Recipes from The Inspired Vegan- Beans, Greens, Yams, Molasses Cake

I believe I have expressed my fondness for Bryant Terry on this blog before, and his first cookbook Vegan Soul Kitchen is now somewhat of a classic (according to me.) SO when I heard he had come out with a new cookbook, The Inspired Vegan, I knew I had to rush out and get it. (And/ or, wait 6 months until I was back in the US to grab it.) Happily, while on my honeymoon I had the chance to go to one of my ALL-TIME-FAVORITE places in the whole country, Charis Feminist Bookstore in Atlanta, GA, and they happened to have a copy sitting on the shelves! And that's not exactly a coincidence, because much like Charis, the book is packed with fascinating info about art, music, and social justice. The menus are dedicated to different themes and people that interest Terry, like Shirley Chisholm, Grace Lee Boggs, and Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, and interspersed with his own memories and interests, while giving information for those who are interested in further reading or volunteering for different causes. In this respect, it is much more than a cookbook. But just in case you have no interest in politics, history, music, the environment, or history (HA), you can still enjoy the recipes, which range from Southern soul food to Asian fusion to African cuisine. For me, being interested in all of those things (and how!) its the perfect drool-worthy cookbook that also inspires you to go beyond the pages and find out about all the cool people and movements he mentions.

I picked out a few recipes to cook for me and S.'s one month anniversary: black eyes peas in garlic ginger braised mustard greens, (or in my case, chard) and molasses, miso, and maple candied sweet potatoes. I served it with white rice rather than the suggested forbidden black rice, and it was totally delicious. The greens and beans were spicy and flavorful but still subtle in comparison to the juicy sweet potatoes that were bursting with strong flavors. Despite being an objectively healthy meal, this was still special occasion-type food that was really exciting to prepare and eat. We ate the meal with 'Dark & Stormy' cocktails, a mix of strong ginger beer and dark rum that is my new favorite special occasion cocktail.

For dessert I made another recipe from the book, ginger-molasses cake. (Its supposed to have walnuts but I didn't have any so I served it with peaches.) This was super easy to make with ingredients that most vegans would have on hand, and turned out really moist and delicious while still tasting very sophisticated and "different." It also looks like chocolate cake so its a fun way to trick guests. :)

I have no doubt that I'll be cooking plenty more from this tome and I hope that Terry keeps 'em coming.

Song of the Day: Fela Kuti- Water Got No Enemy

Cherry Clafoutis...?

If you had the choice between working at a job that was frequently disgusting but kept you busy, or at one that was mind-numbingly boring but done in relative comfort, what would you choose? I've been pondering this from a purely intellectual standpoint lately because, in fact, I don't have to choose. I have both jobs, one after the other, every day.

Yes, friends, I've picked up another job. Following my humiliating but somewhat entertaining morning cleaning-lady job, I go to a fancy office building and conduct hours of phone calls to mostly disconnected phones in Latin America, in the hopes that one of them will take a survey. Its a dull job, but someone has to do it (or do they...?) At any rate, with these two super jobs combined, I should be able to fund a summer in Budapest (or back surgery, whatever comes first.) But on the other hand, it doesn't leave a lot of time for cooking. Or eating. (Dude, I'm going to be totally rich AND skinny!)

However, I did attempt one kitchen coup, with mixed success. So I finally made this clafoutis recipe from Vegan Visitor that I've been wanting to try for like, 3 years. Actually, literally that long, which I realized trying to dig up the recipe and seeing it was from 2008. But it had ingredients that I could largely reproduce, and feeling sophisticated, I decided to give it a try.

It was.... weird. Sort of a large chewy pancake filled with a sweet tofu mousse that doesn't ever really set (and I cooked this baby for 1 and 1/2 hours.) I mean, it was good, but I just wasn't sure I did it right. The inside is a cottage cheese consistency, owing to the curdled soy milk and silken tofu mixture, but it wasn't reminiscent of any desserts I'm familiar with. My non-vegan friend thought it was like a big milk-rice pancake, and loved it. I also thought it was fairly decent (obviously, because I consumed almost the entire thing in 1 hour), but just not totally sure it was clafoutis. I will have to try the whole experiment again to see if this is the way its meant to be.

At any rate, the whole clafoutis experiment is kind of like my two jobs. Pretty sure its a step in the right direction, but not something I can take out of the oven and call a "career".

Tyranny of tiny plums

So we are still fairly flooded with cheap and tiny plums (the "mirabellen" variety, to be exact) here in good old Berlin. They sell for almost nothing at markets, come in our weekly CSA basket, and sometimes, you even find them on the streets. So I have been trying to come up with new uses for them other than the ubiquitous plum cake. Well, actually, we made a plum cake too. (A beautiful one!)

I used the fancy cake recipe from the Urban Vegan cookbook (I really urge you to go out and grab that cookbook if you can, its jam-packed with greatness) and put a layer of golden mirabellen jam in between layers, with more plums on top. Boy, was this sweet. (Maybe a little too sweet?) But then again, we served it on Rosh Hoshanah, so too sweet is good. My friend SY was there and had a professional touch that made a simple cake just stunning- she knows all the tricks for making food gorgeous. Unfortch, I didn't get a pic of the finished product, but then, that's how it always is on holidays. (It was a nice celebration though, as seen below.)

In other plum related news, I made a salad with some gorgeous fennel we also got in our basket and some arugula: it was basically caramelized fennel, chopped plums, arugula and homemade balsamic vinegar dressing. Very rich and delicious.

And finally, I made some plum and ginger muffins to hand out in language school. In my opinion, these were a little bitter or something with a strange aftertaste, so I will withhold the recipe until I can perfect them. But they were pretty and good, just not absolutely perfect. (Next time they will be!)

I am pleased that I now have a variety of options for getting rid of the tiny little plums everywhere, but I must say that now I'm ready for the next challenge... maybe pumpkins?


song of the day: Belle and Sebastian- Sookie in the Graveyard

Up-side down, Phake- Me-Out Pflaumenkuchen

On a nice cool evening a few nights ago I was walking down the street with my friend when we encountered what looked like a large crate of plums, discarded by the side of the road. Curious, we examined closer to find that, indeed they were plums, and most were still good. Now, if this were the U.S., I would have assumed that each one was fitted with a tiny razor blade and that would be the end of the story, but being in Berlin I decided to whimsically cast aside my American paranoia and bring the lovey plums home. I would make pflaumenkuchen, I thought. (Oh, how innocent I was back then.)

You see, a while back I had bookmarked Mihl from Seitan is My Motor's post on pflaumenkuchen, thinking it would be a good thing to make since a) plums are falling from the sky and b) I could impress my man with some traditional home-cooked german fare, rather than just bitching about how I can't cook because there are no chipotles in Germany. It all sounded well and good, until I started to make it.

The first problem happened in the grocery store, when I couldn't find yeast for the life of me, tried to ask a shopkeeper, and then, gesticulating wildly, dropped my purse along with thousands of euro coins all over floor. (Yeast is "hefe", in case you're wondering.)

Then came the measuring. You see, having no access to measuring cups at the moment, I thought I would try some improvisation: a shot glass! I merely converted the measurements into shot glass ounces and hoped for the best, rather absent-mindedly and cockily combining things while chatting on skype with my mother in the states. But soon, I realized that something had gone wrong. The dough was incredibly sticky, not warm like yeasted things ought to be, and getting worse by the moment. (Looking back, I think I doubled the soymilk and halved the yeast. Ugh.) Before long, I was frantically adding in flour using my elbows (hands too sticky) and cursing the day I ever thought I could bake. I suddenly knew, with frightening clarity, that never again would I spend a casual afternoon making muffins or cupcakes. Instead, I would be the stupid American who doesn't understand celcius or the metric system and has to busy herself with dropping coins all over supermarkets for small German children to find. German children whose mothers probably make a killer pflaumenkuchen. UGHHHH.

*Ahem*. However, an hour later, when my terrible little dough had not risen yet, I decided to strike back with trademark American ingenuity. I put all the plums I have dutifully cut up, along with some vanilla sugar and earth balance, in the bottom of the tin. I rolled the dough out thinly, cut it to size, and placed it on top. Then I cooked the whole thing for about 30 minutes. Here is what appeared after some flipping:

Not bad, right? At least pretty, or nothing a little powdered sugar couldn't pretty up.

As for the taste? The plum part was delicious, the dough was not too sweet and (obvs) un-risen and a little tough but had sort of a plum juice layer that tasted a bit like marzipan. And my boyfriend? Thought it was all intentional. Hurrah! Am not most worthless cook in Europe after all!

All the same though, I still have the ingredients, and 1/2 a crate of plums left... I think I want to try Mihl's recipe again, this time not fuc*ing it up utterly... maybe I'll use something a tad more accurate for measuring this time? While I ponder it, I may as well finish off the rest of my little monster creation, which, after all, really wasn't too bad. Particularly with a bunch of powdered sugar and a glass of soymilk.



Song of the Day: Die Stern- Was hat dich bloß so ruiniert?

Ich will curry essen!

Oh boy, its been a busy few weeks and its set to only get busier! I have been cooking occasionally, sure, but more often I've been gorging on lentils with celery root and pomengranate syrup alongside beets in walnut/ garlic dressing with blood oranges from this local pizza place across the street. Under $4, full of good health stuff (iron! potassium! vitamin c!) AND it allows me to continue reading the Emma Goldman autobiography that's been commanding my every spare moment. (Read it, it's amazing!)

However, there are a few recent creations worth note. First, my Mom and I attempted to recreate the Candle Cafe's awesome 'paradise pie' on a less time consuming scale. To the left is my brother consuming the result of our plotting. Rather than millet, we used quinoa (much quicker!) as a base, spread into an oiled casserole dish. Next, we put a layer of beans: black bean soup and a can of black beans, both drained, mixed with a little cumin and spread on top of the quinoa. Finally, some boiled sweet potatoes were mashed with a tablespoon of miso and generous sprinkling of cinnamon, and spread on top. The "pie" was baked at 350 for about 30 minutes, and topped with some good old mushroom gravy. Not quite as good as what you can get at that dear little vegan restaurant in NYC, but stlll quite delicious.


Adding to the generalized mayhem, my darling S. was in town from Berlin last week, prompting me to bake up a storm of cupcakes, breads and other sweets. Of course, being S., he ignored them all in favor of coffee and cigarettes. And of course, being T, I gobbled them all up. However, I was able to tempt him into eating one luscious gingerbread cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing. (From VCTOTW, naturally.) He was duly impressed, although I wasn't quite sure he understood what I meant by "wee-gan".

However, he proved me wrong! On Wednesday, after a ridiculously packed day including 3 classes and an intense mock-deposition, in which I had to convince some skeptical mock- lawyers that I was sexually harassed by an imaginary employer, I returned home to find an extremely relaxing scene: S. had cleaned up the apartment and cooked a home-made peanut curry, complete with carrots, mushrooms, green beans, and (gasp!) mock-chicken strips! From what I could ascertain, he liberally used peanut butter, soy-sauce, red pepper flakes, curry powder, and soy creamer. At any rate, it was delicious, all the more so because I didn't have to cook it. And soon my imaginary sexual harassment ordeal was just an imaginary memory...

So now S. is back in Berlin and I'm back into the thick of things... but he did leave behind a specially requested gift: Karl Marx's Das Kapital, in the original German, which I intend to translate into English, page by page. By the time I visit Berlin again in May I should be able to bore people with the important features of the commodity... in German! And maybe one of these days I'll attempt some good old German cooking as well... Although I think, for the moment, I'll be preoccupied with the upcoming passover feast.

Song of the Day: Of Montreal- The Autobiographical Grandpa

Sweet Things

I could care less if I have someone to spend it with, I love Valentines Day!

Sure, its a exploitative ploy by heartless capitalists to take advantage of our fragile emotions in the arena of relationships for profit, but.... chocolate! pink! flowers! Sorry, i love it. There is no other holiday that practically mandates champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries. And well, even if you end up spending it with your parents (cough, cough) it can still be fun. Actually, maybe more fun...


I had the chance this week to make lots of sweet things... the delicious chocolate chip cookies from VWAV and agave nectar cupcakes from VCTOTW. I topped them with simple buttercream frosting and sliced strawberries, for a friend who is diabetic, but willing to indulge a little on her birthday. Both turned out absolutely perfectly , prompting the usual disbelieving "This is VEGAN?" remarks. How sweet...

Anyways, for the sake of Valentines Day, I would like to send a shout-out to three people that I'm sure would have been my Valentine if they knew I existed...

First, obviously, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, who makes my life SO SWEET! Whether through cakes, brownies, cupcakes, cookies or delicious savory items, how could I live without the Goddess of Vegan Cooking and her tomes? I couldn't, and I don't want to try. A world without Isa is a world I don't want to envision. (And she's pretty adorable, too...)

And then there's the wonderfully witty Dan Savage, who's weekly sex column, Savage Love, is the first thing I flip to in the City Paper every week. Sure, he's dirty. But he is ALSO an incisive critic of all those opposed to gay rights, the first to point out political hypocrisy in sex-ed, and the first to tell you to DTMFA (dump the mother forking a$$hole) if someone is treating you as less then deserving of respect and satisfaction. And I love him for that, and would love to take him (and his partner) out for cupcakes and cocktails.

Finally, and I would like to say in advance that I am available for next year, the hilarious and adorable Ryan North, who's dinosaur comics rule my world. Ranging in subject matter from religion, philosophy, movie plots, politics and modern physics, North always makes me chuckle gleefully at his static dinosaur creations' antics. Plus, he's a redhead! *SWOON*!

At any rate, i hope that the above-mentioned, and all of you lovely bloggers, had a luscious and indulgent Valentines Day, whether with your dream date, your parents, or your lovely selves.

Song of the Day: Universal Heartbeat- Juliana Hatfield

Easter Dinner Spectacular

So believe it or not, my parents went for yet another all-vegan holiday meal! This is just getting too easy!

Of course, why wouldn't it be when we're turning out scrumptious treats like this!

While I don't actually celebrate Easter, my Mom does and after all, do you really need an excuse to have a lovely family dinner? (Especially with no school the next day!) Above is the highlight of the meal, the fabulous coconut macadamia carrot-cake from VwaV. It was a bit of prep work at the start, but in the end it came together easily and everyone loved it. So worth the work. (And trust me, I don't have the best track record with baked goods.) I mean, with a glass of soymilk you're pretty much in heaven. It also gave me the confidence I need to bake some other layer-cake delicacies I've been admiring of late.

Dinner was lemon asparagus risotto. (Doesn't that sound spring-y?) I made it the same way I always make risotto. Except this time, I sauteed some asparagus and tossed that in at the end, along with a little lemon juice and lemon peel. Honestly, at this point I could make risotto in my sleep! (If I could stir in my sleep, that is.)

I served it alongside some cherry tomatoes sauteed in garlic, crusty bread, and a strawberry-spinach salad with homemade dressing (the same one I made on Valentines day, because its SO AMAZING). It all went off without a hitch.

I'd like to mention here that when I'm coming up with a menu, I keep in mind the age-old secret of different colors and textures on a plate. Thats why I chose tomatoes- more greens would have been overkill with the spinach and the asparagus, and some gingered carrots would have been way too reminiscent of the dessert. This worked out well, but I still wondered what else could have been served alongside to spice things up. Maybe some smoked tofu? The blog What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway? always has great ideas for full menus, as does Eat Air, another blog I love.


***In travel news, I am in the midst of preparing for my big trip in May. I have all my flights booked, my shifts covered at work, and Lonely Planet guidebooks/ dictionaries for everywhere I'm going. At this point, I'm trying to figure out how to distill my clothes into about 2 interchangable, weather appropriate outfits. I'm also working on booking hostels and coming up with itineraries based on where I might be staying. And of course, I'm also heavily focused on the food! So far, it looks like Budapest will be the most vegan friendly, based on the number of vegetarian restaurants listed in the guidebook. But, its always a different story on the ground.

One of the things I plan to do to prepare is to veganize a few recipes from each country to get familiar with the kind of ingredients used in popular dishes. (Also, basically just for fun.) I've never made a "goulash" before, I've no idea what kind of spices are predominant in Turkey, and I assume that many yummy Viennese pastries are packed with eggs and cream. So lm going to have to find out! As for Germany, having lived with a German for a year I feel fairly confident that there will be vegetable dishes galore in Berlin. Either that or he adapted amazingly well. :)

Hope everyone had a relaxing/ revitalizing holiday! Here's me gloating over my well-turned-out cake.

They really will take over the world...

Just finished with my first experiment from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, another stellar cookbook from the Post Punk Kitchen ladies Isa and Terry, and OMG they are the most adorable food products I have EVER produced. And my word are they tasty.

These luscious cherry-chocolate cream cupcakes are almost enough to make up for my crappy weekend spent preparing for and competing in a moot court trials competition. And for the fact that I can't help ending all my sentences now with "isn't that so?" Ugh. Law school sucks. Cupcakes are awesome! And did I mention these were super easy?

Here's some bonus vegan baking tips from the Post Punk Kitchen website. Wow, I'm really starting to fall in love with those womyn.