Maple Mustard Marinade

Inspired by my favorite food truck, The Cinnamon Snail, I made some maple mustard tempeh for dinner. They have a sandwich on their menu called the Maple Mustard Tempeh Sandwich. It's on grilled spelt bread with kale, tomato, onion, and roasted garlic aioli. And it's so good. If you live in NYC, you NEED to go to this food truck. You won't be disappointed.

Here's the maple mustard marinade that I made. It's enough for one 8oz package of tempeh. I let the tempeh marinade for 25 minutes, then lightly fan fried it, added a little salt, and devoured it. You could also use this marinade for tofu or as a dressing on salad.

Maple Mustard Marinade

1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water

Instructions

Whisk all ingredients together. So easy!

My Favorite Veggie Dip

I've been obsessed with tahini lately. I drown my falafel sandwich with it, I add a ton extra to these amazing veggie burgers, and I make a tahini dip for veggies at least once a week. I can't get enough of it.

Tahini Veggie Dip Ingredients
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup water
1 small clove garlic, pressed or chopped finely
large pinch salt

Instructions: Whisk everything together, and serve with your favorite veggies! See how easy that was?

You also might have noticed the ratios between the lemon juice, water, and tahini - 1 part lemon juice, 1 part water, 2 parts tahini. This makes it easy to double, triple, half, etc the recipe. I usually make the equivalent to whatever 2 lemons juices to. Tonight it was 1/3 cup lemon juice, so I then added 1/3 cup water, 2/3 cup tahini, a medium sized clove of garlic, and a few pinches of salt. I also make the dip in my 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup, eliminating the use of other measuring cups (and therefore I have fewer dishes to do later).

The same basic recipe can also be used as a dressing for salad. I thin it out though with more water, so that it can better coat my salad greens. The thickness of the dip/dressing is so easy to control - just add water.

French Toast Day

I have off from work today, so it's been declared French Toast Day. French toast isn't complicated or time consuming to make, but it's not something I would take on before work. It's definitely a weekend or holiday breakfast. My batter consisted of vanilla soy milk, vanilla extract (I can't get enough vanilla!), flour, and cinnamon. I used a little Earth Balance in the pan, and topped the french toast with powdered sugar and maple syrup. Okay, I drowned it in maple syrup. I am syrup-obsessed.

The finished product:

Vegan Bake-off

This weekend I was one of 20 bakers selected to participate in the first vegan bake-off, held at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY. http://www.veganbakeoff.com/

There were 3 judges:

Sarah Gross, the founder of Rescue Chocolate (http://www.rescuechocolate.com/), whose peanut butter pit bull chocolate bar is a must try. She is also the organizer of the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival (http://nycvegfoodfest.com/), which is coming up in just a few short weeks.

Myq Kaplan, a comedian and creator of the podcast "Hang Out with Me." (http://myqkaplan.com/)

Adam Sobel, owner of the Cinnamon Snail, the most amazing food truck. Ever. And it's vegan. If you live in NYC, you MUST try Cinnamon Snail. Some of my favorite are the ancho chili seitan burger and the seitan al pastor sandwich. http://www.cinnamonsnail.com/

For the competition, I created 250+ cookie sandwiches and named them "Girlfriend in a Sugar Coma (I know, I know, it's Speculoos) Cookie Sandwiches." For those of you who don't get the reference, one of my favorite Smiths songs is called Girlfriend in a Coma, and the chorus goes like this: "girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know, it's serious..." For those of you who are wondering what Speculoos is, all you need to know is that you should run out and buy some right now. Okay, okay, I'll give you a little more than that. Speculoos are Belgian cookies (marketed as Biscoff in the US), and it comes in an addictive spread. The cookies are ground into a paste (like the consistency of peanut butter), and the result is cookie butter. I used the Speculoos spread in the filling of the cookies, and turned it into a frosting-like filling.

There were awards for 1st/2nd/3rd places, and the audience choice award. I received one of each! I received the 3rd place award AND and the audience choice award. How awesome is that?!

Pizza

Pizza. Neapolitan, grandma-style, deep dish, NY-style, Sicilian, montanara. It's all great. When you have a really good crust and sauce, you don't even miss the cheese. My favorite pizza is one with no toppings at all - the classic marinara ("Rosa") pizza from Co. in New York City. (Website: http://www.co-pane.com) Their pizza is neapolitan-style, with a thin, airy crust with a slightly burnt undercarriage, crushed tomato (not too sweet), garlic, chili, and oregano.

It's also pretty easy to make your own pizza, and fun too! Here are some photos from my latest pizza-making session.

Waiting for the dough to rise:



 



















Toppings:

 




















Ready to eat:

Recipe: Soft Pretzels

Mmm...pretzels...soft on the inside with a slightly browned exterior, sprinkled with sea salt and dipped in your favorite mustard. These pretzels are a breeze to make and you may even have all of the ingredients already on hand.

Makes 12 pretzels

Ingredients:

Dough

2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast (for those of you using packets, this is equal to 1 packet)

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used safflower)

Baking Soda Bath

3 tablespoons baking soda

2 cups hot water

Garnish

1-2 tablespoons salt (larger and coarser is better, as this is for the outside of the pretzels)

Instructions:

Proof the yeast. Stir the sugar into the 1 cup of warm water (not boiling, otherwise you'll kill the yeast). Add the yeast and whisk or stir heartily with a fork. Set aside for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, your yeast should develop a thick layer of foam on the top. If your yeast looks the same as when you left it and you don't see any foam, your yeast is dead and you should start over with new yeast.

Make the dough. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, and vegetable oil. Add in the yeast mixture and stir with a spoon until combined. Then, with your hands, knead the dough for 5 minutes. If you feel that the dough is too sticky to work with, add a little more flour (start with a tablespoon at a time). Once the dough is kneaded, form into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot for 1-2 hours (don't place on top of your oven; it will cook the dough). Your dough ball should double in size.

Once the dough has risen, divide it into 12 equal pieces. Since I am terrible at eyeballing things like this, I used a food scale to get my 12 pieces equal, but it's not required. Roll each of the pieces into a ball, place on a plate and cover with plastic wrap for 20 minutes. Each ball should expand a bit.

While the indiviudal dough balls are rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees, line your baking sheets with parchment paper (I used 2 baking sheets; 6 pretzels on each), and make your baking soda bath. In a mixing bowl, combine the hot water and the baking soda. Stir to dissolve.

Take each dough ball and roll to a length of about 14-18 inches. Form into a pretzel shape. Take each formed pretzel and dunk into the baking soda bath. Place each pretzel on the baking sheet and sprinkle with large, coarse salt.

Bake for 15-20 or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes, then dip into your favorite mustard and enjoy!

Recipe: Banana Crumb Cake

Ingredients
Crumb Topping
1 1/2 sticks Earth Balance vegan butter, melted (equivalent to 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Cake
3 very ripe mashed bananas
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 stick Earth Balance vegan butter, softened (equivalent to 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350º F. Line a 9x9 square pan with aluminum foil by draping 2 pieces of the foil in a criss-cross patten over the pan. This will allow you to lift the cake entirely out of the pan when it's finished. Lightly grease the pan (after foil is placed) with a little Earth Balance, cooking spray, or vegetable oil.

Make the crumbs. Whisk the warm, melted earth balance with the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Add the flour and mix in (with spoons or hands). Set aside.

Make the cake. In another mixing bowl, mash the bananas really well with a fork. Then mash in the Earth Balance. Stir in the sugar, applesauce, and maple syrup until combined. Next, add in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Mix until just combined; do not overmix.

Spread batter into greased pan.

Break apart small pieces of the crumb mixture and add to the top. Cover the batter evenly with the crumbs.

Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350ºF. The crumbs should be slightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean.