Chik'n Potstickers!

I made my own potstickers today! It was a lot of work, but well worth it in the end. Here is the finished product, pan fried chik'n potstickers with soy sauce/miso/ginger dipping sauce:



Ingredients:
filling:
1 bag of Morningstar Chik'n Strips, cooked, small chopped
1/2 an onion, small dice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-1.5 cups broccoli, cooked and blended/chopped finely
to taste:
soy sauce
ginger paste
rice vinegar
toasted sesame oil
garlic chili paste

Also:
1 package of potsticker wraps, which can be purchased at any Asian grocery as well as many major chain supermarkets
Canola oil
butter for sealing edges of wrapper

Hardware:
One deep pot or pan for pan frying
One pot to boil the potstickers in (should be able to just cover the potstickers)
A station set up on a counter to assemble the potstickers and set them on a plate
a station to set/drain the finished potstickers
A tablespoon to measure out filling
a pan for the chik'n, a pan for the broccoli (or steamer)

What to do:

1. Make the filling. First, cook the frozen chik'n strips until heated through. Get the water for the broccoli boiling, add broccoli (I used frozen.)

2. To the chik'n, add onion and garlic until onion is translucent. Turn off heat. Once cool, chop up the chik'n and set into a bowl. Chop very small/fine. Blending may work for this, too.

3. Drain broccoli when it's done, let cool. Once cooled, blend or chop finely.

4. To the chi'n, add ginger, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, and garlic chili paste -- all to taste. Add in the blended mush of broccoli and mix everything together. That's the filling! Other options worth trying: scallions (I didn't have any), rice noodles, rice, carrot, etc.



5. Get your assembly line ready. It's best if you can work in a left to right or right to left line: a place to set the open wrappers and fill them, fold them; next a plate to set the folded potstickers; next into the boiling water; into the frying pan with oil and finally onto a place to drain the oil and get served.

6. For filling: put less than 1T (3/4 or so) of filling into the middle of the wrapper. I buttered the edge to help it stick together, but it didn't always work. Fold in half, then crimp edges and set on plate to await boiling. Important: avoid air bubbles, avoid holes, make SURE the edges are sealed.



7. You'll know when they are done boiling because they turn transluscent. Remove and set each potsticker into the frying pan and fry either one or both sides until golden brown. Drain off excess oil, EAT!

Amy's Kitchen Non-Dairy Beans and Rice Burrito with Chips and Salsa

Just a simple beans and rice burrito with hot salsa and tortilla chips. Nothing too special. From Amy's Kitchen.

Illionois/Chicago: The Hilton Gardenview and the Sheraton at O'Hare

I had to take a short trip to the Chicago area and here are the hotel/suburban foods I had. (I plan on going back to Chicago proper sometime soon to sample all of their great vegan restaurant selections.)

First up, the airport hotel. Room Service breakfast, which is the same at nearly every hotel I've been to: hashbrowns, fruit bowl, toast, peanut butter and jelly. The Sheraton @ O'Hare:



I must say that the fruit bowl was actually quite good and all the fruit tasted fresh and ripe. The hashbrown weren't too bad. Nothing spectacular and definitely not worth the price, but that's room service for ya.

Next up, a very similar breakfast from the Hilton Gardenview: fruit, mini bagels and diced potatoes:

Illinois/Chicago Area: Stir Crazy in OakbrookTerrace

Stir Crazy is a restaurant I went to while in the suburbs of Chicago. It serves various Asian dishes as well as featuring a make your own stir fry.

I've been to a few of this style of restaurants, but I like this one the best so far for a few reasons. First, it's nice that they add your tofu (or other protein of your choosing) when they cook the ood so you don't have to take up space in your bowl that can be used for broccoli or other veggies. Second, they have brown rice as an option. Third, they were nice enough to offer up their complete list of sauce ingredients so we could figure out which ones were vegan or not.

First, the coconut curry vegetables served with tofu and udon noodles:



This was really tasty. The sauce was awesome and the tofu was really great.

Next, a make your own stirfry with lots of veggies, tofu, and brown rice:



Overall, I had a great experience there and was impressed by both the service and the food.

The Triple Rock: Cook's Revenge, Chicago Dogs and Mac & Cheese

The Triple Rock is one of my favorite Minneapolis bar/restaurants to go to. It's a punk rock bar with an attached club for rock shows and it also serves American-style bar food. Here are a few dishes from a recent visit:

The Vegan Cook's Revenge:



This is one of my favorite things to order at the Triple Rock. "The Cook's Revenge" is basically whatever the cook wants to give you, no substitutions, no refunds, you get what you get. The only request that can be made is to make the dish vegan or vegetarian rather than meaty. I've had this 100 times, and I've had just about everything under the sun from PB&J to a 4-plates of food breakfast meal. Pictured above was a bowl of goodness: pinto beans and salsa covered with veggie sausage and smashed tater tot potatoes, which was then covered with their vegan nacho cheese and topped off with star-shaped veggie sausage. It was quite good.


Vegan Mac and Cheese:



Just what it says: big elbow macaroni noodles in a nutritional yeast sauce and topped with more nooch. Served with a GIANT piece of Texas toast.

Vegan Chicago Dogs:



This is two vegan Chicago dogs topped with peppers, tomatoes, onions, relish and mustard. Served with fries (and an extra side of vegan nacho cheese.)

Other favorites of mine include the Mock Duck sandwich, vegan nachos, their housemade hummus (REALLY garlicky), and "The Best Vegetarian Sub Ever."

Baja Sol Express - Veggie Burrito Sol Bowl

I love Baja Sol because it has actual vegetables for veggie burritos and the hot salsa is fresh and HOT. They also have actual diced jalapenos rather than just pickled ones. While the burrito bowl is not the most photo-friendly food, it is quite tasty. This bowl features rice, black beans, vegetables (zucchini, red bell pepper, onion, yellow squash), lettuce, pico de gallo, guacamole, HOT salsa, fresh jalapenos and hot sauce. I also usually take a few lime wedges to add some zing.

French Fries with Seven Grain Veggie Cakes

The title says it all. I just baked some crinkle cut fries and served some mini veggie cakes as appetizers along with them. Dipping sauce are: ketchup, dijon mustard and yellow mustard.

The veggie cakes are from Super Target. A close up:



They weren't too bad, sort of like little mini veggie burgers. It would be cute to serve them on tiny buns with all the fixings.

Pan Fried Tofu

Best. Tofu. Ever.

I have officially become addicted to this style of tofu because it's super easy and gives the satisfaction of pan-fried fatty goodness.

Ingredients:
extra firm tofu (16oz)
salt
pepper
canola oil
optional: Montreal Steak Seasoning or garlic salt of some sort

How to do it:

1. Take a block of extra firm tofu (the water packed kind, not the hermetically sealed silken kind.) Cut the whole block in half, then into 1/4" thick slabs. Drain/press the tofu with paper towels to get more of the moisture out.

2. In a frying pan, put 2 T of canola oil in it and heat it to med-high.

3. Season the side of the tofu facing you with salt, pepper and optional seasoning. Lay that side down in the pan and season the new side with same ingredients. You should be able to fit about 3-4 slabs in the pan, depending on how big your pan is. Allow each side to fry until golden brown. (5 minutes on each side?)

4. Remove tofu, place on paper towels or tea towel to remove extra grease, re-salt if necessary, enjoy in a sandwich or as-is.

The salt is just right on these and makes the oil taste more like a buttery sauce than just canola oil. The Montreal Steak Seasoning, which I'm obsessed with, adds a lot of flavor, too.