7

Chai Tea Muffins

2009-10-31T10:15:00.000-07:00

This Sunday I'm making deep-dish cornbread pizza using a cornbread crust vegan pizza recipe I've used before and

chai tea muffins
(from Karen W):

They were experimental and modded from the original since I didn't have soy yogurt (I substituted 1 "egg" - use your replacement method of choice - plus about 1/4 c of soymilk). I used vanilla soymilk, if that matters (probably not). The recipe is from here.

Disregard the topping. The "glaze" - which was really supposed to be a frosting but I didn't get enough powdered sugar - came from here.

I replaced the milk with soymilk and the butter with earth balance.

I usually use ground flax seed + soymilk for egg replacer, but this time I used actual egg replacer.

Chocolate Chip Meringues

2009-06-20T23:22:00.000-07:00

Chocolate Chip Meringues

2 eggs whites
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 cup white sugar
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup miniature chocolate chips (you can add less if desired)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or generously grease.

Beat the egg whites and salt with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.

As the mixer is running, add the sugar slowly, a few tablespoons at a time. Stir to blend then add the cream of tartar. Gently fold in the chocolate chips using a wooden spoon or plastic spatula (or just chuck them in the mixer). Use a tablespoon to drop batter onto the cookie sheet. Place in the oven and leave until lightly browned and crispy outside.

Gooey Good Brownies

2009-06-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

Best Brownies:

"These brownies always turn out!"

PREP TIME 25 Min
COOK TIME 35 Min
READY IN 1 Hr
Original recipe yield 16 brownies
SERVINGS

Servings

US METRIC
INGREDIENTS

* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
*
* 3 tablespoons butter, softened
* 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup confectioners' sugar

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DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.
4. To Make Frosting: Combine 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Frost brownies while they are still warm.

Best corn pizza crust

2009-04-01T13:33:00.001-07:00

I made pizzas with this gluten-free vegan recipe a few days ago, and it's being used again today, so people must like it...

It's from Bicycling Vegan's Blog: Gluten-Free Pizza Crust.

There are 6 cast-iron skillets at pika, so you'll want to multiply by 6. Also, use the upper bound of the suggested soy milk use.

In case the original post disappears, here is an ugly cut-and-paste:

Tonight's recipe uses a 9" cast iron skillet.

Ingredients:

DRY
3/4 c corn meal
1/4 c bean flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t raw sugar
about 1/4 cup frozen or fresh corn
2 sun dried tomatoes, chopped

WET
1 t olive oil
1/2 T flax meal mixed with 1.5 T water (to create 1/2 an egg)
1/2-3/4 c soymilk

DIRECTIONS
Place about 1 T margarine or olive oil in skillet. Now, preheat oven and cast iron skillet to 350 degrees.

Mix all dry ingredients together. Mix. Now add flax-egg, oil and milk. Stir a few times. You want this to be chunky from the corn but also a pretty thin batter that you can pour. So add more or less milk as desired.

Take your heated skillet out of the oven and pour your pizza crust into it. Cook 10 minutes and remove from oven.

Now place sauce, toppings and vegan cheese on the crust. Spray lightly with olive oil and return to oven.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven, cool a few minutes and slice. Serves 2-3 happy people!

The Ben Salinas Delight

2009-03-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

~1 handful of tofu (note that it's extremely difficult to hold tofu in your hand, so you should probably estimate this. I suppose that you could also freeze the tofu together to make it more manageable, but this blurs the line between a true handful and a five pound block of protein-rich goodness that you just happen to be balancing in your palm)
(on second thought, you should probably just use as much tofu as will fit in your bowl)

~1 large spoonful of peanut butter (actually, two)

~1/2 Banana (I always end up using the other half for lack of anything better to do with it)

Put the tofu and peanut butter in a microwave-safe bowl and then in a bowl-safe microwave for about a minute. Cut chunks of banana into the mixture and immediately stir in the now-liquified peanut butter.

At this point, you have something that is delicious, but a little too mushy, so you may wish to add an arbitrary number of Fruit Loops or Apple Jacks. Other cereals have been tried with little success, so experiment at your culinary peril. Continue mixing. Lately, I've been adding a quarter dollop of craisins, which burst in your mouth like little mortgage bubbles of flavor.

This recipe serves one and a half (which is usually more than the number of people who will eat it by about a half)

Special thanks to my inspiration, Ben Salinas

brown rice with greens and peas

2009-03-09T17:25:00.000-07:00

8 to 10 cups brown rice
6 onions
4 tablespoons minced ginger (or more! never enough ginger!)
3 bags of frozen peas
greens: 2 enormous bunches of rainbow chard (ok, any chard, but rainbow is cooler)
2 bunches of green kale
1 bunch of red kale
~20 cups of spinach (one large plastic box)

olive oil
soy sauce

Cook the brown rice however you like - pika's rice cooker works well. Sautee the onions and minced ginger in olive oil. Mix the onions and rice. Steam all the greens for just a little while, then mix them in as well. Boil the peas, drain them, and add them.

Add a few dashes of soy sauce (a few tablespoons) for saltiness. Mix carefully. Serve hot.

corn and avocado salad

2009-03-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

7 bags of frozen corn
5 red peppers
1 package (or ~1 cup) of fresh oregano
10 avocados

olive oil
red wine vinegar (apple cider vinegar works in a pinch)
lemon or lime juice
cumin
Tabasco sauce or cayenne
black pepper
salt

Not only are the ingredients flexible and approximate, the directions are too!

Boil the corn. Chop the peppers. Chop the oregano. Mix together in a large bowl. Add cumin - enough to turn the corn slightly brown. Add oil and vinegar, and then add lemon or lime juice on top of that. At pika I typically use very little oil - maybe 1/4 cup. More vinegar, maybe 1/2 cup. Lemon juice until it's as sour as you want. Cut in the avocado once you've added the lemon juice, so it doesn't discolor. Then add the cayenne, salt, and pepper. (If you add the salt or cayenne before the lemon juice, you'll find that the perceived saltiness and spiciness are changed by the acid.)

Serve warm or cold. Keeps for days.

Copper Pennies (carrots)

2009-03-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

This is the easiest dish in the world to make, and almost everybody likes it.

Chop carrots very thin. This is very easy if you use the thinnest slicing attachment in the food processor. For pika I typically cook up to 8 pounds of carrots.

Mix carrots with a little olive oil in a very large wok. Drizzle honey over the carrots. Cook them for a very long time, mixing once in a while, so they slowly caramelize. Careful not to burn them. It's best to have some kind of cover so they can steam a bit... there is no cover large enough for the wok, but even tin foil helps.

At the end, add salt to taste. Serve hot.

Potato Soup (Vichyssoise)

2009-03-02T16:12:00.000-08:00

REAL vichyssoise is a chilled soup, but I think I like it better hot. The original soup has a lot of butter and heavy cream, so I've made some not-insignificant changes in veganizing it, but it still tastes good!

Ingredients:
-around13 pounds of potatoes (very small ones, if possible)
-enough water or vegetable stock (you can use Rapunzel vegan bullion cubes if you're on a tight budget) to boil the potatoes in (this can vary a lot)
-vegan butter (around 1/2 cup)
-around 10 leeks
-around 5 cups soy creamer, soy milk thickened with flour, heavy cream, or other creamy-textured liquid
-3 large sweet onions
-salt and pepper to taste
-vinegar (I think balsamic is nicest)

Wash the potatoes and chop them in to 1-inch cubes. Carefully clean the leeks (they always have lots of mud inside). Chop them, and throw away the toughest outer green leaves, but try to use the tender inner green leaves (no point in ONLY using the white part). Melt the butter in a skillet and sautee the leeks until they are soft, but not browning. Meanwhile, chop the onions. Then put the sauteed leeks in your soup pot and add the water/stock, potatoes and onion. Boil until the potatoes are cooked. Then add the soy creamer, soy milk, or heavy cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then blend the soup in a blender until it is completely smooth (it'll still have chunks of potato skin, though). Last, add vinegar to taste. Garnish with any green herb.

Dr. Marsha Kardon's Basil Pesto (V*)

2009-02-19T20:24:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite basil pesto (non-vegan ones included). It's not too hard to make, but it's sometimes hard to find enough basil. Whole foods often has large bouquets of basil which are fairly cheap, and Harvest sometimes has large quantities.

Serves: 1 pika

Ingredients:

12 cups of fresh basil leaves (about 7 large basil plants, or around 6-8 Whole Foods bouquets of basil.)
1/3 c fresh rosemary (replace with an extra 2 c parsely if rosemary is too expensive)
1 cup fresh flat parsely
24 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cup pine nuts
3 cups walnuts
1 cup nutritional yeast (try the vitamins section of Whole Foods - should be there if it isn't in bulk)
1/3 c lemon juice or more
3 cups olive oil
2 Tbsp salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Procedure:

Combine all ingredients except oil in food processor

Run processor until finely chopped, adding all the oil as you chop it.

I recommend mixing the pesto with about 10 pounds of penne rigate pasta. It's also great on
whole-grain pizza crust or as a spread.

Six Minute Vegan Chocolate Cake (V) with Chocolate-Raspberry Sauce (V)

2009-02-19T19:54:00.000-08:00

This is an awesome chocolate cake recipe that takes very little prep time (theoretically 6 min, usually more like 10-15 min) and produces very little mess. Great as an afterthought for a pika dinner. This is taken pretty directly from "Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home", but the raspberry sauce is my own creation.

Serves: 1 pika

Ingredients:

Cake:

4 1/2 c unbleached white flour
1 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 T baking soda
1 1/2 t salt
3 c sugar
1 1/2 c vegetable oil
3 c cold water or brewed coffee
2 T pure vanilla extract
6 T vinegar

Sauce:

1/3 c cocoa powder
1/2 c sugar
3 T corn starch
Frozen raspberries (the more the better! Other berries will do, but raspberries are the best!)

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and sugar into one of those giant 16" round baking pans (ungreased).

In a liquid measuring cup, mix together the oil, water or coffee, and vanilla.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the baking pan and mix the batter with a fork or a small whisk until smooth (don't overwhip it, or it'll get tough).

Add the vinegar and stir quickly.
There will be pale swirls in the batter where the baking soda and vinegar are reacting.
Stir just until the vinegar in evenly distributed throughout the batter, but not too long, or you'll lose the rising effect of the reaction (don't stir for more than 30 sec)

Immediately bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Make the raspberry sauce while the cake bakes:

Fill a large pot partway full of water, and put it on the heat

Float a smaller pot in the water.

Pour the baking cocoa, sugar, and corn starch into the inner pot, then add water until it is a somewhat runny sauce (remember that it will get about twice as thick when it cools).

Alternately add water and starch until you have the consistency you want.

Throw in the raspberries.

When the cake is done, set it aside to cool a bit.

Serve with the sauce!

Crazy Brian's Crazy Veggie Burgers (V*)

2009-02-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

Serves: 1 pika (with some leftovers)

Ingredients
(all amounts are approximate - I measured with the venerable "squint, pour, and mix" method, then tried to remember amounts later)

6 15 oz cans of black beans
4 cups mushrooms (whatever kind you want - I used half crimini and half portobello)
6 medium onions
10 cloves garlic
1 head of broccoli
2 cups pine nuts
4 cups fine breadcrumbs
3 cups cornmeal
1 cup nutritional yeast
salt
pepper

Procedure:

Coarsely chop the onions, garlic, broccoli, and mushrooms (size is unimportant -they're getting pureed later on)

Stir fry the onions and garlic in olive oil in the big wok

When the onions are starting to get tender, add the broccoli

When the broccoli is starting to get tender, add the mushrooms

When everything is nicely cooked (but not too cooked - they're gonna get fried real soon), mix in the beans (drain them first), cornmeal, yeast, pine nuts, and about half of the breadcrumbs.

Put the whole shebang in the food processor and puree until quite smooth (you can probably do it in 2 food processor loads).
Tip: Put stuff in and let it chop for a good 1-2 minutes - it'll look like it isn't doing anything at first, but as it gets smoother, it'll start mixing itself.

Move the burger paste to a bowl.

Mix in salt generously (taste it as you mix it in - it goes from somewhat bland to savory and tasty with the addition of some salt)

Add black pepper to taste.

Mix in more bread crumbs until it is quite stiff and thick - it should easily retain its shape when put a glob of it on a surface.

Add more cornmeal if you want a grittier taste.

Get three or four flat skillets on the range, cover generously with canola oil - put on medium/high heat.

Start frying! Put down globs of burger paste on the pans, flatten them gently, wait until they're nice and dark brown, then flip and repeat. Make sure to keep a good puddle of oil in the skillets as the burgers soak it up.

I found that the burgers turned out much better when they were small - 5" or less in diameter. The large ones were less evenly cooked, and tended to fall apart (they were still tasty though).

I liked the burgers best when they were almost black on both sides, but not quite black - very darkly browned. The cornmeal is yummy when it almost burns.

Serve hot on buns w/ lettuce and tomato and other burger toppings!

Ideas for future experimentation:
(these ain't called crazy burgers for nothin'):

Add rice to the blend - could be good. Cooked brown rice could probably replace (or supplement) the mushrooms if necessary. Could also be served with rice.
Try other kinds of beans?
Try more mushrooms, less beans - that probably would make it more meaty
Add more veggies - green peppers, parseley, carrots, etc
Some corn starch or WW flour might help the burgers retain a burgery shape more easily
More pine nuts!

thai noodles with broccoli and tofu

2008-12-16T18:49:00.000-08:00

~6 boxes of noodles (a flat noodle works best, rice noodles are even better)

2 little tiny cans Thai chili paste
~2 cups Thai peanut paste
(can substitute Thai curry paste and Thai peanut sauce, but you will get a panang curry instead of peanut noodles)
~7 cans coconut milk
~1 1/2 cups peanut butter
4-6 bunches of broccoli
3-4 tubs extra-firm tofu
~5 bunches scallions
olive oil
salt
pepper
small amount brown sugar

Mix the chili paste, peanut paste, and coconut milk together. Add the peanut butter. It probably won't mix in well, but that's ok; it will melt later. Chop the scallions in to smallish pieces. Heat a little bit of oil in a large wok. Toss the scallions in and stir fry them until they are soft. Then add the chili, peanut paste, coconut, peanut butter mixture. Heat the mixture until it boils. Stir often. Add a little bit of brown sugar, to taste. Add in the broccoli and the tofu. On a different burner, start boiling a large pot of salted water, and add the pasta when the water is boiling. Let the mixture in the wok simmer until the broccoli is soft (but not falling apart) and the tofu has absorbed the flavor of the noodles. When the pasta is done, drain it, and either add it immediately to the wok and mix well, or make sure to add a little bit of oil so the noodles don't stick.

Heat the noodles, sauce, tofu and broccoli together for a while to let the flavors mix. Serve over brown rice.

gingerbread

2008-12-16T18:36:00.000-08:00

2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup oil
1 1/4 cup molasses
5 eggs or 5 eggs-worth of egg replacer
5 cups flour
5 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 teaspoons ginger
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
2 1/2 cups boiling water
grated fresh ginger root or chopped crystallized ginger, if you have it

Mix everything except the boiling water together in a bowl. Add the boiling water last, and pour the batter in to a large baking dish. Bake at 350 F until a knife comes out clean. Serve with whipped cream or a citrus sauce.

Recipe from Cygnet's grandmother.

caribbean beans

2008-12-16T18:01:00.000-08:00

1 large ginger root
10-15 cloves garlic
5 onions
12-15 cans black beans
3 peppers of any kind
4 tablespoons orange juice concentrate
few tablespoons brown sugar
few teaspoons nutmeg
cayenne pepper to taste
olive oil
salt

Chop the garlic and ginger finely. Chop the onions in to small pieces. Chop the peppers in to small pieces. Heat some oil in a large pot. Put in the garlic and ginger first. Sautee until the garlic has just started to brown (it should smell very good at that point). DON'T let the garlic burn - it cooks within a minute. Add in the onions. Cook the ginger, garlic and onions until the onions are nice and soft. Then add the chopped peppers. Once the peppers are soft, add the beans, orange juice concentrate, brown sugar, and nutmeg. Taste it, then add as much salt as you like. Once the salt is added, add cayenne pepper to taste. Keep cooking for as long as you can to let the flavors blend.

You can serve this dish over rice (especially rice that has been cooked with a few Rapunzel vegan bullion cubes and a little oil) and/or with salsa. A nice salsa that goes well with this dish is made with: chopped mango, chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, lime juice, Tabasco sauce, salt, and, optionally, very very finely chopped onions.

Inspiration came from a Moosewood recipe.

roasted root vegetables

2008-12-16T17:52:00.000-08:00

potatoes, squash, beets, carrots, parsnips, garlic, or any other root vegetable
olive oil
fresh thyme (dry is ok)
fresh rosemary (dry is ok)
pepper
salt

Chop your root vegetables in to small chunks. If you are mixing multiple types of root vegetables, you need to make sure that the different vegetable types will take the same length of time to cook. To accomplish this you may have to make different-sized pieces depending on cooking time. Carrots and parsnips should be cut in small pieces (little rounds, not large chunks unless you hve a lot of time). Beets need medium-sized pieces (2 or 3 centimeter cubes). Potatoes need 3-4 centimeter cubes. Some squashes cook fairly fast and you can get away with even larger pieces, but I don't recommend it; squash tastes really good when it's been cooked a long time because it caramelizes.

Put your vegetables in a large baking dish. Pour in olive oil - enough to coat each piece of vegetable lightly, and leave a little bit on the bottom of the pan. Mix up the vegetables so that every piece is completely covered with a thin layer of oil. Add salt, pepper, fresh thyme, and fresh rosemary. A little bit of vinegar also tastes good.

Bake the vegetables at 450 F. Allow at least 70 minutes; start checking on the veggies after 40 minutes. When a fork goes through very easily, they're done. Serve immediately - they don't taste nearly as good cold.

corn salad with mustard greens

2008-12-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

5 onions
4 large bunches of fresh mustard greens
7 bags of frozen sweet corn (use fresh corn when it's in season)
1 package of fresh tarragon
1 package of fresh sage
pepper
salt
apple cider vinegar
strong-tasting olive oil

Cut the onions in to small pieces (it doesn't matter what shape, and they pieces don't have to be tiny). Heat some olive oil in a large pan (but don't let it get so hot that it spits), and pour in the onions. Use a spatula to completely coat all the onions in oil, and keep them on high heat for a little bit, but once they start to get soft, turn the heat down to medium (or low, if you have a very thin pan) and cook the onions slowly until they are caramelized and sweet.

Wash the mustard greens. Boil a large pot of water. When the water's boiling, dunk the mustard greens in for about 30 seconds - 1 minute (you'll probably have to do this in stages unless you have a HUGE pot), just enough to wilt the greens but not long enough to change the color. This should get rid of the bitterness in the greens but preserve some of the spiciness. Drain the greens and chop them up in to small bits.

Boil more water. When it's boiling, add the corn. You don't need to cook corn very long; mostly, you just need to warm it. Even uncooked corn tastes good, so just take the pot off the heat as soon as you're happy with the taste of the corn.

Mix the corn, onions and mustard greens together. Pour in a little bit of olive oil. Not too much - you don't want the olive oil to pool at the bottom of the bowl, and you definitely don't want this dish to taste oily. It's just for texture. Next, add in some apple cider vinegar. Keep tasting the mix until it's as sour as you like. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then chop the tarragon and sage and add them in last. Serve warm.

zucchini and herb fritters

2008-12-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

18 zucchini
4 1/2 cups silken tofu
8 cups bread crumbs
7 bunches of scallions
18 cloves of garlic
1 huge bunch of parsley
1 package of fresh basil
1 package of fresh mint
olive oil for frying

Shred the zucchini coarsely in the food processor. Salt it, and leave it to drain in a colander for a while. Chop the scallions. Chop the garlic finely. Chop the parsley, basil and mint. Put all the ingredients except the zucchini and the oil in a bowl and mix. Rinse the zucchini with water and squeeze out all the excess water through the colander. Add the zucchini to the other ingedients. Mix. Mixing is tedious and takes quite a while before you get a gooey paste, but don't settle for large lumps of breadcrumbs or tofu left in the batter. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Start frying the fritters. About 1/3 cup of batter makes one fritter. If you can manage it, have 2 or 3 pans going at once. You can probably fit 2 or 3 fritters on each pan. Make sure the pan isn't TOO hot - it should take about 5 or 6 minutes to cook one side of the fritter, you don't want to burn the outside before the inside even gets warm. That said, don't worry if the inside looks raw. None of the ingredients REQUIRE cooking. A crispy-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside fritter will be tasty.

From the Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone cookbook, slightly modified for pika.

braised chard and collards with herbs

2008-12-12T16:27:00.000-08:00

4 large bunches of swiss chard
4 large bunches of collard greens
4 onions
1 package fresh lemon thyme
1 cup olive oil
4 teaspoons paprika
4 garlic cloves
4 teaspoons of salt
sea salt and cracked pepper

Make sure to wash the greens carefully. Then cut the stems off of the greens. Just the part that sticks out past the bottom of the leaf. Chop the stems in to little pieces; they will be cooked along with the leaves. Then cut the greens in to 1-inchIf potato is the standard, you can make sweet pot ribbons/strips. Cut the onions in to little pieces. Smash the garlic cloves and then roll them in 1 teaspoon of salt each. Put the onions, garlic, and oil in a heavy, thick pot (At this stage you may need to split the recipe in to 2 pots because the greens take up so much space before they wilt.) Add the paprika. Mix. Then add the greens and mix again until the paprika is pretty evenly distributed. Sprinkle the lemon thyme on top. Add some pepper. Put a cover on the pot and cook on medium or low for about 20 or 25 minutes. The greens will wilt after just a few minutes, but don't take them off the heat. If you cook them for the recommended time they will come out tasting quite silky. Be careful that they don't burn at first, though. After they start to wilt, the water in the greens and onions will come out and prevent any burning, but at the very beginning, you'll have to check on the mix often.

These greens tend to disappear very fast. Consider making even more than this recipe suggests.

Recipe is inspired by a similar recipe in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

2008-11-25T17:49:00.000-08:00

Vegan pumpkin pie made with tofu sucks. Don't use tofu. Do this instead.

2 cups canned pumpkin
1 cup soymilk (don't use any reduced fat crap)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon each: ginger, nutmeg and salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice OR cloves

Puree in blender or food processor until smooth. Pour into prepared pie crust and bake for an hour at 350. The center of the pie shouldn't be too gooey when it's done. For best results, let set overnight and then re-heat in the oven before serving.

Credit where credit is due: I snagged this originally from here.

Vegan Pie Crust

2008-11-25T16:26:00.000-08:00

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup margarine (I recommend Earth Balance)
5 to 6 tablespoons cold water

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Cut in the margarine with a non-sharp knife until the mixture resembles course crumbs. You might need to use your hands due to our lack of l337 pastry tools. That's okay. Now, add cold water in a bit at a time, mixing as you go until the crust has just enough moisture to hold together. Don't overdo it or your crust will turn out tough rather than flaky.

Now, shape the pasty into a ball and cut in half. If it's a hot day you might have to throw the dough in the fridge for a half hour before being able to do this. Each half will roll out into a crust for a 9" or 9.5" pan. Flour up the counter for rolling out the shell--if you do it right, you'll have flour everywhere when you're done. Or maybe that's only if you're me. You want the crust about 1/8" thick and you should roll it out an inch or two beyond the size of the pan.

I hope you floured the counter, because now you have to lift up your rolled crust and put it in the pan. Some tricks that might help include rolling it up partially onto the rolling pin, or using one of those thin cutting mats to slide it onto.

Okay, now you have it in the pan! If you want you can make fancy edges by trimming the dough edges and then pinching them down, but you don't have to.

Fill with delicious filling and bake as the recipe for your pie says to!

Credit where credit is due: this was originally snagged from here, and has been vetted for guaranteed awesome.

Red Soup

2008-11-24T16:42:00.000-08:00

In my day, there were cooks who refused to use the Cuisinart to slice onions. They said it ruined the flavor. I remember inventing this recipe to avoid that restriction.

Once you have the basic recipe down you can vary it a lot. Try adding spinach, garlic, cauliflower or summer squash. The only thing I've tried that didn't work well was potatoes.

Bring to a boil:
1 huge can (1 gal?) whole tomatoes
1 huge can tomato sauce
~16 c. water

Use a food processor to slice:

3-4 carrots
1 bunch celery

Add to soup.

Use a food processor to mutilate:
2 huge onions (~3c)

Chop and add:
1 small head broccoli
3 green peppers

Add:
1 1/2 c. red wine
salt and pepper to taste

Serve when the carrots and broccoli are cooked (tender).

Posted by mathhobbit

Chicken a-la-Leffo

2008-11-24T16:37:00.000-08:00

I got this recipe from Robert Leff himself, sometime in the late 80's. The instructions are vague; I'll see what I can recreate from memory.

Ingredients:

6 eggs
spiced bread crumbs
12-18 chicken breasts
2 lbs mozzarella
1/2 lb butter
1 head garlic

Tenderize the chicken breasts.
Beat the eggs and dip the chicken breasts in the eggs.
Coat the chicken breasts with bread crumbs.
Cut the mozzarella into chunks and wrap the chicken around the mozzarella.
Put the chicken breasts in a pan.
Melt the butter, crush the garlic, mix together and pour over the chicken breasts.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350.
(Posted by user mathhobbit)

Stroganoff

2008-11-24T15:01:00.000-08:00

First you make the soup base: Chop 2 parts onions and 1 part each celery and carrots (optional garlic to taste) Then sweat (cook on medium heat until translucent) these vegetables in some oil or margarine.

Add vegetables you like in soup, I chose mushrooms but you could add anything. If you pick something that cooks quickly or loses color (like broccoli or leafy greens) then wait and add these later. Cook these vegetables for a while.

When the vegetables are done add however much vegetable stock you want. You can add water an bullion cubes or you can add stock from a box.

Your soup should now be salty and have vegetable flavors, but we want to make it taste more complex. Salt vinegar and sugar should be in just about everything and so since we have salt we need to add vinegar and sugar. I add about twice as much vinegar as sugar and then taste. If it tastes flat add more salt, if it tastes too tart add more sugar and salt if it tastes too sweet add more vinegar and salt if it tastes too salty add more vinegar and sugar. Dont use white vinegar because it tastes bad, but any other kind of vinegar will do. You can also add any spices you like (oregano, thyme, basil, sage ect... I added sage and thyme). I also threw in some liquid smoke because I love that stuff, but its not nessecary (and only add a little because it is strong)

When the soup tastes good you are ready to finish it.

The "meat" in the stroganoff was seitan, which I make from high gluten wheat flour (you can buy it at harvest in bulk). Add salt and pepper to the flour and then mix up a slightly smaller volume of liquid composed of 2 parts water 1 part soy sause (or omit and add some salt) 1 part vinegar. Taste the liquid to make sure it is good and then mix the flour with the liquid. This mass should be stretchy and moist and look kind of like brains.

Tear off small (1/2 ping pong ball) chuncks of the seitan and throw it in the now boiling soup. The seitan will expand to roughly double in size, cook it for 10 more minutes and pull out a chunk. It is done if it is slightly chewy but not like bubble gum. then you can throw in any leafy greens of veggies that cook fast.

As those are cooking you want to mix about 1/5 the soups volume of soy milk with enough corn starch to thicken it (directions on the corn starch box) as the corn starch heats up it will thicken, and it will continue to thicken as the soup cools. Once it is about as thick as you like the dish is finished.

Mac and Cheese

2008-11-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

Step -1: Preheat your oven to 350 at some point...

Step 0: start boiling water... when the water boils you can add the macaroni but you should move on at this point to get the timing right.

Cheese Sauce Step 1: Make a white roux.

This you tube video gives a good idea of how to make a roux and what it does:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A0IiieypBY

The basic idea is to cook equal parts butter and flour for a few minutes on medium to low heat. It shouldn't turn color, but its not a huge deal if it does a little, just add the liquid in step two. Make sure to add salt and pepper (white pepper if you care about the sauce not having black specs in it) to the roux (but dont taste at this point because a roux is basically super hot glue)

Cheese sauce step two: add milk (or soymilk)

a rule of thumb is to add one cup of milk to each tablespoon of flour in your roux (that would be roux made from 1 tbsp flour and 1 tbsp butter) but you should probably start with a little less liquid and see how thick it gets. Bring this up to a light simmer on medium (or even lower) heat. Be very careful bringing this up to heat since milk will boil over very quickly, if the milk starts to make large bubbles on its surface move the entire pot off of the heat, turn the heat down and then return the pot to heat. Add enough salt and (white)pepper so that the hot milk tastes good. The sauce should be thick enough once it gets hot to coat the back of a spoon (or to almost coat it, since the sauce will get thicker once it cools). If your sauce is still milky for some unexplainable reason either make more roux and add it or mix cornstarch with a little water and add it.

Cheese sauce Step 3: add cheese

Any cheese you like will work, and you can add as much or as little as you like. Less cheese will turn out to be "mac and creme", and since you added salt and pepper you don't have to worry about flavor. More cheese is good, and it is almost impossible to super-saturate the milk so you can add cheese to your hearts content. If you seasoned well in step two then you shouldn't have to worry about more salt or pepper here, but you should taste the cheese sauce at this point to make sure you like it. Your mac and cheese will taste exactly like this sauce so make sure that you like the way it tastes. If you added too much salt throw in the smallest dash of vinegar (curdling will happen if you put in too much) and the smallest bit of sugar (we aren't making a dessert) to cut the saltiness. Stir and re-taste to make sure it is good, and if its still too salty then you can add a little more of both. I would make the sauce slightly saltier than you like because the pasta will not be seasoned... but too salty will ruin things and not salty enough will taste blah. Once it is well seasoned you can put the heat on very low and stir it every once in a while until your pasta is done.

Mac and cheese formation Step 4:

Take the boiled mac and strain it to remove the water. Spray pam on something you will be making the casserole in. Then dump the pasta into the casserole. Add the cheese sauce right on top of the macaroni while the mac is still hot and stir to coat the pasta. If you wait too long the mac will stick to itself and your pasta wont absorb as much of the sauce, but its not the end of the world.

Optional step 5: if you want the breadcrumb crust on top then you should toast a couple slices of bread, either in the oven or in the toaster and crumble them up in a bowl. Bread crumbs will cover about the same area as the bread slice covered before you crumbled it (slightly less), so make sure you have enough. Season the bread crumbs by adding salt, pepper, [oregano, basil, thyme] also known as Italian seasoning, and whatever else you like. Taste the bread crumbs to make sure you like the way they taste. Melt enough butter or margarine to get the breadcrumbs wet and then mix the melted butter with the crumbs. Put this mixture on top of your mac and cheese sauce combo.

Step six: throw the whole thing in the oven until the top gets brownish. probably 20 minutes. Note on cooking times, you aren't really cooking anything in this last step, so you can take it out whenever you like. everything is already heated and likely tastes good.

Stuffing

2008-11-24T14:55:00.000-08:00

Bread Stuffing (dont follow amounts they arent important)

9 cups (Make 4 times this)

3/4 c. minced onion

1-1/2 c. chopped celery

1 c. butter (use earth balance)

9 c. soft bread cubes

2 tsp. salt

1-1/2 tsp. cr. sage

1 tsp. thyme

1/2 tsp. pepper

In large skillet cook & stir onion and celery with the butter and half of the herbs. Stir in some of the of bread cubes. Put the mixture in a deep bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Mix. Throw in the oven at 350 until the top is starting to get crispy.

Sausage Stuffing

Add 1 lb. pork sausage crumbled- and browned with remaining ingredients. Substitute sausage fat for part of the butter, or if using Vegetarian Sausage just cook it thoroughly and add it to the mix. Most people dont cook gimme lean for long enough, but it you keep it hot for long is will brown and be really delicious.

Overall the exact amounts arent important, the main idea is that you cook sausage onions celery and carrots in butter then add sage, thyme and black pepper and add the result to bread :-) Sometimes I have to add more butter than called for to make sure the bread is soaked... but thats not a huge deal and you can always melt more butter if you need to after following the directions.

Maita's Mom Casserole

2008-11-24T14:35:00.001-08:00

Take one lb. German Mother...

no wait, sorry...

Maita's Mom's Casserole is a combination of white sauce and red sauce over pasta and baked in the oven. Makes one pika, all amounts approximate.

White Sauce: Combine 3 boxes soy milk, garlic powder salt and white (black) pepper until the milk tastes slightly saltier than you would normally eat, but flavorful. Heat slowly to avoid the soy milk boiling over. Thicken to the point where sauce coats the back of a spoon with your favorite method: Method one, cook for a really long time... Method two, add lots of cheese... Method three, make a roux out of equal parts flour and margarine and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat then add roux to milk... Method four mix a small amount of water with lots of corn starch and add.

Red Sauce: Heat oil in a large pot and add chopped garlic once the oil is hot. Quickly add onions, stir and add salt and pepper. Cook the onions over medium heat until they turn translucent and add a small amount of celery and carrots. Cook until carrots are kind of soft. Add two large cans of tomato (whole crushed chopped or sauce). Add a handfull of sugar a tablespoon of salt and a cup or so of vinager. Add italian spices like basil and oregano and garlic powder. Taste the sauce. If it tastes like bland V8 (tomato juice without salt) add more of everything (or just more salt). If it tastes salty add sugar and vinager. If it tastes too tart add salt and sugar. If it tastes too sweet add vinager and salt. Repeat until happy or your taste buds quit and let it simmer on low heat.

Pasta: Meanwhile you should have set a huge pot of water to boil, becasue this takes forever. Add your favorite pika size (one shopping bag usually works for me) of pasta to the pot along with a lot of salt. Cook pasta until done and strain.

Casserole: Layer red sauce on the bottom of the pan. Layer pasta, layer white sauce, layer pasta, layer red sauce. Repeat until you run out of something. Cook this in a 350 degree oven for a while... it doesnt need to cook but the pasta needs to soak up the sauces.

Get creative! Add soy meats to the red sauce or put steamed veggies in one of the layers.

garlic ginger kale

2008-11-21T18:14:00.000-08:00

~10 cloves of garlic
1 medium ginger root
8 bunches of kale
olive oil

Chop the garlic and ginger in to very small pieces. Heat some olive oil in a large wok. (You need enough oil so the kale never sticks to the wok, but not so much that the kale tastes oily at all.) When the oil is hot, add the garlic and ginger, and stir fry them for a very short time, until the garlic starts to brown. Add in the kale. It will be unwieldy at first, but it'll shrink in volume quite fast. Cook until the kale is wilted, but don't cook it so long that the kale turns very dark green and loses all its "spring".

wild rice stuffed tomatoes

2008-11-21T18:13:00.000-08:00

2 cups amaranth
2 cups black wild rice
5 cups brown rice
medium or large tomatoes, about 1 per person
fresh herbs: tarragon, sage, thyme, rosemary
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons Earth Balance (or butter, or some other margarine)
whole green lettuce leaves
Fromage Blanc

To cook the amaranth: mix the dry grain with 6 cups of water. Bring the mix to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. To cook the black wild rice: mix the rice with 4 cups of water. Bring the mix to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 50 minutes. To cook the brown rice: use the large rice cooker, and mix the rice with 12 cups of water. The rice cooker takes care of the timing. When all the grains are cooked, mix them together, add the Earth Balance and salt and pepper. Chop the tarragon, sage, thyme and rosemary and mix them in.

Next you have to scoop out the "guts" of the tomatoes. Cut each tomato in half and scoop out the inside with a spoon. Fill each tomato with some rice. If you have extra rice, make a nice bed in a baking dish and nestle the tomatoes on top. If you don't have extra rice, just put the tomatoes in a baking dish. Put them in the oven at 350 F for "a while" - basically, until the tomatoes look tasty to you.

Serve the rice and tomatoes on a large leaf of lettuce and, optionally, add a dollop of fromage blanc on top. (Two 8-ounce containers of fromage blanc should do it.)

baked tofu

2008-11-21T18:12:00.000-08:00

8 blocks firm tofu

8 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 1/2 cup rice wine (mirin)
3/4 cup rice vinegar
8 tablespoons sucanat or brown sugar
6 tablespoons olive oil

Cut the tofu in to 1/2 inch thick squares and lay them in a baking dish. Put the soy sauce, rice wine, rice vinegar, and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Pour the marinade over the tofu. Then pour the olive oil over. Leave the tofu to marinate for about an hour. To cook, either broil them in a hot broiler for about 7 minutes, then flip every slab over and broil another 5 minutes. Or, if you don't have a broiler, bake them for about 15 minutes, flip all the slabs over, then bake another 10 minutes or so.

Quick & tasty yeast bread

2008-11-21T17:17:00.000-08:00

2 Tsp honey

2 2/3 c. lukewarm water

4 Tsp dry yeast

3 Tbsp honey

5 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 Tsp salt

1 c. oats

Stir 2 tsp honey into 2/3 cup lukewarm water. Add yeast, set aside for about 10 min. Combine 3 tbsp honey with 2/3 cups of water and combine w/ yeast. Stir into flour. Add salt, oats, and the rest of the water. Adjust amount of water for dough to be quite sticky (I usually use way too little water before this step and then add enough to make it look like a very sticky pizza dough).

Pour dough into non-sticky loaf pans (use PAM!), such that they are about half filled. If you want to make it look fancy sprinkle oats, or other stuff, on top. Let rise until the dough reaches the top of the pan. Bake at 400 F, until it looks done (~40 min.).

Wait with the slicing until it's cold!

About a triple batch will be enough for a pika dinner.

French bread or rolls

2008-11-21T17:06:00.000-08:00

French bread or rolls:

12 cups flour
3 tablespoons dry active yeast
6 teaspoons salt
6 cups warm water
a bit of cornmeal

Add the yeast to the warm water. Let sit for about 5 or 10 minutes. Add the salt. Then add about 2/3 of the flour and mix well. Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the flour (this can be difficult - you will probably have to knead the flour in to the dough, rather than mixing it in). Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Spray a bowl with Pam. Put the dough in the bowl and put it in warm place (you can set the oven to 100 F if you like) until the dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough down to get rid of all the air bubbles. Let it double in size again. Preheat the oven to 450 F. Cut the dough in to pieces with a sharp knife. Peach-sized pieces for rolls, much larger for baguettes. Arrange the dough on baking sheets that have been sprinkled with cornmeal. Cut slits in to the top of the bread if you like. Let the dough rise again - it doesn't have to double this time, but it should look bigger and puffy. Sprinkle a little bit of water on top of the dough. Put a pan of water in to the oven with the dough. Don't open the oven too much becuase you want it to be really hot in there. Bake about 25 minutes, or at least until the bread is golden brown.