Poifect Waffles

Waffles have an uncanny ability to take me back to my childhood. Many a Sunday morning was spent sitting around the table eating fruit with my mom while my dad fired up the old waffle iron. We’d enjoy each others company and Dad would inevitably be stuck eating the burned waffles, while mom and I enjoyed the golden brown ones. Once we discovered that replacing half the liquid in the batter with seltzer water resulted in the most light, airy and crispy waffles, every time anyone mentioned making waffles, they HAD to be made using seltzer water. So when I started off to make these waffles, I was quite skeptical, as the little voice in the back of my head went “but where’s the seltzer?” Surprisingly enough, with these babies, no seltzer water is needed to get the perfect waffle.

The trick, I’m convinced, is self-rising flour. For some reason, I’ve never used self-rising flour. I have no idea why. But anyways, you can buy self-rising flour, or you can just make your own: for each cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Easy peasy

1 ¼ cups soymilk “buttermilk” (add 1 tbs of lemon juice and then fill up your measuring cup to 1 ¼ cups. Let sit for 10 minutes to curdle)

Egg replacer equivalent to 2 eggs (I used Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer. I stand by its genius)

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1 ¾ cups self-rising flour

Grease waffle iron with earth balance and heat. Mix egg replacer and beat in soymilk, baking soda, oil, and sugar mix until smooth. Add flour and beat the crap out of it until no lumps are left. Pour the batter into the waffle iron and cook until steaming stops and waffles are golden brown. We have the “Flip ‘n’ Fluff” waffle iron, which we affectionately call the flip ‘n’ fuck. It makes us giggle and makes great waffles. Who can beat that combo?

Serve waffles with earth balance and syrup, or jam. I had mine with some locally made peach ginger compote, and it rocked my socks off. This is definitely a recipe I will use for years, and makes me love Fannie Flagg for giving me the poifect waffle.

"beef" stew

It’s true, it’s not winter, which is usually the stew season, but I haven’t cooked in a few weeks (was out of town for a week, and who cooks when they’re out of town?) and, quite frankly, last week I just didn’t feel like cooking. And I still don’t really feel like cooking. But there’s something to be said for that. When life gets you down, and motivation is scarce, sometimes the best thing to do is to go look at beautiful local produce at the farmers market, choose some ingredients for comfort food, and make yourself get in the kitchen (of course, this really does only apply if you actually enjoy cooking, but, you get the point).

So, with a black and white kitty trouncing behind my footsteps, and Gogol Bordello on the stereo, I made the seitan, made the stew, and drank a beer. And therein lies a little bit of happiness.

“Beef” Stew (WSCC 126)

Faux Beef (La Dolce Vegan: 288)- times recipe x2

2 large onions, coarsely chopped

4 cups broth (I use rapunzel vegan bouillon)

1 ½ tsp seasoned salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp pepper

6 medium red potatoes, cubed

6 carrots, peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained (I use fire roasted)

1 15 oz can tomato sauce

Really, I suppose you can use whatever “beef” you wanted. Was toying around with Gardien’s new beef tips, but I would need 2-3 packages I think, and besides, I wanted to make the seitan fake beef from La Dolce Vegan.

Take your “beef” and onions and brown them using a little bit of olive oil in a heavy skillet. Don’t go as far as to caramelize your onions though!

Combine the broth and the remaining ingredients into a stockpot and bring to a low boil. Add the “beef” and onion mixture and bring heat down to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes.

Spoon up in lovely bowls and enjoy. Comfort in a bowl.

Lemon Ice Box Pie

OH MY GOD. No, seriously. This is what I had for dinner tonight. And then I had seconds. It’s tart and sweet and cold and delicious and you can bet your sweet ass I’m going to be making this recipe again. In fact, if you choose to make one, and only one of my recipes I post here, please make this one. I promise you it’s worth it. A perfect treat for a hot summers day. Or any day, really.

Lemon Ice Box Pie

Crust:

1 ½ cups crumbled vanilla wafer cookies (see recipe in revious post)

¼ cup margarine

Filling:

1 package tofutti cream cheese

1 oz can sweetened condensed soy milk

1 6-oz frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

1 box soywhip, beaten until fluffy

For the pie:

Mix the cookie crumbs and margarine and press onto the bottom and sides of a 9” pie pan

and chill. Beat tofutti cream cheese until fluffy, and gradually beat in condensed soy milk and frozen lemonade. Beat in the whipped topping. Pour into pie pan and place in fridge, let sit for 3- 4 hours or until set. Top with more whipped topping if you like.

I can’t tell if I’m giggling because this is like sunshine in my mouth, or because I get to say “box pie.” You decide.

Vegan Buttermilk Hoe Cakes

 
Vegan Buttermilk Hoe Cakes

Sunday. In mine and Lindsey’s house that means pancake day. Really, what is better than sleeping in, rolling out of bed, and munching on fresh pancakes and maple syrup? So, in the spirit of this cooking project, I opened up the WSCC to page 15 and made the “buttermilk pancakes,” which are really more of a hoe cake, since they have cornmeal in them. Apparently hoe cakes are called such because they were originally made on the blade of a hoe over a campfire. So, there’s your history lesson for the day.

Egg replacer for 2 eggs (I use bobs red mill egg replacer for pancakes)

¼ cup vegetable oil

2 cups vanilla soymilk

2 tbs lemon juice

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

¾ cup self rising cornmeal (or ¾ cups cornmeal plus ¾ tbs. baking powder and a pinch of salt)

Mix soymilk and lemon juice and let sit for 10 minutes to curdle. Mix egg replacer and vegetable oil, add soymilk and mix. Mix the rest of the ingredients in order until you have a smooth batter. Pour ¼ cup of batter for each pancake onto a slightly greased griddle. Turn when top is covered with bubbles and cook the other side until golden brown. Serve with syrup or jam. Enjoy your hoe cakes. ;)

Faux "'nilla wafers"

Well, it's not a Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook, I needed 'nilla wafers to make my next recipe, the crust for Lemon Ice Box Pie. And when in doubt, what do us vegans so? we make our own. So, here's my recipe for some slightly dolled up vanilla wafer cookies.

Fancy vanilla wafer cookies

 ½ cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4^th tsp dried orange or lemon rind

1/4^th tsp dried cooking lavender (optional)

1/3 cup vegan shortening or coconut oil

egg replacer equaling one egg (I use bob’s red mill egg replacer in baking most often.)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups cake flour OR 1 ½ cups, scant 6 tbs, baking or all purpose flour plus 6 tbs cornstarch

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tbs water

Heat oven to 325 degrees

Cream together first  ingredients (sugars, rind, lavendar, shortening, egg replacer, vanilla and salt)

Add flour and baking powder. Add 1 tbs water and continue to mix until dough forms a ball. Roll dough into ¾” balls and flatten slightly onto a slightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15- 18 minutes, until cookies are light brown.

They aren't all that close to 'nilla wafers (I did put lavender in, after all) they are good little cookies for tea and quite addictive.

Stay tuned for the recipe tomorrow.

Fried Green Tomato FAIL

I do not take to failure well, especially when cooking. But inevitably it happens. Like mixing up baking powder and baking soda, or that time I ran out of arrowroot when I was making orange crème brulee and decided to try and use guar gum in place since that’s all I had handy. I ended up with something that resembled stringy tapioca/ rice pudding and tasted even worse than that sounds. This was one of those times.

Now, when I think of fried green tomatoes, I envision a light cornmeal coating fried to a deep golden brown, so I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical going into the this recipe (which, by the way, is “Fried Green Tomatoes 1” in WSCC. There are two more recipes in the book. TFG)

The batter is much like the batter I used for the onion rings in my previous post, which does not jive with my dreams of crunchy cornmeal coated tomatoes, but I thought “what the hell.” Which is exactly what I thought after I fried two rounds. I successfully decimated two of my beautiful green tomatoes I had spent many minutes selecting at the farmers market. I ate a few, and Lindsey tried to eat one, but only made it through two bites. They were super oily and half the batter fell off during frying. So sad. The tomato slices that hadn’t made it into the hot oil went in fridge, which means I’ll be snacking on not-fried green tomatoes tonight.

Like I said, I’m glad there’s 2 more recipes to try. Because I really REALLY love a good fried green tomato.

A Little Plate of Fried Snacks (Hush Puppies, Onion Rings and Zucchini Fries)

I knew I couldn’t make it long without busting out the deep fryer my friend Jen got me for Christmas, and today looked like the day to do it. Yesterday was a gorgeous day for a long walk, Lindsey and I took advantage and walked though the city, stopping to pick up some gorgeous onions from the farmers market at the Eastern Market. She’s been begging me for onion rings since I started this adventure, and I figured as long as I had the fryer out, I might as well make zucchini fries and hush puppies at the same time. In my opinion, hush puppies are the king of all southern food, you just can’t go wrong with deep fried corn meal batter.  Let the frying commence!!!

 Hush Puppies

(WSCC pg. 115)

2 cups cornmeal

3 tbs all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

egg replace for one egg (I use bob’s red mill.)

1/3 cup extra firm silken tofu, beaten in blender

1 cup milk soy milk with 1 tbs apple cider vinegar (mix together and let sit for 10 min)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tbs minced onion

vegetable oil for frying

Mix first 5 ingredients together. Beat egg replacer, oil, silken tofu, and soy milk mixture. Add to cornmeal mixture, onion and stir until blended. Drop 1 ½” spoonfulls into hot oil (375 degrees, approx) and deep fry until golden brown. Drain and serve. And don’t crowd the oil!

“Why add vinegar to soy milk?” you may ask. Well, when you add vinegar (or lemon juice) to soy milk and let it sit, the soy milk curdles and acts more like a buttermilk. And no, it doesn’t work with rice milk. Unfortunately.

Onion Rings and Zucchini Fries

(WSCC pg. 94)

1 cups bisquick

1/3 cup cornmeal

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

1 cup soy milk (or rice)

1 tbs yellow mustard

vegetable oil for frying

1 large onion, peeled, cut into ¼ slices and split into rings

1 zucchini, cut into sticks

Combine dry ingredients into bowl, and beat in soy milk and mustard.

Coat zucchini and onions and place in hot oil until browned, turning once. 

The best to make both of these are probably if you have people coming over. It makes quite a bit for just two people. Even when one of them can eat copious amounts of onion rings.