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, December 3, 2019

Vegan Sauce Mousseline, Vegan Sauce Chantilly

[Vegan Hollandaise with Whipped Cream]

...first you have to make some VEGAN SAUCE HOLLANDAISE...and this recipe is a LOT like the Vegan Hollandaise avec Blancs d'Oeufs...
...and then whip up some aquafaba to make some vegan whipped cream...
...you'll want it pretty stiff for this recipe...
...and then make the hollandaise sauce...
...and then just fold the two together...
...to have a nice creamy fluffy sauce...
...we served it over steamed broccoli...
...and it was perfect...
...creamy and delicious...

Substitutions:

Aquafaba for the Whipped Cream
subs from the Vegan Hollandaise

...recipe at Mastering the Art of French Cooking....(p. 83)

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

VEGAN HOMARD THERMIDOR

[Vegan Lobster Thermidor]

...Julia says that although none of them are difficult...the many steps in this recipe are why this dish is so expensive...

...and she's definitely right about the many steps...
...the first thing I had to do was find a substitute for the lobster...and Julia's description of the poor creatures treatment is pretty graphic...

...I decided to try Lobster Mushrooms...which were impossible to find fresh...

...I've tried both vegan lobster and vegan shrimp in the past and found them to be...well...odd...the texture and the taste of the faux meats did not appeal to me at all...
...that decided...you start with some white wine...
...and a bunch of herbs...and I added a couple of strips of nori for a little bit more flavor of the sea...the mushrooms have a slightly oceanic smell about them as well...
...add some onions, carrots, celery, and the lobster mushrooms...cover and cook for about 20 minutes...
...meanwhile...Julia says you can prepare the mushrooms...just stew them for 15 minutes or so...in some Earth Balance, and lemon juice...and season with salt...
...remove the lobster mushrooms from the cooking liquid...and set aside...
...then add the leftover liquid from the mushrooms to the cooking liquid...
...and boil to reduce...
...next...make a roux...add some vegan butter to a pan...I just reused the mushroom cooking pan...
...Julia adds a little bit more flour to this one for some reason...
...cook for a couple of minutes...
...without browning...
...then add the cooking liquid...
...bring to a boil...stirring constantly...and cook for about a minute...
...I'm using this unsweetened creamer for the cream...
...Julia says to film the top with a tablespoon of cream...but it would take several spoonfuls to film the top...so I didn't do that...
...I mixed up some Vegan Egg for the egg yolk...
...and added some mustard and cream...then you're supposed to add some horrid parts of the dead lobsters as well...but I omitted that...
...then you add your vegan egg yolk mixture to the previously thickened liquid...and bring it back to a boil...
...and thin with more cream...
...we're nearing the end now...add some more vegan butter to another pan...
...and sauté the lobster mushrooms...
...then add some cognac...
...and sauté...cooking until the lobster mushrooms are bright red...they pretty much already were...
...add the sautéed mushrooms to the lobster mushrooms...
...and then add the sauce...
...I transferred the mixture to an au gratin dish...(not having any dead lobster hulls)...
...top with some vegan cheese...swiss if you have it...I did not so I used vegan mozzarella...and parmesan...
...dot with vegan butter...
...bake in the upper third of the oven for 10-15 minutes until bubbly and lightly browned...
...Julia doesn't give any serving suggestions...so we had ours with boiled potatoes and fresh spinach...
...it was really good...in the way that most things smothered in vegan cream and butter are...and then gratinéed...it was delicious...

Substitutions: Vegan cream for the cream...I used unsweetened Almond Breeze Creamer...
"Vegan Egg" for the egg yolks
Lobster Mushrooms for the Lobster
Vegan Mozzeralla for the Swiss cheese
Vegan Pamesan for the Parmesan cheese

Mastering the Art of French Cooking (pp. 221 - 223)

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Vegan Sauce Tartare

[Hard Yolk Mayonnaise]

...well...if I had known that Julia had a Tartar Sauce recipe...I'd probably have made it before now...she calls it Hard Yolk Mayonnaise...but it is essentially what we Americans know as Tartar Sauce...which we generally eat with fish...or vegan fish...as the case may be...
...so I made some vegan egg yolks...
...and then mashed them up again...
...and Julia says to get them perfectly smooth you need to pass them through a sieve...so I did that too...
...and then she also says that you shouldn't make it in the electric blender as it gets too thick...but I thought I'd try the stick blender as I have good luck with it with my regular vegan mayo...
...then you chop up some pickles and capers...I used sweet and dill both for the pickles...
...and then you twist them up in a towel like we do with the mushrooms...to get the liquid out...
...and then I just whisked that into the hard yolk mayonnaise...
...and it made a perfect tartar sauce...
...so of course we had it with vegan fish...these are the Gardein ones...
...and it was absolutely perfectly delicious...

Substitutions: Vegan egg yolks for the egg

Mastering the Art of French Cooking (pp. 90 - 91)