Asian Food for Christmas Eve

While most people are gathering around the tree with their families and destressing from a crazy month of shopping, cooking, and baking, I'm sitting at home with a week of break and not too much to do. It's a really good feeling. This has given me a little more time for cooking. While most of the Jews I know go out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve, I opted to stay home today. My parents, however, stopped off at the Asian food center today and picked up the following:

(soy puffs, vermicelli, and wonton wrappers, if you can't tell)

One package was mysteriously labeled, "Soy Puffs" and I decided to use it today. As far as I could tell it was some sort of deep fried tofu. Each puff was about 1-1/2" square. I cooked them in a non-stick pan without any additional oil and they browned a little and released a lot of oil. In the meantime I steamed broccoli and sliced carrots and made the sauce that goes with General Tao's Tofu from the ever-popular vegweb recipe. The result was just as good as any dish I've ever ordered at a Chinese restaurant. The soy puffs were chewy and airy and the sauce was perfect, as it had been every time I've used this recipe.

For dinner, my dad and I made the Scallion Flatbread from Veganomicon. It didn't vary much from other flatbreads I've made and basically tasted like a scallion paratha. I misread the recipe and only added 1/4 tsp of salt instead of 3/4 tsp (this is what I get for reading upside down) so it was a little bland. I didn't have the ingredients to make the dipping sauce, so we just had them plain, which was still pretty good.

Merry Christmas!

Lower fat banana bread, latkes, and chickpea cutlets

This container made me laugh; can you find the typo?

When I'm not eating lots of soy ice cream or crossing my fingers for snow, I've been busy making a few of the less photogenic recipes in Veganomicon. A theme for this entry could probably be brown foods that weren't even worth a photograph.

My first recipe was the Lower Fat Banana Bread made into muffins. My mom and I both agreed that the muffins were a little dense, but I think it would have been a perfect consistency for banana bread, especially smothered in peanut butter.

After that I made the chickpea cutlets. I can say in complete honesty that this recipe was everything I expected and more. I took the baking route and they were perfect in every way. The flavor and texture were both great. I had the chickpea cutlets plain for dinner and then cut one up and had it over salad today. It was better than the Boca chik'n patties that we normally buy, so I'm thinking about making a lot of chickpea cutlets and freezing them for the future.

My dad made the potato latkes from Veganomicon, which were also delicious. So far I love Veganomicon; all of the recipes I've tried and looked at have been amazing.

Happy Chanukkah!

Veganomicon

I promise there'll be a real post soon, but right now I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm probably the last person in the vegan cooking world, but I finally got a copy of Veganomicon today and I'm stunned, it's beautiful. I have no idea where to even start. This is where you, the reader, come in: What recipes should I make first? Are there any recipes to stay away from?

I'm already thinking of the chickpea cutlets and potato latkes sometime soon since I've heard some good reviews on the cutlets and it's Channukah starting tonight (happy holiday to those of you who are also celebrating). What else must I absolutely make?