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!

yes, i ate that

 ...and i will again. pizza cooking time tonight. I've got 25 pounds of organic, all-purpose flour waiting for me at the CCM and am going to make the hell out of some food.

Pizza #1: creamed spinach and shallots and walnuts?

L-Carnitine Brainstorming

So for people looking to boost their carnitine intake, here's two more tempeh recipes: Country Tzatziki Tempeh and Cranberry Tempeh. I haven't made them yet, they are just lunchtime riffs. Will post once I figure out what else they would need.

Spicy Peanut Tempeh & Japanese Sweet Potatoes

Mitt likes Spicy Peanut Tempeh & Japanese Sweet Potatoes topped with Mung Bean SproutsLast night I took my first wholly satisfactory foray into Asian cooking. I hade made some curried things before, which is to say I had used curry in things or even pivoted a recipe around curry. Many of those came out great. I have also done inauthentic, good-enough American cook versions of standards like Pad Thai (came out well) and General Tso's (came out terrible, but it slides by because it's not in any way authentic and it was still super spicy so there).

(*No pics on this one, but don't worry there will be soon as I'm sure I will be making it again regularly since it is not too costly or time-intensive and makes you a better person*)

There was basically no recipe for this that I used; an authentic or otherwise doctrinaire formulation would be nice, but I didn't find any scholarly resources that really laid it out. Most were just standard home fare. So, I mostly just cruised others to see if there might be any ingredients I would have been leaving out, but this is mostly just another of many variants.

I focused on using ingredients that would allow on-the-fly adjustments the most readily; you can sub things like coconut milk for soy milk if you want to get creamy and sweet from there, or add fish sauce if you want to really push the salty-savory (and eat fishes). However, when you lock in with those they carry a bit more weight and make adjustments more difficult.

Base Ingredients:

• 1 block tempeh (are you on a deliberately eleved L-Carnitine Diet?)
• 1 japanese sweet potato (creamy, starchy potato to toothsome tempeh contrast, and lots of nutrients)
• 1 cup fresh-ground peanut butter (yum)
• 8 basil leaves (yip)
• 1 pkg of Udon Noodles (nom)
• Peanut sauce: ground cayenne, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, mirin, tamari, soy milk, white vinegar, and Bragg's aminos

Instructions:

• To begin with, preheat oven to 350'f, start your pot for steaming, finely dice a medium, white onion. Sautee on low in sesame oil until very tender in a cast iron skillet. Meanwhile finely chop up 4 cloves garlic and an equal volume of ginger, add to pan (ginger could be added later as well). Add a little bit of salt for stirring all of these together. Sautee for a few minutes until soft and fragrant.
• While the skillet is going, turn around and chop your tempeh and japanese sweet potato into equally sized cubes. Toss potatoes in a roasting oil, salt, and paprika; pop in the oven until they get soft, tossing occasionally (about 30-40 minutes). Toss tempeh in steamer once it is good to go (leave about 10-12 minutes).

Essential: Use fresh ground peanut butter.

I am not talking about Jif, I am not talking Woodstock Farms Organic hippie butter. Go to your local Co-Op or Whole Foods and use the machine that grinds it out in front of you. If you have never taken advantage of this ingredient, now is the time.

• Add 3/4 (+/- 1/4) cup of fresh ground peanut butter to the skillet. Pour in some mirin and some tamari to assist in mixing. thoroughly break up the peanut butter (fresh ground is dense) while working it into the onions and liquid. This will form the base of your sauce. Top it with a bit of water and bring to a low simmer to make sure you have broken up the peanut butter and the aromatics work their way through.
• From here we will just be working through balancing the sauce to your taste buds. You will need ground cayenne, crushed red pepper, 8ish basil leaves, salt, pepper, mirin, tamari, soy milk, white vinegar, and Bragg's aminos.

Now what you will be pursuing is a creamy, sweet, spicy, savory sauce. Don't be hasty, or short yourself on tastes.

To get to creamy, you will be alternating between adding mirin and soy milk. The soy milk will add sweetness, and the sweetness from the peanuts won't go away; so you should bear in mind you will be working additively with the others, and reductively with sweet. Spiciness is up to your threshhold; add as much or as little cayenne and crushed red pepper as to get to the burn. For bonus points, add ancho powder for a roastier, toastier flavor. To get to savory you will be adding tamari or Bragg's. If you realize that you are getting all of these pretty good but they need more punch add some of the white vinegar. The brightness from the acidity should push the sauce past the thickness of the peanut and bring out the other flavors.

• Once you have it where you need it, make sure it is sufficiently salted (more vinegar as necessary as well). I waited to salt until now because I was unsure how salty the tamari and Bragg's and peanut butter would make the sauce. This applies doubly if you are using Soy Sauce instead of Tamari. Anyway, add salt and pepper to taste. Thinly slice those basil leaves into strips and then little strips and add them.
• Toss the tempeh into the sauce and cover the skillet. Let sit for 20 minutes.
• Make udon noodles using the water from steaming, being sure to salt it.
• Pull potatoes and add to sauce and tempeh mixture.
• Plate noodles (bonus points for frying first for crispy noodles), then add with tempeh and potato and sauce.
• Top with mung bean sprouts and a shake of crushed red pepper.
• Serve

This is the kind of recipe you can easily pour yourself into. It is straightforward, with few components; yet each one is a vital and elegant component. This easily became one of my favorite sauces last night. It's equilibrium is so plainly and patently straightforward as to have its own palatable viscera.

Finely dicing onions, chopping garlic and slicing frozen ginger may all seem mundane. When you are investing your every fiber of being into the knife and the board and the ingredients, however, you can transform the objects of our daily bread into a profound statement. Take the time to see every ingredient, to taste the difference each one makes; see the changes form a conversation.

Being that static particle for much of the day, the kitchen is a fantastic sanctuary to find and engage a daily regimen of ecstasis.

Carnitine and Greens Pizza

It's hard coming up with the worst names for food, but the challenge has been fun and I do it all for you.

So in yesterday's post on a Potato Pizza for Ranchers (why did I originally call it cowboys? stupid non-allusion to ranch dressing. seriously messed up that URL... re-named it and screwed up the SEO, good morning), I mentioned the second shell my dough would make. Well, actually, even after making another, thicker 9" pizza last night I probably have a third shell. w00t. Also, I mentioned something about spinach and tempeh as the basis for the next pizza. Well done and done. Beth and I agreed that the marinade could get a bit salty, so I will try to fix that, but otherwise it's a great pizza.

Here's the rundown;

• 1 package of tempeh
• Marinade: Soy, Teriyaki, Bragg's aminos, splash apple-flavored liquid smoke and tabasco, oil, apple cider vinegar, water, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, 1 dried and torn tien tsin pepper (play around with liquid balance to taste), 1 tablespoon sesame seed (toasted)
• 1 modicum thawed, frozen spinach drained
• 1 9" pizza shell, with flour and corn meal for dusting, oil for oiling bottom
• More flour, rosemary

So start by cutting your tempeh into little, flat'ish chunks and steaming for about 10 minutes. While steaming mix up marinade. You will want enough to almost completely cover the tempeh; not because you ever actually need that much marinade, but because you will be upcycling all of it. Add steamed tempeh to marinade and put frozen spinach in a plastic colander, run some lukewarm water through to rinse, press down on top to squeeze out some water, leave in sink to drain.

Go to figure drawing class at Wild Goose Creative. Buy watered down coffee after getting a seat from Leen O'Kaffe (seriously, I think he ran out of coffee, didn't feel like giving me back my cup with the 3-4 ounces in it for free, and topped it off with steamed water). Get tired of drawing tedious model doing crazy athletic poses (he did seem like a nice guy, I just didn't have the energy to keep up with him). Return home after tempeh has soaked for about 90 minutes.

Sautee the tempeh on medium heat in a bit of the marinade to firm up the flat sides; reserve remaining marinade. Remove tempeh, set aside. Throw a spoonful of the marinade into the pan and warm it up, start sauteeing the spinach. Add some paprika. Once you get a smidge of crispy on a squeak of the greens, pour all that reserved tasty marinade on top. Bring to a bubble and bubble it for a minute (as in, the metaphorical minute, around 180 seconds or however long you feel like it; not minute as in an actual 60-second incrrement). Remove spinach with a slotted spoon after the liquid reduces by about half.

Pre-heat oven to 350'f; grease 9" cast iron skillet with shortening.

Leave the remaining marinade in the pan. Hopefully you have about a cup or so. We're going to do one of my favorite things now. Turn it into gravy. YAY! So bring the marinade first to a good hard bubble all around, stirring frequently. Once the vigorousness of the boil breaks down and you've reduced the  marinade to about 1 cup, start sprinkling flour onto one half of the pan while tilting the other half down (forcing liquid down and dropping flour above). Using a fork or the slotted spoon or a spatula, gradually intergate the flour into the marinade (it should have enough oil to make a nice gravy) by working the liquid through the flour swiftly and vigorously. Of course you'll want to watch out for clots and graininess in the gravy (hence why making a roux in separately is ideal, but I wanted to minimize pans). Fold a teaspoon (or more!) of rosemary into the resulting gravy, let sit.

Lightly dust working surface for dough. Take your pizza shell and press it out against surface, lightly flour both sides. Flip it around to see what your working with. Press cast-iron skillet down on dough to stencil-cut the shell. Oil once (or both) sides of the dough; dust with corn meal and pat down. Put shell, corn meal side down, into pan. With a fork, tap down outline of peripheral crust, then poke holes through the center to inhibit gas pockets. Spread down spinach, then lay out tempeh.

Drizzle on gravy sauce (see note below), and pop in the oven at 350'f for about ten minutes; then up it to 450'f and leave it in there until the top of the crust begins to brown (or the bottom of the crust, however you like it). Cut with a knife. Serve.

NOTES: Now. Here is the point where I think it got salty:

• I don't think I sufficiently cut the rosemary gravy (my first time making it in any form, let alone a non-gravy gravy form); it packed a BIG teriyaki-Bragging-soy punch, that the spinach served to reinforce, and the tempeh couldn't hold back the flood.
• What to do? I should have reached for the marsala is what, or even some more vinegar, and turned the gravy into a sauce that I could have applied as a drizzle instead of what was more of a paste.

At any rate, the majority of bites were perfect and tasty and great and amazing; next time I make it I will just need to watch out for the punch of the marinade.

re - dinner plans: this weekend

so the cucumber salad went well, but was a little too tart for me. the couscous salad with zuccini and summer squash was ok, but nothing special. the directions below are in chronological order basically. though the directions are for 1 bowl, the tempeh, ricotta, and cream sauce were definitely enough for two. just a little bit more spinach would have made this dish easily a whole meal for two. and now, for the plate i made for my honey...

Creamed Spinach with Ricotta and Seared Garlic Tempeh (Vegan)

take one 8oz package of soy tempeh, slice laterally and then once in half; steam the tempeh for 10 mins, flipping half way through. marinate in olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, soy sauce, ginger for an hour or so, flip and leave in marinade for another 30 mins.

steam 1 bunch (3" around, de-stemmed) of spinach until wilted; strain. bring 1 cup silk, 1 lemon's worth of zest and some pepper to a boil; turn down heat to simmer, reduce sauce by half. toast pine nuts over paprika on a skillet/pan.  put 1/2 an onion in in a pan with olive oil and sautee; add spinach to toss together.

pre-heat oven to 350F. take a 14oz package of extra firm tofu, crumble by hand in a medium bowl. add salt, pepper, lemon juice, basil, toss until mixed. pour 2-3 tablespoons over top and mix by hand for about 2-3 minutes. add nutritional (1-2 tablespoons) yeast and toss with a fork.

once liquid in spinach/onion pan has simmered off, add spinach to the cream sauce (add nutritional yeast if it needs to stiffen up). grab an oven proof, wide bowl. put spinach in bowl with a nice amount of the cream; put down three tablespoons of the ricotta around the plate.put in oven for 8 minutes.

go back to sauté pan; rinse out a bit, re-oil, heat oil to medium-high, shake down some paprika and garlic powder if you want some extra kick. fry tempeh for 5-8 minutes, flipping once (or thrice if you have difficulty getting it to crisp up). pull bowl from oven. cut one of the four tempeh segments into 1/3s and plate on top of bowl. sprinkle the toasted pine nuts on top. eat it!