Tasty Turnip

Working on my backlog

2009-06-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

So this week didn't go as well as I had planned in reducing the amount of food in my pantry. In fact, I ate out for breakfast every morning and 4 out of 5 lunches. One dinner consisted of ice cream bars and a demi baguette with earth balance. Which brings to mind the old adage - when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Hunger strikes before I have a good head on my shoulders, especially in the morning. This week I am going to try and go through my seven different kinds of flour by making some muffins.

The first dinner was made in less than five minutes because I thought I was going to go work out. Haha, I thought wrong. It consisted of whole wheat cous cous, white beans, red onions, green olives, taragon and a lot of parsley. Thrown together at high speed. The pics didn't turn out at all.
I decided to ues my sushi rice to make risotto since I didn't have any arborio around. The veggie mix is orange bell pepper, shallots, and asparagus. The broth I used was the water from rehydrating the dried chantrelles. There isn't much seasoning beside a little salt because of the delicate flavor of the chantrelles.
This dish was wide rice noodles smothered in a ginger miso lemon sauce along with fried tofu, red bell pepper, and broccoli. Sort of my fall back meal. I don't have any soy sauce or tamari, so I have been using miso to add that salty taste to my dressings and some sauces.
A cold cous cous salad with tomatoes, avacado, white beans, parsley, spike seasoning, and red onions. The vinegarette is made from white wine vinegar and flax oil.
I have a lot of saffron to use, so I made a faux paella with red bell pepper, shallots, asparagus, saffron, and basmati. A far cry from the paella I made on the Wii Cooking Mama, but still using some of the same elements.Run of the mill tvp tacos. Even processed taco shells and taco seasoning packets need to get eaten! At least it was all natural and helped me use up some tvp! So much more food left, I need to get creative and come up with a plan.

One Month Challenge

2009-06-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

This month, I have the challenge of eating through my pantry. My pantry is bursting with grains, beans and spices. For this month, I will not buy anything except fresh vegetables and fruits. Nothing is from a cookbook, everything I will be making is just from the pantry, and on the fly. Here are a few things I have made :

Extra large tvp chunks sauteed with garlic and bell peppers and some awesome green curry paste I got in Portland. Served over white jasmine. Stay tuned for this curry paste and some coconut milk in the future.

More peppers to use. I cooked some french lentils with about three tablespoons of herbes de provence, added some peppers sauteed in olive oil with copious amounts of garlic. Served over white basmati.

This was my take on dahl. I boiled some red lentils until they were mushy and added a whole bunch of spinach, torn. In another pan, I fried up some onions and carrots in olive oil with a spice mixture of chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, ginger, allspice, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Served with a sliced tomato to cool it down a little, it was a spicy little soup. I would add lemon juice or some sort of acid next time around.

Potato soup cassarole, minus the potatoes! Spuds have ended up on my list of foods I prefer to avoid, but I love the flavors of potato soup. This dish recreates some of those flavors, minus the creamyness I suppose. It consists of steamed broccoli, a sauce of alfredo "chreese" and immitation bacon bits, mixed and cooked with whole wheat cous cous.

Tonight's dinner was a long shot. I wanted to recreate some of the flavors of cheesesteak in a hotdish of sorts. Brown rice, large tvp chunks, red onion and green bell pepper slices marinated in a creamy sauce of oregano, white pepper, salt and nutritional yeast.

I've also been making tons of pancakes, but I post enough pictures of pancakes on this blog. I'm cooking some white beans right now and hopefully will make an inspired lunch.

Goodbye wisdoms...or how I learned to stop worrying and love pureed food

2009-02-07T18:07:00.000-08:00

All four of my wisdom teeth came out last week and I was happy to get them removed! The fears of my impacted teeth, anxiety over having them removed and general crowding problems have been assuaged. My dentist warned me that I should have gotten these babies out a decade ago, but I was too cool for surgery when I was sixteen, so here I am with a delayed recovery and minor complications. Things could be much worse, so I am counting my lucky stars and using this as an opportunity to appreciate pureed food. My blender, hand blender, and food processor and I have had plenty of quality bonding time this week.

My recommendations for those who are getting teeth out include mashed potatoes, dahl, pureed soups, pudding, tofu scramble (medium firm tofu, nutritional yeast, tamari, and dill), soygurt, applesauce, and smoothies. Lukewarm tea, soda, and juice are good beverage options.

I spent over $40 in juice this week, and as you can see from my "junk food care kit" above lots of processed foods. My cooking was not extensive, and my first meal at a restaurant was spongy injera bread and lentil mash at my favorite Ethiopian restaurant.

Power Gruel

2009-01-06T22:16:00.000-08:00

I haven't been cooking. This is no secret to anybody who has checked my blog in the last six months. I could go through the litany of excuses: too busy, travel, laziness... I have been eating lots of veggie dumplings, tofu scrambles, and tofu dogs.

I realized at the grocery store tonight that this has become a full blown problem. I was totally tired (and looking it) after meeting with my trainer at the gym. As I stood grumpily throwing Amy's nondairy frozen burritos into my shopping basket, a guy walking down the frozen food isle started laughing at me. I took a step back and realized I must look like such a helpless single woman - too lazy to brush her hair let alone eat something good. Single serving frozen burritos!!! They were on sale, and they do work well for lunches, so it really shouldn't have bothered me whether someone thought it was funny that I was stocking up on a dozen microwaveable meals. But just because I am a lazy single girl doesn't mean I have to eat like one. These frozen burritos will be put to good use for my lunches, but I am going to make a concerted effort to eat better dinners.

However, tonight I was tired, lazy, and craving total crap. So I made power gruel, my signature dish from college. It is nothing more than rotini, vegenaise, frozen peas, and a little chopped scallion. I know, classy. I am even going to offer a picture, because something that I eat at least 30 nights per year has got to be immortalized on the Internet.

Power Gruel

As evidence that I have already been wanting to add some spice to my go-to meals, I added shredded cheddar scheese to my last tofu scramble. Okay, I'm gonna have to make more of an effort than that. I've got some ideas, so while I realize this was the most boring post in vegan food porn history, I do have some ideas percolating. Take another look at that picture. Things can only get better than this.

Taming the Sniffles

2009-01-04T14:04:00.001-08:00

Happy 2009! Like many people this time of year, I have several new year's resolutions - keep in touch with friends, stop skipping my cardio dates, and take my lunch to work everyday! Even with the best intentions, these seemingly simple resolutions can easily fly out the window. So I wasn't even going to try to set a resolution about keeping up my blog, but it does fit into two of my resolution categories. I will be making all these lunches and I will want to keep in touch with friends! So cheers to a new year and lots of yummy food.

Unfortunately, after the best vacation back home ever, I have come down with a case of the sniffles. It is not inhibiting my daily activities, but it is quite a nuisance. After a phone call with my mom, who suggested chicken noodle soup, I improvised this recipe. It is simple yet extremely tasty and certainly is helping ward off these nasty germs. This soup really hits the spot, and will be my go to soup in the sad occasion that I start coming down with something again.

My apologies to anyone who can't get Butler Soy Curls, I stock up when I am in Seattle at Sidecar for Pigs Peace. Any chicken style seitan or even tvp chunks would work, but the texture of the soy curls is really the best for this type of soup.

Sniffle Proof "Chicken" and Rice Soup

1 Tbs olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 large carrot, diced
1/2 cup dried Butler soy curls
1 veggie bullion cube
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp thyme
2 tsp dried parsley
4 cups of water
1/3 cup long grain white rice
lemon juice (for garnish)

Warm the oil over medium low heat in a large soup pot. Add the garlic for a few seconds and then add the onion, and saute until the onion is becoming translucent. Add the carrots and salt, and saute for 4-5 minutes longer. Soak the soy curls in a bowl or pot of hot water until they have become soft (usually around 5 minutes). Rinse the curls in cold water, and chop into bite-sized pieces.

In the soup pot, add the bullion cube, thyme, and parsley and stir. Let cook for a minute or so, then add the water and soy curls. Raise heat and bring the soup to a boil. Add the rinsed rice to the soup, and turn the heat to low for 25 minutes. Add lemon juice to taste (I like to add it to each individual bowl).

Pumpkin Bran Muffins

2008-10-20T23:33:00.000-07:00

I love fall. This is the second fall I am spending in a city on the West Coast, and I miss the colors, smells, and weather of the Midwest. One thing I can recreate is eating my favorite foods. West Coast has tons of orchards, but I have yet to find good apple cider, so I settled on the sweet yet savory taste of pumpkin. When I bake muffins for breakfast, I like to add a lot of bran to keep me full until lunch. These muffins have a lot of bran, yet are still moist without a ton of oil. And leave it to a unabashed vanilla fan to sneak some vanilla extract in the batter along with pumpkin pie spices. If you don't have all the spices, feel free to use pumpkin pie mix instead of plain pumpkin - the pie taste will just be a little subdued.

Pumpkin Bran Muffins

2 cups wheat bran
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar (feel free to guestimate a little more if you like)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons molasses
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup soy milk
1 cup pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the bran, flours, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, allspice, and salt. In another bowl, mix the sugar, molasses, pumpkin, soymilk, oil, and vanilla. Add the wet to the dry and mix until there are no more dry spots. Add more soymilk if the batter is too thick to stir (the batter will be thick anyways). Spoon the mixture into a lined muffin tin and bake for 20-22 minutes. This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Is it spring yet?

2008-03-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

I thought spring had arrived here in Vancouver once the cherry trees began blossoming. Then things took a turn for the chilly and everything stopped. Minnesota is warmer than it is here this weekend! So it is no surprise that I have gravitated towards hearty grain dishes and baked pastas.

I made manacotti stuffed with tofu ricotta (just some lemon juice, crumbled tofu, a little sugar, lots of basil, some oregano, and salt) and tempeh sausage crumbles. The top is covered in cheap jarred pasta sauce and the last of a $7 block of Vegan Gourmet mozzarella. This dish is great to pull together in an unfamiliar kitchen because it is pretty much just boil, stuff and bake. The asparagus is the only clue that it is becoming spring, although I am sure it was imported from California.

I also made spaghetti and beanballs from Veganomicon. This complimented my laziness and spring cold snap carb cravings perfectly. I love these bean balls because they are so filling and chewy. These are served up with some carrots and broccoli covered in Spike seasoning.

These are the cheesy zucchini calzones that are based on the recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. The filling is a tofu ricotta (different from the one I usually throw together for several reasons, the main one being it includes nutmeg), and sauteed zucchini. Although every other calzone I have made has the sauce baked inside, I decided to try the method of leaving it out. I never like how soggy the sauce makes the calzones after they sit for a while. This method was nice as the filling stood its own and the dough remained dry yet soft. Next time I may add a little sauce to the filling and serve some on the side.

From the Complete Vegan Cookbook, this is the bulgar and red lentils with kale and olives. Don't look too hard for the olives, though because I left them out. This would have been an easy weeknight recipe, as everything just sort of simmers together for about half an hour. I liked how filling this dish is and am a little worried how much I am craving wheat these days. Whether it is kamut, bulgar, or just straight up white flour, it seems like all my comfort foods are full of wheat. I will have to experiment with some other chewy grains and hope that spring vegetables are ready soon!

Spinach Noodle Kugel

2008-03-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

Since I first picked up Veganomicon, I've wanted to try the Spinach Noodle Kugel. Casseroles are such a comfort food, and I can't pass up a chance to celebrate spring with fresh dill. Since matzos were on sale last week for Passover, I thought it would be a good a time as any to try out kugel making.

I don't know much about kugels, but the (non-vegan) recipes I have seen for this dish include copious amounts of egg, milk, and egg noodles. It is always impressive when recipes like this can be veganized and still taste rich and creamy. Of course this recipe was another winner. I didn't have any ribbon style noodles, so I used orchiette instead. Although I normally don't use aseptic silken tofu, because it has a beany taste that overpowers most dishes (chocolate mousse, yuck). However I couldn't pick out its taste it in this casserole. It was probably overpowered by the dill. On the side are steamed carrots with an earth balance, lemon, dill sauce. I would definitely make this again, which is a good thing because I have so much matzo left.

Lots of Food

2008-03-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in forever for three reasons. 1.) I am super lazy 2.) I got a new computer, and I haven't figured out how to organize my photos yet 3.) My camera is officially broken, I dropped it while walking a dog over winter break, and it so photos are blurry and the batteries look like they are constantly trying to escape. I can't justify buying a new one until I decide I'm going to learn basic principles of photography. But spring is in the air, so maybe I will be more motivated. Plus I need a new camera for cherry blossom season, I think.

Over the last while I have made a lot of food. I'm going to unload some photos and describe very little. My new Canadian computer is somehow locked into French mode, and so some of the English punctuation buttons are not working very well.

Tofu with broccolini and soba noodles.

Tofu scramble with spinach and roasted red peppers

Tacos with Mexican Quinoa with Pepitas and Cilantro from the New Whole Grain Cookbook. Thanks Liz!

Avacado, scallion, cucumber, asparagus, carrot sushi

Sundried tomato, garlic, broccoli pasta with vegan gourmet cheese on a hot dog bun - I know, pretty classy.

Happy St. Patrick`s Day! These were the Chocolate Stout Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I included the bottle in the picture, because I`m no beer connoisseur, but I thought it was cute to mention that I found Oatmeal Stout from Quebec.

I made Julie Hasson`s fabulous spicy veggie sausages, and used them in a variety of ways. In this dish they are sauteed with onions and bell peppers and served with broccoli and baguette.

Smokey tempeh with collards and quinoa tabouli.

This is seaweed soba soup with bran. The bran chunks were at this Asian mock meat store on Main, and I thought they would go well in soup. They soaked up the dashi nicely, and had a slight sour taste. I will probably cut them up a bit more next time I use them, but I really liked their chewiness and the texture they added to the soup.

Samosa stuffed baked potatoes from Veganomicon.

Millet polenta with spinach and sundried tomato pesto from Vegan with a Vengeance, and Cuban black beans, steamed asparagus, and a couple slices of Julie`s steamed spicy sausages.

Tofu with broccoli, cucumber, and scallions over soba noodles. The peanut sauce here was a quick mix of water, peanut butter, tamari, maple syrup, and sesame oil. It was so smooth and salty that I declare this to have been my favorite meal of the past month.

Orange tofu from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan with brown rice, scallions, carrots, and pea shoots.

I made a Latin themed brunch last weekend. Here is a plate of some of the dishes. There is chorizo, tofu ranchero, Cuban black beans, fried plantains, fresh fruit, guacamole, and a tortilla.

This is the veggie chorizo and Mexican Chocolate Rice Pudding from Vegan with a Vengeance.

Here are the Cuban black beans and tofu ranchero, and my friend Sharmin digging into the fried plantains.

I had a lot of kamut that I picked up on an impulse buy a few months ago, and decided to use it by making Dreena`s Kamut Bean Stew from Viva le Vegan. This stew is soooooo good. The kamut is nice and chewy, and Dreena`s herb combination (dill and coriander) is so inventive and delicious. I will be making this again every rainy day this spring.

This is the red and white bean jambalaya from Veganomicon, except I omitted the white beans and added more of Julie`s spicy sausage. So good.

These are hardshell tacos, something I haven`t had since I was last at Little T`s in Minneapolis. These are filled with refried beans, Spanish rice, cilantro, salsa, red onion, and Vegan Gourmet cheese.

This is Dreena`s Lemon Lentil Soup from Eat Drink and Be Vegan. I think that this soup should be renamed to reflect the complex flavour. When I first chose to make this soup, I thought it would be boring because of the name (although good, who doesn`t like lentils and lemons) but this soup is anything but boring.

Some dahl curry

Chocolate cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Au gratin potatoes and chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon

Gumbo from Veganomicon

Steamed BBQ pork buns. These are from Bryanna Clark Grogan`s Authentic Chinese Cuisine. They were a bit of extra work because the dough is yeasted and needs to rise. Also the seitan pork goes through two different processes before it becomes filling. However they steam up very quickly and taste amazing. I didn`t get any inside shots, but they were full of red miso goodness.

Artichoke spaghetti

Tofurky slices smothered in Joanne Stepaniak`s nacho cheeze sauce and toasted in a whole wheat tortilla.

Dreena`s chickpea patties from Eat Drink and Be Vegan. These are very different from Isa and Terry`s version. Dreena uses brown rice and capers, which make these softer patties have more of a zip.

That`s all for now, I will make sure to update more frequently so I don`t end up spending several hours finding pictures on my computer.

Enchiladas, Stir Fry, and Spinach soup

2008-02-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

Last week I made the kale and potato enchiladas from Veganomicon, Szechuan "beef" and broccoli from Authentic Chinese Cuisine, and spinach soup from an old recipe I used to make in college. This weekend I made pizzas, but they all look the same after a while, so I didn't bother to take pictures.

The enchiladas were amazing. They were a little extra work, but making the sauce from scratch was one of the most gratifying culinary experiences I have had in my lazy kitchen. I was floored by how good these were and refreshed at how veggie-centric these were. Usually veggie enchilada recipes rely on soy cheese or fake meat crumbles to mimic the taste/texture of authentic enchiladas. This recipe shows just how easy it is to make authentic tasting enchiladas that are unabashedly vegan. The sauce is filling and bursting with flavor and the filling has a fresh taste due to just enough lime juice. I can't wait to make these again.

Then for Chinese New Year I made some Schezuan "beef" and broccoli from Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe. She does a fantastic job of mimicking the distinct flavors of Chinese cuisine while using a fraction of the fat. This recipe is fast and easy, but it was great for Thursday night. I was snowed in on campus Wednesday night (I work on top of a mountain, and it closed down) so I didn't get to make anything for New Year's Eve (the big meal). I just made this as a quick meal the next day. I went to the huge Lunar New Year parade in Chinatown on Sunday and was inspired to make Bryanna's BBQ pork dumplings, but I fell asleep after all the excitement and ended up making pancakes and tofu scramble for dinner. I'll have to learn about some other Chinese holidays so that I can make a huge feast. There is always dim sum.

On Friday I had a lot of spinach to use (can you tell I didn't menu plan at all this week) and so I resorted to one of my old fall back meals from college. It is lentil and spinach soup, a recipe from the international food section of some old blender cookbook that my ex's grandmother had. I have no idea what it was called. Interestingly enough, the country this recipe represented was Mexico, although I had no idea that Mexico is known for spinach, brown lentils, or lemon juice. The only thing remotely Mexican inspired is the touch of hot sauce added at the end, which I never added. However, this time I thought I would go ahead and add it because it wasn't really "authentic?" without it. The recipe is super simple - an onion, some garlic, a carrot, a pound of lentils, six cups of water, a bunch of spinach, and some hot sauce. It is all boiled together until the lentils are soft and then it is pureed in a blender (hence the inclusion in the Blender Cookbook). Very simple, but surprisingly satisfying.

This week I did meal plan. I felt that I hadn't given Dreena Burton's new cookbook, Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan enough of a chance as a lot of it seemed like stuff that I would choose to put together. It is true that Dreena relys on a lot of simple combinations, but there is still a lot of full flavor in the simplicity. I really enjoyed Vive le Vegan, and I really don't know why I haven't picked up her new one. This weekend, I decided I would put together a list of recipes from the book that I would like to try and then another list of those I might try (but can't now because ingredients are out of season or what not). This was actually pretty easy, making a list isn't that big of a commitment. Another nice thing is that Dreena lives in my area and even shops at the same grocery chain that I do, so I can really replicate the same products she uses and everything. This week is an entirely Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan week of dinners.

To start off, I made the black bean and orange hummus. I am choosing recipes that are totally unlike anything I would think to put together, just to show myself how stupid my line of reasoning concerning this book has been. The jury is still out on this one. Normally I am not a fan of sweet and savory, so I don't know why this sounded so interesting and appealing. The first few bites and my palette is like, yuck - almond butter and orange zest with garlic and cumin. But the third and fourth bites and so on are very good. I can see why she says in this recipe's intro that you could finish a whole batch once you start snacking. It definitely tastes better the more you eat it.

I also made the Lemony Lentil Chickpea Soup. The title makes it sound sort of boring. But it is really anything but. Dreena uses paprika, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, thyme, bay and oregano to really spice this soup up. I was very skeptical as I was making this and couldn't even bring myself to taste it until the very end. But I was pleasantly surprised. This soup was nothing like I expected and had a mellow spiciness to it. I will post pictures tomorrow (or this week at least, as long as I am not getting snowed in on any mountains.). Other recipes from the book I plan on trying include, Orange Sesame Tofu, Walnut Spinach Canellini phylo rolls, Chickpea patties and popcorn fries.

This week in food

2008-02-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

I haven't been so busy, in fact I even got a snow day and a half this week. However, you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at my blog, or my menu for that matter. This week I had planned to make black bean and vegetable soup, Ethiopian stew, tater tot hot dish, and kale and potato enchiladas. I used a gift certificate for Greens and Gourmet on Monday, ate leftovers on Thursday, and had take out sushi on Friday. So I didn't really stick to my menu. I was equally unprepared for lunch at work and managed to scarf down Amy's non-dairy burritos.

This is the black bean and vegetable soup from Veganomicon. The beans are from a can, which I'm sure drastically changed the texture. To compensate, I used my hand blender to mush some of the beans and veggies halfway through cooking. I think I would use lime juice instead of white wine vinegar at the end, because I thought it tasted a little like olives after I added the vinegar. Also, I bought a bag of onions (normally I pick out onions individually) and could tell that they were past their prime when I started cooking with them. So that could have been a factor in the taste. I would also bet that if I had cooked the beans myself, they would have absorbed some of the strong vinegar taste. I have always loved beans, sometimes kidney beans taste like candies to me when I eat them out of the jar. But black bean soup has really been a final frontier on the bean front. I remember in college I would choose any other vegan soup over black bean soup. So it is nice to have a recipe that has gotten me over that final bean prejudice.

Talk about bad menu planning. My Friday dish, Hoppin' John, was turned into cajun chickpeas because, as you can guess, I did not have the black eyed peas. At my old apartment my pantry was totally stocked, and I must have mistaken seeing my jar of black eyed peas with some other legume. So instead of buying a can of them, I decided to just use some of the same ingredients to make cajun spiced chickpeas. I sauted onions, garlic, celery, bell pepper, and carrots along with bay, thyme, and hotsauce. I served it with roasted brussels sprouts. It's not something I would make again, but it sufficed and covered up my planning blunder.

To use the rest of the pizza dough I had after the Punjabi pizza last week, I made a cheezeburger pizza. It is pretty much just pizza sauce, tempeh sausage (loosely based on the recipe from Vegan with a Vengence, but I sort of alter the seasonings depending on my mood), and a quarter batch of rinotta.

The Berbere stew that Susan linked to on the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen last week looked too good to pass up. I quickly concocted the spice mix, and although I thought it would be too overpowering, it was actually very balanced and mellow in the context of the stew. I am sure the lentils and potatoes helped that by mellowing the flavor. It was really a fantastic, warming, filling stew and I can't wait to make it again.

I found out that Safeway has some really fresh and cheap organic produce. Were I still in Minnesota, I would be supporting my local co-op. Since Vancouver has a dearth of co-ops (I've only seen one and it was very small and had a very limited selection), I don't really feel bad about choosing Safeway over Choices or Capers (Whole Foods). Especially when I can get Earthbound Farms organic scallions for 50 cents a bunch or spinach for $1.69 a bunch...in January. I am amazed. Obviously I can't get everything I need from Safeway, but I think I may stop by there once a week. I also went to Veggie World, an vegetarian fake meat store on Main. I normally don't like to buy a lot of overly processed fake meat, but the mini sausages I picked up will make great appetizers. I also picked up some spinach noodles and dried wheat bran chunks. So this week, I am starting menu planning with a few ingredients I would like to incorporate into my meals. I will post the list tomorrow to keep myself motivated.

Pizza Bombay

2008-01-24T21:51:00.001-08:00

This recipe is from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson. It's called Pizza Bombay, and basically it is an Indian inspired pizza. It is like eating a curry on a crispy crust. The topping is sauteed onions, spinach, curry powder, and brown lentils. The crust is pre-baked for a few minutes before the topping is added to keep it from getting soggy. I served it up with some garam masala cauliflower, which was really tasty. I think I just put a head of chopped cauliflower in a pan with some water and tamari, added whole cumin and mustard seeds, garam masala and a little curry powder, red pepper flakes and a little salt. Then I heated it until the liquid was gone and the cauliflower was soft. I garnished it with some lemon juice and then sliced up that pizza.

Last night I also made oatmeal raisin cookies from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan. These were made with spelt flour and were delicious. They had a strong vanilla flavor and a perfect balance of spices. I would have taken a picture, but they didn't even last that long. They were that good.

Tomorrow I plan on making Hoppin' John with a side of roasted brussels sprouts. Hopefully my collard greens have not gone limp in the fridge since Monday.

Udon soup

2008-01-23T21:18:00.000-08:00

This udon soup recipe from Tofu 1-2-3 was fun to make and even more fun to eat. At first, I found it was a little bland, however the most important flavors were already present. It only needed to be tweaked a little to turn it into something satisfying.

The udon noodles I used in the soup are the kind that are sold in the frozen section at Asian grocery stores. They are much thicker and chewier than the kind that are sold dry and then boiled. Since there were three blocks of noodles sitting in my freezer getting freezer burned, this turned out to be a good use for them. The veggies in the soup included thinly sliced carrots, green onions, red bell pepper, and shitake mushrooms. The base of the soup was veggie broth, tamari, and ginger. I added cayenne pepper and nori strips to spice things up a little more. The soup is served over a bowl full of the udon. I ate it with chopsticks and edamame pods on the side and watched my favorite anime.

Mediterranean Bean Ragout and Seitan Tostadas

2008-01-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

My menu plan for this week includes, Mediterranean Bean Ragout and Bombay Pizza from Vegan Planet, Udon Noodle Soup from Tofu 1-2-3, Hoppin' John and Seitan Tostadas.

I finally broke down and bought a bottle of white wine. It has been an ingredient in three of the recipes I have made in the last week, although I had been subbing veggie broth. This Mediterranean Bean Ragout calls for a half cup, although it didn't make it taste any more flavorful than veggie broth. I will be slow to drop $16 on a single ingredient again. Hopefully it keeps in the fridge for the next time I need wine as a flavoring. I'm sure it would be good in a risotto. Other than the wine, the seasonings are thyme and bay leaves. Finely diced cubes of carrots, potatoes, and fennel simmer with the white beans and seasonings until everything is soft and fragrant.

Although I just had Tex-Mex food last week, I still had tortillas leftover. That was enough inspiration to make tostadas, baking the shells instead of frying them. I cubed some seitan and simmered it in a broth with taco seasoning until it was heated through and all the liquid was absorbed. There were also black beans in the fridge, so I seasoned with black beans with cumin, cilantro, chili powder and cayenne pepper and simmered them in some tamari. The toppings I used were tomatoes, cilantro, pickled jalepenos, and some shredded medium cheddar Scheese. Sides are harder for me to remember to plan, but I paired these with a batch of the Spanish rice from the recipe I concocted last week.

Seitan with Mushrooms and Spinach

2008-01-19T10:02:00.000-08:00

I made another Veganomicon recipe for dinner - the seitan with mushrooms and spinach served over brown rice. This was the last meal I had on my menu plan, and since I forgot to pick up brussels sprouts from the store, it was served without a side dish. The recipe also called for white wine and I subbed vegetable broth, but had I planned better I would have bought a bottle of white wine for the last two recipes I planned to make! I really liked this dish. In my opinion anything with seitan and thyme is going to be fantastic. Add some greens and I have nothing but good things to say. I usually don't like to cook with mushrooms and so the two cups of mushrooms in the recipe made me a little nervous. I used to love mushrooms, but now I think they can be hit or miss depending on how they are flavored and how many are used. They added a nice earthy flavor and a contrasting texture to the chewy seitan.

I didn't plan for cookies, but the kitchen was clean and I had a craving for sweets. I dusted off my copy of Eat Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton and looked for some ideas. I feel sort of guilty, as I got this book a weekend before it was released in stores (even in Canada) and had Dreena sign my copy, yet I haven't yet tried a single recipe from it. I sort of feel like Dreena's style of cooking is too similar to my own and I look at the recipes and think, you don't need a recipe for that. After all that wheat gluten for dinner, I decided to try baking with the spelt flour that has been sitting in my pantry for a couple months now. I don't normally like chocolate, but it sounded alright so I chose the "You got peanut butter in my chocolate" cookies. As with all of Dreena's cookie recipes, they turned out perfectly. I also got to use some of the agave nectar I got on sale in Seattle a few weeks ago. Maple syrup and agave nectar in the same recipe? Fantastic! The swirls of peanut butter were fun and tasty. I might make some of these for my co-workers, because even people who don't like chocolate (like me) can get behind peanut butter.

Now I have to start menu planning for this week. I can now reflect and say that my first week of sticking to a list of planned recipes was more efficient and got my food in front of me much faster than nights when I don't know what I will be making. Once the weather is nicer, it will be an added challenge/bonus to plan meals around seasonal produce. Right now I just have to be thankful that California isn't that far away.

Kale Chickpea Chardonnay

2008-01-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

I made the kale chickpea chardonnay from the cookbook Tofu 1-2-3, except I did not use the chardonnay from the title. I'm sure this altered the taste of the stew, but I was too lazy to go out and buy a whole bottle of wine for two tablespoons worth of flavor. The recipe took no time at all to put together and packed in a lot of flavor and texture. The base of kale, potatoes, chickpeas, onions, garlic, thyme and veggie broth is enhanced by a blended solution of soft tofu, sesame oil, chardonnay (or in my case more veggie broth). I ate it with a whole wheat baguette and lots of Earth Balance. In Vancouver, they put stickers over the non-hydrogenated claim on the Earth Balance container. This must mean that it does have at least some hydrogenated oils and that Canada's labeling laws are stricter. Half the time the nutritional information is covered up by a sticker listing the ingredients in French, so it must be selective. In any case, I will continue to stuff my face with Earth Balance because it is vegan and it tastes amazing.

Thai Curry Noodles

2008-01-15T20:04:00.000-08:00

Dinner tonight was Thai Noodles with Tofu and Vegetables from the latest cookbook I bought, Tofu 1-2-3. It was a very simple recipe, which was good after a long day of work and commuting.

The base is just coconut milk (I used light), green curry paste, and veggie broth. Then add veggies (red bell pepper, bamboo shoots, and zucchini) and rice noodles and boil together. In the final minutes, add diced tofu and chopped basil. Nice and easy. I had to add salt afterwards though because although the curry paste added flavor, it still tasted like it was missing something. If I were to make this again, I would add green beans and carrots to the mix and just more vegetables in general. In any case, it was nice to have green curry noodles at home in half an hour.

Goulash, Bean balls and Bean Burgers

2008-01-14T21:52:00.000-08:00

Growing up, I was always jealous of my friends whose parents cooked them dinner. During day long Kid Icarus marathons at my friend Nicole's house, her dad would feed us goulash. It wasn't anything fancy but it really hit the spot, especially since it was homemade. To recreate this Midwestern hodgepodge casserole, I used tempeh instead of hamburger. I couldn't use whole wheat elbow noodles though, this dish really requires the refined version.

I sauted onions and carrots in a little olive oil. Then I added some thyme, oregano, basil, and black pepper. I then added some crumbled tempeh and a tablespoon of tomato paste and let it heat up. Finally, I added a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes, 2 cups cooked elbow macaroni, and some frozen peas. I let this simmer for another fifteen minutes and seasoned with salt and pepper. Just like old times.

Then for dinner I made linguine and bean balls from Veganomicon. This time I used white kidney beans and it still tasted amazing. I think these would be good using just about any bean.

I also made Veganomicon's black bean burgers. It was very windy today and I had to make do with the closest grocery store which doesn't have vegan burger buns. So I just ate it on its own, and it was still very good. The recipe is very similar to the bean ball recipe, except it uses different seasonings. I also put my mandolin to use and made some seasoned oven fries. They are seasoned with olive oil, Braggs, coriander, cumin and cayenne.

This week I am planning to make seitan and mushrooms with spinach from Veganomicon, Thai rice noodles with tofu and vegetables from Tofu 123 and kale and potato chardonnay stew also from Tofu 123. It may only be three meals, but at least I am planning. If I can get my lunches under control, I will be set.

Tempeh Taco Friday

2008-01-11T21:53:00.000-08:00

My attempts at being more organized are falling short. This morning, despite promising myself I would wake up early enough to pack a lunch, I woke up with just enough time to brew some green tea and run out the door. I believe my breakfast this morning was a shot of Dr. Pepper in addition to a wild berry green tea sweetened with stevia. This was followed by a midmorning Bavarian cocoa bean coffee. I was almost hyper enough to forget about not packing lunch, but I stopped by the Ladle and got a tofu dog and a cup of vegetarian chili. I had remembered not liking their chili before, but this time it unexpectedly included lots of mushrooms. I had never thought about putting mushrooms in chili, but you can bet I'll throw a few in there next time I make a pot.

For dinner I realized I hadn't picked up Scheese, jalepenos, cilantro, or bell pepper for my dinner tonight, despite those ingredients being on my shopping trip last night. I am so not organized! Since I was still set on having tacos, I crumbled some tempeh (from my Seattle stash) and set it on low heat with some water, Braggs, and taco seasoning and cayenne while I ran to the Marketplace IGA that just opened near my place. They didn't have cilantro, so I had to go to the Korean grocery store to grab some Chinese parsley and a few jalepenos.

When I got home, I didn't even want to take the time for white rice, so I used the leftover brown rice from dinner last night to make Spanish rice. It actually turned out really well! I sauteed half a thinly diced red onion, three minced cloves of garlic, a seeded and finely chopped jalepeno, and pinches of chili powder, corriander, oregano and salt in a couple teaspoons of olive oil. When the onions were soft, I added about half a cup of water, two cups of cooked brown rice, and a tablespoon of tomato paste. When that was heated through I added a little more than a tablespoon of lime juice and a quarter cup cilantro. Tada! Spanish rice in about ten minutes.

A tip I used in this recipe was to use frozen tomato paste. I can never make it through a whole can of tomato paste once I open it. I used to love the brand Bionaturae because its tomato paste came in little glass jars that I could seal up again. However, in this wonderful place I now live, they prefer to sell tomato paste in cans. I don't remember where I heard this, but I remembered that it can be frozen! A much better route to take than finding a can wrapped in a baggie in the back of the fridge, half full of tomato paste that is now covered with green fuzz. To freeze, I lined an ice cube tray with plastic wrap and filled each cube with one tablespoon of paste. One tablespoon fits perfectly, sort of like how my shot glass is exactly two tablespoons. Then I froze the tomato cubes for a couple of hours and pulled off the plastic wrap, letting each cube pop out. Since they were individually frozen I was able to store them loosely in a freezer baggie and can now access a single serving of tomato paste for recipes whenever I need it. Now that is good organization. If only I had been able to plan the rest of the meal that well.

Tomorrow is Saturday, which is usually experimental lunch. I have no plans for dinner, so I don't even know why I am trying to use the blog to help menu plan. I am just setting myself up for a day of Wii and takeout.

On the other New Year's front of not hating on Canada, I tried tandoori spice Doritos which are vegan, highly processed, and extremely tasty. Liz, I am sending you a bag of these if I can be assured that they will not crumble in the mail. So kudos to Canada and the Doritos company for bringing more vegan junk food into this world! And I thought Tings would be my undoing.

Happy 2008

2008-01-10T23:11:00.000-08:00

So it has been a while since I last posted. I have done a lot of cooking and a lot of traveling, but not a lot of taking pictures. My camera has been taking really blurry photos lately, and got dropped while I was walking a cute dog. I missed Boxing Day sales to buy a new one, so blurry photos shall be the norm, especially since there is no sun in Vancouver in January.

I spent my holidays going to Minneapolis/St. Paul, where I ate brunch at my favorite punk rock bar, the Triple Rock Social Club. I also had some pizza at Pizza Luce, falafel from the Black Sea, and some squash risotto from the French Meadow Bakery. I also spent some time in Omaha Nebraska where I went to Chipotle several times, got some Buddha veggies from Taste of Thailand, and artichoke mornay from McFosters Natural Kind Vegetarian Restaurant. In Chicago I had a "Dagwood" sandwich of seitan corned beef and all the fixins, cookies and cream cake, "ham" and "eggs" and some other chocolate cake at the Chicago Diner (several trips). I also went to Karyn's Cooked where I had a jerk tofu wrap. On New Year's day I went to Soul Vegetarian East and had a BBQ sandwich, lima bean soup, and a basket of fried tofu. Then in Seattle I checked out the new restaurant The Squid and Ink which was very good. I will be going back there again! I tried vegan fish and chips, poutine (gravy and cheeze curds over fries), and sea monster linguini. I had a seitan sandwich from the Wayward, coffee and french toast donuts from Mighty O (coffee may be my new favorite donut), pad thai from Jai Thai and veggie salmon meal from Teapot Vegetarian House. I didn't take any pictures though. It was almost as though I never went to the states at all...

I have a lot of New Year's resolutions this year, the first and foremost is to not hate on Canada so much. That was really hard to do after having a blast in the Midwest for the month of December, but is a work in process. Food related, I have goals to be more organized and plan meals ahead of time. So far it is not going very well, but I am planning on making tempeh tacos with Spanish rice for dinner tomorrow night. Hopefully this blog can keep me more accountable, so if I post my menu the day before, I will be more inclined to stick to the plan.

I bought the cookbook Tofu 1-2-3 at my favorite vegan boutique, the Fast and the Furless, and although everything looks good in it, I have yet to try anything. I think 2008 will be a busy year of trying out new recipes, trying new foods, and learning to eat seasonally on the West coast. I promise next time I will post pictures, even if it means blurry photos of meals I made last month.

Apple Cake

2007-11-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

It is apple season in the Pacific Northwest (and everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, I suppose) and I have been trying different varieties of apples. I got a bag of sunrise apples because they look like cute little pink lady apples. However, they are very mealy and soft. So I decided I would bake with them. I tried the recipe for German apple cake from Colleen's Joy of Vegan Baking and it was so fantastic! Since I had been doing a lot of baking lately (read: putting on insulation for the winter), I decided to lighten the recipe by replacing 3/4 of the fat with more apple sauce and 2/3 of the flour with whole wheat. It was so delicious and light tasting. The brown sugar caramelized on the top and the apples cooked down a little and were very sweet. I am going to tweak these even further to make muffins.

Chinese Food and Cupcakes

2007-11-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

For some reason, Chinese food has been sounding good lately. Thank goodness I have Bryanna Clark Grogan's Authentic Chinese Cuisine. I made the "chicken" with peppers and the lion's head braised "pork" balls with cabbage. The first is a fried tofu dish with sauce and bell peppers. The sauce makes it taste like takeout, and it was nothing too fancy to prepare.

The second was more elaborate, with "pork" balls made from tvp, tofu, gluten flour, ginger, tamari, and vegetarian oyster sauce. They were fried and then sauted in a broth/sauce with napa cabbage and carrots.

For my experimental Saturday lunch, I made a spicy tofu scramble (nothing too out there) with a bean spread. The bean spread wasn't really all that special, but it had a lot of flavor. I just processed together some garlic, black beans, oregano, tamari, corriander, lots of lime juice, and fresh cilantro. It must have been the citrus, but it really had a pop. I made a breakfast burrito out of this, and used the tortillas that fell apart to spread extra bean dip onto.

I totally didn't celebrate Halloween this year (well, I did make pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes the week before Halloween), so I made Halloween cupcakes days after the holiday. They are just plain chocolate cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World with orange frosting and chocolate sprinkles.

Sushi, Stroganoff and a Fritatta

2007-10-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

I have to give it up to Vancouver for the abundance of cheap yet tasty sushi restaurants. Despite complaining about the lack of vegan options for such a supposedly veggie friendly city, I have to love being able to get a huge platter of sushi for $12 when I am hungry and lazy. For this sushi outing, I went to Davie street and randomly chose a restaurant to order some take out. I decided on a place called Jako, because it looked cute and their sign asserts that they are fully licensed. I ordered two veggie sushi trays which included cucumber, inari, avocado, shitake, and my absolute new favorite, yam tempura sushi. I brought them home and watched my favorite anime Detective Conan.

This week I have been cooking my way through Vegan with a Vengeance. Since Veganomicon isn't coming to Canada for another week (there I go complaining about Vancouver again), I have to make do with what I have. There is still so much I haven't tried.

Here is the portobello seitan stroganoff. Beef stroganoff was my birthday dinner every year when I was seven through about 13 or 14. The combination of sour cream and egg noodles made me crave this dish all year. This version uses a nutritional yeast and soy milk base with plenty of mushrooms and fried seitan. It didn't taste like the kind I missed, but I am sure I could have added some tofu sour cream if I wanted to recreate that taste. As it was, it had a robust "meaty" flavor and the nutritional yeast added a creamy richness.

Although I wouldn't recommend this dish for a weeknight, I made the Revolutionary Spanish Omelet when I got home from work at 7:00 last night. Of course I didn't eat until 9:30, but it was well worth the wait. My veggie mandolin made short work of the yukon potatoes and yellow onions, so it was not a difficult dish and it cooked through evenly. Soft tofu mixture holds the dish together, and the saffron added a nice subtle flavor. Isa's roasted red pepper sauce goes really well with this omelet, and it wasn't too bad to roast the red bells and grind up my almonds, even after a long day at work. Plus I had leftovers for breakfast this morning! Always a good thing!

Chili, curry, and more soup

2007-10-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

Grocery shopping is perhaps my favorite pastime. That being said, it was a little alarming that I opted to rely on pantry food rather than walk the six blocks get some fresh organic vegetables until tonight. I hoard food, and my cupboards are bursting with dried and canned foods. However it is still a challenge to throw a vegan meal together for three days without fresh vegetables! Last night I ate whole wheat pasta, a can of gypsy beans, and frozen spinach.

This weekend I opened my fridge and found a head of cauliflower and some chopped butternut squash. I had a few cloves of garlic and some frozen spinach. So I opened a can of crushed tomatoes and set out to make a curry. I don't especially like my curry powder mix, so I used garam masala, cumin, corriander, cumin seeds and mustard seeds to spice it. It is served over basmati with toated cumin seeds and lime juice.

Then for dinner, I made tortilla chip soup with what I could scrounge up. I am including the recipe, because I decided I would make this my new standby tortilla soup recipe. It is quite chunky as opposed to the kind I usually make, which is more watery and has a lot of cilantro.

New Favorite Tortilla Chip Soup

3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 serrano chilis, diced (leave in seeds for heat)
1 cup seitan, diced
1 T olive oil
3/4 cup frozen corn
1 cup black beans
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 scallion, chopped
1 T tomato paste
2 cups water or veggie broth
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground corriander
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano

Saute the garlic and serranos in the olive oil for 3 minutes. Add the seitan and fry until lightly browned. Add the scallion, corn, bell pepper, beans and tomatoes and tomato paste. Heat through. Add the spices and water/veggie broth. Let simmer for 20 minutes to half an hour. Serve with crushed tortilla chips on top and extra chips for dipping.

Tonight I made the chili from Vegan with a Vengeance. I teamed it up with cornbread from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I am not a big fan of chocolate, and so the cocoa powder and cinnamon threw me off a little bit. I added more garlic to make it more savory. The hot cornbread was such a comfort food smothered in earth balance.

Soup season!

2007-10-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

It is fall. Which means that it is rainy. One nice surprise about living on the coast is that the trees have turned beautiful shades of orange, yellow and red. They also stay on the trees longer than they do in Minnesota despite the constant rain. So my fears that I wouldn't have a fall season have turned into one of the longest falls I can remember. But still, it is raining and so I still miss the dry autumn smells, sunshine in crisp weather, leaves cracking underfoot, and frost in the morning followed by t-shirt weather in the afternoon. At least they still have squash here.

This Saturday, I made two soups and didn't leave my apartment. I looked out through the rain at the rooftop gardens in my neighborhood, turned on the fireplace, cuddled up with my cat and ate soup.

The first is a recipe I found in an old issue of Vegetarian Journal (unfortunately from their website, the only article that was not uploaded from that issue). It is deceptively entitled Creamy Miso Soup. It is creamy, and does have miso in it, but it is primarily a squash soup. The recipe calls for boiling chunks of squash with red lentils, kombu, and red pepper flakes. Then the whole soup is pureed in a blender (I used my hand blender in my shiny new pots, thank goodness it didn't hurt them) and a mixture of mirin, brown rice vinegar, grated ginger, and light miso is stirred in at the last second. It was a by the book macrobiotic meal and had no added fat. I served it over short grain brown rice to emphasize the yin of the season and make it a truly macrobiotic meal.

Then for dinner I decided to try to recreate a soup I had seen at the student run lunch spot on campus, The Ladel. This soup is called curried mango chickpea. I hadn't actually tried it yet when I bought a mango with hopes of recreating it, but I had an idea about how I would approach this combination. Then one day when I forgot a lunch, I bought some in the name of research. As with their other delicious soups, the strength lies in the thickness of the base and the blend of curry powder. The chunks of mango were large and reminded me of the role of the potato in other curried veggie soups I have tasted. I was still convinced I was going to make up my own version anyway, and that is exactly what I did. I served it over white jasmine rice that I had cooked with toasted cumin seeds and then doused liberally with lime juice upon fluffing. The recipe for the soup follows:

Curried Mango Chickpea Soup

1 T olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large carrot, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 mango, peeled and diced
4 cups veggie broth
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cumin

In a soup pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the shallot, garlic and carrot and cook for about 8 minutes. If the veggies start to stick, add a couple tablespoons of water and cover with a lid to help cook the carrots more evenly. Then add the bell peppers, chickpeas and mango. Cook together for a couple minutes, then add the spices. Cook for another couple minutes and add the vegetable broth. Simmer over medium heat for 25-30 minutes. Then transfer half to a blender or use a hand blender to puree half the soup in the pot. Return to pot and salt as you desire. Serve over rice.

Last weekend, I went to a restaurant called Rebellious Tomato. It is an organic pizzeria that has a vegan soy cheese option for their pizzas. I ordered the pizza called the Mediterranean which had sun dried tomatoes, black olives and artichokes on it. It was no Galactic Pizza, but it was good. The best part was that the ingredients were all organic, which is nice for a restaurant.

This morning I baked the cinnamon coffee cake from Colleen Patrick Goudreau's Joy of Vegan Baking. This book is just what my cookbook collection needed. Not only is it a one stop source for all things baked, but the aesthetics are enticing. As a dorky librarian, I can't get over how well the book is laid out, with a table of contents note for each chapter and several indexes! How I would like to catalog a book like this. I bought this at Chapters (the Canadian Barnes and Noble) for full Canadian price ($25, plus GST), but were I still in the states I could have ordered it from Amazon for just over $13. In any case, it will be used enough to justify the price gouging. I used whole wheat pastry flour for this, so it came out pretty dark, but it still tasted amazing. The only thing I would change would be to add a little less ginger, but everyone knows I am a lightweight in that department.

The other things I have made this last week are one bowl meals. Above is a chickpea pasta salad. It has steamed zucchini, orange and yellow bell peppers, chickpeas, and whole wheat rotini. The sauce was an experiment that ended up a little to sweet for my tastes. I used flax oil, lime juice, cinnamon, cumin, maple syrup and white wine vinegar.

This rice bowl is made of scallions, steamed bok choy, steamed broccoli, sliced avocado, and grated carrots. It is served over brown rice and smothered in flax oil, tamari and umeboshi plum vinegar.