Mmm, bacon

Eggplant bacon from Appetite for Reduction:

Magic Shroom Dust from Hot Knives:

Smoked coconut flakes:

Zucchini cornbread

This was goo-ood.

If my usual cornbread recipes have a failing, it's that they can sometimes be a bit dry. But this one solves that problem by including a cup of grated zucchini. This cornbread was luscious!

I combined two recipes: this one from Bryanna, and this one from Herbivoracious. I think I basically followed Bryanna's proportions of wet and dry ingredients, but with white (all purpose) flour. I used Herbivoracious' trick of browning the (vegan) butter, and adding (soy) milk powder, but used much less butter -- more like 3 tablespoons.

Smoking

I got a stovetop smoker for my birthday. Since then we've been eating lots of smoked things. Probably my favourite things so far have been smoked tofu and tempeh. Here's the smoker packed full of veggie protein (marinated pressed tofu, tempeh, and two homemade seitan sausages).

For the tofu, I press it overnight and then marinate it for a day in soy sauce with a bit of maple syrup and sesame oil. Once it has been smoked for 30 minutes, it's ready to be sliced thinly for sandwiches. The tempeh just goes in plain -- once smoked, it's ready to be cooked however you like. I like to slice it thinly and pan fry, adding flavourings (soy sauce plus whatever other things) at the end for a glaze.

Other things I've smoked so far: cherry tomatoes (10 minutes), garlic, potatoes (45 minutes from raw to cooked -- too long; better to parcook them before smoking), young coconut, coconut flakes (20 minutes), lemon. The young coconut was a bit odd -- I ended up pureeing it and making a smoky ice cream which was pretty good. The coconut flakes were great as a bacon-y element in a salad. The smoked lemon I didn't know quite what to do with, so it is sitting in the freezer waiting for inspiration to strike.

Broad beans

As a kid I hated broad beans (fava beans). I was totally surprised when I moved to Massachusetts to find out how excited people got about them in the spring. I was also surprised at the rigmarole involved in preparing them: my parents always served them with the skins on, but it seems that in the USA it's normal to parboil them and remove the outer skin. I have tried them this way but it seemed like a lot of work for not much return.

Anyway, now I am a convert, thanks to my dad giving me some small broad beans from his garden. These pods are very small compared to the ones you find for sale -- they are finger-sized and so tender that you can steam them and eat them whole. They are fantastic. I was surprised especially by the aroma of the pods when I lifted the lid off the steamer -- flowery, almost rose-like.


We ate these with risotto (again, this time it was lemon risotto with tiny cubes of smoked tofu).