MillenniYUM, his and hers

His...Hers...
For my birthday last year, the Cap'n surprised me with The Artful Vegan after our trip to San Fran. While an amazing and inspiring cookbook, it's chock full of ingredients I've either never heard of or can't get my hands on, and many of the recipes are pretty involved. I did make Seitan Skewers that were divine so I know it's worth the effort....it's just not getting much use just yet in our kitchen.

He also ordered their first cookbook, The Millennium Cookbook, but it took until just last month for it to get to me! It has a bit more of their 'basics' in it and I can see me relying on this cookbook a whole lot more than the other. Knowing I wanted tempeh, I just had to try their tempeh marinade. Knowing, also, that the Cap'n loathes all things tempeh, I decided to improvise. The marinade calls basically for two packs of tempeh. Having only one anyway, I made the whole marinade but dumped in a half bag of soy curls to fill up the rest of my baking dish before putting it in the oven. The recipe calls for cooking the soy in their marinade in the oven for an hour and a half. This was more than ample time to clean up the kitchen, chop some spinach and garlic, whip up some rice, and convince my pregnant self that all the alcohol would cook out in both the marinade (it calls for nonalcoholic red wine but i opted for cooking wine, as that's what we had) AND the marsala sauce I so love and haven't had in ages. I boiled the heck out of it so I'm sure it was okay to consume, right? ;)

The verdict? BEST DAMN MARINADE EVER. Seriously, I opted to thin out the tempeh by slicing it in half to make it two long thin versions of the original block then cutting it in thirds. All the bitterness of typical, store bought tempeh? Gone! (even the Cap'n tasted it and admitted it was the best flavor he'd ever experienced from tempeh!) And the soy curls? Oh. My. Dog. Fantastic. I took them out of the marinade, coated them in cornstarch, and browned in grapeseed oil before topping with the marsala. I should admit that not all of them even made it to his plate as I snatched up a ton and ate them right out of the pan, sans marsala. Soooooo good!

The tempeh, I did the same but with flour rather than cornstarch. I cannot wait to try some of their other ideas. This cookbook was definitely worth the wait, even for this one amazing recipe, and I'm sure it won't be the last I dive into anytime soon.Don't let my five month wait put you off ordering it, tho. I just ordered it for my sister and have already received confirmation that it's on it's way!

And yes, this meal was so tasty, so delicious that each of our plates deserved more than just one pic a piece! Best add the Millennium Cookbook to your Giftmas Wish List!!!! ;)