Vegan MoFo - Day 17

Add hempseeds to cooked rice or risotto to bump up the protein, plus to add a little extra colour.

I am no Caroline Ishii :(

Almost two weeks ago, Kyle and I FINALLY made it out to Zen Kitchen. It was embarrassingly too long - only more embarrassing was the fact that it was also our first date in more than four years! But I digress. Between watching them open their restaurant on the W network series to dealing with nursing and the allergy situation, we finally had a chance to go!

We were pretty happy to have a reservation. It was good to see how busy it was! The service was awesome, and I was really impressed how everything flowed. We never had to wait between courses - it flowed beautifully.

We decided to go with the chef's tasting menu. We would have several courses and had no idea what we would be brought! It was exciting! Mainly for me, since most vegan restaurants in Ottawa are self-serve, thereby eliminating the suspense. Also, unless something has changed in the last couple of years, I don't think they are all vegan - just vegetarian. So it was great to be able to eat everything off the menu!

Things got started with an amuse-bouche consisting of a cracker with crème fraiche with pickled ginger. Then a smoky mushroom soup, followed by a beet and lentil risotto. Our main consisted of a harvest vegetable pie with grilled lettuce and radicchio. Finally, we finished things off with a pecan pie topped with coconut ice cream. It was heavenly! We could have licked the plates. Kyle also had the wine pairing and he tried some awesome wines. Given the we are not wine connoisseurs at all, it was great that Dave educated us. Kyle was served Colaneri wine, and after he finished it, the winemaker herself presented him with an invite to their winery! It was a very cool experience!

I have to admit that I was eating so many things that Kyson is allergic to, and I felt guilty for it. Soy, legumes, nuts and coconut were prevalent in so many dishes and while it was great to eat them, I was sad that Kyse is missing so much and that our diet isn't as exciting as it could be.

In any case, I thought I'd like to try to replicate the risotto. 'Try' is the operative word here. It was tasty, but not like Zen Kitchen's - lentils aside.

Beet Risotto

5 beets, scrubbed
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
3/4 cup white wine
2 1/2 cups broth
1 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp salt
Pepper
8 ounces seitan, finely diced

Wrap each beet in foil, place on a cookie sheet and roast for 1 1/2 hrs at 425 degrees. Once cool, unwrap, peel skin and chop. Set aside. (note: I did this the day before).

In a pressure cooker, sauté onions and garlic in oil for about 5 minutes. Add rice and stir to coat, about 1 minute. Add wine, stirring. Add broth, salt, pepper and marjoram. Lock lid into place and bring to high pressure. Once at high pressure, cook for 5 minutes.

Release pressure quickly. Stir in beets and seitan and warm everything through. Serve!

No Creatures Were Stirring in This House

Over the weekend, my friend Sam and I made gingerbread houses. We actually didn't make them from scratch, but rather bought a kit as a fun little task to occupy our time. I was delighted to find out that it was vegan! Well, at least the gingerbread itself, the icing and most of the candies were! I was so excited! I hadn't planned on eating the house once the holidays were over (it would be too gross and stale), but during construction, a few little gingerbread men that were supposed to be decorations outside of the house were casualties instead.

Isn't it so cute, it all of it's tasty veganess? Even the jujubes were vegan! Costco rawks.


For dinner tonight, Kyle and I worked together to create a few faves - a Spinach-Shiitake Salad from Vegetarian Times, as well as a Butternut Squash Risotto from Robin Robertson's Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook. I didn't modify the salad recipe at all, but I did take the risotto recipe, use onion instead of red pepper, and make it in the pressure cooker instead. I'm all for taking 5 minutes to cook dinner that way, versus spending 30 minutes stirring the risotto constantly. I will however use less stock next time, so that the risotto isn't so soupy. Working together, we had dinner on the table in 40 minutes.

Kyle said the mushrooms reminded him of bacon, but I tend to think not.


We then had plenty of time to hit the mall. I had received a $100 gift card today, and I already knew where I was spending it - at the Bay on a Cuisinart 4-slice Belgian waffle maker! I already had a crappy one that made only two waffles at a time, so this will be a big time saver. I'm so excited! It was like an early Xmas present just for me :)

I've Redeemed Myself!

Was I ever thrilled to fill my cannister with oats! On to Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies - Round 2.

After last night's fiasco, I rushed to the grocery store to grab the missing ingredient to re-attempt the cookies. I got home at 5:13. I threw the ingredients together (I even measured carefully - which I normally never do, but I wasn't taking any chances for another screw up), and tossed them in the oven at 5:29. I even made sure my oven thermometer read the required 350 degrees. 18 minutes later (2 minutes longer than the recommended baking time, under my watchful eye), the cookies were out. By 5:55, they were cooling on a rack, and looked MUCH better than last night's creation, although still different from my first batch. I honestly didn't care, as I could at least feel confident bringing these puppies into work.

I was supposed to be over at Tracy's by 5:45 to babysit Princess, but I didn't there until 6. I always seem to be 15 minutes late for everything. Fortunately, dinner was ready for me! Hooray! Tracy made this yummy recipe from Lorna Sass' Complete Vegetarian Kitchen. It's a spinach-chickpea-sundried tomato risotto recipe that's made in minutes in the pressure cooker. Definitely one of my faves.