Sriracha Ketchup & Cock Sauce Cashew Cheeze

Cock Sauce Cashew Cheeze

Sriracha Ketchup

I decided to do these two sauces for this week and in leiu of last week's Sriracha recipe (I was unable to make it last week).
I made these two sauces without Carlos's assistance. He had other stuff he needed to get done.

We bought the onion rings (vegan, of course) pictured with the ketchup, and sweet potato fries from a local organic store, Dad's Organic Market. Pictured with the cheeze is a couple of tortilla wraps that were getting stale, that I had oiled, spiced, and baked, then cut into chips.

These sauces were super easy to make, and took no time. The cheeze took a little planning because the cashews needed to soak for an hour, and once blended with the rest of the ingredients, it needed to be refrigerated for another two hours, but active prep time was short and not complicated.

The sauces are very tasty. I say "are" and not "were" because we still have some in the fridge. Carlos was worried that the cheeze was too spicy for me, but it wasn't. I enjoyed how it all tasted. I got daydreaming about how raw veggies would taste with the cheeze.

Maple-Sriracha Doughnuts

Maple-Sriracha Doughnuts

Baking!!
Baking is included in The Veggie-Lover's Sriracha Cookbook.
I made this on my own this time because Carlos had other plans. I was okay, the kitchen is so small that it's a bit tricky to navigate with another person working in there. Two humans, plus my pit bull gets to be too much.
When Abigail lived here with her Standard Poodle and her Chinese Crested, along with my own dog: it was just too much. Luckily there's a door with many little windows between the kitchen and dining room, so we would often close that to keep them out. It was cute to have all three of them waiting and watching.
Anyway. The point I was making is that sometimes it's nice to not have to negotiate for space in the kitchen.

These were very simple to make. The biggest problem I had was that I didn't own a doughnut tray. My plan was to make these a few weeks ago, but I could not find doughnut pans in Regina. I ordered two on Amazon. It was great because they came less than a week later.

Very simple doughnut recipe. The glaze is the piece that has maple syrup and sriracha. It only calls for two tablespoons, but it seemed pretty spicy for my mouth when I tried the glaze on it's own.

These were great tasting doughnuts! The recipe calls for a bit of ground cinnamon and ground ginger, and it's just right. The glaze wasn't as spicy on the doughnut. Eating the glaze in combination with the dough was pleasant. Carlos decided we should make more for him to take to work to show his co-workers his girlfriend's baking skills. He's pretty excited to eat them while at work when everyone else is eating Tim Horton's doughnuts.

**Update**
I decided to make more doughnuts to share at work. I used this doughnut recipe but made the chocolate icing recipe from Babycakes Covers The Classics. I kept the doughnuts uncovered overnight to let the chocolate icing dry a bit, and harden. I took the doughnuts to work, a bit concerned that I had screwed them up by leaving them out.
I worried for nothing. Everyone absolutely loved them! A co-worker even hugged me, then he said he would gladly buy all of the ingredients for me, if I made more for him (this guy loathes vegetables and loves eating animals). Another co-worker said that she thought they would be tough because they felt quite firm, but when she bit into it, it was so soft and fresh. She was surprised. I'm quite pleased. Another even said that if she could buy vegan baking, she would go vegan...making me reconsider my future...

Ah the power of food.

Jackfruit "Pulled Pork" Sammiches with Pickled Red Onion

Jackfruit "Pulled Pork" Sammiches
with Pickled Red Onion

We made this on Saturday, and I'm just getting to the blog today.

Alyx, get your shit together.

It was a bit tricky finding the jackfruit. The recipe calls for jackfruit in a can with brine. I've only seen it fresh in the produce section. I posted in Vegans of Regina on Facebook to find some. Within seconds I had responses.
I tried at Superstore in the International isle, and they were all out.

Boo!

Then we tried the Asian grocery store in town, Ngoy Hoy Asian Foods. They do have jackfruit in a can, but only in syrup, not brine. So we'd probably end up with something sweeter. We just went with it.

I made the pickled red onion, Carlos made the "pulled pork". He wasn't certain of the directions to make the jackfruit pieces into a pulled pork texture. The instructions tell you to use two forks to pull it apart, we ended up doing it by hand. It was much easier. Carlos never had pulled pork before. I guess in Chile it isn't a big menu item? He never liked eating pigs anyway. Back when I ate animals, I loved pulled pork. The flavours, and even the texture was very similar to the way the exploited dish tastes. From what I can remember...it's been a few years.
Carlos also used less sriracha than what the recipe called for. For me. He used the perfect amount. It wasn't too spicy for my Eastern European-Canadian mouth. He didn't use my smoked paprika like the recipe says. He thought the stuff I have was 'too chunky'. Fine. It still tasted great.

**Please note that the photos for the dish do not do it justice. The picture in The Veggie-Lover's Sriracha Cookbook was much more accurate, and much more enticing.

Sriracha and Green Onion Biscuits with Country Mushroom Gravy

Sriracha and Green Onion Biscuits
 with Country Mushroom Gravy.

Carlos and I made this because a Facebook friend requested it.
It's listed in the Breakfast section of The Veggie-Lover's Sriracha Cookbook.

Carlos made the gravy while I got the biscuits together. It was my first time ever making biscuits, and I got irritated with how sticky the dough became. But it was kind of perfect. Very much reminded me of the cheesy biscuits at Red Lobster, only instead of cheese, there's sriracha and green onion. It was the perfect amount of spice, too. Well, perfect for my "Canadian mouth"-direct quote from Carlos.
He said it was good for his Chilean mouth, as well. It was nice because it didn't completely take over the way the other ingredients tasted. It was a good accent.

It was nice to have the gravy as a dip for the biscuits. I've gotten much better with mushrooms. Prior to becoming vegan, I could not stand the taste or texture of them, but I've been forcing myself to be more open-minded, and I've come a long way. It was flavourful gravy, and the fresh rosemary that the recipe calls for was a great taste. You really can tell the difference between dried spices and fresh spices.

As stated earlier, this recipe is found in the breakfast section, but we made it for supper. Partly because I neglected to pick up cremini mushrooms, green onions, or shallots. But mostly because I never thought of gravy as a breakfast food. Plus I made gluten-free buckwheat pancakes with bananas and strawberries from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Brunch this morning.

Overall, pretty simple, very tasty.

Edamame-Sriracha Succotash

Edamame-Sriracha Succotash

I'm late.
No, not pregnant. Late writing this post.

It was week three last week, and Carlos and I made Edamame-Sriricha Succotash from The Veggie-Lover's Sriracha Cookbook.

Admittedly, I don't really know what makes a succotash succotash, and I could very easily find (Oh Google), but . . . meh. As long as it's vegan, and it tastes good, all of that definition stuff is secondary and not essential knowledge.
This was amazingly simple to make. It's real purdy too.
Carlos just loved it! It had a little bit of kick, but not too much for me to handle.
Again, we had all of the ingredients except for the edamame. We each took some for lunch a couple days till it was gone. It was nice because I didn't need to warm it up, wasting valuable break time.

Maple-Sriracha Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberry Wild Rice

Maple-Sriracha Roasted Brussels Sprouts
with Cranberry Wild Rice

For our second week of recipe resolutaions, together, we made Maple-Sriracha Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberry Wild Rice from The Veggie-Lover's Sriracha Cookbook.

It's fun cooking with Carlos.

Awesomely, we had all of the ingredients except for the brussels sprouts. Sadly, the brussels sprouts we were able to find weren't great. They were small and rather spotty, but we used them anyway (we had a recipe we just had to make!).

The house smelled amazing. This dish was great tasting! It was sweet, with a tiny hint of spice, and the brussels sprouts were so juicy! It was a wonderful array of flavours and textures.
When we make it in the future, we'll make a combination of brown basmati rice and wild rice. Just wild rice was a bit tough (good fibre though!).

Overall, this recipe was pleasant and peaceful.

Happy New Year 2014! (Penne Puttanesca with Charred Broccolini)

Penne Puttanesca with Charred Broccolini

I'm dating a new man (as of mid-July 2013), he's so great. I'd like to tell you more about him, but I want to get to our plan for 2014.
As I'm sure some of you know, I have many vegan cookbooks. I need to update my library list. There's even more because I have a sickness for buying vegan books on Amazon.ca. Besides that, I've begun to use 20-or-so recipes, rather than trying something else. Although I have eaten a lot of great vegan dishes that Carlos, my boyfriend, has cooked up. Amazing.

We decided on The Veggie-Lover's Sriracha Cookbook: 50 Vegan "Rooster Sauce" Recipes that Pack a Punch to start. It was his Christmas gift  from me. I bought a couple bottles of sriracha and a sriracha t-shirt from RedBubble.com to make him a themed gift. First up was Penne Puttanesca with Charred Broccolini.

Carlos made this while I was doing . . . something . . . I can't recall if I was napping or what. In fact, he went out and bought the few items we didn't have for the recipe, and he cooked. And washed the dishes.

Folks, this man is amazing.

Admittedly, I was a tad nervous it would be too spicy for me. But it wasn't. The charred broccolini was perfect, and so was the sauce. Olives are not my favourite, but they were great for this dish. Very flavourful. Excited for next week's dish.