Carrot Corriander Soup

This one's a classic adapted from the Juice for Life (now called Fresh) restaurant cookbook...

Ingredients:
3 tbsp ground corriander
2 large onions chopped
3 large carrots, diced
3 celery stalks, de-stringed and diced
2 tbsp dried marjoram
6 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp tomato paste (optional if you are worried about acidity)
1/2 teaspoon of umeboshi paste (optional if you can't find any but this is not only consider one of those alkalinizing "superfoods" (people down umeboshi tea as a hangover cure!) but also imparts the much-vaunted "umami" taste... this is invaluable for vegans as unami is usually achieved most easily with animal products like anchovy)
sufficient water to cover vegetables plus perhaps 1 inch above the surface of the vegetables

1 medium sweet potato, diced

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

In a dry heavy pot, toast the ground corriander for 1-2 minutes to release its fragrance, empty into a small bowl and set aside.

In the same pot, saute onions until translucent in olive oil. Add carrots and celery and around 1/2 tsp of salt. Keep stirring, and sauteing so that the water in the vegetables evaporates. Depending on your patience, you *may* wish to keep going to do the "pocket full of evil" aka pincage concoction I mention in an earlier post. Umami bomb! Highly effective but does take patience. Anyway, even if you just saute until things are looking soft and sticky, this will do.

Add dried marjoram, plus a bit more oil, stir, release fragrance. Add the garlic, stir, brown.
Add the tomato paste and/or umeboshi paste if your using them here plus a little water to make the paste more liquidy.... once it's at a state where all the vegetables are evenly coated by the tomato paste/umeboshi paste liquid, then stir in enough water to cover the vegetables plus 1 inch above the surface of the veggies. Add the sweet potato and then allow all of this to reach a boil, turn down to simmer and cook until sweet potato is done (around 20 minutes).

When everything is done, take off the heat, add fresh cilantro and puree the soup. I use an immersion blender and puree it right in the pot but if you are using a blender, you should let things cool before putting it in the blender. Depending on how smooth you want the soup, you can go to town with the pureeing or, leave a few veggies intact so you have something to chew on.

You're all done!

Feel free to garnish with things like:
fresh cilantro, tofutti soy cream cheese/sour cream.... but really, this soup is quite lovely on its own and also very nice if you serve some cooked udon noodles with it.

Herby red wine beans!

1/2 cup dried romano beans

1/2 cup black eyed peas

Soak beans overnight. In fresh salted (1 tsp sea salt) water, bring beans to boil, turn down and simmer until beans are tender (about an hour... but keep checking. The aim is to cook til tender but try not to let the beans burst their skins.... They are done when you blow on a bean the skin bursts)

In a large pot/skillet, heat up around 1 tbs olive oil, add 1 tsp dried marjoram and 1 tsp dried thyme, saute until fragrance is released then add 1 onion finely chopped and 2 cloves of garlic minced.

Dice:

2 carrots

1 turnip

6 new red potatoes or 1 large potato

2 portabello mushrooms or1 cups sliced cremini/white mushrooms

Add above vegetables to onions, cover skillet and continue to gently saute vegetables over a low heat to let mushrooms release juices and the root vegetables to start cooking in steam. Add 1/8 cup of dried porcini bits.

Add 1/2 cup of red wine to above and continue to cook gently.

Add the cooked beans.

When root vegetables are cooked, you're done!

Add freshly chopped parsley, black pepper and salt to taste.

Serve as is or with mashed potatoes or rice.

Pineapple Mushroom Tofu Surprise

Jessica says this is a triumph. When I bit into a king mushroom, I felt that I would never have to crave the savory texture and flavour of meat again.

Marinade:
Around a rounded tablespoon of grated fresh ginger
4 cloves of minced garlic
1/4 cup of cold-pressed sesame oil
3 tablespoons of organic soy sauce
3 tablespoons of rice vinegar
Chopped cilantro (about 1/4 cup)

Mix above in an oven proof pan. Add sliced tofu, king mushrooms, oyster mushrooms. Layer slices of fresh pineapple on top, pour more marinade on top (can just mix up more sesame oil/soy sauce/rice vinegar if need be). Leave to marinate for a half hour and then put into oven for around 30 minutes.

Add chopped bok choi and stir in for another 10 minutes.

Pincage (there's a cedilla accent under the "c")

Okay. I discovered the magic of pincage through my favourite food writer in the world, Francis Lam of Salon.com in this article.

If you only had one condiment in your fridge and you were a vegan and wanted something to make your beans, greens and rice go boing! this is it. Francis gives the classic recipe in the article sited above. The first one or two times I made pincage, I tried to follow all the instructions but couldn't bring myself to a) use that much olive oil and b) stand at the stove that long. Yet. Having confessed fully to my tendency towards impatience despite years of practicing meditation, I will say that when you take the time to chop all those onions, carrots, celery stalks and whatever other vegetables you might want to add, you begin to *get* the Slow Food Movement. You begin to feel that you have JOINED THE RANKS of those who pay ritual thanks to the earth and to the things it grows which feed you through FINE gourmet cooking. You begin to pay your respects to the gift of life by cooking these vegetables in a way that will bring out the best of their flavours and that will bring out the best in the food it is eventually combined with. Pincage gives depth, richness and... the utterly mouthwatering savoury umami effect (see here what umami is). It adds an extra dimension to your food.

So, having said all that, I very rarely follow all the instructions. Perhaps my most radical departure is that I just DUMP EVERYTHING INTO A HOTPOT, TURN ON HIGH AND LEAVE IT FOR HOURS. There. No standing at the stove. I pay my respects while chopping the vegetables which gives me plenty of time to continue TINKERING with the basic onion/carrot/celery combo. I often add lots that Francis doesn't mention.

Today's pincage involves:

• half a celery root
• one onion
• 5 carrots
• 4 stalks of celery
• 1 parsley root
• 4 cloves of garlic

Chop the above into fine dice and place in slow cooker. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of sea salt and a teaspoon of whole green peppercorns. Stir, put on lid, turn slow cooker on high and leave the whole thing for a few hours (like 3-4)... then add tomato paste... leave for a few more hours. Be prepared to completely forget that you are cooking something until savoury fragrances begin to waft through the house. You will have forgotten and you will begin to wonder, what is that wonderful smell? Are the neighbours cooking something? Is there a new restaurant that opened nearby? And then you will remember, HEY, *I'm* making pincage!

Once pincage is done, you can add it to things like:

• cooked beans (I like them with beans like romano and white kidney that are often used in French or Italian cuisine... a bean that has sufficient mealy volume to soak up the glorious umami savoury goodness of the pincage... i.e. not so much adzuki bean but perhaps green lentil)
• plain rice with fresh parsley
• cooked soba noodles
• on top of cooked polenta
• spread on a baguette
• as a dip for natchoes!
• to squash based or carrot based soups that need some zing!
• (I haven't tried this yet but...) how about mixing in with some miso, add cooked red kidney beans plus perhaps some cooked couscous for instant minestrone???
• on top of couscous (of course)
• with quinoa (why not while we're at it?)

Pincage is great for Sunday/long weekend Monday afternoons and when you have a busy week ahead of you and you know you will be liable to come home hungry and depleted and not know what to cook. Once you have pincage, you have a gourmet meal at your disposal within minutes.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010: Adzuki Bean with Tarragon-Dill Tempeh Slices

Soak adzuki beans over night.
Bring to a boil in water with sea salt and reduce heat to a gentle simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Add diced sweet potato/turnip/carrots... sweet root vegetables and cook until everything is tender (total cooking time around 40 minutes)

Also night before, marinate tempeh in:

• Minced fresh tarragon
• Minced fresh dill
• Lemon juice
• Soy sauce
• Olive oil

When beans are done, drain them well. Add a little olive oil in a frying pan and saute the tempeh slices until nicely brown. Place tempeh slices on top of beans and pour the marinade over everything.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010: Maple-Dijion Mustard Sauce

Originally found in "Vegan with A Vengence" (a fine cookbook for beginner vegans, you can get a taste of this cookbook's approach at the website Post-Punk Kitchen www.theppk.com)...

Add together:

• 2 tbs prepared dijon mustard
• equal amount of maple syrup or to taste
• 1 clove minced garlic (to taste... I use less because I find really garlicky things leave an aftertaste in my mouth which then makes me hungry even when full)
  
• around 1 tbs extra-virgin olive oil... I usually just add enough to make it the right consistency to coat whatever I'm applying this sauce to
• around 1 tbs soy sauce

And stir.

For Green Beans, Onions/Shallots and Potatoes: in an oven-proof dish with a cover, place potatoes and onions, toss with the sauce and roast until done (maybe around 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees F)... at the last minute, add green beans which cook in less than five minutes

For Baked Tofu Slices: Marinate your tofu in the maple-mustard sauce over night and then bake everything for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. You could also add vegetables like brocoli and carrots in there but then it will take longer and you should cover to ensure faster baking (also, add the brocoli when the carrots are just about done otherwise your greens will go khaki brown)...

I imagine this sauce would be good for baking a kebab... like extra firm tofu cubes, mushroom caps, sweet onion, cherry tomato, red/green pepper... assemble everything on skewers, marinate in sauce and then stick it in the oven

Monday, June 28, 2010: Ginger Juice

It's refreshing! helps digestion! AND reduces excessive inflamation (allergies, asthma, muscle injury, zits, sore throat... basically when your tissues start to get puffy due to perceived and actual attack and your cells need assistance in metabolizing excess toxins and fluids, get out the GINGER JUICE!)

Also this really really tastes yummy and much better than any soda pop I've tasted.

For up to four cups of ginger juice:

• Peel and mince at least 2 inches of ginger into a glass pitcher
• Add the juice of at least 1 lemon
• For every lemon used, add 1/4 cup of agave nectar
• Pour hot water over this mix to help the agave nector to melt and then top up with cool water

That's it! store in fridge! Jessica says even reading the recipe for this makes her happy because this tastes SO good!