More from Viva Vegan!

Greetings from Planet Houston!

(The astronaut cow statue at Houston's IAH airport)

I'm back in Houston after having to testify in a trial in New York City.  I had forgotten how much I loved New York's vegan food.  During the short time I was there, I ate at Candle Café and Blossom, two of my very favorite restaurants.  I love Houston, but I don't know if a day will ever come that I can go out for a nice fancy dinner and order seitan in a port wine-mushroom sauce.  A girl can always dream.

In the spirit of yummy vegan food, here are the results of my most recent projects from Viva Vegan!  As I mentioned in a previous post, I made the Red Chile Sauce (page 45) and wanted to use it in the Red Chile Enchiladas (page 135).  To do so, I also had to make the Steamed Red Seitan (page 34) and Pine Nut Crema (page 45).

The Steamed Red Seitan didn't look like I thought it would; it was more tan than red.  

I eventually realized that I had only used half of the amount of tomato paste that I was supposed to use.  Even though I had gone slightly off-recipe, it still turned out delicious.  It was shockingly moist.  I've heard people talk about meat that falls right off the bone (gross) or melts in your mouth.  I imagine this seitan was the vegetarian equivalent.  

The recipe yielded twice as much seitan as needed for the enchiladas, so the night before I made the enchiladas I used the seitan to make a quick meal for Boyfriend and I- sautéed seitan, onions, and black beans with yellow rice and avocado.  Boyfriend LOVED the seitan.  All of the recipes I've made from Viva Vegan! have scored major points with him.

I also made the Pine Nut Crema ahead and refrigerated it until I was ready to make the enchiladas.  I tried out the Pine Nut Crema after I made it and was skeptical.  I'm not vegan.  I'm vegetarian, so I know what cheesy sauces are supposed to taste like.  This sauce tasted like tofu mixed with pine nuts.  At that point, I had a feeling I was not going to be thrilled with the enchiladas.  I made them anyway, and was pleasantly mistaken. 

The enchiladas were filled primarily with waxy potatoes and Steamed Red Seitan.  They were bathed in the Red Chile Sauce and topped with the Pine Nut Crema.  In the interest of full disclosure, I used some low-carb onion and herb tortillas instead of the corn tortillas that were called for.  I also ended up only making half of the recipe, since the full recipe would feed six people and I was only cooking for myself: one fresh meal and two quick reheated lunches.

The Red Chile Enchiladas were what I imagine meat enchiladas are supposed to taste like.  If I had grown up on this kind of food, or even if I had ever eaten a meat-filled enchilada, I'm sure these enchiladas would make great comfort food.  I'm happy to report that the Pine Nut Crema, in combination with the Red Chile Sauce, really did taste like a creamy cheesy sauce.  That kind of taste is very hard to accomplish with a vegan recipe, but Master Terry managed, of course.  The only down side to this meal is that it does take a lot of effort.  Since I made most of the ingredients ahead of time, it came together rather quickly.  Still, I think the next time I make enchiladas I might opt for a semi-homemade version using pre-made enchilada sauce and Daiya "cheese" on top. 

This cookbook might be too good.  I decided to give myself a little distance from it because I've been neglecting so many of my other cookbooks that I want to try out.  My newest one, "Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey", by Najmieh Batmanglij, has been begging me to experiment with it.  So, Latin America may have to wait for a bit while I head over to Persia.

Review of Viva Vegan!

Things are starting to settle down.  I graduated last week, moved out of my old apartment, and am now officially living in the new place in Houston, but I'm still awaiting the arrival of my belongings.  May was a busy month, and the last two weeks I've only cooked a handful of meals for myself.  I hate that.  Hopefully that will change soon.  I have big plans to finally make a dent in my long list of recipes to try out.

For now, I want to gush over the few recipes I did get to try in May.  I bought Viva Vegan!, the new Latin cookbook from Terry Romero, and it is truly amazing.  I've made 6 recipes, and they have all been fantastic.  This is my favorite cookbook.  I have over 30.  That's a big deal.

First, I made the Quinoa-Oyster Mushroom Risotto (Quinotto) on page 130.  It's supposed to be like a risotto with quinoa, but it didn't remind me of risotto at all.  No matter, because whatever it was, it was delicious.  It was the best quinoa I've ever had, and I've had some damn good quinoa.

The next thing I made was the Chimichurri Baked Tofu on page 100, which required making a batch of the Chimichurri Sauce with Smoked Paprika on page 43.  The fresh chimichurri sauce was bright green and tasted very fresh.  When baked with the tofu, it took on a darker color and a smoky flavor.  I loved the sauce both ways, and had some of the fresh chimichurri on the side with the chimichurri baked tofu and quinotto.

My next project was making the Annato-Infused Oil (Aciete de Achiote) on page 31 and the Yellow Rice with Garlic on page 96.  I found the annato seeds at Central Market in Houston.  They're bright red and give the oil its orange flavor, which in turn put the yellow in the yellow rice.  I don't know how to describe the flavor of annato, I just know that I like it.  The oil keeps in the fridge, and during my time off before graduation, I used it to sauté vegetables that I served over the yellow rice.  It gave the vegetables something special.  The yellow rice was also delicious because of the annato flavor.  I'll be making it over and over again.  The recipe calls for white rice, which is what I used, but I'm going to see how it turns out with brown rice.  I'm sure it'll be quite different, but I do like my whole grains.  Below, the yellow rice mixed with mushrooms, spinach, and onions sauteed in annato-infused oil.

The last recipe I tried was the Red Chile Sauce on page 45.  I loved this sauce, but haven't found the right pairing yet.  I tried it with the yellow rice and sauteed vegetables, and it was good, but not quite right.  I made enchiladas with what I had on hand (black beans, mushrooms, and onions) but the flavor of the enchilada filling and the red chile sauce didn't mesh correctly either.  Last night I was thinking that this sauce would be better with enchiladas filled with potatoes, spinach, and maybe seitan.  Then, I looked in Viva Vegan! and saw the Red Chile Enchilada variation of the Potato-Chickpea Enchiladas with Green Tomatillo Sauce on page 135.  Its stuffed with potatoes and the Red Steamed Seitan (which I've yet to try but have heard is, like everything else in this cookbook, fantastic).  I think making the Red Chile Enchilada is the solution for what to do with the giant container of red chile sauce in my freezer.

I love this cookbook.  Love it, love it, love it.  Don't be surprised if you see more of it on this blog.  I use most of my cookbooks for inspiration, but I'll continue to be cooking the actual recipes in this one.