Vegan Southern Feast: Sausage Okra Gumbo, Bacon Cornbread, Maple Bourbon Sweet Potatoes, Perfect Brussels Sprouts

August 14, 2015

Feelings, New Orleans: Solid Food, Wonderful & Romantic Atmosphere

September 4, 2014

This was behind our table!

Several people, both vegan and omnivorous, told us about Feelings, saying it was a great dinner spot for vegans and omnivores to go together. They have a traditional and very exciting main menu, along with an entire separate vegan menu! It’s pretty much the restaurant equivalent of when both parties in Congress sit together at the State of the Union.

The food didn’t blow me away like some parts of Seed did, but overall it was good and very enjoyable. Still, the best part, and why it’s so recommended (especially for couples on their honeymoon?), is because most of the tables are in an inner courtyard, filled with flowers, plants, little fountains, and a lovely, intimate atmosphere.

Yeah, there were some spiders, but it was worth it for this lovely setting

I started with the Emerald City Salad, solely because of the name and because it was kale-based. I hadn’t had kale in DAYS. The salad was tossed in an olive oil dressing with bell peppers, fennel, and a Cajun grain mix. There were a bit too many peppers for my taste and not enough fennel or grains, but it was still pretty good. The kale pieces should have been chopped a bit smaller, though. I did some very unladylike maneuvering of the larger kale pieces. NBD, I mean it’s not like I have any table manners anyway.

For my entree, I had the wonderful Potato Tempeh Patties. You have the option of getting two of these patties, one of them and one Eggplant and Creole Tomato Napoleon thing, or two of the latter. While the waitress didn’t believe that I understood – because I guess most people like to get one of each option – I vehemently stuck to my order of two potato tempeh patties because I read on LazySmurf’s blog that they were fuuuuunom. And she was right! They were wonderful, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with a sun-dried tomato vinaigrette. I love tempeh, and blending it with potato sounds like the perfect thing to do. The tomato topping was a little too vinegary; I would have preferred something a little creamier, like a tomato cashew cream, rather than a vinaigrette. But it was still very good! The side of zucchini ribbons was kind of ridiculous. They should have been actual ribbons, sliced with a mandolin or a spiralizer, but instead they were just long chopped zucchini pieces. So that was kind of dumb.

We also shared a mushroom boudin, a vegan take on the very famous local sausage. I’m sure using seitan or soy would have produced a more realistic dish, but I liked the mushroom base. It was served with some decent bread. OH important note – the garlic bread that they put on the table at the beginning is NOT vegan.

The different kinds of mushrooms were mixed with jasmine rice and coconut oil, and steamed in a corn husk. It was really fun to play with the corn husk, but I think it made it a little too soft. It would have been even better with some crispy edges. It was still pretty yummy though!

The desserts were just sorbet – restaurant cheating/laziness in my opinion – and a carrot torte that sounded good but I had that Whole Foods carrot cake waiting. The staff didn’t rush us at all, though, so we just sat and enjoyed the lovely atmosphere for a little longer.

Overall, Feelings was a wonderful dinner spot. While the food wasn’t amazing, it was solid and enjoyable. The courtyard setting is so beautiful with all the greenery and candlelight, so if you are looking for a romantic spot, this is where you should go.

FEELINGS, NEW ORLEANS
Water speed: Pretty good!
Bathrooms: Ahhhh I don’t remember!!! That’s probably good?
Service: Very very nice and helpful.
Food: Solid!
Bonus: Sit in the lovely courtyard and you will be so happy.

“Challenge Accepted”: Vegan Chocolate Rugelach (Ohh Yeahhh)

November 5, 2013

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!

VEGAN CHOCOLATE-CINNAMON RUGELACH

INGREDIENTS:
For the DOUGH:

8 oz. vegan cream cheese
8 oz. vegan butter (I know)
2C flour
1/2t salt
1/2C sugar
1t vanilla extract

For the FILLING:

10 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
1/4C vegan butter
2t cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

Mix your dry dough ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
Drop dollops of the cream cheese and butter into the dry mixture.
Cut the mix together with a pastry cutter. (You can also pulse it all in a food processor, but yikes more shite to clean up.)
While you are using the pastry cutter, drip your vanilla across the bowl.
The mixture will look somewhat pebbly, but much more moist (sorry) than when making pie crust. When you are done cutting in the fat, the dough should easily come into a moist (sorry!) ball with your hands.
Knead several times.
Break the dough into 2 balls, flatten into disks, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

While the dough is in the fridge:
For the filling:

Melt the chocolate and butter together over low heat.
Once it is nearly all melted, turn off heat, stir in the cinnamon, and continue stirring slowly until all the chocolate is melted.
Cover a big baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.
Pour the chocolate over the paper and spread into as thin a layer as possible.
Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm.

Assembly:

Take the dough disks out of the fridge and let thaw for about 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Roll out each disk to about 1/4 inch thickness, rolling it not into a square but into a rectangle, about 2x as long as it is wide.
Break the sheet of chocolate in half and place directly on top of the rolled-out dough. Break it into whatever pieces and shapes necessary to cover the dough.
Roll it up from the long side over, so you are making an extra long log (not a super-thick one, as you’d make if you roll the wrong way).
Bake for 30 minutes, until the crust looks golden.
Remove from the oven, and let cool for about 30 minutes before cutting.
Cut into pieces about an inch thick.
Enjoy !

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!

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!