KZCAKES: pie

March 09, 2013

March is here and I couldn't be happier. Spring is a good time of the year to clean house, especially your pantry. I always find all sorts of surprises in my pantry when I reorganize it-- probably because my pantry is all spread throughout my small apartment in order to give everything a home. I have a "flours" shelf, and often find that extra bag of powdered sugar that I didn't know was there, or a huge unopened bag of quinoa flour I bought for some cookies I never made.. etc. Today was my lucky day, because I found 2 giant bags of cashews! I sort of felt like I won the lottery. The cashew lottery. The best kind of lottery.

With them I made a new recipe-- an Irish Potato Pie! Is that a real thing? No? Okay good, then it was my idea. I suppose it takes inspiration from a french gratin, but Irish stuff is like waaay way cooler than french stuff, so I'm referring to this baby as an originale.

I sliced the potatoes super duper thin with a knife, but you could use a mandolin if you've got a good one. Use the slicer attachment on your food processor if you must, but they usually make my slices to thick for proper layering. I used part of my rediscovered cashew stash to make a creamy sauce to pour over the top, and baked it.

Intended for but not limited to St. Patrick's Day fixings. I can't see this not going over fabulously at a potluck. Unless you have, like, really weird friends.

Irish Potato Pie

4-5 yukon gold potatoes, washed

3/4 cup cashew pieces

1 head garlic

1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Peel away as much of the papery outsides of the head of garlic as you can without removing any cloves. Place on a small baking tray and roast for about 35-40 minutes, or until cloves are soft and golden. Remove from oven and carefully remove the cloves from the papery skin.

Using a food processor fitted with the slicing blade, or a mandolin, or by hand, slice the potatoes into thin slices, no thicker than 1/8 inch. If slicing by hand slice as thin as possible. Put sliced potatoes in a mixing bowl and add 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice.

In a blender, combine the cashews, roasted garlic cloves, almond milk, the remaining tablespoon of lemon juice, garlic powder, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper. Puree until very smooth and no grainy-ness remains.

Spray a pie plate with canola oil spray.

In a spiral pattern, line the pie plate with the potato slices in a neat pattern. Continue until all space is used up and spiral is complete.

Pour the cashew sauce over the potatoes and smooth out top so that you can slightly see the tops of the potatoes. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until top of the pie is lightly puffed and golden.

Serve whole, and slice as you would a pie.

January 06, 2013

Macaroni Pie, First Try

Every vegan has their beloved mac & cheeze recipe that they go to after a bad day at work, a pang of nostalgia, or a strong hankering for creamy noodles. I know I do. I have probably tried about 25 different recipes for vegan mac & cheeze since going vegan, perhaps more. Some did the trick better than others, but it took forever to find one that I specifically craved. Whether or not this tastes like real mac & cheese, I don't even remember. I just know that it hits the nail on the head when an ex-mac-&-cheese-lover is having a moment of weakness. I grew up on kraft mac and cheese, and not so much baked southern-style mac and cheese, and definitely prefer a creamy, soupier and cheezier mac than a dry, baked casserole with a crust. Like I said, I've tried a lot of different recipes, and applaud everyone for getting in their kitchen and trying to recreate their favorite comfort food and share it with the world so that other vegans like me can have a go-to mac & cheeze at our fingertips. My recipe is sort of a combination of all my favorites out there. I feel like I can't truly claim responsibility for whole recipe since I've had so much help along the way. So, Thanks Everybody!

Now, I've got a solid recipe and I make it all the time. So after recently finding myself with a large leftover pot of mac & cheeze, I sort of looked at it for a while, tilted my head sideways, and wandered over to my thinking stool and sat with my temple resting against my fist propped by my elbow on my knee.. you know, the thinking pose; the one you get in to access the creative part of your brain. A very distant memory crossed my thoughts of a girl scouts potluck we had when I was in brownies (that's when you're between 7 and 9). Everyone was supposed to bring a family recipe or a recipe from our family's heritage. So of course my mom and I brought kielbasa, this is obviously many years ago, because we're polish, and my best friend had her mom make lasagna because she was italian, and my other friend probably brought schnitzel and another rice and beans, and so on and so forth. Anyways, one scout brought macaroni pie. I was so intrigued by it, since I had never seen or heard of such a thing. I forget if it actually had a crust, or if it was just elbow pasta with tomato sauce, put into a casserole or pie dish and baked. But the idea of merging two dishes, macaroni and pie, excited me so. A long search of google images just yielded dishes of spaghetti jammed into a dish, covered in shredded mozzarella cheese and baked. Now I'm sure if I brought a dish like that to my next potluck, its praise, if any, would surely not get me to hollywood. I thought, maybe I could put a spin on all this spaghetti business and make a mac & cheeze pie.

I pondered over making a savory pie crust, but really ached over the idea of that much starch in one dish. I am aiming for ultra american, but that might be a little too american for even me. I took inspiration from a timbale, which uses eggplant slices as it's crust, and used steamed chard leaves. Collards would obviously work great here too. I really love to chop up some soy dogs and mix them into my mac, like I did as a little kid. I grilled my dogs first and then chopped them up and threw them into the mix. The results, pretty similar to straight up mac & cheeze, but in a nicer presentation, and also portion controlled slices. A jazzy new way to bring your favorite comfort food to a potluck!

Macaroni Pie, version 1

*For gluten-free variation, use a gluten-free pasta like shells or elbows. Instead of using flour, use chickpea flour in place of all-purpose flour.

1 lb macaroni pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup nooch

1/2 cup cashews

2 1/2 to 3 cups butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 tablespoon worcestershire

3/4 cup water or veggie broth

2-3 cloves garlic

2 heaping tablespoons white miso

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 tablespoons tahini

1 tablespoon dijon or spicy brown mustard

the juice of 1 lemon

2 cups unsweetened almond milk

1 teaspoon old bay

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

salt and pepper

1 large bunch swiss or rainbow chard, or collard greens

1 handful plain breadcrumbs

3 tablespoons olive oil, for drizzling

Bring a large pot of water to boil for pasta.

Add pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

You can use canned butternut squash, and save yourself the roasting, but I prefer to roast my own, because it's a little thinner and a bright vibrant orange, instead of a dull, grayed out can of squash. Plus you can find it year-round. So peel your squash, cut it in half, scoop out your seeds, and chop it into cubes and roast in on 400ºF for about 30 minutes or until super soft. If you get lazy you can skip the cubing step and just slice it in half and scoop the seeds and place the cut squash halves cut-side down on a baking tray. But then you have to wait for the squash to cool to peel. So I say, Cube em!

In a blender, add cashews, water and garlic. Blend at high speed for 2-3 minites, until a creamy paste is achieved. Scoop this mixture out and set aside. Puree the roasted butternut squash cubes separately after scooping out cashew mixture, set aside.

In a heavy-bottomed skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Now take a wire whisk and slowly whisk in the flour. This will turn into a clumpy mass, at which point you may switch to a wooden spoon. Stir it around for about 2-3 minutes, until you smell a toasty scent, that means the flour and oil are nicely toasted and combined. Get your whisk again and scoop in the cashew cream. Whisk this into the mass of flour and oil to create a thick paste. Add the miso, tahini, tomato paste and lemon juice, and spicy mustard and whisk until well -combined. Now, slowly whisk in the almond milk, until desired thickness is acheived. You want a relatively loose sauce, not a paste. It will seem soupy at first, but just keep stiring until the mixture absorbs the flour and forms a creamy cheese-like sauce. Now stir in the nooch, old bay, turmeric, dry mustard, worcestershire sauce and lower the heat. Now stir in the butternut squash mixture. It will make the sauce a silky luxurious texture. Taste the mixture and add salt and pepper accordingly.

Turn off the heat and dump pasta into sauce. Using a spatula, fold the noodles into the sauce so that each noodle is well-coated.

I have dreams about this.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Steam leaves of chard or collard greens for about 6 minutes, or until soft. Lay them out on a cutting board and pat dry. Lay them flat in a springform pan, draping it over the sides of the pan. Overlap the leaves so that the entire bottom is covered and some leaves overlap along the outside edges.

Scoop in your mac mixture and smooth out the top using a spatula. Fold the edges of the chard that hang off the pan up over the mac and cheeze so that the chard forms a border around the top of the pie.

Now evenly sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the mac and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the crumbs have browned. If they haven't browned, pop it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before slicing.

*If you don't have the worcestershire sauce, now is a perfect opportunity to use one of the many bottles of specialty soy sauces you bought to make some fancy thai dish, but are now left with a cabinet full of open soy sauce bottles. To me, this recipe screams to the open bottle of thai golden mountain sauce burning a whole in my fridge or cabinet. If you have neither, just add some extra salt.

If you don't have old bay, you can leave it out. If you feel dangerous, add a teaspoon or so you're favorite spice blend, like a persian 7-spice or an ethiopian berbere.

*If you want to relive my childhood, you can add some tofu dogs! Grill or toast in the oven 2-3 non-gmo soy organic hot dogs, my fav is tofurky, for about 5 minutes. Slice into bite-sized pieces and stir into the mac when done.

October 19, 2012

Chocolate Pumpkin Pie with Maple Glaze

October 04, 2012

Swiss Chocolate Awesome

September 02, 2012

I'm back, armed with mexican food

April 07, 2012

Challah is Where the Heart Is

I had an ideal weekend planned, where I would wake up early Saturday morning, go to the gym, come home, do the dishes, shower and start cooking my menu for the day. I would make a hundred different things, clean out the fridge, clean my kitchen and leave it spotless before going out for date night.

About half of that happened. Doesn't that always seem like that's the way things go? Apart from a few key things, like my kitchen looking as though Godzilla trampled through it overturning bowls of flour and chocolate instead of cars and trampling out after dipping his feet in barbecue sauce, and me completely skipping out on a days worth of exercise, I guess you could say things went swimmingly.

I had 3 bananas past their prime, which is prime time for banana bread, banana muffins, banana cupcakes, even cheesecake. I opted for the Banana chip muffins this morning, maybe because muffins are so easy, and come together with 1 bowl and 1 pan. As you may be able to discern, I am of the no-dishwasher set-up. It's almost like when I buy bananas, I look forward to 4 days later when there are a few brown ones left for me to mash up and go to town on, as if brown bananas are more exciting to me than fresh ones. I do also love me a straight up fresh banana. As you can see this study has been inconclusive.

I. love. Challah bread. Pre-vegan, I used to buy it at Panera Bread and eat the whole thing in one day because I couldn't stop ripping pieces off and shoveling them down. I once brought home a loaf and left some on the counter, and my mom came along and encountered the same problem, that is lack of self restraint in the context of eating Challah bread. I then learned to make it, and made it so much that I got tired of it (gasp) and shortly after that I became vegan and thought my Challah-eating days were over. But alas, vegan dad has saved me from such a horrible fate, that being unable to enjoy Challah bread, with his killer recipe. The dough was remarkably more sticky than most doughs I've had to knead out, but power through, just sprinkle a little flour when needed. It also makes a giant batch of dough, which was really fun to knead. I liked being able to push and pull and take up my whole side counter with a huge massive dough. It's bigger than any I've kneaded yet, and I kind of liked it. Is that weird?

And here we have exhibit B, the classic case of losing all self restraint and ripping off a huge chunk of the bread almost straight out of the oven, still piping hot, and before photography no less. Can't wait 10 measly minutes for the bread to cool before shoving it into my mouth. Good thing this recipe makes 2 loaves. There's a certain crack-status this bread holds. It's quite mysterious. The authorities are without answers.

S'mores Pie!! A variation on Vegan Pie in the Sky's Chocolate Pudding Pie, with cashew creme, graham crackers, and torched dandies marshmallows. Topped with ganache, she sure does photograph nicely.

After forcing him to drop what he is doing and immediately come marvel at my amazing creation, Alex asks, "How are you supposed to slice that?" A fairly valid question to which I replied, "Carefully." I have yet to slice it, but when I do, I will use my utmost care and caution. Once sliced, I will become fox-like and ditch all silverware or food utensil and mow face, Fantastic Mr. Fox-style.

This was planned to be the Spicy Blue Potato and Corn salad from Appetite For Reduction but I couldn't find any blue potatoes. These little baby bliss potatoes swapped nicely, though. This is a vinaigrette-based potato salad with pinto beans, corn and chipotles. It's for a brunch tomorrow, but I obviously had to take a taste, and I'm pretty into it. I'm usually a vegenaise-mustardy-dressing fan when it comes to the potato and macaroni salad, but the vinaigrette pulls its weight and it's so much lighter. You've got to pack healthy dishes with flavor, otherwise you're never going to eat it!

Unphotographed are a couple of pizzas, barbecued seitan, chile-cornmeal-crusted tofu burritos with broccoli cole slaw, and some seitan chicken-style nuggets. Slam dunk. Also, a new spring flavor will go up shortly perhaps followed by 2-3 more before the seasons end.

Happy Easter, Passover, Challah-eating Day everybody!!!

April 04, 2012

Food from Friends is the Best

I cook every day of my life. Most days I do this because I live in a world that doesn't always support my diet. But truth be told, I'd cook even if I wasn't on a strict diet, or had no dietary restrictions at all. I do it because I feel weird if I haven't cooked yet today. If I have a full day off, I spend a lot of it in the kitchen, because that's where I like to spend my days off. I really love cooking. No really, once I said to my mom, "I bet it would be fun to make your own tortellini" while we were out grocery shopping together as she reached for a frozen package of tortellini. She obviously looked at me like I had just gotten a tattoo of Glenn Danzig on my face. Anyways, the point I'm somehow trying to surface is that nobody ever cooks for me. Not that I ask them to, or that I don't go out to dinner with friends, but I can count on one hand the number of times someone has prepared something in their kitchen especially for me that I wasn't paying them for. And I have the most fond an appreciative memories of those times.

So I went to dinner a couple weeks ago at my friends Naomi and Greg's house and they cooked for me! They made a kickass salad with garlicky croutons and tomatoes and avocados, and you know you have me at avocado, and a Jamaican stew with seitan! It was obviously delicious and I loved every bite. I made a dessert to bring along, and then realized there was no way Alex was eating a pie with 2 of his least favorite ingredients in the title of it. So I made some brownies too.

Chocolate fudgy brownies with mini chips inside. I topped it with ganache and a sprinkle of mini chips for maximum chocolate-chip impact. Success. They were well received by both coconut and non-coconut-eating parties.

This is my pie. It's beautiful, I know. It's out of Vegan Pie In The Sky and it's called Coconut Lime Cream Pie. It needs no further explanation.

Okay, I know it's gorgeous, but believe it or not, it looks even better in non-phone pic format, which at this time I am unable to achieve. I also made a Patstichio from Terry's book, an Appleberry pie from my pie book, and a gazillion cupcakes. Basically, I've been breakin' necks and cashin' checks, and by that I mean baking a lot. Pretty cool, huh..

February 27, 2012

Tofu Tame as a Tiger

I've always been a bold girl. I've always said just what I felt and had a hard time not saying what I've felt. I've always opted for bright instead of muted, hence painting my room a shade of yellow that made it look like the lights were always on instead of a nice beige or olive. I've always been rebellious, and sometimes only because someone told me I couldn't do something. I played football and soccer instead of barbies and babydolls, I once wore flip flops and ripped jeans through a whole winter in New England because I was, in my head, rebelling against winter, and I may or may not have punched a boy in the face for saying that girl's couldn't be punk when I was in high school. I feel like now, though toned down quite a bit, I still maintain my bold roots. I drink beer, never anything with sour mix, and I drink IPAs, never lite beer. I'll take a whisky over rum, and I drink red wine, not white. I wear black boots, not cowboy boots, flats not pumps, and flip flops, not heels. I'm punk, not country, bold, not tame, sassy, not sweet. I roll this way in my kitchen as well. Observe.

Mixed grill for vegans! A Jamaican Jerk grill, at that! Now this recipe called for 1 habañero chile, but I do things extreme, and used 1 habañero chile, 1 fresno chile, and 1 jalapeño chile (that's triple extreme). I made some garlicky, spicy seitan and roasted it in my marinade along with some pressed and sliced tofu for the best mixed grill ever! Jamaican Jerk Sauce from the Terry Hope Romero collection.

Soup? Although soup seems un-bold, this soup is anything but. A labor of love, the broth is homemade (duh) and laced with sesame tahini and miso. Roasted sweet potatoes, ramen noodles, grilled corn, silken tofu, crisp scallions and peppery cabbage bring it all home. This bold, salty, silky, amazing broth can be a brilliant canvas for whichever noodles and veggies you have burning a hole in your bottom bin or hanging veggie basket or wherever you typically let things hang out until they start to go bad. Also on loan from THR's latest.

So I know that pie doesn't sound very badass, but believe me, a good pie, so long as its original and non-traditional, inspired and totally homemade, can be front and center in the pit of a misfits show. This is a shortbread crust with a chocolate hazelnut filling. Hazelnuts, by the way, are so punk that they are almost unwilling to be peeled. Lets just say a pound and a half later, I have no desire to peel hazelnuts in anything resembling the near future.

This pie is bold and awesome simply because its made out of coffee. Everyone who knows me, knows I love coffee, and none of that ice-coffee-light-and-sweet stuff. I do hot coffee, black. Straight up. No sugar, no creamer, sweetener, stevia, milk, soymilk, redbull, peanut butter, or whatever you kids put in your coffee nowadays. This is a chocolate cookie crust with espresso powder, filled with an espresso mousse and some chocolate covered espresso beans in the middle.

This is weekend falafel. The falafel I make every weekend. I do a special falafel dance when I eat it. It's my favorite thing ever and I think about it all week long while I'm a work, while I'm at the gym, while I'm driving to the health food store in Princeton, while I'm watching DD&D, while Alex tells me all about all the work he has to do, and while my neighbors scream and make holes in their walls. I even dream about this falafel. So yes, that's some good falafel. I don't know how it's punk or badass.. it must just be because it's vegan. All vegans are punk. Everyone knows that.

I'm approaching free-book status in the Terry Hope Romero testing pool. We all strive for free-book status, and I am one Italian-style cheesecake away. This batch of recipes is SO awesome!! I have loved everything I have made recently and can't wait to see the book all put together with pictures and notes and funny commentary as per usual with all of Terry's books and writings. I promise it will be badass and punk and bold and all the things I claim to represent in all its glory.

Next post: A variety of [non]traditional Irish fare, boozy desserts, and St. Patricks Day cupcake special!

<3 KZ

February 12, 2012

Countdown to Spring Flavors

Since I feel that we are now in the homestretch towards Spring and sliding off Winter's radar, I felt it necessary to do some Spring Menu planning and testing as well as baking a few old favorites for fun. The Spring always gives me a strange sense of hope and motivation. As the hints of the return of outdoor life start to pop up here and there, I feel like a little puppy with its ears perked, waiting for the next clue to follow and chase down. The air starts to smell warmer, your car is hot from the sun when you get into in, you get the urge to prematurely crack a window on your ride home... Anyhow, it's happening. I'm stoked for March, since I get to release my St. Patricks Day flavor, cook a variety of traditional Irish fare, and drink lots and lots of beer. I have my Spring Menu planned out and awaiting testing and plan to launch in early March. But until then, here's a look or two at what I've been fooling with in the past month.

Just like Starbucks' Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake. Alex and I went through a phase in my pre-vegan days before we moved where we'd go to Starbucks on the weekends and get this coffee cake and badass black ice coffee and sit outside and talk about important global issues and we thought we were so smart and looked so intelligent. Today I told him he should request something for me to make, since I always just make what I want and he usually doesn't help me eat it. So he requested this old favorite, given the vegan remix. It was a rough draft, and I have notes for next time, but it definitely does the trick, and the whole cake cost me maybe only slightly more than one tiny slice that they sell from their case at starbucks.

I was pretending it was Spring and made a fresh fruit pie.. I had a ton of leftover raspberries from my Valentines Day cupcakes that I wanted to put to good use, and to good use they were put! This is the "Pucker Up Raspberry Pie" from Vegan Pie In The Sky with the addition of balsamic vinegar for extra pucker. It tastes killer. Plus my lattice skills are legit.

Superbowl was a clear let down... My theory is that Madonna is entirely to blame. Despite the outcome of the game, the food did not disappoint. My falachos were a huge hit! It's just like it sounds: Falafel + Nachos = Falachos! This genius idea was shared with the vegan community through the ppk 100, which is the top 100 components helping to make 2011 the year of the vegan. Write it into your Chinese New Year rotation. I used whole wheat pitas to make the chips, tossed with cumin, corriander, salt and pepper and a little bit of canola spray. Crumbled falafel acts like the taco meat, then dollops of homemade paprika hummus, then a zigzag shower of yogurt tahini sauce, a generous sprinkle of cucumber salsa, and a handful of chopped pickles. Touchdown, kids.. If only Tom Brady had housed these falachos before kickoff.. Would have been a TOTALLY different ballgame.

I signed up for a million more recipes to test for Terry Hope Romero's new cookbook, and they all look awesome so excpect some serious food porn to be flagged very very soon. This might be the last round recipe testing so stay tuned for news on her new book release. I'll hook you guys up with picture previews, and you'll have that badlarry on pre-order sooner than you can say babaganoush.

So until Spring arrives in all its glory bringing a bounty of fresh fruit including cherry season, the kentucky derby, and many delightful rays of sunshine, You all keep it real.