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 551/524 (from Julie's count)...but really 616

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

...Vegan Sauté de Boeuf à la Provençale

...I sorted my spreadsheet of recipes...
...and these are all the ones that I have left...WOW!...the two requiring marrons (chestnuts) will probably have to wait until around Thanksgiving as that's when chestnuts will be available in the grocery stores for Christmas...

...fennel and endive are also pretty difficult to acquire here...but I'll do my best...I can't believe I'm so close to completing this project...started back in 2010...

[Vegan Beef Saute with Fresh Tomato Sauce, Olives, and Herbs]
...since this recipe calls for a fresh tomato sauce...I got some tomatoes from the square foot garden...
...and blended those up with the stick blender...
...sautéed some vegan roast beef...
...added it to the tomato sauce...
...added some olives and herbs...
...and served it over rice...
...Julia says to 'decorate' with olives and herbs....so I added a few more olives and a spinkle of parsley...
...and served it with some chard from the garden...
...this was pretty simple and delicious...

Substitutions

Tracy's Filet for the beef...

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 327.328

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

* VEGAN MOUSSELINE DE POISSON, BLANCHE NEIGE

[Vegan Fish Mousse— with shellfish and chaud-froid sauce]
...first you'll need the Vegan Fumet de Poisson au Vin Blanc...so I made that stock...just subbing nori for the fish...and simmered the tofu in that...
...removed the tofu to the food processor...Julia used a blender...
...but I thought just a little bit of texture would be nice...
...added some agar-agar...instead of gelatin...
...and cooked that to activate the agar...
...folded in the whipping cream...and packed that into an oiled mold...
...then I strained the remaining stock...added vegan whipping cream...tarragon...and some more agar-agar...
...unmolded the mousse...
...it turned out nice and jiggly...and held it's shape better than I'd expected...
...poured over the blanche neige sauce...
...and decorated it with a little flower...
...and served it on a bed of lettuce...
...Julia says this makes a nice first course...and I'm pretty ambivalent about most of these jelled dishes...it wasn't horrible...in fact it was a little bit better than I expected...Julia warns that you must season the broth really well...

Substitutions

Nori Sheets for the fish in the stock... Tofu for the fish
Vegan Cream for the cream

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 562-563

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

VEGAN VOLAILLES EN ESCABÈCHE

[Vegan Cold Fowl in Lemon Jelly]

...this is another of those "Cold Buffet" jellied dishes that must have been way more popular in the 60s than they are today...
...you start by cooking some onion, carrot and celery in olive oil for a few minutes without browning...
...then you add...all at once...white wine, wine vinegar, lemon, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf peppercorn, parsley and broth, and either green or red bell pepper...we had both but I thought the red would be prettier...
...bring that to a boil...
...and let it simmer for a few minutes...
...Julia says that as this dish cools it will turn into a very light jelly...ours of course will not...so I'm adding about 1/4 teaspoon of agar-agar...
...and the instructions say that you cook that with the chicken for about 2 1/2 hours...of course we don't need anywhere near that amount of time...
...then you arrange the vegetables and lemon pieces around the vegan chicken...
...and pour the broth over...
...let cool to room temperature and then cover and cool in the refrigerator...and ours is indeed a very light jelly...
...we served it for brunch over lettuce...
...although currently a little bit out of style...it made a very nice light and refreshing lunch...nice and cool for these very hot summer days...

Substitutions:
Tofu for the chicken
Orrington Farms Vegan Chicken Broth for the chicken broth

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 554-556

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Vegan Suprêmes de Volaille en Chaud-froid à l’Ecossaise

[Breast of Chicken in Chaud-jroid with Diced Vegetables]

...this is a variation of the master recipe...VEGAN SUPRÊMES DE VOLAILLE EN CHAUD-FROID, BLANCHE NEIGE...
...so I started by making my vegan Suprêmes ...just by carving them out of a block of tofu...
...and I air-fried those for a bit...I'll just prefer the little bit firmer texture of the tofu cutlets this way...but you can poach them or use seitan or a store-bought vegan chicken if you want...
...then you sauté some carrots, celery and onions in some vegan butter...Julia has you cook the mushrooms separately...but I did not...I just cooked all of the veg together...
...then you add the veg to the cream sauce as it reduces...
...and that's it...Julia says it will need no other decoration...
...spoon that over the vegan chicken...
...we served it as a luncheon dish...quite simply with a salad made of fresh garden lettuce...I was going to make some chard from the garden...but I remember reading somewhere that you don't serve warm sides with a chaud-froid...
...and of course it was pretty delicious...

Substitutions:
Vegan cream for the cream...I just used almond milk...
Tofu for the chicken
Earth Balance for the butter
Vegeta for the chicken broth

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking p. 552

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Vegan Crème Plombières à l’Ananas

[Vegan Plombieres with Pineapple]

Julia says to 'follow the ingredients and method in the master recipe, but substitute pineapple for the pralin. And instead of soaking the cake in rum, use kirsch or cognac diluted with water'

...master recipe here...VEGAN CRÈME PLOMBIÈRES PRALINÉES
...I bought this little can of pineapple just for this recipe...the recipe actually calls for crushed pineapple...but FL didn't have small cans of that...and I figured I could just 'crush' this myself...
...and two forks made simple work of that job...
...I put a square of vegan sponge cake into a ramekin...I'd dried it out a bit in the oven first...so it looks a little bit toasted...make your custard and add some vegan whipped cream...I used whipped aqua faba...of course...
...then Julia says to boil down the syrup from the can of pineapple...
...mix a couple of spoonfuls with your custard...
...and then add the crushed pineapple to the syrup...
...stir most of the syrup-y crushed pineapple into the custard...and reserve the rest for a topping...
...spoon the custard over the sponge...
...and top with the reserved pineapple...
...it is a pretty dessert...and Julia says 'For the few minutes it takes to assemble, creme plombibes makes a surprisingly attractive dessert.'...haha...the assembly really does only take a few minutes...everything else takes quite a bit longer...haha...
...it was pretty delicious...a little bit of carmelization...sort of like pineapple upside down cake...

Substitutions:

aqua faba for both the egg yolks and the egg whites...
Earth Balance for the butter...

Mastering the Art of French Cooking (p. 596)