(OT) Any vegans out there?

[Dinkeldog]

[Looks at Dinkeldog's post]

[Looks at Piratecat's post]

[Refreshes the page, and looks at Dinkeldog's edited post]



Daniel

Yeah, I'm working on Linear Algebra. I'm claiming a temporarily loss of 4d6 points of San.

 

[Utrecht]

I would also suggest that you look into taking some cooking classes.

IME, the biggest drawback of vegan/vegetarian food is that it tends towards blandness. One of the biggest advantages of meat is that when it cooks, the protiens and fats break down in such a way to easily create flavor.

With non-meat based dishes, the ability to infuse flavor is more difficult (but not impossible)

As I said above, I would encourage you to look into cooking classes - if that does not work out - check out Alton Brown's program called Good Eats you can find out more www.foodnetwork.com - it is an especially good show to learn the science behind cooking- he has done shoes on cabbage, eggplant, tofu, etc.

I am also sure some of the professional chefs in the audience can chime in - I only play one on TV.

edit for grammar

 

[Mark Chance]

Mark, Sixchan, Alchemist -- don't MAKE me stop the car!



Daniel

Mea culpa. I just couldn't stand the irony of a man (namely, Peter Singer) who has opined that "sex across the species barrier" is not "an offense to our status and dignity as human beings" presuming to pass anything approaching a moral judgment against anyone. I also cannot help but notice the irony that certain types of smoke (notice I didn't mention which types) are grounds for moderation, but calling people's religious beliefs lies is not.

Maybe I'm just getting crotchety in my old age.

And, just so no one can accuse me of being completely off-topic:

Vegetarian Desserts. Gotta have desserts!

 

[Dinkeldog]

Mark, the second-hand smoke thing is hijacking an OT post. I've split discussion of that to NKL.

Questioning people's religious beliefs is unacceptable, and was mentioned earlier by PCat who said to leave religion out of it.

Now, if we can return to good vegan recipes, I think we'll be back on track.

 

[Mercule]

Wow! Cool topic! I love seeing the only marginally political discussion of vegans, etc. And that's considering that I'm pretty far from vegitarian in my diet. I mean, c'mon, my stock answer to "What do you want on your pizza?" is "Dead mammals." Seriously.

In general, I try to limit my carb intake, for health reasons. Not exactly an Atkins fan, but there are some sound principles there. I'll eat a sandwich sometimes, but most of my carb intake is bran or some other high-fibre item.

That said, I do like fruit and veggies, too. And high red meat and eggs has its own issues (cholesterol), so I'm really interested to try some of the dishes you guys have thrown out.

A couple of questions, though.

I've heard that soy is pretty high in estrogen and shouldn't really be eaten day in and day out (especially by men). What say ye?

Also, all the tofu I've had has had the taste and texture of foam rubber. What is the proper way to fix edible tofu?

 

[Number47]

It depends on what you're making. You can always use silken tofu, which is basically a thick liquid, and not really have any texture (or any contributing flavor). It makes a nice base to put other things in.

 

[Pielorinho]

I've heard that soy is pretty high in estrogen and shouldn't really be eaten day in and day out (especially by men). What say ye?

Also, all the tofu I've had has had the taste and texture of foam rubber. What is the proper way to fix edible tofu?

I'm not sure how much you'd have to eat for this to be a problem, but I'd guess it's a lot. I'll see what I can dig up for you.

Alas, many times people fix tofu by reconstituting dried tofu, by deep-frying it, or by freezing it and thawing it. I despise the texture that all of these methods impart (deep-frying has its place, but too often it's done poorly; the others are just nasty, IMO).

Tofu done well has a texture somewhere between ground beef, hard-boiled egg white, and semisoft cheese. It's like muscle-fibre-free meat, sort of. Hard to describe, but damn good.

The recipe I listed above might be worth trying: although it relies a bit on a cook's instincts (you'll notice my amounts of ingredients are pretty vague -- this is because I eyeball it), the texture is quite good. Anything that relies on marinating tofu and then sauteing it will probably result in a decent texture. I recommend using extra-firm tofu.

Daniel

 

[Mark Chance]

(you'll notice my amounts of ingredients are pretty vague -- this is because I eyeball it)

Isn't that how all great recipes really work? When I infrequently cook dinner, my wife often asks, "This is good. What did you put in it?" To which I usually have to respond: "I dunno. Whatever looked good at the time."

Aside from my traditional American love of peanut butter, the two pieces of advice I have here is change the type of bread and the type of jelly every so often. PB & grape jelly is completely different from PB & strawberry jelly and so on. Also, changing the type of bread helps, too. For me, anyway, but I'm a PB&J diehard.

Don't forget that PB goes well with other things beside jams and jellies. I'm fond of PB and honey, PB and apples, and PB and bananas.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Tofu done well has a texture somewhere between ground beef, hard-boiled egg white, and semisoft cheese. It's like muscle-fibre-free meat, sort of. Hard to describe, but damn good.

Don't take this the wrong way, but blech. Also on the blech list: cottage cheese, eggplant, cooked mushrooms, and poi. I'm going with the presented wisdom of avoiding anything that pretends to be meat. Maybe tofu would be acceptable if it were burnt?

 

[Mercule]

Don't take this the wrong way, but blech. Also on the blech list: cottage cheese, eggplant, cooked mushrooms, and poi. I'm going with the presented wisdom of avoiding anything that pretends to be meat. Maybe tofu would be acceptable if it were burnt?

That's okay. At the very top of my "blech" list are peanuts. In fact, they are significantly more "blech" than mushrooms, which get turned down with a "Nothing goes in _this_ mouth that's related to jock-itch." (I really just don't like the flavor, but people usually don't push the issue if I use that turn of phrase.)