Vegan Squash Ravioli

Having come upon a buttercup squash I immediately decided I wanted to make squash ravioli. Jeff and I purchased a ravioli rolling pin online to increase our chances of actually making the stuffed pasta, as stuffing by hand can be a pain. I looked for recipes online and was disappointed as most of them call for spiced butternut squash, which I think is a bit overrated. So I decided to invent my own recipe and I was not disappointed!



Squash Ravioli
Yield: Four moderate servings or two large servings
1 pasta recipe (I used Joy of Cooking, omitting the egg and adding extra water)
1 buttercup squash (or acorn or other similar squash)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1. Slice the squash into quarters or eighths, coat with olive oil, and roast in the oven at 400^oF for 30-60 minutes, until tender.
2. Cut the squash from the skin and place into a blender along with nutritional yeast. Puree as well as you can. (It's hard to puree things in my blender.)
3. Using 2-4 balls of pasta dough, prepare each one into a thin sheet as large as you can make it. (I am restricted in width by my pasta maker.) Try to make the sheets roughly equal size so that they can stack.
4. Lay out one sheet of pasta, and spread on top of that a layer of the squash filling, I would say no more than 1/8 of an inch deep. Cover with another sheet of pasta.
5. Using your floured rolling pin, roll out the raviolis by exerting enough pressure to press the two layers of pasta together. (The filling will automatically go into the pockets, so don't worry about having a mess in between!)
6. Slice the ravioli with a sharp knife or pastry cutter.
7. To cook, simply boil until the ravioli is floating. Or, separate the ravioli and freeze for another occasion.

Holiday Gift Giving

I know I'm almost two months late in posting this, and nearly too late for Valentine's Day, but I guess it's better late than never! This Christmas I wanted to give homemade gifts for everyone as I really hate how Christmas has boiled down to buying the perfect gift. I prefer the homemade, and certainly enjoy the edible.

This (last?!) year Jeff and I started planning sometime in the middle of summer what we would make, as some things go out of season and some things require a lot of time sitting before they taste good. We made a spreadsheet of when to start making what, and when each item would be ready to consume.

Summer raspberries and cherries were added with sugar, cinnamon and vodka and stored in the deep recesses of our cabinets for a few months to turn into liqueur. They sat at least two months and then were strained into sterilized bottles that we capped using our beer bottle capper. We didn't know what to do with the "drunken fruit" so unfortunately Jeff and I threw it away before realizing we could have made something like drunken cherry pie. (We certainly learned our lesson!)

Cinnamon apple jelly was my first time making jelly, and I used the recipe from Put 'em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton, adding a cinnamon stick for extra flavor. I used organic Fuji apples, nothing special. I strained the apples for several hours instead of overnight, and was worried that the milky pink liquid would never turn into the beautiful, translucent jelly that I ended up with. They did take a long time to set because I didn't use any commercial pectin and not a ton of sugar. I feel like I stirred for at least an hour, but then all at once the jelly started to set and I quickly ladled it into jars and put them into the hot water bath. This jelly is extremely delicious and I would recommend trying it out sometime.

We made the cranberry orange marmalade last year and enjoyed it enough to make it again. I think this year the marmalade is a bit chunkier, and not having tasted it yet I can't completely vouch for the flavor.

Pickled garlic was an experiment, I used cloves from Vermont's Garlic Festival, and although I can't recall exactly which variety I used anymore I think they were German White. After blanching the peels slipped off very easily and the finished product is quite tasty even eaten on its own. This recipe also came from Put 'em Up.

Finally, Jeff made four dozen bottles of Oatmeal Stout, and everyone got a six-pack. I'll let him post about the recipe and beer-making process at a later date.

We rounded it out with a couple bars of local Taza mexicano chocolate, by far among the best chocolate I've set my taste buds on!

Recipe Roundup

This is week twelve of the weekly Recipe Roundup, where I post the online recipes I've used over the past week.

I feel bad for neglecting this blog for a month, but hopefully soon I'll be posting recipes and some book reviews again. I had a long relaxing holiday with family, and then ran my second marathon (my first as a vegan!) in Disney, so it's been an eventful month for me.

• Vegan Tapioca Pudding - Vegalicious is the first vegan food blog I started reading back when I was trying to figure out what to cook for dinner for my vegan boyfriend (I was only vegetarian at the time). Their newest delight is tapioca pudding which I put to the test on some pearls I had sitting in the pantry for almost a year. The pudding was superb, and I would recommend not to use the cornstarch as the pudding gets very thick with just the tapioca, especially after it cools.

Check out previous Recipe Roundups: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven

Recipe Roundup

This is week eleven of the weekly Recipe Roundup, where I post the online recipes I've used over the past week.

• Spent Grain Bread - Jeff is making a certain fermented beverage that makes use of grains (it's going to be a Christmas gift this year, hence the high level of secrecy regarding its exact identity). There was an awful lot of spent grain left over, so he froze it in 3 cup batches to make this bread with when we want it. Jeff actually used the 3 cups in two loaves, so I would recommend halving the amount of spent grain in the recipe.


• Upside Down Jam Cake - This one is kind of cheating because I haven't made it yet, but I plan on making it tonight. I plan to use some homemade blueberry jam that's been sitting in the fridge forever, and for the cake recipe use the basic vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes.


• Lentil Loaf - Jeff loves lentils and decided to make this loaf. It has a huge amount of ingredients which was kind of intimidating, but most of them are spices. I really liked the loaf until we put the lentils in (not being a huge fan of them myself), but it was tasty. I could see making this with okara "meat" in the place of the lentils.

Check out previous Recipe Roundups: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten

Recipe Roundup

This is week ten of the weekly Recipe Roundup, where I post the online recipes I've used over the past week.

• Savory Tofu Sauce for Pasta - Jeff made this the other day and it was rich, creamy and delicious. Also super easy.

Check out previous Recipe Roundups: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine

Recipe Roundup

This is week nine of the weekly Recipe Roundup, where I post the online recipes I've used over the past week.

• Pickled Watermelon Radish - I picked some watermelon radishes up at the last farmers' market we'll be having in Boston until late May (sad), and decided to try them pickled. By about three days later Jeff was already wolfing them down so I'd say this recipe was a success. By the way, four smallish radishes made a quart of pickles so I doubled the recipe. That didn't leave enough liquid to cover the radishes so I just filled it to the top with water after adding all of the other ingredients.


• Cranberry Fudge Pie - I veganized this by using the cream from one can of coconut milk instead of cow cream. This was such a huge hit at Thanksgiving and I was almost worried that all of my non-vegan relatives would gobble it up before I got a slice. Although I wound up putting most of the cranberry sauce on top I would definitely tone it back (maybe more than the 1.5 cups it calls for though) as the bitterness from the cranberries tends to dominate over the sweetness from the fudge.


• Tofu Turkey - Jeff and I made the tofu turkey recipe on this page. We did it last year as well and I'd say it makes an excellent recipe for Thanksgiving!

Check out previous Recipe Roundups: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight

Vegan Cheezeburger Pizza

Long-time supporters of the now-closed TJ Scallywaggle's, Alyssa and I had sampled all of their pizza offerings. The cool thing about TJ's was that they weren't afraid to push the envelope on pizza or politics, no matter how outlandish. Some recipes were great (chicken w/ funny mustard!), and some were flops (nacho??). Since they closed every so often I'll have a craving for our Favorite TJ's Pizza of All Time: Cheezeburger.

Cheezeburger pizza sounds like a horrible idea. I thought it was at first, but having tried my first slice, I couldn't get enough. The pizza tastes exactly like a cheeseburger, and you don't need to slaughter a cow to have the experience!

Here's our take on a TJ's classic:

Cheezeburger Pizza
Yield: 2-4 Servings

1 Pizza Dough

1/4 C Pizza Sauce

50:50 Vegan Cheddar:Mozzarella Cheeze Blend (or any vegan cheeze)

1/4 Medium White Onion

Pickles

Gimmie Lean "Beef" OR Okara Meatballs

Ketchup

Mustard

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F (if using a baking stone, ensure stone is in the oven).
2. Roll or toss the pizza dough onto a pre-cornmealed baking sheet.
3. Spoon pizza sauce evenly on top of the dough. Leave 1 cm or so around the edge for crust.
4. Grate cheeze on the pizza, leaving 1 cm around the edge.
5. Slice onion into rings and add to pizza with pickles.
6. Crumble the "beef" onto the pizza.
7. Drizzle on the Ketchup and Mustard.
8. Place pizza in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown.
9. Remove pizza from oven and slide onto a wire rack.
10. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting on a solid surface.
11. Enjoy!

The Finer Points:

I usually make a dough from scratch when I get home from work. By the time I've relaxed a bit, I head back into the kitchen and the dough is risen and ready to work with. The recipe I use is straight out of the Joy of Cooking. A simple dough recipe from a quick google search will do fine. Alternatively, if you don't want to make a dough yourself, most supermarkets (Shaw's and Whole Foods around here) have pizza dough available. I have tried this also and this can save you some time.

For the sauce, I usually use whatever is sitting in the fridge, provided that it's still good (no mold, tastes okay, etc.) For pizza, there is a rule that "less is more" so I tend to go with a red sauce on the plain side. I find that a sauce that is too complex can conflict and overpower the toppings. You want these flavors to be complimentary, so go easy on the garlic and basil. In a pinch I've used canned tomato sauce which can be a bit bland. I doctor this up slightly with a little garlic and dried herbs to taste.

For the cheese, there are a few options. The actual TJ's cheezeburger used a 50:50 blend of Cheddar:Mozzarella Teese, so I felt I needed to keep true with the written recipe. We ended up using Cheddar Daiya alone for the one in the photo, which worked fine. Use any vegan cheeze you'd like.

Now come the toppings. Remember that with pizza "less is more". You don't really want to over-do it with any one topping, because you'll end up with a mountain of same-tasting food with a big patch of undercooked dough underneath. Place down the pickles, sliced onion, and "beef" crumbles evenly and sparingly. This holds true for the ketchup and mustard, too. Remember that you plan to eat what you're playing with here.

When you're satisfied that you've created a masterpiece, you may run into some difficulty popping the sucker into the preheated oven. I recommend using a baking stone (heated with the oven), as it distributes the heat evenly and gives you a nice crispy crust from the soft dough's contact with a hot surface. This is why I recommended building the pizza on a flat cookie sheet dusted with cornmeal. In theory you should be able to slide the pizza off the cookie sheet and onto the hot stone. Sometimes I find that with all these toppings, and the size of my oven that I can't slide the pizza off. If you can't, don't worry, just place the whole cookie sheet on the stone. It will all work out fine.

Additionally, I check the pizza after 10 minutes to turn it around because my oven is hotter in the back than in the front. Your crust should be solid yet soft at this point, so rotating is easy. In 10 minutes the pizza will be done and ready to eat.

Congratulations! You're now enjoying delicious cheezeburger pizza!

Recipe Roundup

This is week eight of the weekly Recipe Roundup, where I post the online recipes I've used over the past week.

• Fresh Gnocchi - We didn't have many potatoes, so we put a lot of effort into making an appetizer. This would be a great idea to make in bulk, and then freeze the leftovers.


• Tofu Pot Pie - I made this with pumpkin instead of sweet potato. I had really built this up in my mind so much, that nothing would have lived up. I liked it much better the next day.


• Beet-eroni (Faux Pepperoni) - I used big (normal sized?) beets and roasted them over an hour and they never soaked up all the liquid. They were still delicious on pizza. Two beets yielded tons of leftovers so I would recommend only using one beet if you've got something bigger than a golf ball.

Check out previous Recipe Roundups: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven

Successful Experiment with Kombucha

I first had Kombucha in Worcester after picking up a bottle at the ARTichoke Co-op. I remember Jeff telling me how hippie it was, and I didn't need much more convincing than that. The sweet and sour vinegar taste won me over instantly, even with the weird pieces of culture floating around in it (backwash, as Jeff and I lovingly refer to it). I've since looked into making my own, including reading every last inch of Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz, but became disappointed when I figured I'd have to buy a mother in order to make it happen. Kombucha isn't mainstream enough for mothers to be sold at homebrew stores along with vinegar, and online at Gem Cultures it was going to cost a pretty penny to have one shipped here.

So imagine my delight when I found these two posts about growing your own kombucha mother, or SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts). I used GTI kombucha to start my SCOBY, because that's what was easily available to me. Make sure whatever you buy is raw and unpasteurized or it won't work!

Jeff and I made that recipe, and had let it sit on our counter for at least a month. Last night I decided that the SCOBY was mature enough to take out of the starter and make into some serious fermented beverage. As you can see in the photo above, the SCOBY is a large whitish disc, which really isn't half as gross looking as I expected. I was initially nervous that it wouldn't be able to exit the container, considering that the mouth is narrower than the jar's diameter, but that was no problem. The SCOBY is pretty flexible.

We drank the remainder of the liquid that the SCOBY was grown in, and it tasted delicious. Because it had been sitting for so long, it was quite vinegary, which is how I like my kombucha. If you like it sweet, don't culture the tea for too long. Pictured above is our next batch of kombucha brewing away in a half-gallon mason jar. Maybe we'll eventually move the operation up into a larger container if we get adventurous.

Recipe Roundup

This is week seven of the weekly Recipe Roundup, where I post the online recipes I've used over the past week.

• Jeff and I had a Halloween party, and served black bean and corn salsa, blueberry banana bread, brownies, and also foccacia, pizza rolls and hummus (recipes not online).


• Roasted Corn Soup - Jeff and I cheated and used frozen corn, we also don't have an immersion blender so we just used our food processor. We served this with baked potatoes, and wound up mashing our potatoes into the soup for extra deliciousness.

Check out previous Recipe Roundups: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six