Every month or two, some of my vegan pals and I like to get together for a meal out or a pot luck (translation: food coma event). Last Saturday held our most recent event, hosted by the lovely Jojo at the home of her and her partner in Brighton.

I have this theory, one that dictates vegans must photograph every single thing they intend to consume. Is it a defensive method of cataloguing proof that we eat more than rice and lentils, or are we just a product of a new trend? Either way, do a search for vegan on Flickr and I promise you’ll be drooling in no time.

Among this event’s spread were a selection of brownies and cookies, nut cheeses and crackers, sausage rolls, an awesome pasta and rocket salad, potato wedges, spinach borek, rice salad, and more. My contributions included vegan fortune cookies, sun dried tomato bread and pesto cream “cheese,” plus a carrot and rosemary tart.

Vegan Jaffa Cakes

Mini Fruit Pies

The cutest food award officially goes to Sal!

Vegan MoFo Survey

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?

Bonsoy, hands down. It’s the best soy milk for coffee and most similar to milk if steamed for milky espresso beverages. For cooking I use homemade soy milk.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?

From Vegan MoFo? So far I’m looking at loads (I just got home from a holiday to India, so I’m behind), but these Tsukimi are looking pretty awesome. I love sticky rice sweets. This vegan toffee is going to have to happen at some point, too. As that special time of the month is approaching and I’ll enter into a few days of consuming things like pizza for breakfast, this beer crust pizza is definitely on the to-do list.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?

I’m not a big popcorn eater, but it’s got to be sickly and sweet if I do… toffee I suppose.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?

What do you mean? Everything I do comes out perfect!

I suppose my most recent failure would have been a complete experiment in stuff in a ramekin baked with more stuff. Its end flavour was like salty cake. To be fair it was a bit of a science experiment in how baking soda and powder worked.

5. Favorite pickled item?

I’m a big fan of quality dill pickles, but also love most other pickled things!

6. How do you organize your recipes?

Organise? People organise things? My method is to pretend I know what I’m doing and smile lots in the hopes that whatever I’ve dished up will be received as tolerable based on my faux confidence.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?

Whatever can be recycled goes down that road, but otherwise it’s the rubbish bin I’m afraid. Flats aren’t incredibly great places for compost bins.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?

This question is going to ruin my life. Seriously, three foods? How about three crates of foods? Okay, maybe aubergine, spinach, and bread (I’m ignoring the fact there are lots of ingredients in there). Wait, I need tofu too. I’m going to go ahead and steal space from MoFoers who don’t fill out this survey. Coffee, chickpeas, and vodka to drown out the sorrow we will all feel upon hearing me bitch all day about not having my entire spice cabinet.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?

I liked when, as a toddler, my mother would go outside to garden and I could climb up on the cabinets and eat all the Flinstones vitamins while watching out the window out of the corner of my eye to be sure she wouldn’t see. Then there was the time my sister babysat me while my parents went out for their anniversary. Hungry, I asked for something to eat, and the meal presented was Triscuits with wet cat food (and a small side of the dried variety). While I wouldn’t call it fond in the sense that I enjoy cat food, it’s a memory that still makes me laugh in a sick way.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?

For brands, Purely Decadent chocolate peanut butter (when I’m in the US) and Booja Booja in the UK. I think I make a pretty decent ice cream myself though.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?

Rancilio Rocky and Silvia. It’s not possible to pick just one because an espresso machine is useless without a grinder.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?

I go through phases with things like this, but I’m a huge fan of basil; Sage and rosemary in the winter months.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?

You expect my lazy arse to get up and check?

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?

Damson, blackcurrent.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?

This question assumes I have friends.

Honestly though, I don’t have people over for meals very often. But in general, I think cakes are a great introduction to the awesomeness that is veganism.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?

What a choice! The answer totally depends on what’s being cooked, but if we’re talking about what I could eat plain and unaided by any additional flavours then it’d be tofu hands down.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?

In an ideal world, I’d have all my big meals at lunch time. My best time of day in terms of ability to think is the morning, so preparing for lunch means I’m working on recipes during my most focused time of day. Unfortunately there’s this thing called work which I must make myself also do.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?

A tofu press and some cat food (not to be combined in any way). Also a pressure cooker.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.

Chili, yuba, ice cream maker

20. What’s on your grocery list?

I just went shopping today. On the list were some fruit and veg, flours, fresh yeast, tempeh, vegan cheeses, and lots of goodies for Vegan MoFo recipe ideas. Still on the list: a magical flying carpet.

21. Favorite grocery store?

Impossible to answer. I love different places for different reasons, but I love Riverford’s veg boxes. I also love little organic food shops like Seasons in Forest Row and Infinity in Brighton. I’m also a fan of the Co-operative.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.

French Macarons (that’s macaron, not the familiar coconut macaroon). I don’t even know how one would go about this as the eggs are so necessary and the texture, even using eggs, is dependent on so many factors. They are probably one of the most difficult recipes to get right even with the eggs! Two seconds too long or short in the oven and that’s it.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?

I’m bad about reading food blogs.  I mainly skim my RSS feeds and select based on catchy titles. Some which tend to grab my attention more than others are Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, Limes and Lycopene, and photo roundup sites like Tastespotting.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?

Montezuma’s chocolate is very good, and I love me some Newman-Os.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?

Saffron, perhaps. It’s one of the 3 most expensive spices in the world (vanilla and cardamom being the other two).

26. Why is it so hard to come up with questions and things to say?

Probably because I’m still recovering from being awake for 40+ hours before arriving back home from India yesterday.

So here I am, 30, sharing a birthday with one of history’s most famous political leaders in his home country. Well, not literally, because Ghandi’s dead, but India’s still a pretty cool place.

Some Vegan Mofo 2009 posts have been scheduled ahead of time, but most recipes will come further into the second half of the month. Stay tuned for some goodies though! Here’s a preview of recipes to come this month:

Channa Dhal Okara Cutlets

Yubamaki (bean curd skin rolls)

Vegan Pizza Ideas

Stay tuned

Be sure to check back for these and other new recipes to celebrate the vegan month of food. India is a dream for food inspiration, so I’ll be cooking up a storm when I’m back in my own kitchen!

What’s the point? Your point?

Over time I began to realise all the reasons I preached to myself and to inquisitive others about my vegetarian diet were in fact reasons for being vegan. I don’t believe in animal cruelty, I’m a big supporter of human rights, and I support environmental awareness and reductions of factors contributing to global warming. These are issues which negatively correspond to our industry of animals for food.

I won’t lie and pretend I’m going to be little miss vegan princess (or little miss anything which involves princesses, come to think of it). I know I won’t be as strict as many others and I know I’m not going to waste food. Should I ingest milk or eggs I won’t heave like if I found out I’d accidentally eaten meat, and I’m going to try my hardest not to be as controlling and judgemental of others.

It’s hard not to be controlling. Also hard not to be judgemental.

Vegan Month of Food

I’m taking the opportunity to announce my not-so-dirty secret because October is the vegan month of food, or VeganMoFo for short, and I’ve decided to participate.

The idea of Vegan MoFo is to blog as much as possible about vegan food for the month of October. That means posts around here will be more frequent and varied; a mix of recipes, ideas, pictures, and thoughts. I’d also like to invite anyone to ask questions or make suggestions for what you’d like to see on the site. Is there a particular recipe out there which you’d like to see veganised? Do you have a suggestion for a recipe I’ve already posted? Are you battling an insufferable case of kittens on the mind?

Drop me a note!

Who’s in need of a lesson in veganism? And just how do you convince them it’s all rainbows and happiness as opposed to bitter closed doors?

Think about your audience

Let’s face it: we want the world to give up meat. We want people to see the reality of an industry which promotes all the things most everyone in the West claims to hate, like animal abuse, world hunger and poverty, plus the excessive rise in greenhouse gases and its environmental impact. We want people to face up and be responsible.

I think the problem is often, and I’ve definitely been guilty of this, that we can be pushy as hell. Copping an attitude puts people on the defensive, however, so it’s not such a great way to get people to see your side. A little bit of patience all around has surprising results when it comes to explaining veggie reasoning to a non-veg (or even a transitioning veg).

The thing is, we all have different backgrounds, different experiences, different levels of tolerance and acceptance. We all have individual comfort zones and varying resistances to change, creature comforts and hard-set lifestyles. It’s sometimes hard to see or even acknowledge the barriers, so I figured I’d posit what I’ve observed as stereotypical populations involved and the opposing views of which I’ve made mental note over the years.

The vegetarian / vegan

• Who: This is the group with the strongest sets of beliefs, those who follow a specific set of dietary guidelines and are not likely to budge.
• Obstacles include omnivore responses like “you make everything difficult”, “well I’m not the one who’s picky”, “can’t you just pick the meat off?”, “but I like flavour in my food”, and “what could you possible eat? How am I to cook for you?”
• Advice: Try to set aside the feelings of frustration and remember the anti-veg flavour enthusiast is not educated about your foodstyle, and their own diet is likely to be quite limited if they truly cannot contemplate a veggie way of life. Suggest cooking familiar meals, like a vegan pasta dish or pie, before introducing them to scrambled tofu. Bake them some vegan brownies before offering them a glass of soy milk. Build them up slowly and then ask if they’d be willing to trust your judgement (then wow them with a tofu chocolate pie and vegan icecream). Be patient.

The recently converted

• Who: This is the group whose choice to eat veg is a new one and they may (or may not!) still be living off of dishes presented in cardboard with Quorn or Amy’s branding. At this stage you still remember the flavour meat imparts to its accompanying vegetables and you’re still learning about this new lifestyle, so you’re probably seeking simple transition foods.
• Obstacles involve pressure from friends and family who think you will die of malnutrition and think they can lure you back to the meat side. It’s also a very anxious time for a lot of people because they’re making a big decision, often alone, and have a whole new lifestyle to grasp and old habits to overcome.
• Advice: Be patient and do your research. While you can live a perfectly healthy veg life on a veg diet, it is a big change and your body will appreciate being treated well. If being hounded is a huge concern to you, show them proof from a nutritionist that your choice is in fact a very healthy and sustainable one. For meals ask friends and family to use vegan alternatives. I’ve heard many an omnivore praise a vegan meat alternative (the basics like sausages and pies especially).

The anxious but willing omnivore

• Who: Perhaps you are that person who feels veg food is dull and flavourless but you’re genuinely interested in how to feed your newly vegan daughter/friend/colleague. Your mind is open to trying something new if you’re given room to understand and learn.
• Obstacles generally revolve around accepting someone else’s choice and the potential impact on your own lifestyle.
• Advice: Please be patient. Buy a veggie cookbook and ask questions. If you’re hosting or planning anything which involves food, ask people about their dietary requirements and any specific requests. Ensure there’s no such worry as being a pain in the arse and that you want to know. If there’s only one vegetarian at a meal, think about a whole veggie-friendly meal rather than a meat-based meal with a veggie option for the one person (this can be uncomfortable for everyone). It can’t be put into words how much this means to a any veggie.

The Meat and Potatoes Dad

• Who: Arguably a veggie’s most difficult, this is the population who have made up their minds that it’s not a meal if there isn’t meat. Meals often consist of meat and two veg with often no more than butter or maybe gravy.
• Obstacles are often very difficult to overcome by both sides in these scenarios. On one hand you have someone with a value-driven lifestyle with which they will not make compromises and on the other you have an individual who’s very intent on eating what they’ve been happy to eat their entire lives.
• Advice: Remember the person with the veggie diet is more than likely doing it for moral reasons. Try thinking of it in terms of a cause that’s important to you; would you be comfortable if someone asked you to accompany them to the clinic for termination of a pregnancy? Would you feel uneasy if someone opened a packet of hazelnuts around you, the sufferer of an extreme allergy? What if your religious creed forbade a certain food or preparation and someone who knew your background brought an offending dish along to a potluck you’re hosting? Think of situations which may be uncomfortable for you but you know aren’t an issue for others and imagine the vegetarian/vegan being in that position. It’s also important to remember no one’s doing this to spite you. Try to keep an open line of communication and explain your difficulties, and request simple dishes like shephards pie, spaghetti bolognaise, and other dishes which are familiar but easily veganised.

Opinions?

Are you an omnivore currently trying to work with a vegetarian or vegan? A vegetarian or vegan sharing a kitchen with an omnivore? Do you have any additional suggestions on how to cope with the differences and difficulties presented by these situations? Leave a comment below!

Raise your hand if you can relate to this attitude. Yes, that’s right, it’s the mother-in-law, the friend’s husband, the new boyfriend, that person who has been raised on a bog standard diet of meat and two veg, and doesn’t believe there’s an alternative. Period. It’s that person who thinks all vegetarians eat are rice and lentils, a dull and bland diet with no colour nor attitude.

You and I both know they’re wrong, but how to prove it?

I want non-veggies to like veggie food, and many times I feel the mock products on the market are a poor introduction to veganism or vegetarianism for a number of reasons. First they engage the mind in thinking of substitutes rather than learning new methods and making new choices. Second they are often a poor representation of what they claim to mimic. This doesn’t mean the alternatives are poor in flavour, but that you can’t replicate steak with tofu (just as you can’t replicate broccoli by dying cauliflower green- okay, bad example, but you you get my point).

In no way am I putting down meat alternatives; I simply think it’s sometimes better to introduce an omnivore with something a bit more colourful, and that’s my point of focus for this post.

It frustrates me when someone crafts a recipe and names the end result after a type of meat of which it is about as representational as Paris Hilton is sincere. I mean, come on guys. It’s been many many years since I’ve had meat and I don’t recall its flavours all that well, but even I know batter frying tofu doesn’t make it a scallop. Why not call it batter-fried tofu?

Alas, comparisons have to exist and for this I am grateful. I love my Quorn “chicken” products and I still maintain veg sausages are better. Facon never ceases to make me happy and scrambled tofu can come darned close to eggs. A good vegetarian mince kicks the arse of beef and I have had many meat-eaters agree on this point. I list all of these foods to illustrate there is a threshold at which the claims become ridiculous. It’s one thing to call a Quorn roast a substitute for your chicken roast, but another to stretch tofu to shellfish.

Don’t get me wrong, because I use meat alternatives. You’ll even find recipes on this blog which use them, or make vague representational claims. You will not, however, find me relating cauliflower to shrimp, aubergine and mint sauce to lamb.

Really this doesn’t matter. It’s petty and relatively insignificant, right?

But here’s the thing, and I think most veggies would agree: I want non-veg people to try and to enjoy veg food for what it is and for all its possibilities.

I have met omnivorous individuals whose faces twist into a fit of disgust when I mention being vegetarian. Why? Partly because they can’t conceive of the variety we eat, partly because they have tried replacing their Sunday roast with a crap substitute, partly for a mix of these and other reasons. These are the people who want to give it a try for health reasons, people who aren’t convinced and are ready and susceptible to finding a reason to confirm a pre-conceived view of a veg diet consisting purely of bland lentils and rice. Maybe they want to confirm to themselves it’s best to go ahead and avoid change.

This is, as veggies, our hardest audience to please. Remember, these are individuals who probably repeat meals fairly frequently and have a limited repertoire of kitchen concoctions. These are, again, those who have eaten meat and two veg meals their entire lives. People who think homemade chips (french fries) are a gourmet treat.

So don’t we make more of an effort? Wow them!

Why not introduce people into vegetarianism and veganism with something that truly represents the possibilities? Go buy yourself a copy of Veganomicon or one of the Millennium Restaurant cookbooks and surprise the doubtful in-laws with a three course vegan meal to die for. Don’t grill a slab of tofu and serve it to them as “steak.” The only result that will achieve is a mother-in-law who lives in worry of you starving her poor, poor child.

Why the new look? Easy. Two reasons:  I get bored easily and times change; that is I both want things to be fresh and need to keep up with lots of boring little details that go hand in hand with being a self-employed gal working the web for a living. I won’t bore you with those details.

The biggest change, aside from the general layout, is organisational. You can now browse by ingredient and region and all of the categories include pretty pictures. Pretty pictures are always a big plus so far as I see things.

There’s a lot more I want to get done around here, and I apologise for the epic maintenance this morning (nothing ever goes as smooth as we hope).

Please share any suggestions and/or constructive criticism about the new look. I’d really appreciate it!

However…

A foolproof way to remedy a creative block in the kitchen

Oh, that’s easy. Just have a clever dad. Go on.

I have a plastic tofu press which yields a block of tofu just about large enough for one. It was great when I first bought it because I’d never made tofu prior to that point and it was a novelty. But time went on and I realised it wasn’t a very good product for a serious tofu lover. You just can’t make enough with it, for one, and it just isn’t that high of quality. It works but it’s the most bottom line press you can get, in my opinion.

I looked and looked for something wooden, something bigger, something that represented my mind’s image of the ideal tofu press. I couldn’t find it.

So I rang my father (who’s all clever and stuff with making things). I then e-mailed him some images and measurements and he knocked this up, adding a few ideas of his own. A couple of weeks later a gigantic box arrived on my doorstep and I became the proud owner of a certifiably awesome tofu press. How cool is that?

Design requests

My biggest request was a lid with a good sized handle that would sit outside of the box when pressing thin blocks of curd. This is not a traditional design, but I wanted it because the aforementioned plastic kit contained a lid which was just crap.  It was light and sat improperly on the block, with very little accessible surface area on which to place an object to aid in pressing. This meant tofu pressed with an inconsistent texture (like pockets where the liquid was not evenly pressed out).

I wanted ultimate control. The new box allows me to press the tofu to the point I determine is right for what I want as an end product. I can easily stack books or a cutting board with a bowl of liquid on top of the handle to press more (for super firmness).

Second, it’s bigger. Much, much bigger, and with a whole lot of holes for the whey to drain away (awhey? Har har. Sorry). I can press ten times the amount of bean curd as before. That’s a lot.

Yum. Can’t get enough of it. If you hate tofu, you haven’t had it fresh.

And you know how chocolate milk always tastes better from a cardboard carton than from plastic? The same applies for tofu made in a wood press versus plastic (try the chocolate milk thing though, I’m serious).

I’m excited about my finds, some of them planned purchases and others ridiculously cheap bargains I couldn’t turn down. I glanced at the Risotto book in London a couple of years ago and decided it didn’t contain enough for me to warrant buying. Likewise I looked at the Balancing Flavors book the last time I was in the US and again decided that while there were some goodies inside, I wasn’t persuaded enough to make a purchase. But then on this trip I found both of these books for $3 each. Who can resist that?

I’ve had Veganomicon on my want list for awhile, mainly based on all the awesome reviews I’ve read pertaining to what turns out to be a vegan bible. I’ve tried out one or two recipes, and I’m pleased. One day I will get around to sharing some favourites, perhaps?

I’m equally as excited about the Vegetarian Thai book, an item on which I’ve also had my eye. I handed it to my husband one afternoon with the hope that he would take some interest and, you know, get involved. He stopped at the first page to fall open and pointed without as much as glancing at the pages. What ensued, however, was a delicious Burmese style curry that I intend to make again and again.

The rest of my trip to the US was pretty uneventful food-wise. I mostly stocked up on easy goodies at Whole Foods and Trader Joes (does anyone else find it impossible to cook in someone else’s kitchen?) and made a couple of meals for my family. On Father’s Day I made enchiladas with salsa and guacamole and on another day I met some old friends for lunch and had a relatively tasty roasted vegetable salad (I hesitate because I am always weary of restaurant food in the US). That concludes my adventures in food while in the United States.

I popped home for a few days, made some cookes and icecream, and then jetted off to Amsterdam to visit friends. There I was at least able to answer to my craving for one of my few fast food cravings: Maoz Falafel. It is a weakness in which I indulge all too frequently when in Amsterdam.