Concerts and soup!

Don't you just hate it when you microwave a bowl of leftovers and the bowl gets so hot you can't touch it, but the food stays lukewarm? Grrr! Microwave, you are my nemesis.

The food I'm talking about is a very delicious mushroom, bean and barley soup, which was scrumptious even though it was lukewarm. I'll post the recipe, but first it's story time! Come on kids, gather 'round now!

I have two stories, one of a vegan pioneer failure, and one of a success! But it doesn't matter which goes first, because the failure ended in happiness anyway. So I'll go with the success.

Tuesday night was the first concert in a brutal series that will be taking place mainly throughout next week. My trio was playing in a percussion studio concert. Here we are:

As you can see, the harpist and I tried and failed to look Indian since we were playing a Ravi Shankar piece. Oh well. Also, my hair is insane, because what you cannot see in this photo is the day of classes and dress rehearsals and essay editing that occurred before the concert. Anyway, I was really happy with our performance, even though my dear friend the harpist make a couple of mistakes that had me jumping around a bit to catch up with her. This piece is really a test of endurance on the part of the flutist, since it is insanely fast and the flute plays almost the entire 13 minutes of music, non-stop. So I think we did pretty darn well. And we played in bare feet! Always so much fun.

Okay, on to the point of the story, which is that afterwards, the harpist and I met up with some her friends, and they wanted to go to a little place called Juliet et Chocolat. Very popular here in Montréal, since they make incredibly delicious chocolatey creations. The one problem: it is so very very much dairy-oriented. I warned my harpist about this, and told her that I didn't mind them going, but I would not be able to eat anything, so I would just come in and sit with them until they were ready to go for a drink afterwards. And it looked at first as though my prediction was correct: everything on the menu was full of dairy! I was pretty resigned to waiting and drooling over the delicious-looking chocolate. But then the waitress came over, and although she was a bit stand-offish to my Anglophone friends, she was very very nice to me when I spoke French, and went to check with the chef to see if there was anything they could do for me. She came back super excited, saying that they could make me a hot chocolate with soy milk and extra bitter dark chocolate! She asked if I minded the super dark chocolate, and I told her it was my favourite kind! When she came with everyone else's treats, I was so happy to be included as well, and to be given a totally dairy-free, and really really scrumptious hot chocolate! So here we are with our treats. Score one for the vegan pioneer!

Vegan Pioneer Tip: When in Montreal, speak French! Or get someone else to order in French for you. If you don't know anyone French and are visiting Montreal, just give me a call! Haha. Yeah, the Québecois aren't always friendly to Anglophones, and I bet if I had asked for something vegan in English all I would have gotten was a rude look.

This post is getting super long. Anyway, my other story is about this past weekend, when my brother came to visit me! We had some fun times. On Saturday, we went and had lunch at a place called Santropol, on the corner of Saint-Urbain and Duluth. This café is adorable and I often take omni friends there, since the sandwiches are quite famous. Only a very few items are vegan, but the millet pie is really delicious! Also, the soup of the day is usually vegan, which brings me to the point of the story. On Saturday, there were two soups of the day: mushroom, bean and barley soup, and cashew potato soup. I reeeeeeally felt like the barley one, but when I asked the waiter if it was vegan, he told me there was chicken stock in it! What?! Who puts freakin' chicken in an otherwise completely vegan soup? Grrr. Okay, so I had the cashew potato. And dudes, it was DELICIOUS! At some point in the future I will make it, and then I will post the recipe. Because this was a fabulous combination, and who would have thought? So, I was happy with my soup and millet pie, and the afternoon was lovely.

But then... the craving struck! Suddenly I needed that barley soup. So, here it is: my on the spot, oh so tired from all the concerts and rehearsals, but damn do I need that -

Chicken-friendly Mushroom, Bean, and Barley Soup

1 large onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 potatoes, diced
8-10 cremini mushrooms, sliced
6-7 cups of stock (depending on how thick you like your soup)
Tamari (Sorry, I didn't measure!! Probably around 2 or 3 tablespoons)
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup pearl barley
1 can beans, rinsed (I used kidney beans, since I had them on hand, but whatever's good)

Sauté the onions in the olive oil until translucent. I forgot about mine and went and checked my emails, and when I came back they had caramelized. Oh my dear Godard, they were delicious! The only reason you shouldn't let these caramelize is that if you're anything like me, you will start eating them out of the pot and forget to add the other ingredients! Throw in the carrots, celery and potato and sauté for another 5 minutes. Add the stock, mushrooms, salt, pepper, and tamari and bring to a boil. Add the barley and beans. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about 45 minutes, or until your barley is nice and puffy. Consume!

This soup makes a LOT (I could barely fit it all into our biggest pot!), so gather up some friends and feed 'em dinner! Man, this soup is so good it's BARLEY legal! Ahahahahahaah. See what I did there?

Yeah, okay. Never mind.

Pad Thai and hot chocolate!

Ohh, pad thai. You make my life complete. You and miso soup are what have gotten me through 2 and a half years of university. And now I share my super special secret recipe with you, my fellow vegan pioneers/family/friends/roommate who stalks my blog! Okay, it's not that special or secret. But it is delicious!

Totally not traditional pad thai

Feeds all my best friends (or four other very hungry people)

Les noodles:
2 boxes of soba noodles, or about a package of rice noodles

Le stir-fry
1 block firm tofu or seitan, chopped (or cut into pretty shapes if your name is bill and you're weird)
1 tbsp peanut oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
2 inches fresh ginger, chopped finely or grated
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 green thai peppers, seeded and minced (taste, I like to add more)

Optional but delicious:
Lots of baby bok choy (stems and leaves separated)
Broccoli (the head and the stem separated)
Mushrooms (for the mushroom-inclined)
Green onions
Sprouts
Cilantro is yummy
Any other veggie you find delicious. Just don't throw something totally weird like avocado or tomato in there. Avocado pad thai? Not so much.

Le sauce
1/4 c soy sauce/Braggs (or to taste, if you have super salty soy sauce)
Juice of one lime (or two if you omit the rice vinegar)
2 tsp rice vinegar (or another lime, whatever. see if I care)
1/3 cup peanut butter
1-2 tbsp sugar or maple syrup
1/4 c hot water or coconut milk

Method:

Make the noodles. If you're using soba, rinse them in cold water once you've drained them. I never coordinate this dish very well, so I usually toss my noodles with a bit of oil afterwards to prevent them sticking together in a big gooey mess.

In a big wok, sauté tofu/seitan in oil until browned on all sides. This may take a while, especially with tofu, so make sure your pan is quite hot, and don't be afraid to leave the tofu there for a bit and go leave me a comment or something. Then when you come back and flip it it should be nicely browned, depending on the length of the comment. Anyway, then add the onions and shrooms. Sauté those for 6 or 7 minutes or until the onions are translucent (by the way, I can never see through my onions, so whatever, that's such a lie. but you know what I mean. and I probably don't chop mine fine enough anyway.) now you can add the carrots, bell pepper, ginger, garlic, chopped stems of bok choy, chopped broccoli stems, and hot peppers. Sauté those for a bit. Depends on how soft you like your carrot, really. After a few minutes (5-ish?), add the broccoli and bok choy leaves, if using. Cover up your pan and steam them a bit. You can add some water so the rest of the stuff doesn't burn. I don't usually do this because I never use broccoli, so I just add the bok choy leaves and stir 'em around a bit until they're wilted. But you should steam the broccoli. And broccoli's good in here, I just don't use it because I never use it in time when I buy it and it always goes horribly horribly bad.

All right, while all that shit's going on and you have a minute, make the yummy sauce. Just stir everything together in a bowl! Feel free to mess with it to your liking; I never measure anything so the measurements are all very approximate!

Once the broccoli is tender, throw in the sauce, sprouts, and cilantro and green onions and stir it a bunch to incorporate the sauce. Put the stir-fry on top of the noodles and consume! Garnish with roasted peanuts, lime slices, and cilantro leaves. If you have leftovers, combine the sauce and the noodles before tupperware-ing it; otherwise the noodles will be weird, and really, putting them in separate containers makes too many dishes.

The end to this epic post (by the way, sorry for how extraordinarily verbose that recipe was): my vegan pioneer tip for making hot chocolate! I just discovered this tonight, when I was considering what spices and stuff to throw in to my hot chocolatey deliciousness. I put in the usual sugar, cayenne, cinnamon, but then I saw allspice, and thought that would be yummy, so I threw that in there. But that's not the really great part; I spied my little bottle of almond extract and I couldn't resist! Oh... so heavenly. Why didn't I think of that before? It's the perfect addition to hot chocolate!

Well, I've got an 8:30 class tomorrow, whoopee! Goodnight, kids; I leave you with this incredibly attractive picture taken by my imminently lovable roommate:

Aww, Baby's first post! Take a picture, honey, quick!

A great man once told me, “Get a pic! Do a blog!” and now, with the blog that you are currently reading (well, I have to assume someone will read this), I am following his sage advice. (The second half, anyway. The first is a bit iffy, since I don't own a camera. I do, however, own a roommate, who owns a camera. Have I weirded you out yet?)

Okay, well, the sage advice wasn't technically directed towards me. Neil Patrick Harris sang those immortal words on Joss Whedon’s incredibly awesome Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Details. I took his advice anyway, even though I am a complete technophobe who only started reading blogs at all about a month ago, and am ready to dive into this bizarre tradition that seems to taken over the interwebs. I hope I don’t suck at it.

Things you should know about me: vegan, female, music student, Canadian, currently studying in Montréal, Québec.

This blog, as you may have surmised from the title, is about feeling like a bit of a pioneer of veganism. I feel I have so much in common with women like Catherine Parr Traill: I am surrounded by a vast, unfamiliar wilderness rife with vicious beasts and potentially poisonous food sources (a country girl, stuck in a big city, surrounded by the seemingly hopelessly carnivorous Québecois and Montréal’s vast supply of fast food), I have to get food on the table for my family each night (my two roommates, M2, and my cat Arvo), and I have to find the time, somehow, to work in the garden and care for my crops (a sage plant, two basil plants, a sad little parsley plant, and a chive plant, all of whom live their happy little lives on my windowsills). So, with this blog I hope to share with you, my fellow pioneers, some of the tips and tricks I pick up along the way. Like good old Cat Parr Traill, I aim to record my journey in the wilderness in order to pass on to you, good readers, the recipes, experiences, and wisdom I have gathered like pebbles on my path and stored safely until such time that they were needed.

Or something.

It’ll probably be entertaining, anyway.