Berlin Inspirations: Vegan Currywurst Is Almost As Gross As the Real Thingby Randi / September 23, 2014
To kick off the next few posts dedicated to Philadelphia, I wanted to start with something I made as a challenge from my grandmother. She’s is a real Philadelphia eye-talian, and therefore she is the greatest cook. This summer, she told me how her mother (a Calabrese, from the toe of the boot) used to make polenta for breakfast in the most amazing way you’ve never considered: fried in maple syrup and butter and covered in powdered sugar. I mean, polenta is one of the most amazing foods ever, but as a sweet food? Incredible! I am not usually up for sweet foods for breakfast (unless we are splitting it ‘for the table’ and we all get savory items in addition, because that’s always a great plan and it’s how I suggest everybody do brunch from now on you’re welcome), but this is something I would happily wake up for. Well, I don’t happily wake up for anything but you get my point.
Polenta frying in pools of syrup
Grandmother said you have to use the polenta that comes in tubes for this (and nothing else!), so it holds its shape and sustains the flipping and the frying. There were no real measurements shared; you just add ‘enough’ of everything so it cooks up and tastes good. But I’ll share what worked for me below! I was very skeptical of turning one of my favorite dinner foods into a breakfast (or dessert; I actually made it for dessert) treat, but what a treat it was! You must try this! I think it’s so much better than French toast or something like that because it can’t get soggy and it’s actually good as leftovers. Also, this is the perfect sweet treat for ushering in the new year tonight on Rosh Hashanah! Add a few apple slices and it would be heaven!
FRIED SWEET POLENTA
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Ingredients:
Directions:
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 This is the kind of polenta you want. In a tube. It’s so beautiful. Naaaaaht.  Don’t overstuff your pan; you need spatula flipping room!  Fried sugarrrrrrrrrr  Bubbly fried sugarrrr |
Have you ever heard of something like this? Or tried it? Are you going to try it and tell me how delicious it is? I know I can’t wait to have it again. Let’s all thank my grandmother and Italians in general for their culinary wisdom. Happy new year!
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Event at 10 Cable Street: Phenomenal Tasting Menu by Acorn Restaurant
This weekend, we had an INCREDIBLE supper club experience at 10 Cable Street, with a special dinner presented by Michelin-guided vegetarian restaurant Acorn, coming all the way from Bath to make me happy. It was a six-course tasting menu. You can see in my blog archives that I’ve had lots of vegan tasting menus in this city, and while they’ve all been good, overall they’ve been kind of boring (and always lacking in protein). While the protein issue wasn’t fixed here, as it was another fance restaurant focusing on the magical powers of cooking vegetables well, there was no boring to be found. These six dishes were all spectacular & interesting, with unique flavor profiles that you’d NEVER guess would work, but work (exceedingly well) they did.
Let’s take a look at all the food, course by course (one by one, till you shout ‘enough I’m done!’ except I can’t hear you so no).
Course 1: Pea sorbet in juice from the garden
I know, what? Pea sorbet? In GREEN JUICE? With a random sourdough crispbread on top? Are you shitting me? Honestly, although the crispbread felt out of place (and we got real sourdough bread later in the meal so that was enough (yay bread!)), this was one of my favorites. The juice held pickly celery bits, samphire (I LOVE samphire), fresh peas, mustard seeds, just a whole juice cleanse worth of goodness. It was so refreshing, and the impressively successful sorbet was unlike anything I’ve had before. I felt completely detoxified from it (and yes that’s b.s. but it felt like a happy summer day).
Course 2: Carrot, almond, and parsley
This was a play on carrots two ways: what seemed to be slow cooked and then charred, and then pickly discs on top (lol pickly discs), with a parsley ice, some almonds, and a dollop of cream. The parsley ice could have used salting, but otherwise this was very nice, although I would have preferred more of a saucing to make it more interesting. I feel like this was the one dish that I could have believed coming from a past restaurant visit, where it was all good, don’t get me wrong, but not exceedingly special.
Course 3: Cauliflower glazed in coffee, hazelnut polenta
As someone who doesn’t drink or like coffee, I’m shocked that this dish might be my favorite. The coffee-glazed cauliflower was GENIUS, absolutely a work of genius. There’s something about that coffee depth that really shines with the cauliflower, raising the so maligned but so hard-working vegetable to new heights. It worked so well. The creamy, super rich polenta was delicious, like a fancy ass breakfast porridge but fancyassier. On its own, it would be something I’d want more for a loaded-oatmeal-like dessert treat, but with the cauliflower this was all so right.
Course 4: Mushroom parfait, bobby beans
This dish was a mushroom lover’s fantasy, and since I’m a mushroom lover, I was clearly bowled over. The various mushroom parts of this dish were extraordinary. The king oyster mushroom was, as my seatmates pointed out, EXACTLY like scallops, with the same texture. I love oyster mushrooms. The jelly square was actually pure truffle goo, like WHAT in the world, how did they inject so much truffle flavor, and into what? What’s the base? Just pure fat? I don’t know but WOW. There was so much of it and it was so unbelievably rich that I had trouble finishing it, but it was so delicious that I wanted to. (And then I got a bellyache.) But a little goes a long way with pure truffle goop goodness. Tiny little cartoon mushrooms and green onions dotted the dish to brighten up the heavy flavors, a really smart and necessary addition, plus there were a few endive leaves just like chilling randomly. Bobby beans (you gotta say it like MMMBOBBY NEWPORT!) apparently just means regular green beans cooked in oil, but they were wrapped in a long magician’s scarf of a collard leaf which I adored, obviously.
Course 5: Strawberries, fennel sorbet
It’s not British summertime without perfect strawberries, but that fennel sorbet, like the pea sorbet, was the star. It was SUPERB. If you like anise flavors, this would have blown your G-D MIND. I mean come on it was fennel sorbet! It managed to be the right level of sweet without becoming medicinal, and while packing enormous fennel flavor into each spoonful.
Course 6: Chocolate, olive oil, and parsnip
We were all nervous about this one, because, while chocolate and olive oil are friends, who invited parsnip? I don’t even like parsnips; it’s like my least-eaten vegetable. (Damn between coffee and parsnips this dinner sure challenged my tastes.) How were they even going to combine the three ingredients? Well, geniusly, of course. The chocolate was in a rich, wonderful ganache that I could eat every single day for dessert, happily. There were harder little chocolate bits underneath it that I very much enjoyed finding. But the surprise was the parsnip, in the form of a third and final impressive sorbet. The creaminess of the parsnip made it more like an ice cream, and somehow, someway, by the grace of god, it was actually delicious. There’s no wiggle room in making parsnip ice cream; one drop too much of sugar and it’s gross sugary parsnips. But they nailed it, and it’s mind-boggling. The whole dish was covered with drops of candied ginger to tie it together and it was so good.
As if that weren’t enough, they sent us home with little treat gifts! Inside these little cloth (“his napkins are made of shirt material!” “cloth”) sacks were handmade truffles and caramels. I KNOW!
And they were DELICIOUS. I don’t know whether to thank the venue or the restaurant for these, but thanks to everyone. What an adorable, delightful capper to a fantastic dinner.
Acorn Restaurant Supper Club at 10 Cable Street, Whitechapel, London, UK
Water speed: There were carafes of water already on the (communal) tables when we arrived! That is the best way to become my friend! Sure the glasses were only 2-sip-holders but with a carafe at the ready, it was great! And even though I kept finishing the pitchers quickly, someone would IMMEDIATELY come to replace it. Super impressed.
Service: Very good considering how hard it is to serve dozens of people the same thing at the same times. I loved that the head chef came out to tell each table about each dish. It felt very special.
Bathrooms: 10 Cable Street has one lil guy that is kind of smack in the middle of the dining room and feels a little weird; I might just go home next time! But it’s fine. The only problem was that the communal tables had bench seating and, in a long dress, I COULD NOT get in and out of my seat without looking like a fool LIKE A FOOL. So dress appropriately. (Also, if you have limited mobility, contact them in advance about your seating.)
Food: So impressive and delicious, we are honestly considering a trip to the Bath restaurant.
Bonus: It’s nice to eat a great meal surrounded by like-minded folks! I said folks lol! We talked to really nice people and had a ball. Also, did I mention I live pretty much next door? I can’t wait to see what the next event at 10 Cable Street is.
“Challenge Accepted”: Vegan Chocolate Rugelach (Ohh Yeahhh)
Welcome back to the “Challenge Accepted” series! Today, we are making vegan rugelach, a traditional Jewish pastry in which a triangle of dough is wrapped around a filling. My food guru Elli challenged me to make them, and because she is the wise expert on all good food in Philly, we listen to her.
In our discussion of the amazing treat, Elli warned that any decent rugelach must contain cream cheese in the dough. A quick internet search will prove that most people claiming to make authentic rugelach have no idea what they are talking about (i.e., no cream cheese in the dough). (They are probs the ones who don’t know how to say the ‘ch’ sound at the end of the word. #goy). Elli also said that, if making chocolate rugelach (which of course I was going to do; screw fruit filling unless it’s for hamentashen), wrapping the dough around a pile of chocolate chips is cheating. Hell no was I going to cheat, so we are using the same chocolate-cinnamon filling from our delicious babka experience. It adds a bit of work, but it is absolutely worth it. In fact, the extra work from using that filling actually makes the wrapping part easier: The filling is a big square to be laid right on top of the dough, so I rolled the dough into logs instead of wrapping 30 individual crescent rolls. I know, I know, after all the “I’m not going to cheat!” mumbo jumbo, you’re probably like, “Omigod you are so cheating with the wrapping!” Hush your face and go make some rugelach.
As you’ve probably learned, I do not like sharing recipes that have hard-to-find ingredients or that use ready-made things. For chrissakes, I made Cheesy Blasters from scratch. But this was my first attempt at rugelach, so I used ready-made vegan cream cheese. Now that I have some experience, I’ll work on a homemade substitute to use next time so those of you without access to vegan cream cheese can make these.. For those of you who can find vegan cream cheese, definitely buy a tub and use it all in this recipe! It’s worth it!
As you’ve probably learned, I do not like sharing recipes that have hard-to-find ingredients or that use ready-made things. For chrissakes, I made Cheesy Blasters from scratch. But this was my first attempt at rugelach, so I used ready-made vegan cream cheese. Now that I have some experience, I’ll work on a homemade substitute to use next time so those of you without access to vegan cream cheese can make these.. For those of you who can find vegan cream cheese, definitely buy a tub and use it all in this recipe! It’s worth it!
VEGAN CHOCOLATE-CINNAMON RUGELACH
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INGREDIENTS:
For the DOUGH:
For the FILLING:
DIRECTIONS:
While the dough is in the fridge:
Assembly:
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See: Step 2 (dollops) 
I still don’t think I know how to use a pastry cutter properly 
I was out of plastic wrap so I used a big ziplock bag. Also look at my adorable London Underground tea towel! I set it up so the photo highlights my station. 
I rolled it into several logs. You can too! 
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These came out SO well! I can’t wait to experiment with the basics more. They are really rich so you can’t eat the whole batch, which is good. They were much easier to make than I made it seem, I’m sure. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!
