Vegetarian Filipino Tempeh Adobo

One of the dishes that is fundamental to Filipino cooking is a dish called adobo. It varies depending on the chef, and on what’s in the house, but it generally consists of some kind of meat, soy sauce, onions, vinegar, bay leaf, and a potato “if you’re poor and don’t have much meat,” Charlie explains. I think the potatoes drenched in the salty, vinegary sauce are crucial to the delicious factor, so they are going in our version no matter what! The meat used is generally chicken or pork, or sometimes both used at the same time, and it’s served over rice. When we searched for vegetarian versions, we found an eggplant adobo, but I was looking for something closer to the real thing, so we planned a tempeh version. We were a bit concerned about the tempeh breaking down in the liquidy sauce, so we fried it first to help solidify it.

As with any time Charlie is supplying the recipe for me, it’s a little less specific than when I do things. He does say, for this recipe, that “the amount of ‘soup’ you put in depends on your preference,” so it’s really more of a ratio than a measurement.

Ingredients

1 block of tempeh
1 medium onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cups of water
1/2 a bullion cube
60%/40% vinegar to soy sauce ratio – in this case, probably about 6 tablespoons vinegar, 4 tablespoons soy sauce, but that’s from my glancing at what he was doing not any actual measuring!
2 teaspoons oyster sauce (yes, they make a vegetarian version)
1-2 bay leaves
black pepper to taste (Charlie’s taste is about 2 teaspoons)

Directions

Cut the tempeh into six pieces and fry until golden brown on both sides.

Fry the onion and garlic in a large stock pot until the onion is translucent. Pour the water, soy sauce, vinegar, and oyster sauce on top and stir. Add the bullion and the bay leaf. Add the potatoes. Season with the black pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and let simmer for at least 30 minutes. Add the tempeh somewhere along the way, depending on how soft you want it – make sure it gets at least 10-15 minutes in there so it can soak up the juices. We put it in for the whole time and it was only a little crumbly.

Serve over rice. Lots of rice.

Planting the pumpkins…

It’s unbelievable how much our plants have grown in the past 10 days since I’ve posted. Some days, I feel like we will never reach harvest time. Other days, like today, I look at pictures that compare the size from only a week or ten days earlier, and I am amazed.

I woke up early again today despite the fact that I’d gotten very little sleep for two nights. I noticed that the temperature was only at 74 (and it was headed up almost to 90) so I quickly got dressed and went outside.

If you recall, the last time I posted, I mentioned that I planted some of my pumpkins for the fall. Three giant pumpkins sprouted in the area that is away from the main garden plot, and they were very close together, so I decided that it would be a good idea to transplant the middle one away. Since not all of our watermelons survived, we had a bit of space in that area, so I moved one of the giant pumpkin seedlings to over there. I was a bit nervous about it, but I used a trowel and just went for it and it went extremely well. Now, that long row looks like eggplant, eggplant, giant pumpkin, watermelon, watermelon, giant pumpkin, giant pumpkin, so our little markers aren’t quite accurate anymore, but at least everything has the space it needs.

The lumina pumpkins also sprouted in a tiny corner of the main garden plot. Sadly, none of the giant pumpkins that I re-sowed in the three sisters plot came up! I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Since the four lumina seedlings were very crowded, I transplanted three of them to the three sisters plots (two in one, one in the other, and the fourth is near the three sisters with the single pumpkin). Hopefully they will thrive and benefit each other.

The peas that are separate from the three sisters are also starting to come up. The ones that are in the plot are various sizes – one of them will need to latch on to a piece of corn soon or I’ll have to build a trellis. The corn is getting quite tall, but it’s not very sturdy. We had a lot of wind when it was young, and it seems to be leaning a bit. I may try to build up some hills around them a little if I can without hurting the peas.

The herbs are doing awesome and we had wonderful homemade pesto last night with our copious amounts of basil. This photo is from when I first planted the seedlings from the CSA, and now it’s filled in even more.

I also did some weeding today, but it is impossible to keep up with and one day soon, Charlie and I hope to mulch the plants now that they’re a bit bigger. Charlie has taken a pretty big interest in the garden and has been a huge help. He usually goes out to water and weed in the evenings when he gets home from work, which is nice because I usually go out in the mornings.

We have had a few problems with pests. At first, we thought that it might be slugs, as our broccoli and a few other things were getting lacy. We set some beer traps around and got some slugs, but not ridiculous amounts. I saw a white moth today and I am now suspecting white cabbage moths, but unfortunately, I may have to spend some time picking them off the leaves if that’s the case! Haven’t gone back out to check yet.

More pictures coming soon!

Farmer Cat Update…

I have some great news to report on the garden. A few days ago I was starting to get discouraged, as I was really fatigued and hadn’t had a chance to plant a few things that I wanted to, and our little seedlings weren’t growing much, but they are finally starting to grow quite a lot! I also got to do some work in the garden a few mornings this week before it got very hot, so we’re in pretty good shape!

One of the things I’ve been meaning to plant is the carrots. The carrots will be Charlie’s responsibility, as I think I’ve mentioned, since I don’t want to be on my [arthritic] knees dealing with root veggies, but I was happy to plant them for him since he’s got a busy schedule with school and work. I got a big double row planted in between something that Charlie’s mom is growing (beans, maybe?) and another small empty plot I had.

In the empty space next to the carrots, I planted a few more giant pumpkins. I haven’t had any luck yet with the ones that I sowed in the three sisters plot. I actually put a few more in the three sister’s plot, hoping that that trio will be successful. I think that some of the seeds ended up getting washed away and then eaten, so I figure it’s worth trying again. Some of the methods actually recommend waiting until the corn is a week or two old to plant the peas and pumpkins anyway, so it’s not a terrible tragedy that they didn’t come up the first time. So, hopefully, between the pumpkins that are in the three sister’s plot and the pumpkins that are over on their own, we should have some huge pumpkins to carve! (If not, I’ll have to go steal some from my younger brother… he has been successful in growing pumpkins for the last several years!)

The giant pumpkins need a lot of time to grow since they’re so large (they can be over 100lbs!) but other pumpkin varieties don’t need as much time, so I’ll be sowing my sugar pumpkins (also called “pie pumpkins” since that’s what most people use them for) in a few weeks. I also planted just a couple of one more variety called Lumina Pumpkins, which are a gorgeous pumpkin with a white outer skin and an edible inner orange flesh!

Here’s a picture I found online:

So I hope we get a few of those, as they would be lovely decorations.

This morning I also got to sow some more shelling peas. You’re really supposed to do those pretty early in the spring, but they have a short growing season, so if they can withstand the heat, I’ll have some, no problem. If anything really bites the dust, I’ll pull it up and start over in a few weeks for a fall harvest. Time to start reading up on that!

Similar to the giant pumpkins, I sowed some with the peas in the three sisters mounds, but not many came up. I think I have two or three in one mound and one in another. I’d really like a bigger crop than that, so I replanted some in the mounds, and I also did a row of them in our main garden plot next to the three sisters. There’s a trellis there, so the peas will be able to climb up it.

And how are the rest of our crops doing?

So far, so good. We lost some seedlings when we went away for the weekend (some that had been in the ground already and some that were not yet planted). It seemed like some had been overwatered and some had been underwatered by the person taking care of our plants. Our main loss was in melons, and that seems to be from overwatering/damping-off disease, which I believe is fungus. Two of the honeydews we had in the ground already just shriveled up and died! It happened to three of the watermelon seedlings that were in the ground already, too, once we got home, but two of each plant are still going strong.

Honeydew	Watermelon

I’ve also got my row of broccoli doing well and my row of kohlrabi doing awesome, though the ones that are towards the front of the plot are definitely doing better as it seems that they’re getting more sun.

Broccoli	Kohlrabi

The corn is just amazing looking… (though I have some more weeding to do!)

And the eggplants that were quite tall seedlings when we got them from the farm share are doing well.

Our container plants are also doing well, but that’s going to have to be a post for another day. I’ll also probably have to write a whole post about pests later, but I think I should do a little research first (perhaps setting some traps) to see what kinds of little things are chomping on our veggies. Something was eating a bit of the broccoli last week, and now something ate a little of the honeydew, and now a bit of the eggplant… so it’s time to get serious about it. I haven’t done any pest control yet (besides fences) so I think we’ve done ok so far!

Cooperative Apple Muffins

This is another recipe from the archives. In fact, it dates all the way back to 2008! Sorry I don’t have a photo of these. I’ll have to make them again some time as they are way delicious. Grating the apples is key.

Here’s the original text from before I even had a blog. They were the first ones to introduce me to the concept of a co-op or a CSA or a farm share.

My friends Anne and Neil get fruits and vegetables from a co-op each week. It’s extremely locally grown and delicious food! The best (and sometimes worst) part is that you never know what you’re going to get… When you show up to pick up your food, they say, “Ok, take one bucket of cherries and four handfuls of spinach and three cucumbers,” or whatever the foods of the week are.

I’ve been lucky not only to eat dinner at their house on nights that the co-op has been picked up, but also to receive cast-offs like cucumbers, which they don’t like, or, in this case, apples, which they received another 4lbs of before they could eat the previous week’s. So, I had a bunch of what I think were Cortland apples to cook in a hurry.

Since we’re going to PA to campaign for Obama this weekend, I didn’t want to bake a pie… it’s not as transportable as some food items. Instead, I baked Apple Muffins with Crumb Topping. The great part about this experiment was that the recipe called for grated apples, not chunks. Sometimes if a fruit is too moist, it leaves that sort of really squishy bit of cake/muffin/bread around it, which also makes it fall apart easier. Grating the apples, however, made them cook up without that squish but with the same fresh fruit taste.

Since Milo’s coming with us, this is a vegan recipe, but you can hardly tell. These are whole-wheat and not very sugary, but they have a lovely texture.

The original recipe is here, but I had to make some changes based on ingredients I had in the house, as well as the fact that the recipe calls for honey, which is in fact not vegan by most people’s standards.

Ingredients

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
2-3 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger (optional)
1 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups grated apple (I probably went a bit over on this as I was using up the apples I had from Anne)
1/2 cup oil (could use sunflower, olive… I used canola)
1/2 cup apple cider
a large splash of vanilla
a large splash of vinegar (apple cider is preferable, but I didn’t have any so I used rice vinegar)
1 cup almond milk (you could use real milk or soy milk here)
Splash of lemon juice

Crumb topping:

a bit of flour (perhaps 4 tablespoons)
a bit of brown sugar (about the same)
about 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
two teaspoons of Jungle Shortening (you can use earth balance or soy butter or real butter)

Directions

While grating apples, add a splash of lemon to the bowl to keep from browning. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar, and grated apple together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, apple cider, almond milk, vinegar, and vanilla together.

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Put into greased muffin tins.

Prepare crumb topping by running a fork through the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and shortening until crumbs form. Sprinkle over the tops of the muffins. Cook at about 350 for about 15 minutes for mini muffins and about 20-25 minutes for full sized muffins.

The yield on the recipe I glanced at before starting says 18 smallish muffins, but I ended up with 12 smallish muffins, 24 mini muffins, and a small loaf pan, so that’s a bit different…

First farm share salad of the season.

Our CSA started yesterday, and we were delighted to pick up a variety of greens. Our share will increase in the later months, but in June, we mostly get leafy stuff. Although we definitely need ingredients from the grocery store or farmers markets still (the CSA share is meant to supplement your veggies, not eliminate the need to go to the store), we are utilizing many of the things we got in the share this week for dinner tonight.

If you’re getting a CSA, this is a great article about making the most of it.

I bet we’ll be eating our fresh farm share strawberries for dessert, too. Yum….

Ingredients

prize head lettuce (CSA)
mixed chard (CSA)
oriental greens (CSA)
sunflower sprouts (CSA)
green onions (texas super sweet variety) (CSA)
cucumber
tomatoes
portabella mushroom cap
carrots
gardein seven grain crispy tenders
trader joe’s goddess salad dressing

Directions

Prepare fickin* tenders according to package directions.

Make a damn salad!

*”fake chicken”

One ripe blueberry.

Charlie just went outside to water the blueberry bushes, and there was one giant ripe blueberry on the bushes!

A few weeks ago, they looked like this:

And now, we have this!

Very exciting. It tasted delicious, too.