This time in New York

Happy New Year! I'm back from the USA with a new attitude and a new German keyboard (spilled tea on my old one, but now I have all these nice characters like ß and Ä!)

The US was lovely, with freakishly good weather in sharp contrast to present situation. S and I spent most of the holiday in DC, with a brief detour in New York City, checking out some of the sights that I never managed to visit before such as the Lower East Side and Brooklyn.

On our first day we had an awe-inspiring walk across the Brooklyn Bridge into Dumbo to get our first glimpse of the strange new world of Brooklyn. In the evening, my awesome friend Sara took us a large yet homey pizza place in Greenpoint- Paulie Gee's. You would never guess from the omnivorously adventurous first pages of the menu (bacon marmelade?!) but the menu features a fantastic selection of vegan pizzas, including the one I devoured featuring fennel-laced vegan sausage, cashew ricotta and arugula.

The cashew ricotta is to die for at Paulee Gee's in Brooklyn

Greenpoint! Where its possible to eat delicious vegan pizza while you pretend you are in the cast of Girls.

Another great discovery this time in NYC was the Lower East Side/ Chinatown. Previously, I didn't stray much outside of Midtown, but S., being an well-appointed German tourist, wanted to see some off-the- beaten-track museums. A good duo, particularly for those interested in immigration, is the Tenement Museum and the gorgeous Eldridge Street Synagogue. Right down the street from one another, the two museums explore the history of the LES as the primary destination for immigrants arriving in the US. The Tenement museum recreates a historic tenement building with well-researched stories about actual ex- residents, revealing fascinating details about life as an immigrant in the past century.

Prosperity Dumplings

The Eldridge Street synagogue is an elaborate art-deco masterpiece funded by Ashkenazi immigrants and then abandoned for years as the ethnic composition of the neighborhood shifted. Now brilliantly restored, its definitely worth a tour (especially in contrast to famous European synagogues, many of which are in various stages of ruin due to the nazi era.) The stained glass work alone is worth the price of admission.

While in the neighborhood there are also lots of food options, but I need to recommend this one place I found, a small dumpling joint that is insanely cheap and tasty. Prosperity Dumpling, also on Eldridge Street, is a tiny hole in the wall pumping out veggie and meat dumplings to a diverse crowd of lunch patrons. I can't verify 100% if the veggie dumplings are vegan, but they taste vegan and the register clerk told me thez contained no meat or dairy. (Take that for what its worth.) Anyways, 8 cabbage and mushroom stuffed dumplings, steamed or fried for $3.50, and absolutely delish.

In between museums we found another sweet spot, not super vegan friendly but worth poking your head in to check out the specials. Cheeky Sandwiches is a good spot to stop in for chicory-laced coffee or ginger lemonade in a cute, New Orleans inspired setting. The rotating menu has a few vegetarian sandwiches and S. was very happy with his shrimp po´boy (non vegan, obvs.)

Cheeky Sandwiches, a small and cute lunch joint

Its on a street packed with lots of good vintage shopping, and you can, like S. and I, fantasize about being millionaires who can afford to purchase an ex-tenement flat in what was once one of the nation's poorest neighborhoods.

Ah, New York! Bis nexte mal!

Vegan Mofo: Homemade Pizza

There is something really great about being able to control your own pizza destiny. Once you have an excellent dough recipe and an excellent sauce, its like, the world is your oyster pizza! If you have some vegan cheese lying around you can toss that on, or whip up some tofu ricotta from Vegan With a Vengeance. Or you can make it all healthy green stuff, safe in the knowledge that it still won't be *too* healthy. You could throw on tempeh bacon, caramelized onions, pineapple, corn (like they do in Europe) or any other crazy thing and its still going to be awesome!

For this edition of pizza roulette, I topped my little monster with shallots, brocoli, spinach, mushrooms and, the real kicker: soy curls drenched in BBQ sauce. It was kind of like that BBQ chicken pizza that was such a hit back in the nineties. Except way better because it was vegan homemade!

I know you guys can search through my pages yourself, but let me just hook you up with the no-fail dough and sauce recipes I use and save you the trouble in case you are in the mood for some pizza yourself.

****
  Pizza Crust
-1 packet yeast
-1 and 1/3 cup warm water
-1 tsp. salt
-1 T. agave (or honey or sugar, if you swing that way)
-Approx. 3.5 cups flour (for use a mix of white and whole wheat flour)
-2 T. olive oil, plus extra for the bowl

1.) In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast into the water and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
2.) Add in the rest of the ingredients and blend together, kneading for 10 minutes, or until relatively smooth. At this point you can add in a bit more flour if its too sticky. (Nice to have an assistant on hand for that, since your hands will be covered in dough.)
3.) Form dough into a ball and place into a bowl that has been coated in oil. Set in a warm corner, covered by a damp cloth and leave it alone for an hour or so. (Pro-tip: My friend SMP let me in on a secret to quicker rising- just put your dough bowl into an oven along with a pot of freshly boiled water. The steamy oven will guarantee good a rise.)
4.) After time has passed, punch down the dough and divide into two balls. Leave one in the bowl and take the other one out, rolling out on a floured surface to your desired thinness and leaving some width on the sides for the crust. Transfer to pizza pan/ stone/ cookie sheet or just a rack.
5.) Top with toppings and bake in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.
6.) Repeat with the other ball, or freeze/refrigerate for later use as pizza, breadsticks, or calzones.

 Easy Tomato Sauce
2 14 oz cans Diced/ Crushed Tomatoes
1 small onion, diced.
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
1 tbsp EVOO
1/2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

1.) Cook the onion in oil over medium-low heat for 4-5 minutes. Then add in garlic and cook a few minutes longer. Add dash balsamic to deglaze. Then add in the rest of the ingredients. Raise the heat to medium, cover, and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust spices, then, using immersion blender, blend until smooth.

Song of the Day: Universal Heartbeat- Julianna Hatfield

Vegan Mofo- Hard to Mess Up

As promised, here is my list of 5 recipes I make over and over again, with delicious, crowd-pleasing results every single time.

5.)  Pizza Crust- Joy of Cooking

Sure its a non-vegan cookbook, but its got a lot of hits, and often contains the most simple baseline recipe for something you've heard of but never cooked. That makes it great for veganizing. This recipe, however, needs no alteration, and I've made perhaps 100 times, always with phenomenal results. A no-frills classic.

4.)  Venezuelan Black Beans- Viva Vegan

Once you try Terry Hope Romero's recipe for simple black beans, you may feel tempted to throw away all of your other cookbooks. Resist. Man cannot subsist on black beans alone. However, this is the perfect recipe with which to attempt that feat.

3.) Minimalist Tagine (from moi)

I came up with this streamlined take on the classic Tagine in Brussels and ever since I've made it at least once a month, always a little differently. Sometimes its mushrooms and eggplant, sometimes I throw in some chickpeas, the nuts depend on what I have around... in other words, its flexible. But the cinnamon and cumin spiked sauce, with golden apricot bits, is exotic enough to feel like a feast, even when you just throw it together. Its also a good centerpiece to a Moroccan themed dinner party.

2.) Eggplant Potato Moussaka- Veganomicon.

Isa and Terry might be over-represented on this list, but there is a reason for that.  I've served this impressive casserole to everyone, from my parents, to a bunch of omni Germans on Passover. Its always a hit. The filling- layers of potatoes and eggplant with a toothsome tomato sauce- perfectly compliments the custardy pine-nut cream topping that no one ever believes is vegan. Its simple enough to make, but everyone will think you are a star vegan chef when you serve this.

1.) Banana Flapjacks- Vegan Brunch

I have plenty of pancake recipes that I love and enjoy, but let's not kid ourselves- Vegan Brunch's version are the sine qua non of pancake recipes.Without them, there is no breakfast. I get so many compliments on these babies that I feel like I should send a royalty check to Isa every time I make them. But then I'd really have to be a millionaire. Try them once, and watch as your attachment to all other pancake recipes fades away....

What recipe or cookbook can you not live without?

Two Pizza Options

Roasted Garlic Pizza on Whole Wheat Crust

Oh, how else can I put it: I had a stroke of genius today and made these two awesome pizzas. The roasted garlic one I've made before (but dare I say, have perfected now.) The roasted pepper one grew out of the leftover half of the roasted pepper, and it was so damn good. I think either of these topping combos would also be nice as a bruschetta or an appetizer pizza (with the crust sliced into much smaller pieces.) But for today they were just perfect to appease my dissertation-frazzled friends and use up the ingredients leftover from the weekend. Ah, sometimes genius comes so easily.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
-1 packet yeast
-1 and 1/3 cup warm water
-1 tsp. salt
-1 T. agave (or honey or sugar, if you swing that way)
-Approx. 3.5 cups whole wheat flour
-2 T. olive oil, plus extra for the bowl

1.) In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast into the water and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
2.) Add in the rest of the ingredients and blend together, kneading for 10 minutes, or until relatively smooth. At this point you can add in a bit more flour if its too sticky. (Nice to have an assistant on hand for that, since your hands will be covered in dough.)
3.) Form dough into a ball and place into a bowl that has been coated in oil. Set in a warm corner, covered by a damp cloth and leave it alone for an hour or so.
4.) After time has passed, punch down the dough and divide into two balls. Leave one in the bowl and take the other one out, rolling out on a floured surface to your desired thinness and leaving some width on the sides for the crust. Transfer to pizza pan/ stone/ cookie sheet or just a rack.
5.) Top with toppings and bake in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.
6.) Repeat with the other ball, or freeze for later use as pizza, breadsticks, or calzones.

Roasted Garlic Pizza
-One head garlic
-1.5 tsp. oil, plus extra for drizzling
-1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
-red pepper flakes
-one tomato, (or several small ones) sliced
-1/2 a roasted red pepper, but into slices

1.) First roast the garlic. This is accomplished (as if you don't know, you vegans) by rubbing a bit of olive oil on a whole head of garlic, wrapping the thing in foil, and tossing it in the oven on 375-400 degrees for 45 minutes or so. When the garlic is gone, it should fall out of the individual cloves at a little squeeze.
2.) Place roasted garlic in a small bowl and smash with a fork. Add in a pinch of salt, a pinch of red pepper flakes, 1.5 tsp. olive oil, and apple cider vinegar and mash together until you have a nice paste. Set aside (and try not to eat.)
3.) Now roast the red pepper. This can be achieved in an oven broiler on high: place cleaned red pepper under broiler, watching until side is charred, then rolling over until entire thing is charred. (How long this takes depends on your oven.) Remove and place in paper bag, to steam. When warm enough to handle, remove charred skin, then de-seed and cut in half- half of this can be sliced into strips for this pizza, the other half can make tapenade later (or for another pizza... or just to eat with bread, who cares.)
4.)When pizza dough is prepared and rolled out, spread roasted garlic paste evenly across. Top with tomatoes and roasted peppers. Cook to desired crispiness, and enjoy with friends since you're all going to smell like garlic all day. :)

Didn't have nearly enough walnuts for this but it was still awesome.

Red Pepper Tapenade Pizza with Walnuts

-1/2 a roasted red pepper, chopped
-1 T. lemon zest
-pinch salt
-2 tsp. olive oil
-handful of walnuts
-balsamic vinegar/ reduction

1.) Combine red pepper, lemon zest, salt and olive oil and either blend in a food processor or with an immersion blender until evenly processed. Taste, and adjust salt or oil if necessary. (Note: depending on how big your initial roasted pepper was, you may want a little more or less oil to smooth out the mixture.)
2.) Spread red pepper tapenade onto pizza crust. Sprinkle with walnuts, and drizzle with balsamic vinegar or balsamic reduction, if you happen to have some handy. (I always do because I'm obsessed.)
3.) Bake for 10-15 minutes on 400 and enjoy!


My darling S. was here this weekend and in preparation I froze a million more sweet potato gnocchi (which he pronounces "ga-nocky") and made some incredible oatmeal cinnamon raisin bagels. I actually documented all of this with the intent of giving step-by-step instructions for both recipes, but unfortunately there was a computer mishap and all I have left as evidence of my culinary industriousness is yet another picture of... you guessed it! Pancakes!

All the same, they never get old when you're making them for people you love. :)


Song of the Day: Joanna Newsom- Have One on Me

Cooling-rack pizza and Marinated figs over ice cream

My crazy friend Karen just returned from a summer-long tour all around Central America, punctuated by getting a concussion from a falling coconut. (This is so Karen. You just have to know her to love her.) When I found out she was coming back to town, I offered to cook dinner so we could catch up, ie, gossip. Pizza was obviously just the thing, being hand-held and allowing for maximum conversing. I also thought that prepping a simple dinner for a few hours would help me relax and get out of my head a little bit. Or yeah, take out my aggression on some dough. :)

I've never tried the pizza techniques in Vegan With a Vengeance, always being quite content with Joy of Cooking's classic recipes, but I decided to give it a swing the Isa way. And...WOW. The crust is phenomenal. Despite not having proper pizza pans and having to grill on a crazy cookie cooling-rack, the crust was perfectly chewy, crunchy and amazing.

I also tried the sauce and basil-tofu ricotta from VWaV with equally good results. That sauce is scrumptious, I could eat it with a spoon. And the ricotta is amazingly "ricotta-like", aside from just being yummy in its own right.

Having gotten this far, I know I should have just gone ahead and tried the "Isa Pizza" with pesto and olives and the like, but you know? It takes a special mood to make pesto. I have done it before, I'll do it again, but I have to be in a very particular mind-set to make it, for some reason. Its not something I'll just whip out on a whim.

At any rate, I topped mine instead with spinach, pineapples, broccoli, and thin sliced shallots. It was super, and Karen the non-vegan dug it too.


For dessert, I made up a really simple treat: they sell these marinated figs at the store now (marinated with such things as cloves and vanilla) in a little plastic case. I microwaved them for 20 seconds, and poured over scoops of vanilla soy-dream. Some crystallized ginger would be nice on top as well. Very rich but delish.

Song of the Day: Of Montreal- So Begins Our Alabee

Bright and tasty!

The last few days have been so completely filled with studying that virtually my only break has been cooking and eating. As a result, I'm making sure that everything I eat is fabulous and cheerful. Its helping me cope... sort of.

Above we have an awesome salad made with what I expect is sort of a bizarre combination to most people... sweet potatoes and beets! (But they're both root veg, sooo...?) I roasted them both in the oven and cut into chunks, then put them over some spinach and topped with walnuts and Jessy's awesome Sweet Orange Miso dressing. The dressing was sooo good, like everything that little ray of sunshine makes! And I was nervous about my weird combo, but it right up my alley- especially with the walnuts, they are a must. But citrus, miso, beets and sweet potatoes are definitely weird-good rather than weird-bad. So, the beet obsession goes on.


Last week, we had a pizza night at my house where everyone basically picked their own topping. I was thrilled to descend from the study cave to top mine with pineapple, bbq sauce, onions, mushrooms, and a little nooch, before running back up to continue. Shortly thereafter, like magic, my delicious pizza was piping hot and ready for me to gobble down before running back, like Gollum, to my precious notecards. My Dad is getting way awesome at homemade crusts, although I want to introduce him to the concept of whole wheat flour.


Another one of my Dad's creations was a stir-fry made with every vegetable in the fridge, plus mock chicken. (Oh, if our ancestors could see us now. 10 years ago my family would have been eating chicken fingers, mac & cheese, and biscuits, and now we're all sitting around watching the Daily Show and noshing on completely vegan fare without complaints.) The sauce was a ginger-sesame oil-soy sauce kinda thing, and on the side we had SUPER-GARLICKY spinach, because that's how we like it, and some really sweet and perfect pineapple. (This must be pineapple season, because every pineapple I've eaten lately has been phenomenal.)

Later in the week I made an attempt to develop some cherry brownies, but I think I went a little overboard on reducing the oil and sugar, because in my opinion they were not nearly gooey enough. When I fix it I'll post the recipe. But in the meantime, they worked in a pinch, and they were pretty!



I also wanted to point you guys to an awesome section exclusively on canning that was in the Washington Post this weekend. There are a ton of recipes and stories about various people's experience with canning. I was really into canning over the fall, when I made fig spread and tomato sauce, but summer is a great time for it too! If you're thinking about it, and ARE NOT studying for any huge exams, I would recommend giving it a shot!

Song of the Day: Bright Eyes- Poison Oak

Me vs. Cold Season

A dear old friend of mine (let's just call her "Flower Bug" since that's her preferred nickname, hehe) recently emailed me to ask if I had any foodie cures for a sore throat. (Try Cayenne pepper, Bug!) I imagine she reached out to me since I am one of those obnoxious people who constantly talks about how she never gets sick and rattles off a list of veggie cures to common ailments. Seriously, mention that you have a cold, and I'll probably be all "Oh, I never get sick! You should go vegan! And eat some garlic!" A few lesser known foodie cures:

Anise seeds + water= no more hiccups
Cardomom + ginger= no more tummy ache
Pistachios = cheap cure for jaundice and dermatitus
Mangoes = Giardia killer
Onions= defense against asthma attacks

(A lot of this stuff I learned from The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods by Michael Murray, which my awesome brother gave for my birthday.)

*Cough*. So anyways, this morning when I awoke I was amazed to find that I wasn't feeling well: sore throat, runny nose, headache, the whole shebang. I was shocked not only because I so rarely get sick, but also because it was the first really cold day, and how stereotypical is it to get the sniffles the first day the temperature drops? So conformist. Well, not wanting to go against my own commonly given advice I decided I would take my sick self to the grocery store and see what I could whip up to kill the cold before it broke into my finals week. My main hypothesis is that I can get better before getting worse merely by overloading on garlic, ginger and vitamin C.

So first I made the "Ginger Congee" from this month's Vegetarian Times. Congee is apparently a rice porridge eaten for breakfast. The Veg Times version is a ginger and garlic broth that you soak dried shitake mushrooms and rice in to make a nice soup. This was super comforting and warming. It was a little sweet (especially with the addition of mirin) but it mostly tasted like a milder miso soup. I'm going to eat this for breakfast tomorrow too.

To get even more garlic then the few measly cloves in the soup, (yes, I'm hardcore) I made a roasted garlic pizza. I roasted a whole head of garlic, mashed it with a little olive oil into a paste, and spread it over a vegan ready-made pizza crust. There's some tomato and orange pepper on there- which, might I add, is also good for throats (along with some more red pepper flakes for good measure.) I sprinkled on a little nooch after it got out of the oven and sat down to my super cold-killer meal.

Tomorrow I'm going to use the leftover broth to attempt a lentil soup with kale, ginger, and butternut squash. I'm sure by then I'll be completely better though... *cough*

Do you guys have any home remedies? After all, everbody knows chicken soup is for losers. ;P

Song of the day: "Narcissist Waltz"- Die Romantik

Vegan Valentines Feast!

I just got to wake up Valentines Day and have a chocolate-cherry-creme cupcake! Why, you ask? Because I am waiting tables tonight, and therefore made a Valentines feast for my fam and some friends last night. (My bf, unfortunately, was unavailable.) Amazingly enough, this meal turned out truly great. Seriously. I very rarely concoct a dinner and have everything go off without a hitch, but this really was delicious... not one of the non-vegans had anything left on their plate.

For an appetizer I made little mini heart-shaped pizzas. I used the Joy of Cooking pizza dough recipe I love so much, but divided the dough into four balls, rolled them out, and shaped them vaguely into heart shapes before brushing with EVOO. While the dough had been rising, I roasted two heads of garlic in the oven at 350, and marinated some sliced heirloom tomatoes in EVOO and salt and pepper. When the garlic was all roasted, I squeezed each bit out of its crunchy shell and into a bowl, where it was mashed with a little more EVOO and set aside. Finally, I caramelized a few sliced shallots. (To be fair, I had some time on my hands while the dough was rising to get all this inspiration.) To put it all together, I rubbed the garlic paste onto the pizzas and topped it with the tomatoes, shallots, some sliced roasted peppers (from a jar), and some red pepper flakes. I then cooked it for about 15 minutes at 425. They turned out really flavorful and delicious. This may be my new go-to pizza recipe.

I also made a simple strawberry salad with some spinach, sliced strawberries, hazelnuts, and a homemade dressing recipe I got from Vegetarian Times. I can't find it online right now, so let me just tell you, you combine:
-1/2 c. sliced strawberries
-3 T. Sugar
-3 T. Balsamic Vinegar
-1/2 a shallot
-1 clove garlic
... in a food processor or blender, then slowly add in 1 c. EVOO. The dressing is really creamy and thick, and the balsamic complements the strawberries perfectly.

For the main course, I made an old standby: grilled portabello mushrooms over mashed potatoes with asparagus. The mushrooms were marinated in some steak seasoning, EVOO and soy sauce before grilling and the asparagus were similarly coated in some Earth balance and salt and pepper before going into the oven at 375 for about 10 minutes. To make things EXTRA decadent, i made a "port wine reduction" for the shrooms, which is just a fancy way of saying "boil 3 c. wine in a saucepan until it reduces to a syrup." It was sooooo good over the potatoes too. But be forewarned- it takes longer than you think, so get started way before any grilling occurs.

To finish off, I made my absolute favorite cupcakes from VCTOTW. Since I was in such a hurry to get everything else cooking, I didn't have time to make these as pretty as they were the last time I made them. But trust me, they were still decadent and delicious.

Mmm. Especially for breakfast.

Have a happy Valentines Day!

Mystic Vegan Pizza and Caesar Salad

Its not always easy being in an inter-diet partnership. My boyfriend eats almost exclusively meat, and is loathe to try new foods that don't have bacon in them. He's always polite, mind you, but if I offer him, say, an eggplant casserole, he turns white and just says, "oh, no thanks baby, it looks great though." So I usually end up polishing off most of my delicacies myself, or with the help of my veggie garbage disposal roommate. :) But on the rare occasion that I do want to accommodate him, I make sure to make the least scary, most friendly-looking thing I can think of, and then add in a secret ingredient or two.

So last night I made him Caesar salad with homemade croutons and from-scratch pizzas with his choice of topping. I topped mine with marinated tempeh while he topped his with pepperoni, but just the fact that he happily gobbled down the Caesar made me happy. (I used the Veganomicon recipe to give it a shot, and I have to say it is the closest I have ever tasted to real, anchovy-based Caesar. Except way, way better, of course.)

You all know how to make home-made croutons, right? They have saved many a salad of mine. Just heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil and throw in some garlic and whatever spices you have handy. (Basil, thyme, oregano, savory, parsley and sage are all good bets.) When the oil is hot and the spices are fragrant, turn off the heat and toss in some cubed, stale bread. (White bread works best, but whatever floats your boat.) Once they have been adequately coated with the oil, spread 'em out on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook to desired crunch on 425 degrees. So easy.

Homemade pizza takes a bit more effort, but its worth it. And working with dough is soothing, anyhow. (For me, anyway.)Here's the Joy of Cooking recipe for the dough, and while thats rising you can work on this easy chunky tomato sauce and marinate some tempeh.

Easy Roasted Tomato Sauce
1 28 oz can Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
1 tbsp EVOO
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

So simple. Just cook the garlic in the oil on medium low heat until its fragrant. Then add in the canned tomatoes, and the rest of the ingredients. Raise the heat to medium, cover, and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occassionally. Definitely adjust the spices if needed, I am a basil FIEND.

For the Marinated Tempeh, I simply sliced up a plain package of tempeh and tossed it in an air-tight container with some soy sauce, EVOO, fennel seeds, garlic salt, and a few drops of hot sauce and liquid smoke. After a half-hour or so I sauteed the slices until just brown and set them aside to top the pizza with, along with some sliced mushrooms and onions.

The trick with vegan pizza is if the toppings are good enough the cheese is utterly unnecessary. If one were so inclined they could always find some soy cheese, but I don't much care for it on pizza. With a fire-roasted sauce and marinated tempeh, what's the point? My boyfriend even agreed when he had a few bites.

See? He is so turning. Slow and steady wins the race, kids.