Vegetarian Star

Martha Stewart recently featured a vegetarian Thanksgiving episode on her cooking show.

In case you didn’t know, Martha’s daughter, Alexis , has been a longtime veg and activist.

Growing up, Martha and her family raised their own livestock and after Alexis realized the animals on the farm were the same ones on her plate, she decided to veg out.

Could Martha have spent her time crafting these dishes to please Alexis while she was growing up?

Martha’s “Hearty Vegetarian Thanksgiving” menu can be found on her website and features delish sounding recipes like Celery Root, Persimmon, and Swiss Chard “Stuffing”, Vegetarian Mushroom Gravy, and a vegetarian “loaf” featuring beans and nuts.

Email these to the chef in charge of Thanksgiving dinner with your crowd this year and ensure no more “vegetarian” stuffing with chicken broth when you sit down at the table.

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Martha Stewart on Rachael Ray Show

Martha Stewart was set to appear on The Rachael Ray Show today to dispel rumors the two are kitchen divas in competition and discuss both of their love for cooking.

Topics of discussion included Martha’s favorite type of music (rap, yo) and why her daughter Alexis Stewart, is a vegetarian.

“Well what I think one of the catalysts was, we raised our own livestock and we had these sweet little lambs,” Martha explained. “And one day I decided Plantagenet was gonna go, and so I served Plantagenet for dinner, and I told my husband and my daughter that the rare pork chops were cooked perfectly in the French style. And Alexis looked at me and said this is not pork this is Plantagenet isn’t it? That was one reason.”

And no wonder Martha invited Snoop Dogg to her show to make mashed potatoes.

“Oh I like rap! I like rap, we play rap. When you come to the show, you’ll see. You’ll see! Oh yeah. Rap is fabulous, and it’s the liveliest thing for the audience… Rap is big!”

So when is Martha getting jiggy with the tofu like her daughter?

via imnotobsessed.com

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Erin McKenna. Photo Credit: Clarke Tolton

Erin McKenna has scored a deal for her second cookbook, titled Babycakes Covers the Classics and Other Food Fantasies.

McKenna is the founder and owner of BabyCakes NYC, a popular bakery for celebrities and mere unknown everyday mortals which features sugar-free, gluten-free, vegan desserts.

McKenna’s second book will make you ooze with agave syrup as she plans to include donuts, pancakes, Girl Scout cookies and even mac and cheese.

McKenna’s first book, BabyCakes : Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York’s Most Talked-About Bakery, was such a great hit, she’s not getting away with any free time soon if her editor has anything to do with it.

Says McKenna on her blog:

About 37 seconds after “Babycakes” the cookbook came out I was cradling it my arms like a newborn. Just then my editor, Aliza Fogelson, phoned and the conversation went something like this:

Aliza: Hey Erin! The book is doing great, congratulations!
Me: Thanks!
Aliza: How about writing another one?
Me: No
Aliza: Yes
Me: No
Aliza: Yes
Me: Ok

Babycakes Covers the Classic and Other Food Fantasies will be published by Clarkson Potter.

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"Iron Chef America" Michelle Obama Garden. Photo: New York Times

Iron Chef America will open its season premier on January 3 2009 at the White House using fresh produce from Michelle Obama‘s garden.

The Food Network show hosted by Alton Brown will feature White House chef Cristeta Comerford paired with Bobby Flay to compete against Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse.

The “secret” ingredient the chefs must use in their dishes is anything that grows in the White House garden.

Michelle will also use the opportunity to discuss encouraging children’s healthier eating habits and reducing childhood obesity.

“What’s exciting for us is this is the first time I can remember the White House taking an active interest in doing something about diet and health,” Batali said.

Looking forward to this episode.

Would love to see a cookoff featuring the Obamas and two chefs!

via nytimes.com

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What happens when a meat lover finds out about Tal Ronnen‘s recipe for Celery Root Soup from The Conscious Cook?

You have to watch and find out!

Julie Anne Rhodes decided to make this video after meeting Ronnen personally.

Warning: Hide the monitor from the children, because this is some serious food porn.

via t5m.com

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Chef Tal Ronnen is the author of The Conscious Cook, a hot new cookbook being snatched off the bookshelves by vegetarians, vegans and food lovers in general. Tal is the chef who helped design Oprah Winfrey‘s meal plans when she went vegan for 21 days and has worked with Chrissie Hynde‘s restaurant, The Vegiterranean. He’s been a vegetarian for 19 years and a vegan for 11 years. Tal took a few moments away from braising tempeh to give Vegetarian Star an exclusive interview.

Tofu, Tempeh, or Seitan:
It depends on the application. I think my personal preference for home is definitely tempeh. It’s a less processed product. It’s fermented so it’s got nutritional benefits from the fermentation process. With that said, it has to be cooked properly. People will just cut tempeh up and sauté it or stir fry it or something like that. [But] Because it’s so dense, it’s hard to get any flavor to penetrate. Tofu just acts like a sponge, it just sucks up all the marinade. [With] Tempeh, the best way to get the flavor in there is to braise it. So cook it in a flavorful liquid and the flavors can change based on the dish that you cook. So if you’re doing something like Tex Mex or South of the Border you can braise it in a stock that’s got chilies and peppers. If you’re doing something like Asian, it can have soy sauce or ginger. When you’re cooking it in a broth, you’re able to penetrate tempeh. After it’s cooked in a broth, you start cooking with it. So I can grill it or sauté it, but the first step for me whenever I work with tempeh is to braise it.

On Guest Chefs in The Conscious Cook:
We wanted to have a really broad view of what professional vegetarian cooking looks like. And [we did this] by bringing in people who have influenced me or I’ve influenced throughout the years. All the chefs that are highlighted in the book are people who’ve been a big influence in my culinary career or someone that I’ve worked with very closely. And by doing that we’re able to really show different perspectives in the book, not just my perspective with vegetarian cooking.

Favorite recipes from The Conscious Cook:
I love the celery root soup. I love the Gardein scaloppini with the shiitake sauce. And the banana  rum cheesecake I think is really great.

Learn how Tal got a school district in southern California to put veggie burgers on the menu after the jump… (more…)

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In a recent article on the Huffington Post, Ari Solomon, president and co-creator of eco-friendly soy candle company, A Scent of Scandal, brought up a recent comment made by celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain.

On Larry King Live, Bourdain had commented that it was okay for humans to kill animals for food because humans were designed to chase down “smaller and stupider” creatures.

“It was the “stupider” remark that caught my attention, and not just for Bourdain’s obvious grammatical shortcomings,” said Solomon.

Solomon then gave some wonderful facts on the intelligence of animals:

Pigs may be smarter than Bourdain:
“Pigs have the mental capacity of a four year-old human child and have beat humans in memory games.”

Dolphins are talking about Bourdain behind his back:
“Dolphins have a very distinct language that scientists now refer to as “dolphinese” which humans can’t decipher. For all our human knowledge, we have no idea how to understand what should be, according to Bourdain, a “stupider” means of communication.”

Pigeons are like men because they don’t ask for directions:
“Did you know, for example, that pigeons can fly thousands of miles to find the same roosting spot with no navigational difficulties? Some species of birds, like the Arctic Tern, make a 25,000-mile round-trip journey every year. Many species use built-in ferromagnets to detect their orientation with respect to the Earth’s magnetic field. Can you do that?”

To read Ari’s entire article that describes animals’ intelligence, visit Huffingtonpost.com.

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Natalie Portman appeared on Top Chef last night to hang with Tom Colicchio and the burger bad girl Padma Lakshmi.

Portman warned the chefs they had better not be pulling a chicken stock in a veggie dish move.

“I love food, I love to eat all kinds of things, but I’m a vegetarian,” she said. “And if you serve me animal flesh I will thrust a light sabre through your eye.”

Point was definitely taken.

Things heated up when Natalie and guests started talking about the dish of shallots and garlic.

Lakshmi complained about the shallot, which she described as “a little sharp” when paired with garlic blossoms that she described as “very tiny in size and yet…”

“Big in your mouth?” Portman jumped in and said before Lakshmi could finish.

“It went from a little prick to big in your mouth,” Colicchio said.

“That’s what usually happens,” another guest said, which made the entire group laugh.

Hmm…never knew Colicchio had such a dirty mind.

What’s really disappointing is that Mike, the chef with the vegan mom, was sent home packing.

Not cool at all.

via eonline.com and ajc.com

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