you guys are in luck! today we have a guest post from the sexy vegan, with an outtake recipe from his upcoming cookbook that deals with one of our favoritest foods ever: JACKFRUIT! if you live in LA, you’re probably mourning the loss of pure luck’s insane bbq jackfruit sandwich, so i highly suggest you give this one a shot. you can get canned jackfruit at indian or asian markets, as well as a grocery warehouse on the east side and figgy prod in highland park. enjoy!

During my extensive search of the elusive jackfruit for a recipe for my upcoming cookbook The Sexy Vegan Cookbook: Extraordinary Food from an Ordinary Dude (thought I’d get the shameless plugging out of the way early), I found myself – as I often do – at my favorite Indian market/eatery, Samosa House in Culver City. When I walked in, I spotted an Indian woman talking to another woman, and they were gesturing to an object that I was pretty sure was a jackfruit. It seemed the Indian woman was schooling the other woman on everything about the fruit. I was very much interested in what she was saying, but I didn’t want to interrupt, so I figured I’d do my shopping first, and when they were done, would ask the Indian woman all about it. After about 5 minutes or so, the other woman walked away, and I approached the Indian woman. She explained to me that it was indeed a jackfruit, and proceeded to tell me all about it. Where it grows. How to break one down. How the ripe ones bear a sweet fruit, while you can cook the “meat” of an un-ripened, or “green” one to achieve the texture of pulled pork (which is why I was interested in it). She spent 7 or 8 minutes politely educating me, and answering all my questions. When we were about done, and I was ready to go to her manager and tell him how helpful she had been, I finally asked her how often they get them in. She said, “I don’t know. I don’t work here, I’m just buying vegetables.” Oops…I think I was profiling at the Indian market. My bad. She was super nice and helpful though. I’m sure she’s great at whatever job she does.

I did not, however purchase that one, as it was already ripened and sweet. And while I was able to finally find a source for the jackfruit, I ultimately decided that the it was too difficult to come by, and therefore not ready to be in the book. But if you can find some, here’s a little something I’ve come up with. Enjoy!…

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just over a week ago, we joined the hot knives team on the verdugo patio for an afternoon of snacks and beer to celebrate the release of their new vegetarian (and vegan-friendly) cookbook, salad daze.

we’d been looking forward to this day for ages—we’ve been HK fans for years, and even had an opportunity to test out one of the the salad daze recipes (magic shroom dust, loved it!) several months ago. now that the book has been released into the world and i’ve got it in my hands, i can safely say that it doesn’t disappoint. page after page of meatless recipes, with all the vegan ones clearly marked, each listed with their own thoughtful beer and soundtrack pairing.

so how was the release party? it was awesome! we always love kickin’ it on the verdugo patio with some good beer, but eating hot knives food at the same time makes it even better. on this day, the dudes prepared a slew of appetizers including some recipes from the book, and played a strictly salad daze playlist of bands we love including the fall, the stooges, and belle & sebastian.

here’s what we ate…

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happy saturday, everyone! let’s celebrate with some cake! today’s extra sweet post comes to us from @GinaTakeABow, as she shares a crowd-pleasing vegan dessert that she made with her adorable daughter marina.

check out their delicious recipe for vegan chocolate bubble cake…

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Hello people! Sexy Vegan here. If you’re like me, you love stuffing stuff into other stuff. Not sure where this passion for stuffed foods came from. It’s something we just grew up with, I suppose. Pop Tarts for breakfast, Hot Pockets for lunch, and ricotta stuffed shells for dinner. Wow…I think my mom was trying to kill me. Not sure how I’m still alive, actually. Anyway, there are certainly healthier ways to enjoy eating things that are stuffed into other things, and here’s one of them. This Chorizo Stuffed Zucchini has it all: veggies, protein, savory and sweet. Enjoy!

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ever since pure luck shut down, i’ve been going through jackfruit withdrawals. their torta was by far one of the best meals in los angeles, and i’m so sad that i’ll never be able to eat it again. thankfully, though, i can still get my jackfruit carnitas fix from melisser elliot’s vegan girl’s guide to life. i definitely haven’t mastered the art of sandwich-making the way pure luck did, but i guarantee you this thing tasted amazing.

melisser’s recipe can be found online here, along with an instructional video. it’s super easy and comes out delicious: all you gotta do is throw some jackfruit, spices, onion and garlic in a crock pot…and 8 hours later you have awesomeness.

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Hello, people! Sexy Vegan, here. I didn’t really eat that many vegetables as a kid, unless you count pizza sauce. My mom didn’t really like to cook, so the majority of my childhood diet consisted mainly of pizza, and pizza related items. Cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza, cheesesteak pizza, garlic knots, and don’t even get me started on stromboli. We had all the local pizza joints on speed dial. Remember when home phones had that list of buttons you could program? Remember home phones? I’m glad we never had any type of emergency requiring us to hit the 911 speed dial button, because we would have heard, “Claudio’s, what can I getcha?” on the other end.

There is one pizza, however, that has managed to elude me during my first 33 years of existence: Deep Dish. Having never been to Chicago, I’ve not had the delight of indulging in a true deep-dish pizza. And I suppose if I went to Chicago now, coming by a vegan one, would be a herculean task. So I thought I’d take a stab at making my own…and if Chicago’s is half as good as this one, then I think they’ve got a future in the deep-dish pizza industry. All you need for this recipe is a 6 inch cast iron skillet, some vegan cheese, and a Trader Joe’s. The cheeze I used here is my own “Not-zzarella Cheeze” which consists mainly of cashews and silken tofu, and is a recipe you will find in my book. Yes, I have written a cookbook, but there is no release date yet. All I know is that the world is supposed to end TWICE before it comes out.

O.k. on to the recipe:

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hey everyone, time for a recipe guest post! this one comes to us from the very talented janice whaley who lives in san jose and has achieved the massive undertaking of recording every single smiths songs using only her voice—no instruments. it’s pretty epic, so check out the smiths project when you have a chance, and pre-order the box set. but FIRST, she’s gonna teach us how to make a vegan bibimbop! here goes…

The other day I turned to my boyfriend and said, “ohhhh…. remember bibimbop?” I made it occasionally back in our carnivorous days. We used to frequent a place in San Francisco that made an amazing bibimbop and my version was basically an attempt to re-create what we ate at that restaurant. And now that we’re veg, I had to re-created it the dish again. Because life is no fun without bibimbop.

The fake meat in this dish is a dried soy product similar to TVP called “thit chay” and comes in many shapes and sizes. I go with the one that resembles slices of beef. You can also substitute wheat gluten sausages found in most Asian market in the tofu isle. They are the weird spongy grey-ish brown logs next to the fresh tofu, bamboo, etc (that I avoided for years because, what IS that stuff?!?!?) .

This recipe looks insane, but it’s really not so bad considering most all of this can be made in advance and then reheated when ready to plate. It’s impressive to look at and even more impressive to eat. Each of the side dishes work together to create an amazing flavor combination that is beyond description.

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just when you thought onion rings couldn’t get any better, the sexy vegan is here to teach you how to make onion rings encrusted with vegan funyuns. sounds crazy, right? well this guy is a genius, so check out his guest blog post and video to learn how to make this insanely brilliant snack. oh, and follow him on twitter!

A ring is a helluva thing. It’s circular form has been recognized throughout this planet’s history as being a symbol of unity, infinity, life, and perfection. And that’s really very nice and all…but If you ask me, a circle can’t truly be perfect unless it’s a circle made out of onion…which then gets coated with a bunch of other, smaller, crushed-up circles, that taste like onions. What the hell am I talking about, you ask? You know those rings of pure joy, that a trader named Joe occasionally bestows upon us, known as “Baked Onion Rings?” Wait, what am I saying? You’re a loyal reader of quarrygirl.com, of course you do. Then you also know that they are both vegan and delicious. Well, they’ll be the coating for these oven baked beauties that I like to call: “Oven Baked Onion Ring Encrusted Oven Baked Onion Rings!” A more perfect circle, I could not imagine.

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UPDATED: brittany shared the recipe! check it out after the jump.

and now for today’s what you sick people come here for. vegan mac and cheese pancakes:

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I don’t know about you, but every time I get an inter-Department Delivery in an orange envelope it’s usually something like a boring circular from HR or a “policy update” from the legal department. Imagine, then, how delighted I was to be sent such an envelope from Hot Knives containing not some pointless corporate drivel but a sneak peek at one of the recipes from their very first cookbook, “Salad Daze”.

Now, Hot Knives (a.k.a. Evan and Alex) are known to us as the genius chefs behind both the Verdugo Bar Patio sessions of summer 2009, as well as the inaugural event at the pre-opening of our local pub, (and favorite bar in all of LA) the Surly Goat early last year. In fact these vegetarian, highly vegan-friendly chefs create such amazing dishes that we have been known to chase around after them like a couple of Grateful Dead fans from the 80s.

If we had one criticism, though, it’s that there are way too few opportunities to experience their dishes – they don’t cook at enough events! So, the best bit about getting the sneak recipe preview wasn’t so much the preview itself, but the news that Hot Knives are publishing a cook book of some of their best recipes, so we can make their original and inventive dishes in the comfort of our own home. Truth be told, on occasion they will post a recipe or two on their blog, but nothing beats having everything at your fingertips in a good cookbook.

The recipe they sent to us was called “Magic Shroom Dust”. The description alone blew us away (abbreviated here):

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what you sick people come here for.

today, ladies and gentlemen, alex estrada brings us the vegan double double burger.

double meat, double cheese, no animal products. it can be done. thanks, alex! ingredients are after the jump…

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we bought the sriracha cookbook the day it came out, with hopes of working our way through it and veganizing the recipes. it looks like ryann from my whole deal has beat us to it and already gotten started with sweet-sriracha glazed buffalo tenders.

vegan sweet-sriracha glazed buffalo tenders by mywholedeal.com

check out her blog post to see how she did it, using agave, gardein, and of course…SRIRACHA. have you veganized any recipes from the sriracha cookbook? if so, send me pix and i will post them. i am sriracha obsessed.

by now, you are all probably familiar with chloe coscarelli. the young chef has taken the vegan world by storm and gained national attention when she earned top honors on the food network’s cupcake wars.

over the holidays, we were lucky enough to have a family-style home cooked meal at chloe’s house, where she made us one of the most insane desserts i’ve ever eaten. the monstrous mocha almond fudge cake will be featured in chloe’s cookbook (which is due out next year), and you can see her make it here with fran drescher:

i speak from personal experience when i say this cake is THE BOMB. check out all the other delicious things chloe cooked for us after the jump…

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this holiday season, i can’t think of a better gift to give anybody than a membership to spork online. the website was launched last month by the sisters at spork foods and features an array of vegan resources including HD video cooking classes, downloadable recipes, a section to get your questions answered, and more.

let me back this up a bit. the spork sisters, jenny and heather, and their popular los angeles cooking classes have been on my radar for quite a while; both vegans and omnivores alike have raved about them, saying they are all kinds of fun and super informative. i even got a chance to try the spork sisters’ fantastic food at the launch party for their new space, and was instantly smitten.

i’ve always wanted to take one of their classes, but the thing is, i’m super shy. i’m also not very good at cooking, so hanging out in a room with lots of other humans who are better in the kitchen than i am seemed liked it could be intimidating. imagine how excited i was when i heard that jenny and heather were launching spork online. a place where i can browse videos of different classes, watch how to make individual recipes, and ask the sisters questions if i run into trouble…all in the privacy of my own home?! YES, PLEASE!

here’s what a membership will getcha:

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Back when I was a vegetarian living in London, I used to visit Chicago frequently. On my trips I would only eat two kinds of food: Mexican (as there is no Mexican food to speak of in the UK) and Chicago Pizza (same issue). Now that I’m a vegan living in LA there’s an abundance of incredible Mexican food to satiate my love of things from south of the border, but I really do miss the tastes and textures of a thick, cheese filled Chicago pizza that’s so humongously large that it has to be eaten with a knife and fork.

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