Vegan MoFo 2010

It is November 1 and that means it is also Vegan MoFo 2010!  This is my first Vegan Month of Food, so bear with me.  The Vegan MoFo is a huge event, better explained here:  http://veganmofo.wordpress.com/  That is also where you can find a complete list of bloggers participating in this glorious month.

I am a second year law student, so I spent 10-14 hours a day at school, but I am dedicated to seeing this through.  Since cooking and baking are such a good stress relief, I plan to dedicate a bit of time each day to both playing in the kitchen and updating here.  In the past I have been lax in my updates, but this month I will get at least 1 update each day.  If I fail, I will need bail money, since I will be in baking jail.

My theme for the month is spices.  Today I am also started a low-sugar lifestyle adventure, so I figured it would be a good chance for me to explore other ways of injecting big flavor into my cooking.  Each day I will do at least 1 dish that highlights or uses in some way a different spice from my spice collection.  I have several I have never used, and I may even get my hands on some new ones.  As always, this will occasionally include cupcakes, but in deference to my new low-sugar commitment, those will be less frequent than the savory dishes, and most of the reviews of flavor will come from those that are force-fed cuppies.  Since I've been hoarding my food porn, there will also be some pictures and (raving) reviews of past recipes I've made.  We will just have to see what else I decide to throw on here as I go, which may also be dependent on how busy school is keeping me...which this week is very, very busy.

So check back here daily, check out blogs by everyone else, and check out how cute my cat is:

An Experiment in Tempeh

As I was cleaning today I realized I had 2 unopened packages of tempeh, and they were a bit intimidating.  After checking around on theppk.com, I decided to try the hot sauce glazed tempeh from Veganomicon and the tempeh wingz from donteatoffthesidewalk.com.  Both recipes were surprisingly easy, though for the wingz sauce I used 1 tablespoon less ketchup and replaced it with more hot sauce, as well as adding a bit extra hot sauce for a little more kick.

Here are the tempeh wingz:

and the hot sauce glazed tempeh:

For the tempeh wingz recipe and other yummy vegan foods, be sure to check out http://donteatoffthesidewalk.com/?page_id=68

Tempura Veggies

When I was at the grocery store yesterday the asparagus and eggplant looked so delicious, I couldn't leave it.  However, I needed to do something to do with it.  Thus began my adventures in tempura-land.

After searching for a recipe, I settled on this one:  http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/cuisines/aroundtheworldin80dishes/japantempuravideo?currentvideo=34667202001
This makes a ton of batter, I ended up with a lot of extra and I used one bunch of asparagus and one medium sized eggplant.  I also  used peanut oil instead of vegetable oil, and that worked out fine.

For the dipping sauce I just threw together a bit of soy sauce, memi, and rice vinegar.  I think next time I will need to be sure to have some mirin on hand to make the sauce better and maybe go lighter on the soy sauce.