Kori Runs Dogs » March

AN EXTREMELY LATE ST. PATRICK’S DAY POST.

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:07:02 +0000

Last week was hectic as the TDs had spring break and as usual, nothing to do. So, TG and I had to find them things to do, not always things they find fun to do, but fill the void. For example, clean the dog room, a necessary evil, and one the dogs do appreciate. Help with raking the leaves and cleaning the yard up. Carrying the branches away, after I trim the trees. But, it wasn’t all work and no play, they went to the library a few times and rented movies. They love dog movies, actually any Disney animal movie ever made. Played tennis, went ice skating and in return for all their hard work, scored some new shoes that they really needed.

Enough blah, blah, blah. On to the St Patty’s day feast. The TDs are not familiar with St. Patty’s Day or Irish food. So Tuesday, I thought it would be fun to try out a few recipes. I noticed SusanV from the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen and author of many of my favorite cookbooks, had a post about Colcannon puffs and at the bottom of her post had listed some more Irish dishes from previous posts. This one in particular I thought would be fitting for the TDs. Vegan corned beef and cabbage with roasted red potatoes. Please keep in mind the TDs helped in the preparation of this dish, so the 2 inch carrots are not two inches but closer to three. I used soy curls reconstituted in not beef stock for the “beef”. The roasted red pototatoes were very easy to prepare and were great dipped in horseradish sauce! The TDs and TG loved it!

Vegan Corned Beef and Cabbage. I highly recommend it!

Instead of the soda bread she listed, I googled and found this recipe from msnbc.com, the Today show did a special on what “real” Irish soda bread is. Long story short, at the bottom of the article, epicuriuos.com listed three recipes and I chose “Noreen Kinney’s Irish Soda Bread” . I must say what attracted me to this recipe, was the fact that it had wheat bran, oat bran and sunflower seeds, flax seeds, untoasted wheat germ plus it used some whole wheat flour. Thus, raising it above the usual white flour recipes. I did modify this recipe some what and veganized it as well. I used 1 cup of whole wheat and 1 3/4 cups of spelt four instead of white flour. I used Earth Balance vegan buttery sticks , instead of butter, Ener-G egg replacer the large egg (I used the amount for 2 eggs). This brought the volume to exactly 2 cups (you will understand when you read the recipe). Instead of buttermilk, I used rice enriched milk 1 3/4 cups plus 2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar, stirred well and let sit for 5 min or so. The last modification was the use of sucanant instead of the regular sugar. This bread is very wet and sticky; I used alot of flour to shape and manipulate it onto the baking sheet. But, it came out of the oven looking very rustic and smelling wonderful!

Krunsdogs, modified Noreen Kinney's Irish Soda Bread.

And another gratuitous shot of the bread.

Here it is again!

It is reallllly goooood! You must try it.

Again, I apologize for being so tardy.

Enjoy cooking and the food you create!

Crock Pizzas.

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:06:39 +0000

CROCK PIZZA

We have a restaurant in town that serves Italian dishes and my family really enjoys their crock pizzas. I don’t think crock pizzas are actually “Italian,” but I could be wrong. Anyways I digress, because I am a vegan, the number of places to eat at is very limited. I find that I can make the dishes myself, that have more flavor and imagination than anything I can get in most establishments here. This takes me back to the crock pizzas. They are great if you eat diary and meat. I know I could get the plain with sauce and no cheese, but why?? I don’t see why, I have to be limited to some mundane, pedestrian pizza that just tastes okay. Enough ranting; more pizza.

I love making these pizzas. They are fairly easy, if you don’t mind making the dough for the crust. I use french bread for the crust and modify it by adding whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour. I prefer the taste of whole grains, next time I think I will try a gluten free flour, like spelt and see how that turns out. The french bread recipe is listed below.

French Bread

2 1/2 cups water (divided; see directions below)

1 Tbsp of olive oil or vegetable oil

1 Tbsp of salt

2 1/2 tsp yeast

~5 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:

Mix yeast with 1/2 cup of 110°F water. Allow to sit for 3 min and then stir to dissolve. The next step, I use the mixing bowl from my mixer, add the oil, sugar, and salt and cover with 1 of a cup of boiling water. Once salt and sugar is dissolved, add another 1 cup of cold/room temperature water. Now add the yeast to the sugar, oil, salt mix. Add 5 cups of flour to the liquid mixture. I used my mixer with a dough hook to need the dough on medium speed for 5 min. The dough will be smooth and stiff, not too dry, add more flour if the dough seems too sticky.

Place in a lightly oiled bowl (large enough to allow the dough to double in size) and cover with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap. I let the dough rise for about 1 hour in a warm, draft free area. During the winter, I turn the oven on to warm setting and set the dough on top of the stove.

Preheat the oven to 400 °F. Once the dough has doubled, lightly oil 4 soup crocks and place on a heavy cookie sheet. I place the cheese, your favorite, grated or sliced on the bottom, vegan sausage, crumbles, what ever you prefer on you pizza. Then add the tomato sauce mix; I usually saute the onions, garlic and peppers, then add diced tomatoes or tomato sauce, with a little oregano, basil, sea salt and white pepper. Divide the dough into four equal pieces. Shape into circles or oblongs depending on the shape of your crocks, and place over the top of the crock. The dough can be divided into as much as 8 pieces. This makes a thinner crust and will cook faster than the thicker crust. I cooked this for 20-25 min at 400 °F for the thicker crust.

Remove from the oven when the crust looks brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to sit for 5 min. Take a plate, then with oven mitts, invert the soup crock so that the crust is facing down, and use a knife to loosen the edges and scoop out any remaining toppings and cheese. Repeat for the remaining 3 soup crocks. Serve with a nice green salad. ENJOY!

As you can see the dough is randomly shaped.

Enjoy cooking and the food you create!

Indian Food and Carrot Cake. mmmmmmm!

admin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:23:16 +0000

Saturday’s shopping yielded an amazing find at the ole grocery store. Portobello mushrooms on sale! So I bought 3, one each for the TDs and one for myself. TG does not like mushrooms at all. The TDs on the otherhand love mushrooms! So, I thought why not make Portobello mushroom burgers. I remembered seeing a recipe for roasted portobello mushrooms in Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. I marinaded the caps for 20 min, baked for 30 min covered. Flipped them over and cooked another 10 min uncovered. I served these up on toasted whole grain buns accompanied with a large salad. They were excellent!

Sunday I had a busy day baking and cooking. I made a batch of Dave’s Killer 100% Whole Wheat bread the recipe and video can be found here on Everyday Dish TV. This bread is everything Dave claims it to be. It is a great whole grain sandwich bread, with a suttle sweetness and nutty flavor. Give it a try!

While the sponge was proofing, I started on the carrot cake. I found a wonderful recipe on VegWeb.com and it is an “Incredible Vegan Carrot Cake”. The cake come together quickly, and you can use a mixer with out worrying about over mixing the batter. If you are looking for a carrot only cake, this is not the recipe for you. This cake has carrots, pineapple, coconut and if you want, raisins and walnuts. I of course added everything. This cake is very moist, has more substance to it than regular cakes and is a great cake to take to parties, potlucks and as a birthday cake. It reminds me of a Christmas cake, with all the fruit, but not as dense. Of course I topped it with the faux cream cheese frosting included with the recipe. The frosting makes enough to frost a 2 layer cake.

: Incredible Vegan Carrot Cake

After I had the cakes cooling and the bread baked, I started to prepare the Indian food. Because the vegetable korma has lentils in it, I started with this to give it more time to cook. I posted the recipe below.

Vegetable Korma

1/2 tsp of fenugreek seeds

3 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

1 large onion chopped

1/2 cup of shredded coconut

2 tsp of Garam masala or Punjabi Chole masala

2 tsp coriander

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp tumeric

1 – 14 oz can of diced tomatoes or 2-3 fresh tomatoes chopped

1 large potato peeled and cubed (can partially cook in the microwave)

1/2 a head cauliflower (large) cut into large bite size flowerettes

2 large carrots peeled and diced

1/2 cup of peas

1/4 tsp tamarind pulp

1. Add 1 Tbsp of canola oil to a large pan and heat oil on medium heat, add fenugreek seeds and cook until they turn brown. Add the onions, ginger, garlic and saute until golden brown.

2. Now, add the spices, tumeric, cumin, chilli powder, coriander, garam masala (or punjabi chole masala) and coconut. Mix well. Roast the spices until the spices and iol start to separate.

3. add the potatoes, tomatoes, and lentils. Add 2 cups of water and allow to simmer covered for 15 min.

4. Add the carrots and cauliflower and another cup of water if needed to cover the vegetables.Cook for another 20 min.

5. Add the peas and tamarind pulp and continue cooking until the vegetables are tender. Serve over basmati rice.

While this dish is cooking I started the paratha (Indian flat bread) dough and let it rest for 30 min. While the dough was resting I then started the vegetable kootu (recipe from the Vegetarian Times, March issue).

: Vegetable Korma, Kootu and Paratha

The TGs helped me make the bread. You have to roll out the dough into golf size balls. Dust each ball in flour and roll out into thin circles, brush with vegetable oil, fold in half and half again. Then roll out into 1/8 inch thick wedge/circles. The thickness of the final step and having enough hot oil in the pan allows the paratha to puff like a pita. If the pan is not hot enough and if the paratha is too thick or thin, they won’t puff. The TGs had the right mix. They puffed really nice and tasted great! This was an amazing meal, so many flavors and taste sensations. We even had enough left for another dinner!

Enjoy cooking and the food you create!

Cookies and Intersting Tidbits.

admin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 02:54:15 +0000

Last night I made cookies for the TDs and TG. They are from a cookbook by Jae Steele called, “Get It Ripe”. It is a wonderful cookbook that has a guide to healthy eating and contains some very tasty recipes. She uses gluten-free flours in her recipes for cookies, cakes etc. They are really delicious.

For all the horse people out there, did you know that the Montana House endorsed a bill that will encourage the slaughter of horses. They feel this will create jobs and address the abandonment of horses issue. If you want to read more click here.

On a more positive note, if you own an iPhone or a iTouch go to the iTunes app store and purchase the “Shivering Kittens” from iTunes for $2,99 and Marvel Madness (makers of this app) will donate $1 of each purchase to ASPCA form now through April. The game is a Tetris based. It is for a good cause (kittens and puppies).

Okay I am on an animal crusade. Josh Hooten—founder of Herbivore Clothing Company is biking 600 miles from Portland, Oregon to Farm Sanctuary which is near Orland, CA. He hopes to raise $10,000 to help rescued farm animals. If you are interested in donating click here.

I also want to give a plug for HelloVeggie, she is giving away a copy of “Vegan Soul Kitchen” by Bryant Terry. Just click here if you would like to win this cook book. The recipes she lists sound soooo gooood!

Enjoy cooking and the food you create.

WHERE DID THE WEEKEND GO ?????

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:36:45 +0000

Another weekend has come and gone. Sat afternoon, I made green smoothies with my new Vitamix blender. I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about, until now. This blender is amazing! The smoothie was very tasty and the TDs even liked it. I made hummus, and it was the smoothest, creamiest I have ever had. I even made strawberry rice cream (ice cream with rice milk) and it was great and so quick and easy to make. I think I am really going to enjoy this blender! Enough gushing about my new blender.

We did have the cheese burger pizza Sat night (I referred to this in my previous post). And it was really good. The oldest TD made the crust, which was a yeast free pizza crust from Sarah Kramer (the same cookbook as the cheese burger pizza). I used flax seed meal as the egg replacer. While TD made the crust, TG and I went over to our friends house to feed their cats and dogs. It takes two people to complete the task. Once we returned the oldest TD had the crust pre-cooked and ready for us to add the toppings. I used canned tomato sauce (organic), onions, pickles, morning star meat substitute crumbles and cheese of your choice. TD and TG had some jack cheese mix on theirs and I had some mozerella teese on mine. Then top the pizza with mustard, I use spicey mustard for this. Place the whole thing back in the oven and cook another 20 minutes or so until hot and bubbling. The TG just loves this and so do the TDs.

Sunday, I made black bean burgers, but modified into balls and made Italian black bean ball sandwiches. The black bean recipe I found here it is a very versatile recipe. I usually double the recipe so that I have extra burgers to freeze for quick meals. The burgers can be baked or fried, just depends on what you prefer.

The tomato sauce recipe I used was from Christina Cooks, it was very simple, low fat recipe. I used dry basil instead of fresh and the cool part is she uses a whole, peeled carrot to offset the acidity of the tomatoes. There is no need to add a sweetener. I like this recipe because I usually have the ingredients on hand and I can start it and let it simmer while I am busy preparing the rest of the meal. This time I did deviate from the recipe by adding a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes.

The accompaniments were spicy fries and steamed broccoli. I use a recipe that I found on VegWeb.com. This is a wonderful site for vegans and vegetarians. They have many recipes for vegetarian and vegans. You can post your own recipes and have others try them and rate them. I must warn you, these are very spicy. The TG finds them to be very hot. If you want a milder, spicy fry, cut out the cayenne and halve the chili powder. I use large white potatoes for TG and sweet potatoes for the TDs and myself. They are very good and lower in fat as they are baked. The broccoli was very simple. Just took broccoli, steamed it until just tender. Removed to a serving bowl, added some roasted sesame oil, a little sea salt and sesame seeds. The TDs loved it.

Last night was a free-for-all. Just eat what you want to eat. There was some sauce left over and noodles, so I made myself the obvious. One TD made herself a pasta salad and the other toasted some country loaf bread and smothered it in sauce and top it with cheese, et viola, one pizza.

Tonight is going to be a quick and easy meal. Pita pizzas, using the remainder of tomato sauce and adding our own favorite toppings. I like onions, peppers and teese then topped off after cooking with pepper flakes and fresh tomato slices. I think we will make a simple tossed green salad to go with it.