If you’re a fan of mock duck, you’ll enjoy this recipe.  It’s simlar to seitan, which is incredibly easy to make.

The canned stuff is imported from Taiwan – Companion brand. You can purchase it at a Food Co-op or other grocery store for $250-ish per 10 oz. can.

You can also make a couple of pounds of seitan for about $5. Preparation time is less than 2 minutes – though you will want a food processor for this to work correctly.

Seitan

Combine in a food processor:

• 2 cups wheat gluten
• 2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast (optional)
• 2 tsp. salt
• (optional) spices and flavorings to taste. Cumin, coriander, garlic powder, onion powder, sage, rosemary, thyme, and chili powder are some ideas.

Blend quickly until everything is mixed. Then mix together:

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup oil

Have another cup of water on hand.

Start the food processor and slowly pour in the mixed liquid. The gluten should form a blob… you may need to add a bit more water, but the ball of gluten should completely absorb the liquid. It should look a bit moist, but should not be juicy. Process for 1 – 2 minutes. (You food processor will wobble like crazy).

 

My standby potluck (and house party) recipes: pita bread and artichoke dip.  I’ve had a hard time perfecting artisan bread, but pitas always seem to work for me! So, here’s what I know now about “what makes a pita a pita.”

The first thing to understand about pita is why a flat pice of bread gets a pocket in the middle of it when you bake it. The answer: when you place moist dough in a very hot oven, the moisture in the dough turns to gas, pushes the dough out, and forms a pocket.

Homemade Pita:

• 1 1/2 cup water
• 3 Tbsp. sunflower oil
• 3 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. yeast
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar

I should admit: I always cheat and use a bread machine for the first part of the kneading process.

So, the first step in making pita bread is having a dough that is not too dry. In past biscuit-making adventures, I’ve encountered a lot of dough that seemed very sticky. My initial response to sticky dough was to simply add more flour – not so! If you can’t work with the wet dough, then just get your hands wet as well. The dough won’t stick to your hands, and as long as you put enough flour on the surface you plan to set the dough on, you’ll be just fine. (By the way, this “moist dough” theory seems to apply to a lot of artisan breads as well).

This recipe makes 8-12 pockets, depending on how big you want them to be. As soon as you mix the dough together, cut it into 8-12 pieces (a pizza cutter works well), and then roll each pice into a round ball. Put all the balls together (not touching) on a well-floured surface, and cover with a damp dish towel. Let them sit for 30 minutes.

Roll out the balls into discs – they should be about the width of a yard stick. Place the discs onto baking sheets.

The next step: make sure that you have a HOT OVEN. The oven needs to be pre-heated to 500ºF, and every time you take cooked pita out of the oven, let the oven heat up for another minute or two before putting another sheet in. Also, I have found that it’s best to cook pita on the bottom-most rack and only cook ONE SHEET of pita breads at a time.

If the oven is hot enough and your dough is moist enough, your pitas should puff up in the oven. Don’t let them cook too long – 5-7 minutes is long enough. If they start to turn brown on the top, take them out! Over-cooked pitas will crack and fall apart.

Let the pitas cool until you can touch them, and then put them into a paper bag, sealed tightly, adding each batch of pitas as you cook them. Let the pitas cool off in the bag – they will deflate, forming a flat bread with a pocket inside. Stuff, eat, yum.

No soy!  I promise!

Original source: my old blog over at jessigurr.com.  This is also printed in the Pomme de Terre Food Co-op’s 2005 cook book.

This artichoke dip has always been a favorite of mine – though it is kind of expensive (raw almonds, pine nuts, artichokes)…. I usually make *a lot* of this when I do, and we always go through it quickly. Perfect with pita triangles or crackers.

You can also bake this and serve it hot!

Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw almonds or cashews, soaked
• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 1/3 cup. water
• 4 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 cans artichoke hearts
• 1 cup spinach

Directions:
In a food processor, combine almonds, pine nuts, water, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. Process until smooth, scraping the sides once to work in chunks. Add half the artichoke hearts and spinach, process well. Add the remaining artichoke hearts and pulse until they are just incorporated. Chill and serve.

Makes 4 cups.

Originally posted on my blog over at jessigurr.com

I love to make pretzels and haven’t made them for a while. Here’s the recipe:

Homemade Pretzels

• 1 1/3 cups warm water
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp. yeast
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 4 cups flour (half and half white/whole wheat)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 cups water
• 1 Tbsp. baking soda

Combine water, sugar, and yeast. Let rest ten minutes. Add oil, flour, salt, and knead for 10 minutes (or put in a bread machine).

 

Divide and roll into long ropes; shape into a pretzels. Place on a baking sheet (preferably covered in parchment paper) until doubled in size. This will take 20 – 45 minutes depending on your temperature and humidity.

 

Preheat oven to 450ºF. Bring water and baking soda to a boil. Liberally brush hot water/soda onto each pretzel and sprinkle with kosher salt (or poppy seeds, sesame seeds, etc). Bake at 450ºF for 12-15 minutes, flipping baking racks half way through if you have two sheets.

 

Yield: 6-8 giant pretzels. Or 12 smaller pretzels for pot lucks and house guests.

Nothing beats fresh, hot pretzels. Serve with vegan cheese sauce… I’ll post a recipe for this some day.

We’re getting seed catalogs in the mail every day now, so I expect we’ll start posting about our 2012 gardening plans soon. Chris mapped out his entire garden last weekend. I’m planning on taking a simpler approach this year – less variety, more of it. I’m also planning to plant about a quarter of my garden with sweet corn. It takes up a lot of space, but homegrown sweet corn is just so delightful.

In the mean time, I have a lot of recipes on my old blog that I think I’ll import here. That’s the plan for early 2012, anyway… though that could have all just been my stomach writing.

A nice uncooked seitan picture for your viewing pleasure:

This post would be great to show your six-year-old son.

We received a few inches of snow today. It should all melt in a few days. Chris spent most of the day today outside shoveling dirt… I helped for a couple of hours, but I have a slight foot injury right now which prevented me from doing too much work.

Following is a fun little gallery of pictures of our compost delivery. We received three truck loads (30 cubic yards total; 10 fit in one truck). Click on a picture to enlarge.

I’ll try to snap some pictures of the snow tomorrow… when the sun turns back on.

In April, 2010 we ordered two truck loads of compost from a company in Elk River, Minnesota. They helped the garden quite a bit. This fall, Chris decided to order three more truck loads (30 yards) before it snows, to give our garden an extra jump start next spring.

Puck checked it out. He approves. (This is him sitting in front of one truck load, 10 cubic yards).

Chris is putting in a new garden section, so this should help with that. We also cut out quite a bit of sod and top soil to prepare our current garden – and I put in a bunch of concrete block raised beds, so this black dirt will be nice to fill the rest of those in. It’s going to be a lot of work incorporating this, and hopefully the ground will stay free of snow for a couple more weeks so it will get done!

Actually, winter is fast approaching with the first snowflakes falling in our area today.

We ended up neglecting this blog (and the garden a bit too!) this year, as life quickly got in the way of leisure time. Chris and I were married in September – we had a pretty fun wedding with some of our homegrown sunflowers, great vegetarian food from Holy Land, good friends, a beautiful day for an outside wedding, and a mime to entertain our guests! I’ll put up some pictures of the day eventually. I figured the blog deserved a small garden update first, though.

There are still Brussels sprouts out there, and Puck munches away on them whenever he gets the chance. We’re hoping to order another truck load (or two) of compost this fall, and prepare the beds for spring – but that will depend on how long the snow holds off.

You can see the concrete block bed in front – I did manage to fill that with strawberries this fall, so hopefully they will get a jump start next spring!

In Minnesota, the tomatoes don’t really start to ripen until late July. This year, we had a lot of rain in July and I think that made the fruits take even longer to ripen. But once there are fresh tomatoes… nothing else in the world matters.

Our tomatoes are overrun with early tomato blight once again this year. It is at the point now where there are very few green leaves left on the vines; they are nearly all brown. Fortunately the fruit hasn’t been affected, but I’ve done as much as I can to try and manage it this year. I have some ideas for next summer – and I’m hoping to spend some time learning more about blight this winter.

That’s a giant bowl of assorted cherry tomatoes: Amish Mayberry, Prize of the Trials, and Yellow Pear. I’ve been working on our tomato varieties page, compiling a list of varieties we’ve grown over the years, seed sources, and a few notes. I’d like to put a bit more time into this, and also put together the Peppers section in a similar way. Maybe some day…

I added a tofu ricotta, cream sauce, and mushrooms. Topped with nutmeg and cinnamon. Chris wasn’t a huge fan, but I thought it was pretty good. Next time though… I think I’ll leave out the eggplant. Hah.