Some bbq, some muffins

I recently made the barbecue sauce from Veganomicon - it's easy, and it uses liquid smoke, which is one of my favorite ingredients. What a weird thing for someone to have invented. I've used the sauce in a few things, but also froze some, because the recipe makes a lot. I don't bother to puree mine, cause I don't mind little pieces of onion. But I do chop it really small and cook it for more than an hour, so it gets thick and the flavors have a chance to blend.



I never quite know what to do with it once I have it, though. I mixed some with cooked black-eyed peas and rolled them up in collard leaves that I'd cut the ribs out of and blanched in boiling water. It was pretty, especially with sweet potatoes, and it all worked together, but it was kind of hard to eat.






I also had some bbq seitan on quinoa, with roasted winter vegetables. I'm not a fan of winter, but I really do like food that grows underground. The seitan was nothing special, just gluten, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, and broth, boiled in small pieces for an hour or so. But the bbq sauce made it more interesting.

Thankfully, the rest of it should last for a while in the fridge, because I don't know how I'm going to ever use that whole recipe's worth. It isn't going to be barbecue season in Minnesota for a long, long time.



I also really love some hard-to-find winter fruits. Persimmons are only available in a lot of midwest stores for a couple weeks in early winter, if at all. I was able to get my hands on 4 fuyu persimmons - they're the small flat ones, not the big pointy ones - and put them in the freezer til I wanted to make persimmon bread. I veganized this recipe a while ago, really it just requires an egg substitution. I grew up eating this, but most people I know don't have a clue what to do with persimmons. And beyond this recipe, I don't have many ideas either, except that it's weird slimy/gelatinous texture makes great smoothies.



Persimmon Muffins or Bread (makes about 10)

Preheat oven to 350

Mix:

- 4 fuyu persimmons (or 2/3 cup of any type) - peeled, seeded, and blended or pressed through a seive

- 1/3 C raisins soaked in about 3 T brandy, orange juice, whiskey, or water

- 1/3 C vegetable oil

- 2/3 to 3/4 C brown sugar (depends how sweet you like things)

- 1 1/2 egg substitutes (1/3 C water or milk sub + 1 T flax meal works well)

Mix:

- 1 1/3 C white flour or combination white and whole wheat pastry

- Dash salt

- Scant teaspoon baking soda

- 1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg

Add: dry to wet

Bake ~ 20 or 25 minutes in a greased and floured pan for muffins (til a toothpick comes out clean) or a bit longer if baking in two small loaf pans