Vegan MoFo Day 26 - Tidy-up Thursdays - TVP for Caribbean patties and "bacon" bits

TVP has been cluttering my pantry for years and although it may not be the strangest pantry ingredient for a vegan to hoard I've included it in Tidy-up Thursdays as I rarely cook with it these days. By the time I came to the decision that TVP wasn't the most exciting ingredient, I had accumulated a few bags of the stuff which I've slowly been working my way through. The final remaining bag of TVP has a best before of December 2012 which doesn't deter me from using it as I don't believe this stuff can go off anyway. 

A handful of TVP recipes were spotted in my exciting new cookbook Caribbean Vegan and following the success of the first meal sampled from the book, I was very keen to give another recipe a try. I picked out some patties (filled pastries) filled with a spicy TVP mince and used frozen puff pastry sheets rather than the home made pastry in the book to shorten the preparation time. The filling was flavoured with a jerk seasoning, onions, garlic, green capsicum, curry powder, Vegemite (yay for an Aussie ingredient) and habanero chillies. I sampled the filling prior to constructing these patties and it almost blew my head off! I'm not shy about spicy food but this was right up there amongst the hottest meals I've made. We still loved the patties even those our noses were running madly but I'll be a lot more cautious when using habaneros in the future.

Another TVP based recipe which has been on my mind to try for ages is TVP "bacon" bits. I spotted this recipe in Vegan Diner where it is credited to Joni Newman, the recipe is also posted on her blog . The TVP granules are rehydrated with liquid smoke, water, salt and optional food colouring (I used beetroot powder) before being pan fried on a low heat until they are totally dried out. The "bacon" bits are very smoky and not quite salty enough for me so I would probably increase the salt next time and possibly add a touch of sweetener as well. I haven't used the "bacon" bits in a recipe yet but have plans for them in the next couple of days.

That's it for Tidy-up Thursdays! I'm not sure that my overflowing pantry has benefited much from these four posts but it was a fun exercise to find new recipes for a handful of neglected ingredients.

Around the world - Stopover 27 - Armenia

After the conclusion of Vegan MoFo 2012, I boldly stated that my MoFo theme of around the world cooking was likely to continue on a weekly basis. Three of these themed posts were published in November, followed up with two posts in December and just a single one in January. The momentum for around the world posts may have waned a little but be assured they will still appear from time to time. Armenia has proved a little challenging to cross off my list as I cooked this meal almost three months ago and never got around to writing it up!

It didn't take long to decide what to cook for Armenia, when I saw mention of Armenian pizzas called Lahmajoon my mind was made up instantly. Lahmajoon are thin based pizzas traditionally topped with minced meat, vegetables, spices and herbs. The freshly baked pizzas are drizzled with lemon juice and folded around some raw vegetables. After looking up a few recipes, I preferred the sound of one on Taste of Beirut and adapted my version from there.

I've never been much of a TVP fan, I haven't used it much and can't recall a single recipe where it has made a really good impression on me. I decided to give it another chance as it seemed like the simplest substitute and it was also a good chance to clear out the pantry a little. After the dough was prepared and in the rising phase, the rehydrated TVP was processed with onion, green capsicum/bell pepper, garlic, parsley, chilli flakes, allspice, tomato paste, paprika, roasted red pepper strips and fresh parsley to make the topping for the lahmajoon.

The original recipe stated that it made 25 pizzas so I halved the quantities for the dough and rolled it out into 12. I rolled these out in batches fitting two pizzas to a large roasting tray lined with baking paper. They only took 8 minutes to cook and while a tray was in the oven I was busy preparing the next batch.

After sampling the first batch, the salt and spice flavours seemed lacking so I added additional sat and chilli to compensate. The rest of the lahmajoon were a lot tastier with these minor tweaks. The TVP did a decent job as a meat replacement on the topping yet it still hasn't won me over. Wrapping the lahmajoon around some fresh vegetables is how they are traditionally eaten, I enjoyed them this way although the man had ideas of his own. He preferred to tear off pieces of lahmajoon and dip them into hummus.

Lahmajoon (Adapted from Taste of Beirut)

Dough

1 ¼ teaspoons dry yeast

1 ½ teaspoons sugar

¾ cup lukewarm water

2 ¼ cups plain flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ tablespoons olive oil (plus extra to coat the dough)

Place the yeast and 1/2 teaspoon sugar in a small bowl and cover with ¼ cup of lukewarm water. Stir well then set aside for 5-10 minutes until it becomes frothy.

Mix the flour, salt and remaining teaspoon of sugar together in a large bowl. Pour in the yeast mixture, ½ cup lukewarm water and olive oil. Mix until the ingredients come together then turn the dough out onto a clean bench and knead vigorously for 10 seconds. Place the dough into an oiled bowl, roll it around so it is coated evenly with oil then cover with a tea towel and allow the dough to rise for an hour or until it has doubled in size.

Filling & toppings

1 ½  TVP mince

1 ½ cups boiling water

1 small onion, roughly chopped

½ green capsicum/bell pepper, roughly chopped

¾ cup parsley, roughly chopped

1 ½ teaspoons chilli flakes

½ teaspoon allspice

3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1/3 cup tomato paste

40 grams marinated red capsicum strips

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

½ heaped teaspoon sea salt
Lemon wedges, for serving
Shredded lettuce, cucumber sticks, diced tomatoes, for topping

Place the TVP in a bowl, cover with boiling water and allow it to rest for 15 minutes until it has rehydrated. 

Transfer the TVP to a food processor bowl and add the onion, capsicum, parsley, chilli flakes, allspice, garlic, tomato paste, red capsicum strips, paprika, cayenne pepper (if using) and salt. Process until everything is finely chopped, stopping to scrape down the sides a couple of times if necessary.

Assembly

Preheat oven to 200C.

Punch down the dough, divide it into 12 even pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Cover the dough balls with a damp tea towel to prevent them from drying out. Roll a piece of dough into a very thin pizza, then place it on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Spread a thin layer of the TVP mixture almost out to the edges using the back of a spoon. Roll out another lahmajoon if you have room on your tray. Bake in the oven for 8 minutes or until the edges are browned. Continue to roll out and top more lahmajoons whilst waiting for the batches to bake.

After removing from the oven, cool for a few seconds, scatter with shredded lettuce and cucumber sticks and drizzle with some lemon juice. Fold up and enjoy!

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Did you know?

The total worldwide Armenia population is estimated to be 11 million although only 3 million Armenians actually live in Armenia! The remaining 8 million Armenians reside in other countries. Russia, the United States, France, Turkey and Lebanon have the highest populations of Armenians living outside Armenia.

Spaghetti bolognese with tofu bacon

On Sunday night, the fridge had been well stocked and my cooking plans for the working week had been pretty much established, however I couldn't decide what to make for dinner. So I asked if there were any special requests. The man responded with spaghetti bolognese and my son keenly backed this up. This was an easy peasy request which I was more than happy to fulfill as it had been quite some time since we had eaten spag bol but there was one slight catch, I didn't have a bread stick to make some accompanying garlic bread with!

To serve pasta without garlic bread in this house would be like be like serving a curry without rice. It was a bit early to start preparing dinner so I decided to bake a bread stick or baguette for the sole purpose of garlic bread. I didn't give any thought to the fact that garlic bread is best made with day or two old bread though! I had made a bread stick using half of this recipe a while ago and also found some tips on forming and baking baguettes at the same time. This is how it turned out...

When we first became vegetarian, I made a spaghetti bolognese with the Sanitarium tinned vegie mince stuff and detested it immensely. It had such a strong caramel flavour that no amount of herbs seemed to be able to permeate through. Unfortunately, the man adored it and requested it often to no avail. Not long after, I discovered a bean based recipe which over time evolved into a lentil and bean sauce and this became my go-to recipe for spaghetti bolognese for several years.

Since I have been using dried TVP recently with the main purpose of using up a bag near expiry, I decided to make up a new bolognese sauce and spruce it up with some tofu bacon that was left over from another batch of scrumptious calzones the night before. The rest of it was fairly standard to my usual sauce, although I included some home-made pesto to make up for a lack of fresh herbs.

The boys were both very impressed and scoffed it down at an alarming rate. It was one of the best vegie spag bol's I have eaten and the tofu bacon added a nice touch of smoky flavour to the sauce. The garlic bread was OK but the remaining half was a lot nicer when it was prepared two days later. The spaghetti bolognese recipe will definitely be repeated.  

Tofu bacon (Adapted from a recipe on veggieboards)

350g firm tofu
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons liquid smoke

Pat tofu dry and shave into long thin slices with a cheese slicer or cut finely with a knife. Mix remaining ingredients together in a large shallow dish then add the tofu slices ensuring they all get coated with the marinade. Place in the refrigerator and marinate for 8 hours to 2 days.

Heat a non-stick frying pan and spray lightly with olive oil. Cook slices in batches until golden brown and crispy on each side. Drain on paper towels. 

Bolognese sauce

1 cup TVP granules
1 teaspoon Massel "beef" stock powder 

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, mined
2 small carrots, diced
100g mushrooms, diced

700ml jar tomato passata

1/3 quantity tofu bacon

1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon vegan pesto
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Place TVP with the "beef" stock powder into a heatproof bowl, add the boiling water then cover and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and fry for about 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute, then add the carrots and mushrooms. Fry for another 5 minutes then add the passata, tofu bacon, oregano, pesto,  parsley and rehydrated TVP. Cook for another 10 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with cooked pasta of your choice, topped with cheezly if desired.

Spicy Chow Mein

After reading Johanna's post about Chow Mein recently, I felt seriously deprived. It was something that I had never eaten in my life before and sounded so simple yet delicious. I needed to try it - sooner rather than later!

It seemed like a pretty easy meal to throw together, and any meal that only uses one pot is always a bonus as it means less dishes to do. As well as changing things around to suit the vegetables that were available, I also substituted rice vermicelli for the spaghetti, TVP for the nut roast and used Massel "chicken" stock in an attempt to recreate some of the flavour of a chicken noodle soup packet. A couple of chillies were thrown in for some heat, however some curry powder would have been added as well if I had taken note of it in the old recipe half-way through Johanna's post.

Dinner was very popular as everyone enjoyed the chow mein immensely. The chillies added a decent amount of heat although they were not overpowering and the "chicken" stock brought a nice salty taste to the meal. TVP is something I don't use often and haven't been overly impressed with in the past. Having said that, I quite enjoyed it in the chow mein. Perhaps it wasn't as dominant as it has been in other dishes where I have used it in the past.

Although most meals don't get repeated around here these days (as I am nearly always trying something new), chow mein should get another look in when time is short and vegies are plentiful... 

Spicy Chow Mein (Adapted from Johanna's recipe)

100g rice vermicelli
1 cup TVP granules
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 bird-eye chillies, finely sliced
2 portobello mushrooms, diced
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 cups of Massel "chicken" stock
1/2 cup basmati rice
8 brussel sprouts, shredded
2 small carrots, julienned
1 red capsicum, cut into thin strips
150g green beans, chopped into bite sized pieces

Place the rice vermicelli noodles in a heat-proof bowl and cover with boiling water. After 15 minutes drain well, return the noodles to the bowl and chop roughly with a knife (I find this method easier than cutting dry noodles which fly around everywhere and make a huge mess).

Place the TVP in a heat-proof bowl and cover with boiling water. Drain excess water after 10 minutes.

Heat olive oil in an large pot. Fry the onion for 5 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and chilli and saute for about a minute then add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms begin to soften.

Add soy sauce, stock and rice to the pot.  Bring to the boil and simmer, covered for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, stir through the brussel sprouts, carrots, capsicum and beans and simmer for another 5-10 minutes until the vegetables are soft.

Stir through the rice vermicelli and re-hydrated TVP, allow to heat through and then serve.

Portobello Feijoada (Brazilian black bean stew)

OK, this may not be the most attractive meal (plus the photo is really crappy and doesn't do it justice) but what it lacks in appearance is definitely made up in flavour. 

It seems that a month doesn't pass by without me posting something from Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero. My love for chorizo sausages has been declared several times, Cindy and Michael gave me inspiration to try the delicious tofu chicharrones as well as gallo pinto (a rice and beans dish from Costa Rica) and cilantro-lime rice has become my staple rice side to serve with these wonderful Latin American meals. Prior to my possession of this wonderful tome I had almost no idea about food south of the Mexican border. Viva Vegan has given me the opportunity to experiment with different food from countries like Costa Rica, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina and Brazil as well as expanding on my Mexican repertoire.

Portobello Feijoada aka. Brazilian black bean stew with portobellos had been on my list to try for some time. It's one of the few recipes in the book that uses TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein), and as I am trying to use up a bag that is nearing expiry it was the perfect time to give it a try. Like quite a few other recipes in Viva Vegan it requires a bit of forward planning. Dried black beans need to be soaked for at least 8 hours and then cooked for 1.5 to 2 hours depending on the age of your beans. After this prep is out of the way, the rest of the meal comes together pretty easily. 

The feijoada turned out to be another success! It's a big hearty filling meal that is chock full of protein but despite this everyone managed to thoroughly clean their plates. I love black beans and find that cooking them yourself gives them a superior taste to the tinned variety and for recipes like this, the bean cooking liquid is used for a even greater depth of flavour. Terry suggested serving this with Brazilian Braised Kale and Savoury Orange Rice. I have made both of these before however none of us really liked the orange rice and I didn't have any kale on hand this time around. So I fried up some shredded brussel sprouts with some garlic and smoked paprika for our greens and cooked my favourite cilantro-lime rice. 

My only regret was that I halved the recipe. When I recently made Drunken Beans with Chorizo there was so much left over and I was the only one who could handle the spiciness. I can't recall exactly how many times I had these left-overs for lunch but it was enough that I was glad to see the end of it. So I erred on the side of caution this time, just in case we didn't like it! Unfortunately, it wasn't the case this time and I regretfully handed over the few remnants to the man for his lunch the next day. His feedback was that it tasted even better than the night before which I didn't really want to hear. At least I know for next time! 

Portobello Feijoada (Adapted from Viva Vegan)

1 cup dried black beans
1 bay leaf

1/2 cup TVP granules (recipe uses TVP chunks which I didn't have)

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small onions, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons red wine (beer or vegetable stock can also be used)
4 large portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 red chilli, finely diced
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 cup vegetable stock
salt and pepper 

Place the black beans in a large bowl, cover with water and allow to soak for at least 8 hours. Drain the beans, then rinse well and place in a medium saucepan with 2 1/2 cups of water and a bay leaf. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 1 1/2 - 2 hours until the beans have softened.

Place the TVP in a small bowl and add boiling water. After 15 minutes, drain off the excess water.

When the beans are almost ready, heat the olive oil in a large pot and cook the garlic for about 30 seconds until it sizzles. Add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes until softened and translucent.  Add the wine, beer or vegetable stock, increase the heat to a simmer and stir to deglaze the pot. Mix in the mushrooms, chilli, smoked paprika, cumin, thyme and cook for 5-10 minutes until the mushrooms have softened. 

If you own an immersion blender (which I don't), remove a cup of black beans and bean broth from the bean cooking pot and puree. Alternatively, use a potato masher to break up as many of the beans in the pot as you prefer (I kept them quite chunky). Add all of the beans, bean cooking liquid, vegetable stock and TVP to the mushroom pot, bring to a rapid simmer and partially cover, stirring occasionally. Cook for 30 minutes and then season with salt and pepper.

Remove from the heat and allow to sit for 15 minutes for the flavours to develop.

Some more pot pies...

Pot pies!!! Cold drinks!!!

OK, it's pretty cheesy but that's how I announce dinner is ready when pot pies are on the menu. Anyone who has attended an AFL game would be familiar with the youngsters prowling up and down the aisles, spruiking "Hot pies, cold drinks".

Pot pies have become almost a weekly meal of late as they are always devoured by the boys. I just love the simplicity of making the filling, topping up the ramekins and dropping a lid on top. It's so much easier than fiddling around with the pastry in a pie dish. Although we have been eating lots of pot pies, I am yet to repeat a recipe and still have plenty more on my list to try.

TVP is something I rarely cook with, however I purchased a few packets some time ago and noticed they were nearing their best before dates. Rather than let it go to waste, I used some in pot pies inspired by Cindy's recipe with a few chopped mushrooms added to the mix. My only gripe was that I used too much soy and worchestershire sauce in the gravy so they turned out too be rather salty. The boys didn't seem to mind the salt factor, in fact the man was more concerned about them being too peppery (of which I added very little) as he has an extremely sensitive palate to pepper. Nonetheless they went straight to the top of his pot pie list and came second on my son's. 

These rankings were quickly surpassed by the next pot pies which did not surprise me in the least. Carla posted a roast vegetable pie recipe last year using the cheezy sauce from Veganomicon. I made this several times last winter as it was adored so much. I was slightly amused that with all this recent pot pie making, no-one had requested it. It had been in my mind to do for some time and when I declared that these were to be the next pot pies, there was genuine excitement all around. This recipe also works very well as pot pies so after my pot pie experiments are finished (if that's possible) I can see this one going onto a regular rotation over the colder months to come.