Attack of the Crepes!

Luscious Strawberries and Cashew Creme Crepes

Back when H came to visit, around the end of May, I started experimenting with crepes. It turns out that they are incredibly easy if you have the right tools! Luckily, in this case, "the right tools" all happen to be pretty inexpensive (excuse me while I momentarily geek out over gadgets, most of which have been in my kitchen for a while): a mesh sieve, colander, strainer or flour sifter; a well seasoned cast iron skillet, crepe pan, comal or flat griddle; a silicone brush; a crepe spreader (although an offset spatula may work, too); and a flexible stainless steel spatula.

The mesh sieve is for sifting your flour to make sure your crepes are light and lump-free. Mesh sieves are very useful in the kitchen as they can ensure your sauces, soups, sorbets, coulis, etc. are smooth and silky. You can also use it for rinsing dry grains or bean, or draining soaked nuts.

The skillet is where you'll cook the crepes, and cast iron is my favorite cooking medium: it conducts heat well so that food can cook evenly, it's durable as long as you treat it well, it takes on the best flavors and imparts them back into your food, it's naturally non-stick if it's well-seasoned, without being toxic (unlike Teflon....), and can be really inexpensive if it's a bare bones style. Of course, there are also the high-end enameled pieces of cast iron like Le Creuset which are pricey, but definitely worth it....they're just not for everything. While Le Creuset makes a crepe pan, I think it's unnecessary if you have a small kitchen or a tight budget.

The silicone brush enables you to keep your hot crepe pan well lubricated without having to worry about melting the bristles. I'll admit I was skeptical when I first saw the thick, rubbery bristles of a silicone brush. I though, "How in the world is that thing supposed to hold any oil, or agave nectar, or heaven forbid, a lighter liquid like soymilk?" And then I tried one. Immediately, I was hooked. Silicone pastry brushes are, in my opinion, the only way to go. Have you ever made baklava? If you use a plastic bristle pastry brush, the firm bristles catch and tear the delicate filo, and if you try using a soft natural bristle brush, you'll inevitably end up losing bristles in your baklava, which sure is appetizing! And the best reason to use silicone brushes is that they don't melt when you're working with heat, as silicone brushes have high melting point, usually around 500° F.

I'm sure the benefits of a crepe spreader are obvious, so there's really nothing for me to add.

Finally, there's the super thin and flexible stainless steel spatula. These are amazing tools. Perfect for flipping pancakes or crepes, moving hot cookies from cookie sheet to cooling rack, flipping burgers, tempeh or tofu in a cast iron skillet, or even for moving a cake from a square cake pan to a cooking rack. I certainly don't advise you to use any non-stick coated pans, but if you do, you'll want to avoid the stainless steel spatula, and instead opt for one of the nylon versions.

So, now that you know what the utensils do, I suppose you'll want a recipe and some pictures.

Simple Crepes
Christina Terriquez

1/2 cup organic whole wheat flour, or more if needed
1/8 teaspoon unrefined sea salt, SI brand recommended
organic safflower oil
3/4 cup organic unsweetened soy milk or rice milk

Directions
Sift flour and salt into a small bowl.

Mix 1 teaspoon of safflower oil and soy milk together, then whisk into dry ingredients. Batter should be about the consistency of melted ice cream, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time if needed. Set batter aside.

Lightly brush safflower oil onto a griddle or cast iron skillet and heat to medium–high heat. Pour 2--4 tablespoons of batter onto hot skillet and quickly spread batter into thin round. Gently flip crepe in a quick, fluid motion and cook just until crepe is set. Crepes should be beige and flexible, not golden brown or crispy. Remove crepe from pan and repeat until all batter has been used. Brush more oil onto pan if needed.

Variations
-Fill crepes with fresh fruit and cashew créme for a simple but elegant brunch.

-Fill crepes with cooked tempeh, steamed asparagus or sautéed mushrooms for a savory meal.

The crepe recipe is pretty easy and straight forward, so I'm showing you some of my favorite ways to enjoy crepes. I think my favorite of all were the Crepes with Wild Asparagus and Shiitake Béchamel and the Luscious Strawberries and Cashew Créme Crepes: both of these dishes were gorgeous and delicious, but they also had very complex flavors and textures while being clean and simple. The Luscious Strawberries and Cashew Créme Crepes are something I would never order at a restaurant, but oh. my. god. were they amazing!

Quinoa, Teff and Corn Timbal with Appled Beets, Zucchini, Carrot, Candy Cap and Sugar Snap Pea Sauté, and Tempeh Crepes with Chives and Béchamel

For tempeh: simmer tempeh in water, shoyu and oil for 20 minutes, or alternately, steam tempeh for 20 minutes, then marinate in shoyu and pan fry until crispy.

For béchamel: heat olive oil in a skillet and mix in flour to make a white roux. When flour is well incorporated into oil, add unsweetened soy milk and whisk until sauce/gravy texture is achieved. Season with sea salt and/or shoyu and herbs or pepper if desired.

For Tempeh Crepes with Chives and Béchamel: wrap 2-4 pieces of tempeh up in each crepe. Covered with béchamel and garnish with chives.

Asparagus in Crepes with Wild Mushroom Béchamel

For Wild Mushroom Béchamel: reconstitute dried wild mushrooms and slice, or wash and slice a mix of fresh wild mushrooms. Sauté mushrooms in olive oil with a bit of shoyu or tamari. Remove cooked mushrooms from pan, add more olive oil and mix in flour to make a white roux. When flour is well incorporated into oil, add unsweetened soy milk and whisk until sauce/gravy texture is achieved. Add mushrooms back into sauce and season with sea salt and/or shoyu and herbs or pepper if desired.

For Asparagus in Crepes with Wild Mushroom Béchamel: blanch or lightly steam asparagus. Fill crepes with cooked asparagus and roll crepes. Pour hot béchamel over crepes.

Crepes with Wild Asparagus and Shiitake Béchamel

For Crepes with Wild Asparagus and Shiitake Béchamel: Blanch or lightly steam wild asparagus. Stuff asparagus into crepes, cover with shiitake béchamel and garnish with fresh, ripe tomatoes and scallions or chives.

Fresh Fruit and Cashew Créme in Crepes

Cashew Créme: soak approximately 1 cup of cashews in filtered water overnight. Drain water, purée with a pinch of sea salt, sweetener or your choice (I use agave nectar) and a small amount of water if needed. You can season with vanilla beans, vanilla extract, lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon or any combination thereof.

To prepare Fresh Fruit and Cashew Créme in Crepes: slice or dice fresh seasonal fruit or your choice you can use one variety or many (I used blackberries, pineapple, and mango). Fill crepes with about 1 tablespoon of cashew créme, 3 tablespoons fruit, and roll closed. Garnish with fresh mint, fresh fruit and/or cashew créme.

Luscious Strawberries and Cashew Créme Crepes

Luscious Strawberries: Slice berries and macerate in fresh squeezed orange juice, liquid sweetener of your choice (like agave or maple syrup), or for super luscious berries, a little maraska and/or amaretto liqueur and a bit of raspberry jam. In this case I opted for the super luscious variation, which was divine!

To prepare Luscious Strawberries and Cashew Créme Crepes, fill crepes with about 1 tablespoon cashew créme, add some berries, roll closed, top with more berries, a generous amount of berry liquid, and an extra dollop of cashew créme.

Blackberry Crepes

Blackberry Crepes: Fill the crepes with fresh blackberries and a touch of blackberry or raspberry jam (I was lucky enough to have some homemade blackberry jam from JD's mom), roll up crepe, top with a few more berries, and dust with powdered sugar, brown rice syrup powder, or drizzle with maple syrup or agave nectar.

August Updates

The Art of Vegan Sushi

I've had a busy summer, with two out-of-town guests (H, of course, and M, JD's sister), taking classes and teaching them, creating a class worth of raw desserts, painting and decorating the house, a new Harry Potter movie AND the final Harry Potter book, the National Poetry Slam, hosting two potlucks, a broken radiator and transmission hose, unusual monsoon-like conditions, trying to keep a garden alive despite outrageous bugs due to said monsoon-like conditions, plus fighting off a bout of food poisoning, AND a cold....but I have been cooking. And I will be posting some recipes.

Upcoming recipes/posts to look forward to:

Simple Crepes with Asparagus and Shiitake Bechemal

Raw Lime Tart

Raw Raspberry Cashew Creme Tart with Chocolate Mousse

Raw Peaches and Creme Tart

Fusion Tempeh with Triple Sesame Rice

Strawberry Limeade

Spiced Cauliflower, Paratha, Red Lentils, and Curried Sweet Potatoes over Basmati

Roasted Vegatable and Polenta Napoleons

Luscious Strawberries and Cashew Creme Crepes

Raw Black Forest Cheesecake

H's Visit: The Recap.

Waffle Pac-Man eats Herbed Tempeh before going after fruit.

H's visit was great. I had forgotten how much fun she is to be around. The bad thing about this, of course, is that I now realize just how much I miss having really close girlfriends in town.

While she was here, we only did about half of the things I felt she HAD to see, and less than a third of the things I really wanted her to see, but it was a pretty packed week. Her visit was bookended with a few tragic events in JD's family that aren't really mine to discuss, but suffice it to say, he's been somber lately.

H arrived on May 31, and after JD and I picked her up, we headed to Java Noodles. After that, we went to the Gingerman and caught up. We intended to go to Weird Wednesdays at the Alamo Drafthouse, but we were tired so we headed home. Once there, H and I watched a few episodes of Strangers with Candy.

Since we had stayed up late, we slept in and had fresh mangoes, apricots and satsuma tangerines, herbed tempeh and spiced apple waffles (I found the recipe online, but I don't recall where; they tasted delicious, but they were kinda soggy and hard to handle.) I hardly ever make big breakfast, but I made at least 4 during the week H was in town.

Clockwise from top: satsuma tangerines, mango slices and apricots, herbed tempeh, and spiced apple waffle

Then, we went to meet H's friends E and J after work. E works on 6th Street and the Republic of Texas Biker Rally was just starting, so we watched it and E and H caught up for a bit, then we went to Mother Egan's. Mother Egan's is a favorite of E and J, but I had never been. At one point, the conversation drifted to grade school (where H and E met), and they started talking about line dancing. They promptly decided to see if they still remembered how. After a few rounds, they sat down but a cute guy had noticed and came over to chat up H. They showed each other a few dances, and he gave her some pointers on how to fight. We hung out while they talked, then went home.

Aside: Whenever my single girlfriends visit me in Austin, they get hit on by all kinds of cute boys. H and I also went to a cafe and the cute, witty barrista was totally flirting with her. When my old college roommate, L, and her friends visited me, she couldn't walk a block or go to the grocery store without being hit on. Let this be a lesson to all my long-distance girlfriends: if you're single and want to meet cute boys, visit me.

H stayed with E and J over the weekend, and I taught myself how to make crepes, which I'll post about later. I also saw Knocked Up with JD. If you like Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen, you'll like it. JD and I are big fans of Freaks and Geeks, so we loved seeing Bill, Nick, and Ken together again (even Daniel's there!).

Sunday evening, H came back to our place, and I made Mexican Hot Chocolate with soy milk for all. It was perfect because although it was warm out, it was raining like crazy. After we drank the cocoa, we decided to go check out some movies from Vulcan Video. We ended up getting Don't Tempt Me, The 40 Year Old Virgin (I was on an Apatow/Rogen kick), and the live-action version of The Tick. If haven't see this, what the hell are you waiting for? This is great family friendly viewing.

Rich, creamy, and vegan Mexican Hot Chocolate

On Monday, I made a trio of fresh fruit crepes with pineapple orange syrup and cashew créme. We went shopping along South First, and found, among other things, an adorable bat backpack a la Francesca Lia Block's Witch Baby. We ended the shopping at Bouldin Cafe with juice for me, a shake for H and a vegan chocolate triangle split between us to tide us over until 5:30.



At 5:30, R joined us and we went to Uchi for dinner. I mentioned previously that I had my doubts about what I would be able to eat and whether it would be worth it, but I must say, it was amazing! Part of that, obviously, was because of the wonderful company. Our server was very helpful and knowledgeable, and definitely heightened our experience. During happy hour, Uchi has $2 unfiltered sake--I love unfiltered sake and $2 is a bargain!--which we all tried. It was served in a small glass inside of a small wooden box, and it seemed like at least 2 tablespoons of sake were in the box instead of the glass, but none us know how/if we were supposed to drink that, ie. should we drink straight out the box? should we pour it into the cup? It seemed like it might be impolite or improper to drink out of the wooden box, and we didn't want to be uncouth. Finally, our server came to take my glass, and poured the sake from the box into the glass. The food, drink, company and conversation were great, and we decided to make it a girls' night.

Aside: JD couldn't join us for dinner, so I ordered a few items that sounded like things I had heard him order before, tekka and negitoro. We we arrived home, he asked why I gotten those things for him. Apparently the fish had been chopped, making it mushy and totally unappetizing to him. I told him he couldn't make me order (omni) food for him without providing any instructions (he had told me to get him "whatever, you know what I like"). I had never really had fish before I went vegan, aside from fish sticks, crab wontons and shrimp cocktails, so him asking me to order fish sushi/sashimi without providing instructions is like me telling him to buy me a bra without telling him what size, style or color.

R, H, and I went home to drop off JD's food, and so that R could change out of her work clothes. Then we went to the Drag/campus area. We walked around and shopped for a bit, then went for margaritas at Trudy's. After Trudy's, we hit Toy Joy and Dhaba Joy just as they were closing. We each bought some cool trinkets from Toy Joy, and some pretty desserts from Dhaba Joy. I'm a little ashamed to admit that this was my first visit to Toy Joy and Dhaba Joy, especially since I know Vivek and Laura, the owners. At least I finally got to try Oatscreme. I must say, I enjoyed it. I wouldn't serve it to a omnivore as ice cream, but it was cool, sweet, creamy and enjoyable. I also got a few tiny chocolate cupcakes because they were super cute and I knew JD would want something sweet. I ate one and a half and promptly got the most awful sugar headache.

Mini chocolate cupcake with chocolate rose from Dhaba Joy

On Tuesday, H and I decided to hang out on South Lamar. First, we saw Hot Fuzz at the Alamo Drafthouse. It was hysterical. If you like Nick Frost/Simon Pegg, or buddy cop movies, you'll love it. After that, we went to Kerbey Lane Cafe. I got what I always get; Spinach, Artichoke Heart and Mushroom Omelet, veganized, with dry sourdough toast and homefries. Bellies full, we walked to the Lowbrow Emporium, where we each picked up a nifty book, then headed back up the road to the stores at 2110 South Lamar. That evening, E and J invited H, JD, and me over for dinner, which was lovely.

We decided to take it easy on Wednesday and just hang out at home. I made some chocolate chip pancakes (which were semi-disastrous, as grain-sweetened chocolate chips are huge and scorch easily), tofu scramble, a few pieces of fried tempeh, and fruit and we watched Twin Peaks while H packed. JD, after receiving some bad news, came home around 2:30, to take H to the airport, and we dropped her off around 3:30.

Apricot, Satsuma Tangerine,Blackberries, Tofu Scramble, Tempeh, Edible Flowers, and Chocolate Chip Pancake

After that, JD wanted to picked up something from our local comic book store, Southside, but when we arrived, we saw that it had suddenly closed down, then we had went on an adventure trying to find a postal stamp. You'd think it's be easy to buy a single stamp, but apparently not in Austin. We finally found a place that a) had stamps and b) would sell them to us in increments that were under 10 bucks, so we got a book of stamps. Just as we arrived home, H called me to say that all west bound flights had been cancelled due to tornadoes, so we picked her up and, since we had all had a kind of exasperating day, we had pizza and watched more Twin Peaks (we were trying to get through the first season, which is only seven episodes and the pilot, so that she'd only have to try finding the second season).

Thursday morning H packed again, we watched more Twin Peaks, and said our goodbyes. She went to the airport while I went to work to teach. It was a whirlwind week, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

H, big mama, please came back again soon! Muah!

Easter Weekend Brunch

Mini Easter Weekend Brunch

We finally got a dining table! And a buffet with hutch! Yay!

I have been living without any kind of kitchen table for over a year, for a few reasons. The first being that my last apartment was really tiny and didn't really provide room for a living room seating area AND a dining table. The second being that, apparently, I am really picky.

Anyway, last weekend we rented a trailer for J's car and drove up to the arboretum area and brought a lovely set from a lovely woman and her lovely mother. I would have liked a slightly more espresso-colored table to fit in with the decor better, but this is awesome. Now I just need to figure out how to arrange everything in the kitchen/dining area.

That day we bought the dinette set, R made dinner for J and I. R's boss had given her a bottle of $70ish wine, which she shared with us. It was amazing. I'm not much of wine drinker, but when I do drink/buy wine, it's usually in the $10-$16 neighborhhood. Most of these wines have been really tasty and fun. There was only one red wine, which cost $6, that I would never buy again, although I would gladly buy their chardonnay again. Even though I'm a wine novice, I could immediately tell that R's wine was an "expensive wine". It was complex and peppery, and over the course of the meal it changed, not only in flavor, but also in aroma. While I wouldn't normally spend so much on wine, I can definitely see the attraction.

It was during that dinner that I decided I wanted to make brunch. Eventually I think I'd like to throw a (a few) sleepover part(ies), then serve brunch in the morning. We talked about a Harry Potter themed party-watch all the movies, maybe make some theme dishes, a John Hughes 80's party or a Bad 80's slasher movie party....really, the possibilites are endless. While J thinks this is a bit of a silly idea, the few girlfriends I've mentioned it to have liked it.

So, thinking the sleepover idea out, I realized I needed to practice my brunch-making skillz.... Plus, I couldn't get the idea of biscuits, sausage- or bacon-style tempeh, and brown gravy out of my head. I know that true southern style bisquits and gravy means cream gravy, but, honestly, with the soymilk in the biscuits, and soybean tempeh, plus the shoyu I was using as a seasoning, I just didn't want another soy product on the table. And, my brown gravy is mighty tasty.

Our mini brunch included boiled collards, farm-fresh pink grapefruits, orange juice, brown mushroom gravy, "buttersoymilk" biscuits, sausage-style tempeh and crisp potatoes. The collards were simply boiled until soft (J likes his greens southern-style; boiled to hell with bacon or bacon grease, while I like my lightly blanched, so this was a compromise). I used a variation of this recipe for the biscuits. The potatoes were cut in half lengthwise, parboiled, then pan-fried until golden brown and crispy. The tempeh was the most time consuming dish, it was steamed, then simmered in water seasoned with shoyu, sage, thyme, basil, oregano and a little bit of toasted sesame oil, if you have all ingredients on hand, you could steam the tempeh the night before and marinate it overnight instead of simmering it. The liquid was then reserved for the gravy ("drippin's"), and the tempeh was browned in a cast iron skillet. After this, a minute amount of oil was heated, then shiitake mushrooms, onions, and garlic were sautéed, the drippin's were added, the seasoning was adjusted and then kuzu was added to thicken the gravy.

J was weirded out by the idea of brown gravy with biscuits, but R and I loved the meal, then again, we've never claimed to be southerners. I even had a biscuit, tempeh and gravy the next day as leftovers--yum!