VEGAN CAROTTES ÉTUVÉES AU BEURRE

[Carrots Braised in Butter]

This is a really simple and delicious dish...

...Julia calls for peeled, sliced carrots - but I cheated and opened a bag of baby carrots...

...all you do is bring the carrots to the boil with water...

...Earth Balance...

...and sugar..."to develop their flavor" - Julia says...

...and a little bit of salt...

...and some pepper - which I was skeptical about as I usually don't pepper my carrots...

...boil slowly for 30-40 minutes...

...until the liquid is all evaporated...

...in my pretty little Philbe dish...

...it turned out that the little bit of pepper was OK...

...they were delicious served with the 'liver'...

Substitutions:
only Earth Balance for the Butter

Recipe here:

Vegan Sauce Crème à la Moutarde

[Cream and Mustard Sauce]

...since I had those chops - I just had to subject my family to another 'liver' dinner...The 'Liver' Chops are described here...this post is just about the sauce...

...Julia says to start with a Brown Stock or beef bouillon - that's easy enough...bring that to a boil and reduce by half...

...then add some cream...I used soy milk...

..and Earth Balance to make cream for this recipe...boil that for a moment or two - to thicken and reduce slightly...

...then add 'prepared mustard' - I would have added dijon mustard here (so much more French) - but usually when a recipe says prepared mustard it means the yellow stuff - so that's what I used...and Julia always says what she means - if she'd meant Dijon - I'm sure she would have said Dijon...

...then off heat - swirl in a little more butter - pour the sauce around the liver and serve...

...I like mustard - so of course I thought it was good - Scout not so much - and the Man thought it improved the somewhat bland 'liver chops'...

...served with Julia's carrots, some peas, and Grandma's mashed potatoes...

...it was really good...

Substitutions:
Soymilk and Earth Balance for the Cream
Earth Balance for the butter
Vegan Chops for the Liver

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking

p. 406

VEGAN TARTE AUX PÈCHES

[Fresh Peach Tart - warm or cold]


Peaches are in season now and there are fresh ones, that have traveled a couple of thousand miles to get here, in the grocery store now...

...but I had one lonely little container still in the freezer from last year and before I put up any more I had to get it out and use it up...

First I made a Pâte Brisée Sucrée and put it in the tart dish...

...then I sprinkled sugar over that - I can tell this is going to be a very sweet dessert...

...arranged the peach slices in the tart dish...

...baked about 30-40 minutes until the fruit has coloured lightly and the juices have become syrupy...

...sprinkled with almonds and spread on the apricot glaze...

...Julia says warm or cold - but I'm sure it's much better warm...

Substitutions: None for this recipe - see substitutions for the Pâte Brisée Sucrée

Recipe link here:

Vegan Gelée d'Abricot

[Apricot Glaze]

Julia says that "apricot (or red currant) glaze is painted on top of a tart to give brilliance and glitter"

...so I mixed the apricot jam with some sugar...

...stirred with a wooden spatula...

...being careful not to boil it above 225 - or it will make hard candy...

...it was pretty sticky as it was - but very 'brilliant'...

Substitutions: None

VEGAN FOIE DE VEAU SAUTÉ

[Sautéed Vegan Calf's Liver]

When I was looking for a vegan liver substitute I found this entry stating that these...

...chops tasted just like liver...and since I really have no clue at all what liver tastes like - I went with that...

...following Julia's instructions I sprinkled with salt and pepper...

...then breaded them lightly with flour...

...placed some Earth Balance and oil in a pan...

...set over high heat...

...arrange the 'liver' in the pan and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes...

...turn and sauté for a minute or so on the other side...

...and there you have it - a super simple dish...

...served with whipped Yukon Gold potatoes (Scout calls these 'Grandma's Mashed Potatoes'...and the spinach/tofu pot from ETL without the tofu...

...these were good - sort of bland - and I'm not really sure how 'liver-like' they are - I think I'm going to try again with my own version of liver - based on some of the paté recipes I've seen on the web...we'll see...

Substitutions:
Vegan Chops for the liver
Earth Balance for the Butter

Recipe link here: but only follow it up to the point where you take the meat out of the pan - there is no sauce in Julia's recipe...

Vegan Concombres à la Crème

[Creamed Cucumbers]

Y'all remember all those fresh cucumbers from my sweet friend...

...we decided to try the Creamed Cucumbers recipe - as everything is better with a nice cream sauce...I used soy milk thickened with powdered soy milk as I do for almost all the cream recipes - when I can get it I also buy the plain Silk creamer to use for cream - but I didn't have any today...

...and then you boil that down until it reduces by half...fold in the hot baked cucumbers and sprinkle with parsley and serve...

...these were OK - I know I've said before that I'm just not that big of a fan of cooked cucumbers...

...these were nice - but I think I should eat my nice fresh cucumbers in the summertime and save cooked cucumber recipes for the winter...

Recipe here:

Substitutions:
Soymilk with powdered soymilk for the cream
Earth Balance for the butter

Vegan Haricots Verts á la Maître d'Hôtel

[Buttered Green Beans II - with Lemon Juice and Parsley]

...the sweet parishoner I told you about yesterday brought a bag of fresh green beans to church today...

...so I had to make another one of Julia's Haricots Verts recipes...

...this one is exactly the same as the Haricots Verts á l'Anglaise - just with the addition of some freshly squeezed lemon juice and a sprinkling of parsley (I only had dried parsley so that's what I used)...

...That's it - super simple and oh so good...

Substitutions:

Earth Balance for Butter

Recipe here:

Vegan Clafouti aux Mûres

[Blackberry Flan]

A Clafouti is a peasant dish - it's like a pancake batter poured over fruit and baked in an oven - Julia says 'it looks like a tart, and is usually eaten warm'...

...the first thing you'll need is an egg substitute - you could of course use an egg replacer like EnerG - but for this dish - I prefer 'flax seed goo'...
...boil some whole flaxseed in water - about 2 T in a cup of water - you could use meal but the liquid won't be perfectly clear...

...then strain the goo...

...you'll have a sticky slimy goo that really resembles egg whites...

...I'm sure fresh fruit is better - but I had these jars of canned blackberries (canned by my sweet MIL in NC) that I wanted to use up...

...so I strained them - I kept the liquid to make a syrup (not part of the recipe - but really good poured over the tart)...

...put all of the ingredients (except the fruit) in a blender - one strange note - Julia says for the blackberry clafouti to increase the flour in the master recipe from 2/3 cup to 1 1/4 cup - but the master recipe only has a 1/2 cup of flour - I was so confused - so I went with 1 cup - as 1 1/4 cup seemed like too big a jump for me...

...pour a little bit of the batter into a buttered oven proof dish - about 1/4 inch...

...heat this on the stovetop...

...until a film of batter has set on the bottom of the dish...

...then spread your fruit over that...

...and pour on the remaining batter...

...place in the middle rack and bake about an hour...

...it's done when it's puffed and brown and a knife comes out clean...

...Julia suggests sprinkling with powdered sugar and serving warm - but I had the reserved juice from my canned blackberries so I made a simple syrup and poured that over the warm tart...

...it was so delicious...and the best part is that yummy crust...

Recipe here:

Substitutions:
Soy Milk for milk
Earth Balance for Butter
Flax Seed Goo for Eggs