Tamales

Tamales!

The original recipe is courtesy of my mom. "Hi mom!" I veganized it this year.

Filling:

Portbella mushrooms (a lot - If you can buy them in bulk at your grocer, this would be ideal - try to get 10% off for buying bulk!)

Garlic

Onion

3 Bay Leaves

Salt

Oregano

Water or Broth (I used vegetable stock)

A can or two of olives

and/or

Frozen Corn

a very large can or two of green chilis

a can or two of olives

To make mushroom filling: Use food processor to shred mushrooms. Dehydrate at around 150* until dry. Throw in crock-pot. Add about a head of garlic (to taste), an onion, 3 bay leaves, 1tsp oregano. Fill with enough water or broth to cover. heat on low overnight.

The Next Morning:

Take your package of cornhusks and separate them. put in large bucket, bowl, or dish pan. Cover with water. Place something heavy (like a glass lid) on top to keep submerged. Let soak.

Drain mushrooms. SAVE broth. Separate and throw out the garlic, onion, bay leaves.

Make mole:

¾ Cup flour        

½ tsp. salt

½ Cup shortening or vegetable oil    

 ¼ tsp cloves

7 Cups liquid (mushroom broth and water if necessary)  

¼ tsp. cumin

½ to 1 Cup chili powder (more if you like it really spicy)

 ½ tsp ground garlic

Brown the flour in fat.  Add broth a little at a time, stirring and cooking over low heat until sauce becomes thick.  Add chili powder and other spices.  Mix well. 

Place cornhusks in colander to drain

Make masa. I buy a wet package of unprepared - I found it in the meat section of the grocery store.

5 pounds Masa (unprepared)     

1 Cup vegetable oil

1 TBL baking powder      

1 ½ cups of broth

1 TBL salt

Mix masa.  Add ingredients in very small amounts to masa.  Mix well after each addition until masa is creamy texture.  Too much liquid will ruin the consistency, so add with caution.  Add a couple large spoonfuls of your mole sauce for color.

Open and drain cans of olives and green chilis (if you are making chili/corn filled tamales)

Chop green chilis, rinse well

Fill bottom of tamale pot with water. Place a ball of foil on bottom of pot "shelf"

Okay, the fun part. Assembly.

You will find your cornhusks have a very smooth side and a slightly rough or bumpy side. You always put your filling on the smooth side.

Take a cornhusk, and wipe any excess moisture off with a towel. Spread some masa on the smooth side of the husk edge to edge. It should look something like this:

Now, fill it up!:

These tamales have (left) mushrooms, one olive, mole and (right) (still frozen) corn, chopped green chilis, one olive, mole.

Once you put your filling in it, wrap it and fold the narrow part of the corn husk up. It should look like this:

In tamale pot place tamale, open side up, in center against ball of foil. As you make your tamales, put them in the pot around the center ball. The first few you make will probably not stand up, don't worry about it, just make sure they're standing when you steam them.

Fill the pot with tamales. Steam for approx. 1 ½  to 2 hours.  Check water level after about an hour and a quarter.  Add more if needed.

You will know tamales are finished when the masa no longer has white spots AND no longer sticks to the corn husk.

Enjoy! 

Another photoless recipe: overnight oatmeal

I found a recipe for crockpot oatmeal a few weeks ago (maybe it has already been a month). Anyway, the only crockpots (yes, multiple) were huge. I went to Target and got a little, personal sized crockpot for about $10. It was a GREAT deal, and I use it for this oatmeal. This has been modified from the original.

1/2C Steel Cut Oats
2C water
a tablespoon or two Agave - you can always add more in the morning if you want sweeter oatmeal
sliced apples, quince, a handful of raisins, and/or dried cherries. I really like apples and quince together.
cinnamon to taste
a splash of vanilla

that's it. Mix in crockpot, cook on low overnight.
In the morning, if you'd like, mix in some walnuts (yum!)

The Green Smoothie List

I really can't take credit for most of these, as I found them on www.goneraw.com

A few are mine, but not many. Enjoy, I'm sorry I don't have photos! My camera needs batteries to upload. ^_^

I usually use frozen bananas in my smoothies. and I like mine kind of thick, so I don't usually add much water.

*The Cramp Cure Smoothie*
12 ounce water
7 ice cubes
2 carrots
1 frozen banana
4 medjool dates
1 tablespoon agave or honey
pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, clove)
Some ground flax seed
Mix Well

*Lemony Cherry smoothie*
1 lemon
1 mango
1 banana
a few cups of spinach
a few cups of fresh/frozen pitted cherries
water to blend

*Green Lizard Smoothie*
a few oranges (I usually do at least two)
a banana
a few cups of spinach
blend the oranges first then add banana and spinach - that way you know how much water you may need to add

*Peachy Smoothie*
1-2 peaches
1 mango
1 banana
a few cups spinach

*Joanna's Green Monster Smoothie*
6 cups of spinach
1 mango
1 bag of grapes- about 1 lb or so
Water- enough to get the food mixed- 1/2 cup

Brownies

While in Target the other day, I had a brownie craving. The only vegan brownies they had in their baking aisle were the Ghiradelli Double Chocolate (the BEST brownies, in my opinion).

Last night, I dumped the mix into a large bowl and, instead of oil, water, and eggs, I added 1 heaping cup of pureed pumpkin. I then put this heavenly mix into a dark 9x11 pan and baked at 325 degrees F for 35 minutes (instead of the 45 the box called for)

They didn't rise quite as much as a normal brownie, but they certainly weren't flat either. They were very moist, and I couldn't really even tell there was pumpkin in them.


Yum!

Raw Brownie Balls of Delicious

1.5C raw walnut halves
12 Dates
1/3C raw cocoa powder
1/4 vanilla bean (or less than a tsp vanilla extract)

optional: ginger, shredded coconut

in food processor, process walnuts until you get very tiny chunks. add dates. mix until mixture sticks together. add cocoa powder, optional ginger and vanilla - mix well.

If you like, put mixture in separate bowl and stir in walnut chunks

I rolled the brownies into 11 balls, then rolled them in dried, shredded coconut. I recommend keeping these in the fridge.

Quick olive update

Monday was spent putting olives into jars (many, many jars), and filling those jars with brine.

Our beautiful brine consists of organic olive oil, red and white wine vinegar (and for the last few jars, apple cider vinegar), organic orange peels, organic peppercorns, fresh organic rosemary, fresh organic oregano, garlic and dried chilies.

I filled fourteen pint jars and three quart jars with sea salt, garlic, chilies, peppercorns, oregano, and our scrumptious-smelling brine.

We now have to wait (again) for at least ten days before we can taste them. Let me tell you, I can not wait.

A few things before I sign off for the evening...

Tonight is the last night to sign up for jerseymaid's polaroid ring giveaway - these are really cool. Check them out. forthwith.


I am also working on new colors for my washcloths - beautiful forest green, sunny yellow, and tan. I will post photos tomorrow.

And finally, I think I'm in love. With Vegandad - Please check out his blog. and then make everything he has recipes for. Tonight, instead of the squash salad, I had kale and sweet potato quesadillas. they were amazing.

Squash salad

Food. My absolute favourite topic.

Squash salad!
This is one of my favourite salads and I think its going to be dinner tonight. It consists of garden fresh tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, red bell pepper, lemon juice, garlic, and a little olive oil. yum!