Friday, April 06, 2007

Mini Cupcakes and an All-new Vegantastic Grill Pan

Mini cupcakes for a ppk potluck this past weekend. Coconut with coconut buttercream, coconut-strawberry with coconut buttercream, and blood-orange agave with blood-orange agave glaze. Based on VCTOTW, of course.

I came across a very affordable cast-iron grill pan recently, and have been desiring one, so I bought it.
My first meal from it, above, is grilled asparagus, smokey grilled tempeh (Veganomican) and cavatappi with esme's sauce and chard. Esme's sauce feeds my recent miso craving, and is ridiculously easy and delicious.

Here's the pan on my needs-to-cleaned stove..

Lunch at work - leftover grilled asparagus and tempeh, and half of a leftover ginger-miso stir fry from Lion's Den Veg*n food cart. I really wanted to try the Portballa burger there, but alas they were out that day.

The night before last I made another half batch log of Seitan O'Greatness.

This time I tried to copy Tofurkey sausages and made a sundried tomato and Italian herb version. I was close, but not *quite* there. After another go I hope to post my adaptations.
Above it's pan-fried with garlic, white wine, creminis and broccoli over whole wheat spaghetti (it may not look ww but it really is) and roasted garlic marinara. Sprinkled with some 'parmesan'~

19 comments:

Mary said...

As always, looks fantastic! I just wanted to say that we have the exact same stove and I hate it!!! It gets soooooo dirty and it's hard to clean. Plus, it's electric. I want a gas stove. :(

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Thanks, mary! I agree, the stove is annoying. I like that's shiny, and that it heats super quickly, but the low...HOT thing bothers me. 'Low' seems not to work, I just turn it off to the same effect, usually.
My boyfriend razored off some of the circle/around the burner a week or two ago, and I could barely remember seeing it that clean before!

Also, did you see my reply on the last post about the 'recipe'?

Nikk said...

I think all stoves are hard to clean. I am not a fan of cleaning anything. But I'm just really lazy.

Esme's sauce is perhaps the greatest discovery I've made in the past few months. It is so good on everything.

I'm a huge fan of your liberal use of tempeh. I love the stuff.

Unknown said...

Yay grill pans! Yay esme's sauce! Yay Jess!

Mary said...

Hey Jess. I went back and read your reply. I will definitely try it, sometime next week. Thanks for posting about it!

Valerie said...

My stove is always dirty. I feel like as soon as I get it clean, it gets dirty again.

Everything looks delicious, especially the cupcakes. I keep on hearing about this Seitan O'Greatness. I think I am going to try it this weekend.

bazu said...

Ooooh, I'm loving your grill and your inaugural asparagus/tempeh creation! I was so ecstatic when I got a grill- one side is flat, so the idea of making 6-8 pancakes *at the same time* was like a dream come true. Hmmmm, I need to make that Esme sauce. And of course, your cupcakes are gorgeous- I know which I would have eaten at the potluck- the buttercream one in the front. YUM.

aTxVegn said...

Congrats on purchasing the grill pan, Jess! Your first creation looks fabulous! I've got to make Esme's sauce. I always crave miso, tahini, or peanut sauce.

Coconut-strawberry cupcakes - genious!

KleoPatra said...

Wow, to be able to mimic Tofurkey - anything they make! That's truly fantastic! I just bought a big ol' bunch of asparagus today... wish i could learn to grill it like you did. A cast-iron grill pan? Wow. Nice treat for you.

It all looks GREAT!! You can never go wrong with that Seitan O'Greatness. Mmmmmm...

Jess, yer so talented... and inspirational.

i do looooooooove the cupcakes as well. They look sweet 'n' stellar.

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

I really gotta get on the seitan 'o greatness! I'd love to have a grill pan like that, and I could all those cupcakes for breakfast. :o)

Amey said...

Great looking food!
The ww pasta with the seitan and such looks great.

We don't have a functional BBQ, so I have been thinking a lot about getting a grill pan - love those grill marks!!

anna/village vegan said...

Everything looks delicious! Don't torment me with cupcake pictures ;-)...I'm already waiting impatiently for my copy of VCTotW to arrive from Amazon!

Have fun with the grill pan. Isn't it neat how different (and fun) it makes food seem?

Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan! said...

Your blog is so inspiring to me. makes me wanna get up and try all sorts of new things and tweak some old, even!

sigh...cupcakes....i seriously need a reason or two to whip some up...and soon!

we have the same stove, essentially. i get so tired of having to razor stuff off. what i wouldn't give for a gas range!!!!

urban vegan said...

Cupcake nirvana, baby!

And very girl [and guy] needs a good grill pan. Congrats and enjoy...looks like you already are.

Jody from VegChic said...

I think all stoves get dirty no matter what!

Those cupcakes look fab and I'm sooo jealous of the pasta and the seitan. (I can't wait until Passover is, well...over.)

The seitan o' greatness will be my first cooking endeavor Wed night.

Unknown said...

I love my grill pan. Really, everyone should have one. Your asparagus looks great (so does the pasta)!

n/a said...

Yay for new kitchen accessories! I hope you had a blast at the meetup.

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

I've cooked my dinner on the grill pan the past 3 out of 4 nights. We're that happy : )

I took it out last night just to make my lunch today - grilled Italian tofu...which I eat in about 20 minutes...

scottishvegan said...

You are just making me jealous with your new grill pan! That pasta dish just looks devine...