Summer is fast approaching and that means fresh local fruit and simple baking that gets me out of the hot kitchen fast. Which reminded me, I had some peaches left over from the end of last summer still in the freezer. I know, you shouldn’t use frozen fruit that is 6 months old. But, whatever, I took a chance and they were just fine!

Muffins are my favorite way to bake something quickly using whatever I’ve got on hand. While I love those softball sized sunny-hued white flour and sugar numbers, I have a definite preference for the wholesome, healthy variety, especially for showcasing fresh fruit. These babies are made with spelt flour, providing a rustic, get-it-all-over-your-shirt crumb and a great wheaty flavor. And since we all hate overmixed, rubbery muffins, spelt flour is a great choice. It has such a low gluten content that the dangers of overmixing are diminished, making it perfect for the trepidatious baker. I also use applesauce for moisture, a lower fat content, and to keep the sugar to a minimum.

Got my mind on my muffins and my muffins on my mind

Does anyone else cool their muffins this way? Once they’re cool enough to handle, I gently give them a twist and flip them sideways to cool the rest of the way. I love that whiff of spice you get when you first lift the muffin up.

Brown Sugar Peach Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

Muffin perfection with a hint of spice, lots of juicy peaches and a sprinkle of brown sugar on top. This recipe is plenty versatile, I can see using strawberries or mango and switching the spices up to suit your fruit.

2 1/2 cups spelt flour
3/4 cup brown sugar, plus a little extra for sprinkling
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup almond milk (or soy milk)
1 teapoon apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chopped peaches (leave skins on or not, whichever you prefer)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Lightly grease a muffin tin.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices. Make a well in the center and add the applesauce, almond milk, vinegar, canola oil and vanilla. Stir with a wooden spoon until mostly combined. Add the peaches and combine until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

Scoop batter into muffin tins, they will hold their shape a little bit if you use an ice cream scoop. The batter should almost fill the entire tin. Sprinkle one or two teaspoons of brown sugar on top of each. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, or until a toothpick or butter knife inserted through the center comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes in the tin then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely, or just flip them up in the tin to cool, as shown above.

America was abuzz this past Wednesday as what appeared to be an angel flashed an ominous message across millions of TV screens: Vegans (Heart) Simon.

But who was this masked vegan? How did she get so pretty? And why were her graffiti skills so toy?  Oh, wait, I wasn’t masked. Bespectacled, maybe.

American Idol Parking Lot

As everyone knows, I am an American Idol devotee. Not for the beginning part, where they are mocking the barely cognizant, but I love the Cinderella story aspect of it, even though in truth I thought Cinderella looked better in rags. In any case, I like watching the singers go from average karaoke to rock star amazing. I get chills hearing them hit notes they didn’t know they could, watching their hair go from greasy to spiked, frizzy to flat-ironed. Just the whole thing. And so getting to be in the audience was pretty much the tits for me. And I am still hyperventilating from getting my vegan sign on TV!

To top it all of, Simon winked at me and blew me two kisses! I think they got me pregnant.

So did you catch it? And does anyone know if it’s online anywheres?

I’ve had my share of assed out portobello sandwiches. Over-seasoned, soaked through with too much vinegar and soy sauce, a few jaundiced pieces of lettuce, black gunk mucking up the bread, and oh! let us charge you 12 bucks for the privilege. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Portobellos should be juicy and succulent. What we want to do is coax that luscious flavor out, not hide it with condiments.

BBQ season is here so it’s a great time to learn to grill a portobello just perfectly. You  bite through the focaccia and have that juice spill out all over your face; a little char, slightly salty, complex and earthy.

And this burger works for the “plants have feelings” set, too. Even if you hate animals and hate vegans, it’s time to give up the burgers if you want to leave a little bit of earth to your children (OK, maybe you hate children, too.) There’s just too much evidence mounting against your free-will arguments. The truth is, your burger is ruining everyone else’s day. And with something as yummy as a portobello, well, there really is no excuse! Plus, look at the nutritional differences (nutritional info from my olive oil bottle and the internet.)
Hamburger plus a teaspoon of olive oil
Calories: 250
Fat: 18.5 grams (most of it the bad kind!)
Fiber: 0
Protein: 20

Portobello plus a teaspoon olive oil (the other ingredients are negligible, but adjust as you like)
Calories: 66
Fat: 4.5 (most of it the good kind!)
Fiber: 1.5
Protein: 2.5

So the only place where the burger is winning here is the protein content which you can easily compensate for with a side of quinoa salad. Not to mention that you don’t need 20 grams of protein at every meal. Do your own research, work it out. Don’t be part of the problem, be a part of the delicious, delicious solution.

Grilled Portobello Sandwiches
Makes 4

Grilling really brings out the juicy best in these portobellos, so I use the bare minimum of ingredients to let them really flaunt their flavor. A little (cheap!) chardonnay for depth of flavor, tamari for a bit of saltiness, baslamic for a touch of zest, and garlic for, well, it’s garlic! Choose firm, light colored mushrooms with fresh, healthy looking gills that spring back when you gently rub your finger across them. Don’t remove the gills, they are loaded with flavor and texture, not to mention they soak up garlic and marinade beautifully. Gently wash your caps before marinading and you are A-ok. Skip that anemic hamburger bun and go for a bready focaccia that can stand up to the portobello juices that are bound to make you lick your fingers.

Tip: Save your portobello stems for gravy or broth.

4 portobello mushrooms, stems removed

For the marinade:
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced

For the sandwich:
4 nice sized pieces foccacia bread
A few handfuls baby arugula
Slices of sweet onion (like walla walla or vidalia)
Slices of tomato
A little vegan mayo

Place the portobellos gills up in a rimmed baking sheet.

Mix all the marinade ingredients together and spoon over the portobellos. Let marinate for at least half an hour, spooning marinade back onto the mushrooms every ten minutes or so.

Grease up your grill with olive oil and preheat over medium/high. It’s important to keep some oil nearby for brushing the grill through out the cooking process. You can use a grill brush for it, or a paper towel wadded up and grasped in your tongs. You can also use a spray bottle of oil.

Place the mushrooms gill side up on the grill. Close lid and let mushrooms cook for about 5 minutes, lifting the lid to baste shrooms with marinade every few minutes. Use tongs to turn the mushrooms 90 degrees to make cross hatched grill marks; cook for about 3 more minutes. Flip mushrooms over and cook for about 3 more minutes. Your cooking time may vary depending on the size of your portobellos and the temperature of your grill. You know the mushrooms are done when you press on the center with tongs (where the stem used to be) and it’s very soft and juicy.

Remove from heat and let rest for about 5 minutes. This lets the flavors develop a bit and the juices taste even yummier when they are just a little bit cooled down. You can use this time to slice your bread and prep the veggies.

Assemble sandwiches and sink your teeth in.

All this cookie excitement made me almost forget that Vegan Brunch will be out in just a few weeks! I’m going to share a few recipes with you over the next month and maybe even a video if I can get it together. I know today is Saturday but maybe you’ve got enough time to procure the ingredients in time for Sunday for one of my favorite brunch appetizers, Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes.

Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes
Makes 10
I love the succulent little pieces of tempeh you get when biting into this crisp, flavorful cake. Crab cakes are the inspiration here. I used to spend lots of time in Baltimore and back then pollution in the Chesapeake Bay was a big issue. I think it’s doing much better now and these cakes are a tribute to it. Update: Came to find the Bay is actually doing worse. All the more reason to eat tempeh instead of crabbies!

Make ahead: Make the entire mixture and the remoulade the night before. In the morning, form into cakes and pan fry.

For the cakes:
8 ounces tempeh (use the nori tempeh if you can find it, but plain soy tempeh is fine, too)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bay leaf

3 tablespoons Vegenaisse
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard (stone ground Dijon works, too)
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 cup very finely chopped red bell pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspooon salt
fresh black pepper
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs, plus extra for dredging
Optional: 1 finely chopped nori sheet or 1 tablespoon kelp granules (if you like a little fishiness)

Oil for pan frying

For the remoulade:
2 tablespoons Vegenaise
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard  (stone ground dijon works, too)
1 tablespoon hot sauce
2 teaspoons capers (try not to get too much brine)

Lemon wedges for serving

First we’re going to steam the tempeh to get the bitterness out and also to infuse some flavor with the soy sauce. Crumble the tempeh into a saucier or small pan in little bits. Add the water, soy sauce, oil and bay leaf. The tempeh won’t be fully submerged, but that’s fine. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, let boil for 12 to 15 minutes, until most of the water has evaporated. Stir once during boiling.

Transfer contents to a mixing bowl, remove bay leaf, and mash with a fork. Let cool for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to hasten the cooling process. Make sure the tempeh is barely warm before you proceed, or the cakes may fall apart when you cook them. Add the mayo, mustard, hot sauce, vinegar, chopped bell pepper, spices salt and pepper, and mix well. Add the bread crumbs and nori and use your hands to incorporate.

Once you are ready to form the cakes, preheat a thin layer of oil in a heavy bottomed non-stick skillet (cast iron is great) over medium heat. Pour a few tablespoons of panko into a bowl. Scoop a little less than 1/4 cup batter into your hands and form into a ball. Flatten between your palms and then roll the sides gently with your hands cupped to smooth them. You should have ten 2 1/2 to 3- inch patties. I do them in batches of five. Press them into the panko to lightly coat. They don’t need to be thoroughly covered, just a little bit for some texture.

Fry a batch of five cakes for 4 minutes on one side and flip when dark golden brown. Fry for 2 minutes on the other side and transfer to a paper towel or paper bag to drain. Do your second batch and in the meantime make your remoulade by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Serve with lemon wedges.

CANCELED! Thanks for your support everyone, but this event is being canceled!

The Apron Activists are back! This time, a benefit for the 2009 Let Live Conference. Our menu is focusing on all the lush local seasonal produce that Oregon has to offer. Think lots of fresh, green flavors and creamy textures with with some crunch.

Root Veggie Sushi
Roasted rutabaga, parsnip, beet in beet-pink sushi rice

Shiitake Tempura Over Red Cabbage Pear Slaw
Light rice flour battered tempura over a red cabbage slaw in a creamy avocado dressing with slivered pears

Spring Green Risotto With Creamy Spinach
Risotto in a rich puree of green spring veggies and cashew creme over creamy spinach, topped with grilled asparagus and toasted hazelnut

Lemon Coconut Creme Pie
Graham cracker crust, meyer lemon syrup, cashew macadamia base

When:
Friday, May 1st. Please arrive between 7:30 and 7:45 for a reception with Let Live organizers. Dinner will be served at 8pm.

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 an as of yet undetermined cool goodie bag. 100% of the proceeds go to the Let Live conference.

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 “May Dinner” in the subject. Or, drop by Herbivore store to purchase tickets.

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’m not sure if a more vegan day could be had. My friend Melisser took me shopping at Rainbow Grocery with her chihuahua Strummer. I guess I could just end this post right here and we would all die happy.

But, OK, whoever is still alive let’s soldier on.

The plan was to make matzoh balls for my goyem antisemites  friends in San Francisco who had never had that ball which is a matzoh. We also wanted to try out our new Dandie vegan marshmallows. See? Could we get any more vegan?

From the bundles of fresh greens to the overflowing bins of dried berries, Rainbow was mind blowing. You could hardly dream up a dish with the beautiful trumpet mushrooms before sensuous tendrils of enoki caught your eye. We settled on a menu of roasted root vegetables over baby arugula and hunza berries, cauliflower leek kugel, sauteed trumpet mushrooms with grilled red endive and toasted walnuts, roasted red pepper and kalamata hummus and of course the aforementioned matzoh balls.

We didn’t want dessert to be too fussy since we had so much going on. I remembered the salty sweet chocolate covered matzoh that I used to sneak before dinner at my grandma’s house (is there anything Jews won’t cover in chocolate?) and Melisser really wanted s’mores (well, who doesn’t?) and it seemed as if the clouds parted and we both shouted JEWISH SMORES! although I doubt it happened exactly like that.

So picture laying in the grass on a beautiful spring day, just warm enough that you can use your hoodie as a pillow rather than wear it. A big fluffy cloud passes overhead and you think “I want to eat that.” There you have the Dandie experience. I love these marshmallows. They’re firm enough to sink your teeth into while still being soft. Just the right amount of vanilla and a sweetness that isn’t cloyingly so. To make the Jewish S’mores, we dipped broken up pieces of matzoh in dark chocolate, placed some chopped ’shmallows on top, drizzled in even more chocolate, then sprinkled with some coarse flaked salt and placed them on parchment to set. Perfection.

So 2 pound chihuahuas, vegan marshmallows, San Francisco, and friends not letting friends never have matzoh ball soup. Not a bad start to my spring.

 I’m heading to San Francisco this weekend! So all you Bay Area people better hide your tempeh and get to your favorite restaurants early, lest I eat everything. I’m planning on hitting up Millenium, Cafe Gratitude (say what you will, their tiramisu rocks yours), Cha Ya, Udupi Palace and Amici Pizza, which is apparently serving Cheezly pizzas with no extra vegan cheese charge. How swell! (I don’t think I’ve ever used “swell” in a sentence, but it’s the only thing that fit.) I hope to come home with plenty of food porn, but for now feast your eyes on another recipe from the upcoming Vegan Cookies book.

Magical Coconut Cookie Bars
makes 24 very rich little bars

As the song from Xanadu (the movie) goes…you got to believe we are magic, and nothing will stand in our (and your) way once you taste this unapologetically vegany version of the stuff childhood dreams are made of.  Here are the nutty, chocolately, ultra-sweet and buttery-tasting graham-crackery coconut bars you loved so much as a kid. If your childhood was lacking in them, well then these are tastier than therapy for sure. The vegan secret weapon of choice here is cooked-down coconut milk, bringing in even bigger coconut flavor than ever imagined. The ever-elusive vegan butterscotch chip, should you ever have some, makes a sublime addition too.

These bars require a good overnight chilling to really firm them up before slicing, so plan accordingly.

Tip: You’ll want to use only sweetened, fluffy white flaked coconut for these. Save the natural shredded stuff for a healthy curry.

Tip: Press the graham cracker crumb crust like crazy into the pan; the more you pat it down the firmer the resulting crust will be.

One 14 oz can (regular or lite) coconut milk (about 1 3/4 cups)
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 cups vegan graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup melted margarine
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
2 cups flaked, sweetened coconut
1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

In a large saucepan whisk together coconut milk and brown sugar over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mixture may form a thin skin on the surface; just stir it back into the liquid. Remove from heat and let cool while preparing the crust.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl combine graham cracker crumbs, melted margarine and sugar; mix well to moisten crumbs completely. Firmly press mixture into prepared pan, pressing evenly from center to sides of pan.

Pour warm coconut milk mixture evenly over crumb base. Top with an even layer of chocolate chips, flaked coconut and nuts, in that order. Firmly pat everything down until coconut milk mixture soaks upward into the toppings. Bake for 28-30 minutes or until coconut is deeply golden and filling is bubbling, remove from oven and let entire pan cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Transfer pan to the refrigerator to completely cool and firm up for at least 4 hours, even better overnight or until very firm. Use a sharp, heavy knife to run along the edges of bars, slide bars on parchment paper out of pan onto a cutting board then to slice into 24 squares. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator. These also freeze well, tightly wrapped and allowed to thaw for 20 minutes before serving.