Early 1900s Dining

So I know it may not seem like it, but I promise that I'm still slowly working on my next cookbook project. I've been a little uninspired as of late, and I'm a bit side-tracked with cleaning out my pantry and preparing for my January cleanse. But I am definitely still working on my vintage vegan cookbook, where I veganize popular foods of the 1900s.

Last night, I made a French Dip Sub for the book project.

French dip subs were supposedly invented in 1918 by Philippe Mathieu, owner of the "Philippe the Original" sandwich shop in Los Angeles. The sandwich isn't French, but its developer was! According to legend, Philippe was making a sandwich for a policeman and accidentally dropped a French roll into the drippings in a roasting pan. But the policeman loved his sandwich and came back for another the next day.

My vegan version has homemade seitan beef, mushrooms, and vegan mayo. And you dip each bite into a savory vegan beef broth. French dip subs were always my favorite before I gave up meat in '94. And this really took me back.

On the side, I made a dish for my 1900s chapter — New Potatoes in Parsley Butter.

Now this isn't a specific historical dish, but it is similar to something a home cook would have made in those days. Just a simple veggie dish. With (vegan) butter. And the potatoes are boiled of course! Everyone boiled veggies back then.

Speaking of cookbooks, I'll be signing Cookin' Crunk Thursday night at Wish/Langford in Cooper-Young (2157 Central) at 6 p.m. If you're in town, come by and get a few copies as holiday gifts!

Match Meat Stuffed Chicken

Quick post tonight. I'm exhausted. Been up since 4:30 a.m. so I could make it to my first early morning Bikram (hot) yoga class this morning. It was lovely getting such a challenging workout in before dawn, but now I'm literally passing out at my computer.

Anyway, as I've mentioned before, I'm working on cleaning out my pantry and freezer before the new year. Still hanging out in freezer were an unopened bag of Match Vegan Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken patties. Match sent me a ton of review products earlier this year, and I'm still working my way through them.

I fried one up for lunch today and topped it with ajvar (a Serbian red bell pepper and garlic relish that I picked up at the local Mediterranean market a few months ago) and some leftover homemade cashew cream from last week's matzoh brei.

Looks totally fancy, huh? I wish I had a better picture of the inside, but I opted to cut it open after adding the topping. So it's a little hard to see the stuffing of spinach and sundried tomatoes. Loved this chicken! Like all the Match meats I've tried, it had a VERY realistic taste and texture. I'm convinced that Match makes the best faux meat on the market. And the Mediterranean stuffing really made this dish shine.

I served it with a helpin' of Mac & Teese with Broccoli.

When I was at Vida Vegan Con back in May (yes, that long ago!), I went home with four packages of Teese cheese. And I still had the Teese cheese sauce in my fridge! I'm telling y'all — my food hoarding problem is out of control. Anyway, the sauce expired in November, but I figured it was fine. And it was! It made the perfect creamy sauce to mix with half a box of leftover whole wheat elbow macaroni that was in my pantry and some broccoli that had been languishing my crisper for almost too long.

The Christmas Cookie Club

Last year, my friend Cassi got the bright idea to start a Christmas Cookie Club from some chick-lit book she read. A bunch of ladies get together and swap cookies and tell stories from their year. It's sappy, girly stuff. And while I'm not much of a lady, I do like wine and cookies. When I got the invite last year (she only invites 12 people), I felt kinda special.

But then I read the fine print. Here's this year's invite.

Not sure if you can make out the tiny words, but this says each lady must make 13 DOZEN cookies! That's 156 cookies! That's a dozen for each girl at the party and one dozen for a charity of Cassi's choice. Fortunately, one girl dropped out at the last minute this year, so we only had to make 12 dozen. (Here's Cassi's recap on her blog, The Pretty In Pink Vegan).

Trust me. I did my share of whining and cursing Cassi while I was baking on Saturday. But I made it through. Three hours of baking later, I had 12 dozen Chewy Spiced Molasses Cookies from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur (see yesterday's post).

At the party, we went around the room and talked about our cookie and how it related to our past year. Since I made a molasses cookie, and molasses is known for its famously slow drizzle, I talked about my very slow-healing (4-6 months, still working on it) stress fracture that's prevented me from running since August, essentially putting my life on hold. Ugh.

Here's Cassi reading Jennifer's 2013 story, which she asked Cassi to read for her.

Not everyone made vegan cookies, but many people did. Even some of the non-vegans tried their hand at vegan baking! Here's a round-up of the vegan cookies at the party — Jennifer's Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie, Karen's Oreo Truffle, my Chewy Spiced Molasses Cookie, Nicole's Chocolate Truffles, Stephanie's Kitchen Sink Cookies, and Cassi's Diva Delights.

Oh, and Cassi made Vegan Gingerbread Men from Betty Goes Vegan. But she was sad from doing so much baking, so she made them sad little men.

We also had some savory snacks (and plenty of wine!).

I made a Vegan Crab Dip using this Paula Deen recipe (but subbing out Match vegan crab, Trader Joe's vegan mozzarella cheese, vegan parm, and Vegenaise).

I went home with 12 dozen cookies, one package from each lady. I can't eat that many cookies! But thankfully, I have lots of hungry co-workers who were more than willing to help me today.

Sugar, Sugar!

This past Saturday, my friend Cassi held her annual Christmas Cookie Club party, where 12 girls swapped cookies packaged up by the dozen. But I'll tell you more about that in tomorrow's post. Tonight, I'm going to show y'all what cookie I made and review the sugar that I used to make it.

I went with the Chewy Spiced Molasses Cookie from Kelly Paloza's The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur. 

This is a soft and chewy cookie with lots of molasses and hints of nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves. It's almost gingerbready, which is perfect for this time of year.

The cookie dough is only sweetened with molasses and brown sugar. But after you ball up the dough into cookie shapes, you roll them in cane sugar before placing the cookies on the baking sheet. A few weeks back, Zulka brand sent me a bag of their Morena Pure Cane Sugar to review. So I used that sugar to coat my cookies.

Taste-wise, Zulka is pretty spot-on with any other cane sugar or evaporated cane juice. I typically buy my cane sugar (unrefined, unbleached) in the bulk bins at Whole Foods, and in a blind taste test, I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Zulka and the bulk bin sugar.

But here's why it's awesome — Zulka has a commitment to sustainability. No fossil fuels are used to power their sugar mills. Instead, they produce their own electricity using leftover fibers from cane processing. They recirculate the water in their irrigation systems. And their sugar cane comes from small family-owned farms.

Plus, I noticed that the sugar crystals look more glittery than the bulk bin sugar I typically buy, which was great for these cookies since the sugar is more of a decoration.

Alright, I promise to show you everyone's cookies tomorrow night!

Vegan Crab Rangoons!

Full disclosure: I've never eaten crab in my life. My parents had (and still have) an aversion to seafood, so we didn't eat any of that stuff in my household. But we did eat our fair share of cream cheese wontons when we hit up the Chinese buffet at Dragon & Phoenix Restaurant. We just ordered the kind without the crab.

And a time or two, my mama and I made cream cheese wontons at home. I was really young, but I remember how fun it was to stuff the square wrappers and pinch them into a wonton shape before my mama dropped them into hot oil.

Even though I've never had an actual crab rangoon, I'd imagine they are much like a cream cheese wonton but with added crab. So when Match meat sent me a package of their vegan crab meat, I knew exactly what I'd do with it. The package has sat in my freezer for a few months though because Match sent me so many review products that I'm very slowly working my way through them.

I also had some Tofutti cream cheese in my fridge that my mama had leftover from Thanksgiving. And I'd stashed some vegan wonton wrappers in my freezer when I saw them at the Viet Hoa Asian market a few weeks ago. Crab rangoons were meant to be!

Look at the inside, all creamy and crabby.

I dipped these in Mr. Wong's Oriental Wok Sweet and Sour Sauce. And to balance the very deep-fried rangoons, I made a helpin' of Isa's Un-fried Rice from Appetite for Reduction. It's a low-oil fried rice that is only lightly sauteed in a teaspoon of sesame oil.

 An Unfried Rice close-up! I added broccoli, carrots, and peas.

Here's the super ridiculously easy rangoon recipe. It only has four ingredients. Match meat can be tough to find in stores, but it is available to order online.

Vegan Crab Rangoons
---------------------------
2 cups canola oil
20 vegan wonton wrappers (some brands contain eggs, so read the labels)
6 Tbsp. vegan cream cheese
6 Tbsp. Match crab meat, thawed

Pour the oil into a deep pot of medium width (if it's too wide, the wontons won't be submerged). Heat it on medium-high for about 10 minutes. You'll know it's ready when you drop a pinch of flour in the oil and it sizzles.

While the oil is heating, place a scant (not quite full) teaspoon of crab meat and a scant teaspoon of cream cheese in the center of one wonton wrapper. The cream cheese and crab don't need to be mixed together, but it is better if the cream cheese blob is mostly on top of the crab meat. This allows the folded wrapper to stick better.

Grab two opposite sides of the wonton wrapper and bring them together. Squish the bottom part of the sides so that the wonton is pinched and sticking to the cream cheese. Repeat with the other two opposite side. This is kind of hard to explain, and honestly, there are a million ways to fold a wonton. If these instructions are confusing, just google it and watch a video! Repeat with the rest of the wonton.

Once the oil is hot, carefully drop the wontons into the pot. You'll probably only be able to fit 5 to 8 per batch. Fry for 5 to 7 minutes or until they are golden brown. Remove with a slotted metal spoon and drain on paper towels.

Bluff City Vegan Eats: Jiji's Wraps Cafe

I'm a regular at Whole Foods. And that's how I first met the owner of Jiji's Wraps Cafe. He worked there, and he was always my favorite employee. Super friendly, always helpful. He was that familiar face that makes your grocery store feel like home away from home.

Well, he doesn't work at Whole Foods anymore. Now he and his wife own Jiji's Wraps Cafe, a quaint diner offering pita wraps, sandwiches, and (on Fridays only) Ethiopian veggies. Jiji's is in the same location as a diner that was once called Pita Cafe and had a very similar concept. I used to LOVE Pita Cafe, and I was super sad when it closed. But then this adorable couple came in and brought the wrap concept back. And they added Ethiopian flair!

I finally stopped in at Jiji's last night after my first Bikram (hot) yoga class. Vegan menu items are clearly marked, and that made me happy! I had a Groupon for $12 and since the food is super affordable, I had to pick two menu items to use all of the deal. I decided to get dinner and another menu item to save for lunch the next day. For dinner, I chose the Falafel Wrap.

It's hard to get a good photo of a wrap. I had to take a few big bites to get this one. It's a MASSIVE wrap of falafel (5 of them!), lettuce, tomato, cucumber, banana peppers, pickles, jalapenos, Ethiopian lentils, tahini, and hot sauce. You can add fries or chips to make it a combo meal, but honestly, this one wrap alone is enough. I ate the whole thing, but I had to unbutton my pants to make room.

Their falafel is so damn good! I'd venture to say it's even better than the falafel at Pita Cafe. And I always thought Pita Cafe had the best in town.

To go, I ordered the Falafel Salad, but they packaged it with the veggies, falafel, and sauce stored separately so it wouldn't get soggy the next day. I reconstructed the salad today at my office. Isn't it pretty?

This is the same stuff that comes on the sandwich but in salad form. Jiji's also sells homemade hummus, but they were out of it on Tuesday night.

Now I must get back there on a Friday for the Ethiopian veggies!

Jiji's Wraps Cafe is located at 3950 Park. Call 901-417-6298.

Punk Rock Pumpkin

Years ago, when I only had a handful of vegan cookbooks on my shelf, I actually made the same dish more than once. These days, I feel like I'm always reviewing new cookbooks or developing my own recipes, and I rarely, if ever, make the same thing twice.

Even if the dish is really awesome and I want to make it again, unless it's something I have to test over and over for my own book, I probably won't get back around to it. But since those old vegan days did allow me the chance to make some dishes over again, I developed a handful of must-make-again dishes from my vegan past, dishes that make me feel all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic when I eat them.

One such dish is the Punk-kin Pasta from La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer.

It's a very seasonal dish, so I only make it in the fall or early winter. But I try to make it once a year. It's pasta (I typically use rotini or shells, but I'm cleaning out my pantry and I had so much spaghetti) topped with a sauce of pumpkin, sauteed onions, and veggie sausage or burger. The cheese on top is optional in the recipe, but for me, it's a must.

This was the perfect Pantry Cleanout Month meal because I already had everything to make it — a half-eaten bag of whole wheat spaghetti, a dented can of purreed pumpkin that I got on clearance a month or so ago, onions (because I always have onions in the fridge), and frozen veggie burger crumbles (I have at least three bags of burger crumbles in my freezer). The recipe calls for sliced sausage, but Sarah says burger makes a fine substitute. I've made this both ways over the years, depending on what I have.

I even already had the cheese on top! I've been hoarding bags of vegan cheese lately, and I picked up this Trader Joe's Vegan Mozzarella when Cassi and I were in Atlanta in early November. It was my first time trying the TJ's vegan cheese, and it's pretty damn tasty. Cassi thinks it tastes more like dairy cheese than any other, so it's her favorite. I'm gonna say that Daiya still has my heart, especially since Daiya tends to hold it's shape better when melting. But TJ's cheese is pretty damn tasty. And so melty that it turns it liquid!