Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Fun With Your Food

One of my favorite recipes is TEV's stuffed portabello's. I've made them enough times now that I don't use the recipe but wing it, tossing in a bowl artichoke hearts, spinach, pesto, Vegannaise, nutritional yeast, bread crumbs, sea salt, and pepper all to taste (i never did use tofu in this one as it calls for) then toss it all in portabello caps and bake to perfection. Not having much in the way of basil or a pesto recipe I felt like adhering to, I whipped up a quick one using the following and my trusty immersion blender:

Easy Pesto
2 handfuls pine nuts
1 handful hemp seeds (toasted all of those in a warm skillet)
about 10 leaves basil

1/3 c. fresh parsley

2 T. nutritional yeast

splash of lemon juice

couple T water

2 pinches sea salt

black pepper to taste
olive oil to desired consistencey (i just added it until it was creamy and not too dry)


I put a few healthy spoonfuls in my 'shroom filling and mixed it all up, then browned some soy curls in olive oil before adding a bit more pesto to those and sauteeing til crispy. served that alongside my 'shroom over some leftover brown sushi rice. yum! right?

right.
but the next day, i had a problem.
while soooo very tasty, the 'shrooms never seem to hold up thru a second serving the next day. they're limp and less than plump and juicy as they begin the day you first make them. so of course i did what any good vegan would do. I made patties! I chopped the 'shroom bottoms and leftover pesto soy curls and added them and the filling to my food processor and pulsed til desired conistency. I then added more of that brown sushi rice that was lingering in the 'fridge and stirred it all up til it was a sticky, gooey mess that held together nicely when formed into patties. into the hot skillet they went with a touch of olive oil til browned to perfection.

I served as you see them with a bit more pesto and some leftover roasted red pepper almond sauce. these patties are full of so much good stuff that I ate them and nothing else for a couple meals while running around for a day or two.

they were perfect eats as i busily made the following to stock the 'fridge of friends who just welcomed their first baby boy into the world:


Susan's
Ribz

VT's meatless loaf for sandwiches

huge green salad with Ginger Dressing for days
rice noodles and zucchini rawsta with roasted red pepper almond sauce (mmmmm)
chickpea salad with hummus and pitas and brown rice cakes to enjoy it on

Welcome to the world, Keiran Forest!

oh, and the remaining agave cupcakes from my frosting disaster ended up getting frosted after all...they may look like they're piled high with poo, but i assure you that a ton of VCTOTW's chocolate buttercream frosting (with newly purchased Florida Crystals powdered sugar) was all they needed to transform them from light, fluffy goodness to totally decadent birthday yumminess for a friend). having no fancy tools i employed the 'fill plastic baggie with frosting, cut corner and pipe' method for that dog poo finish. ;)
the pic is blurry but i was in a hurry to race out of town to deliver them and do some bday celebrating with our friend. they were devoured....imagine that!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

very creative!!

you are awesome to help the new parents.

Anonymous said...

Really, really great idea about the patties. I wish I'd a thought of that! Looks delish.

aTxVegn said...

You made some wonderful patties and food gifts for your friends! No one in my family besides me likes mushrooms. Your stuffed shrooms and veggie patties always sound so good to me!

Vegan_Noodle said...

Don't cha just love getting creative with leftovers? Those patties look awesome, so does the stuffed mushrooms, haven't tried that one yet.
Funny about the dog poo look alike, but hey, they were all eaten up! As long as it tastes good....

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

i'm not into mushrooms but those patties and stuffed caps do look good.

KleoPatra said...

Could you be more of a stud? (studette?)

i know this is weird but i'm kinda partial to the day-after mushroom vibe and texture. But i love what you did to salvage what you found problematic. PATTIES!

Your cupcakes are the stuff of dreams, just to let you know what i dream about (and Rick Springfield) but also, i have to tell you how much i adore Florida Crystals. They are the real deal.

You're quite obviously a wonderful friend; i wish i had friends around who could make such sweeeeeet cupcakes and give 'em to me! Heh. i'm so selfish. i know. Sorry, but when it comes to cupcakes, i go a little nutso.

Such a great post. i have missed blogging because of posts JUST. LIKE. THIS.

Thank you!

bazu said...

the mushroom caps look amazing! and so do the cupcakes. don't worry about your plastic bag trick, it's a very punk thing to do, so I think the author of the cupcake book would appreciate it!

Anonymous said...

Dog poo LOL
That reminds me of "Cow Pie Fudge"