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

Monday, January 21, 2013

VEGAN MOULES À LA MARINIÈRE - I

[Fresh Mussels Stemed Open in Wine and Flavorings]

...Julia says that this is the simplest version for cooking mussels...

...Vegan mussels being rather difficult to find...I decided to make my own...
...I gathered the implements for a seafood-y seitan...

Seitan Mussels

1/2 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
1/4 cup Garbanzo Flour
2 tsp Nori Granules
1 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast Flakes
1/2 tsp Garlic powder
1 tsp Onion powder
1/4 tsp Celery Seed
1/4 tsp ground Mustard
2 tsp Brown Rice Vinegar
1 tsp vegan Worchestershire Sauce
2 tsp Lemon Juice
1/8 tsp Maramite
1/3 cup water


3 cups and 1 Vegetable Bullion Cube for cooking stock

...regular seitan instructions...
...mix dry ingredients...
...mix wet ingredients and add them to the dry...
...knead well...then pinch off little bits...
...and drop them into the simmering stock...
...then you'll have a big pot of steamed mussels...
...now on to Julia's recipe...add your steamed mussels to a couple of cups of dry white wine with onions, parsley, by leaf, thyme pepper and Earth Balance...you only boil this for a few minutes...
...then you drain the mussels...ladle some of the liquid over them...(i.e., making draining them sort of pointless...but in the dead animal version...it's to make sure there is no sand...)
...Julia says to serve with French Bread...Earth Balance...and one of the Pouillys...so we did...
...really a delicious meal...I know it's January...but it made me think of eating outside on the picnic table for some reason...
...really really good...next time I'm going to either use only vital wheat gluten or cut the garbanzo flour to 2 Tbs...as they weren't quite as chewy as I would have liked...still really good though...

Substitutions:
Seitan Mussels for the Mussels
Earth Balance for Butter


Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking

p. 227

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

VEGAN RIZ A L'ORIENTALE

[Vegetarian Rice Bowl]

...I think it's funny that the bracketed section say Vegetarian...I'm thinking this is the only recipe in the book so labeled...

...Y'all know that Julia was a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division of the OSS during World War II and she was posted to China...and she wrote in her journal about her love of the food there...so I wasn't totally surprised to see this dish in her French Cookbook...

...the ingredients are not what we typically find in the 'American' version of Chinese food today...
...or course you're going to start with some rice - RIZ À LA VAPEUR...
...then some eggplant...diced...
...and sautéed...
...until it's all golden...with that terrific carmelization on the edges...
...then sauté some onions in some Earth Balance and herbs...
...and you'll need some little tomatoes...and some walnuts...see...not your traditional ingredients at all...
...and you'll need to make a few omelettes...I used my favorite VEGAN L'OMELETTE BROUILLÉE...
...then you put your steamed rice in a big pot...so you can fluff it more easily...and add some chopped walnuts...
...add your onions and eggplant...
...cut your tomatoes in half and add those too...
...then toss everything together...
...then put it all in a rice bowl and top with a sliced omelette...
...Julia says to pass chopsticks to your guests...so we did - we didn't have any guests though...and it's always fun to eat with chopsticks...this dish is so delicious and just so surprising...we'll definitely be making this again...

Substitutions:
Earth Balance for Butter
VEGAN L'OMELETTE BROUILLÉE for the omelette

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking

p. 531