Vegan Pièce de Boeuf à la Cuillère

[Vegan Minced Braised Beef Served in a Beef Shell]

...Julia calls this an unusual way to serve braised beef for a dinner party...and she says that this recipe is from la vielle cuisine française...so if it was already old in the 60s when she wrote Mastering the Art of French Cooking...then maybe my classification of 60s food not served anymore...(haha) is wrong...

...there are a lot of steps to this one...so let's jump in...

...make or buy your favorite beef flavored seitan roast...braise it and place it under a weight...Julia says so that it firms up and holds it's shape as it cools to tepid...not sure this is necessary for seitan...but I went with it...

...then you make the 'shell'...

...by carving out a rectangular opening in the roast...

...then mince the removed seitan into 1/8 inch pieces...

...then you'll put the mince into a skillet with some onion...Julia says shallots...but I had some red onion I wanted to use up...and some vegan ham...I just used the TVP ham bits...

...add the mince and saute for 15 to 20 minutes...stirring occasionally...

...add some of the braising liquid...

...then you'll need two beaten egg yolks...I'm using aqua faba for that...

...and vegan parmesan and bread crumbs...

...stuff the mince back into the shell...

...then using a pastry brush...paint the entire shell with the aqua faba...

...and pat on a layer of chees and bred crumbs...

...put it on a wire rack and into the oven...

...Julia says to lightly brown the coating...

...and place it on a platter...

...and surround it with a vegetable garnish...Julia suggests onions, carrots and potatoes....OR...baked tomatoes, green beans...and oddly...OR braised lettuce...we went with potatos and onions...both from the Foreman grill...

...it really is a very pretty presentation...

...Julia says to serve the sauce from the braised beef in a gravy bowl separately...

...and we also had peas and carrots with ours...

...and it was just as I expected...totally delicious...when it's served you get this cute little cross-section...and it's a lot of fun to play with your food this much...

Substitutions

Vegan butter for sauteeing
Seitan for the roast
Vegan ham for the ham
Vegan parmesan for the parmesan...we used Violife

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 313-314

Vegan Quiche au Fromage de Gruyère

[Swiss Cheese Quiche]

...Julia says that this is just the QUICHE LORRAINE recipe with the bacon omitted and the cheese added...

...hop over to Affectioknit for the Gruyère recipe...

...so first...you'll need to make the VEGAN PÂTE BRISÉE and put it in the fridge to chill...

...mix up your quiche...I'm using Lovin' it Vegan's quiche recipe...

...and this is my beautiful Vegan Swiss cheese...

...Julia says 1/2 to 1 cup so...basically...as much as you want...

...I'm still using my handy-dandy Pie Crust Helper...from all those years ago...yep...the very same one...

...measured with the quiche plate...

...opened up one side of the Pie Crust Helper and flipped it on top of the quiche plate...

...and then just peeled off the other side...super easy and neat and no need for a bunch more flour to keep it from sticking...

...and into the oven to par-bake for a few minutes...

...following the recipe...I'm grating in some fresh nutmeg...I don't usually do this as the Man and I neither one like it very much...but I'm trying to like it more...so I'm adding it in this time...

...I mixed in about a half cup of the grated Vegan Swiss and then sprinkled the rest on top...

...it baked up nice and pouffy and egg-y...

...simply served with a salad...

...it was a delicious quiche...

Substitutions

Vegan butter for the butter in the VEGAN PÂTE BRISÉE
Almond milk for the cream and milk...
Firm tofu, cornstarch, nutritional yeast, turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and black salt (aka kala namak) for the egg mixture
Vegan Swiss Cheese...recipe here...

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking p. 151

VEGAN SOUFFLÉ À AU CHOCOLAT

[Vegan Chocolate Soufflé]

...Julia said several times in previous Soufflé recipes that the Chocolate Soufflé was different...and here she explains why...

"Cooked chocolate is heavy in itself, and requires special treatment to avoid a heavy, puddinglike souffle. Therefore, instead of making the souffle with a flour and milk bouilli sauce-base, you will use a base of potato starch, rice starch, or cornstarch and milk, and 3 rather than 4 egg yolks."

...start by buttering some ramekins...or a larger Soufflé dish if that's what you're using...then flour it like you would to bake a cake...

...so you start by melting some chocolate...I'm just using this Bakers German Sweet...

...set up a double boiler and add some strong coffee...

...once the chocolate was melted...

...I added my vegan egg yolks (aqua faba) directly to that as you don't have to worry about cooking it...

...add the sugar...

...and the potato starch...

...and I also added 1/2 teaspoon of aluminum free baking powder to mimic the 'rise' from the eggs...and Julia mixes her starch and milk separately...but I didn't see any reason to do that...

...then...whip some more aqua faba with some salt and sugar to form stiff peaks...

...and stir 1/4 of that into the chocolate/starch mixture...

...and then delicately fold in the rest...

...then turn the soufflé into the prepared mold, leaving some room between the top of the souffle and the rim of the mold...

...bake until nicely puffed...

...you can see that the shape of the ramekin makes a big difference in how tall it will rise...

...I only have one of the straight sided molds and it did a lot better and made a prettier soufflé...

...we topped ours with more of the sweet whipped aqua faba...

...and they were delicious...they reminded me a lot of the 'lava cakes' that Our Airman loved so much...

Substitutions

Vegan butter for the butter
Almond milk for the milk...
Vegan Egg for the egg yolk
Aqua Faba for the egg white

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 619-620

Vegan Suprêmes De Volaille à la Milanaise

[Vegan Chicken Breasts Rolled in Vegan Parmesan and Bread Crumbs]

...Julia doesn't actually 'say' anything about this recipe...which is kind of unusual...

...it's a pretty simple recipe for some sautéed vegan chicken...I'm just using a slab of tofu for the vegan chicken...

...so...first you'll want to set up your dredging station...

...and then roll the tofu cutlet in the flour and shake off excess...

...dip it in the vegan egg...I'm just using plain aqua faba for this...

then roll in the cheese and bread crumbs...Julia says to pat them in place with the flat of a knife...I just used the fork I was using...

...and then she says to lay the supremes on waxed paper and allow cheese and bread crumbs to sit for 15 minutes to several hours...I went with the shorter time frame...haha...

...and I just used a plate instead of waxed paper...

...then you sauté in clarified butter...but I just used Earth Balance...of course...

...until nicely browned...

...then you make the VEGAN BEURRE NOIR/BEURRE NOISETTE...add some vegan butter to the pan...there was already some butter and oil left over from sautéing the tofu...

...and then add some lemon juice and parsley...

...I poured it into a little cup for serving...

...we served it with noodles, french bread and spinach...

...poured the vegan butter sauce over...

...this was really really delicious...and not too time-consuming or involved...I'll definitely make this again...

Substitutions

Tofu for the chicken
Violife Parmesan for the parm
Vegan Butter for the butter
Aquafaba for the egg yolks

Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking p. 271