Contents

  1. Caesar Salad dressing
  2. All-purpose Bread
  3. Vegan Cheese (Tofu Misozuke)
  4. Homemade Stock
  5. Mega-Mushroom Stroganoff
  6. "Chicken" Nuggets/Wings
  7. Grilled Cheese sandwiches

Caesar Salad dressing

Equal parts white miso, tahini, and lemon juice (usually 1T). Add 1t garlic powder & a splash of soy sauce or Bragg's. Combine thoroughly with fork or whisk. Thin with water to taste.

All-purpose Bread

Here's my basic bread recipe, from which I deviate as circumstances and experience dictate. It also doubles as a great pizza dough--you can get 2 or 3 crusts out of it depending on how thick you like them.

Ratios (Water:flour) [in cups]

Ingredients: Water, Sugar (any variety--I use maple syrup, cane sugar, or sometimes leftover wort from mashing malted barley when brewing), Yeast, Canola oil, Salt, Flour (I prefer unbleached)

Pour tap-hot water in a large bowl, and thoroughly dissolve 1T sugar per cup of water. When the solution is not quite blood-warm, pitch 1t yeast per cup of water. Let stand for 5-10 minutes to hydrate and proof.

You should see some activity at this point. Add 1T oil per cup of of water, and 1t salt per cup of water. Add 1 cup flour and mix well. Fair warning: this is where it gets messy.

Begin adding the remainder of the flour, mixing well. Once you have added the initial flour, begin kneading with your hands: push the forming dough ball to the sides of the bowl in a circular motion. Use flour on your hands if you get clubfinger. Continue kneading for 10 minutes--don't skimp--adding flour in little bits as needed until it starts feeling tacky rather than sticky.

Once the bowl is relatively clean again (i.e., the dough ball has picked up most of the flour from the bowl) and 10 minutes have elapsed, take the dough out and drizzle a little oil into the bowl. Roll the dough in the oil to coat the entire surface, and also try to get the sides of the bowl. Let the dough rest with a towel over the bowl for the next hour at room temperature, until it has doubled in size.

When the hour's up, if you have a bread pan, lightly oil it and put the dough ball into it. If you make a double batch, you might want to twist the dough into two balls and use two pans. (Here's instructions for braiding: http://www.secretofchallah.com/50708/Braiding-Instructions) Allow the dough to rise again for another half hour to an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375F, and gently put the bread pan(s) into the oven for 40 minutes. Check on them; they should be nice and brown on top. Give it another ten minutes if you feel like it, and then take the pan(s) out. If you wan to test for done-ness, pinch off some of the edge and examine the texture under the crust.

Allow them to cool! (Strictly optional, but it makes cutting easier.)

You should now have delicious bread. Achievement Get!

Vegan Cheese (Tofu Misozuke)

http://www.rauom.com/2011/05/24/tofu-misozuke-recipe/#more-1583

Homemade Stock

Save veggie ends when cooking. Things like onion tops, mushroom stems, garlic paper, herb stems--mostly anything is good, but we tend not to put lettuce in. Store the ends in the freezer in a gallon bag or similar, and when you fill the bag, put the contents in your stockpot and fill it up with 5 quarts of water.

Get it to a boil, and while it's heating up add a tablespoon or so of whole peppercorns, some soy sauce, and a small handful of dried mushrooms. Watch carefully for a boilover as it nears boiling, and when it gets there back the heat down to a simmer and let it cook with the lid on for an hour.

When it's time, take it off the burner and take the lid off. It's got to cool, which will take a few hours. NB: I usually start stock before 3pm to avoid doing the next step too late at night. Once it's cool enough to handle without scalding yourself, pour the liquid into your stock vessel (you'll want a strainer over it to catch the chunks). Then take some cheesecloth and squeeze a handful of vegetable matter, draining the liquid into the gallon pitcher. Make sure to give each handful several good squeezes--there's more water than you think is possible :) You can toss the wad of veg in the trash once you've extracted its vital...essence.

The whole extraction process will take about 30 minutes, but when you're done you'll have a gallon plus of stock. Use it in savory dishes instead of water--if you don't make soup, it can last up to 3 or 4 weeks!

Mega-Mushroom Stroganoff

Food:

Spices:

Just before you start veg prep, soak a little less than 3/4c TVP in 3/4c vegetable stock (or a water/soy sauce mix, but homemade veggie stock is cheap and easy to make). Then take a brick of silken tofu (I prefer the Mori-Nu aseptic packs) and mix in a food processor with about a tablespoon of olive oil, 1/4t salt, and about a half or whole lemon's worth of lemon juice (to taste; start with a half). This is the “sour cream.”

Once that’s out of the way, you just start throwing it all together. Basically you saute over medium heat a nicely-chopped onion and a stupid, ungodly amount of thinly-sliced mushrooms (though you might call it a godly amount if you’re a fungus-worshiper like myself). When that's ready (i.e., onions are turning transparent, and mushrooms are cooked down), add to that minced garlic (or granulated if you don’t feel like mincing garlic), and then some herbs (parsley and thyme are nice), salt, and pepper to taste. The black pepper is what makes this dish, so don't be stingy! Once most of the moisture is gone, add the TVP, which should have mostly soaked up the stock by now. It’ll add a little bit of moisture to the pan to deglaze any scorching. Cook the TVP for about 5 minutes, maybe 10 if you cut the heat down, and then add the sour cream. Let the heat get through it, stirring thoroughly, and when you start to see it bubbling again it’s chow time! I like to serve this over rice or short noodles. Egg noodles are traditional, of course, but if it’s got starch it’ll probably be ok.

This recipe changes just about every time I make it. Sometimes I play with the consistency of the sour cream; other times I change up the herbs or veg base. Celery is not unheard of, nor is eggplant. But I have laid out the basics, and it’s out there for you to play with now. Bon appetit!

"Chicken" Nuggets/Wings

Dry Ingredients:

Wet Ingredients:

Throw all the dry ingredients together and mix well with a fork, then add the liquids to it. Mix until it comes together, then knead with your hand for a minute or two to get all the dry gluten mixed in well, so there are no powdery gluten islands in the dough. Let stand for 10 minutes or so to allow the gluten to knit together, then preheat the oven to 400F and cut up the dough ball into 32 pieces onto a baking tray. (I use kitchen shears and cut by halves.) Bake for 17 minutes, or until the pieces look a little bit browned.

The zaatar is optional, but worth seeking out; it adds a nice depth to the flavor. Moisture balance is key in this recipe; if you go scant on the liquid, they turn into chicken bread puffs, which are interesting as well. Too much, and you must check them at the 17 minute mark to make sure they're not undercooked. It adds some fun to things :)

These seitan morsels are great for dipping in sauces. I originally stole the recipe from Vegan Dad, but have since made it my own. Sometimes I will cut the dough ball into slices instead to make patties, and bake for 20 minutes or a little more; it makes a decent crispy chicken sandwich.

Grilled Cheese sandwiches

Forthcoming

VeganRecipes (last edited 2013-03-17 22:43:44 by SteveKillen)