Showing posts with label color me vegan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label color me vegan. Show all posts

Friday, November 4, 2011

corn chowder

Continuing with the "Cook things that start with C" theme, I made the corn chowder from Color Me Vegan. It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, sadly. It was okay tasting, but nothing to write home about (why am I writing about it here?), and not even that pretty, though maybe using a lighter stock would've helped with that. Moreover, I accidentally didn't add an ingredient (a potato) so it's probably my fault. 


I unthinkingly used all my potatoes in the colcannon, so they're left out of the above picture. Still, it's a pretty simple soup.


(Mostly, I want to complain about how uneven my eye is, and also how unfair it is that this pretty cast iron pan has a huge dent-like thing in the middle.) Melt some nondairy butter in a big pan of some sort.


Once the butter is melted, add in the corn (I used frozen, but fresh is undoubtedly better).


In a larger pot (3 qts is big enough, I found out), saute the onions in oil for a bit.


Once the onions are soft, add in the potatoes (whoops!) and the vegetable stock. Let it simmer until the potato is done.


Keep cooking the corn until all the corn bits are a little brown. Transfer into the pot with the onion and potatoes, and puree just enough to leave it chunky.


It's a... really ugly color. This goes in a "worst food porn" post. Unfortunately (Fortunately?) it didn't make a lot. The creamed corn from the same book is a lot better, and fills the same corn-shaped hole in my heart. Maybe it's just the color that affects my opinion, maybe I did something wrong in the recipe? 

I'm still willing to try more from Color Me Vegan; a lot of recipes hit the sweet spot between "raw carrots" and "thing that is so spiced as to no longer be carrot"; healthy and clean-tasting, but still delicious. This one called for a little much vegan butter. If I did try it again, I'd go with a corn stock, I'd add the potato, I would use either olive oil or a neutral oil for the corn, and I wouldn't brown the corn as much. All the same, I'm probably not going to try it again.

Colcannon

Inspired by the chili success, and from the other good recipes from Color Me Vegan, I decided to try making the colcannon.


The potatoes are boiling away in the pot. There aren't too many ingredients in the recipe, which is nice. There is some garlic hidden under the kale.


Step one involves sauteing some onions on med-low until they start turning brown. It takes approximately forever, and involves a lot of checking to be sure they don't burn. 


Once you're afraid that the potatoes will burn if you cook them any longer, add in the kale and garlic.


Cook until the kale starts to get soft, and then cook some more.


The potatoes are done if you started them before anything else, so reserve some of the water, and then mash the carp out of them.


Add in some margarine and a little bit of non-dairy milk.


By the time you finish with the potatoes, the kale and onions are probably done.


Mix the two together, and serve. I stored the kale and potatoes separately in the fridge, but it's probably not necessary. I also ended up eating with some gravy, but... that's because I really, really, really like gravy, and I had some on hand.