SmarterFitter

Beyond Brisket: My Interview with Austin BBQ Chef David “D.T.” Terrell

Monica Shaw — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:32:30 +0000

I consider the side dishes as important as the barbecue, and these sides should taste as good as the meat. I see it all as part of the same experience even though many people just grab some “Q” and start munching. Some people are not into meat and I try to be sensitive to those feelings; vegetarians are okay with me. – David “D.T.” Terrell, Austin Barbecue Company

“BBQ” is not a word you often see with phrases like “veggie friendly” and “health food.” But Austin BBQ chef David “D.T.” Terrell proves there’s more to BBQ than brisket and ribs.

David catered my friend’s wedding reception last summer in Austin, Texas. I met him at the buffet table, where he was serving up slabs of beef and pork from a giant smoker and dishing up an impressive array of side dishes to go with it – barbecue beans, potato salad, cole slaw, enchiladas, and plenty of tortillas and extra sauce.

As a vegetarian, the meat choices were off my radar (though I’ve been told I was missing out on something spectacular) so I naturally veered for the beans, salad and enchiladas. As I took my first bite – a tender, deeply flavored butter bean – I could tell that the food had been prepared by someone who cares about quality. And as I finished my plate, I was starting to see barbecue in a whole new light.

Barbecue is more than just meat. It’s also about delicious side dishes, whole foods like beans and corn, fresh vegetables and quality ingredients. This goes for the meat, too, where often times the entire animal is utilized for food. Even as a vegetarian, I can appreciate a chef who wastes nothing and respects the animal by cooking it with care and attention.

On my second trip up to the buffet table, I had to ask David about his marvelous beans. He not only shared a few secrets about his favorite “non meat”, but also agreed to an interview. Thanks to David for sharing his thoughts on beans, barbecue, cajun cuisine and even Indian dal and tofu.

What is barbecue all about? How would you explain it to someone who’s never had barbecue before?

Barbecue is just meat cooked by heated smoke. If one is cooking directly over the heat source, that is not barbecue; that is grilling. The smoke comes from various types of wood like oak, pecan, hickory, and other fruit tree woods. In Texas, the hot smoke is mainly from mesquite and oak; other locales have their own favorites.

What’s special about smoking? How is it different from other types of cooking like direct heat?

The smoking of meat adds special favor and can also be a way to preserve the meat by removing moisture; that is how jerky is made. Native Americans were able to preserve buffalo and eat that meat throughout the long winters in the American West. Meat smoked long enough will turn a pinkish red, and barbecue lovers examine their cuts to see the “smoke ring”, or ring of red coloring.

Direct heat generally cooks faster and leaves a much different flavor than meat cooked by indirect smoke.

What made you decide you wanted to be a barbecue chef?

I became a barbecue chef because my father, a military man, grilled and smoked meat frequently and was a native of Memphis, Tennessee, one of America’s barbecue centers.

Where did you learn how to barbecue?

My father taught me the basics of smoking and grilling, and I learned more over the years from observing others. As I say, “I only steal from the best.” The education continues today; as you know one can always learn something new if your mind is open.

You do a lot of cajun food. Tell me about your connection with New Orleans.

New Orleans is a city that I have visited many times and I appreciate its uniqueness in both culture and history. The food, of course, stands apart from what is considered typically American. I have learned how important sauces and spices are in combination with the main course. The food alone makes New Orleans worth visiting.

I was really impressed by the quality of your ingredients. Where do you get your food and how do you choose your suppliers?

I try to use the freshest ingredients, and I make what I can from “scratch”. Finding fresh meats and vegetables in the local markets here in Central Texas is not too hard; creating good-tasting meals for discriminating palates is the real challenge.

Now I know barbecue is all about the meat, but what about the sides? How much emphasis do you put on your side dishes?

I consider the side dishes as important as the barbecue, and these sides should taste as good as the meat. I see it all as part of the same experience even though many people just grab some “Q” and start munching. Some people are not into meat and I try to be sensitive to those feelings; vegetarians are okay with me.

I’m a vegetarian, so I don’t really do the smoked meat thing. Can other foods besides meat be smoked? Would it be sacrilege to smoke tofu??

Yes, other foods besides meat can be smoked and taste quite good, even tofu. I even have a separate, special grill just for non-meat items so I can show vegetarians no meat came in contact with their food.

Your beans rock my world – how do you cook them? Do you use dry beans? What do you season them with? Do you cook them with spices or add the spices afterwards?

Ah yes, the beans. I also love beans so I give them special attention. I use dry beans and soak them in water overnight, then add spices and vegetables. Depending on whom my guests are I add chilies, brown sugar, and even beer. Various peppers may find their way into the beans, and I sometimes use some meat to enhance flavor, and make the same version without meat for non-meat eaters.

By the way, I’ve traveled throughout India and have eaten lentils at roadside food stands, with dal on the side, so I learn from everyone.

I’m a cabbage lover and adored your slaw. Your website mentions “Texas cole slaw” and “jalapeno cole slaw” – what’s the difference? Any cole slaw secrets you wish to share?

OK-I’ll spill the beans. Jalapeno cole slaw is made with both red and green cabbages and a homemade dressing, with tiny bits of jalapeno peppers, of course. Once made, it should be put in a cold place, like a fridge, for at least twelve hours. Texas cole slaw is the above without the jalapenos, and maybe a different dressing. Cole slaw, as you know, can be made with a variety of salad dressings.

What is your favorite food to cook with?

My personal favorite food to cook is pork because of the variety of pork barbecue one can cook, like ribs, shoulder, butt, sausage, whole pig, loin, and parts I won’t mention.

Okay, now what is your favorite non-meat food to cook with?

Beans are my favorite non-meat meal, and there are so many different beans, each with their own flavor. Red, Lima, kidney, pinto, black, black-eyed, navy, and others.

What’s your favorite meal?

My favorite meal is smoked duck with cornbread dressing, with New Orleans-style bread pudding with whiskey sauce.

Where do you go when you want to eat at a restaurant?

I like to eat the creations of other chefs and unique foods. People will find me eating sushi, Chinese and Korean foods at local restaurants, though I also like to eat at Indian food buffets.

Best piece of advice you would give a home barbecue enthusiast?

The best advice I would give a home barbecue enthusiast is to keep improving your product, taste and share with others, and pass your knowledge along.

Any vegetarian recipes you could share?

Yes, soak two cups of dry beans of your choice overnight, then add your favorite seasoning and peppers and cook in a covered pot until the beans are tender. Enjoy.

Thanks again to David for the wonderful interview. David runs The Austin Barbecue Company, a gourmet catering service in central Texas. If you happen to live in Texas and are a bit stumped for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, why not see if David can help?

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Cabbage in Tow

Monica Shaw — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:42:50 +0000

I went for a bike ride this morning to the Duchy Home Farm Organic “Veg Shed” and couldn’t resist this mammoth savoy cabbage. Fairly surprised it survived the nine mile journey back home.

Next time: bring a bigger backpack.

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Mushroom Hunting on Lower Moor Farm

Monica Shaw — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:38:26 +0000

Tim and I were out for a walk yesterday one Lower Moor Farm when we stumbled upon an enticing little cluster of big white mushrooms. I picked a few and, after a bit of internet research and some reassurance from my neighbor, I determined that they were field mushrooms and thus, quite edible. That evening, I turned my small harvest into a tasty mushroom pizza.

Good news – I’m still alive!

I’m not only alive, but I’m totally hooked on this mushroom gathering business.

I just filled in my membership form for the Cotswold Fungus Group and look forward to following in the footsteps of my new hero, John Wright, semi-resident forager of River Cottage.

Since moving to Orchard Cottage, I’ve been loving England more and more. This country seems to embrace outdoor adventure and wild food more so than America. Is that true? It could be that when I lived in America, I wasn’t at a point in my life where I could appreciate things like mushroom hunting and blackberry picking. Or it could be that now that I’m living in the country, I’m more constantly confronted by all that nature has to offer: blackberries in the hedgerows, sloe berries in the fields, and now mushrooms.

Consequentially, I just received a new book that should help me in my free food pursuits: Food for Free by Richard Maybe. Considered by many to be “the forager’s bible”, Food for Free is an illustrated guide to over 100 edible plants, fully described with pictures and recipes. Already I’ve enjoyed reading about the plants I’ve already identified. Now I’m looking forward to finding more as the seasons progress – bring on the elderflower champaign and gooseberry jam!

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Malted Grain Loaf: Best Loaf Ever?

Monica Shaw — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:30:31 +0000

I’ve recently become hooked on the Channel 4 series River Cottage, a program featuring Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s adventures as a downshifted cottage smallholder. One of the show’s main aims is to inspire people to live a more sustainable lifestyle by making simple changes to their eating habits. A recent episode featured baker “Ted” who demonstrated to busy mom “Sarah” how easy it is to bake bread.

I’ve been baking my own bread for a while, but my technique primarily relies on the no knead method which, while delicious, doesn’t quite reach the crusty, artisanal heights that I want it too (it also doesn’t toast well for some reason). Ted’s malted grain loaf caught my attention – it looked crusty and delicious, with lovely slashes on top and a dark, but light and fluffy interior. Last Tuesday, I decided to attempt this recipe for myself, and already I’m on to loaf #2: this stuff is incredible.

I’m posting the recipe here, but I highly recommend watching the video to get an idea of how it should look at the various stages of the baking process. It’s really simple. And if you wonder if you have time to spend 10 minutes kneading dough – you do. It takes more time to go to the store and buy crappy bread. This stuff toasts like a dream. Is it the flour? Is it the balance of ingredients? Is it the oven temperature? I’m not sure, but I’m looking forward to experimenting with different flours to find out.

Malted Grain Loaf

From The River Cottage.

500g malted grain flour (I used Doves Farm Organic Malthouse Bread Flour)
5g dried yeast
10g fine sea salt
300ml warm water
About 1 tbsp melted butter, or rapeseed or olive oil
Rye flour, for coating (optional)

Combine the flour, yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and mix to a rough dough (I recommend using your hands). Add the butter or oil and mix well. Adjust the consistency if you need to with a little more flour or water to make a soft, easily kneadable, sticky dough.

Turn the dough out on to a work surface and knead until smooth and satiny – roughly 10 minutes (or if you have a blender with a dough hook, use that). Cover the bowl with cling film and leave until doubled in size – anywhere from 45 minutes to 90 minutes, possibly even longer (here’s a picture of what it should look like when ready).

Deflate (’knock back’) the dough by tipping it on to the work surface and pressing all over with your fingertips. Then shape the dough into a loaf, dusting it with a little rye flour if you have some (the video demonstrates this very well). Transfer to a well-floured board, linen cloth or proving basket, lay a plastic bag over it and leave to prove, until almost doubled in size again.

Preheat the oven to 250°C/Gas Mark 9 (or at least 220°C/gas 7, if that’s your top limit), then put a pizza stone or baking tray in to heat up. Have ready, if possible, a clean gardener’s spray bottle full of water – you’ll be using this to create a steamy atmosphere in the oven, which helps the bread to rise and develop a good crust. (You can achieve the same effect with a roasting tin of boiling water placed on the bottom of the oven just before you put the loaf in – but the spray bottle is easier.)

Transfer the loaf to the hot tray, removed from the oven. Slash the top, if you wish, with a serrated knife. Put the loaf into the hot oven and give a few squirts from the spray bottle over and around it before closing the door as quickly as you can.

Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 200°C/gas 6 and continue baking until well browned and hollow-sounding when tapped – around 30 minutes.

Leave to cool completely on a rack before slicing.

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Rachel Demuth’s Slow Roasted Red Peppers with Smoky Chickpeas

Monica Shaw — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:15:07 +0000

VegNews.com is currently running my interview with vegetarian chef Rachel Demuth. I met Rachel earlier this year at her fantastic Fast and Delicious Cooking Course in Bath, England (click here for photos). Rachel was kind enough to share some advice with me on how to gain more speed and confidence in the kitchen, plus a delicious recipe for Slow Roasted Red Peppers with Smoky Chickpeas (reprinted below).

I can vouch for this recipe, as I’ve made it myself for a dinner party a few weeks back. The peppers were as delicious as they were simple to prepare and made the perfect compliment to my Muhammara Kebabs and Tim’s spiced couscous. I can also vouch for Rachel’s cookery school. I had so much fun and I’m still making the recipes we learned in class (just yesterday I made her roasted butternut squash and beetroot salad).

If you’re ever in Bath, and don’t have time for a whole cooking lesson, definitely check out Rachel’s restaurant. The first time I ate at Demuths, I was so wowed I bought the cookbook, visited the website, subscribed to the newsletter, and even emailed Rachel to ask how she made her phenomenal salad (yes, she wrote me back personally, with the recipe and all!). Now I consider Demuths one of the best restaurants in all of England. It’s really superb. But if you can’t get to Bath, she also has two excellent cookbooks: Green Seasons and Green World, both of which I own, and both of which have provided endless inspiration for fresh, seasonal vegetarian dishes.

Now, on to more immediate gratification: a recipe!

Slow Roasted Red Peppers with Smoky Chickpeas

Serves 4

2 large red peppers, halved and deseeded
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 (14-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
4 sage leaves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Pre-heat the oven to 390 degrees. Oil a baking dish and rub olive oil all over the peppers. Place them, cut side up in the baking dish on top of the thyme.

Divide the chickpeas between the peppers (extras can be placed around the peppers).

Divide the tomatoes and garlic between the peppers and push in between the chickpeas. Sprinkle with the chopped sage. Mix together the paprika and olive oil and drizzle over and around the peppers.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. The skin of the peppers should be just starting to blacken and be soft but still holding their shape. Serve garnished with chopped parsley and season to taste.

Recipe from Green Seasons Cookbook by Rachel Demuth.

And don’t forget to check out my interview with Rachel in Vegnews: England’s Vegetarian Cookery School.

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Weekend Review: Proprioception or bust!

Monica Shaw — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:08:26 +0000

I’m getting back into my strength training again, spurred on by another niggle with my ankle. It was 2004 when I first injured my ankle and I’ve been feeling rather bummed that I’ve let it go this long without getting serious about rehabilitation. I made a bit of a start last year by seeing a physiotherapist through the NHS. Unfortunately, I don’t think my once-a-month-or-two appointments were enough. And having the pain return after seeing this physio for a year is kind of a bummer.

So, I think I’m prepared to shell out some cash on a private physio who is more specialized and can provide more regular advice. I’d really like to run again and, more importantly, I’d really like to not have this ankle be a constant hindrance to my progress as a wannabe athlete. I’d like to find a physio who is also a runner and can sympathize with my case.

A physiotherapist in London gave me some free advice – mainly, do some proprioception work to improve my joints, muscles and ligaments and get some hardcore sports massage.

I’ve started up my strength training again and am going to look into a physio in my area for the massage and more specific advice on this proprioception stuff. I feel optimistic. And soon, I will likely feel a little poorer, but hopefully pain free.

So in the spirit of getting serious about getting fit, I’m going to restart my food and exercise tracking, including photos if I’ve happened to upload them in time. Here’s what my weekend looked like:

Friday

In London. Was treated to a simple but delicious breakfast from my host – homemade bread and homemade damson jam (damsons picked from the hedgerows!).

Food:

Breakfast: White toast with butter and damson jam, plus a cup of black tea with milk
Snack: Apple
Lunch: Spinach salad from Pizza Express
Snack: 4 sweet potato falafel balls
Dinner: 500ml English beer (Wychwood’s Hobgoblin and Thwait’s Wainwright); pizza on homemade white crust with Story Deli inspired toppings: roasted fennel, caramelized leeks, mushrooms, rosemary, sundried tomatoes, raisins, ground toasted walnuts, and olives; raw spinach

Exercise:

4mi bike ride from Kennington office to Planet Organic, then to London Paddington train station

Saturday

Food:

Breakfast: Toast with nut butter, apple, pear and banana
Lunch: Lentil shephard’s pie with salad and sweetcorn
Dinner: Sweetcorn fritters with tempeh and sauteed chard
Dessert: vegan mango ice cream

Exercise:

Monkeybar gym strength workout: 50 total reps of each exercise, in as few sets as possible, alternating between:
This took me 4 sets, and just under 30 minutes.
Walk: a 30-min stroll around Lower Moor Farm

Sunday

Food

Breakfast: Toast with hazelnut butter, cashew butter, banana and apple
Lunch: Leftover tempeh, sweetcorn and zucchini fritters and sauteed carrots, celery and chard
Dinner: Yummy vegan pizza with broccoli, caramelized red onion, roasted garlic, sundried tomatoes, black olives, toasted walnuts and pine nuts. With a rocket, tomato and cucumber salad on the side.

Exercise

Stroll around the farm. Roughly 45 minutes.

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Healthy Halloween Apple Cake

Monica Shaw — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:33:39 +0000

I confess: this cake was not made for Halloween, and in fact, was eaten well before Halloween arrived. But since it’s Halloween, and since the words “Healthy” and “Halloween” go so well together, I’m going to pretend the two are somehow related.

Speaking of things that have come and gone, our Orchard Cottage apples have just about been picked clean. For a while there, we had more apples than we could eat, and my mind was constantly racing for creative things I could do with them.

One concept that struck my fascination was apple cake. I wanted to make a cake that was not too sweet, heavy on the apples, and the perfect pairing with afternoon tea.

In my incessant Googling, I came across something called a “Jewish Apple Cake”. Its Jewish origin is a bit dubious, and the name probably has more to do with its lack of dairy products than its association with Jewish tradition. According to a self-proclaimed “wise old Jew” on chowhound, “the apple cake made by Eastern European Jews is pretty similar to apple cake made by Polish Catholics and the one made by Orthodox Russians.”

Whatever its origin, the principal is the same: the Jewish Apple Cake is a moist bundt cake, with a layer of apple in the middle, and another layer on top. While the traditional recipe may be dairy free, it does contain eggs. But in all other respects this was just the cake I was looking for. So I improvised.

For the batter, I adapted the recipe for Caramel Apple Spice Cupcakes from Veganomicon, cutting down the sugar by half and omitting the frosting. I then filled a 9″ round pan with half the batter, then a layer of sliced apples, then the rest of the batter, and finally, another layer of apples.

This cake had the strange effect of getting better with age. After the cake cooled, I had my first bite, which was fine, but a bit more muffin-like than cake-like. In truth, I was a little disappointed. But the day after that, the cake had taken on a much moister, crumbly texture. And after another day, it was magically even better. It went really well with a cup of tea, and was even extra delicious with a little blob of peanut butter on top.

The verdict: this is a fabulous cake to have around for snacks and tea time. For cake, its farely low-cal and low fat. Each serving (based on 8 servings) has about 209 Calories and 5.4g fat. But best of all, it’s delicious and chock full of apples. Just look at this cross section:

Vegan Apple Cake

3 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup soy milk
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/6 cup canola oil
1/6 cup applesauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Glaze:
2 Tbsp preserves (apricot or orange is good)
1 Tbsp water (or more if necessary)

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a 9″ cake pan with parchment paper (here’s how).

Whisk together the soy milk and lemon juice, and allow to sit for a minute to curdle.

Add the oil, applesauce, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla and beat well. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg and stir only until just moistened.

Pour half of the batter into the cake pan and spread it uniformly across the bottom. Layer half of the apples on top of the batter. Add the rest of the batter and then another layer of apples.

Mix the water and preserves to form a spreadable glaze. Baste it over the top of the cake. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.

Let cool before serving.

Serves 8. Per serving: 209 Calories; 3.6g Protein; 5.4g Total Fat; 37.1g Total Carbohydrates

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How to Make Nut Butter with a Food Processor

Monica Shaw — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:35:32 +0000

Okay so the picture’s not very nice. That’s some almond butter I made the other morning on a whim out of raw, unskinned almonds. I wasn’t sure if it could be done in the food processor, but this website assured me it was possible.

I was so pleased with the results that I’ve since made roasted hazelnut butter and raw cashew butter. Now, toast awaits (my current bread is a wholemeal spelt loaf made using Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipe for Malted Grain Brain, using spelt flour in place of wheat flour – it’s tasty!).

This is so exciting. A 170g container of raw organic almond butter costs £4.89, but I can buy 3kg of whole organic almonds for £22.60. Assuming those 3 kilos of almonds would make 3 kilos of almond butter, that’s £7.50 per kilo for homemade almond butter versus £28.76 per kilo for the jarred stuff. In other words, a huge savings of £21.26 per kilo!

But enough accounting. Here’s how it’s done:

How to Make Nut Butter with a Food Processor

Acquire as many nuts as you like – I did mine in about 150g batches, but I’ll probably increase this significantly as the first few batches were so successful and disappeared quickly
Roast the nuts if desired
Put them in the food processor and turn it on to a high speed
Be patient – it will take a while for the processor to pulverize all the nuts.
Stop the food processor every so often to scrape the sides, but give it a good 2-3 minutes of uninterrupted blending between scrapings.
Keep processing and scraping until the nuts start to clump up in little balls – this means it’s starting to give up some oil and form some buttery goodness!
Add a little oil if you want – this isn’t at all necessary, but it does help achieve a smoother, more spreadable butter (if you look on the ingredients of some nut butters, especially cashew, you’ll sometimes see that they’ve added some oil for this very reason)
Keep processing until your nut butter reaches the desired consistency

Overall, it takes about 10 minutes to make and it’s so delicious! If you want to do this, I highly recommend reading Make Your Own Nut Butters at Backwoods Home Magazine, which gives some more details about specific nut butters along with some pretty pictures.

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Carrot and Walnut Tofu Neatballs

Monica Shaw — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:11:09 +0000

I don’t know where the phrase “neatball” comes from, but it seems to have been universally applied to all vegetarian versions of the classic meatball.

I first saw a variation of this term at Victory’s Banner restaurant in Chicago, which serves “Neatloaf Sandwiches” (they are delicious, FYI). Since then, I’ve come across various recipes for neatballs, including the spaghetti and beanball recipe in Veganomicon and this impressive lexicon of vegan neatball recipes. But none of these satisfy my ball craving as much as this neatball of my own creation.

My neatballs are based on three ingredients: carrots, walnuts and tofu. What I love about this recipe is

It uses no breadcrumbs or other bread products – many similar recipes use something floury to bind everything together, and you end up with more of a bread-ball than a neatball. And since neatballs are destined to go with pasta or a nice roll, adding more carbs to the mix seems like overkill. This recipe is all tofu and veggies – carbophobes rejoice!
It’s a great use for frozen tofu which, when thawed, squeeze dried and crumbled, takes on a spongey, almost breadcrumb like texture
Their flavor is heavenly – the aroma and deep flavor of the toast walnuts perfectly compliments the sweetness of the carrots
The outside is nice and crispy but the inside is moist and firm
They hold their shape very well, without crumbling apart as soon as you stab a fork into them

Of course, what makes these meatballs come alive is a good tomato sauce and some pasta or a nice roll to go with it. One of the best things I ate last week was this neatball sub sandwich:

Mind the mess – but isn’t that what a neatball sub is all about?

Also tasty is the classic spaghetti and neatball pasta meal (a glass of wine and a nice salad helps). I suspect this same mixture would also do well as a stuffing for cannelloni, pasta shells or manicotti. Or as a filling in vegan lasagna.

Carrot and Walnut Tofu Neatballs

A food processor really comes in handy for this dish. You can even use it to do all your chopping. But you can do without if you finely chop your veggies! Some fresh herbs really kick this up a notch – especially basil and pesto. Also, I’ve had pretty good success making these with unfrozen firm tofu and a little bit of breadcrumbs, and skipping the silken tofu completely.

1 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium red onion, coarsely chopped
3 carrots, grated
1 cup walnuts,
450g firm (not silken) tofu, frozen, then thawed
2 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
juice from 1/4 lemon
150g firm silken tofu (about 1/2 box)
olive oil for greasing
salt and pepper

Saute the garlic, red onion and carrots in the olive oil until soft.

While that’s going, take the frozen tofu and squeeze out as much water as you can (I suggest tearing it into a few pieces and squeezing each piece with your hands over the sink. Don’t worry if it crumbles apart – that is its destiny!)

In a food processes, blitz the walnuts until they are roughly ground.

Add the firm tofu, herbs, lemon juice and sauteed veggies. Blend until everything is about the size of breadcrumbs.

Now, with the food processor running, start adding the silken tofu a spoonful at a time. When it looks like things are coming together, stop, and try to make a test ball. If it all holds together well, you’re ready to go. If not, add a little more silken tofu. Also, you may need to scrape the sides and bottom of your food processor as you go.

Form the mixture into balls (I like to make mine fairly small, about the diameter of a quarter) and place on a well oiled cookie sheet or roasting pan.

Bake at 350F/180C for about 15 minutes. Rotate the balls and return to the oven for another 15 minutes.

Makes about 25 neatballs. Per ball: 58 Calories; 3.3g Protein; 4.4g Total Fat; 2.3g Total Carbohydrates.

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Friday Foodie Highs and Lows

Monica Shaw — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 08:33:40 +0000

Taking a rest weekend from walking and such. Been feeling a bit under the weather and sore in the ankle. But not too sore for food. It was a day of ups and downs in the meal department. Breakfast featured a special treat: creme fraiche. And the afternoon’s tart experiment was fairly successful. But dinner disappointed – I made potato pancakes with red onion instead of yellow onion and it just wasn’t the same. But what can you do? Have dessert I guess!

Food and Exercise Log | Friday, October 16, 2009

Breakfast

Buckwheat crepes with fresh fruit and creme fraiche

The creme fraiche was a real treat, especially with the raspberries (and a bit of raspberry jam).

Recipe: Buckwheat crepes

Snack

Leek and Mushroom Tofu Tart

A small taste to sample the tart experiment.

Lunch

Leek and Mushroom Tofu Tart with Bread and Salad

I guess the tart passed the test. We had this for lunch with salad and some fresh baked no knead bread.

Snack

Tart Infusion #3

Dinner

Potato pancakes with white bean croquettes and cabbage salad

Kind of disappointed by this meal. The croquettes were too dry. The potato pancakes were not the same with red onion instead of yellow. But the slaw was delicious, as was the tofu dip (with chives, adapted from Veganomicon’s horseradish and dill dip) and apple sauce and homemade apple sauce.

Recipes:

Potato pancakes (the yellow onion is important!)
Winter Slaw with Red Cabbage, Apples and Pecans

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