Christmas Dinner

Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year. Especially this year, as Hanukkah was at the same time (so it's very ecumenical). To celebrate, we had an traditional Christmas feast - or as traditional as one can do when one is vegetarian.

The main protein was a Tofurky - slathered in a generous amount of coconut oil and slow-roasted. Not being stingy with the coconut oil is key, as this was the tenderest Tofurky ever (in our experiences - your results may vary).

My partner made delicious puff pastry tarts stuffed with vegan brie and cranberry sauce (you can see the leftover cranberry sauce on the table).

I made a salad with a sriracha vinaigrette, but what I was most proud of was the vegan mashed potatoes.

Vegan Mashed Potatoes

Oil
3 pounds Potatoes (a starchy type like Idaho or Russet)
1.5 cups white wine
Dash of hot mustard
Salt and pepper

Dump the potatoes (unpeeled!) into a pot and fill with water. Bring to a boil and add some salt. Cook for 15-30 minutes. Periodically stab the potatoes and when there's no resistance they're done. Drain in a colander.

If you want you can let dry for a bit and then wrap in tinfoil and store in the fridge. Or, you can start on part 2 right away.

Put some oil in the pot over medium-low heat for about a minute. Then, add the potatoes and start mashing away with a suitable instrument (something that looks like this). Add the wine, salt, pepper and mustard and keep on mashing until you get the right consistency.


Serves 6

The potatoes were really nice and fluffy and I didn't miss the milk/butter at all. Because there were plenty of leftovers, we got to have mashed potatoes in the days to come. I even tried some unsuccessful food experiments with them which will not be blogged (because unsuccessful).

Restaurant: Tibet Nepal House

I lobbied fiercely against the original dinner choice for the night. Inspired by Ezra Klein's cri de coeur against the hated Grilled Vegetable Plate, I took a stand against a restaurant that had only that as its vegetarian option. Blind opposition, of course, is not enough: I needed to propose an alternative. So I googled for restaurants around our hotel and picked the Tibet Nepal House because it sounded fun and I had never had that type of cuisine before. I was glad my suggestion was accepted.

The food was great, similar to Indian but with slightly different spices. We had Daal, Aloo Phulkopi Tarkaari (similar to Aloo Ghobi: potatoes, cauliflower and tomatoes), Aloo-Taamaa (potatoes and bamboo), Vegetable Sekuwa (oven roasted vegetables) and Tse Phing (a noodle dish, which we ordered because it symbolized long life).

In addition, I was particularly excited by the Tofu Saag. I'm not a particular fan of paneer, it's tasteless and just adds fat and unhealthiness to meals. Why have Saag Paneer, I've always said, when you could substitute tofu which is equally tasteless that has the same texture. Finally, I found a restaurant that does this. Also, there were meat dishes, including yak which was apparently quite interesting.

When we flew back to Toronto I had leftover Braised Coconut Tofu for dinner, thus bringing this blog around full circle from the California trip posts. There were other restaurants I went to, including a nice asian fusion place in Pasadena and several mediocre lunches but I think I've done enough items on California restaurants.

Tibet Nepal House
36 East Holly Street, Pasadena, California, USA

Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped potatoes have always been a 'comfort food' dish from my childhood, but I don't really get an opportunity to make them (I don't usually have both cheese and milk in the house at the same time). Luckily, I was over at my friend Megan's for dinner tonight and they were on the menu. I was feeling like having dairy (some readers may be able to guess why) and, serendipitously, I got my wish. We started by having an omelet with orange peppers and onions (inspired by this video, albeit not in form) as the scalloped potatoes baked.

Scalloped Potatoes

6 potatoes

1 onion

Cheese

1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 375°. Slice the potatoes into ovals (cut the bottom first so it doesn't slide on the cutting the board), ring the onions and grate the cheese. In a casorolle dish, add a layer of potatoes, a layer of onions and a layer of cheese until you reach the top. The top layer should be cheese, but before you put it on, add the milk. Cover in tinfoil and bake for an hour, then remove the tinfoil and bake for 45 minutes.

Serves 3 (or 2 for hungry folk)

Restaurant: Raja Fine Indian Cuisine

I was up in Stratford today, seeing A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum with the 'rents. It was funny with good performances all around except for the mother. The bar at intermission didn't even have completely outrageous markups, actually relatively competative vis-à-vis certain bars. Their premium wine seemed overpriced though, it was something like $9 for a glass of Jackson-Triggs (I guess "premium" has a different meaning in the theatrical world?) Afterwards we went to Raja, which my boss had recommended to me.

The waiter brought over papadum with chutneys, including an excellent cilantro one. Still smarting over the "potato incident" at Massey's I made sure to push for getting dishes with a lot of potatoes.

We got the Aloo Gobhi, Sag Aloo and the Mixed Vegetable Dupiaza. All with potatoes and all very good. My parents vetoed dal, as they are of the opinion that I eat too many lentils as it is. The only quibble I would have is that I was hoping that the dupiaza, at least, would be a little spicy. But I guess they know their audience and don't want to rock the boat spicewise. I should have asked for it to be hot, which probably wouldn't have worked but at least I'd have known they made the effort. It was a nice place though and apperently they opened up a twin restaurant in London. So I can agitate for that one if people want to go for Indian.

Raja Fine Indian Cuisine
10 George Street W, Stratford, Ontario