Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Corn again

It’s harvest time in my dad’s garden, which means it’s time for such home-grown treats as tomatoes, green beans, okra, cucumbers, eggplants and corn. My mom told me the easiest way ever to cook corn on the cob:

Take your unshucked ear of corn, and cut off both ends with a sharp knife—not too much, just the ends of the silks and the stalk. Try not to cut off any of the kernels.
Put it in the microwave on high for 2 minutes per ear. (So, your cooking time is 2 minutes for one ear, 4 minutes for two ears, and so on. Microwaves vary, so cook it a bit longer if you need to.)
Allow the corn to cool until you can handle it. Then the shucks and silk will come off easily.
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But if you need an even easier way to fix your corn, know that you really don’t have to cook fresh summer corn at all. It’s plenty sweet and tasty raw; just shuck it and cut the kernels off the cob and enjoy as is or as part of a summery salad.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Random bites

*This may be old-hat to many vegetarians, but I just recently discovered the delights of baking for use in recipes. I’ve always loved deep-fried tofu, but let’s face it—it may be tofu, but it’s sure not healthy when it’s fixed that way! So I always just pan-fried my tofu for stir-fries. But if you bake your tofu, cut into strips or cubes, in a 400-degree oven for 20 minutes or so (turn it once), it becomes much more like deep-fried, with a crispy outside and chewy inside.

*Here’s a nice Los Angeles Times story about an actress (and Duke graduate) working to persuade major-league baseball stadiums to add veggie dogs to their stadium menus. It’s a good illustation of the effect that one person can have.

*KFC has started serving meatless “chicken” sandwiches in its Canadian restaurants as a result of a boycott by PETA. It caused a bit of a kerfuffle when PETA representatives dressed only in lettuce-leaf bikinis handed out samples. You can read PETA’s press release here. Although it’s a nice gesture, I don’t think I’d be chowing down on one of the sandwiches even if they were available in U.S. KFCs—apparently, the “chicken” is cooked in the same fat as the regular chicken.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Perfect Man

He’s Captain Kirk, and so much more. As the Journal‘s Tim Clodfelter recently noted, actor William Shatner has mastered so many entertainment genres: science fiction, Esperanto film, courtroom drama, cop shows, Westerns, sitcoms, anthology dramas and so on.

OK, maybe Esperanto film doesn’t really rise to the level of an entertainment genre, and maybe Tim didn’t really mention it. But Incubus exists, unwatchable as it may be. And the Shatner, always, is watchable, mockable, wonderful….

And, he’s a vegetarian.

How did I not know this before? It took the new Encyclopedia Shatnerica to bring it to my attention. The Encyclopedia reports, “Like his friend and fellow Star Trek case member Leonard Nimoy, Shatner is a longtime vegetarian. While he’s rarely spoken about it in interviews, his commitment sems to have both an ethical and a medical basis.”

Shatner also is the host of a 1982 documentary, The Vegetarian World, which is widely available online.

As he says in the video, “Vegetarianism isn’t just a diet. It’s an entire approach to life.”

A vegetarian Captain Kirk—Can you think of a better definition of the perfect man?

Friday, July 11, 2008

Winston’s Eatery

There have been some big changes at Winston’s Eatery. Julie and I and our friend Tim stopped in there for lunch last week and were dismayed to see that their “order at the counter” setup had been changed to a “waited on at your table” setup.

There had also been some significant changes on the menu—unfortunately, they had removed their vegetarian grilled-veggie and portobella sandwiches, and instead of a choice of prepared salads for a side, the choice was between potato chips and a side salad. I really bemon the loss of the sides—choices generally included sweet-potato-black-bean salad and pesto potato salad, unique dishes that you couldn’t get at every lunch spot in town. Chips or a side salad are fairly ubiquitous, so they’re ho-hum choices.

We were told that the new menu hadn’t been completely finalized, and the veggie sandwiches might make a reappearance. (We agitated for that.) When we were there, they offered pimento cheese and egg salad sandwiches—fine for vegetarians, but not vegans. We were told the chef was very open to special requests, but it’s better in my opinion for there to be more vegetarian selections on the actual menu, since people are sometimes reluctant to ask for something off-menu.

Although we weren’t terribly happy about the changes, it seems to have helped their business—there were more people there than we’d ever seen.

Their Web site has not yet been updated to reflect the changes.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Ol’ Blue Eyes

Back when ate seafood, I always cringed a bit if scallops were on the menu. The thought of their blue eyes haunted me. So I hadn’t had any scallops for quite a while, until this weekend, when the Big M and I tried Cedar Lake food’s Vegi-Scallops.

This is a product I’ll buy again soon. It’s been so long since I had the “real thing” that I can’t say how closely they resemble actual scallops. But they made an incredibly tasty, satisfying meal of Tarragon Lover’s Scallops. The link will take you to the original recipe from the All Recipes Web site. But as usual, we substituted and modified the recipe to make it work with ingredients on hand, and to fit our tastes. So, here is what you need to make two servings:

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons Earth Balance margarine
1/2 can Vegi-Scallops, drained
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 TBSP lemon juice
1TBSP dried tarragon
1/2 tsp. arrowroot powder (or substitute cornstarch or kudzu powder)

DIRECTIONS
Melt margarine in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add Vegi-Scallops to skillet, season with salt and pepper, and saute a few minutes, until they begin to brown slightly.
Add wine, lemon juice and tarragon to the pan with the scallops. Simmer briskly until the liquid begins to reduce.
Dissolve the arrowroot in a little of the cooking liquid, and add to the pan. Simmer until the sauce thickens to the consistency you like.
Serve over quinoa, and start laying plans for the next time you make it. For example, next time I’ll plate up a bed of sauteed spinach, top that with a mound of quinoa, and then serve the scallops and sauce over it all.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Grilling Out

July 4—a prime day for cookouts—is headed our way…. Now, I’m not all that enthusiastic about the “out” part of a cookout—usually I volunteer to stay inside and make sure that no problems develop with the central air (“No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater than central air,” was been my motto even before I heard the line). But contrary to popular belief, the “cook” part of a cookout is no problem for vegetarians.

First issue is equipment. If you’re at a cookout where meat will also be prepared, it’s best to have a separate grill for the vegetarian fare. If that’s not possible, try to cook the vegetarian items first, since vegetarians frown on having their food wallowing in meat leavings. A grill rack can help keep small or delicate items from falling into the flames. If you don’t have a grill rack, a sheet of kitchen foil can be used in a pinch.

Now, as for what to put on those veg-friendly surface…. At the simplest, you can pick up a package of veggie burgers or veggie dogs. Just read the package to make sure that the brand you choose says it is suitable for grilling. My favorite brands are Boca’s vegan burgers and Yves veggie dogs. Coating these lightly with oil seems to keep them from drying out. Grill them just long enough to heat through and impart that smoky flavor; overcooking leads to dry, tough burgers or dogs.

Many vegetables do beautifully on the grill. Grilled corn on the cob is a classic (try it with a thin layer of umeboshi plum paste instead of butter and salt). The ambitious can find endless recipes for kebabs of skewered vegetables with tofu, tempeh, etc. In fact, people are getting kind of tired of hearing me vow to protect the air…. Maybe this year I’ll volunteer to surf the Web for recipes at such sources as Sizzling Summer Grillinng Recipes.