Señorita Carnita

taco overloaded-toothpicks employed to keep it together

I have been lusting after Jackfruit Carnitas from the first time I read about them. I can't remember where it was first, but it was either from quarrygirl's blog or The Urban Housewife. I could never find the right jackfruit at regular stores and did not have the presence of mind to look at asian grocery stores, where I would have found it much sooner. When we were in L.A. I managed to cajole my sister into stopping at Figueroa Produce where I managed to take the last four cans they had on the shelf. Sorry to whomever else wanted some.

I used the recipe from The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, by Melisser Elliott a.k.a. The Urban Housewife. The directions are really simple and you can make these in the crockpot or stove top. They probably come out better in the crock but I am still crock-shy so I opted for the range. Everything was going great until I realized I had timed things so poorly. I had to take the dog for her walk and I didn't want to leave the pot unattended when it was so close to almost being finished. So I stupidly added a bunch more liquid, knowing there was no way it would all cook out by the time I got back. Eveything was cooked but it was still too wet, so I simmered for another hour or so before calling it quits for the day.

A day or two later I took them out and drained the excess liquid. Then I tried to shred them up a bit and toast them in a pan. They were more like small chunks than stringy carnita goodness but they still tasted great. I will have to cut the spices/simmer time when I make them again since they were a bit much for my sister, which meant there was no way my niece could try them. I fixed up a huge taco like so: bean layer on the bottom, "carnitas", onions, cilantro, radishes and squirted the whole thing with lime juice. I washed it all down with mexicoke. ¡Delicioso!

p.s. Today is my late great-grandmother's birthday. She passed before I was vegan or even really learned how to cook. I wonder what she would think of this. It's also my friend Judy's birthday.¡Feliz Cumpleaños!

Vegan Mofo IV Week 3: Fryin' on the Fly

All week I'd been planning to serve Cholent for Wednesday's dinner but my sister, the biggest stew lover I know, took a look at it and was not interested in it. I told her she would love it since it had her favorite things in it but she said it looked like something else and she didn't want to eat it. I know it wasn't as pretty as the picture in Veganomicon, but I didn't think it looked as horrible as she was making it sound. She said she would get over it and try it but later on I realized that if this is how a 30 year old reacts, I could only imagine what my seven year old niece would say about it. She's already such a picky eater, I didn't want to turn the dinner table into a battlefield.


I had wanted to make fried tofu and greens earlier in the week anyway, so I went ahead with that plan. I made Southern Fried Tofu from The Urban Housewife's recipe, which turned out yummy. I will do smaller pieces of tofu next time so they look prettier, but they still tasted great. I was in a hurry since I changed the dinner menu about an hour before dinner, which is plenty of time for most people but I hate to be rushed in the kitchen so it was a challenge.

The greens were made using a recipe from Vegan Bites, which I don't use often enough. I think I've only made the chili recipe, but I loved it. Anyhow, I made the "Southern Style Greens" which was my first time cooking collards. I followed the recipe but also added about 1/2 of seitan broth to the pan. I usually put a bit of water when I cook greens, but I thought this would give it something extra. My sister loved them, so that made me happy. I didn't want to ruin collards for her on my first try. I liked them too. The only thing I would do differently next time is cook them a bit longer.

I had to cheat with road's end mac and chreese, but we still had lots of great food to eat. For dessert we had our first taste of TJ's Apple Strudel. I don't think there's room for much else after that.

tempeh'd by the fruit of another

Yesterday I got three cookbooks in the mail from Melisser, The Urban Housewife. If you have been living under a rock and do not read her blog, you better start. Then you can say you read it before she moved to Vienna and think you have more cool points than the rest of your block. Are there cool points for knowing/reading more blogs than other people? I'll bet there are. Anyway since she is moving and cannot take everything with her, I was lucky enough to score a few cookbooks. I got Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, The 30 Minute Vegan and Yellow Rose Recipes. It was tough to not take all of the books she was selling, but I still have so many underused ones that I need to crack into. I just needed a little kick start to get the inspiration going again, and I definitely got one.

I am really excited to try new recipes from these books and from others in my collection as well. Even though I've gotten better at cooking some things still freak me out, like making my own seitan. Other things remind me of how picky/foolish I used to be, like using mint. So I think those are two things I should give myself a time limit on trying because even if mess up the seitan (I only ever tried once) or don't like the mint at first, at least I gave it (another) chance. All enthusiasm aside, I haven't really made anything "new" in a while. Last week was full of repeats: cookies 'n' cream cupcakes, scrambled tempeh, egg mc vegans with diner home fries, to name a few. Our menu for this week was already planned so I didn't want to make anything too large or complicated. I went easy on myself and made the "Pan Fried Tempt-eh!" from e,d,&bv.

It was a cinch to make and was delicious just with a few squeezes of lemon as the author suggests. I added steamed veggies and brown rice to make it into a meal. Also so I could save some for my sister to try. Otherwise I could have quite easily ate all of it straight from the pan. It was crispy and crunchy on the outside but still chewy on the inside. My mom even liked it, which says a lot since she usually does not want to try my food without asking a ton of questions first. Then she usually makes a face of some sort. But who can say no to fried food? I know I can't.