Retro KFC-style no cluck cutlet, dinner style.

BLOG TOUR! 

Oh, hello.

This post is a whole trio of firsts: my first time breading with cornflakes, my first blog tour, and shockingly, my first cookbook giveaway. Who saw that happening?! 

Well, it’s all in honor of an enthusiastic, satisfying and beautifully photographed cookbook from two fellow bloggers: Tamasin Noyes and Celine Steen’s Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day. Both Tami and Celine have an array of delicious cookbooks under their non-leather belts. Vegan Sandwiches, their first joint effort, is an exciting, equally nerdy and novelty-worthy, totally sandwich-focused (okay, that does mean wraps, burgers, open-face selections, and everything that goes in them – and more) cookbook, which means you are now at the end of its blog tour!

With that, I’d like to share some of my experiences from the book so far, which includes sandwich-type things from around the world, spreads, sauces, slaws, marinades and homemade seitans. Speaking of, I’ve now made the Gobbler slices, Smokey tomato mushroom, and No Cluck cutlets, and dude, I liked the hearty No Clucks so much that I made my non-vegan sister a batch to keep in her freezer…and she lives across the country.

What follows is merely a selection – with more, no doubt, to come. And if you’re here for the giveaway, stare at these photos, starting with last night’s Retro KFC-style dinner, and then read the not-so-fine print below.

MORE PHOTOS. LOTS OF TEMPEH.

No Cluck Cutlets

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The Almighty BLT, with its own special spread

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Hot Brown Sandwiches with smokey tofu & broccolini

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The epic Dagwood with Smokey tomato mushroom seitan, Gobbler slices and tempeh bacon. Whaaat.

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* tempeh bacon extravaganza *

And more on those Retro KFC-style cutlets:

Retro KFC-style no cluck cutlets & breaded tofu, a baked variation. Hell, yeah.

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Once again, the epic glory of a Retro KFC-style seitan dinner.

WIN, WIN. SANDWICH, SANDWICH.

So, want to win a complimentary copy of Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day, courtesy of the publisher, Fair Winds Press.

Simply leave a comment below and let me know the TWO vegan sandwiches, in intricate detail, that you’d like to eat for lunch next week. Please make sure to include your email address in the comment field (though not publicly), and I’ll pick a winner at end of next week. The winner will be notified by December 8, 2012. Winner must be based on the planet Earth.

To purchase the book online, check out Powells.com

For our first night in New York, J. Legume, Jen and I went grocery shopping in Chinatown (fun note, where I just happened to run into the long-ago winner of Portland’s first Vegan Iron Chef competition), and picked up the ingredients for a curry noodle soup.  My sister knows that I’m still talking incessantly about being inspired by my time in SE Asia last winter, and basically, wanted to see me put all this talk into action, on her dinner table. Somehow, Jen had yet to use the Cambodian amok powder from Siem Reap I had sent her, so that went in as the curry base. J. Legume picked out the lovely yu choi that was steamed with a drizzle of soy sauce and toasted sesame oil.

Cambodian-inspired curry noodle soup with baked tofu, carrots, potatoes, rice stick noodles and sesame steamed yu choi

Admittedly, we spent much of the next few days dining out for dinner, as this was J. Legume’s first visit, and it had been two or years since I’d last visited. While J. Legume was there for the first part of my hiatus, we dined at Pukk (home to possibly my favorite meal of the trip), Vinnie’s, the Vegetarian Dim Sum House, Foodswings, Maoz, Champs, and ‘sNice. We also picked up bagels and tofu cream cheese from a couple of different spots, along with surreal vegan crossaints and pain au chocolat at Blossom’s bakery, took in a taping of The Chew, hit up the Natural History Museum, a show at the Bowery, some galleries, and even made it to a wedding in the Catskills. To name a few things.

J. Legume and I had intended to do a bit more cooking, but our combined excitement to sight-see the city, and its dining selection, was far too strong. We did manage to stay in, once more, for her final evening, and made a giant pot of lemony Syrian Lentil Soup, which I think my sister is probably still making her way though. For dessert, we baked a batch of chic-o-stick studded chocolate chip cookies, which were very mysteriously, not photographed by any of our party. 

Syrian Lentil Soup from Bean by Bean, from the 100 Days Homemade photo gallery

During the remainder of my hurricane-extended hiatus, it was much easier to settle in and cook with, and for, my sister and her boyfriend. The strangest meal we made had to have been the following Pad Kee Mao. The flavor was right on, with a dark & mushroom soy-based sauce and heaps of Thai basil, and the ingredients made sense, but once you broke them down, well, we had a heck of a time finding fresh, flat rice noodles in Chinatown, so we were faced with frozen. I don’t think that’s ever a good idea. To make matters more interesting, we went with two different proteins: tofu chicken, which was fine, and basically compressed tofu, and an impossible to resist, roasted duck-style gluten sheets. This was an utterly fascinating, multi-layered gluten, stuffed with spiced mushrooms. I must say, I somewhat enjoyed its salty incorporation into our mushy, tossed noodles, while the other two thought differently. To each their own.

TGI condiments & bok choi

Hey, we may have demonized the noodles, but everyone ate a bowl.

Pad Kee Mao: we made it through.

My sister and her boyfriend work late, so they dine late. So, it makes sense that their nightcaps come before the meals, right? Sure thing.

Passionfruit Whiskey Sours

The recipe for the Passionfruit Whiskey Sours was posted during MoFo over here.

Pickled red fresno & green jalapeño peppers

There’s a funny story with these pickled peppers. I’ve clearly been obsessed this past summer and fall with five jars remaining in my own fridge. While my sister pokes fun at this, saying she’s never heard of anyone actually ordering the pickled peppers at a deli, and certainly wasn’t as excited as I was about the late season black jalapeños I brought with me from the Lents farmers market for her very own supply, she was even more horrified when the newly pickled jar smashed out of the fridge. After a few days of her very first bout of pickled pepper withdrawal, we were stoked to find local hot peppers at Whole Foods, and made an even more eye-fetching new jar for her fridge.

Now, let’s talk tacos.

Winner winner, taco dinner

You see, the chipotle butternut sauce from Artisan Vegan Cheese was such a hit with my sister and her boyfriend that we made it twice during my hiatus. The first time for tvp tacos, and the second, for the simple dipping of tortilla chips, and of course, tator tots. Those little bits of crispy love.

Late night snacking

Can one do any better than sitting down to a spread of tator tots, chipotle cheese dip and New York’s finest pickles with their little sister? Nah.

Perfection.

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Jen’s baked tortilla chips

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Pad Sie Ew with actual fresh rice noodles, baked tofu, broccoli, carrots & fresh lime

My sister also requested I make her a batch of seitan, to which I was happy to oblige. I went with the savoury recipe for No Cluck Cutlets from Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day.

Lake Seitan

Since we had all this roasted butternut squash floating around – that we picked up from a farm in the Hamptons during a pumpkin picking adventure, no less – we had the Roasted Butternut Alfredo from the PPK blog for dinner one night. I skipped the soaked cashews and subbed in soaked sunflower seeds, due to my no-longer-so-new allergy, and served it with cavatappi over sautéed Spigarello broccoli, balsamic roasted creminis & brussel sprouts, and smoked paprika-spiced squash seeds, for garnish.

Roasted Butternut Alfredo

It may have been during this meal that my sister incredulously posed the question:

“Is this what real people eat?”. 

The mushrooms, broccoli greens and brussel sprouts were from the Union Square farmers market and the sage was from my sister’s patio garden

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Local squash, continued

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Aslan and their pumpkins

For the very last dinner effort on my hiatus, I thought it only appropriate to combine Jen’s request for grits, the remaining produce in the fridge, and the homemade seitan into something Portlandy: Bowls.

The grits themselves were flavored with lots of garlic and nutritional yeast (another thing my sister now has on her shelf) and every time I make them, I wonder why I don’t more often. I mean, pan-fried, leftover grit cakes are part of the experience.

These garlicky grits  were topped with even more roasted brussels – this time, with alder smoked salt, maple roasted carrots, spiced cornmeal-coated seitan, and Portland’s own Secret Aardvark hot sauce, the number #1 thing my sister and her boyfriend continuously request from the great Northwest.

Gritsy.

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A lesson in garnish with Jen.

Courteously not pictured: the pickleback experience.

To be continued…sooner than expected.

But hey, here I am, live-blogging from IFBC and back in the game with a duo of frozen entrees from Vege USA: who piqued that interest being just that, a duo of fake meaty entrees with an Asian influence. These items don’t exactly fit into my 100 Days Homemade mode, so they were paired with a from-scratch fried rice – something easy to toss together with my hodge podge of fresh farmers market haul with leftover rice while the entrees warmed in the oven.

Typically, there are three food items I’ll willingly consume on any sort of even semi-regular basis from my freezer: brand-new containers of vegan ice cream (which are then forgotten for epic periods), Gardein/Trader Joe’s breaded chickenless tenders – one of my saving graces during busy times, and most importantly, and influentially, tator tots. And it’s usually the same arrangement – frozen product + steamed kale with nooch (and who doesn’t usually have a few leaves of kale in their fridge?)

I decided to accept Vege USA’s offer to try their product because it was both something I would likely never buy in stores, yet something I would order at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant. That being said, the truth is that the coupons sat in my purse for months — but the intrigue was floating.

Drumroll, please – PRODUCT REVIEW TIME IS HERE.

What is it? Vegetarian Plus Vegan Black Pepper Beef and Vegan Ginger Chicken

Company/Brand: Vege USA

Available from? Whole Foods, Food Fight! (in Portland), Loving Hut, Supreme Master and other vegetarian Asian restaurants, and other natural foods stores

How do you make it? See those freezer packs above? Cut ‘em open, dump the filling onto a lightly greased baking pan or bundle it in foil and bake. I did the latter because I wanted to keep as much sauce as possible, opening up the packets towards the last 10 minutes of cooking. Definitely make a side of rice if you can. With most frozen foods, I do tend to bake longer than instructed and I’m really glad I did that here to really warm the pieces completely.

Like So.

How about describing the finished product in one word?

For this part, I asked Julia Legume to join in, since she shared in on the experience.

Julia found the Black Pepper Beef, and I quote, “Scary”, while she found the Ginger Chicken flat-out “Gingerlicious”. Caps used for importance.

Me? I thought the Beef, texture-wise, was definitely “tender” in that way only seitan can be, while one word for the Ginger Chicken really is just that – “GINGAH”.

So, there.

Plated over fresh chard leaves with Thai Basil fried rice

How about actual thoughts?

From Julia…”Comparing them, I thought that the chicken was much more accessible for people who aren’t in love with the idea of ‘fake meat’. I thought the steak was perfect for the harcore ‘fake meat’ lovers. When I question if something is ‘real’ or not, it worries me, but these people love that”.

I’ve got a soft spot for greasy, vegetarian Chinese food, and these meals were right up that alley – without those greasy feelings. We served them with a side of Thai basil fried rice, but had this been a few years ago, I would have broke out the frozen broccoli and instant white rice (okay, brown rice, and I wouldn’t have cooked it completely, either) and been just as content. I decided to cook both on the same evening for that family-style dining variety.

Let me break it down some more. Both dishes were ….

• surprisingly saucy for frozen meals
• quite…flavorful, with noticeable touches of authentic flavors of ginger, star anise, lemongrass and soy in both the sauce and protein
• easy to prepare
• straight outta Loving Hut!
• and really made me pencil in a kale bowl for the next day…

Memories….The Black Pepper Beef somewhat took me back to gluten I’ve had tucked into tasty nests of fried noodles at vegetarian restaurants, while the Ginger Chicken was more reminiscent of grilled skewers I’ve had over many-a-bún, especially at Loving Huts and vegetarian restaurants in Thailand. The sauces were unlike anything I’d typically make, no mater how much ginger I have at my disposal.

Would I buy some more?

Overall, the Ginger Chicken was a much bigger hit on my dining room table than the Beef, so it would be the pick of the two. Sure, both entrees are healthier and less oily that restaurant equivalents, but….I’m just much more likely to order them out for a treat – and I totally will.

But…should you buy it?!

Do you like fake meaty things? Do you miss Chinese food? Go for it.

This has been a Get Sconed! product review. The entrees were furnished by Vege USA for sample.

I had the crazy realization afterwards that it was my first vegan Thanksgiving (or, as they’re saying these days, Thanksliving) potluck where the omnivores, including my brother from New York, equaled the vegans in numbers. And I’ll admit, the dinner was no where as disgusting as I feared!

We started with tots, incorporated tots into over half of the dishes, and ended with tot-crumbled dessert.

Without further adieu, I present the photo documentation from our very special Totsgiving™:

Let’s start out by rolling out some seitan. 

The recipe is Chef Brian P. McCarthy’s and available on Everyday Dish. I incorporated pureed shallots, garlic and apple cider into the dough, and baked it, basting with beer, on both sides for 15 minutes at 400F.

Prepping the filling: sauteed shallots, chanterelles & cremini mushrooms in olive oil, white wine & tamari with lightly baked tots and steamed kale.

I bravely modeled my first roulade experiemnt after the inspiration of all inspirations on What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway?

After rolling (in retrospect, I would have rolled it the other way, but we were so focused on these pretty rows), it was tied, seated with fingerlings potatoes and carrots, baked at 425F for 30 minutes, flipping once, and frequently basted with Name Tag Lager from Trader Joe’s.

My brother assembled our mom’s Sweet Potato Pie Casserole (without any fuss!)

First course: a combination of baked Trader Joe’s tator tots and Whole Foods tator puffs with cranberry-habañero BBQ sauce, Gabrielle-approved chanterelle & shallot gravy, white sage gravy and Earth Balance Mindful Mayo & Srichacha for dipping.  The giant martini glass my sister sent me for christmas last year never fails to serve a purpose at my shindigs. 

My brother and I based the cranberry habañero BBQ sauce on this recipe from Whole Foods, adding more fresh cranberries, subbing diced tomatoes for paste and adding a minced habañero for heat. 

The contributions cometh. Chips & salsa left over from the pre-appetizer-we-should-have-some-type-of-food-while-not-eating-and-cooking course.

Ashly’s Crumbled-Tator Tot Apple Pie

Melissa’s Chorizo, Tot & Brocoli Strudel

Lucas’ Tot-topped Shepherd’s Pie

Pumpkin Pie from Sweetpea Baking Co.

Sweet Potato Pie Casserole (with extra pecans)

The pie aisle

This & that

Gravy row. The chanterelle & shallot gravy is based on the Sherried Leek and Wild Chanterelle gravy from PCC Natural Markets, with the substitution of minced shallots for leeks. As we all know, shallots are are undeniably fancier in gravy, not to mention seasonally appropriate here. The incredibly easy white sage gravy comes from Vegan Diner; I added a nice pinch of roasted garlic powder.

Bonus: crescent rolls, for sibling nostalgia’s sake.

Why I bought cheesecloth  (which I didn’t use) and skipped on culinary string for the seitan is beyond me. Let’s blame last minute holiday-shopping anxiety brush-off.

Our feast also included Sweetpea dinner rolls, a Portland tradition, Earth Balance, and Ricemellow Fluff, for those who like to desecrate sweet potatoes.

Family traditions, upheld: Sweet Potato Pie Casserole & Jeff’s Three-Corn Casserole

OMNIS EATING VEGAN FOODZ.

It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving (or a tator-tot studded variation) without over-indulgent, grateful food moans.

And legitimate Ocean Spray canned cranberry sauce, to boot. 

Pie for breakfast for all!

My apologies if you’ve seen these on the facebook already, but now they’re all in one place! I promise, I won’t ask you to click back and forth on the same link for minutes of your day. This isn’t that type of place, nor do I really know what that means.

In no particular order, here’s the month in creations, including a bunch of brunch, Vegan Diner fun and a prominent obsession with chanterelles. I realized I had a problem when I was buying them from farmers markets not once, but twice a week, and now there’s a suspicious van parked outside my apartment. Just waiting.

Chanterelle omelet with steamed kale, Cajun roasted fingerlings, fresh thyme, roasted garlic boursin-style spread and seitan sausage.  Recipes sourced from Vegan Brunch, Vegan Diner and World Vegan Feast.

Smoked tofu & cherry tomato benedict with hollandaise, balsamic creminis, steamed kale & baguette. My applewood chips are up next, and on my gosh.

Olive oil & sliced garlic base with baby spinach, roasted red peppers, sliced heirloom tomato, shredded Cheezly & chanterelles sautéed in red wine. Cheezly, I miss you so.

Spicy Ethiopian-style Chickpea Stew, white rice, roasted peanuts. Based on this Whole Foods Kitchen recipe.

With quite a few of these…

Spaghetti with fire roasted marinara, nutritional yeast, grilled pilsner tofu, roasted eggplant, zucchini, garlic & basil. 

This marks the last photo this plate will ever star in. Ker-plunk.

One week, I had a loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread in my house, so I re-learned the art and convenience of sandwiching making.

Additional Pilsner grilled tofu, sliced tomato, green leaf lettuce, Vegenaise, hot sauce and a side of roasted fingerlings with coarse salt.

Baked “fried” green tomatoes and roasted red pepper aioli from the Sunny Days for Texas cookzine.

Pumpkin chocolate chip pancake, seitan & greens, apple ginger juice.

Sun-dried Tomato Chickpea Spread, ExtraVeganZa. My BFF sent me this book for my birthday and I am just as ecstatic about the number of fancy mushroom recipes as I’m sure she was.

Muhammara. Recipe from Epicurious.  I may have bought an incredible number of end-of-season red bell peppers and carried the bag home over my shoulder.

An almost classy, bastardization, dedicated to my girl, Vegan Moxie: Salted Caramel Mocha. I used this DIY method for french press-style espresso (I know), my wee IKEA frother, and this recipe for vegan caramel using Sucanat, with the generous addition of sea salt. 

Next up, the backlog of out-and-about dining, including some of Portland’s latest vegan brunch delights, and a countdown to my upcoming month abroad in Thailand – and beyond.

Commence warm and fuzzies and vegan food with part of the spread:

My contributions to the dinner were pies of both sweet and savoury varieties. This marked the production of my first-ever pot pie, so it’s time for a photo pictorial to capture my stirring hand’s excitement.

Sautéing the diced green beans, carrots, mushrooms, potato, baked tofu, and spices.

The savoury was a Smokey Kabocha Squash & Baked Tofu Pot Pie inspired by Karen from the Vegan Conversion Challenge’s recent Kabocha Pot Pie. She’s doing a month of chili-dominated dishes for VeganMoFo, and as soon as I saw her adorable baked-in-the-squash, smokey pot pies, I wanted to try them. Fatefully tying this plan together, I had roasted freaking kabocha squash the night before, so the question became – do I buy more squash (on the day before thanksgiving) or do I reach for a little more adventure? I chose the latter, following Karen’s recipe as closely as possible. There was no time for finding Soy Curls or big tvp chunks,  so I decided to bake tofu cubes in a marinade of tamari, nutritional yeast, liquid smoke, garlic, and herbs. As for squash, it seems to get saucey in Karen’s, so I figured simply adding chunks of roasted squash into the mix with the broth would work for my take. A squashy gravy, if you will. I went light on the chili peppers, and ended up adding quite a bit more of smoked paprika and hot cayenne before baking.

Things take a turn for the saucey and squashy:

Dished into a pie plate and ready for some puff pastry action.

The finished dish, with its learning-as-we-go puff pastry weave, from my camera phone:

Enough of my silly tales of pot pie production – Chelsea’s famous Gluten Roast, stuffing & itty bitty, adorable potatoes follows:

Knowing this would be there just may have pushed me out of the house.

Damn good pumpkin pie and damn fine pecan pie:

My friend veganized John Edwards’ secret family recipe for us and I’m still thinking about it:

Sweet, sweet pumpkin cheesecake!!

My second contribution – half of a vision come to life – Thai Iced Tea Pumpkin Pie.

Take Bryanna’s classic Vegan Pumpkin Pie, sub coconut milk for the soy, and add a ton of powdered cardamom and star anise along with the usual suspects. If there was Thai tea in my cabinets, it would have been involved.  And one excuse short of my vision, I had just missed the stores closing on my way to dinner, or there would have been coconut flakes (or, in retrospect, dollops of coconut whipped cream) with the straws.

Note: I did not make people drink out of them.