Post Punk Kitchen Forum

This has been on my wish list for so long. I was just about to press buy for Vegimonicon then I decided to go on amazon and have a look at the look inside feature for vegan brunch. So glad I did because judging by the table of contents this is going to be my favourite. I can see myself making a lot of those recipes for lunch or dinner rather than breakfast. So in the end I bought this instead of vegimonicon, Can't wait to get it!

Ha! I almost used pumpkin in place of tomato in these the other day! Next time I have leftovers....

It took me three years to remember to buy instant espresso powder. Then maybe another 6 months to remember that I wanted it to make the chocolate espresso muffins from Vegan Brunch. Now I am going to make them all the time, they are so good!

I made the navy bean gravy this morning to put on some cornmeal biscuits. I love that stuff. It's so easy, so tasty, and I don't feel quite so guilty eating it. I cut back the oil by a lot and have started using less flour too. I need to get back into making the muffins more often too. Maybe tomorrow I'll mix some up.

The navy bean gravy is also great on cornmeal waffles.

I made the omelette a few minutes ago. I couldn't stop laughing at the smell of the black salt! It was sooooo like an egg omelette. I really enjoyed it.

Hullo all! I just got this book in the mail and am quite excited.

Quick question: for those who have made the quiche, do you soak your cashews first if you don't have a high powered food processor? Or can you process them pretty easily just as they are, raw? (I'm just getting into cooking).

Just finished chomping on some tempeh cakes. Nom.

I did the English muffins a while ago and they were heaven. Also very easy to make. I did get a tummy ache though from eating like five of them in one morning!

I also love the bakery-style berry muffins (the ultimate fail-proof muffin recipe), cinnamon buns and coffee cake. The blueberry-ginger spelt muffins are good also, they have a "healthy" taste to them.

The ?chesapeake cakes with tempeh... Look great but I absolutely cannot buy tempeh. What could I sub? I think someone mentioned chickpeas... And any tips

Id sub mashed chickpeas for the same weight and skip the initial cooking step.

i just got this book, yay! the english muffins are one of the very first things i want to make!

I found this worked well with unsoaked cashews, just process it a tad longer. Soooo tasty.

I made the cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. They were amazing!

I would like to make the Polenta Rancheros.

Can I just use "old fashioned stone ground" yellow plain cornmeal? I have this in my pantry:

http://www.house-autry.com/retail-produ ... -corn-meal

As written, Isa's recipe seems to make a ton of polenta! Does the polenta leftover stay creamy and soft or do you really have no other choice but to pan fry them the next day? This makes me wonder if I should just buy some some old-fashioned grits (if grits are an acceptable sub for polenta) in bulk so I can control the portion size and just make enough polenta/grits to serve 2. And then repeat the polenta/grit cooking the following night so it would be fresh to go on top of the ranchero sauce and beans that were left over.

I just used up the last of my homemade veggie stock, can I just use water to make the polenta/grits/cornmeal?

I'm getting confused between cornmeal, grits, and polenta!

I'm not sure what the physical difference is between those three things before they're prepared, but they do all create an end result with a pretty different, though similar, texture and taste. I'd recommend using polenta specifically if it's a polenta recipe. Or just make grits or whatever with the instructions on the box and use that as a replacement.

Water will work. It'll just be less flavorful.

I haven't made polenta rancheros, but I did make a polenta recipe from Veganomicon with corn meal. It worked just fine, and the texture was pretty much the same as premade or instant polenta I've had before. It seems there is some variability in the fineness of polenta being sold as polenta -- perhaps a true polenta snobconnoisseur knows the difference between polenta and the various grinds of cornmeal, but I'd say give it the cornmeal a try.

i was looking at the grit section at the grocery store getting even more confused, old fashioned, quick, instant, grits verses hominy. thankfully, as suggested in the recipe, i found bob's red mill polenta/yellow corn grits in the store and bought them. why make things more complicated for myself? hopefully i can scale things down a bit as i would prefer to make 2 servings of polenta/corn grits fresh each night as i'm under the impression that polenta/corn grits do not stay soft and creamy as leftovers??

Polenta sets and can be frozen. It's beautiful fried and crispy!

yes, the setting is what i'm trying to avoid. i don't mind making the whole batch of the beans and sauce, since i know that will re-heat and freeze well. however, i want to be able to make just 2 servings and then make 2 more servings the following day of the grits/polenta as i want both servings to be soft and creamy.

When you make polenta to set you make it deliberately drier, and when you fry or grill it the inside goes creamy... So I'd be tempted to make it with a little extra liquid and then heat very gently the next day, stirring a lot...

I just wanna say if you use "instant" polenta, it only needs to be cooked for a minute or so (it should say on package directions) but if you use cornmeal, you need to simmer it for a full 15-20 minutes (I'd say 20) to make sure it's cooked. Instant polenta cooks a whole lot faster and that's what I usually use because it takes so little time.

i don't think i bought instant polenta. i bought the bob's red mill polenta/yellow corn grits package. i think it cooks for 5 - 10 minutes, i'll need to read the package again ;)

i did a wee bit of poking around via a google search and it seems the water to polenta ratio can vary. I'm going to go with a half cup of polenta and at least 1.5 cups of water and go from there. I think that will definitely give me 2 generous servings of polenta.

i'll report back later (making the polenta rancheros for dinner tonight) to let you know how the scaling back of the polenta went ;)

oh the polenta rancheros were amazing! such awesome flavor! and such a quick recipe to throw together!

i used 1/2 cup bob's red mill polenta/yellow corn grits and 1.5 cups of water. then i added maybe about another 1/2 cup while it was cooking. i think we cooked it for about 5 minutes or so and then left it covered on the stove while the beans/sauce finished cooking.

there was enough polenta for me and my hubby and a wee serving left that our dog was very happy to partake of :) i'll cook fresh polenta again tomorrow to go on top of the leftover beans/sauce

the polenta is awesome and has a different taste and flavor than than quaker white corn grits. worth spending the extra money for the bob's red mill stuff.

I think polenta can be made creamy after reheating by breaking it up with a fork and stirring with a little bit of liquid. I haven't had polenta in a while, but I recall that working.