On the road: veg*n resolutions

In two days the name of this blog will take a much more literal sense: I'm going on a month and a half bicycle touring and camping trip in the Gaspesie and the Maritimes, followed by a few weeks of volunteering at a biology field research and the ride back to Montreal from New Brunswick.

While I try to avoid animal products and ingredients when in Montreal, on the road it might prove tricky. I'm planning to keep away from "dead food," as in meat, fish, etc; I'll be trying to maintain a vegan diet through the summer, but the restricted cooking facilities (a methyl alcohol stove, one small pot and a tiny frying pan) and complete lack of refrigiration will probably force me into dairy- and possibly egg-eating.

My initial food supplies consist of:

2 cans of beans in maple syrup sauce

1 can of lentils

4 medium size potatoes

1/2 pack of pasta (will be enough for two meals)

bread

olive oil

wallnuts and almonds

spices: basil, thyme, cinnamon, salt, pepper

some emergency packs of dry ramen and energy bars

Although most of these things will be easy to buy almost anywhere I'm heading, eating them over and over for three months will probably drive me crazy and I'll end up hunting porcupines (because apparently they are the only animal that can be eaten raw) and swear off vegetables for the rest of my life. So the success of keeping the trip vegan will depend mostly on availability of the food.

Stay tuned for the irregular veggie road updates! =)

Natural environment: Hair and water

It's been a while since I started to check the ingredients on shampoo and soap for gelatin and other animal products; recently I also took interest in the health aspect of veg*nism and overall "greenness." After going through a few lists of toxic, cancerogenic, and plain potentially harmful (whatever that might imply) ingredients,most of which have unpronounceable and impossible-to-remember names, commonly found in shampoo and soap, I decided to search for an easy alternative - some product that would right off the bat have ingredients that are easily understandable, of course animal-product free and, last but not least readily available; methodically reading through hundreds of ingredient lists in dozens of natural product stores did not seem a glorious passtime.

-> Hair
The alternative found was ridiculously simple and effective: "no 'poo" method. Dissolve one tablespoon of baking soda in water, and use instead of shampoo. To replace conditioner, dissolve a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a cup of water and rinse your hair with it. Done! My hair feels just as clean as with some fancy shampoo, and takes way more time to get grease than before. The only drawback - showering now resembles cooking...

I haven't found a working replacement for soap yet (may be baking soda, this tofu of the cleaning world, can work too?), but stopped using the liquid kind, since all-natural bars are much easier to find.

-> Water

Since all these explorations were mainly driven by environmental concerns, I started to look for ways to "green up" the whole showering process:

1. The simplest thing: cut down the shower time. Saves water and energy.

2. To make the water warmer, turn down the cold water, instead of adding hot.

3. Turn down the temperature in general; it will save energy needed to heat the water, will probably make you get out of the shower faster and you wouldn't need to use a fan, since there will be less steam.

4. Navy shower: turn on the water, get wet, turn off the water, soap up and scrub, turn the water back on and rinse.

5. Collect the water in a bucket while waiting for it to warm up and use to water plants, flush the toilet or anything else (ok, I don't do that... yet!)

6. Go with soda and vinegar thing: less packaging and production waste from shampoo, less chemicals washed down the drain.

Vatroushka: Russian Cheesecake

Since the blog seems to be evolving from ingredients into something more general, here's a recipe of a vegan Russian cheesecake. The real prototype uses cottage cheese as filling and sweet yeast dough. Veganizing this cake was incredibly easy and it turned out exactly like the original, taste- and texture-wise. The color on the picture is a bit grim, but it's because I'm obsessed with whole wheat flour, and also used hemp milk (which is kinda grey).

Ingredients:

I. Dough base:

- 1 1/2 tbsp flour

- 1/2 tsp sugar

- 1/4 cup warm water

- 1 tbsp (7.5 to 9 grams) active dry yeast

Dough rest:

- 1/2 cup liquid (water, soy/rice/hemp/etc milk, soy yogurt... anything goes)

- 3/4 tsp salt

- 1/8 cup sugar

- 1/4 cup oil or melted margarine

- 1 egg substitute (e.g. 3 tbsp apple sauce, 1 banana, etc)

- 3-4 cups flour

II. Making the dough:

- in a bowl mix 1 1/2 tbsp flour with 1/2 tsp sugar and yeast.

- add 1/3 of the warm water and mix well, then add the remaining water

- put in a warm (20-30 C) place until bubbles start to appear (5 - 10 minutes)

- when bubbles appear, add oil and the 1/2 cup of liquid

- beat in the egg substitute, salt and sugar

- stir in 2 of the 3 cups of flour

- keep adding flour by 1/4 of a cup while the dough can be mixed with a spoon

- pour 1/2 cup flour on the table and knead until smooth and then some more, adding flour as necessary to prevent the dough from sticking to the table

- form dough in a ball, place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap and keep in a warm place until doubled in size

- beat down, cover and let seat again until doubled

- beat down, form into desired shape, and let stand about 30 minutes

- bake at ~400-450 F (200-230 C), for this recipe 15-20 minutes

III. Filling:

Ingredients (no exact quantities, adjust to taste):

- 2 packs (1 lb each), of soft (NOT silken, it has to crumble) tofu 

- lemon juice

- orange zest (fresh or dried)

- vanilla

- sugar

- soy/rice/hemp/etc milk

IV. Making:

- blend tofu into small crumbs

- add all the rest and blend well

tips: 

- since you're simulating cottage cheese, the result should be grainy and not liquid, but sticking together relatively well; be careful with soy milk

- you can increase the stickiness by adding oil, cornstarch dissolved in a bit of water, or apple sauce

V. Assembly:

- separate the dough into a big ball and a small one (size of approximately 1/2 of your fist)

- roll the big piece into a circle and put it into a lightly greased oven-friendly cast iron pan (or baking dish, anything that can go in the oven); you should be able to bend the edge of the dough to cover the walls of the pan

- pour the filling on the dough and fold the edge of the dough (if any)

- cut the little piece into 10 even smaller one, roll them by hand into strips and make the grid on top of the filling

- bake for 15-20 minutes at 400-450 F (200-230 C)

Kelp caviar, books, yeast

First of all I got to apologize for disappearing for a while. Finals (and well, won't lie, couple of non-academic books) is all the distraction it takes to give up regular posting. I'll try to catch up in the next couple of weeks, but cannot promise anything for the summer, since it I will probably be getting around a computer rather irregularly. So today's post is going to be a mixed bunch, with all sort of things that popped up since the last update.

First of all, I'll step away from the self-imposed restrictions and go with another product review. Although I'm avoiding processed foods (and ultimately eliminating all prepackaged foods from my shopping list), I'm greatly curious about novelty products. My own interest mainly manifests itself in form of "how the hell did they come up with that, and how did they make it?!" pondering; my parents however are more pragmatic, and would just buy the thing and try it. Despite all our differences when it comes to food, they are very supportive of my veg*n/green/organic endeavours, thus we rarely end up with things completely inedible. In any case, about a month ago, my dad brought home this: 

I was somewhat nonplussed to see the extent to which imitation products have gone, but if it keeps sturgeons in the water instead of the plate I call it a win. All but one ingredient were of undoubtedly plant origin; the questionable one is the natural flavour; the label reads "sturgeon flavour." Question: can natural sturgeon flavour be produced without any fish involved? This is exactly the question what I emailed the company with, originally intending not to post this until they reply; now, a month and a half later, seeing that the answer have not been granted, I'm posting what I have:

1. Their website, as well as the package, claims that the product is all natural.

2. The package is marked "No Fish Roe," "Seaweed-based caviar imitation," and "Vegetarian."

3. *Disclaimer: this one is a rumour and might be wrong*: my mom recalls coming across the company's product launch about a year ago, and talking to a representative there, who confirmed that the natural flavour is indeed a fish product. 

4. Note that the product is mainly marketed as a more affordable and healthier version of caviar, not its veg*n alternative. A similar product that's been available for a while is Cavi-Art, which IS marketed as being vegetarian.

Although I can't claim with certainty that Kelp Caviar is using fish products, and hoping to be able to post the opposite, I will personally avoid it until accurate information will be available. If you come across any data please post it!

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I got a chance to read something not school related; it was, at least partially related to this blog though. One book, which I've mentioned already, is "Animal Ingredients A to Z" by E.G. Smith Collective; the name is rather descriptive: the book is a list of animal ingredients, and some more. In addition to an alphabetical list of the animal products, some having such names that you involuntarily start writing a scrabble cheat-sheet, it has a vegan booze list, as well as a quick "intro to veganism" chapter. The material is not limited to food, but touches on the subjects of health and hygiene products, and my favorite: vegan myths (anything wrong with chewing gum?) The book seems to err slightly on the safe side, as in listing ingredients that can be both plant and animal derived in the "usually of animal origin," while other sources list them as mainly non-animal (see the second paragraph of this earlier post). It would be a good, not intimidating guide for beginners, and a pretty solid reference for everybody.

Another thing I was reading is Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moscowitz and Terry Hope Romero from the Post Punk Kitchen. This one is also beginner-friendly, and has detailed instructions from the most basic things like soaking beans to the fairly complex recipes. Before that, I was mainly looking for the recipes online, but it is rather nice to have a cookbook when in hesitation over what to do with the seemingly disconnected stuff in the fridge. The sauces are certainly a blast! 

By now I figured that I won't be able to post new unveg*n ingredients frequently, because although there is quite a lot of them, relatively few are present in most of the foods, few others in beauty products, etc. In any case, I figured it would make sense to cover the veg*n-friendly ones too, since there is some new ones I only started using in the past couple of weeks. Not that I didn't know about them before, I just didn't know what to do with them, so would always walk right by. Among them are silken tofu (think smoothies, mayo-style dressing, and lots of cake potential), cornmeal (cornbread is ridiculously easy to make and it is grand), and nutritional yeast. The latter was on my mind for a while now, many vegan recipes call for it, and it is generally said to be a reliable source of vitamin B12, about which we're all so paranoid. I never really knew where could I get this yeast, and I rarely end up near a health food store to check (that's where a lot of people claim to get it). In the US the Red Star brand is usually mentioned, but I haven't seen it in Canada. So if you live in Montreal, know: nutritional yeast can be found at the Atwater market, at Douceurs du Marché. The mystery uncovered: this flaky substance makes for great cheesy sauce, and some might find it tasty to eat just by itself. The nutritional information table claimed that 10g (2 teaspoons) give you 570% of the daily value of B12, and some equally ridiculous amounts of some other vitamins (but I don't remember which ones, and the package is gone. Will check next time). So next time somebody starts beetwelving you, just give them the bag of yeast to read! Now, this is not to be confused with the active yeast used for baking, it is a rather different thing, and they have different properties. 

Follow-up: cholesterol and lactic acid

Cholesterol

Since I found out that cholesterol is found only in animal product, I started reading the nutritional content in addition to the ingredient list. In less than a week, I came across two products: 70% dark chocolate and ready-made thai pesto that don't list any possible animal products, yet have cholesterol in the nutritional info section. Intrestingly, for chocolate, other flavors (also dark) by the same brand were fine. Same for pesto: other types, while having cholesterol, listed cheese as one of the ingredients, and one other kind (can't recall the flavor) had no cheese and no cholesterol. So it looks pretty ambiguios, whether its a copy-past label design error or a mistake in the list. Either way, read both ingredients and nutrients.

Lactic Acid

Now, this one is rather interesting. Numerous sources (vrg.org and wikipedia) both state that industrially used lactae/lactic acid is produced by bacterial fermentation and is suitable for vegans. Some other sources (e.g. the book "Animal Ingredients A to Z" by E.G. Smith Collective) groups them with L-lactate, which is of animal origin. It seems however that it is not economically viable to extract it for separate uses, so it is mainly found in dairy products, while bacterially producted lactic acid is used in non-dairy foods as preservative (my guess, no proof). 

Char

No, not the volcanically active homeplanet of Zerg race from StarCraft...

(image from http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Char)

... Although not too far off - char is the product of burning bones and hooves; it is used to filter some alcohol drinks (some beers/wines/liquor) and some cane sugar (including some brown sugars). Beet sugar is not filtered with it.

Source: http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj97mar/973sugar.htm

The problem is that char is never listed on the package, because it is not actually an ingredient. Also a lot of products that do not use it, don't state so.

Here is a list of some vegan (un)friendly US sugar-making companies; I haven't found a similar resource for Canada or other parts of the world yet.

Bubble Tea

I'm a sucker for bubble tea (no pun intended!); I don't get around it often, but when I do it's a food orgy. So I looked it up, to see whether it's veg*n.

1. Tapioca pearls (bubbles) are vegan: made from starch.

2. The drink itself may or may not contain dairy ingredients. It is pretty clear that the milk tea is not vegan, although sometimes a non-dairy creamer can be used (still not necessarily vegan). More confusing when it is just tea or fruit juice, since sometimes they are made from mixes and you pretty much never know whats in them.

3. Jellies that are used instead of/along with tapioca appear to be vegan, at least I came across no information on their unveg*ness. No mentions of gelatin either.

Lactic acid (lactate)

Once again, I stand corrected: The Vegan Society has a list of potentially non-vegan ingredients. Their website also has a lot of other useful resources. 

Keep in mind the word "potential:" a lot of these ingredients can come from both animal and non-animal sources. For example, lactic acid (lactate) is listed as derived form milk, whether other sources claim is is most often vegan:

Quote:

"If it's lactate or lactic acid, it's not from dairy (exception - sterol lactate due to the stearic acid). "Lac" ingredients are usually produced by a fermentation process using cornstarch or beet sugar. Lactose is always from dairy."

Source: http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/faqingredients.htm#lac

Wikipedia article says that although it can be produced from lactose, it usually comes from bacterial culture.

Cholesterol

Another thing that I never thought about, but discovered while researching the flavor question is that vegan food cannot have any cholesterol in it; cholesterol is present only in animal-based foods. This means that both the list of the ingredients and the nutritional information can be used to determine whether the product is vegan or not. It would be a good idea to examine both, because it appears that some products marketed as vegan are actually not (only heard rumors, but better safe than sorry).

Some plant food can stimulate the production of cholesterol by human body, but will not contain cholesterol itself.

Source:

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=12647.0

Artificial and natural flavoring

There is something that puzzled me for a while; what is artificial chicken/meat flavor?

Artificial flavors can contain natural ingredients that underwent certain chemical treatment, or contain part natural, part lab-synthesised ingredients. Bottom line: artificial OR natural flavor can be almost anything.

Source: 

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3289/is_n11_v166/ai_20224156

This article is also great because it dicusses the use of "natural flavor" as a catch phrase; people tend to associate it with healthy food, while in most cases there is no difference, and sometimes artificial flavors can even be safer, and almost always - cheaper.

Also, in the first post I complained that there is no complete list of ingredients with descriptions; well, there is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_number

Next time instead of Googling frantically, can check that first.

Vitamin D3

Vitamin D3 is found (not exclusively) in margarine. It is of animal origin, from sheep (wool, according to wikipedia) or from fish according to vrg.org.

Quote:

"What is the difference between vitamin D2 and D3?

D-2 (ergocalciferol) is derived from yeast, while D-3 (cholecalciferol) is derived from lanolin (from sheep) or fish. D-2 and D-3 are both used to fortify milk and other dairy products. Some D-3 vitamin supplements are made with fish oil."

Source:

http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/faqingredients.htm#d3

This one is a big shame of mine, since I didn't know of its unsafe-ness untill only recently; I found it out completely by accident, while looking for a recipe. Now I make sure that I know what all the ingredients on the list mean before I buy something. This self-embarassment is part of the inspiration for this blog - the more these "boobie-traps" will be talked about, the higher the chances of people coming across the right information before they make a mistake. In any case - better late than never!

Rennet

Rennet is used in cheese production to help the coagulation of milk. It is produced from the stomacks of calves. There are many kinds of cheese that use microbial enzymes (vegetarian-friendly) instead of rennet, since the former are cheaper; rennet is most often found in tranditional European cheese.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennet

Welcome, young Vegenauts!

After being vegetarian for over 3 years and vegan for about 2, I still feel a bit cheated every time I read a label on a seemingly veg*n-friendly product (most often food), and find that it is not as safe as it looked from afar. The problem that I still encounter once in a while is that sometimes when standing among shelves and holding an obscure package I have no clue what certain ingredients are. They are written out very clearly, no blame on the manufacturer; only I didn't know that I had to look up monoglycerides, vitamine D and PVC before leaving the house. No excuses for ignorance, but right there, with no access to the universal sources of knowledge such as wikipedia, it is rather frustrating to try to figure out what is toxic, what is of animal origin, what is edible but undesirable and what is actually good.

Although once you've got the ingredient list at hands' reach, and you look up the items one by one, the information is almost always readily available. However, what I haven't seen yet is some kind of alert list of the "unsafe" substances that commonly appear in products that otherwise would be veg*n-friendly. So far the closest I've seen were the lists of brands, with descriptions and classifications of products.

In this blog I want to share some of my veg experiments, discoveries and disapointments, as well as dedmystify some terms that seem to appear fairly often on veg*n sites, but are rarely explained; so here's another attempt at no-nonsense guide to being veg*n in a non-veg*n society for the new (and not so new) veg*ns out there!

Stay tuned for updates, and feel free to send me your own stories and experiences that you would like to share.