Country Fried Seitan Sandwich with Coconut Cheddar Cheese & Organic Baked Fries

I started a new job about two weeks ago.  It is a very interesting and fun job!  I am working at a food truck downtown and having a great time with it.  It is something I have really missed about NY - working for a place that doesn't have a ton of structure and allows me to do what I need to do, but without a ton of supervision and demands.  It's a pretty cool gig.  I am still working part time as a vegan pastry chef, which is good, but doesn't include a lot of hours.  This past week I definitely made my hours, which was great.  

The place is called Ez Cheesy, which is basically a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich truck.  Pretty cool and different menu.  Obviously it is not all vegan, but all but one of the sandwiches are vegetarian and the rest can be made vegan with the inclusion of daiya.  I love that!  This is part of the menu this year:

Tampopo: Ramen Noodles mixed with Kimchee, topped with Brussel Sprouts and Cheddar/Daiya

Old Mission Torta: Smashed Beans, Avocado, Queso/Daiya, Pickled Jalapeno Peppers, Shaved Radish, Spicy Mayo

City Middle: Local Made Donut with Goat Cheese and Fig Jam (would be great with vegan cream cheese)

Sweet Caroline: Shaved Carrot, Goat Cheese, Walnuts & Honey

There are more items on the menu, but I thought I would put a couple so you could see how different and cool this place is!

Making sandwiches all week, you would think I would get tired of them, but it actually inspired me to work more on the menu for our upcoming cafe and make a couple different sandwiches at home.  I made this tasty one as well as a couple veggie paninis.  Yum!  I found a really interesting recipe for vegan cheddar cheese, using coconut milk as the base.  It's very meltable and cheesy in texture, but I really didn't care for the flavor.  I definitely think it is something that warrants more testing and playing around with.  How cool would it be if it were actually that easy to make a meltable vegan cheese?!

This was Hubby's plate.  So Good!

To make the Sandwich:

- Country Fried Seitan

 - Fresh Baguette, sliced into portions and cut in half, toasted

 - Veganaise or other topping

 - Sliced Veggies: tomato, green pepper, red onion

 - Coconut Milk Cheddar Cheese or other vegan cheese

 - Baked Fries or side of choice


1.  Toast baguette.  Slather veganaise on both sides of the bread.  Place veggies on the bottom, followed by the seitan.  Layer the cheese in there somewhere.  (I should have put it next to the seitan so it could have melted slightly.)
2.  Add fries or other side and eat!

You can barely see the vegan cheddar peeking out from underneath the veggies!

Enjoy!

Koko

Some Things I've Been Baking Lately

Here are lots of vegan baked goods I have been baking over the past several months. When I was compiling this collage of photos and took a step back to look at them, I was very proud of myself. I know I have been working hard on all of these goodies, it's just great to really see it all come together. And this is really why I am so obsessed with taking pictures of everything I cook or bake. It is such a great feeling to come back and look at it and say, wow I did a great job! Most of these baked goods were made at my job - a few were made at home. All of them were made with lots of love and excitement! They really make me feel happy and confident that many of them would look great in a display case of my own! Take a few minutes to look at the pictures. Let me know what you think.

 

 

 

 



Maple Syrup Sweetened Chocolate Chip Cookies
Notice one Missing?

 

 



Close-Up of Apple Crisp Cupcakes with
Salted Caramel Frosting, Drizzled with Caramel Sauce



The tray of Baked Apple Crisp Cupcakes



These are so beautiful!



Finished Tray of Cupcakes.  Gorgeous!

 

Toasted Coconut-Almond Cake with Coconut Frosting



Basket of tasty baked goods: Coconut Chocolate Chip
Cookies & GF Coconut Macaroons

 

 



Crispy Double Chocolate Cookie



Nutella Mousse Filled Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Topping



Nutella Mousse Cupcakes topped with Toasted Hazelnuts



Snickers Bundt Cake

 

 



Gluten Free Cherry Crumb Bars



A Close-Up of the Delicious Bars!



Mocha Cake with Coffee Frosting



Double Chocolate Mocha Brownies



Vegan Tiramisu Cupcakes



I mean seriously - how beautiful are these guys?



Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies before baking

 

 



Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Frosting & Raspberry Filling




Chocolate Dipped Strawberries.  So beautiful!



Beet Velvet Cupcakes

 

 



Raw Keylime Pie Mousse Cups



Pumpkin Roll Cake with Vegan
Cream Cheese Frosting



Beautiful swirls made of vegan cream cheese frosting



Pretty, pretty!



Chai Cupcakes with Spiced Frosting

 

 



Almond Joy Bundt Cake

 

 



Gluten Free, Soy Free, Raw Keylime Pie

 

Vegan birthday cake for my dad!  (Carrot Pineapple!)



Vegan Tiramisu Cups



Coconut Lime Cupcakes with Zesty Lime Frosting

 

 



So Zesty!



Gluten Free Chocolate Cookie Dough Truffles made with Chickpeas!



After portioning and freezing.






Smoothing out.



A blurry inside view of the truffle.

 

 



Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting



Topped with toasted hazelnuts



Close-up of the yummy cupcake



Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cream Pie in a Cookie Crust

 

 



Mocha Cookies with Coffee Icing

 

 



Kitchen Sink Cookie with Pretzels, Chocolate Chips, Peanut Butter
Chips and Kettle Chips

I hope you enjoyed these pretty pictures of tasty vegan baked goods!


Koko

Homemade Vegetable Stock

I have been making homemade vegetable stock for years.  Years and years actually.  I've gone through different systems of making the stock with varying degrees of success, but I've perfected the stock over my years of living in New York in all kinds of tiny kitchens and spaces.  The best method that I have come up with by far is freezing all of my vegetable scraps in a gallon Ziploc bag and placing it in the upright freezer on top of our refrigerator in our tiny kitchen.  Whenever the bag would get completely full, I would toss it all in a large pot and make stock.  Then I would use whatever stock I needed that day and freeze the rest of it in pint and quart deli containers.  Several food blogs that I follow have suggested freezing in glass jars, but I have never had success, even when waiting for the food/liquids to cool completely, then sitting in the refrigerator for a couple hours and cooling it even more before putting it in the freezer.  I have had too many jars break on me to want to try it again.  So I have been storing it in deli containers and it has been working very well.  It's also super convenient. 

 

 

 

Veg Stock ready to go in the fridge and freezer

 

 

There is nothing better than making homemade vegetable stock.  It is super easy, costs almost nothing and gives tons of flavor and extra nutrients to your soups, sauces, stews, etc.  I also love that you have complete control of what goes in, how you prepare it, and therefore the end result.  There are no unnecessary added ingredients.  And if you are organized about it, you can make different kinds of stock for different purposes.  Several kinds I have made before include:

 

 

 

1.  Roasted Onion Stock for French Onion Soup:  Keep the onion ends, papers and outer layer of skins separate.  If I remember, I throw the ends of garlic in there as well - frozen of course.  Once I have a good amount, I roast the contents of the bag with some peppercorns until golden and dark.  Then I will simmer that mixture until fragrant and use it to make my delicious, super tasty soup.  Yum!

 

2.  Mushroom Stock:  I save all of the stems of the mushrooms I cook with and place them separately in a Ziploc bag in the freezer.  Once it's full, I'll simmer the stems along with a couple dried shiitake mushrooms, black peppercorns, dried thyme (or be even thriftier by freezing the stems from fresh thyme in the same bag with the mushroom stems).  Use the stock to make a killer Green Bean Casserole for Thanksgiving, a crazy flavorful mushroom soup or a delicious sauce to go with tempeh, tofu or seitan.

 

3.  Roasted Vegetable Stock:  Instead of placing the frozen veggies directly into the pot and covering with water, roast for 30 minutes or so at 400 degrees, then simmer.  Add a handful of lentils, black peppercorns and bay leaves for extra deliciousness.  Then use this tasty stock for more strongly flavored soups or a seitan pot roast or something equally amazing!



 

 

 

 

Frozen veggies in the pot, getting ready for some filtered water



Suggested Veggies:

Onion ends and peels (get rid of the papery outer-skins: they will make the stock bitter)
Carrots peels and ends
Garlic ends
Celery ends and leaves
Mushroom stems
Parsley Stems
Fresh thyme stems
Tomato cores and ends






Veg Stock Working

Homemade Veggie Stock:

Yields: 1 Gallon Stock


1.  Take the contents of the gallon Ziploc bag and place it in a large pot. Cover with at least 1-1 1/2 gallons of filtered water. Add several black pepper corns, a couple bay leaves and dried thyme if you would like. 

2.  Bring the contents to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer for 45-60 minutes, or as desired.  The longer the stock simmers, the darker in color and stronger in flavor it will be. 

3.  Allow the veggies to sit in the cooking liquid for about 10-15 additional minutes, or until the stock is more manageable to handle (temperature-wise). 

4.  Strain the veggies out of the stock, pressing to release as much liquid as possible.  Discard the stock veggies - preferably in a compost pile. 

5.  Cool the stock, package and be sure to date clearly.   Don't fill the containers completely full or they may explode in the freezer  - the liquid expands as it freezes. 





Labeled and frozen!
I've been doing this for years!
(And don't worry this picture was taken years ago & the stock long since used up.)



Fresh veggie scraps getting ready to go in the freezer.

Now save those organic veggie scraps and make your own homemade stock!


Enjoy!


Koko

Pasta With a Creamy Sauce, Steamed Broccoli

Do you ever crave super super simple things to eat?  Sometimes I find myself going through these phases where I only want some pasta with a creamy white sauce and either a steamed veggie or seasoned veggie on top.  This is one of those times.  I was very hungry, didn't feel like making something complicated or time consuming in the least and wanted really simple flavors.  So this tasty pasta came to mind.  I have my Mum to thank for this, because the base of the sauce came from her.  She taught me how to make a basic white sauce so long ago, and it comes in handy so often!  It is a kind of base for a vegan bechamel sauce, for a white sauce for a pizza or lasagna, pasta, or really anything at all.  So this is for you when you're feeling like eating simple tasty food, and are not in the mood to make something complicated or time consuming.  But still tasty!

 

Pasta with a Creamy Sauce, Steamed Broccoli:

Creamy Sauce with Yummy Steamed Broccoli

8 oz. desired pasta shape, cooked

1 head broccoli, separated into florets

extra virgin olive oil to coat

sea salt to taste

White Sauce:

4 tablespoons earth balance

2 tablespoons unbleached flour

2 cups unsweetened soymilk

3 tablespoons vegan cashew parm, or as desired

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper



1.  Bring a large pot of salted, oiled water to a boil.  Drop in the pasta and cook until al dente.  Scoop the pasta out with a large slotted spoon.  You'll want to keep the boiling water to blanch your broccoli in.

2.  While the pasta is cooking, prepare the sauce.  In a medium pot, add the earth balance over medium heat.  Once the earth balance has melted, add the unbleached flour, whisking together immediately, and continuing to cook until golden in color.

3.  Once the flour has cooked slightly, add the unsweetened soymilk, vegan cashew parm, sea salt and black pepper.  Whisk immediately or the flour will seize, creating a lumpy sauce.  Continue cooking over medium heat until the sauce has thickened and flour has cooked all the way.  Season to taste, adding more parm, salt or pepper as desired.

4.  While the sauce is cooking, submerse the broccoli in the boiling pasta water and cook for about one minute, or until softened but still crisp.  Drain, discarding the water.

5.  Toss the steamed broccoli with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt.

6.  To serve, toss the cooked pasta in the sauce, coating evenly.  Place a serving in a bowl and top with the blanched broccoli.  Top with fresh cracked black pepper or additional vegan cashew parm. 

 

 

Enjoy!

Koko