At raven + crow studio, our day-to-day operations are pretty streamlined. It’s essentially two of us working in a studio that used to be part of a pre-prohibition brewery, so cool and old-school, yes, but not exactly cushy. Being a small business and personally and professionally concerned with lessening our overall impact overall, we generally keep it simple—walking half an hour to work and then back every day, relying on reusable and recycled paper and other materials whenever possible, sourcing from and supporting local businesses as much as we can, and almost always bringing lunches from home.

So, when the rare day comes around and we decide to order lunch—because of a heavy workload or having to be at the office super-early or just because we want to treat ourselves—we get pretty f’in psyched. And, being people of the world and living in such a diverse, exciting city, we always try to expand our horizons. “Let’s order from the vegan raw place up the street! Or maybe the veggie asian place over on Court! Or maybe V-Spot!” But, I’d say 4 out of 5 times, we end up walking a few blocks northwest and pick ourselves up a vegan Vietnamese sandwich from Hanco’s on Bergen. And we rarely regret it.

Next time you’re in Cobble Hill, give ’em a try. Not only do they make Bánh mì with fried tofu, they’ve also now got mock chicken (pictured above) and the brand new mock roast pork, and, we must say—they are BAD ASS. Oh, and be sure to order them without butter and mayonaise—both staples on traditional Bánh mì. They’ve assured us that the mock meats are totally vegan, which makes sense, because they both remind us of the chicken and veggie ham from May Wah, both of which are vegan. And yes, that “chicken” has “vegetarian perfume” in it. Hm….

But trust us! It’s AWESOME!

We’re told by people who are supposedly in the know with such things that warm weather is coming soon. I myself am convinced I’m trapped in some Inception-esque dream within a dream within a dream where there’s a perpetual winter and that all “memories” of warm weather and skipping happily and shoeless through fields of thigh-high grass are artificial insertions of said dream within a dream within a dream…but I’m hoping I’m wrong.

Assuming I am, that means that, along with warm weather, invites to lovely outdoor get-togethers and parties are also just around the corner. And yes, reader, you should take that as a not-so-subtle hint.

But what to bring as a gift to your host that says, “No, in fact, I did not just get this from the wine store down the block from you and just peel off the price tag”? How about stocking up now on some classy-ass infused liquors? Katie and I made some over the winter weather months and still have a few sitting around for just such an occasion.

Too much work, you say? You are totally wrong, I say. No, actually, it’s super-easy. Basically, figure out some fun options, buy your ingredients, and then let ‘em sit for a week to a month to however long, depending essentially on the permeability and/or potency of the infusing ingredient. This last time, we infused a number of different concoctions and then transferred to some smaller bottles we came across and made up some fancy-dancey labels. We had:
• Cinnamon Vodka • letting three or so tall sticks of cinnamon sit in a small bottle for at least a week, which turns the whole ting into this really amazing burnt orange color;
• Habanero Tequila • which we’ve written about before and is a big favorite of ours (plus it infuses crazy quickly—you can do it in a day or two);
• Lemongrass Vodka • using a fresh stalk from the farmer’s market and allowing it to sit a little longer, two weeks to a month or more;
• Meyer Lemon Vodka • using two to three meyer lemons, being sure to peel them as much as possible to reduce the bitterness and then letting the whole thing sit for three weeks or more;
• Jalepeño Vodka • another one that’s got a quick infusion time because of the potency of the peppers, of which we used three cut in half with seeds—this one makes some MEAN vegan Bloody Marys;
• Ginger Vodka • just peel the ginger and cut into three- or four-inch strips and steep for a month or so—great with soda water or some citrus syrups.
And we’re hoping to try some new ones in the coming months.

So get yourself infusing. And somehow tip me over so I can wake up from this freaky, chilly world.

The basic premise is that you’re deconstructing the dish to its most basic, succulent elements—the ‘cheese,’ the sauce, the protein, and the pasta —and then just building it up as much as you can, until you’ve got a towering construction of Italian mastery that would be sure to tick off at least one of Garfield’s nine lives upon mere sight. That cat….

On this first attempt, and given that taste was more a focus than attention-grabbing pasta-related statistics, I stopped at 23 alternating layers of sauce/filling and pasta (note that Del Posto’s original is 50 layers of sauce/filling and 50 layers of pasta, not 100 layers of EVERYTHING). But it was. So. Good.

This is less of a straight recipe, more of a cooking road map.

Frist, the pasta. Fresh pasta is kind of a must with this as you need it to be really thin to get a lot of layers in there. Fret not, though! We’ve been making World Foodie Guide’s fresh eggless pasta recipe for years now, and it’s honestly hard for me to buy boxed dried pasta now. It’s seriously so so good. And she’s got a great write up of the whole process for the uninitiated. Go by her recipe and then set the resulting ball of dough aside, covered in a bowl.

On to the protein! We’ve been loving making our own seitan lately, using Terry Hope Romero’s recipe in her cookbook, Viva Vegan!, but Post Punk Kitchen has a great recipe for it too. You can also buy about 16 ounces of the pre-packaged stuff at your local grocer’s. Once we had the seitan made, we simply chopped it to a fine, ground-beef-like texture, and browned it with a little olive oil in a skillet. Then set aside.

To the sauce! This is important. You can use store-bought sauce, but it’s highly recommended that you make your own. Especially if you’re talking to any of my very Italian in-laws. We actually ADORE the marinara my father-in-law, Joe, makes. Luck would have it, he passed the recipe on to me. It is as follows:

Joe’s Marinara
• 1 Large Sweet Onion, peeled and diced
• 4 Large Carrots, un-peeled and diced
• 3 Stalks Celery, leaves removed and diced
• 9 Cloves of Garlic, peeled, smashed, and diced
• 1 Large Green Bell Pepper, cored and diced
• 28 oz. can Crushed Tomatoes
• 2 6 oz. cans of Tomato Paste
• 2 tsp. of Crushed Pepper
• 2 tbsp. Dried Basil
• 1.5 tbsp. Dried Oregano
• 1 tbsp. Dried Parsley
• .5 tbsp. Dried Thyme
• .5 tbsp. Dried Sage
• pinch of Ground Cinnamon
• pinch of Ground or Shaved Nutmeg
• 3 Bay Leaves
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt, to taste
• Red Wine (optional)

So, basically, add all of your vegetables to a large pot with 2 tablespoons or so of warmed olive oil, tossing to coat. Throw in your crushed pepper and about a half-teaspoon of salt and simmer covered for about five minutes. Now add your crushed tomatoes and your tomato paste. Fill the tomato paste cans with water or broth, adding a total of 6 of those cans worth of liquid to the pot. Bring the heat up to medium, add all of the spices, and stir. If you like, you can add a cup or half-cup of red wine to mix at this point. Cook everything covered on medium-low heat, stirring and checking the taste after an hour, at which point you can add more spices if needed. Cook for another three or so hours covered, stirring from time to time. Store whatever you don’t use frozen forevs.

Now, the ‘cheese’! For this, we lean on the mozzarella-style Daiya, but, rather than layer it in straight, we simmered some almond milk stovetop, adding in a generous portion (nearly the whole bag) along with some ground white pepper, nutritional yeats, salt, and some smoked paprika, tasting as we went until we had a nice-tasting ‘cheese’ and letting it reduce down it’s not too liquidy.

Once you’ve got all that ready to go, you just start rolling out sheets of pasta as thin as you can get them, laying your first sheet on a baking dish with a spoonful of sauce underneath it. Rolling sheets out as you go, just start stacking it all up, alternating with pasta, meat, sauce, ‘cheese,’ and repeat. Until you feel you can go on no longer, friend. Carefully bake at 350ºF covered for 45 minutes or so, then uncovered to crisp the top for 15 minutes or so.

Now Garfield out, man!

I’ve found that many of the homemade nut-based vegan cheese recipes I’ve come across in the past have been kinda “meh” and I realized it wasn’t so much the flavor of the cheese as it was the texture.

Often simple ingredients, including, but not limited to, various nuts, lemon juice, tahini, agar and spices, are blended together and then refrigerated for several hours until it forms a solid jelly-esque blob o’ cheeeeze. That’s exactly the kind of cheese you want to slice and serve on a cracker! Or… not.

So when I came across this recipe on Healthy. Happy. Life. for a Baked Vegan Cashew Cheese, I knew I had to make it. Everything is better baked, just ask Charlie Sheen. (high five!)

Armed with a jar of raw cashews, I quickly realized I had a problem. Two, actually. (1) I didn’t have a cheese cloth and (2) I didn’t have the appropriate sized baking dish. It seems our kitchen’s glassware to bakeware ratio is way off balance. Do you and your 12 friends need to double-fist martinis RIGHT NOW? We’ve got you covered. Need to borrow a small oven-safe serving dish? Who do you think we are, the royal family?

Too cheap to buy a small baking dish and too lazy to venture out in search of cheese cloth, I decided to use the recipe as a guide. Using a cupcake/muffin pan, I was able to make mini wheels of cashew cheese and experiment with flavors. Win-win! There’s a lot of down time with this recipe, which is great, but, since you need to soak the cashews for at least 8 hours, it does require you to plan ahead.

The following is a list of ingredients you need to make Baked Cashew Cheese (makes approximately 5 wheels):
• 2 cups of Raw, Unsalted Cashews
• Approximately 1- 1.5 cups of Vegetable Broth (preferred) or Lightly Salted Water
• 1 tsp Salt (or less, if you prefer)
• Cupcake Pan
• Olive Oil (for lightly greasing the pan)

The classic cashew cheese is great, but because I used a muffin pan to make 5 small wheels, I decided to add ingredients to create different flavors. This experimentation has been an ongoing process, but so far I’ve made the following cheeses:
Smoked Guava Sea Salt (I highly recommend checking out the West Village salt shop, The Meadow, for all your salty needs)
Black Truffle + Sea Salt (using a few dashes of black truffle oil)
Black Salt + Black Pepper (goth/not goth: black salt? answer: totally goth)
Double Smoke (using a pinch of smoked paprika + a dash of liquid smoke)
Crushed Red Pepper (I prefer some heat, so I put in approximately 1 tablespoon. It was awesome and, as the french say, trés spicy)
Roasted Garlic (2-3 cloves)

Directions:
1. Soak the raw cashews in the vegetable broth (or water) for at least 8 hours.
2. Drain the cashews, but reserve about 1/2 cup of broth, maybe more.
3. Combine cashews, salt, and 1/2 cup of broth in a blender or food processor. Blend until very, very smooth. You can add a little more broth if necessary but avoid adding too much. The final mixture should be thick and creamy, not watery or thin.
4. Place the mixture in a bowl and refrigerate for 2-4 hours. This allows the cashew cream to firm up.
5. Lightly oil a muffin pan and preheat the oven to 220ºF.
6. If you are making the classic version, go ahead and spoon the cashew cream into the muffin pan. I usually make 5 wheels per recipe. If you want to play with flavors, then spoon some of the cream into a separate bowl, add your specialty ingredients to taste and then scoop into the muffin pan. Bake for 2 hours at 220ºF. You should be able to gently loosen each wheel from the pan. If they are sticking or tearing, then you can continue baking for 20 minute increments. Just keep your eye on them.
7. Allow the wheels to cool slightly before serving or refrigerate them for several hours and serve cold.

The cheeses pair well with assorted crackers and toasted bread. Hello, cheese board!

Please note: If you do have cheese cloth and a small baking dish (such a fancy, glamorous life you lead!), then I encourage you to make the recipe on Healthy. Happy. Life. I skipped the draining part of her recipe, so I’m guessing that the consistency of the cashew cheese I made is a bit different than hers. She was the smarty-pants who decided to bake the cheese in the first place, so I’d trust her culinary skills over mine, especially considering that, until recently, the only thing I knew how to prepare in the kitchen was cereal.

First, I know what you’re thinking—“A green doughnut? Whaaaaaaa?” The doughnut in question (and in picture, above, along with a Rocky Road doughnut) was topped with green tea icing and candied ginger. And it was good. CRAZY good. Hand-made by Brooklyn’s newly crowned doughnut kings, Dun-Well Doughnuts, this is just one example of the many exciting, zany flavors the duo have been creating since their launch earlier this year (this week they’ve got Red Pepper and Mexican Chocolate!). Reader, you may well known of my self-professed obsession with donuts and how I very much miss having ones I can eat easily at hand. SO, needless to say, I was psyched when I head about Dun-Well. One of the esteemed two doughnut-makers, Christopher, took the time talk to us about do- vs. dough-, cakey vs. airy, and the mysterious, forbidden world of savory doughnuts.

Kindness of Ravens: Sooooooooooooooo, first thing’s first: Why doughnuts? Why vegan? WHY NOW?!

Dun-Well: Well, Dan and I have both worked for vegetarian restaurants in the past, and It was about 2 years ago that I became fed up with it. It wasn’t the food that bothered me, it was the fact that I was working for a lot of people who were not vegetarian or vegan and, in my opinion, were in some ways exploiting my community rather than celebrating it. This sent me on a mission to own and operate my own vegan establishment. Dan and I both threw around ideas for a while—pizza shop, full-scale restaurant, ice-cream and waffle shop—and it wasn’t until I was watching the 20th anniversary Simpsons special and a craving for doughnuts hit me that I realized that that was it. Dan always says that Doughnuts are the new cup cake and we each spent almost a year developing our recipe. Right now, I Think we are riding that wave and we are hoping to be surfing on top of it in the coming months when we finally open our own storefront.

KoR: Wait, I thought pie was the new cupcake…. Regardless, I’m vegan, I love doughnuts, and I loved you’s guys’ doughnuts, so thanks for that. What are your all’s pre- Dun-Well backgrounds? Did you all come form the world of gastronomy and culinary arts at all?

D-W: In a word: No. Dan and I are artists. I am an actor by trade and Dan is a sculpture. After we both became vegan, at different times—Dan for nine or so years now and me for six—we both started to love cooking. We both are total foodies…in the sense that we love to cook what we find interesting. Our doughnut recipe is over 8 months of trial and error….but OH, was it worth the wait.

KoR: As a fellow food-, and more specifically, doughnut-lover, I must agree. Were you both big doughnut fans in your pre-vegan lives?

D-W: I think we were both big anything sweet fans.

KoR: Fair enough. We noticed you’ve chosen to stand by the traditional spelling of ‘doughnut’ rather than ‘donut.’ The overall aesthetic of your company, with the site and branding, seems to be a little old-timey artisanal too. Was there a concerted effort to try and tie in to a sort of yesteryear craftsman feel and tradition or do you all just dig that look?

D-W: Well, we both love that look. I wear Bow-ties all the time…even when baking. We were actually inspired a lot by a business whose owners are great friends and mentors of ours—Lula’s Sweet Apothecary. We wanted to keep the idea of tradition and craftsmanship in our product because we don’t ever want there to be a mass produced feel. Our product is anything but that. Don’t get me wrong, Oreos are tasty and they are technically vegan, but we didn’t want to follow that template. We strive to use local, organic, natural, and kosher ingredients whenever possible and we like making something where you can name all of the ingredients without a dictionary. I think that is something that was very evident of that time period and is often lost today.

KoR: Well-said. And yeah, we ADORE Lula’s. So, I’m not sure if I’ve got the terminology down at all, but it seems to us that there are two basic types of doughnuts—cakey and then more…airy…I don’t know, what would you call it? And your all’s seem to fall in the latter category—any plans to go cakey with any of them?

D-W: Well, right now we make a traditional yeast-risen doughnut, or what we in the business refer to as the “Golden Standard” for doughnuts. They take a great amount of care and time to get correct but are worth every bite. Cake doughnuts are much easier to produce, but most people prefer yeast-risen, which is why Dan and I have worked so hard to develop a great yeast-risen recipe. We’re working on a great cake doughnut recipe, but don’t sell them now because our capacity is fairly limited. Once our shop opens though, you can count on there being every variety you can think of. Cake, yeast, turnovers, pull-aparts…you name it we’ll make it.

KoR: Sorry. I had to switch out keyboards because my previous one shorted out from all the drooling. How ’bout future flavors? You all certainly seem to be experimenting with some exciting options. Can you give us a heads up as to what you’ve got in the works?

D-W: I think what we are most excited about bringing out is a selection of savory doughnuts. Have you ever had a curry flavored doughnut covered I in a mango chutney glaze?

KoR: You crazy. You mentioned turnovers…any plans to do more not-quite-doughnut items? I would DIG on a Dun-Well eclair. Bearclaw?

D-W: Oh yes. There will always be something new from us.

KoR: Any interesting doughnut flavors that didn’t make the cut in the past due to resulting CRAZY taste? Like orange-tequila-bubblegum-cottoncandy?

D-W: Well, Dan has more than once shot down my idea for a Pepto-bismol doughnut…but I have a feeling I am wearing him down.

KoR: And another shorted keyboard for a totally different reason. Finally, and most importantly for me…WHEN ARE YOU COMING TO SOUTH BROOKLYN?! I know we’re not the vegan Meccas that some call Williamsburg and Greenpoint, but we’ve got some representin’ vegans, man. And, seriously. I love doughnuts.

D-W: Don’t worry. It is in the works. If nothing else we will be getting them to a coffee shop near you soon.

In the meantime, you can find Dun-Well at Boneshakers and Champs in the Williamsburg area and Lulu’s in the city, along with a hopefully ever-expanding list of locations. Check out the full roster here.

Looking back at India Week so far—our blog’s very first themed week—we realize the cast of things has tended toward the negative.  First declaring there’s no good indie music in the entire country of India, then interviewing our good friend, Shehzad Nadeem, on his new book about the effect outsourcing has on Indians. Not wanting to give the impression that we are ‘haters,’ as they say, we now take a turn in the week for the positive with what many, ourselves included, count as their sole or at least primary exposure to the country and its culture: FOOD!

I wasn’t really introduced to Indian food proper until college. Blame southern Virginia. Or the early nineties, your choice. Once the two of us were introduced though—Indian food and I—we became life-long friends. But, little did I know at the time, whereas the wilds of Indian cuisine are insanely easy to navigate as a vegetarian, they’re rather perilous for a vegan, with cream and clarified butter—ghee—hiding in many a dish. Who knew?! One such dish that is usually off limits for vegans is malai kofta, malai meaning clotted cream, kofta meaning minced up meat—or, in Inidian food, usually vegetables and nuts—and formed into balls. But rejoice! After a little bit of trial and error, Katie and I worked up what we must say is quite a nice vegan version that you can make at home. We’ll admit—it’s a bit intense, work-wise, but it is TOTALLY worth it.

Here we go.

Vegan Malai Kofta
For the Kofta
• .5 Cup Whole Nuts (we used a combination of cashews, brazil, and macadamia, all roasted, not raw, but you can use any relatively fatty nut)
• 2 large Potatoes, chopped and un-peeled
• 2 large Carrots, diced and un-peeled
• A Quarter Head of Cauliflower, cut into 2″ chunks or so
• 2 Fresh Chilies, cut lengthwise, seeds removed, and then finely chopped
• 16 oz. Bag of Frozen Peas
• 1 tsp. Chili Powder
• 1 tsp. Smoked Paprika
• 1 tsp. Cumin (fresh whole seeds if possible, black cumin’s great for this)
• 1 tsp. Cardamom Seeds (from fresh pods, if possible)
• 1 tsp. Coriander (fresh, if possible)
• Vegetable or Olive Oil
For the Sauce
• 1.5 large Sweet Onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 Tomatoes, finely diced
• 5 cloves Garlic, smashed, peeled, and chunked
• 1 inch Ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated
• .25 Cup Vegetable Broth
• .25-.5 Cup Tofu-Based Cream Cheese Alternative (see note in text)

So, first off, if using fresh spices, place the cumin, cardamom, and coriander in a warmed skillet and heat over medium heat, swirling them around to evenly brown everything for about five minutes. Lower the heat a bit of swirl more if the cumin starts to pop out of the skillet. Let the mixture cool and then transfer them to a coffee or spice grinder, grinding them into a fine powder.

At this point we like to focus on making the kofta—the nut-vegetable balls—and then start in on the sauce. Boil the potatoes in a large pot with enough water to keep them submerged. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until they’re tender to a fork, remove from heat and drain. In the meantime, saute your cauliflower, carrots, chilies, and peas in about a tablespoon of oil in a separate skillet over medium-high heat uncovered for about 5 or 10 minutes to brown the edges on everything, stirring often. Lower the heat to medium-low and cover, cooking until everything’s very tender, about 30 or 40 minutes. While  your vegetables are cooking, blend your nuts until fine in a blender, coffee grinder, or food processor. Ouch, right? Once all that’s done, add everything—spice mixture, additional spices (chili and paprika), vegetables, and nuts—to a large mixing bowl and thoroughly mash it all together by hand. It’ll be a bit chunky still but cohesive when you’re done. Now, gingerly form the mixture into good sized balls—3″ in diameter or so, but whatever seems to stay together for you—and, in a skillet on medium-high heat and filled a couple inches deep with oil, fry the balls until browned on the outside, carefully turning with a fork or spatula to brown evenly. Do these four or so at a time and, once browned, set them aside in a dish with a paper towel to absorb excess oil. Repeat until you’ve used up all the mixture and then set the kofta aside. On to the sauce!

If you’ve got a big stove and a bunch of skilled hands, you can certainly have one person prepare the sauce as another makes the kofta. For the sauce, saute your onions in a large skillet on medium heat with one or two tablespoons of oil until they become translucent and the edges brown but don’t burn (5-10 minutes). Next, add the garlic chunks and brown for about five minutes. Now add the diced tomatoes, ginger, and vegetable broth to the skillet, stirring everything together and covering. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and allowing the tomatoes to break down a bit. Remove from heat and allow to cool a bit. Now either add the mixture to a blender or, if you’ve got one, use an immersion blender (they rule) in the pan to purée into a smooth sauce. If you’re using the immersion, be careful to make sure you don’t get it all over yourself or the walls. Generally, it’s best to use one with a  deeper dish that allows you tot totally submerge the head of the blender. If you used a conventional blender and removed the sauce, now return it to the same large skillet and simmer on low. Stir in your tofu cream cheese allowing the sauce to lighten and become creamy. If you’re trying to avoid soy, we’re thinking you could also make a cashew cream by blending soaked raw cashews to an equal amount, but we haven’t tried that ourselves. Next time! Once the sauce is creamy and tasty enough for you (add spices and/or salt as you like), gently add the kofta and simmer uncovered for 5 to 10 minutes, turning the kofta balls to coat them but keeping an eye on them so they don’t break down too much. They may break apart a bit, as they’re pretty delicate, but they should stay together for the most part.

Serve with basmati cooked with whole cardamom pods and, if you’ve got it, some nice Indian bread.

Early last year, we wrote a guest piece comparing vegan ‘beef’ stew to the fine, fine music of Mr. Dan Black for our friend, Joshua, over at the Discerning Brute. Whereas we wholeheartedly stand by our comparison of european electro-pop to a nice, hearty stew, we’ve since revised our recipe and—given that it seems like there may well be a number of dreary, not-quite-spring-yet-godammit days ahead of us—we thought we’d share said revised recipe with you, dear reader. The main differences are the cooking technique (less boiling), use of home-made seitan (easier than it sounds and SO good), and the use of fresh broth rather than bullion cubes (less sodium, better taste). Now look outside. It’s time to make this stew.

Hearty Seitan Stew
• 16 oz. or so of Seitan, preferably home-made (The PPK has a great recipe, but we LUUUURV Terry Hope Romero’s seitan recipes in her vegan mexican book, Viva Vegan)
• 5 Un-peeled Carrots, cut into .5″ thick circles
• 5 Stalks Celery, sliced into .25″ pieces
• 16 oz. Frozen Peas
• 1 medium Sweet Onion (Vidalia or the like), diced into small pieces
• 3 medium un-peeled Yukon Gold Potatoes, cut into 1″ cubes
• 5 cloves Garlic, smashed, peeled, and diced
• 1 bottle or can of Decent Beer (we recently used Żywiec, a slightly sweet, medium alcohol Polish beer and it worked well)
• 2 tbsp. Teriyaki (we like Soy Vay…too much, maybe)
• 2 tbsp. Liquid Hickory Smoke
• 2 tbsp. HP Sauce or Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
• 6 oz. can of Tomato Paste
• 2-3 cups Vegetable Broth (preferably home-made—Allison of Allison’s Gourmet has a great sidebar on making vegetable broth in her current newsletter—it’s super-easy and well, well worth it)
• Olive Oil

Alright, that may seem like a lot of ingredients to some of you, but this is really a pretty simple recipe. And it makes, like, 72 servings or something, so it’s good for the long haul. First off, chop up your seitan into small chunks, maybe an inch or two in size. Whatever floats your boat, really. Brown the seitan in a tablespoon or so of oil in a large, heavy-bottom skillet—cast iron’s great. Do this over medium-high heat for five minutes or so, stirring the seitan to make sure it’s browning on all sides. Once it looks nice and appetizing, set it aside.

Without cleaning the skillet, warm another tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat, add your onion, and cook until it begins to caramelize, stirring often and allowing it to become a little translucent and brown a little on the edges. This’ll take seven minutes or so. Once that’s good to go, add your garlic. Lower the heat a tad to make sure the garlic doesn’t brown too much and cook for five minutes. Now re-introduce your seitan—”Seitan, I’d like you to meet Onions and Garlic. Onions and Garlic, this is Seitan. You may have heard of him.”—stir to coat and cook uncovered for a few minutes. Now throw in your teriyaki, smoke, HP or worcestershire, and half the beer, covering and cooking for 10 minutes or so. Uncover, stirring up the mixture and then adding your potatoes and a cup or so of broth. Stir and scrape the bottom of the skillet, using the liquid to deglaze the mixture and then re-cover, cooking for about ten minutes, but uncovering every so often to stir and check the tenderness of the potatoes with a fork. Once your potatoes begin to give a little but are still fairly solid, add in the carrot slices and re-cover, cooking for five minutes. At this point, most of the liquid should have absorbed into the seitan and vegetables, but if it hasn’t, cook uncovered over medium heat until the liquid’s mostly cooked off.

In a separate large pot, carefully mix together the frozen peas, celery, tomato paste, and the setian-vegetable mixture from the skillet with the rest of the beer and one to two cups of stock, depending on how thick you want your stew to be. Keep in mind that some liquid will cook off and the potatoes especially will begin to break down and thicken up the stew as their starch mixes in. And you can always add stock later if you’re unsure. Cook covered for at least a half hour and serve in hard-card wooden bowls by a fireplace in a dark, slightly seedy subterranean pub or country-side inn.

What’s that graphic about, you ask? Well, reader, I’ll tell you. NBC’s Today Show announced last month that they’d be holding their first ever viewer chili cook-off and, realizing that I did, in fact, have the best chili recipe in the world, I entered. And you know what? I was THIS close (picture me doing that thumb-index finger thing and squinting) to getting on. I totally got a screening call last week (no, for real!) and, after what I have to admit was a pretty charming, wit-filled conversation with the PA who screened me, I felt pretty confident that I’d make the cut.

Sadly, as you may or may not have seen this morning, I totally did not. They instead went with 1) some dude who did a scary-ass pig call and made a beefy apple (?) chili; 2) a Texan who made a beanless, insanely meat-filled chili; and 3) a dude who did a chicken and turkey chili. Now, I’m sure I could go all jerky vegan on you and claim that they most likely felt like they’d get laughed out of the room if one of the three chilis in their first ever chili cook-off was totally meatless and, god forbid, VEGAN…but, as you well know, that’s not my style. Plus Matt Lauer wasn’t even there today, so what’s the point in being on the Today Show?

No, no, there’s no bitterness. Instead, I’ll chalk it up to one of those ‘honored to be nominated’ moments and re-post the recipe here for anyone in need of some ideas for this Super Bowl weekend. I don’t think we’re alone in our view of the event, being more excited about the food involved than the reason for it, so do enjoy, dear readers.

We originally posted this recipe back in January of 2009, but have since slightly modified it, ousting the soy and opting for some seitan instead and making a few other minor adjustments over time. This is a somewhat spicy chili, but you can control that with how much chipotle you put in there, and it’s totally one of our favorite, most frequently used recipes. As we mentioned with the original post, it’s also AWESOME paired with a ‘cheesy’ sauce, making a delectable vegan chili-cheese sauce for dippin’ and such. We’re planning on exactly that this Sunday and usually make it by simmering some almond milk with spices (salt, a good bit of nutritional yeast, cracked white pepper, and maybe a dash of five Chinese spice) until it gets a good taste and then lower the heat, adding in some Daiya at the end. Anyway, the chili—

Smokey Jo’s Chili

– 2 Large Vidalia Onions (or some sweet, yellow onion), diced
– 2 Large Green Bell Peppers, diced
– 5 Cloves of Garlic, smashed, peeled, and chopped
– 4 tbsp Olive Oil
– 5-8 Chipotle Peppers, depending on how spicy you like things, chopped (these can be found canned in a lot of stores now and dried in specialty shops)
– 15-20 oz of Seitan, finely chopped so it begins to resemble crumbles or ground protein (two loaves or so if it’s homemade, which is ideal, two pack or so, store-bough—here’s a word or two on good seitan recipes in an earlier post)
– 40.5 oz Red Kidney Beans
– .25 cup Teriyaki or Sweet Soy Sauce
– 28 oz can Crushed Tomatoes (go Sclafani and never look back)
– 14.5 oz can Diced Tomatoes (you can go with whatevs, but we like using flame roasted ones)
– 4 tbsp Chili Powder
– 1 tbsp Natural Hickory Smoke Flavor
– 1 tbsp Ground Black Pepper
– 1 tbsp Smoked Paprika
– 2 tsp Salt
– 2 Bay Leaves
– pinch of Ground Ginger
– pinch of Cinnamon

Dice the onions into small, roughly 1/2-inch pieces or smaller, chop the garlic into tiny bits, and roast over medium heat in a cast iron skillet with olive oil until the onions are starting to become translucent and garlic browns a little. Add the seitan, stir, and brown for about five minutes. Add the hickory smoke, quickly stir and cover so the mixture absorbs the smoke taste, cooking for about five minutes. Uncover and stir, scraping the mixture from the bottom of the pan if need. Cover and cook for another five minutes. Add diced chipotle peppers and teriyaki/sweet soy sauce to give the mixture a spicy sweetness. Simmer for another five minutes, covered, adding a bit of water or broth if the mixture starts to dry out or sticks too much. Add diced green peppers, again about 1/2-inch pieces or smaller, cooking covered for five minutes or until the peppers become deep green, but not too dark or too soft.

In a separate large pot (8 quart or so), toss in the drained kidney beans (not rinsed) and all the tomatoes. Back at the skillet, add 1 tsp of salt, 1 tbsp chili powder, and cook off most of the liquid for 2 minutes or so, leaving the mixture a little saucy. Once that’s done, give it a taste. It should taste pretty good at this point, but very concentrated in it’s sweetness and spiciness. Carefully toss the mixture in the large pot with beans and tomatoes, mix it all together and put it on medium-low heat. Bring it to a low simmer and add the bay leaves, the rest of the salt, rest of the chili powder, and all of the remaining spices. If you like things more on the sweet side, add a little more cinnamon. Spicy? Add a bit more chili powder and black pepper. Simmer all that covered on low for one hour, stirring every so often to make sure it’s circulating and the bottom is burning at all. This’ll make, I don’t know, 74 servings? So feel free to freeze some after your initial meal. It keeps.

Have a great weekend! And go Jets! Wait…

Okay, so one thing we have never gotten is why, when you’re out at a restaurant and you’re feelin’ a hankerin’ for, let’s say, a vegetarian reuben, the fake-meaty ingredient is always, without a doubt, tempeh. Don’t get me wrong, we love tempeh just as much as the next guy…assuming the next guy likes tempeh…but it’s not exactly authentic to the makeup of the original, super-meaty sandwich. Though the exact origins of it are debatable (Omaha vs. NYC—suck it Kulakofsky!), the meat ingredients of a traditional reuben are always corned beef or pastrami—heavily brined, thinly sliced rare beef. How does that resemble fermented whole-soybean patties? So, we recently accepted the following self-assigned-mission: Craft a nearly entirely homemade, awesome, tempeh-less reuben sandwich. I know. What what?!

The Best (Vegan) Reuben Ever…No Joke
• 1 Whole Loaf of Jewish Rye
• 1-2 Loaves of Homemade Seitan or 8-16 oz. Store-Bought
• Vegan Russian Dressing (recipe follows)
• Sauerkraut (we like Bubbies, which is vegan and crazy-ingredient-free)
• Daiya Vegan Cheese (Mozzarella Style)
• Vegan Margarine (we like Willow Run as it’s vegan and doesn’t include any palm oil, which can be a bit rough, eco-/primate-habitat-wise)

Okay, so, obviously most of the ingredients are quantity-less…because…you know, these are sandwiches. So, if you like more seitan, great. If you like a lot sauerkraut, load it up, man. And, as for the seitan, it’s totally cool to use some store-bought, like White Wave’s or some from a local producer, but in the past year or so, we’ve gotten SUPER into making the seitan from Terry Hope Romero’s recent cookbook, Viva Vegan, which has an excellent beef-style seitan and a really great pork-/chicken-style seitan. It’s easy to make, yields a lot so you can use it for lunches, dinners, and such later in the week, and it really tastes so, so good. This recipe by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is great too. Anyway, long story short, homemade seitan’s great, but store-bought’s 100% cool.

Second order of business—in our research, we found that reubens are made with either thousand island dressing or russian dressing and that the former is essentially a simpler, dumbed-down version of the latter, with a lot less depth, pungency, and interestingnesses…. So we obviously opted for working up a vegan version of the russian, which rules.

Thirdly, we recommend using Daiya for your vegan cheese here. If you haven’t had it yet, you should—it’s melty, soy-free (if that’s a concern for you) and pretty stupendous. Definitely the closest we’ve ever had to dairy-based cheese. You can find places that carry it near you here.

Okay, so, first thing’s first—if possible, go to a nice little bakery and get yourself a fresh loaf of Jewish Rye, unseeded. If you’ve never had fresh rye, you’re missing out. So good. We’re lucky enough to have a great bakery across the street. I know. We suck. So, place the whole loaf of bread, unsliced, in the oven and bake it at 350ºF for ten to fifteen minutes, until the crust is crunchy. Set the loaf aside and let it cool. Keep the oven on.

While the bread’s cooling, get a sharp knife and slice as much seitan as you want as thinly as you can. Now take a large piece of aluminum foil and place the slices of seitan on it, drizzling a little water or vegetable broth overtop of it and then wrapping the foil around it so that none of the liquid will leak out. You can even use fresh beet juice if you want more of a…um…bloody, meaty look…but maybe that gets into some weird ethics, right ? Anyway, place the wrapped seitan in the oven and allow it to steam a bit before assembling the sandwiches.

Once the bread’s cool, take a serrated knife and cut the loaf at a 45º angle so that the slices have a larger area than they would if you just cut it width-wise. Now take your bread slices and spread the margarine on one side of each and slather the other side with your Vegan Russian Dressing. Here’s that recipe:

Vegan Russian Dressing
• 1 C Veganaise
• .25 C Vegan Sour Cream
• 3 oz. Tomato Paste
• 1 tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
• .25 C Bread + Butter Pickle Chips (finely diced—again, Bubbies is awesome)
• .25 C Chives (we actually used some garlic chives from the farmer’s market, which were great)
• 3 tsp Capers (finely diced)
• 4 tbsp Prepared Horseradish
• 2 tsp Vegetarian Worcestershire
• 1 tsp Chipotle Adobo Sauce (we usually just use some of the sauce from canned chipotles)
• 1 tsp Simple Syrup (you can just dissolve some sugar in as much water)
• .5 tsp Smoked Paprika
• Salt (to taste)
• Freshly Ground Pepper (to taste)

Basically, finely dice or process all of the whole ingredients, then mix everything in a large bowl. This yields a lot, so, if you’re not into having this around as a salad dressing or sauce for a wrap or the like, feel free to cut the recipe in half. It’s nice to have around though and keeps well. So, like I said, take a few spoonfuls of the dressing and spread the it on the insides of the bread slices. Then layer the ingredients, bottom-to-top, seitan slices, sauerkraut, Daiya, topping with your other piece of bread, dressing-down, obvs. In a heated heavy iron skillet, press the sandwich with a skillet weight or just with your spatula until the bread’s browned, like 5 or so minutes. Now carefully flip it and do the same to the other side. If it looks like the vegan cheese isn’t quite melting, throw a little water in the warm skillet and cover so the interior is steamed. Remove the sandwich from heat and serve it up. Furless ushanka’s optional but recommended. Especially given the weather lately. Budem zdorovy!

Dont’ get us wrong. We’re still super into infusing liquors. We recently had a SUPERB cinnamon-infused vodka from our friends over at The Banquet, we wrote up a great recipefor habanero-infused tequila last fall, and we’ve even got a farm-fresh lemongrass vodka going right now. But sometimes a homemade flavored syrup can go a long way with your fancy-pantsy drinks, especially if, say, you’re hosting a party for all your friends and realize you don’t quite have the week or two necessary to fully infuse a liquor. So next time you want to mix up some nice cocktails, give a syrup a try. In most cases, you can just add a dab of these flavorful fillers to your favorite simple drink—say a vodka/gin + soda, margarita, or manhattan.

There aren’t many hard and fast rules to stirring up a simple syrup—basically, you can just heat some water stovetop while you add a healthy amount of raw cane sugar, allowing the mixture to slowly thicken in the pan (non-stick). It can boil, if you’re in a huge rush, let’s say, but watch that it doesn’t boil over and DEFINITELY make the mixture doesn’t get too too thick and cause the sugar to burn. That’s a mess. Trust me. Once you get that to a stable place—a gentle boil, let’s say—you’re ready to start experimenting. Our last party, we went with a brown sugar + cinnamon syrup (great with whisk(e)ys), a ginger + lemon syrup (nice with a citrus-based vodka drink), and a lavender + sea salt syrup (superb with gins). The winner of the night in my view was the lavender syrup. We just got the syrup itself going, added a healthy amount of seas salt (maybe 1 or 2 tsp.), and then threw in 10 or so spring of lavender that we had drying for a month or so and let everything cook down for about 10 or 15 minutes. It was a mad hit. The ginger + lemon syrup, as you might or guessed, just involved adding a couple tablespoons of lemon juice and some cut fresh ginger to the cooking syrup. And with the brown sugar + cinnamon, we’d just recommend switching the cane sugar with brown sugar and using real cinnamon sticks rather than the powdered kind. Some powdered cinnamon has a tendency to be so refined that it can form a weirdly textured semi-solid in the syrup that can be less than appetizing for anyone hitting the bottom of the container.

Another bonus with syrups over infused liquors? You’re non-drinking friends/random kids form downstairs can stir up a flavored soda. Sweet!