BITCHLOVE

The Kitchen

Bar food

Everything here is a real recipe with real temperatures. Nothing needs a restaurant kitchen — a pan, an oven, and something to drink while you wait.

3 showing · 444 plates · 15 drinks

vegan 73 vegetarian 36
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everything dips 63 fried 120 loaded 164 skewers 43 sliders 32 wings 14 sweet 8
🍔

Pulled Jackfruit Sliders VEGAN

Jackfruit does a convincing impression of pulled pork and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Braised in smoke and molasses, crisped in a hot oven, crammed into a soft bun under cold slaw.

55 min 4 as a plate (makes 12 sliders) ▲ fair
Make it

You need

  • 2 x 14 oz cans young green jackfruit in brine or water (not syrup), drained and rinsed
  • 2 tbsp neutral oil
  • 1 small yellow onion, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tbsp smoked paprika
  • 2 tsp ancho chile powder
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 3/4 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 cup vegetable stock (not chicken)
  • 2 tbsp molasses
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce (standard Worcestershire contains anchovy — read the label)
  • 1 tsp liquid smoke
  • 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 2 cups green cabbage, shredded fine
  • 1/4 small red onion, sliced paper-thin
  • 3 tbsp vegan mayo
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (for the slaw)
  • 12 vegan slider buns (check for milk, butter, egg wash, and honey — potato and brioche buns usually have at least two)
  • 2 tbsp vegan butter, melted, for toasting
  • Dill pickle chips, to serve

Method

  1. Drain and rinse the jackfruit. Cut the hard core wedge off each piece and shred the rest between your fingers into strands. Squeeze out the excess liquid in a clean towel — wet jackfruit will never crisp.
  2. Heat the oil in a wide skillet over medium-high. Cook the onion 5 minutes until it starts to color, add the garlic, smoked paprika, ancho, cumin, and black pepper, and toast 45 seconds until it smells like a barbecue pit.
  3. Add the jackfruit, ketchup, vegetable stock, molasses, cider vinegar, Dijon, vegan Worcestershire, liquid smoke, and salt. Simmer uncovered over medium-low for 25 minutes, breaking the strands apart with a wooden spoon, until the sauce clings and nothing pools in the pan.
  4. Spread the mixture on a parchment-lined sheet pan and roast at 425F for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges darken and go chewy. This step is what separates it from wet canned mush.
  5. Toss the cabbage and red onion with the vegan mayo, cider vinegar, and 1/4 tsp salt. Let it sit 10 minutes, then drain off anything that weeps out.
  6. Brush the cut buns with the melted vegan butter and toast face-down in a dry skillet for 60 to 90 seconds until golden.
  7. Pile the jackfruit on the bottom buns, top with slaw and two pickle chips, and serve immediately while the bun is still warm.

From behind the bar: Buy jackfruit packed in brine or water, never syrup. Syrup-packed fruit is ripe and sweet, and no amount of smoke will drag it back.

🍄

Mushroom Philly Sliders VEGAN

Mushrooms seared hard until they give up the water and go properly beefy. Onions, peppers, vegan provolone melted over the top. It is not a cheesesteak. Philadelphia is welcome to write in.

40 min 4 as a plate (makes 12 sliders) ▲ fair
Make it

You need

  • 1 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch
  • 8 oz king oyster mushrooms, sliced lengthwise then crosswise
  • 3 tbsp neutral oil, divided
  • 1 tbsp vegan butter
  • 1 large yellow onion, sliced thin
  • 1 green bell pepper, sliced thin
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce (standard Worcestershire contains anchovy)
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 6 slices vegan provolone-style cheese, halved (check for casein — plenty of dairy-free slices still carry it)
  • 1/3 cup vegan mayo
  • 1 garlic clove, grated
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 12 vegan slider rolls (check for milk, butter, egg wash, and honey)
  • Pickled hot cherry peppers, chopped, to serve

Method

  1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large cast-iron skillet over high until it shimmers. Add the mushrooms in a single layer, in two batches if you have to, and do not touch them for 5 minutes. Crowding the pan steams them and you lose the browning.
  2. Toss once and cook another 4 minutes until deeply browned at the edges. Season with the 1/2 tsp salt and the black pepper and tip them into a bowl.
  3. Add the remaining 1 tbsp oil and the vegan butter to the same pan, drop the heat to medium, and cook the onion and bell pepper 10 to 12 minutes until soft and sweet with brown edges.
  4. Return the mushrooms to the pan, add the soy sauce and vegan Worcestershire, and chop everything together in the pan with the edge of two spatulas for a minute until it reads as a filling and not as sliced vegetables.
  5. Flatten the mixture into an even layer, lay the halved vegan provolone over the top, cover the pan, and let it sit off the heat for 2 minutes until the cheese slumps.
  6. Stir the vegan mayo with the grated garlic and lemon juice. Split the rolls and toast them cut-side down in a dry pan for 60 seconds.
  7. Spread the garlic mayo on both cut sides, scoop the filling in with a spatula so the cheese stays draped over it, and top with chopped cherry peppers. Serve hot — this one does not wait.

From behind the bar: King oyster stems shredded lengthwise give you the fibrous pull that creminis alone cannot. Use both or the filling reads as a mushroom side dish.

🔥

BBQ Tofu Sliders VEGAN

Tofu in a cornstarch crust, fried hard, then drowned in smoky bourbon barbecue. Pickles for acid, slaw for crunch. Nobody has ever left one of these on the plate.

50 min 4 as a plate (makes 12 sliders) ▲ fair
Make it

You need

  • 2 x 14 oz blocks extra-firm tofu, pressed 30 minutes
  • 1/3 cup cornstarch
  • 2 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • Neutral oil, for shallow frying
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup (not honey)
  • 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce (standard Worcestershire contains anchovy)
  • 2 tbsp bourbon (optional)
  • 1 tbsp yellow mustard
  • 2 tsp smoked paprika (for the sauce)
  • 1 tsp liquid smoke
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne
  • 2 cups shredded green and red cabbage
  • 1/4 cup vegan mayo
  • 1 tbsp cider vinegar (for the slaw)
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt (for the slaw)
  • 12 vegan slider buns (check for milk, butter, egg wash, and honey)
  • Sliced dill pickles, to serve

Method

  1. Cut the pressed tofu into 24 slabs about 1/2 inch thick and blot them dry. Freeze and fully thaw them first if you have the time — it opens the texture up and it is the single biggest upgrade here.
  2. Whisk the cornstarch, 2 tsp smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and black pepper in a shallow dish. Press each slab into the mixture on all sides and shake off the excess.
  3. Simmer the ketchup, maple syrup, cider vinegar, vegan Worcestershire, bourbon, mustard, 2 tsp smoked paprika, liquid smoke, and cayenne in a small saucepan over medium-low for 12 minutes, stirring, until it coats the back of a spoon.
  4. Toss the cabbage with the vegan mayo, cider vinegar, sugar, and 1/4 tsp salt. Refrigerate until you need it.
  5. Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a heavy skillet to 350F. Fry the tofu in batches for 3 minutes a side until the crust is genuinely golden and rigid, then drain on a rack, not on paper, so the bottoms stay crisp.
  6. Toss the hot tofu in about two-thirds of the barbecue sauce in a wide bowl, working fast so the crust soaks but does not surrender.
  7. Toast the buns cut-side down in a dry pan for a minute. Build with two tofu slabs, a spoon of the reserved sauce, pickles, and a pinch of slaw, and get them to the table hot.

From behind the bar: Sauce the tofu to order, not in advance. Battered tofu sitting in barbecue sauce goes soft in about six minutes and there is no bringing it back.