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I’m not sure if anyone has already tried this flavor combo.  I had two big oranges dying to be picked up and I was in the mood for some refreshing citrus flavor.  Thus the orange pancakes were born.  The batter was very easy to make.  Half all-purpose flour and half oat flour.  Maple syrup as the sweetener, with the help of some vanilla extract and plain soy milk.  Freshly squeezed orange juice added the fresh garden smell and taste.  I loved these mild and subtle orange-y pancakes.  Next time I will use orange zest to strengthen the orange flavor a bit.  Overall, it was a great experiment.

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I have been doing things, but I’ve just been lazy in posting them, so here goes:

Day #24: Fried Rice with Bok Choy and Scallions

Day #25: Hummus and Pita Chips

Day #26: Steamed Kale with Miso-Tahini Dressing

Day #27: Commonplace Notebook

(Traditionally, a commonplace book is a notebook where people copy reading quotations as they come across them. This, however, is a book where I’m hand-writing my favorite poems, and perhaps some prose quotes, so I can carry them around with me.)

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I’m very glad that I went back to cooking finally.  The udon noodles and bread were very good but I needed something more substantial and special.  I felt pretty bad for my busy husband too, though he would gladly eat pasta with broccoli and peas/beans every day.  A broccoli tofu sandwish would make a good snack for him.  After I made the first comeback soup - potato quinoa chowder, he commented, “now that’s something that smells really homemade.”  I was very happy to hear that.  I got the recipe from Laura Jesser’s “Eden in the Kitchen”.  Do check out Laura’s blog which is full of wonderful photos and great recipes.
The only thing I did differently is to use bok choy instead of cooked kale and I didn’t puree half of the soup at all.  I love the soft little chunks of potatoes in the chowder.

I haven’t made pancakes much in the past few weeks.  I’m usually a huge pancake fan.  I mean I can eat pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I haven’t been cooking lately but making a stack of pancakes doesn’t feel like work at all.  So this is my new pancake mix: coconut-banana-cranberry flavor.  The sweet and rich combination of coconut and bananas is highlighted and contrasted by the tangy cranberries.  I highly recommend eating these pancakes with vegan margarine.

Coconut-Banana-Cranberry Pancakes
(makes 6-7 large pancakes)

1 cup self-rising flour (or all-purpose flour plus 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/4 tsp. salt)
1 cup oat flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup coconut cream
3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla soy milk
1 over-ripe banana, mashed
1/2 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 to 4 1/2 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
1/2 + 1 Tbsp. dried cranberries

1. Sift the flour and oat flour with baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
2. In another bowl, mash the banana, and add coconut cream, soy milk, olive oil, vanilla extract and maple syrup.  Mix well.
3. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients gradually.  Mix the batter well.  The batter should be runny but not too thin.
4. Use a paper towel to lightly grease the pan and then put it on medium heat.  When the pan is hot, cook your pancakes away.

I don’t know how this happened but we suddenly got busy a couple of days ago so I had to skip the 14th and 15th things-a-day.  I was planning on making one more Valentine’s dessert.  I can still do it in the next few days.  Today I have a very fast recipe to share with you.  When you get busy and don’t feel like making something complicated or time-consuming, this is the one for you.  It took me only 15 minutes to make altogether including waiting for a pot of water to boil.  And it was such a delicious and healthy meal on a cold wintry morning.

Udon Noodles with Brussels Sprouts, Bean Sprouts and Edamame

(serves 1, but you can easily double it)

This noodle bowl has a very toothsome texture because of the edamame (fresh soy beans) which I love.  You can use fresh or frozen edamame.  Feel free to alter any ingredient or the amount to suit your taste.

1 package “instant” udon noodles (enough for 1 person)

8-9 shiitake mushrooms, wiped clean* (see notes below)

5 oz. Brussels sprouts

4 oz. soybean sprouts

1 package of fresh spinach

2 tsp. olive oil

2 tsp. toasted sesame oil

1.5 Tbsp. mushroom dark soy sauce

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. coriander

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1. In a pot, boil 8 cups of water together with shiitake mushrooms, Brussels sprouts and soybean sprouts.  (You can adjust the amount of water according to the vegetables you choose.)

2. When the water boils, add udon noodles.  Mine takes only 3 minutes to cook.  Towards the end throw in spinach.  Drain when the noodles are cooked.

3. Mix in olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic powder, paprika, coriander and black pepper.  Stir well and serve immediately.  Enjoy!

* Generally you shouldn’t wash mushrooms as they soak too much water and become mushy very quickly.  Use a paper towel to wipe them clean.

For Valentine’s Day, I was courageous enough to make half a batch of Brooklyn vs. Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes (VCTOTW, page 65).  My vegan pastry crème is not as clearly visible in the photo as in the cookbook but the taste is purely heavenly.  My rich chocolate ganache frosting came out a little thinner than usual this time (probably because I had a heavy hand in measuring the soy milk) but what the heck.  I’m still loving this batch of not-overly-sweet-and-super-rich cupcakes.

I’m still a little under the weather because I haven’t slept well for a couple of weeks.  A veggie goulash was screaming out to me since it’s comforting, soft, satisfying and healthy.  I used Sarah Kramer’s recipe in La Dolce Vegan! (page 140).  I cooked the goulash a little faster than required by the original recipe to keep the vegetables a little more crunchy.  It worked out really well.  I thoroughly enjoyed it with some udon noodles on the side and cornbread.  Yeah, I’m still loving the udon noodles.

Tonight I made a stir fry of bok choy and red onions for dinner. Actually, I suppose it’s closer to a braising of bok choy and red onions, but whatever, I’m not particular. The sauce over them was good, but I put way too many fennel seeds in it. Everything still turned out OK though.

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This is very similar to what I made yesterday.  I’m madly in love with udon noodles now.  Instead of dark soy sauce, I used sea salt and garlic powder.  I added a little more sesame oil and miso and used two different types of mushrooms: dried shiitake mushrooms and the other, I have no idea.  They have much fatter stems than the enoki mushrooms but taste a little like the oyster mushrooms.  So they add a natural seafood flavor to the noodles.  I have to share the photo here since I love how the noodle bowl looks.

This is a very simple dish.  We’ve been really busy so I haven’t really cooked.  I’m still trying to get back into our regular routine.  Somehow I was craving for some Japanese noodles and nothing beats the easy-and-simple-yet-flavorful udon noodles.

Udon Noodles with Bok Choy and Seaweed
(serves 1)

1 pkg. udon noodles (cooking time according to the package instructions)
5 cups water
8-9 dried shiitake mushrooms
1/3 block extra-firm tofu, cubed
4 cups of baby bok choy, roughly chopped
Some Japanese seaweed (any type you like), torn into pieces
1 1/2 Tbsp. white miso
1 1/2 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
2 tsp. toasted sesame oil

1. Add dried mushrooms to the water in a pot and cook together.  Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to medium.
2. Add tofu cubes and stir in the miso.  Cook for 2 minutes.  One minute before everything is cooked, add bok choy.
3. Turn off heat when the noodles are done.  Add soy sauce, sesame oil and seaweed.  Stir.  Serve right away.

* Feel free to adjust all the ingredients to your own preference

Am I the only person who’s ever thought of taking a cookie cutter to tofu? I doubt it.

However, this project didn’t turn out quite like I’d planned. I made the broiled tofu recipe from Veganomicon, dipped my tofu in braising sauce, placed it on a lightly oiled baking sheet, put it in the oven, and set the timer for 5 minutes. The total broiling time in the recipe is 16 minutes, but knowing my oven as I do, I knew that it would probably be 8 minutes, so I went and did something else and came back with one minute left on the timer to find the pan smoking. I think the pan itself started cooking at the edges.

I don’t have a broiler pan, but just used a baking sheet as the recipe said to do. However, my baking sheets are cheap and have been in that “ruined, but not enough to throw out yet” state for months. Well, tonight was the clincher. I’m getting some proper steel baking sheets before I bake anything else.

Since only the edges of the pan burned, the tofu came out OK. It didn’t have the broiled texture that the recipe describes because it was only in the oven for four minutes, but it came out like lightly baked tofu and was still good.

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OK, after having missed a day I’m back with some more soup. This time, it’s Pookie Soup (so called for reasons I don’t care to disclose).

This soup isn’t very original or complicated, and I’m sure you could figure out how to make it on your own, but it’s special to me because it’s the staple soup of my household. Whenever there’s nothing around to eat, I always have the stuff on hand to make it. It’s a very free-form soup, but here’s the recipe.

• olive oil
• 1/2 medium-sized onion (I always use yellow onions sliced into half-moons)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
• any combination of the following spices to taste: oregano, thyme, marjoram, or rosemary (I usually just use two at a time)
• two cups heated cooking liquid (I usually do a cup of salted and a cup of unsalted stock, but you could do all salted or all unsalted, or you could just use water)
• 1 28-oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes in juice, chunked with the juice reserved
• some starchy, grain-y, or legume-y type thing, whatever you have around. I use
  • 1 15-oz. can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed, or
  • 1 15-oz. can of white beans, drained and rinsed, or
  • 1/2 cup long-grain rice (I prefer brown basmati), or
  • 1/2 cup couscous, or
  • 1 medium potato, cut into quarter-inch dice

  I like using these things over something, like say, kidney beans, which might overpower the other flavors.

How you make the soup ultimately depends on which starchy grain-y or legume-y type thing you’re using.

1. Heat however much olive oil you think you’re going to need in the bottom of a medium-sized pot.
2. If you’re using a potato, you’re going to have to fry/sautée it in the oil at medium heat for a long time before beginning the rest of the soup, probably 15-20 minutes or more, until the potatoes are tender. Then go on to step three. The advantage here is that you can chop and prepare everything else before hand.
3. If you’re not using the potato, sautée the onions until they’re soft, maybe 7-10 minutes.
4. Add the garlic and the spices and sautée for a couple more minutes.
5. Add the heated cooking liquid and the juice from the can of tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then turn down until it’s just simmering.
6. Add the chickpeas, beans, couscous, or rice. If you’re using the chickpeas or beans, just cook until they’re heated through, which should just take a couple of minutes. If you’re using couscous or rice, add another cup of water and then simmer. The couscous will only take 8-10 minutes to cook, while you’ll need to simmer the rice for 30 minutes or longer.
7. If using potato, add the tomatoes when the soup is simmering. If using chickpeas or beans, add the tomatoes with them. If using couscous or rice, add the tomatoes a few minutes before they’re done.
8. Serve hot. This makes about 5-6 bowls and tastes better the next day (what soup doesn’t?) If you used couscous, add another cup of water before storing. It really soaks up the liquid and no matter what you’ll probably have a gelatinous mass of couscous stew on your hands the next day. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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I can’t believe I’m posting here at this hour.  I feel like I haven’t slept in 2 days.  I actually feel as if I had been waiting for a midnight flight at the airport.  Obviously I wasn’t feeling too creative.  Anyway, it was my mother’s birthday and since she doesn’t like eating much sweet food, I made half a batch of vegan cupcakes for her.  They were the basic chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting (VCTOTW) and a strawberry cut into halves on top.  Both my husband and I took photos of the cupcakes.  I like both photos below so I decided to post them together.  The cupcake looked like a bunny rabbit, don’t you think?

Today I made the Revolutionary Spanish Omelette from Vegan with a Vengeance. It’s supposed to be cooked in a frying pan, but my pan hasn’t reached the point where I can bake something in it in the oven and not have to spend hours scrubbing it afterwards. So, I did it in my new 9 x 13 Pyrex casserole dish.

Since it’s vegan, the “egg” is a tofu mixture made yellow by saffron and flavored with spices. Like the traditional omelette, it has potatoes and onions baked in it. Doesn’t look like all that much, but it’s one of my favorite dishes and I enjoyed making it since I haven’t had it in a while.

This is when I realized how much I suck at using Photoshop.  I opted for the easy drag-and-drop Picasa in the end.  I never knew that I should save my food porn photos on my hard drive too.  I ended up digging through my albums everywhere.  But I am reasonably happy with my first desktop.  The resolution is only for 1280×768 though.  Feel free to download it.

Another small thing for today.

Miso soup is a staple of Japanese cooking. Miso is a fermented paste made from soybeans, rice, barley, or other beans. Chances are, if you’ve eaten at a Japanese restaurant, they brought you out a little complimentary bowl of soup with weird stuff floating in it. That’s miso soup.

I like miso soup because it’s simple and comforting, and you feel all healthy when you eat it. Since I’m vegan, miso soup is sort of my chicken noodle soup. I personally just like it with seaweed, tofu, scallions, and miso, but some people put chopped vegetables and mushrooms in it. Miso can be found in Asian groceries, health food stores, and might even be found near tofu in large grocery stores. At home we use brown rice miso, which is dark brown and has a strong flavor, but you can use whatever kind of miso you like. The seaweed can be found in Asian groceries, health food stores, and probably in the “ethnic” section of large grocery stores. The advantage to keeping the soup simple and leaving vegetables and mushrooms out is that it only takes a little while to prepare, but if you want to add them, put them in before the tofu and scallions and adjust the cooking time accordingly. So, here’s my recipe for

Simple Miso Soup

• 6 cups water + 1 more for diluting the miso
• 1 large (5 or 6 inches) or 2 small (3 or so inches) pieces of kombu, wakame, or nori (leave the kombu whole, but chop the wakame or nori into small pieces)
• 1/2 cup chopped scallions
• 7 0z. firm tofu (1/2 pack of the stuff like Nasoya sold in grocery stores) chopped into 1/4-inch dice, no need to drain it
• 3 or more tablespoons miso, depending on how strong you like the miso flavor and what kind of miso you have
• soy sauce or salt to taste

1. Put the seaweed in a pot with the water and boil for 5-10 minutes. If you’re using kombu, use tongs to remove it from the pot and discard it or use it for another recipe. If you’re using a more…edible variety of seaweed, just keep it in the pot.
2. Add the tofu and scallions and simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Then turn the heat to low.
3. Take a glass measuring cup with one cup of water and microwave it for a minute. Add the miso to the warm water and use a spoon to mash it against the side of the cup and dissolve it. Once the miso is mostly dissolved and the water in the pot is no longer boiling, add it to the pot. (Miso’s healthful properties are destroyed if it’s boiled.)
4. Chances are that the miso flavor will be OK, but the soup won’t be salty enough. Don’t use more miso as a means of salting the soup! By the time it’s salty enough, the miso flavor will be way too strong and you’ll have wasted half a container of miso on one pot of soup. Instead, use soy sauce or salt to season it.
5. Serve hot. This makes 3-4 regular size bowls of soup, or twice as many small bowls if you’re using it as an appetizer.

And here are my results from today:

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I’ve been way too busy to make much of a creative effort again. I still have to think what to do for the third day. But anyway, here’s the improved recipe for a whole wheat bread made with the bread machine. The good thing about this recipe is that there is no refined sugar in it. I only used pure maple syrup.

To make a 1.5 lb loaf

1 cup+1.5 Tbsp. soy milk
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. salt
1.5 Tbsp. maple syrup
3 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/3 tsp. bread machine yeast

Unfortunately, my first entry is a little lame. I simply created a dish from my pantry and fridge, out of necessity. It was very yummy and satisfying, but not like what I planned - I had wanted to write something about my favorite books for the first entry. But I was too busy to sit down for a couple of hours to organize my thoughts. I’ll try harder in the next few posts.

The Really Everything Casserole
(serves 2-3) - feel free to adjust the amounts of the ingredients according to your pantry situation

3 Tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cups chopped celery
1 Granny Smith apple, diced
1 stale roll with sunflower seeds, cubed
1 small carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 zucchini, chopped
3/4 cup English peas (pea pods), ends discarded and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup quinoa
2/3 (14 ounce) can butter beans
1 tsp. sage
3/4 tsp. rosemary
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tsp. salt

1. Over medium-high heat, heat up the olive oil for a minute, then sauté garlic, onion, celery, and apple until everything is lightly caramelized. Add zucchini and pea pods and sauté for a minute or two.
2. Add bread cubes, sage, rosemary, cinnamon and black pepper. Cook for 3-4 minutes until bread gets toasty. Add quinoa and mix well. You should see most vegetables and bread get coated with quinoa. Cook for 2 more minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F.
4. Pour in the vegetable broth and stir well. Bring to a boil and then cover to simmer for 20 minutes. When the quinoa is mostly cooked, add butter beans. Cook for 5 more minutes. Add salt to taste.
5. Bake in a deep casserole dish for 40-45 minutes.

See this and more vegan recipes (and other stuff) in my Vox blog.