Cream Gravy

By now, you must know the one and only rule of this site: I have to love it before I’ll post about it. It’s not enough to give something a shot, decide it was so-so, then post here about how I gave it a shot, so here’s the not-so-thrilling recipe. But, see, I gave it a shot, so love my blog anyway. Nope, not how it works. So realize my dismay when I had this incredible craving last night for cream gravy and it turned out to be a wreck. A gravy trainwreck.

But you throw it away or feed it to the dogs or put it to compost, then pick right back up and start over again. And, lo and f’in’ behold, it was all worth it. My gravytrain just pulled into the station.

Cream Gravy*

1 T. canola oil
1/4 cup flour
1-1/2 cups rice milk** (do not use soy milk)
salt and pepper to taste***
dash of white pepper (optional)

Place iron skillet on medium-high heat for about one minute to heat it up. Add oil and swirl to cover bottom of skillet. Add flour and stir briskly with whisk. While stirring flour, slowly add 1 cup of the rice milk. Stir continuously working lumps to the side and bottom of the skillet until few or no lumps remain and gravy thickens. Add last 1/2 cup rice milk, stirring continuously until thick. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add white pepper for an extra kick.

*Sometimes called Milk Gravy or White Gravy. This gravy is used to top fried chicken, chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes, and biscuits in Texas and other parts of the deep south.

**Soy milk changes properties when heated and gives the gravy a sweet, nutmeg flavor that is simply wrong. Plus, it looked odd. Rice milk makes this gravy taste and look just right.

***I used 10 twists of my salt grinder and enough black pepper to make it “look” right (see pics). White pepper in addition to black pepper adds an extra bit of awesome.

Cream Gravy over seitan

G. G. Stir-fry

I seem to cook what I crave, and I seem to crave two main food categories: Southern and Asian. I know I started this blog to help me deviate from the same ol’, same ol’, but I couldn’t help myself. I had a c(r)aving*.

Last night I made a basic Asian stir-fry with cremini mushrooms, baby broccoli, and sliced seitan. You can make your stir-fry with whatever mixture of vegetables and meat analogs you’d like, but my recommendation is to stick with three or four ingredients, each of a different color. Limiting yourself to three or four not only makes prep easier, but it also prevents flavor mush. You want each ingredient to add, not take away, from the stir-fry you’re making.

Here is my recipe for a basic, delicious brown sauce. It has a lot of garlic and ginger, so KristinAthena nicknamed it G.G. stir-fry.

G.G. Stir-fry Sauce

1 cup vegetable broth
1/8 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. arrowroot powder or cornstarch
1 packed Tbsp. ginger, peeled and minced or grated
1 Tbsp. (2-4 cloves) garlic, pressed
Red pepper flakes**
Crushed black pepper**

Combine all ingredients in glass measuring cup. Stir before pouring over cooked stir-fry ingredients. Bring to boil, reduce heat, stir occasionally. Ready to serve when thick.

**If you want, instead of mixing the red pepper flakes and crushed black pepper in the sauce, add it to your stir-fry ingredients while they cook and turn brightly colored.

*One of my favorite geographers, Allan Pred, used to write the most beautiful articles/books using words marked with parentheses like that. His work was like poetry.

To occupy you, while I run around the country with my 18-wheelin’ driving husband - yes, I’m inside the rig with him - here are some cookies I tested before hitting the highways. Reports soon about being on the road as a trucker’s vegan wife. But first, dessert!

Zesty Lime Coconut Wedding Cookies

Texture: soft and moist, but crumbly enough that you might take some heat for it
Taste: lime and coconut play perfectly well together
Rating: 3.5 dough balls

Crispy Pinwheels

Texture: crispy and crunchy
Taste: like carmalized sugar with an ever-so-slight chocolate taste
Rating: 4 dough balls

Almond Ladies Kisses

Texture: soft, but expected crunchy
Taste: overpowered by almond extract, couldn’t taste the chocolate
Rating: 2 dough balls

Mango & Rice-Noodle Salad

I LOVE mangoes, and I tend to make a lot of mango salads this time of year. I used to be addicted to this salad combination, because it was so simple and delicious: baby spinach, mango, and toasted pine nuts, topped with a mango vinaigrette, sea salt, black pepper, and green (or white) onions. So simple!

I don’t like it when recipes are discombobulated. You know, making you do this, then that, then this again. Then add that and this and that again. Too much setting aside, or chilling, or warming, or heating, then boiling, and transferring, then adding and removing. Gets on my nerves.

But I wanted to try this recipe from Vegetarian Times, because it was right up my mango alley. The flavor was wonderful and brilliant. The salad looks gourmet perfect. But the recipe was just too all over the place, like I was a dog in an agility run - backwards. I had too much going on all at once: pans/skillets/colanders. So many side bowls of this and that. Forget it.

I want you to enjoy the flavors, like I did. I want you to get full satisfaction, but I can’t send you through this agility run. My job is to give you only that which gets my seal of approval. So I simplifed it and shazam - Scrumpdilly approved!

Mango & Rice-Noodle Salad (simplified from Vegetarian Times)
Serves 4

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red jalapeño chile, finely chopped

8 oz. dried rice-stick noodle
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh mint leaves
1/2 English cucumber, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced crosswise
1 cup bean sprouts
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and thinly sliced
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, optional

To prepare dressing, warm brown sugar, lime juice, soy sauce, garlic, and jalepeno in saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Let cool while you prepare everything else.

Cook noodles according to package directions. Rinse in cold water, drain, squeeze out, and place in salad bowl.

Toss noodles with basil, mint, and 3/4 of the dressing mixture. Top with cucumber slices, bean sprouts, green onion, and mango. Drizzle with remaining dressing mixture. Sprinkle with cilantro and peanuts.

I didn’t want to post about gravy tonight. It just didn’t seem right with how hot it’s been. I mean, I could eat gravy any ol’ time, but I wanted to tell you about something more appropriate for the season. So you get a naked post, a post without a picture, because my only ready-to-go pic is gravy. And I don’t want to post about gravy tonight.

Me and Vegan Dad are on the same wave-length. Must be the French influence - he in Canada, me misplaced Louisianian. Or could it be that it’s corn season? And hot? And you want a delicious meal without spending 8 hours heating up your kitch? Either way, we’re on the same wave-length, with slight variations. Here’s the recipe I use.

Read me now, believe me in a week.

Eula Mae’s Maque Choux*
(from Eula Mae’s Cajun Kitchen Cookbook)

2 tablespoons vegan butter (Earth Balance)
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
1/2 cup seeded and chopped green bell pepper
4 cups corn kernels (fresh or frozen, thawed)
1 medium-size ripe tomato, peeled and chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Original TABASCO®**

Melt the vegan butter in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and bell pepper. Cook, stirring often, until soft, about 5 minutes.
Add the corn, tomato, salt and TABASCO®. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, until the corn is tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot.***

*Edited to make vegan.
**I use at least 1 teaspoon, probably more, because a 1/2 teaspoon of Tabasco isn’t quite beautiful enough. So add Tabasco to taste. While you’re at it, you’ll probably need more salt. And how ’bout some freshly ground black pepper.
***I serve mine over rice. I don’t know why. But talk about good!

Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Mint Chip

I’ve been getting all bratty and smug with myself for posting regularly, for posting my own concoctions, for posting so many cooked items and recipes in a row. Downright snotty and kind of proud, I’d say. So, I had to remind myself that this blog was supposed to be about recipes and cooking, yes, but also about vegan products/items that get my seal of approval.

So as I’m checking email and taking little bites of my newly-purchased dessert treat, I instantly realized I had to stop what I was doing to tell you about this stuff. Right now. It’s that good! It’s so delicious, I couldn’t even wait to take my own picture. I literally copied one from the Turtle Mountain website and started writing. It’s that much of a recommendation emergency.

And I’m happy that the three or four of you reading actually do take to heart my advice and recommendations. You’re such good listeners, that I’ve decided to make this post your command. Your command to put down whatever you’re doing and run. This very second. Run yourself right over to the grocery store and get you some of this.

If you love Mint Chocolate Chip, especially the natural mint kind (i.e. not day-glo green), you’ll just go nuts. Having coconut milk as its base makes it bright, white, thick, creamy, and smooth with just the right amount of coconut flavor. It’s there, you can taste it, but the chocolate and the mint have plenty of room to shine. It’s almost like the coconut is hanging out backstage. Blended flavors. That’s what it is. They’re blended perfectly, absolutely perfectly, together.

Not only does Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Mint Chip beat any other non-dairy frozen treat I’ve tried, it is seriously, seriously better than its dairy counterpart.

Oh whatever. Just go get the stuff. You’ll be thanking me. I promise.

Seitan & Sauerkraut Sandwich

Honestly, I just don’t know what I’d do if I were allergic to gluten. There was a time when I thought I couldn’t live without chocolate. But I swear I could do that before I could live without my precious wheat meat. Nope, not kidding. I always have a little space in the fridge for my favo meat analog. Always.

I prefer to make my own, as time consuming as it can be even with the quick mix, but sometimes I just don’t get around to it. So I like to have a little package of store-bought stashed away in the fridge at all times. Because, just like Ally Sheedy said in The Breakfast Club, “You never know when you might need to jam.”

I needed to jam this past week when our fridge started to go on the fritz. As it’s warming up and up, we’re trying to use whatever is inside. Perfect. I’ll take some of this seitan, a little sauerkraut, some German mustard and make myself a variation on the ol’ “corned-beef” sandwich (the one that isn’t Reuben).

All I did was slice the seitan, throw it in a pan heated with olive oil, and cook until browned on both sides. Just as the seitan was starting to really stick to the pan and make it crusty, I threw in the ‘kraut with some of its juice, then scraped the bottom of the pan to loosen all that yummy, crusted on seitan. Threw it on toasted bread with the German mustard, then went out and bought a new refrigerator.

Thank you.

Stems and Leaves from Red & Yellow Chard

Friends leave town - they’re on vacation. They gift you their box full of CSA greens. You want to make them proud.

This was absolutely delish! The coconut milk and curry simply add a delicate flavor without any hostile take-overs.

Stems & Leaves Stir-fry

8 oz. Thai-spiced tofu, drained but not pressed
1 bunch Swiss Chard
1 bunch Red Chard
1 bunch Yellow Chard
1 Bok Choy
1 Baby Bok Choy
2-3 celery stalks
1 Tbsp. canola oil (optional)
2/3 can (or 10 oz.) coconut milk
2-3 Tbsp. Red Curry paste

For all three chards, remove leaves from stalks. Cut stalks into pieces and set aside. Place leaves in a separate area/pile. For both bok choys, separate stalks from base, then cut stalks into pieces up to leafy part. Place stalks in stalk pile and leaves in leaf pile. Cut celery into pieces and place with other stalks.

If using oil, heat in wok over medium heat. Otherwise, heat wok without oil on medium heat for a minute until hot. Add tofu and cook for 1-2 minutes until warmed through. Add stems and cook for 2-3 minutes or until brightly colored. Add leaves and cover. Allow to steam until just wilted. Add coconut milk and curry paste, stir until curry paste is mixed and dissolved completely.

Serve over rice.

Ba-jeezum! I did a ton of birthday baking from mid-June ’til now. From the Severed Unicorn Head Superstore birthday cuppers (post below) to all the human birthdays, I may as well have climbed into the oven myself, just like Hansel and Gretel. Luckily, for all involved, I kept my oven playtime to me staying on the outside.

“Thin Mint” Cookies

Sugar-Crusted Shortbread Cookies

Lime-Coconut Cupcakes

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Thanks to the cookie testing I’m doing, I had some pretty gourmet-looking cookies to give away. Cookie tray worthy. I had some damn tasty cupcakes in there, too. The Tiramisu cuppers ended up kind of ugly, but boy, did they taste like a little bit of paradise. Too bad I have to help eat some of those. You know, before they “go”.

Tofu Florentine

Pregan, I loved Eggs Florentine. But, honestly, this one is better. Way better. Turns out, it’s short-listed as one of my favorite evening meals. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s healthy, and it contains several food groups in one lump. You can even make the hollandaise ahead of time and use it later. Just heat it up when you’re ready and pour it on. But, seriously, the entire meal, including the hollandaise, takes about 30-40 minutes to prepare, especially if you’re willing to multi-task. I’ve listed everything sequentially, but you can always take care of multiple pieces at the same time. Just practice.

Tofu Florentine (serves 2*)

2 English Muffins, halved
8 oz. firm or extra-firm tofu
24 oz. fresh baby spinach
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2-3 c. water
Hollandaise sauce (recipe below)
2 green onions, sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Prepare Hollandaise according to directions below.

While hollandaise is still warm (or warming on low), cut tofu into four small rectangles.

Heat olive oil in grill pan or skillet on medium-high heat. When oil is hot, sear tofu on each side until brown and lightly crispy (about 5 minutes each side, pressing with a spatula every now and then). Turn heat to low to keep warm.

Add water to large pot and boil. Place steamer inside pot and begin steaming spinach in batches until all spinach is cooked. While spinach is steaming, toast English muffins.

To assemble: Place two muffin halves on each plate. To each muffin half, add a slice of tofu, a mound of steamed spinach, and drizzle with one quarter of the hollandaise sauce. Add sliced green onions, salt, and pepper to taste.

Hollandaise Sauce (source: Vegetarian Times)
1/2 cup or 4 oz. silken tofu
2 Tbs. lemon juice**
1 Tbs. nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp. turmeric
2 Tbs. corn oil

Heat tofu on plate in microwave 30 to 45 seconds, or until warmed through. Transfer to food processor, and purée until smooth. Add lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt, cayenne, and turmeric; pulse until well combined. With food processor running, add oil in steady stream to finish sauce.

*The Vegetarian Times recipe claims the hollandaise is enough to serve 6. I don’t like being skimpy with sauces, so I use about 1/4 of the sauce on each 1/2 muffin, tofu, spinach combination.

**I thought that for this dish, the hollandaise sauce was far too lemony as it was written. It overpowered everything else. So I reduced the lemon juice to 1 Tbsp. and added 1 Tbsp. water to make up the remaining liquid.