I'm always veganizing recipes that I love...so...I'm working my way
through all of the amazing recipes in Julia Child's
Mastering the Art of French Cooking...
...making a Vegan Version of each one...... sometimes successfully - sometimes not...Recipe Count 551/524 (from Julie's count)...but really 616

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Vegan Bavarois aux Fruits

[Vegan Strawberry or Raspberry Bavarian Cream — and other fruits]

This recipe calls for raspberries or strawberries...but Julia says you can use other fruits as well...peaches sound delicious for this creamy and airy dessert...

...I've made a couple of versions of Bavarois before...the master recipe VEGAN BAVAROIS À L’ORANGE was pretty delicious and this strawberry version is too...
...first you'll need a vegan custard...I'm using Bird's for the base...and adding the agar-agar for the gelatin...
...just cooking the custard using the Bird's directions...
...purée the fresh strawberries...Julia says to pass it through a seive...but I did not...I like strawberry seeds...
...whip some cream...you could use aqua faba here...but this Trader Joes vegan whipping cream is pretty awesome...and whips up in about 30 seconds...aqua faba usually takes a few minutes of whipping...
...perfectly whipped vegan cream...
...fold the strawberry purée and the whipped vegan cream into the vegan custard...
...and pour into a mold...I'd seen several image online of this dessert in a round mold with a defined edge...but I don't have one...so I'm just using a pyrex bowl for sort of the same effect...
...after a couple of hours in the fridge...it set up nicely...
...and unmolded with no issues...
...added some decorative strawberries around the base...like the images I'd seen on the interwebs...
...topped with the leftover sauce as Julia recommends...
...it would of course be prettier with a nice square edged mold...but this is pretty too...
...and finally more whipped vegan cream...
...it really is a pretty dessert...company-worthy...
...and it held its shape pretty well when sliced...
...and it is oh-my-goodness delicious...so creamy and fruity and light and airy...

Substitutions

Bird's Custard
Vegan Trader Joe's whipped cream...

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 599-600

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

VEGAN POULET EN GELÉE A L’ESTRAGON

[Vegan Chicken Tarragon in Aspic]

...Julia says Vegan 'Chicken in tarragon jelly is one of the simplest and best of the cold poultry dishes.'
...place your browned tofu/chicken in the broth...I browned mine in the air fryer...but Julia of course uses butter...and add some tarragon...
...remove it to a platter and chill...

...then add some agar-agar to the stock to make a jellied stock...add some Madeira or port...I used white wine as that's all I had...
...then pour that onto an oval platter...I strained mine first...and put it into the fridge to chill...
...Julia says to drop the tarragon leaves into boiling water...she's using fresh of course...but that's not readily available here...so I'm using dried leaves...
...place your carved tofu/chicken on top of the now solid gel...and spoon over some semi-gelled stock...and put it back in the fridge to set up again...
...decorate with your tarragon leaves...and spoon over another layer of semi-gelled stock...and put it back into the fridge...
...pour the remaining jellied stock onto another plate and let it set up in the fridge and then slice it into little cubes...
...and use that to decorate around the platter...
...we just served it with some toasted french bread and tea for a light luncheon...
...it is a pretty dish...but again...we just don't serve many jellied cold vegan meat dishes anymore...haha...
...it tasted pretty good though...

Substitutions:

tofu for the chicken...
vegan broth...we used vegan chicken flavored bouillon


Mastering the Art of French Cooking (pp. 549-550)

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

...Vegan Sauté de Boeuf à la Provençale

...I sorted my spreadsheet of recipes...
...and these are all the ones that I have left...WOW!...the two requiring marrons (chestnuts) will probably have to wait until around Thanksgiving as that's when chestnuts will be available in the grocery stores for Christmas...

...fennel and endive are also pretty difficult to acquire here...but I'll do my best...I can't believe I'm so close to completing this project...started back in 2010...

[Vegan Beef Saute with Fresh Tomato Sauce, Olives, and Herbs]
...since this recipe calls for a fresh tomato sauce...I got some tomatoes from the square foot garden...
...and blended those up with the stick blender...
...sautéed some vegan roast beef...
...added it to the tomato sauce...
...added some olives and herbs...
...and served it over rice...
...Julia says to 'decorate' with olives and herbs....so I added a few more olives and a spinkle of parsley...
...and served it with some chard from the garden...
...this was pretty simple and delicious...

Substitutions

Tracy's Filet for the beef...

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 327.328

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

* VEGAN MOUSSELINE DE POISSON, BLANCHE NEIGE

[Vegan Fish Mousse— with shellfish and chaud-froid sauce]
...first you'll need the Vegan Fumet de Poisson au Vin Blanc...so I made that stock...just subbing nori for the fish...and simmered the tofu in that...
...removed the tofu to the food processor...Julia used a blender...
...but I thought just a little bit of texture would be nice...
...added some agar-agar...instead of gelatin...
...and cooked that to activate the agar...
...folded in the whipping cream...and packed that into an oiled mold...
...then I strained the remaining stock...added vegan whipping cream...tarragon...and some more agar-agar...
...unmolded the mousse...
...it turned out nice and jiggly...and held it's shape better than I'd expected...
...poured over the blanche neige sauce...
...and decorated it with a little flower...
...and served it on a bed of lettuce...
...Julia says this makes a nice first course...and I'm pretty ambivalent about most of these jelled dishes...it wasn't horrible...in fact it was a little bit better than I expected...Julia warns that you must season the broth really well...

Substitutions

Nori Sheets for the fish in the stock... Tofu for the fish
Vegan Cream for the cream

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 562-563