Yes, We're Open

 Consider it a grand reopening . The Pantry is open again and with it some new insights. It was a strange ride to say the least.

Bad enough you have to go through one of the worst surgeries( I feel), then there's the first few days of wondering and worrying what to eat. Luckily orzo cooks up well in veggie broth and it's also very safe on the newly reconstructed bile ducts. (the ducts are cut after the gall bladder is removed, and I 'm guessing from my cuts, through my tummy or navel). Heavy foods are literally off the tables. They can irritate the liver which produces bile. This means that the bile is dumped into the upper intestine. A lot of bile is like a laxative.It  can create diarrhea and gas. Luckily those without a gallbladder can take Imodium to prevent both as they navigate this new world. Ginger ale is the recommended drink and it was a big help during those days as was fruit and herbal teas. You're not supposed to have any colas once the gall bladder is out but I have had several diet Pepsis and"m fine. I've also graduated to orzo and Melt butter and I'm quickly introducing favorites like my air fryer portobellos and tomato salad into my diet.

It feels good to cook again and cook my favorites. The portobellos have always been one of my most loved dishes and it was wonderful to eat one again. I have to admit I was a little leery about the tomato salad but that too was perfectly digested. I am  looking forward to making my spinach and mushroom sauce tomorrow with pasta.I'm also looking forward to Beyond Beef hamburgers and anything from Gardein.I've already eaten two of the their soups, Italian Wedding and Beef and Vegetables. So far so good. It would be nice to try their turkey and gravy along with stuffing. I have read on  line that I shouldn't be eating heavy meals, and I wonder if this one , turkey and stuffing would be considered such. There's also this ban so to speak against spicy foods . What will happen the next time I eat Indian or Mexican, two cuisines that I love?Their dishes are easy to replicate at home and I can easily make favorites like curry with a teaspoon less garam masala and burritos without the chili powder. What I will miss are the French fries, but again, maybe my system may tolerate them.

This is a strange new world>However it will soon be familiar , filled with the foods and flavors that I love. Things will be different but they will also be the same too.

Being Vegan For The Holidays

 Easter and Passover are about celebrating with family and friends. Yet what if they are vegetarian or vegan? Do you exclude them from the holiday meal? No! You include them with including vegan and vegetarian recipes. You can create new traditions by using more plant protein!

For the Easter holiday lamb and ham usually are the stars of the table. However there are some great dishes that vegetarians would approve of. Think a spinach or veggie lasagna with using plant based cheeses. You can also serve up a mushroom one too.Savory tarts are a nice change up . You can make a quiche without eggs. Just sub in chickpea flour mixed with soy or any nut milk to get that creamy texture. Try a leek and mushroom one baked in a shortcrust pastry shell. Some vegetarians do allow eggs into their diet so an Easter brunch with a traditional quiche is not out of the question. Instead of ham you can easily crumble soy bacon on top or sub in a variety of different veggies like broccoli or onions. If you want a bigger main course then think about using Beyond Beef for both Easter and Passover. The product is kosher certified so it can be incorporated into the seder. Bake it in a loaf pan and serve it with gravy. For Passover along with Easter, you can also roast portabella mushroom caps or bake cauliflower  steaks for a new classic main course.

Desserts shouldn't be tricky. You can easily sub in Just egg or Vegg Vegan Baking Mix for eggs and any kind of non dairy milk for the real thing. Soy milk is recommended because it has the same texture as cow;s milk. Creating buttercream frosting is just as easy. Use Melt plant butter instead of butter for a creamy textured frosting. Again you can use soy or almond milk to thin it out if it becomes too thick. Aquafaba, or chickpea brine can produce lovely meringues . Divide it up and add a drops of food coloring for meringues the color of Easter eggs. A truly elegant dessert is a pavlova. This is layers of meringue interspersed with whipped cream. Various fruits top this. As for the whipped cream make your own dairy free one by whipping together full fat coconut milk, vanilla extract and a few drops of maple syrup. You just have t skim the "fat' off the top and use that for the whole cream.The Passover seder can end with no bake chocolate macaroons, made with the traditional coconut flakes but with the twist of bananas and coconut oil to bind them.

A vegan holiday meal is easy to whip up. You can create a delicious main course and desserts from plant based ingredients. It's easy to do for Easter and Passover.

A Lenten Bonus For Your Diet

 If you're observing Lent then you're forgoing meats and some dairy until Easter. Doing such may be a nutritional bonus .The less red and fatty meats eaten, the less problems you have. Eating more fish and veggies can even lead to a pescatarian or vegetarian diet.

Salmon is usually the gateway fish for those fishless Fridays.It's an easy fish to cook and can be prepared in a variety of different ways. It is also a good source of protein and only two hundred calories.It's high in Vitamin B12 and potassium along with iron and vitamin D. One of the easiest ways to cook it is pan seared. Add melted plant butter like Melt along with salt, pepper and a squirt of fresh lemon juice. Some recipes add a touch of honey however that can make it a bit sweet. Dill works best with the flavor but you could also use rosemary and oregano too. Think about making salmon croquettes if you want to get the kids on board. These are a mix of  canned salmon along with flour and panko bread crumbs for body. Bell peppers, garlic and salt give it flavor. Mayonnaise provides moisture as does eggs. You can add Worcestershire sauce and cilantro for zing and color.It's then cooking them in olive or avocado oil as you would hamburgers. You can also make these in an air fryer .You can also go with a favorite - cod too.It can be prepared as the other. It's the basis of fish and chips which is an easy make ,especially if you use an air fryer. They're also good shredded in tacos too.

You can also try your hand at bean dishes too for Lenten Friday suppers.Bean tacos can be a tasty change up. You can do a mix of black and kidney beans for a more flavorful filling. They can be good cold or warmed in the microwave. Top with Greek yogurt , lettuce tomatoes and homemade guacamole for a substantial meal. Beans also work in a burrito too. Anyone can copy Taco Bells' recipe for it. The filling is a mix of red kidney beans, finely chopped onions and tomato sauce. Garlic salt and cumin are added for flavor while shredded Cheddar or American cheese adds creaminess to the texture What gives it that tang? Two teaspoons of  red wine vinegar. It's then mashed and spooned into microwave warmed tortillas. You could added chopped tomato and avocado slices to imitate Taco Bell's Grande version. You can also use this for tacos too. Another idea is using vegan "beef"crumbles for this too. Plant based "meats' are the rage right now. You can easily make a meatloaf  using Beyond Beef , complete with a mushroom gravy. Gardein has a wide variety of plant based meats, including cod filets and crab cakes.

Lenten Friday may actually help you and your family in eating healthier. Try a meatless meal one day a week then ramp it up to two or three. You'll still eat delicious but also better.

No Meat Allowed Barbecue

 It's easier than ever to have a vegan barbecue these days. Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat make it possible along with some Morningstar Farm products.These are a healthy alternative to the real thing.

Beyond Meat and Impossible Meat have patties that taste just as beefy as any animal based hamburger. If you want to jazz them up a bit then dusr both sides with onion powder before grilling.This brings to mind our mothers and grandmothers; recipes that combined  ground beef with minced onions.  You could also try a dusting of chili powder to give them heat.For those dog lovers , try Morningstar Farms hot dogs. Brush with olive oil or melted I Can't Believe It's Not Butter for a crisper skin. Also think about adding Miyoko's vegan Shredded Cheddar along with chili sauce for an over the hot dog. Use the cheese on the burgers too for a tasty good for you cheeseburger.

Nowadays it's easy to have a meat free barbecue. There are so many plant based products to make this happen. Try them for a healthier grilling experience.

Ground Beef Versatility

 One of the most versatile ingredients is ground beef, whether the real thing or plant based. It can be made into everything and anything. You can make it plain or fancy, depending on your tastes and what you want to do.

One of the easiest dishes to make with ground beef is hamburger. Many home chefs have very definite ideas about the perfect patty with the perfect taste. For a simple one it's just mixing ground beef or even turkey  with one egg and breadcrumbs for the most perfect and juiciest burger. A flavorful add in is a tablespoon or two of chopped onion. For more flavor saute the chopped onion in butter or I Can't Begin It's Butter.if you want something different, spike up the patties with hot pepper flakes or chili powder. Keep in mind you can also add these when you use the ground beef for meat loaf. Some like to have this American classic with zing whether it's a teaspoon or two of chili powder or flakes.Again the basic recipe is somewhat similar to hamburger patties. It's combining egg, meat and breadcrumbs  with the addition of a cup of milk. Recipes vary here too, with the addition of brown sugar and ketchup. Then there's the question of adding a glaze or not and what kind. Vegans will appreciate a loaf made of Beyond Beef. This is a delicious mix of the plant based meat with fishless  Worcester sauce and breadcrumbs. Onion and garlic powder give it some oomph too.

Ground beef is also the backbone of many other dishes too. You can make a delicious Bolognese sauce with it or with soy crumbles. Both Morningstar Farms and Gardein have the last and it makes for a tasty faux Bolognese.The sauce is a hearty version that works well with any kind of pasta and ravioli.It also freezes and reheats well too. Of course any meat crumbles are great in chili. It makes this fun dish hearty , especially when you add a few different kinds of beans. You could even sub in quartered hamburgers too in this for a filling winter supper. Again chili is up for interpretation. it can be mild or made four alarm , depending on what you or your family likes. Ground beef or vegan crumbles make the perfect filling for burritos and tacos too. Again you can add what you want to it for these. Chili powder give it some zing along with taco mix spicing (which you can buy in your spice aisle) or in your grocery's Mexican food section. Ground beef is also great in Chinese dishes. The famed Szechuan dish Ants Climbing A Tree is a delicious marriage of ground beef, chopped scallions, garlic and rice noodles.Pepper flakes give it bite  as everything is sauteed in a mix of olive and vegetable oil.

Ground beef and its' vegan version soy crumbles are incredibly versatile. Have it in patties or in sauce. Try it in Mexican or Chinese dishes. It gives any home chef a wide range of options and variety.

A Good Old Fashioned Sunday Meal

Is it still possible to carry on with traditional cooking during these times. Yes. You can put a relatively traditional Sunday dinner on the table. It does take planning and smart shopping yet worth it. Nothing is as calming as a proper meal together.

It may be hard to get some main course meats, thanks to meat  processing plants being rife with Coronavirus breakouts .Many poultry plants have closed throughout the US and production is down twenty-five percent throughout all plants that even process beef and pork. Now the best bet is to do what our grandparents and great-grandparents did  - buy locally sourced meat at local farms. If you're wondering where to go , visit the website Eatwild.com and click on your state. The site will give you the names and directions of farms near you where you can get the main course for your Sunday meal. If the farms are too far away, there is always the vegan alternative. Gardein has excellent turkey cutlets that taste like the real thing. The plus comes with a sage infused gravy that's heated and poured over the cutlets later.Beyond Meat has a kind of chopped meat called Beyond Beef that could be fashioned into a Beef Wellington. Add a mushroom gravy to it for extra flavor. Another vegan idea is a plain risotto that can be flavored with anything from chopped veggies, saffron or just butter and Parmesan.

As for sides, these are a little easier to find and cook. Asparagus is a Spring staple right now and it is the perfect accompaniment. You can grill it for a smoky, sweet flavor or just boil it for a few minutes for a fresh green taste. Then there's the sauce . You could do just a simple melted butter with sliced hard boiled eggs and Parmesan cheese on top of the stalks.  A lusher sauce is Hollandaise. This easy to make one is simply a combination of egg yolks or yolk substitute. melted butter, lemon juice and Dijon mustard. It elevates the asparagus to a sophisticated level. If you're into foraging then think about a dish of wild ramps. This is an onion , grown in the wild and has the tangy taste of shallots and garlic combined. They are best grilled with only olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Ramps can be added to risotto for a different kind of side dish.A light dish is a salad made of grilled peppers. Different colored bell peppers can be grilled and dressed with a garlicky balsamic dressing. Another lovely Sunday side dish is tomatoes Provencale, sliced tomatoes topped with breadcrumbs and sauteed in a garlic infused butter and oil sauce.

These times call for tradition and comfort. A Sunday dinner is just that. Create a sit down meal that's a bit more elevated than the average one.

Real Recipes Fake Meat

Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers are truly taking the country by storm. They're all over , from our supermarkets to our fast food joints. Now one chef and food scientist tackles recipes involving them, making these beef substitutes even more desirable. Home chefs will love them.

J Kenji Lopez-Alt, food scientist and creator of the trendy restaurant , Wursthall, wrote about his attempts and observations for today's New York Times Food section. Chef Lopez-Alt did a lot of testing. In fact, in the last two years his team has tested thousands of pounds of the faux beef. His first instinct was to use techniques he uses on beef such as smashing. This is taking meat balls and then pressing them on a hot griddle. It's done by using a stiff spatula, letting them sizzle for a minute for a minute or so. The patty is then scraped off using a razor fitted wallpaper remover. It cooked well, as the Maillard effect came into being. The only problem? The taste. There was none along with the juiciness. I've never had this problem, cooking them on a small grill, for two to three minutes on each side. It may be that I also use a good amount of either I Can't Believe It's Not Butter or real butter. Chef Lopez-Alt narrows it down to this : burgers are flavorful and juicy thanks to fat and fat soluble organic compounds. The beef fat melts contributing to the sizzle and the moist inside.Coconut oil is the main fat in the Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers and it cooks out quickly. It leaves them dry (???) and vegetal tasting.

One interesting experiment Chef Lopez-Alt was cooking fifteen blocks of the Impossible meat on a vertical rotisserie in the style of the Turkish doner kebab, a street food popular  throughout most of Europe and, extremely well liked in Germany and Scandinavia. The meat is seasoned with garlic, oregano, chilis along with sumac, often used in Turkish cooking. The meat is molded into a classic cone shape and threaded on a rotisserie spit and rotated slowly in front of a flame. It worked up to a point, when the meat sloughed off the spit. Yet the sandwiches made with it were delicious served with sumac seasoned onions, tomatoes and arugula, There was the sauce, that went with it, a combination of yogurt and garlic. Chef Lopez-Alt also cooks with the crumbles , the ground version of these burgers and is satisfied with the results.It's excellent in creating such Asian dishes as dan dan noodles and mapo tofu. I'm making a variation of the first tomorrow using Morning Star Farms crumbles which I know, from experience is always delicious and meaty.  The recipes given are a vegan cheese burger and a vegan chili which Chef Lopez-Alt fires up with a mix of ancho chilies, New Mexico and California ones. He also includes the Turkish kebab one where Beyond meat is refashioned into logs and fried in either grape seed or canola oil. He also gives the recipe for the sumac onions and the spicy dressing too.

Will Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers replace real beef? Hopefully, but don't count on it. There's a lot you can do with them, but they're still not the real thing. There's will always be a need for the real thing no matter how the fake meat industry improves its' product.

Beyond Burgers Beyond Good

Recently there is a lot of buzz around Beyond Burgers. This next level of the classic veggie burger takes the food one step further - with real beef texture and taste. Is it true? Yes! It does taste, look and feel like the real thing.

I didn't set out to buy this latest craze in vegan eating.I had gone into my local Acme - which is rare -to pick up much needed Liquid Plumr (thanks to a dodgy bathroom sink).I did need something for dinner that night. The easiest choice was Gardein if Acme had it. However the Beyond Burger  pack caught my eye. I had to try  them.The patties are packaged the same as regular beef and turkey burgers in a yellow plastic tray with a clear wrap covering them. A quick glance and you wouldn't know the difference between them and the regular sort. The price is a bit steep - six dollars for a pack of two. Gardein's - my usual go to ,is only $4.99 for a pack of four. Morningstar Farms is $5.49 for a four pack.  I don't think Beyond Burger will be featured at any of my barbecues this summer. Even for a small party of five that's a pack per person which translates into $30 for the main course! Beyond Burgers will be only for very small get togethers  I'm thinking of turning the patties into Salisbury steaks with homemade mushroom gravy for Christmas. (a long way off, I know). They will be gracing a birthday party of three soon too.

Are they worth the price? Absolutely yes. You do get more meat, Each patty has the thickness of a quarter pounder.  I wish I had taken pictures of this  to show their meatiness. They fry up easily on an stove top grill- only taking about six minutes on both sides. The outside was a deep beefy brown  with the typical crispy exterior.The inside was tender and pink - the perfect burger. The taste was exactly the same as a regular beef patty  with a rich unami, mineral flavor. There's even a juiciness to it. What is this wonder burger made from? There's no soy or gluten in it. Surprisingly it's pea protein isolate that is it's base along with canola and coconut oils. Pea protein may sound new but it's been used for years in protein shakes and can add in muscle gain and weight loss.It also gives a feeling of fullness. To be honest eating just one was quite filling. Adding a bun, along with onions, lettuce and tomato would be too much. I'm looking forward to trying  their Beyond Sausage brats along with incorporating their crumbles into my homemade tomato sauce and chili.

Don't be on the fence about trying Beyond Burger. You'll be missing out on one of the greatest meatless products. Try it, You'll forget about beef with one bite.