Aji Amarillo Sauce

 So, after some rather depressing news yesterday (an article I submitted didn't get accepted for publication), I went home and made some much needed comforting food.

I bought this jar of aji amarillo paste at the local Mexican grocery to make a recipe. Well, it was just sitting there, and I had a feeling it would be tasty in other things too, I just didn't know what. After perusing teh internets for a while, I took some ideas from many different sauces--meant to go with aji de gallina (a creamy, spicy chicken dish) and veganized the heck outta it.

Here's what's in my version of the sauce:

--1 piece whole wheat sprouted bread soaked in almond milk with some sugar (don't eat condensed milk and didn't have any soy creamer, it worked fine)
--1/2 jar of aji amarillo paste
--2 tsp. aji panca (same pepper, just dried then pasted)
--2 cloves minced garlic
--1-2 tsp. lemon juice (all out of limes, they would have been better probably)
--pinch of Mexican oregano and tumeric
--splash or two of veggie broth

1. Put ingredients in blender (all but the veggie broth)
2. Mix around and such until everything is dissolved.
3. Add veggie broth until sauce is desired consistency.

I put this over some Gardein cutlets. It would have worked with tofu, seitan or even maybe tempeh. I also made my favorite lime and garlic rice (just add lime juice, garlic, and olive oil to brown rice and cook it normally). I served it up with some tostones, and it was delicious! Aji amarillo is different than other spicy sauces you may be used to. It's hotter than a jalapeno, but has a different flavor. It starts off somewhat fruity and finishes hot.

Yum!

The night was finished off by checking out some bands at a local pub. They were both great! I really enjoyed the all-female group, Frankie Rose and The Outs--super great!
The first was was great too, except the bassist kept giving me the weird eye. But I was handed a free cd without prompting so, oh well:)

"I don't Believe in Vegans"

Here is a photo (note the conclusion at the bottom):

Check out the awesome response at My Face Is On Fire.

My response to the "there is no such thing as a vegan" is like my friend Grace's response to "I don't believe in abortion":

Well, they EXIST.

Surprisingly Good Food I Made Today

No picture on this one....

I was making something quick and tasty for myself and my boyfriend this afternoon. We decided on rice and beans and some veggies for a side. I haven't eaten anything remotely "Asian-inspired" lately, so I decided to attempt to whip up some interesting and tasty flavored simple foods. It actually worked surprisingly well:) While the veggies I used are hardly "Asian-inspired," they were in need of use, and tasted great! Here's what we had:

Ginger and Garlic Rice:

-1 c. brown rice
- 1 3/4 c. veggie stock
-2 cloves minced garlic
-small piece of fresh ginger, grated
-1 tsp. olive oil
-1/4 c. lemon juice

instructions: put it in the rice cooker. Easy!

Sauteed Soy Beans: (Scott picked out the beans he wanted, these were them)

-1 can soy beans
-2 large cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp. Tamari
- 1 tsp. olive oil and 1-2 tsp. sesame oil 
- sesame seeds
- pepper

instructions: 
1. add 1 tsp. olive oil to a skillet with the garlic and fry garlic for about 30 seconds until fragrant
2. add the soy beans, tamari, sesame oil and pepper, saute until hot
3. sprinkle with sesame seeds

"Asian-Inspired" Roasted Potatoes and Carrots (yeah, weird I know):

- left over potatoes and carrots (1 large carrot and 4 baby yellow potatoes
Sauce/Marinade: 
- 2 or so tsp. olive oil
- splash of sesame oil
- tamari
-tiny bit of sweet chili sauce
- tiny bit of sugar

Ok, so I didn't measure, just tossed stuff in and smelled it.

Instructions:
1. Chop up veggies into small chunks mix with sauce/marinade and wrap in aluminum foil
2. Bake in oven until desired tenderness (I don't know, like 40 minutes or so I think)

As I said, this meal seems weird, and was sorta just thrown together with extras I had laying around. But, it ended up being really tasty and a nice change from the types of flavors I usually enjoy eating.

My First Shot at Vegan Peruvian Cuisine

Since I have had Viva Vegan, I haven't really stepped outside of food I already loved (beans, rice, enchiladas, tacos.....). But, I really wanted to try some different types of food that I hadn't eaten before, so I decided to work on some Peruvian-inspired dishes.

The local Mexican grocery was really, really helpful in this regard: super cheap aji panca and aji amarillo:) I can't say enough about this place, if only they made vegan pastries (the fresh pastries always look delicious, but I know they are completely full of milk, eggs, butter and probably lard, so I stay away)!

Anyways, I have been ridiculously busy prepping for my weekly five courses I teach, along with working on PhD applications in my spare time, so cooking during the week generally amounts to a large batch of rice and beans that I can eat at room temperature or warmed up all week. I had gotten caught up on things pretty well last week, so I decided to take Saturday afternoon and make a full-fledged Peruvian-inspired vegan meal. And it was delicious!!!

The salad was improvised: green lima beans instead of limas blancas (couldn't find any) and grape tomatoes. But, the aji panca was good--it added flavor but not really spice. The salad ended up fresh and delicious.

And, this was my first time making empanada dough, and it was a huge success:) The empanadas are stuffed w/VV's recipe for olive, raisin and shredded seitan empanadas, with a little aji panca for some more Peruvian flavor. I finished it with pan-fried sweet plantains (a couple are a little overcooked--note to self: do not walk away to check the score on the football game and leave your plantains in the pan!). I loved everything about this dinner. I have another plantain, and will probably fry it up sometime this week as a delicious snack:)

I also tried another recipe from the book, for lomo saltado (I used this smoked tofu I picked up instead of seitan). So, I picked up this smoked tofu from a local store, opened it and thought it smelled like a Slim Jim or something atrocious like that, so I figured putting it in the spicy marinade for this dish would work well. And it did! I think I have more veggies in here than I should (I used up a pepper that was about to go bad and some soon-to-be-icky mushrooms), but this was really good! I had never tried aji amarillo before, and I really, really like the spicy flavor it has. I will definitely be using this a lot in the future.

If I had known that french fries would be so good in a stir-fry, I would have been whipping stuff like this up a long time ago!

In the last week, I also attempted a blueberry pie for my wonderful boyfriend. This did not turn out so well. It was my first time w/pie dough, and it ended up a little dry, while the filling ended up a little runny. It tasted pretty good; however, it looked horrible.....so no pictures. I, as the proprietress of this blog, reserve the right to not show any photos of food I made that was not good.

I have the feeling I won't be making anything spectacular this week. I am thinking, yep, that's right, plain old rice and beans.

Chili Black Beans and Yellow Rice

Yeah, so its 10 pm and I am about to eat dinner. Why so late? I was busily concocting my lecture for one of my intro classes on politics and education for next week, and well, lost track of time (meaning--starting working on the food too late!).

Rice and beans is probably my favorite food. Seriously. And, since becoming well-versed in Viva Vegan, I can make Latin-style rice and beans at the drop of a hat (or the drop of a pre-soaked and cooked bean).

Here's the recipe:

Yellow Garlic Rice (modified from Viva Vegan):

1 c. rice (i used brown, white is more authentic)
1 3/4 c. water
1-2 tbs. olive oil
1/2 tsp. Earth Balance
5-6 cloves garlic, crushed
3 big pinches of saffron (you could use annato if saffron is too expensive--here a bag is like $1.99 at the Mexican grocery)
1/2 tsp. Tumeric

I put these all in a rice cooker and let it do its thing. If you are cooking the rice in a pot, fry up the garlic in the olive oil before adding everything else and cooking rice according to instructions on the bag/box.

I also made extra, and will be using the rest to make another batch of rice and beans on Sunday night to eat during my ever-so-hectic week!

Chili-Style Black Beans

1-2 cans black beans or 2 cups cooked beans
1/4 c. water, stock or bean liquid if cooking from dry
1-2 cloves garlic
1-2 tbs. olive oil
1 hot pepper, diced
handful (tsp? tbs?) cumin
handful (tsp? tbs?) Mexican oregano (rubbed in hands to release flavor)
1 can diced tomatoes (mine were chili-flavored, hence the name)
1-2 chipotle in adobo, diced plus a little sauce

1. Fry the garlic in the oil for about 30 seconds, until fragrant
2. Add the diced hot pepper and saute for about 2-3 minutes
3. Add the cumin and oregano and a pinch of cayenne if ya want, and fry for 1 minute
4. Add the tomatoes and chipotles and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring.
5. Add the beans and liquid
6. Simmer until more than half of the liquid is absorbed.

Combine the cooked rice and cooked beans in a pan, stirring around and letting the flavors meld (tip: add the rice to the beans a little at a time to achieve your desired rice-to-beans ratio. If you have extras--eat it with something else!). Also, this tastes better once the flavors have had a chance to sit together for a while, so leftovers are delicious! I notice that this makes for a moist rice and beans, if you want yours drier, either cook the beans longer, and/or add a little less liquid to pre-cooked beans.

Muy delicioso!

Food that Tastes like Fall

Today I spent the day with my wonderful partner/boyfriend watching football (and watching the Cleveland Browns win! Seriously, I said "win"). Before all of this, I had the overwhelming urge, not sure what brought it on, to make something semi-sweet and tasty.

I decided to make some bread. I looked around to see what we had on hand at the house (I definitely did not feel like going to the grocery store this morning, so if I didn't have the things to make bread I would've figured out something else that didn't require spending any additional money).

I am not really one to get into the seasons. To be quite honest, I do not know that I have a "favorite," nor do I feel any particular connection to weather or nature; however, I do love the flavors generally associated with fall--you know, slightly sweet, spiced and warm.

What is better than cinnamon and ginger? Nothing. Seriously. NOTHING.

So, I decided to make carrot bread. I looked up a few recipes on teh good ol' Internets, combined them to suit my wishes and came up with a scrumptious result:

 

This was taken after warming it up and spreading on some Earth Balance. AMAZING.

Recipe: Nik's Fall-Flavors Carrot Bread

Wet Ingredients:

1/3 c. agave nectar or honey
1/3 c. oil
1 mashed-up over-ripe banana
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-3 grated carrots (I used 2 medium and 1 small)

(Mix these together quickly in a small bowl)

Dry Ingredients:

1 3/4 c. flour (I used regular old unbleached all-purpose, but I am sure whole wheat for half would be great and actually nutritious)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbs. ground flaxseeds
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
Fresh grated ginger (probably around 1 tsp. or so)
Dash of pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt
Handful or two of raw pepitas

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Mix wet ingredients into the dry. DO NOT OVERMIX. I mixed gently with a spatula. It seemed a little dry to me, so I added about 1-2 tbs. of unsweetened applesauce (you could probably add soy milk or water).
3. Spread evenly into a greased bread pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

I would recommend, as noted above, serving it warm with a little bit of Earth Balance or other butter substitute. It's already half-gone, so I would definitely put this one down as a major fall flavor success! I think that this would also be good without the carrots as a spice bread; however, it would need something else added to it (I am thinking pumpkin would be delicious).

Comfort Food....

So, this past week has been busy, per the usual. For some reason, it seemed to hit me harder this week than usual. To make up for this fact, I made some comfort food on various nights. One such night, I even took a picture.

Coming home from work at a reasonable hour (I skipped the gym, so I got home around 6:30) means I make food. Not wanting something too elaborate, and wanting something salty and full of comfort-food goodness, I decided on a tempeh burger (no, I didn't make it, I bought them from the co-op and they are AMAZING), a salad w/corn and black bean salsa w/gazpacho dressing and potato "chips" with plenty of seasoning. Since I hadn't planned ahead, I didn't have a bun to put the burger on (and after a stressful day, it is not 5 seconds within entering the house that I have put on pjs and have resigned to not leave again for the rest of the day) so I just toasted some whole wheat bread. Actually, I think I may like burgers better on bread than buns.

When I ate this, I did not forget that some of my students had been lazy and/or obnoxious that day. I also did not forget that I had to give up some of my paycheck for bills after eating. However, for the time it took to eat this, I was mesmerized by the greasy goodness. 

Not much tops that.