Tacos Fritos: The most awesome vegan food idea ever.

Hi everyone,

 

It's week 3 into the year and I haven't fallen off the blog-wagon yet!

 

I shut my eyes, and plonked my finger down onto the international dialling page of my (old fashioned paper) diary.

 

I opened my eyes and looked down... Honduras.

 

Is Honduras even a country? I've never heard of the place?  I realised my starting point for this weeks blog was going to be my know-all friend Google.

 

Before you all lambast me for my lack of geographical and cultural knowledge - let me give you a little bit of context... During my high school years I didn't really study geography.  In the "identified lower-socio-economic-area" (don't you love latte sipping middle class speak for "they're such bogans that we've called them bogans") High School I attended, we didn't study geography.

 

Back in those days (I'm old enough to say that now) we had a class that was called SOSE.  It was supposed to stand for "Studies of Society and Something or Other" or something along those lines.  During this class we learned a smattering of history, along with "society" studies.  In my high school this included informative and useful topics such as "How to fill out your Centrelink form" and "What you should do when you get arrested".  Note it wasn't "if" it was just assumed that the whole pack of "identified lower-socio-economic-area-persons" would get arrested at some point before they turned eighteen.

 

Hence - another one of my motivations for blogging about vegan food, and making vegan versions of food all over the world is to learn more about geography, different countries and cultures this year. 

 

So, where is Honduras?  It's in Central America, and sits in between Guatemala and Nicaragua.  So from that I was expecting some Spanish type influences to their local cuisine.  That's cool, I love Spanish food!  What's not to like? - lots of gutsy flavours with plenty of tomato and chilli, fun one-pot rice dishes, and really cool-sounding names for things. 

 

I did a little bit more research, to have a look at what kinds of things I'd be trying to make vegan this week, and learned that Honduran cuisine is pretty interesting!

 

The country is influenced strongly by Indian and Spanish cuisines, with tortilla bread being pretty much the most popular food.  It's not unusual for a house-hold to be preparing fresh home-made tortillas every day.  These are usually served as an open "Baleda" for breakfast - traditionally with fried eggs, cheese, sour cream and beans.  Okay, something like that would be a bit more of a challenge to do vegan.... but not impossible.

 

I keep reading, after that power-breakfast I wonder what a Honduran would be munching on for lunch?

 

It turns out the like soup - with either a red-bean or coconut milk base, they like rice and beans on the side, (hey great)! and they eat lots of fish (okay not quite my bag).

 

Then I discover the jack-pot.... Tacos Fritos.  Yes - it's what it sounds like.  Fried Taco.  I thought I was going to have to get the USA to find food this... well, fried.  Let's face it, I could have thrown a lentil soup recipe at you, or a rice'n'beans recipe at you, but let's face it, there's hundreds, if not thousands of recipes out there fitting that bill already.  So, I stepped up to the challenge of the Tacos Fritos... making my tortillas for my tacos from scratch like a proper Honduran would of course.

 

Here's the recipes.

 

Tortillas (Taco shells)

You won't get a regular hard crunchy taco shell - they will be a yellow coloured, soft-ish taco shell.  I discovered they're actually perfect for holding (well stuffed) and eating with one hand while continuing  to cook the rest of your batch of tortillas.

 

You will need:

1.5 cups of self-raising flour

0.5 cups of polenta

about 0.75 cups water

2 tbs vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil)

pinch of salt and pepper.

 

I used the dough blade on my food processor - placing the flour, polenta, seasonings in, and then slowly adding the oil followed by the water.  I found that I needed to just give it about a minute to form a dough.  You may need slightly more or less water, this will depend on the humidity, and on your flour.  Go slowly and remember - and remember you can always add more, but mixing is not a reversible process.

 

You will end up with a yellow ball of dough.  Mine was a little bit sticky - so I applied some flour to a board and kneaded the dough a bit, just to get it a little bit more cohesive and elastic without being super sticky.  You don't have to knead it like you would fresh bread though - you're not aiming to develop the gluten; as the tortillas will be flat.

 

I then broke off small balls of my tortilla dough, and rolled each one out to a thin roundish shape.  I'm not going to pretend they were perfect circles by a long shot.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the not quite perfect circle shape adds character.  You need to roll them quite thin - about 2-3mm thick.

 

I used baking paper to sit in between each tortilla so that they don't stick as you roll them and then put them aside ready to cook. 

 

 

 

To fill my tortillas, I got a little bit lazy - in that I made a very basic Spanish style bean mix, using red kidney beans, canned tomatoes and one of those packets of "taco spice mix".  In my defence it was a week night, and in addition to cooking for the blog I had to write an essay for my masters.

 

To turn your basic Taco into a Tacos Fritos you need to take about a tablespoon or so of your bean mix and place it into the middle of an un-cooked tortilla, and spread it up and down in a bit of a mo-hawk type stripe.  You want to then fold up the bottom of the tortilla so the beans are covered, then fold the right side over the beans, fold the top down, then roll up until all of the bean mix is contained inside the Taco like a neat package. 

 

Google described them as "flute shaped".  I've seen a flute, and I've seen my Tacos Fritos.  Mine were exceedingly fat and squat flutes - but I was okay with that. 

 

I heated a fry pan with a enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom. (in theory you could deep fry them - but shallow frying is more forgiving; if you deep fry and your taco is imperfectly sealed they will fall apart in the oil and make quite a mess) 

 

Once the fry pan was hot I placed in the tacos Fritos, and gave them a minute or so on each side - I modelled my Tacos Fritos on a rectangular prism- ensuring a deep golden-brown colour is achieved all the way around.  As the mixture inside is already cooked and warm, it's just about making sure the bread is cooked through.

 

I served my tacos fritos in a similar manner to how you'd serve enchiladas - I placed the fried tacos on a plate, and then topped with fresh salsa, guacamole and salad... I just couldn't have  a taco without guac.  You can eat yours as-is, or with condiments, it's up to you.

 

As to the taste review - I was really impressed.  The home made tortillas had a much more interesting texture and flavour than shop tortillas.  Frying them gave a crispy texture on the outside - and definitely was an interesting and different way to eat Tacos.  Thanks Honduras for the awesome Tacos Fritos.

 

I'll also include instructions to prepare the tortillas to use as a regular taco receptacle - as while the Tacos Fritos were good, you may want to make regular tacos with them too.  Here's the instructions:

 

You need a very very hot dry fry pan/wok/grill plate etc. to cook the tortillas.  Put your stove top on the highest setting.  Also - make sure you've got your window open and/or your fan going.  You will make some smoke while doing this, and you won't have time to be distracted by the smoke alarm.

 

Once your pan is as hot as it's going to get, place the tortilla(s) down on the pan - I fit 2 at a time in my pan, if you have a big pan and can fit more that's okay.

 

Stay in the kitchen - they will cook quite quickly.  Once you see raised "bubbles" or bumps on the tortilla surface it's ready to flip over.  There will be black (burnt) spots - they are just extra flavour and character. 

 

Use a spatula to flip them over.  Once the pan is super hot they will take between 10 and 30 seconds a side.

 

As each tortilla cooks stack them up on a plate - it's best if you use them while they're still warm.

 

Have a great week everyone :-)

 

Megan makes Japan Vegan - Okonomiyaki

Before I blog all things Japanese and vegan, let me share a brief comment on the weather in Australia right now for the benefit of my international readers.  Holy shit it's hot.  We're in the middle of a heatwave almost completely covering the nation - we're experiencing the hottest and longest heatwave since the 1930's.

I'm not enjoying the hot weather, especially the hot nights.  I've been overheated, cranky and sleep deprived all week.  Even the cats that normally have a go at each other have been too tired to bother taking a swipe as they walk past.  It's "I hate you but can't be stuffed punching you" hot... which for a cat is scorching.

It was a struggle to summon the energy to cook this week, especially as I knew that cooking involved switching on either the stove or oven, and nobody in Australia has any desire to warm up their house this week!

I really love Japanese food - there's elements of everything from the modern, fusion type food you get at Wagamama (by the way guys - awesome job on labelling the vegan items on your menu, it's greatly appreciated)  to the ceremonial attitude towards food and eating; the tea ceremonies, the neat little bowls and the "rice and three sides" model.  I also love the rich savoury umami flavours, just about anything served in a bento format, vegan sushi and inari. 

I've loved Japanese food since I was a teenager - during the many years I spent studying the Japanese/American Karate style (Black Dragon Kenpo) I tried to soak up a few elements of Japanese culture beyond the fighting style, and honourable/warrior type folk lore.  I watched manga and even read the Hagakurae. 

Growing up in Melbourne I was spoiled - especially after starting university with the cute Japanese cafes on Swanston St - every Friday night after study and work I would traipse in and order either my favourite bowl of noodles, with the vegetables all lightly steamed and arranged beautifully and separately on top of delicious buckwheat noodles... or my favourite bento box, with agadeshi tofu, rice, miso soup, crisp salad, a potato croquette and fried greens in teriyaki sauce.

I thought carefully through my favourite Japanese vegan foods; fighting against lethargy from the heat and reduced apatite sapping my will to walk into the kitchen.

But then I fondly remembered something I used to always order at Japanese take-away shops before I became vegan (but was vegetarian); Okonomiyaki.  I just love saying and typing that word... what a cool word, there is literally no English translation for Okonomiyaki; which are essentially a Japanese vegetable pancake.  Normally they're made with a rather eggy pancake batter, hence why the take-away version isn't vegan.  I made Okonomiyaki at home this week, and my partner tried some as well.  She says I'm allowed to make them again, which is generally a good thing. 

Here's how you can make your own Okonomiyaki; my recipe makes 4 good sized pancakes, you'll need:

1/4 a green cabbage (either a good sized quarter, or half of a little cabbage)
1 cup mixed frozen veggies (ie the peas, corn and tiny little cubes of carrot type)
1/2 a bunch of spring onions
1 cup plain flour
1 1/2 cups soy milk (start with 1 cup and add the rest if you need it - will depend on the moisture content of your vegetables)
vegetable oil for frying (I used rice bran oil)
Teriyaki sauce
Mayonaise - squirty bottle preferred (if you don't want to spring extra cash for one with "vegan" written on the label, check the ingredient list on the 97% fat free and 99% fat free - they are made of 'fake' and are vegan!)


The first thing you need to do is finely slice/shred the cabbage.  Remove the outer leaves, and the 'heart' at the centre and give it a good wash.  It's really important that you shred it as finely as you can - you want the little strips of cabbage to be at most a couple of millimetres across. 

Place your shredded cabbage in a large mixing bowl with the cup of frozen veggies.  I mixed these veggies by hand - mainly because it was hot and I wanted an excuse to touch something frozen.  a spoon would also work fine.

Add the flour, then 1 cup of the soy milk.  Stir the mixture gently with a wooden spoon until it's well combined - it should look like it's majority cabbage, with the other vegetables poking out there and there, and mostly holding together as a batter type mixture.

Apply a generous amount of oil to the pan and heat up to a medium-high temperature.  You need the oil to completely cover the bottom of the pan, otherwise they'll stick, even with a non-stick pan.

Place a quarter of the mix into the hot pan - spreading and shaping until you have a 'pancake' that's about 1.5cm thick and as close to a round shape as you can get.  They do need to be completely cooked through - so that is about 5 minutes per side.  If you find that it's catching or getting a bit too dark too quickly, just reduce the heat a bit.  It's important that they're cooked through, as the texture of raw cabbage inside the pancake will reduce your enjoyment of the final product.

Place each cooked pancake aside, then wash and finely slice the spring onions.  Pat them dry with a tea towel, then fry them off in the hot oil - using the same pan and oil from the pancakes is fine, no need to do more dishes than you absolutely have to.

To serve (the word plate is not a verb) the Okonomiyaki, top each pancake with a generous amount of teriyaki sauce, then squirt a generous squiggle or spiral of mayo over each pancake.  Finally top with a sprinkle of the fried spring onions.

This is my favourite type of Japanese fast food, I hope you give it a go and enjoy it as well. 

I can't remember what country I'm going to do next week - it will be a surprise for all of us when I check my diary tomorrow.

Until then, stay cool :-).

Megan makes Italy Vegan - Gremolata, Risotto and Sorbet.

Happy 2014 everyone! 

 

I decided to do something a different for my blog this year (yes like actually write in it for starters).  I’ve learned that I don’t do so well without a deadline or specified project (even if it’s arbitrary and self-imposed).  So this year, I’ve set myself a new vegan cooking and blogging challenge.

 

To be honest, I’ve had enough of most of my favourite celebrity chefs.  I’m sick of Jamie Oliver.  Every time I see him “smash something up” on a chopping board I want to wallop him over the side of the head.  “STOP IT JAMIE YOU’RE MAKING A MESS!!!” I shout at the television. 

 

I don’t know how Hugh gets time to dig in his garden and do all that country stuff with the amount of time he spends in front of the camera extolling the virtues of the quiet river-cottage life, while tut-tutting at anyone who would DARE eat the odd microwave meal while watching TV in their apartment after a long day at work.

 

 Poor Nigella – my favourite ever TV chef having her name dragged through the mud by that loser ex hubby with a penchant for DV; that being said who didn’t snigger briefly every time she was on TV this Christmas sprinkling icing sugar over something?

 

 I can’t stand the sound of Donna Hay’s voice, I just can’t share Maggie’s passion for figs, verjuce and nut brown butter, Whenever I see Rick on TV all I can do is shout “you home wrecking tramp!” then feel very sorry for that poor little wire-haired terrier. If I see Janella stick coconut fat and nuts in a Magi-mix one more time and call it healthy I’ll need a bex and a good lie down; and while I still think Richo is pretty cool, the challenge of making a vegan version of a suckling pig is probably a step too far for this humble home cook and blogger.

 

Clearly I need to do something new – so I had a think about what’s changed for me and what hasn’t.  It’s no surprise to anyone that I still love cooking, and I still love being vegan.  I also still very strongly think that everyone should be able to have great food, and that nobody should have to miss out on flavour.  I still also think that vegan cooking and food needs to be demystified – it’s just regular food. 

 

Just when I was ready to switch off the TV and do something useful over my Christmas break, Food Safari came on. 

 

“Hello Maeve” I say to the TV.  Maeve is lovely.  She’s also got a pretty awesome job, trying cuisine from all over the world, while wearing an assortment of unique and artistic colourful tops teamed with beautifully fitting jeans.  I wonder if I can do a vegan food safari?  I don’t have the camera crew or colourful tops and I strongly doubt that people will just randomly start inviting me over to cook vegan food for me so I can eat it while saying “mmm” “hhmmm!” while looking coyly away from the camera. 

 

So the format is going to have to be pretty much me cooking stuff at my house (bonus I get to eat stuff, and stay in my pyjamas!)

I’m going to call this year “Megan makes the world vegan”.  Clearly expecting all 7 billion or so of us to go vegan over the course of this year is probably what a business buzz word lover would call a “stretch-target”. 

So instead, I did what any sensible person would do, and allocated a random country to each week of the year, with a planned break over Easter and a knock off in mid December.

Partly by default as this is what I’ve been cooking; Week 1 of 2014 is going to be Italy.  After this week, I'll be pulling a random country out of a hat.  My list of countries is as per the international dialling code list in the front of my 2014 diary - so if it has a country code it's classed as a country for the purposes of this blog.

Italian food is awesome.  I’m yet to find a person when offered a suggestion of Italian food for dinner says “nope… can’t think of anything Italian I’d like to eat today.  The cuisine is complex, and dates back literally to Roman times.  Imagine life without Italian food.  No olives, pasta, pesto, pizza, minestrone, risotto, arancini, gelato….. Actually stop that.  Don’t imagine the world without those yummy things.  It’s just too sad.

 

One of the interesting recipes I found this week needed no modification to make it Vegan – that’s the wonderfully zesty and zingy Italian condiment, Gremolata.  Traditionally gremolata is used to season Osso Bucco (a meat stew) but you could use the gremolata to top pasta, risotto, grilled tofu, veggie burgers or all sorts of things.  Also, it’s very quick and easy to make. 

 

You will need the following things:

Bunch of parsley (flat or curly leaf is fine)

1 lemon – both the rind (without any of the white pith) and the juice.

About 4 tablespoons of sesame seeds

Salt and pepper to your taste.

If you have a blender or food processor just loosely chop the parsley, and chuck everything in, adding salt and pepper to your taste after wizzing it up.  If you’re going by hand, then chop the parsley and lemon rind as finely as you can, then mix it in a bowl with the lemon juice and sesame seeds, seasoning at the end.

I made some four days ago and have stored it in a glad bag in my fridge.  It still seems fine – though I imagine it would be okay to freeze as well if you wanted to keep it for longer.  I’ve found that it goes great on top of a pasta dish or a risotto along with a dollop of Tofutti.  It adds a lovely bright green splash of colour to the plate along with the zesty fresh flavour.

 

The next dish I made this week was a pumpkin risotto.  Risotto is another one of those Italian dishes that lends itself very easy to making vegan.  Here’s how I did mine.

-Half a butternut pumpkin diced into smallish cubes

-One onion, diced.

-3 bay leaves

-1 table spoon crushed garlic (from a jar is fine)

-about 1 cup of white wine

-6 cups of hot vegetable stock (I used the Massel “Chicken Style”)

-2 cups of rice (I used 1.5 cups Arborio rice, and 0.5 cup brown rice)

-About a table spoon of olive oil (to be honest I didn’t measure it I just poured a little bit into the bottom of my pot).

-salt and pepper to taste

 

I put a big pot on to a low stove heat with the olive oil and garlic in.  I then got to work dicing my onion and pumpkin.  By the time I finished cutting the vegetables the oil had heated up and was ready for the garlic and bay leaves to go in for a minute or so.  I then put the pumpkin and onion in and gave it a stir to coat with the oil. 

 

Once the onion goes a bit translucent (it loses the white colour) put the rice in, and stir to coat the rice with olive oil. 

 

Pour in the wine, and crank the stove heat up to about half of maximum. (Your stove may be different; if the pot doesn’t sound like it’s bubbling shortly after putting the wine in then you may need to crank it up some more.  If the thing sizzles and spits at you immediately then you may need to turn it down a bit).

 

Once the wine has nearly evaporated then you need to add in the first cup of stock.  Traditionally a risotto is made by slowly doling in ladles of stock from another big pot on the stove on low heat next to the risotto pot. 

 

I have a lazier method.  I boil the kettle and prepare hot stock one cup at a time using either the cubes or powder.  If you wanted you could also buy the liquid stock in the carton, decant it into a suitable jug and microwave it.

 

Also, rather than ladling in a spoon at a time, I add a cup at a time, meaning that you can leave it to its own devices for a couple of minutes at a time, as long as you stir it well after each addition, and are careful to keep the heat fairly low so it doesn’t boil dry the moment you turn your back.

 

Basically, you add the stock a cup at a time (so 6 additions in total) stirring after each.  The whole thing should take somewhere between half an hour and forty-five minutes to be finished cooking.  The mix of brown and Arborio rice will give you a traditional thick risotto texture, with a little bit of chewiness and flavour from the brown rice.  I topped my risotto with the gremolata and enjoyed it with a lovely glass of pinot gris a friend gave my partner and I for Christmas. 

 

You could also top it with your preferred cheese substitute, such as the commercially available parmesan sprinkly products, or some nutritional yeast (sadly you can't get either of these in a regular supermarket - you'll need to either order online or check out a reasonably well stocked health-food shop). 

 

You can’t finish a lovely meal without dessert, so I also learned how to make fresh fruit sorbet.  I was amazed at how easy it is to make – and the frugal part of me wonders if I can bear spending over 5 bucks a litre for the stuff again.

 

You’ll need the following.

 

-About a kilo of fresh fruit.  You could use berries, kiwifruit, mango, pineapple, peach, nectarine etc.  You may need to adjust the recipe a bit for things like citrus or bananas – as their texture and sugar profile is a bit different.  Don’t let that stop you giving it a shot if you see some cheap at the market though!

 

-2/3 a cup of sugar.

 

-2/3 a cup of water.

You’ll need to make sugar syrup out of the water and sugar, by heating them in a pot until completely dissolved.  Don’t let it boil for ages so that the syrup cooks down to a brown toffee, but don’t panic if you turn your back for a minute and it’s boiled a little bit.  If you’re feeling fancy here, you could have a go at flavouring your sugar syrup with a spritz of lemon juice, or a splash of rose water or orange blossom water.

You need to let the sugar syrup cool down, ideally to room temperature. 

 

Peel and roughly chop the fruit.  You can use a stick blender if you’re careful – you may wish to manufacture a shield over your bowl out of a tea-towel, or cardboard cut so as to let the blender in, but to protect your ceiling from luridly coloured fruit splatters.

 

Blend the fruit and sugar syrup until it’s completely mashed.  You do need actual sugar, and not a sugar substitute, as the sucrose in the table sugar affects the properties of the fruit as it freezes.

 

Once you’ve blended your fruit mix, transfer it to a plastic container of some sort (a recycled sorbet container is fine, or a lunch-box type container is fine… or several small ones if you don’t have a big one on hand) and pop it in the freezer.

 

Check on it once an hour, and stir it through with a fork.  As soon as it’s a texture and temperature you enjoy, it’s ready to eat.  If it gets a bit too hard, you can just remove it from the freezer and leave it out for about fifteen minutes to soften up – then if you prefer the soft-serve type texture, you can stick it in your blender or food processor and give it a quick wiz. 

 

Okay so that was 3 very easy Italian recipes.  As a bonus, this week was not just vegan, but gluten-free too. 

 

As luck would have it, next week the random country generator has indicated that I’m making Japan vegan next.  Until then, take care and don’t hesitate to let me know how it worked out (or didn’t) if you’ve tried any of these recipes.

 

Cheerio

Megan.