I can’t believe I haven’t posted the simple, glorious recipe for these little momos! Now, momo is maybe not the right word for what these are. There’s this really great Himalayan restaurant I love going to (Cafe Kathmandu on the Drive) and they have these delectable little dumplings called momos that you can order steamed or deep fried. They are just the best. Kaylie and I thought we’d give making them at home a go, and the worked pretty well.

We used wonton wrappers for these. I have heard that others have had a hard time finding egg-free wonton wrappers – I get mine at Superstore where the selection is large enough that you can find eggless ones. You might consider using rice wraps as well – that way they’re gluten free as well. To use the rice wraps, simply hydrate them for about twenty seconds in water. They are much bigger than wonton wrappers so maybe tear or cut them into pieces after they’re hydrated. If you over-hydrate them they will dissolve so be careful.

The vegetable/tofu mix can change according to your tastes. Feel free to play with it. Try diced carrots, bell peppers, or water chestnuts. We combined:

1/4 block firm tofu, crumbled
2 tbsp soya sauce, tamari, or Braggs
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
Sprinkle Chinese five-spice mix or coriander (use chopped fresh leaves if available)
3 stalks green onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 inch ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 – 1 cup mushrooms (measure before dicing – any type of mushroom you like)
1 tsp sesame oil or other oil

Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together and toss in a pan on medium-heat for about five minutes. Let the mixture cool.

Now, to wrap your momos, place a rounded teaspoon of filling in the centre of a wonton wrapper. Wet your fingers in a bowl of water and bring the corners of the wrapper up, then twist. Seal with more water.

These can be frozen and then steamed. Steam them until the wonton wrappers become translucent – about eight minutes from frozen.

Momo dipping sauce

Mix sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, and soya sauce together until they’re tasty. I’d say about one part sesame oil, 4 parts soya sauce, and 2 parts vinegar.

Because I come from a land where tacos and burritos are available at every corner, I make tacos when I need a quick, fresh bite to eat.  I think I might name these Kirby Tacos, because our friend Kirby is a vegan that never cooks for herself, but as I was assembling these she came to mind because they are even easy enough for her to make.

1/2 tsp Cumin

1/2 tsp Paprika

1/2 tsp Cayenne

1 tsp Garlic powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 small red onion

1 clove garlic (minced)

1/4 cup Cilantro, chopped

1/2 block Cubed extra firm tofu (cut into tiny squares)

3 large leaves Swiss chard, chopped

1/2 lime juiced

1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped

1 tbs Oil of your choice

6 Corn Tortillas

Handful of Pea shoots

In a medium sized skillet heat oil on medium heat and add tofu. The point here is to get the tofu golden brown with the spices. After the tofu has been in the heat for about 5 minutes stir and coat in all the spices. Keep the tofu browning for another five minutes then add the onions and garlic clove.

Make sure to keep the tofu on medium heat so you don’t burn it!

When the onion is soft add the chopped swiss chard, cilantro and lime and stir together. Swiss chard is like spinach and does not take long to cook so make sure to add it last!

Make sure to watch your taco mixture as you steam your 6 corn tortillas.

When the steaming is done the tacos are ready to be assembled. Top with pea shoots and fresh cilantro to completely complement the fresh flavours of the taco.

You can even add avocado, hot sauce, sliced lime wedges, fresh cilantro, and salsa to make these tacos even better.

This recipe is for all hard working Kirbys out there.

 

Beets are a simple, delicious, and nutritious food, but after hearing the comments on this beet sandwich I realized that not many people know how to prepare beets the way I do. It’s really easy! Beets are not that intimidating. People think it is difficult to pair things with beets (Malloreigh doubted that this sandwich would be good, but it was in fact very delicious) but this was a really fantastic combination.

Beet Carpaccio

A “carpaccio” is officially thinly sliced raw beef or fish, but it’s just too good of a term for thinly sliced beets. It’s not really a carpaccio but we’ll call it that anyway.

Don’t peel the beets before you boil them – leaving the skin on helps to seal in the nutrients, which would otherwise be partially lost through boiling. If you’re using both red and golden beets, boil them separately to maintain the colour. As you may know, red beet juice will stain anything and everything it touches bright pink.

Separate the beets from the beet greens. Boil them whole in a pot filled with water over medium-high heat until a fork can easily pierce them – about 30 to 45 minutes, maybe longer.

Once the beets are boiled, let them cool – drain them into a colander and run cold water over them to speed this process. The skin should slough off easily, but if it doesn’t, use a paring knife or sharp vegetable peeler.

Now, your beets are ready to slice. Use a mandolin slicer to slice them thinly or use a sharp non-serrated knife.

Sliced beets will keep in the fridge for at least a week if you put them in a resealable container, but they are also pretty easy to eat in one sitting.

Beet Carpaccio Sandwich

This beet sandwich was simple and delicious. Sliced avocado, lightly toasted whole organic walnuts, thinly sliced smoked tofu, fresh arugula, and sliced beets were dashed with fresh ground pepper. The sourdough bread I used was drizzled with lemon and garlic infused olive oil. It was served with a side of potato salad.

These are the easiest thing EVER. My friend Satjeet made cauliflower ones for the Indian brunch we had, and I was amazed by how easy they were. Parathas are stuffed Indian flatbreads – like roti, but with vegetables and spices and yumminess. Inspired by Satjeet, I made some of my own. I used Manjula’s video to help with the process, so maybe you want to, too!

This is a really unglamourous photo, but I was drinking wine while I made them, so I hope you will forgive me. My whole world was blurry, in fact, not just this photo.

Spinach Parathas

1 cup flour (white, whole wheat, or a mix)
1/2 cup water

For the filling:
1 bunch fresh spinach
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro
1/2 white onion, sliced into thin rounds
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 tsp ground cumin
Salt, to taste

Oil, for brushing

Mix the flour and water together until it forms a soft dough. Knead the dough on a lightly oiled or floured surface; oil your hands so the dough doesn’t stick. Knead it until it’s soft and pliable – a few minutes. Return to the bowl and cover with a cloth; let it rest for ten minutes.

Shred the spinach and cilantro, and mix with the rest of the filling ingredients. You can get creative here – add whatever you want – or keep it simple. You could add mashed potato, cauliflower, ginger, whatever. Be liberal with your salt. Throw it all in a frying pan on medium-low heat; your goal is to cook as much of the water out of the spinach as possible. Wilt it and let it steam a bit, then remove it into a metal strainer or colander with small holes and use the back of a wooden spoon to press all the liquid out. Be merciless! The more water you press out of the filling, the better your parathas will be.

Now, you should have roughly similar volumes of dough and filling. Split the dough into 6 evenly sized balls; it works best to split it in half, then in three. Roll each chunk of dough into a ball on a floured surface.

Now, flouring your surface as you go, take one of the dough balls and roll it out so it’s a bit bigger than the palm of your hand (assuming you have average-sized hands). Spoon about a sixth of the filling in – again, it should be roughly the same volume as your dough ball. Pull the sides of the dough up and pinch it closed like a dumpling, or, like, a handkerchief in which you have enclosed marbles. Make sure it’s sealed and set aside.

Repeat for all 6 dough balls. It’s best if the balls sit for a few minutes.

Heat a non-stick frying pan up on medium-high. You want the pan to be hot before you use it. Roll one of the filled balls out until it’s as flat as you are prepared to make it – if filling spills out the edges, it was probably a bit wet, but no loss. Dry-fry it until the edges start to change colour, then flip it. Brush the cooked side with oil, and when the bottom is done, flip again, let it cook a bit with the oil on, then remove to a plate covered in paper towel or non-paper towel.

Repeat this with all 6 parathas. You can roll the next one out while the first one is cooking, and so on. It’s a very fast process once you get going.

These are best eaten hot, spread with Earth Balance or dipped in chutney or homous. We used them as “buns” for some masala veggie burgers we got at TJ’s in San Francisco – super delicious.

As I said in an earlier post, my brother just so happens to have a lemon tree outside of his bedroom window. Oh the opportunity!

When life gives you lemons… use them!  Malloreigh and I were sitting under the lemon tree eating dinner last night and we were discussing the first time we were subject to the juice of an actual lemon.  Both of our experiences were different, but equally as eye-opening. Can you imagine being a teenager and actually realizing that lemon juice didn’t come from a bottle?  Most people still haven’t come to this realization because of the convenience our consumer culture has afforded us. So I say, put down the fake plastic lemon and start squeezing the juice of the sweet fruit that is so versatile it can transform into the sweet, tart, and savoury.

Things I frequently make with lemons:

- Lemon Garlic Sauce (for Pasta)

- Lemon Dill Shallot Sauce (for Pasta)

- Vegan Hot Tottys (Whiskey, 1/2 lemon, 1 tbs agave, hot water)

- Lemon Almond Banana Bread

These are just four things I’ve made in the last week.

Don’t forget that you can use the whole lemon! You can always dry the lemon zest and save it for another dish tomorrow.

Lemons always add a positive twist to life, that’s why I try to eat as many as possible.

Lemon Shallot Dill Vinaigrette:

2 lemons (juiced)

1/2 bunch fresh dill (finely diced)

1 large shallot (finely diced)

salt

Equal ratio of vinegar to oil 1:1

1/2 C Olive oil

1/2 C White Wine Vinegar

I use this as a marinade for portobello mushrooms to grill, tofu scram or a quick addition to a salad.

Simple, easy, lemons.

 

 

Yesterday my brother and I decided to spend a little time making lunch before heading off to work for the evening. After a day of rock-climbing and reading pasta was exactly what we needed. Although this recipe is nothing special the fact that my brother has a beautiful lemon tree outside of his window makes any kind of lemony sauce a success. Fresh, in my mind, will always bring out the best, most natural flavours.

Since I haven’t had full reign over my usual kitchen (a kicthen with every spice imaginable) I’ve had to get back to basics. I ‘ve had to create flavourful dishes using the natural essence of fresh, local produce.  I find that when you understand the basics you can build off of those in any culinary (or life) endeavour you meet.

 

Photo by Ryan Barfield

 

Since being here in San Francisco I have constantly had to question my cooking and myself, because this is in fact an extremely foodie city. I’ve already worked in two separate restaurants that have completely different approaches to menu creation. One has a farm a few miles outside of the city that uses their own produce. This restaurant believes in the completely natural appearance and taste of it’s food right down to leaving the stems on the carrots and radishes. I know! What a concept!

The other restaurant is in my opinion “phony” and uses way too many meat (fake) centric dishes to promote “health”, as they would put it. This is only my opinion! I just can’t get behind putting chinatown bought fake meats, deep frying them, putting them inside a bun and calling it healthy or even flavorful because it is vegetarian or vegan. I have to say though, sometimes it’s sooo good to paticipate in a meat eaters world.

We all have different opinions on what is good food and what is not. I personally am trying to simplify flavours in order to move forward as a chef. In order to move forward sometimes we must move back. How did we even get to this point? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkkD21cdG0Q

 

 

 

So I’d been meaning to experiment with making a tuna-like salad with white beans for a while. I finally bought a can of beans and tried it out yesterday – and it didn’t exactly work, but it tasted wonderful anyway. I made a white bean salad sandwich on pieces of whole wheat bread that I made myself on Thursday and holy macaroni, it was delicious – and messy! Here are the recipes.

White Bean Salad

1 can white beans (I used canneli-something), drained and rinsed
1/4 red onion, diced
1 – 2 tbsp vegan mayo
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried dill (I used fenugreek, as usual, but dill would be better)
1 tsp kelp powder (or not, since it didn’t taste like tuna salad anyway and this is for “fishiness”
Salt, to taste and pepper, lots

Mix together. Partially mash the beans so some are whole and some are mushed. The longer you let it sit the more flavourful it will be. Keeps in the fridge for a week or so.

I made this bread based on a recipe in La Dolce Vegan. I altered it a bit, though, so here it is.

Whole Wheat Baguette

1 packet active yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 tbsp sugar or other sweetener

Mix together vigorously in a large bowl and let sit for 10 minutes.

Add:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup warm water
2.5 tsp salt

Mix together, and then add

3 more cups of flour

one at a time. I used one cup white flour and the rest whole wheat so my bread was about 75% whole wheat. Mix until incorporated, then roll it out on a lightly floured, dry surface and knead it til it’s smooth and elastic. Add more flour as needed to keep it from sticking to your hands.

Clean your bread bowl and put a little bit of oil in it. Roll the dough in the oil so it’s covered, then cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place it in a non-drafty, warm spot for an hour and a half to rise.

Once it’s risen, preheat the oven to 450F. Remove the dough from the bowl and punch the air bubbles out of it. Dust the dough with flour, then shape into a baguette on a baking sheet. Cut four or five slashes across the top, then press sesame seeds into the top.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a knife or toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Let cool before cutting.

Well, it’s March 17th, which means a) an excuse to celebrate and b) an excuse to make everything green. My first challenge of the day was to make arugula soup. It turned out pretty beautifully – and, of course, green.

Arugula Potato Leek Soup

1 red onion, diced
1 leek, white parts chopped
1 – 2 cloves garlic, minced
2 potatoes, chopped
1 tsp dried tarragon
1 cube vegetable bouillon
2 cups boiling water
Arugula – I had about 3/4 of a tub of it – use lots
Salt, to taste

Saute the onion, leek, and garlic in oil or margarine over medium-low heat in a large pot until soft and fragrant. Add potatoes, tarragon, and the bouillon cube; turn the heat up to medium; stir and let the potatoes cook in the oil. Stir them regularly, cooking for about 10 minutes.

Add water and arugula; if you didn’t add boiling water, turn the temp up to bring to a boil then turn down to simmer. Stir and put a top on the pot. Let the arugula wilt for 6 – 10 minutes. Test the potatoes to make sure they’re done – just press a knife into one; it should slice easily, like butter or something else similarly sexy.

Once all that’s done, use a hand blender to cream it up. Salt to taste.

I didn’t add nutritional yeast but I’m sure that would be delicious. Also, for extra decadence, you could make this really creamy by adding unsweetened, unflavoured almond/soy/whatever milk or even coconut milk. Just add it after the creaming stage, mix, and let the soup simmer for a bit.

Yeah, just eating a delicious vegan “chicken” salad sandwich for lunch, no big deal. I’m actually eating this very sandwich as I write! That is how fast/bored I am today. Do you want to make your very own vegan chicken salad? I dare you! Do it! Then eat it on a sammich with lettuce, red onion, and tomato, just like me!

This recipe makes enough for a couple of stacked sandwiches. Double the recipe for double the salad. Duh.

Tofu “Chicken” Salad

1/2 block firm tofu, pressed, and cut into li’l cubes
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp mustard (go for the dijon)
1 tbsp total chicken spices – try marjoram, sage, rosemary – I like dill
Salt & Pepper

Toss your tofu cubes in the rest of the ingredients listed. Now that the tofu is marinating, preheat your oven to 250 F.
Spread your tofu out on a baking pan (make sure nothing’s piled up or touching) and bake 10 minutes. Take it out, toss it, put it back in for another 7 minutes. Repeat this process once more. You’re trying to get a golden finish on most edges of the tofu.
You could probably also fry it if you wanted to save time but I bake it.

In a small bowl, combine:
1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise (I prefer Vegenaise – in a pinch, use silken tofu)
1 stick celery, chopped
1 – 2 dill pickles, diced
1 – 2 tbsp capers (optional)
1 tbsp dill pickle juice or caper juice from the jar
1 – 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
Salt & pepper

Add the tofu to this mixture and toss it together. Let it sit, covered, in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.