Party Animals No. 5: Post-Thanksgiving Party 2012

Thanksgiving for us has historically been packed with family. So every year, we throw a Post-Thanksgiving Party on the Friday evening following Thanksgiving wherein we blow off steam and swap leftovers with friends. To fill in the leftover gaps, we always make two soups, two loaves of crusty bread, and two other brunch-friendly pastry-type items designed to feed a crowd.

This year, we were so enamored with our Thanksgiving strudel--and admittedly, we had plenty of filling leftover (and leftovers is some of what this party's about, after all) after making the first--we decided to roll with that for the party, too. We made one spinach-sage, and the other mushroom-thyme.

Soups this year were both from Moosewood Daily Special: Spiced Mexican Squash Stew (pictured in the rear) and our personal new favorite comfort food, Egyptian Red Lentil Soup.

Party Animals No. 4: Thanksgiving 2012

Main Event: Creamy Spinach-Sage Studel. We wish we could share the recipe we used for this amazing cream sauce. It's brilliantly flavorful and doesn't weigh you down because it's thickened (and further flavored) with sauteed vegetables in addition to the nut base. As if all that weren't enough, it's heavy on whole foods, with only a tiny bit of added oil. It was a recipe we got from being a Compassionate Cook member, so we can't post it here. But if you already have a favorite cashew cream sauce, you're not far from throwing together this pretty main dish. Puree your cream sauce with a buncha sage, stir in about 12 oz sauteed spinach, and wrap it up in puff pastry.

This could easily be called Main Event, Part 2. When we first started hosting our (small) family's Thanksgiving a few years ago, we decided to go with a cornbread-fig recipe from Food Network chef Tyler Florence. It was a decisive hit, and instantly became one of the non-negotiable items on the Thanksgiving table, which means we eventually had to adapt it for our vegan holiday. (The tamari kinda makes the whole thing uglier than homemade sin, but since we're hungry vegans and not shooting a Saveur cover, we don't let it bother us.)

Cornbread-Spiced Walnut-Fig Dressing

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2 TBSP oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped

8 oz walnuts, finely chopped/coarsely ground

1 tsp fennel seed (optional)

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp dried sage

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

2 TBSP low-sodium tamari (or soy sauce)

1 cornbread loaf (8-inch round), crumbled

2/3-3/4 cup rehydrated figs, roughly chopped

salt and pepper

1 TBSP ground flax + 3 TBSP water (flax egg)

2 TBSP hemp seeds + 4 TBSP water + 2 TBSP oil

1/2-1 cup vegetable stock

Preheat the oven to 350.

Heat the 2 TBSP of oil over medium heat. Saute the onion and rosemary for 5 minutes, then add the walnuts, spices, and tamari. Cook an additional 5-7 minutes, until the onion is cooked and the walnuts and spices are very fragrant.

Transfer the walnut mixture to a mixing bowl and add the cornbread and figs, then season generously with salt and pepper.

With an immersion blender, combine the flax egg, hemp seeds, water, and oil. (Feel free to replace the hemp seeds and water with 1/3 cup of any nondairy milk you have on hand. Though hemp does create a particularly creamy result--due in part to the fact that the seeds blend well enough that you don't need to strain it, which adds richness--it's not necessary to buy them just for this purpose). Blend until very creamy. Whisk in 1/2 cup of vegetable stock and add to the cornbread-walnut mixture.

Stir, add more stock if it seems dry (you should have something like a very moist dough). Transfer the mixture to a 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish and bake at 350 for 45 min-1 hr.

One of the few times in a year we break out the nondairy butter (margarine). Worth it.

Biscuits

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scant cup (15 TBSP) unsweetened nondairy milk (we used our homemade almond milk)

2 TBSP + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup + 2 TBSP nondairy butter

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp corn starch

3/4 tsp salt

Whisk together the milk and all of the apple cider vinegar. Set aside in the refrigerator or freezer.

Measure out your 1/4 cup of nondairy butter, chopping it into pieces as best you can and set it in the refrigerator.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, corn starch, and salt. Using your hands, quickly rub the cold butter into the flour until you have a mixture made up of mostly pea-sized globs of flour-covered butter. Make a well in the center and pour in the cold milk mixture. Stir until just combined (the dough will be very sticky).

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, dust the top with flour, and gently fold the dough over itself half a dozen times. Pat out into a 1-inch-thick round. Cut out biscuits (we use a glass with about a three-inch opening at the top--smaller than a pint glass, bigger than a Collins) and transfer to a baking sheet, placing them so that they just touch. Continue to work the scrap dough, though as little as possible to preserve tenderness, until it's all used.

Bake at 450 for about 15 minutes, until golden. (Optionally, crack some fresh black pepper over the tops of the biscuits just before placing them in the oven.) While the biscuits bake, melt the remaining 2 TBSP of nondairy butter. Spoon/brush the melted butter over the hot biscuits and serve.

Herb Scalloped Potatoes from Veganomicon. Another non-negotiable menu item for our Thanksgivings. We like to use tiny or fingerling potatoes to maximize the surface area on which the seasoning mix has to settle. It makes for a longer chopping session (and, admittedly, makes a kinda fussy recipe even fussier), but the final result is a total win.

Confession time: we never eat the Cranberry Relish, but we have family members that would have our heads if it ever disappeared. Plus, it's too easy to have any good reason not to make it. So we continue to make Wolfgang Puck's recipe, using lemon juice.

Roasted Apples with a Balsamic Reduction

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4 apples (we had Honeycrisps), cored and sliced

1 TBSP lemon juice

1 TBSP natural cane sugar

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 425.

Toss the apples with the sugar and lemon juice and bake for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring the vinegar to a boil in a small pot. Reduce head and simmer gently until thickened into a syrup, about 20 minutes.

Drizzle the syrup over the apples and serve. (If the reduction hardens, set over low heat and it will soften again.)

Chocolate Swirled Pumpkin Pie: This comes from The Joy of Vegan Baking, but we added the swirl and made our crust with Mi-Del brand Ginger Snaps. To make the swirled version: Once your pie is prepped, melt 3 oz of chocolate (or less, if you want to have some bites without chocolate), pour over the top of the pumpkin in a spiral, and swirl the two together with a chopstick. Bake as directed.

For the chocolate, we used Equal Exchange Organic Very Dark Chocolate (71% Cacao) because it's really tasty, the co-op carries it, and it made the Food Empowerment Project's list.

Our other dessert this year was a family request (we love those!):

Banana Pudding

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2 cans coconut milk (we used Thai Kitchen brand)

1/3 cup natural cane sugar

1/3 cup corn starch

1/4 tsp salt

1 TBSP vanilla extract

22 Mi-Del brand Vanilla Snaps

2 bananas

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk together the milk, sugar, corn starch, and vanilla in a medium sauce pan. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent sticking on the bottom, until thickened and beginning to simmer, about 7-10 minutes.

Set aside 6 Vanilla Snaps and smash them into crumbs.

To assemble, place 8 cookies in the bottom of a loaf pan, slice one of the bananas on top of them, pour in half of the pudding, and repeat, ending with the other half of the pudding (note that you may have a bit of pudding that you can't fit in). Sprinkle the reserved cookie crumbs over the top and bake until warm and bubbly, about 15 minutes.

Serve warm, or, if you're like us, make your Thanksgiving desserts the night before and remove from the fridge a couple of hours before serving.

Party Animals No. 3: Eggplant Confit Banh Mi for a casual grill-out

This sandwich was inspired by/adapted from Tartine Bread. (One day, we hope someone will be genius enough to publish an anniversary edition of The Joy of Vegan Baking on matte stock. It would be one of the greatest pieces of advocacy ever.) Beautiful book, yes. Vegan, not even close. So after a little work and playing with scale to make this recipe make more sense for a home kitchen, we found total success: Rich eggplant confit and zesty marinated veggies drizzled with a chile-lime sea sauce, all topped with a creamy herb sauce.

Though it looks like a long recipe, don't worry: both sauces are a snap to throw together while the veggies marinate, and the eggplant confit can be made days in advance. Even the sandwich itself can be assembled more than an hour before baking or grilling. Letting the sauces soak into the bread a little doesn't hurt one bit. Which means it travels like a champ.

Note that we did end up making this for the event with the traditional baguette, which is pretty hard to beat. But sometimes a crusty ciabatta (that version pictured above) is in order. Our solution? Make this sandwich early and often, with any bread you're currently craving.

Eggplant Confit Banh Mi

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1 baguette or ciabatta loaf (we have a very strong preference for Flour Head Bakery), cut in half lengthwise

1 batch herb legumaise, recipe follows

1 batch marinated shredded vegetables, recipe follows

1 batch chile-lime sea sauce, recipe folows

half recipe eggplant confit, sliced into long, 1/4-inch thick slices

To assemble: Spread the herb legumaise on the cut side of the top half of your loaf and set aside. Spread the marinated vegetables over the bottom half of your loaf. Drizzle the chile-lime sea sauce over the vegetables, then add the eggplant confit. Put the sandwich together. If grilling, wrap the sandwich in foil and grill for about 10 minutes, until warmed through. To bake, place the sandwich (no need to wrap it in foil) directly onto the middle rack of an oven preheated to 375 and bake for 7-10 minutes, until the sandwich is warm and the bread has crisped a bit. 

Herb Legumaise:

5 basil leaves

1/4 cup cilantro

1/4 cup cooked navy beans

2 TBSP olive oil

1 small clove of garlic

juice of half a lime

1/4 tsp salt

1/4-1/2 of 1 jalapeno (about 1/4 oz)

Add all ingredients to a jar and puree with an immersion blender.

Marinated Shredded Vegetables:

1 medium cucumber (5-6 oz total weight), peeled, trimmed, and shredded

1 small bell pepper (3-4 oz total weight), trimmed and cut into matchsticks

1 large or 2 small carrots (2-3 oz total weight), peeled, trimmed, and shredded

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup water

2 TBSP sugar

1/2 TBSP kosher/sea salt

Place the shredded vegetables in a large bowl. Whisk together the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt, and pour the mixture over the vegetables. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Chile-Lime Sea Sauce:

2 cloves garlic

juice of 1 1/2 limes

1/2 tsp oil

1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne powder

1 TBSP low-sodium tamari

1/2 tsp kelp granules

Place all ingredients into a jar and puree with an immersion blender.

Party Animals No. 2: Gochujang Spring Rolls and Sweet Potato Pie with a Brandied Date Swirl for a Potluck with Pals

Gochujang Spring Rolls

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1 cup water

1/2 cup dry brown rice

1 TBSP oil of choice

1 clove garlic, minced

1 small head purple cabbage, shredded

1 lb carrots

double recipe  [see note] gochujang sauce, recipe follows

9 8-inch dried rice paper sheets

Bring the cup of water to a boil over high heat, add the brown rice and cover. Return to a boil, reduce heat to low and let cook 25-30 minutes.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and saute the garlic for about 3 minutes, until fragrant. Add the shredded cabbage, stirring to coat the cabbage with the oil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and let cook while you peel and shred the carrots, 7-10 minutes. 

Once the carrots are shredded, put on a full kettle of water over medium heat. 

Add the shredded carrots to the cabbage, stir well, and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Cover the pot again, turn off the heat, and let sit while you whisk together all of the gojuchang sauce ingredients. When the rice has finished cooking, add it to the vegetables.

Stir the sauce into the vegetable mixture. When the water in the kettle is hot, but still cool enough to comfortably put your hands in, transfer the water to a large bowl.

To assemble, take one sheet of rice paper and dip it into the hot water, rotating to wet the circumference until the sheet is flexible enough to submerge completely, then hold under until very soft, transparent, and pliable. (Each sheet will take about twenty seconds to soften, beginning to end.) Transfer to a cutting board and cut the circle in half with a pizza cutter. Place 3-4 TBSP of the filling along the flat, cut edge of the paper. fold in the sides and roll up. Repeat with the remaining rice paper and filling. 

yield: 18 spring rolls

Single recipe gochujang sauce (taken years ago from Closet Cooking) :

[Note: If making this recipe for ourselves to eat at home, we'd probably go with a lighter, subtler version and use only a single batch of the gochujang sauce, which, like any other incredibly wonderful condiment, isn't exactly health food. But when entertaining, feel free to splurge on the double batch of sauce. It's good stuff.]

1 TBSP gochujang (this paste is available, if nowhere else, at Oriental Super Mart on Sutherland)

1 TBSP rice vinegar

1 tsp turbinado/brown sugar

1 tsp sesame seeds (optionally toasted)

1 tsp low-sodium tamari (or soy sauce) 

1 tsp sesame oil

Sweet Potato Pie with a Brandied Date Swirl

This pie is simply Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's (totally great, definitely getting made this Thanksgiving with a chocolate swirl) pumpkin pie recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking, substituting mashed sweet potatoes for the pumpkin puree.

For the brandied date swirl: 

10 dates, pitted

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp salt

2 TBSP brandy

1 TBSP orange juice (optional) 

about 1/2 cup water, for blending

Simmer the dates in the 1/2 cup water for about 5 minutes, until the dates are very soft. Remove from heat and to the pot add the rest of the ingredients. Puree until smooth with an immersion blender (or transfer to a food processor/blender if necessary, but be careful of the hot ingredients). The result should be a loose paste that will not pour, something like a thick apple butter (add more water by the tablespoon if your paste is still too thick and sticky).

Fill a prepared pie crust with the sweet potato filling. Spoon the brandied date paste in a large spiral on top of the unbaked sweet potato pie and use a chopstick to swirl the two fillings together. Bake as directed. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Party Animals No. 1: Mexican feasting for Mom's birthday

This meal due almost entirely to the genius of Terry Hope Romero. 

1. Tamales from Veganomicon

2. Salsa from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites (listed as "Blender Hot Sauce") 

3. Home Style Refried Black Beans (with brown rice) and Tres Leches Cake (not pictured) both from Viva Vegan!