Hazelfaern Again

I do believe this is my favorite cookbook — and it’s not even really a cookbook. It’s a collection of 2 seperate and distinct serial cooking zines with a common (well, somewhat common) theme.

Hot Damn and Hell Yeah: Recipes for Hungry Banditos is a fantastic Tex-Mex inspired collection of vegan recipes written up by some bloke in Australia named Ryan Splint.

The Dirty South Cookbook is a collection of authentic, veganized Southern recipes written up by someone who’s recently vacated the South — authoressed by a lady named Vanessa.

I love both collections for their simplicity and their usefulness. Recipes include homemade worchestershire sauce, mexican chili gravy, black bean salsa, almost sour cream, flour tortillas, red beans and rice, black bean and sweet potato burritos, pumpkin soup, 3 different kinds of chili, a couple of southwestern burgers, spiced ice cream and apple enchiladas; hush puppies, johnny cakes, maccaroni casserole, turnip stew, black eyed pea cakes, carrot salad, roasted pepper salad, corn meal mush, red velvet cake, sweet potato pudding and amalgamation cake. Whew, it’s a mouthful in so many ways

I have been looking for a recipe for flour tortillas for some time, so I was really excited to find one in this cookbook. So far I’m still trying to master the thickness factor (so the tortillas don’t turn out like savory pancakes so much…) but the recipe is otherwise fantastic. I’ve also fallen in love with the black bean and sweet potato burritos, the black eyed pea cakes (so damn tasty both hot and cold) and, believe it or not, corn meal mush, which is actually quite a bit like cream of wheat’s love child after a smoldering fling with quick-cook grits. I recommend doctoring it up all savory like, especially with tahini, Earth Balance and a touch of chili powder. Yum.

But the best part is that these recipes work so well with the local food I’ve been trying to eat more of.