Vegan Fish n' Chips...OMG!! Vegan Fish n' Chips!!

There are times when life LITERALLY gives you lemons and you have to make lemonade. This is not one those times. This IS, however, one of those times when Seattle gives you a 60-degree, rain-filled day in the middle of AUGUST!??!! Oh, you can whine, complain, and pout about it OR you can be thankful for the excuse that a lousy-weather
day gives you to indulge in a little vegan comfort food.

Now, a hot cup of Joe and a couple of vegan donuts from Mighty-O was a pretty good place to start. But, I took comfort food to the next level at lunchtime with a grilled cheese sandwich, thanks to the people who bring you the Cuisinart sandwich press (so, I guess Cuisinart, then?) and the miracle workers over at Daiya. For dinner, it was going to take something pretty spectacular, ballsy even, to seal today as the official Summer Comfort Food Day of 2010.

I'd had my eye on a little battered "fish" recipe over at the
Vegan Betty Crocker Project
blog since Friday and I just couldn't get it out of my head. So I set out to conquer it. This "fish" was so damn delicious that my omnivorous husband couldn't even believe it was tofu. I will warn you, though, that in the process I have used nearly every dish and appliance in my kitchen. It looks like a flour explosion went off in there, but it was worth it (especially, since my husband does all the post-dinner kitchen cleanups). If you are a vegan and are craving some of the old classics this will not disappoint.

Now, I realize that it is still summer, and that we can't subsist on fried foods alone, so I skipped making "chips" and opted for a caprese salad with a balsamic reduction instead. I veganized
this recipe by using Vegan Gourmet's Mozzarella. It comes in brick form and I used a small glass to cut out the middle section. I then turned that section on its side and cut 4 uniform (roughly 1/4" thick) rounds out of it. Optionally, you could just cut it all into a dice and serve it with halved cherry tomatoes, but I was trying to go all fancy for some reason. I highly recommend trying these recipes, stat! Oh, and I won't tell anyone if you make a batch of the "fish" just for yourself and eat it all in one sitting. I won't even judge.