Baked Whole Pineapple

Based on the video below, I veganized the recipe for baked pineapple. Instead of egg whites, I used 1/4 cup tapioca starch and moistened the salt and spice mixture with vegan cognac. You really need to watch the video to understand the rest of the recipe and procedure.

My pineapple was a much larger one so I used about 20 cloves and baked it a full hour at 350°. It came out just right. I quartered it and used two of the sections as suggested. Instead of the marscarpone and basil, I used 1/2 cup Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss and mint.

The other sections I chilled and served with salad the next day. The cloves and spiced salt gave the whole pineapple a great infusion of flavor. It was worth the effort and a lot of fun. The only thing I would change would be to wrap the leaves in foil while baking so they might not get as dry and would perhaps look more attractive when serving.

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Coconut Bacon

I am loving yet another product that I would not have tried if I hadn’t signed up for Spencer’s Market – Phoney Baloney’s Coconut Bacon!

It has the right amount of crunch and saltiness and flavor without that odd aftertaste a lot of soy bacon gives. The slight coconut flavor is very pleasing!

I tried it as toppers on a salad an then a recipe my friend Jan shared with me. I have yet to mix it in to see if it hold up to moisture or cooking but I have my doubts that I will have enough. It is great to snack on too!

Here is a terrific recipe that it compliments and called for real bacon on top. It also called for shrimp and I subbed tofu instead.

Old Florida Style Soup

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. garlic
1 (1 lb. 12 oz) can Ro*tel tomatoes with chili peppers
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 carrot, sliced thin
2 med. Celery sticks, sliced
2 med. Potatoes, cubed
2 tsp. salt
1/2 lb. cubed extra firm tofu (pressed and seasoned with old bay)
1/2 cup Coconut Bacon

DIRECTIONS:
Sauté onion and garlic. Add tomatoes, and add rest of ingredients to onion. Bring to boiling point, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Add tofu and heat through. Garnish with Coconut Bacon.

Roasted Garlic Seitan Roll

Inspired by a recipe I saw on Cook’s County, I decided to adapt the Stuffed Seitan Roast I made for A Taste of Thanksgiving.

Since it was only for the two of us, I halved the roast recipe, swapped lentils for pinto beans and dried mustard for the paprika. In the center, instead of stuffing, I put about a dozen cloves of peeled roasted garlic before rolling it and crimping the seam together.

I baked it the same length of time (90 minutes @ 350°) but before wrapping it in the foil, I sprayed the foil with olive oil because I decided to brush a little mustard glaze on it.

Mustard Glaze:
1 Tbl brown mustard
1 Tbl brown sugar
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1/2 tsp crushed rosemary
a pinch of powdered cloves

It turned out very nicely, did not need any gravy for seasoning nor moisture and went well with beets and steamed broccoli.

Trader Joe’s Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds

I wish I had a sample of Trader Joe’s Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds when I had done my vegan cheese taste test last May. It is definitely different from any that I tried.

I used it on a pizza, making my super easy crust from the Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Uncooked, the shreds are a lot like a Parmesan, just a little dry and tough but a fine flavor. In the super hot oven, they melted and bubbled up in a visually pleasing way.

This vegan cheese melted and spread a lot more differently than any other vegan cheese shredded product. I allowed the pizza to stand a few minutes as you would a dairy cheesed pizza. The cooked Trader Joe’s Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds looked a little glossy and when I touched it it was pliant and stringy in a gooey sort of way.

The mouth feel was a bit pasty and stuck to the roof of my mouth and teeth. Unlike Daiya shreds, it left a starchy coating but its flavor was superior. It was not a mellow mozzarella flavor but more like a melted American Cheese or mild Cheddar. If you think of Daiya as a little rubbery, Trader Joe’s Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds cook up a little pasty.

I think the Trader Joe’s Vegan Mozzarella Style Shreds has a superior flavor but I wouldn’t use it in every recipe where you would want a vegan Mozzarella. It was fine on the pizza but think it would do better replacing a soft queso.

TCB Cupcakes

What’s a vegan to do with an overly ripe couple of bananas, the dregs of the peanut butter jar and not enough vegan bacon bits to make anything out of? Take care of business and get rid of all of the above by mixing up a batch of Elvis inspired:

TCB Cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 very ripe bananas
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup soy/rice/your favorite milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. liquid smoke
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

For the glaze
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/8 cup vegan powdered sugar
1/4 cup vegan bacon bits

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F and get your cupcake liners of choice ready.

In a bowl, mash bananas and peanut butter until very smooth. Add wet ingredients: canola oil, soy milk, vanilla extract and liquid smoke, and use an immersion blender until smooth-ish. Don’t ruin the chunky peanut butter texture.

In a larger bowl, sift together dry ingredients–flour, sugar, baking soda and powder, and salt. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients. Fold wet into dry until just combined. Never overmix your cupcake batter!

Fill liners two-thirds full with batter.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes until knife inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely before…

The Glazing:
Place the maple syrup and powdered sugar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Boil for a minute. Turn the heat off, add vegan bacon bits and stir the glaze for another 30 seconds or so.

Use a pastry brush to apply glaze and bacon bits to the tops of the cupcakes.

Jimbo’s Cormsbread

As was evident in my Expectations, Culinary and Otherwise post, I am a little picky about cornbread. Yesterday was one of those days when hot soup and a wedge of cornbread sounded just right. Jimbo rose to the challenge and, with the inspiration of a Skillet Cornbread recipe from Veganomicon, veganized an old recipe we had for Aunt Dorothy’s Cornbread.

Jimbo’s Cormsbread

Ingredients
2 Cups plain soy milk
2 teaspoons chili infused vinegar
2 Cups yellow cornmeal
1 Cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 Cup diced banana pepper rings
8.25 oz can of cream-style corn (most are vegan)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly grease cast iron skillet and place in oven to pre-heat. Combine the soy milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle. Sift together dry ingredients. Create a well in the center and add the wet ingredients. Mix together until just combined, fold in any additional ingredients. Pour the batter into the prepared skillet. Bake for about 50 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Optional broil to add golden color on top. Remove from oven, let cool a bit before serving.

Refreshed Spice Jars

Old Spices – Old Labels

When a reminder about replacing your old spices (about every 6 months or so) came out on the Post Punk Kitchen Facebook page on December 28th, Jim had a good chuckle. We were already in the midst of discarding old spices, washing our spice jars and totally renaming all of the spices.

That’s right, renaming our spices. Because the old McCormick spice jar labels are paper based, we decided to design new water-proof ones to encourage regular cleaning. I decided if we were redesigning them, it was a great time to keep our lives full of fun and rename them all too!

It became a project over the holidays and enlisted Arron and Amy’s help in coming up with creative names. I didn’t want to have the traditional “snips and snails and puppy dog tails” nor “eye of newt” magical ingredients. The idea was to have crazy names but none that would every infer harm, even to mythical beasts.

Between the 4 of us, we came up with over 60 names for our almost 50 herbs and spices that we regularly use. Terrific ideas like Spiced Mojo, Seeds of Truth and Sowbug Jokes took the place of Whole Cloves, Anise Seed and Cumin Seed.

Cutting out the new waterproof labels.

We washed all of the jars and lids, peeled off the old labels then replaced any old herbs and spices with new. We decided to get rid of the Marjoram because we rarely used it. The same went for Lemon Peel since we zest and freeze what we use rather than nasty dried stuff. That and the double jars we had of Fennel Seed allowed us to swap in a few spices that we had in an overflow drawer.

After the new labels were designed, names chosen to represent specific herbs, labels printed, cut out and applied, difference in overall appearance is wonderful. I am so excited to have jars that I can wash off easily without being afraid of ruining the labels.

Detail of some new names.

If you think it will be confusing as to remembering what spice is what new name, I have to admit that it is a bit. We did, however, print the name of the contents in a smaller font to make clear what was inside. At first glance it looks as if the names are in no order at all but we have kept them in alphabetical order of contents Agar-Agar being first and White Pepper being last even though it looks like Ice Feathers leads the list and The Twitch is the last of the spices.

Even with those precautions, the spices have shifted a bit from what I was used to. Yesterday I sprinkled some Ground Cloves on some corn chips I was baking, thinking it was Chili Powder. It keeps life fresh and makes us smile. I am thinking it will be no time at all until I will be able to tell the Cuddled Imaginaries from the Dragon Sighs.

New spices, new labels.