Stir-fry, take 101?

Anyone that knows me or has read my blog knows that me and stir-fries do not always get along. People assume that vegans live off stir-fry. When I go to hotels, it is almost a guarantee that I will get stir-fry for at least half of my meals (the others, of course, are pasta with roasted vegetables).

Every time I attempt to make a stir-fry, I do just as everyone says, throw a bunch of ingredients together and voila! A magical meal that always tastes great. Well, my stir-fries always turn out to be mediocre at best. However, it does not stop me from continuing to try.

So, this is my latest attempt at making this magical meal. A definite improvement and the only thing I think I would change is to add a bit more sweetness or a bit less sour.

Mango-Kale Stirfry

• Oil (I used sesame)
• 1 block of tofu, cut into triangles
• half a bunch of kale, chopped
• bok choy, chopped (I used about half of a large head. Is it called a head of bok choy?)
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, chopped (seeds removed if you aren't into spicy)
• 1 handful of chopped mushrooms
• 1 mango, diced
• 2 tsp ginger, minced
• 1/4 cup of vegetable broth
• 1-2 Tbsp Soy sauce
• Juice of 1 lime (Maybe half this if you aren't into sour)
• 1 Tbsp Mirin

So, the first thing you need to do is press your tofu. What I do is I wrap my tofu in a paper towel or a cloth and set it on a plate, then you need to weigh it down with something heavy. I usually use my kettle, filled with water. It works well. Press it for at least 20 minutes, to an hour.

Next, cut your tofu. I like to cut tofu into triangles (above). First, cut the tofu in half length-wise and then slice it width-wise into 8-12 slices. Flip the slices so they are laying flat and then cut diagonally. Simple and prettier than doing chunks or cubes.

First, prep your veggies so they are ready to go. Get the biggest wok you have an heat your oil on medium. Once hot, add the tofu and fry it for about 5 minutes or until it is golden brown. Flip it and continue to fry for another 3-4 minutes.

Now, start adding your veggies. I started with the jalapeno, kale, mushrooms and the onion. Then I added the ginger, mango and the bok choy after about 5 minutes. Once everything has started to wilt and look cooked, add the broth, mirin, and soy sauce. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring it occasionally.

Have a taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. If you want it sweeter, add mirin. Spicier, add some hot sauce or red chili flakes, salt? Add more soy sauce. Serve on top of rice.

Well, I have to say that my skills in stir-fry making have improved; if only slightly. I thought this had too much lime and not enough spice and sweetness. Considering I love lime, take that into consideration, when adding the lime juice. One day, I will find the perfect stir-fry. I give this recipe an 8 out of 10.

Anyone reading out there, help me! What makes a perfect stir-fry and why am I just not getting?? I would love to hear any suggestions, or maybe your own recipe. Alright, this will be my last post for a few days. I am about to begin a road trip and the first few days will be tricky to blog. Stay tuned though as I will be posting and blogging in about a week.

Anyone know any decent vegan-friendly restaurants in Montreal, Atlanta or Savannah? Send me a message!

Lemon Gem Cupcakes

First thing I shouted this morning... "I FORGOT THE VANILLA!!" How can you have successful cupcakes when you forget the vanilla? Well, crisis was averted, the cupcakes were OK. I did learn a lesson: Vanilla really does add depth to your baking, do not leave it out.  I think for any beginner cook, this is an important lesson. Leaving out vanilla in something like a cupcake, is like leaving out the salt. Sure the dish will probably taste fine and if you stay quiet, no one would know. However, after one taste, there is that feeling that something is missing and it is making the food fall a bit flat.

Well fine, lesson learned. I would love to to say that I purposely left if out so I would have something to write about, but the real reason is that I was baking in the middle of the night again and I did not lay out all the ingredients before I started... Again.

So this recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Isa is co-author of Veganomicon which I consider an important book for anyone's shelf. She really knows her shit. I find her recipes tend to have a little edge which is important. Here was my first attempt at one of Isa's cupcakes.

Lemon-Gem Cupcakes

• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking power
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 cup milk (recipe calls for rice, I used walnut)
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Zest

Pre-heat your oven to 350 F. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In a larger bowl combine the remaining ingredients. Then pour the dry into the wet and mix well until a light batter is formed.

Line a muffin tin with paper wrappers and fill each about 2/3 to 3/4 full (I had small wrappers, so i filled them as much as I could and it worked). Put them in the oven for 17 to 20 minutes. Let them cool on a rack completely and then frost them.

Lemon Frosting

• 1/4 cup earth balance butter, softened
• 1/4 soy milk
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cups of confectioners sugar (I needed a lot more)
• Not part of recipe: 1 tsp of lemon extract

Take the butter and cream it with a fork. next mix in the soy milk and the lemon juice until it is fluffy. Add the confectioner's sugar and mix with an electric mixture until you get a nice icing.

So, when I put the icing together, it was way too thin. I ended up adding a lot of extra sugar and I was worried that the lemon wouldn't shine through, so I also added lemon extract. I thought the icing was pretty good. My sister said it was weird on its own, but it worked with the cupcakes. So, a win I think.

I ended up adding some coloured sugar on top of my cupcakes for a bit of colour. These were good and I think they would be even better if I had remembered the vanilla! Next time I make these I think I will try adding a blueberry (yes, just one... per cupcake) to the batter right before I bake them. I think this would make them even better and I love blueberry and lemon together. It is an amazing flavour combo.

Review: Color Me Vegan

I cannot believe how long it has been since my last post! I have no excuse, but I am back now. I thought I would get back into this with finishing what I had started with the review of Colour Me Vegan, Colleen Patrick Goudreau's latest cook book (available here).

I have been using this book now for a while and I have a tried a number of dishes. Overall, I think this book is a great buy; vegan or just flirting or even just looking to add new recipes to your arsenal this book is a good addition to your shelf.

The way this book is organized is by colour rather than by meal. I have to say that there are upsides and downsides to this. First, the upside:

Organizing the book by colour first I felt took me away from restricting dishes to specific times of day. Not that I have ever followed the rules.. I have eaten pancakes for dinner, leftovers for breakfast, and pasta I feel is an any time of day snack... but I think this book forces you to rethink what should be breakfast, lunch and dinner. Colleen addresses this in her introduction and notes that the purpose of the book is to focus on the different phytochemicals found in the plant-based foods out there and the benefits found in the different colours. So instead of searching in the entree, or dessert sections for recipes, I found myself trying to make combinations of colours. In the end I had colourful and nutrient dense meals that I may not have thought of before.

Another upside to this book, is that it teaches you about the colours in food and provides tips on how to get more into your diet. As someone who is still learning about the nutritional benefits found in food, I can honestly say I learned a lot from this book.

Lastly, there is nutritional information. I have been finding that many vegan cookbooks do not have the nutritional information with their recipes and I always sit and wonder... How healthy is what I am eating? Just because a dish is vegan, does not guarantee that it is low fat (well, I suppose there is the guarantee that it is saturated fat free), low calorie. Regardless of whether you are on a diet, some people want this information and it was nice to see it there.

Now, what I did not like about this book.. Some recipes call for reserving ingredients and do not note how much. If you are like me and never fully read instructions and impulsively jump into a recipe, you will likely have mess-ups along the way... I did (See the post on the Raspberry-lemon muffin loaf!) I found a few recipes that this happened. So my advice, read all instructions before starting!

Another down-side is that it can be difficult to find things in this book. I kept flipping through and seeing things I liked, but then when I would go back, I couldn't find them. This was not the end of the world, there is an index. A lot of the recipes will be under one colour, but likely have more than that colour in them. Colleen acknowledges this and admits she had to make executive decisions on some items.

In the end I tried eight recipes out of this book. I loved all of them. Anything that did not come out right was my own fault. The book is well-balanced and has a number of recipes I had not seen before. Total score in my opinion and I highly recommend that you give it a go!

Recipes that are must-tries (and I may post on soon):

• Farro and fresh vegetable medley
• Sweet and spicy almonds
• Blueberry Buckle
• Lemon Basil Vinaigrette
• Garlicky Greens Pasta
• Lemony Pan-fried chickpeas with chard
• Raspberry Lemon Loaf
• Eggplant with sweet miso sauce

OK, that is it for tonight! Stay tuned for some new recipes another book review and new travels. I am heading east and will have full reports on my travels in Montreal, Atlanta and Savannah. Anyone reading from these areas, please send any restaurant recommendations my way!

Night all!