Sourdough lovin'

These days it seems like the vegan blog world is a flame with sourdough posts. Perhaps it is because it's spring and that's when folk feel creativity urging them along. After all, it is the season when new things are born. After being inspired by Kittee's injera experiment last year, I finally got around to making my own sourdough starter last week. I haven't done a day-by-day posting on the happenings in my starter jar, simply because it looks the same every single day. It's been bubbly and stinky since day two, and that's about it. I owe my happy starter to using freshly squeezed orange juice instead of water in the first few days. I also used whole wheat flour, which apparently is not always the best to use in starting out with making a starter. But I've had fantastic results. I got the inspiration for the orange juice from The Fresh Loaf while looking for some direction on how to begin. Today is day 7, and I think there's a little while yet to go before I am sure it's ready to use. I think the weekend will have me doin' some bakin'! Yay!

Here's a low-down on the last few days:

Day 2 (picture above)

From the get-go, the starter has been pretty happy. It's bubbly and has a slight beer smell. And I think there may be a wee bit of hooch floating there on top...

Day 3 (picture above)
Still the same. Lotsa bubbles and a bit more of a beer smell. The starter got quite bubbly again just an hour after I fed it. I keep peeking at it as if something different is going to happen and I don't want to miss it. I did notice that overnight into day 4 the starter seemed to rise and then fall. I guess this is a good thing.

Day 4
Time to stop adding the orange juice. I'm supposed to remove a 1/4 cup of the starter, discard the rest and then feed it with plain water and flour. Seems like a waste of starter to me! But I'll follow the directions...

Day 5
The starter looks happy, but I messed up when I fed it. I didn't take out the 1/4 cup of starter and discard the remainder before I fed it. I just added the 1/2 cup each of water and flour. There's a bit of water on top of the starter and it still rose back to the top after I mixed it back in. I hope I didn't ruin it!

Day 6
It's not dead yet. There's still some bubbles. I'll add a few tablespoons of flour to soak up the excess water and then leave it alone for another day. And cross my fingers.

Day 7
It's alive! It's alive! And stinky! It's starting to smell like sourdough. And there's a heck of a lot of bubbles, not to mention actual starter. My boo-boo ended up in me having twice the amount of starter. Now I have two jars of starter. It was a shame to take out the 1/4 cup and toss the rest, and there was enough of it to divide it in two and have two starters going at the same time. Oooh! The possibilities!

Relief!

The other day I somehow deleted all the passwords I'd saved in Firefox, including the password to this blog. For some reason, I wasn't able to recover them either through Firefox or Google. But I figured it out! And I am immensely relieved, because I thought that I may never be able to access this blog again. Yikes!

Anyway, I have been busy in the last few days. Feast your peepers on these lovelies:

I really thought that it would be a shame to hide the delicate flavour of these ravioli with a sauce, so I simply drizzled them with some extra virgin olive oil and a little freshly ground black pepper. I think this is the best way to really enjoy fresh pasta. If you wanted to use a sauce, perhaps a light roasted red pepper or tomato sauce, like a marinara, would be good so that the flavour of the sauce doesn't overwhelm the pasta.

As an aside, it hasn't escaped me that these ravioli look just like sunny-side up eggs!

Hand-made Roasted Yam Ravioli with Thyme

1 pkg. Chinese wonton or dumpling wrappers
1 1/2 cups roasted yams, cooled, skins removed and mashed
1/2-1 tbsp. finely chopped fresh thyme
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Directions

In a medium bowl, mash the yam until there are no lumps. Add the thyme, salt, pepper and garlic powder and mix well.

Taking one wonton/dumpling wrapper, place the wrapper on a dry surface and in the middle of the wrapper place 1 tsp. of the mashed yam. Then, with you fingers or a pastry brush, pat some water all around the exposed dough. Don't use too much water because that will make the dough soggy. But you want to be sure to use enough to make sure there are no gaps between the layers of dough and you create a good seal all around the pasta. Carefully place a second piece of wrapper over top, matching up the edges of the dough and taking care to leave part of the wrapper open to let out air that is trapped between the layers.

Using a dry finger, trace the area around the filling to nudge out any air. When you have made sure there is no air trapped in around the filling, seal the ravioli. By doing this, you will make sure there is a good seal around the filling and that the ravioli don't open up in the water and let out their filling when you cook them.

Next, take a cookie cutter and place it over the ravioli, centering the filling in the middle of the cutter. Press down firmly. Remove the cutter and carefully remove the excess dough from around the ravioli. Transfer the ravioli to a rack to sit until you are ready to cook them. If not cooking them right away, place them on a non-stick cookie sheet in the freezer for up to 30 minutes and then transfer to an air-tight container or freezer bag.

When ready to cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Turn down the heat so the water is gently boiling. Add several ravioli to the water at a time for two minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain the excess water and add the ravioli to whatever sauce you may be using to keep warm and to keep the ravioli from sticking together.

Makes 3-4 servings
(or 36 ravioli, depending on how many wonton/dumpling wrappers you have).

One of my reasons for being vegan

Okay, so this isn't a food post. This is my baby Branwen. Well, she's not actually a baby; she's rather elderly at a ripe 12 years old. She weighs all of 18 grams and could fit into a chicken egg with room to spare. Not much more than a bunch of feathers with a beak, she's nicknamed "Shark" by the vet for her wicked way of biting you with the tip of her beak. She'll give you a piece of her mind any time and has a variety of pitches and tones in her "meep" to let you know, even though "meep" is the only word in her vocabulary. But she's the sweetest little thing you'll ever meet. She takes baths like she was a fish in another life and turns into a fluffy pancake with squinty eyes if you whisper softly to her. She's not an vegetarian by any means -- she downs her meal worms like it's a lost art. But she's awesome. And she's one of the reasons I am vegan.

Exciting things are a stirring...

I have just finished writing and photographing vegan recipes for an article that will be appearing in the May/June 2008 issue of Momentum Magazine, a sweet Vancouver publication for self-propelled people distributed across North America. While I can't post anything from my article on here just yet, I will be sure to post a link to the article once the magazine is out. You can check out this page on Momentum's website to see where you can get your copy. I am hoping that this opportunity will lead to more yummy food articles, and some features and news articles about food too. Super exciting! (well, I'm really excited). It's a nice way to be able to show that vegan food can be good and open up people's minds about it. The article makes no mention of the recipes being vegan or even vegetarian. But that is, I think, the key to changing people's misconceptions about veganism. What I mean is, I find people are much more receptive to veganism when they have stomachs full of delicious food. Food, really, is the key to almost anyone's heart.

Also, I have begun accumulating recipes for my upcoming cookzine. This idea has been just floating in and out of my mind for almost a year now, but I really want to get this going just because it would be fun to do. I don't even have an ETA for it yet or even a name (though "Epicurvegan" has a nice ring to it). But I do have a small list of recipes that I am building upon by looking for yummy and not too complicated (for the most part) recipes that are not run of the mill. Great vegan dessert recipes are easy to find, and while I mean to include some of those in my zine I always find myself looking for non-dessert recipes that present food in a different way. The kind of food that appeals to me is the kind that, if it were a person, would be some sort of grand imposter that would fool even the staunchest pessimist. For instance, one of the best "imposters" I have come across in recent weeks is this divine Alfredo recipe originally posted in the PPK forums, which I found over at Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan! (copied from her blog and my changes added). It's pretty much the best vegan Alfredo I think I'll ever try, and it's definitely a recipe that will be added to my repertoire of staple recipes:

Vegan Alfredo Sauce

1/2c Earth Balance
2 cups unsweetened soymilk, with 3 tbsp set aside for the arrowroot powder
1 package Mori-Nu silken extra firm tofu
1-2 tsp apple cider vinegar (because I never have wine in the house...)
2 tbsp onion powder
2-3 tsp garlic powder
1-2 tsp sea salt
1-2 tsp black pepper (to taste)
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup Red Star nutritional yeast
2 tbsp arrowroot or cornstarch powder, dissolved in the 3 tbsp reserved soy milk

Combine all of the ingredients, except for the dissolved arrowroot powder, in a blender and mix on high until throughly combined. Transfer to a saucepan and bring to a low boil over medium heat. Whisk in arrowroot mixture and reduce heat to medium-low, whisking constantly to ensure no lumps form. Serve warm.

Note: If you have any leftover sauce, you may need to thin it with a little soy milk when reheating it.

Comfort food with a twist

This past Christmas, I gave my mom several zines I'd bought from Jae Steele, author of the upcoming Get it Ripe cookbook, whom I'd had the fortune to meet a couple of times at the Canzine fair in Toronto. After trying out a recipe from one of the zines (I'll post the title when I remember it), my mom insisted I had to try this apple crumble with cashew cream. As simple as it is, it's also very rich and very addictive. There are any number of crumble recipes to be had, but this one beats any I can remember having eaten. Even Jae says of the recipe, "I've never tasted an apple crumble better than the one my mum makes." And the cashew cream is amazing. You could use it to top other desserts or even warm breakfast cereals like quinoa or oatmeal.

Apple Crumble
(modified from Jae Steele's zine)

Filling

5 large apples, peeled with cores removed and sliced
1 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. whole grain flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Topping

1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup whole or rolled oats
1/2 cup whole grain flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

In a small dish, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Place the apples in a large bowl and sprinkle with the with the flour mixture, tossing to thoroughly coat the apples. Transfer the apples to a 9"x9" baking dish.

In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients for the topping and mix thoroughly until combined. Add the canola oil and rub the mixture with your fingers until it takes on a grainy, large breadcrumb-like consistency. With a spoon, spread the topping over the apples. Place the baking dish in the oven and bake the apple crumble for 40-45 minutes. Test with the tip of a knife for doneness by piercing the fruit. Set the dish aside and let cool for 10-15 minutes. Serve the crumble warm topped with a dollop of cashew cream.

Cashew Cream

1 cup raw cashews, placed in a bowl and covered with water to soak for 4 hours
2 tbsp. agave nectar or other liquid sweetener
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. sea salt

After the 4 hours for soaking the cashews is up, drain the soaking water off the cashews. Place the cashews in a blended with the remainder of the ingredients and blend the mixture on high until well combined and the cream is smooth (about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes). If the cream is too thick, add a tbsp. of water at a time and reblend between additions. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Note: According to Jae, this cream may be frozen for future use in other recipes.

The peeps are representin'

As I was searching for a gumbo recipe to veganize, I found something quite unlikely: Moby in a series of cooking video clips on Epicurious. For those of you who are not famillar with Moby, he is a vegan recording artist and restauranteur extraordinaire (he co-owns the Teany restaurant in New York city) known for his electronic music that has been licenced out for use in many a TV ad.

Last year, the Conde Nast publication Bon Appetit (Conde Nast is the same company that owns Epicurious) made a move toward publishing more vegan recipes, and this was news because Bon Appetit has long been known as being very much a meat-oriented publication. Seeing clips of Moby on the Epicurious website was quite a funny thing because it wasn't something I expected to stumble across on that particular website. That said, I think it is also an intriguing move that has me wondering what the people behind Epicurious are thinking. The journalist in me wonders if it's a marketing move designed to appeal to a wider audience of consumers, or if it is a move toward genuine recognition of the importance and healthiness of a plant-based diet. The clips include a segment on "Vegan Philosophy and Lifestyle", which I really think could have been done much better -- it really missed the mark on the joys of vegan food. But whatever Epicurious' motives may be, check out the clips and, if you have a moment, drop the folks at Epicurious line and let 'em know what you think:

Moby Does Epicurious

Do I taste a cookzine?...

Just when I have loads of time on my hands to do absolutely anything I want, I do nothing. Normally I am looking for any lengthy amount of free time for the opportunity to bake up a storm. For a while now I've been wanting to wake up at the crack of dawn and bake away to fill up the freezer for those "rainy" days when I don't want to cook. Somehow, I can't get my act together. That's not to say that I haven't been doing anything with food.

Recently I whipped up a bunch of goodies for a housewarming good friends of mine held on International Women's Day. What better way to celebrate women than to offer people delish vegan food that also celebrates animals and says no to their exploitation? Since gluten, wheat and nuts were no-nos, I managed to create some quite impressive offerings using a rice flour mixture that turned out to be way more workable and moist than I ever imagined rice could be. In fact, they turned out so good I am thinking of doing some more tinkering with recipes to create a bunch of wheat- and gluten-free munchies to include in a cookzine. Here's a sampling of a few things that were enjoyed:

Gluten-free Soft Ginger Snaps

These ginger snaps were oh so slightly chewy on the outside and very soft and light on the inside. I was so amazed with them (I've never baked with rice flour before) all I could do was gawk at them, much to the bemusement of my boyfriend. I think that anyone who's ever eaten commercial rice-based baked goods knows some of them can be quite dry and bland. Not these babies! With rising wheat prices and with the success of these cookies, I think a switch to rice-based flour is definitely in order. It'll be easier on the tummy too!

Gluten-free Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Blondies

Where on earth these squares got their moisture I don't know. Adapted from a VwaV recipe, they were almost too moist. A little on the heavy side (I think there was a little too much dough) but they were definitely rich and tasty. And I never knew rice flour would get such a lovely golden brown colour. The raspberry filling, which really would have been better as a seedless jam, definitely needs to be doubled. Also, parchment paper would have made getting them out of the pan much easier.

I am really interested in creating a vegan cookzine (for a small price) that includes recipes that are not necessarily run of the mill. For instance, hummus is great, but I really don't need yet anther recipe for it. If you are interested in something like this, give me a quick shout by leaving a comment. Simply say "yea"or "nay", or give me some feedback on a recipe you'd like to see veganized, made wheat- or gluten-free, or feel free to make any other suggestions. If I can get it together to get a zine out, I'd very much like to donate 100% of the profits to an animal sanctuary, like the Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary.