Honey Corn Muffins

Vegetarian.

So you did the cheese making thing and you have all this buttermilk leftover, because seriously, you only used like 1/4 cup of it, and it never comes in a small enough container. So now what?

CORN MUFFINS, DUH!

I pulled this off foodnetwork.com (I'm a big fan of the Neelys :)):

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 package Active rising yeast *
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk *
2 large eggs
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, mix everything together in a bowl, and put the batter into either muffin tins or just a square baking sheet (needs to have high sides, see picture below). Bake it for about 15 minutes, or until the top starts to brown.



* Note these are deviations from the original recipe. This is a pretty good example of what I mean when I say I like to improvise with what I have on hand; I had a ton of leftover buttermilk from the cheese making experiment, and had gotten active rise yeast in anticipation of baking, but had no baking powder. I've never made this recipe before, but the cornbread still came out great, if a little dense (I'm pretty sure I didn't do the yeast right).

Learning to work with what you already have is going to not only save you a lot of time and money at the grocery store, it will help you use up all that excess stuff you have lying around, and, as a bonus, will expand the amount and kind of recipes you will feel confident in tackling. There will be some failures, but it's all part of the learning process!

Adventures in Cheese Making

Vegetarian.

I came across this New York Times "interactive feature" called DIY Cooking Handbook, and immediately focused in on two things I consume quite a bit of: cheese and kimchi. Looked simple enough, and I had always wanted to experiment with cheese-making, so I loaded up my trusty bike with supplies and got to work!

The recipe is as follows:
1 gallon whole milk (the fresher and less-pasteurized, the better)
1/4 cup cultured buttermilk
1 tablespoon rennet solution (I got tablets and used 1 tablet)
Salt for flavor

Warm the milk and buttermilk over the stove, on low heat, to about 80 degrees. After removing it from the heat, toss in the rennet, cover it loosely, and let it sit at room temperature for about 8 to 12 hours.



Once you get back to it, it should have formed a nice layer of curd over the top, with the clear whey below. At this point, you want to line a colander with a cloth (I used cheesecloth folded over into 4 layers), and with a slotted spoon start scooping in that wonderful curd. Once you feel like you've gotten all the curd in there (if it's anything like my experience, the curd got all mixed in with the whey), you need to fold up the cheesecloth and tie a rope around it, then suspend it and allow the whey to drip out the bottom into a bowl. Leave it overnight like this.



Once you get up in the morning it should have solidified a bit, and look like this:



At that point salt it to taste.

As I mentioned above, I had a problem skimming the curd off. That left a TON of liquid in my pot...notice how tiny the amount of cheese was. This stuff really just tasted like bland yogurt, so I put it all in tupperware and shoved it in the fridge. Tonight I'm going to experiment by pouring in some of that leftover and seeing if I can coax more cheese out of it. However, if you're not necessarily interested in more hanging but don't want to trash it, I would recommend keeping it as a yogurt substitute, and for baking. In fact, this morning I made myself some nice fruit smoothies with the stuff, and they came out great (even the ferret approved):



And what of all that leftover buttermilk, you say? Well, my friend, check out the picture above for a tasty suggestion...see you in the next post!

General Tips and References, As Well As A Short Introduction

Vegetarian cooking is extremely intimidating to most people, largely because all their experiences with vegetables in the past have been negative. Besides the fact that television likes to promote the idea that meat is the only thing worth eating, EVER, and actively promotes the idea that vegetables are unbearable to everyone except very overenthusiastic women (seriously, ladies, calm down there...), a lot of people grew up in families that, if they cooked, probably didn't know how to cook veggies very well. They're always a side dish, and always steamed, because what else is there, amiriteguyz?

I'm hoping to contribute, even in a small way, to the idea that cooking vegetables and vegetarian food is not only extremely fun, but also very easy and highly rewarding. Even just making a few vegetable- and/or grain-based meals and snacks at home can help dramatically cut your costs as well (bulk is absolutely your friend).

Besides that, this is a chance for me to record the recipe successes I've either found on the Internet or swapped with friends. I have quite a few very capable vegetarian-cook friends, and every new recipe they share with me gets me excited to get into the kitchen.

A few things to note about the recipes I post.
1) I don't use exact measurements. Almost ever. If you're looking for an exact, step-by-step recipe with exact measurements, check out some of the great resources I listed below. I cannot give this to you because this is not how I cook. Cooking exactly to a recipe is boring and rather discouraging in my experience.

2) In the same vein, I'm a HUGE believer in improvising. Don't have baking powder on hand for that corn muffin recipe you want to try? Use the yeast you just bought instead. (Obviously, this has its limits, but in general, if you have the bulk of ingredients, you can figure SOMETHING out.) Do you like beer and butter in all your dishes, or, alternatively, HATE beer and butter? Have fun tweaking to your own taste.

The main factor here is experience. Don't have a lot of experience? Get a few easy recipes that tweak your interest, and after you get the basic motions down, start improvising. Get a bunch of veggies you've never heard of and figure out how to cook them into something you enjoy. Keep trying new things until you get more and more comfortable. It doesn't take as long as you'd think!

If you're looking for more, besides your friendly Google search, there are some great Web resources I go back to again and again.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/
(obviously!)
http://www.food.com/ (Purely for ideas. I've never actually "made" something straight off of here, but still a great resource.)
Cookbooks (see my comments on not using recipes...still good for overviews)

And finally, a great "getting started" guide for people overwhelmed by the idea of vegetarianism in general: Your Simple Guide to Meatless Mondays, by my friends Marissa and Nate Rose. The book is casual and highly approachable...no boring steamed veggies to be found here, only delicious tips for busy people wanting to cut back on their meat.

Enjoy your adventure.

Hummus

Vegan.

1 can garbanzo beans
1/4 cup tahini (not exact, modify to your taste)
veggies (any you like!)
garlic
olive oil
curry powder

Cook the can of garbanzo beans as normal (just heat up on the stovetop, DO NOT dump the liquid), and while that's cooking, sautee up any veggies, garlic, and leafy greens you'd like to add to your hummus. I enjoy adding spinich and green onions. After everything is cooked up enough, dump it all into a blender (make sure you add the garbanzo bean liquid in) with the rest of your ingredients. For the spices, spice to taste. Olive oil is, besides a light flavor-adder, mostly used for making the hummus less of a solid mass. Don't be afraid to be a bit liberal.

For some variety, try adding unusual ingredients such as chipotle peppers. Or skip the sauteed veggies and just toss in some marinated olives and artichoke hearts. Really, anything can be added to the core ingredients of beans, tahini, and olive oil. Let your tongue be your guide!

Braised Brussel Sprouts...and Anything Else

First recipe: vegan, Second: vegetarian, can be made vegan.

Think brussel sprouts are gross and unpalatable? THINK AGAIN! THIS IS NOT HOW WINNERS THINK!

This recipe came my way via my New England chums in an appropriately titled email, "Vegan Soul Food". The original recipe, in its entirety, is as follows:

Garlic Broth-Braised Brussels Sprouts
Yield: 4 servings

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed of stems and cut in half lengthwise
1 cup garlic broth (above)
Coarse sea salt
.25 cup white wine
2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme
White pepper

- Coat a large saute pan with olive oil. Add the Brussels sprouts, arranging them cut side down, making one snug layer. Turn the heat to medium-high and saute until the cut sides are lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the Garlic Broth and 1 teaspoon sea salt. Bring to a boil and stir well. Immediately reduce the temperature to low, cover tightly, and braise for 15 minutes. Add the white wine and the thyme, stir well, cover, and braise 5 minutes more, until the Brussels sprouts are meltingly tender.
- Remove from the heat.
- Season with additional salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.

Sofia’s notes:
I’ve gotten by with a pan that didn’t quite fit all the sprouts in one layer, but they won’t all get brown and you have to be careful to make sure they’re all submerged in the broth. Also be careful if you replace the fresh thyme with ground thyme not to use too much. I think my best results were with a teaspoon or less ground thyme.

And the garlic broth recipe:

Garlic Broth
Yield: about 1.5 quarts

4 whole garlic bulbs, unpeeled, broken up, and smashed with the back of a knife
.5 teaspoon sea salt
9 cups water

- In a large pot over high heat, combine the garlic, salt, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, uncovered, for about 1 hour.
- Strain the garlic cloves, pressing down on them to extract all their liquid and discard them.

Since the night I decided to make this I was 1) feeling extremely lazy and 2) only had, like, maybe 2 cloves of garlic total in my entire apartment and wasn't planning on getting more, I decided to improvise quite a bit. My own twist:

Olive oil
Butter (optional, only non-vegan ingredient)
Brussel Sprouts
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup beer of your choice (dark stouts are good for this one IMO)
Some garlic (whatever you have on hand)
Salt
Thyme

Sautee the brussel sprouts until slightly browned in butter and olive oil (I know, I'm a butter fiend...definitely optional of course), and just before you're planning to add the liquid, toss in the garlic and just let it feel the heat a second. Next add in the water, beer, and salt, then stir a bit and let it sit until it comes to a boil.

After it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and cover. Braise for 15 minutes (this is where the recipe is identical to the previous one :) ), add the thyme, braise for 5 more minutes. Take the chance to enjoy the wonderful smells.

Pro-tip: WATCH YOUR TIMING ON THIS. Seriously. The braising time needs to be as exact as you can make it, otherwise it won't turn out as well.

Another Pro-tip: Try making this same recipe with turnips, and other hard root veggies. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised how soft and delicious these get when braised this way.

Rice and Quinoa Anything-Food

Vegetarian, can easily be made vegan.

This is a recipe I make nearly every week. It's quick, as easy as you can get, tasty, healthy, and can either be eaten on its own or incorporated into just about any meal. It is the definition of winning.



Shown above is my favorite way to eat it, on tortillas, usually with some veggies and cheese. This particular version of it incorporated chipotles; gave it a great heat, and a ton of flavor.

1/2 cup rice (I prefer wild)
1/2 cup quinoa
2 cups water (2 water to 1 grain, if you want to make more/less)
Bit of butter
Coconut curry powder
Garlic (as much as you like!)
Green onions
Spinich (or any other leafy greens you like/have lying around)
Chipotles (optional)

Toss everything into a pot set on medium heat. Seriously, that's it. Quinoa is traditionally soaked, and this is fine; I never soak mine though. Add as much or little of the spices as you want, and any combination.
Make sure the leafy greens don't overwhelm the rice and quinoa; I put in a pretty small handful for mine.
After the mix comes to a very good boil, turn the heat down to about medium-low and let it simmer there until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is fully cooked.

Serving suggestions:
Cook up some black beans, maybe sautee up some veggies, and toss it all into a tortilla, with some cheese.
Toss onto a bed of greens.
Eat with braised brussel sprouts. (recipe in the next post! ;) )

This stuff keeps in the fridge for about a week, but it's hard to keep it that long. Perfect for lunch, dinner, breakfast, whatever!

Beer Cornmeal Salad

Vegetarian, can easily be made vegan.

I have some fancy corn meal lying around, so I whipped some cornmeal mush up last night and slapped it on a bed of greens. The end result:



I got the recipe out of the book 1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recpies (I think, I don't really use the book enough to remember what the cover looks like), and as usual modified it to my own taste.

1 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup beer (I would recommend a brown ale*)
1/2 cup corn meal
Seasoning salt
Curry powder (optional)
Chia seeds (optional)

Bring the water, beer, and spices to a boil. Slowly add the corn meal, stirring the entire time. Once it's added, toss in the chia seeds. You'll want to stay near the pot and keep stirring it from time to time. After it has firmed up, it's pretty much done.

Assemble a bed of greens (whatever you enjoy). Top with the cornmeal mush, drizzle with honey, a bit of butter (optional), and some cheese.

* I take the same attitude toward cooking with beer as Julia Child took toward cooking with wine; don't cook with it if you don't like drinking it. The flavor is the point.