VEGAN FOND D'ARTICHAUTS À BLANC

[Cooked Artichoke Hearts (Bottoms) Preliminary Cooking]

..first of all...just let me say that this whole section of Artichoke Hearts/Bottoms is incredibly time consuming for very little finished product...Julia starts the recipe by explaining that À BLANC is a solution of salted water with lemon juice and flour...then she goes on to warn you not to use aluminum or iron or your artichokes will be grey...

...and my book is a slightly different version from the one that I always link to and it calls these recipes Artichoke Bottoms...where this version calls all of these recipes 'hearts'...but they really do seem to be the bottom part of the artichoke...

...so with that...lets get started...

...Julia gives explicit directions for preparing the artichoke bottoms...starting with breaking the stem...

...then you remove the outer leaves...now this seemed really wasteful...as this was the part that we ate dipped in melted Earth Balance when we made the VEGAN ARTICHAUTS AU NATUREL...

...once you get down to this cone shape...

...you cut off the top of the cone...

...then you trim the bottom by rotating it on a knife...

...then just prepare the other artichoke the same way...

...the trimmed bottom...

...the side view...

...and the top view...

...and Julia says to rub everything with lemon juice immediately so that it doesn't discolor...

...now...prepare the À BLANC...put the flour in a saucepan...

...and stir in cold water to make a smooth paste...

...beat in the rest of the water...lemon juice and salt...

...just comparing my artichoke bottom to Julias image...

...bring it to a boil and cook for 5 minutes or so...then add the artichoke bottoms...

...cover and cook at a simmer for a really long time...30-40 minutes...

...let them cool in the cooking liquid...

...then wash them carefully...

...and delicately remove the choke...

...choke successfully removed...

...and there you have it...one finished artichoke bottom...

...so do the same with your other artichokes...and you're ready to move on...all of this was just the preliminary cooking...

Substitutions:

...none so far...the next recipe will have substitutions...but just for this preliminary recipe...none...

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 428 - 431...it's a really long recipe...

Vegan Poulet Sauté à la Crème

[Deglazing Sauce with Cream]

...this is one of those recipes that you have to do another complete recipe first...

...you'll have to make the Vegan Poulet Sauté...it's not difficult to do...and you definitely need some vegan chicken to pour your cream sauce over...

...so...after you've sautéed your seitan...you add some shallots and cook those for just a minute...add some dry white wine...and cook it down to just a few tablespoons...

...then add the cream...I used cashew cream...

...off heat just before serving stir in some Earth Balance and minced parsley...

...served with some green peas and vegan biscuits...we also had a nice green salad...but you can't see it in the picture...

...this was so delicious...Scout loved it and said I should make it 'more often'...

Substitutions:

Vegan Poulet Sauté for the chicken...
Earth Balance for the butter
cashew cream for the cream

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking p. 256.

Vegan Rôti de Porc aux Choux

[Vegan Casserole-roasted Porc with Cabbage]

...Julia simply says that this is a great dish for lovers of cabbage...and I guess I'm qualified by that...

...I was a little bit worried about Julia's somewhat long cooking times...as overcooked cabbage can be a little bit...shall we say...unappetizing...

...but I was pleasantly surprised...

...the recipe calls for a boneless pork roast...so I decided to simply sub a big chunk of tofu...

...which I carved to look like a pork loin roast...

...and marinated it in some salty (very) water...

...then I roasted the loin of tofu for about an hour surrounded with some carrots and onions as in the master recipe...

...then...I turned my attention to the cabbage...Julia has a separate recipe for red cabbage...this one is for white cabbage...

...cut it up and dropped it into boiling water...

...brought rapidly back to the boil and cooked for 2 minutes...

...drained...

...and quickly rinsed with cold water...

...then arrange the cabbage around the roast tofu...fluff and add salt and pepper...and caraway seeds...which we did not use...none of us like them...too licorice-y...Mom would probably like them though...

...cover and return to the oven...

...Julia says to baste the cabbage several times with the juices...but we sort of did that the other way 'round...and basted the tofu with the cabbage juices...and the next 'degreasing' steps were unnecessary as well...

...and see...I was pleasantly surprised that even with the long cooking time...the cabbage did not turn to mush...

...served as Julia suggested with some boiled potatoes...

...a very yummy supper...kind of the 'stick to your ribs' variety...I'd definitely make this again...

Substitutions:

Only the tofu for the roast pork...

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 383-384

Vegan Caneton aux Pêches

[Roast Duck with Peaches]

...The last time I made Vegan Roast Duckling...VEGAN CANETON RÔTI...I used sheets of homemade Yuba for the duck...

...this time...I took the easy way out...and used a can of Vegetarian Roast Duck...or...Mun-Cha'iYa...way...way...easier...and it smelled pretty good straight out of the can...

...I had no idea what to expect...and we've had some funny (read - not-so-good) experiences with vegan meats...but although this one looked alarmingly realistic...a quick taste of the 'raw' product led us to believe that it was going to be ok to proceed...

...so we opened a small jar of peaches...

...added some lemon juice...

...some white port...

...and a little bit of sugar...

...then after the vegan duck had roasted in the oven...we added the juices and deglazed the pyrex dish we had roasted it in...

...then Julia tells us to proceed as in the previous recipe...

...I realize that I've not done the previous recipe yet...I guess you're supposed to go through the book in order...

...but at this point you're supposed to remove the fruit with a slotted spoon...

...and boil the juices down to thicken them slightly...

...then...you arrange your vegan duck and fruit in a serving dish...we just used the same one we roasted the vegan duck in...

...and pour the reduced juice over...

...and you're ready to serve...

...we had some of Julia's delicious Vegan Épinards Étuvés au Buerre ...and also some of her RIZ À LA VAPEUR...

...see what I mean by alarmingly realistic...

...but it was delicious...and the fruit and fairly sweet sauce were truly complimentary with the vegan duck...

Substitutions:

Mun-Cha'iYa/Vegetarian Roast Duck for the duck... Earth Balance for Butter


Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking p. 279

VEGAN CLAFOUTI

[Cherry Flan] ...Julia describes this dish as 'peasant food'...and 'about as simple a dessert to make as you can imagine'...

...it is just a pancake batter poured over fruit in a fireproof dish and baked in the oven...so...so simple...

...there are several different variations (really just changing the fruit) of this recipe...I've already done the Vegan Clafouti aux Mûres...the Blackberry Flan...

...Julia doesn't really explain why she calls this a flan...I typically think of a flan as more like a pudding than a pancake...

...you can see the Blackberry version for more detail on the pancake batter...but basically you start with some cherries...and add some sugar...

...then you put a thin layer of your batter in a pyrex dish and heat it until it sets...

...then spoon over your fruit...

...and cover with more of the pancake batter...

...Julia says the clafouti is done when it is puffed and browned...and a knife inserted comes out clean...

...it's a perfect accompaniment to our afternoon tea...

...as far as texture goes...I think it falls somewhere between cake and pudding...and you serve it by sort of scooping it out...not slicing it like you would a cake...

...a pretty jumble of tasty fruit and fluffy cake...

...delicious...not too sweet...although Julia says you can serve it with powdered sugar...we did not...

Substitutions:

Earth Balance for Butter
Soy Milk for milk
Flax Seed Goo for Eggs

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 655 - 656