Tofuligans

Non-vegan stout got you down?  Tired of paying way too much for an item as necessary as beer?  Brew it yourself already!

No better way to start Vegan MoFo than to share the discovery of how easy and cheap it is to brew beer in your own home.  This isn’t really news to anybody, but I remember thinking that it was harder than described and required all kinds of special equipment and bottles and seemed like I would waste a bunch of time and money making undrinkable rotgut.  Not true at all, if you can make tea you can brew beer, and it’s delicious beer at that!

There’s a ridiculous amount of information around the web and in books about the subject and it can seem daunting to somebody who’s brewing for the first time.  I’m going to strip that all down and share the basics of how I do it in an attempt to make brewing more accessible.

There are a number of different ways to brew at home, the easiest of which is making what I refer to as beer Kool-Aid, but is more commonly known as extract brewing.  In this sort of brewing you simply mix a can of hopped malt extract with water, add yeast and let fermentation do it’s thing.  You will need some equipment to get started, which can either be purchased at a homebrewing store, as a kit or individually, or cobbled together using readily available items.

1. Bottles – I put this as number one because you need a lot of bottles, especially if you start getting a few batches going at the same time, so start saving them now.  The homebrew store folks will tell you not to use screw top bottles, but I use them all the time and they work fine.  It will save you time if you rinse your used bottles before storing them.
2. Primary Fermenter – A fancy word for a bucket that you ferment the extract/water mixture (wort) in.  Use a five gallon bucket, preferably food safe, or buy one of the garbage can looking things that the homebrew store sells.
3. Secondary Fermenter / Glass Carboy – One of those big glass bottles that look like the plastic water cooler bottles.
4. Siphon – You could just use a length of thin plastic tube for this, but I’d recommend buying a siphon with a clamp from the homebrew store.
5. Fermentation Lock – A rubber cork that fits into the opening in the carboy.  It will have a plastic valve on the top that allows air to leave the carboy, but keeps outside air out.
6. Bottle Capper and Caps – To seal up the brew after bottling.

Using a hopped malt extract allows you to brew beer without having to boil anything or make much of a mess.  It doesn’t make the most amazing beer possible, but it’s a perfect starting point for new brewers.  In the interest of eliminating discouragement, I’m only going to lay out the basic steps just to show how easy this brewing business is.  Truth of the matter is there a some things that can go wrong and a ton of variations on how to brew if you want to get a little bit more advanced.  If you get to that point, there are many more resources out there from much more informed people than myself to learn from.  These are the basic steps.

1. Sanitize – Everything that will touch your beer, from start to finish, must be not only cleaned well, but completely sanitized right before use.  I use the pink powder you get at the homebrew store.
2. Mix Wort – Take your can of hopped malt extract and combine it with water in the primary fermenter using the method stated in the extract’s instructions.
3. Ferment – Add yeast and cover the primary.  Leave it sit somewhere where it’s not too cool, dark is good too.  After a few days you should see the wort getting all foamy, that means it’s working!  Leave it in there for about five days total.  The extract you purchase will give you more specifics on fermentation times.
4. Secondary Fermentation – Place the primary on a table or somewhere higher than the floor.  Siphon the beer into the glass carboy leaving behind the sediment created during primary fermentation.  Place the fermentation lock, filled with water, into the carboy and put the carboy in the same place you were keeping the primary.  Wait for however long your extract instructions tell you, probably around two weeks.
5. Bottling -  Clean, sanitize and rinse your beer bottles really well.  Dissolve 1.5 cups of corn sugar into some warm water inside your primary fermenter.  The corn sugar is extra food for the remaining yeast which will result in a nicely carbonated beer when you pop a bottle in a few weeks.  Siphon the beer from the carboy into the sugary primary and mix it up a little.  Siphon the beer from the primary into the beer bottles.  Cap the bottles and store them outside of the fridge for a few weeks.
6. Chill and Drink! – I will assume anybody interested in homebrewing needs no instruction on this step.  Enjoy!

Now that you know the bare bones process hopefully your interest has been piqued, so get down to the store and get started!  I’m off to rack some Oktoberfest into the carboy; it’s been in the primary for far too long!

Lately I’ve been focusing on trying new foods, part of which is due to the availablitly of things here in Portland that I’ve been unble to find back home.  Collards and tamales are two things that I’ve really enjoyed, and I’ll defnitely be intensifying my search for their ingredients when I get back to Edmonton.  One inspiration for new things I’d like to try has been Hannah Kaminsky’s Vegan’s Hundred, a list of 100 foods that every vegan should experience.  I’ve tried a lot of the things on the list, but one that I was surprised to have never had was a green smoothie.  I set about correcting that as soon as I could!

I searched around the internet for a fail safe recipe, since I’ve heard that green smoothies can produce unwanted colours and textures if some of the wrong things are mixed together.  I wanted a bright green smoothie that tasted healthy but delicious.  I eventually put my smoothie fate in the trustworthy hands of Kittee, and biked off to New Seasons to procure ingredients.

The kale and spinach blended up so well, and the mango, almond milk and date had the perfect sweetness to give the smoothie great flavour while still having a wholesome taste.  I was super impressed, and have made more of them the last few days.  These smoothies will definitely be a regular for me, and I can’t wait to experiment with different ingredient combinations!

If you reside in Portland, it’s likely you are aware of the following two vegan friendly establishments.  The first is Voodoo Doughnut, where there’s always a plate of vegan doughnuts, chik o stick covered if you’re lucky!  The second is Tube, the smoky bar with the famous Professor Nanotear Muffin, an english muffin with a slice of ham tube, vegan cheese, and chipotle veganaisse, grilled up on a panini press.  Now, there’s no question that these two delicacies are delicious on their own, but, while hanging out at Someday Lounge with Jess and Maeve, inspiration struck!  In the vein of Paula Deen’s intriguingly revolting Lady’s Brunch Burger, I give to you the impromptu Ham Tube and Doughnut Sandwich!

Before we could make our sandwich dream a reality, we needed to stop by Voodoo and get our buns.  Out of the selection available for the night, it was decided that maple glazed would compliment ham in the best possible way a doughnut could.

We then headed to Tube, where we had some drinks to help us cope with the earth shattering event that was about to take place.  We also warmed up with some regular sandwiches before assembling the feature of the night.

A single doughnut on top, a mighty slab of ham tube, and half an english muffin on the bottom.  Looks amazing, right?  But how does it taste?  Believe me when I tell you that maple doughnut, chipotle veganaisse, cheese and ham go together in the most gratifying way possible!  At least for a guy who’s been drinking Hamms all night.

Some of us liked the sandwich more than others.  I chalk it up to Jen’s less refined palate.  Not everybody can appreciate cuisine of this magnitude.

Since I forgot my memory card at home, rendering my camera useless, Jess took the time to properly document our experience, even though she didn’t try the sandwich.  Thanks for the pictures Jess!

While it’s not the sandwich I would choose for a daily lunch, I appeal you Portlanders or visitors to give it a try!  Who knows, if we popularize it enough, maybe Tube will add it to the menu and we can have an authentic grilled version!  Here’s to living out our dreams!

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting the prolific vegan Sarah Kramer.  If you follow her blog, you’ll know all the different projects she always has on the go, and that somehow between it all she’s managed to write another cookbook!  This one is a pocket sized volume targeted to the traveling vegan, and is suitably titled Vegan A Go-Go.  It’s filled with reader favourites from past books, travel tips and new recipes, many of which are designed to be easy to prepare on the road, or to come along with you easily.

Sarah came to Portland to promote the book, and I went to meet her at Herbivore.  She had brought treats with her, and although prior to my arrival I had just finished a slice of pumpkin cheesecake from Sweetpea Bakery, I couldn’t resist trying one of the nanaimo bars she had made.  It had been years since I tasted this treat from my home country, but as far as I could tell, it was exactly the way I remember it!  I purchased my copy of the book, and couldn’t wait to make them for myself!

Last night was yet another TV night at Suzie and Maeve’s house, and I figured it was the perfect opportunity to try the nanaimo bars.  A nanaimo bar consists of three layers.  The first is a chocolaty crumb crust, which is topped with a layer of custard or frosting, in this case frosting with a touch of turmeric to give it the yellow colour of the non-vegan variety, and then finished off with a layer of melted chocolate.  There is no baking involoved, you just leave the tray in the fridge for a couple of hours, and you end up with this!

It’s just that easy to make your own tasty Canadian treat.  Get the book and make them for your friends, and it’s ok if you eat them for breakfast, I just did!

While enjoying Sunday brunch at Isa and Justin’s place, Michelle C asked me if I’d like to come over and make sushi for the Vegan MoFo Iron Chef Challenge.  I quickly obliged, and decided that we should make sushi filled with yam tempura, a filling that seems more common in Canada than elsewhere.  Somewhere in the discussion of temura the idea struck to batter and fry an entire sushi roll.  Was it possible?  We were about to find out!

I headed over to Aaron and Michelle’s awesome apartment and we got started with the planning.  We decided that in addition to the yam tempura filling, we would try to batter some plaintain as well!  The plantain was found at a hidden gem of a corner store near the apartment where they stock all kinds of vegan friendly ethnic foods, and plenty of plantain.

We searched for a vegan tempura recipe, and settled on this one, based solely on the mention of fluffiness.  We blanched the yam and plantain, coated it in batter, and fried it up.  The fluffiness was no joke!

It was now time to get out our sushi mats and start rolling.  We made a bunch of different varieties, filling with carrots, cucumber, avocado, veganaisse and of course the yam and plantain tempura.

The tempura, though fluffy, still rolled well into the sushi.

I made a single inside-out roll, because I had a specific goal in mind, to coat it in batter and fry that sucker up!  Here are the results, as crispy and delicious as can be!

They came out so golden, flaky and satisfying.  The batter held the oil at bay, and the rice never really got greasy as you might expect.

The sushi party was a great success and we ended up with a giant platter!

I basically blew it on the whole MoFo thing, but maybe I can redeem myself in the last half of the month.  To get off to a half-assed restart, I decided to fill out the survey provided by Jess of the famous Get Sconed! As a new blogger, I’ve never done one of these before.  We all get one free ticket to easy-postville, right?

1. What was the most recent tea you drank?

I got some bulk jasmine pearl tea from New Seasons since I’d never tried it before.  I wasn’t too impressed, as it took a ton of those little balls to get a good steep, and even then it just tasted like perfume.

2. What vegan forms do you post/lurk on?  If so, what is your username?  Spill!

You assume that if I’m nerdy enough for a blog, I’m nerdy enough to post on forums?  Well, you’re right.  I’m a member of the post punk kitchen.  If you were to explore there diligently enough you would discover my username.

3. You have to have tofu for dinner, and it has be an Italian dish.  What comes to mind first?

I read recently of a tofu meatball dish that I want to try.

4. How many vegan blogs do you read on an average day?

I check an average of five posts a day from the rss reader.  There’s always a lot of catchup to do.

5. Besides your own, what is the most recent one you’ve read?

I really dig Michelle’s blog The Spice Must Flow, so I was reading a bunch of her posts today.

6. If you could hang out with a vegan blogger that you haven’t met, who would it be, and what would you do?

Kittee, the one and only cake maker to the stars!  Her cake outreach through her website and zine has improved many a baked good of mine, and surely others.  Plus, she seems like an all around rad lady.  We would fancily decorate a giant cake, then make and dine on Ethiopian cuisine!

7. If you had to base your dinners for a week around one of the holy trilogy – tofu, seitan or tempeh, which would it be?

I can eat a serious amount of gluten.  Ask anyone who’s ever come to Padmanadi with me, or given me a giant bag of free jerky.

8. If you had to use one in a fight, which would it be?

Tempeh.  It frightens people.

9. Name 3 meals you’d realistically make with that tough protein of choice!

- Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes from Isa’s upcoming brunch cookbook.  Best tempeh dish ever!

- Tempeh bacon for BLT’s.

- Tempeh sausage on pizza.

10. What’s a recipe in vegan blogland that you’ve been eyeing?

Karla at VeganShizzle has been talking about the mac n cheeze she brought to Joanna’s potluck a few weeks ago.  I had a small taste and it was delicious, I can’t wait to make it for myself!

11. Do you own any clothing with vegan messages/brands on them?

I own the ubiquitous, in PDX anyways, Herbivore cross hoodie.

12. Have you made your pilgrimage to the ‘vegan mecca’ yet? (Portland, duh)

I have been in Portland for three weeks now, exploring, cycling, eating, cooking and taking photographs!  My pilgrimage is about to come to a close, but I will be back.

13. What age did you first go vegan? Did it stick?

I was 25 when I went vegan, after a number of years of vegetarianism.  I was struggling with a nasty cheese habit that was broken relatively easily when a friend introduced me to the book Vegan with a Vengeance, and the Post Punk Kitchen forums.  That was about a year and a half ago, and I’ve held strong.

14. What is the worst vegan meal you’ve had? Who cooked it?

The first time I used tempeh.  You know how sometimes when you come home super hungry and have no food in the house, nor the energy to create a meal from whatever meager ingredients are lurking around, it seems like a perfectly reasonable idea to eat dry cereal or bulk jerky until you feel some sort of sensation similar to satisfaction?  Well, when I was still vegetarian, I had purchased some tempeh and left it sit in the freezer until I could figure out what exactly I was supposed to do with it.  Before I had a chance to find a recipe to introduce me to the wonders of this weird frozen block, I ended up coming home from work with a need to eat something substaintial, and quick!  I fried it up until it barely staggered over the point of being warm, slapped in on a plain bun with the only condiment on hand at the time, ketchup.  It was a retched excuse for a sandwich, and it took some time before I was ready to get down with the tempeh again.

15. What made you decide to blog?

I’ve been into photography for a long time, and upon becoming vegan quickly embraced the notion of food porn.  I registered this domain a while back to have a place, other than flickr, for people around the world to gather to admire my work.  It wasn’t until Vegan MoFo coincided with my vegan pilgrimage to Portland that I decided to get off my ass and host the blog and figure out all the nerdy computer junk needed to get wordpress working.

16. What are three of your favorite meals to make?

This is hard, so these are just the first three that came to mind!

Marinated and grilled tofu.  On it’s own and in salads or sandwiches.

Pesto.  So easy yet so impressive.

Leek and bean cassoulet from Veganomicon.  Making the biscuits on top of the stew is so fun, and the results are delicious!

17. What dish would you bring to a vegan Thanksgiving-themed potluck?

Some sort of never-been-stuffed-into-a-dead-bird stuffing.  I’ve loved that stuff since I grew teeth, probably even earlier.

18. Where is your favorite vegan meal at a restaurant? How many times have you ordered it?

I’ve eaten at so many delicious places in Portland the last few weeks that my ability to ever think of anything as my favourite again has been diluted.  I’m going to leave Portland out of the equation on this one and go with an old standby, the curry mutton at Padmanadi in Edmonton.  I’ve definitely had that dish over ten times, even if you exclude buffet nights.

19. What do you think the best chain to dine as a vegan is?

Back in Edmonton nothing really stands out, so I’ll go with anything that isn’t a steakhouse.  The lack of creativity isn’t exactly surprising in a place that focuses strictly on slabs of meat cooked over fire, but is a dry baked potato seriously the best you can come up with?  It’s a shame some of the people given the title of chef.

20. My kitchen needs a………

Scale.  Well, not really, but I want a retro looking one like Isa has.  What my kitchen really needs, and would give me much more time and incentive to cook, is a dishwasher.

21. This vegetable is not allowed in my kitchen…..!

Cilantro counts, right?  Oh man, screw that stuff!  Coriander seed I can tolerate, but cilantro is banned from my kitchen.

22. What’s for dinner tonight?

I hadn’t thought about it until now, but what I’m craving is sausage in a bun with lots of sauerkraut.  I wonder what Portland has to offer?  I think I’ll go find out!

Portland, Oregon,  internationally renowned for it’s tendency to combine the great and the awesome to produce the awesomely great, has done it again.  I’m not talking about how you can drink delicious local microbrews in the movie theatre, or that putting together the words “vegan” and “bar” doesn’t even cause a double take.  What is so much more important and sausagey than that is a food making and selling cart that goes by the name of Flavour Spot.  These wacky cart dudes take a frickin’ waffle and shmear it with maple butter and then wrap the aforementioned mapled up crispy thin waffle around a couple of sausage patties.  100% vegan, and AT LEAST 100% delicious.

The waffle is the exact crispy thin kind I wish I had the iron for.  Brunchmonton patrons will be getting my version of these at the next brunch, guaranteed!  I hear Flavour Spot has been hit and miss with the availability of the vegan sausages.  I’d like to think that they’ve restocked in preparation for Vegan MoFo, and more importantly, my arrival.

Here’s Karla showing off her precious waffle.  Isn’t he cute all wrapped up like that?

Until this morning when I ate this glorious batter dream, I was unsure how to get this whole MoFo thing started.  I’ve been in PDX for almost a week now, eating all manner of ridiculously tasty and innovative vegan food.  Not to mention I’m here to work on a vegan brunch cookbook.  All these factors combined should provide me with much quality MoFo’in material, so if you somehow ended up reading this you should probably come back every day for at least the rest of October.

Oh, and Just so those of you who I left behind in Edmonton don’t get jealous, PDX certainly has it’s rough spots.  Sure, you’re usually biking everywhere while drinking vegan milkshakes, but occasionally you’re having 17 year old kidnapped prostitues burst through your door at 2:00am, or angrily lying awake as construction crews demo the asbestos laced Fred Meyer next door.  It’s cool though, I’ll take all the asbestos they want to feed me, so long as they follow it with a chocolate peanut butter milkshake chaser from Sip.

Fresh for Vegan MoFo