SEITAN PICCATA:

seitan:
2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
2 cups water
2 tbsp salt
2 qts veggie stock, salted to taste like soup

Bring the veggie stock to a simmer and season to taste. Mix the salt into the water until dissolved, and then mix with the gluten flour. Once combined, stretch the dough into a log, fold it back on itself and stretch again. Repeat this process until the dough is tough and elastic strands can be seen along the sides. Simmer the seitan dough for 20 minutes per pound, or until it is springy the whole way through. A good way to test is to grab it with a pair of tongs. If it tears, it isn't ready yet.

dredge:
2 cups flour
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp smoked paprika or pimenton
1 tbsp aleppo pepper or chili flakes
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp salt

mix all ingredients to combine. Slice your seitan into half inch medallions and dredge in the mixture. pan fry on medium until golden brown on both sides.

Sauce:
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp capers
1 clove chopped garlic
2 tbsp vegan butter (Homemade is best!)
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1/4 cup shallots, diced

In the same pan you fried your seitan, remove the excess oil and begin caramelizing the garlic and shallots. Once they have taken color, add the capers and allow them to get a little crisp. Deglaze the pan with the wine, allow the alcohol to simmer off, and then add the stock and the lemon juice. Reduce the sauce by half, adjust the salt if necessary (be careful, capers are salty!) and turn off the heat before adding the butter. Now swirl the pan gently until the butter is completely incorporated into the sauce. It is important to move the pan constantly after you add the butter, because if it sits still the oil will not emulsify with the sauce. garnish with parsley and pour directly over your seitan medallions.


VEGAN BUTTER
1 cup homemade almond, cashew, or store bought soy milk
1 pint refined coconut oil
1/4 tsp soy lecithin granules
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
salt, if desired (for spreading)

combine the lecithin, xanthan gum, and nut/soy milk in the bottom of your blender and blend until dissolved. If you are salting your butter you can also add a tbsp now. Now start your blender on a low setting and begin drizzling the oil into the blender (if the oil is solid, steep the whole jar in hot water for 10 minutes prior to blending). As you add the oil, incrementally raise the speed of the blender until you have it set on high. Add the last of the oil slowly, as it can seize and break if you are too hasty, and if the butter turns solid in the blender and you can no longer see the vortex feeding down into the blades, then just stop and shut it off; that butter's done. (If you are feeling adventurous you can also add 2 tbsps of your favorite flavored oils like truffle oil before you add the coconut oil. great for spreading and finishing sauces.)


NUT MILK AND CREAM
1/2 cup blanched, peeled almonds or raw cashews, soaked overnight
2 cups of water

blend vigorously! If it's lumpy blend it again! and if it is still lumpy, strain it through a nutmilk bag or new (and washed) paint strainer. Making nut cream is the same process, but just use 1 cup of water.

NUT CHEESE
1 cup blanched, peeled almonds or raw cashews, soaked overnight
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp agar agar
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 a lemons juice, about a tbsp OR
1 tbsp rejuvelac (make rejuvelac by putting 1/4 cup of wheat berries in 1 cup of water and letting sit under a tea towel for 2 days.) OR
1tbsp live active vegan yogurt
1-2 tbsp salt, to taste

Simmer the water and add the agar flakes. Once they are totally dissolved, pour into a blender with soaked nuts, olive oil, salt and your choice of lemon juice or culture. Blend until very smooth. If it needs more liquid, add a splash of water a tbsp at a time. once combined, scoop with a 2oz disher/ice cream scoop into an ice water bath and allow to rest for ten minutes. Remove from bath, and serve or wrap in cheese cloth and age if you like!

CAPRESE ALLA VEGANERONI
5 large ripe tomatoes, cut into nice, large bites. Eight to ten pieces per tomato
4 2oz vegan cheese balls, cut into similar wedges
1/4 cup lemon juice
15-20 small leaves of basil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste
10-15 roasted cherry tomatoes

simply combine all ingredients and serve over a simple *roasted tomato sauce

ROASTED TOMATO SAUCE
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 sprig of rosemary
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp chili flakes
1 pint of cherry tomatoes (try sungold tomatoes, if you can find them.)

preheat oven to 375. In a baking dish, dress the tomatoes, garlic and rosemary in olive oil and season with salt and chili flakes. Roast for 30 minutes, or until the tomatoes turn bronze. Remove 10 or 15 tomatoes for your salad, drop the rest in the blender with all the juice, and puree until smooth.

RISOTTO DI FUNGHI ALLA VEGANESE
1 diced onion
1# cremini mushrooms, cut into three flat slices each
2 cloves of garlic
2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine (red works too!)
1 1/2 quarts of mushroom stock
1 sprig of rosemary, leaves picked and chopped fine
3 tbsps vegan butter
1/2 cup cashew cream (optional, but makes the rice extra velvety)
salt and pepper to taste

over medium heat in a deep saute pan, begin to caramelize the sliced mushrooms in 5-6 tbsps of olive oil. let them roast until brown and crispy, about 4-5 minutes per side. Scoot the mushrooms into a pile in one corner of the pan (or remove from the pan to add back later) and add the onions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and remove from pan (if you have really big pan, you can just move the onions to the side with the mushrooms. Otherwise remove everthing to a big bowl.) Pour the rice into the pan and allow it to toast for 2 minutes, then add the white wine. Season the rice, add everything back to the pan, begin adding the mushroom stock, 1 cup at a time. As each cup boils off, add then next, stirring constantly as you do so. After the last cup is in the pan (should take about 20-30 minutes) add cashew cream and butter. This is a great dish to use truffle oil in too. Just a tbsp or so at the end will add a great flavor.

Tamales

So for the past few weeks we have been running a small tamale factory out of our kitchen. It has been hellish work, countless stubbed toes, creaky necks, and cramped fingers. The results have been quite unfortunately outstanding, and so we had to rent a second refrigerator to store the hundred or so pounds of masa in our "facility" at any one time. The recipe is grueling ... unless of course you have access to a mexican grocery, in which case almost all of the ingredients we have been making from scratch can be bought in cans.

We have been selling three flavors of tamales, each as deceptively vegan as the next. The most popular flavors were chanterelle mushroom/poblano and roast corn/nopale con rajas. For our tamales we were ordering fresh made masa from Tortillaria Nixtamal, but if you are cooking at home you will have fantastic results with MASECA instant tamale masa.

CHANTERELLE MUSHROOM AND POBLANO PEPPER TAMALE: with pickled jalapenos and daiya cheddar cheese.

The Filling:
1# Chanterelle Mushrooms(you can substitute oyster mushrooms or any of your favorite kinds)
1 Medium onion, sliced into 1/8 inch juliennes (or just a medium chop if you prefer)
3 cloves of garlic, mince
3 Poblano peppers, roasted, peeled, and chopped (burn the skins over the stove and place the peppers in a sealed zip top bag for 5 minutes and the skins come right off.)
epazote or oregano to taste
salt to taste

Start by browning the garlic in the bottom of a large skillet with plenty of oil (about 1/4 cup. I use olive oil). Once the garlic is golden, add the onions and 2 pinches of salt. Stir the pan well to get the garlic off the bottom. once the onions have turned translucent and begun to caramelize, remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and leave as much oil as possible (do not put the onions and garlic on a towel, just remove to a bowl). Now put as many mushrooms in the pan as it takes to layer the bottom. Salt the mushrooms lightly, and then just let them cook over medium heat for 3 minutes without touching them. Just walk away.

When you come back, flip each mushroom over, one at a time, with a fork, or just shake the pan and give it a flip. Now walk away again. Three minutes. Start your timers.

You're back? Did you set a timer? Timers are good for this kind of thing. GOOD! Now add the onions and the Poblano peppers into the pan, toss them all together, and add a quarter cup of water or white wine or lime juice, and turn off the heat. HUZZAH!

The Salsa
8 large tomatillos
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic
1 jalapeno
10 oregano or epazote leaves
1/2 a bunch of cilantro leaves and stems, chopped finely
salt to taste

place the pepper and the tomatillo in a roasting pan and put in a preheated oven at 450 degrees. Let them roast for 30-45 minutes, or until the skins are browned and blistered, and even starting to blacken. In the mean time saute the onions and the garlic in a pan over medium heat until golden brown. Add the onions, garlic, tomatillos, jalapeno, epazote or oregano, and the cilantro to a food processor or blender and pulse until combined. Season with salt and as much as 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil.

The Masa:
Remember how to make corn broth? well if you have a couple of quarts left over you can use it all over again.

2 cups instant masa for tamales
2 cups corn broth
2/3 cup coconut oil
2 tbsp salt
1tsp baking powder

Mix the tamale flour with salt and baking powder. Add the corn broth and mix with your hands until it is all incorporated. Next add the coconut oil and mix with your hands until thoroughly combined.  You may feel tempted to put the dough in a mixer, but I find it is faster and easier with my hands.

STUFFING AND STEAMING
You can roll your tamales in banana leaves (Oaxaca style), corn husks (Poblano and central Mexico), or even in chard leaves or collard greens. Just use a 1 ounce disher to put 2 scoops in your leaf and flatten the dough with the back of a spoon or your fingers. Add a scoop of filling, and a couple pinches of daiya cheese, and some salsa verde. Now roll up the leaf and fold over the bottom. Stand your tamales in a steamer, open side up, and steam them for 40 minutes. Serve with salsa verde and pickled jalapenos.

Buddha's Chili Black Bean Udon Soup

No Iron Chef Chinese is worth his weight in soup without chili black bean paste. Don't believe me? just ask Chen Kenichi, Iron Chef Chinese from the original Japanese TV show, "Iron Chef".
What's chili black bean paste, you ask? Well I'm happy to tell you! It all starts with thoroughly funky black soy beans, which are funky even before they are packed in salt and left to ferment. Don't do this part at home. It gets smelly. But you can go out and buy fermented black beans in your local chinese grocer, or online. And if you want to skip making your own sauce, Chen Kenichi might disapprove, but you can buy a jar of Lan chi Chili Black Bean Paste at Whole Foods for $7.00.

I ought to reiterate that this is not a recipe for the faint of heart. But if you decide to cut corners YOU WILL STILL BE REWARDED.

Chili black bean paste: Worth 12000 "Oh NO you DIDN'Ts" ! 
 or just buy Lan Chi from Whole Foods.

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
4 oz fermented black beans
1 oz Thai chili, chopped
1 oz xiaoxhing rice wine
1 oz peanut oil
First, fry your garlic and chiles in the peanut oil until it is crisp golden brown. Turn off the heat and empty the contents of the pan into your food processor. Add the beans. Drizzle in the rice wine and puree until it is a spicy, lumpy paste. Perfect!

Corn broth: Worth 4000 "Heck YEEEEEEAH" points!
You can also use sweet white miso instead of my highly recommended corn stock, and make this dish in about 20 minutes if you are quick at chopping veggies (I use a japanese manolin, and I am done faster than you can say "Shaved Finger Tips"). Just use 2 tablespoons of sweet miso and 1 leaf of kombu in 1 pt of water and skip to the xiaoxhing tofu!

Corn Stock:
10 Corn cobs, de-kerneled (save the corn kernels for the soup!)
5qts of water
3 star anise
1 tsp Sechuan pepper corns
1 cinnamon stick
10 cloves
1 tsp white pepper (optional)
Just add everything into a stock pot and bring it to a boil. Then lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour. Cool and strain. Season with 1/2c of the sweet soy sauce called "kecap manis".
You can keep fresh corn cobbs in the freezer and use them all winter for stock.

Xiaoxhing tofu: Worth 2500 "oh for REALS?"
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 inch ginger, minced
2 oz soy sauce
2 oz xiaoxhing rice wine
1 oz sesame oil
1 packet of tofu cut in half

Wanna skip this one? Buy 1 teriyaki baked tofu package from Trader Joe's. Put it in a plastic bag and simmer it in a pot of water for ten minutes. Open the bag and slice!

Mix the liquids together with garlic and ginger in a big ziptop bag. Put the tofu in the bag and marinated over night. You could also use strained or thawed frozen tofu for a meatier texture. Bake the next day at 350 for 45 minutes, basting when it looks dry. Let it cool, and ....

Buddha's chili black bean udon soup:
2 tbsp chili black bean paste (home made or jarred!)
1 pt corn broth (or try that sweet miso broth! It's way easy!)
1 xiaoxhing tofu steak, sliced (... or use the Trader Joe's method!)
3 oz dried upon noodle
and ...
Cilantro!
Sliced daikon radish!
Sliced winter squash!
Julienned cucumber!
1/4 fresh or frozen peas!
1/4 cup of corn!!
Crushed peanuts!
Bean sprouts!
Sliced scallions!
Julienned pineapple!
Sliced cabbage!
*Sliced green chiles with soy sauce and garlic and vinegar and sesame oil!
The Permutations are ENDLESS!

Simmer the broth, and in a separate pot, boil water and cook the udon noodles. When they are done, remove them from the pot and discard the water. Now it is an order of operations game. You can add whatever you like to this broth (and I find the more, quite often, the better), but you need to start with the things that take longest. So if you are using squash, start with that. Wait 3 minutes and add the cabbage. Wait another 3 minutes add the corn and peas. After 2 minutes more, turn off the broth. Serve the noodles in 2 bowls. Divide the broth and the cooked veggies between each bowl. Now you can pile on whatever you like. Just make sure that the last ingredient you add is a teaspoon of chili black bean paste. That's all you will need, but if you are feeling adventurous, keep it on the side as a condiment.

*Try it first. Still not spicy enough? So then try this:
slice up 2 green chili peppers, and set them in a bowl with 3 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil, and 1 tbsp of rice wine vinegar. microplane in one clove of garlic. let them sit for 2 minutes before you start eating them like potato chips.

** as an end note, I am ashamed of how often I eat this. I just buy the miso and the trader joes tofu and the whole foods paste. Sometimes I just boil the tofu in its original packaging. It still tastes awesome. Don't Tell Danielle!

Manigot!

A warm one for cold weather. In the neighborhood I grew up in I was invited to many a manicotti dinner and always found myself at home when it was served. Manicotti. Bubbling brown cheese and tomato sauce, spilling over packed pillows of pasta and ricotta cheese... Manicotti.
And yet when I was cooking this for Christmas, everyone rolled their eyes and furrowed their brows as I spoke the word... Even my own Jewish-American mother. "Oh! You mean Manigot!"
However you choose to say it, I don't really care. I missed it. So go home and start making gravy.

The Gravy:
4 cloves of garlic, smashed thoroughly
2 cloves of garlic, microplaned or thoroughly obliterated to a paste
1 onion, diced fine
2 32oz cans of tomatoes, crushed
1 tbsp salt
crushed pepper to taste (I like 2 tbsp)

In a large sauce pan or stock pot, heat a generous amount of olive oil, maybe 5 tbsp. When the oil shimmers, add the garlic and make sure its golden brown on all sides. If you are adding crushed red pepper, add it now, and as soon as the perfume of the chilis hits your nose, add your finely diced onions (The finer the dice the better, you don't want onion chunks in your gravy). Sweat the onions for 4-6 minutes over medium heat, or until they soften and start to turn golden. Lower the heat to medium low, and add the crushed tomatoes. In 15 minutes the tomato sauce should come up to a simmer. Double check that the heat is medium low, and that nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot, and let the sauce simmer for an hour and a half. Afterward, season with salt and microplane in two cloves of garlic. Turn off the heat.

Cashew/Tofu Ricotta

Ricotta (good ricotta) is milk curds held in cream stasis. When it is used in cooking the fatty emulsion of the cream keeps the ricotta moist and fluffy. All too often when I have a tofu ricotta lasagna, the opposite is true, and the resulting filling is crumbly and sort of desiccating on the tongue. So for good tofu ricotta, the same laws have to be in effect; the tofu curds need to be bathed in a fatty milk or cream.

2 cloves garlic, microplaned
2 packs of firm tofu, drained and crumbled
1 cup of cashews
4 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp salt
1 lemon, juiced
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 package of Daiya cheese

As in baking, we start with a wet mix. Put the cashews, salt, and nutritional yeast in a food processor and grind to a fine powder. Now add the almond milk, olive oil, and the microplaned garlic. Puree the mixture until it is well emulsified. Next, add the crumbled tofu, and the lemon juice. Remove the mixture to a bowl, and mix in the Daiya cheese with a spoon. Put the mixture in a piping bag with a wide nozzle if you have them. Otherwise, a spoon will work fine.

Manicotti:
Boil water, and cook your dried manicotti for 6 minutes. Drain the water and space the pasta out to cool on a cookie sheet. Once cool to the touch, stuff the pasta with the ricotta filling. I like to use a piping bag for this job, but it works just fine with a spoon. Line two 13/9 inch baking pans with  parchment paper, or ladle 1/4 cup of water into each and drizzle with olive oil (if you use water, add a pinch or two of salt). Lay the manicotti in the baking pan in neat rows, and cover each piece with gravy. Scatter a half a bag of Daiya over each pan, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Raise the heat to 425 and cook for another 15.

I like to serve with a chiffonade of fresh basil and some bread crumbs (Use the croutons from the ribollita recipe. Toss them in the blender. They are perfect for this.)

Chickpea & Olive's Manicotti 

Inwood Holiday Market - Just one Saturday Left 12/17

We have had the warmest welcome as the new vegan kids on the Inwood block.  The excitement and interest in our company was so heart warming.  People have expressed interest in our cooking classes, private chef services and supper clubs.  

Dan's Indian inspired tea sandwiches were a big hit!  As well as our truffles, peanut-butter cake pops, and spiced hot cocoa with homemade marshmallow fluff.  

On Saturday, December 17, we will also be introducing new truffle flavors as well as boxes of chocolates. 4 and 9 piece gift boxes which are made out of 100% cocoa leaf.  They are handmade in the Philippines and the workers are paid a living wage to support them and there families.  So by purchasing these boxes we are taking fair trade even further.  

Speaking of Fair Trade - We have teamed up Buunni Coffee.  Mochas are on the horizon as well as espresso truffles.  

Everyone at the market was so lovely and talented.  

With love and gratitude to our community.  

Shop Local.  Buy local.  Keep your money UPTOWN!

INWOOD HOLIDAY MARKET

Saturday December 17th 1pm - 7pm

4951 Broadway 2nd Floor

Inwood, NYC

Dinner at Hangawi

We went to dinner last night at Hangawi. One of the most sacred restaurants in NYC. Hangawi serves Korean Buddhist temple food. The food is always incredible and being in the restaurant itself transports you to another time and place. It's very easy to forget you are in the middle of k-town just a few blocks south of times square.

We had a delicious meal featuring a Kim chi salad, an assortment of pancakes, dumpling soup, pumpkin porridge, & avocado bimbimbap. Finished the meal off with a coconut blueberry cake with vanilla ice cream. It was really a beautiful meal with beautiful food. Prepared with love and no blood shed.

Very inspiring for us at chickpea & olive where we strive to bring you peace on a plate.

Ribolita for Vanessa

Once upon a time ribolita was a dread-worthy dish, like three day old tofu meat loaf, or the 6 bean chili that's been growing fur in the back of the fridge. Ribolita, a re-boil, was classically a peasant soup of leftovers, usually involving beans, cabbage, and a bone or the scraps and skins of ... well this is a vegan website so we don't need to go into those details. Suffice to say, ribolita is the quintessential rebirth of leftovers, but it has taken on new life as a dish of its own. Chefs like Mark Ladner and Michael Chiarello put ribolitas on there menus!

My ribolita is as peasant a soup as anyone has ever supped. It may not be on the menu at Lupa, but it is a soul warming stew that will warm the hearts of any scrooge or grinch. 

ZUPPA

1 onion, diced

5 cloves garlic, smashed

2 leeks, rinsed and chopped (if you use the stock recipe here, you can omit the leeks)

6 leaves savoy cabbage, torn by hand

6 leaves of tuscan kale, torn by hand
1 fennel, sliced (you can sub whatever you like or omit, but i love fennel)

1 celery root, diced (you can sub potatoes or omit)
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

2 cans gigante beans (giant limas, but butter beans work great too)

garlicky croutons, see recipe below

3 qts Veggie stock, See recipe below or sub your favorite boxes

6 sage leaves, chopped

2 sprigs of thyme

2 sprigs of rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 lemon, cut in quarters
2 cups tomato puree or homemade tomato sauce

STOCK

2 leeks, cleaned, rough chopped

5 medium carrots

2 large onions

1 whole celery

1 acorn squash, or small pumpkin, cut in quarters and seeded

For the stock: if you are making it, saute the leeks at the bottom of a large pot for 6 minutes, or until soft and starting to brown.  Add 4qts of water to the pot, and then just toss the rest of your vegetables in. Bring the pot up to a boil, lower the heat to a bare simmer (that's when bubbles come slowly up the sides of the pot, but not up the middle) and walk away for an hour and a half. Kill the heat, strain off the liquid to save. I also like to save the vegetables from the stock. The carrots are perfect for making carrot soup! But that's another recipe.

For the soup: So you have stock, right? Souper! now get an 8 qt roasting pan and set your oven to 500 degrees. It sounds excessive, but it's the best way to make soup. Put your chopped onions and garlic (and leeks if you are using boxed stock) in your roasting pan and coat with extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper or chili flakes (I love using one or the other in the same fashion. It can turn one recipe into two, they are totally unique and both taste good with everything.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and let the contents caramelize, checking and stirring every 3 minutes. It shouldn't take more than ten minutes until your onions and garlic are caramelized. At this point, put on your oven mits and take the pan out of the oven. Add the lemon, fennel, savoy cabbage and black kale, season them with salt and pepper/chili and toss them together with the onions and garlic before returning to the oven. You want the kale and the cabbage to begin to char. They will turn brown and crispy in spots, like really good brussel sprouts. This may take another ten minutes.

Now let's say you don't have an 8qt roasting pan because vegans usually don't need to roast anything. You can do almost all of this on the stove in a large pot, but the lemon, the fennel, and the cabbages need to broil. There is no two ways about it. All of the magic happens when the cabbage gets charred. In fact, even if it burns a little, I think it still tastes better than if you were to just boil the cabbage in the soup, kind of like a good pizza crust. 

Pull out the lemon when they are nice and browned, and then you can add the beans (if they are canned, I don't drain them here, because the liquid from the can thickens the soup), tomato puree, herbs, stock, sweet potatoes, and celery root. Adjust the seasoning now, make sure your broth is nice and salty and spicy. Return the roasting pan to the oven and let it simmer for half an hour to 45 minutes. At this point its ready to eat. I like to ladle this over garlic crostini, but if you have some crusty old bread and want to stop here, just tear the bread up and pour the soup on top. Serve the charred lemon on the side.

Garlic Crostini:

I would do this one a day or so in advance. pre-heat your oven to 275. Slice a loaf of bread into one inch slices. Baguette or ciabatta work well for this, or pane pugliese, but my favorite is pane al sesamo. Spread the slices out on a cookie sheet, oil them generously and season with salt and pepper or chili flakes. Now put the bread in the oven. It will take around 45 minutes or so to get golden brown and delicious, and if after 45 minutes its not quite perfect, turn the temperature up to 325 and poke your head in every 3 minutes until its just right.  Now remove your bread and rub each piece with raw garlic. I like to break up a piece into a bowl and ladle the soup on top. Afterwards I break another piece on top of the soup to garnish, and squeeze a piece of charred lemon on top.

Serves 8 to 10