Jalapeno Poppers

Intros and Inspirations

Denny's, circa 1980's. Besides ordering these on the night menu of Denny's, I had no idea how to make a popper, let alone a vegan version. Therefore, I used Cashew Cheese Technology¹ along with a traditional popper recipe² and was beyond satisfied with the results. (All that remains from the traditional recipe cited is the breading method and addition of “bacon” bits.)

History of Dish

According to Wikipedia, the origins are unclear but poppers are thought to be 2^nd cousins with chile rellenos. Apparently there was a family feud in the 70's and they parted. There is also a note about the label “poppers” being trademarked, so if you see me rename this post to, say, 'pops' or 'moppers' this would be the reason.

Yield:

Makes 32 poppers.

Ingredients

Advanced preparation alert: Cover the cashews and almonds in ¾ cup water overnight or at least 4 hours. The water will be used in the recipe.

Filling:

• ¾ cup raw cashews & ¼ cup raw almonds + remaining water from soaking (initially ¾ cup)
• ½ cup firm tofu (not silken)
• 2 T lemon juice
• ½ T agave or other sweetener
• 1 T tahini
• ¼ cup canola oil
• ¼ cup onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• ¼ t tumeric
• 1 T salt
• 1 T nutritional yeast
• Optional: smoked chipotle powder to taste

Added Later!

• 2-3 T Bacuns (link: http://www.veganessentials.com/catalog/organic-bacuns-bacon-bits-alternative.htm )
• Chopped jalapeno pieces (from surrounding stem)

Main feature:

• 16 jalapenos, sliced and seeded (see below)

Batter / Breading:

• 1 cup unsweetened soy milk or almond milk
• 1.5 cups white unbleached flour + 1 t paprika
• 1.5 cups crushed “Ritz” style crackers³ + 1.5 T garlic granules + ½ t salt (Optional: substitute crackers with actual breadcrumbs)
  

Blending and Baking Filling

The baking process will make the filling spreadable for slathering on the jalapeno halves. Once the filling is baking, you may proceed to the jalapeno preparation step.

• Place “Filling” ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a Corningware or similar dish for baking.
• Bake uncovered for about 25 minutes at 250-300 degrees fahrenheit until thick like cream cheese. Stir well every 10 minutes during this process to circulate the resulting thick portions and crisped browned parts of the mixture.

Example of filling consistency. This recipe makes more filling than pictured above.

Preparing while Waiting for Filling to Bake

Jalapenos:

• Cut off top part of jalapeno stem first (about 1/8”). Retain for use in filling.
• Slice in half lengthwise.
• Scrape out seeds with small spoon. (Discard or retain for other recipes.)
• Careful not to squirt juice in your eyeball like I did.
• Slice up the small bits of jalapeno connected to the stem (but NOT the stem itself) then add to the baked filling.

Artistic display of spoon and knife

Prepare the breading next:

• Place the flour mixture in a small bowl.
• Place the soy milk in a separate small bowl.
• Crush the crackers into fine pieces then stir in garlic granules and salt in another bowl.

Filling and Breading

• Once the filling has been baked and removed from the oven, adjust the oven temperature to 300 degrees F.
• Stir in Bac'uns and previously added chopped-up jalapeno tops to baked filling.
• Spread filling into jalapeno halves, so that the filling is slightly heaping over and lightly coating the side edges of jalapeno.
  

• Dip each jalapeno half into soy milk, then roll into flour mixture. Place on plate or sheet.
  

A not-quite clockwise presentation of the first dipping process.

• Let jalapenos dry for about 10 minutes.
• In the meantime, prepare a baking sheet by spreading about ¼ cup of olive oil on the sheet for baking (in lieu of deep frying).

• After the 10 minutes when dry, dip each half in soy milk again, then dredge in "Ritz" breadcrumb mixture. It's OK if some green jalapeno is showing.
• Set on greased baking sheet, starting filling side up, rolling once to ensure olive oil is lightly coating entire half. Alternative to rolling: use stainless steel spritzer to spray tops of poppers. Place filling side up.

Baking

Your oven should already be preheated to 300 degrees F. The 'traditional' recipe calls for deep frying these suckers. Instead, these are baked for 20 minutes, turned once. As with other fried goods, the pops are equally good, and lower in fat, baked with a spritzola of olive oil.

• Place in preheated oven, then bake for 10 minutes.
• Remove and flip with tongs carefully.
• Bake for remaining 10 minutes until golden brown.

Eating

This is the best part, except you have to wait first until the poppers cool to move them to a plate (or your mouth). Otherwise they will unpop all over the pan.

Optional:

Feel free to change up the filling by chopping and adding pimentos, olive bits, or other types of peppers.

I also made the filling without the tofu and Agave and it was still good, but not quite as tasty.

Instead of white flour, I used whole wheat the last time I made these = BLECHHHH.

Conclusion

Delicious and addictive: no need for a trip to Denny's. Reports from non-vegans: “I cannot tell this is vegan.” –Non-vegan who is not my mom

Sources/citations:

¹ http://rockinthestove.com/2009/07/13/three-vegan-cheezes-gone-nuts/

² http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-ever-jalapeno-poppers/detail.aspx

3 The Whole Foods brand of rounds is good, cheap, and vegan (GCV).

Prostate-'Porosis Protectin' Pancakes

Intros and Inspirations

Besides the title that invokes warm delicious food, what might be the inspiration for these protective pancakes? My background in alliteration? Certainly this was not a challenge submitted from any of our readership (hi mom).

Welp, I love pancakes made with Oat Flour, but this morning I realized I was all out. I further love to protect prostates and bones. Did I mention I am not a doctor, nutritionist, naturopath, acupuncturist, or psychic? Read onward, if you dare. Or go here for a more traditional pancake.

History of Dish

1/4/2010. Though I know others have taken blade to oat before me.

Yield

About five or six medium protector pancakes. Enough for two people if you are Rob and I.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup whole rolled oats (not instant)
• 1/3 cup whole 'raw' almonds
• 1/3 cup whole raw pumpkin seeds (the green kind in bulk sections)
• 2 whole cloves

• 2 T Canola oil + 1 t baking powder + ½ t baking soda
• 2/3 cup almond or soy milk
• 1 bananna, mashed

Mixing/Blending

• Blend the oats, almonds, seeds, and cloves until mealy.

• In a small dish, stir the Canola and baking powder and soda together with a fork.
• In a medium-sized mixing bowl, dump in the blended 'flour' mixture.
• Mix in the Canola mixture.
• Add the liquid (almond or soy) then stir in the mashed banana.

The mixture will seem very watery initially, but will be soaked up by the flour within a few minutes.

Cooking

It occurred to me that you could have a very nice raw foodist's breakfast if you just simply eat the mixture without cooking it. Or, as a compromise, you could gently warm it in your sauce pan and add some black strap mollases for a power-punch of iron, calcium, and potassium. But this is Hortamatic, so we'll fry these suckers up, pancake-style.

• Heat your cast iron or non-stick pan over medium-low heat and add 2 T olive oil.
  
• When ready (sizzles with drop of water) add about 1/3 cup of the batter for each pancake.
• Cook on each side till lightly browned, about 3 minutes.

Eating

We added ground up flax seed for extra omega 3s and slathered these with strawberry jam.

Optional: Add some berries or fruit to the mix, or ground walnuts. Adjust liquids/flours.

Conclusion

Bon appetite, prostate and bone density! These are also tasty, and full of protein, so they should be a good start to your day.

Vasilopita

In what has certainly become a tradition, I failed to capture an adequate photo of my little new year's Vasilopita.

Instead, above, a photo taken by someone who was on her second theme drink (that is, second THEME, not second drink) the Soy Nog White Russian (I capitalize out of respect, not grammatical appropriateness).

The first theme drink was even more classy: Cheer Wine and Whiskey (thank you Laura and Tofu Mama, respectively).

I previously posted the Vasilopita recipe and backstory at my travel and vegan cupcake-searching blog, Binge Cafe, back in '07. You can find it in its entirety here:

http://bingecafe.blogspot.com/2007/01/vegan-vasilopita-drinko-happy-new-year.html

The only changes I made to the Vasilopita pictured above was to reduce the orange juice by half and use ground almonds rather than sliced due to not wanting to step into a supermarket to get them on NYE.

Again, due to the themed drinks, there were not a lot of pictures, but I did want to share with you three appetizers brought by guests. The third, a delicious German potato salad (thanks Jana) was not photographed. The fourth, which I'll be posting soon, is a recipe I created for Jalapeno Poppers. Stay tuned!

Bonnie's Spanikopita:

Delicious little nuggets with smoked tofu and creamed Tofutti cheese.

Chef Shirle's Fauxmage almond feta and cashew goat, available at the Wine Authorities!


Happy 2010 everyone.