Recipe for some vegan, gluten-free Stuffed Peppers, just ovening in the oven in Columbus

So this is my second Stuffed Peppers recipe I have put up. The first one, a TVP based traditional, I put up back in November 2009. I had little patience for capitalization back then, and mitt d hadn't been hired on yet to proof copy for me, so typos are frequent. BUT, It was the first post to receive the a*pron tag. Which is to say, you may have noticed the "Apron" feed has all the food, a-pron being derived from appetite porn (a tag I've been trying to implement as for only really good pics). I make me think me is clever soemtimes, then I luls.

Gluten-free, check. Vegan, check. Eggplant free (apparently she doesn't like eggplant?), check. Lady Documentarian had a friend over a bit back who had a few things on her list of food sensitivities so here is a tasty, pretty allergen free dish. If you want to knock off the soy too, I would just sub out the tempeh for eggplant (though many people can eat fermented soy, i.e. tempeh, so this may not be 100% necessary), and tamari/Bragg's for 1 tsp toasted sesame oil, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar and 1 tsp salt.

Super straightforward riff on the traditional ground meat and rice and tomato sauce stuffed peppers. Went with a mustard greens, tempeh, and brown/wild rice variant that backboned on apple cider vinegar and Bragg's liquid aminos (if you have access to no-gluten Tamari, i.e. San-J, it will carry the same'ish flavor) and mirin. And some daiya for fancy. Actually, I'm not that big into fake cheese, but if you are this recipe is definitely one you should take the time to go wild on getting your daiya fix with. Basically, you can definitely kick out a cheesy rice style stuffed pepper if you really dig in with the daiya. Again, not my gig, but I can see how it could be.

So first off you start your brown and wild rice. We used a ratio of 2.5 parts water to 1 of rice, with the water being part water, bragg's, mirin, and vegetable stock with a tablespoon of soy-free earth balance. If you have a steamer type pot that will fit the rice and a steamer basket insert on top (see pic), use this one. If you don't, (a) get one because they are the radness, or (b) steam however you usually do. Cut in half or thirds down the block, then into 1/8" slices; steam your tempeh.

Once that is going, clean your big ol' bell peppers by slicing off the top and scraped out the seeds and pith from inside. You can also boil these guys for a few minutes to further remove the bitterness, but I omitted that step this time and they came out great (they still get baked). 

Finely dice an onion, sautee in olive oil until translucent, add some chopped garlic and continue to saute. While onion and garlic are cooking chop up the mustard greens nice and smallish; once onion and garlic are done pull steaming tempeh and drop in saute pan. Dose the pan with hearty splashes (the more liquid left in the pan the more the rice will get to soak up) of mirin and Bragg's, toss chopped greens into steamer. Steam for five minutes while sauteeing the tempeh, add to tempeh, stir to mix, and turn off heat. Preheat oven to 350'f.

Once rice is done, combine with tempeh and greens and a nice splash of apple cider vinegar to make pepper stuffing. Grab your beautiful peppers, drop a respectable amount of daiya in the bottom (for fun!), maybe mix some in the stuffing itself (or not, I'm not that big a daiya-head), add stuffing to pepper up to the top, and top with a few shreds of daiya. Arrange stuffed peppers on some kind of baking sheet or casserole where they are standing up on their base, and pop in the oven for about 30 minutes, or no later than the skin scorching.

Timing for the recipe is very lenient, both in terms of the rice and tempeh/greens mix, but also in baking. Whether you cook for 10 minutes or an hour, the daiya should be melted and everything else will be cooked; baking longer will help the rice absorb more flavor but may make it starchier (for better or worse, up to you).

Enjoy!

Bricks of Vegan Fudge

Very excited about getting some candy made. My oven has been broken for awhile now. Annoying, I know. Stupid pilot light. Anyway, here is a not-too-arduous stovetop task to go for.

Made some bricks of fudge. One with fresh toasted cashews and walnuts, the other with dried tart cherries and white chocolate chips. I set the fudge in bread pans. I put the tasty ingredients on the bottom, then poured the molten fudge over them.

I did a double batch and didn't realize until I was into it that the recipe was vague, also some of the sugar was granulated (one commenter tried the recipe with brown sugar, so I went with partly powdered granulated sugar) so I wasn't sure which how long to cook or at what temp. I could have googled but I was digging the double boiler, and it worked out pretty well at the end of the day.

We got to use with ice cream or straight-up mostly, and it worked somewhat because of grittiness in the fudge from the granulated sugar.

Does searing cause more or less oil to be absorbed than frying?

In continued celebration of Veg*n week on Seasoned Advice, I have a follow up on my crusted porcini comments, and general tips for frying/grilling tofu. 

Does searing cause more or less oil to be absorbed than frying?

So I gave an answer with guidance on making tofu on the grill or skillet; but a side question came up, which was to do with the chemistry of frying for me. I can see this also being of significant importance to people who decide to go veg*n due to health or weight concerns as they would be more likely to want to min-max their benefits/flavor from oil to fat/calorie intake.

Do you know a definitive answer to this one? Is the answer neither more nor less, but equal? I don't know; that's why I asked the question. Head over to stackexchange if you know the answer!

So far I got one good one:

Higher temperatures, as a rule, mean less absorption of oil because the force of the steam trying to escape from the food pushes against the oil. Here is a link to a scholarly article discussing the mechanics of fat absorption in the production of french fries (complete with a table of results and diagrams). Interestingly, the author says that potatoes deep fried at more than ten degrees Celsius below the recommended temperature of 180-185C leads to 40% higher fat uptake. I expect pan-frying leads to a much lower total uptake of fat, but I am sure the principle is the same.

How to prevent tofu from falling apart on the grill

Seasoned Advice's Veg*n week continues, back again this time with a tip for tofu;

Standard tips for browning/frying/grilling tofu;

• Ensure that you press the tofu sufficiently to remove its own moisture, marinate if desired
• Lightly dust with flour or cornstarch
• Brush oil on the grilling surface
• Specific to the case of grilling, be mindful of the gap the tofu will stretch across on the grate; it may be crumbling because it isn't strong enough or thick enough to sustain wide gaps.

Someone also mentioned skewering the tofu as an option. While this would work well, I have found a spatula, thin and metal, to be prefereable as long as the grilling surface is clean and brushed.

In following Miss Kristin's lead, I made the porcini crusted tofu from ppk's recent post. A minor, but major difference in my tofu is the temperature of the cooking surface. Some people find a medium heat preferred, and for uncoated tofu I would agree. However, when you crust anything moist, a high heat with the intent of searing is my preference.

This is doubly the case for tofu. Caveat: your taste in tofu determines whether this will be more/less applicable. I prefer a more raw texture and taste with a crunchier shell. It should be warm, but I don't want it to be a wholly dried out bean curd carcass or soaked in oil. YMMV, I liked Pittsburgh Rare before I stopped eating steak and I think that sensibility has carried over.

Searing versus a more thorough frying will lock in less oil (not only can you use less oil, but the higher the heat the lower the absorption) and give way to a crisp out side and firm inside; medium heat will allow in more fat from frying and result in more doneness conformity through the slice of tofu.

Could a cast iron skillet change its ways and be kosher for a vegan?

Apparently it's veg*n week on Seasoned Advice! Woo-hoo!

I posed a question that stems from my cast-iron skillet having been broken in by browning tri-tip steak for last September's ICS Chili Cook Off in Cincinnati. It also comes from my experience being unwilling to really ask to borrow a friend's dutch oven to make meatness a few months back. She hadn't used it for non-vegan food, and I just couldn't bring myself to ask to defile it.

So, the question is in three parts, principally, "How do I clean the porous cast-iron surface to prevent cross-contamination?" and "Is there some kind of feel good ritual (i.e. Kashering) that might give me the warm and fuzzies about serving vegan dishes from a previously treif skillet?"

Fortunately for me, the answer is YES, and I don't need to bury my beloved cast-iron in the backyard in some quasi-religious atheistic ritual. Click through to find out about libbun from a rabbi, or here to find out about the more practical approaches in addition to Parve compliance.

Winamp Pro for every Android FTW (?)

If Winamp really meant to upgrade us all to Pro for free, presumably for using Android, and perhaps realizing they'd have to cripple standard to make Pro worth buying, then I am happy boy.

As a long time supporter of Winamp on desktops (among non-open source competitors), I am psyched to have the equalizer feature on my Evo 3D.

Will it roll back to standard tomorrow? I hope not. They should capitalize on this. Winamp is the best music player on Android, integrates flawlessly with the desktop client, and has no bloated or inutile features.

I support whipping the llama's ass in spite of being vegan (I hearken to the economics and sustainability arguments the most, and free upgrades are coherent with this).

So, at the end of the day, it's a great app in the lite/free version. Pro support for no apparent reason is rad.

Try out Winamp on your phone, maybe you'll get the full version.