VEGAN PÂTÉ EN CROÛTE/VEGAN PÂTÉ DE CANARD EN CROÛTE

[Vegan Boned Stuffed Duck Baked in a Pastry Crust]

...for our Christmas Eve dinner...we had the spectacular Canard en Croute...which is technically supposed to be served cold...but we are such rebels that we had ours warm...

...the first recipe or the instructional part is just labeled VEGAN PÂTÉ EN CROÛTE...but Julia says "The recipe we have chosen to illustrate Pâté en Croûte is boned duck stuffed"...so that's what we did...

...I began by making some flax seed goo for the eggs...

...then I got out some AP flour and my Vegan Butter...Julia says to use part vegetable shortening and part butter...but I went with all butter...

...blended that together with a pastry fork...

...added my flax seed goo eggs...

...and ice cold water...

...and made the pate...

...I love that you can still see little bits of vegan butter in the dough...

...wrapped and in the fridge to rest for a bit...

...then Julia gives lengthy and horrific instructions for boning the duck...vegan duck comes out of the can without any bones...

...then get the pate out of the fridge...and lightly flour your surface...

...roll out the crust...

...add the 'boned' vegan duck...

...and layer the VEGAN FARCE POUR PÂTÉS, TERRINES, ET GALANTINES [Vegan Pork and Veal Stuffing] on top...

...gather the crust up...I just overlapped mine...

...and turned it over for the decoration...but Julia cuts another piece of crust for the top and then decorates that...

...I didn't have a pretty little fluted cutter like Julia has...but I got the center piece out of my donut cutter as it's about the right size...

...and cut a bunch of little circles for decoration...

...then I took a knife and made the little fan imprints on each one...

...and stuck them all around the top of the crust...

...made a vent hole in the middle of the top...

....and wrapped a small piece of parchment around a skewer to keep the vent open...

...and popped that little funnel into the hole...

...then decorated around that with some more little fan circles...

...and it was ready for the oven...

...baked for about 2 hours...the seitan stuffing has to get done...

...it turned out so pretty and perfect...

Substitutions:

Homemade Vegan Butter
Flax seed goo for the eggs
Vegan Duck
VEGAN FARCE POUR PÂTÉS, TERRINES, ET GALANTINES [Vegan Pork and Veal Stuffing]

Recipe here: Scribd and then search for Mastering the Art of French Cooking (pp. 569 - 576)

...go to Scribd and search for the book...it shows up under documents...and once you open that file you should be able to search for the page number listed in the recipe...

VEGAN FARCE POUR PÂTÉS, TERRINES, ET GALANTINES

[Vegan Pork and Veal Stuffing]

...this is the first part of the Canard en Croute recipe that we had for our Christmas Eve dinner...

...so...

...I gathered some ingredients...Vital Wheat Gluten...Sausage and Beef TVP (from the SDA store)

...chopped some onion...

...cooked slowly until tender but not browned...as usual...

...and smashed some garlic...

...I rehydrated the TVP...put the Vital Wheat Gluten in a big bowl...got out the Port...and some herbs...)Allspice and Thyme)...and mixed up some broth (Washington's)...

...and then just basically mixed everything together...

...this will make an aromatic seitan-y stuffing for the Canard en Croute...

Substitutions:

Earth Balance for the butter...for cooking the onions...
Vegan Beef Broth...I used Washington's
Sausage TVP
Beef TVP
Vital Wheat Gluten...as a sort of binder for everything...so I guess this is a sub for the egg...

Recipe here: Scribd and then search for Mastering the Art of French Cooking (pp. 565 - 566)

...go to Scribd and search for the book...it shows up under documents...and once you open that file you should be able to search for the page number listed in the recipe...

Vegan Gallettes Sablées

[Vegan Sugar Cookies]

This recipe uses leftover pastry crust...and I just happened to have some leftover crust from our Christmas Eve dinner...and I'll show you that soon...

...you just roll out the leftover dough 1/4 inch thick...

...make a little pile of granulated sugar...

...first I brushed each cookie with some flax seed goo instead of egg...and then lay the cut out cookies on top of the sugar and then sprinkle more sugar on top...

...and then for some (unknown) reason...you shape the round into an oval...not sure what was wrong with the rounds...then place them on an ungreased cookie sheet and sprinkle them with cinnamon...

...and bake until lightly browned...

...these were the perfect cookies to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve...

Recipe here: Scribd and then search for Mastering the Art of French Cooking (p. 635)

Vegan Butter Enrichment

This recipe is under a heading of ENRICHMENTS FOR WHITE SAUCES...

...so we're counting it as a recipe...

...Julia says you can enrich with 2 to 8 tablespoons of vegan butter...we're going with the 2 Tbls here...

...and served it over some broccoli florets...it was buttery and good...

Substitutions:

Earth Balance for the butter
Vegan Cream for the cream

Recipe here: Scribd and then search for Mastering the Art of French Cooking (pp. 58-59)

...I've had some questions about the link to the recipes...Scribd often changes their copy of MtAoFC...or the users who post do and so some of the older links no longer work...so I've just given instructions to go to Scribd and search for the book...it shows up under documents...and once you open that file you should be able to search for the page number listed in the recipe...

...but let me know if you have any problems...

Vegan Rôti de Porc Grand' Mère

[Vegan Casserole Roasted Pork with Potatoes and Onions]

...Julia gives no notes on the history of this dish... and why it's called Grandmother's...I guess it's just the comfort food aspect of this casserole...

...so...first thing was to wash some small new potatoes...

...I had made a smaller version of this Rôti de Porc...and roasted it first alone...then when it's cooked you add it to the casserole with the potatoes and pearl onions...that have been boiled for 5 minutes in salted water...

...Julia says that this dish derives it's delicious flavor from the potatoes and onions cooking in the juices...so had to some juice of course...this is two packets of Washington's broth...one brown and one golden...

....then you just cover and cook the casserole until everything is done...basting the potatoes and onions a couple of times...

...served with some 'cheese-y' cauliflower, steamed watercress...and a roll...

...and it was delicious...

Substitutions:

Seitan for the porc
Vegan broth for the 'juices'

Recipe here: Scribd and then search for Mastering the Art of French Cooking (pp. 382-383)

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)