Gear I love – The Star Peeler

Okay, you probably already know about this thing but if not, prepare to see something unexpectedly awesome.  The Star Peeler is (after a good chef’s knife) possibly the kitchen tool that saves me the most time.  But first, to the heart of the problem… Vegetables, especially tasty gourds and roots often have some kind of unpleasant outer covering that keeps the veggie innards tasty by being a pain in the ass to any creature looking to eat said vegetable. The Star Peeler excels at solving that problem but is also so much more.

So… here it is… check out the video of the peeler being sold in NYC by its most famous (and now deceased) salesperson:

The thing is awesome in so many ways.  You really can go as fast as the guy’s demo illustrates with almost no practice (and I’ve flayed a finger or two in an over-zealous peeling rage).

The Veggie Hacks (for now)

Although watching the demo video will give you a couple of awesome hacks (the carrot “starring” and slicing is cool to watch), vegetarians can apply it to so much more, such as:

• ULTRA-Thin Tofu – Take a block of EXTRA FIRM tofu squeeze out all the fluid that you can (his works poorly on anything less firm than “extra firm” because of the thickness you’re working with here).  Lay the block of tofu so that the long and narrow side is down on a chopping board.  “Peel” the tofu brick into strips.  These pick up marinade in ways that hand-cut tofu cannot because there’s almost no thickness.  Marinades permeate the whole piece (not just the outside).  They also hold up to frying and baking (see the “Dreaded Tofu Rice Bowl” recipe to be posted shortly). (Anybody else thinking of using this technique in connection with the Vegan Gyros posted earlier?)
• Cucumber “Wrappers” – Take an English-style cucumber and then slice the whole length of the cucumber with the peeler.  The first few strips are pretty much all skin but after a few strips, you get a really nice thin cucumber wrapper that can be rolled around rice or other grain and easily pinned with a toothpick I’ve seen these used as a wrapper in “vegan sushi”.
• Butternut Squash Peeling – Not really a trick but a life-saver nonetheless.  Butternut squash is sometimes a pain to cook with because (a) when it’s diced by hand the curvy shape leads to a ton of wasted tasty squash; (b) it takes forever to prepare.  Just peel the whole thing with the star peeler first and then you get nearly 0% waste when you cook with it.

Anyway, you can buy these things all over the place.  Get one and never look back.

Vegan Cooking Hack: Sweetened Condensed Milk

I've been ovo-lacto vegetarian for about 13 years now. I'm still ovo-lacto, but in the past couple of years I've started trying to cook exclusively vegan food when I'm responsible for meals (which I succeed at about 95% of the time), but when other people are cooking or I'm at a restaurant or whatever, I just go ovo-lacto.

Until recently, I've just forgone any recipes I used to make that included sweetened condensed milk. However, a few weeks ago I had some fantastic macaroons at Bread & Roses in Toronto (in Bloor West Village), and wanted to try and make a vegan version of them. As it happens, I need sweetened condensed milk for that, but haven't been able to locate a commercially-available version (and certainly not in the city where I live!). I figured "hey, sweetened condensed milk is just basically milk and sugar and thick, and I can do that vegan." After some research on the internets I found a few recipes, but most of them included soy milk powder, which I think is teh gross. This is what I devised instead.

SWEETENED CONDENSED UN-MILK

Ingredients

• 3T corn starch
• 1&1/4c soy milk
• 3/4c coconut milk
• 1&3/4c sugar (white or brown or a combination thereof, depending on what you're making; brown will give it a more caramelly taste, but will also make it, um, brown)

Instructions

• Mix the corn starch with 1/4c of the soy milk in a small bowl, and stir to mix.
• Combine the remaining 1c soy milk, coconut milk, and sugar in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until it starts to boil.
• Stir the corn starch mixture again, and add to the saucepan, whisking constantly.
• Reduce the heat to low, and continue to cook until thickened (about 1-2 minutes).
• Cool and use as you would sweetened condensed milk!
  

This yields a little more than 2 cups, which is approximately equal to 2 small cans of sweetened condensed milk.

My first attempt at macaroons are cooling as we speak! If they turn out, I'll post the recipe soon!