Pumpkin Rice Pudding

I love fall.  The air smells crisp and clean with a hint of new beginnings in it.  The leaves change colors and the world suddenly becomes far more bright and interesting.  What I love most about fall though, is the flavors.  Hot apple cider, sweet potatos, freshly picked apples...and pumpkin.  I will put pumpkin in anything if you'll let me--breads, muffins, pies...a gravy someday perhaps?  Today though, I just have a very easy rice pudding for you.

Pumpkin Rice Pudding
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 3 cups vanilla soymilk (add 1 tbsp vanilla extract if you use non-vanilla)
• 1 cup short grain rice
• 1 1/2 tbsp Vegan Margarine (I used Earth Balance)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 cup cooked pumpkin (you can used the canned stuff, but fresh is best)

Method:

1. Combine soymilk, margarine, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in a pot.
2. Stir frequently, make sure brown sugar is dissolved and margarine is melted while bringing to a boil.
3. Once boiling, add rice, stir thoroughly into mixture, reduce heat to low, and cover pot.
4. Cook on low for approximately 20 minutes, stirring briefly about halfway through this time.
5. Once liquid is mostly absorbed and rice is soft, stir in pumpkin and remove from heat.
6. Let sit covered for about five minutes.
7. Serve.

I know some people like to let their rice pudding sit overnight so the flavor sets in better and reheat it the next day--that's fine.  I can't wait that long myself though, the aroma entices me to eat it ASAP.

General Tso's Tofu

While this is the first entry in the blog, over the next few days I'm also going to get you caught up on old news, things that we've had over the past week or so.

We also got two new cookbooks in the mail today: "Vegan Brunch" and "Vegetarian Sushi". The latter is a book that I used to have and loved, but it mysteriously never returned from my stepmom once she got ahold of it--I hope she's enjoying it! Anyway, onward with the food based entry!

Yesterday I was hunting through the kitchen, unsure of what I could make with the few ingredients we had--I was starting to get a bit worried when I stopped and thought for a moment and realized we had most of the stuff I needed to make General Tso's sauce. So a few substitutions later and I'm blessed with this slightly more spicy than normal version that left us happily full and shocked me with it's tastiness.

Sauce:

• 1 cup veggie broth
• 3 green onions, sliced thin
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1/2 tsp powdered garlic
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp sake
  
• about 2 tbsp arrowroot powder(enough to thicken sauce)
• 2 tsp ground red cayenne(if you don't like things spicy, I suggest you use less)
  

Mix everything together thoroughly and heat on medium high heat until the green onion has softened and the sauce has thickened.

And that's the hard part done, the rest is simple. I didn't want to deal with the grease of frying, so invented a way to bake the tofu that gave me just the texture I wanted.

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Drain and pat 1lb of extra firm tofu(if you like the texture a little more tough, freeze it overnight and start it thawing in the morning), be sure to leave the tofu with a little moisture.
   
3. Cut tofu into 1 inch cubes.
4. Roll each cube in flour, completely coating it.
5. Lightly grease a baking sheet and place the tofu cubes on it in a single layer.
6. Bake for about 25 mins.
7. Add baked tofu into the General Tso sauce and cook for about fifteen minutes more--long enough for all that good goopy flavor to soak in.

You can serve yours with or without veggies and over rice or noodles of your choice. Personally, I went with brown rice and a side of steamed broccoli. This is probably going to get made again next week, it was that good.