30 days of Vegan: Creamed tofu eggs

 It's been a tough winter. COVID is still everywhere, but we are at the point of the pandemic where we have to go to the office anyway. Russia has invaded Ukraine. I've had work-life balance problems trying to go to grad school and work full time at the same time. Our youngest is a senior in high school, and after over a year of lockdown and virtual learning and masking up, she's been anxious to have the life any kid at this age should have, though that comes with its own set of dangers and challenges. I'm stressed. I've got the makings of a winter muffin top, my hormones are all out of balance, and I have oral surgery coming up. I find myself increasingly wanting to retreat to comfort things, including comfort foods, but I've just got to get a grip. For the next thirty days, I've decided to go strictly vegan and focus on habits and meals that make me feel good but don't add to my cold-season bloat. 

I'm interested in recreating some of the foods my family would make that I found utterly comforting, and near the top of my list is creamed eggs. No breakfast made me feel more at ease than this old-fashioned marvel on a cold winter's morning. 

I've looked in cookbooks to find any mention of this dish- the preparation, which seemed quite fancy to me as a kid, is apparently not in the egg dish pantheon. But I have found recipes for it in charity cookbooks of a certain age. I've heard these called "housewife cookbooks" but that term feels a little derogatory. Most often the function of these spiral or comb-bound books of amateur recipes was fundraising for social groups or churches. Exploring them makes me feel like an anthropologist: they form a massive cooking underground, made of common dishes with a personal twist, original inventions, or everyday meals just as delicious as more formal dishes but not fancy enough for proper cookbooks. It's a shame too, because it's this private area of inspired, impromptu meals that give us joy on a daily basis, with off-the-cuff combinations that just work: cream cheese and marmalade on a bagel, smoked fish and dill nipped into scrambled eggs, or egg nog in the morning coffee.

In the original of my memories, creamed eggs are hard-boiled and peeled, the whites and yolks separated. A cream sauce is prepared, usually well-salted and peppered. Toast is made, buttered, topped with chopped whites, which are then smothered in the cream sauce, and the yolks are run through a ricer to top. It's finished with a healthy dash of paprika.

In my version. I've scrambled half a brick of firm tofu. Now, recipes for scrambled tofu are a dime a dozen on the interwebs. But some are not so good. The seasonings, though, most people agree on, so probably no surprises. Where recipes frequently go catty-wampus is not leaving the tofu alone to brown, which is in indispensable part of the flavor profile; and not adding the seasonings as a liquid mixture. Doing so makes the tofu creamy and unctuous. Tossing the flavors in dry don't allow them to distribute properly, and run the danger of burning, which makes the dish bitter. Yuck!

The cream sauce is a simple affair with vegan margarine, flour and soy milk. I an not sponsored by them, but the very best soy milks for making cream sauces are Edensoy and Westsoy, the organic and unsweetened varieties of both, in aseptic packs. Refrigerated carton milks employ two big no-nos for me: sweetening them- even "unsweetened" soy milks can have added sugar!- and thickeners, which complicate and sometimes ruin textures of cooked dishes. Edensoy and Westsoy haven't abandoned those of us who actually cook with soy milk.

I serve it on toast and topped with my favorite vegan cheese. You probably already have a favorite!

Ingredients

For the scrambled tofu:

• half a brick of firm or extra-firm tofu- the kind that you find in the refrigerator case. Nasoya is my favorite.
• 1 tsp oil (I used olive)
• 1 tbl nutritional yeast
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp black salt (kala namak)
• 1/4 tsp garlic granules or powder
• 1/4 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 1-2 tbl water

For the white sauce:

• 1tbl vegan margarine
• 1tbl AP flour
• about 1 cup soy milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat a small to medium pan to medium. Add the oil.
2. Crumble the half brick of tofu into the pan. Do not press it beforehand. It's ok if there is some liquid. Leave the tofu in chunks perhaps 1" in diameter. Leave it to fry for at least 5 mins.
3. In a saucepan, melt the vegan margarine. add the flour and whisk until incorporated.
4. Add the milk a little at a time. Whisk until smooth. Let it come to a light boil, take off the heat and cover.
   
5. Flip the tofu. The bottom sides should now be toasty brown. Let it brown another 2 mins.
6. Combine spices in a small bowl. Add the water to the spices to make a paste, and drizzle on the tofu. Using a spatula, incorporate the liquid thoroughly. As you do, break up large clumps so the texture is uniform- I usually aim for  1/2" chunks. 
7. Take off the heat and cover. Toast a slice of bread.
   
8. Stir sauce. Add salt and pepper to the sauce to taste.
9. Place toast on a plate. I like to butter it, but it's not necessary. Top with as much tofu as it will hold. 
10. Ladle sauce on top.
11. Add shredded or a slice of vegan cheese of your liking. The heat of the ingredients should at least soften the cheese. For more melt and slightly softer toast, microwave on high for 15 seconds.

Slice into quadrants or triangles. Serve with whatever you like. Crinkle fries left over from last night tasted great to me. But you can certainly opt for, say, mashed cauliflower, sauteed beets, a shredded carrot and cabbage salad, a little sauerkraut- I think a variety of things would go well with it.

 

 

Best scrambled tofu ever

We make a lot of scrambled tofu around here, so I've had some practice. It seems every recipe is  good, but has some aspect I don't like- too much spice, not enough spice, tofu is too dry, tofu is too wet, etc.

The one I made this morning was a sort of synthesis of what I've learned from those recipes that I have tried, and turned out to be pretty amazing.

Warning, this is not strictly vegan. I used Go Veggie grated topping, which contains casein. You could substitute nutritional yeast for similar results.

Ingredients

a brick of firm tofu, drained. It's also important to pat it dry.
a couple handfuls of raw spinach
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
a couple grinds of pepper
1-2 scallions, green parts only, approx. 4 stalks, thinly sliced
1/4 cup water
generous shakes of Galaxy foods Go Veggie grated topping
1-2 tsp oil, I use avocado

Preparation

Heat the oil in a nonstick pan on medium. When the pan is up to temp, break up the tofu into large chunks and place in the pan. leave it undisturbed for at least 5 minutes.  While this is happening, mix the spices and salt with the water and set aside. Flip one of the pieces over and see if it is browning. If it is, it is time to flip all of them, otherwise leave it for another minute or so. Once everything is flipped, toss on the spinach- basically enough to form a shallow mound covering the tofu. When the spinach starts wilting, turn the heat up to medium high and pour in the water and spice mixture. Let the water evaporate; this should take about 2 minutes. at this point, toss in the scallions and flip everything over again. the tofu should be uniformly yellow at this point. Give it another minute for the onions to soften. It's quite delicious served with spelt toast.

Tofu salad lettuce wraps

The last time we made eggless egg salad, we were repurposing leftover scrambled tofu. This time, we made it from scratch, and it turned out better than ever.
Ingredients:
One brick of tofu. We used extra firm.
1 cup diced sweet yellow onion
1 cup diced sweet red bell pepper
handful of parsley, chopped
a squirt of yellow mustard
1 tsp. turmeric
pinch of salt, couple grinds of pepper
1/2 cup- 3/4 cup vegenaise
paprika
sweet pickle relish
Method:
Drain the tofu. The way I do this is with two piles of paper towels. I pat it dry first, then place it on a plate covered with several folds of paper towels. Then I place several folds of paper towels over the tofu, then place another plate with a weight on top. A large can of soup works for this. Leave it for a half hour, then disassemble, flip the piles of towels over, and repeat.
While waiting for this to happen, dice the vegetables and put them in a large mixing bowl. Add the mustard, turmeric, vegenaise, and parsley. Mix.
Take the drained tofu and crumble it directly into the bowl. mix again until thoroughly incorporated.
To serve, make a sandwich or a lettuce wrap, like we did.
The way I finished mine (and I liked quite a bit) was spooning a bit of the sweet pickle relish onto the finished plate, then dusting it with paprika. You could just incorporate those into the mix, of course. Feel free to add what you might to an egg salad sandwich, like slices of tomato.
We loved it! Hopefully you will too.

(Mostly) Vegan Megapost

Phew, it's been a whirlwind start to Autumn around here. This is the time of year that family birthdays kick in, and once October lands the school events start hitting. Can you tell I'm feeling slightly bruised? Only a little of this fall's bounty was bruised- most of it has been perfect and delicious. Pumpkins have been robbed of seeds and are queued up for carving, tomatoes melted into amazing sauces, and herbs have added just the right kick to savory dishes and provided a lovely bouquet to the air around the house.

Abbey started the season off with a traditional carrot cake and cream cheese frosting for her mom's birthday, which was decadent and delicious. The cake itself was vegan, consisting of oil, spices, flour, carrots and sugar. No eggs or dairy. Though Abbey made a traditional cream cheese frosting for her mom to enjoy, I'm sure a tasty frosting could be made with Earth Balance and Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese. Next up was my mom's birthday. That day we had a blackberry cake (it had buttermilk, but still amazing) and two appetizers. The first was crostini topped with pesto and fresh tomatoes. The pesto was not vegan- there was a small amount of parmesan- but again, it easily could have been, either omit the cheese entirely or substitute a combination of almond meal and nutritional yeast. Although I've made quite a few pestos with no cheese and they were all fine.

Next, we had veggie meatballs in sweet and sour sauce. I modified the traditional recipe found over at About.com's Chinese Cooking pages, substituting pineapple juice for the water. after heating the sauce and letting it thicken, I tossed in thin slices of baby carrots, diced onion and green pepper, and some nice off-the shelf veggie meatballs from Veggie Patch. I poured that into a crock pot a little in advance so the vegetables would cook a bit.

Most of our weekday meals this week have been noteworthy. Abbey has made creamy soups with white beans before, and we got to enjoy one this week made with spinach and nutritional yeast. that's a piece of ciabatta doused with olive oil parked in there. We cooked the beans in a heavy dutch oven to the point that they were falling apart; all we had to do was stir and they instantly made a creamy base. She tossed in a thawed chunk of spinach and it was practically done.

Here's the third dish we made with pesto this last week- a pasta salad (high fiber Piccolini penne from Barilla) composed of cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, vegenaise and a drizzle of olive oil. Abbey topped it with shreds of basil, salt and pepper.

Many years back, Abbey and I had a favorite Chinese spot near the campus where we worked. They had some pretty good dishes, but the one the towered above was their rendition of Lo Han Jai. Also known as Buddha's Delight, it's a savory vegetarian combination of Chinese vegetables such as lotus root, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and cloud ears; bean thread; tofu and soy sausage of some sort. It's a like a festival of healthy things in a bowl; traditionally eaten on Chinese New Year's, presumably as a sort of toast to the diner's health. Hankering for that flavor, Abbey found a recipe which we adapted according to available ingredients. We baked cubes of tofu, then stir fried snow peas, sliced baby bellas, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, napa cabbage, bean thread, and added a simple sauce of soy sauce and vegetable broth (Imagine's Organic No-Chicken Broth was delicious for this purpose). It was fantastic.

Finally, Abbey came to the rescue for lunch the other day- I was trying to squeeze physical therapy and lunch into one hour; if it weren't for Abbey, I would have gone back to work hungry. She took some locally grown tomatoes and made a Spaghetti Pomodoro with them. The pasta was Racconto whole wheat spaghetti, the sauce consisting of tomatoes, whole black olives and olive oil. Nothing else was needed or desired.

I guess that's it for now! At least it is according to my camera. Abbey just whipped up an amazingly healthy granola that might be popping up here pretty soon as it has an impressive list of healthy ingredients, including buckwheat groats, flax, oats, pumpkin seeds and cashews.

The vegan experiment part 3: strange players

Cooking is like staging a play: you have roles than need to be played by actors. After you've produced a while, you realize some actors are more flexible than others; so you use them more. I have always used eggs for a variety of purposes, both savory and sweet. The egg of the vegan world is tofu.

I must admit, it took me years to warm up to tofu. I've had the obligatory negative experiences. Sometimes, I encounter it in restaurants in a less than pleasant way; other times, it was by my own hand that I created an inedible mess out of an innocent block. But after a while, I discovered the best ways to cook with it, and I have enjoyed it, mostly, ever since. Even some of the kids go for a stir fry with tofu triangles fried until golden brown and crispy.
On Monday, I took a stab at a vegan staple- scrambled tofu, designed to remind the consumer of scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs are a favorite of mine (and my youngest son, which is delightful but rather odd for our family), and I was already missing them. I used this basic recipe and, though there's no way it would pass my son's taste test, I found it surprisingly palatable. They weren't much like real scrambled eggs- maybe I can chalk that up to my inexperience- but served with some toast and Morningstar bacon, they fit the role fairly well- kinda like having Peter Cushing play Dracula. It's plausible enough, but he ain't no Christopher Lee.
So the somewhat voluminous leftovers have been sitting in the fridge for a couple of days. Today at lunch, I had a hankering for an egg salad sandwich. It occurred to me this could be a great opportunity to test tofu's versatility. It's a pretty simple recipe and worked quite well.

Tofu "egg" salad

about half a brick's worth of tofu scramble

For the dressing:
1/2 cup of Vegannaise or Grapenaise
1 tsp of red wine vinegar
2 tbl canola oil
1 tsp sugar
1 heaping tbl pickle relish
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
salt, pepper to taste
a couple shakes of paprika

Combine all ingredients for the dressing in a large bowl and whisk. Fold in the tofu scramble and mix gently until incorporated.

It was quite good! Better than I expected, frankly, since I am crazy about egg salad. I hope you egg salad lovers looking for a lighter way to enjoy similar textures and flavors enjoy it too.