Faux- French Food: Quorn Bourguignon

Ingredients

• olive oil
• small knob of butter
• 1 medium onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 medium-large carrots
• flour
• 3 portabella mushrooms
• 3 shallots
• 1 bag of qourn fake chicken pieces
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp herbes de provence (if they don't include lavender, add some)
• 2 tsp thyme
• 2 tsp bullion powder
• 1 tsp marmite (or less - to taste)
• 0.5 bottle french red wine - if you're outside of france, get the cheapest you can. If you're inside france, get something you might consider drinking
• ground pepper

Equipment

• knife
• cutting board
• pan
• measuring spoon
• stirring spoon

Instructions

Chop up the onion and cook it over low heat with butter and some olive oil. After the onion goes translucent, add chopped garlic. After the garlic has cooked a bit, add the chopped carrots. After they seems to be somewhat cooked, add a light flour coating and the chopped shallots. After the shallots are a bit cooked, add the chopped mushrooms, hebred de provence and thyme. When the shallots are looking a bit cooked, add the mushrooms. Then, when they seem to have soaked up the oil, add an extra Tbsp of olive oil and wine so it's an inch or two deep in the pan. Add in the bay leaf, bullion and marmite. Simmer over low heat, topping up with wine when it gets low. When the carrots are soft, add the quorn and cook for 20-25 more minutes.

Keep adding wine, such that there should be a bit of liquid left around at the end of cooking. You should be stirring intermittently throughout. All cooking should be done without a lid on the pan.

This is all based loosely on Delia’s recipe.

Best Nutloaf

• 1 Onion
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 2-3 slices / 100g stale bread OR 100g matzoh
• 225 g nuts
• 300 ml vegetable stock
• 2 tsp marmite
• 1 tsp herbs de Provence (or mixed herbs)

1. Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F / Gas mark 4
2. Peel and dice the onion. Cook it in a pan on the stove with the oil
3. Toast bread until slightly crispy. Process or mill it (or the matzoh, if you're using that). Grind the nuts
4. Heat the stock with the marmite. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat.
5. Mix everything in a mixing bowl and transfer to a greased deep baking tray. Bake for 30 minutes or until dry on top, but not burnt. (You can cover it with foil for the first 20 minutes if you are prone to burning things.)

From Another Dinner is Possible, which is the best vegan cookbook I know of. You should get a copy.

Americans: 300 ml = 1.25 Cups. Apparently, according to this, if you use almonds, you'll want 1.125 Cups. However, I think you might just need to get a scale for this one, which is a good investment anyway. They're very useful for beer brewing.

Vegan Apple Cake

• 225g (1¾ US Cups) self-raising flour (or 220g (still 1¾ US Cups) plain white flour + 1 tsp baking powder)
• ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• A pinch of sea salt
• Optional: A pinch of ground cardamom seeds, a grating of fresh ginger (or use ½ tsp ground), ½ tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp nutmeg
• 450g (1 lbs) cooking or dessert apples
• A little lemon juice
• 100g (½ US Cup) sugar
• 125 mL (½ US Cup) olive oil
• 1 mooshed bananna
• 50g (¼ US Cup) soft brown or demerara sugar (or caster sugar is fine)

The spices are optional and you can use more or less to your taste. Once you've gathered your ingredients:

1. Sift flour, bicarb of soda, salt and spices (if using) into a mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly.
2. Peel the apples. Cut into very small, think pieces. Toss the cut apples in a little lemon juice as you go, to keep them from browning.
3. Mix in apples, sugar, oil and banana into the flour mix. Gently fold through until everything is thoroughly mixed. Turn into a greased cake tin.
4. Level off the top of the batter. Sprinkle with sugar.
5. Bake in a preheated moderately hot oven (200°C/Gas 6/375°F) for 30-40 mins. Test with skewer.
6. Remove from oven. Allow to shrink slightly before turning out onto serving plate.

Variations

If you want a slightly heavier, richer cake, you can substitute 100g (½ US Cup) margarine + 1-2 Tbsp soy milk for the olive oil. Add margarine just after sifting the flour and spices together, cut it into the flour mixture and and rub into breadcrumb consistency. Then add the soy milk just after adding the apples, sugar etc. Add enough to wet the batter and hold it together.

Delightful Banana Muffins

• 1 ⅓ US Cup (190 grams) self-raising flour
• ½ US Cup (140 grams) sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¾ US Cup (135 grams) porridge oats
• 2 mooshed bananas
• ⅓ US Cup (80 mL) olive oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ⅔ US Cup (160 mL) soy milk

Preheat oven to 190 °C / Gasmark 5 / 375 °F. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients (add 1 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), if you're not using self-raising flour). Add all the wet ingredients and mix just until there's no pockets of flour lurking. Don't over mix! Spoon into a lightly oiled muffin tin (also known as a cupcake tin) or silicon muffin cups (or cupcake cups) and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Makes a dozen.

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized orange squash - pumpkins are good, butternuts are better, crown prince squash is best. Pottimarons also work, etc.
• 1.5 C + 2 Tbs Soya milk
• 4 Tbs arrow root powder (or cornstarch)
• 0.5 Cups (300 g) sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 0.5 tsp powdered ginger
• 0.5 tsp allspice
• 1 pie crust

Hardware

• Bowl
• Measuring cup
• Measuring spoons
• Oven
• Spoon
• Knife
• Optional: blender or hand blender

Instructions

In advance

Heat the oven to 350 F/180 C / gas mark 4. Put the squash in the oven and bake until the skin discolours and the squash is squishy. This may take 30 minutes - an hour. Then, let the squash cool down.

After the squash has cooled

Heat the oven to 50 F/180 C / gas mark 4.

Mix the arrowroot (or cornstarch with a bit of the soymilk until smooth. Then, add in the rest of the soya milk and mix well.

Cut the pumpkin in half, remove the seeds (they're edible too!) and then scoop out the flesh. Measure out 2 cups of the squash. Put the rest aside for soup or something else. Add the 2 cups of squash to the soymilk mixture.

Add the sugar and spices. If you have a blender, use it to blend the mixture until smooth. If you don't, then make sure the pumpkin is squished into as small pieces as possible and try tog et out as many lumps as you can.

Pour the filling into the pie crust and put it in the oven. It should bake 30-40 minuts, or until the centre is firm. If you are baking other things at the same time, it will take longer.

Let the pie cool before serving. I like it best near room temperature. Some people like whipped cream on it also.

Commentary

I usually get somebody else to make the crust for me, so I don't feel qualified to offer a recipe for one, but hopefully, this will change by Monday.

If you use a sweeter squash, like a crown prince, you can cut back a bit on sugar. Taste the batter if you're unsure.

Angie's Persimmon Cookies

Here in California, persimmons (known to Brits as sharon fruit) are getting to be ripe. When I was a child, the elderly Italian couple across the street had a huge persimmon tree and every year Angie, half of the couple, would make amazing cookies from them. This was her recipie:

Preheat your oven to 375 F (190 C, gas mark 5)

• 1 Cup (240 mL, 200 g) sugar
• 1/2 Cup (120 mL, 120 g) shortening or butter
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
• 1 Cup (240 mL) persimmon pulp
• 2 Cups (480 mL, 240 g) flour
• 1 tsp (5 mL) salt (I use less than Angie did)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1 Cup (240 mL) nuts

cream 1/2 of sugar with shortening. Mix remaining with egg. Combine. Dissolve soda in pulp and put fruit through strainer and beat into sugar mixture. Mix dry ingredients and blend in. Finally, mix in the nuts.

Soon it on to a baking sheet with a big spoon. They rise a lot when you cook them, like tiny cakes.

Bake 10 -15 minutes.

These cookies are super fantastic. After Angie passed, my mom would make these every year. I got the recipe from her when I was at university. These cookies will make you feel happy.

Cooking and Eating for Postgrads: Oatmeal (aka Porridge)

Breakfast: the most expensive important meal of the day. Oatmeal is an economical and hearty way to eat in the morning.

Oatmeal

Hardware

• small pan
• measuring cup
• spoon
• knife (optional)

Food Items

• Oats
• Raisins (optional)
• Apple or Pear (optional)
• Banana (optional)
• Cinnamon (optional)
• Soy Milk (optional)

Preparation

Put 0.1 L of oats in a pan with 0.3 L of water. Put it on low heat. Add in a small handful of raisins. Stir some. Cut up an apple or pear into small pieces and add them. Stir some. Cut a banana into slices and add them. Stir some. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top. Stir occasionally. When it looks done, it is. Serve with soy milk

You've just gotten

The oats are a warm and filling way to start the cold day! And full of fibre. The three fruits have given you three of your five a day (and it's not even lunch time yet!). The banana has potassium. The soy milk has protein. And if you've been wise in your soy purchase, it also has calcium and b12.

Fortified

Breakfast cereals are expensive because they're fortified. Because most people have a crap diet and don't take any vitamins, all of the stuff they're presumed to be missing is added to cereal. This means that you're not only paying for the food in it, the colorful packaging, the catchy marketing campaign, the secret toy inside and the artificial flavors, you're also paying for it to be your daily multi. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the price per gram of cold breakfast cereal is not good.

However, there are some vitamins that are difficult or impossible to get from plant sources only. Including B12, which is necessary for survival. It's found in spirulina and marmite, but if you're vegetarian or vegan, you're going to need to get more than you can from those sources (it's in milk, but not in eggs). This means you can either take supplements or drink fortified soy milk. Check the label of the soy milk before you buy it. Mine gives me my daily allowance of B12 in about the same amount I use on coffee and oatmeal. It also is fortified with calcium, which you need and which, despite what you make have heard, is hard to get from milk.

Ok, there's a lot of stuff going around about how soy is secretly poison or whatever. Firstly, we're not talking about living off of nothing but soy, we're talking about one serving of soy milk. Second, I'm not familiar with all the claims against soy, but I do know the ones people say about estrogen: soy will make you girly!!. Oh my god, vegetarians really are effeminate!!

I know, estrogen is so alarming! Can you believe it, your own body even makes it! What a traitor! Ok, small amounts of plant based estrogen aren't bad for you. It's in a lot of foods. Unless you go crazy with the soy, this isn't going to be a problem. Second, you actually need some estrogen in your body in order for your brain to function properly. No estrogen = no brains. Make of that what you will.

Anyway, we're talking about one serving of soy milk here, so this is not really an issue, but I want to add that I think the hysteria behind soy estrogens has a lot to do with homophobia, sexism, and gender normativity more than it has anything to do with a valid health concern. Soy beans do not make you gay. Sheesh.

Carbon Footprint

I made some claims earlier about only eating local produce. No, they don't grow bananas in England. I've started making an exception for bananas because I really like them and they're a really good source of potassium, which prevents things like foot cramps. I get the fair trade bananas. I was listening to the Democracy Now podcast a few weeks ago and heard an advocate of banana growers talking about fair trade. Banana growers need to survive , and if I buy fair trade, then that helps them do so.

Hopefully that doesn't make me a hypocrite to go on to say that many breakfast cereals have a terrible carbon footprint. Ingredients from all over the world come together at one factory very far away from where you live and then are shipped back to you. Dried fruit from Turkey goes to North America, goes back to England. However, the main reason I eat oatmeal is because it's cheap and warming and makes my mornings brighter.

Cooking and Eating for Postgrads: Winter Soup

You're poor. You're stressed for time. You need to be mentally alert and able to produce quality output. You need to be as healthy as possible. You food fuels all of that and actually makes up your physical matter. So to be at the top of your game, you need to eat right. This is the first of series gives you pointers for what to eat and how to cook it.

Because I never measure anything and I'm too lazy to start now, I'm going to give very approximate directions. But you've gotten this far in your education, so you're used to dealing with incomplete cues.

Winter Soup

Hardware

• Knife
• Cutting Board
• Pan
• Spoon

Food Items

• Uncooked Rice
• Dried, split lentils
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Herbs (Italian, Herbes de Provence, whatever)
• Onion, or leek or other member of this family
• Some root vegetable: like half a Swede, a couple of parsnips, half a celery root or some combination thereof.
• 5 brussels sprouts or some broccoli
• Vinegar (optional (I prefer apple cider vinegar because it's tasty and versatile))
• Garlic clove (optional)
• Half a dried pepper (optional)

Preparation

Put 0.1 or 0.2 liters (0.5 - .075 cups) each of rice and lentils in the bottom of a pan. Or use more. Fill up the pan with cold water. Add a pinch of salt and a splash of olive oil (around a tablespoon (2 mL)). Put the pan on the stove on the lowest possible heat setting. Go away and do some work. You can do this for just 20 minutes, or much, much longer. It doesn't matter. When you think of it, come back to the kitchen.

Add a couple of teaspoons of your herbs. If you're going to add some dried pepper, cut it in half and shake the seeds out and throw away the seed. Drop it in. Cut up an onion or leek into small pieces that you would want to get in a bowl of soup. Add them to the pot. If you're adding garlic, do that now too.

Wash and peel your root vegetables. Cut them into little pieces and throw them in.

Wash your sprouts and and cut them into quarters. throw them into the pot.

If you want to add a splash of vinegar, do it.

When the brussel sprouts sort of start to look like they're blooming: the leaves are starting to separate a bit, your soup is probably done. Test a swede (or whatever root) to be certain. Also, add salt if you need it.

Hopefully, you've made more than you need to eat in a single night. After you eat as much as you want, stick the rest in the fridge and reheat it tomorrow. You can add more brussels sprouts the next day to keep the vegetable count high.

You've just gotten

You've got fibre and protein from the beans and rice. Omega 3 and 6 from the olive oil. A large portion of your 5-a-day from the veggies. The brussels sprouts, in particular, have a bunch of vitamins and prevent some cancers. I'm too lazy to calculate the cost for this meal, but it's really economical: you get what you need for a good price. All of the vegetables are in season right now.

Basic Staples

What are non-perishable items that you'll be using a lot of? Olive oil, salt (sea salt if you can afford it), herbs as used above, curry powder, dried rice, dried lentils.

You can almost live off nothing but those staples mixed with vegetables. Beans and rice together form a complete protein, which means that it's just as good as the protein you get from meat or dairy, but much, much cheaper. I'm fond of lentils because they cook very quickly. Other beans also have protein.

Connecticut

This will be brief. I dunno if somebody will tell me if I'm not allowed to use this computer. So I flew into the east coast overnight a couple nights ago. Yesterday I was a bit of a basket case from that two hours of sleep I received. This caused me to corner the medieval music teacher and fire at her questions about the Burgundian school of music during the hundred years war. What would posess me to tell her I had an avid interest in writing motets?

Anyway, I met Alvin Lucier. He told me how to make Boston Baked beans. First, soak the beans overnight. Put a quartered onion in the bottom of the bean pot, then put in your drained, soaked beans and honey (or maple syrup), water and dried mustard. You also stgick in a bay leaf or salted pork. Cook in the oven at low heat for a long time and then take the top off for the last half hour so they brown on top. We also talked some about music. I asked if I could be his assistant, as I could tell that the semi-random bit of conversation I was having with him would sometimes contain musical information as well, and he's good to talk to anyway. Judy was his TA when she was here. She said it involved hanging out a lot and doing writing work for him.

I also met Ron, the computer music guy. He told me that the community here was warm and not competitive (like some other schools), and from what I've seen, he's correct. His TA would do kind of cool stuff. Fixing electronics, doing computer maintaence, soldering, etc. Stuff I kind of want to more about. But stuff I haven't done because of laziness, not ignorance, if you know what I mean. I have a soldering iron at home, I just rarely use it. Anyway, he also said that Christi could get her music done by the student orchestra. Judy told me that the orchestra isn't that great, but Christi might be able to get an ok recording and would get money from ASCAP this way. There's also a pipe organ. Every spring Alvin makes his students write a pipe organ piece and they get played at a midnight concert that is somehow connected to the gay pride festival.

The campus seems kind of queer friendly. There's an upcoming drag prom or something. A sign in the music building stairwell advertises a men's group to talk about men's issues. It says it's for all self-identified males, which makes me feel better about it. I saw one anti-war sign in the student center. The school newspaper is probably considered to be on the left, or maybe moderate. It has an editorial that worries about embedded journalists, perhaps they're endangering troops. right. ok. Middletown has a lot of flags. This is Joe Lieberman's state. Lots of military. A lot of flag poles fly POW/MIA flags below the US flag. There are a lot of flags just around. The Italian Catholic church is St. Sebastian parish. They have a statue of St Sebastian standing at attnetion (not shot full of arrows) outside. An engraving says that he's the parton saint of Catholic vetrans (my emphasis). Er... yeah. At first this pissed me off. But then I remembered that St. Sebastian was murdered heniously by his own army after refusing to commit an atrocity, so maybe he is a good war saint. On the other hand . . .

In counterpoint to all the flag waving, the Episcopals have a US flag with a dove carrying an olive branch. No stars on the blue. I guess that's flag waving too, but it makes me feel better about things. The town is um, what berkeley would be like without Telgraph Avenue and without any of the towns around it like Albany and San Francisco if there were no gas stations and it didn't have Peets or Codys or the gormet ghetto or hills or . . .. I don't get small towns. This is suburban for sure. It's only two hours from New York though. If it were SF, it would be one of those outlying suburbs that people insanely commute from, like Davis kind of is. But a two hour commute must be consdered long here or something. A lot of people said hi to me on the streets of Middletown, but they might all be crazy, I have to ask somebody. Yeah... well, there's a nice looking playhouse which isn't part of the school. And a new espresso shop. I had a dismal macciato this morning, but at least it was coffee and had soymilk, even if it was just a bitter wet cap. Maybe they'll get better. And there's a ncie fruit shop. A lot of itallian markets. Apparently an entire Sicillian village relocated here several years ago.

I must go try to meet with the department head. I think that I could spend two years here without going insane. And if I do, there's a large mental institution in town.

Tofu SoyRizo Scrambler

• 1/2 onion (or two green onions) chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• spalsh of olive oil
• 1 medium block o' tofu, chopped or crumbled
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/8 tsp cumin
• 2 Tbs Braggs sauce (or soy sauce)
• 1/2 package soyrizo
• Optional mushrooms, spinach, chard or other scambled egg-type items

Combine onions, garlic and oil and saue until the onions are translucent. Add everything else and saute until rizo is defrosted or tofu is lightly seared. (soy rizo is much easier to remove from the plastic when it is frozen...) Cook till moisture has gone away. 2 or more servings.

This is high in protein and is a complete protein group. Great for vegan-atkins weirdos or other folks looking for extra protein. Good for any meal, not just breakfast. Heck, I just had it for dinner and it was yummy.

Recipie: baked bananananana

Preheat Oven to 375 degrees F. Bake bananana for abour 20 minutes. Make a sauce in the last few minutes.

Sauce

Mix

• 2.5 Tablespoons sugar
• dollop mollaseses
• Tablespoon or so shredded coconut
• Tablespoon cocoa
• Tablespoon margarine
• Dash cinamon
• Dash ginger powder

in a small saucepan. add enough water to form a paste. Put on low heat to melt margarine. When that's melted, add half a shot of brandy. Keep cooking on low heat. If it's too pasty, add more water until it gets saucy. You could optionally carmelize this

When it's done, (when the time is up or the banana starts leaking onto the floor of your oven), remove the banaana. Using mits, remove the peel and put the bananana on a plate. Spoon the sauce over this. Eat. Serves one.

I'm trying to gain weight...

Baked Apples

take three apples and core them and leave the shell 3/4 of an inch thick. cut the good apple off the core and chop into little pieces. Combine with 1/2 cup soyrizo and stuff back into the apples. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the apples. Put them in a coverred casserole dish and cook then in the oven at 375 degrees F until they're tender. Serve to two friends. these smell awesome when cooking, but take 40 minutes to an hour.

Chocolate Pudding

• 1/3 Cup Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Corn starch
• 5 tsp Cocoa organic fairtrade, of course
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinamon
• 1/4 Cup coffee or soymilk
• 2.5 Cups soy milk
• 2 Tbs Butter or Margarine sadly, butter, tho unvegan, is healthier to eat
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine dry ingredients in pan. Slowly stir in coffee (or soymilk) until smooth. Stir in the (rest of the) soymilk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil one minute and then remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla. Pour into wine glasses (or other attractive serving bowl), cover and refrigerate. Serves 4.