About this project
MEAT/NO MEAT: DELICIOUS FOOD FOR THE BICULINARY SET
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ABOUT THE PROJECT
Emily is a vegetarian. Jeremy, most decidedly, is not. Nonetheless, when he won her over with his vegetarian spaghetti pie, they began a culinary collaboration resulting in a magnificent menu that can be enjoyed by vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.
Instead of many vegetarian recipes, which simply substitute fake meat products for the meat found in standard concoctions, the recipes in Meat/No Meat are designed to duplicate the edible experience as closely as possible for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. We won't be using expensive, sometimes hard-to-find fake meat you need to buy at the store; instead, we will be creating tasty substitutes with ingredients found in most major supermarkets.
Likewise, we will not just make one recipe with sausage, one without. Instead, we will be utilizing other ingredients, ensuring that the vegetarian option is as rich in flavor as the meat version.
Our philosophy is simple: two people with two different food philosophies can eat the same meal for dinner, together, in the same house, and both can taste equally delicious.
The cookbook will be divided into two sections. The first will contain quick and easy meals that don't take much time to prepare and aren't terribly complicated. The second will contain recipes that take more time, but with deeper and more complex flavors.
RECIPES WILL INCLUDE:
- Spaghetti Pie
- Oven-poached fish in olive oil
- Scotch Eggs (hardboiled eggs, wrapped in sausage and DEEP FRIED)
- Picadillo (a kind of Cuban chili)
- Redneck Sushi (involving bacon and asparagus)
- Chao Tom (Vietnamese Sugar Cane)
... and many more!
HOW YOUR INVESTMENTS WILL BE USED
The funds will be used to replace a few items of aging cookware and appliances and to cover some of the costs of creating and perfecting the recipes, including ingredients.
Any remaining funds will go towards covering any necessary book production/marketing costs.
OUR PROJECT GOAL
We would like to have a finished, marketable product by the end of 2013. We will then shop the cookbook around to various publishers, or self-publish in both paper and electronic versions.
SAMPLE RECIPE (from Section Two)
COLLARD GREENS
Traditional Southern collard greens are slow-cooked with some kind of salted pig. This recipe uses salt pork for the non-veg version, and a prepared eggplant for the veg version. The flavors are remarkably similar! The vegetarian variation is presented below.
This is a complex recipe, but the payoff is well worth the prep time!
Ingredients:
1 bunch collard greens (do not substitute kale or some other such silliness), chopped
2 medium japanese eggplants, peeled and diced
3/4 c cider vinegar
1/3 c water
2/3 c canola oil
1/4 cup Braggs liquid aminos
1 tbsp liquid smoke
3.5 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp turmeric
STEP ONE: EGGPLANT
1. Marinate the night prior to serving:
2. Toss the eggplant in 2 tbsp of the salt. Set aside in a colander to drain for 2 hours.
3. Mix the remaining ingredients in a non-reactive bowl, whisking well to make sure they're completely mixed.
4. Toss the eggplant into the marinade-- be sure it's entirely submerged-- and refrigerate overnight.
5 . The next day, before starting on the greens, bake the eggplant in the marinade at 200 degrees for 2 hours. You're essentially making a quick confit with the eggplant.
6. Drain eggplant, but reserve the marinade.
7. Add 1/4 cup of the marinade to a saute pan; saute the eggplant in the marinade for 15 minutes.
STEP TWO: GREENS
1. In a large pot, bring the cider vinegar and water to a boil.
2. When the vinegar begins to boil, add the eggplant. Cover and simmer on low for 45 minutes.
3. Add the collard greens. Let cook on low for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Add vinegar and/or water to taste as needed.
Serve with cornbread to soak up that delicious potlikker!
On the left, collards with salt pork. On the right, greens from the recipe above. YUM!
FAQ
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The worst possible thing for a cookbook is imprecision. As it stands, there is possibly nothing more imprecise in this whole town than our oven range. It suffers from debilitating temperature fluctuations that turn something as ridiculous as croissant-dough wrapped brie into a blackened discus covering a doughy soup. Without a new oven range, writing precise recipes will be an impossibility.
Oh, and let's not forget the food processor! When we turned it on the other day to attempt to shred a rather simple mix of onions and carrots, it emitted a noise like a robot fart, and the blade now rotates at approximately 0.5 rpm.
Finally, there is still some experimenting to be done vis-a-vis the recipes themselves. Veggie picadillo, for instance, is wonderful with barley and mushrooms in place of ground beef, but we have a sneaking suspicion that quinoa might work better. So, we have to make it twice. This means twice the cost of ingredients.
As Emily is a social worker and Jeremy is a cube monkey, and as they recently had a tiny baby-- they are expensive!-- it would take years for us to scrimp n' save the fundage for these items. That's why we'd love your help, and, in return, will produce an awesome resource for your kitchen!
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If we don't make our goal, we will not be writing this cookbook unless we have some kind of amazing financial windfall. For example, let's say that the cost of daycare drops from $1100/mo. to $12.34/mo.-- that would do the trick. Or, perhaps, if we were to catch a leprechaun who enjoys vegetarian food and gives us some gold, or maybe we're on the beach and we find a clam full of diamonds and rubies or something, we could afford it.
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If there is a myth it would be fun to dispel, it's the "vegetarian food = health food" silliness that gets tossed around so often. Half of the reason veggie food gets such a bad rap is its long time association with hippiness and granaries. Have we got news for you: some of our vegetarian recipes are just as bad for you-- and delicious!-- as their counterparts.
Let me tell you: tofu may not have as much fat as a pork chop, but that's not always a good thing! So, let's marinade the tofu in clarified butter and rub it down with salt and fry it.
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Yes! As much as possible! Organic eggs unquestionably taste better than factory farmed eggs. Farmer's markets are the best places for vegetables! Seasonal things are always a good choice!
Except... sometimes not. Seasonal veggies, for instance, aren't always your best option when you want to make an enormous pot of pasta sauce in the middle of winter, when it is often at its most enjoyable. Buying local is well and good, but how many of us have local coffee plantations? Organic = awesome, but good gravy that stuff gets expensive!
So, our philosophy for ingredients is, try your best, but if you can't find/afford your best, go with what's available.
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
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Our undying thanks and gratitude.
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A personal email of thanks.
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A personal email of thanks including a sample recipe.
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All of the above and a pre-release electronic (e-reader) copy of the book.
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All of the above and your name printed in the acknowledgements of the book.
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All of the above and a copy of our book.
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All of the above and a signed copy of our book.
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All of the above, plus we will name one of our recipes after you.
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If local to Seattle, all of the above, and we will cook a meal for you and six of your friends. If not local to Seattle, we will ship you a delightful selection of personally preserved, canned, shippable items to use in your own kitchen.
Project By
Connected as Jeremy Puma (312 friends)
Jeremy, Not a Vegetarian, is the latest in a long line of self-taught cooks. Emily, Vegetarian, has been meat-free for eighteen years. They have been happily married since 2005, and love to cook together for each other and friends.
