EASY CHEEZY INSTANT POWDER

great for macncheez, popcorn, instant queso, fries, broccoli sauce, cheezy rice, etc

EQUIPMENT:

Sauce or saute pan 

wooden spoon

storage container with lid

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup of chic pea flour

1/2 cup of nutritional yeast

1 tsp. of paprika

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp of vegan lactic acid (or more to taste)

(if you do not have lactic acid (sold on Amazon), add a little vinegar to a queso or macncheez sauce while rehydrating)

METHOD:

*  on high heat, salute chic pea flour, while constantly turning over for around 5-7 minutes, watch that you do not burn the flour.  Take the flour off of the stove and, after cooling, taste to make sure the "RAW, BITTER" taste is cooked out.

*  in storage container combine all ingredients and place in frig until use

Tips....

Place on popcorn or fries while they are still hot, after oil or vegan butter for the popcorn.

To rehydrate you should use fat (cheez is fatty).   I like to use vegan mayo or melted vegan butter and a tiny bit of water to make an instant cheez sauce, queso or to pour over vegan burgers or veggies.

vegan holiday links

Cheers to good eats and a peaceful holiday season

Veganize Everything:

http://veganizeeverything.blogspot.com/2013/11/vegan-holiday-re-copied.html

Vegan Dad:
http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2011/11/happy-thanksgiving.html

What the hell does a Vegan Eat?
http://veganmenu.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-hell-does-vegan-eat-for.html

Gentle Chef: (this is a purchase from a chef who is full time effort and money developing these recipes, the purchase should be well worth it)
http://thegentlechef.com

PostPunkKitchen:
http://www.theppk.com/category/recipe/holiday-thanksgiving/

breakfast potato skins

This is a mexican style appetizer / breakfast made with scrambled (either polenta or tofu), mock chorizo, potato "cheez", salsa and vegan sour cream.

Equipment:
French knife
cutting board
bottom blade blender for "potato" cheez sauce
saute pan
spatula
tongs or "chef hands"
baking sheet
oven

Wrap and refrigerate

Ingredients...(assemble the day before and refrigerate your ingredients, then throw together for breakfast)

*   One serving of "all time best cheez" from this blog.  This is a potato / oil based nacho cheez with added pickled red chili peppers, the juice from pickled pimentos and jalapeños.

Wrap and refrigerate

*   One serving of scrambled polenta or scrambled tofu, mixed with around 8 oz. of mock chorizo seitan.

Wrap and refrigerate

*  Bake or microwave up to 5-6 russet potatoes.  When throughly cooked, let cool to room temperature and refrigerate until cool.  Slice potatoes each lengthwise, and scoop out a bit of potato to just have the "skins" and around 1/2" of potato next to the skins.  Slice each lengthwise side in half after removing inside.  (wrap, refrigerate and save the inside for the all time best cheez or hash browns or twice baked potatoes)

*   Diced fresh tomatoes, green onions and cleaned and rinsed cilantro

*   Oil for sauté 




Method....Preheat oven to 350 

Heat up your tofu/polenta mixture and your vegan cheese sauce until warm or hot--set aside

Heat up around 1/2 cup oil in sauté pan until very hot (you are going to somewhat deep fry the potato skins).  Place the COLD, refrigerated potato slices in the hot oil (watch for splatter).  Using tongs, flip the potatoes after they have fried crisp.

Place fried potato skins on baking sheet, using a spoon add a healthy mixture of the polenta or tofu scramble to each skin.  When that is complete, cover with the "cheez" sauce and bake until hot and bubbly (around 15-20 minutes).

Garnish with diced tomatoes, green onions, cilantro and vegan sour cream.

buffalo plantains

Frying plantains that are not overly ripe makes a crispy and sensational vehicle for buffalo sauce!

Equipment:
oven
cutting board
french knife
saute pan
heavy duty spatula
tongs for lifting, tossing
stainless steel bowl for tossing sauce
whisk

Ingredients:

*   plantains that are not fully ripe or black (1 plantain will make around 11-12 pieces
*   oil of choice for frying

*   for medium hot Sauce

3/4 cup water

1 TBL potato starch (or corn starch or tapioca starch)

1/4 cup plus 2 TBL vegan hot sauce (such as tabasco or red hot)

1 tsp vegan margarine or vegan butter
(whisk together in saucepan and heat until thick with coating ability)

*   for ranch dressing

1 cup vegan mayonnaise

to taste...garlic powder

to taste...onion powder

to taste...black pepper

1 TBL minced parsley or dry parsley

to taste...dill

to taste... a little extra lemon juice or cider vinegar

1-2 TBL vegan milk to thin out
(whisk together in bowl and refrigerate)

Method:

Carve and peel the plantains with the french knife and compost or disgard the peels.  Cut into sizable strips that you are comfortable with.  Fry in hot oil of your choice until hard, brown and crispy.  

Hold...wrapped in frig until ready to toss with sauce and eat.

Bake in hot oven when heating up and toss with hot buffalo sauce.  Serve with celery, carrot sticks and ranch dressing.

ENJOY

fast..healthy..easy..cheap..best all time vegan cheez

If you are looking for a DELICIOUS vegan cheez that costs pennies to replace melted mozzarella and melted cheddar you have found it.  Soy free, gluten free, nut free, grain free.. this recipe is the easiest vegan cheez to make; takes 10-15 minutes, requires only a blender, no hard to find ingredients, around .30 cents a big batch in 2014 u.s. dollars, holds up in frig and drizzles easily with a spoon compared to other vegan homemade cheez sauces with no gummy or stringy mess and no walking on glass, multiple equipment cooking methods with agar or powdered starches.   Also does well baked or microwaved, or as a dip.  

potato mozzarella on a slice of homemade vegan pizza, amazing! (I used homemade sunflower seed cream instead of water to make a richer tasting mozzarella)

Equipment:
Bottom blade Blender
spatula to get out of the blender
covered bowl for storage

Ingredients…
*  1 cup of packed down russet potato baked or microwaved  (the inside of the potato, not the skin)
*  1/3 cup oil (I use canola oil or olive oil for mozzarella)
* 2-3 TBL of melted refined coconut oil for a more saturated fat mouthfeel
*  3 TBL fresh lemon juice
*  1/2 tsp salt, or more if you like
*  water (or white veggie, seed, nut, bean milk) as needed to reach melted cheese consistency, usually up to 3/4 to 1 cup of liquid

Method…
Combine in blender the 1 cup of potato, oil, lemon juice, salt and water / vegan milk (a 1/4 cup at a time), until the consistency reaches melted cheese.  Taste to see if you need additional salt, tang.   Use right away or store, covered in frig a day or 2 until ready to use.

Mexican queso with green onions and cilantro

Ideas for additions to mozzarella or white cheez sauce..
a little miso, a tsp. of nooch nutritional yeast, cider vinegar, white wine.  For richer, heavier cheez use a soy milk, cashew milk, rice milk, sunflower milk and yes, I have used cauliflower milk or white asparagus milk successfully--all turns out delicious….although this turns out delicious if you use only the ingredients I have listed.

nachos with potato cheddar and "almond tangy sour cream"

Ideas for additions to make cheddar or orange cheez sauce..
a little tomato paste or a tsp. of sweet paprika then add some steamed carrots or squash for color, a couple TBLs of nutritional yeast.  Add jalapeño pickle juice or pimento pickle juice instead of water, hot peppers, lime juice, salsa and cilantro if making nachos or mexican queso. 

tangzhong vegan rolls

I have experimented with tangzhong (japanese roux) in roll making for quite awhile now, and have finally hit the jackpot.  My older veganizations of tangzhong bread were too heavy, using soy milk or vegan milk.  I have taken my vegan parker house roll recipe, added tangzhong and the result is a roll that is moist, fluffy and stays fresh much longer (days)and does not have a dry taste when it hits your mouth.

You can see how fluffy and amazing this looks

This will make a sticky, heavy dough that seems counter-intuitive to light bread

Equipment:

small saucepan

small silicone whisk

big bowl for dough rising

plastic bag for covering rising bowl

some clean towels

bench scraper

big spoon

rolling pin

3-4 inch, or 7-8 centimeter round cup or biscuit cutter

8-9” round pie pan for placing the rolls
baking rack for cooling 

Tangzhong:

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1 cup water

Ingredients: rolls

2 1/2 tsps or 1 package of active dry yeast (not the self rising type or the pizza dough, or the bread machine type)

2 - 3 cups of all purpose, unbleached flour

1 tsp egg replacer (I use Enter-G egg replacer)

2 tsps salt

2  TBL sugar

3 TBL tangzhong

2 TBL melted vegan butter

oil spray

as needed, warm water

Use this dough to make cinnamon rolls and doughnuts!

Method…

Tangzhong:  place the tangzhong flour and water in saucepan, medium heat, and use whisk to incorporate until mixture becomes thick and pudding-like and smooth, while constantly whisking to keep lumps out.  Turn off and remove from heat when mixture reaches this consistency.  cover with plastic wrap.  set aside.  refrigerate left over cover wrapped tangzhong.

Workspace and prepping:  Have a very clean, dry, somewhat open, large workspace (like a kitchen island, or a large counter).  Have a clean towel on hand, your bench scraper and tangzhong by your side and around 2 cups flour mixed with the dry yeast, egg replacer, salt and sugar in a big mixing bowl, set aside and ready to go.  Have around 1 cup flour at the edge of your workspace, on the table top, ready to be dusted and used.

Step 1:  Add the warm (not hot) 3 TBL tangzhong to the flour mixture, then add the melted vegan butter, then start adding warm water from the tap (NOT HOT), mixing with your spoon until the mixture starts forming a dough ball.  This should just be coming together, not batter like but dough like.

Step 2:  Dust your hands and work area with the flour you have setting aside, and remove the formed mixture from the bowl, fold it over a couple times, while dusting with flour until you feel you can knead it a little without it sticking to everything (although this dough will be heavier and sticker than non-tangzhong dough).  Start kneading the dough, flipping over and pressing your palm into it, while constantly incorporating more dustings of flour for around 5-10 minutes until very much combined (yes, it will still be stickier than non-tangzhong dough).  

Step 3:  Let the dough ball sit uncovered,  then wash your big mixing bowl with hot, warm water.  Dry the bowl and put a little spray oil in the botom of the bowl.  Transfer the dough into the warm bowl, then cover with the plastic bag and set in a somewhat dark place for around 1 hour or double in volume.  Since this is a heavy dough, it must be in a warm environment to rise efficiently (warm (not hot) oven, warm bowl).  This is the first rising.  Clean up the workspace with the bench scraper and leave the flour pile to use for the 2nd rising.

Step 4:  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, at least 1/2 hour before this step

Step 5:  Second rising:  take the dough out of the bowl and press down on it and start kneading again, while incorporating flour, until it is getting kind of hard to knead, approx. 5-10 minutes?  Dust with flour and rollout with rolling pin until around 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) depth.  Cut into as many rounds as you can get with the bisquit cutter or cup, then fold each round in half and pinch somewhat together and place in oiled pie pan (they will rise and stick to each other and become pull apart rolls).  ALTERNATELY, make vegan burger or hotdog rolls by shaping into the desired shape.  Cover with plastic bag, again, and let rise for another 1/2 hour - 45 minutes or until doubled again.  Since this dough is heavy, it must be in a very warm environment to rise (warm (not hot) oven turned off)

Ahhh, you have never had a hotdog roll quite like these, promise.  This is a field roast vegan frankfurter and if you have never had one, you must…they are absolutely delicious

Step 6:  Place in oven, and bake until nice and light brown (watch that you do not burn) , approximately 20 minutes. Remove from oven, place on baking rack until completely cool,  spray with oil for that nice gloss and serve.

Store in tight plastic bags overnight when completely cool or freeze.

non-dairy formulary cookbook

These pictures and creations deserve their own blog post.   My book is on the way:


http://thegentlechef.com/NonDairyFormularyGallery.php

raw spring slaw

Its been a long time since my last post.  Decided to post this method of eating raw veggies because the size and slices of the veggies with the homemade sauces are easy, fast, cheap, healthy and delicious.  I have incorporated the raw vegan nut cheese "sauce" into some of the dressings, and will follow soon with the recipes.  I will cover the easy method of making the slaw if you have the right equipment (mandoline).

This slaw is drizzled with raw cheddary mexican sauce

Equipment:
Large ceramic or glass bowl for storage
Tongs (chef hands) to toss and move slices around
Bench Scrapper to get all the slices off of countertop or cutting board
Mandoline (The picture shows the good grips mandoline, which I love,especially for around $40, as of 2013)


cutting board
french knife or cleaver
time to clean up after your prep

Ingredients:
"Any edible raw veggies you desire"
I used...fresh and washed, patted dry

• Carrots
• Red Cabbage
• Zucchini
• Red Onion
• Cilantro
• Spinach (sliced and added before eating)

Method...
*  Clean countertop and work area
*  Have your veggies washed, peeled if necessary, and ready to shred
*  Use the mandoline to make very small long slices of the of the veggies.  Mix all veggies together with tongs (except leafy greens or water heavy veggies like tomatoes, wait until ready to eat to mix those in with slaw). 
*  Store the slaw in ceramic or glass bowl with wrap on top in frig.  Will keep for a few to 4, 5 days.

 This will happen very fast, 1 zucchini takes around 5 seconds to shred.  
*  The biggest part of this is cleaning up the kitchen after all the prep.  Use vinegar and baking soda to clean the garbage disposal if you used that for peels and scraps.  If not, remember to take the compost out (ants can smell a good salad:--))

vegan swedish meatballs

Equipment:
big mixing bowl
steamer (bamboo and wok or purchased steamer) or slow cooker (crock pot)
sauté pan
big mixing bowl
french knife and cutting board

same method as my "phillystyle vegan meatballs" with different spices, non-vegans will not know the difference, promise

1 cup TVP (texturized vegetable protein, found in most health food stores)

3/4 cup water

1 TBL soy sauce

1 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 TBL italian flat leaf parsley, washed and minced (fresh if you have it, if not use dry)

1 tsp black pepper

2 TBL minced onion, fresh

2 1/2 TBL vegan butter melted (or 3 TBL safflower oil)

1/2 cup unsweetened vegan milk 

3 slices cubed whole wheat bread

1/2 cup gluten flour or more to make very dense

to taste...salt

Method:  wash hands, or link to slow cooker method

Place TVP in the saucepan with water and soy sauce.

Rehydrate the TVP in the water and soy sauce, under medium heat , and let cool to warm, set aside

Set up the bamboo steamer with foil or corn husks and let the under water boil

Place all ingredients except gluten flour, in mixing bowl and mix with hands, add the gluten flour and mix with hands very, very well, adding additional gluten flour to make very dense and heavy (don’t worry, it will turn out light, fluffy and not fall apart)

Form very small swedish meatballs and place in steamer and steam on high heat for around 15 minutes each side.  turn each meatball over with tongs half way through steaming

 Place in sauté pan and fry to a crisp, brown outside, then place directly in stroganofff sauce in slow cooker

"serve over greens and noodles as a meal, or as an appetizer alone with toothpicks"

hummus

had to post my version of hummus, made with fresh tahini...

use instead of mayo, margarine or cheez dips

Equipment:

food processor

spatula

bowl for storage

Ingredients...
•   1, 16oz. can of chic peas drained (okay, I know i'll get a lot of grief for recommending canned chic peas, but I have tried making hummus with fresh pressure cooked chic peas (not hulled) and both my partner and I like the canned results much better, sorry)
•   1/2 cup jar peeled, sliced pimento or.. 1/2 cup skinned sliced bell pepper
•   2 tsp fresh lemon juice
•   1/2 cup fresh tahini  (in our opinion, the fresh tahini made all the difference)
•   water, as needed
salt...to taste
white pepper...to taste
black pepper...to taste

Method...

Combine all ingredients, except salt, black and white pepper and water and mix until very thoroughly combined.  Add water, a tablespoon at a time, until you get the desired texture...light, fluffy and wonderful.  Taste for salt and peppers and add and whip one last time.

flat bread

flat bread takes around an hour and a half off of making loaf bread or pizza bread.  this is the same recipe, but with one rising, then quickly fried.

Equipment:

big bowl for dough rising

small bowl for yeast rising

plastic bag for covering rising bowl

some clean towels

bench scraper

big spoon

rolling pin (french rolling pins are nice, no squeaky handles)

tongs for flipping flatbread

non-stick griddle or sauté pan for frying flatbread

Ingredients:

2 1/2 tsps or 1 package of active dry yeast (not the self rising type or the pizza dough, or the bread machine type)

3 - 4 cups of all purpose flour, or, bread flour

2 tsps salt

1/4 tsp sugar

as needed, warm water

as needed, olive oil or oil of choice for the bowl

Method...

Workspace and prepping:  Have a very clean, dry, somewhat open, large workspace (like a kitchen island, or a large counter).  Have a clean towel on hand, your bench scraper by your side and around 2 1/2 cups flour mixed with the gluten and salt in a big mixing bowl, set aside and ready to go.  Have around 1/2 cup flour at the edge of your workspace, on the table top, ready to be dusted and used.

Step 1:  Place the yeast into a small bowl, add the sugar, add a very small amount of warm water (not hot, warm to touch), mix with a small spoon and cover with towel for around 1/2 hour.  This doubles the yeast in volume and lets it rise, different from just proofing the yeast.  

Step 2:  Once the yeast has doubled, pour on top of the flour mixture and add more “warm” water with a spoon until the dough is coming together, if the water is not soaking into the flour, add more until it does

Step 3:  Dust your hands and work area with the flour you have setting aside, and remove the formed mixture from the bowl, fold it over a couple times, while dusting with flour until you feel you can knead it a little without it sticking to everything.  Start kneading the dough, flipping over and pressing your palm into it, while constantly incorporating more dustings of flour until it is not sticky.  Should take around a minute or two.  I learned from the youtube video on my pizza dough recipe that kneading does not matter, its the form of rising (in the plastic bag, moisture i’m assuming, that forms the gluten and the dough) This will form a soft ball of dough.

Step 4:  Let the dough ball sit uncovered,  then wash your big mixing bowl with hot, warm water.  Dry the bowl and place a little olive oil in the bottom of the bowl.  Transfer the dough and roll it around to cover with the oil, then cover with the plastic bag and set in a somewhat dark place for around 1 1/2 hours. Clean up the workspace with the bench scraper and leave the flour pile to use for the rolling.

Step 5:  Rolling out flat bread:  dust your hands and workspace with four, transfer the risen dough to the work surface and take 1/4 of the dough and roll out to the size that fits onto your sauté pan.

Step 6: Heat a little oil on your sauté griddle until griddle is hot (there are many non-teflon available nowadays).  Place flatbread down until it starts bubbling and flip with tongs until it puffs a little and looks similar to a tortilla

Let cool to room temperature before storing.  Store in plastic bags until use.  Makes great mini pizzas, toasted bread bits for dipping and delicious wraps.