Domestipithecus

Last night I used Vegan Dad’s recipe for vegan “corned beef.” I’m not big into the steaming of seitan meats because I have texture issues with food, but I followed his instructions exactly.What resulted was a bit more rubbery than baking yet not as hurl inducing as boiled seitan. I just can’t eat seitan that has been boiled. The rubbery, blubbery blob that forms is enough to make me gag just thinking about it.

Anyway, instead of making the reuben sandwich on the linked page, I made corned beef hash. I cut it up unevenly, just some random chopping, to try and get the consistency of the real thing. Semi-recipe below:

1 recipe of Vegan Dad’s corned beef
2 russet potatoes
1 tbsp horseradish (though I think I would have liked more, all I had was 1 tbsp)
1 white onion, chopped
2 tbsp earth balance
seasoned salt, pepper to taste

1. chop potatoes into 1/2″ cubes and put into 10″ skillet. Cover with water and bring to a boil, then simmer for about 5 min. Less if you made the cubes smaller.

2. Drain potatoes and set aside. Wipe out skillet and put earth balance and onion in. Let cook at medium heat for 5-7 minutes.

3. While the onions are cooking, chop the corned beef into uneven, somewhat small pieces. You could also coarsely grate it and I think it would be fine. I actually only used about 3/4 of the recipe and left the rest to make a sandwich for Mr. Pithecus later.

4. When the onions are ready, add horseradish and distribute evenly.

5. Add potatoes and corned beef to skillet and mix. Then flatten in the pan and let cook until that yummy crustiness forms on the bottom. Then mix around and repeat for more yummy crustiness.

I served this with some mustard greens we got in our produce box this week.  I used this recipe. I did not like it. It wasn’t the recipe, Mr. Pithecus loved it. I just don’t really like mustard greens it seems. Way too bitter for me. I don’t like a lot of bitter. I will pick the baby arugula out of any salad (and really it looks like Sigmund the Sea Monster anyway) because it’s just too bitter.

No pictures because my camera is poopy and well, hash doesn’t look very good at all. It tasted awesome. Apparently, it was even better today, straight from the fridge.

I need to blog about a new vegan restaurant in Pasadena call My Vegan next. It’s yummy and happy and vegan vegan vegan!! AND THEY DELIVER!!!!

Thought I would whip up some seitan o’greatness sausage last week because while perusing my usual food blogs I found a recipe for Pumpkin (Sau)sage (scroll down) on have cake, will travel!

I didn’t get many good pictures… my lighting was all yellow and my hand was not steady, but boy was it yummy.
We had it as our main course with cooked onions and a side of a pumpkin/zucchini thing I made up to use the rest of the can of pumpkin. Those pictures came out even more horrible so none of them will be posted.
Here is the one, somewhat passable pic of the “Fauxsage”

After that,  used some of it in our after-run tofu scramble we have on Saturdays and I used up the rest of it last night in an oven-roasted tomato/garlic polenta with garlic oven roasted zucchini. MMMM  It tastes even better after a couple days in the fridge!!

We got our first organic produce delivery on Monday. It was chock full of goodies. We ordered from Paradise O on the recommendation of a fellow Rose City Knitter, subliminalrabbit.

Just look at the veggie goodness! I have only used the red chard but I see in our future steamed artichokes, a yummmmy salad, possibly Aloo Gobi and Butter Paneer Masala and and and and and…whew. I’m tiring myself out just thinking about it.

Over Thanksgiving I made my pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting (all vegan). It came out better this year than last and I think it’s because I added more pumpkin puree so it was crazy moist. I always make cupcakes with any new cake experimentation first so I can taste it before subjecting anyone to a possible fail. CN has no problem with that as he gets to eat the test cupcakes.

After deciding that the cupcakes were missing something, I remembered that last year I had used Sugar in the Raw and this year I was using white vegan sugar. That made a difference in the taste so I changed the second batch to turbinado sugar (the same as Sugar in the Raw). I also added more pumpkin puree. I honestly have no idea how much pumpkin pie spice I put in, but it was until it tasted right.

The cake was fantastic, if I do say so myself. The frosting needs some help, but I’ll work on it.

Then there were the pumpkin seeds to deal with. A little kosher salt and peanut oil solved that problem.

Tuesday I had a dentist appointment. I had to get an old filling replaced. It’s all fine now. The only place that hurt when the numbness went away was the site of the injection of the Novocaine. I couldn’t open my mouth all the way for a day. So I made salami. Seitan salami to be exact.

I used the recipe in the latest issue of Cutting-Edge Vegan Cuisine newsletter by Bryanna Clark Grogan. It’s ok. Not “OHMYGODITSSALAMI!” but it’s close. It’s a little too moist for me so I put it in a very low oven to dry it out, kind of like with meringue cookies. Now it’s back in the fridge.

I also whipped up a batch of “Even Better than Veganaise” that I got the recipe for over at Epicurvegan. It’s yummy, though the recipe makes a lot. I will need to cut it in half next time. I have a picture, but it really doesn’t photograph well so I won’t be including it.

Now I have to go get ready for date night. I think we’re going to hit Crown City Brewery and add a couple more beers to our scorecard. There isn’t a lot there for us to eat, basically just a veggie burger and some sides/appetizers, but the over 100 different beers is worth a not so tasty dinner.