Recipe: Homemade Burritos

Homemade Veggie Burritos

Ok, these are so good I have to write it down in case I forget. These a completely homemade burritos: the tortillas, the guacamole, everything. It's surprising how much better a simple homemade tortilla is compared to store bought. Texture and flavour... and easier than you think. Key to success is the tortilla and the guac. Surprisingly the beans you use isn't nearly as important. You can use canned whole beans or refried beans or dehydrated pinto beans. I use dehydrated pinto or canned black beans.

This is more of an authentic taste, so you don't need much taco seasoning (maybe none). Try to get everything kind of done around the same time so things are hot. Use the microwave to heat up cold things (sometime the rice is cold by the time assembly happens).

Tortillas (make 4 bigish ones or 8 small ones and everything in between)
2 c white flour
3/4 c water
1/2 ts salt
2 ts oil

mix into a ball of dough. done. set aside for now.
Guacamole for 2

1 avocado
2 ts lime juice
salt to flavour
2 garlic cloves minced
mash it all together. add hot peppers, tomatoes if you got them, but there will be plenty of tomato in the salsa so not really needed.

Burritos (makes 2)
1 can black beans
1/2 ts taco seasoning
1 c cooked rice (plain)

cheese
salsa
hot chili sauce
chipotle sauce

cilantro

heat up the beans and seasoning together.

while this is happening, cut the dough into 4 parts. with a rolling pin flatten out 2 parts of the dough into really thin tortillas (its easy and works fine).

heat up a frying pan to medium heat. fry each tortilla for a couple minutes each side (nice brown spots appear). use oil or spray.

when tortilla is done, put on plate. add beans, rice, guac, cheese, cilantro, hot sauces. close tortilla and top with salsa. Extra lettuce or tomato is optional. Yum!

Yummy Dry Ribs

You can get very tasty (if oily) dry ribs in China town. There just like the ones served at Buddha's Veggie restaurant.

The vegan store is in a small mall along centre st and 3rd ave or so. Delicious!

 

You can get all kinds of other veggie meats there too.

Recipe: Gai Lan (chinese broccolli)

So far I've only tried fried GL where even after 20 minutes the stems weren't soft. I'll try boiling the GL next.

Frying Pan Recipe

Ingredients:

Gai Lan

Chinese Garlic Sauce:

3-4 cloves of garlic (chopped or minced)

1 teaspoon minced ginger (optional)

1/4c - 1/2c each of vinegar, water, sugar

ts of hot sauce (optional, how ever much you want)

Wash and break off an inch of the GL stems.

In a pot mix all the sauce ingredients and let it boil down half way.

In a pan or wok, start frying the GL in oil (med-high heat)

Add the sauce

Cover and fry for 15-20 minutes.

The texture might still be a bit tough, but its delicious!

Restaurant Review: Coup

I went to the vegetarian restaurant "Coup" on 17th ave and 9st SW for the first time a few days ago. I've heard that it ways pretty good over the years but I've never gone because its not in good location for me and the one time I did go to check it out it was closed (not open from 3-5pm). Anyway, we got there and had to wait for a friend before they'd seat us. Thats a bit weird and unfriendly... but anyways... I ordered the tempeh shwarma. It was great! It was very tasty and a good size. Together with the yam fries it was a meal. There are other items on the menu I'd like to try too (noodle and pasta dishes). Best of all the tempeh wrap had this awesome hot sauce that I now can easily make at home as a change from my fave spicy peanut sauce. The new sauce is basically tahini (sesame paste), hot sauce and sesame oil. delicious! Service was great once we were seated. I'll be back.

Review: Ha Long Bay

2St and 7Ave SW, Calgary

I just had lunch here today for the first time, to try their veggie sub. It was $7.50 and costs less for take out. It does come with tofu though, so I had high hopes as most veggie subs don't have tofu. It was pretty disappointing, it was pretty small, this would never be a meal without something else. The sauce was watery and salty, and the sauce pretty much makes the sandwich. Before I had finished the bun had been soaked through and soggy (yuck) on the side with sauce. I would say its the least tasty viet sub I've ever had.

Tasty spicy peanut sauce recipe

If you eat Thai or Vietnamese type food, this recipe will get a lot of use. I use it for stir fries, salad rolls and tofu subs. I swear it is better than ANY peanut sauce I've had in a restaurant or grocey store. Not sure why because it's so easy to make.

Basically you need these flavors: sweet, spicy, salty, savory. I use brown sugar, hot sauce, soy sauce and natural peanut butter plus sesame oil.

Here's a pic of my ingredients:

Everyone has different preferences about how spicy or sweet they like things. To start with use these measurements then just add more of the flavour you want:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tb hot sauce
• 2 tb sugar
• 1 ts sesame oil

Blend them all together. enjoy!

Here is some sauce with homemade salad rolls!

Best Veggie Sub?

Vegetarians in Calgary better like veggie subs, otherwise choice is pretty limited in a foodcourt (its already extremely limited).

I'd say the tastiest was the original veggie sub at Quiznos, they've replaced with a veggie lite sub which is cheaper but not as good (contains cheese). you can still get the orginal at some locations but they are 3 or 4 dollars more. Subway is very good, as their veggies and tomatoes are almost always perfect. Toasted is pretty good. Both the Quiznos and Subway subs are pretty bland without cheese, and I like to eat vegan as much as possible. There's a new sub place in my food court called Chachis which has a pretty tasty veg sub even without cheese (havarti) as it has pesto (yum!) and artichokes (thats original!) which are pretty flavorful. 

The out and out winner though is a good tofu vietnamese sub! I love the crusty buns, the carrots, the onions, the peanut sauce, and the tofu. I use my homemade peanut sauce whenever possible. The only place downtown that makes a tofu sub is Thai Thai, and I got ill everytime I had one. Vietnamese subs with cheese are tasty too, but i prefer tofu.

Rankings

#1 Vietnamese tofu sub

#2 Chachis (because cheese isn't required for tastiness)

#3 Quiznos - the buns are better

#4 Subway - still very good

if only one of these places offered AVOCADO! (not guac, but actual sliced avocado).

Homemade

Inspired by Chachis and some sandwiches my wife made once, I made a pretty tasty sub/sandwich today with pesto (green and red) artichoke hearts, red pepper, spinach, tomato and hummous. Very good, I just need to add avocado and onion to it.