Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Vegan MoFo 2011 is coming!

Vegan Month of food 2011 is almost here! It's October this time around. I'll be finishing the story I had going (it took a REALLY long time for our heroes to fix the time ship.) and hopefully following the story through two additional arcs ... We'll see. At any rate, I'll be blogging once again :)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Vegan cookbooks published prior to 1979

No Animal Food - Rupert Wheldon - 1910
Vegetarian Cookery - Pietro Rotondi - 1942
Vegan Recipes - Fay Henderson - 1946
Gar Shu Cookbook - Sanctilian - 1957
Your Vegetarian Baby - Pietro Rotondi - 1954
Rx Recipes - Doris and Lloyd Rosenvold - 1963
Simply Delicious - Rose Elliot - 1967
Ten Talents - Hurst - 1968
The Vegan Kitchen - Freya Dinshah and Eva Batt - 1970
Saladings - Mabel Cluer - 1975
First Hand, First Rate - Vegan Society - 1975
23rd World Vegetarian Congress Cookbook - Freya Dinshah - 1975
What's Cooking? - Eva Batt - 1976

This is believe it or not the entire list. I'm positive the list is missing a few titles but is reasonably complete. I have 2 additional titles in the mail to me as I type this which MAY qualify, but I need to verify this when I actually receive them.

My little story will be continuing, I figured that as long as I was researching this I should share!

Monday, November 15, 2010

November 16 2010 ...

... is the fifth anniversary of the passing of Donald Watson. Watson coined the word 'vegan' in 1944. He outlived many of his critics, being 95 when he died.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

550 Years Early

"Oh my?" questioned Sherman.

"Yes, yes indeed." Peabody shuffled Sherman back inside. "We were traveling to the town Kenswick. But ..." He waved his arm with a flourish. "No Kenswick."

Peabody consulted the display on the console in the middle of the room. "Ah, I see. Our where is fine. Our when is a touch off."

"A touch off?"

"Yes, just a bit. We were shooting for the mid-twentieth century."

"And actually ended up ... when?"

"Uh, late 14th century actually. We must have been pulled here by 'A Forme of Cury' .... Sherman, amuse yourself seeing what we can pick up doing a local scan ... I think I have some adjustments to make."

"Whatever you say Good Doctor." Sherman sighed. Busywork to keep him from getting underfoot.

Busywork that proved to be productive however. "Recipe coming in now."

Almond Caudell
adapted from A Forme of Cury (circa 1390) (with guidance)

1 cup blanched almonds
2 cups white wine, preferably sweet and inexpensive
1/2 tsp ginger
pinch saffron
pinch salt
brown sugar to taste (a few Tbs)

Add almonds and wine to blender and puree. Bring mixture to a boil in a saucepan. Add ginger, saffron, and salt. Lower heat to a simmer and add brown sugar to taste. Simmer 15 minutes. Serve while warm.

Scan of original page from University of Manchester:

From the Project Gutenberg ebook of Samuel Pegge's 1780 transcription: Take Almaundes blaunched and drawe hem up with wyne, do þerto powdour
of gyngur and sugur and colour it with Safroun. boile it and serue it
forth.

[Although far from a vegan cookbook (500+ years early for that :) ), as the first English language cookbook A Forme of Cury is worthwhile to know about for anyone interested in cookery. The recipe above is my own take, informed by too many sources to link to. I think I looked at pretty much every resource on the web dealing with medieval cookery.]

... TO BE CONTINUED

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

A digression, dinner, departure

MOFO EPISODE V

A spherical ship cuts through the time stream, on its way from then to now and later still, generating the temporal equivalent of a sonic boom.

But anyway ...

Towards the end of a terribly long breakfast Sherman pulled Peabody aside.

"Good Doctor you really shouldn't keep secrets! I don't understand this Dr. Kellogg. What pray tell is going on?"

"Near as I can figure at an unknown time in my future which is in Kellogg's past I visit him for an unknown purpose, instructing him to not reveal to me what I know then but not yet now. Terribly confusing, but that is my lot in life I guess ..."

Kellogg approached. "If you gentlemen have finished your breakfast I shall have dinner brought out."

"Dinner?", Peabody and Sherman exclaimed together.

"Yes, I'm afraid we have missed lunch and are clean through to dinner time. So dinner it is. We'll be having roast Nuttose!"

"I apologize but we really must be going. Come along Sherman."

"But where will you go?", asked Kellogg.

"Back in the crate of course ..."

After the CHESTT door closed Sherman asked about their abrupt exit.

Peabody answered with one word: "Nuttose." He typed at a console for a while and handed Sherman the resulting printout.

Tomato Nuttose
adapted from http://www.vegan-food.net/recipe/1350/Tomato-Nuttose

6 T creamy peanut butter
1 cup tomato pulp
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 t sage
1/2 t salt
1/4 t marjoram
Onion salt or celery salt (probably garlic salt if you want)

Cream peanut butter into 2/3 cup hot water. Add tomato pulp. Put bread crumbs in bowl and mix the herbs and salt. Add to tomato and nut butter mixture. Add flavored salt to taste. form mixture into a loaf, wrap loosely in foil, and steam 2 1/2 to 3 hours. 
"Nuttose. One of many early meat analogs. The first in fact, some say. Not one of my favorite dishes. You should try it someday though, Sherman. In fact you'll get a chance to try making a batch soon! On a twentieth century cookstove! We need to pop over to jolly old England for a bit so I can verify some information with Donald Watson. Of course England is not so jolly during the time we will be visiting. World War II and all ..."

CHESTT shuddered. Unusual, that. But Peabody was unconcerned. "Ah, we've arrived! I give you ... KESWICK!"

Peabody stepped out of the front door on to a green field which rolled gently down to a river.

"Oh my," Peabody said. An understatement.

Keswick simply wasn't there.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Breakfast II: Colonic Boogaloo

MOFO EPISODE 4: BREAKFAST II

The world ceased to be for a moment. Or perhaps for a day.

"What just happened?", asked Sherman. "You had just pushed the Big Red Button when everything just  ... stopped. For what felt like a long time. And no time at all."

"CHESTT might need some adjustment. First the incident with Tommy stumbling in, now odd time slips ... Hmmm ...", Peabody pondered. "But first, Michigan!"

Sherman was somewhat confused. And irritated that Peabody did not offer greater explanation. "And we are going to Michigan why?"

"Listen when I tell you things, Sherman. Like I said, breakfast!"

Sherman began to object that 'breakfast' didn't really explain anything, but stopped himself from saying anything. They were slipping back in to real space. Real time. Whatever was going to happen soon would do so.

And what was happening was a bearded man standing stiffly, as if waiting for their arrival. "Now what's this about?", wondered Peabody as he ushered Sherman out the front door.

The CHESTT had disguised itself as a shipping crate. Certainly appropriate chronologically (from the man's clothing Sherman guessed late 18th-early 19th century). That a large shipping crate had appeared in the middle of a dining hall did not appear to bother the bearded man. He extended a hand in greeting.

"Good Doctor Peabody! How long has it been?"

"Actually, never, I think. I'm afraid you have me at an advantage, Mr ...?"

"Doctor. Doctor John Harvey Kellogg, director, Battle Creek Sanitarium. I didn't believe you! When I first met you - my first time, not yours - you told me you'd be back, but before you knew me! Yet here you are ... You also said you'd be looking for breakfast?"

Peabody's eyes lit up at the mention of the meal. He felt positively famished.

"I'll have one of my daughters bring us something. But first, would you care for an enema?"

Peabody politely declined. Breakfast, on the other hand ... Which thankfully was being brought into the hall, preventing further talk of colon cleansing. The plates held domes of grain dressed with a thin sauce.

Molded Grain with Grape Sauce
adapted from several recipes in Every Day Dishes and Every Day Work (1897)

Prepare as many servings of grain needed as they are usually prepared for breakfast. Good grains to try include oatmeal, cream of wheat, and corn meal. Pour into individual cups or bowls and allow to cool. Refrigerate when cool. This can be done the night before. To prepare grape sauce boil 1 cup  grape juice. Dissolve 1/2 Tbsp corn starch in a Tbsp water and pour this into the grape juice. Allow to boil 1 minute, then reduce heat to a simmer. Stir until thickened slightly. Sweeten to taste with maple syrup or sugar. Do not oversweeten though - the sauce is best slightly tart. If using juice additional sweetner may be unnecessary. Turn the molded grain out on to serving plates and pour the hot grape sauce over. Good for dessert as well as breakfast. This sauce is also good made with blueberries.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Brownies

MOFO EPISODE 3: BROWNIES

When faced with an impossible occurrence that is in fact occurring it is necessary to downgrade said occurrence from 'impossible' to at least 'highly improbable'. Good Doctor Peabody was downgrading his beliefs about people stumbling past CHESTT's camouflage defenses this very moment.

"Far out!", repeated the unexpected visitor. His eyes widened in wonder as he surveyed the large room that had been pseudoscientifically disguised as a port-o-potty. On the outside at least. "How'd you guys fit all this space in here? And do you live here or what?"

"It's ... uh ... complicated.", Peabody replied. "I'm Good Doctor Peabody. And you are?"

"Tommy. Hey, I'm supposed to give you these!" Tommy held out a string of beads. "Love beads man. Oh yeah and I'm supposed to tell you to use them to jump the gap."

"So what you're saying is ... you are to give me beads which I can use somehow. Even though you just met me and aren't supposed to be here anyway."

"You got it. Hey, can I get those brownies now?"

"Excuse me?", questioned Peabody.

"Brownies. You told me I could have brownies. I got the munchies."

"O..K... Sherman, can I see you a minute?" Peabody waived his young companion over. Whispering now. "I have an idea. Usually CHESTT breaks down foods to generate recipes. If I can reverse that, feed in a recipe,  it is possible we can 'whip up' some brownies and send our friend Tommy on his way while he will still believe his experience to be a drug induced hallucination. Fewer complications."

"Where's my brownies man?"

"They're coming. They're coming. No worries.

"Special brownies?"

"Oh very special indeed." Peabody took a printout off the old-fashioned dot matrix printer CHESTT had been fitted with.

Non-dairy Eggless Brownies
16 Brownies
[ from www.dianasdesserts.com - I wanted the brownies from New Farm, but my copy is in storage. This recipe is similar. Love the wallpaper paste egg replacer!]

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup non-dairy margarine
2/3 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C. Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with non-dairy margarine, or you may also use vegetable oil to grease the pan or spray pan with vegetable cooking spray.

2. Combine 1/3 cup of the flour with water in a medium saucepan. Cook on medium heat untill thick, stirring constantly. Set mixture aside to cool completely.

3. Melt margarine and stir in the cocoa powder.

4. Sift together the remaining 2 cups flour with the baking powder.

5. Beat sugar, salt, and vanilla into the cooled flour mixture, then add the melted butter/cocoa mixture.

6. Add the above mixture to the sifted flour/baking powder mixture. Add chopped nuts, if desired.

7. Spoon batter into prepared baking pan and bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Let brownies cool in pan. Cut into squares when cooled completely. If desired, dust with confectioners' sugar. 

"Coming right up, Tommy!" Peabody fed the printout into a slot, and after several minutes of knob twirling and switch toggling  held a perfect pan of brownies.

He presented them to Tommy with a flourish. "Here you are then.  And off you go!"

"Gee, thanks man. You know you're pretty cool for a dude who lives in a toilet."

"Yes, yes. Now run along! Farewell!" Peabody pushed Tommy through the front door. "Now, Sherman, we must take our leave as well. The last thing we need are a bunch of 'Tommys' looking to meet the people in the toilet!"

"But where are we going to go?"

"I still haven't managed to eat breakfast. When I think breakfast, I think ..." Gratuitous dramatic pause. "MICHIGAN!"

... TO BE CONTINUED