Outfitting your kitchen with knives

Since vegans chop a lot of vegetables it seems important to talk about knives and how to choose them. I'm guessing a lot of you already know this and if so, just stop reading now. :)

First of all, don't buy a set. Second, don't buy a cheap (except maybe Forschner knives) knives. Good knives last a lifetime and are worth the investment. Even if you have to save your pennies for months to buy one knife, you should do that instead of buying cheap knives. I have Wusthof's, but Henckle's are equally good. I know some people will disagree and say that cheap knives are fine, but after years of using cheap crappy knives we got as a wedding present and then switching to nice knives, I just disagree. Cooks Illustrated also seems to really like the Forschner knives as good quality inexpensive knives.

The first knife you should buy is an 8" Chefs Knife and then if you have never used one before, watch a video about how to hold it and use it (watching my Mom with the knife I bought her about kills me). It is the one indispensible knife in your kitchen. It can do everything and is great at chopping fresh herbs and mincing garlic. If you can have 2 "chefs knives", I'd recommend a Santuko. I do almost all my chopping with my Santuko. I love it and would cry for days if something happened to it. It is not so great for fresh herbs though, so then I pull out my chefs knife. My husband Mike uses the Chefs knife almost exclusively.

Chefs Knife

Santuko

You really don't need any other knives, but if you can have more knives, a good serrated knife is next in line. I have 2 serrated knives: a short tomato knife (it's good for slicing fingers too) and a very long bread knife. My tomato knife is oddly named a "sausage knife" in the Wustoff catalog.

Tomato Knife

Bread Knife

I also have a wooden knife block to keep my knives in. Don't just throw them in a drawer, give them a safe home.

And while it is not a knife, a peeler is indispensible when prepping for dinner. A regular old oxo peeler is best. And next is the oxo serrated tomato peeler, while it is clearly just a bonus tool, it peels tomatoes and peaches easily (without boiling water).

Peeler
Tomato peeler

Vegetable Pancit

Many many years ago, i lived in Charleston, SC for a short time. We used to always get this dish called Pancit from a local Chinese restaurant. A lot. Then we moved away and I have since then looked at every Chinese restaurant I've been to for this dish. No one ever has it. I was confused by that till I saw it in Robin Robertson's cookbook, Fire and Spice. In her book, she mentions that the dish is a Filipino dish. No wonder I never find it in Chinese restaurants. It was a fluke that I've ever had it. We made this dish with the tiniest Capallini I've ever seen (brand De Cecco) and it was at least as good as my memory of the dish.

We added some Morningstar "Chicken" strips because I had them in the house. I actually bought the Morningstar strips about 3 months ago and I've been afraid to try them. I thought they were just ok. I'd actually preferred some seitan instead. Next time!


From Fire and Spice cookbook

Chickpea Patties with Garlicky Brussel Sprouts, Fresh Corn, and Roasted Butternut

Last nights dinner:


Chickpea Patties from Eat Drink and Be Vegan
Brussel Sprouts from Vegan with a Vengeance
Fresh corn, cut off the cob and sauteed in olive oil and Earth Balance
Roasted Butternut Squash

It looks like one of those old-fashioned plates of food Mom used to serve every night, heh.

A new twist on the old pot pie - White Bean, Butternut, "Sausage" & Sage Pot Pie

This recipe has been developing in my head for a few weeks and I finally got around to making it Sunday night. It is full of Fall stuff. The crust is from Candle Cafe's cookbook. I love it's hearty wheat and herbiness and really can't improve on the Candle Cafe version. We really really really liked this and it seemed to get even better as leftovers.

White Bean, Butternut, Sausage & Sage Pot Pie

Ingredients:
2 16 oz cans white beans (cannallini or northern)
1 butternut squash
2 Field Roast Apple Sage Sausages (or italian flavor), chopped into 1/2 in pieces **
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp chopped sage
1 bunch spinach
1/4 cup water
2 cups soy milk, warmed for a minute in the microwave
1 Tbsp margarine
1-2 Tbsp Olive oil
3 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
lots of pepper

Crust Ingredients:
1 tsp fresh thyme*
1 tsp fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp rosemary, minced
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup-ish water

Directions:
Prepare the Butternut (this can be done ahead of time):
Preheat oven to 425 F. Peel with a vegetable peeler, seed, and dice into 1/2 inch cubes. Place on one or two baking sheets lined with parchment or nonstick foil. Pour enough olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 45-50 minutes (stirring every 20 minutes and rotating pans if using 2 pans) until tender. Set aside. Note that you will only use about 2 cups of the butternut. Reserve the rest for a side dish for another meal.

Make the filling:
Heat a non-stick skillet over medium with 1 tbsp olive oil. When hot, add the vegan sausage and cook for a minute or so until it starts to brown. Add the sage and cook for a minute. Add the spinach and some water to steam it. Cover with a lid for 1 minute. Stir and add 2 cups of the squash and white beans. Stir to combine and set aside.

Make the sauce (a typical bechemel):
Heat margarine and 1 Tbsp olive oil in a saucier or similar round bottom pot over medium heat. When melted, add 3 Tbsp flour. If it looks too dry, add another tablespoon of olive oil (I eyeballed this part). Slowly add the warmed soy milk while stirring constantly with a wisk. Stir until it thickens. Add salt and pepper.

Add the sauce to the vegetables. Set aside.

Make the crust:
Put Whole wheat pastry flour, all purpose flour and herbs and a pinch of kosher salt into a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the oil and pulse a few times to combine. Scrape down the sides with a spatula. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water and pulse to combine. You want to add enough water so that the dough sticks together.

Divide the dough in half and roll out the first half of the dough until it will cover the pie plate. Place it in the pie plate and trim the excess. Pour the filling into the pie plate. Roll out the other half of the dough and place it over the top of the pie. Roll the bottom edge over the top edge and pinch together. Cut for or five slits in the top with a serrated knife.

Cook for 30-40 minutes at 350 till lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes and then serve.

* If your store sells an herb mix called Poultry Mix (poorly named, I know), it will contain a mix of most of the herbs you need and will cost a whole lot less than buying the herbs separately. It usually contains sage, rosemary, and thyme. Don't substitute dried herbs in this.

** Don't bother replacing this with any other kind of sausage. The Field Roast really made this dish.

Here is a picture of the filling before I added the bechemel sauce:



And a picture of the pot pie before I cut into it:

The flecks you see in the crust are fresh herbs.

This was the perfect dinner to eat after hanging around the top of Snowbird in on Sunday morning (sad that they wouldn't let me snowboard down):

Everybody's doin' it Tofu Scramble

It's a nice snowy morning here in PC - the kind of snow that floats down like feathers. Here is a pic of the view off of my front porch today (I love the yellow aspens against the snow):



It is a perfect morning for a big breakfast. This morning we made hashbrowns from the remaining russet potatoes, Lite Life Vegan sausage patties and a Tofu Scramble. These are definitely not the most photogenic items but they tasted fantastic.



To make the hasbrowns, I used my ricer to squeeze water out of the potatoes after I finely grated them in my food processor. I happened to have minced shallots in the food processor ahead of grating the potatoes and they picked up a nice light shallot flavor. Simply Recipes has a nice instructional on making perfect crispy hashbrowns.



For the Tofu Scramble, I kind of sort of followed Vegan Dad's recipe. But... I sauteed a shallot before adding the tofu to the pan and left out the onion powder. I also added 1/4 tsp cumin to the spices and just added a splash of soy creamer to the pan at the end to wet the spices a little. As you can see from the pic above, I also left mine a lot chunkier.

Here is a pic of the entire breakfast:

Potato Latkes with Applesauce and Vegan Sour Cream

I recently found myself missing Potato Latkes from Joan and Ed's Jewish Deli (just outside of Boston) so when I got 3 lbs of Russet Potatoes from the CSA this week, I knew exactly what I was making. The recipe is from The Voluptuous Vegan by Myra Kornfeld. They were served with applesauce and Tofutti sour cream. We also had steamed broccoli and a salad in an effort to disguise this dinner as healthy.

A blast from the past - My favorite recipes

For MOFO this month, I thought it might be fun to look back through my old entries and pick out my favorites; recipes we really loved or recipes we keep coming back to week after week. I sadly don't have pics for all of them. I guess I'll have to make it a mission to correct that. :) In case you missed these past entries, here are my favorites:

Favorite Entree Recipes

1. Butternut Squash Pizza with Roasted Garlic and Carmelized Onions
[NOPIC]
2. Not-Turkey Pot Pie

3. Stir Fry Noodle Bowl

4. Lentil Loaf

5. Lentil Stew
[NOPIC]

Favorite Breakfast Recipes

1. Mike's Southern Biscuits with Vegan Sausage

2. Best Cinnamon Rolls Ever

3. Hippy Muffins (banana oatmeal chocolate chip)
[NOPIC]
4. Apple Struesel Muffins

5. Mike's Almond Scones

Favorite Dessert Recipes

1. Birthday Cake

2. Dutch Apple Pie

3. Strawberry Cupcakes

Favorite Recipes from other people

Dreena's Vive Le Vegan Brownies

La Dolce Vegan's Fried Chicken

Vegan Lunchbox Potroast


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PS. If comments are not working, please drop me an email: kristin AT beansandgreens dot net. I'm still tweaking them/trying to have spam protection and commenting at the same time, sigh.