From the monthly archives: July 2009
I had never been to a Vegan Drinks event before although the event, held monthly at the East Village’s Angels & Kings, has graced my calendar plenty of times since they started in May of 2008. As soon as I heard this month’s social gathering of like-minded veg-friendlies would include free Sweet & Sara‘s vegan marshmallows, I knew this was the perfect time for the first time.
Walking in to tables of free Sweet & Sara’s was almost dreamlike. All her delicious flavors were there, including her S’mores and rocky road bark. CandyPenny, my p-i-c, and I tried to remain calm. We had stormed vegan tastings and events plenty of times before… from the mind-blowing Boston Vegetarian Food Festival to the mysterious Wheeler’s ice cream tasting, from SuperVegan‘s birthday at S’nice to Natural Gourmet and ThanksLiving buffet lines, to name just a few. Together we’ve shimmied in lines for free eats that more so resembled mosh pits, steadfast in our goal. We’ve dined vegan across this great country, from corner to corner, and traveled hours for the lone reward of a satiated appetite. So… it was to our surprise that these tables were not thee priority of the group of attendees, that we could stand leisurely and gape at the piles of perfect little confections all we wanted.
Somewhere between my 10th marshmallow and my second conversation with a vegan who didn’t cook at all, I realized that I more identified with being a vegan foodie than a vegan: that after 12 years of being vegan, my convictions have remained static, strong and unwavering. But it is my love of vegan food that has dynamimcally flourished… and that this has carried me through my journey, working in tandem with my passion for animal rights. Hmmm, I wonder what I’ll learn next time?
It had to be done. Veganizing cannoli. I had a recipe from The Vegetarian Site in my task box since January. In light of my sister, a long-time cannoli queen, and my Pop’s July birthdays, I would finally give it a go. After great success in veganizing Rainbow cookies for father’s day, this would be another step in a continual quest to veganize all my family’s favorite snacks.
Being a Sicilian gal it is odd that I never took more than one bite of a cannolo in my lifetime. Cheese-based pastries always “grossed me out the door”, to borrow an old family quote. Cheese danishes, cheese cake, cannoli: no way, no thanks and ehh, no. Of course, I was a food coward in my youth who had no desire to broaden her horizons. But now, making vegan cannoli from scratch sipping on a Moscow Mule with my sous chef FoodSparrow, I was excited to give ‘em a taste.
This recipe was indeed a process! I needed to spend a good amount of time retrieving ingredients and supplies. A stop to New York Cake would reward me with my cannoli forms, which are simply long narrow steel cylinders. I also had to shell out big bucks for a quality coconut butter, roaming the aisles with a helpful employee to locate the mysterious product. Artisana raw coconut butter. Mmm.
The filling:
1 cup raw cashews
2/3 cup water
1/2 block of extra firm tofu
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. almond extract
1-2 tsp. rum
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. arrowroot
2 tbsp. coconut butter
8-10 dates
1/2 cup agave syrup
1/4 cup coconut oil
In a food processor, grind cashews until very fine, and add the water. Blend until smooth. Then add the remainder of filling ingredients and blend until smooth.
The shells:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon stevia
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2-1 cup water
2 tablespoons coconut oil
Combine all ingredients. Add water and coconut oil last. Knead into a smooth ball. Roll out the dough until it is about 1/8 of an inch thick. Cut into 3.5″ by 3.5″ squares. Place a square diagonally on a cannoli mold. Wrap the dough loosely around the mold, sealing with a bit of water. Deep fry the dough in a big pool of oil for about 2 minutes. Carefully slide the form of the mold and drain on paper towels. Repeat! Tip: Try not to make these shells in advance. They loose their crisp and flaky texture when sitting around for awhile.
When they are totally cool, fill ‘em up! I used a pastry bag to pipe in the filling and then piped in some left over chocolate buttercream icing. Decorate them as you wish!
And don’t forget to share.
Special thanks to FoodSparrow who took many of the above pictures. View her food porn and assorted goodies here.
It’s been about a month since I started my garden. Let’s see how it is going so far.
Chive Alive! The chive is thriving.
My two tiny little basil plants are now becoming quite beastly. Since it has been down pouring in New York City every other day, I am seeing a lot of growth out there.
Rosemary is slow and steady. Drilling holes in roommate’s unrecyclable yogurt container was a great way to go.
Dear upstairs neighbor, please stop throwing your butts into my pots. With such a terrible invasion of their habitat, no wonder my poor strawberry plants are not growing much.
My first basil harvesting: very exciting! I used these little leaves for some fried garlic and herb cherry tomatoes. Don’t they look so sexy in this muted light?
My online environmental health course functions as a journal article discussion group. And given the relationship between the health of the environment and our food system, I am always dropping V bombs. So as not to lose this all in the closed circuitry of Columbia’s ClassWeb, I’ll post them here too.
The Morens (et. al.) article tracks the path of infectious disease emergence through our rapidly changing global economy. Although environmental changes have created the breeding grounds for infectious diseases to develop and evolve, I have to look more deeply and state my critique on our insatiable consumptive needs and the exploitation of animals as a significant factor of infectious disease emergence. This demand, magnified by population growth and urbanization, creates a very scary predicament all too reminiscent of a science fiction horror movie. And now that I have discredited myself by bringing to mind Bruce Willis movies…
Looking more deeply at animal agriculture and our tainted food system, I see examples of our hand in infectious disease emergence. The Malaysian Nipah epidemic spread because of overcrowded pig pens, the relocation of fruit bats in search of a new habitat as a result of deforestation and our handling of these pigs infected with the bats’ droppings. Mad cow disease has emerged in humans as Variant Crutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) after British cattle lots supplemented feed with ground meat and bone from slaughtered animals (Morens et. al., 2004). Not to forget E. coli O157:H7 which spreads to humans after eating contaminated food products (spinach, tomatoes, peanuts, etc.) and undercooked meat. This contamination is a result of the slaughtering process of factory farms and the insufficient disposal of the enormous amount of manure produced by factory farm animals (source). While salmonella, the intestinal infection, is also transmitted by manure-contaminated food of animal-origin (source).
As population and industry have risen in our global economy, animals’ habitats diminish leaving us (and them) susceptible to infectious disease. Zoonoses, or infections transmitted to humans by non-human animals, account for huge portion of emerging infections (EIs). Human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV), the deadly virus that causes AIDS, began as a virus affecting non-human primates before “jumping” to humans. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a deadly disease transmitted by rodents, is another important example of how our interaction with animals leave us open for infectious invasion (Morens et. al., 2004). Morens et. al. (2004) state that “farming, keeping domestic pets, hunting and camping, deforestation and other types of habitat destruction all create new opportunities for infectious agents to invade human hosts” (pg. 243). When I include to that list rampant development and urbanization and intensive animal agriculture, our almost parasitic relationship to Earth, nature and the wild that exists upon it is clear. Perhaps this is one really big underlying cause of this re-emergence of infectious disease? Perhaps it is also plays a significant role in the environmental changes also aiding infectious disease emergence? Then, perhaps, it is a bit clear what would help… changing our diets.
But moving onward to food, something far more translatable to the written word… I took the opportunity to squeeze in some vegan eats in before, between and after musical acts. As was the case last year, the festival itself provided me with plenty of delicious food options. With Chicago Diner on hand, I enjoyed a very satisfying corn dog on a stick Saturday for lunch and, for dinner, a huge cheeseburger on a multi-grain bun with crisp lettuce and fresh tomato. The fixin’s bar was a must with fresh chopped onion and condiments. High fructose corn ketchup was my only complaint.
Chicago Soydairy was also there again. Can I state for the record again how much I love this company? Besides a chocolate chip cookie dough cone, they were selling their amazing Teese and Dandy marshmallows. I bought a tube of sharp cheddar with some future recipes in mind. Here is my friend Kris. What a Teese!
And me with my chocolate chip cookie dough cone…
Wanting to mix it up a bit I opted for a pair of Bite Cafe‘s seitan tacos during the Sunday show. This beautiful pair of tortilla-wrapped seasoned seitan were smothered in a spicy sauce and topped with fresh mesclun greens. A bit steep at $7 but with two orders we received a free t-shirt.
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Out n’ about in Chicago, I sampled some of the vegan cupcakes at Sweet Cakes Bakery. This is a darling bakery is not exclusively vegan but their uniquely flavored mini’s were all V for the tasting. I ordered the green tea cupcake and the London Fog cupcake. Though they were both yum and so reasonably priced (at like $2 and change for both) but it was the London Fog that rocked my world. The cupcake was modeled after their cappuccino concoction and was an Earle Gray cupcake with a sweet buttercream dollop of icing on top.
I first went to Earwax Café what seems like decades ago. But it was probably about 2003 or 2004. Back then I was a vegan without a blog and so the experience of their scrumptious diner fare and triple-layer decadent vegan cake was left to post and stay in my mind. I knew I had to return to the hip Wicker Park neighborhood to document an Earwax meal for my blog archive. Earwax serves your standard menu of tofu scrambles, burgers and seitan sandwiches… but they do it right! On the first visit I had the Seitan Ruben: yummy strips of marinated seitan, sauerkraut, Teese cheese and vegan thousand island dressing on rye.
Second visit, the sweet Jerk Seitan: those yummy seitan strips but this time marinated in red wine, onions, jalapenos, soy sauce, and Jerk spices on French bread with vegan mayonnaise. So. good. And a strawberry cupcake.
Chicago is home to many-a diverse eatery. Eateries that embrace the vegan and the omnivore. Like Earwax above, Handlebar has some great vegan brunch choices! I opted for the vegan French Toast and received a huge pile of thick, sweet toast.
…I had a bunch of other vegan-friendly spots on my hit list… but alas, the extended weekend will have to have a sequel before summer’s end.
When I think of raw food, I think of fresh vegetable layers, ground nuts and soaked beans; the upscale Manhattan address and accompanying price tag. Never does soul food come to mind… and yet Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s new raw restaurant, Rockin’ Raw, fuses raw and soul food with great success! The first ever “live-vegan-raw-organic-peruvian-new-orleanian-creole-cuisine-with-soul-from-williamsburg-brooklyn-to-you” restaurant to be exact. It is about time my neighborhood upped its vegan ante!
Being used to substitutions and limitations, I am always a bit overwhelmed when faced with a totally vegan menu. To mull it all over, I needed a refreshing beverage. The watermelon cooler hit the spot. The cocktail had a big ginger bite and a subtle and soothing watermelon cool.
I finally selected the “Raw Boy” Sandwich to sample a bit of the restaurant’s Nawlin’s flare. The sandwich was hearty and made up of a sea vegetable patty, fresh veggies and a Cajun mayo. The “bread” made this dish and the tasty flax soul crackers on the side. I was totally impressed!
We also opted for a Rockin’ roll as a starter. This was a scrumptious medley of jicama, avocado and cauliflower wrapped in seaweed and served with a scrumptious horseradish sauce, wasabi, pickled ginger and cucumber. So good! And a suprisingly big portion!
For dessert, the raw peach cobbler… which tasted much better than it photographed.
In Wisconsin, the Fish Fry is a Friday staple at bars and eateries. With some old beer batter in need of some crisp, Wisconsin’s own Wok Man and I fried up our own vegan style version in my Brooklyn kitchen. We drenched tofu wedges in the week-old deactivated batter to create our filets. They were good, as most things hot and fried and vegan are, but the days the batter sat had left us with an unimpressive texture and taste. The greasy meal may have left us a bit unsatisfied had it not been for the tartar sauce! Realizing that it was the vegan tartar sauce that blew me away, I realized I could deepfry and dip anything into this white wonder and respond with an mmmm. On the side, potatoes with Bay View seasoning from the Spice House in Milwaukee!
In honor of America and independence, more Vegan Brunch recipes!
Creamy avocado potato salad. This dish gets ugly quickly under the blazing July sun, helping others remain weirded by vegan eats. I say use the potato salad recipe in Vcon for “mixed” parties.
Beer-battered tofu. A simple and delicious recipe for super-greasy ultra-fried tofu. Paired with an easy vegan tartar sauce: fried-food perfection.
Tomato Rosemary Scones. These hit the spot. I’ll be making these again soon and eating all 12.
Vegan Reporting By Location
