Whole Food Dishes: Nishime Style Vegetables

Nishime style cooking is a very comforting, relaxing way to cook. It's basically a Japanese slow braising technique that uses very little water, and increases the nutritional value by adding the sea vegetable kombu, or kelp.

Typically, items are cooked in odd numbers as odd numbers are considered more harmonious in macrobiotics, though you can, of course, cook two or four (or however many you'd like) vegetables at a time.

You start by soaking a piece of kombu in a small amount of water. This kombu will get slightly gelatinous, and help prevent the vegetables from sticking or burning. Next, you carefully arrange the vegetables in a heavy pot with a snug or heavy lid, taking note to use vegetables that have similar densities, or cutting the vegetables into sizes appropriate so that will all cook for the same amount of time. Next, you season and simmer over low, even heat, until everything is tender.

There are two schools of thought on how to arrange the vegetables. Personally, I like arranging them in vertical wedges, so that each third of the pot is filled with one vegetable. Some people prefer to layer the vegetables, with the most dense on the bottom, and the lightest on the top, or vice versa, but I feel that makes the vegetables on the bottom taste like the vegetables on top.

Part of the idea behind this style of slow cooking, is that you start with a very small amount of water, because you want don't want to dilute the vegetables' natural flavor. You're also trying to slowly draw the liquid out of the vegetables, and concentrate the flavor. You'll be amazed by how much liquid accumulates, and how sweet the end result is, especially if you start with vegetable that aren't typically though of as sweet.

One of my favorite types of nishime, this recipe includes mochi, which adds a satisfying richness. The mochi melts all over the cauliflower, which plays the perfect foil, with all of its nooks and crannies. All three of the vegetables are pungent or slightly peppery when raw, but become sweet and creamy when cooked in this way.

Winter White Nishime
by Christina Terriquez

Ingredients
water
2 square inches kombu
1 daikon radishes
1 medium or large white onion
1/4 head of cauliflower
sea salt
plain brown rice mochi
shoyu

Directions
Place 1/2" of water in a heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid. Place kombu in water for at least 10 minutes to soften.

Cut diakon into 1 1/2" rounds, or 1 1/2" diagonals and set aside. Cut onion into 1/2 inch thick wedges, making sure to root end intact so wedges stay whole. Cut cauliflower into large florettes and set aside.

Once kombu is soft, remove it from water, and cut into 1/2" squares. Spread kombu squares out over bottom of cooking pot.

Carefully place daikon in a mound on one side of the pan. Add onion wedges next to daikon, leaving a vertical 1/3 space free. Carefully arrange cauliflower florettes in the remaining space, so that the top of each florette is pointing up. This is important so that the mochi can melt over the top of each florette.

Sprinkle a large pinch of sea salt over all of the vegetables and cook over low heat for 15 minutes.

While the vegetables are cooking, carefully slice the mochi into 1/4" thick slices, no bigger than 2"x2". After the vegetables have cooked for 15 minutes, carefully place the mochi slices over the cauliflower. Allow to simmer for 15 more minutes.

After a total of 30 minutes, sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of shoyu over the vegetables. Simmer for 5 more minutes or until tender.

Notes
This style of cooking is best during the fall and winter, since it takes a long time, and works best with the dense, hearty vegetables that are in season during the winter. But it is possible to use vegetables like zucchini and celery.

Try omitting the mochi.

Other vegetables that work well include: turnip, rutabaga, any winter squash or pumpkin, carrots, lotus root.

Product Review: Gardein Burgundy Trio

When I first saw the Burgundy Trio, I thought it was too good to be true. All of the trios are billed as a complete 3 minute meal, with one of their protein products, rice and veggies. There's no way you could go wrong with a wine based sauce, vegetables and basmati rice, right?

Imagine my surprise when I opened it and only saw four or five very small cubes of carrot and a few pieces of mushroom. I suppose it's my own fault, because if I had paid more attention to the ingredients, I would have seen that all of the "vegetables" in this "meal" are listed as being part of the sauce. There's no way I would consider this a complete meal.

The biggest problem is that the language they used set my expectations way too high, and being let down so much colored my opinion. Which is a big shame, because I did enjoy the sauce with the rice. The basmati was fragrant, perfectly cooked, with that light, creamy, floral flavor, and the acid in the burgundy sauce balanced it nicely. I really think the rice is the shining star of this "meal". I don't really recall the flavor or texture of the beefless tips themselves, so I assume they were okay, but not great. Which, when I think about it is kind of weird, since the beefless tips are the main Gardein ingredient in this product.....

Honestly, I would only buy this again if I couldn't find anything else vegan, or if I was out of town. It would probably be a tasty and healthy meal if it was paired with a salad, or some blanched or steamed greens like broccoli, kale, or asparagus. It is high pretty high in sodium for something so....let's just say, delicately flavored, so keep that in mind if you're watching your sodium intake.

ETA: I wrote this post(and a stash of a few others) before Vegan MoFo started so that I would have back ups, in case I ran out of time-or inspiration--on any given day. Good thing I did, because today I'm pretty rushed, I just wanted to note that Julia at Snarky Vegan did a great and eerily similar post about these last week.

Vegan MoFo Iron Chef Challenge Week 2: Quinoa!

This week's Vegan MoFo Iron Chef Challenge item was another ingredient that I am very familiar with, quinoa. I love quinoa, and I use it a lot, especially in the summertime, when its quick cooking time is particularly nice.



My mind immediately went to some of my typical quinoa dishes, like gluten-free cake or cupcakes, a timbale of quinoa and fall vegetables, a quinoa salad, or a pie with a gluten free quinoa crust. I actually had a really hard time trying to figure out what to do for this week's challenge, because I wanted to make something that I hadn't made before that was, well, challenging, but I've used it so often, and for many different types of things, I was kind of stuck into my routine way of thinking.

I ended up making a lot of quinoa in case things didn't work out......it's a really good thing I did. I thought about trying scones, but I wasn't in the mood for scones. I thought about trying to make a custard with quinoa, but that didn't strike my fancy, either. Finally, it hit me, pancakes! Pancakes are perfect for Sunday morning brunch. And I thought I could do it pretty successfully.

First, I scoured my quinoa really well and rinsed it until the water ran clear. Then I dry toasted it in a plain cast iron skillet. Then I boiled it. This made some perfect quinoa. the kind of perfect quinoa that would great as is or in a really simple grain salad. but I had bigger plans for it.

Once it was cooked, I chilled it overnight. This morning, I blended the cooked quinoa with some soymilk, a touch of sweetener, and some baking powder. The batter tasted great, with no bitter bite, but I could still see some whole grains. Oh well, I figured, it might give the pancakes some body and texture.

The first pancake looked perfect and beautiful, with a perfect, golden brown skin on one side, and it flipped nicely, too. I should have known better. I couldn't get the second side off the skillet. And for the next 4 attempts, I couldn't even get the first side off. I tried letting my skillet cool, I tried oiling it between each side, I tried cleaning the spatula between each flip (really a necessity, because they were sticking like crazy) but nothing was working. The bits that I could pry off tasted good, like a buttery skillet cake, with a soft, barely-cooked center, and a crisp, outside.

So I decided this batter would just not work. I thought at first that it was just too much sweetener. I added a little white spelt flour. This helped. The pancakes where sticking like mad, but if I could turn them, they came out okay. I ended up with a bunch of little crushed looking wads of dough.

The third batch is on the left. See how fluffy and cute they are? The ones on the right are the second batch. Super buttery and eggy, but very flat and sticky. Also, batch #2 isn't pretty.

The third batch was the charm. I realized that the batter needed a binder. I added some flax seeds, a little more water, more white spelt flour, and a little bit of lemon zest. As soon as the first pancake hit the skillet, I could tell that this batch would be good. I immediately saw the telltale bubbles coming to the surface. Then, I tried to flip it....no resistance! It worked! As soon as it was flipped, it puffed up even more. It was already about twice as fat as my first two batches, but now it was about four times as tall. I cooked the rest of the batter, and tasted them. They were good!

The third batch did deflate a bit after it cooled, but they look like perfect little pancakes. Add syrup, and you can clearly see why the word "cake" is a part of their name. The second side got super bubbly while the first side cooked, and when you pour on the syrup, the tiny little holes make each pancake a sponge for syrup, which they completely soak up.

Quinoa pancakes, drenched in raspberry syrup.

The flavor is amazing when the pancakes are hot; the quinoa lends a buttery flavor, and an eggy texture, which I've never had in any pastry since I've been vegan. The taste does change a bit when they cool, though. I've been eating as I type this, and the pancakes are starting to taste like more robust cooked grains, like rye or something. I would definitely try this again if I made too much quinoa and had leftovers, but I probably wouldn't make quinoa just to make pancakes.

For the rest of my brunch, I made garlic sautéed spinach, sausage-style tempeh, and rosemary sweet potato hash. It was heavenly.

Saturday Sustenance

Whew! I'm bringing this back, periodically at least. For some reason, we often get our mail late or sometimes not at all. Thankfully, many grocery stores now have their ads available online.

Right now, everyone is shopping around for deals to make the holidays easier. Hopefully this will help some.

As usual, there's nothing in Central Market's flier even worth mentioning for vegans. Bummer.

Natural Grocers has:

Chocolove3.2 oz bars, $1.49 each (select varieties, including my faves, cherry & almond, roasted almond & sea salt, and raspberry, plus peppermint and coffee crunch, which I've never even heard of)

Crofter's Organic 10 oz. Conserves, $2.29

Yogi teas, select varieties, $2.49

almonds, $2.99/lb.

organic walnuts, $5.49/lb.

organic acorn, butternut or spaghetti squash, $0.89/lb.

organic pie pumpkin, $0.89/lb.

organic cranberries, 7.5 oz for $2.79

organic cauliflower, 2 for $4

1.5 lb. organic French or Russian fingerling potatoes, $2.79

2 lb. organic Buttercream fingerling potatoes, $3.49

organic jewel or garnet yams, $1.09/lb.

Newflower has:

avocados, 3 for $1

hard winter squash(including kabocha) for $0.49/lb.

limes, 10 for $1

10 oz. grape tomatoes, $0.99

5 lb. organic carrots, $3.99

organic celery, $0.99

organic pomegranates, $0.99 each

organic persimmons, $0.99 each

Amy's frozen pot pies, $2.49 each

64 oz. refridgerated Silk Almond milk, 2 for $5

walnut halves & pieces, $3.99

pecan halves, $5.99/lb.

unsweetened coconut $3.49/lb.

Sprouts has:

asparagus, $1.47/lb (super fantastic deal!)

green beans, $0.99/lb.

zucchini or yellow squash, $0.49/lb.

hot house tomatoes, $0.49/lb.

red or yellow bell peppers, $0.77 each

Texas Rio Grapefruit, 3 for $1

organic Red Delicious apples, $0.69/lb.

organic red leaf, green leaf or romaine lettuce, $0.99 each

roasted almonds, salted or unsalted, $2.99/lb.

Twinlab B12 Dots, 500mcg, $9.99/250 dots

10 oz. Cascadian Farms organic frozen vegetables $1.99

Amy's frozen burritos, 2 for $3

Sun Harvest has:

hass avocados, 2 for $1

zucchini or yellow squash, 2 lbs. for $1

green bell peppers, 3 for $1

red potatoes, 2 lbs for $1

Tuscan Melons, 2 for $3

Mangos, $0.88 each

Texas Rio Star grapefruit, 3 for $1

organic gala apples, $0.88/ lb.

organic pie pumpkins, $0.77/lb.

organic celery, $0.88 each

bulk organic quinoa, $2.49/lb.--just in time for the next Iron Chef Challenge!

and they offer traditional holiday dinners or a la carte items with many vegan choices, including Field Roast!

Spinach, Roasted Poblano and Potato Empandas

Spinach, roasted poblano and potato empanada

Since all my posts this week have been about quick and easy meals, eating out, or convenence products, I've felt illogical guilt and made semi-complex meals, even when I've been super tired from work.

After work today, I needed to stop and pick up a few items from the grocery store. While there, I decided to make chick'n and yellow rice for dinner, but instead of using some form of chicken analog like usual, I thought I'd mix it up and try using some of the chickpeas I made earlier in the week, so it would be a bit healthier and little more satisfying.

I started making chick'n and yellow rice after Daisy Martinez inspired me with her show Daisy Cooks! (if I ever have a show, I want some kind of punctuation in the title). My version of this dish usually looks similar to hers, but that's where the similarities stop. I often use brown rice, she always uses white. She uses about 1 tablespoon of salt per cup of rice, in addition to the olives and the chicken stock. I think that's an insane amount of salt! She uses sofrito and recaito and her dish gets its gorgeous yellow color from achiote oil. I use mirepoix and turmeric for color. You get the point.

There's just something about this dish that always makes me want more. I was so excited about eating it tonight. But it was missing something. I don't think it was the fake meat. I actually really loved the texture of the chickpeas. The rice was too sweet, and some kind of tang was missing. JD and one of our friends, who joined us for dinner, both enjoyed it, as did I, just....not as much as usual. Mostly because I was expecting a very specific flavor, and this just wasn't it.

Chickpea and Yellow Rice

But I was really pleased the other part of the meal, savory empanadas! I made a vegan chorizo, potato and caper version, and a spinach, roasted poblano and potato version. These actually would have been perfect for last week's Iron Chef challenge. It's odd, now that I think about it, since the challenge, I cannot get enough potatoes.

Closeup of soy chorizo, potato and caper empanada

Both empanadas, side by side

I thought up this dish while I was at the store today, when I saw the veggie chorizo. For some reason the chorizo seemed like it would be perfect with potatoes and capers, but I tasted a little flat. I think maybe some daiya would help next time.

For the Spinach, Roasted Poblano and Potato version you'll need:

2 large russet potatoes, cut into 1/2" cubes and boiled
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 an onion, minced
half a roasted poblano, minced
1 cup frozen spinach, chopped
1--2 heaping tablespoons Vegenaise
sea salt
seasonings of your choice, including, but not limited to: garlic, garlic powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast, pimento stuffed olives, capers, roasted red peppers, black pepper, red pepper flakes, etc.
empanda dough, pie dough or puff pastry dough, see note
oil for frying, optional

Directions
After boiling potatoes, drain them and set them aside.

Heat olive oil in a small skillet. Add onion and sauté until translucent. If using fresh garlic, add it now, mincing or pressing first. Add poblano pepper and sauté for a few minutes. Add spinach and heat through and cook for a few minutes so liquid can evaporate.

Add potatoes and mash them up a bit, so some are broken and some are still whole. Turn off heat and add Vegenaise. Taste and adjust seasonings. Potatoes should be chunky, and have a creamy but not liquidy consistency.

I used premade emapanda wrappers, and filled them with about 1/4 cup of filling each, then fried them in safflower oil, but the size and amount of filling needed for each empanada is totally up to you. if you don't want to fry them, you can bake them.

As far as seasoning goes, I used a bit of nutritional yeast for a slightly cheesy flavor, plus freshly ground black pepper and garlic.

Spinach, roasted poblano and potato empanada

I also made sparkling raspberry lemonade with Topo Chico, lemons and some leftover raspberry syrup.
P.S. Sorry for the awful pictures lately. I don't know why, but I can't get photos to come out the way I envision them lately.