the hideous vegetarian sausage roll project take 2.

This is the successful (-tasting, not -looking) version. It still needs a pinch of adventure somehow, but it tastes pretty great as is plus you'd never guess it was tofu.

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vegetarisch saucijzenbroodje.

400g tofu, frozen and defrosted

1 large onion, diced small
2 tbsp butter (i bet you could even make this brown butter for extra boom)

1 tsp, up to 2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg, to taste (important, this should be the top note of the end result, but juuuust barely identifiable)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika powder
1 tsp ginger powder
a pinch ground coriander
1/4 cup ketjap manis, or more, to taste
3 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste

1 egg, lightly beaten

8 sheets 5 x 5 puff pastry

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Crumble tofu with your hands until there are no pieces bigger than, say, a kernel of corn.

Spread tofu on a single baking paper-covered baking pan (speak English much?) and roast in 150°C oven for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned and dry and spongy.

While that's happening, sauté onion in butter until browned, 15-20 minutes.

Combine spices in a bowl and then add roasted tofu and sauteed onion. Mix and squish with hands until thoroughly combined. Then yeah assemble into sausage rolls (?) and bake for 15-25 minutes or however long it takes.

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the hideous vegetarian sausage roll project.

Take 1: pretty much total failure, except for the hideous part.

Things that worked: freezing tofu, pulsing the thawed version with seasonings, sauteeing/caramelizing in a pan, then roasting on baking paper to dry everything out.

Things that didn't work: the seasoning. Something went horribly wrong in the earliest stages, leaving a rather nasty aftertaste, and all signs point to either Worcestershire sauce or allspice/pimiento as the culprit. I've had this happen with allspice before, so that's my suspicion. Here's what I think did work:

400g tofu
3 tbsp ketchup
1/3 cup ketjap manis
2 tbsp mustard
1 tsp nutmeg
a lot of black pepper

and then some other spices that I haven't figured out yet.
sauteed in 2 tbsp butter

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also:

momofurkey.

As usual, it doesn't look like much, but this was deeply satisfying and very easy. It's supposed to be based on Hainanese Chicken Rice, but I wonder how it would be on a non-meat like tempeh...I think tofu would not be quite right. I didn't make the rice.

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soy-braised turkey with ginger. 

1 medium shallot, thinly sliced, plus 1 small shallot, quartered
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste

1/3 cup light or low-sodium soy sauce
2 cups water
2 tbsp brown sugar
4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 to 4 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh ginger
500g/3 cups shredded turkey meat
2 tbsp coconut oil or unsalted butter (if using white meat)

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hot rats.

de toekomst.

recently.

 Flàmmeküeche and pumpkin soup at Troost. Sleep Gunner and Moore/Buis heading to the Belgian border.

Where I had one of the least edible restaurant dishes I've had in a long while, "homemade ravioli of the day". I think you can tell by the ravioli in the foreground that these are pretty "al dente", but what you can't tell is that they also tasted pretty "awful", like only the wrong things about dried mushroom taste.

Luckily Nelson was able to redress the lingering bad pasta juju by busting out her birthday present for the first time and making homemade lasagne noodles...

Which were then applied to this spinach and eggplant lasagna bianca with rosemary, really good, recipe from Caroline.

Italian suckses continued at home with Dennis's new pizza recipe, to be posted here soon.



Then quite a mixed bag of recipes from Veggiestan, this eggplant/tomato/yogurt/mint concept was really good...

...but an unpictured pumpkin soup with rice and za'atar croutons was, mmm, not such a great idea, and these kibbeh:

Despite appearances, were just depressingly bland and useless.

Then this week I encountered a need for vegetables and pickled things, so we get Mark Bittman's beet carpaccio and some perrrrrfect pickled beet eggs.

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tempeh reuben.

I done stole this from somewhere a while back, made it a couple of times, it was a dang near perfect way to do tempeh without frying, you grill it in a grill pan for three minutes a side. Great on rye bread with sauerkraut, Thousand Island and a bread and butter pickle.

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tempeh reuben.
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp water
1 tsp liquid smoke
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp prepared mustard
1 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 bay leaf, crumbled, or a pinch of powdered bay leaf

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