Mushroom ravioli and polenta bites

Ok, It's not really ravioli, although that's what Vegetarian Times called it (similar recipe, skip the cheese and add garlic and rosemary). All you need is gyoza/wonton wrappers (most are NOT vegan so read carefully. Asian food stores are your best bet over supermarket brands). Lightly pan fry! No sauce needed with 'butter', garlic and onions!
Also made cute polenta bites, which I made using small cookie cutters. Sauce is pure tomato sauce mixed with artichoke hearts (until creamy) and a dash of nutmeg. Num!

Breakfast Buddies Pot luck

I have given these guys their official name, Breakfast Buddies! Let the "mc" rule your language no more! I made mini Breakfast Buddies with Gimme Lean sausage for a potluck. They were a big hit and that makes me very happy! My recipe is super easy. Try them with any of your fav fixin's!

Old Country Food, Take me home

Garlic Brussels spouts, polenta and Tofurky Beer Brats with onions.

Vegan Japan

I'll (try to) spare the talk and get on with the pretty pictures!


Mr. Young Men
Kyoto (Teramachi & Shijo)
Okonomiyaki


Tofu Okonomiyaki
(shown with miso soup with fried tofu)

Osaka is the famous place to get this cuisine, but Mr Young Men is accomidating and has a ton of options. Just ask for no eggs, mayo, or katsuo-bushi (fish flakes).


Cafe Peace
Kyoto (Demachiyanagi)
International vegan


Brown rice, tvp chikn in a tomato sauce, fries, potato salad, hijiki salad, cabbage and veggie salad, pear jelly dessert.



Kareage- fried chikn in a crispy potato basket with tortilla chips and sweet tomato sauce.

Not pictured: Soy Mince & Chive Chijimi (korean 'pancake') and almond and chocolate poundcake for dessert. The almond poundcake was one of the best things I've eaten in a long time.


Nara National Museum cafe
Nara
Chinese style cafe



Chewy sweet and sour tvp on a bed of greens and chinese buns to pick it all up with!

Maman Terrace
Osaka (Shinsaibashi)
Macrobiotic

Way over priced. I got a nice plate of food and my mom got almost nothing for the same price. Good, but not recommended.



Breaded chickpea drum sticks with bamboo. Also a side of aglio e olio.




Pumpkin cake with an orange glaze with crunchy pumpkin pellets and puffed rice to the side. Also a soy cappucchino.

Brown Rice Cafe & Deli
Tokyo (OmoteSando/Aoyama)
Macrobiotic

I've never been in the actual cafe, I love the deli too much. It's my favorite place!
I got my usual veggie burger and a brown rice ratatoulle pocket (past post). And for dessert?



Chocolate Tofu Torte. MMMMMMM It was like mousse!


Der Akkord
Tokyo (Omotesando/Aoyama)
German, Vegan, Macrobiotic bakery

Right down the road from Brown Rice, this bakery gives out samples and has a great array of baked goods for us vegans!



I had an apple jam pie, coconut banana cake, and curry bread (curried veggies and rice baked inside pastry).


Pure Cafe
Tokyo (Aoyama/Omotesando)
Vegan Cafe

Pure Cafe, better known for its (now defunct store front) sister store Cafe Eight, is located in an Aveda. Sadly its website is lacking photos of this wonderfully place and its food. They have a small ever changing menu, as well as breakfast!



Vegetable Torte. Sauteed veggies on a lovely crust covered in a nutrtional yeast and tofu cheez sauce. MM!



Tiramisu. The end.

Fish and Chips

Made VGML's Fish and Chips for my British omni monkey and my mom. Success!

Chana Masala

Indian chick pea curry and rice! Also made some more jalebi to make it a whole dinner!

Japanese Tofu Burgers

(Recipe coming soon)

This is a Japanese tofu burger (ganmodoki) which is vegan, and it is moist as well! It has tofu, oil, carrots, potatoes, burdock (a root), and Jews ear are the basic things in it. It was made for Buddhist vegan cuisine, although recipes I have seen online all contain egg =/

Ps-Jews ear is apparently an ear-shaped fungus. I had never heard of this and you can imagine my surprise when that came up on my electronic dictionary. I also thought burdock was a type of fish (I have no idea why), phew!

I love 'em! I hope I can find them back in the States (note: you can in some Asian grocery stores). My new thing is cutting them in half and having them as open face sandwiches.

Here it is displayed with sautéed onions and mushrooms, BBQ sauce and lettuce on lightly toasted bread. wow seriously.

MeatyBalls

Made with Gimme Lean sausage-style (didn't have beef style) bread crumbs and spices (Italian seasonings), then baked.

MizuYokan

These are sweets from Japan called mizu-yokan. They are made from sweet beans, but agar agar is used to give it a slightly jiggly gelatin texture. Most are just reddish, these a fancy pants ones!
The one on the left is coffee flavored, and the other one just tasted like sweet beans. I only bought it because it was cute.

Beer battered mushrooms

Beer battered mushrooms the size of your fist.



I love the west.

This can be achieved with any batter or even tempura mix and deep fried.

Sweet and Sour TVP Pork

First, you will need some chunky TVP (texturized vegetable protein)


I altered this recipe from http://www.jewish-food.org/recipes/tvpswees.htm


Yield: 4 servings

* 1 cup TVP chunks
* 1 tablespoon ketchup
* 1 3/4 cups hot water
* 1 cup carrots - (1 large carrot), sliced
* 1 green pepper, large chop
* 1 cup water
* 20 ounces pineapple chunks, canned in juice
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1/4 cup cider vinegar
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch
* 1/4 cup tamari (or soy sauce)

Combine first three. Simmer in a covered pan until tender, but not mushy. (20-30 minutes) I add a little soy sauce and more sugar in with the TVP when boiling, gives it more flavor.

Bring 1 cup water to a boil and add carrots and green pepper.

Cover, return to boil and cook for 2 minutes to crisp-tender. Remove from heat, drain, reserving liquid. Return liquid to pan and add juice from pineapple. Bring the liquid to a boil, adding sugar and vinegar.

In a small bowl, combine rest.

Stir the cornstarch mixture into the hot liquid, the sauce will thicken and come to a boil almost at once.

After I drain the extra liquid from boiling the TVP, I pan fry the TVP to give it a crispier outside.
SAVE the leftover broth and add it to the veggie/pineapple broth.

Add the cooked TVP, the carrots and green peppers and pineapple to the sauce. Serve on rice or crisp chow mein noodles. This can be made ahead and reheated later and then served on rice or noodles.




Other ways you can make it:

This baby was non-traditional and included cleaning out the fridge:
Onions
Green peppers
Eggplant
Broccoli
Scallions
Avocado!



Even the omni-monkey honestly declared that it was better than the veggie sweet and sour pork at the fancy restaurant in Hong Kong. Wow!

Brown Rice Cafe in Tokyo

While I didn't go to the cafe (because the wait was too long and I was starving), I went to their deli right beside it.
It was amazing. It's macrobiotic, although most of it is vegan. They know all their farmers and get food fresh.
I will be coming back here every time I'm in Tokyo.

Veggie burger.
The miso sauce really made this the best damn veggie burger I've ever had. Fo' real.



A sloppy-joe type rice mixture in a fried tofu skin pouch with grilled veggies.
Good, but I would have chosen the Mexican style one they had over this.




Mini fruit and walnut tortes and mini tofu (cheesecake) torte.
Cheesecake still tasted a bit beany with lemon. Not complaining though. The fruit and walnut glazed torte had a brown rice crust and was AMAZING.




Brown Rice Cafe, A++++++ Will do business with again!!!!!!1

Map.
Take the Tokyo Metro (subway) to station Omotesando (by Harajuku). Go to exit A1. Hitch a left at the intersection in front of you. It's on your right after about a 30 second walk.

Gnocchi

Just with some marinara sauce and some Mozzeralla Sheese. At first Mozzarella tastes like mozzarella, then it kinda tastes like glue. But it's growing on me in small amounts mixed with other things.



Pronounced: "Nyoh-khi"

Jalebi

To continue the Indian kick is a nice Indian dessert: Jalebi.
(although in some parts of the country it is eaten with breakfast)
I actually had only ever had this at one Indian restaurant, and only occasionally at their buffet (the rest of the time they had Galub Jamun. I would watch bitterly while who ever I dragged there that day would eat them in ecstasy. I've never had them, but I will try to make them soon enough). Anyways, I would stuff them in my face but never found out what they were called. Finally some dedicated interwebz searchin not only yielded their name, but A VIDEO on how to make them. I used Manjula's recipe.

After frying:


After soaking:


The ones I had were bright orange, but then again these ARE homemade, not full of dyes. And damn, they are tasty (especially if they sit for a few minutes.. if you can hold out!!).

STORY
I haven't had dinner yet and I these are almost gone. I just hope it doesn't end the same way as when I was in my single-digits and I was helping my Grammie make rosettes (read=pretty elephant ears) and I ate so many covered with so much powdered sugar, that I still not only have a food adversion to it ump-teen years later, but the smell also makes me sick. (holy crap that was one sentence) These are pretty similar, if they were covered in powder rather than syrup I would have been ill.


Note: I didn't have gram flour, so I used bran instead. The consistancy was very runny, so I added a little flour at a time until it was the thickness she had. I also feel half a pinch of saffron would have been better. I have a little bit of syrup left too.

Indian Curry

Since the turn of the millennium, there has been an epic battle.
Which do I like better, Indian or Mexican?
In the motherland, I could make my own Mexican food if I had a craving.
But Indian food is a bit trickier with its wonderful blended spices. The more often I ate Indian, the more my cravings drove me mad until I could get my next fix. I suspect much like nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

I had a nice vegetable curry the other day and decided to do something where the base was pureed veggies to give it the nice "thick and creamy" texture.

Boil:
potatoes
onion
broccoli stems
carrots

When potatoes are nearly ready, ladle half of the veg and broth into a blender with part of a tomato. Blend! (I also added a can of drained white beans for a thickener. Good, but I think I'll leave it out next time and just up the potato ratio).
In the meantime add broccoli and cauliflower florets to cook. Throw in any other veg you want. (I also threw in some tofu burgers for kicks, to be like paneer?)
Stir in a couple spoonfulls of Curry paste, along with the blended goodness. Mix until everything is heated through.

I served it with saffron rice and some cashews on top just to be kinky.

Mac and Sheese

Ahhh, comfort food!
Mama Ronin's macaroni and cheese could not be beat. I think I've got it down after years of toil!
For the best Mac and Cheez, start with a roux.

Finely chop some onion.
Lightly sautee in butter or oil (a little more than you need for the onions)
Add some flour and stir until all mixed.

Still on med-low to med heat:
Add non-dairy milk and stir.
Add block vegan cheez (I used mild cheddar Sheese)
Stir until as melted as possible.

Season with a squirt of yellow mustard (secret ingredient), a shake of salt, and a shake of paprika (as you like it).

Mix in pasta and add fresh pepper!!




I was never into baked Mac and Cheese, but I guess you could do that if you want.

With the leftover sauce, it will mostly solidify. Heat backup with some more 'milk'. You may need some more seasonings because of this.

Vegan Desserts!

Eat your heart out vegan haters!

Aww, the simple desserts!

Banana Split


Bananas! Vanilla Rice Cream! Vegan Hot Fudge! Frozen raspberries! Almond slices! Soyatoo whipped cream!! BOO YAH!

Root Beer Float


Bulldog Root Beer and Vanilla Rice Cream! I know the whipped cream wasn't necessary, but it was too good not to add some =D

BBQ PIZZA

Before:


CRUST
Ok, first the no yeast herb crust from HOW IT ALL VEGAN is like, the best thing ever. I use it all the time (but I use nutritional yeast instead of vegan parmesan, add extra herbs and extra garlic powder!). I would recommend baking it 5 minutes before piling on stuff.

SAUCE
I made an alfredo sauce. Get some tofu (soft or silken if possible, but if not, no biggie), cube it and boil it for 5 minutes to get rid of the beany flavor. I add some boullion and add like 3/4 cup of water slowly while blending it all. If I need some more herbs or salt, I throw it in. (This can be used as an alfredo pasta sauce too!)

THE GOODS
Fresh spinach
chunked portabella
chopped fire roasted peppers
chopped onion
Cubed Riblets (set out to thaw for about 10 min)
Cheddar Sheese (I used a fancy hard-cheese hand held grater thingy that you turn and it spits it out- like shaved ice!)


After:


Holy crap I think my mom is more in love with this than I am!!
Like I said, the Sheese doesn't melt so much as get soft, but that's fine!

**I usually pan fry Chikn Strips with BBQ sauce for this, but the riblets were handy and still totally good!**

Portabella burger

This monster is stacked high!! You need:
Portabella cap
Fire roasted peppers and their marinade (or fresh bell pepper slices and a good dressing/marinade).
Eggplant slices
Spinach
Sheese
Toasted bread

Marinade the portabella, peppers, and eggplant in a big baking dish. I used the marinade that the peppers were packed in, but any good marinade will do. Let soak for a MINIMUM of 10 minutes each side.
Cover dish (with lid or foil) and bake 375 for 10ish minutes. Take cover off and cook another 5 (or under mushroom is nice and soft. It will have shrunk a little.)

Assemble to your likings and grab a napkin!
This is one of those sandwiches that you have to hold on to and eat the entire thing because if you put it down you can never pick it all up again!

Super delicious.


*TIP: If you buy portabellas by the pound at stores, pull off their stem before you buy them! Ditchin` that weight saves you some cash!!

Enchiladas!

MMMMMMM!
I sauteed onion and orange peppers with the Chikn Strip Starters.
While that was sizzling, I rinsed a can of black beans and seasoned it with lime juice and parsley (if I had cilantro I would have used that).
I added chunks of the amazing Medium Cheddar Sheese, wrapped it in tortillas, placed in a baking dish and added enchilada sauce around them, with a drizzle on top with a little Sheese. Bake 350 for 15 min (or when sauce is bubbling).



*Note that Sheese doesn't really melt, it just gets really soft. It's still the best cheese substitute out there though!