The Daring Joshua Ploeg and Fire & Ice

Me and Fire And Ice didn't travel together much today, but we did hunker down and cook some stuff up, as promised.  I'm actually so full on Barbecue Soy Curl Stubbies that I had to install a special device that helps my arms reach over my belly to activate the keyboard.  It's true.  They came out good.

Fire and Ice by Joshua Ploeg the Traveling Chef.

If you've never heard of Joshua Ploeg before, time's a wastin', friends.  He travels all around, so with a little determination to figure out where he's cooking,  you can soon be rewarded with seriously interesting, innovative, weird but delicious chow.  If you don't see him in your neck of the woods, throw him an email and ask him to cook at your house.  It costs you nothing to host (except a lot of dirty dishes and a couch/bed), is super fun and Joshua will even let you pick out the menu.  He has a million zillion options to choose from.  He's also great at making stuff gluten-free--I've already been to two of his completely charming xgfx dinners. 

Joshua does not eff around with a knife.  Keep your distance and mind the orange cones.

Besides Fire and Ice, Joshua has a bunch of other publications including zines and spiral bound cookbooks.   His print recipes usually reflect the sort of stuff he cooks, which is pretty eclectic and totally off the charts, and usually requires at least one trip to a specialty shop to gather up the necessary ingredients. 

Today I chose two of Joshua's simpler dishes:  Deep-Fried Barbecue Stubbies and Blackeyed Pea Salsa.

Pictured top left is Oven-Fried Barbecue Soy Curl Stubbies, p. 45 and Blackeyed Pea Salsa, p. 47.

The stubbie recipe suggests using tofu or tempeh, but also says you can use "some fake meat concoction," so I went with Soy Curls. It seems like Soy Curls are having some sort of vegan Renaissance, so I thought it'd be a good idea to experiment with how well they hold up to oven-frying.   And yea, if Joshua were cooking these for me, they'd be deep fried in all their fatty glory, but around the house without company to pander too, this girl is oven-frying.

The Soy Curls are pretty addictive and remind me of the way they're prepared at a local restaurant, Blossoming Lotus.

Not one to stick to a recipe myself, I stayed on course with the Stubbie recipe as best I could.  I marinated hydrated Soy Curls in Joshua's easy no-cook barbecue sauce, squeezed them off and then breaded them all at once in a giant bowl filled with cornmeal, superfine brown rice flour, baking powder, salt and spices.  I baked them at 425F on top of a really well oiled parchment lined cookie sheet, and just flipped them a bunch until they were browned all over.

Joshua suggests drenching the Stubbies in hot sauce and dipping them in a favorite sauce, and I'm sure they'd be amazing like that (in a wingz sorta way).  But I didn't see the point in exerting more energy into them, as I was more than delighted to eat them like popcorn all afternoon.  They're wicked yummy.

The Blackeyed Pea Salsa came out great too, even though I changed it up a good bit.  It's really more like a salad than anything else, and made me wish I had some tortillas, sweet potatoes and fresh basil to enjoy it with.  I've never eaten green tomatoes raw before, and I rather liked them.  The peas are basically tossed with an olive oil and acid dressing (I used fresh lime) and then combined with a bunch of raw vegetables:  green tomatoes, corn, peppers, onion, chile, celery, smoked salt and other spices.  Tangy and refreshing.

If you're unconvinced, here's a video that pretty accurately portrays what Joshua is all about.  This brunch was a sorta "secret cafe" type deal, but usually his dinners are multiple course, by invitation only, events with a "suggested" donation.

• Title: Fire and Ice:  Warm, Cool & Spicy Vegan Recipes from Hot & Soul.
• Author:  Traveling Chef, Joshua Ploeg
• Availability:  Available here from Microcosm.  Check for his other publications, too!
• Size:   4.25″ x 5.5″ (quarter sized) / Stapled and photocopied.  It's also pocket-sized and hot pink.
  
• Length: 81 pages
• Collection:  80 recipes with a slew of menu plans.
• 5 Recipes to Intrigue:  I want to try all of the cocktails, but especially the Butt Pirate, Blazing Tofu with Curried Pineapple "Cream Cheese," Squash Latkes with Cherry Pecan Salsa and  Pineapple Gazpacho with Dates.  Basically, everything in this zine sounds amazing, but is not for the faint of heart in the budget, taste, complexity or wallet department.  In other words, Joshua please come to my house and cook for me.
• XGFXness: Lots of these recipes are gluten-free (especially if you are OK with soy meat) or can be xgfxercised with a little bit of work.
• Zine Wiki: Not listed

Me, Fire and Ice and a Sorta Giveaway.

Joshua Ploeg's Fire and Ice and I had a super busy day bonding together.  First we dashed to the Post Office to mail out a bunch of PTLEFs, then we ran into the Alberta Food Co-op to gather everything we needed for Blackeyed Pea Salsa and Deep-Fried Barbeque Stubbies.  We also grabbed a kombucha.

Then we power-walked Vee over to Native Bowl to say hi to Julie, and to pick up some purportedly amazing xgfx pizza dough she was sharing.  I really hope this dough breaks the bank.

Next we met up with Dazee, a few of his co-workers and lots of other folks and Occupied Portland for awhile.

I cannot speak for Mr. Ploeg, or his cookzine, but I personally think corporations should not have the same rights as people.  Also the zine matches this cool sign = double rad.

We also dined together. I think it's safe to assume Fire and Ice also loves ethiopian food.  This is from Emame downtown and was especially good this afternoon.  Their xgfx injera can't be beat.  Clockwise from top left:  timatim selata (tomato salad), cabbage gomen, xgfx teff injera, ye'abesha gomen (collard greens), ye'misir w'et (lentils in a spicy red gravy) and potato "sauce," which is really a mild potato allecha.  So. Freakin'. Good.

Sadly, the day zoomed away from us before we were able to do any cookin' or photo takin'.  Check back tomorrow for a full report on the Stubbies, the zine, and for a little extra something-something about Mr. J. Ploeg.

In the meantime, I've been thinking.  I want to include Papa Tofu Loves Ethiopian Food in The Vegan Cookzine Museum, but I really don't want to write the entry myself.  That's no good.  However, terrific fun would be to send this zine for free to one of you, to photograph and review in the same format I've been following all week.
If you're up for this task (you'll need to be able to get back to me before the end of the month, so I can include it in MoFo 2011), comment here through Sunday.  I'll mail the zine out on Monday to the winning applicant (please make sure your comment includes a way I can get back to you)!

Thanks for your offers, I'll be sending the zine off to Canada to visit Marika from Madcapcupcake!

P.S. I don't have any copies left of the first Papa Tofu, but if any of you have it and want to document that one up for the project, holla!

xo
kittee

Planet Vega: Big Belly Vegan Breakfast & Politics

Today's post is brought to you by Planet Vega, Vegan Cuts and the colors brown and yellow.  If you haven't checked out Vegan Cuts yet, you're missing the awesome-boat, friends.  They're an all vegan company, where you can get amazing deals on great things like fancy chocolate at super-good, let's go trick or treatin', prices.

Papa T. looks so professional up there!

They're kindly highlighting Papa Tofu Loves Ethiopian Food this week, which is an amazing outlet for me (lots of new folks have been coming to my blog and purchasing the zine all week), so I'm hoping in return, some of my readers who might not know about them, will investigate.  NO PRESSURE!

 *And now back to "Chronicles of the Vegan Cook-Zine Museum" already in progress.*

Have you ever heard of Planet Vega?  This mighty zine boasts hearty breakfast fare and recipes range from the Orange Poppyseed Pancakes, Tofu Scramble and Ginger Coconut Granola angle to more Asian inspired offerings like red bean stuffed Humbows and Juk.   

Politics, cooking and art!  The original print on the back cover hand-pulled by Sherry Biskup

I can't remember when Planet Vega officially joined my collection, but I consider it one of my later acquisitions.  I probably scored it sometime in the 2000s. The Carrot Ginger muffins used to be in my regular muffin-rotation, but for whatever reason, I haven't opened it in ages.  I tried some new recipes today.

Rosemary Potatoes, p. 49.  They were crunchy and developed little air pockets on their sides, the way I like.

First, I made potatoes.  You can't really go wrong with taters, and since I had a bagful from the Far-Mar that were thinking about sprouting, it was sweet-sweet destiny.  This recipe is basic, but a classic-- potato wedges are tossed in grapeseed oil with salt, cayenne and freshly chopped rosemary and baked on a rimmed cookie sheet.  By chance, there's tons of rosemary growing in our 'hood, so I did a little urban farming, while Vee and I roamed this morning. 

Fancy Grits, p. 48.  So-so fanciful!

Next up, I decided to make grits.  I had to, because I love grits, and I had some already in the pantry.  Plus they matched my color theme.  This particular recipe also caught my attention because they contained freshly roasted peppers and corn niblets.  They called to me, and so I did not look away.  I did, however, listen to the potato glow in my belly, and opted instead to pour them into a Pyrex casserole to pan-fry later on in the week.  Full disclosure, I also added in some grated Follow Your heart cheeze.

Carrot Muffins, p. 35.  I ate one with strawberries, and it was super good.

Two down, and I was still raring to go, so I decided to try my luck and practice xgfxercising the ol' carrot and ginger muffin recipe.  My results were tasty like the ol' days, but a little bit chalky.  Anyone from the audience know how to avoid this, since starch additions are necessary to lighten up the heavy flours?  These were made with superfine brown rice flour, sorghum, gluten-free oat, a little teff, ground flax and tapioca. Obviously, they had some other ingredients including grated carrot and lots of fresh ginger, but you're smart, you knew that. I appreciate that about you.

The Brown Family Portrait.

Besides recipes, the zine is filled with helpful articles and information.  There's the ubiquitous page on egg replacers, but you can also read about such important things as identity, Mumia Abul-Jamal, PCBs and the joys of rBGH.

Cute inside action.

• Title: Planet Vega
• Author:  Eva Marie, Jane Mei and Contributors
• Availability:  Not sure if this is current, but here's the contact email.
• Size:   4.25″ x 8.5″ (half sized) / Stapled
• Length: 59 pages
• Collection:  34 recipes plus a ton of prose including an article on scary PCBs and a sticker.
• 5 Recipes to Intrigue:  Ginger Pears, Walnut Olive Spread, Ginger Coconut Granola, Peanut Butter French Toast and Humbows.
• XGFXness: If you can xgxercise, you'll be OK, but many recipes contain gluten.
• Zine Wiki: Not listed

xo kittee

The Dirty South Cookbook #1 by Vanessa.

I was all set to hunker down on The Dirty South #1's collard greens, gravy, fake fried chicken with (s)mashed potatoes, when tragedy struck and I got smacked through the heart by the lazy-rainy bug.  So I pulled myself together and opted for Buttermilk Biscuits 'n' Gravy instead.  Warm bread smothered in creamy, noochie gravy can heal even the sickest of hearts.  Can I get an amen?

As you can see from the lovely illustration above, I have the first two editions of The Dirty South--#1 and #2 (apparently, there's a third one around, but I've never seen it).  Today I'm reporting on issue number one (the red one on the left), but if I have more time later this month, you may see some pink activity around here.  Also, being the plugged in vegan or vegan-friendly reader that you are, you're probably aware that Microcosm turned The Dirty South editions 1-3 into a book awhile back.  It's bound with another publication entitled Hot Damn & Hell Yea.

Anthropomorphic corn niblets can never be wrong, and typewriters make everything better.

I'm so amazing I actually have zine versions of these, PLUS a copy of the book.   Dazee got my originals from the author herself, when we all lived in New Orleans together. I can't remember how he found them or Vanessa, but I remember him bringing them home to me one after the other on random afternoons.  I pictured him as a vegan-zine-wonder-magnet, raking the bayous with his bare hands on the prowl for homemade recipe booklets, but he could have just bumped into her at an anarchist craft fair.  I dunno.

The biscuit on the bottom left was hit by a gravy bomb.  Don't feel bad for it, it never even saw the fork coming.

Most of the recipes in The Dirty South #1 are wheat-tastic, so I changed things up quite a bit to be able to snack on these delights.  And then while I was already making changes, I made some more. I added shredded Follow Your Heart and cayenne pepper.  OK and ground flax, too-- whatever.  You can rat me out to Vanessa on Facebook if you want, but I already told her I was writing this post, so it'll just make you look dumb.  Besides, I bet Vanessa would be OK with my changes.  It was that or lick the zine and report back on flavor compositions.

Cheesy XGFX Buttermilk Biscuits (adapted from Vanessa / The Dirty South #1)

I forgot to count how many this made, but it was around 12

• 1 cup superfine brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 1/2 cup gluten-free oat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground flax meal
• 1/3 cup finely grated Follow Your Heart yellow cheese
• 1 heaping teaspoon nutritional yeast
• 2 teaspoons unbleached granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup grapeseed oil
• 2/3 cup unsweetened soymilk mixed with 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Combine the dry ingredients and cheese.  Add the oil and soymilk and stir well.
3. Drop by large spoonfuls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake until the tops are golden and the centers are cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.
4. Serve with gravy.  Eat, eat, eat.

These are gonna be my new go-to xgfx biscuits.  They came out with a great texture and were really light and flavorful, in fact Dazee just asked me if I'd made a deal with the devil to get these so good (his highest compliment).

• Title: The Dirty South #1
• Author:  Vanessa
• Availability: Only the book form is currently available (ISBN 0-9770557-0-1).  You can get it from Food Fight and Microcosm
• Size:   4.25″ x 8.5″ (half sized) / Tied with yarn and a bow.
• Length: 22 pages plus a little extra page tucked in.
• Collection:  21 recipes plus a helpful warning about hot oil
• 5 Recipes to Intrigue:  Johnny Cakes, Corn Pone, Blackeye Pea Cakes, Sweet Potato Pudding, Chocolate Kahlua Cake
• XGFXness: If you can xgxercise, you'll be OK, but most recipes contain gluten.
• Zine Wiki: Not listed

xo
kittee

Swell and CCC.

A-K's little book of Swell. is a looker an' all, what with its hand printed covers and dainty size, but don't get so charmed with its sweet looks that you glaze over the good stuff and miss the booty resting inside.

Swell. offers plenty of xgfx recipes to choose from, but the Mole-Roasted Cauliflower is what grabbed my cooking interest by the britches today.  I'm always looking for recipes to expand my cauliflower repertoire beyond aloo gobi and olive oil roasts, so when I read that the cauliflower nuggets in this recipe were coated in a cocoa based spice mixture, I knew I'd have to hit it.  Especially since my pantry was cocked and ready for this, and the concoction fit into my MoFo-Time-Schedule perfectly. 

Ladies, that's not burnt, that's CCC.

Read my body language-- COCOA COVERED CAULIFLOWER.

Basically, you coat your perfect farmers' market cauliflower with a paste made from:  chile powder (I used ancho), smoked paprika, cayenne, fresh oregano, sesame seeeds, cloves, coriander, cumin, cocoa, fresh garlic, oil, salt and lime juice.  Then you roast it, and if you follow directions well, you top it with freshly chopped cilantro.

I pretty much ate an entire head of cauliflower this afternoon.  No farting either, I am a seasoned vegan.

• Title:  Swell. 
• Author:  A-K 
• Availability: According to A-K, she has plenty, so email her!
• Size:   4.25″ x 5.5″ (quarter sized) / Stapled with hand printed covers.  It's pocket-sized and cute. 
• Length:  24 pages 
• Collection:  14 recipes plus info on preparing tofu and tempeh. 
• 5 Recipes to Intrigue:  Mole-Roasted Cauliflower* Chipotle Black Bean Tahini Dip* Coconut Red Bean quinoa* Maple-Mustard-Chili Tofu* Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers with Millet and Leeks (Pictures can be seen here). 
• XGFXness:  Everything but the three baked good recipes are xgfx. 
• Zine Wiki: Not listed

xo
kittee

Spoonfight: Vegan Manual to Kitchen Terrorism

Today I present you with Spoonfight:  Vegan Manual to Kitchen Terrorism.  It's one of my favorites from the old days, and it's really funny, I mean if you're OK with terrorism humor in the way of fart torture and forced garlic consumption.  I promise, there's absolutely no waterboarding in this zine, just lots of duct tape and beans.

Gravy is Power.

The weird thing about most of the zines in my collection, is that I don't cook from them much.  I guess it's not that weird, 'cuz I don't cook from cookbooks often either.  I do read them a LOT, however, and I use this cool culinary mental absorbtion technique, which allows the knowledge and core of the zine to flow right into this special area of my brain.  It makes cooking decisions effortless.

I bought Spoonfight in the early 90s, and I think I've only ever cooked from it once before.  Today, I broke it open and made Hot PB Apple Shingles.  Mine weren't hot, but they were super easy, healthy, practical and delicious.  I had a little tub of homemade applesauce in the fridge, so I was pumped to have something to use it for.  I have a way of  neglecting stuff like that until it spoils.

Hot PB Apple Shingles, can apparently, work the nerves.

This recipe took me all of a minute or so to put together, and it satisfied.  Toasted bread (or in my case a tasty rice cake) topped with crunchy peanut butter, homemade applesauce and razor thin micro-planed frozen bananas.

Now I know this is a rather simple meal, but ya know, I have never in my life had peanut butter, applesauce and bananas together, and it was a huge welcomed get-together in my mouth.

The zine artwork looks like it's hand cut and pasted and has lots of clip art.

There are other quick recipes in this collection and a lot of hearty recipes like lentil loaf and seitan stews, which would be easy to xgfxercise with TVP, Soy Curls or sturdy portobellos.

It's also full of tongue-in-cheek humor, but nothing I found offensive, and I'm sorta sensitive to violent themes.

• Title:  Spoonfight:  Vegan Manual to Kitchen Terrorism 
• Chief Saboteur:  S. Chamberlain 
• Availability:  As of 10.2.11 you can order this from Vegan Action. 
• Size:  5 1/2 X 8 1/2 (vertical half-size letter) / Stapled 
• Length:  32 pages 
• Collection:  54 recipes 
• 5 Recipes to Intrigue:  Hot PB Apple Shingles* Black and Blue Eyed Peas* Quick Attack Lima Bean Soup* Sweet Potato Cannonballs* Cashew Factor French Toast 
• XGFXness:  If you sub mushrooms or Soy Curls for the seitan, looks like most of the recipes are easily converted. 
• Zine Wiki: Not listed 
• Links: here.

xo
kittee

VeganMoFo Five and The Vegan Cook-Zine Museum

I am balls to the walls not gonna let MoFo Five spank me in the chops, the way I've let it in years past.  You see, although I love organization, simple lines and Feng Shei, creative discord is sucked into my heart the same way beautiful hummingbirds draw nectar.  Yup, through a long sharp beak.

So while I like to cook, write and create spontaneously, that's not so great for a project like MoFo, especially when the days are getting shorter and natural light makes pictures so much better.  This year, I'm earnestly gonna try to use the month of October to complete a project that's been long overdue for some hankering down.

Introducing The Vegan Cook-Zine Museum

Shhh!  This is a library, whisk lightly.

The reason I blab-blab-blab about vegan cook-zines day in and day out, is because I adore them.  I love their creative nature, freedom, homemade spunk and staples, and so over the years, I've collected them en-mass.  I have lots.  Too many, in fact, and most of them are no longer available.

Sometimes I get emails from polite folks, imploring me to run off copies of this one or that one in particular, and even though  many of the zines are marked "copy-freely," indulging these requests feels too much like a chore.  I'm not your cutesie distro people!  Instead, I think it'll be fun to zip up the ol' rusty librarian outfit and curate The Vegan Cook-Zine Museum.  If all goes well, I shall photograph, testify to and document my entire collection (which far outweighs the 31 day of October) and hopefully cook and eat from them too.

If things go badly, I'll just wing the whole freakin' month.

xo
kittee