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Some of you may have read about my 100 club challenge at work which I have now hit and am going to RHR in May if it can be booked However one of my colleagues is due to hit her 100 Club soon and is looking for advice on Fish or Vegetarian restaurants in the UK, probably London as it helps make a weekend of things! Rick Stein has been discounted as just been a little too far to travel! Any advice please?

Shrimp Paste Wrapped in Bean Curd Sheets (鮮蝦腐皮卷) I bought some shrimp paste (ground shrimp) from a local Asian grocery store. One of the best ways to cook it is to wrap them in bean curd sheets and fry them or fry-then-steam them. You can make your own shrimp paste. Simply shell the shrimp, devine, and put them in a food processor. Grind for 1 minute or so. You can find this dish as a dim sum item in dim-sum restaurants. The ones that are steamed typically have ground pork as fillings. If you like a vegetarian version, you may use reconstituted black mushrooms mixed with shredded bamboo shoots and bean sprouts as fillings. There are different types (different grades) of bean curd sheets. The best ones are fresh (not dried) and are kept in the refrigerator/freezer section in the Asian grocery stores. In Cantonese, they are called seen jook. They are soft to the touch and very flexible. In my opinion, they taste the best. The second best ones are dried and sold in a plastic package. In Cantonese, they are called foo jook. In dried form, they are very brittle. They need to be soaked in water briefly before use. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 2 to 3 Preparations: Main ingredients (from lower-right, clockwise): - 1 lb of packed shrimp paste (or have about 1 1/2 lb of shrimp with shells, shell them and grind your own) - 1 stalk of green onion - 1 pack of dried bean curd sheets (or "tofo skin"). This pack was loosely translated as "beadcurd sticks"). Use 4 sheets. (Need to divide each sheet in half) - (not shown) 1 chicken egg The shrimp paste (ground shrimp) purchased from the store is unseasoned. If you grind your own shrimp, you may season it slightly with salt, ground white pepper and (optional) 1-2 clove of garlic - pressed. Add the seasoning and pressed garlic in the food processor when you grind up the shrimp. The dried bean curd sheets very brittle. They need to be soaked in water briefly before use. Gently lay 4 sheets of bean curd sheets in a bin of warm water. Soak for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Remove and drain off excess water. Caution: Do not soak the dried bean curd sheets for too long, or else they will turn very soft and look opaque-white. The best to use if when they look semi-translucent. Alternatively, you may wrap a couple of wet towels around the dried bean curd sheets to moisten them. Use a small bowl. Break the egg and beat it. Use this as a "sealant" for the bead curd rolls. Lay a soaked bean curd sheet on the board. Use a small knife to trim off along the edge on one side to divide one sheet into two (these sheets are usually sold folded up). Just make sure the size of the sheet to use is about 6 to 8 inches on each side. Scoop about 3-4 tblsp of shrimp paste (ground shrimp) and lay it as flat as you can on top of the bean curd sheet. Use a small brush to brush on the beaten egg around the edges. Fold it diagonally. First from the bottom, fold up. Then from the left, fold right. Then from the right, fold left. Then roll up the rest. Brush on a little more beaten egg to seal the end. Continue through the same process to make about 8 rolls. (Not shown: trim and chop up the green onion.) Cooking Instructions: Use a pan, set stove to medium. Add 3 tblsp of cooking oil. Wait until oil is hot. Add all the bean curd rolls. Sear until golden brown, about 3 minutes or so on each side. Turn the rolls over and sear the other side. If you like to eat these rolls when they are crispy, stop here. (Perhaps adjust the cooking time just slightly longer.) Remove and serve. If you want the bean curd sheet soften up a bit, continue. Add about 1/8 cup of chicken broth. Cook with the lid on for another 5 minutes. This technique is very similar to making potstickers: steaming and frying combined. After 5 minutes, the chicken broth is mostly evaporated. Transfer the rolls to the serving plate. Use a pair of kitchen sears, cut up each bean curd roll into 3 to 4 pieces. To make the sauce: continue to cook in the same pan. Add 2 tblsp of cooking oil. Add the white portion of the chopped green onion. Sautee for 20 seconds. Add 1/4 tsp of salt (or to taste). Dash in 1-2 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine. Stir well. Add 1/4 cup of chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Add 2 tsp of oyster sauce, 1 tsp of sugar, and 1 tsp of dark soy sauce. Mix well. To thicken the sauce, use corn starch slurry (suggest: 1 tsp corn starch in 2 tsp of water). Adjust to the right consistency. Scoop up the sauce and ladle on top of the bean curd rolls. Sprinkle the rest of the chopped green onions on top. Serve immediately. Picture of the finished dish. (Note: The quantity of food made in this recipe is about twice the portion shown in this picture.)

Hi all, My first attempt at posting on the Japan section though I've been enjoying the posts fo a while now. I confess to never having tried Japanese food (blasphemous I know!), for a number of reasons, until last year. For the longest time I don't think it was even available when I was growing up, at least to the masses; it was too expensive, too exotic, and most importantly, I assumed that Japanese cuisine didn't have anything for vegetarians. Well, I accompanied some friends to dinner one night to a tiny "sushi-house," and they ordered a sushi "boat", a giant wooden model studded with all kinds of sushi and accompanied with a mound of pink translucent ginger and wasabi paste. Anyhoo, I was bored because I'm a vegetarian and couldn't eat off the boat. The server asked if I would like some cucumber rolls and I agreed just to keep my friends company and also because seeing all the chowing down going on, was making me hungry. I fell in LOVE with the contrast of textures and flavor. The seaweed (nori?), the rice, the wasabi, the ginger! i loooooved the flavors and the punch. I don't know how authentic cucumber rolls are actually. But it did give me a small peek into a world of flavors I hadn't experienced before. So, coming to my actual question, could you suggest things I should try, dishes that are properly vegetarian and representative of Japanese food? I look forward to hearing your comments, experiences, and suggestions.

Vegetarian, vegan, veggie friendly, etc. restaurants A compendium of existing topics This is one of a series of compendia that seeks to provide information available in prior topics on eGullet. Please feel free to add links to additional topics or posts or to add suggestions. Vegetarian haute cuisine Paris vegetarian restaurants

I am currently in the middle of a family reunion and it happens to be my moms birthday. I want to either bake a cake or make some other form of birthday treat but face a variety of constraints: a.) I am not much of a baker... I am a little scared of baking and usually tend to need precise instructions that i can just follow . Seem to have no instinct for this stuff somehow. b.) My mom is a vegetarian and does not eat eggs c.) The treat needs to be something that'll also appeal to my nieces and nephews (they're all between 5 & 9 years of age) and d.) I have no access to a stand mixer or a food processor or a hand mixer even.. whipping (if any) will need to be done by hand I was thinking maybe something fruit-based is the answer? Any help is really appreciated but if you give me a reco, I'll probably need recipes as well... thanks a million! Seema

http://www.mtsupermarket.com/ Just went there today. It rivals the size of the Asian supermarkets in Houston, Welcome Center and Hong Kong Supermarket. It may in fact be a little bigger. It's certainly cleaner -- as it's brand new -- and has yet to accumulate that unpleasant Asian supermarket odor. Some interesting things that they carry: Live crab, tilapia, catfish swimming in tanks. Lychees. $2.99/lb vs $3.99 at Central Market. Jackfruit, durian, dragonfruit (several dollars cheaper than HEB). Large selection of soy and wheat gluten vegetarian imitation meats. I'm not vegetarian but these are tasty -- you'll never go back to tofurkey again -- and extremely healthy, low fat, low carbs, high protein. Beef tongue. Pork liver, kidney and spleen. Duck gizzard, duck feet, even deboned duck feet. Whole eel chunks. A large selection of dishware. Ice cream in flavors such as green tea, red bean, green bean and jackfruit.

As a new (Experimental) vegetarian (See here for more details) I have been going through quite a few cookbooks and online resources. A lot of them are fairly poor to say the least. Also seems to be a theory that if you are vegetarian you must want to eat 'Healthy' food all the time, or they are full of meat substitute recipes. The thing that really gets me is that in so many of the books - even some of the better ones (The Cranks one in particular) is that they seem to put soy sauce (Well usually tamari actually) in everything. Don't get me wrong, I love soy sauce - in moderation and in the right things. But to put it in anything creamy, cheesy or mayonnaisey just seems wrong to me!

We will be in New York for a few days in December and would appreciate advice on eating there. My DH is a serious carnivore while I am a strict vegetarian (lacto-ovo-vegetarian to be exact). I do not eat meat, fish or cheese but will eat mostly any cuisine. My DH is not too keen on pasta but in the right mood is quite keen on a good pizza. We are staying at the Sofitel so we are looking for recommendations of places relatively nearby for breakfast. For dinner / lunch we don't mind travelling a bit for nice food. We will be going to see The Lion King at the Minskoff Theatre on our last night so recommendations somewhere not too far away would be good. Also, I am keen to try Serendipity but it seems that you cannot make reservations - am I correct? Thanks in advance for any help.

Anybody made them or got any ideas about how to? I've got a couple of requests from friends who can't eat dairy. Some looking around online pulls up recipes made from all sorts of odd ingredients. The most promising thing I found wasn't a recipe but a company selling truffles, but they gave a lot of detail about their ingredients. They use coconut milk and coconut oil to solve the fat problem inherent in using other liquids for a ganache. Before I start experimenting on my own, I thought I'd see what the accumulated wisdom of eGullet had to say.

Last night my husband and I were thrilled to be treated to a dinner of Bombay street food. Worm@work's parents are visiting from Mumbai, and both are formidable cooks, as is w@w herself. Mr. w@w distinguished himself in the cocktail department, while we were mainly notable for the amount we ate, and our extensive finger-licking. As much Indian food as I've eaten in my life, these dishes were completely different, all vegetarian, all reflecting the fine art of turning humble and inexpensive ingredients into delectable treats, not to mention serving them on the street in massive quantities. We began with a drink of kokum juice sprinkled with chat masala, and some lightly spicy little fried plaintain chips. The contrast between the sweet juice, the slightly sulfurous salt in the masala, and the crisp chips perfectly set the stage for the dishes to come, which were all about textural contrast. Next up was an amazing little bite called Pani Puri, which is an impossibly fragile crispy little puffball filled with potatoes, boiled mung beans, crispy chick peas, and the fine noodles called sev, then topped with date and tamarind chutney, cilantro chutney, or sweetened yogurt, and submerged in water flavored with mint, green chillies & spices. The trick then is to pop the whole little puri into your mouth before it drips all over you. My apologies for this and a couple of the other photos - the light was dim and comfortable, and I really needed to send a little submersible lens into the heart of the puri to do this one justice. Next up was Ragda Patties, which are spiced potato patties served in a white pea curry sauce. Well, they're not exactly white, and it's not exactly a curry as we think of curry in the US, more like a pease porridge pancake, or something. The name may not translate easily, but the flavors sure did. It was gentle, comforting food that I immediately wanted to have for breakfast. This is the photo that does the least justice to the dish This is Dabeli, fluffy buns stuffed with a mixture of potatoes, onions, spices, pomegranate, grapes & masala peanuts. I wish I'd composed this little sandwich so the fruit showed better, but you'll just have to imagine little bursts of red grape and pomegranate seed exploding in each bite of crisp toast, crunchy peanut, and smooth spicy potato. Yes, fluffy white bread, otherwise known as pau, is a part of Bombay street cuisine. I was totally amazed by this idea alone, not to mention the idea of a fluffy white bread potato sandwich, Indian-style. Being a quick learner, I was totally ready for Vada Pau - spiced garlic mashed potatoes fried in a chick pea flour batter and served inside a bun with the most delicious garlic chutney I've ever eaten. This was a dry chutney made of a ton of garlic ground and then fried with coconut and chick pea bits to form a pile of intensely flavored crisp, golden crumbs. Two fluffy white bread potato sandwiches, yowza! I couldn't resist having seconds of this one, which I came to regret shortly, when we had Pau Bhaji, a spicy mixed-vegetable dish served with bread for dipping. Traditionally a way to use up leftover vegetables, this had a mysterious and haunting sweetness that I still haven't identified. I'd need to eat a lot more of it to be sure exactly what it was. A lot more! How did we manage room for dessert? But who in her right mind could refuse Kulfi. This creamy, frozen dessert made with milk and flavored with saffron, almonds & pistachio was the only thing on the menu that I've had before. But I've never had it like this, with a silken, sticky texture and absolutely no iciness. Just a smooth and slippery saffron sweetness sliding down your throat. I think my s key must be stuck! All I can say is if anyone offers to feed you Bombay street food, take them up on it without hesitation and hurry to their house as fast as you can. It manages to be comforting and familiar and excitingly different all at once. And don't be surprised if if you see me on the Breakfast thread posting that I've taken to eating spicy Indian potato sandwiches in the early morning hours!

Our son and his partner are meeting a handful of friends for a reunion in NYC. One of the friends is coming from Tel Aviv and has asked for a "happening" kosher restaurant, not vegetarian. What can I tell them? Many thanks in advance. (Immediate responses are appreciated as we are leaving town ourselves on Tuesday morning.)

I was away last week and my ex stayed with the kids. Our oldest child is vegetarian so every time it is his turn to be with them he makes a gigantic vat of "stew" or "soup". I use the words loosely because what it is actually is a huge pot of wallpaper paste. I've hinted to him that he should just let Em cook her own meals (she's fifteen). Or that he could make SMALL batches of food. She's also not that challenging to cook for because she does eat fish and eggs. But inevitably, I return home to find that my biggest pot is taking up valuable real estate in my fridge, full of inedible goo. It's maddening because: 1. It's ALWAYS a full pot. He makes this stuff at the end of his week so he doesn't have to eat the crap. 2. He's used up all of the vegetable stock I either made or bought, so I go to make risotto and I don't have any stock. 3. I grew up in a fairly poor household where my mom had to work really hard at low paying jobs. I have a hard time throwing out large batches of anything, but trying to make an edible meal out of this nasty tasteless paste is more work than making a meal from scratch. Short of hiding all my large pots when I leave the house, what can I do with this crap? Anybody out there with a lot of experience repairing other people's bad cooking? Half of the pot of "glue" got turned into a curry of sorts, but I still have half a large pot left. Suggestions?

Hi everyone! In our last Iron Baker challenge, I was given the task of coming up with a modern take on the retro classic Pineapple Upside-down Cake. For those who missed it the first time around, a picture of my creation can be found here. Now that the first round is over, it's my pleasure to introduce gfron1 as the next baker who will be presented with the new challenge! gfron1 is a very talented baker who has posted beautiful dessert creations in our Dessert thread. I am a huge fan. Here is a look at what he can do! So, my challenge to gfron1 is this: Make a dessert containing an animal ingredient or product other than lard or bacon by October 10th. I think all of us will be waiting with bated breath for whatever innovative/scary/(and most importantly) tasty combinations you come up with! (Now we just gotta wait around until he notices this thread and accepts... ) P.S. If you're vegetarian, I can change the challenge.

Years and years ago I lived up the block and across the street from a large country store on the outskirts of a college town that sold incredible cheesecakes, Archie comic books for the devout and everything you could possibly need for baking for cheap: all in clear plastic bags sealed with twist ties, weighed and priced. There and then I first noticed different kinds of powdered milk sold next to yeast, wheat berries and rye flour. These were the days that the popularity of Diet for a Small Planet was just beginning to wane and I always associated dehydrated milk with that kind of economical, fringe cooking. Having somehow misplaced my favorite source of simple, basic bread recipes, I opened up Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (1997; sorry, no time to tend a poolish) and was surprised to see that Deborah Madison recommends the use of dry milk or dried buttermilk in several of her bread recipes. Since there are only a few recipes, it is hard to see a pattern. However, in one case, the recipe is for a whole wheat bread that includes a little gluten flour, but no unbleached white; another is for a rye bread. Does powdered milk complement heartier flours in a way that distinguishes it from fresh milk or buttermilk? Or might it be an established, superior source of protein for vegetarians? Edited to ask: Do I need to make any adjustments in simply replacing some of the water in the recipe with milk--other than, perhaps, increasing the amount of flour slightly?

Ma Po Tofu (麻婆豆腐) Ma Po Tofu is a Sichuan specialty. There are many versions of the Ma Po Tofu recipe. This pictorial is my interpretation of it. Dedicated to SuzySushi. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 3 to 4 Preparations Main ingredients: (From upper right, clockwise) 1/2 to 3/4 pound of ground pork, 2 stalks of green onions, 4 to 5 cloves of garlic, 5 to 6 small dried red chilies, ginger (about 1 inch in length), Sichuan peppercorn powder, 2 packs of silken (soft) tofu, 16 oz each. Note: You may use ground beef in place of ground pork, or use pressed tofu if you are a vegetarian. I like to use silken tofu for its soft and smooth texture. You may use firm tofu or regular tofu if you like. Roasting and grinding whole sichuan peppercorn is the best if you have time. I use Sichuan peppercorn powder for convenience. Marinating the ground pork: Use a mixing bowl. Add the ground pork. Add 1/2 to 1 tsp of ground white pepper, 1 tsp of sesame oil, 1 tsp of corn starch, 1 tsp of light soy sauce, and 1 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine. Mix all the ingredients. Set aside for 20 to 30 minutes before cooking. Meanwhile, trim off the ends of the green onions. Finely chop. Peel and mince the garlic. Grate the ginger. Cut up the dried red chilies into 1/2 inch pieces. Open the tofu packages. Use a small knief to make roughly 3x4 cross cuts. These silken tofu will break apart during cooking. No need to take them out of the box for cutting. Cooking Instructions: Use a wok/pan, set stove to high temperature. Wait until pan is hot. Add a generous 3 to 4 tblsp of cooking oil. Velvet the ground pork until cooked, about 5 minutes. Use the spatula to cut up the lumps of the ground pork. Try to break up the pork as much as you can. Remove the pork and drain the oil with a strainer. Start with a clean wok/pan, set stove to high temperature. Add 2 to 3 tblsp of cooking oil. Wait until oil starts fuming. Add cut dried red chilies. They will turn black very quickly. You need to act fast. Add minced garlic and grated ginger. Add 2 tsp of chili bean sauce, 4 to 5 tsp of hoisin sauce, perhaps 1 to 2 tsp of brown bean sauce too. Stir. Dash in 2 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine and 1 tsp of white vinegar. (Optional: add some chili sauce if you like it hot and spicy. No need to add salt because the chili bean sauce and chicken broth are already salty, or you may add a pinch of salt to taste.) Stir well and let the sauce/garlic/ginger cook for 10 to 15 seconds under high heat. Add 1/2 cup of chicken broth, 2 tsp of sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil. Fold in corn starch slurry (suggest: 1 to 2 tsp of corn starch and 1/8 cup of water) to thicken the sauce to the right consistency. Add the 2 packages of tofu. After you put in the tofu, minimize the stirring. Silken tofu breaks apart very easily. Wait until the mixture boils again. Finally, re-add the ground pork. Add the chopped green onions. Add 1 to 2 tsp of ground Sichuan peppercorn powder. Stir and mix. Cook for another 2 minutes or so. Finished. The finished dish. The quantity of food made in this recipe is about twice the portion shown in this picture.

We are going back to Mexico City, this time with our vegetarian (not vegan) son. I don't remember if in places that we ate before and would like to return this time (such as Izote, Aguila o Sol, Pujol, La Fonda de León, etc) there is a selection of dishes without meat or seafood/fish so he can also enjoy the ocassion. Salomon

I know that asking about fake meat is going to be a sensitive topic. Let me say, I love real meats in all their forms. I like hanger steak rare, home cured guanciale, braised lamb legs with rosemary, and sometimes I even like White Castle (Chateau Blanc among my friends). But I am in love with and reside with a very nice young lady who doesn’t eat anything with legs. Its not really her fault. She grew up in a vegetarian house and never (and I mean never) had any meat. At this point not only does she not find meat appealing, but if she tried it probably would not agree with her digestive system. In our household I do most (all) of the cooking because I enjoy it my schedule permits. I/we do eat lots of fresh produce and seafood and a very happy to prepare both. There are, as you might imagine, lots of things I do occasionally want to fix that I can’t. So knowing that there is no substitute for the real thing, I am soliciting your advice for faux meats and their uses. There are many products out there that taste good, but not meaty (and that’s OK), and there are some that are just plain crap. Has anyone else any positive experiences in cooking with the fake meat? (I managed an halfway decent Shepard’s pie once)

Article in Beer Advocate: I found this to be a real eye-opener: Has anyone thought about the potential ramifications for this? Do your vegetarian friends discuss this issue?

Vegetarian Alert! I had a really lovely lunch at the Dharma Kitchen on 3667 West Broadway (near Alma). It was just the quiet respite I needed as an antidote to Christmas shopping craziness. The decor is simple, but done in bold jewel tones. I'm so glad that restaurants are getting past dusty rose of days gone by! I had a "Free Tibet Bowl" with the best tempeh I have ever eaten. It's got a nice vinegar kick. The bowl is brown basmati rice with a homemade tahini sauce, topped with steamed ginger, sunflower seeds the tempeh and sunflower sprouts. The tahini could have been kicked up a notch, as the rice itself is quite bland, but as long as you had the ginger or the tempeh with the rice it was delicious. The chai was cinnamon-centric, steamed soya milk-based and sweetened with honey. I think there may have been a touch of rosewater in it. There was definitely a secret ingredient. There is one server and one cook. The radical vegans at the table next to me talked loudly of their plans to sabotage the Vancouver restaurant that serves horse meat. The server was such a lovely person. When he took my order he just looked so delighted. Wow. It is just so inspiring to such genuine happiness. Priceless. They are on the route to UBC, but it's too bad they weren't right on campus, because they would thrive there. I hope they do well. Note that they have just the kind of spicy rice pudding I've been searching for and I was too full to try it, so I will be back soon! Zuke Edited to add: The other night our family went to the monthly Ukrainian dinner on W10th. They have a vegetarian option which I ordered (and then had them pour those lovely bacon and onion drippings on top)! I noticed there were a lot of teeny tiny babies at the dinner. For those of you with wee bairns, this is a great place for a night out with the family. No dinner in January due to it being Ukrainian Christmas, but there is a special Ukrainian Christmas buffet event that you can book tickets for in advance.

My office is having their Winter Potluck next week, and I'm thinking of nodding my head toward the two vegetarians we have in the group. I'm thinking of making Mizducky's Beet and Beet-green Borscht. But, I'm thinking of roasting all of the mirepoix at the same time as the beets. My question is, if I roast the mirepoix and put some color on it, will that overpower the beets or taint the flavor? Do others think it will fly with run-of-the-mill, unadventurous palates?

So I am getting married this coming July 1. My fiancé have already had our 1st preliminary meeting with the chef at the place holding the reception and he seems like the kind of person you would trust to cook at your wedding. I am soliciting dinner menu suggestions, because we have some specific needs. The wedding will be in Louisville KY in mid summer so we should have great access to a bunch of fresh local farm goods (alas fiddlehead and ramps will no longer available). The bride has been a lifelong vegetarian who has only begun to eat and enjoy seafood in the last couple of years (and believe me that wasn’t easy), so all meats and poultry are out of the question. To make matters worse some guests/bridesmaids eat only veggies and seafood, while others only eat chicken (you know those girls, who get some grilled chicken salad each and every time they go out for lunch or dinner) and are freaked out by fish. Although I’m not in any way opposed to having a seafood entree, I cannot bear the notion of vegetarian wedding dinner. (I eat vegetarian meals often and the guys in the produce dept. know me well, but at my wedding I want some luxury) Then there is my family, some of who are unaccustomed to more creative preparations, but I’m willing to push them out of their comfort zone a little.. A final note to consider is that while I grew up in Louisville, the bride and her family are Alaskan. We would love to do a kind of Alaska/Kentucky theme to the menu (maybe bourbon-glazed salmon?) It’s a smaller wedding of about 125 people, so there should be less of an issue in preparing food for a large group. I welcome your dinner suggestions, and also advice and cautions (and probably horror stories) from your own experiences.

Hello out there... Just wondering if anyone's got any tips on where to take my Veggie BF in Brussels. We're going for a Eurostar weekend from London (where we live) and staying at Le Meredien -- near the Gare Centrale and the Grand Place. So, anywhere central-ish would do. I eat fish and seafood so what we'd be looking for ideally are a few places that have good veggie options on the menu, rather than entirely veg places. But any recommendations are greatly appreciated! Cheers from Clerkenwell, London Elizabeth

Hello everyone, I had forgotten how addictive the Pastry & Baking Forum of eGullet is. To make a long story short, the owner of the restaurant where I work is frustrated with/ready to dump his vegan baked goods supplier, for the simple reason that she is extremely flaky (yet free of butter--hah!) and that her desserts really aren't that good. But what a shelf life they have . . . I am underutilized there (working as a barista, not cooking), and he suggested that I take over the vegan baking. This is a place that is "known" for being vegan-friendly but it is not a dedicated vegan restaurant. I like to bake and consider myself OK at it, and I have done it on a large-ish scale at a few country clubs I used to work at. However, I was classically trained and know next-to-nothing about vegan ingredients, the dreaded "substitutes," etc. Here is what they offer now in the way of vegan desserts: Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie (atrocious, flaccid, misshapen, and I can't even stand to sell it to people) Vegan Carrot Cake (covered with suspicious white frosting that catches the overhead lighting like semi-gloss paint) Vegan German Chocolate Cake ( ) Vegan Brownies (the least offensive, yet not appealing texture-wise). I also sell an assortment of vegan smoothies and shakes made with soy chocolate ice cream, a product of Chicago Soydairy, that isn't too bad. Thanks to the already-existing vegan baking threads in this forum, I've lifted a (Cooks Illustrated) Vegan Chocolate Cake with "Creamy" Chocolate Frosting recipe which I will test shortly and present to the owner. I would like to offer at least two cakes total and an assortment of two or three different cookies/brownies for my vegan customers. I was toying with a nice fat gingersnap sandwich cookie, the "sandwich" part being a coconut-milk pastry cream . . . then my mind blanked at how I would make pastry cream without eggs or that last beautiful glop of butter I would love a nice coffee cake recipe, since I *am* a barista It's a hard life for a vegan and harder for the vegan baker, non? So I need your help, great sages of eGullet. I was thinking that once this thing gets rolling, in the next few weeks, I could sort of blog my efforts at making palatable vegan baked goods, and maybe that would be educational for us all. ANY help, ANY advice you can give me--ANY recipes or substitutions you have had success with would be awesome since this place does not have the resources for extensive recipe-tweaking. But please, no vegan-bashing. I don't give a crap what people eat or don't eat, I just don't want to put my name on something as disgusting as that Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie we've got right now. You should see it! Oh well. There's always banana bread.

mostly brought up on vegetarian Indian food, I would like to know the wonderful uses of the two spices. I did find out from internet searches that kabab chini is all spice but have not much clue how to use them in Indian cooking p.s. I am a converted non-veggie so feel free to encompass meats in your suggestions

Let me emphasise that this is work in progress. I'm experimenting to get what to me is the best texture and taste. This how I currently make sourdough baguettes. Its not the only way. It may not be the best way. You need to experiment to "dial in" the method to suit your environment, flour, starter and personal taste. However I hope to show some basic techniques that have general application for handling very wet doughs. The dough can also be used for other breads and rolls. This is a home recipe, but could be scaled for restaurant or small shop use, making a few dozen baguettes. Industrial scale production has different issues. I like big uneven holes and an open texture. To achieve this we need to break some of the rules, which were designed to make the even textured bread thought desirable in the past. This demonstrates my version of the "a l'ancienne" style, where the dough is mixed cold with a long cold fermentation to allow the enzymes to break down the starches in the flour to sugars before the yeast becomes active, so when the dough warms up it is exceptionally lively. Combined with short proof times to give lots of oven spring the result is an open texture.. The problem is that the acid in the sourdough degrades the protein and the long starch molecules, making the dough very wet. Step 1: Build the sponge 100g Flour 100g water 1 Tbs "clef" The "clef" (key) is the mother sourdough starter. I store it in a jar in fridge. You can see it seperates into two layers. That is OK, just dig though the liquid layer. I'm actually making a double recipe, since the clef is running a bit low, and the excess will go back into the jar. I'm using a 11.8% protein (actually measured by the nitrogen content) organic white supermarket flour, after some discussion on the sourdough baguette thread, since this approximated to the french type 65 flour. However flour in France is classified by the ash content when burnt at 900C that is they indicate the mineral content (in milligrams) per 10 g flour. In Germany they measure the same thing, but per 100g, of flour, so German flour types are ten times as much and have three digits, such a type 405. Thus a type 65, a common baking flour, has 0.65% ash. Mineral content is roughly a measure of the extraction rate, or amount of the grain in the flour, since most of the mineral content is in the husk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour#Flour_type_numbers. However this only loosely correlates with gluten and protein content. Traditionally french baguette flour is quite soft. There are some books that indicate french flour has about an 11.5% protein content, so that is today's experiment. Why they indicate in several places on the bag that flour is suitable for vegetarians is unclear to me, It states it only contains wheat flour. What would non-vegetarian flour have in it? Ground bones? Weavils? Mix together. Ferment for 18 hours at 30C. Temperature is important. Just mix it until its more or less even - time and the bugs will do the rest. This is in bakers terms a 100% dough, that is the water content (hydration) is 100% of the flour content. Note its like a thick batter, just holding together. This is a wet sponge or poolish. 18 hours later... Ths sponge is bubbly and alive. It has thinned out a lot, now like cream, since the acid in the sourdough has attacked the long starch molecules and the gluten in the flour. The long sponge development time gives lots of sour flavour to the finished baguette. Stage 2: Make the dough. Flour 500g 83% Sponge 200g 33% Salt 12g 2% Water 330g 55% (iced) Vit C 5g 1% Total flour 600g 100% Total water 430g 72% Total dough weight 1047g The percentages are bakers percentages, that is relative to the total amount of flour, including the flour in the sponge. Whizz together, without the salt in a food processor for 20 seconds, then add the salt and whizz for another 20 seconds. This short intensive mixing makes a softer dough. Don't mix a lot more, or you will overmix the dough. If you use a conventional mixer, mix on high speed until the dough clears the bowl. You can also hand mix the dough - again just mix to an even consistency, no need to knead, and I tend to hand mix larger batches. I have experimented with leaving the salt out until you come to shape the dough, and that works well, and gives the bread a saltier taste. Weigh everything. There is no substitute for precision if you want to be able to make the same bread again. The colour is a bit off in the picture - the dough is light cream, rather than orange. After the second mix. This is a very extensible dough that windowpanes well. Turn out into a bowl, cover and put in the fridge overnight (12 hours plus) Timing is not very critical. I mist the top with a hand pumped EVOO spray, which is the silver cylinder to the left. The trigger pump sprays that cleaning products come in, well washed out, also work well to spray oil. The worst part of this is the cleanup. The dough is very sticky. A rubber spatula and lots of hot water helps. Next day not much seems to have happened, but if you look closely uyou will see lots of bubbles in the dough. To get it out of the bowl cleanly ease it all round the edge with your fingers (oiled or floured), then lift it out in the piece. You can only sucessfully handle the mature dough when it is very cold. Put it on a lightly floured (or oiled) pastry board, and fold sides to middle and top to bottom, like a turn in puff pastry. This gently stretches the dough, and because of the coating of flour or oil makes it easier to handle. Divide into three baguettes with the traditional weight of about 320g. Use a square dough scraper, and press rather than saw the dough. Let the pieces rest for 15 mins. Shape. The objective is to make a half-length baguette that gets stretched later, but one where the outside layer is stretched and tight, like the skin on a balloon. Take each piece, flatten a little and again make a turn, long sides to middle. You will need some flour on the board to stop it sticking but not too much, since we don't want the flour pickup to unbalance the formula. Now flaten the top edge a bit (assuming the dough is in the orientation shown), and taking the flap pull it out to stretch and fold it over pressing it down as you go along. The do the same with the other side. Its to work form the top edge, the edge away from you, forming the baguette. Normally, at this point one would put the dough into a couche, folded floured linen to prove. Mine is an old oven cloth in a half sheet pan, and a short rolling pin. However I'm experimenting with very short or no proof times for this method, instead using intensive mixing and Vitamin C in the dough to provide aeration, so we are going to bake immediately. Let me again emphasise you can ony handle the dough cold, so we need to get it into the oven befoe it warms up and becomes liquid. At this point he oven should be pre-heated to around 500F/250C, with a layer of tiles, brick or pizza stone to bake on. Make yourself, if you do not already have some three baguette boards, the length of your desired baguette, usually what will fit in your oven. Put some baking parchment on it, and put the dough on it. Stretch the dough to the desired length. Repeat for the other baguettes. Slash them and using the boards slide them into the oven so that the baking parchment under the dough is in direct contact with the hot base or stone. Steam, mist or put a cup of water into a pre-heated heavy pan in the oven to provide a burst of very hot steam that gelatanises the outside and gives a shiny crackly crust. (caution scald danger and oven glass or light can shatter if not protected). Close the door. The slashes form the "grigne" (grins) on top of the loaf. Traditionally bakers use a lame, or razor blade on a stick. Cut at an angle, not staight down. and nearly parallel to the loaf. 5-7 slashes along the length is usal, each just overlapping the previous. I did not slash these. Bake 30-40 minutes or until the desired crust colour looks about right. Texture is OK, but not as good as that made with softer (9% protein) flour. As I said at the top, I'm still experimenting, and I encourage you to do so too, and post your results. Ther are lots of variables: flour, hydration, mix times, bulk ferment time and temperature, proof time and temperature. Maybe this stronger flour needs longer proof times. I've put the couche with a baguette from this batch in the fridge (in a plastic bag) overnight, and will try baking it tomorrow to see if that makes any difference.