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New Orleans Inspirations: Fava Bean, Tempeh, & Okra File Gumbo

September 5, 2014
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PictureOh okra, you beautiful alien you

     Oh lordy lord, how good is gumbo?! WHO DAT! When I was in New Orleans last month, gumbo was obviously being sold everywhere you looked. I had delicious Gumbo Z’Herbes at the famous Gumbo Shop, which is a naturally vegetarian (and vegan if the roux isn’t made with butter) traditional gumbo, with parsley and cabbage and other leafy greens. I loved it and I could eat something like it every day, but seeing the tremendous variety of more interesting non-veg gumbos made me hella jealous.

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I was so happy to find a meaty vegan gumbo at Seed, my favorite restaurant in NOLA, which used sausage-y seitan and a darker, more tomato-based broth than the zerby one (how I pronounce it because I only had one semester of French). So, seriously on my first day back home, I decided to make gumbo that was inspired by the Seed version’s meatiness but that retained the vegetable-heavy, healthy soul of Tess D’Zerbervilles. It also showcases okra, in my mind a necessary gumbo ingredient, and uses a variety of beans. Also! The file powder came straight from a central grocery store in NOLA, so it’s all totally legit. (Yes is it Zatarain’s but like that’s how you Jazz It Up!)
FAVA BEAN, TEMPEH, & OKRA FILE GUMBO
So, I’ve heard that okra, file powder, and a roux are all different thickening options, so you are only supposed to – or you only need to – use one, because they do the same job. I refuse to cut good solid American jobs so we are using all of them buster! 
Ingredients

  • 2/3 C canola oil
  • 2/3 C chickpea flour 
  • 2 medium onions, small dice 
  • 1C chopped carrots
  • 3C chopped celery (about an entire heart plus a ½ cup or more
  • 3C chopped okra
  • ½ C chopped mixed bell peppers (had some red and green left over from previous night’s salad, as well as a few tomatoes!)
  • 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1C fava beans (found the awesome frozen favas pictured at Trader Joes!)
  • 5 cups broth or water
  • ½ T thyme
  • lots of black pepper
  • ½ T salt
  • 1 package tempeh 
  • Several handfuls of kale or your preferred leaf
  • file powder*

Directions

  1. First, we will make the roux. You can use any type of fat and flour to make a roux, but I like the ease of using (and finding, no matter the land) canola oil and the extra nutrient boost and earthy flavor from chickpea flour.
  2. Over medium high heat, pour the oil into a big pot and let heat for a minute. Drop a pinch of flour in, and if it bubbles, whisk in the rest of the flour. 
  3. Continue stirring or whisking as it forms a paste. Be careful not to let it burn; constant attention is necessary. 
  4. Stir and cook for about 10 minutes. It should brown nicely. 
  5. Add the onions, celery, and carrots, and cook until very soft, a good 8-10 minutes. 
  6. Add the salt, pepper, and thyme, stir through.
  7. Then, add the okra, peppers, and broth or water and bring to a boil. Let it boil for a minute then lower it to medium heat, add the fava beans and kidney beans, and cover. Let it cook for about 20 minutes. 
  8. Meanwhile, get out a frying pan. Chop the tempeh into small bites and dry-fry it over medium high heat until it is nicely browned (probably 10-15 minutes, flip midway).  
  9. Make sure the okra is really soft like a baby’s bottom. Add the kale. 
  10. Once everything is really soft and yummy, add the tempeh into the pot. Let it rest on a low boil for at least 5 minutes so everything can get magical.
  11. *Add file powder to individual bowls, not to the pot, because this makes a ton and file powder gets wanky in stored leftovers, and apparently could also make the fresh gumbo too thick and somewhat stringy. Just sprinkle a dash on top of your bowl. 
  12. Enjoy!!!


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So many sources of protein especially the baby’s bottom!

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This is a roux a what a roux

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If you are fancy, you can call this mirepoix. But only if you’re fancy

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My new fave find

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Frozen 2: The Fava Beans

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Tempeh is the best food everrrrr

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Kalesss
I hope you make this or something like it, because gumbo is the shizzzzzz and I don’t just mean the school where Elphaba and Galinda met. What are your thoughts about what defines gumbo? Is it the okra? The roux? The use of file? The fact that you have to eat it with a top hat on while listening to Iko Iko Un-Day? Let me know! 

You know what, I’m gonna leave you with that song, because it is an even bigger part of New Orleans than gumbo…maybe. 

(Admission: We heard this song everywhere we went (playing restaurants, played outside by street performers, anywhere) and it took awhile before I realized I was not correct in singing “Hey now hey now hey now hey now, Iko Iko Un-day, Giacomo’s in pastry cup with a sugar bowl in his hand,” how I had sung it for like…my life. I guess I just have sugar on the brain always?)
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Delicious Baked Polenta, Two Glorious Ways!

December 30, 2014
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   I can never have enough polenta. Isn’t it the best? It’s so cheap, it’s super easy to play with, and it’s Italian. Most importantly, it’s insanely versatile. You can make it straight for a plain side dish, fry up ready-made pieces, use it for dessert, and bake it in a pan with a variety of interesting toppings. Like a pizza or flatbread!
    Recently, I went to London’s polenta-based restaurant called La Polentaria (review coming soon). I loved that polenta was front and center for all the dishes (obviously). I also loved that the walls had interesting information about polenta, like that it has more protein per serving than an egg! (So the wall said. I am not checking because I want that to be true.) Here are two recipes, one for a cheesy mushroom baked polenta casserole-sort-of thing, and one for classic polenta bruschetta. Both dishes would be great for entertaining company, although I prefer to hoard the entire casserole pan myself. 
     First, the bruschetta! Lots of bruschetta will use a raw tomato and garlic mixture, but that’s nothing special, really. If you want that, you can easily just chop up some tomatoes and mix with garlic and basil and olive oil. Easy peasy. But it’s winter so I wanted a warm cooked tomato topping. It really pays off to make your own and not use store-bought tomato sauce or any crap like that. I mean you could; you can put literally anything edible on top of hardened polenta and it would be delectable. But when it comes to sauce, this is the way to do it. 
POLENTA BRUSCHETTA
Remember: it’s a hard ‘k’ sound. None of this ‘shetta’ bullshit.
Ingredients:

  • 1 cup dry polenta/corn meal
  • 2 1/2 to 3 cups water
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil 
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
  • 1 cup loose fresh basil leaves (like a small bunch), and about 10 leaves reserved
  • 1/4 cup olive oil, halved
  • 2 teaspoons tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup water
  • black pepper

Directions:

  1. First, make the polenta. In a saucepan, mix the polenta, 1T olive oil, and water and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. As soon as it starts bubbling, turn the heat to medium and stir constantly like really I mean it. Stir and cook until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes. If it feels too thick, add more water. It should be thick but still pourable. 
  2. Pour the polenta into a casserole dish, about 6×6 or 8×4 or something medium sized. Set aside. 
  3. Now to make the bruschetta topping. In a saucepan over medium heat, saute half the olive oil and all the garlic for a few minutes. Add the salt.
  4. This is the fun part. Take your tomatoes and squeeze and tear and demolish them over the pan and drop them in. Just tear those little mofos apart into a few pieces each. Keep stirring.
  5. Add 1/4 cup of water. Mix and stir. 
  6. Add the tomato paste and the 1 cup of basil. You’ll probably need the rest of the olive oil here to prevent sticking. 
  7. Bring to a boil, then bring down to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes until reduced. If it reduces too fast/gets sticky, add more water and turn your heat down lower. 
  8. Good time to preheat your oven to 300F. 
  9. Your final product should not be sticky but it should be spreadable and thick. Add the 10 reserved fresh basil leaves and the black pepper and stir through. Check for salt. 
  10. Pour the tomato topping over the prepared polenta in the pan. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes. 
  11. Let sit for a good 10 minutes. The polenta should be hard and crispy on the edges, and you should be able to pick up squares with your hands. 
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hahaha this is the longest picture ever I love it
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I ran out of pictures
    Next up, we have a ridiculously addictive vegan-cheese topped mushroom casserole. I never buy vegan cheese like ever, but all this talk about the new Field Roast Chao slices over in Murka has made me quite envious. But apparently, the UK’s best vegan cheese, Violife, is just like the Chao stuff! So I bought it. And it is soooo gooooood. It asked me to be used over a homemade pizza but come on I can’t plan weeknight dinner long enough in advance to account for rising yeast dough. Ain’t nobody got time for that! So instead this is kind of like a polenta pizza! It even has my favorite pizza topping: mushrooms! I also threw on cannellini beans because I love beans. 

Cheesy Mushroom & White Bean Polenta Casserole
Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups dry polenta/corn meal
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil 
  • black pepper
  • 1 pint mushrooms, sliced (about 2 cups loose)
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 cup cannellini/white beans
  • 1/3 cup grated vegan cheese (I used Violife and I love it forever now)

Directions: 

  1. First, make the polenta. In a saucepan, mix the polenta, olive oil, and 3 cups of water and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. As soon as it starts bubbling, turn the heat to medium and stir constantly. Stir and cook until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes. Add the 4th cup of water if it feels too thick. It should be pourable.
  2. Pour the polenta into a medium-sized casserole dish. It should be quite deep, because polenta in this casserole stays soft.
  3. Preheat your oven to 300F.
  4. Arrange your mushrooms evenly over the polenta. Spread the beans and the parsley as well.
  5. Now spread the grated cheese over the pan evenly. Add some freshly ground black pepper.
  6. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Let sit for 10.
  7. Enjoyyyy! 

Veganizing “Friends”: Joey’s (AND ONLY JOEY’S) Fried Clams

September 25, 2013
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     As we’ve studied the eating habits of the Friends over the past few weeks, what is the most important lesson we’ve learned? JOEY DOESN’T SHARE FOOD. Correct! In “The One With The Birth Mother”, in one of my favorite Joey storylines, he dates a woman (Annie Parisse) who does silly things like order plain salads but mooch off of Joey’s dinner. I agree with Joey on this one: Order the food you want to eat! (As long as it’s vegan, obvs.) Anyway, Annie (let’s just call her Annie) doesn’t really understand that it’s weird to take food off of someone else’s plate, at least without asking first. The conflict comes to a hilarious climax with Joey’s seafood platter dinner. He thinks he’s successfully distracted her with extra fries (which he is willing to share), but no such luck:
HAHA Joey at the end of the above video is MY FAVORITE EVER. Anyway! So, as you heard, the following conversation occurred: 

Annie: (looks over at Joey’s platter) Oh wow, are those stuffed clams?

Joey: Uhhh.. yes, they are my stuffed clams.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “Hold on, woman. It says ‘stuffed clams’, not ‘fried clams.'” A few points:

  1. See his seafood platter plate, with all those little fried somethings? They look clam-sized, not shrimp-sized. (I know you see the actual stuffed clam in the shell later, but he could have had clams a few ways!)
  2. What do you think Joey would like better, something stuffed, or something fried? Correct.

So, we’re going to make fried clams. Much better idea, right? Who has food-grade seashells lying around? 

PictureNori is not the best idea here

      I generally used the homemade seitan recipe from The PPK blog, because it’s great. I ripped the seitan pieces into long strips, and boiled it in broth with seaweed and dill thrown in. I didn’t have any kombu, so I used nori in the broth. If you have kombu, use that, because the nori isn’t meant for boiling and it disintegrated. Messy seaweed. You can see in the picture, it gets kind of weird. Kombu would impart a stronger flavor anyway. After the strips boiled, I breaded them and baked them. Let’s see!
FIRST, MAKE SEITAN
INGREDIENTS:

  • 1C vital wheat gluten
  • 1/4C nooch
  • 1/2C cold water
  • 1/4C soy sauce
  • juice from half a lemon
  • 1T olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1t salt
DIRECTIONS: 

  1. Boil a pot of water and drop in some kombu
  2. Mix the dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl
  3. Mix the liquid ingredients separately
  4. Mix them together and form a ball
  5. Knead the ball for a few minutes until it is less sticky and more bread dough-y
  6. Rip seitan into strips and drop them into the boiling water
  7. Cover but leave the lid askew
  8. Lower heat to a simmer, and cook for 45 minutes, then turn off heat and let sit for 20
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How weird does this look with the disintegrating nori! Don’t do it!
THEN, BREAD THE STRIPS
INGREDIENTS:

  • 1C cornmeal
  • 4T cornstarch
  • 2t ground flax seed
  • 2t salt
  • 1t nooch
  • 1C unsweetened almond milk
  • 1T apple cider vinegar
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Coated strips, ready for cooking
      These turned out really well! They might not be salty enough for you, but that’s what sauces are for. You can make a vegan tartar sauce by blending vegan mayo, mustard, pickle relish, and capers, or you can just use ketchup. Really, any kind of sauce works here. An amazing thing I might do tomorrow with the leftovers is to mix vegan mayo with sriracha and a drop of Frank’s for a crazy spicy orange mayo like the type that comes with sushi rolls. 
DIRECTIONS:

  1. Mix the milk and ACV in a measuring cup; set aside 
  2. Mix remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl
  3. Dip each seitan strip in the milk and then in the cornmeal mixtures. Make sure each is well coated and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment
  4. Now, you can bake for 25 minutes in a 400° oven as I did, or you can fry them. I would recommend frying, but I don’t have a fryer or the mental capacity to safely deal with boiling oil. 
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It makes a lot! Dayum!
      Now, with your sauces ready, your strips crunchy and baked (or fried if you are awesome), you can enjoy them on a plate, as Joey did in this episode. ORRR, you can honor Mr. Joseph Francis Tribbiani even more, and make a sandwich! Because what is Joey’s favorite food? Say it with me: Sandwiches!!!
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It’s aliiiiive!
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Not bad for my first try
    In sandwich form, I’d definitely recommend tartar sauce and whatever else fried-clams-on-rolls are usually served with up in New England. So good! These were overall really easy to make, and they turned out well. You can play with the breading mixture and add spices as you desire, perhaps some cayenne pepper, curry powder, or, if you are like me, more nooch. Yum! And, let’s say it all together now:
Giveaway trivia!

  1. Joey’s favorite food is, of course, sandwiches. But what is his favorite kind of sandwich?
  2. In Monica and Chandler’s storyline, they meet a woman at the adoption center who likes them. What does this woman think M & C do for a living?
  3. Extra credit: What Pulitzer-prize winning show featured a fantastic Annie Parisse?
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