Vegan Sauerkraut Balls. To die for.

It's been a while. So many things afoot in NFP land, it's hard to keep track. Here's the short list:

Launched a new business - Nourish - vegan/locally focused/healthy food delivery service
Gotten some AWESOME catering gigs, man oh MAN
Learning ridiculous things, like Excel, and how to actually be organized

Life is good. I hope it is for you too.

So, I know I've waxed lovingly on Harmony Valley's burger mix before - how it's the best slider base you'll ever use, how it performs beautifully on a grill, etc etc - but for my next trick, I'd like to point you in the direction of their sausage stuff. Man, is it tasty, and it means you can make this:

That's right kids, those are Sauerkraut Balls. Classic 50's party food. And they're totes vegan. I dare you to make these next time Beer and Nibbles night rolls around and have leftovers.

Sauerkraut Balls
makes 12 large or 16 small balls

1 cup Harmony Valley Breakfast Sausage dry mix
2 tbl olive oil
1/2 cup water
1 tbl toasted sesame oil
1/2 medium onion, very thinly sliced
1 14oz can sauerkraut, squeezed of some of its liquid
1 tbl whole-grain mustard
8oz vegan cream cheese, chilled
2 cups breadcrumbs
1.5 cups flour
Egg replacer equivalent for 4 eggs
4 cups Canola or refined Coconut oil, for frying
Yellow mustard, to serve

Prep your sausage by mixing the water and 2 tbl olive oil with the dry mix. Let stand 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the sesame oil in a medium saute pan and add the onion. Cook 8-10 minutes, until the onion starts to caramelize. Add sauerkraut and mustard, and stir. Cook for 6-8 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated. Remove to a heat-proof bowl.

In the same pan, add the crumbled sausage mix and cook until just firm, about 4 minutes, turning often. Add to the sauerkraut mix, stir once, and put the bowl in the freezer to chill.

Set up three stations for dredging: a small bowl of egg replacer, a plate with half the flour on it, and another plate with half the breadcrumbs.

Remove sausage mix from the freezer and fold in the cream cheese. Grab a small handful of sausage/cheese mix and dredge it in the flour, rolling it until it becomes a well shaped ball. Dip in the egg replacer, then dredge in the breadcrumbs. Set aside on a clean plate while rolling the remaining mix.

Heat oil to 375f and add sausage balls in batches, 3-4 at a time. Turn them often with a fork while frying to retain their shape. Drain well on paper towels.

Serve, with mustard for dipping. ZOMG so good. Enjoy!

Vegan Homebrew Party

So, we've been making beer.

To inaugurate our third batch (a rich Oktoberfest brew - our last kit, so says I) we threw a Beerfest party.

So the question was, what are the perfect snacks to accompany a night of beer drinking and movie watching? The answer: soft pretzels and cajun boiled peanuts.

Recently while taking my daily gander at Tastespotting, I came across this recipe. I'd been craving a pretzel for months, so it was an easy sell - but I really wanted to cut the dairy out. Worried about the (smallish) fat content in soymilk, I figured I'd use some soy margarine as well. The results, while extremely puffy, were delicious. Expecially smothered in yellow mustard.

Vegan Soft Pretzels, adapted from Onceachef

1 tsp. yeast
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 1/2-3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. iodized salt
1 cup soymilk mixed with 2 tbsp. soy margarine, warmed to 100-110°F
kosher salt
1/4 cup baking soda
4 cups water

Get a bowl out, pour your yeast and sugar into it. Warm your soymilk to "hot to touch" in a small saucepan and melt your soy margarine in the same pan.

In another, larger bowl, mix your flour and salt. Make a well in the center, and while stirring, add your milk/yeast mix. Knead this for a while - I used my recently thrifted Sunbeam to great effect here, but good ol' hand'll do just fine. You want a soft, pliable dough with a minimum of stickiness - I found I had to add another 1/4 cup of flour to achieve this.

Grease another bowl with olive oil and plop your dough ball in there. Cover with a towel and let rise for an hour and a half, until your dough is about doubled in size.

Divide the dough into six portions and roll out each portion to about 1.5-2 ft long. If you underestimate the length, as I did, you'll end up with Pretzel Rolls, which are delicious, but not quite what you're going for. Fold them into a pretzely shape. Set aside on a floured surface.

Preheat your oven to 425.

Dissolve your baking soda into a largeish pot of water and bring to a boil. Throw the pretzels in there, 20-30 secs a side, then flip, and boil again. I set a colander over the sink to drain them for 10-15 seconds, then sprinkled them with sea salt, and placed them on a well-oiled baking sheet. Repeat until done.

Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until golden brown. 

If you end up with pretzel rolls, don't fret - they taste as delicious as their skinner counterparts and make AWESOME sammiches:

The peanuts were easier - all you need is a crock pot, a day, a bag of fresh nuts, and salt. I used "cajun salt" mixed with iodized salt, and the result was just enough heat, just enough salt. Perfect.

Cajun Peanuts

2 pounds raw peanuts
1/4-1/2 cup iodized salt
1/4-1/2 cup cajun seasoning (such as this stuff)
3-4 quarts water

Wash your 'nuts well in a colander, and stick 'em in the pot. Mix 1/4 cup each of salt and seasoning with 2 quarts water and put the mixture in the pot. Fill the pot to the top with additional water - the peanuts will float for the first 4-5 hours, don't worry. Now taste your bath. I like a salty boiled peanut, so my bath was salty ALMOST to the point of overwhelming - but not quite. Your peanuts will absorb a lot of your bath's salt as they cook, but not all of it - so salt the water to a point slightly saltier than you'd like your 'nuts to end up.

Turn the pot to low and let cook for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Addicting.