Kim Chi

I decided to try my hand at making kim chi.  It’s the first time that I’ve ever done anything in the pickling department but I’ve read that things like kim chi are supposed to be good for digestion.  Since I’m not eating yogurt anymore, which is where I was getting my probiotics from, I figure my stomach could benefit from some kim chi.

So, I went looking for a recipe and the first cookbook I picked up, which I did so because I figured if any of my vegan cookbooks would have this recipe it would be this one, had a recipe for it and it sounded easy enough to me.  I’m quite sure that this will not be the last time that I reference “The 30 Minute Vegan’s Taste of the East” by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray (http://veganfusion.com/best-rated-vegan-vegetarian-raw-food-cookbooks/30-minute-vegan-taste-of-the-east/).  I have a bunch of pages marked of recipes that I would like to try out, including a coconut ice cream…mmmmm :-)

Since I’m not sure if it’s actually legal for me to type out and post the recipe, I tried to find it online but couldn’t.  But I will tell you some things I did/learned along the way while I made it.

The recipe calls for unpasteurized miso paste, I used a sweet white miso.  It also says to use agave nectar, Sucanat, or organic sugar; I used the agave.  And it calls for  an optional 1 cup diced mixed vegetables; I put in a half cup each cucumber and cauliflower.  Since cauliflower wasn’t on sale, I ended up buying frozen, let them thaw out, chopped them a little, and they worked great!

When making the paste, which is step 2 in the directions, I used a little less then 1 tablespoon of sea salt.

The recipe says it’s supposed to be made in a 2-quart mason jar (or two 1-quart jars).  It also calls for 1 large head of cabbage, so I bought the largest head that the store had and I ended up with 3 different sized jars of kim chi… I’ve got quite a bit to eat now.

So, I finished making it and put it into the jars, loosely covering them and left them for about 4 days at room temperature.  I did try some as I was putting the lids on to move them to the fridge on that 4^th day, and I was like, eh, I’ll probably like it better cold.  I was happy to be right on this one!  It’s much better cold!  The recipe says it “should have a spicy and tangy flavor” and it sure does.  And the more it sits, of course, the more the spiciness kicks in… which I’m loving!  I do say this as a slight warning if you’re not into spicy you may not like this as much as I do.

I’ve been eating the kim chi as a snack or side dish and plan on trying it wrapped with some brown rice in a sheet of nori… we’ll see how that goes.

Next on my pickling agenda: pickles!  (I know this will definitely make my sister happy!)

Sweet Potato Gnocchi and My Greatest "Cheese" Sauce EVER!!

“What are you making?”

“Sweet potato…” As I was answering this (usually) simple question on Monday night, I realized that I didn’t know how to pronounce gnocchi.  As a cook, I felt like I should really know how to.  So, if you were wondering too, dictionary.com says “nok-ee”/”noh-kee” but when I hit the little speaker button to hear it pronounced it’s more like “nah-kee”.

Anywho… I made sweet potato gnocchi.  I’ve never made regular potato gnocchi before and have only eaten one once, but it was good.  I decided, though, that since I enjoy sweet potatoes better then regular and they’re supposed to be healthier, I’d go ahead and give it a try.  So, I went on a search for a recipe and found one on foodnetwork.com, then went ahead and adjusted it to make it vegan and more to my liking.  It’s pretty simple:

1 large sweet potato

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 TBSP finely ground flax seeds, plus 3 TBSP water, blended in a blender until frothy and allowed to rest for 30 min – 1 hr

½ tsp ground cinnamon

pinch ground nutmeg (about 2 shakes)

½ tsp sea salt (for cooking water)

1.  At 425°F, bake the sweet potato until tender, about 40-45 min.  When cool enough to handle, peel and mash.

2.  Add flour, flax/water, cinnamon, and nutmeg; mix with hands until well combined.  Shape dough into a ball, wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 1 day.

3.  Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil.

4.  When boiling, add salt.  Using 2 spoons, scoop up about 2 TBSP of dough with one, and scrape off with the other.  Cooking no more then 5-8 at a time, add balls of dough to the water, wait for them to rise to the surface, about 5 min.  Let them cook 1 min longer then scoop out with slotted spoon and transfer to paper towels to drain.  Repeat process until all are cooked.  Serve right away.

This recipe made 16 for me, but I feel like they would have been so much better smaller, more like bite-size.  Next time I make this recipe I will be trying them smaller.

I baked a few sweet potatoes so not to waste the oven time and in case I wanted to make more.

The original recipe that I adapted this from said it would take about 3 minutes for them to rise in the boiling water, but it was around 5 minutes.

Haha… and I thought I had copied things down wrong when I was making the dough and put the sea salt, which was intended for the water, in.  Oops.  I just skipped putting salt in the water and they came out tasting good.

It was closer to an hour that I allowed the ground flax to sit after blending it with the water, and it does take on an eggy consistency and worked great as a binder.

I let the dough sit for about 24 hours (I was too hungry after making the dough to wait the hour to cook them so I cooked them Tuesday night).  I stored leftovers in the refrigerator and they reheat fine in the microwave.

Enough about the gnocchi itself.  After I cooked it up, I thought, what am I going to put on it?  I know regular potato gnocchi can be served with tomato sauce, but with sweet potato I thought, eh, no… and I have to stay away from tomato anyway so what to do…

I ended up making this amazing “cheese” sauce and am so glad that I wrote down what I put in the pan as I was throwing it together.  Mmmm, so good.  If I could, I would marry this sauce!  I will be using it now whenever I need a “cheese” sauce.  (I can’t wait to make some mac and cheese with it!)

So, what did I put in, you may ask.  Hmm…. Alright, yeah, I’ll share it with you ;)

In a small saucepan, place ¼ cup rice milk, ½ cup Daiya mozzarella cheese, and a small chunk of Follow Your Heart cheddar.  Place on low to medium-low heat and heat until cheeses melt, whisking occasionally to prevent sticking.  As it heats, add a pinch of nutmeg and about 1 teaspoon cilantro base (Goya makes a good one).  Towards the end of melting, take a few fresh basil leaves, chop them up and add to the sauce.  Heat until the sauce reaches the thickness you’d like it to be.

(You can use other brands of vegan cheese, this is what I had on hand.)

Voila!  Simple.  Delicious.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!

Apple Pie Pancakes!

I shall start off my blog page by sharing with you the best vegan pancake recipe I’ve found thus far…

I came across this recipe on food.com: http://www.food.com/recipe/vegan-apple-pie-pancakes-217729, and decided to try it out on Monday morning.
I made a couple slight changes though, just knowing how I enjoy things: I used about double the amount of cinnamon, because I like to spice things up :), and I added 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed in with the flour, cause it's good for ya!

I also used a combination of about ¼ cup vanilla soy milk and ¾ cup original rice milk, as I tend to ration the amount of soy I use.

The batter for these comes out really thick.  For the second batch that I put on the griddle I added a bit more soy milk to thin it out a little, but I do like my pancake batter thick so I didn’t thin it out too much.

Now, the recipe says it makes 2 to 4 pancakes and I made 10!  I guess to make 2 you would just make 1 at a time and make them the size of the entire griddle… that’s a little too insane for me so I made them the size that I can comfortably eat 2 at a time.  (I put the rest in the refrigerator, or freezer, and pop them in the toaster oven to reheat.)

The apples and raisins in these really add to the flavor.  I served them up with some raw almond butter (from Trader Joe’s) and pure maple syrup.  Delicious!!