Hummus done right? Start with dried beans.

Nothing says summer in Chicago like lake front bike rides, White Sox wins, and mass shootings. And, from the looks of it, 2 of the 3 are in full swing as of this weekend. With temps hitting a steamy 88 degrees in early April, it seems like the right time to bring out a great recipe for Hummus. N666 is going to be mighty pissed I'm not choosing his mom's authentic Syrian recipe, but I've got to be honest, Vegetarian Times recently published a recipe I have been going ga-ga over. The secret here is to rehydrate dried beans. By doing this (instructions follow,) and using a little baking soda to soften 'em up, you will get a dreamy (can this word apply to hummus?), creamy texture.

For well over a decade, I have tried to replicate the recipes perfected by 2 restaurants – Grape Leaves in Oak Park, Il and Taza in London, England. 

While hummus, like pizza, is rarely horrible, these 2 joints have left me salivating for more. I have followed N's recipe, as well as that of other friends of mid-east descent. They've all been good, yet the texture has always been a tad too coarse for my liking. The VT recipe helps in the texture department, and we cannot eat enough of it.

Reconstituting Beans:

Time: 8 hours overnight soak; 1 ½ hours to cook, mostly unattended (Lately I have been placing the dried beans in a slow cooker for about 6 hours, which does a pretty solid job.  Freezing the beans and defrosting them allows for an easy removal of the skins.  Chick peas without skins= very smooth texture for your hummos.)

Difficulty – a breeze

Ingredients:

16 oz. Dried garbanzo beans/ chick peas (will turn out to be about 3 cups cooked)

1 T baking soda

10 cups of water to soak; more to cook

Process:

1. Measure out beans using a small scale
2. Soak beans in a large bowl of cold water overnight – they will grow
3. Bring a large pan or pot of water to a rolling boil
4. Add beans; reduce heat to low-high. Stir occasionally – you WILL need to add water as it evaporates. Cook for one hour.
5. Add in baking soda – stir. Continue to watch if more water is needed.
6. Remove from heat and strain.  Remove as many of the bean skins as possible.

Hummus Recipe:

Time: 10 minutes, with a food processor

Difficulty – no problem

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked chick peas

1/3 cup of lemon

1 clove of garlic

½ cup of tahini (it seems different brands have different flavor strengths; adjust to your liking)

1 t salt

2/3 cups of water

Process:

1. Puree warm chick peas (just after cooking and straining,) lemon juice, salt, garlic, and 1/3 cup of water.
2. Add tahini, continue to puree. Add more water as needed for consistency.
3. Chill for an hour. Add olive oil, along with other spices (paprika, cumin, and Za'atar spice blend are good options.) Serve with fresh pitas (recipe follows.)

Hummus with olive oil and Za'atar

Pita Bread, Pita Bread - I never would have thought....

Dough Balls

... I could make my own pita bread. Served warm with fresh hummus -  it does not get better. Wait for it to cool down???... not a great choice. The bread will lose it's moisture quick, so eat soon after baking for a pretty awesome experience!

Time: (For roughly 6 pitas) 2 hours 30 minutes; mostly unattended

Difficulty: eh, a little effort (you need a baking stone for this)

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups of All-Purpose Flour

1 ½ cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (can be replaced with AP flour)

3 T olive oil

2 t Instant Yeast (you can find this on shelves, in a jar, at your local market)

2 t salt

½ sugar

1 cup of water, a little more if using the Whole Wheat pastry flour

Process:

1. Combine flour, salt, yeast, and sugar. Sift together. Add olive oil and mix together with a fork.
2. Add one cup of water and knead into a slightly sticky ball. If needed, add 1-2 extra T of water. Place in a covered bowl for 1-2 hours. (You can also refrigerate and delay the rising process 1-2 days for a better flavored bread. If doing this, cover with a damp rag or paper towel. When removing from fridge, let rise for 1-2 hours.)

3. 

   Flat dough.

   When dough is ready, reform into a ball, roll out, and divide into six roughly equal pieces and roll each into a ball.  Let balls rest for 20 or so minutes.
4. Preheat oven, with baking stone inserted, to 350 degrees. Preheat for at least ½ hour.
5. Roll out each dough ball to about ¼” thickness. The thinner you roll it out the more likely you are to get a “pita pocket.” Leaving it a bit thicker will give you a hearty “Greek” style pita.
6. Once oven is heated, place 2 pitas on baking stone. Bake for 4 -5 minutes, flip, and then bake an additional 4-5 minutes.
   
   

   

   Yeah, boring pic, but I just had to show off how it inflated!  So exciting.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

The Sugary Pop of The Maritime and a Scone if the Sweet-Tooth Ain't Satisfied

The Maritime, known for a lineage which includes Cap n' Jazz, The Dismemberment Plan and The Promise Ring released a new album this past Tuesday. While the majority of music to be discussed here will fall under the umbrellas of metal and punk, The Maritime remains one of a small handful of “modern rock” bands I get excited to hear, and I have to shout it out! This new disc, Human Hearts, if you are familiar with them, continues the sweet pop tradition they have mastered, while adding a keyboard laden twist. While many people will cite their origins in the 90's emo scene as the genesis of their sound, their music grows slightly more complex with each release. Human Hearts is a more layered affair, taking solid influence from the The Cure's textured output of the late 80's, and this is executed quite well. The Maritime move back and forth between a solid rock style and laid back pop, and do so seamlessly. 4 albums into it, this band deserves the attention of anyone with an affinity for smart, well-done pop. 

Oh, and the scones – thanks Vegan With a Vengeance!

 

And if this pic from my window is any indication, spring is here... finally.

Balsamic Setian with Steamed Kale and Butternut Squash - Praise, Hail Seitan!

Making seitan on my own led to a different set of struggles. Eventually I could replicate several items I had loved as a carnivore and was happy about it. Yet, I have found that seitan worked best in roles you may not have even considered as a meat-eater. The following recipe was one I found recently on the “Working Class Foodies” site. It was a video recipe detailing how to make seitan from scratch. This recipe was at the end of the video and I've made it a number of times.

Lightly pan-fried seitan, steamed butternut squash and kale, enhanced with a little Balsamic vinegar. The flavors are subtle – the mix of the slight bitter from the kale and the sweet tang of the vinegar coupled with the minor crunch of the breaded seitan and the give of the squash leaves all senses satisfied.

The recipe takes a bit of effort – you have to work with it a good bit of the time, but if I was to serve a seitan dish for meat eaters, this would be it. It is not trying to be anything it's not – and that's why it works!

Time: about 1 hour

Difficulty: moderately, though goof-ups do not seem to affect the final dish much

Ingredients:

1 medium sized butternut squash, peeled and chopped into medium sized cubes

1 bunch of Kale

4 cups of pre-made seitan medallions

3 T Balsamic Vinegar

¾ cup of All-purpose flour

1 T corn starch

¼ cup olive oil for frying the seitan, plus 1 T more for sauteing the mix

1 t salt, more if needed

1 t pepper, more if needed

Process:

1. The first thing is too figure out how you will steam your squash and kale. Here is how I do it. Fill up a large stock pot with water; place a steamer pot in it and begin boiling the water. Peel squash, and then separate the top (long) part from the base (wide part.) Begin to chop into apx. 1” x 1” x 1” cubes. When the water has come to a boil, place chopped squash in the steamer and loosely cover. Steam for about 25 minutes – you want the squash soft but not mushy.
2. While the squash is steaming, squeeze the water out of the seitan medallions. I've had the most success wrapping the seitan in cheese cloth and squeezing the water out, over a sink. Once you have finished with this, place the seitan on a dish.
3. Begin heating the ¼ cup of oil in a large frying pan on low medium heat (4/10). Prepare the coating for the seitan by mixing/ sifting together the flour, corn starch, salt and pepper. Coat seitan in the powder. Once the pan is properly warmed, gently place the seitan in the pan, frying it about 4 minutes a side.
4. While the seitan is frying, chop the kale into thin shreds. Remove the squash from the steamer. Replace with the kale. Steam kale for no more than 5 minutes – it will be BRIGHT green and very soft. Begin heating 1 T olive oil in a second large frying pan.
5. Combine seitan and squash in the second frying pan, stirring regularly. Add vinegar and continue stirring. Add the kale and saute for about 5 minutes, sprinkling with a small amount of additional salt and pepper if desired.
6. Serve.

1. Steam Squash.

2. Pan fry seitan.

 

3. Chop kale.

4. Saute squash.

5. Saute it all.

 

6. Serve.

* By the way, this is one dish that does not do well when reheated.  Everything grows soggy, and tastes, well, bland... and mushy - yep, tastes mushy.

Sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, cavity

Ahhhhh..... vegan cupcakes! So rich – too rich? Not possible. But, you'll want to brush and floss right after eating. I snagged this recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. She runs The Post-Punk Kitchen, which is a pretty great, though enormous, vegan baking and cooking site. These cupcakes were pretty easy to make, as well as pretty darn tasty, and have certainly convinced me that I do not need eggs, nor butter, to create great desserts. Don't know if you need to own the book, but check it out at your library – it's fun.

And, yeah – she is also the author of The Veganomicon which, after the Bittman book, probably gets the most usage in my kitchen. For me, it is one of the “must-owns.”

The Last Days of Winter - A Hearty Minestrone

Minestrone

With winter taking its last gasps across Chicagoland, it seemed like a fine time to enjoy one last hearty soup for the season. Minestrone is one of those foods most will personalize to their own tastes. Here is my take – pretty basic. Butter and sage are the 2 keys in the recipe for me. It's better re-heated the second day.

This calls for a good bit of stock – it will reduce considerably. You get a lot of soup, which is great for leftovers, especially when made on a Sunday.

Time: 1 and 1/2 hours, mostly unattended

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

4 T butter                                            1 T tomato paste

1 chopped onion                                 1 potato, cubed

1 stalk chopped celery                       12 cups vegetable broth

1 large carrot, sliced                          3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 ½ cups kidney beans                       1 ½ cups (or 1 can) white (Cannellini) beans

½ cup shredded cabbage                   1 ½ t salt

2 cans stewed tomatoes                     2 T sage

pepper to taste                                   1 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Parmesan cheese                               1 zucchini, sliced
1 16 oz can tomato sauce

Process:

1. Melt butter. Saute onion, celery and carrots. After a few minutes, add garlic.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients (minus cheese,) bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat, cover, leaving a little room for steam to release. Simmer for just over an hour.
3. Add grated Parmesan cheese. Serve.

A note about the parsley. At about $2.00 a bunch, it is not cheap. However, you can freeze it for some time. Spray it down with water (not soaking, but damp.) Place in a plastic bag and keep in freezer. Not sure how long it will last, but a few weeks later will be fine. Not to mention, it is much easier to chop when frozen.

* pics? they were pretty lame.  Will get some up in the future.

Chicago Style Italian Beef Seitan

Chicago Style Italian Beef Seitan

 

Chicago Style Italian Beefs are one of those foods visitors “must-have” when visiting, along side stuffed pizza and our well-known hot dogs.... and for good reason. The flavors are simply incredible, once mixed into the saucy mess of bread, along with either hot or sweet peppers.

These sandwiches had been a long-term craving – one of those things I could have almost broken down for. Once I got the seitan recipe going well, one of my first goals was to figure this out. If I have something of a specialty, this would be it.

A few notes before we begin. When you first make your seitan loaves, add a ton of oregano and fennel, as well as a T of Hot Giardiniara to the broth. Start the flavoring early. You will need a Slow-Cooker/ Crock Pot as well. Finally, Giardiniara seems to be a Chicago only thing (as were Flamin' Hots for many years.) I've searched for it on the coasts in sandwich shops to no avail. It's a mix of olives, chopped celery, cauliflower, carrots and hot peppers, heavily salted and oiled. However, it is pretty amazing – the hot stuff is VERY hot. You can get regular as well.

Time: 2-4 hours, nearly completely unattended

Difficulty: A cinch

Ingredients:

2 prepared seitan loaves, sliced as finely as possible

3-5 cups vegetable stock (depends on the size of the slow cooker)

2 T dried oregano

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 T fennel seed

1 sliced green pepper

2 T giardiniara

some freshly ground pepper

4-6 6” French Bread Rolls

Process:

1. Put all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on high for 2-4 hours.
2. Stir occasionally.
3. When preparing to serve, slice roll and dip into the broth. Collect broth in  bread to your liking - sloppy is just fine.
4. Load up bread with seitan and green pepper slices. Add additional giardiniara to your liking.
   
   

   

   1. Sliced and ready to be slow-cooked.

   
   

   

   2. In the crock pot.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3.  Hot Peppers and all!