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 518/524 (from Julie's count)...but really 629

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

VEGAN CERVELLES BRAISÉES

[Vegan Braised Calf's Brains]

...ok...that subtitle is painful to even type...and I was definitely out of my comfort zone even thinking about this recipe...

...that said...I thought about what would make a good vegan brain...
...and decided on tofu...of course...having absolutely no idea at all what brains actually look...feel...or taste like...
...but using my haunted house skilz...I carved the block of tofu into a brainy shape...
...and then because I didn't want it to fall apart during the braising...I roasted it plain for a bit to firm it up...
...while I sautéed some carrots, celery and onion...and added my tea ball with the herbs and bay leaf...
...and added some of the vegan ham TVP from the SDA store...
...then I arranged it all in a skillet and basted the tofu (brains) with the vegetables and ham...

...this was pretty much just dirtying up a pan for no real reason as far as I can see...you only do this for 5 minutes on each side...
...and then you butter a casserole...I used Earth Balance...
...and transfer everything to it...adding a cup of stock...Julia says you can use White Stock or Brown...
...and some dry white wine...I used a Chardonnay...
...and then you cook it for a long time...45 minutes...
...Julia suggests serving this with rice and buttered peas...but we had rice and mixed veg...
...this was surprisingly good...the veg/ham mixture gives a lot of flavor to the braised tofu...

Substitutions:

Tofu for the Cervelles
Vegan Butter for butter...we used Earth Balance...

Recipe here: Scribd and then search for Mastering the Art of French Cooking (p. 415)

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

VEGAN TIMBALE DE CHOU-FLEUR

[Cauliflower Mold]

...Julia refers us to another recipe...that I've already done...VEGAN TIMBALE D'ASPERGES...so you can look back at that one...and we'll pick up here with the cream sauce...
...so start with a cauliflower...we only used about half of this one...
...steamed and then pulsed in the food processor...Julia says to puree...but I didn't think I wanted it actually blended up...so I just pulsed it a few times so we'd still have a little bit of texture...
...and added that to the cream sauce...
...poured the custard into the oiled molds...and put it into a pan of boiling water...and baked for about 40 minutes...
...they slip right out of the molds and they are so...so CUTE!...
...Julia suggests the VEGAN COULIS DE TOMATES

...this was really good...and pretty and fun...

Substitutions:

Substitutions: Earth Balance for Butter Almond milk for milk
Flax seed goo for eggs
Vegan Butter for butter...we used Earth Balance...

Recipe here: Scribd and then search for Mastering the Art of French Cooking (p. 461)