Chow Vegan

Sometimes I like to relax by trying out new recipes. I know it’s weird but if I have the time to relax, then I usually have the time to try cooking something new.

I’ve been eyeing the Zesty Orange Mojo Baked Tofu recipe from the Viva Vegan! cookbook. Since I’m staying at a resort with a full kitchen, it’s an ideal time to give it a go (I don’t have to clean the oven if it makes a big mess. Not that I’m going to make a mess on purpose or anything.)

It came out great, a bit differently than the actual recipe, seeing as I totally forgot about zesting the orange. I just squeezed it for the juice and threw the rest away. I only realize this as I’m staring at the remains of the orange in the trash, thinking I was suppose to zest that first.

And I had only bought one orange specifically for the recipe. Oops. So it’s just Mojo Baked Tofu. No zesty orange. Next time I try the recipe, I’ll be sure to have all of the ingredients plus extras.

On a side note, since I was traveling, I was only able to find super-firm tofu (all the other tofu was sold out). Super-firm is like the next step up from extra-firm. It’s very firm. When they say super-firm, they mean super-firm.

Stick to extra-firm to achieve that chewy outside, creamy inside kind of baked tofu. Super-firm makes it chewy all the way through.

Zesty Orange Mojo Baked Tofu
Serves 3 to 4
Time: About 55 minutes

1 pound extra-firm tofu
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Mojo Marinade
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
Grated zest of 1 orange
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Slice the tofu into eight 1/2-inch-thick slices and dab the slices dry with a paper towel or clean kitchen towel. Press the tofu if desired. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a shallow glass 9 by 12-inch baking dish, combine the olive oil and soy sauce. Lay a tofu slice in the baking dish, pressing it into the sauce mixture. Flip and press again to coat with the mixture. Bake for 20 minutes; remove from the oven but don’t turn the oven off. The tofu will be bubbling and juicy.

2. Combine all the marinade ingredients in a small bowl and stir well.

3. Flip each piece of tofu and pour the marinade over tofu; the marinade will nearly cover the top of the tofu. Bake for another 30 minutes until the tofu is firm and any remaining marinade has thickened up a little bit. Bake longer if an even chewier texture is desired. Serve the tofu hot and topped with any remaining marinade juices from the baking pan.

From the book Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero. Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2010. www.dacapopresscookbooks.com

Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon link, I get a few coins tossed my way if you click on the link and make a purchase of anything.

Related Post
Corn Crusted Tempeh Pot Pie From Viva Vegan!

Chinese steamed egg, a beloved childhood dish that I thought I would never enjoy again. I had loved it so much as a kid and so did my siblings.

But then, I found a vegan recipe for it on one of my favorite blogs, The Modern Vegetarian. A homey kind of a dish, it’s like a savory egg custard with a silky, smooth texture.

The vegan version uses silken tofu in place of the eggs and a little bit of turmeric for color. Mom sometimes added a pork filling. In my version, I replaced it with tempeh and mushrooms.

Vegan Chinese Vegan Steamed “Egg” with Tempeh
Serves 2
Adapted from The Modern Vegetarian

2 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked and chopped
1/4 cup cooked tempeh (see recipe below)
12 ounces fresh silken tofu
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon Shaoxing rice wine
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons egg replacer, mixed with 4 tablespoons water

Optional topping
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 green onion, white and green parts, chopped

In a food processor, combine the tofu, salt, sugar, rice wine, turmeric, egg replacer and blend until smooth and creamy.

Place the mushrooms and tempeh in a heatproof bowl or shallow pan, pour the tofu mixture on top of it. Use a bowl large enough (so that it doesn’t fill all the way to the top) to allow room for the tofu to expand.

Set up a steamer. When the water boils, place the bowl in and steam over medium heat for about 10 minutes. For a firmer texture, let stand 15-30 minutes before serving. It sets up even more overnight.

If using, mix the oil and soy sauce together and drizzle over the top, add the green onions. Serve with rice.

Cooked Tempeh
8 ounce package of tempeh, crumbled
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon oil
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce

Heat the wok until hot. Add the oil and swirl in the wok to coat. Add the onions and saute over medium heat until translucent. Add the tempeh, water and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Cover and turn down the heat to medium low and simmer until the water is mostly absorbed about 4-5 minutes.

My first bento box and its got blue rice. I’ve always been fascinated with how pretty bentos can be, but put off by the food coloring used to achieve some of those effects. Then I found this excellent tutorial at Eye Candy food blog on how to get a beautiful blue color using red cabbage of all things.

It’s actually pretty easy to do. Well, not as easy as pouring a few drops out of a little bottle from a store shelf, but still very easy and kinda fun too.

Basically, it’s just cooking shredded red cabbage in water. Drain, and you’ll see that the water turned a purple color. By adding an alkaline such as baking soda, it becomes blue! Add an acid like vinegar, it’ll be pink.

To minimize the cabbage flavor of the blue dye, I added a few tablespoons to just the amount of rice I wanted to turn blue. Mixed well and then poured out the excess liquid. Placed the blue rice in the fridge overnight. In the morning, it’s even bluer.

For the tofu fish, it’s just a couple pieces of Crispy Baked Tofu cut into a fish shape with barbecue sauce eyes. The underwater flora is blue lake green beans and the bottom is sliced raw carrots.

A few weeks ago, I received a review copy from the publisher of the newly released Viva Vegan!: 200 Authentic and Fabulous Recipes for Latin Food Lovers by Terry Hope Romero.

Viva Vegan! is to Latin food what Vegan Soul Kitchen is to African American food – amazing cookbooks that open up and reinvent the culinary delights of their respective cultures using fresh ingredients to create healthy, tasty, vegan meals.

And if you liked Veganomicon, you’ll probably like Viva Vegan! too, it’s written in a similar style and format but focused solely on Latin cuisine.

Since I have a soft spot for shepherd’s pie, the Creamy Corn-Crusted Tempeh Pot Pie jumped out as one of the must-try recipes. It’s a twist on the Chilean comfort food “pastel de choclo” or corn pie.

Using fresh white corn from the farmers market, the creamy topping is a sweet contrast to the savory tempeh filling. It’s fairly easy to make too as it’s mostly assembly. To see for yourself, I’m giving away a copy of Viva Vegan!

To enter, complete the following:

1. Subscribe to chowvegan.com via RSS reader or email.

2. Leave a comment in this post and tell me what’s your favorite Latin food. Comment must be made by midnight PST on Saturday, May 29th; one entry per person. Giveaway is open to US mailing addresses only.

One winner will be randomly selected from the comments received and announced on Monday, May 31st.

Disclosure: In case you didn’t notice, this post is crawling with Amazon links. I get a few coins thrown my way if you click on any of the links and make a purchase of anything.

The cookbook I’m giving away is the one that I received directly from the publisher. I did not drool on it.

Today, I made quinoa. It’s been on my list of things to cook for awhile but I didn’t have the right equipment. Quinoa should be rinsed before cooking but I only had an itty-bitty fine mesh strainer which would have taken forever.

So with a proper sized strainer purchased, I’m finally ready to give it a go. I went with this recipe for Seven-Vegetable Couscous With Chunky Onion Harissa from epicurious.com. But instead of couscous, I used quinoa. Since they’re kinda similar, I figured it would be just as good if not better.

I did make a few tweaks – carrots instead of butternut squash (not in season right now). Reduced the amount of oil called for in the recipe and I cooked the quinoa separately in a fuzzy logic rice cooker.

You gotta make the harissa, it adds even more flavor and totally makes the dish. I only made half since the recipe makes a lot. I also gave the garlic and onion a quick sauté (in the recipe it’s raw).

I’ve eaten the couscous version quite a few times over the years and it’s great. But the quinoa really ramps up the nutrition for an awesome one dish meal complete with protein. It’s how I’ll be making it from now on.

Continuing on with another variation of the Roasted Tofu Cubes recipe from Vegan Soul Kitchen, I made “Honey” Walnut Tofu. It’s a veganized version of honey walnut shrimp, a Western-influenced dish typically found at Chinese restaurants.

I’ve never actually ate honey walnut shrimp before I was vegan and it never grace my childhood dining table. One, I don’t think it was even invented back then and two, milk and mayonnaise are not exactly Chinese ingredients.

I’m not 100% sure what it’s suppose to taste like, but it reminds me a little bit like ranch dressing, only sweeter. I didn’t caramelized the walnuts like restaurants do, as I prefer them raw.

Like the other roasted tofu variations, it’s really easy to make. Just roast the tofu, whisk together the sauce and toss.

“Honey” Walnut Tofu
Serves 4 as part of a meal

I 16-ounce block of extra-firm tofu
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Sauce
3 tablespoons Vegenaise or other vegan mayonnaise
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 tablespoon soy milk creamer
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Garnish
Handful of raw walnuts
White sesame seeds
A few sprigs of cilantro

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a bowl, combine the oil and salt. Cut the tofu into cubes (I usually get 24 cubes out of a one pound block) and gently toss to coat with the mixture. Place each tofu cube in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Roast for 15 minutes on each side.

Place the sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. Taste test and adjust by adding more agave nectar, if desired.

Add the tofu cubes to the sauce and toss until the tofu is well coated. Plate, then top with the walnuts and sesame seeds. Garnish with the cilantro.

Related Posts
Buffalo Style Roasted Tofu
Roasted Tofu with Leeks and Black Bean Sauce
Salt and Pepper Roasted Tofu
Roasted Tofu Cubes From Vegan Soul Kitchen

Looking around the pantry, I see I still have a rather large bag of glutinous rice from when I made Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf. This time I was much too lazy to bother with the lotus leaves. I thought to myself “I’ll just make a batch of sticky rice and serve it up in a bowl instead. It’ll be quicker since I’m not messing around with the leaves.”

But I’m probably deluding myself. It’s not hard to make but there’s still a bit of work involved. First, there’s the chopping of all the ingredients. And then there’s the combining of the savory part with the rice and since it’s sticky rice, it’s quite an upper arm workout.

I made it a little easier on myself by mixing in a bit of jasmine with the glutinous rice so the cooked rice is not quite as sticky. It’s not as chewy either but it’s still rich and flavorful.

Sticky Rice Bowl
Makes 4-6 servings

1 1/2 cups glutinous rice also known as sweet rice (use the measuring cup that came with the rice cooker)
1/2 cup jasmine rice

Savory Mixture
4 dried mushrooms, soaked and diced
1 medium carrot, diced
3 1/2 ounces vegan sausage (or 1 Tofurky Italian sausage), sliced into 1/8 inch rounds
3 ounces baked tofu
2 medium green onions, diced
3 sprigs of cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Sauce
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons vegetarian oyster sauce

Additional cilantro sprigs for garnish (optional)

Cooking directions is for use with a rice cooker with a 5.5 cups capacity. Using the inner pot of the rice cooker, rinse the rice in several changes of water until the water is clear. Add enough water to cook the sweet rice as indicated on the inner pot. Let the rice soak in the water for 2 hours before cooking. Cook the rice according to the rice cooker directions.

Combine the soy sauce and oyster sauce and set aside.

Heat a wok to hot, add the oil and swirl to coat the wok. Add the veggie sausage and stir fry until lightly browned.

Add the mushrooms and carrot and continue to stir fry for a few more minutes. If it appears dry, add a little bit of water. Add the tofu, peas and green onions, stir fry to combine. Add the sauce and cilantro and mix well.

Divide the savory mixture and rice in half to make it more manageable to combine. Place 1/2 of the mixture in the rice and 1/2 of the rice in the mixture. Mix together the two halves until everything is evenly distributed. It’s easiest to do when the rice is hot. Once cooled, it’ll be much harder.

To serve dim sum style, place a sprig of cilantro in the bottom of a rice bowl and pack the rice into the bowl. Invert onto a serving plate and remove the bowl.

Besides the sporting events at the Olympics, I like seeing the cultural side of the host city. Earlier in the week, I saw a blip about Vancouver’s Japadog, a very popular hot dog street cart with a Japanese twist.

Basically it’s a hot dog in a bun, but topped with Japanese condiments for a whole new fusion taste adventure. The “Japa Style Menu” includes some of the interesting items below. And they’re available in veggie style too.

• Terimayo – Beef hot dog with teriyaki sauce, seaweed (nori), fried onion, Japanese mayo
• Oroshi – Bratwurst with grated daikon radish, green onion, special soy sauce
• Okonomi – Kurobuta (pork) sausage with fried cabbage, Japanese mayo, bonito flakes, special Okonomiyaki sauce

Seeing as I’m not going to be in Vancouver anytime soon, I decided to go DIY. I made the Terimayo as that’s their most popular offering and the one that sounds the best.

I used jumbo sized veggie hot dogs for a better dog to bun fit. I think Japadog grills their hot dogs but I didn’t have a grill available so I just went with the boil in water method.

Took the hot dog out of the water and made a few slits in it. Heated up teriyaki sauce in a saucepan, then rolled the hot dog around until well-coated. Placed the hot dog and whatever sauce left in the pan on a toasted white whole wheat bun. Topped with sautéed onions, wasabi mayo and shredded toasted nori.

It’s actually really good, no wonder locals, tourists and celebrities are lining up to eat at Japadog. The flavors work well together, balancing the salty sweet of the teriyaki sauce with the kick from the creamy wasabi mayo.

Although I’m not a big hot dog eater, I just might have to try other DIY flavor combos. Perhaps a Vietnamese version with spicy mayo, pickled carrots and daikon, cucumbers, cilantro and mint?