and things went downhill from there

I considered eggs and toast for breakfast, but decided to go for the vegan option of bannock.

It's just flour, water, salt and baking powder. Totally vegan.

I made a shaggy dough, tore it into four pieces and fried it in a hot pan. It was crispy on the outside and pillowy on the inside. And it picked up a heavenly flavour from the leftover bacon fat I fried it in.

Oh. Yeah.

If one is being pedantic, the bacon fat probably made it a bit less vegan. Still delicious, though.

More years ago than I care to admit, I was chatting with Mom when she mentioned that my late brother had stopped in town for a visit, and while he was there he whipped up a baked sauerkraut dish that was remarkably good. This was back in the days when one could not simply go to Google with a list of ingredients and say, "Gib me recipe plz" 

I pressed mom for the recipe, but sine she wasn't the one to make it, all she could remember was that it had garlic sausage, sauerkraut, canned potatoes, onion, sun-dried tomatoes and an apple. All of the ingredients sounded flavourful enough to stand up on their own, so I just cut them all up, tossed them into a casserole dish along with a good pinch of salt and some toasted caraway (because it seemed like the kind of thing that would go in a bake like this). The caraway was the only thing that salvaged the dish and kept it from being utterly bland and inedible.

I have thought about that dish a few times over the years, and recently I decided to give it another try. To that end, I bought some kubasa, spicy sauerkraut, a can of potatoes, a jar of sun-dried tomatoes and an apple.

Then I left it all in the fridge for so long that the sausage went off, and I had to buy replacement. I vowed to use the ingredients this weekend before that happened again, so this is what I made for breakfast today:



I looked up a recipe this time, and found one that included everything except the tomatoes. I figured, "They can't really hurt the dish, can they?"

The recipe called for a cup of apple juice and a quarter cup of brown sugar to help offset the sourness in the dish. We don't have apple juice, and I wasn't convinced that this fancy sauerkraut I'd picked up would be as sour as the cheap stuff that comes in the jars, so I substituted beef bouillon¹ for the apple juice.

The instructions called for it to be cooked in a skillet on the stove top, but I was determined to follow in my brother's footsteps and bake it. But I started it on the range.

I cut up half a ring of kubasa (the recipe called for garlic sausage, but you use what you have) and threw it into an oven-safe skilled with some olive oil and a tiny pinch of baking soda to help with the browning. While that was doing its thing, cut a medium onion into wedges and then set the oven to 190C. Once the sausage was nicely browned, I tossed in the onions, and then poured in the oil from a small jar of sun-dried tomatoes when things looked like things were threatening to stick. At the time, I was worried that I'd added way too much oil to the dish (it was a bit too much, but not excessively so), but the oil was such a flavour bomb that it ended up being a smart move on my part.

I cubed up an apple and tossed that into the mix once the onions had started to soften a bit, then I drained the can of potatoes and halved/quartered them as needed. Once the potatoes had picked up a hint of browning, I tossed in the sun-dried tomatoes and stirred it all together while cut up two strips of bacon into another pan. The recipe didn't call for bacon, but I thought it would help make up for the fact that I was using kubasa instead of garlic sausage. When the bacon was about ready (I'd tossed some water into the pan with it to help it cook without crisping too much) I dumped the satchel of spicy sauerkraut into the skilled along with the bacon. I seasoned it with a good pinch of kosher salt, smoked paprika, and garlic powder (again, because the kubasa was not as garlic-forward as garlic sausage would have been).

I mixed together a cup of beef bouillon and a quarter cup of brown sugar before pouring that over the mix and letting it simmer until the oven was up to temperature.

Finally, I transferred the skillet to the oven and let it bake uncovered for 30 minutes. This gave a nice browning on top and reduced the liquid to an exquisitely flavourful glaze. I will never know if this was the same recipe that my brother used (I doubt it), but it doesn't really matter in the end. This was as good as advertised, and I will happily make this again.


¹I've become a convert to Better Than Bouillon brand. Seriously, it's worth the extra price.

Once we decided that we were going to thaw out a couple of the "Beyond Meat" patties we had in the freezer for dinner yesterday (since it looked like it might be our last opportunity to use the grill for some time), I went shopping for buns and other accoutrements. I nabbed a 4-pack of brioche buns, beefsteak tomato and sweet onion for my own burger (atara isn't a fan of much beyond lettuce on her own burgers). As I was heading to the till a niggling bit of curiosity started churning in the back of my head. If this little store carries vegan meat replacements, I wonder if they carry vegan cheese replacements too.

My experiences with vegan cheese in the past have been ... mixed; generally ranging from bad to best forgotten. It had been a few years since my last encounter with it, though, and given how far they have come with meat replacements, I felt it improbable that they'd not made improvements with cheese. I found a small pack of "cheese" slices in a similar format to the Kraft slices, and against my better judgement, I tossed one into the basket with my other groceries.

The first thing I did with the fake cheese was to try an unadulterated slice of it. I set it down next to a slice of processed cheese, and although they were both the same shape and colour, they were easy to tell apart. The fake cheese was like a slice of cheddar rather than processed cheese. It was hard and had clear lines across it from being sliced off of a larger block. In terms of smell - well, it smelled like cheese. If anything, it almost smelled too much like cheese, as if it was trying extra hard.

I tried eating both slices after that. Even ignoring the textural differences, there was no mistaking one for the other. I definitely preferred the flavour of the "real" cheese, but the vegan stuff wasn't bad. If I hadn't known that it was vegan in advance, that probably wouldn't have been my first guess on tasting it. It was mostly something in its aftertaste that just wasn't quite right. It triggered a flavour response that I associate with bitterness, without being overtly bitter. But it was okay - and a far cry better than any of my prior experiences with vegan cheese.

Given its texture, I had reservations about how well it would melt on my burger, but gamely put a slice of regular cheese on atara's burger, and a slice of the vegan one on mine. As I had feared, by the time the processed cheese was nicely moulded to the top of its patty, the fake one still looked pristine. I took the finished burger inside and left mine on the heat for a little longer. After another minute or two, it started to look a bit meltier, but rather than conforming to the shape of the burger, its edges started curving upward. I finally decided that it was done, and I removed it to a plate.

I also flipped the slice of cheese to make it curve downward instead. In spite of looking fairly solid, it was actually very soft when I flipped it, which raised my expectations a bit.



Appearances aside, if somebody had given me this burger and not told me that there was anything special about the cheese, it would not have occurred to me that it was a vegetable product. It was good. I'd simply have assumed that it was a slice of cheddar rather than a slice of processed cheese. Although I have no compelling reason to use this product on future burgers, I would have no hesitation about doing so.

I gave it a second trial this morning by making a grilled "cheese" sandwich for breakfast. Since I knew that it needed a bit of extra effort to melt, I gave it some assistance by making the sandwich over low heat, in a frying pan with a lid. Other than using lower heat and covering the pan, I made the sandwich the same way that I usually do. I melted a bit of butter in the frying pan before adding the sandwich and then added a bit more butter when went to flip the sandwich. Then I just turned it a few more times until both sides were toasted to my satisfaction.

When it was adequately browned, I removed it from the pan and was a bit disappointed to see that the cheese overhanging the edges of the sandwich did not look like it had melted at all. As soon as I took my first bite of the sandwich, though, I discovered that appearances can be deceiving. It was thoroughly melted all through. In fact, this sandwich was better than just passable - this was a perfectly cromulent grilled "cheese" sandwich. If somebody had made this for me without any advance warning, I'd have assumed that they used a different brand of cheese than I was used to, but "vegan" probably would not have been my first guess.

atara took a reluctant bite of the sandwich, and declared that other than not quite having the right mouthfeel, it was not really a bad sandwich. Coming from such a grilled cheese snob, that's pretty high praise.

I bought this cheese out of curiosity, and as an experiment. Neither of us has any (current) health reasons to avoid the real product, but I'm pleased with the outcome of this trial. If I ever developed lactose intolerance or came under my doctor's orders to avoid dairy, I think that I could be content using this product. They've managed to cross the threshold into "pretty good" territory.

We don't use these containers very often, but they are ideal for turning leftovers into a perfect lunch for one person the next day.

Between the blizzard and the monsoon, we did not get out for much shopping, so this was largely a dinner consisting of things we had in the freezer, or otherwise in need of being used.

I had some Berkshire ribs that I'd picked up a couple of years ago that I'd nabbed because they were on sale at a really good price. atara brought them up from the freezer on Monday with the idea to make them today. The initial plan was to do a slow, all-day cook as I did with the roast, but I ended up tossing them into the instant pot and finishing them under the broiler.

The Brussel sprouts were from a half-bag that was shoved to the back of the freezer, left from when I'd made some with dinner a couple of months ago.

The potatoes were a half-bag that was hanging out in the fridge, left from when I made that roast the other day.

I cut the ribs into thirds and coated them on both sides with a fairly typical brown sugar/paprika rub. The only change I made to the online recipe was to use chipotle pepper instead of cayenne. They went into the pressure cooker along with a cup of water, a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and some liquid smoke.

When they were done, I brushed on some barbecue sauce that I'd made and reduced earlier (I departed from the recipe by using ketchup instead of tomato sauce, and a mix of chipotle and Aleppo peppers instead of cayenne) and set them under the broiler until the sauce was caramelized and just starting to lightly char in spots.

I cut up the baby potatoes into salted water, then tossed them with a bit of unsalted butter and olive oil with some fresh parsley from the basement, and the greens of our last two scallions.

I seared the Brussel sprouts in olive oil in a cast-iron pan along with a small onion, and the whites from our scallions. I finished it with some coarse-ground pepper, a tiny pinch of kosher salt, and a good splash of balsamic vinegar.

[Currently Playing: Solvent - Elephant generators (Chris Carter Remix)]

Tonight on "Cooking with plonq" ("vegan" chilli edition):

I had not been anticipating the fierce wind and snow when I planned to make chilli today, but I could not have asked for more appropriate weather.

I started off by making a mirepoix (sort of) by coarsely chopping a couple of small yellow onions, two stalks of celery, and one red bell pepper. I tossed that into a pot with some vegetable oil and chopped four cloves of garlic while the veggies sweated a bit.

I let them cook down while I dug out the next couple of ingredients, then scraped the garlic into the pot and let it get to know the other ingredients for a minute or so before I squeezed in the last of our tube of tomato paste, and a teaspoon or so of anchovy paste.

I stirred that for a minute or so to cook the raw flavour off of the tomato paste and then dumped in an unseemly amount of chilli powder, some ground cumin, and about a half-tablespoon of dark cocoa powder. As soon as that was starting to want to stick to the bottom, I reached for the can of tomatoes -- and caught myself just in time.

I'd totally forgotten the "meat".

I fetched the two packages of Impossible ground burger from the fridge and hastily dumped them into the pot along with a splash of more oil. Then I spent the next few minutes stirring it and breaking it up until it was cooked through before I resumed where I'd left off earlier.

Once the "meat" was done, I poured in a large can of chopped, fire-roasted tomatoes, a small tin of chipotle peppers with their sauce, and a large can (drained and rinsed) of red kidney beans. I swished some water into the cans from the tomatoes and peppers and added that but it still seemed a bit dry, so I mixed up about 300ml of vegetable bouillon and stirred that in along with a bit more chilli powder, cumin, and some ground black pepper.

I let everything simmer together for a few minutes before tasting it. Other than adding a few good shakes of hot paprika to give it a bit more punch, I didn't think it needed anything. I'm glad that I didn't add any salt - it got enough from the bouillon.

I think it might have been improved by the addition of a couple of bay leaves, and/or some fine-chopped fresh chilli peppers. But overall, it was good. Paired well with the honey cornbread I made as a side dish.

I bought some bacon back in 2020 during a rare foray out to a store. It was the height of the first wave of the pandemic at the time, and we were getting almost every thing delivered to our house. I grabbed the essentials and then tossed a pack of their store-brand maple-cured bacon into the basket as well because, well, bacon.

A couple of days later I paid a visit to our local butcher shop, and they had some of their thick-cut bacon on sale, so I grabbed a pound of that. When I got home, I tossed the other bacon into the freezer for another time.

And that was the last I saw of it until a week ago.

It's not that I haven't searched for it over the ensuing months. I would remember the bacon and go digging for it, but for the life of me I couldn't find it. I began to wonder if I was gas lighting myself, and questioned if I had ever actually bought bacon at all. I might have dreamt it. Or I might have intended to buy bacon and didn't.

When I was sifting through the freezer for something else last week, I found the bacon. It wasn't hidden - it was right on top. I have no idea how I could have missed it in previous searches. I tossed it into the refrigerator to thaw yesterday, and this morning I cut up a couple of slices to make a breakfast bagel.



It is definitely much thinner-sliced than the bacon we typically buy, but it packs a serious flavour punch. It helps that I am a fan of maple-cured bacon. I'd be okay with buying this again.

I was tossing about lunch ideas this morning when it struck me that we still had some chicken kubasa in the fridge that needed to be used. I pondered over a few uses for it and settled on fried rice. This would also give me an opportunity to use up the rest of my dried porcini mushrooms.

I started by measuring a third of a cup of basmati rice into one of our smallest pots and setting it aside to soak in cold water. While that did its thing, I dropped the last handful of dried mushrooms into a measuring cup along with about two-thirds of a cup of water, and a tablespoon or two of mirin. I nuked it for 45 seconds and then set it aside to reconstitute.

About ninety minutes later, I drained the rice and rinsed it a couple of times until the water I poured off was mostly clear, then I strained the mushroom water into the rice and stirred in a little bit of chicken bullion. Then I cooked it in the usual manner. When the rice was done, I uncovered it and let it sit while I worked on the next steps.

I peeled and cubed the last of the kubasa and tossed that into a frying pan with a bit of oil (I wouldn't have bothered with the oil if this had been the pork kubasa, but the chicken one has very little fat). Once the sausage had a headstart, I chopped up the mushrooms and scraped those into the pan to free up the cutting board.

I let those cook for a bit while I chopped up a stalk of celery and the white end of a scallion, adding those when they were ready. I let them fry a time with the sausage while I minced up two cloves of garlic (probably not needed in retrospect given that the sausage has a lot of garlic in it), and an inch or so of ginger.

I stirred those into the pan and then whisked up an egg with some soy sauce mirin. When the garlic and ginger were nice and fragrant, I dumped in a small handful of frozen peas and stirred them around until they thawed. Next, I cleared the centre of the pan and stirred in the egg, cutting and scraping it with a spatula until it was soft-scrambled. I stirred the egg in with the other ingredients and then added the onion greens.

Finally, I splashed in a tiny bit more oil and scraped the cooked rice into the pot along with a good splash each of sesame oil, soy sauce and oyster sauce. From there I just stirred and tossed it (gently, so as not to damage the rice) until it was heated through. I topped it with black sesame seeds when it was done.

Mixing Polish sausage with a more Chinese-style fried rice may sound like an odd fusion, but it worked very well. The fact that garlic was an intrinsic part of this rice anyway worked in its favour. It was a good use of both the sausage and the mushrooms.

Also, the mushroom flavour REALLY came through in this - using the water I soaked them in to make the rice paid off. The rice would have been fine on its own as a dish without being fried and mixed with other things. Definitely worth a repeat if I find myself with leftover kubasa in the future.

Tangentially-related, I made bacon, eggs and cheddar biscuits for breakfast this morning (pictured).

We have a couple of cast-iron pans that I keep forgetting to use, which is a shame because they are always a delight to cook with. I purchased the smaller of the two at a nearby hardware co-op shortly before the start of the pandemic, but the bigger one is a bit of a mystery.

We picked up the second-hand twelve-inch pan at a thrift shop more years ago than either of us care to remember. It looked like it had never been used, and they were selling it for a couple of bucks, so I tossed it into the cart.

The interesting thing about this pan is that it has no markings on it as to where it was made, nor who manufactured it. The underside of the pan has a plain, Canadian-style maple leaf embossed on it, and the handle has the the raised number "12" on it. Other than some protruding bumps to facilitate handling, there are no other markings.

It works great. I just wish I would remember to use it more often.

Today on "Cooking With Plonq":

In this special "using up stuff in the fridge" edition, I present sauerkraut soup. This was inspired by a cooking video we watched yesterday where the host made a cabbage-based soup, and he mentioned that there was a traditional Polish version made with sauerkraut.

We had a couple inches of kielbasa in the fridge left from a dish we made last week, and I had about ½ a jar of vintage sauerkraut that I keep forgetting about at the back of the fridge. I moved the jar to the front of the fridge before I went to bed last night as a reminder, and this morning I ran over a mental check-list of what might go well in a soup.

I started off by coarsely chopping a stalk of celery and a handful of baby carrots. I peeled and cut up the sausage into bite-sized pieces, then tossed the three ingredients into a pot with a bit of olive oil. I sautéed it until the sausage was starting to brown and then dumped in a couple tablespoons of dried red onion flakes.

I shook in about a half-teaspoon of caraway seeds and cooked it a bit longer to give them a hint of toastiness before adding about ½ tsp each of white pepper and sweet paprika and ¼ tsp of dill weed. I followed those with the half-jar of sauerkraut, liquid and all (this stuff did not have a lot of liquid, so I felt pretty safe adding it).

When that was all combined, I stirred in about a teaspoon of chicken bullion paste and then dumped in the remaining ~700ml of water left in the tea kettle after breakfast (I turned on the heat under it when I started on the soup). I followed that up with a bay leaf. Then, once the soup came up to a boil, I turned it down and let it simmer for another fifteen minutes.

I served it with a grind of fresh pepper on the top. It was really good. I know that atara won't eat this, but I'm keeping this one in mind for future reference. When I finished this, I filled a container for the fridge so that I can have it again for lunch tomorrow or Wednesday. While I had the fridge open, I spotted the sour cream, and it occurred to me that it would probably go well with this soup.

There was about half a bowl of soup left after I had packaged up my lunch, so I gave myself another serving and added a good dollop of sour cream. Good call. That pushed it to next-level good. Not as photogenic as the first bowl, but it made up for that in flavour. Two thumbs up.

Tonight on "Cooking With plonq":

Nothing like some mujadara to warm you on a cold winter's night - or - "we are scraping the bottom of the bin for ingredients; what can we make from this stuff?"

Ideally, this is made from brown lentils rather than green, but it doesn't make a lot of difference once they go into the Instant Pot. I measured out a cup of lentils and covered them with boiling water to soak while I worked on other things. I also rinsed a cup of brown basmati rice and let it soak (in cold water).

The recipe called for shallots, but I substituted a couple of small, yellow onions. I zipped them into thin slices on the mandolin and put them in the pressure cooker to start caramelizing in olive oil while I minced up some garlic cloves and some fresh ginger. The recipe called for powdered ginger, but I substituted fresh ginger and adjusted the quantity up to compensate. The ginger in the fridge needed to be used.

While I waited for the onions, I measured out some cumin, coriander, allspice, cinnamon. and kosher salt into a small bowl. Once the onions looked done, I scooped out about half of them to serve as a garnish and then dumped in the garlic and ginger. I stirred that for a couple of minutes until it was fragrant, then tossed in the spices and mixed it all together, roasting them for a few seconds until they just started to smoke.

At that point, I quickly dumped in three cups of hot water. I mixed that up, scraping up the fond from the bottom of the pot, then drained and added the rice and lentils. The recipe called for lemon zest here, but we don't have any lemons. I pondered on alternatives, and just as I was reaching for the lemon pepper, I suddenly remembered that we have dried kaffir lime leaves. I added two of those and a bay leaf, hoping that they would be adequate substitutes.

I set it to cook on high pressure for 11 minutes and gave it another 10 minutes of natural release time before I opened the vent. Finally, while I was waiting for it to cook, I harvested a bit of fresh parsley from the basement and minced it fine.

The verdict: It was good. Just the thing for a cold winter night. The kaffir lime and bay leaves seemed to fit the bill nicely.