Lotso Matzo

Beyond the concept of not eating animals, and trying to avoid any products that come from them, I really don't have any restrictions on my diet at all. Honestly, the more I have gotten involved in the vegan and vegetarian lifestyle, the more adventurous I've become with food.

This is probably why, even though I am not Jewish, and I don't have a lot of experience with traditional Jewish foods, I really ended up liking Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Matzoh Brie (or "brei") recipe from her Vegan Brunch cookbook. You'd kind of be surprised how addictive this dish is, despite how few ingredients it has, and how simple it seems to be. It didn't even fully hit me how good it is though until the next day after I made it, when I really couldn't wait to get home to my leftovers...

The dish is really a veganized version of a recipe typically made with eggs, and, in some cases, fat. In both the vegan and traditional versions, the matzo crackers are softened in some kind of liquid (water or egg), and fried. In the vegan version, blended tofu stands in for the egg.

I truly hope the insanely inventive Ms. Moskowitz does not mind me re-printing my slightly altered version of her recipe here, but seriously, go check out her Vegan Brunch book. I haven't tried every recipe in there, but I've really enjoyed the ones I have, and Isa is some kind of vegan goddess. There I said it.

Matzo(h) Brie

• 6 matzo(h)s - The book recommends whole wheat, but I kind of like the plain old (I'm sure less healthy) white flour version for flavor; The picture above is the whole wheat version though
• a few tablespoons of oil for frying (I like Canola myself)
• 1 chopped onion (medium to large-sized is preferable)
• 8 oz firm tofu (in the aseptic, virtually water-free packaging; It's just easier)
• 3/4 to 1 tsp salt - freshly ground sea salt is pretty much heaven in this case
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste; I cannot stress how much of the tasty-ness of this recipe comes from the freshly ground black pepper. You may actually be surprised by how much black pepper you'll want to put on this once you try it. Really.

First, break up your matzo(h)s into 1-2" pieces and put them in a somewhat deepish bowl. Cover with warmish water (you like my technical terminology?) and let sit for 3-5 mins or thereabouts. Don't let them disintegrate, just soften. You can lift one out with a fork every so often to check their progress. They actually kind of look like they have the consistency of a fried egg when they're ready. When they seem properly softened, drain out the water using a colander.

While the matzohs are soaking, blend your tofu until smooth. I used my tiny adorable food processor for this and it worked out beautifully. The tofu should have the consistency and texture almost of a thick sour cream at this point.

Spread a small layer of oil in the bottom of a large frying pan (believe me, go big on the frying pan, you will thank me later). Fry your chopped onions over medium to high heat. You are aiming to caramelize the onions a bit. If your onions aren't getting a little brown around the edges, you may want to turn the heat up for a little while. Keep an eye on them though, you don't want to burn them.

Now add your drained matzohs. Plop the blended tofu on top of the matzohs, and try to spread it around, almost mixing it in with the matzohs. Use a folding/flipping motion, because you don't want to break the matzohs up into really small chunks. They shouldn't look like crumbs. Aim to have a thin layer of tofu surrounding each piece of matzoh, and the onions evenly disbursed in the mixture. Cook until the tofu has dried out a bit, sort of the moisture content you'd see in the scrambled eggs at a buffet.

Now comes the fun part. Plate up some of the delicious matzoh brie, and freshly grind some sea salt and pepper over the top. Again, I insist that if the mixture seems a little bland at first, grind some more fresh black pepper over it. Then send me a postcard from flavor country.

Chag Sameach ("joyous festival"/Happy Passover) everyone, and may all of you celebrating the holiday this week have delicious food and joyous company.

L'chaim!

Beets me...

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend and I celebrated our anniversary by taking our own little eating tour of the Boston area. You know, he had me at "Honey, let's go eat for 8 hours straight..." I just knew he was the one for me :-)

One of the more memorable foods we tried that day was the beet potato latke at the Red Lentil in Watertown. These latkes were so delicious that, weeks later, I've been totally craving them. I mean, what's not to like? Fried+root vegetable=guaranteed awesome.

A lot of latke recipes call for the use of eggs as a binding agent, but I've been trying to go vegan for a while now, and I thought that beet latkes would be just fine without eggs. And I was right! This is where that big box of Ener-G egg replacer that's been chilling in the pantry forever came in seriously handy.

I got my recipe from here, but I changed it up a little to give it just a little more Indian flair. Kind of like a flat pakora. I absolutely LOVE Indian food. Pretty much, if you ask me where I want to go out to eat, I will most likely give you the name of a local Indian restaurant. And if you smell curry, it might be because I am standing next to you....

But without further ado, let's beet it!

Beet (and carrot) rockin' latkes

6 cups coarsely shredded beets/carrots ( I had 2 Godzilla-sized beets, which gave me about 5 cups shredded, and then I threw in 1 cup shredded carrots; your ratio may be different, but just make sure most of your 6 cups vegetables are beets)

6 scallions/green onions, chopped; green and white parts (less is fine if you're not an onion fan; but, as my boyfriend knows, I do like onions :-) )

8 Tbsp Gram/chickpea/besan flour You can find this in Indian food stores, or often on the international foods aisle of your supermarket; If you don't have it, all purpose flour will be just fine

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp ground pepper

Ener-G egg replacer equivalent to 3 eggs

Canola oil, or other frying oil of choice (I wouldn't personally choose olive oil, as it has a low smoke point)

Some kind of chutney or spicy/sweet sauce for serving (the traditional latke condiments of applesauce or (vegan) sour cream might be very nice too

1) Put together your egg replacer mixture. It will mix better if you stir it and let it sit for a little while. Also, using warm water will help the mixture to go into solution more easily than using the cold stuff. The regular ratio per "egg" is 1 1/2 tsp powder to 2 Tbsp water, but I knew my beet mixture would be a bit liquidy, so I left out a little water; For the equivalent of 3 eggs, I used 4.5 tsp powder and 5 Tbsp water; Stir as well as you can (there may be some clumps, it's the nature of the beast), and then leave to sit for at least a few minutes

2) Coarsely shred your beets/carrots, either in a food processor with shredder attachment (definitely quickest) or with a hand grater. I mostly hand-shredded mine, but both methods work fine. Keep in mind though, don't wear your best shirt either way. Beets stain! Next, soak up a good part of the juice from the shredded veggies with paper towels, squeezing the mixture a bit. The veggies don't have to be bone dry. Mine weren't. I definitely don't have the patience for that BS when I'm hungry...Just use your best judgement, but soak through a few paper towels at least. You don't want your latkes to fall apart in the pan.

3) In a second bowl, stir/whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, pepper and other spices, then add this to the beets. Add your chopped scallions, and then the egg replacer. Stir carefully to fully combine. The flour is sneaky, so make sure it's all mixed in!

3) Line a baking sheet or some plates with a few layers of paper towel, and then heat a thin layer of oil in a frypan over medium heat. Drop the beet mixture by 1/4 cupfuls into the heated oil. Press them about as flat as a thick-ish pancake with the back of a spoon, and try to make sure they are an even thickness all around. Fry for 4-5 mins, and then flip over and cook 4-5 mins more. Try REALLY hard to resist the urge to flip them early. I know you want to peek underneath, I did too, but give them 4-5 mins. You may want to turn your heat down to the low side of medium now that the oil is hot.

4) Once your latkes are cooked, drain them on the paper towel. If you'd like to reheat them at a a later time, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes.

5) There was a celery/cilantro relish recipe at the above link, but I really didn't have fresh cilantro, so I kind of tried to make a celery "slaw" with some vegan mayo. I wasn't a huge fan of it actually (as pretty as it looks), so I mostly served the latkes with tamarind chutney, which I always have in my fridge at any given time. You can usually get tamarind, onion, coriander (cilantro) or mango chutney on the international aisle of your grocery store, and all of these would be great on the side of the beet latkes. I had some guacamole in the fridge too, and it wasn't too bad either. The Red Lentil served their latkes with cilantro vinaigrette and apricot marmalade. Some kind of sweetened mustard could be awesome too.

Being a serious Indian-foodie, I made a coconut milk yogurt and champagne-mango lassi to drink alongside my latkes. Champagne mangos are basically like the best mangos I've ever had in my life. They are also called Ataulfo mangos, and I got mine at Whole Foods. Suffice to say, yeah, they're awesome. I could eat one for dessert, and I do not say that at all lightly.

But back to the point...

Lassis are really great, cooling, yogurt-based drinks that are wonderful to have with spicy Indian foods. Using coconut milk yogurt instead of the dairy version is a really great way to veganize a lassi without feeling like you've lost anything. Blend a cup of ice, then add a couple of chopped mangos and 1/2-1 cup of plain coconut milk yogurt to taste. Add a little more ice if you like a little more liquidy-ness. As you can tell, I actually liked my lassi so much that I drank half of it before I remembered to take the picture. Vote of confidence right there...

Anyway, enjoy guys.

And Happy spring!