Vegan Miscellanies

Simple Things: Vegan Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Quick Bread

Two nights in a row we made vegan cinnamon quick bread, based on Derek Markham's recipe on Natural Papa. It is so quick and so good! Of course I made a few changes.

Since we don't like raisins in baked goods, eating them only raw, we used dark chocolate chips in place of raisins. Not having whole wheat flour on hand, and thinking rye, because of its distinctive taste, wouldn't work, we used unbleached white flour. And not having regular quick oats -- we always eat steel cut Irish oatmeal -- but having accidentally purchased flaked 5 grain hot cereal (oats, wheat, rye, barley and triticale), we used that instead. 

Normally if one makes at least 3 changes to a recipe, one can call it one's own, right? Whatever the case, I wanted to give credit to Derek for this fine recipe. I wouldn't have made my modified version of this delicious bread had I not stumbled across his recipe.

Being a chocolate addict, the chocolate chips are excellent in there, though they likely make it a sweeter bread than Derek's version. And I do think the five grain cereal compensates for using unbleached white flour in place of whole wheat.

Yummy enough to bake two days in a row. The first day my partner made it and the next day I did. Not eating the whole thing in one day so some would be left to take to school and work was a challenge though.

Weird Shit: What We Vegans Always Eat

The last few days we've cooked and eaten some great vegan food at home. Last night, for instance, Jihan had made a wonderful raw beet salad while I made veganised Mexican white sauce with whole grain linguine.

Here's the Mexican white sauce, traditionally served drizzled over fish tacos, chiles rellenos, chicken enchiladas, veggies, and green fried tomatoes or whenever you want a lighter sauce instead of a red sauce. I'll provide details another time.

Over the whole grain linguine...

 

And the lovely raw beet salad with which we started our meal:

 

It's what happened when I brought this brilliantly colourful raw salad to work that this post is ultimately about.

I heated up my pasta with Mexican white sauce, left over from last night's dinner, and went to have my lunch at the picnic table outside the office. Before getting to the pasta, I opened my little container of the raw beet salad and began eating it. One of the three coworkers sitting there with me, one who not infrequently joins me there, asked whether I had pickled beets there. No, I answered, raw beet salad. Saying she'd never had raw beets, I offered her some, which she politely declined.

Another coworker, whose food-related xenophopia has inspired a previous post on this site and with whom I do not normally have my lunch, spat out this gem: "He always eats weird shit." It is, quite frankly, the rudest comment I've had to date on my food. After the initial shock wore off, and after having thought of a few choice replies, I focused back on the utter deliciousness of my food instead of wasting my time on her.

Here's an interesting little aside. Apparently conservatives are more easily grossed out in general, and when confronted with food that doesn't fit into the narrow confines of their diet (I was going to say chosen, but most such people don't chose a diet but rather stick mainly to what they've always eaten, that is, what they grew up with) they are grossed out.

On Flour and Homemade Bread

Some time ago, listening to CBC Radio One's Here and Now, I heard food columnist Sarah Elton (the Locavore) talk about a Toronto chef using Red Fife flour for his baking. Red Fife is considered the grandfather of Canadian wheat and is a heritage wheat. It was sent, in 1842, to a Mr. David Fife in Peterborough, Ontario by a friend who got it from a ship in the Glasgow port originating from Danzig (see Sharon Rempel's Grassroot Solutions for more information on Red Fife and other Canadian heritage wheats).

Apparently bread made of Red Fife flour has a unique appearance, aroma and taste. Here's how it is described on the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity site:

Artisan bread made from Red Fife Wheat has a hay yellow crumb, with an intense scent of herbs and vegetables colored with a light acidity. The nose has notes of anise and fennel, and in the mouth the bread is unexpectedly rich with a slightly herby and spicy flavor.

Yum! The language in this description is reminiscent of that used by wine and, more recently, coffee and tea sommeliers. Could there be such a thing as a bread sommelier? Why the heck not? A bread sommelier would be a bread steward who possesses expert knowledge about fine breads and is responsible for serving them. A bread sommelier, carrying the wine, tea and coffee analogy further, should possess detailed knowledge of the breads in their stock, including: grains used, regions where the grains were grown, farms where the grains were grown, where and how the grains were milled, and even 'terroir' (that combination of soil type and microclimate that gives a grain and, by extension, a bread its character).

Anyway, getting back on track here, Jihan recently learned, from my mom, how to make her own homemade bread. I'm talking from scratch, by hand. No throwing of ingredients into a bread machine. My mom was quite well known, back in the small Mexican village in which we lived when I was a child, for her homemade Mennonite bread. It's not so much the ingredients as the technique that distinguishes her bread.

Now that Jihan has a foundation of homemade bread-making, a skill I hope to pick up from her very soon, we intend to build on that and use better flours, from better grains, to make even better, more wholesome, breads. From there we can expand to baking different types of healthy, organic, wholegrain vegan breads.

Because we are also becoming increasingly interested in both the locavore and slow food movements, as both contribute not only to individual health, but also to the health of communities and the environment, we want to, as much as economically feasible, use more local ingredients to make our own bread the slow way. To this end, we purchased some Red Fife flour at our local Bulk Barn today. Since it is somewhat expensive, I think we will generally have to mix it into standard unbleached flour rather making bread exclusively of it, though we do intend to make at least one batch purely with the Red Fife flour.

While at the Bulk Barn today, having just recently found out that most standard flours contain a variety of additives, I did some ingredient checking on at least two fairly standard commercial flours. Here are the ingredients in Five Roses All Purpose Flour: wheat flour, niacin, thiamine, mononitrate, riboflavin, reduced iron, folic acid, benzoyl peroxide, ascorbic acid, amylase. And in Cake & Pastry Flour: wheat flour, chlorine, benzol peroxide, niacine, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid. Some of these ingredients are vitamins, but others are so-called conditioners, ingredients designed to produce a consistent dough that rises well.

Both sets of ingredients, the vitamin additives and the conditioners, disturb me. If we use whole foods with as many of their natural nutrients left intact, and we eat a variety of plant-based whole foods, there should be no need to add artificially isolated nutrients. As T. Colin Campbell emphasises in his seminal book, The China Study, the human body has evolved along with the rest of nature and therefore can best absorb nutrients as they are found in nature. Isolating nutrients to add back into all manner of foods, many of which did not naturally contain the nutrients added, nor in the same form, combination or ratio, is simply not the same as eating a variety of whole foods. Nor is ingesting isolated nutrients in the form of nutritional supplements in capsule, pill or powdered form the same. The body does not process nutrients in isolation the same as in whole foods.

The addition of conditioners disturbs me because, first of all, they don't belong in the natural product and may actually be unhealthy. Secondly, it reflects our inability or unwillingness to spend the time to learn a craft--we seek ease and instant gratification. Thirdly, it reflects an unwillingness to accept uniquenes, difference and diversity--we want everything to be familiar, uniform, homogeneous. How tedious and how boring! And how sad if you reflect on how these traits factor into other aspects of our lives.

Getting back to the organic Red Fife flour, we'll be sure to share with you our experiences with this heritage grain flour. I very much look forward to it.

Homemade Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce and Carribbean Chickpea Curry

Yesterday evening, having bought a package of Scotch Bonnet peppers the day before, I decided to make my own Scotch Bonnet hot sauce.

 

Isn't that colour gorgeous? And it's in one of my beautiful mason jars too boot.

Here's how I made it:

• 130g Scotch Bonnet peppers, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1/2 cantaloupe, sliced and diced (papaya is more traditionally used)
• 3/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• ~ tsp salt

1. Carefully, wearing gloves, wash peppers, then remove stems and seeds. Dice. Be very careful how you do all this as you do not want to get any of the juice on your skin or in your face and eyes. These are hot! According to my research, the Scotch Bonnet pepper is the hottest pepper known, with the possible exception of another Caribbean pepper called Piment Ma Jacques.
2. Wash and dice carrots.
3. Slice and dice cantaloupe.
4. Add a handful of the diced peppers, carrot and cantaloupe into a blender with part of the vinegar and olive oil. Blend well, then add a bit at a time 'til it gets almost too thick. Then add more vinegar and olive oil. Continue this process 'til everything is in.
5. Add salt.
6. Taste test (be very careful how much you try, as it is very hot).
7. If using fresh, that is, uncooked, put into glass jars and refrigerate immediately.

I am accustomed to hot foods, but I do like to enjoy the taste of a hot sauce as well, so something like Dave's Total Insanity, made from capsaicin extract rather than from peppers, doesn't do it for me. My hot sauce has a nice, fruity taste, yet is still rather hot. Next time I might make it a little hotter still. Since I had no idea how hot these peppers would really be, I arbitrarily decided on an amount of carrot and fruit to add.

I enjoyed my fresh hot sauce with a Chickpea Curry with Caribbean Spices adapted from Vaishali's recipe of the same name.

 

Since I didn't have potatoes on hand, my version is without them. It being rather late in the evening by the time I got to making the curry, I also took some shortcuts. Rather than using all whole seeds and spices to roast and then grind, I used coriander, cumin and mustard in powdered form and added whole peppercorns and cloves. Aside from being less soupy and without the lovely garnish of fresh onion and tomatoes, these are the main differences. If you have time, please make Vaishali's version. If a little short on time, you may want to, as I did, use powdered spices.

I served the curry over toasted whole grain flax bread with margarine, then added some of my fresh hot sauce over top. Delicious!

Stuffed Small Sugar Pumpkin

We doted on this little guy all summer. He was an only child :-). Since the pumpkin was planted late spring and the pumpkin was not ready to harvest until after thanksgiving, we enjoyed it today, halfway between thanksgiving and halloween. We don't really celebrate thanksgiving anyway--we are thankful every day for our food. And we don't really celebrate halloween either, but good food is always an option, and 'tis the season for pumpkins.

Here's our little sugar pumpkin's last moment on the vine:


In my hand to show size:


And now to the meal...

Here's what I used:

• 1 small sugar pumpkin
• 2 or 3 tbsp water
• smidgen extra virgin olive oil
  

Stuffing:

• 1 cup brown basmati rice, cooked
  
• 1 cup soy chunks, soaked in 2 cups hot water and 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 3 slices whole grain bread cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  
• 1 cup soymilk (preferably unsweetened)
• 1 large Honeycrisp apple (nice combination of sweet and tart), diced
  
• 1/2 cup raw cashews, halved or crushed
• 1 large onion, diced
  
• 1 large clove elephant garlic, diced
  
• 1 rounded tsp ground sage
• 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
  
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1 sprig fresh oregano, finely chopped
  
• 3 tbsp whole chia seeds
• 3-4 tbsp naturally brewed soy sauce
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Cook brown basmati rice.
2. Soak soy chunks for about 30 min., then drain.
3. Put bread cubes into wok or heavy pan, drizzle olive oil over and, stirring frequently, fry until cubes are lightly toasted all around.
4. Mix chia seeds and soy milk and stir well (chia seeds will absorb up to 13 times their own weight in liquid). After about 15 minutes, stir again.
5. Clean pumpkin and cut around stem to create a lid (make sure to cut at an angle so lid won't fall into pumpkin as it bakes), then scoop out the seeds.
    
6. Put 2-3 tbsp water into scooped pumpkin, dab or spray a smidgen of olive oil around edges of hole and lid and close. Place in oven preheated at 350F and bake for about 30 minutes or until fork will pierce outer skin without too much effort.
7. While pumpkin is baking, prepare the stuffing. Saute onion, garlic and apple in a little olive oil until onion and apple become translucent.
8. Add bread cubes, soy chunks, cashews, fresh oregano, spices and 3-4 tbsp soy sauce. Mix well and continue sauteeing on medium heat for about 15 min.
9. Add salt to taste and the stuffing is done.
   
10. Carefully remove the baked pumpkin from the oven, open the lid and fill with stuffing until about 3/4 full, then pour soymilk/chia mixture in as well.
11. Close lid again and return to oven for another 30 minutes, then place pumpkin on the middle of the table and carefully (a puff of steam will emerge) open the lid.
      
12. Scoop stuffing onto individual plates, then scrape out the pumpkin flesh (be careful not to scrape right through the outer skin).
     

Serves two without an appetizer or side dish, or up to four with. Enjoy!

Review: Gravity Coffee House, Minden, Ontario

On our vacation, as short as it was, and while in Minden, Ontario at our little rented cottage, we discovered Gravity Coffee House. There was only one restaurant in town, as far as we could tell, aside from this coffee house that had veg*n options. It was a Thai restaurant located on the same street as our little cottage. Unfortunately, it was closed, the proprietors having gone back to Thailand for an extended visit.

So we were lucky to find the coffee house. It attracted us immediately for two reasons: firstly, it advertised a good selection of loose leaf teas, a matter close to Jihan's heart and a subject about which she knows a fair bit, and secondly, it listed vegetarian soups right on the board adjacent to its name.

Gravity Coffee House, utilizing the bottom floor of a good-sized house, is owned and operated by Gerald W. Wills and his daughter, Lila Sweet. It has a bright and tastefully decorated interior, seating perhaps twenty patrons comfortably, with a good-sized patio (closed during our visit because of the cool weather). The paintings on the wall are, if memory serves me, for sale by the artist.

Inside the coffee house, perhaps more aptly named a tea house, there was indeed a good selection of well-labeled loose leaf teas. These were situated on the wall, in glass jars, across from the sales counter so patrons can stop to read the labels, open the jars to take a closer look at and smell the teas, before deciding on a purchase. Unfortunately, tea was served in a tea pot or press pot, rather than a gai wan. Although these are fine for certain herbals and black teas, for more delicate greens and whites, they are not ideal. Precise timing for optimum steeping, keeping track of the proper temperature of the water, and doing multiple steepings become more difficult in regular tea pots and press pots.

But Lila, sitting down with us for a friendly chat, was happy to listen to Jihan discuss the use of the gai wan; the varieties of teas and tea plants and their origins; harvesting and preparation methods; different grades of tea; and optimum steeping times, depending upon the type of tea being prepared. We even brought in a gai wan of our own, and Lila was happy to sit through a short tea demonstration.

And while this establishment is not by any means a vegetarian or vegan eatery, they did have some good vegan salads, a vegetarian soup, and a vegetarian sandwich. Once again, after informing her that we were vegan, she was happy to make modifications. The soup, she informed us, had butter at its base. But the salads, and a wonderful grilled sandwich called the Roasty, she was happy to modify to ensure they were entirely vegan. And I did find some nice, organic, dark chocolate cookies, not unlike oreos, that were entirely vegan.

The friendliness, personal touch and willingness to learn from patrons and to adapt menu items accordingly were admirable. If you do to the Haliburton region, or are on your way to Algonquin Park, I recommend Gravity Coffee House as a stop. If more vegans stop by, there may well appear more distinctly vegan offerings.

Gracity Coffee House is located at the corner of Main and Newcastle Streets in downtown Minden, Ontario. You can call them at (705) 286-4002. Gravity Coffee House also has a seasonal, much smaller location, on Wards Island (part of the Toronto Islands).

Vacation, Grilled Food, and a Place in the Hammer

I only get a couple of vacation weeks a year, so I took my first week off the last week of April. Jihan managed to get the same week off, and we had both business and pleasure to take care of during that week. We did the pleasure part first, going up to a small rented cottage in Minden, Ontario, with our bikes on the back of the car. Friday and the weekend we used to look for a new place in Hamilton, our old hometown.

Though vacation week, after a sunny, summery week, turned out to be fairly cool, we did manage to get a little cycling and hiking done.

A lot of people neither like to engage in physical activities like cycling and hiking during their vacations, nor spend much time cooking for themselves. For them vacations are about complete relaxation. We like to be active in nature and get creative with our cooking.

Because of the somewhat cool and wet weather, and the barbecue's unsheltered location, we decided to use our electric CuisinArt griddle and grill for coconut milk pancakes (like the coconut milk crepes, only a little thicker) in the morning and wonderful grilled creations in the evening.

One evening I grilled up some veggie burgers, giant mushrooms (size and shape like portobello, but white), and sliced zucchini. I put the grilled veggie burgers and barbecue-slathered giant mushrooms inside rosemary ciabatta buns (grilled lightly after putting on vegan mayonnaise), together with mustard, slices of vegan jalapeno cheese, organic kosher-dill pickles, onion, and fresh tomato. On the side we had the grilled zucchini and a simple baby spinach and red bell pepper salad. Jihan made the salad and the dressing that went with it.

Another evening I grilled sweet corn on the cob, more veggie burgers, and barbecued veggie kebabs made of  king oyster mushroom, onion, zucchini and red bell pepper slices. I drizzled extra virgin olive oil over the kebabs as they grilled, before basting them with barbecue sauce. On the corn on the cob we simply put a little unsalted margarine and sea salt.

Also in Minden, we discovered a cafe that, while neither entirely vegetarian nor vegan, was owned and operated by a young woman and her father who were very open and willing to veganise dishes. I'll write about the Gravity House Cafe Coffee House separately.

After we returned from the cottage we spent a couple of days in Hamilton to look for a new place. The hammer, as it's sometimes called, is our old hometown, and it happens to be halfway between where I work and where Jihan will study in the coming year. I'm sure the new place in Hamilton will be referenced on this blog in the coming months, as will the city itself.

We're Back from our Short Vacation :>(

We are back from our short vacation. We rented a small cottage only slightly up north in Minden, Ontario, a small town near Algonquin Park.

Jihan has just posted one of our delicious Lebanese staples, red lentil soup. It is delicious and one of her comfort foods. And I have some yummy grilled foods to share with you that we cooked up at the cottage. Since vacation is, sadly, at an end now and I must get to bed, I shall write about the grilled foods tomorrow soon.

Just to get you warmed up (don't drool on your keyboards), here's a picture of the grill before one evening's feast.

Wait for it...

Lebanese Red Lentil Soup

Okay, folks, I finally have a moment to write up the Lebanese red lentil soup post.  I'm sorry I haven't done it earlier -- I type a lot slower than Abram, and have been on vacation until this weekend.  Here's the recipe for one of my few much-cherished comfort foods:

Lebanese Red Lentil Soup

• 1 lb dry red lentils (sorted and washed)
• 10-12 cups water (depending on how thick you want the soup to be)
• salt to taste (I generally use sea salt)
• 3-5 tbsp sunflower or other veg cooking oil (I find that sunflower oil has a relatively neutral taste)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 1/2 bunch of fresh Italian parlsey, finely chopped

1. Place lentils in a large pot with water and bring to near boil on high heat. 
2. At near boiling point, bring the heat down to medium and make sure you scoop all of the foam or "scum" off the top.  When the heat is brought down to medium, cook the lentils for about 30 minutes, or until the lentils turn a pale yellow and are fairly soft. 
3. Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat the sunflower oil and saute the onion and cumin seeds until the onion is translucent. 
4. Add the sauteed onion and cumin seeds to the lentil pot along with salt (I generally put in a small palmful) and parsley and cook for an additional 10 minutes. 
5. Remove from heat and serve in bowls with some fresh-squeezed lemon juice.  Enjoy!

Tomato and Chinese Eggplant Stew over Rice

Jihan made this wonderfully simple, yet bold and delicious tomato and Chinese eggplant stew. Actually, she made two wonderful dishes yesterday, this stew and Lebanese red lentil soup. That'll be in a separate post.

Here's how simple it is:

• 3-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3-5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1-2 red Thai finger chillies, chopped
• 1 Chinese eggplant, diced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 28oz can tomatoes, with juice, diced (we used President's Choice Organics)
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh basil (tear off whole leaves, rather than chopping the basil)
• salt to taste

1. In a pan or medium pot, saute garlic, onion, chillies, Chinese eggplant, and bay leaves in extra virgin olive oil on medium-high heat until onions are translucent.
2. Add diced tomatoes, with juice, and bring to boil.
3. Add fresh basil and salt and cook on medium heat until eggplant is tender.

Serve over a bed of rice (we used brown basmati rice). Delicious!

Serves 2 if used in a single course meal, or up to 4 if served alongside appetizers or another course. As usual, we simply pigged out and ate the whole thing in one sitting.