The chipotle has got to be this decade’s sundried tomato. Barely glance a menu and you’ll catch it weaseling its way into soups, sauces, omelets, even desserts. But the chipotle’s pervasive stature is not unearned. Its smoky heat adds so much flavor to anything it touches you’d be hard pressed not to reach for it when you want to whip up something fast and tasty.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or in Sheepshead Bay), you’ll know that a chipotle is a smoked jalapeno. You can find them dried (just like their tomato predecessors), but more commonly they come stewed in a can with adobo, a vinegary tomato based sauce. I usually remove the seeds before using, that way you can use more chipotles without adding too much heat.

This is another one of those clean out my cupboard and fridge recipes. I had plenty of sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts left over from my holiday festivities and this was a flavorful and filling way to use them up. And no matter how many recipes I write I know deep in my heart that people just want to cook a handful of dishes. Pesto, “meatballs”, mashed potatoes, but above all, chili.

Chipotle Chili With Sweet Potatoes And Brussel Sprouts

Serves 6 to 8

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon coriander seed, crushed
2 teaspoons dried oregano
3 chipotles, seeded and chopped
1 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes (2 average sized), peeled and cut into 3/4 inch pieces
12 oz brussels sprouts, quartered lengthwise (about 2 cups)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
3 teaspoons new mexico chili powder (or other mild chili powder)
1 32 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 cup water
1 16 oz can pintos, rinsed and drained (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Fresh lime juice to taste (about one lime was good for me)

In a soup pot over medium heat, saute onion in olive oil for about 7 minutes, until translucent. Add garlic, coriander seeds, and oregano and saute a minute more. Add remaining ingredients (except for lime juice). Mix well. The sweet potatoes and brussel sprout will be peaking out of the tomato sauce, but don’t worry, they will cook down.

Cover pot and bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer for about half an hour, stirring often, until sweet potatoes and fork tender but not mushy. Squeeze in lime juice to taste and adjust any other seasonings. Let sit uncovered for at least 10 minutes before eating.

Thanksgiving is my favorite meal to cook for; pumpkin, sage, mushrooms, ginger, thyme - all of my favorite flavors on one table. This year I am going to have a few new Portland friends over and I’m excited to cook around their allergies. No gluten and no soy. I know! I plan on making stuffing with millet, but I’ll make a back up of gluten free cornbread in case that fails. For the main course, some sort of lentil loaf with plenty of gravy and of course garlic mashed potatoes. And then the usual suspects - cranberry sauce, roasted veggies.

I won’t have recipes for my spread until after the big day, but here’s some ideas in case you haven’t completely settled on a menu yet.

Here’s my Thanksgiving spread for Satya magazine a few years ago. Recipes for Pear and Endive Salad, Pumpkin Seed Crusted Tofu, Gingebread Cupcakes and Butternut Rice Paper Rolls.

The now world famous Chickpea Cutlets make a great main. Use the red wine roux or mushroom gravy from V-con and have your guests licking their plates.

A piece for Plenty Magazine includes lots of recipes from Veganomicon, plus a bunch of other great ideas including pumpkin ravioli.

I’ve posted a bunch of Thanksgiving appropriate recipes lately. You can roast a squash and stuff it with Cornbread Stuffing With Pears And Pecans. Smother me in Seitan Chops Smothered With Apples And Ginger. Simplify your life with Roasted Butternut Squash. Bury your face in a pile of Roasted Brussel Sprouts. Latkes on Thanksgiving? Yeah, do it. Chili Pumpkin Cranberry Risotto would make an exciting side.

And this vegan ghost of Thanksgiving pasts that shouldn’t be forgotten:

Susie’s turkey shaped loaf with savory stuffing

And don’t forget our feathered friends this year! There is still time to sponsor a turkey at Farm Sanctuary.

Earlier this month Chad mentioned that he wanted key lime pie. And if you say something like that around me, you are going to get a key lime pie. Especially if you keep repeating it and staring at me. And following me around. So yeah, he got a key lime pie, or something like that. I don’t know where to find key limes right now, and those are too hard to zest anyway. Regular old limes worked just beautifully.

You can see that I used a store bought crust here, but when I am experimenting with a new recipe that has temperamental ingredients like agar, I don’t want to waste my precious energy on making a crust. Don’t judge me. Luckily, it worked out with the first shot. If it hadn’t I was planning on pieing someone with it. In any case, a graham cracker crust would be great choice, too.

The texture resembles a creamy panna cotta. There’s no tofu here, it’s a coconut milk base but the coconut flavor wasn’t strong enough to warrant a title change. The flavor is pucker your lips tangy, and will definitely satisfy the lime lover in your life. Remember to zest your limes before squeezing out the juice. It took me 8 small limes to get the right amount of everything, your mileage my vary.

Latchkey Lime Pie

Makes one 9 or 10 inch pie

1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest
2/3 cups fresh lime juice
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk, at room temperature
2 tablespoons agar flakes (or two teaspoons agar powder and skip the soaking step)
1 16 oz can coconut milk at room temperature
2 tablespoons tapioca flour (or try it with corn starch or arowroot - but I like tapioca best)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 9 inch prepared pie crust

In a small sauce pan, soak the agar in almond milk for about 15 minutes. Bake your pie crust for 8 to 10 minuties, then remove from oven to cool.

In the meantime, mix together coconut milk, tapioca, sugar and vanilla. It’s really important that your coconut milk is at room temperature so that it doesn’t affect the agar when you add it to the pot.

After soaking agar, turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Keep a close eye so that it doesn’t boil over. Immediately reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes, until agar is dissolved. If using powdered it will only take about 5 minutes to dissolve.

Once dissolved (you can check by dipping in a tablespoon and seeing if there are any agar flakes left), very slowly whisk in the coconut mixture and then the lime juice and zest. Adding it too fast will make the agar gel up, which you don’t want it to do just yet. Once added, whisk often for about 10 minutes, until mixture has thickened. If it isn’t thickening, turn the heat up just a bit, but you don’t want it to boil.

Pour into pie shell and let cool on the counter for about half an hour, just so that it isn’t steaming like mad. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, until fully set. Garnish with lime slices. Serve with some vegan whipped cream, store bought or do the coconut whipped cream thing. (scroll down)

It’s on again! Join us at Sweetpea Bakery for a 4 course dinner to benefit Portland?s Family Dogs New Life Shelter, an non-profit no-kill dog shelter for, but not limited to, pups who are at risk of going to doggy heaven before their time.

Wild and free. Ish.

Once again, we will transform Sweetpea into a candlelit bistro and you will be waited on hand and foot by Herbivore, Food Fight and Scapegoat staffers. And now we have a website! Please visit us for more info on our elite cadre of Apron Activists.

This month’s dinner is inspired by the cuisine of Jamaica. It might be cold and rainy in Portland, but let’s keep our bellies warm and cozy and lounging in the sun.

This was from a test run for Jamaican night, yours will be plated much fancier

Appetizer
Plantain Rice Paper Rolls
Rice noodles, sweet plantains and toasted pumpkin seeds in a fresh rice paper roll with chili dipping sauce

Soup
Jamaican Curry With Roti Bread
Sweet potatoes, kidney beans and baby limas in a rich Jamaican spiced coconut curry served with flat bread for dipping

Entree
Jerk Tofu And Yucca
Marinated and grilled jerk tofu and green beans served over mashed yucca and topped with a fresh mango salsa

Dessert
Pumpkin Rum Bread Pudding
A lush and spicy pumpkin bread pudding spiked with rum, served warm with vanilla ice cream

Ginger Tea will be served. Please bring your own beer and wine.
When:
Friday, December 12th. Please arrive between 7:30 and 7:45 for a reception with Family Dogs volunteers. Dinner will be served at 8pm. Note the new dining time! Some found 9 pm to be too late.

Where:
Sweetpea Bakery
1205 SE Stark off SE 12th Ave
Google Map

Ticket Prices
Since seating limited, you must buy tickets in advance to attend the night?s festivities. Tickets are a sliding scale, from 40 to 100 dollars. Diners who pay 60 dollars or more will also be receiving a really neat bag of holiday goodies that will include fresh baked cookies. 100% of the proceeds go to the Family Dogs shelter.

To Purchase Tickets
To purchase tickets, paypal 40 to 100 dollars to postpunkkitchen@gmail.com. Print out your thank you email, this will be your ticket when you arrive to the dinner. Please put “December Dinner” in the subject. Thanks!
Seating
If you are buying tickets for more than yourself, please put their names in the paypal comments and a table will be arranged for you. If you would like to sit with people in addition to the ones you are purchasing tickets for, please put their names in the comments as well, and let me know that you want to sit with them. If you are flying solo, you may end up sitting with strangers at the community table. But we promise that they will be fascinating strangers.

Allergies And Substitutions
Please email us with any dietary needs you have and we will do our best to accommodate you.

Alcohol
Please bring your own beer and wine.

Any other questions? Just email us! postpunkkitchen@gmail.com. Thanks!

I know this is a doggy dinner, but how cute does Kirby look in the wild?

And here is a link to past dinners, in case you are not entirely convinced yet.

Autumn has come to represent a time of relaxation for me. Leaf kickin’, couch sittin’, pumpkin roastin’, bank robbin’. For the past three years I’ve had a book come out at this time of year and was able to sit back and enjoy all the fame and accolades. But this year…bubkis! Since the brunch book is coming out in the Spring, I am instead in the chaotic and stressful throes of the tail end of book writing. Finishing up recipes, taking photos, ignoring panicked phonecalls from people who need things from me (for anyone reading this whose phone calls I am ignoring, I am not talking about you!)

Since living in Portland kind of feels like I am in a lifelong sleep-away camp, I want to be able to just relax and enjoy things. I mean, I totally do relax, that isn’t exactly it, but lately it feels like my relaxation is at the expense of my responsibility.

I guess I need a morale boost! I’ve worked my little tuchus off on this latest book and I need gratification NOW. So I’m posting some photos. Because I am totally excited about it. And I want you to be excited. But not too excited, like, don’t drool on me or anything. The beautiful and talented Jess of Get Sconed (or jdfunks depending on how much you are on the internet) was assisting me for most of these shots, and she also baked a bunch of the items. Thanks, Jess!

This is an omelet. It’s got tofu, chickpea flour and some other stuff. I am addicted to them (and so is Jess!) It took me like 10 tries to get the recipe right, which is probably the most I’ve ever had to test a recipe in my life. It’s really sad to watch testers have stuff fall apart right in their cast iron pans. What a disappointment for everyone involved! But it finally clicked and they came out nice and light and workable.

From Glengarry Glen Ross:

Ricky Roma: How was her crumbcake?
Shelley Levene: Hmm? Oh… from the store.
Ricky Roma: F*** her.

You have to make crumbcake when you want to close the sale. This is the jam variation of my east coast coffee cake, or crumb cake to the rest of the world. This recipe is an easy but messy one. There are a bunch of variations in the book. I hate when cookbooks pad out their recipes and make a whole new one for something that is just a variation.

Savory scones - tomato rosemary to be specific. Elegant, fragrant and bright friggin’ orange - this is what dream brunches are made of.

These are called Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes. That there on top of them is remoulade. Crab cakes is a hot brunch item in the North Atlantic, so that’s where this came from. Mouthwatering.

Is anyone else addicted to red swiss chard? It’s my leafy green of choice these days. Earthy and bold, here she is showcased in a frittata.

Lots of new waffle recipes are coming your way! These are gingerbread waffles with caramelized figs. And you can actually afford thrift store plates here so that has improved my food porn exponentially. That gorgeous plate was like two bucks!

And finally, there’s me holding waffles. This photo is being used for catalog purposes, but isn’t quite the final cover. Someone came over and curling ironed my hair for this and it shows. But that is the final title. Sorry for people who loved “Crack Of Noon.” The publishers didn’t like it and I was tired of fighting. I think Vegan Brunch is just fine since it’s, well, vegan brunch.

Thanks for indulging me! I am sure that I will post some of these recipes in the coming months if’n y’all want. Let me know what you think and there’s still some time to get your brunch requests in there if you think I might have missed anything.

Milk & Cookies. It’s like they have to have the ampersand to connect them, writing out a-n-d would just ruin everything.

I don’t know that there is a more comforting snack. Not like best friend died, global warming, McCain is president comfort; but just like early evening, fluffy slippers, had sort of a non-descript day, gonna watch dvds kind of comfort. But I feel like an idiot even talking about chocolate chip cookies, it’s not like they’re a hard sell.

Despite evidence to the contrary, I don’t love to use Earth Balance when I bake. I’ve been working on my Earth Balance-free dream chocolate chip cookie recipe for longer than I want to admit. They’re crinkly on the top, a little crispy on the bottom and soft in the center. And for milk make mine almond, unsweetened, thanks. As an added bonus, you just need one bowl for mixing. Great for those of you in the no dishwasher set.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes two dozen two inch cookies or about 16 three inch cookies

1/2 brown sugar
1/4 white sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two large light metal baking sheets.

Mix together sugars, oil, milk and tapioca flour in a mixing bowl. Use a strong fork and mix really well, for about 2 minutes, until it resembles smooth caramel. There is a chemical reaction when sugar and oil collide, so it’s important that you don’t get lazy about that step. Mix in the vanilla.

Add 1 cup of the flour, the baking soda and salt. Mix until well incorporated. Mix in the rest of the flour. Fold in the chocolate chips. The dough will be a little stuff so use your hands to really work them in.

For 3 inch cookies, roll the dough into about ping pong ball size balls. Flatten them out in your hands to about 2 1/2 inches. They will spread just a bit. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes - no more than 9 - until they are just a little browned around the edges. I usually get 16 out of these so I do two rounds of eight cookies. Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

For 2 dozen two inch cookies roll dough into walnut sized balls and flatten to about 1 1/2 inches and bake for only six minutes.