Food Network Friday - Emeril's Cowboy "Chicken" Casserole

This week the FNF crew took on Emeril Lagasse's Cowboy Chicken Casserole. I am an Emeril fan from way back (the early years anyway). His penchant for making decadent and flavorful dishes always made my mouth water. At first glance the ingredient list is a bit overwhelming. It is a huge list of ingredients, especially if you make Emeril's Southwestern Seasoning. As is my nature, I had to up the heat profile for this challenge. I am not going to list out the whole recipe here, because it still needs a bit of work. Honestly, I think this has great potential for being radically modified for my book project, so mum's going to be the word until I get it perfected.

Here it is just out of the oven.

I will tell you that for this first run I subbed Terry Hope Romero's steamed white seitan for the chicken. I subbed pasilla chiles for the green pepper, kept the seeds in the jalapenos, and added roasted Hatch chiles with the seeds in (in a much larger proportion) for the tomato mixture. I modified the seasonings so I didn't have to make the full recipe of Emeril's Seasoning. So while the original premise might have been the same as his original recipe, some delicious detours were taken.

A couple of notes on my conversion experience: first, I didn't have enough liquid left over to properly moisten the tortilla chips. They came out with a rather unpleasant funky texture. I had hoped to use 1/2 Daiya Pepper Jack and 1/2 Cheddar, but when I went to sprinkle on the Pepper Jack, it was moldy (EW), so I ended up using all Cheddar Daiya. At first I thought the filling needed more liquid as well, but it was actually really nice. I loved the spiced up version. I may even add more chiles and jalapenos next time! I made a smaller version and used an 8 x 8 square pan. I cut the cooking time to about 38 minutes. This was so rich and filling, I am betting you could serve about 8 people with the smaller version, especially if you serve it with a salad. This would make a great potluck dish.

Here you can see a nice shot of the creamy spicy filling.

Sorry for no recipe. But I know you creative cooking types can take that original recipe and create your own ridiculously decadent crowd pleasin' casserole from it!I am going to be up for hours I'm so full and I only had a small portion. BURP!!!

I've been having so much fun trying recipes from different cookbooks and doing FNF I haven't been creating my own stuff. I need to get to work on some new original recipes for you! Soon, my patient friends, soon!

Don't forget to check out Tami's wrap up at Vegan Appetite!!!

Last but not least, another shot in the pan.

Vining and Dining from the Vegan Table Part 1

Tonight we took our first delicious delve into the Vegan Table. I have to confess I don't yet own this book, but I am certain I will very shortly.

Tonight we had the pleasure of making two recipes from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. First up were the Tempeh and Eggplant Pot Pies (pg. 206). Now I have to tell you that Fred is hardly a fan of tempeh and I am not normally a fan of eggplant, so I wasn't sure how this selection would be received by either of us. Frankly, I figured we would try a bite and drown our sorrows in Fred's wine selection. Which, honestly is not a losing proposition, because the weather tonight was beautiful for drinking dinner. But I digress.

One of the things I noticed immediately about the recipes is that she gives lots of suggestions (and permission) for options and substitutions. I took her up on this and made a few small changes. I stayed pretty true to the recipe for the pot pies. I only made 1/2 of the recipe because of the afore mentioned dislike of certain ingredients, oh doubter that I am. I added a small carrot. I just couldn't help it. I picked some fresh out of the garden this afternoon and it seemed sacrilegious to leave Mr. Carrot out of the mix. I used the max amount of capers because that's the way I roll. I love their salty piquanty nature. I didn't have ramekins, but I did have some mini spring form pans that fit the bill perfectly. I lined them with parchment paper so no goo would escape.

The recipe was pretty simple to make. I was moving slowly today because I could. I chopped and cut everything before I started as Fred was shopping for the wine and I had no idea how long he'd take. He has a reputation for spending a lot of time bending the ears of the folks in the wine stores and department doing research, a trait I find very endearing. Had I not done the prep work, there was plenty of time to do slicing, dicing and mixing at each phase. The filling probably took about 30 minutes total. I was able to mix up the biscuit dough while it was simmering. The pot pies baked for exactly 15 minutes. OK, this was very tasty! We were both pleasantly surprised by the yumminess of this dish! I thought the filling to biscuit mixture leaned a bit heavy on the biscuit side, but Fred insisted it balanced the stronger flavors of the filling perfectly. The biscuit layer had a really great crumb, texture and moisture content. The filling boasted lots of flavor from the capers, fennel and red pepper. Fred said the fennel made it for him.

The side dish selection for this evening was the Garlic-Glazed Green Beans (pg. 241). I was fortunate to find awesome organic green beans today. I opted to substitute fresh dill from our garden for the marjoram. I also opted to add toasted walnuts. In my opinion these should not be optional. They made the dish pop. I also added minced shallots with the garlic. The first bite I had, I felt was too sweet (I'll probably cut back on the maple syrup next time). But as they cooled down a bit, they achieved a wonderful balance of flavors. Fred thought they were great. I thought they complimented the more piquant spicy flavor of the pot pies nicely. The full recipe states that it is two servings. We made 1/2 the recipe and it was plenty for 2 as a side dish.

Although I don't have my own copy yet, I am really excited to get the book and try more recipes from it.

With Kim's fennel, nuttiness of tempeh, acid in eggplant, spiceness of red pepper recipe I had to find a wine that could hold it's own and not lose it's identity but yet did not want to take first place. The general consensus of the experienced help at one of my favorite wine stores was a chianti but I was unable to find a vegan one. I headed for the youth department where a couple of barely 21 year olds were all over the vegan idea, it was actually fun for my helper. He turned me onto a red Beaujolais from France. Normally Beaujolais are meant to be drunk very young but this particular "2007 Moulin-A-Vent" (windmill) can last up to ten years. At $17 a bottle the berry forward wine was a great buy and complimented the recipe very well.


**Kim's side note on the wine. This wine had definite berry characteristics, but I noticed that with the food a kind of peppery spice showed came out from hiding in the wine. We finished the bottle after the food was gone and it returned to its delightfully light and berry character. This is a great summer wine and very reasonable.

Vine and Dine - Tal Ronnen's Cajun Portobello Sandwich

Fred and I shimmied our way into Vine and Dine with two of my favorite foodies and bloggers Tami of Vegan Appetite and LIz of Cooking the Vegan Books. We also recruited our boyz to join in the fun by pairing wines with our recipe selection. This week Tal Ronnen's Conscious Cook was the book of choice. The Cajun Portobello Sandwich with Avocado and Remoulade (pg. 112) was the recipe of choice. First off, I really must get into the habit of reading recipes in detail before I make my plan. I had a tendency to browse them and miss some important details. I have been trying to eat earlier in the evening and though, "oh, a sandwich, this will be quick and easy." Well, I got the easy part right, but this one takes a bit of time. You have to reduce the marinade/cooking liquid for 20 minutes, then let the mushrooms marinade for another hour. So much for quick. I thought for a veggie type sandwich this one was a bit fussy was the word I kept using. But seriously, more if it was my lack of planning.


We have a serious lack of good bakeries here. It is always a challenge to find that perfect sandwich bread. I ended up using a demi loaf of french bread with pretty good results. I do wish I would have had time to make Tami's Black Pepper Baguette as I think it would have been perfect here. Now, even with all the fuss, I do have to say this was a really good sandwich! I love anything blackened and spicy. Add to that my love of portobellos and this really was my kind of sammy. I made 1/2 the recipe but a full recipe of the remoulade. Quite to my delight, the leftover remoulade actually made a pretty darn good potato salad for our house guest this weekend. I felt quite frugal and all left over savvy. 

Fred made an excellent selection for the wine.Check out his debut wine review.


I admit I had to have help with a pairing of what Kim was going to cook. I finally found "Ramone", who at first sight of me, I think, ran. Visually, people take me as a beer and whiskey guy, so not so. I imagine he thought I was there to kidnap him and take him to Montana to mate with goats. After I had explained myself, I received the best 30 minute wine class ever! 


Ramone pointed out several wines that covered a wide range of compliments. I chose a 2009 Chante Cigale,from the southeast part of France ( appellation Chateauneuf-Du-Pape) that is a blend of four varietals. Ronnen's recipe was light and vegetabaly but yet slightly earthy so I needed a white wine that could hold its own. The different grapes in this wine, combined, bought a minerality, acidity, balance and taste that produced a white wine strong enough to compliment the recipe but yet was exceptionally smooth, mild, and had a srong base. Our dinner had just the right amount of saltiness and spiciness to bring out a surprise in our wine, a smidge of pepper mixed in the white pear forwardness ( that took us forever to figure out!) We were still finding new tastes at the last sip. What a delightful wine for our night! 

Fred and I really enjoyed our first Vine and Dine. It was a great opportunity to pair up food, wine and ourselves in the kitchen. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

PPK Cook Book Challenge - Week 10 - Viva Vegan

Week 10 featured Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan. Yes, I am very late posting for week 10. But no, I didn't want to miss this book. I was a tester for this book what seems like years ago. It is full of fantastic latin influenced recipes. The flavors and textures of Terry's dishes are truly inspired. I love this book not only for its great variety of dishes, but for how well it is laid out. This may sound strange, but the font style and size make it very easy to read when you are flying around the kitchen. You've got to try the Spicy Tortilla Casserole with Pablanos (pg. 142). You might have to take out a second mortgage to buy pine nuts these days, but the pine nut crema is outstanding. I also fell in love with the Tostones with Avocado and Palm Ceviche (pg. 61). I took a bit of a liberty with this recipe. I didn't make the tostones, but served the Ceviche in an avocado half. Heaven!!

I tested many recipes for this book, but I never braved tamale making during testing (or before for that matter). I have to admit, I am not a tamale fan or lover, so to take hours to make something I feel "meh" about, was not on the top of my list. However, I do have a slight obsession with trying cooking techniques that I have not used much in the past. I am not a stranger to tamale making per se. My good friend ML introduced me to the process several years ago. Now SHE knows how to make the tamale experience fun. There are always margaritas and beer flowing at the assembly table. She invites a whole gaggle of women over to make quick work of the assembly. Her delightfully funny hubby Mike made up a special tool for mixing up the masa (think power drill with a strange mixing device on the end). She makes her fillings from scratch and has them ready to go when her assembly team arrives. Her tamales are famous at work, but they are decidedly not vegan.

I had actually purchased the corn husks during testing for the book. Thankfully those puppies last forever. I decided if I was going to do this thing, I would do two different varieties. I chose the Black Bean-Sweet Potato Tamales and the Red Chile Seitan Tamales. I made the Steamed Red Seitan in the morning. Then I made the filling for the black bean and sweet potato version. I had a very bad run at making Terry's chili sauce because I skipped the very important note on rinsing the chiles after they were soft. Talk about bitter. Holy crap!!! The second shot turned out perfect using a combination of Pasillas and Chile de Arbol. Nice heat.

This project was a semi-last minute decision, so I was certain I would be alone in my tamale adventure as I was solo this weekend. You have to love FB! I put a call out and my awesome friend Daphne volunteered to roll with me. We never seem to have time to hang out together, so this was a double bonus. It was a good thing she came. She had to teach me some rolling techniques, as I didn't take the time to read Terry's most excellent tutorial. So we spend several hours assembling, watching Food Network and enjoying some Mexican beer. Oh yeah!!!

The masa dough was really great to work with. Daphne noted that usually she is covered with sticky masa all over her hands and, well, pretty much every where. I mixed up a double batch of the savory masa dough (pg. 188), soaked the husks, and we got to rolling. It took a lot more than an hour to get them to firm up. But firm up they did. I thought they were both very tasty, but for me the Red Chile Seitan were the big winner. The chile sauce was soooo good on them too. We gorged ourselves on a few of the little beauties, Daphne took a bunch home and the rest are in the freezer. I love having back up meals in the freezer. So, in short, this is an excellent tamale recipe, but for me, if I'm going to take on a day long project, I would probably be making up some pierogi or home made ravioli.  But if you are a tamale lover, I highly recommend making these. The texture and flavor are just like the non-vegan version.

Feast your eyes:

Daphne is ready to roll. Here is our assembly line.

In the steamer

Getting Sauced - Tamales and Cooks

Black Bean and Sweet Potato

A little blurry, but here is the Red Chile Seitan Version

Tomorrow: Fred and I are joining Tami and Jim of Vegan Appetite and Liz and Matthew of Cooking the Vegan Books for Vine and Dine. Whence the chicks make a recipe from an awesome vegan cook book and the dudes pair a wine. Then we tell you all about it! This week's recipe was from the Conscious Cook and Fred did a great job with the pairing...until tomorrow!!

PPK Cook Book Challenge - Week 9 - Yellow Rose Recipes

This poor book has been ignored for so long. Joanna was the second author I had the honor to test for. This week and next week are crazy busy for us as hike day is quickly approaching. I thought I wouldn't get to the challenge this week. I had two food commitments this week and I was able to find recipes for both in YRR.

I have class on Tuesday nights. Each week four of us are responsible for bringing something for the rest of the class to eat. I volunteered to make sloppy Joe's. One of my class mates knows I don't eat meat, so she said she was surprised I offered to make them. I just smiled. Thankfully Joanna has her own version called Sloppy Joanna's. I made a quadruple batch so that I could feed the class. I added the optional green peppers because I like veggie content. They were a hit. Several of my classmates commented on how good they were. My instructor asked me if they were made from chicken :)

Thursday night was Dining for Women night. For this gathering I made the Wild Rice Salad. It has wild rice, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and kalamata olives. It was a simple recipe, but I had to giggle reading that she made these when the fridge was empty and she was poor. These are not inexpensive ingredients. It was simple and tasty, but I don't know if I'd spend the money on wild rice for this one. I think I'd save wild rice for other dishes.

I had some seitan cutlets left over from AVK week, so I decided to make a dish I knew I loved - the Mustard Crusted Seitan. I also slipped in another YRR recipe the as the side dish, Lemon Collards. It was a quick and satisfying dinner after my evening work out. 

Yellow Rose Recipes was written with families in mind. Most of the recipes feature easy to find ingredients, are health and easy to make. This is a wonderful cook book for anyone. The only complaint I have is that there aren't more recipes. Joanna has retired from cook book writing (for now). I hope she changes her mind, because I puffy heart her stuff.

PPK Cook Book Challenge - Week 8 - American Vegan Kitchen

This week's featured book was American Vegan Kitchen by Tamasin Noyes from Vegan Appetite. I was lucky enough to be a tester for this book. Last summer I also had the pleasure of meeting Tami and her awesome hubby Jim in Chicago last year. The book is wonderful and so are they. It's amazing how good food can forge really special friendships. This book is full of wonderful down-home style recipes. I tried a few this week that I hadn't tried before the results were fantastic (not surprising). This is another must have for your collection.

Saturday was a real treat. We had all of the kids and grandkids over. As an added bonus their (great)Grandparents were here visiting from Tucson this weekend. It was so nice to have a house full of family. To feed the crowd, I whipped out some AVK awesomeness!

21st Century Tacos served with CTates Frijoles Negros and my fideo recipe were featured for dinner. I have had this rather chunky TVP in my pantry for some time. It doesn't work well in "meatballs" and such because it want to pop out, but it was perfect for the tacos. I made a double batch and the kids were really thrilled to have some to take home. Were they good? Well, one of our guests, who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent, ate 6 tacos. We garnished the tacos with shredded lettuce fresh from our garden, tomatoes, diced onions, fresh avocados, sliced olives and Daiya Cheddar.

Dessert was the very easy but very decadent Crispy Bottom Peanut Butter Pie with Chocolate Fudge Sauce. This pie is super rich. It is a peanut butter lover's dream. Active time is maybe 15 minutes? There is some freezing time, but you can throw the crust in the freezer while your making the filling. Then spread the filling in throw it in the freezer and get on with the rest of the meal. No fuss. The chocolate fudge sauce is super easy too. It can be made ahead of time and warmed up before drizzling on top. I had to add more chocolate chips to get it to the consistency I wanted. It was a bit too thin following the recipe.

Tonight we had a birthday party on my side of the family. I wanted to take a tasty, but not run of the mill appetizer for the meat eating crowd. I decided on the Stick - to - Your - Ribs Potstickers. I made a double batch because the package of wonton wrappers I bought had 50 in it. I started by making the Savory Seitan (pg. 5). I have always made this as roasts by using the slow cooker method. Today I was a bit short on time an wanted to try the baking/cutlet method. It worked out very well. I had to speed up the cooling process by putting two cutlet in the freezer so that I could get to the party while it was still going on. When I first tasted the filling, I thought it was too sweet, but after sitting for a bit and dipping in the dipping sauce, I found them quite addicting. Only 40 made it to the party and they were gone in no time. The kids were eating them 4 at a time. I love that you can make a big batch and freeze them too. The only thing I might do differently next time is use round goyoza wrappers, just a personal preference on shape. If you have the seitan made ahead of time these actually come together pretty easily. To save time I chopped the seitan cutlets in the food processor. They were the perfect "ground pork" texture.

Food Network Friday - Giada de Laurenits' Ligurian "Fish" Stew

This week's Food Network Friday was chosen by my friend Celia over at On Cardamom and Cast Iron. The following is my interpretation of Giada's Lingurian "Fish" Stew. This is a simple, rustic recipe that originally called for 1 1/2 pounds of fish.

Below is the recipe I developed for the "Fish". The kelp flakes gave it that sea-like essence.

1 - 20 oz block Wildwood Super Firm Tofu, sliced 1/4 inch thick width-wise

Marinade:
1/2 cup low sodium veggie broth
1 tablespoon Braggs Liquid Aminos
1 1/2 teaspoons kelp granules
1 clove garlic, minced

In a 9 x 13 glass baking dish, mix all of the marinade ingredients with a fork. Place tofu slices in the marinade in a single layer. Marinade for a least two hours turning half way through.

Preheat oven to 350. Bake tofu for 25 minutes, uncovered. Turn and bake for another 20 minutes until all of the marinade is absorbed and the tofu is very firm and almost dry. Cut into 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch cubers. Set aside.

For the rest of the recipe I stayed pretty true to Giada's recipe. The only modification I made is that I cut the oil back to about 1 1/2 tablespoons and added 1 1/2 teaspoons of capers with the vegetables. I used Clos du Bois Chardonnay for the wine. We both loved the sauce. It was rich with tomato flavor. The carrots added a nice texture, color and flavor. We both agreed that we'd like more of the sauce, so next time we will probably double the sauce (or at least increase it by half). I think the capers really elevated the flavor of the dish.

For the bread, I found a lovely vegan ciabatta at Sprouts market. I sliced it into 1/2 inch thick slices. I made an herbed olive oil and brushed that on to both sides of the bread and baked it for about 20 minutes. I let it cook a wee bit too long, so it was super crunchy and a bit hard. I love it, but Fred said it would have been better a bit softer. It would have made an outstanding base for bruschetta as it could hold up to some liquid.

Check out Tami's wrap up off all of the participants later today at Vegan Appetite. Keep cooking my friends!!