Veganizing

As many of you know, I love the Food Network. I don't know what it is, but I find food tv mesmerizing. All that chopping and dicing and close-ups and colors, I just get so happy and relaxed. :) The only down side to all this is that most of the dishes prepared are not vegan. But do I get all sad-faced and change the channel? No way! I figure out how to veganize. For example, the other day Ina Garten aka The Barefoot Contessa make a pea soup that looked so yummy, only she used butter, chicken stock, and sour cream. Blech. But make the same recipe with Earth Balance, No-Chicken Broth, and Tofutti Sour "Cream", and we're good to go. Top with some organic garlic croutons, and you've got our lovely dinner from last night:


This soup is perfect for a cold day when you long for spring because it's hot and satisfying, yet lightened up by the fresh mint and pea flavors. Make the substitutions I mentioned above and enjoy!

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts (2 leeks)
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion
• 4 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 5 cups freshly shelled peas or 2 (10-ounce) packages frozen peas
• 2/3 cup chopped fresh mint leaves, loosely packed
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup creme fraiche
• 1/2 cup freshly chopped chives
• Garlic croutons, for serving

Directions

Heat the butter in a large saucepan, add the leeks and onion, and cook over medium-low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until the onion is tender. Add the chicken stock, increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Add the peas and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until the peas are tender. (Frozen peas will take only 3 minutes.) Off the heat, add the mint, salt, and pepper.

*Puree the soup in batches: place 1 cup of soup in a blender, place the lid on top, and puree on low speed. With the blender still running, open the venthole in the lid and slowly add more soup until the blender is three-quarters full. Pour the soup into a large bowl and repeat until all the soup is pureed. Whisk in the creme fraiche and chives and taste for seasoning. Serve hot with garlic croutons.

Club Waziema

Finally. It may have taken me a while, but I got myself (with the help of a friend, of course) to Club Waziema last night. Why it took so long I have no idea. Maybe because I already have an Ethiopian restaurant I like? Maybe because it is so close to Herbivore that I am always drawn through their doors instead whenever in proximity? Neither are good excuses, and I should be ashamed of myself for not coming here sooner.

I don't even know where to begin. I love everything about Waziema. At its essence, it's a dive bar. It's dark with dark wood and red velvet wall paper that you can (and should!) pet while dining. You may have to get your own napkins and flag down staff for any other needs, but that's part of the charm. Even more charming, however, is the food. Not only is it warm, soul-satisfying, mostly organic goodness, served alongside the spongiest injera ever, but if you come before 8pm, it's all-you-can-eat. Yes, you read that right. You pay the price on the menu for whatever it is you want (we had the veggie combo for 2) and then they bring you more of it on demand. It is a beautiful thing:

Needless to say that anytime me or one of my others has a hankering for Ethiopian food, I will be headed over to Club Waziema.... and then maybe over to Herbivore for dessert. :)

Recipe For the Best Valentine's Day Ever

Start with two tablets of Simply Sleep the night before so you can make up for all the short nights of rest you've been getting lately.

After ten hours, get out of bed and go to the gym. Feel good about yourself.

Use the rainy day as an excuse to stay inside with your husband all day. Have him shower you with gifts:


When you get good and hungry, walk to Greens and have the most fantastic dinner. I gotta tell ya, Greens has really stepped up their vegan game lately. I was told that for their Valentine's prix fixe menu there would be a vegan choice for every course but I was shocked and happy to hear that all the choices on the menu could be made vegan. That made decisions harder of course, but here's what I went with:

Cheese Plate with Olive Tapenade and Roasted Almonds

So this was the mandatory first course that everyone got. I knew the cheese was not for me, but that the hubby would have some so it was fine. The almonds and olives were yummy, especially with the bread and olive oil we got (not pictured). A great start to the meal!



Grilled Artichokes with Butter Beans


This creamy savory delight balanced flavors perfectly between some bitter endive and the earthy artichokes. One of the best dishes I've had anywhere in a long while.




Carrot-filled Ravioli with Greens

On the menu this was a goat cheese ravioli, but I don't think any vegetarian would have minded receiving this dish. Light and refreshing, it was scrumptious AND still left me with room for dessert.




Chocolate Mousse Cake

There was only one vegan dessert option, but I have no complaints. This was exactly what a girl wants to eat on Valentine's Day. Rich, intense chocolate mousse on a cookie crust with shaved chocolate on top. Oh yeah. Heaven.



The best part? We brought our own bottle of wine (see gifts above) from Robert Sinskey and used a $100 Open Table gift certificate that we had, so we made out like bandits. The walk back up the hill to get home was a little brutal being so stuffed and all, but once there, it was nothing but relaxing for us. In fact, I'm back on the couch now after a great breakfast of granola and berries and ready for another day of watching the rain fall. Ahhhh.....

I hope you all had great V-Days as well and are enjoying the rest of this long weekend. Lots of love ot you and yours!

For the Love of Chocolate

Hello ladies: I'm talking to you today. Sure, the boys can listen in if they want, but they may not like what they're about to hear. We all know that Valentine's Day (tomorrow for those of you in a cave) is supposed to be about celebrating love and partnership and romance. But what us ladies know is that we can have that any old day if we play our cards right. What we want on Valentine's Day is chocolate. Lots of it. Preferably in a heart-shaped box, like so:


Don't get us wrong, boys, we love you, we do. But us girls get down-right giddy at the thought of having an excuse to indulge in our favorite food. Myself, I prefer the darkest, richest, chocolate I can find. Considering how much I like this "food of the gods", I really don't eat it that much (I've got genetics to battle my friends) so VDay is a chance to go nuts. Speaking of which, nuts are a welcome addition to my chocolate party, as are fruity centers and caramel. All vegan of course. Used to be that such things were hard to come by, but now quite a few of vegan chocolate companies exist. A few of my recommendations include Allison's Gourmet, Sjaak's, Rose City, and Chocolate Decadence. The latter is a personal favorite, and I'm hoping their heart-shaped chocolate box (yes, the BOX ITSELF is even made of chocolate!) appears in my hands tomorrow.

By the way, the heart-shaped box thing is key. There is something about eating chocolate from said shape that just makes it taste better. One year the hubby (bless his soul) thought he was being super awesome and got me a ton (well, a shoebox full anyway) of different vegan bars from around the world. I knew it took effort, and showed lots of love, but this is Valentine's Day dammit. The heart box matters. I'm just sayin'.

So, ladies, I wish you the happiest and tastiest of Valentine's Days. And, even though it may be too late for this year, you might consider nudging your sweetie to go vegan for VDay chocolate. I swear to you there is no difference in taste, but a huge difference in the amount of suffering your love produces. Now indulge!

Burma Superstar

First, I'd like to acknowledge that I can not think about this restaurant without singing its name to the tune of "Ghetto Superstar." Now that I've got that off my chest, let's move on....

I've wanted to eat here for a while now. I've heard tales of their devoted fan base and in-your-face flavors, but wasn't convinced of their ability to be vegan friendly. After all, a lot of the menu included dried shrimp. So, I let some years go by and forgot all about BS. Then, I was shown two signs within a week which let me know it was time to head to the famed Inner Richmond restaurant. The first was an email from PETA (yup, I get those emails) in which they were overjoyed to announce the opening of a BS location near their offices in Oakland, going on to name some of their fave vegan dishes. The second was that the Tea Leaf Salad appeared on the Big Eat list. A good friend of mine is trying to hit all 100 things on said list, and I am always happy to accompany someone on a food journey.

We were to meet at 7 but I arrived early in hopes of getting our name on the list. Even though it was Tuesday, there was still a long line. Always a good sign in my book. We waited about 20 minutes and were finally let in to the tiny space. We were seated right by the window so everyone waiting outside could salivate over our food. They were also salivating every time the door opened because the smell that wafted onto the street was intoxicating. Granted I was very hungry, but Burmese food is a like a combo of two of my favorite cuisines - Thai and Indian - and the spices are quite olfactory to say the least. It was all I could do refrain from yelling out "Bring on the food!" as soon as we sat down.

In keeping with the "must eat now" mentality, we ordered the Tea Leaf Salad right away. The menu says that it will "change your perception of what a salad can be..." I'm not too sure about all that but it was really good. Made with all sorts of crunchy lentils, peanuts, veggies, and (of course) fermented tea leaves, it is a unique and flavorful way to start the meal. The black stuff is the tea:


Next up we had a PETA favorite, the Samusa Soup. Made of a rich veggie broth and filled with cracked samusas (like Indian samosas but with a "u".... and a slightly different flavor profile), falafels, and lentils, this hearty soup was awesome, and was the highlight of the meal for me. I can't wait to order it again....


We also got some super yummy broccoli with fried onions. Wok-tossed in a simple white wine and garlic sauce, they were a bright and light contrast to the richness of the soup:


All things said and done, I'm sad it took me so long to get to Burma Superstar. I'd say I'll be going back soon, but so many people have told me that Mandalay right down the street has far superior food (hard to believe) without the lines, so I will probably hit that up first. Meanwhile, I'll be humming through the rest of my day. "Burma Superstar, that is what you are. Coming from afar, reaching for the stars. Come away with me, to another place. We can rely on each other, uh huh......."

More Adventures in Phyllo

As you may have guessed, I haven't been in any restaurants lately. Life's been busy, and we're trying to save money like everyone else, so it just makes more sense to cook at home. Luckily there are plenty of recipes I've wanted to try and I'm busting out all the cookbooks that have gathered dust for so long. Sometimes, though, I like to fly by the seat of my pants and just cook what comes to me. Today was such a day. Inspired by the phyllo dough I had leftover from the baklava, I decided to make savory phyllo cups for dinner. I saw Sandra Lee do it on Semi-Homemade with creamed spinach and feta (ick) but it seemed easy enough to fill them with anything. I scrounged around the cupboards a bit and decided on a mixture of croutons that I ground to crumbs, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, and Field Roast Italian sausages. The latter three I chopped pretty fine and tossed with the breadcrumbs. Here's the mixture:


Next, I simply prepped the phyllo by putting together 4 layers (using spray olive oil in between each one), cutting them into squares and shoving them into cupcake molds. Then I just filled them with the mixture, topped with 3 cherry tomatoes a piece and baked them for about 25 minutes. Here they are about to go in the oven:


I knew that would be some savory goodness, so I wanted to serve it with something fresh and light. I sauteed a big bunch of spinach in some olive oil with garlic, lemon, and the artichokes that didn't make it into the filling. Viola! The perfect side. This meal was a winner. If I were to do it again, I would use plain croutons or breadcrumbs. My "Italian Herb" variety brought a little too much salt to the table and kind of overwhelmed the sausage flavor. Still, not bad for a first go!


As much fun as I have cooking, we all know that I'd much rather be waited upon, and I don't have long to wait! I've got plans to hit up Burma Superstar for the first time (I can't believe it either) on Tuesday, and dinner at old favorite Greens on Valentine's Day, so stay tuned. I'm off to see Coraline. I'll review it on Flixster of course. :)

The Joy of Vegan Baking Comes Through Again

I love phyllo dough. A lot. I love that you can stuff things in it, layer things between it, or throw stuff on top of it. I love that it gets so crunchy and airy and golden brown. It's the best. It's no wonder then, that I love baklava. This Turkish treat is made up of layers and layers of phyllo, pistachios, honey, and butter, and I had not had any in the longest time. Vegan baklava is hard to come by and working with phyllo seemed to be a super difficult task. Then, the other day, I was walking past the freezer section at Whole Foods and vegan organic phyllo dough caught my eye. Visions of baklava started dancing around in my brain, and I seemed to remember a recipe in the TJOVB for a vegan version. I forced aside my anxiety about working with this delicate pastry and grabbed a box.


Turns out I had nothing to worry about! Sure, it took time to brush all those layers with Earth Balance, but time consuming does not equate to difficulty. If anything, my labor made the final product all the sweeter. And sweet it was... maybe even a little too sweet! In place of honey, the recipe calls for an agave/simple syrup mixture. In addition to that, there is an optional 1 Tbs of sugar in the pistachio mix that I think i would leave out next time so that the cinnamon and cloves are more prominent than the sweetness. But other than that, this baklava is awesome. I wish I could say that it all got gobbled up at our Super Bowl party, but I don't think anyone had much room left after downing all the chips and guacamole (a huge hit by the way). Those who did try it, loved it, and I got to have plenty for myself. Never a bad thing.


So, the moral of the story is don't be afraid of phyllo. It's easier than you think. In fact, I'm already conjuring up ideas for "sausage" and kale phyllo pouches. Mmmmm......