Weekend of Sweet Brooklyn Eden (Eatin')

This weekend Mom and me spent the most beautiful weathered weekend together gallivanting through the city! We spent the first day at the High Line Park and Chelsea Market where we found an unopened bottle of wine left in a store next to a chair and liberated it from being consumed by people who didn't need it as bad as we did! After hitting up the market, we walked to the East Village to try and go to dinner at Souen, a super delicious macrobiotic restaurant, but the 13th st one was closed. We decided the the Alphabet City Souen would be too far to walk to so we went to Sacred Chow on Sullivan St in the West Village.

I didn't have my camera, but we ate delicious collards with sesame seeds, steamed asparagus with Dijon mustard, and absolutely scrumptious eggplant and millet cakes with Dijon mustard. We also ordered a pitcher of Sangria which wasn't that good, but it was such a nice day for it, the idea of delicious Sangria might have been enough!


The next day, we spent the day in Williamsburg, we checked out a bunch of used clothing stores and vintage shops and stopped in the afternoon for a beer. I had a Flower Power IPA from Ithica Brewing Company. It is something that I have been wanting to try for a long time! It was delicious, very robust and full of sensuous flavors of bitter hops and grapefruits! We also snacked on Falafel chips (my mom got me hooked!) and the most amazing vegan cheese I have ever eaten, Dr. Cows Aged Cashew Cheese. It seems like it might be a tad expensive, but once you take your first bite, it is entirely worth every penny.


We stopped at the farmers market and bough a bottle of tart cherry nectar, we decided to make our own Sangria later with the Nectar, the wine we commandeered, some raspberry vodka, and a granny smith apple I had in my apartment. We also decided to do dinner in that night and made a super delicious Coconut Curry with tofu, cauliflower, carrots, kale, and mango over Basmati Rice. we Ate on my roof and watched the sunset with the sangria and a few beers.

The next day we planned to go to the Brooklyn Flea market in Park Slope and then the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. We saw some beautiful roses and an English Weeping Beach Tree and relaxed in the grass. Later we ran into a street fair and then stopped for dinner at The V Spot in Park Slope. After dinner we went to Lula's Apothecary and got a pint of PB+J and Banana Vegan Cashew Ice Cream. Superb!!!!



SE FIN!

Seitan WELLINGTON, who said it couldn't be done???

Vegan seitan wellington is sooooo good. It is my celebratory end-of-semester dish...All out! Improved! So Good you won't want to talk while you eat it! And you will lick your plate!


All together this is a long drawn out process, especially if you are making the seitan. Hello!!! 90 minutes cook time! Yikes! But if you make a bunch of seitan ahead of time and save one for this recipe, it shouldn't be so much extra work. I do recommend making your own seitan and experimenting with the spices you like to make it perfect, because store bought seitan is just not that good, as is any other "home made" V "store bought" thing...and there are a million different types of seitan you can make... this recipe is similar to the seitan Mike has made before, but it eliminates the cinnamon and allspice and replaces that with more cumin and cayenne and adds thyme and oregano. Mike compensated for the re-cooking time a little bit and lowered the oven time by 10 minutes (to 80 minutes).

You will need:
Seitan recipe (as linked to above and reworked a bit)
Filo dough (as it is vegan versus puff pastry)
Earth Balance
Mushroom Sauce ingredients (described below)

This yields 4 good sized Wellingtons.

For the Mushrooom Sauce:
-1/2 yellow onion diced or 2 shallots
-4 large cloves of garlic
-about 2 tbs of vegan margarine (Earth balance)
-12 oz or about 4 cups of mushrooms chopped (I used baby bellas)
-1/4 cup red cooking wine
-1 tsp dried thyme
-1 tsp dried parsley
-salt and pepper to taste

Add the onion and 1 tbs of margarine to a pan and caramelize for about 5 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and the garlic and cook for about 5 minutes as the mushrooms brown up, adding the other tbs of margarine as needed. Add the cooking wine and spices and cook stirring occasionally until the wine has reduced almost completely, just enough so the mushroom mixture is just a little bit saucy.


While the mushrooms are cooking you can set the oven to 400 degrees F and prepare the Filo Dough and seitan.

Make squares/rectangles/triangles... really any shape that gives you enough room to add your sliced seitan and a pile of mushroom sauce and then fold the pastry over the pile so nothing is exposed, be reasonably generous.

Slice the Seitan roll into rounds about 1/4 in thick. If you happen to be too lazy to make your own and buy some from the store which doesnt come in a nice roll, but more like an amorphous blob, just cut up into bite sized pieces. Take the pastry shape and put it onto an un-greased cooking sheet/pan and put the Seitan in the center and pile 1/4 of the mushroom mixture on top. Fold the pastry dough over everything and close as best you can, also rub with about 1/2 tbs melted margarine so that the filo becomes flaky and delicious!

Put the complied pastries in the oven for about 20 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Now I know they look beautiful, but take a fork and knife to one and tell yourself that's not the best damn thing you've done for yourself in a long time.

MY sweet VALENTINES!

valentines day is a time of year that really has no significance. it tenderizes impressionable youth, women have to get sexy no matter what it takes, whether it be new clothes, lingerie, full body chemical peel.... it forces men of all ages to spend money on useless things, expensive gifts, romantic getaways, restaurants, blah blah blah....another consumer holiday that is covered up with candy and kisses.


MWAH!

But don't get me wrong, I am not a non-romantic bitter person, and I like to take a nice moment when one presents itself.....So to venerate the holiday spirit without giving into all of the consumerist agenda, Mike and I are cooking a delightful meal and dessert ourselves! Almost!

*** we were going to go out, but we are too broke to do it in NYC (yikes!) And we did buy food ingredients, geez

ON THE MENU:

"Beef" Wellington
A seitan tenderloin with a red wine
mushroom "pate" all wrapped in puff pastery.

Avocado Chop Salad
Crispy romaine with avocado, tomato, lemon and spices


DESSERT
A Sundae of:
Lula's Sweet Apothecary Ice Cream:
Peanut Butter Brittle
Chocolate Malt
Cookie Dough Explosion
(all made with cashew milk)

Snicker Doodles
Bananas
Chocolate Covered Strawberries



DRINK
Nieto Senetiner Reserva MALBEC 2008
Deeply colored, full bodied, black berries, plums, fig compote,
with a spicy vanilla and mocha finish.






Ensalada! mmm!



The Wellington, pre-wrapping...

...and post wrapped/cooked/tasted....ohhhh fantastic!
I would have posted the recipe, but it needs some work.
The dish was delicious, however it could use alteration.
I will post again when its figured out!



****All food/sweets are 100% Vegan****