VeganMoFo 2018 #8: Recipe Round-Up: Spork-Fed

Spork-Fed by Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg is another of my fairly underused books. It sounded good in theory, but the actual book itself was hard to find inspiration in for me. I don't love the photos, and their writing style is a little eh for me. They are very cutesy, which is fine in itself, but I find distracting in a cookbook. But I have recently revisited it, in the spirit of making the most of my old cookbooks. And I have made some lovely things, and also marked a bunch more that I would like to make.

Tofu Satay with a Decadent Peanut Sauce: These are meant to be tofu triangles on skewers, but unless I am actually outside using my BBQ I never use skewers. I also pan-fried these rather than grilled them. I found the sauce to be a bit on the vinegary side, maybe because I used light coconut milk instead of full fat, but it is very good and peanutty. I also only used 1/2 cup of water for the sauce, rather than the full cup, and it made a lot! This is in the apps section, but I served it as a main with some brown rice and broccoli.
Rating: :)



Miso-Glazed Japanese Eggplant: I love miso eggplant, and this was a great sauce. The glaze has a nice mix of miso, mirin, sake, vinegar, sweetness, and sesame oil. I got three serves from this side dish, served with some brown rice, broccoli, and Japanese-marinated tofu.
Rating: :)



Mushroom Bourguignon: I made a half recipe of this warming stew, for a cold winter night, and I got three serves. I couldn't find pearl onions, so I just used all chipped onion, and for the mushrooms I used a mix of sliced cremini and some chopped portobello stems. This recipe calls for a lot of red wine, which I often find too overpowering in cooking. The half recipe needed one and a half cups, but instead I used 2/3 cup of some leftover water I had from soaking dried mushrooms, and the rest red wine. This had a nice flavour for me. I also didn't have brown rice syrup or fresh thyme that day, so I used dark agave and dried thyme. Served with some spinach, and some olive sourdough.
Rating: :)



Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies: I made these to take to a gathering, so I doubled the recipe. I got about 40 cookies using an Australian TBS as my scoop. These were nice, though they could have had a stronger peanut butter flavour and also some more chocolate chips. They look very puffy when you put them on the tray, but flatten while baking into a more classic cookie appearance.
Rating: :)



Chive and Cheddar Skillet Omelet: This is a tofu-baed omeley, which is blended up with assorted bits and pieces and seasonings, and then cooked in a skillet on the pan. Mine did not cook in the time they directed. Instead of 5 minutes covered on low heat, and then 3-5 minutes on medium heat without the lid, I cooked mine for 10 minutes on medium high heat with the lid on before it even remotely set, and then I popped it under the grill (broiler for my US friends) for about 5 minutes to finish. I sprinkled on some grated cheezly, and served garnished with chives.
Rating: :)





Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



This photo is super special, because Dim Sim is actually touching one of the other cats! Dim Sim was probably there first, and Sahara snuck in above her and sat on her. That Dim Sim didn't immediately jump off is amazing! Dim Sim looks miffed, Sahara looks smug.