Sunday, March 18, 2007

Colcannon

To use yesterday's cabbage, I wanted to make this Irish treat. I based my recipe on Eating Well's version. Since I am not doing milk right now (and never have it in the house anyway), I needed a substitute to make it a little creamy. I added a little extra butter to saute the cabbage and then used wine, broth, olive oil and vinegar. Delish!


1 half head of cabbage shredded
1 lb red pototoes

2 T. butter

2 T. broth
1/4 C. white wine
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T olive oil

salt and white pepper


Start the potatoes boiling. In a frying pan, soften the cabbage with the butter and a scoop of the potato water.

When the potatoes can be stuck easily with a fork, drain and mash. Add the olive oil and broth. Salt and pepper. Stir in the cabbage, add the wine and taste. If the tang of vinegar would be good, then add that.

Low cal, high fiber.



Verdict: B+ a tasty treat and better than plain potatoes.
Credits: Eating Well
Leftovers? Yes, potato pancakes tomorrow!

Notes: Vegan, if you skip the butter.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Pozole (or posole)

I was wishing for the food and the weather of Mexico during this horrible snowstorm and thought of this soup. This is an experimental version with tempeh, not pork.

4 dried chile guanjillo
4 cloves garlic
1 t. dried oregano
1/2 t. cumin
1 C. hot water

1 package tempeh cut in 1/2 cubes
1/4 C. soy sauce
1 T chili garlic sauce
2 limes

1 medium onion
1 qt. vegetable broth
2 whole cloves


1 can hominy
1 can black beans

olive oil
salt and pepper

Optional:
3 cups shredded cabbage
cilantro
avocado, white onion, scallions, cheese, fried tortilla strips (I didn't do any of these)

Marinate the tempeh in the soy sauce, chili sauce and juice of 1 lime.

Puree chilies with hand blender
Remove the stems from the dried chilies and cover with hot water and soak. When the chilies are soft, blend with garlic clove and oregano. I added the cumin, but recommend against it.

In the soup pot, fry the marinating tempeh in a little olive oil until browned a little and heated through. Set the tempeh aside.

Cut the onion in half and take the outer onion of one of the halves before chopping. Chop the rest of the onion. Put the whole cloves through the onion rib.

Soften the chopped onion in a little more olive oil. Add the chili puree and the vegetable broth. Drain the hominy and black beans and add to the soup. Add the cloved onion. Bring to a low boil and simmer for 20 or 30 minutes, occasionally skimming the foam off. Salt and pepper to taste (probably a fair amount of pepper). Add the tempeh and simmer for another 20 minutes. Stir in the juice of a lime before serving.


For the first bowl I put the raw cabbage in the bowl and ladled the soup over it. Later for leftovers, I just added the cabbage in the pot. Either way is good. Garnish with the cilantro. At Pancho's, they serve with many of the garnishes on the side.

Verdict: Yummy, B+.

Credits: Vegan Represent Forums

Leftovers? Yes and the flavor develops overnight.

Notes: Next time, I will not use the cumin, and will probably find hotter chilies. Or just use two or three and add some fresh serrano or jalepeno.