Cornbread Recipes
Posted by Christina in Vegan Recipes on Nov 26th, 2007 | Comments Off
Before moving to Austin, I had never heard of cornbread dressing, and the only cornbread I had ever made, was the kind from the little blue Jiffy box. Since I’ve been in Texas, though, it seems like every fall, you can’t escape the innumerable mentions of cornbread dressing, recipes for cornbread dressing, and smell of cornbread baking in anticipation of being made into cornbread dressing. Needless to say, I’ve tried a few different versions of cornbread dressing, and while they may have been tasty, I couldn’t help thinking that the dish would have been better if the building block of the dish, the cornbread, was better. It seems to me that the cornbread used is usually off, either too dry, too soggy, too sweet, or having too little corn flavor. So, I decided to experiment with cornbread recipes. Many of these were good, but something about each just wouldn’t work for dressing. Finally, I decided to just create my own. This recipe is the result. It’s slightly sweet, moist enough to eat alone, but dry enough to soak up soup, chili or bean likker. It also makes an awesome basis for cornbread dressing.
Christina’s Cornbread
by Christina Terriquez
Dry Ingredients
2 1/3 cups fine cornmeal
1 cups unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Wet Ingredients
1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1/3 cup non-GMO corn oil
2-3 tablespoons agave nectar
2 tablespoons flax meal (ground flax seeds)
1/2 cup water
2 cups soy milk
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Directions
Preheat oven to 350° F.Lightly oil a 13″x9″ baking dish.
In a large bowl, sift dry ingredients together.
In a blender or food processor, blend corn kernels, oil, agave nectar, flax meal and water until smooth. Add soy milk and vinegar and let rest for 5 minutes.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour into prepare baking dish and bake until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.
Notes
This can be frozen in air tight bags for up to a month, though it will dry out a bit.
JD was extremely excited about the cornbread, as he grew up eating it often, and to him, apparently, nothing is better than a bowl of “soup beans” and cornbread. So I made this meal for him. It’s cubes of cornbread, covered with whole, slow cooked pinto beans, slow cooked collard greens cooked with a little alderwood smoked sea salt and sesame oil (to give it a sort of smoky oily flavor, like ham hocks or bacon), and sweet potatoes.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Chile Verde Enchiladas and Cold Weather Comfort Soup
Posted by Christina in Vegan Recipes on Nov 8th, 2007 | Comments OffI’ve got a confession to make.
I cheated.
I gave in to weakness and tried VeganRella. The worst part? It was delicious! It’s not something I’ll use often. I may, in fact, not buy it ever again… but it does indeed melt, and it melts better than Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet (my personal NotCheese of choice). The taste and texture right out the package leave much to be desired, as it is waxy and bland, and it contains canola oil (which I missed when I bought it) but for gooey meltiness it’s probably the best commercially made vegan cheese alternative. The normally off-putting waxiness also comes in handy in this case, since it makes grating very easy. Of course, my minimally-refined, go-to ingredient for gooey deliciousness is usually mochi, and probably always will be, but sometimes it just doesn’t work in a given dish.
One such dish is enchiladas. I had tried making a nightshade-free version with mochi and it just wasn’t any good. The mochi filling was so rich and filling you could really only eat one, and you felt full and bloated for hours afterward. I may attempt another nightshade-free version with mochi, but if I do, the enchiladas would be filled with either beans or vegetables, and only the topping would contain mochi.
Yesterday I posted a recipe for green chile that I had been meaning to post for months; but it just so happened that we recently made a big batch, which we have been using in various dishes, and tonight we made green enchiladas, so it seemed like a very timely dish to post. I took a few really pretty pictures of the enchiladas and the soup and vegetables that I made, but apparently my camera ate the pictures (the food was that yummy!), so I’m left with one lone enchilada picture.
For this batch of green chile, we used about 6 Anaheim peppers, 4 poblanos, and 5 or 6 jalapeños. Using a mix like this really lets the most desirable aspects of each pepper shine through, in this case, the poblano don’t have much flavor, but give a nice dark color contrast, and help temper the heat of the jalapeños. The tomatoes give a good tang and add bright red bursts of color. The Anaheim are slightly sweet and mild, give body to the chile, and provide a base. The jalapeños, of course, provide heat.
Enchiladas are another dish that is more about technique than ingredients. It’s very important to have your filling and sauce ready. The fillings I associate most with enchiladas are cheese & onions, spiced ground beef, or beans, but the possibilities are endless. I used a simple filling of grated VeganRella (mozzarella flavor) and green chile. Making enchiladas is a great way to use leftovers, for example if you have tacos on Monday, you can use the leftovers as filling for enchiladas later in the week. Enchiladas are commonly made with a red chile sauce, often being tomato-based, but green chile sauces are not uncommon.
The basic process begins with lightly frying a corn tortilla in a touch of oil to soften. I think you could probably get away with heating the tortillas on a comal, skillet or griddle if they were fresh and flexible, though. Next, you fill the tortilla with your desired filling–I used approximately 2 tablespoons finely grated VeganRella and 2 teaspoons green chile per tortilla–and roll up. Place rolled tortilla in a baking dish, and repeat. This process is much easier if you have someone helping you, then you can fry while your helper fills, or vice versa. When you’ve either 1) used up all your ingredients, 2) run out of space in your baking dish, or 3) made 2 more enchiladas than you think will be enough to satisfy all members of your household, spread a generous amount of your desired chile sauce over and around each enchilada. You can even put a little sauce in the bottom of the baking dish prior to putting enchiladas in dish, but I haven’t found that to be necessary. If desired, top with a sprinkle of your favorite notcheese. Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes or until filling is heated through. If you’re using a melty vegan notcheese, obviously, you’re looking for it to melt. I like to smother the enchiladas with more chile halfway through cooking, but I don’t think that’s necessary unless they look a little dried out.
I also made a yummy stick-to-your-ribs soup, that just happened to be super easy and made almost entirely from leftovers. JD loves Campbell’s-style vegetable beef soup, and I wanted to make a soup similar to that, but heartier and healthier. Recently, we’ve had a cold spell in Austin. Our temperature seems to be about 10 degrees cooler than usual, which means that I’ve had to wear long sleeves, pants, and real shoes as opposed to my normal casual November attire of knee-length skirts and flip flops. It also means that I’ve been craving more long-cooked, baked, or stewed foods and soups that are thicker, richer or more filling.
I’ve been playing with homemade vegetable stocks, and I saved some of the vegetables (I used carrots and celery), so I also had both of those items on hand. I also had cooked short grain brown rice, but you could use any leftover grain. I chose red lentils to thicken the soup and add heartiness, because red lentils, unlike most other varieties, turn to mush as they cook and change to a light yellow color, so you can’t really see then in this soup. Certainly, other lentils could be used, but they wouldn’t thicken the soup in the same way. If you have cooked whole beans like white or kidney on hand, they’d make a delicious addition.
Stick-To-Your-Ribs Comfort Soup
by Christina Terriquez2 1/2 cups of your favorite broth
1-1 1/2 cups diced mixed vegetables (frozen, leftover or fresh)
2 tablespoons red lentils
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup of red sauce (Mama Mia sauce, nightshade-free red sauce, tomato sauce, or marinara)
1 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
your choice of dried herbs like oregano, basil, thyme, or Italian herb mix, etc.
sea salt or shoyuDirections
In a medium saucepan or dutch oven, heat broth and add vegetables. If using fresh vegetables, simmer vegetables for 2 minutes. If using frozen vegetables, simmer for 10 minutes. If using leftover vegetables, proceed to next step.Add red lentils and simmer for 10 minutes. Add garlic, red sauce, brown rice, and herbs and simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste and simmer for 5 more minutes. Garnish with fresh scallions of parsley.
Notes
Add 1/2-1 cup whole cooked beans.Try adding other leftover grains in place of brown rice.
Can be served as a meal with a piece of crusty bread, or in smaller portions as a starter.
When I put away the leftover soup, I took it as an opportunity to try taking another picture, so here you are:
I especially like the way the hands sort of take on the form of a heart in this picture.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Mama C’s Green Chile
Posted by Christina in Vegan Recipes on Nov 6th, 2007 | 0 commentsWhen I had been a kid in Colorado, I played softball in just a little league inside the Catholic Diocese. I had been a Saint. Although the group did not go out together for ice cream or pizza following every video game, foods was really a lot a component of the video game ritual. Following each and every video game, the girls on the group every got a soda, and every loved ones needed to place in cash for concessions (giant jars of monster pickles, bulk candies and soda, plenty of soda), and on the rotating basis, supply refreshments. My memory of the precise particulars on this are a little bit fuzzy, simply because, frankly I had been much more concerned with hitting a homer, getting a G-DOUBLE-O-D-E-Y-E, and not obtaining a black eye from that fierce pitcher who hit a minimum of two members of our group having a quick curve each and every inning she pitched, every time we played her group..<br>..<br> nevertheless, I think that every loved ones was anticipated to create burritos.
I had been not a especially picky eater like a kid, but I didn’t like spicy foods. I just did not comprehend why in the globe individuals would consume foods that created them uncomfortable–which is humorous simply because as an adult, I’ve been recognized to consume wasabi paste like avocado. Like a kid, I only actually ate burritos when my mother created them, and although it had been a uncommon occasion, she would make an massive batch when she do. As I recall, her burritos had been not particularly authentic–I believe they consisted of browned ground beef, slices of longhorn colby cheese, refried pinto beans and eco-friendly chile with pork–but, my oh my, the eco-friendly chile!
I loved and have longed for my mom’s eco-friendly chile frequently because I moved aside. I did not know till lately, but numerous of the dishes I grew up considering of as Mexican had been really New Mexican, that is most likely why it is uncommon to determine chile verde in Texas, except as “green chile pork stew”. When I had been growing up in CO, eco-friendly chile was THE chile. Should you desired a bean, tomato and ground beef stew with cumin and spices, you enquired for chili con carne. There was even a location known as Chubby’s that experienced chile cheese fries, or what I liked to refer to as Heart Attack on the Plate. It appears as although in any other state, that dish will be served with chili con carne, but at Chubby’s, it had been usually eco-friendly chile, and it had been divine.
Certainly, eco-friendly chile is really a really sentimental dish for me. I cannot smell roasting eco-friendly chiles without having obtaining nostalgic for fall in Colorado with the changing of the leaves, the golden aspens, the end of summer time holiday and the butterflies connected with the starting of school. I believed about attempting to recreate it off the best of my head, but I had been feeling sort of homesick by this time, so I known as up my mama and chatted for any although, then enquired her how she do it. Not becoming particularly fond of cooking, she in no way wrote any recipes down, so she’d tell me several actions, then go back and alter every thing. It had been adorable. And it further cemented my require to create chile correct aside. My mother informed me that she utilized tomatoes, which did not sound correct whatsoever to me, so I omitted them at very first….poor concept. The chile did not have any tang or zest. The moral? Usually listen for your mama.
When I informed JD that I desired to attempt producing eco-friendly chile, he believed I meant a white bean, chicken and eco-friendly bell pepper stew. Correct then, I knew I Needed to make eco-friendly chile, and I needed to allow it to be till it had been ideal.
Because this recipe was passed down orally, it is just a little little bit looser than most of my recipes, but that just provides you much more freedom. If you are a mild type of individual who does not wish to make a large batch, only include 1 or two jalapenos, and two quarts of drinking water. Should you like points face meltingly warm, and believe the much more the merrier with regards to leftovers, include 6 or much more warm peppers–hell, throw inside a habanero or scotch bonnet!–and use 4 quarts of drinking water. The original recipe, obviously, utilized pork, and I use seitan, but you can omit that and use a various thickener if you are opposed to seitan, wheat intolerant or celiac.
Mama C’s Chile Verde/Green Chile
by Christina Terriquez8-10 mild green chili peppers like mild hatch, poblano, or, my favorite, anaheim, washed and dried and whole
3-6 medium or hot chili peppers like serrano, or jalapeno, washed and dried and whole
olive or safflower oil
5 stewed or fresh tomatoes, skins peeled and discarded and flesh minced
1/2-1 yellow or white onion, diced
2-4 cloves of garlic
2-4 quarts of water (1 quart is 4 cups)
sea salt
1 lb seitan or 1 batch Easy Wheat Gluten
organic white unbleached flourDirections
Roast peppers over flame until skin is black and blistered, being careful not to puncture skin as juices will leak. Set blackened peppers aside or in brown paper bag to cool. Repeat until all peppers are roasted.Using plastic gloves, under cool running water, peel the skin away from the peppers, de-stem and de-seed. Dice pepper flesh.
In a medium skillet, heat a small amount of oil and sauté onions, garlic, and a pinch of salt, until onions are translucent and beginning to brown. Remove from heat.
In a stockpot or large dutch oven, add onions, garlic, peppers, and tomatoes. Simmer for at least 1 hour.
Cut half of seitan into 1/2 inch chunks, and add to stockpot. Cut remaining seitan into pea-sized pieces, and brown in skillet with oil. Set aside for garnishing just before serving.
Dilute 2 tablespoons of flour in 1/4 cut of water and slowly stir into chile. Season chile with sea salt. If chile looks thick enough for your liking, serve. If chile seems a little watery, dilute flour 1 tablespoon at a time, and add to chile. Keep in mind that chile will thicken as it cools.
Notes
Chile is great as a sauce for smothering burritos, making green enchiladas, or pouring over scrambled tofu or tofu omlets for a sort of “huevos rancheros” dish.We often eat it room temperature with chips.
It’s very important to use gloves when peeling hot chili peppers, as the essence stays on your fingertips for a long time and burns sensitive skin and mucous membranes. I’ve known many a person who didn’t wear gloves when seeding peppers, then (after washing their hands) went to the bathroom or touched their eye, with stinging consequences.
Flour is what my mother always used, but you can use a different thickener. My favorite thickener is kuzu powder.
Tomatillos may be use in place of tomatoes for a greener chile verde.
In one of the last big meals R, JD and I ate together, we had smothered burritos filled with Monterey Jack Follow Your Heart NotCheese , refried pinto beans and green chile, covered with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, more NotCheese and more green chile, plus Spanish rice and zucchini ribbons sautéed with olive oil and garlic. We each had one flour tortilla burrito and one sprouted grain (or maybe sprouted corn?) tortilla burrito. Pretty simple, but sooooo good! Interestingly, although I loved green chile in burritos as a child, I could not stand smothered burritos as they always seemed like a soggy, hard-to-eat mess. Either I’m less sensitive as an adult, or the vegan tortillas are more impervious to the vegan chile than lard-laden tortillas are to conventional green chile.
With some leftover chile, we had tofu omelets filled with mushrooms and covered in green chile, with a little NotCheese for garnish. The green chile is not pretty, but it IS delicious! JD is not really a fan of tofu, and we don’t eat it much, but if there’s chile in the house, he’ll scarf down two smothered tofu omelets in no time. I don’t do nightshades very often, but when I do, I do them right.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Potluck and Black-Bottom Blackberry Pie
Posted by Christina in Vegan Dessert, Vegan Recipes on Nov 5th, 2007 | Comments OffI lastly created it to one of Cristen and Miguel’s potlucks at the invitation of the buddy. I adore vegan potlucks, particularly if they’re themed. This theme happened to become pie, which appears to constantly possess a large presence in my existence. I’m type of recognized for the pecan pies I make, and so I generally make individuals when I wish to make pie, but I desired to attempt some thing various and perhaps just a little typical. I made the decision to create a blackberry pie utilizing frozen blackberries. When I looked in my baking cabinet, I discovered some higher high quality dim chocolate from when I was producing truffles, and black-bottom blackberry pie sounded yummy so I obtained to function.
Final year throughout peak strawberry season, when I went to the farmer’s marketplace, the strawberry farmers would give me a couple of additional baskets of berries, so I experienced a lot much more than I knew what to complete with. I ended up producing strawberry sauces, strawberry pies, and freezing the berries for later use or for frozen fruit slush. My preferred experiment from that time was a totally free form black bottom strawberry tart, created with phyllo dough, dim chocolate, strawberries and I believe just a little turbinado sugar. The flavors worked nicely together, but they are really separate and unique, which kept them really intense. The method was also very simple. Over a baking sheet, I’d lay down 1 sheet of phyllo and brush it with safflower oil, then lay another sheet, that I’d turned 45° and brushed with oil, repeating and occasionally sprinkling or drizzling some sweetener more than the final sheet. Following laying down 25 sheets, I’d location broken chocolate or chocolate chunks in the middle of the phyllo star inside a circle around 7 inches in diameter. Then I’d lay one or 2 much more sheets more than the chocolate and strawberries that experienced been macerated in sweetener having a touch of lemon juice/zest. If the berries had been especially juicy, I’d add some powdered kuzu, then mound the berries in the middle of the phyllo, exactly where I’d previously positioned the chocolate. Subsequent, I’d fold the edges of the dough in to the middle, leaving a big component of the strawberries exposed. If I utilized turbinado sugar, it would happen to be to sprinkle more than the best of the dough for any sparkly, crunchy, sweet crust. I’d bake it for about 25 minutes at 350°F. When it cooled, the chocolate would get difficult once again, and the texture of difficult dim chocolate with juicy soft berries and crisp phyllo usually created me content.
Because I experienced carried out that numerous times prior to, also it usually came out stunning and delicious, I believed I could use the exact same strategy for any pie. Searching back I see my error. The pie was stunning, but the blackberries and chocolate ended up co-mingling and becoming truly rich. Additionally, I served it hot, which amplified the richness. It is a lot much better at room temperature. No recipe as this certainly requirements tweaking.
The potluck was enjoyable, and everybody was truly sweet. We ate close to a large bonfire, exactly where Cristen and Miguel created hobo pies. The fire created me believe about how we have to use our chiminea much more frequently. I also obtained to determine Veganism, who I originally met at a various potluck, also it appears, I’ve narrowly missed prior to. She created super adorable mini pecan pie bites, that type of reminded me of baklava in that they had been little and 1 was completely satisfying because of their sweetness and richness. As for me, I’ve discovered that I can’t consume pie exclusively without having turning into totally dehydrated.
I saw a couple of individuals getting images of my pie, but ironically sufficient, I did not take a image of the last item, so you will need to be content material having a pre-baked image. Just envision a much more golden crust, and much more blackberry juice oozing via the stars.
Popularity: unranked [?]
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