Daring Cooks Challenge – Risotto

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

It’s been awhile since I’ve made risotto, and even longer since I’ve made my own broth. I made the broth last weekend, using the Roasted Vegetable Broth from my giant Gourmet cookbook. I chose onions, mushrooms, peppers, carrots, and garlic to roast, and seasoned the veggies with sage and parsley.

When they were done, I added them to a pot with water, a can of tomatoes, and bay leaves.

After simmering 30 minutes or so, I was left with a rich tasting, delicious broth.

Instead of discarding the veggies, I ate them for dinner!

Today I made the risotto. I’m sure you know I wanted to make a mushroom risotto, but since I was taking it to share with my young nephews, I used only onions. I got the onions nice and golden.

Then added in the rice, and the broth, about a half cup at a time.

And done!

Creamy, oniony deliciousness for everyone to enjoy.

Lots of Mushrooms and Joyous News!

There’s excitement in the eat’n veg’n family, but first let’s see how mushroom crazy I’ve been lately.

Along with plenty of the fresh variety, I snagged a huge bunch of dried mushrooms from Costco in Alabama. I don’t love rehydrated mushrooms, but they’ll do in a pinch, especially when they’re rather exotic.



I’ve made all these yummy dishes:

Broccoli and Mushroom Stirfry

Snap Peas and Mushrooms

Purple Cabbage with Mushrooms and Pickled Ginger. Isn’t it colorful!!!

In addition to all the mushrooms, I’ve really been enjoying the seasonal produce.

Roasted Cauliflower with Tandoori Spices

I got this beautiful kale in my CSA box.

I steamed it with some green garlic, also from my box.

I’m eating clean these days, pretty much low fat high raw until at least March 27. What’s so special about March 27? That’s the day Chase gets married!!!!! I’m so excited I can hardly stand it!

Daring Cooks Challenge - Satay

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

I made this challenge the day after coming off my detox. The only requirement to this challenge was to marinade, so I took that quite literally. I chose to prepare Portobello mushrooms in the marinade recipe given (without the oil). I put my mushroom in a big plastic bag.

I made the marinade.

And then I poured the marinade into the bag and let it do its thing in the fridge for a couple of hours.

I didn’t skewer the mushrooms, just pan seared them.

Before I got the mushrooms in the pan, I made myself a side dish of Swiss chard. First I cooked the stems with a bunch of onion.

Then I added in the whole bunch of greens.

Those brown mushrooms needed some color. The final product was beautiful and delicious!

I’m posting from my sister’s home in Alabama so if this format looks weird I apologize. I still want to hear your “must make” recipe ideas for our vegan dinner party!

More Greens!

I’m sorry I’ve been such a lazy blogger. Guess I’ve also been a lazy cook. I’m just enjoying the greens that come in my CSA box. This past weekend I got a beautiful bunch of greens, including Romaine lettuce, mustard greens, Red Russian kale, Swiss chard, cilantro, and turnips with tops.




I also got this….

… which I think is a Black Spanish radish. It’s the biggest radish I’ve ever seen! I haven’t cut into yet. It’s still sitting in my kitchen waiting for me to decide when and how to use it.

This particular dinner of greens was cooked with fresh onions and tomatoes and seasoned with a mustard sauce. Alongside is some lentils and rice.

I’m sure you are all as busy as I am these days. I have a party and a cookie swap to bake for, and another Challenge coming up, so I will be posting some yummy treats soon!

Fresh Fall Food

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been eating rather simply lately, just enjoying the plain fresh taste of the season’s harvest. My past 2 farm boxes were most excellent.

Two things I adore this time of year are all the greens, and romano beans. If you’re not familiar with romanos, they are giant, flat green beans. In my last CSA box I got a 2 pound bag! I simply steam the beans about 5 minutes, then eat them like french fries. Sometimes just with sea salt.

Sometimes with nooch.

And sometimes I dip them in marinara sauce.

With all the peppers and onions I’ve gotten, they make a tasty addition to whatever greens I cook. Plus they really add nice color.

My favorite way to eat greens is with onions and mushrooms. I’ve just been crazy for mushrooms lately!

I splurged on a spaghetti squash and must say it turned out to be a fantastic purchase. I don’t know if my oven karma was just right or if I’ve finally learned to pick out good winter squashes, but this was hands down the sweetest, best spaghetti squash ever. I could have eaten it straight out of the shell. But I made it into a meal topped with spaghetti sauce and sides of greens and broccoli. Heavenly!

I want to compliment all of you who prepared Thanksgiving dinners. No matter how elaborate or cozy, you all made some amazing meals - bravo!

PS – Try some romano beans!

Daring Cooks Challenge - Sushi!

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

Hooray for a fun vegan challenge!

The challenge was in four parts:-

Part 1: Making proper sushi rice – wash, rinse, drain, soak, cook, dress, and cool short grain rice until each grain is sticky enough to hold toppings or bind ingredients. Then use the cooked rice to form three types of sushi.
Part 2: Dragon sushi roll – an avocado covered inside-out rice roll with a tasty surprise filling.
Part 3: Decorative sushi – a nori-coated rice roll which reveals a decorative pattern when cut.
Part 4: Nigiri sushi – hand-shaped rice rolls with toppings.

I’ve mentioned many times how poor my rice making skills are. Part 1 was obviously my biggest challenge. I prepared the rice exactly as per the instructions. After all the rinsing and soaking, I put the rice in a big pot along with a piece of kombu.

I am thrilled to report that my sushi rice turned out perfectly! Quite unlike my usual attempts at making a proper rice. Look at all those individual grains.

For the rest of the challenge I made a small batch of each type of roll. The inside out roll took me a couple of tries, but surprisingly I had a rather easy and fun time making all the sushi.

TexMex sushi is quite popular here, so that was the inspiration for Part 2. My Inside-Out Dragon Roll was filled with spicy sweet potatoes and black beans.

I topped him with avocado and then plated him with cilantro and sriracha legs, and a green onion tongue and head decoration. He was deeeeelicious!

Part 3, the Spiral Roll, was simply filled with colorful veggies – cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, and red bell peppers.

Nothing fancy, but quite pretty and so fresh tasting.

Finally, Part 4, the super easy Nigiri Rolls. Simply topped with a smear of wasabi paste and shitake mushrooms.

Chase and I ate as much as we could for a fabulous late lunch. Thanks again to the hosts for providing such great instructions. Click here for recipes, including the perfect sushi rice.

Favorite Pumpkin Stew

I made this stew Halloween night. It’s so yummy, much a like a chili but sweet with pumpkin and corn. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Pumpkin, Corn, and Bean Stew
(Also known as Three Sisters Stew)
Adapted from 150 Vegan Favorites

Yield: 4 large servings

Ingredients:
1 T. vegetable or canola oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 15 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes
1 T. sweet paprika
1 T. dried Mexican oregano
1 t. ground cumin
½ t. salt
½ t. crushed red pepper
½ t. black pepper
3 T. fresh parsley (or 1 T. dried)
4 cups diced pumpkin or winter squash
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups frozen sweet corn kernels
1 15 oz. can red or pink beans, drained and rinsed

Directions:
Heat oil over medium heat in a 3 quart sauce pan. Add the onions and garlic. Cook and stir until soft and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and spices and cook a few more minutes. Add pumpkin and broth and bring to a simmer. Cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, or until the pumpkin is tender. Add in the corn and beans and heat through, about 10 more minutes. Thicken the stew by mashing some of the pumpkin. Enjoy as is or over a bed of grains.




There were so many outstanding MoFo posts this year! Congratulations to all of you who participated.

If you want to wish me a Happy Veganiversary, November 1 was Year 4!

Daring Bakers Challenge - French Macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

This challenge was not a vegan friendly one. In fact, the hostess pretty much said, Vegans, I don’t know what to tell you. Unlike American macaroons, French macarons are basically meringue sandwich cookies. Now I did previously have success making egg replacer meringue, but that was folded into a cake batter. This time I would need to fold almond flour into the meringue and bake it. Instead of agonizing over forming a perfect replica in vegan form, I decided to just have fun with my vegan interpretation.

I made meringue and tinted it orange. These will be Halloween cookies.

It freaks me out to use too much food coloring, so my orange is rather pale.

Rather than grind a whole cup of expensive raw almonds into flour, I used 1/3 cup ground almonds, 1/3 cup ground peanuts, and 1/3 cup ground….

Banana chips!

I folded the flour mixture into the meringue and piped the batter onto baking sheets and baked as directed. I have never eaten macarons so I’m not sure these are the proper texture. I can tell you that I ended up calling them *pillows* because they were super fluffy and soft with a slightly crisp edge.

I made a chunky peanut butter filling. Before I show you my final product, this is what real macarons look like:

Photo from davidlebovitz.com

Knowing I could not create anything remotely equal to those gorgeous cookies, I grabbed a few chocolate chips and created these little monster treats.

They are gluten free, tasted good, and were fun to bake, and they're spooky, right? So I count this challenge as a success. Also, please see Hannah’s perfectly successful vegan macarons – amazing!

Tandoori Vegetable Bake, Collards, and Fried Squash

An eclectic meal, but a very very delicious one. Of course I prepared all this in the hopes my son would join me for dinner, but I guess Sunday dinners aren’t just going to happen for us anymore.

The Tandoori Vegetable Bake was easy to put together. Combine chopped broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, red peppers, carrots, fire roasted tomatoes, garlic, onions, and a can of chickpeas in a big bowl and season with salt and pepper. Mix in cashew cream sauce (1/2 cup ground cashews and 1 cup nondairy milk) and a heaping tablespoon of tandoori spice mix. Put in a big casserole and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly (and your entire house smells divine).




This was a huge casserole! Thankfully Chase was able to come to dinner on Tuesday and eat leftovers with me. I served it with rice and then he took all the rest home with him. Yum.

For my Sunday dinner though, I found two recipes in Local Bounty I wanted to try. I had mentioned earlier that I wanted to make squash chips from my Flying Saucer squash, but I decided to fry them instead. I know! I never fry anything but this recipe was too intriguing. It’s used with several different veggies in the book and I will certainly find more veggies to fry this way again. The batter is so unique (it’s cooked!), and instead of flour the squash was coated in masa harina. Now I really sag at frying because I never do it, but this was the best fried anything I’ve ever eaten. Chase really missed out on these!

Also from Local Bounty was a simple recipe for collard greens. The *secret* was to cut the collards into thin ribbons.

Then they are just sautéed in oil and garlic. I don’t know that they tasted any better, but they did taste good and they do look very nice. And I ate them all. So here’s my lovely little Sunday dinner plate.

This Sunday is another Austin Food Bloggers potluck. The theme is beer and it should be lots of fun.