i posted on this before, but this is a new article
check out the three recipes accompanying this article. i haven't made them yet, but they DO sound divine!
Strict Vegan Ethics, Frosted With Hedonism
By JULIA MOSKIN
ISA CHANDRA MOSKOWITZ, a vegan chef, does not particularly like to talk about tofu. Ditto seitan, tempeh and nutritional yeast.
“I think vegan cooks need to learn to cook vegetables first,” she said last week during a cupcake-baking marathon. “Then maybe they can be allowed to move on to meat substitutes.”
Ms. Moskowitz, 34, was born in Coney Island Hospital, lives in Brooklyn, and is a typically impatient and opinionated New Yorker. She can’t stand how slowly most cooks peel garlic, makes relentless fun of Rachael Ray and rolls her eyes at the mention of California hippies.
But as a vegan and a follower of punk music since age 14, she is also part of a culinary movement that helped turn the chaotic energy of punk culture of the 1970s and 1980s into a progressive political force.
“Punk taught me to question everything,” Ms. Moskowitz said. “Of course, in my case that means questioning how to make a Hostess cupcake without eggs, butter or cream.”
The charm of Ms. Moskowitz — in person, in her cookbooks and on her public-access television cooking show, the Post-Punk Kitchen (theppk.com/shows/) — is that she makes even the deprivations of veganism and the rage of punk seem like fun. Like feminism that embraces makeup and miniskirts — the frivolous bits — Ms. Moskowitz’s veganism embraces chocolate, white flour, confectioners’ sugar, and food coloring.
Wearing a black “Made Out of Babies” T-shirt (it’s a friend’s band) above a red-and-white checked apron, she bent maternally over a batch of strawberry cupcakes. “Don’t you just want to pinch their little cupcake cheeks,” she said. ............
the post punk kitchen
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3 comments:
This is great! I'm excited about checking out her site!
Glad to hear someone else is sick of meat substitutes.
I'm a meat-eater myself. As such, I have always been really really confused by the usual aim of vegetarian/vegan cooking, which appears to be to imitate the qualities of meat dishes -- rather than celebrate the wonderful qualities of vegetable ingredients. I don't get why people insist on making "turkeys" out of tofu and "burgers" out of lentils. It's like dressing up as your boyfriend's ex-- something that will never be as good as the original, and will inevitably just drive them away, back to the original.
Instead I'd say a more seductive strategy is to say "I'm a vegetable and I'm proud." First of all throw away any meat substitute. Then use vegan ingredients in a way that'll shine. Don't make burgers out of lentils -- make some amazingly refined lentil soup where the flavor just explodes. And for god's sake don't put pseudo bacon bits on that salad -- let that raddichio (sp?) speak for itself.
Some of the best meals I've ever had were vegetarian or vegan, but none of them ever ever pretended to be meat.
($0.02)
roxy, this is the SECOND article i've read on her (i believe she has partner(s) at least in the cookbook). vegan cupcakes, a dream come true! although, i have never had a problem finding things to eat even in a b b q joint in texas.
bottleman, thanks for stopping by! i rather agree with you (and her). but then again, i've always hated meat and the thought of meat. even as a child i couldn't eat anything if it had a bone in it.
it's like wearing faux fur. i don't do it. i don't see the point.
it would seem i (luckily) love every vegetable i've ever come across (so far) EXCEPT for brussel sprouts and cabbage. i've even come to love lima beans. i do love tofu though. i like to freeze it for a few days then defrost and use it. it doesn't TASTE like meat but it does change the consistancy - it becomes chewy.
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