Happy Double V Day and Welcome to Vegan Week!

Hello Dishers and welcome to the new page. I'm trying this one out. If it works for me, I'll transfer my domain over and repost all of my pages from the other site. Until then, all of the dishers from the SOC and before will be up there at www.dishwithme.com. 

Tony and I celebrated our 2nd Double V Day yesterday. That's Valentine and Vegan. This post was supposed to go out then but we all know why that didn't happen. We had a lot of fun trying it out last year and decided to make it an annual thing. Last night I made a Butternut Bisque that I adapted from a recipe I found on a vegan app that my good friend, Gina, introduced me to. She is not a vegan but a is a huge support of my dishes and always helpful with recipe referrals. The app is called YumYum with a yellow icon with two Y's and a smiley face. Check it out, it's AWESOME! At the bottom of every recipe is a link to the actual site, www.veganyumyum.com. The actual recipe is called Delicata Squash Bisque and of course they used delicata squash but I went to several stores and could not find any so I settled on butternut. It was fantastic! Butternut is so delicious that, honestly, I could have eaten them right out of the oven. The best part about this dish is that, to my surprise, it was so easy to make. I've never made a soup that I had to blend before because I always thought it was such a hassle. I used the blender on my Magic Bullet and it was ridiculously painless. Even the cream was a breeze to make. I loved swirling it in my soup, it made me feel like a painter, haha!

The second dish, Pad Thai, came out amazing, too! I've made Pad Thai many times before but I've always used the pre-made sauce or the tamarind powder. I wanted to do it with an authentic sauce. We all know that the key ingredient in Pad Thai is the tamarind so I was shocked when I read the ingredients on the pre-made sauce and discovered that there was no tamarind in it. Say what??? So I made my own sauce. I was so confused at first, going to several different stores looking for tamarind paste. I couldn't find anything that said "Tamarind Paste" on it. I'm still pretty confused by it but I decided to use the block of compressed tamarind that has been sitting in my fridge for probably a year (maybe that IS the paste). That thing NEVER goes bad. When I made the sauce and saw how easy it was and so much more authentic tasting then the pre-made one, I wondered why the heck I didn't think of it sooner. I've only been able to find that block of tamarind (it comes wrapped in clear plastic and labeled "Tamarind") in Thai or Cambodian supermarkets so if you can't find it, do not fear. You can use the powder or the pre-made sauce and it will still taste great.

Okay, I need to get to the dishes because I just literally dozed off at my desk (head back, mouth wide open, I'm sure it wasn't pretty).


Butternut Bisque (I doubled the recipe and it made a lot)

2 butternut squash, about 6 lbs total
32 oz container vegetable broth
32 oz container mushroom broth
Vegetable oil for roasting
About 6 sprigs of thyme
Fresh cracked pepper to taste
Salt to taste

For the cream:
2 cups raw, unsalted cashews
2 cups vegetable broth, divided

1 Preheat oven to 400º F.
2 Chop off ends of squash, peel, split in half and scoop/scrape out the seeds. Wash, pat dry, place on a baking sheet and brush with oil. Bake for 30 minutes, flip and bake for another 30 minutes or until squash are fork-tender.

3 Meanwhile, place the cashews and 1 cup of vegetable broth in a blender and pulse to incorporate. Turn blender all the way while slowly drizzling in the other cup of vegetable broth. Once all the broth has been added, let the blender run for another 1-2 minutes until the sauce is very creamy. Set aside.

4 Remove squash from oven and cut into big chunks and place in pot. Add thyme, vegetable broth, mushroom broth, black pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.

5 Transfer soup to the blender, working in batches if needed, and blend until smooth. Return to pot.

6 Add about a cup of the cashew cream, more or less to taste, to the soup and stir. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

7 Serve in bowls with a drizzle of the cashew cream on top.

Vegan Pad Thai

Ingredients 

16 oz medium rice noodles

2 cups bean sprouts (more for garnishing)

1/2 cup crushed roasted unsalted peanuts, more or less to taste (more for garnishing)

10 oz soft tofu, cut into small cubes

9 oz fried tofu, cut into strips

1/4 cups sliced shallots

2 tb minced garlic

1 lime

1/4 cup vegetable oil, divided, more as needed

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

2 scallions, chopped

1/2 ts salt

1 small banana blossom, shredded (optional but sooo good! See note at bottom for shredding tips.)

For the tamarind sauce:

1/4 cup packed tamarind (from the compressed package in clear plastic)

1/4 cup hot water (from the tap is fine)

1 tb sugar

4 tbsp soy sauce

1 ts Thai chili powder (less if you don't like it too spicy) 

1 Soak the noodles in hot water from the tap for about 20-30 minutes, until tender but not soft. Drain.

2 Prepare the sauce by soaking the tamarind in the hot water for about 15 minutes. Then strain, or pick the seeds and skin out with your hands. If you're straining, remember to scrape the back of the strainer since the tamarind is so thick most will stick to the back rather than fall to the bowl. After straining, you should have about 2 1/2 tb. Add the sugar, soy sauce and chili powder and mix well. 

3 Make sure you have all of your ingredients ready and by the stove before you begin. Heat the wok till piping hot. Add some of the oil, all of the garlic, shallots and fried tofu strips and saute till fragrant.

4 Add noodles and bean sprouts and stir-fry, incorporating into the other ingredients. You may need to add more oil if the noodles start to stick together.

5 Add tamarind sauce and stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes.

6 Move everything to one side of the wok, add a bit more oil in the empty space and add the soft tofu. Saute to break apart and then incorporate with the rest of the ingredients. Cook for another several minutes or until noodles are done to your preference. If noodles remain hard, add about 2 tb of water, cover and let cook for a couple of minutes.

7 Add salt, stir, taste and adjust seasoning with more soy sauce if needed. 

8 Turn off heat, add scallions, cilantro and peanuts. Stir to combine. 

9 Serve with shredded banana blossoms, extra fresh bean sprouts, lime wedges and garnished with extra peanuts and cilantro. Diners will want to sqeeze lime juice onto noodles, add banana blossoms and mix before eating.

Note: To shred banana blossoms, cut the end and peel off the petals. Discard the baby bananas (I think that's what they are). Layer petals, shred and place in cold water seasoned with a bit of vinegar. This will help it keep it's color and remove the sticky substance.