Ratatouille

It has been awhile since I have written on here. I was sort of busy with some interviews and doing nothing, then I got sidetracked by going back to Richmond, VA. It was for Slaughterama (for those of you who don't know what this is, it's a bicycle event...sort of). Anyway, before I left I made this dish, and actually took pictures with my roommates camera. Unfortunately, I think my roommate still has his camera, and he stayed in Virginia a little longer. So, those will have to wait.

Anyway, I made Ratatouille about 2 weeks ago, and it was pretty awesome. The recipe is from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein. I really like this cookbook because it offers me recipes from a region I know little about in terms of cuisine. Well, I know there are lemons and olives.... Anyway, it was really good, and this recipe had beans in it too? I think that's a little out of the ordinary for Ratatouille. This recipe is chock full of vegetables, I hope you enjoy it.

1 lb. Eggplant

1 lb. Onion

1 medium Green Bell Pepper

1 medium Red Bell Pepper

2 medium Zucchini

1 1/2 lb Tomato

2 cans of 16 oz. white beans (I used Cannellini)

and some pitted Black Olives for garnish, if you like them

4 Garlic cloves

4 tbsp (thereabouts) Olive Oil

1/4 cup dry White Wine

3/4 cup Vegetable Broth

1 tbsp Tomato Paste (I usually just use Ketchup, basically the same thing)

1/2 tsp dried Thyme

1/2 tsp dried Oregano
1/4 tsp of whole, crushed Coriander seeds (I just used a heaping 1/4 tsp of Coriander)
1 large Bay Leaf

salt and pepper to taste

There is the stuff you will be needing, split into first and second half of use. Also, before you begin - it is better to NOT use a non-stick pan. If you only have non-stick pans, that's fine, but if you have a pan that's not non-stick, that's big, use it.

First, cube the Eggplant into about 1 in. cubes. Put the cubes in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Be sure to actually cut 1 in. cubes or slightly larger. I made a mistake and made them too small, then they were really small when they were cooked. Chop the onions, cut the Peppers into about 1 in. cubes, finely chop the Garlic, and 1 in. cubes for the Zucchini as well. The Tomatoes need a little more care. They needed to be peeled, seeded, and chopped. I would not do the whole dropping the Tomatoes in boiling water. I have read that makes them lose flavor. I turned on my gas burner to high, and rotated the Tomato on a fork for about 20-30 seconds. Do not let them burn, just let them get really hot. This will help bring out more flavor and make them easy to peel. Go ahead and seed them (just squeeze the seeds out) and then chop them. Just drain and rinse the Cannellini.

Okay now you've got all those veggies ready, go ahead and on medium, heat 3 tbps of Olive Oil in a large, deep-sided skillet and start sauteeing those onions. After about 3 minutes add the Peppers and Garlic. Stir this mix often because it will burn. After about 2 minutes or so, add the Eggplant bits. Another 2 minutes or so later add a little more oil (if it seems like it's all gone) and add the Zucchini cubes. This will be good for the next step in about 5 minutes.

Add the White Wine and the Vegetable Broth when the veggie mix is cooked. While bringing this to a boil, try and loosen up any brown bits by tossing a little, or scraping with a spatula. Obviously, do not scrape if it's non-stick. Once it's boiling, reduce to medium-high heat, and add the Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, Thyme, Oregano, Coriander, and Bay Leaf. If you happen to have fresh herbs, just triple the dried amount. Cover this, and at a gentle simmer, cook this for 20 minutes. Uncover, add the beans, cook this an additional 10-15 minutes.

Now you're ready to eat. Not including prep time, this dish take about 45 minutes. Not bad for a decent amount of food that tastes delicious. I really enjoyed this dish despite the fact that I rarely use Eggplant. I am trying to get past that, but Eggplant has very little nutritional value. I don't really have anything bad to say about this. It has everything I love.

Well, hopefully someone else will enjoy making this. Oh, hopefully pictures will come soon.

Life on Mars.

So, I went to Life on Mars today. For those of you who either don't know, or don't live in Chicago, Life on Mars is a new vegan takeout place on Armitage. I hate to say it, but my first experience with their food was not the best, but overall I really think it's a place worth checking out. The people working there were great, their chocolate chip cookie was awesome, and the space is cute (could use some seating, but I will get into that).

First, I want to say the good things about Life on Mars. Okay, The cookie I got was awesome, I find that some vegan cookies I get are often kind of dry, this one was nice and chewy and delicious. The people who worked there and prepared my food were really nice and seemed happy to be there. I think this is semi-important. A friendly atmosphere is a big deal, to me at least. Food being hand prepared by people who don't care or are aggravated kind of throws me off. I don't really understand it, food being such an uplifting thing for me. The space is cute, it has a nice open kitchen behind a counter with food displayed. I like seeing what I am getting into, so that was appreciated. The sides all looked scrumptious (the mac and cheese looked particularly good). They also have a bunch of cool sides such as spicy eggplant, and coconut greens (and the menu changes). I am excited to try those out sooner or later. They also make the bread there, so I am told. All these things are big positives. Oh, you can add SWEET POTATO CHIPS (made there I believe).

Okay, here come the parts of which I was not so fond. Well, I got the barbecued rib sandwich on whole wheat bread. The bread was awesome - nice, soft, delicious. The barbecue sauce was really good, sweet but not too sweet, but the ribs themselves were very overcooked. It was almost like biting into wet sticks. I feel bad writing it, because I like the place. I am just going to assume it was an off day. I want to go back and try it out again. Another thing, there's no seating - as it's takeout and all that. For some reason...I can't wrap my head around no seating at a deli sort of place. I mean, Chinese food, I am all over takeout, but a sandwich, hard for me to get over. It is a pretty large space, if they moved the counter back or something there would be ample room for some seats. I understand this is probably expensive and whatnot, but just voicing how I feel.

In terms of price, it's pretty fair. The sandwich was fairly large. The sandwich, cookie, and taxes came out to about $7.00. I think that's a decent price for quality food. I had an overall good experience there, minus the ribs. I think it's worth trying out, and that I just came on an off day. One of my roommates got the ribs as well, and she said one half was good, and the other half was like mine.

Well, I hope I convinced someone to go check it out.

Forays into the World of Teese

Alright, recently I acquired 2 cute Teese logs. Chicago Soydairy is promoting their vegan cheese by putting out coupons for buy one get one free. It is a pretty nice deal. The ones to which I am in proximity are the Cheddar and Mozzarella. I have used both of them and I am a fan. They have a similar texture and flavor to cheese (especially when melted) while still being of their own complete identity. They melt a lot like cheese too, which is what I really appreciate. In terms of cheese substitute these have been thus far the best. I am not sure which ones I have actually had, but the dining hall of my alma mater offered a few choices in cheese substitute - they were not very good. I believe the one I had was american cheese substitute. I was not a fan. I have also had a grilled cheese with substitute, it was particularly unsavory. It was just not melted correctly. Teese on the other hand melts wonderfully. It has a nice texture and flavor when it is melted. Tonight it was used on a pizza.

I used another recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart - Pizza Napoletana. I made a half recipe though since the full one makes 6 balls of dough that are 6 oz a piece. With the half recipe I also cut the dough in 2 for 2 bigger pizzas rather than 3 smaller ones. The full recipe is as follows -

4 1/2 cups of flour or 20.25 oz(I used regular unbleached flour, but you can use bread flour as well)

1 3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp instant yeast

1/4 cup of olive or vegetable oil (this is optional, but I like putting it in there)

1 3/4 cups of cold water

Mix the dry stuff.

Pour in the wet stuff.

Mix well until it's hydrated.

Turn the bowl clockwise and work the dough with a spoon for about 5-7 minutes. Every once in awhile switch up and go counter-clockwise. After this is done, cut it into however many pieces you want, depending on how big you want your pizzas (the crust should be thin). Mist liberally with oil then put in a food grade bag. I just put it in a plastic sandwich bag. Let it sit over night and it's ready to use the next day. It will stay in a refrigerator for about 3 days. In the freezer it will last a couple of months.

Anyway, I also made a thicker marinara sauce (I like a little bit of a thick sauce on my pizza). I heated up my pizza stone for about 45 mintes at 500 degrees. Right before I put it in the oven, I sauced up my pizza, put on some chopped broccoli, onions, and green pepper, pour half a log of shredded mozzarella teese all over it, dropped it on my pizza stone, and baked for 8 minutes. Then it's set to go. One thing that is annoying, you need to put a bunch of semolina down on a flat surface (I have an edgeless cookie sheet that I used), put the dough down, spread it out, and do your thing with toppings. Here comes the annoying part, moving the loaded up pizza to your hot pizza stone (obviously you can leave it on your baking sheet if you want). It is just a pain for it to actually slip off. I eventually got it onto the stone without much problem though. The first time I did this I made a bit of a mess because I didn't put semolina down to allow for the dough to easily slip. I really enjoy pizza because the preparation is very easy. I still have another ball of dough and more teese, so it's probably pizza again for dinner. No complaints.

Southern-ish Meal.

This is a pretty delicious and easy meal. I really like it. I really like the mix of food here. Some of the pieces are mildly expensive, but whatever. If there is something you don't like, just go ahead and put your favorite Southern style food in its place. So I made Corn Meal Encrusted Celeraic, Barbecued Black Beans, and "Carolina Kale".

First is first, I will start with easiest.

So the Barbecued Black Beans are basically the easiest thing on earth to make. Take your favorite Barbecue Sauce that you make. I use a recipe from Veganomicon but you can use any recipe from the back of a molasses jar or anything like that. Heat up your Barbecue sauce in a pot on medium low heat. Once it is fairly hot, throw in some drained and rinsed Black Beans or Black-Eyed Peas. I prefer Black-Eyed Peas for this dish, but I didn't have any. Black Beans it is. Heat up the beans in the sauce, I would say anywhere between 10-20 minutes. I usually do longer do get more flavor in the beans. At least thats the way it seems. Depends on the heat. I like to keep it medium-low. Watch it though. Sometimes it can get really thick and burn.

Second.

I really love kale. As far as greens go, it's probably my favorite. I messed up the ratio in the recipe for mine, but it still came out great. Okay, throw a can of diced tomato in a pan or pot, I like petite diced, throw in a small diced onion (make the dice pretty fine on the onions), throw in a tsp and a half of cumin, and a quarter tsp of red pepper flakes. If you like it hotter, do more. Simmer that stuff for about 5 minutes, covered. Throw the Kale on top, cover, wait until it gets bright green. Then mix the stuff up, and cook for a little bit longer. This kind of depends on how you like your greens. Maybe you like them smooshy, maybe you like them firm. Whichever. Just watch it and mix when you feel it's the way you like it.

Third.

Okay. Peel the Celeraic. Cut 1/4 inch slices. If the slices are big, cut them in half. Boil this in a big pot of water and some salt. When they are soft, anywhere been 9-11 minutes, take them out. Let these guys cool. Okay, mix about half a cup of bread crumbs, half a cup of corn meal. Maybe a little more than that of each depending on how large your Celeraic was. Put about a tsp each of thyme, oregano and salt, and I put in about 2 tsp of pepper. I mean breading is really slack in terms of composition. You'll learn what flavor you like. Anyway, evenly coat the celeraic in flour, then dip in soy milk, then evenly coat in corn meal and bread crumb mixture. Heat up, on medium heat, about 1/8 inch of oil in a skillet. Once it's hot, drop some of those guys in there. On the first side I usually do about 4 minutes, or until golden brown, then on the other side about 2 and a half minute, or until golden brown. Then you're set.

This meal is really easy and delicious. The Celeraic is the expensive part. It's about 4 dollars a pound depending on your grocery store. It's well worth it every once in awhile. It isn't a very heavy meal, and the Celeraic cuts don't really absorb that much oil. Just let them rest for a bit on a paper towel to let some oil drip off. As said before, I love kale. I also love tomatoes and cumin. So really that Kale dish is great. Also, I always love beans.

news.

Well, to be honest, I have not been that busy. At least not so busy that I could not perhaps write a new post on things I have been making. In fact, I have made a couple of good soups recently that I have just been too lazy to type up. I think I will write one tomorrow, but as of right now I will just talk about the things that have been happening recently.

This weekend I went to some party. It was pretty decent, fairly reminiscent of home. A lot of kids who ride bikes. It was semi-nice to feel like I was in Richmond again. At the same time, I left Richmond to see new things.

This weekend I went to brunch at the Green Zebra. I fairly nice vegetarian restaurant. I had the Monte Cristo with camembert, apples, and leeks. It was really good, but fairly heavy. The person with whom I went got the eggs benedict. I did not try any in the attempts to slowly cut out animal products from my diet (if not entirely, primarily). I know, the Monte Cristo of course had eggs on it, but for now I am just trying to cut out eggs in its straight cooked form. I think I would have done the Monte Cristo a little differently in terms of the amount of egg used, at the very least. Also, before the meal, we were served Madeleines, which are delicious little cake/cookie things in the shape of shells. They are very sweet. It came with a sort of maple syrup sort of frosting in a cup? It was delicious. The wait staff was fairly pleasant, and very attentive to our meal. I really liked the ambience; it was fairly modern with a nice clean setting. We also ordered some fries to share between us. We were using a Groupon. A Groupon is a coupon you buy for a certain price that pledges another price toward the bought object or service. For instance, the price paid was 20 dollars, but it pledged 40 dollars to the meal. If you can, I would look these up for your area.

Over all, the Green Zebra was pretty good. I really liked the atmosphere and the food. I just wish there were more vegan options. I don't think a single dish, for the brunch at least, as vegan. Actually, I just read the menu again, everything has either cheese or eggs. Anyway, if you aren't vegan and have money, I suggest this for a nice brunch.

Hopefully soon I will write a new entry on an actual dish I have made. There are a couple I have made on which I would like to write, and a couple dish I would like to make on which I could write.

Pane Siciliano

So, here's another baking recipe. It is from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. Great book, get it if you enjoy baking.

I made this bread yesterday. It is pretty decent; I am not a huge fan of the crumb, I think that is primarily due to the fact that its not quite as chewy as I like it and the holes are kind of small. Then again this can be fixed by kneading longer. At least I'm pretty sure that's how. I read that the holes should be more irregular in size. Otherwise pretty good, and different than what I am used to.

This bread is not vegan in a strict sense. It has a tablespoon of honey in it, but if you're okay with that, then cool.

Instruction:

First is first, start with a pâte fermentée. I outlined this in my entry on Pain de Campagne. So check that out for the starter, pâte fermentée.

The next day when that's ready take it out of the fridge, cut it into about 10 pieces and let it sit out, covered, for an hour. This takes the chill off. Mix 8 oz. Semolina Flour, 8 oz. Bread Flour, 1 and 1/4 of Instant Yeast, 1 and 1/4 tsp of Salt. Once the pâte fermentée is ready go ahead and throw that in the bowl of the dry stuff, and then pour in 2 tbps of Olive Oil, 1 tbps of Honey, and about a 1 and 1/4 cup or so of lukewarm water. Stir this all together until it forms a ball. Okay, if it looks too dry add about a tablespoon at a time of water, until it seems sticky enough. If you haven't ever baked bread, it will be until the bread is kind of tacky, but not necessarily sticky. Don't be afraid about messing up, you can always add a little flour, plus, more will be going into this when you make a bed of flour for kneading.

Okay get ready to knead for about 10 minutes, maybe a little longer. The dough ball should be smooth and tacky, not sticky. Put it in a bowl coated with a little bit of oil (only to ease getting it out later, the recipe doesn't call for it, but if you're not used to trying not to deflate bread, then this might be a good idea). Let it hang out at room temperature for 2 hours, it should about double in size. Take it out of the bowl and cut it into 3 equal pieces. Stretch a piece out to about 2 feet or so and working at each end, roll the ends toward the middle on opposite sides of the stretched out piece. It should work together into a little S shape. Once you have made three, put them on baking sheets that have semolina flour on them, to prevent sticking, and either put them in a big food grade back, or just cover them with saran wrap. I just covered them and they came out fine. The saran wrap kind of smooshed the S look, but oh well. You're supposed to put them in the fridge, but since I have roommates, I have no fridge space for huge pans of bread. I put it in our sun room, and it being winter in Chicago in a room with no insulation, that worked just fine as a fridge.

Okay, it says to proof over night, but it also says you don't have to. If you want a more developed flavor, let them proof over night. If you don't care, don't have fridge space, or for whatever reason, I would let it proof for a couple hours at room temperature, until it about doubles in size.

Then you hearth bake the bread, which is also outlined in the Pain de Campagne post.

It should be nice and brown with a crispy crust.

As said earlier, it's a little different since the content is about half Semolina. I don't know if I have ever had a Semolina bread. It is pretty good though. I would probably make it again.

Chickpea & Quinoa Pilaf

I have made this two times in the past week. It was very good and rather easy.

So first is first, sautee a small yellow onion in a bit of olive oil (2 tbps) for about 6-7 minutes on medium area heat, not too hot though. After this add 2 cloves of minced garlic. Sautee for another 2 minutes. Some people actually do mise en place, which is nice if you're worried about something burning or maybe you're a ridiculously slow chopper/mincer, etc. Mise en place meaning having everything you need for the meal already prepared and in a place that is easily accessible. I like multi-tasking so I just mince garlic during, do whatever is easiest for you. Anyway, while that is sauteeing get ready to throw in 1 tbps of tomato paste (I just use ketchup ha, they're similar enough for me), 1 tbps coriander (the recipe says crushed, but who actually buys whole coriander seeds? I just used ground), 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp of salt, and about 1/8 of a tsp of black pepper. Throw those in when the garlic has sauteed. Mix it up a bit, it should only be in for a minute or so, then throw in the cup of quinoa. Okay, I didn't only use quinoa because first time I made it I ran out so I cut it with bulghur (bulghur is a whole grain generally made from durum wheat). This time I did the same thing because I liked it so much. I used about 1/4 cup of bulghur and 3/4 cup of quinoa. Once again do whatever you think is best. Sautee this for about 2 minutes. Heating grains brings out starch making them able to form better starchy bonds. At least that's how it works in rice, I imagine it works similarly in quinoa and bulghur. After you sautee that and mix it up a bit, add a can of drained chickpeas and about 2 cups of vegetable broth. Bring this to a boil. Once at a boil lower the heat down pretty low. I put it at a low simmer. And cook for 18-20 minutes, or whenever all the broth is gone.

This takes a little over 30 minutes so its a quick meal. It is also rather easy. The only thing really to worry about is if the heat is too high and the onions or the garlic get burnt. Otherwise it's very straightforward, quick, and good. A good pairing that I used was Lemon Garlic Broccoli. I really like a bit of lemon in a side dish paired with the quinoa.

Well, I think tomorrow I will be posting about the Pane Siciliano I have been working on. I planned to make it today but I misread and found out it has to proof again overnight....sigh.