Crispy Fried Cauliflower Wingz

This recipe is perfect for your upcoming holiday party! Or tuck it away until the Super Bowl. An indulgence, to be sure, but you deserve it. I've been meaning to work up a recipe like this since the cauliflower "wings" craze hit the interwebs a while ago, but I never got around to it. These are crispy and flavourful, and remain so even when they are no longer hot. The boys doused theirs in Buffalo hot sauce, while the rest of us stuck to a sweet BBQ sauce. Delicious! 

INGREDIENTS
- 1 large head of cauliflower, cut into florets

Brine
- 2 cups cold water
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp smoked or seasoned salt
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp poultry spice

Batter
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup panko crumbs
- 1/2 cup chickpea flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour/starch
- 1 tbsp each: onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 3 cups plain soy milk (more if needed)

METHOD

1. The day before: mix together the brine ingredients (I use a blender). Pour into a large freezer bag, then add the cauliflower florets. If your cauliflower is very large, you can make a 1.5 recipe of the brine. 

2. Remove as much air a possible so the brine is making maximum contact with the brine. Refrigerate for at least 12 hours, rotating the bag as needed for even brining. 

3. The Day of: drain cauliflower in a colander. Heat oil in a deep fryer to 350 degrees.

4. While cauliflower is draining, whisk together the dry ingredients for the batter (i.e. flour to white pepper). 

5. Dredge the cauliflower in the flour mixture in batches until coated. Shake off all excess and place on a baking sheet.

6. In a separate bowl, whisk together vinegar and soy milk. Add enough of the soy mixture to the remaining flour mixture to make a thickish batter. Add more soy milk if needed.

7. Add some pieces of cauliflower to the batter. Turn to coat. Leave the cauliflower in the batter for a few minutes to allow the batter to soak into the dredging flour.

8. Shake off excess batter and transfer to a cooking tray or plate. 

9. Fry in oil, 3-4 minutes per side, until deep golden brown. Make sure your oil is not too hot or the outside will burn before the cauliflower is cooked.

10. Drain on paper towels and serve while still hot.

NOTE 1: while one batch is frying, add another to the batter so it can soak. Repeat.

NOTE 2: add more soy milk to the batter, if needed. The dredging flour will thicken the batter a bit, so just thin it down again. 

Snickerdoodles

The first cookies I ever made by myself, at around 12 years of age, were snickerdoodles. Around that time my Mom went back to work, leaving my brothers and I in charge of cooking dinner for the family. She would leave step by step instructions for simple meals, and a hot dinner would be ready for her and my Dad when they got home. This is how I learned basic kitchen skills and where my love of cooking began (a love of eating had already been established). I soon began making desserts from my Mom's Betty Crocker cookbook (enter the snickerdoodles), and from a box filled with my great grandmother's recipes for Boston Cream Pie and other delightful sugar and fad-laden treats. So when I saw this snickerdoodle recipe on Have Cake, Will Travel, I immediately tagged it. I finally got around to making them today for a nice after lunch treat. They are crisp yet soft, and are everything a snickerdoodle should be. I did add a tsp of canola oil to a double recipe because the dough seemed too dry, and I made bite-sized cookies that fit perfectly into the kids' lunch bags for school. Thanks, Celine!

Shaved Seitan BBQ Sandwich

You may not want to make the veggie lunch meat I posted yesterday for your daily brownbag at the office, but you will definitely want to make it for this recipe. I guarantee that you will be overwhelmed by its sweet and messy awesomeness.

INGREDIENTS

- 1 recipe sweet and sticky BBQ sauce (but don't strain out onions)

- about 4 cups thinly shaved veggie lunch meat

METHOD

1. Make the BBQ sauce and let it simmer while you cut the seitan (use a very sharp knife). Don't worry about cutting whole slices, just shave off thin bits and pieces. The meat is tough enough to hold up in the sauce, and the thin slices make for a perfect texture.

2. Add seitan to sauce. Add enough so there isn't a lot of excess sauce, but enough to thickly coat the seitan (like you see in the pic above). Let simmer for as long as possible, covered. Pile onto toasted buns and enjoy!

Funnel Cake

I finished up a conference paper today and decided to unwind by experimenting in the kitchen. I was determined to try out my rosette iron and veganize the 1950s recipe that came with it. I thought a mixture of flax and tofu would replace the egg, while baking powder and soda would help with the leavening action. The batter came together very well (and very easily) and I was ready to go. I dipped the iron in the hot oil, as per the instructions, then in the batter, then back in the oil. The batter puffed up perfectly and I was happy. The only problem was that the cookie totally bonded to the iron and there was no way that puppy was coming off. But, as the old saying goes, when life gives you a bowl of batter and a pan of hot oil, make funnel cakes! These remind me of the days of my youth at Canada's Wonderland riding the roller coasters and chowing down on funnel cakes in the hot sun until I felt like barfing. Ah, the good ol' days. I certainly would not make these on a regular basis on account of the fat, but it was fun to relive an old favourite.

INGREDIENTS

- 1 tbsp finely ground flax seed

- 2 tbsp water

- 1/4 cup sugar

- 1/4 cup firm tofu

- 1 cup soy milk

- 1 cup flour

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/4 tsp salt

- oil for frying

- icing sugar

- strawberry jam

METHOD

1. Get a few inches of oil heating in a pan over med-hi heat. Make sure it is nice and hot.

2. Whisk flax and water together in a small bowl until it thickens. Add flax mixture, tofu, soy milk, flour, vanilla, and salt to a food processor and blend until very smooth. Or, put all ingredients in a container and blend with an immersion blender. Pour into a container with a spout.

3. Test the batter. Drop some batter in the oil. It should sink, then rise to the surface. If it doesn't, add another tbsp of flour. The batter needs to be thick enough to hold together in the oil, otherwise it will scatter instead of making a coherent nest.

4. Drizzle a nest of batter into the oil and cook for a few mins on each side, until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel or paper bags. Repeat with remaining batter. I think the recipe will make about 8 funnel cakes (I experimented a lot with the irons).

5. When cooled a bit, dust with icing sugar. Heat up some strawberry jam and throw that on top as well.

Roast Seitan with Ginger Peach Stuffing and Glaze

The great thing about tonight's meal is that it helped me figure out what to serve for Christmas dinner (and who doesn't plan Christmas dinner in June?). Imagine the pic above with a chestnut and sage stuffing and a cranberry glaze. It's all going down in December. Today's recipe has a nice summery feel and makes use of sweet peaches and apricots in the stuffing and glaze, balanced by cinnamon and ginger. The seitan is both steamed and roasted, giving it a perfect texture. It was a big hit with my visiting in-laws.

INGREDIENTS

Stuffing

- 2 tbsp margarine

- 1 small onion, finely diced

- 1 celery stalk, finely diced

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of nutmeg

- 1-2 tbsp mined ginger (depends on how much you like ginger)

- 1 piece stale french bread, with crusts on, small dice

- 1 almost ripe peach, skinned and chopped

- 1 almost ripe apricot, skinned and chopped

METHOD

1. Melt margarine in a small saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion, celery, and ginger for 5 mins, or until soft. Add spices, stir well, and remove from heat. Put bread and fruit in a bowl, pour onion mixture over top and mix well. Set aside to cool. Make the seitan.

Seitan

Get your water on its way to boiling in your steamer

- 1 1/3 cup vital wheat gluten

- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

- 1 tsp poultry spice

- 1 tsp onion powder

- 1/2 tsp garlic powder

- 1 tsp salt

- 3/4 cup water

- 1/2 cup soy milk

- 2 tbsp oil

- 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar

METHOD

1. Whisk together dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk together wet ingredients in a separate bowl and add to dry. Mix with a wooden spoon into a wet dough. If it seems too wet, add a bit more gluten flour. It should be soft and pliable, but still hold together.

2. Transfer dough to counter top or board. With your hands, flatten into a rectangle, about 1/2" thick. The width will depend on how wide your steamer is. Make sure it will fit.

3. Put stuffing in a line the center of the dough. Compress the stuffing in your hands a bit so the center of the roast will be firm. Gently but firmly roll the seitan with the stuffing in the middle (i.e. make sure there is a cavity in the middle with the stuffing in it--don't roll it like a jelly roll). Seal the ends and seam as best you can.

4. Transfer the roll to a piece of extra wide, extra strength aluminum foil, and tightly roll up like a Tootsie Roll.

5. Steam for 30 mins, turning over after 15 mins. While seitan is steaming, make the glaze.

Glaze

- 2 small ripe peaches, skinned and chopped

- 2 ripe apricots, skinned and chopped

- 1 -2 tbsp minced ginger

- 1/2 cup water

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 2 tbsp brown sugar

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- pinch nutmeg

- pinch salt

- 1/2 tsp cornstarch

METHOD

1. Blend peaches, apricots, ginger, and water in a food processor until very smooth. Transfer to a saucepan and bring to bubbling over med to med-hi heat.

2. Let bubble for about 5 mins, until fruit begins to darken and sauce reduces slightly. Add sugars and spices and mix well. Let bubble and reduce for 5 more mins.

3. Mix cornstarch in a bit of water and add to pan. Bring to bubbling, stirring constantly, and remove from heat. Set aside to cool while seitan finishes.

Roasting and Glazing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9 x 13 glass baking dish.

1. When seitan is done steaming, remove from steamer and set aside to cool for a few mins. Unwrap, and place in prepared baking dish.

2. Spoon half the glaze over top, covering as much of the sides as you can. Bake for 15 mins.

3. Spoon remaining glaze over roast and bake another 15 mins.

4. Spoon any glaze that has slipped off the roast back over the roast and bake for another 10 mins.

5. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 mins to allow everything to firm up a bit. Transfer to a cutting board and thickly slice with a very sharp knife.

VARIATION

If you like the bite of ginger, don't process the ginger in with the fruit for the glaze. Instead, mince it and add it to the pan with the processed fruit. This will give you bursts of ginger flavour in with the sweet peaches.

McChick'n Nuggets

I was leafing through a Homemakers magazine today from a few years ago. You can pick up old magazines for dirt cheap at the thrift store and look through the recipe section to see what the non-vegan world is up to. Sometimes it can lead to new ideas and inspiration for vegan dishes. This particular issue did not have any good ideas, but it did have a McDonald's ad that made me snort. The ad shows a young boy, around seven years old, with his face and hands all amess from the BBQ sauce he has been dunking his McNuggets into. The caption reads, "At least what made it in him was all white seasoned chicken breast." Well, that's not all he is getting (and, seriously, I used to eat McNuggets. I find this chicken breast claim dubious). According to McDonald's own website, McNuggets contain "chicken meat, chicken skin, salt, flavour [hydrolyzed plant protein (corn, soy, wheat gluten), disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate]. Coated with: wheat flour, water, toasted wheat crumbs, modified cornstarch, corn starch, yellow corn flour, salt, vegetable oil shortening (soybean), sodium bicarbonate, sodium aluminum phosphate, spices, sodium aluminum silicate (manufacturing aid), modified milk ingredients, wheatstarch. Cooked in 100% vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with THBQ, citric acid and dimethypolysiloxane)." All of this boils down to 310 calories, 19g of fat (29% daily value for an adult!), 45mg of cholesterol, and a whopping 670g of sodium. And let's not forget the fries and the drink. Needless to say, I felt compelled to make chickenless nuggets tonight.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 24 nuggets

- 1 cup vital wheat gluten

- 1 tsp poultry spice

- 1/2 tsp garlic powder

- 1 tsp onion powder

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 cup water

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 2 cups panko bread crumbs

- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast, crushed between your fingers

- 1/4 tsp tumeric

- 1/2 tsp paprika

- 1 tsp ground flax seed

- 1 1/2 cup soy milk

- 1 tbsp oil

- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

METHOD

1. Whisk together flour and spices in a bowl. Whisk together water and oil and a separate bowl and add to flour mixture. Stir and bring into a dough. It's rather hard to knead this dough, so I stretch out the sides and then fold them into the centre. I then press down to mold it back together again. This works the gluten and helps mix everything together.

2. Roll dough out into a long log, about 12-14 inches long. Let rest while you mix together the bread crumbs, nutritional yeast, tumeric, and paprika in one bowl, and the flax seed, soy milk, oil, and vinegar in another.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, line a baking sheet with foil and spray lightly with oil.

4. Slice dough into 24 pieces (about half inch each). Press down a bit to get a nugget shape, dip in soy milk, then lightly roll in bread crumbs. Repeat with all pieces of dough.

5. Re-dip nuggets back in soy milk (let it soak up so you get a thick breading), and roll again in the bread crumbs. Press the nugget into the crumbs to get a nice thick coating and to maintain the nugget shape. Place on baking sheet.

6. Bake for 10 mins, flip, then bake for another 10 mins. Flip again and cook for 4 mins, then flip and cook another 4 mins (this keeps the breading from browning too much).

7. Serve with dipping sauce of you choice. These are a bit chewy when they are piping hot, but firm up nicely when they cool down a bit.

A NOTE ON BREADING: the key to a good breading is to keep one hand wet and the other dry. Use one hand to dip the nuggets and place into the breading. Shake the bowl to coat the nugget in crumbs, then use your dry hand to handle/press the nugget.

Naan Triangles with Dal Filling

I have been craving Indian food (probably because the weather is finally getting hot around here) but I also want to keep this month's quest to make kid-friendly meals in mind. So, this is an attempt to introduce kids to mild Indian flavours with a convenient hand-held presentation. The recipe calls for tumeric which adds a nice flavour but is almost impossible to get out of clothing (or carpet) if your food spills. So if you have messy eaters or real young kids you might want to hold off on the tumeric until more food ends up in their mouths than on the floor. I have also kept the spicing mild for the kiddies, so you can adjust to your own taste.

INGREDIENTS

- 4 naan bread (see note below)

- 1/3 cup red lentils (the wee tiny ones)

- 1 cup water

- 1 small onion, finely diced

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- 1/2 tsp tumeric

- 1/3 cup chickpeas, mashed with a fork

- 1/2 tsp chili powder

- 1/2 tsp coriander

- 1 tsp salt

METHOD

1. Rinse lentils in a mesh sieve then put in a saucepan with water, onion, garlic, and tumeric. Bring to bubbling and simmer, uncovered, stirring regularly, until lentils are cooked and starting to break down into a paste.

2. Add mashed chickpeas and spices according to taste. Stir well and remove from heat.

3. Spread half of the lentil mixture on a piece of naan. Top with a second piece then cut into 6 triangles. Repeat with remaining naan and lentil mixture.

A NOTE ON NAAN

I made the naan recipe found here and it was spectacular. The dough is easy to make and the method makes for a light, puffy, and slightly crisp naan. Just sub soy yogurt for dairy yogurt, and melted Earth Balance for the ghee. Also, after rolling out the naan, let them sit for 20 mins on the counter--this will help them puff up in the oven. I removed my naan from the oven about 30 seconds after they puffed up so the top was still soft.

Chocolate Strawberry Cake Roll with Mousse Filling

This is a celebration cake for my VegNews Top Blog honour, and a thank you to myself for the hours spent baking for the street fair (nothing like thanking yourself for baking by doing more baking!). Back in the day I used to make a cake sort of like this with a whipped cream filling. I have never tried my hand at vegan whipped cream (I think I saw a recipe once with a coconut milk base), but I tagged this Chocolate Mousse recipe from Have Cake, Will Travel a while back thinking it would be perfect for this kind of cake. Now, while I am comfortable baking bread I am not well versed in the ways of the cake. I searched around for vegan sponge cake recipes and made various modifications as I saw fit (I still think it is too high in baking powder). Not the greatest cake in the world but it did the trick and its mediocrity is masked by all the wonderful mousse filling. I really should email Isa for cake advice.

INGREDIENTS

Cake

- 2 cups self-rising flour

- 1/4 cup cocoa

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup soy milk

- 1 1/3 cup sugar

- 1/2 cup canola oil

- 1 tbsp ground flax seed

- 1/2 cup water

- 3 tbsp icing sugar

- 1 tbsp cocoa

- sliced strawberries

METHOD

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 15.25" X 10.25" baking sheet (with sides) with aluminum foil. Grease and flour the foil.

1. Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda into a large bowl.

2. Put apple cider vinegar in a measuring cup. Fill with soy milk to one cup line and stir to mix. Set aside to thicken. In a medium bowl, whisk sugar, oil, flax seed, water, and soy milk mixture until well blended.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until blended. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 15-18 mins, until cake is dry, has pulled away from the sides of the pan a bit, and springs back in the center from your touch.

4. Let cake cool on a wire rack for 3 mins. While cooling, "flour" a linen towel with the icing sugar and cocoa.

5. Put the cake (still in its baking sheet) on the counter. Place the prepared towel on top with the "floured" side in contact with the cake. Make sure the cake in centred with the towel. Put a large cutting board on top and flip the whole thing upside down. The pan will now be on top. Remove pan and foil.

6. Fold the cake up like a jelly roll in the towel along the short end. Let cool, seam side down on a wire rack.

Filling

- Make the mousse filling posted here. I used silken tofu instead of the beans (which, apparently, makes me a wuss) because I had an open container after making the lemon currant rolls yesterday. I only used a 3/4 cup to make a slightly thicker mousse. I also added all the melted chocolate at once since it was for a filling and not a stand-alone dish.

Icing

INGREDIENTS

- 6 tbsp soy milk

- 1 cup chocolate chips

METHOD

1. Heat soy milk to bubbling in a small pot. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until smooth. Set aside to cool for a few mins.

TO MAKE THE CAKE

1. Once the cake is cool, gently unroll it. Try not to fly off the handle if the cake breaks up a bit. Even when I made this with eggs it always broke up a bit. Be gentle and understanding, and remember that icing covers a multitude of cake-making sins.

2. Gently spread mousse filling over the cake and re-roll, using the towel to help you bring up the whole side at one time. Once rolled, transfer cake to a large platter or serving dish. You can trim the ends off with a serrated knife if you want the edges to look clean.

3. Spoon icing over top and use a knife or spatula to spread and smooth the icing over all of the cake. The icing will cover up any cracks that may have occurred. Use a clean wet cloth to clean up any icing that may have sullied your serving platter. Place cake in the fridge for 5 mins to let the icing set a bit, then remove and top with sliced strawberries before it sets too much. Place back in fridge and refrigerate for a few hours.

4. To serve: cut cake with a serrated knife, using a gentle sawing motion. Store cake in the fridge, covered.