Mango-Chipotle BBQ Sauce

So I've been on vacation (both mentally and physically) for a while, and apparently that meant a vacation from my blogging for much longer. It's amazing how easily we slip into other habits...

At any rate, I'm home and blogging and cooking and will be inundating you with recipes, ideas, pictures, opinions and trivia about my boring vegan life and family. Stay tuned (if you dare).

As for today? Well, my youngest 'Sprout' is home sick on the couch with ginger tea and a snuggly blankie, so that means a stay-home day for Mom as well... Might as well make it useful..... Since I've been hit with just a touch of the Spring Cleaning bug, it's "Clean-Out-The-Freezer" week here in the Fairly Odd kitchen, and I'm discovering all manner of interesting ingredients I need to use soon, or break down and just toss them - which I really hate doing. Too many memories of an empty freezer and 'fridge (and pocket-book) have made me very resistant to wasting ANY food, if possible.

So today, one of those "use or toss" is a 1/2 bag of frozen slightly freezer-burned mango-peach-pineapple chunks, presumably for smoothies. And ordinarily I would use these in a smoothie or two, but the excess ice-build-up leaves a bit too much "stale-freezer" taste for my picky palate. (Too much info?) Not to worry, a bit of frost on the mango doesn't HURT anyone, just a taste thing - cooking seems to remedy this, though I don't know any cooked-fruit smoothie recipes, so I had to get creative. Thus; Mango-Chipotle BBQ Sauce was born! I invented this last fall with another half-used bag of fruit, you'd think I'd learn!!Anyway, we liked this so much we've made it twice, with slightly different variations. I think my kids would drink it straight if I let them!

This recipe is actually a variation on a Peach-Chipotle BBQ sauce I've had around for ages. The mango-pineapple blend works perfectly and I may just make it this way from now on.

Mango-Chipotle BBQ Sauce

• 1 1/2 cups mango chunks, (or pineapple, peach or nectarine) peeled, pitted and roughly chopped
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo, plus 1 tablespoon adobo sauce (these come in a can around here - use whatever equivalent of something spicy that you have available - Sriracha sauce even works! )
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup liquid: apple or orange juice, water or white wine
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon smoked sweet paprika (I use more because the stuff is like crack, but use what works for you, or leave it out if you can't find it, which would be sad)
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 1/2 cup cilantro (no need to chop, the food processor will get it)
• 1/4 of a red onion, chopped small enough to fit in food processor

Blend all ingredients except cilantro and red onion in food processor until smooth. Simmer on low for about 1/2 hour stirring and adding liquid (apple juice, water or white wine) as needed to keep it from getting too thick. Chop cilantro and red onion in bowl of food processor until finely minced. Stir into warm sauce.

Keeps in fridge for several weeks, longer in the freezer (but then you're right back where you started, with something ELSE you need to use from your freezer.)

To use:
If you're using tofu, freeze firm tofu over night, thaw, press liquid out for several hours and then marinate in sauce.
Place on panini grill, BBQ or in oven and cook until done to your liking, adding more sauce as needed if on the BBQ or in the oven.
If using seitan or other mock meat products, place on grill or baking sheet and brush frequently with sauce or simmer chunks of whatever you like in the sauce - on the stove-top or in oven.

**Picture is of Gardein chunks simmered in the sauce until it got very dark and thick.

Serve with more sauce on the side.

AWESOME with Sweet Potato Fries!!

Vegan Goodies Package Exchange / Chipotle Spanish Rice

Over at VeggieBoards, the Internet Vegetarian/Vegan Discussion Forum I belong to; we have several package exchanges throughout the year.

Members in good standing, exchange boxes of fun vegan stuff with each other through the mail, and then share photos and amazement as we unwrap our surprises. It's rather like Christmas, really!

I don't always participate, but decided on a whim, to add my name to the list for this fall's Vegan Goody Exchange. And I am so glad I did.

My package was from the far-away deserts of Arizona, and completely STUFFED with awesomeness! (See the picture!!) It's always fun to sample things from different parts of the country and this package seemed tailor-made for me, my Sprouts and our spicy tastes!

Spicy nuts, seasonings, spices, chiles, jalapeno jelly, chipotle olives, spicy chocolate, wasabi peas - crazy good!! And check out the darling fleece underneath the goodies. Yes, my sender MADE me a blanket and included that as well. Oh, and sunshine-yellow potholders too! Talk about royal treatment!!

As you can see, my youngest Sprout dug into the chipotle olives before we had the package unwrapped all the way, she's that big an olive/spicy-foods fan!! Can't blame her, they were amazing!!

So how to use some of this bounty of spicy-chile-loveliness in some of our meals?

I decided on a chipotle-pepper seasoned Spanish rice and threw in some Field Roast (also Chipotle flavored) sausage and zucchini. It made the most incredible burritos we've had in ages.

And since the Field Roast sausages are a bit spendy, and thus, a special treat in this household, it stretched two of them into at least five large servings. An extra bonus!! Totally have to repeat this meal again VERY soon!!! Please don't tell me this is unauthentic, not-Mexican, not-Spanish, not-burritos. It was good.

Spicy Spanish Rice with Field Roast Mexican Chipotle Grain Sausage

• 4 cups cooked rice - cooked with three dried chipotle peppers in the cooking water (did that in my rice cooker and the rice got all smoky-spicy-orange-ish tinged)
  
  
• 2 Field Roast Mexican Chipotle Grain Sausage, crumbled
• 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 2 small zucchini (about the same size as the sausage) cut in medium chunks
• 1/2 a yellow onion, chopped small
  
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup sliced green pimento-filled Spanish olives (or in our case, Chipotle Spanish Olives! OH YUM!)

In a large skillet/wok, stir-fry the sausage, zucchini and onion in oil until vegetables are cooked. Add the chipotle peppers from the rice and mash around with:

• 1/2 cup water or white wine
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce (or salsa)

Add rice to the pan, and stir vegetables/sausage into rice until everything is nicely incorporated and heated through, if too moist, leave over heat for a bit longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir in green olives.

Serve wrapped in warm flour tortillas, with avocados on the side, if you like.

Happy Weekend Chipotle Tofu-Scramble

Hopefully many of you are enjoying the sun and a day or two off from your busy routine.

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Brunch/breakfast this morning took on a Tex-Mex sorta theme with "Cheezy" Chipotle Tofu Scramble, roasted tomato salsa and some "bacon-like" homemade seitan.

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The tofu is a little more detailed than my everyday throw-in-the-pan scramble, but my kids love the "cheezy-spicy-smokey" combination a lot.
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Cheesy Chipotle Tofu Scramble

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp garlic powder (I use more)
1 tsp. Soy Sauce
1 cup soymilk
1 tsp. cheap yellow mustard
1 Tbsp. margarine
1/2 an onion, chopped
1/2 a green or red bell pepper, minced
1 pkg. medium firm tofu, drained and crumbled
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp India Black Salt (for "eggy" flavor)
1/4 tsp liquid smoke or Bacon Salt
Chipotle pepper sauce, amount used depends on the brand and your preferences
1/4 tsp cayenne
Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Make the 'cheezy' sauce: In a medium sauce pan combine the first 5 ingredients. Heat the mixture over medium heat until thick and bubbly.
Remove from heat. Stir in the mustard and butter until combined and the butter is melted. Set aside. (This is also great in mac-n-cheese, etc...)
In a separate pan heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat and then add your crumbled tofu.
Let it cook without turning a lot until you start to get some browned bits... add chopped onion and bell pepper.
Cook until tender and onions are mostly transparent. Set aside.
Add the turmeric, smoke flavor, black salt, chipotle, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper and the cheese sauce. (The cayenne pepper is optional!)
Continue cooking over medium heat for a few minutes until everything is heated through. Serve alone, with tortillas or on toast! (I think some black beans and corn would have been AWESOME here too!!)

The roasted tomato salsa was just something from a jar but very tasty and a perfect compliment; the "seitan bacon" is THIS RECIPE HERE from "The Vegan Cooking Club" blog, (though I didn't layer everything to make it LOOK all streaked and bacon-y) ... so while it may not look like bacon, it still tastes good!

Other "long weekend" activities today have included tackling the big horrible jungle of a back yard (finally) in hopes of starting a small garden.
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(Yes, there are raised garden beds back there somewhere near my daughter and the weed wacker...).

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I also scored at a garage sale with a HUGE box of Hotwheels for my youngest Sprout. She was so excited she said I HAD to post a picture, so there you go.

I'm off to take my Middle Sprout to work for a caterer tonight; this is her first time and she'll be serving at a wedding, she's excited and I'm so proud of her (though she wasn't entirely thrilled with the uniform white-shirt-black-pants ensemble... ("So formal and boring, Mom!!"). Pictures to follow!!

Have a great rest of your weekend!!

Rambling About Fajitas

I used to ramble on randomly, about my kitchen and family and foodie adventures - a lot more than I do now. Lately I've noticed my posts have become a rushed, "slam-bam-here's-the-recipe-ma'am" sort of thing. And to most of you poor readers, that's probably a good thing (just the fact's please, ma'am!!); but tonight I slowed down just a bit. I have no specific recipe and my cooking took a rather rambling turn, so that's what you get.

Around here, Friday is "Mexican Food" night; a weekly supper tradition started when the girls were little and their Dad cooked awesome and loaded nacho platters of cheesey insanity; I do have to give him credit there, they were good. But diets, ethics, relationships and the rest of life changes and evolves. These days, I do the Friday night (and every other night) cooking and it's usually enchiladas, tamales or tacos.

So, tonight, my youngest suggested fajitas. She'd been begging me to use the Field Roast Mexican Chipotle sausages I had stashed in the freezer. According to her, they're her favorite thing in the world and it wasn't FAIR to see them sitting in the freezer every time she opened the door and we needed to use them because they'd been there FOREVER. Well, things don't need to be quite as dramatic as all that, but it was a good suggestion, and as you'll see, her idea had DELICIOUS results.

Wow. Can I just say these were just INCREDIBLY yummy! No exact recipe, but I do think we stumbled on the perfect blend of spices and veggies.
I'll definitely do these again - (when I can afford the sausages, which isn't often, sadly. Yes, I tried making my own seitan Chipotle/Chorizo-style sausage, and while I love it, I just cannot duplicate the same flavor or texture as the fine folks at Field Roast, which is why they own a faux meat company and I don't...)

But I digress...
We cut 2 sausages into strips (which sorta crumbled, but my daghter specifically wanted "strips" I don't know why...) and fried (yes, I said FRIED, deal with it or substitute the word "saute" if it makes you feel more virtous) in a non-stick pan with strips of veggies;
1/2 an onion,
1 zucchini,
1 red bell pepper,
1 medium carrot, sliced paper thin so it cooks quickly
minced garlic and some tomatoes.

Have your pan HOT and throw everything in, stir gently until tender-crisp and browned in a few spots. No oil needed, the veggies and sausages have enough liquid. (So maybe that IS sauteeing instead of frying? Nevermind.)
You can use any vegetarian meaty thing you want here, but you may need to add spices and seasonings to taste, unlike with the Field Roast sausages.
Add the tomatoes at the last, just let them soften a bit, and for heaven's sake, don't let the sausage get dried out, you paid too damn much to let it do that!! (Add a little tomato sauce or even broth if needed, but not so much that you make a sloppy mess).

Serve in warm, flour tortillas with some vegan sour cream and/or guacamole (not pictured here because my youngest isn't a fan of the guac and this was HER idea, after all).

Individual Sweet and Smoky Chipotle Corn Custards

No. I do not cook like this all the time! This is for the "Veggie Boards IronChef Competition". (Read all about it here).

Sweet And Smoky Chipotle Corn Custards

2 Tbsp. vegan margarine

3 Tbsp. silken tofu

1 Tbsp. En-R-G Egg replacer

1 whole canned chipotle pepper (1 pepper, not one whole can!! Less if you don't have a tolerance for spices.)

1/4 cup Soy Milk

1 can of creamed-style corn (yes, most are vegan)

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

2 Tbsp organic sugar

1 sheet pie-crust dough (I used store bought, though homemade is fine!)

Pre-heat oven to 375.

Melt margarine and set aside.

Blend all other ingredients except corn in food processor. Stir in corn and 1/2 of margarine.

Cut pie pastry dough into square that will fit custard cups or ramekins (I used 1-cup size straight-sided bowls, you might want to go smaller).

Press into cup, trim top evenly (I used scissors) and brush with melted margarine. Fill almost full with custard. Tap cup on counter to help ingredients settle and top of filling smooth out.

Bake for 35 - 40 min. until custard is set and cup is browned. (Less if the cup is smaller).

If it starts to brown too much, cover them with foil. Bake until custard is set up and not "jiggly".

Remove from oven.

Let cool for 15 min or until you can handle them. Remove from pan and set on baking sheet.

Pop back in the oven for 10 minutes or so to brown crust if needed (Or yours may brown OK, I had a non-stick pan so mine was pale and anaemic... I also tied a little bit of corn husk around as a decoration and because I was afraid it would collapse.

Let stand 5 min and serve.

Makes 2 (well, sorta 2 and a 1/2, I had a little filling left over).

<-- This is the canned chipotle I used.