Mangoes! Cashews! Tempeh!

Phew, Dom's been out floggin' me good lately. I try to imagine what amazing food-heights we would reach if we lived together but it's beyond my ken. I think ken was the nerdiest way I could have ended that sentence. It's the kind of word only former players of dungeons and dragons use. Annnnyway, for your enjoyment: mango cashew tempeh.
I had some crappy mangoes bought for cheaps at the farmer's market (I never learn) so I decided to sacrifice one to a cooking experiment.
Experiment succesfull! Delicious hypothesis was supported by all lines of evidence.
Recipe! With my usual approximations of amounts.

1/2 pkg plain tempeh cut into strips
1 mango
1 large clove of garlic
1 cork-sized chunk of ginger
some oil
small dollop agave or maple syrup
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp red chili sauce
cashews

First cut up the mango. I would say for a regular non-crappy farmer's market mango you would slice up half (skin removed) and juice the other half. Mix most of the juice, soy sauce, agave, chili sauce and about half hte garlic and ginger and a maybe about 4 tbsp of water together.

Heat a little oil in a pan on medium high heat along with the little bit of juice you saved. Toss in garlic and ginger and then lay out tempeh strips. When one side has been suitably seared (cast iron rocks the socks off all other pans for searing) flip the strips and while the second side is searing toss in the mango slices and cashews in. When the second side is done turn the heat down pretty low and toss your liquidy portion in. Let this all simmer nicely until you can't possibly wait any longer. Consume.

I tossed this over some soba noodles along with some very lightly stir-fried red cabbage, spinach and broccoli with soy sauce, sesami oil and sesami seeds. The juice forms a delicious sweet crust on the tempeh, the chili sauce, garlic and ginger add some kick and the mango is sweet, delicious chunks of goodness.

Sometimes I wish I had room-mates just for food-sharing purposes. EAting alone is much less fun.

Lucky Pots

To celebrate the first day of hot Spring morning followed by getting caught cycling in a thunderstorm, we had a potluck, with guest chef Tyler. I'm serious, he's a chef! Me n' Ed made some rice wraps, and Tyler made eggplant parmesan.

Today, I decided to try out a recipe for roasted chickpeas that Emily found on the internet here.


They were super delicious, but probably not as crunchy as they should have been. Will leave them in the oven for longer next time. The best thing about this is that it's a quick and delicious way to use up garbanzo beans (roll the r with me). We always use half a can of chickpeas for a curry or something, and then leave it in the fridge and forget about it long enough for a new form of intelligence to establish a colony. Problem solved!

Siobhan, why aren't you blogging yet?

P.S. I think 116 Oxford is going to join an organic farm co-op where you buy a share of the farm (for next to nothing, I might add) and get a share of the harvest every week. Local organic produce, huzzah! Details to come.

The best thing about being an adult...

Is that if I want to have 3 kinds of pie for dinner, then I can, dammit! (Thanks Greg)

The denizens of 116 Oxford recently made a pilgrimage over to Michelle and Arthur's place, where they generously plied us with Polish vegetable soup before we got down to brass tacks and started in on pie construction. Michelle worked on a classic raspberry pie, Greg made a peach pie (with our canned peaches from last summer!), Ed and I co-operated to make a lemon meringue pie, and Arthur worked on a gin and tonic.
Dough rollin'...Innard stewin'...Pie fillin'...

Pie toppin'...


Pie bakin'...
Pie admirin'...





Pie carnagin'...

And last but not least, pie bloatin'.
I love my life.

Shake shake shake...

Shake shake shake... shake your but-ter! Shake your but-ter!

And now for a decidedly non-vegan entry. Eddy decided he wanted to make butter the other day, so he bought this:
And shook it in this:
And accidentally made whipping cream. So after some cursing, he tossed it in the good ol' food processor, and came out with this:

As well as the buttermilk,
which he used to make biscuits, served with the fresh butter and black currant jam. Which were devoured too quickly to take a picture.

Urban homesteading is so punk.

Cake!

I had multiple friend-birthdays in the last couple weeks so I decided a birthday cake was in order. Siobhan was already having us ladies over for tea and cookies on Sunday so I invited myself over early to bake. Also, she has this awesome mixer that made the whole process much easier and more exciting.
I whipped up a vegan chocolate cake from Vegan with a Vengence. The recipe uses coffee to keep it moist and not too much oil or sugar. It was very nice and moist and chocolatey with out being too overwhelmingly sweet.
Look at that mixer go!
The cakes went in the oven. Meanwhile I mixed up some lemon "cream cheese" icing from the Vegan Cupcakes Take-Over the World book. I used a bit of extra cream cheese to make it a bit less sweet.
The cakes came out of the oven and went on to the balcony to cool. How classic.As usual I managed to break one of the layers. That's what icing is for though and the end result looked not too bad and tasted amazing!I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce Siobhan, the lovely lady holding the cake above. She will hopefully be blogging it up on here at some point. For tea she made a tasty leek and potato soup:And some cute shortbread:
Okay, Siobhan, you have been introduced, now blog it up!

Study-bread

Saturday night plans: ride bike trainer, study, loner it up.
So I rode my trainer pretty hard and then needed to eat food after. I decided I really wanted a sammich but was dismayed to realize it was after 9 (all the good bakeries are closed) and I was breadless. I was not to be deterred from my sammich dreams. I decided to bake some focaccia bread from the Vegan with a Vengance cookbook. Step 1: go on yeast finding adventure. Then:
knead!












Rise!
Shape!











Rise!
Bake!
Done!














Overall it turned out pretty well, but for future focaccia bread making experiments I will remember to use more olive oil to brush the top so that the salt, herbs and seeds stick a little better.
I cut myself a good triangle, sliced it in half and made this sammich which was everything I had dreamed and more.
Sauteed peppers and onions, breaded marinated tofu, avocado, mixed greens and home-made pickle condimented with dijon mustard and vegan cream cheese (destined for tomorrow's cake... to be blogged later).

D is for dinner and that's good enough for me

Nothing like blogging while you are eating what you are blogging about while talking with Dom on the internet about blogging about what I am eating! What is this delicious blog-worthy meal. Why it's this tasty number:Crispy kale and red cabbage stir fry, breaded tofu and baked yam with italian herbs. I made that all sound so fancy...
Dom and I cooked up this tasty dinner about a week ago with mashed yam instead of baked yam. It's all pretty simple but also all very delicious.
The yam was just sliced and baked in the oven with a bit of olive oil, sea salt and a mixture of oregano, thyme, marjoram and terragon. 30 minutes on 350 degrees.
For the stir fry chop up a bunch of kale and red cabbage. Stir fry over medium heat until kale is starting to look a little cooked but still well on the crunchy side. Toss in a mixture of equal parts balsamic vinegar and soy sauce (just enough to give flavour, not to make things soggy) and sprinkle some oregano on. Stir fry for about another minute or so until the liquid is all gone and things are looking cooked but still crispy. Remove from heat, add toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds and drizzle with a little bit of sesame oil. Done like dinner!
The tofu I marinated briefly in a mixture of balsamic, soy sauce, water, and a drop of liquid smoke. Could have marinated for a lot longer but I was really hungry. The breading is the 'crispy tofu coating' from the Fresh cookbook (see below). Coat both sides of your marinated tofu strips in the coating and then cook in a cast-iron pan with just enough oil to keep from sticking.

Crispy Tofu Coating (for Dom)
1 cup flaked nutritional yeast
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tbsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Just combine all ingredients in a container and it will keep forever as long as you do your coating in a separate dish and don't get bits of tofu in your mix.