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The Spicy Meatless Thread... (ya I went there)

I know going into this that this thread is going to get meat bombed... but there's gotta be at least a couple other people on this forum that have herbivore tendencies.  Lately almost everything I have been cooking has been meat-free unless its for the dogs.  I've been toying with recipes and finding ways to get the flavors of dishes that usually have animal muscle as the main feature.  Hopefully some of y'all do the same from time to time and we can swap and share some spicy veggie recipes. I've held off on making this thread for a while because I know the ridicule that will inevitably come, but I guess its better to clog my own thread with my hippy food rather than all the other cooking threads. 
 
So here goes, last night per request I made some arroz congri and tostones.  
 
For the rice and beans, I chop up a green and red bell pepper, 2 onions and about 4-5 cloves of garlic. Cook up that in the pot before adding the rice and beans and sufficient water.  Season it up, and pretty much just leave it on the stove for a while.  I don't have any fresh pods yet so I seasoned my batch up with some smoked naga powder for good measure.  The tostones start by cooking them a bit on each side before pulling them from the pan.
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After the tostones are cooked and pulled from the pan you gotta squish em dip em in cold water and throw em back in the pan, for the second round of frying. When you pull them out you can season them with whatever you want, I like to make a garlicky spicy sauce concoction to dip them in.  Also, make yourself a guava-lime rum drink for good measure. 
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Eventually, after a long long time (especially if you use brown rice), your arroz congri will be ready.  
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Happy vegetarian eating! (I also ate left overs this morning covered in cheese and a fried egg)
 
Let's see what you got....
 
The Hot Pepper said:
Rawk, post your relleno taco, curious to see a chi-style. And post your guerrilla style meal hack, lol.
Definitely not as pretty as yours, but here goes:
 
Got to work at 7:30 this morning and managed to get outta there at 1. Across from my train stop is a Mexican place, dude/sous chef was picking me up from the train station so I grabbed lunch to go. Here's the chilaquiles dinner, managed to get it home with 2 dogs in the car. Also because of the 5 min drive, I decided to fry the eggs at home.
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One of the 2 chile rellenos tacos.  The sous chef was cutting up the other one. 
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Looks gross, buts tastes so good.  I order the verde, and then top it with their roja salsa because it is roasted and garlicky. Enjoyed it with a cold Tecate and pickled carrots on the side.
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Want to add that it cost me $12.62 for that, and it stuffed 2 people.
 
Cool!!
 
Looks good!
 
I had a relleno taco last night (or 4 am today lol).
 
Food, bars, festivals, culture, beng able to ride a bike or walk anywhere if I need to. Its really only the crime that is so bad about city living. Oh and parking. But I just hardly ever drive to avoid that.
 
Rawkstah said:
Food, bars, festivals, culture, beng able to ride a bike or walk anywhere if I need to. Its really only the crime that is so bad about city living. Oh and parking. But I just hardly ever drive to avoid that.
 
While I would tend to agree w/ you ... there's something to be said for being able to spend time ALONE in nature ...
 
I'll take the city though, personally ...
 
If its nature nature, yeah, but suburban sprawl, no thanks.  I used to take some time in the summers and go up to the Northwoods, wake up at 5 am to catch food from the lake for the day and cook it over a cedar fire.  But I couldn't live like that all the time.  My dude is from the country, he drove me through his town in about 45 seconds and then it was all gravel roads and fields.  I was like holy moly what did you do growing up?!  If Chicago didn't have winters and shady ass corrupt politicians,  I wouldn't want to move as much as I do now.  I mostly love it here. 
 
I can walk 3 blocks from my house and be at a pizza place, a puerto rican grocery store and restaurants, domenican restaurant, thai restaurant, mexican restaurant and bakery, salsa club, poor hipster liquor store/bar, upscale hipster gin/tapas restaurant, divey cocktail bar with cheese curds, vegetarian restaurant, walgreens, subway, laundromat, a park with a running track around it, a hand drum shop, a bus stop to take me to a train station to get to the airport, downtown, other neighborhoods.... seriously that's all within a 3 block walk of my place, if I expand to within a mile your head will explode!
 
The food here though. It really is a magical part of living in a big city.
 
Rawkstah said:
If its nature nature, yeah, but suburban sprawl, no thanks.  I used to take some time in the summers and go up to the Northwoods, wake up at 5 am to catch food from the lake for the day and cook it over a cedar fire.  But I couldn't live like that all the time.  My dude is from the country, he drove me through his town in about 45 seconds and then it was all gravel roads and fields.  I was like holy moly what did you do growing up?!  If Chicago didn't have winters and shady ass corrupt politicians,  I wouldn't want to move as much as I do now.  I mostly love it here. 
 
I can walk 3 blocks from my house and be at a pizza place, a puerto rican grocery store and restaurants, domenican restaurant, thai restaurant, mexican restaurant and bakery, salsa club, poor hipster liquor store/bar, upscale hipster gin/tapas restaurant, divey cocktail bar with cheese curds, vegetarian restaurant, walgreens, subway, laundromat, a park with a running track around it, a hand drum shop, a bus stop to take me to a train station to get to the airport, downtown, other neighborhoods.... seriously that's all within a 3 block walk of my place, if I expand to within a mile your head will explode!
 
The food here though. It really is a magical part of living in a big city.
 
I got that beat.
 
I don't hear my neighbors except during a blue moon.
 
And I never hear gunfire unless I'm doing the shooting.
 
It's quiet here.
 
And no hipster's.
 
Yeah, my family has a seat on the NYSE and I spent a couple of weeks in Manhattan/Maplewood, NJ/Short Hills, NJ each winter for my whole life ...
 
I could do city life in an instant, but Danielle wouldn't come w/ =)
 
Made dinner for the grandma, going for an eggplant parmesan thing, but had no parmesan and no bread crumbs soooo I improvised. Pita chip crusted eggplant with provolone, over basil garlic polenta and sauteed swiss chard.  I put bhut powder in the chard and grandma liked it!
 
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It turned out pretty well, actually my first attempt at eggplant parm (prov?). I seasoned the crushed pita chips with garlic, oregano, rosemary, red pepper flakes, and some salt. Pan fried it and then popped it in the oven with the sauce and provolone.  I layered the provolone directly on the eggplant piece, then sauced, then more provolone. Grandma doesn't really have much in the way of knives, or cooking utensils.  Its like guerilla cooking in there, stuff that I think is normal to have on hand she doesn't have.  Doesn't even keep flour in the house. But it was good stuff.  I have more pictures of the cooking of it I just didn't feel like uploading them. 
 
Two large Romas
Two carrots
One whole celery stalk
One whole jalapeno
A small handful 50/50 of parsley and cilantro
 
Equals a pretty fair ~8oz spicy V8 when juiced.
 
the dude picked up a meat alternative at the store this weekend called Quorn.  I'd seen it before but I'm allergic to Quinoa and sorta just assumed that was an ingredient in it so I always passed it by. Apparently its made from fungus. Awesome. Mycoprotein is the main ingredient and when I googled it older articles say its unsafe, newer articles say that it is safe.  Who knows... But the UK and Canada say its safe and I trust them more than the FDA. 
 
We made tacos with the ground Quorn.  I'd definitely get it again.  Tasted great, texture was good, and it wasn't TVP/soy so that's a big win.  
 
Ingredients pulled off the site:
Mycoprotein (95%), Rehydrated Egg White. Contains 2% or less of Roasted Barley Malt Extract, Firming Agents: Calcium Chloride, Calcium Acetate.
Nutritional Values:

Typical Values

 

Per serving (85g)

Calories

 

110

Calories from fat

 

20

Total fat

 

2g

Saturated fat

 

0.5g

Trans fat

 

0g

Cholesterol

 

0mg

Sodium

 

170mg

Total carbohydrate

 

9g

Dietary fiber

 

5g

Sugar

 

0.5g

Protein

 

13g
 
 ​

 
Site is http://www.quorn.us/ 
I'm definitely going to try more of their products. 
 
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