Nayonaise/Vegenaise

Okay guys, I just had a dressing with Nasoya Nayonaise in it. This is the first time I have tasted this mayo replacement.

It totally resembles the taste of MAYOnnaise more than Vegenaise.

Argument/Discussion Begin..... NOW

Food and Science!

So I have been obsessed with this molecular cooking craze for a while now and I bought some ingredients to fuck around with. Being the exhibitionist that I am, I was over excited and wanted to share my experiment with everyone.

What I bought to play with:

Sodium Alginate- This is a thickening agent that is a sodium compound from the cell walls of brown algae.

Calcium Chloride- This is a type of salt usually used in cheese making, and mainly as a dehydrating agent.

So I guess there was no science behind what I did because it was nature at its best doing what it does. I kind of just kept playing around with measurements until i got something awesome.

So I made, in the end some cantaloupe caviar. It was pretty cool. It was:

Cantaloupe juice, strained through sieve

Sodium Alginate

Calcium Chloride

Water

So after juicing and straining the cantaloupe, I added the sodium alginate to the juice and put it in a syringe. Then I added the calcium chloride to like a cup of water. Then I dripped little drops of the juice in the water solution. It was very small amount of everything. I let it sit in there for like 1-2 minutes and moved it to just a plain water bath. It was a really cool texture. The reaction creates a gel on the outside and a liquid center. The gelling is irreversible even to fire. I have extra stuff if anyone wants to play around. I forgot what was all in the sauces they were just like thrown together.

This is what they looked like.

Food With a Little Soul

A couple of nights ago me and Dave wanted to make a meal. We didn't have a theme as that's the norm for us. He said he was making mac and cheese. Soul, the next thing we know is that we want a light soul food undertone. With little time and even less disagreement we settled on a few dishes, invited some more people, and stuffed ourselves.

Dave did us well with an awesome mac n cheese which is a soul food staple, and this awesome spicy broccoli soup that could be at any dinner table no matter what the theme.

I added to the mix by making greens, Hoppin' John, and Corn Bread. Here's how it went down:

Collard Greens

1 bunch of organic collards

6 cups of water

2 tsp better than bouillon

salt pepper

2 cloves garlic

Add bouillon , garlic, salt and pepper to your water and bring to a simmer. Rough chop your greens and add them to the simmering pot. Let them simmer on low for about a half hour. Serve them with some broth and enjoy.

Hoppin John

2 cans black eyed peas

1 package fake bacon

1 large onion

2 cloves garlic

6 cups cooked rice

olive oil

salt

pepper

First get your rice cooking. Then dice your bacon,onion and garlic. Add a little olive oil to your saute pan. add the bacon onion and garlic to the pan with a bit of salt and pepper. Cook over medium high heat for about 6 minutes allowing for all the flavors to blend. Then add your peas to the pan with more salt and cook for about two more minutes. When the rice is ready add the bean, bacon and onion mix to the rice. It is a very tasty dish.

Corn Bread

unbleached flour

cornmeal

agave

rice milk

brown sugar

baking powder

cream of tartar

olive oil

salt

I forgot the measures for the corn bread mix but its pretty simple. You can kind just throw it together. Make sure you only use a tiny amount for the baking powder and cream of tartar. But mix this stuff up, grease a baking pan and bake for at 375 for about 12-15 minutes.

Serve with friends and beer and enjoy!

Photos courtesy of Dave's iPhone

Coco-Fever

I've been having a craving for a peanut butter cup recently because its been so long. The other other night me and c had a chocolate cook out. We made chocolate peanut butter cups, chocolate cups stuffed with a maple-walnut ganash, and chocolate walnut rounds. Best part about it was that it was all vegan!

Chocolate peanut butter cups
24 oz chocolate
2 cups peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp earth balance
tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
pack of wax paper cups

To make the peanut butter filling add the peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla, earth balance, and salt in a sauce pan. Cook until everything is mixed. Cool it in the freezer until its firm but not frozen. Reserve

To make the maple walnut ganash take a 1/2 cup of the melted chocolate and mix it with some crushed walnuts, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 2tbsp of maple syrup. Mix well. It will really sticky at first but eventually it form a ball. Chill. Reserve.

Melt your chocolate in a double boiler. After it is melted let it sit in the boiler for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Set up the wax papers in a muffin pan to make it a little easier to fill them. Fill the papers just enough to cover the bottom of them. Put them in the freezer to harden them up. When the chocolate has firmed up spoon some of one of the fillings over them. (the ganash is a pain if its room temp) Them fill up the rest of the cup with melted chocolate. Put them in the freezer as well until they firm up as well. Close you eyes and enjoy.

To make the rounds use the melted chocolate and pour it into a greased muffin pan. Make the rounds real thin. Top with crushed walnuts and freeze. Super easy and oh so delicious.

Greek Themed Feast

Man it feels good to post again. Its been forever & now I finally have my camera again. This is a feast all the way back from valentines day. I made at the last minute not knowing what we really wanted to eat or having much time to really make anything extravagant. So we quickly picked a theme and it came together pretty alright. Its not too pretty but it was damn delicious.

On the menu

Gyros
Grilled 'lamb' Kabobs
Stuffed grape leaves
Hummus
Rice and lentils
Tzatziki

The Gyros

Da Meet

3 cups vital wheat gluten

1tsp tapioca starch

coriander

cumin

cumin seeds

cardamom

sage

onion powder

1/2 onion

2 tbsp lemon juice

2tbs soy sauce

2 garlic cloves

3/4 cup water

tbsp sugar

Add everything together that's not the water or the flour. mix it up till you like the taste. Then add the flour and water.

Fix it into a nice log. Wrap in foil.

Steam this gentleman for about an hour checking your water level

so you don't burn your pan (like i did!)

When the the seitan is done cut it in half. use only one half and slice it really really

thin. If you have a serrated bread knife or a

slicer knife, that works good in absence of a mechanical slicer of

some type. Marinate the slices in cumin, coriander, salt, olive oil

sugar and pepper for about a hour or so.

The same meat can be used for the kabobs and for the grape leaves. Cut the remaining half into two pieces ,a bigger piece and a smaller piece. Cut cubes out of the bigger piece and mince or chop the small piece to put into the grape leaves.

Marinate the faux lamb cubes in lemon juice, coriander, cardamom, paprika, cumin, oil, and sage for about an hour and a half.

Grill it. Enjoy.

Stuffed Grape leaves

1 jar of grape leaves

Ground lamb seitan

2 cups cooked rice

3tbsp lemon juice

coriander

cumin

dill

1 cup of cooked lentils

salt and pepper

add all ingredients together. let sit four 20 minutes for flavors to be absorbed

traditionally the dolmas are steamed but for lack of time

we cooked the filling fully and c wrapped it in the raw leaves like a pro.

Rice and lentils

3 cups of rice

3 cups lentils

2 cloves garlic

2 onions

salt pepper

cumin

turmeric

lemon juice

add cooked rice and lentils together with olive oil salt and pepper lemon juice and cumin. sweat onions in saute pan with garlic and turmeric until nice and soft. add onions on top of lentils and rice bake in an oven at 350 for about 12 minutesto get the top of the mixture nice and crispy.

tzatziki sauce

1 tub vegan or Greek yogurt

half of a seedless cucumber

2 cloves garlic

lemon juice to taste

salt pepper

so now that we got everything..... cut up some lettuce, onion and tomato. grab so awesome olives, toast some pitaand oil and paprika up your hummus wrap a fat gyro and chow down.