Sweet Apricot & Hazelnut Pannini

This sandwich is not only delicious and unusual but incredibly versatile. Cut it into small strips or triangles for brunch. Eat it as an alternative to peanut butter and jelly for lunch or skip the boring toast in the morning and make one of these killer sandwiches, opened faced.
Every component was meticulously thought out to have a perfect balance of sweet, salty, soft and crunchy.

Sweet hazelnut butter, apricot jam, ripe apricot slices and salty pretzels crumbled on top of cinnamon raisin swirl bread and toasted to perfection.

Sweet Apricot & Hazelnut Pannini
Cinnamon raisin bread ( I used Dave's Killer Bread-Sin Dawg)
1/4 cup sweetened hazelnut butter
1/4 cup apricot jam
1-2 fresh apricots, thinly sliced
a handful of pretzels, crushed

Spread the jam and hazelnut butter on the bread. Top with fresh apricot slices and crushed pretzels.
Toast in a pannini press or in a dry pan with a heavy weight on top.

Rosemary Smoked Tofu and Red Potatoes, Green Beans with Hazelnut Butter and Fig Reduction

Today is my blog's first birthday! Oh how they grow up so fast... *tear*
A year ago I started this blog because so many people were always asking me for recipes and I wanted to be able to share them with anyone who wanted to make delicious vegan food.
324 posts and over 800 recipes later, I think I made a pretty good indent in the vegan blog world. I hope to one day be celebrating my 5 and even 10 year blog anniversary with you guys. I always love suggestions or requests of food to make because sometimes it can get hard to not repeat old dishes or to come up with new ideas, so keep them coming!
For today's post I decided to re-do and re-work my very first post For the Love of Rosemary.

Rosemary and hickory smoked marinated tofu and potatoes served with green beans roasted and topped with homemade hazelnut butter and dried fig reduction.

Smoked Rosemary Tofu and Potatoes
1 lb extra firm tofu, drained and pressed for 30 minutes, sliced into 1/2" steaks
3 red potatoes, cut into wedges, each wedge pricked all over with a fork
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, minced
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
1 stem of fresh rosemary
juice and zest of 1 small lemon
.6 oz fresh rosemary (one pack)
1 lb applewood chips

Combine the pressed tofu and potato wedges in a zip lock bag with the garlic, shallot, white wine, oil, salt and pepper, 1 stem of rosemary, lemon juice and zest. Press out as much air as you can and let marinate for at least 2 hours to overnight. I used a food saver bag and my machine to suck all the air out and it worked awesome to really push the flavors into the tofu.
Soak 4oz of fresh rosemary and wood chips in water for 30 minutes. Drain and prepare a smoker. Heavily oil the grates. Place the tofu and potatoes on the grates far away from the smoke, cover and smoke for 2 hours over medium-low.

Green Beans with Hazelnut Butter and Fig Reduction
1/2 lb green beans, ends trimmed
2 tbl extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil and lay green beans on an even layer. Drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper on beans and toss. Roast in oven for 10 min or until slightly browned.

Hazelnut butter-
1/4c earth balance, softened
2 tbl shallot, finely chopped
1 tbl lemon zest
juice from 1/2 of a lemon
1/4c hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
salt and pepper

Combine all of the ingredients together and chill to firm back up.
Optional-Form a log wrapped in seran wrap to cut pretty discs once hard.

Fig Reduction-
3/4 cup roughly chopped dried figs
1 1/2 cup warm water
2 tbl maple syrup
1 cup apple juice
2 tbl balsamic vinegar
salt

In a small pot, combine the figs, water, maple syrup. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes until the figs are soft. Transfer figs and liquid to a food processor and blend until smooth. Strain.
Bring back to the pot and add the apple juice, balsamic and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes until reduced my half and it's thick and syrupy.

For the love of Rosemary

When rosemary comes into play, one can do no wrong. I love it fresh, dried, infused, fried anyway you can get it into my meal I will be pleased. Bonus points for getting it into chocolate!
Today I bought some fresh rosemary and made good use of it in tonight's dinner.

Rosemary Grilled Tofu with Pomegranate Reduction
5 Herb Potatoes
Roasted Green beans with Hazelnut butter

Grilled rosemary tofu-
1 block of extra firm tofu
1 large sprig of rosemary, picked from stem and minced
salt and pepper
Arugula for garnish

Pomegranate reduction-
2c pomegranate juice
1/4c brown sugar
2 tbl balsamic vinegar

Cut tofu in 1/2 inch triangles.
Sprinkle tofu generously with coarsely ground peppercorn, salt and rosemary.
Cook on a super hot grill for 10 minutes on each side. After 5 min rotate 90 degrees to obtain sweet grill marks. Set aside on a plate.
In a small sauce pan add pomegranate juice, brown sugar, and balsamic vinegar. Boil until reduced to about 1/4 cup, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
Toss arugula with 1 tsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar.
Season to taste with salt.

Roasted green beans
1/2 lb green beans, ends picked off
2 Tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil
salt and pepper

Hazelnut Butter
1/4c earth balance, softened
2 tbl shallot, finely chopped
1 tbl lemon zest
juice from 1/2 of a lemon
1/4c hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil and lay green beans on an even layer. Drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper on beans and toss. Roast in oven for 10 min or until slightly browned.

For Hazelnut butter- Combine all ingredients and refrigerate to firm back up

5 Herb Potatoes
1 shallot, chopped
1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 Tbsp chopped fresh sage
1 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1 bay leaf, finely crumbled
1/2 cup olive oil
16 red new potatoes, scrubbed and patted dry

Half potatoes and drop in a large pot of cold, salted water. Bring to boil and boil until tender and ready to eat.
In a food processor, combine shallot, thyme, sage, oregano, garlic,
bay leaf, 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Add the olive oil
and blend just until the shallot is finely chopped.
Drain potatoes and toss hot potatoes in herb and oil mixture.