my favorite rice dish: Arroz con Gandules

Growing up, my mom's ex-husband's mother lived with us. She was the cutest, most sweet grandma you could have. She was from Puerto Rico and we of course called her Abuela (Spanish for grandma). There are a handful of people in my life who have helped define how I cook, eat and taste food and she was for sure one of these people. We had beans and rice with plantains just about every night with whatever else we were having. On special occasions (Christmas, Easter, etc.) we had Arroz con Gandules, which is rice with pigeon peas. This is a dish that is simple to make and was very easily veganized. Typically it has some sort of pork product, used mostly for flavor. Instead of pork, I just used extra oil since we all know fat is flavor. You can use canned pigeon peas (gandules) but today I cooked a half-pound of the dried peas for about an hour and a half, drained them and set them aside. In a large pan I heated up 1/4 cup of olive oil and 1/4 cup canola oil with 2 packets of Sazon with Coriander and Annatto (this would be a seasoning blend you should be able to find in the Spanish/Ethnic section of your grocery store). Next, I added 2 1/2 cups of long grain white rice and lightly cooked the rice in the seasoned oil for a few minutes (like you would when you pilaf a rice). I then added 1/2 cup of Sofrito, which is a tomato, green bell pepper, onion and garlic sauce that is used as a base to many Spanish dishes (you can make this homemade, but I used a bottled store bought kind . . . again, you should be able to find in the Spanish/Ethnic section of your grocery store). I also added in about 3/4 of a can of diced tomatoes but ALL of the juice from the diced tomatoes (or you could just use 1 can of tomato sauce and not use any diced tomatoes). I squeezed the tomatoes in my hands before adding them to the pot so there wouldn't be huge chunks of tomatoes in the dish. Next, I added 4 cups of veggie stock, the reserved cooked gandules, 2 tablespoons of pimento stuffed Spanish green olives (left whole), sea salt and black pepper to taste. I stirred the pot once, covered it with a tightly fitted lid and cooked on medium low heat for about 20 minutes. DO NOT STIR THE RICE WHILE IT COOKS. Doing so will make the rice all sticky, starchy and just plan gummy (called "amogollao") Yuck!
There is something magical that only an Abuela can make happen to the bottom of this rice dish which is called "pegao" (a crispy layer of rice that everyone fights for when it is served). It takes a great deal of oil and a watchful eye. I attempted but failed at being able to have "pegao" and I think it was because my heat was to high (cos, it got a bit burnt) . . . Although, I think, I just don't have that special touch my Abuela had.
Not yet any way.

last post of the year- Faux Feta Cheese Pasta

Growing up, a weekly meal my dad and I would make was feta cheese pasta. It was a very simple, yet delicious meal of thin spaghetti, feta cheese (sometimes we got the special French variety from our local Middle Eastern grocery store), green onions and garlic cooked in olive oil with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. That's it. It was a dish I thought I would never get to have again as a vegan since feta has such a distinct flavor and texture that is hard to match. When I saw Leigh from Raspberry Swirl (Leigh is also co-owner of Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe in Atlanta) had made a pizza with some faux feta cheeze (and had some at at Cosmo's for sale) I got very excited. We ended up going down there soon after and buying a package of the lemon oregano variety with very high expectations. While the faux feta smelled exactly like feta and had a nice crumble to it, the taste and mouth feel of it was not feta like . . . to me anyway. Jared thought it tasted pretty right on, but you have to understand how much feta cheese pasta I ate as a kid (and grown up), so I knew what I was missing. It didn't have that melty but still intact texture I was craving, in fact is was a bit on the grainy side to me. Oh well. It wasn't a complete flop. The green onions, garlic and olive oil with the salt, black pepper and cayenne was exactly as I remember with the pasta. I think a lot of people would really like this faux cheese product, unless they are ex-cheese snobs like I am and have a very delicate palate for that sort of thing. Any way, I hope everyone has a fun but safe New Year's Eve and wonderful start to the New Year!

TVP: CHUNKS VS. GRANULES (they both win)

My soy sensitivity has gotten better now that I have not been eating soy, namely tofu, as much as I use to. I have been slowly adding soy products such as soymilk, tofu and TVP back in to my diet over the past few months. Tofu still gives me problems, but everything else, including TVP has been okay. I have been experimenting with TVP the past few days and fell back in love.
I have used TVP chunks in soups and stews but my favorite use of TVP chunks is to make TVP Teriyaki Jerky. This was one of the first things I made when I first became vegan because I loved the jerky at the store, but it is so expensive for what little amount you got. I discovered why it was so pricy . . . it takes TIME to make your own. I have done different versions and I have yet to come up with a set recipe but my favorite kind has about a cup of tropical juice blend, about a cup of pineapple juice, couple splashes of soy sauce, couple squirts of agave nectar, a couple tablespoons of natural sugar, a couple large peeled pieces of fresh ginger and about five large fresh garlic cloves (kept whole). In a saucepan, I combine these ingredients and heat until everything is dissolved and has had some time to thicken a bit. In the mean time, I rehydrate the TVP chunks (about a cup or so) with boiling water. I placed the drained, rehydrated TVP in the cooking liquid and cooked it down until it was syrupy. I drained the marinated TVP, placed it on a cookie sheet and into my oven at 175 degrees for about an hour (tossing it a few time through out). What results is a mighty fine homemade version of TVP jerky. If you've never made homemade TVP jerky, give it a shot one lazy afternoon. It tastes great on it's own as a snack or chopped into small pieces and used in place of baco-bits like in salads, on baked potatoes or in twice baked potatoes.

TVP granules are excellent as taco fillers but my favorite use of the granules are in chili. I make this batch of chili mostly when I'd like some leftovers around for chili dawgs. So, tonight's dinner (and chili dawgs tomorrow!) was my Cincinnati style chili. I sautéed a sweet onion in canola oil until they were translucent (probably my favorite culinary word) and added some TVP granules in with the cooked onion for a minute or two so that the TVP gets a nice coating of oil so it won't be too mushy. I then added in agave nectar, garlic salt, black pepper, chili powder, chipotle powder, cumin, cinnamon and cocoa powder along with a can of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce, a can of pinto beans and a can of dark red kidney beans. Once everything was heated through, I blended most of it with my immersion blender until it looked mostly ground up. I do like to keep some of the chili with whole beans so you can see what kind of beans are in it. I added a few crunched up corn chips on top to make it extra tasty.

Merry Holidays!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day filled with loads of good food and great company. Due to Jared's work schedule, we had to stay in Atlanta for Christmas. It is our first Christmas that we have spent just the two of us, unless you count our dog, Sweetpea and our cat, Peeny (which we do). I made lasagna for lunch today, along with some garlic bread. The lasagna was just made with a jarred tomato sauce (I know, it's kinda cheating, but I'm tired!), along with the Cashew Ricotta from Veganomicon (pg. 206), lasagna noodles and homemade toasted bread crumbs for good measure. I made French bread yesterday so I slathered a few slices up with whipped Earth Balance and garlic to go along with the lasagna. Not exactly traditional Christmas fare, but it was still pretty good. For dinner I think we are just going to have salads and maybe some left over lasagna!

cheeze "steak" plate, homemade ice kream

Tonight's meal was really, really great. We picked up three new items this week: "Philly Style" Steak Tofurky Deli Slices, Vegan American Slices and 123'z and Chreese. We were mad impressed with all three products, especially the 123'z and Chreese. We found accidentally vegan "steak" rolls at our supermarket, which was also pretty great. I sautéed a sweet onion in olive oil, sea salt and natural sugar until the onions were caramelized. I added the "steak" slices in with the onions to heat it through. Next I toasted up the rolls and added Vegenaise and Vegan American slices on the rolls. What resulted was a pretty darn close version of a Philly Cheese Steak, minus the green bell peppers since we aren't a huge fan. We had a side of the 123'z and Chreese and steamed broccoli. Well rounded and awesome!

Jared and I got one another this ice kream maker for Christmas and couldn't wait to use it.

So, I made a Maple Brown Sugar Buttery Pecan Ice Kream that had soymilk, soy creamer, arrowroot powder, Earth Balance margarine, maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla extract and chopped pecans. So good!
Before the pecans were added and still spinning:

After the pecans were added and still spinning:

Final product: