A Very Vegan Gluten-Free Christmas: Okra Gumbo

I call this the faux-hawk plate

With our Heart of Palm "Crab" Cakes already delighting our bellies, we needed a proper dinner chock-ful of nostalgia to round out our Christmas Eve feast. For me, there is one dish that epitomizes home cooking with the power to send you back to your childhood and cure all of your woes- my grandmother's okra gumbo.

Maw Maw's okra gumbo transcends all other gumbos (and all other cooking from anyone's grandmother for that matter). It was more of a stew of greatness than a gumbo. The extremely thick okra base was perfect for anything from putting on top of rice, to making a sandwich in a buttery roll, to even dipping french fries in. Really, the only thing you should probably avoid doing is putting it on ice cream, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was also amazing (Now if you'll excuse me, I'm busy thinking about frying ice cream and smothering it in okra gumbo...). While I don't have her actual recipe, my mom and I have made a few gumbos in our day, and we were going to try our best to reach those seemingly unobtainable cajun heights.

Okra Gumbo
Adapted from motherly and sonly wisdom
Servings: 8-10
Time: Approximately 3-4 hours

Chop, chop, chop!

6 tbsp vegetable oil
6-8 tbsp gluten-free all-purpose flour
1 1/2 yellow onions, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 lb bags of frozen okra
6 cups water
3 Not Chick'n bouillon cubes
Cajun seasoning to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste
Tabasco to taste
Extra-long grain rice

It's always important to remember to get lots of shadows in your foodie pics.

1. Make your roux. Mix the flour and oil over medium heat, stirring frequently until it starts to smell nutty and becomes caramel colored. (The preferable holiday procedure is to have your mom who has hundreds of rouxs worth of experience make it while you dice the produce.)
2. Coat the onions, bell peppers and garlic in the roux. Let cook over medium-low heat for 7-10 minutes until the onions become translucent. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
3. Transfer to a large pot. Add the water and bring it to a boil. Stir frequently to avoid sticking to the bottom and burning.
4. Stir in the bouillon cubes and okra (the more you put, the thicker the final product will be) and return to a boil.
5. Lower the temp to a healthy simmer and let cook for at least two hours (you want the okra to start breaking down a little).
6. Season with cajun seasoning and cayenne pepper while cooking (and tabasco once in a bowl).
7. Serve with extra-long grain rice.
8. Relive awesome childhood food moments from grandmother's house.

Proper gumbo plating- smothered

We managed to come surprisingly close to the taste and joy of Maw Maw's famous okra gumbo. The three bags of okra gave it a great thickness and heartiness, but four probably would have been the proper number for true gumbo magic. Seconds were not an option for this gumbo, rather they were a demand of our stomaches, which were now suffering from a condition that can only be explained as "gumbo-lust". In the true gumbo spirit, it was even better the next day after it had more time to thicken up and the flavors had more time to come together. For more tasty fun with your gumbo, sprinkle in some gluten-free panko crumbs for a little crunch.

Now I have to admit that we partially cheated on the gluten-freeness here (hey, Christmas is a time of forgiveness). We added some Field Roast Italian"sausage" to up the protein content (may the gluten-free gods have mercy on our souls). This proved to be the weakest part of the gumbo, though, so it can easily be skipped for the full gluten-free experience.

Stay tuned for the most important part of any proper Christmas celebration- the desserts!

Indian Bonanza 2: Electric Vindaloo (Bhendi and Garlic Naan)

Apparently I took pics from every angle except focusing on the bhendi or naan.

I love Indian food. It always takes me back to nights of watching ridiculous documentaries (see Crazy Love) with my sister and ordering in from Bollywood Cafe.  It was one of these gloriously delicious nights that I learned about the Indian fabulous okra known as bhendi. As a southerner, I am always transported to home (and my grandma's gumbo) when I eat okra, so being able to combine it with one of my favorite types of cuisine made it infinitely more special. I'm also a massive fan of carbs (they're banned by many diets for a reason), so naan also holds a special place in my stomach's heart. Now on to the exciting conclusion of the Indian Bonanza!

Bhendi (or Bhindi)
Modified From Foods of India
Servings: 4-6
Time: 40 minutes

16 oz frozen okra
1 onion, diced
1 tomato, chopped
Olive oil
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Juice of a whole lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Sriracha sauce to spice

Okra: the magic vegetable

1. Sauté the onions in olive oil over medium heat until soft and translucent (I'm pretty sure about half of my posts start like this, so I'm just gonna start adding it to desserts too).
2. Add the cayenne, tomato, salt and pepper and cook for two more minutes.
3. Stir in the okra and cook until defrosted (unless you're using fresh okra in which case give it a couple of minutes.
4. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 10-20 minutes until the okra becomes tender.
5. Top with sriracha sauce to heat it up and serve.

When you need to get your greens in, okra is always the way to go. This okra is a wonderful supporting player to any Indian meal (seriously just mix it in with the korma from my last post), but also has great flavor on its own. A couple of quick notes to make it even better: frozen okra can get a little slimy, so add a little vinegar to fix this; also once it's plated, add a pinch of garam masala spice to give it a more authentic and exciting flavor.

Garlic Naan

Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Servings: 8-12 pieces

Time: 2-3 hours

1/4 oz packet active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tbsp yogurt

1 tbsp milk

1 egg beaten

2 tsp salt

4 garlic cloves, minced

4- 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, melted

Side note: I was shocked to discover no recipes for electric vindaloo (but there is a band). Look for it soon.

1. I cheated and made this with a breadmaker (which made it crazy simple), but if you lack the convenience of one you can do it on your own quite easily (but in a little longer time) with the following steps.
2. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and let sit for 10 mintues.
3. Stir in the sugar, milk, yogurt, egg, flour and salt to form the dough
4. Knead for 6 minutes on a lightly floured surface.
5. Place in an oiled bowl covered with a damp paper towel or saran wrap (but not damp saran wrap) and let rise until it has doubled in size (about an hour).
6. Punch the dough down and knead in about 2 tbsp of garlic.
7. Pinch off into small balls of dough (as many as pieces of naan you want) and set on a tray covered with a damp towel to rise until doubled in volume (about half an hour).
8. Roll out each ball to be about 1/2 an inch to an inch thick.
9. Cook over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes or until nicely browned.
10. Brush a mixture of the melted butter and garlic over the uncooked side then flip and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.

What can I really say about this naan other than it's amazing garlicy flatish bread. On its own, it's worthy of your time, but dipping it in delicious Indian food truly makes it worthy of a spot in the pantheon of your taste buds. Make sure to get it ready just as the meal begins because there's nothing like warm naan to help jumpstart the exciting food coma you have coming. For an interesting dessert take on naan, substitute sweetened coconut flakes for the garlic (if you're feeling adventurous)..

I'm glad I decided to start mixing in vegetarian dishes because my Indian bonanza was a massive hit. As I move forward with the blog (and try to combat the weight gain that inevitably comes with working), I'll try to sprinkle in vegetarian meals along the way. If I forget, keep me honest and yell at me in the comments.

Harissa Tempeh with Couscous and Sweet & Sour Okra

Tonight we attempted an intriguing Mediterranean and Middle Eastern fusion odyssey. My sister and I combined culinary forces for an unstoppable kitchen kicking experience. Twice the Kennairs! Twice the mess! It's cooking harissa with my sista!

Harissa

It adds spice to foods and doubles as eye cream! 

This was my introduction to harissa, a tunisian hot chili sauce that my sister loves.  It has a nice, sneaky kick to it.  You can find it as either a paste or as dried packets. All our local Whole Foods had was the packets, so we used a hand blender to combine it with equal parts olive oil and hot water (about 1/4 cup each) and some grape tomatoes for sweetness.

Greek Style Couscous
Servings: 8-10
Time: 15 minutes

5 cups couscous 
1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
15 grape tomatoes, quartered
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1/4 cup red onions
2 tbsp lemon
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Harissa to taste
Salt to taste

1. Prepare couscous according to product instructions.
2. Allow to cool then add in the remaining components.

I hope I didn't lose you after those crazy directions. We wanted a carb to help absorb some of the heat, so we went with a Greek style couscous.

Sweet & Sour Okra
Original Recipe
Servings: 4
Time: 20 minutes

12 oz frozen okra
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
7 tbsp water
3 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp olive oil
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar
4 tsp lemon juice

1. Defrost the okra and drain well. Defrosted okra has a tendency to become slimy. You can fix this with a tiny bit of vinegar
2. Combine 4 tbsp of water, garlic and red pepper. Blend well.
3. Mix in the coriander, turmeric and cumin until it becomes a paste.
4. Heat olive oil over medium heat and add the spice paste. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes
5. Add the okra, sugar, salt, lemon juice and remaining water. 
6. Let the mixture come to a simmer then cook covered on low heat for 10 minutes.

Okra always reminds me of home thanks to my grandmother's amazing okra gumbo that is so spectacular it should be jarred and served as dipping sauce. Again we were trying to incorporate some sweetness to counteract the spice.

Harissa Tempeh
Servings: 5
Time: 75 minutes (inactive for 60)

12 oz tempeh
Olive oil
Lemon Juice
Soy Sauce
Harissa

1. Steam the tempeh for 5 minutes. This opens it up to better absorb marinades and removes some of the its natural bitter taste.
2. Marinade the tempeh in a mixture of the remaining ingredients for about an hour. I recommend a 1:1 mixture of soy sauce and olive oil with lemon juice and harissa to taste (and desired heat level).
3. Cook the tempeh over medium heat until browned (about 3 minutes per side).

Tempeh: soy protein that looks kind of like grainy hot dogs. You can't go wrong.

For our protein, I went with the fermented soy protein tempeh. To keep with our Mediterranean/Middle Eastern theme I decided to modify a marinade that I used before for making Gyros. This actually turned out to be tastier thanks to the harissa.

The meal ended up coming together quite nicely and was best enjoyed by just mixing it all together and pouring on copious amounts of the harissa paste.

It was great cooking with my sister whose style of adding ingredients willy nilly to taste provided a wonderful foil to my more methodical chemist approach. As I continue in this cooking journey and learn more, I hope to adopt that approach. If anything, it'll make writing up the procedures much faster.