Catchup

Good things I ate (or drank) in the second half of 2014:

From Vedge, Broccoli Rabe Philly Style (seriously bitter homegrown broccoli rabe [which I cut with gai lan to tone it down a bit], roasted red capsicum, porcini mayo)

 Pizza and roasted cauliflower at Pizza Domenica in New Orleans:

 Birthday/journal acceptance cake (Chocolate/root beer):

Asparagus pizza:

Enchiladas Especiales Tacuba style (wish I'd had poblanos; made do with green chillies and used rehydrated yuba sticks as chicken, and cashew cheese)

Pasta with a pureed caramelized onion / nutritional yeast sauce and cubed smoked tofu:

Pumpkin and pecan pie(s):

Home brewed saison:

Zero zero

I have made lots of pizzas, but this is the first time I've used 00 flour. The verdict: totally worth it. Or maybe the pizza gods were smiling for some other reason. Clearly I will need to do more research, where research means pizza making.

I used this recipe. I replaced some of the flour with vital wheat gluten (12 grams?) because the 00 flour was only 9.5% protein. After 1 day rising in the fridge, half of the recipe made 2 pizzas, the rest sat for a couple more days in the fridge and then went in the freezer for next time.

The first pizza was olive, pesto and homemade melting mozzarella. (I ferment the mozz a lot longer than the book calls for, and add a little bit of nutritional yeast. I think the homemade yogurt I used this time was an 80/20 soy/coconut milk blend.) This was fantastic. The crust was great, and the cheese melted really well.

The second pizza was inspired by this one. I made a bechamel with olive oil and soy milk, and added nutritional yeast, miso and a tiny bit of soy sauce. We had kale from our garden, which I tore up and massaged with oil like you would for a raw kale salad. I added a bit of parsley and spring onion, but I don't think they added much. This was really nice. Here it is, pre- and post- baking.

Carrot sofrito tacos

Here you see tacos filled with carrot sofrito and cashew goat cheese with cilantro and red onion, which we ate with a tomato/tomatillo/chipotle salsa. (I used this recipe for enchiladas with a carrot sofrito.)

The leftover sofrito made for some excellent tomato soup the next day -- quickly brown chopped fennel, and then some tomato paste, then add a tin of chopped tomato, water and the sofrito. Pressure cook for 5 minutes. Puree. Salt, pepper, done.

Padron peppers

Homegrown Padron peppers, stuffed with cashew goat cheese (from Artisan Vegan Cheese) and fried:

I only wish the snails hadn't eaten so many of my seedlings -- these were so good that the three pepper plants that survived are not enough for us. Definitely planting more (and defending them from the snails more carefully) next year.

Padron peppers are supposed to be mild, with only the occasional hot one, but so far all of the ones I have harvested have been hot. I think this probably has to do with the climate in Perth. Still, they are delicious, and not unbearably hot.

Biscuits

I just remembered these biscuits that I made a while ago. What made them so amazing was the addition of chives and homemade cashew cheddar (from Artisan Vegan Cheese).

Mac and cheese

I don't make mac and cheese very often -- maybe once or twice a year. But when a craving hits, this is the recipe I turn to. It's sort of involved (two separate 'cheese' sauces) and a bit extravagant, but totally worth it. Apparently this recipe won 2nd prize in a (non-vegan) mac and cheese contest!

Pizza with cashew cheese

There are some fake cheeses that I quite like on pizza (in the US, we liked Follow Your Heart mozzarella and Teese, and here in Australia we've had good results with Cheezly mozzarella). But now that we don't have a vegan friendly store close by, these days I have been experimenting with homemade cheeses for topping pizza.

I had some decent results combining pureed silken tofu and cashews, flavoured with miso and nutritional yeast, and sometimes some lemon juice or vinegar. But one day I had no tofu and just went with straight cashews with a little nutritional yeast and a lot of salt. I used this as the bottom layer on a potato pizza with rosemary, and it was fantastic. (I will probably keep experimenting when it comes to traditional tomato based pizzas, but for a white pizza this is perfect.)