Feliz Cinco de Beltaine!
Today, we ended up at a party at a friend's house. She said in her email that, in honor of the combined Celtic/Latino heritage of more than one of the attendees, she wanted to have a sort of Cinco de Mayo/Beltaine party. A Cinco de Beltaine party, if you will.
The Pirate and I decided to extend the theme to the dinner and make our contribution a vegan haggis mole.
The Pirate described haggis to me as a sheep covered in oats and turned inside out. So...how does that translate to something not only vegan but also something that would go well with mole?
Or original thought was that we would use wheat gluten, which comes in big sheets, and wrap different flavors and textures of tofu in it, along with some oats. For the tofu and wheat gluten, we headed to 99 Ranch Market and got some nice baked tofu and some fried puffed tofu. We couldn't find any wheat gluten sheets, but instead we found bean curd sheets that looked even better.
I looked at rolled oats, and just couldn't imagine that it would work. I thought instead of steel-cut oats, but once we got to Whole Foods, I thought that I'd go all the way - GROATS.
I wanted to test-drive cooking the groats, so I made them for breakfast. I put a cup of groats into three cups of water and let them soak overnight, then lit the fire under them and let them go. It took them the better part of three quarters of an hour to fully cook. I put a handful of giant raisins in, and let them stew along with the groats. The result was not the glutinous mess of porridge, but a bowl of delicious, nutty separate grains with a little pop to them. It was substantial and fabulous.
I had put the groats for the haggis in to soak as well, and decided to stew them with onions and garlic. Just at the end, the Pirate put a little oregano in and it was delicious Then I cut the tofu into manageable pieces and mixed it into the groat and onion stew. I laid out the sheets of bean curd and scooped the tofu mixture into them, then rolled them up and tied off the ends - VOILA! Vegan haggis.
For the mole, we just used Doña Maria's Mole and doctored it a little with some pomegranate molasses. Once the haggises were rolled up and tied off, we covered them in mole and baked them until it was all hot, but upon reflection, I think that the next time, we should try boiling them. In the oven, the bean curd skin got a little tough and was hard to cut. But the filling was just delish! And it mole went GREAT with the whole thing.
And all that on two burners and with no electricity. YAY!
The Pirate and I decided to extend the theme to the dinner and make our contribution a vegan haggis mole.
The Pirate described haggis to me as a sheep covered in oats and turned inside out. So...how does that translate to something not only vegan but also something that would go well with mole?
Or original thought was that we would use wheat gluten, which comes in big sheets, and wrap different flavors and textures of tofu in it, along with some oats. For the tofu and wheat gluten, we headed to 99 Ranch Market and got some nice baked tofu and some fried puffed tofu. We couldn't find any wheat gluten sheets, but instead we found bean curd sheets that looked even better.
I looked at rolled oats, and just couldn't imagine that it would work. I thought instead of steel-cut oats, but once we got to Whole Foods, I thought that I'd go all the way - GROATS.
I wanted to test-drive cooking the groats, so I made them for breakfast. I put a cup of groats into three cups of water and let them soak overnight, then lit the fire under them and let them go. It took them the better part of three quarters of an hour to fully cook. I put a handful of giant raisins in, and let them stew along with the groats. The result was not the glutinous mess of porridge, but a bowl of delicious, nutty separate grains with a little pop to them. It was substantial and fabulous.
I had put the groats for the haggis in to soak as well, and decided to stew them with onions and garlic. Just at the end, the Pirate put a little oregano in and it was delicious Then I cut the tofu into manageable pieces and mixed it into the groat and onion stew. I laid out the sheets of bean curd and scooped the tofu mixture into them, then rolled them up and tied off the ends - VOILA! Vegan haggis.
For the mole, we just used Doña Maria's Mole and doctored it a little with some pomegranate molasses. Once the haggises were rolled up and tied off, we covered them in mole and baked them until it was all hot, but upon reflection, I think that the next time, we should try boiling them. In the oven, the bean curd skin got a little tough and was hard to cut. But the filling was just delish! And it mole went GREAT with the whole thing.
And all that on two burners and with no electricity. YAY!
posted by Aoibheall | 10:43 PM
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