Chow Vegan

I had just taken out a batch of roasted tofu from the oven when I thought maybe I should try it with that new olive oil I got in the mail. I had received a complimentary bottle of Kenzoil from the manufacturer and was debating what to do with it.

I must admit I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was first contacted to try the stuff. I mean, come on, it’s a bottle of oil with herbs in it. As it turns out, Kenzoil is delicious as a dip for tofu. I also sprinkle a little on white rice as I didn’t have any bread to dip and that’s tasty as well. The flavor is subtly of basil and garlic with just a hint of spiciness.

Besides the fresh basil and garlic, I believe it’s those spices that put it over the top and makes it so different and special. I noticed how the label doesn’t list exactly what the spices are, it must be a secret recipe.

It’s all-natural, vegan, raw, dairy free, gluten free and nut free. Not to mention low sodium, no vinegar, no sugar and no preservatives. Just like I would make at home if I had the time and if I wasn’t so lazy and if I knew the actual recipe.

Fortunately, Kenzoil is available online and in some Midwest stores if you happen to live out there.

I’ve been dying to make something with the Vietnamese Extra Fancy Cinnamon I picked up from Penzeys Spices. Every time I get a whiff of it, I want to bake something. Something easy but healthy, I decided to try a baked version of banana tempura.

I used the batter-baked method from The 30-Minute Vegan. Dipping and breading each individual slice is definitely the way to go, I got a lot more crumb coverage on each piece.

Baked banana tempura isn’t exactly like regular tempura – it’s a lot lighter and there’s not a ton of batter. The bananas come out warm and a little melty inside with a bit of a crunch on the outside. You’ll have to eat it right away otherwise you’ll lose the crunch (it’s still good just not crunchy). Dusted with cinnamon, it’s heaven on a plate.

Baked Banana Tempura
Serves 2

2 small to medium size bananas
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
Ground cinnamon for dusting

Batter
1 1/2 tablespoons ground flax meal
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet.

Combine batter ingredients in a bowl and blend well with a whisk. Set aside. Place bread crumbs in a bowl or plate and set near the batter bowl and baking sheet.

Peel and cut the bananas crosswise into 3/4″ slices. Give the batter a quick stir and then place a banana slice into the batter, coating well. Then into the bread crumbs, making sure it’s totally covered. Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with each banana slice.

Bake for 4 minutes, flip over and bake another 4 minutes. Arrange on a serving dish and dust with cinnamon. Serve immediately.

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar Giveaway!
Don’t forget there’s only a few more days to enter the giveaway here, it closes on Saturday, December 12, 2009.

I can’t bake. I know it. You know it. Even the oven knows it. But after I received a review copy of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, I just had to give my favorite cookie, oatmeal raisin, a try.

It didn’t start off well. I bought the wrong kind of quick-cooking oats, somehow I missed the smaller “steel cut” type on the package. Of course, I didn’t notice until I had already mixed up all of the wet ingredients and just poured in the oats and started mixing.

After recovering from flashbacks of other ill-fated attempts at baking. I dumped everything into the garbage and headed back to the store.

I got the correct ingredients this time, after double-checking the labels on everything. Mixed up a batch and started plopping them on the baking sheet. Shoved the whole thing in the oven and prayed the entire 10 minutes that they were in there, that all would be well when they came back out.

Lo and behold, I actually made a cookie! Thank goodness for small miracles. It’s been ages since I enjoyed a freshly baked cookie hot out of the oven. It’s so good!

To celebrate, I’m giving away a copy of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar so you too may enjoy freshly baked goodies, with or without noobie drama.

The cookbook includes 100 recipes organized by type – from drop, wholesome, bar, fancy to sliced and rolled cookies. There’s also a very handy section in the beginning covering ingredients, tools, substitutions and troubleshooting.

To enter, complete the following:

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

2. Leave a comment in this post that you’ve done so and tell me what is your favorite cookie. Comment must be made by midnight PST on Saturday, December 12th; 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, December 14th. Good luck!

Even though I love my spicy Butternut Squash Soup, I’m still curious about other versions, especially the ones that have fruit in them.

Seeing the Butternut Squash-Bartlett Pear Soup from Vegan Soul Kitchen in the latest issue of Vegetarian Times pushed me over the edge and into the kitchen to give it a try.

It’s a much milder, sweeter soup than what I’m used to, but still very good. Preparation and cooking were similar in both recipes. I made a couple of changes as I always seem to do; I didn’t have any coconut milk handy so I used soy milk instead.

I also didn’t have any pumpkin seeds for the garnish and so I cut up an extra piece of pear to sprinkle on top. It worked out well – adding a bit more of the pear taste and a crunch to the soup.

Related Posts
Blackened Tofu From Vegan Soul Kitchen
Roasted Tofu Cubes From Vegan Soul Kitchen

This is what I want to eat for the holidays. Thanksgiving or Christmas, it doesn’t matter, I just want it. What is it you say?

It’s smoked vegetarian goose. I picked it up from Sogo Tofu, a small vegetarian shop that produces all manner of tofu and soy products in San Jose. Expertly made, it has just the right amount of smokiness so it’s not overwhelming and the taste of the yuba comes through.

That’s right, you read that correctly. It doesn’t look like it but that roll is made from layers and layers of yuba, tightly rolled up with a layer of vegetable filling and smoked. At least that’s how I think it’s made. I’ve been unsuccessful in finding an actual recipe for this particular dish. I’m just happy to be able to get it at all.

Serve with a simple sauté of swiss chard and Cumin-Cayenne Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Onions from Vegan Soul Kitchen. I’ve been making all sorts of things out of that cookbook (the recipe is also available in the current issue of Vegetarian Times). The mashed potatoes is another winner – it has a spicy, rich taste about it. No gravy needed.

Related Posts
Mock Chicken
BBQ Yuba Ribs
Yuba Rolls

I meant to experiment with version 2.0 of the Salt and Pepper Roasted Tofu. But since I had a leek to use up, I went with a black bean sauce and threw the poor leek in the sauce.

I prepared the tofu using the method for Vegan Soul Kitchen. I left out the rosemary but kept the paprika for the beautiful color.

For the sauce, I like to use dried fermented black beans instead of a bottled black bean sauce. Also called preserved black beans, salted or dried black beans and in Cantonese, tau see. The flavor is more intense, stronger and fresher tasting than the bottled stuff.

Not to be confused with the black beans associated with Mexican food, these are small black soy beans dried and fermented with salt and sometimes ginger. The brand I use is Yang Jiang Preserved Beans, it comes in a cylindrical cardboard container at the Asian supermarket. It’s very easy to use, just soak a few minutes to soften, rinse and mash a little with a fork to release their flavor.

And don’t forget to check your teeth after eating anything with black bean sauce. You wouldn’t want to be walking around with black specks all over your mouth. It’s not pretty.

Roasted Tofu with Leeks and Black Bean Sauce
Serves 2

1 16-ounce block of extra-firm tofu
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Sauce
1 medium leek, white and some green part, cut into 2 inch sections
2 tablespoons fermented black beans, mashed with a fork
1 teaspoon oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup water
Arrowroot dissolved in water

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. In a bowl, combine the oil, salt and paprika. Cut the tofu into cubes 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.

Heat a wok to hot, add the oil. Swirl the oil to coat the wok. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and black beans. Stir-fry for a few seconds, then add the leeks. Stir-fry for a few minutes, add the water and cook until the leeks are tender.

Slowly add the arrowroot mixture and stir to thicken the sauce to desired consistency. Add the tofu and mix well. Serve with rice.

Related Posts
Salt and Pepper Roasted Tofu
Rosemary-Roasted Tofu Cubes

I needed to pick up some spices and stopped by Penzeys Spices in downtown Menlo Park the other day. It’s their only location in all of Northern California and luckily, not too far away from me.

Penzeys is to cooks, what a candy store is to kids. It’s a visual and olfactory treat to step through the door. You can open sample jars and get a good whiff of each spice. Everything smells incredible and oh so fresh. And the variety of some spices is just astounding.

Who knew there was so many different kinds of cinnamon? I thought there was just the one kind (the one in the supermarket labeled brown cinnamon) but no, they have four different ones there. I got the Vietnamese Cinnamon-Extra Fancy, it smelled so strongly of cinnamon, it made me want to run home and bake something. And you know, I’m no baker.

I also got a free jar of Bangkok Blend (sweet peppers, garlic, ginger, black pepper, galangal, hot peppers, lemon grass, basil and cilantro) from the peel-off free gift coupon on their catalog cover. It was my choice of 1 of 3 turkey seasonings, the other two were Poultry Seasoning or Bicentennial Rub. No turkey here, so I’m thinking of trying it out on an unsuspecting block of tofu.

With persimmons all over the farmers market, I just had to get some. There’s two types: Fuyu is the squat, round, firm, eat-whenever kind and the Hachiya is the soft, pointy end, eat-only-if-ripe-or-you’ll-be-really-sorry kind.

I went with the Fuyu for it’s crispness and because I was going to use it in a salad. Cutting the persimmon crosswise made such a nice round colorful disc, I thought it would be fun if the salad was stacked instead of in a giant heap.

Fuyu Persimmon Salad
Serves 2 as part of a meal

1 head baby romaine lettuce
1 Fuyu persimmon
1/2 avocado
Handful of dried cranberries and/or pomegranate seeds

Dressing
2 tablespoons Vegenaise or other vegan mayonnaise
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon white vine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk well to combine. Set aside. Peel the persimmon and cut crosswise into thin rounds. Slice the avocado crosswise.

Tear the lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Place in a mixing bowl, add dressing to taste and toss.

To plate, place one persimmon round in center of a serving plate. Pile lettuce on top, avocado next and then another persimmon round and repeat, ending with a few avocado slices on top of a persimmon.

Sprinkle the dried fruit around. Spoon extra dressing around the plate in a line. Serve immediately.