Vegan Riz en Couronne

[Vegan Rice Ring]

...Julia says..."This is how to make a ring of rice which is to be filled with ... mushrooms, ... peas, or whatever luscious sauced tidbits you wish."

...so you'll need a recipe of VEGAN RISOTTO, PILAF, PILAU first...

...and spoiler alert...this was not really a 'successful' recipe...a bit of a fail...not taste-wise...it was delicious...but the unmolding...not good...oh well...as Julia says..."What could happen?"...

...first you'll need a buttered mold...I used a generous amount of Earth Balance...because I definitely didn't want it to stick...well...it did anyway...arghhhh...

...but not because it wasn't well buttered...

Julia says to turn the risotto into the buttered mold...patting down the rice lightly...

...then cut a circle of waxed paper...

...and lay the waxed paper over the risotto.

...and set the mold in the pan of boiling water...and place in lower third of preheated oven for 10 minutes...

...it looks pretty perfect out of the oven...and it wasn't in there for very long...

...but you can tell when I turned it over that it sort of fell apart...not sure if I needed more time in the oven...or a more 'firm' risotto from the get-go...

...so here's what the unmolding looked like..."What could happen?"...right?...

...but...undaunted...I tried to press everything back together...haha...

...I had sautéed some mushrooms and onions for the filling...

...then I filled the 'ring'...and served it...and it was pretty delicious...not pretty...but delicious...

Substitutions:

Earth Balance for butter
Vegan Chicken Bouillon for the Chicken broth

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking (p. 534)