Tempeh cutlets with creamy tomato-pepper spaghetti

One of my new year's resolutions is to make at least one recipe from every cookbook I own.

I bought American Vegan Kitchen for the appetizers-- namely the Spicy Balsamic Maple Wingz. Well I made that recipe; it was one of those ones where you have to make three other foundational recipes first, and the whole thing takes more than one day. It was delicious, but it was also the meal that sealed the deal-- Erik had a bad reaction to it and right afterwards we learned that he is gluten-intolerant.

I hadn't picked up the book since then, because everything seemed very seitan (and gluten) -centric. Looking for something that was easy to make substitutions on, the tempeh cutlets stood out. Only the flour (I used potato starch), soy sauce (wheat-free tamari) and pasta (quinoa-corn pasta) needed replacing. The recipe calls for a can of tomato sauce-- of course I had to make a big batch of my own, and I hadn't prepared beforehand by marinating the tempeh, so this meal took just over two hours to make.

Overall it was good, but I probably wouldn't use the recipe for the creamy tomato-pepper sauce again-- it's just sauteed peppers, soy milk, and tomato sauce. The tempeh cutlets were nice, but I ran out of red wine vinegar and used balsamic for the remainder, so they were sweeter than they should've been.

My interest in this book has revived, and I will definitely try de-glutening some of the other recipes.

Spicy soba noodles

One of my new year's resolutions is to make at least one recipe from every cookbook I own.

I can't say that I watched many cooking shows as a kid, but there weren't many on back then. In fact, the only one I remember is "Yan Can Cook." The star, Martin Yan, was so animated-- always moving, telling stories, making jokes, and turning out some really exotic (for the early 80s) cuisine. In fact, the show started the year I was born, so I really did grown up with it.

One day a couple of years ago, Martin Yan came to the cafeteria at my place of work and signed copies of his most recent cookbook. There was a little bit of snow, which is a big deal for Portland, so no one was around. I bought the book, had it signed, and posed for a photo with him. It's a terrible photo-- I was having a really bad hair day-- so I'm not going to post it here, but the cookbook has been more sentimental than utilitarian... until last week.

I needed a super-quick dinner, but stir-fry can be so boring. Searching for inspiration, I saw the unusual combination of sauce ingredients in the "Spicy soba noodles" recipe: soy sauce (use gluten-free tamari!), sweet chili sauce, lemon juice, fresh ginger, and turmeric. Intriguing!

Although I used rice noodles, stir-fried a number of vegetables-- Chinese cabbage, asparagus, carrots, onions, garlic-- and tempeh, and served the dish hot, the sauce really shines through. Erik loved it and had the leftovers for two lunches in a row. I will definitely make this again and look to Martin Yan for more new twists on classic meals.