Hot Legs Cabbage Salad and Miso-Tahini spread/dip. Bonus: Cocktail recipe by Fett!

**Note: I try to embed at least 1-3 fun links in each entry so don't miss them!** or miss them and be really sad and miss out.

I've been missing blogging. It's fun. I'm going to try to be faster about it so I don't feel the whole: "Oh shit, I want to blog but I don't have 2 hours to set aside." I'm trying to go to bed on time, drink less, eat in a reliably helpful way, and to generally be more mindful of my own health. If I want to take good care of Punky, I need to care for myself. It's totally trite and totally true.

When Fett came back from Philly, we did some cooking that night. I made a dip/spread thing that was really good. It tastes vegan. That's all I can say about that...tahini, braggs, miso...those things taste vegan. And by that I mean that it tastes very different than a typical spread/hummus/American thing would taste like. I guess it's sort of Asian-y but not exactly. It's a far cry from ranch or french onion dip. But it's tasty!

The thing about being vegan is that you get creative about spices, flavor profiles, and texture (in all its forms). It's either that or everything tastes flat. Meat and dairy give depth and body to food. They give it true umami. You can get pretty close to the umami and depth and body without meat and dairy but it isn't easy and isn't a true simulacrum. I usually find that it's not worth trying to recapitulate and approximate anything that is truly meat/dairy. Mac n Cheese? Don't bother unless you're willing to really enjoy butternut squash and cashew cream instead of rich Gruyere and cheddar. Hamburgers? Bacon? Sausage? Don't. Bother. Those things are amazingly delicious and cannot be imitated. A veggie burger is just that and nothing more. I think veggie dogs are revolting. I love hot dogs and I just suck it up. My reasons for being vegan are motivation enough and reason enough for me to sacrifice. Frankly, I don't believe vegans who say the smell of bacon, cooked meat, cheese sauce is nauseating. It is delicious smelling. My response? So what. I get really tired of hearing "I could never give up cheese." Yes you could. You just choose not to. That's fine, but don't state it as something that is inflicted upon you and out of your control.

And do me a favor: Don't tell me that when I crave meat, enjoy smelling it, that I must be missing some nutrient or vitamin, that I probably "need" it. I crave fucking margaritas and beer and chocolate and potato chips. That doesn't mean I need those things. My brain is an idiot and I don't trust it.

The other thing that I've been thinking about lately is flexibility in food and life. I eat fish occasionally now, in the form of sashimi and sushi. I also ate a few eggs lately. They were raised by Fett's friend and they were amazing and beautiful, saffron-colored and rich-tasting. I have no regrets, don't feel bad, and simply know that I can make a choice any time I have options and I don't have to be rigid.

So on to some recipes!

Hot Legs Cabbage Salad

You guys, this salad is intense and gets more intense over time. I ate the last of it this afternoon after a workout--and I scarfed it--and my stomach is like: "Hey! We're digesting some cabbage and garlic over here! Have a whiff!" It's really good though. I did not like it at first but it definitely gets better with age. Fett liked it and he's kind of a kim chi connoiseur.

1/2 head of green cabbage: sliced across the bias so it is in lacy ribbons like cole slaw
1/4-1/2 cup of cider vinegar: I use the Bragg's version. The label is silly and fun and I think it tastes MUCH better than the standard.
A bunch of Sriracha, probably 1/4 cup eventually I kept adding it. I started with a teaspoon and added it along the way. Probably ended up with quite a bit. It adds the garlic edge.
1/4-1/2 cup agave nectar You could use sugar or brown rice syrup but the concentrated sweetness of agave is perfect here.
Salt I used a lot cause I like it salty. This will make the cabbage give up some of its water, which is good i think. You can always salt your cabbage ahead of time and drain it so it stays crunchy (according to Cooks Illustrated).
Mirin, maybe 1-2 teaspoons Which is made from sake. It's a little sweet and has an aromatic edge.
Ume Plum Vinegar 1-2 teaspoons. This is a good thing to have in your pantry but don't go get it just for this. It's sort of sweet/tart.
Lemon juice Not much, just a splash.

It occurs to me that with all the vinegar and sriracha, that the mirin and ume plum might be wasted and barely detected, masked. But whatever. It made me feel like a really good cook to be putting dashes of this and that in the bowl, playing chemistry or something.

Taste it. Throw it around with tongs in a big bowl. Keep shaking and tasting and tossing and tasting. It's good after about 2 days and then keeps getting better. I might have forgotten a couple ingredients but try adding other stuff too: peanuts? sunflower seeds? pumpkin seeds? raisins???

Miso-Tahini spread/dip

My mom made a dip very much like this that inspired me to attempt to imitate it. I got close. It's super easy.

1/2-3/4 cup tahini
1 Tablespoon of WHITE miso I think it would be really different if you used the non-mellow, strong stuff. Good maybe, but really different. It is worth having a range of misos hanging around your fridge. They are cheap, last forever, and are so good in soup, dressings, marinades and other stuff.
5-6 green onions Chop them up pretty well.
1/2 tsp ground ginger (maybe a little less, taste as you go)
1/2 Tablespoon of Bragg's liquid amino acids Bragg's aminos is totally necessary if you are vegan. It has umami. It's kind of like soy sauce with a more grainy edge. Hard to explain. It's necessary in this recipe. Soy sauce would be okay but not as good.
Don't add salt unless you really think you need it. Bragg's is salty.

Mix it all up in a little dish. You could blender-ize it but it's not necessary. The miso makes it a little sweet-ish. We found this went very well with a spicy tangy dip.


Fett's Raspberry-Lime Rickey

Little-known fact about Fett: He knows a shitton about liquor and cocktails. He's really creative and has made drinks with pickled ginger and mirin, to name 2. This one is more traditional and I will try to add more of his stuff in later posts. Be sure to click that link in the title for a really interesting quick bit about the history of lime rickey's.

Handful of raspberries We usually use frozen and have lots of frozen fruit around for this kind of thing including whole strawberries, raspberries, mixed berries, peaches, and we've tried mango and pineapple. Blueberries SUCK for this kind of thing.
Lime-Juice it. I like using a wooden reamer for juicing citrus.
Agave nectar (2 teaspoons or to taste)
2-ish shots of vodka (Luksusowa (awesome link for MMA people!) is absolutely my favorite kind but we drink New Amsterdam usually)

1. Muddle the lime juice and agave and raspberries. Muddle is smashing it up at the bottom of the glass, preferably with a wooden implement (I think).
2. Add the vodka and stir it up
3. Add 1 can of seltzer.
No need to shake it if you have seltzer. It's sort of self-mixing. You can gently stir it around. Try not to chug this cause it's so good.

And next time you're making a vodka and soda, throw in some pickled ginger. It is really good.

Well what do you know! It only took 1/2 hour to do this entry! Not posting pictures helps. And it was fun. Sorry I went off up there about meat and vegans. I don't like offending people but I also like offending people...it's a hard way to be sometimes.