When Is Milk Not Milk?

What comes into your mind when you hear the word "milk?"  I bet it's the same thing everyone on planet earth thinks. That white stuff from a cow or a goat. Maybe even a sheep. If you're from my generation, visions of hand milking the cow and aiming the stream of white stuff toward the metal pail  is what comes to mind. Most likely, you recall drinking that milk from that bucket, still warm from the cow and full of cream. Probably the younger generation envisions dozens of commercials with a famous person wearing a milk mustache. And right behind that comes the sensory recall of those gallon bottles from the grocery store, so heavy only an older child or adult can lift them.

Considering that I am in no way a scientist, I won't record why animal milk is supposedly bad for us. I've read reports--mostly conflicting--and since I have to way of sorting truth from error I leave it to those with initials after their names to write their findings. Besides, I was never good in science, generally pulling up a "C" where those mysteries of the universe were concerned. Even today, decades later, I still don't publish as truth what I've read in one place or another. I learned long ago that most scientists never agree on anything.

Because "animal" milk is a no-no in our vegan world, I thought it would be fun to examine those non-dairy products we use as replacements. I've tried them all. Are they as refreshing as real milk? Not by a long shot. Do I like them? For the most part, no I don't. Do I use them? You bet.

My first go-around was with soy milk. I'm being honest here. I didn't like it. Not one tiny bit. My son suggested I try the soy milk he used all the time but I didn't care for that version either. Still, I used it in my dedication to becoming vegan. Even so, I discovered that soy milk is naturally free of saturated fat and cholesterol because it is made from plant material. Personally, I think I'd rather eat the plants, but that's another story.

It so happened that there came a day when I was at the grocery store to pick up more--you guessed it--soy milk when I discovered coconut milk sitting on the dairy shelf. I love coconut. I figured this would be a good substitute for the soy, so I brought a half gallon home. It was quite tasty in my morning coffee, but to just sit down and drink a glass of coconut milk wasn't on the top of my "to do" list. Now I understand that many people around the world consider it to be a miracle food because it helps protect the body by building up the immune system, along with the body's natural defenses. And even though coconut milk contains a bunch of vitamins and minerals and even electrolytes, the only reason I  used up  the half gallon was because it tasted real good on my morning oatmeal.

A couple months passed before I realized that almond milk had a place in the dairy aisle. Considering that I adore almonds in any form, I happily picked up a half gallon to give it a try. It was absolutely delicious in my "Is it morning already?" coffee. I tried drinking a glass of the stuff. My palette screamed at me. So despite the almond milk being low in calories and fat and high in vitamins and calcium, the only thing I used it for besides my coffee was my oatmeal. It was doggone good on the oatmeal.

A friend suggested I give rice milk a try. I found it to taste similar to skim milk and a little on the sweet side, but not grossly so. I could actually drink a small glass of rice milk if I wanted and not gag over the taste. It was my go-to non dairy milk for months. And months. It is low in cholesterol, has a trace of protein, a goodly number of vitamins and is low in calories. I was happy with the product. And then came the FDA report that the rice we use is contaminated with arsenic. A bit too much arsenic. And while they try to figure out where the dangerous chemical is coming from, they continue to let us eat and drink the stuff. Not me. Goodbye rice milk.

I figured I'd switch back to soy or coconut or almond since I had no other choices. Then two weeks ago as I made a quick loop through my local Farmer's Market, I spied something called Flax Milk. Truthfully, I know little about the flax seed other than that the canister of glossy brown seeds in my refrigerator has been there at least two years and never been opened because I could never figure out what to do with them. Yet the flax milk intrigued me. The container told me flax can be eaten whole or ground or as an oil and was full of protein, fiber, and Omega-3 fatty acids. I learned that just 2 tablespoons of flaxseed contains nearly 200% of our required daily dose of Omega- 3. Besides all that, flaxseed helps the brain and boosts immunity.

But what I loved the most about it is that it is good enough that I don't want to toss my cookies after drinking it. I use it on my cereal. My coffee. In baking. And in sauces for my entree of the evening. I use it for everything and am happy with the results. So if I consume it regularly and it really does boost my brain power, there may still come a day when I have some sort of initials after my name. Science initials.

Oh, give me a break. Yah, like that's ever going to happen.

Friends don't let friends eat bad food.

Meet my friend Judith Levine. She is someone who always lights up a room with an abundant smile and a quick wit. She is a native of Fayetteville who lived for a number of years in France before coming home to marry the love of her life. Her life is lived with passion and flair and she possesses a curiosity in everything around her. Not only that, she is a fabulous cook. And I do mean fabulous. Every meal is an event and an adventure. And she never picks up a cookbook or uses a recipe!

Judith and I recently started a business together called www.conegratulations.com . We sell petal tossing cones to brides and florists along with display cases. Lest you think this is just a shameless plug(okay, it is...) there is a food connection. The cones are food grade and perfect to hold snacks, canapes, pannise(great vegan treat by the way), hors d'ouvres, candy and the like. Perfect for parties and catering. So every week, Judith and I hold a strategy session at her house and she makes lunch. Sometimes it is more lunch than strategy but really, you should not mix business with food anyway right?

Today my sweet friend made us a lovely soup with ingredients she had on hand. There was no recipe, no prior planning and it took all of ten minutes to make. Coincidently it was vegan(she is not) and it was incredible. I never even thought to ask if it had a name and am constructing a recipe on the hoof.  Come to think  of it, I don't even know if it has a name.It is a delicious quick vegan meal and I urge you to try it.

Judith's Mushroom and Tofu Coconut Soup

1 container silken tofu, drained
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
   juice of one lemon
6 cups or so vegetable or No Chicken stock
1 oz shredded dried shitake mushrooms
a handful of scallions, chopped
a handful of cilantro, chopped

Bring the liquids to a boil with the shitake mushrooms. Simmer five minutes. Add the tofu and simmer a few more. Throw in the scallions and cilantro and serve. Now how easy was that! And oh, so good.

Thanks for the wonderful meal my friend. I hope we have many more together!

Caramel

Caramel showed up in my childhood home twice a year. First on Valentine's Day when Mom made Dad a decadent caramel / pecan pie with a graham cracker crust. Then again on Halloween, when we made dozens upon dozens of caramel apples, with apples from our trees, for the trick or treat-ers.

Caramel is sugar and milk and corn syrup and butter. Not vegan. But this recipe is vegan and I'm asking you now to promise to brush your teeth after eating this treat. It is sooooo good, you may have trouble not having a second or third piece, so I'm asking you a second thing, eat your healthy food first.

The origins of this recipe is from the Saveur website. I threw in some pecans as a tip of the hat to the Valentine's Day tradition, and to add some food value. And I added a little chili powder to make everyone wonder, besides the coconut flavor, what's different about this caramel? It's a wonderful addition. Sweet with a Hot undertone.

I found an error in the Saveur recipe - they say to cook the sugar and water in an 8 quart sauce pan. Eight quarts of pan to cook 1 3/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup water. Ladies and gentlemen, my candy thermometer can not reach to the bottom of that pot. What could they be thinking? That the sugar water is going to roll and boil and spit in my eye? I assure you a 2 quart saucepan will be sufficient.

One more thing before we get started. Making caramel involves a lot of stirring and stirring and waiting and waiting for the sauce to get to 240 degrees. So grab a few music CDs or a book on tape to keep you from wandering away from the stove and burning the caramel. Keep the phone close if you are one to answer it every time it rings. That's everything. Let us begin.

Spicy Nutty Coconut Milk Caramels

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

16 oz coconut milk

3/4 cup light corn syrup

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon chili powder (more won't hurt)

1 3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Line an 8 inch square baking dish with parchment paper and brush with vegetable shortening. Pour the chopped pecans over the paper and spread evenly, set aside.

Combine the coconut milk, corn syrup, salt and chili powder in a 4 quart saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture is warm and coconut milk clumps have dissolved. Turn off heat.

Set aside.

Combine sugar and water is a 2 quart saucepan, stir to combine. Heat over medium heat, without stirring, until the sugar turns light amber and candy thermometer reads 210 degrees F. (Saveur says 310 degrees F, another error I think). Remove from heat.

Pour the sugar mixture into the coconut milk mixture and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly. Keep  stirring until the caramel becomes thick and candy thermometer reads 240 degrees F.

Not quite there yet. Patience is a virtue.

Pour the hot caramel over the nuts. It will find its way to the corners and level out nicely. Now the hard part. Allow to cool. This will take at least an hour. Enough time to do the sticky dishes and walk the dog. Then cut into 1 inch squares and wrap in wax paper squares. Store at room temperature. 

I'm tagging this recipe for next years holiday treat bags. Who makes caramel that tastes this good? Who? You do. 

Coconut Custard Fool

Tropical Fruit

1/2 of a large pineapple, chopped in 1/4 " pieces
4 kiwis, peeled, cut into large pieces
1/2 of a large papaya, peeled, seeded, cut into pieces
1 basket of strawberries, hulled, chopped

Syrup
3 cups water
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/4 cup dark rum

Coconut Custard
1/2 cup corn starch
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond milk
2 cups coconut milk


Martha Stewart inspired me to fool around with her tropical fruit and whipped cream dessert. She tells us that the name came from England. You can go to her website (marthastewart.com) and browse many variations of Fools. With fresh fruit starting to show up in our super markets, I bought kiwi, pineapple, papaya, and strawberries. Along with dark rum...Bru ha ha ha. This was my type of dessert.

What to do about that whipped cream? Vegans don't imbibe cow juice of any kind. Honestly, I don't think that the non-dairy whipped toppings should be the type of food vegans put in their bodies. Yes, I've known the junk food junkie/vegan type before. If you are vegan purely to free the animals, then the thought of eating manufactured, unnatural, unhealthy substances might seem like a small trade off. Do I eat junk food? Of course I do. But I don't want to give into it here.

A vegan custard made with coconut milk pairs nicely with the fruit. I found this on a vegan recipe website, vegweb.com. It is so simple and quick to make. Also, if you have ever cooked milk with eggs in a sauce pan, you know how easy it is to burn the bottom and taint the flavour of your pudding or custard. I happened to be dual tasking. Well, let me just come out and brag about texting on my phone while stirring the coconut mixture on the stove...nary a scald!!! I hope people are impressed with my technical prowess. Although, it could be that this is just one fool proof custard recipe! Feel free to substitute the almond milk for soy milk.

1. Place each fruit in its own bowl. In a medium sauce pan, combine water, sugar, vanilla, and lime juice. Bring to boil, remove from heat, pour in rum. Pour syrup over each fruit and set aside for at least 2 hours. you may cover and refrigerate overnight too.


2. Whisk together the custard ingredients in a medium saucepan, Bring to a boil, then simmer on low heat until it thickens, constantly stirring/whisking to keep texture smooth.


3. Transfer to serving dishes and refrigerate until set.


4. Drain fruit but reserve syrup. Puree the kiwi and papaya separately, adding syrup if necessary for a consistency of applesauce.


5. Layer the fruit on top of the custard. Start with the pureed fruit, then pineapple and strawberries.

There's More Than One Way to Cook A Goose

"There's more than one way to cook a goose," my Auntie used to say.

"There's more than one way from here to the Comedian's house in LA," is what I say.

When I'm driving I leave the freeway at Highland and drive through the city on FLAT streets in lots of traffic. The extra minutes it might take are just a few more minutes to enjoy NPR or the Book on Tape I'm listening to. When Santa Barbara drives, she takes the Canyon road. That's the road that twists and turns and climbs and falls. I don't like it. It takes too much concentration for me.

But I wasn't driving. I was the passenger and with Santa Barbara at the wheel the Canyon road was very beautiful. We were going along quite nicely until - well - until we were no longer going along nicely. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. After many minutes and a couple of miles of this, we came upon a detour that took us STRAIGHT up another canyon and through a residential neighborhood where there was a stop sign at the end of every block and we were one car of 100s of cars taking the detour. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Straight up. Start. Stop. GRZZRGRGRGRZZZ said the car. Then we smelled smoke. The car did not respond to shifting gears. Santa Barbara pulled over and parked. What to do? What to do? 

Long story short, with the aide of cell phones, AAA and Cousin, we survived, of course. Cousin, visiting from the East Coast, arrived in her rental car with a gorilla suit in the back seat. (That's another story.) Cousin took us to the Comedian's house and AAA took the car to Santa Barbara's mechanic. After a nice visit and dinner, we drove the Comedian's car home. A memorable day. 

This weekend we will be returning the Comedian's car. I am planning to bring a pie. I'm thinking, "There is more that one way to bake a pie." To make it memorable, I'm making a teff crust. Today I practice. Today we will have Apple Teff Crumb Pie. If we love it, I will bake another for the Comedians.

Teff, the grain of champions.

The world's smallest grain, teff is said to be the secret behind the Ethiopian long distance runners strength, stamina and speed. It's got a nutty flavor. I buy Bob's Red Mill teff whole grain and  flour (and other gluten-free flours) at my local health food store.  You can order it on-line if it isn't available locally.

Apple - Teff Crumb Pie

I'll put a picture here when the light is better. It has turned into a stormy day in So Cal.

You can bake this pie in 30 minutes flat - if you buy the filling in a can (why not?).

THE CRUST:

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.  Without sifting, combine

     2 cups teff flour

     1/2 cup maple syrup

     1/2 cu unrefined corn or canola oil

     1/2 teaspoon salt

3. Reserve 1/2 cup dough for crumb crust

3.  Without rolling or refrigerating, press remaining dough with your fingers into a pie plate.

4.  Bake for 10 minutes.

5.  Add filling and and crumble remaining teff dough crumbs on top.

6. Bake for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool a bit before you cut it.

I served it with some SO Delicious Vanilla Bean frozen Coconut Milk  

This crust can be used wherever you might use a sweet dessert crust, like a graham cracker crust. It is delicious. We love it. It is memorable and I will bake another for the Comedians this weekend.

What about the heavy cream?

Miki here, and this was my week to take on the Vegan challenge. The recipe of choice came from The Week magazine's leisure section. Fire-roasted Corn Chowder with firey sriracha ( Thai red pepper sauce) sounded intriguing, but what to do about the cup of heavy cream? A quick asking of that question to the Internet turned up two options, coconut milk and rice milk. My memories of a rice milk mashed potato disaster, made us lean towards the coconut milk. Banjo took his usual post as I chopped the red onions and red pepper. The corn roasted nicely under the broiler, and I continued to chop the garlic and locate the herbs.

"see-Rah-Chuh" is a very popular condiment these days although we were not familiar with it. A blend of peppers, garlic, vinegar,sugar and salt originating from Sri Racha, Thailand. Sounded good to us!

A trip to yoga class provided ample time for the initial ingredients to meld flavors and cool. I opened the can of coconut milk to see a thick, heavenly white cream. I wasn't sure if I should put it in the chowder or apply it to my face and wait for miracles. Into the chowder it went. As I whisked it in, the creamy decadent puff imparted a lovely hint of coconut and a softer color. Nancy made a quick salad while I brought the chowder back to temperature.

To our delight, the coconut milk was a perfect substitute. The creamy light flavor gave a hint of coconut, but did not overwhelm. The heat of the sriracha also added nice balance to the sweetness of the corn. And, despite the lack of items falling to the kitchen floor . . .. . Banjo approved!!

Fire-roasted Corn Chowder

8 ears of sweet corn husked

2 tbsp olive oil

2 red bell peppers seeded and diced

2 red onions, diced

5 cloves of garlic, minced

6 cups of vegetable stock

1/2 cup sriracha

3 sprigs fresh time

2 bay leaves

1 cup coconut milk

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to task

Smoked paprika, for garnish

Fresh cilantro or flat-leafed parsley, for garnish

Roast 4 ears of corn over a direct flame--on a preheated grill or gas burner-- until kernels begin to blacken. Turn the ears every few minutes. After the roasted ears have cooled, scrape the kernels from the cobs and reserve.

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add bell peppers and onions, and cook until softened slightly, 5 to 7 minutes. Meanwhile, scrape the remaining kernels from the remaining 4 ears of corn. Add raw corn kernels and garlic, and coo until the garlic is aromatic, 1 to 2 minutes. Add stock, sriracha, thyme, and bay leaves. Bring to boil, lower heat, and simmer for 45 minutes. About 10 minutes before soup is finished add coconut milk.

Once the soup has cooked for 45 minutes, discard thyme and bay leaves. Puree soup using and immersion blender. Mix in the reserved roasted corn. Cook for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, until thoroughly heated.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with a few squirts of sriracha, a generous sprinkle of smoked paprika, and torn cilantro or parsley leaves. Serves 6.