Chinese food - unhealthy?

Jenn on reappropriate blogs about a recent piece of desperate omgihavetomeetadeadline bit of "science" writing. And it's about Chinese food.

Carrot bonanza

In our organic veggie box this week we got another bunch of carrots. I'm not used to so many carrots. Carrots shall be my friend!

I spent some time looking for new ways for me to use carrots beyond just including them in a Mirepoix and I wanted them to be le spicey. Before I knew it, I had too many carrot recipes to pass up. I reprint them here for posterity and so I don't lose them. Y'know, apparently internet searchers love to find lists of things? It gives them great joy.

On to the untried and potentially false carrot recipes:

• Curried Carrot Soup (duh!)
• Seared jumbo scallops, spicy carrot fritters, yoghurt sauce
• Spicy Carrot Sauce (chipotle-flavored)
• Spicy Carrot Sambal
• Som Tam (Spicy Thai Carrot Salad)
• Som Tam #2 (for good measure)
• Hmong-style Spicy Carrot Salad
• Spicy Carrot Purée with Harissa
• Spicy Carrot Purée with Harissa #2 (adapted)
• Spicy Carrot Pickle (Indian)
• Spicy Carrot Chutney (Indian)
• Spicy Carrot Dip ("American")
• Broccoli and Tofu with Spicy Carrot Orange Sauce (Chinese-esque)
• Roasted Lamb Rump With Spicy Carrot Purée, Couscous & Pine Nut Ciabatta Sauce
• Sweet & Spicy Carrot Pudding
• Spicy Carrot Tahini (but where?!)

That last one, the Spicy Carrot Tahini, eluded me in recipe form, but intrigued me on the menus I saw it on.  One day, it shall be mine!

I shall try and bloggerate whichever recipe I choose for the utilization of carrottage. Gooooo beta carotene!

[x-posted]

Li-i-i-i-isa... Don't E-e-e-e-at Me! (or What Kind of Vegan Are You Anyway?)

Many readers of this blog are acquainted with my previous attempt to reduce my culinary dependence on animals, "social meat eating," in which I would eat meat if I was with company in a situation where communal dishes were being shared, family-style. This failed because I would just find many occasions to go to family-style restaurants. While my sociable eating benefitted, the animals (and environment) did not. Understandably, many friends were amused by the social-meat-eating paradigm, so open was it to accomodating my carnivorous recalcitrance. I eventually gave up on it and went back to meat-eating.

I never tried vegetarianism. I had noted with some dismay that when some I knew switched from meat-eating to vegetarian diets, their eating relied very heavily on cheese, milk and eggs.

For a while, I tried no-meat-at-home, but this shared the same flaw as "social meat eating," and I just ended up eating out a lot.

For these reasons, I decided to be a realistic vegan.

Vegan because it was difficult to logically draw the line between meat and dairy/eggs, as well as between food and other products (leather, cosmetics, etc.). Realistic because I realized that lapses and occasional exceptions were not The End OMG Total Failure. I also have to admit that I like the hard-core-ness of being vegan. In a way it's easier to explain being vegan than being vegetarian.

I liken this stance to those who realize both that lying is wrong, yet who cannot honestly (ho-ho) say that they have never told a lie, and realize that some lies are worse than others.

Another way I think of it is my animal-exploitation-minimization program, akin to the risk-management strategy when it comes to STD-transmission prevention. Frankly, coming up with a veganism that I can stick to is more important to me than being The Perfect Vegan for a few months or years, and then giving up.

How has my veganism been fast-and-loose?

1) Once a month I eat meat (I may be phasing this out)
2) If after the fact I find out that something I'm eating has animal products in it, I don't freak out or even stop eating
3) I used to eat ethical eggs from a CSA (but I have since let my share lapse)
4) Sometimes I eat snacks with animal products if someone else paid for them
5) I'll eat the free cheese at Rainbow Grocery
6) I've sneaked tastes of food with animal products in it that someone has made in their home, because I can't stand not knowing how their cooking tastes. I'm a curious (and judgmental) old bugger.

But really, my best answer to "what kind of vegan are you?" is "what kind of vegan are you?"

Fluffy Mackerel

Sometimes you stumble across something on the web that makes life just a little bit more worth living.  Other times, you stumble on to something on the web that makes you want to die just a little bit more.

In rare, special moments you stumble across the unholy marriage of both these things and it all just works.

Behold this internet gold--I give you Fluffy Mackerel Pudding!

 This gem comes to us from the Weight Watcher's recipe cards of yester year. Check them out. Oh, and you'll definitely want to recreate them, and photograph them, and upload them to flickr. Yes, you do!

by Mirandala

[hat-tip Rich, x-posted]

Cooking with fetuses!

Sort of.

In a recurring culinary interest, obsession, and/or perversion, I have wondered whether cooking an animal (for those non-veg folks out there) with it's fetus would make for a tasty culinary advancement.

Imagine if you will roasted pig with piglets basting inside. Yummy!

Anyway, it seems that a creative cook is doing something just like that: unlaid eggs.

Not everybody loves them, but ever since Mr. Barber dropped the term “embryonic eggs” from the menu in favor of “immature,” fewer customers have balked.

I love me some embryos!

[x-posted]

The "Curry Coast"

Best cooking day ever! In a day of personal indulgence I spent all Friday, 10am to 6pm cooking. Delightfully delicious!

Diced chiles and onions for the Avial

I have to give mad food props to the Demeber issue of Food and Wine, from whence all my recipes were stolen. The article is about this small inn/farm in Southwester Indian and in predictable modern foodie writing talks just enough about the land and people to set the scene for the food. Check it out,

For me the odd name evokes a dreamy paradigm of south India—an arch of vermilion bougainvillea blossoms, the sheen of lake waters interrupted by a dugout’s narrow wake and, above all, the blissful silence, broken only by birdsong, the chatter of women washing clothes along the shore and the chants from a Hindu temple across the canal.

What could be better? The food, silly! For the feasty goodness I made "Red Fish (tofu) Curry," "Curry with Potatoes and Squash," "Anu's Avial" and "Indian-spiced String Beans." Huzzah!

Pineaplle and spices

The dishes were quite good, but very different from what you're probably familiar with around Indian food. Lots of coconut, curry leaves and fresh green chiles. All the dishes were pretty fast and didn't take too much prep work--so it was cool to be able to make so many for one dinner.

I think the best one turned out to be the red tofu curry, which was sour and spicy from the tamarind in it. I replaced the called-for fish with tofu because to make it vegetarian and it turned out quite well.

Curry leaves, pepper and mustard seeds frying

Another winner was the Anu's Avial which was a vegetable and coconut mash but with no mashing, if that makes sense. It was delicious and coconutty.

Yogurt mixed into the Avial to make it tangy delicious

All in all it was a yummy success!

So I recently caved and, along with like, every single food blog (and flickr user!), got a copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World (which really could be called Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The Blogosphere). I even bought it at my local lefty bookstore (Modern Times).

Never content to use a recipe right out of a book (because I'm better than you), I decided to tweak their basic vanilla cupcake recipe, to create a pretty cupcake that looked (a little) like the one on the cover, but with something extra.

The difference was cardamom.

Cardamom is a superb dessert spice, and its creamy, sweet high note gives my baking a much needed boost of elegance. Cardamom alone, however, can be a little cloying and reedy (like a single piccolo player wheezing the melody line all by herself).

I rooted around the kitchen for something to balance it. Cloves might have been good, but my cloves had been hanging out near the coriander seeds their whole lives, and had gotten that "don't even think about using me in anything other than a curry" smell.

I ended up steeping the cardamom pods with tangerine skins in the soymilk called for in the recipe and then proceeded according to the book (omitting the vanilla).

And thus, Tangerine-Cardamom Cupcakes with Rose Icing and Pistachios were born.

The cupcakes turned out great. They're moist, they're sweet, and they're spicy. The rose in the icing is noticeable but not overpowering. My only complaint is that the pistachios are a bit underwhelming, though undeniably pretty. Perhaps I should have made them into a praline first.

Eat. At. Home.

I've resolved to make all my meals at home this week, starting today. More accurately, I won't be eating any take-out or restaurant meals this week. I have to admit, it was rough to start out with. I ended up having a clif bar for lunch and then a protein shake later in the day between classes.

For dinner, however, I made a nourishing vegan meal of quinoa and curry. In the curry there are beans, kale, carrots, and assorted mushrooms. The assorted mushrooms actually come frozen from some organic frozen veggie brand. I forget which. Anyway, they weren't great. Kale and carrots were fresh, and hence tasty. Beans were from a can and acceptable, though some of their skins were a bit tough.

I'm now a huge quinoa fan, by the way. I love the little cooked pearls, and the crunchy popping texture.