Toast on the Coast

Two decades ago I worked in Century City, a rather highbrow section of Los Angeles. Specifically, I worked in the Century Plaza Towers, two triangular skyscrapers that were, at the time, the focal point of Century City, and all the entertainment and investment firms based there.

One could imagine there were a number of upscale restaurants around the Plaza Towers, and often my colleagues would organize a luncheon outing. Twenty years ago being a vegetarian wasn't anywhere near as common as it is now, even in Los Angeles. So I was quite the challenge to include in the daily forage. (Imagine if I'd been vegan back then!)

We'd go to restaurants that featured "healthy fare" like the club sandwich (a double-decker construction with both pig and turkey) or avocado halves stuffed with tuna salad, and I'd still be reduced to begging for a grilled cheese sandwich with fries.

I hadn't thought about those days in a very long time, but as I look at the meals I made today, I'm reminded of that time.

For lunch today, I was considering what to do with the heirloom tomatoes ripening in my garden, along with the various sandwich fixings I had. So I decided to make a truly healthy club. I used Smart Bacon and Hickory Smoked Tofurky Deli Slices for the protein component, and layered those along with my homegrown tomatoes and organic red-leaf lettuce onto three slices of toasted 12-grain bread dressed with Vegenaise. Along with the sandwich, I enjoyed several of my heirloom cherry tomatoes with a dressing of salt, pepper, and some olive oil.

A successful club sandwich is determined by the assembly: toast, spread, lettuce, tomato, bacon, turkey, toast, spread, lettuce, tomato, bacon, turkey, then finish with lettuce, spread, and toast.

For dinner, I made faux tuna salad (recipe below) and served that in avocado halves. The "tuna" salad is made with mashed garbanzo beans, and gets its "ocean" taste from large helpings of nori flake. Onion, celery, and Vegenaise reinforce the resemblance to the original dish.

I got the recipe from the fine folks at VegNews magazine, who included it in one of their monthly newsletters.

30 ounces (two cans) garbanzo beans, drained
¼ cup red onion, finely chopped
½ cup celery, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon garlic, minced
¼ cup dill pickle, finely chopped
2 tablespoons nori flakes
1 cup vegan mayonnaise
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans, then mash them in a bowl. Then fold in all the other ingredients.

Yes it's a simple recipe, and to make it even simpler I have the following recommendations:

• Use a potato masher to smash the beans.
• Use minced garlic from a jar. (For this dish you'll never be able to tell.)
• Use dill pickle relish instead of chopping pickles.

Unlike other recipes where I automatically reduce the amount of salt, for this one use the full measure, if not a pinch more. And I add a teaspoon or so of canola oil to the beans; it makes them easier to mash and better mimics the moistness of tuna.

The best part of these strolls down culinary memory lane? The vegan versions are healthier, more humane, and eminently satisfying.

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Toast on the Coast	Song by The Toasters

Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather.

A month ago I potted some plants, including cilantro. Normally I don't do well with plants, but I've been making an effort to keep these watered.

Well tonight I made a batch of salsa and thus had occasion to harvest some of my flourishing herb. I'm amazed at how much the cilantro has grown in just a month; here's a shot of the plant after I cut about a half-a-bunch's worth off the bottom. It's already two feet tall, and showing no signs of slowing down.

The cilantro was the perfect touch in a batch of restaurant-style salsa, giving it a fresh snap of flavor. The salsa's easy to make and the secret, taught to me years ago by my buddy, Tony, is to parboil the tomatoes and jalapeños before blending. This keeps them from turning rancid in a couple of days, and keeps the salsa from becoming too watery.

Tonight, for instance, I parboiled two roma tomatoes and three jalapeño peppers. (Use roma tomatoes as they have less pulp, once again helping avoid watery salsa.) Don't let the water come to an actual boil, and stop when the tomato skins peal. For an added depth of flavor, I add a handful of peppercorns to the water.

While the produce was parboiling, I stripped the leaves off the half-bunch of cilantro and put them in the food processor. Then I pulled the tomatoes and jalapeños out of the peppered hot water and put them in the processor. Next I poured in a 15-ounce can of "fire-roasted" crushed tomatoes — yep, that's why there were only two fresh tomatoes. I like to use a mix of fresh and canned, and the roasted ones have a nice smoky note. Finally I added about a quarter-teaspoon of chopped garlic (just used the stuff in a jar if you have it) and some salt and pepper.

Pulse until it looks like what you want: not too chunky and not soup. This particular ratio turned out great, with a bit of heat but not too much. I mushed up an avocado and added three spoonfuls of salsa for a quick-and-dirty guacamole, which made a fine dinner accompanied by blue-corn chips and paired with a 2005 Beaujolais Villages.

Oh, and not that I wanted to turn this blog into some sort of HGTV special, but since I mentioned my recent gardening efforts, I figured an update on the poppies is in order. As shown in the picture, the California poppies I potted a month ago are now in glorious bloom! Each pot is thriving and they seem to take turns bursting forth with flowers. Which reminds me...they're probably due for some water...

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"Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather."	Lyric from the song Scarborough Fair/Canticle by Simon and Garfunkel

Sea Cruise

One of my best friends in Santa Cruz is about to take a gig aboard a cruise ship (the Grand Princess) as part of the orchestra. As I hadn't seen Rob for a long time I wanted to be sure we got together before he shipped out, so I invited him and his boyfriend Stuart over for dinner. Plus, I've been eager to make some real food in my new kitchen.

We had quite the feast: Caesar Salad with Baked Tofu, Whole-Wheat Penne and Roasted Asparagus with Blood Orange Gremolata, and Rosemary Foccacia. All of it organic, of course, and the asparagus was from a nearby farm in Hollister.

For dessert I made a Strawberry-Red Pear Tart with Coconut-Lavender Anglaise Sauce, based on recipes from my all-time favorite restaurant, Millennium.

The tart recipe calls for rhubarb, but I couldn't find any locally since it's early in the season. So I substituted some large red anjou pears and they worked beautifully. The crust is a fantastic pastry dough with toasted walnuts; it's very forgiving and thus easy to work with, and it's so flavorful versus a plain crust. I filled a 10" tart pan so there was plenty left over after we each had a generous slice.

For parings, we started with Bonny Doon's 2005 "Il Giocoliere" Moscato d'Asti as an apertif then moved to their 2005 Vin Gris de Cigare with the salad. With the pasta we had a La Loggia 2002 Barolo.

Everyone enjoyed dinner, and it was good to catch up with Rob and Stuart.

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Sea Cruise	Song by Rico

And blood did come forth out of the wine-press...

So now I've a new reason to hate Southwest Airlines.

Sure there's the usual litany: their steadfast refusal to assign seats, the cattle-drive loading process, a haphazard approach to cabin cleaning, the constant rough landings (which I've christened "The Southwest Slam"), et cetera, et cetera.

But on yesterday's flight I clearly saw their rabid anti-vegan streak. It starts with the seats, unnecessarily clad in leather. Then my three-hour flight came with a snack box: three items, each containing animal-based ingredients. And the topper, when I went to the restroom to wash the cabin filth off my hands, I'm confronted with lanolin in the soap. It's bad enough that I have to sit on dried bovine skin, and go hungry because Southwest can't bother to offer food without components of sentient beings in it, but now I can't even adequately clean my hands without soiling my karma.

What other gratuitous use of animal products can they find? Perhaps they'll start crushing puppies in the galley. You know, to add a little kick to the tomato juice.

Well I Appreciate the Effort, Anyway.

As a vegan, naturally I've found there are some food items I've had to willfully shun. But there are many, many more that I have been able to reject without much of a second thought. As a hardcore fan of rich, dark chocolate, I can't say I've ever really missed milk chocolate since becoming vegan.

Last time I was at Trader Joe's, however, I noticed a new product: a vegan "milk" chocolate bar (or "chocolaty bar" as they call it, no doubt to comply with U.S. food label laws) made with rice milk. It's imported from Switzerland, a country that's known for some good chocolate, so I figured I'd give it a try. I've noticed TJ's has been aggressively labeling their non-animal-product items as vegan, including this chocolate bar, and I like to show my appreciation by buying said items. After all, they are a for-profit organization so I figure financial encouragement goes further than just standing in the middle of the store thinking good thoughts then putting items back on the shelf. Plus the bar was touted as a good source of calcium (achieved by adding calcium chloride to it), and adequate calcium intake is something about which all vegans should be mindful.

So I bought one, brought it home, and had at it.

It's not bad. It certainly has more of the creamy flavor of milk chocolate, but it's no Hershey bar. I'm probably not the best judge, though, given my fondness for dark chocolate. Can't say I'd buy it again. The chocolate flavor is nowhere near as strong as I'd like, the texture is too waxy, and the rice milk flavor is stronger than I thought it would be.

That said, if you're one of those unfathomable freaks who actually prefers milk chocolate over dark, yet are forgoing dairy for some reason, you might want to check out this product.

Oh, I suppose it's possible this bar might blend more easily into a liquid, say for making a vegan hot chocolate drink. Perhaps I'll try that with the remainder. But for chocolate indulgence, I'll be sticking with the sublime beauty that is the Scharffen Berger 60%, also available at Trader Joe's.