French Inspired "Venison" Seitan Casserole

Yesterday was Litha, or Summer Solstice. I made lots of delicious food and sweets, but one of the dishes I want to share most with you is a French Inspired Casserole. The Original Recipe calls for Venison but I used Gardien Beef Tips, though you could easily use homemade seitan (I would have, if I'd had any prepared.)  The dish is super rich, and flavorful and tastes wonderful alongside roasted tomatoes with thyme, charred asparagus and soft bread for sopping up excess sauce. It's a fairly simple recipe though does require some advanced prep.

French Inspired "Venison" Seitan Casserole.

1 Yellow Onion
4 Cloves
8 Juniper Berries Crushed
8 Black Peppercorns Crushed
1 1/2 Cup Red Wine
2 Celery Stalks
2 Carrots
2 Bay Leaves
6 Whole Garlic Cloves sliced
Zest of half a lemon
5 Sprigs Rosemary
2 Packages Gardien Beefless Tips (or Equivalent amount of homemade Seitan)
All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Earth Balance
4 Shallots Sliced
2 Cups Brown Stock
2 Tbsp Raspberry Jam
1 Heaping Tbsp Marmite
1 Vegan Beef Bouillon Cube (Optional but recommended)


- First defrost Tips or Seitan (if frozen) Place seitan in a large bowl.

- Quarter the Onion and stick a clove in each quarter. Place the Onion Quarters into the bowl with the seitan.

- Add Juniper Berries, Crushed Pepper, Chopped celery Stalks, Chopped Carrots, Sliced Garlic, Bay Leaves, Lemon Zest, and Minced Rosemary from the five sprigs to the bowl. Stir with a large wooden spoon to combine.

- Place a medium sized sauce pan on the stove. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, and add in the Marmite and Bullion Cube. Whisk until the marmite and cube dissolve and you have a nice brown liquid. Add in 1 cup of the red wine, and raspberry jam, whisk to combine and lower the heat. Simmer for five minutes.

- Pour the stock/wine mixture over the beef and veg in the bowl. Stir to combine and make sure everything gets nice and covered. Place the bowl in the fridge and let marinate overnight.

- After the stew has marinated. Melt the Butter and oil in a large fry pan on the stove. remove the Onions from the bowl discard cloves and slice onions thin. Slice the shallots as well. Add both onions and shallots to the butter in the pan, fry until brown.

- Place the Tips or Seitan in a zip-lock bag and dump in enough all purpose flour to cover all the pieces. Shake the bag around to make sure evenly coated.

- Once onions are cooked place them in a well oiled cast iron casserole dish.

- Use the same pan to fry the floured seitan. Fry until brown, and add it to the Casserole.

- Add the remaining veg to the casserole. Then strain the marinade into the casserole through a fine mesh sieve. Discard bay leaves, peppercorns and juniper berries. You can season to taste with additional pepper and salt if you like but it should be salty enough.

- Bake in the oven at 350'F for 1 1/2 hours until tender and marinade has reduced by half. Serve with roast tomatoes, asparagus, a salad and soft bread like pita.

PS: Sorry for the poor picture quality I was more interested in eating, drinking and being marry to care much about photography.

Vegan Mofo #23: Seitan with Blackberry Sauce...

I’m telling you, there is something about fruit in savory dishes that just gets me. The idea of seitan steak covered in blackberry sauce just sounded to good to pass up. The original French recipe calls for Venison medallions but I think beef seitan works just as good. I’ve had venison plenty of times growing up and I don’t like it, never did so I didn’t bother with trying to make my seitan taste like venison, any richly flavored seitan will do I think. It’s so much tastier this way anyway!

It might sound weird to you to serve blackberry sauce with seitan but trust me on this, give it a try and you’ll be amazed. This sauce is so flavorful, it will literally blow your tastebuds out of your mouth! Plus the recipe is relatively simple yet elegant enough for you to make to impress company! How can you go wrong?

Seitan with Blackberry Sauce 

4 Beef Style Seitan Cutlets
3 Tbsp nondairy butter
20 Pearl Onions Blanched and Peeled
8oz Fresh Blackberries
3 Tbsp Blackberry Jam
1/4 Cup Red Wine
1 2/3 Cups Vegan Beef Stock or water mixed with Vegan Beef Bouillon
1 Tbsp All Purpose Flour

- Heat 1 Tbsp of the Butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the Seitan Cutlets and fry on each side for 8 minutes until nicely browned. Remove from pan and set aside.

- Heat remaining butter in the pan, and add the onions. Saute for 15 minutes until nicely golden brown and beginning to caramelize.

- Meanwhile in a small pan combine the blackberry Jam with 3 Tbsp of water. Whisk until smooth and then bring to a boil, add in the fresh berries and simmer for 5 minutes until berries are soft and beginning to break down. Set aside.

- Add the Wine to the pan and boil for 30 seconds. Add the Stock and simmer until reduced by half. About 10 minutes.

- Melt the remaining Tbsp of butter in a bowl, then whisk the flour into it. Add this into the stock and simmer for two minutes constantly stirring.

- Add in the Blackberry Sauce and stir to combine. Pour the sauce over the cooked seitan steaks and serve with your favorite side. Something simple like garlic roasted potatoes works well.

Vegan Mofo #22: Seitan Stew from The Hague...

When we were in The Netherlands back in March we stopped in the Hague on our way from Brussels to Amsterdam. It was it was only scheduled to be a pit-stop, a one day adventure, a chance to see the Peace Palace, some other historical landmarks and the Girl with the Pearl Earring. I had not intended to fall in love with The Hague, but I did. The people there - and everywhere in The Netherlands really - were so friendly, the city was so calm and peaceful, a really nice change of pace from busy Brussels and crazy Amsterdam. I wish we had been able to stay their longer, and I wish we could have eaten more of the local food.

Our trip to The Netherlands inspired me to check out some books on Dutch cooking, and in one of those books I found a recipe for ‘Duck Stew from The Hague’ That sounded interesting to me, and since I’d already tailored my go-to seitan Chicken recipe to be a bit richer as a stand-in for Duck I thought I’d give this stew a try. It didn’t turn out quite like I thought it would, but it was still good. I have the feeling that it is lacking something though I can’t quite put my finger on what. I’ll have to play around with it in the future to get it just right, but overall I thought the experiment went well. The stew was tasty, and rich, and I liked the combination of red wine, olives, mushrooms and onions. Put olives in anything and I’m bound to eat it.

Seitan Stew from The Hague

Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Nondairy Butter
1 ½ lb’s Chicken Style Seitan
1 Large Onion Diced
2 Cups Vegan Chicken Broth or 2 Cups Water + 2 Vegan Chicken Bouillon Cubes
1 1/4 Red Wine
1 tsp Dried Tarragon
1 tsp Dried Thyme
1 tsp Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper to taste
1 ½ Cups Pitted Green Olives
1 Leek (White and Light Green Part Only) Sliced
2 Cups Button Mushrooms Sliced
6 Garlic Cloves Minced
1/4 C All Purpose Flour
½ Bunch Parsley Minced

- Heat a splash of olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add seitan and brown on all sides. About 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat.

- Melt the nondairy butter in the pan, add the onion, and leek. Saute for 5 minutes until tender.

- Add the Mushrooms, and Garlic, saute for another 5-10 minutes until veggies are soft.

- Add in the flour, and stir to combine, coating all veggies.

- Add in the stock, wine, olives, seitan, tarragon, thyme, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine, bring to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer for 40 minutes.

- Add parsley and stir to combine. Serve in large bowls with toasted bread and extra parsley for garnish.

Vegan Mofo #21: Seitan aux Pruneaux d’Agen...

I came across this recipe in Joanne Harris’s book “The French Market” and found it interesting. The original recipe calls for Rabbit which I have no idea how to veganize since I’ve never eaten it before but I thought seitan would make a good stand-in. I love the idea of cooking savory dishes with fruit, and so the combination of seitan and prunes really got me thinking. A bit of Googling told me this is a pretty popular recipe in Southern France where Prunes from Agen are a pretty big deal. I like interesting culinary traditions so I was excited to give it a try. Obviously the original recipes call specifically for prunes from Agen but you can use any large plump pitted prunes, California Plums are what I used and it worked out great. I know it probably sounds weird to you, but give it a try, you might be really surprised.

Seitan with Prunes 
(A.K.A Seitan aux Pruneaux d’Agen) 

2 Tbsp Nondairy Butter
4 Garlic Cloves Minced
2 Bay Leaves
1/3 C Brandy
2 Stalks Celery Diced
1 Tbsp Fresh Thyme
2 Cups Red Wine
1 ½ lb’s Beef Style Seitan
25 Pearl Onions
2 tsp Liquid Smoke
20 Agen Prunes (or Large Dried California Plums) Halved
Sea Salt and Black Pepper as Needed

- Heat a small pot of water over high heat, when boiling add the onions. Boil 1 minute then drain and drop into a bowl of iced cold water to blanch. Slide off the skins and put the onions aside.

- Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Melt 1 Tbsp of the nondairy butter and cook the seitan until brown on all sides. In batches if necessary. About 8-10 minutes. When browned, remove from the pan and set aside.

- Heat the remaining nondairy butter in the pan and add the peeled onions. Saute for 5 minutes until golden, add the garlic and celery. Saute another 3-5 minutes until celery is soft.

- Pour the wine into the pan, and add bay leaves, thyme, and the browned seitan back with it. Let come to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 30 minutes.

- Add in the Brandy, the Prunes, liquid smoke and season with salt and pepper as desired. Let simmer another 20-30 minutes.

- Remove from the heat, taste for seasonings and adjust as needed. Remove the bay leaves and serve with mashed potatoes and peas as I did, or whatever your favorite side dish. Some crusty bread wouldn’t hurt either!

*** Note - Unfortunately this recipe is my best approximation as I didn’t actually write anything down while cooking. Since I made this several days ago I’m relying solely on memory here.*** 

Vegan Mofo #20: Entrecote a la Bordelaise...

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Entrecote a la Bordelaise is a classic French dish, simple yet elegant as so many classic French dishes.  Apparently there is a bit of a distinction between Entrecote a la Bordelaise and Entrecote Bordelaise. The first being a dish of seared steak served in a red wine and shallot sauce, the second being a seared steak dish served with raw chopped shallot, and no wine.  I liked the idea of the wine sauce and so that’s why I decided upon veganizing this version. The original recipe uses bone marrow as an ingredient, since there is no real way to veganize that I didn’t bother trying and I don’t think the dish suffers from the lack of it. I suppose if you want a ‘richer’ sauce you could simply add more fat in the form of oil or butter to make up for the lost marrow, but really, it isn’t necessary. In French Entrecote basically means rib steak, or more generally it’s known as a prime cut of meat, so I recommend using good quality seitan, or really good home-made seitan cutlets. Again for this recipe I made The Gentle Chef’s Filet Mignon seitan, and it turned out so good!

Entrecote a la Bordelaise 

2 Tbsp Nondairy Butter
3 Shallots Diced
2 Cups Red Wine (Preferably Bordeaux)
1 Cup Vegan Beef Stock or 1 Cup Water with 1 Vegan Bouillon Cube
1 Tbsp Parsley Minced
4 Beef Style Seitan Cutlets
Olive Oil as needed.
Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste

- Splash a bit of olive oil in a large saute pan and heat over medium high heat. Add the Seitan Cutlets and cook for 5-8 minutes per side until nicely browned. Remove the steaks from the pan and put on a plate.

- Melt the butter in the pan and add the shallots.  Saute for 7 minutes or until they are soft.

- Pour in the wine and simmer until reduced by two-thirds.

- Add the stock and continue to simmer until reduced by half.

- Season the sauce with salt and pepper, and parsley.

- Pour the Sauce over the Cooked Steaks and serve. I served our steaks with Boulangere Potatoes but you could serve then with any roasted, boiled or mashed potatoes too.

Vegan Mofo 15: French Onion Soup...

When we were in Paris we went to this incredible vegan restaurant. I don’t recall the name of it at the moment - I’ll have to consult my travel notes because I do plan to post about it at some point - but while there I had the most incredible French Onion Soup. Seriously, I’ve had some decent vegan French Onion Soup before but it never quite lives up to expectations in my opinion. This soup however was out of this world amazing! It had such a rich flavor, and I loved that instead of using Nutritional Yeast or shredded store bought cheese that they melted on top, the soup actually had slivers or shavings of vegan cheese right in the soup. Large thin squares of vegan cheese, that hadn’t melted in, but were soft and melted easily when they hit the tongue. It was such a good soup, such a different experience that ever since getting back I’d been thinking of trying to recreate something similar at home. Well, this year’s Mofo provides the perfect opportunity, so here’s my take. I think it turned out really well, though it doesn’t quite live up to that restaurant soup I had. Something tells me, no French Onion Soup ever will, and how can you really beat French Onion Soup eaten in France anyway, right?

French Onion Soup 

2 Tbsp Nondairy Butter
1lb Yellow Onions Sliced
4 Garlic Cloves Minced
1/3 Cup Plain All Purpose Flour
8 Cups Vegan Beef Stock or 8 Cups Water + Vegan Beef Bouillon Cubes.
1 Cup Red Wine
2 Bay Leaves
1 Tbsp Fresh Thyme
1 Tbsp Marmite
Sliced Baguette
Sea Salt if needed
1/4 tsp Black Pepper or more to taste
Vegan Cheese sliced into thin squares. (I used Provolone.  In France they use Gruyere, but there is not vegan Gruyere on the market. You can really use any flavorful vegan cheese that isn’t mozzarella or cheddar. Havarti or Swiss would be good in place of Provolone)

- Melt the butter in a large sauce pan over medium high heat and add the onions. Lower the heat and cook on low for about 25 minutes stirring occasionally until golden brown and beginning to caramelize. .

- Add the garlic and flour to the pan and stir continuously for 2 minutes.  Gradually blend in the stock and wine, bring to a boil.  Add the Bay leaf, thyme, pepper, marmite and season with salt if desired. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

- Preheat the broiler. Place the baguette slices on a broiler sheet and toast on each side for a minute until golden. Remove from the oven.

- Add the sliced cheese to the soup and let simmer for 5 or so minutes just to let the cheese incorporate and blend. It’s okay if it melts in, but if it stays in tact that’s good too.

- Divide the soup into serving bowls, break the toasted baguette into crouton sized pieces and top each bowl. Taste or seasoning and add more salt or pepper as desired.

Enjoy with a glass of wine and a nice side salad.

Vegan Mofo #9: Seitan with Raspberries...

Today’s recipe I found in a French cook book and couldn’t help but be intrigued. Unfortunately the book didn’t provide any information on history or origin of the dish, and so I have no idea where it comes from. Though it is a pretty common practice throughout Europe to cook rich meats with sweet fruits, and the French sure like to make food look fancy so regardless of origin this dish at least fits with my theme.

I’ll admit I was pretty skeptical about this dish when I first attempted to make it. I just didn’t know how seitan would taste when mixed with fruits, guess I needn’t have really worried because the dish turned out amazing! Seriously, it far exceeded my expectations. I myself have only ever eaten duck once, a long time ago, in a Chinese restaurant and I hated it. I thought it was greasy, and fatty and disgusting, I never ate it again. When eating poultry I never liked dark meat anyway and duck is all dark meat. So I was a bit flummoxed as how to make this seitan taste ‘duck-like’ and Google raveled nothing further then what I already knew “Tastes like greasy chicken” thanks, so helpful!  In the end I decided to make a basic chicken-style seitan but included in the met ingridients I added a spoonful of marmite and I used sesame oil instead of regular oil. Before I boiled the cutlets I also coated them in oil, then when they came out of the broth I oiled them again and let them sit in the fridge in a bit of their cooking liquid until I used them the next day. I can’t say that the seitan tasted like ‘duck’ but it didn’t have a ‘chicken’ taste either, it was richer, and slightly more greasy then your average seitan. So, while it might not be an ‘authentic’ duck taste, it was certainly different, and enjoyable, and why do you need your seitan to taste exactly like duck anyway?

The true star of this show however is the raspberry sauce. Oh... my.... god.... the sauce alone is amazing and I wish I’d made more cutlets just so I could eat more sauce! If it sounds weird to you to cook raspberries in a somewhat savory dish, I hear you, but trust me when I tell you this will literally blow your mind! Try it, and see! Enjoy with a nice glass of wine, a side of mashed potatoes, a side salad, or as we did, simply with a side of Vichy Carrots.

Seitan with Raspberries
(AKA Canard aux Framboises aka ‘Duck’ with Raspberries) 

A Splash of Olive Oil
2-4 Homemade or Store Bought Chicken Style Seitan Cutlets
1 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
2 tsp Sugar
½ Cup Red Wine
1/3 Cup Creme de Cassis (A Red Current Liquor)
1 Tbsp Cornstarch
9oz Fresh Raspberries

- Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Add in your cutlets and brown 4-5 minutes per side.

- In a small bowl mix together the salt, sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

- In another bowl whisk together the red wine and creme de cassis, set aside.

- When the seitan is done cooking carefully remove it from the pan and put on a plate. Leave the pan, you are going to uses it again.

- After the seitan has cooled for a minute or two carefully rub the salt sugar, cinnamon mixture into the seitan on both sides. Then return the seitan to the pan and cook on medium heat for another 2-3 minutes per side.

- Add most of the red wine, creme de cassis mixture to the pan with the seitan, reserving a couple of Tablespoons. Mix this reserved wine mix with the cornstarch and then add that into the pan as well. Stir to combine and let simmer 2 minutes until thickened.

- Add raspberries, stir to coat with the sauce, and then simmer for an additional 2-3 minutes stirring occasionally until the sauce is thick and the berries are cooked.

- Remove seitan cutlets from the pan, place on individual plates and spoon the sauce and berries over top. Enjoy!

Quickie Pan Gravy...

The other day when My husband and I had our little impromptu Thanksgiving celebration I needed to make a gravy to go with our holiday roast. Unfortunately since the dinner was impromptu my resources were limited as I had not been shopping. Using what I had on hand at the time I came up with this super simple, yet super flavorful gravy. I couldn’t believe just how good it turned out, and it tasted amazing on our roast and our mashed potatoes. So if you’re in a bind this year, and you need a quickie gravy, this is the one for you. Or if you just want to cut a few corners, and do less work - who’d blame you? - I got you covered.

Quickie Pan Gravy 

1/4 C Earth Balance
1/4 Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
2 tsp Minced Dried Onion
½ tsp Garlic Powder
1 Vegan Beef Bouillon Cube
1 ½ C Water
2 Tbsp Tamari
2 Tbsp Red Wine
1 tsp Thyme Leaves
Black Pepper to taste

- Melt the Earth Balance in a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat.

- Whisk in the flour. Whisk vigorously to form a roux, when the Earth Balance and Flour have come together and are beginning to turn golden, and smell toasty, add in the water, vegan bouillon, onion, and garlic.

- Bring to a boil, and then lower heat and let simmer, whisking frequently.

- Add in the Tamari, Red Wine, Thyme Leaves and black pepper.

- Continue to whisk on low heat until the gravy has thickened. This should take about 5 minutes.

- Once you’ve reached your desired consistency, remove the gravy from the heat. Pour it into a serving bowl and use liberally on your favorite holiday roast or a mound of mashed potatoes.

Irish Dingle Pies...

Dingle is a town in Country Kerry, Ireland, situated on the Dingle Peninsula on the Atlantic coast roughly 50km southwest of Tralee. From all I’ve heard it’s a beautiful place, a with lush, rugged and spectacular coastline, unfortunately I never got to see it for myself. When we were in Ireland my husband and I traveled to 14 different cities starting in Dublin, then going North, then west, then south, until arriving back in Dublin to head home. While we had originally planned to go to Dingle, and wanted to very much, it proved to be just a little to far south for us to reasonably fit it into our schedule. So I’ll have to wait until my next visit to see it for myself. In the meantime however I can make these delicious, traditional Dingle Pies!

These pies are traditional in Dingle particularly on special occasions such as Lammas Day which marks the first day of the harvest. Though these pies are normally made with mutton - ew! - recipes abound with multiple variations. Some with more ‘meat’ some with more vegetables, some with gravy and some without. Sometimes the pies are made in individual serving sizes, sometimes they’re made as one big pie from which you can take a slice, and sometimes they are made in individual dishes with the pastry only on the top. It really depends on who’s making the pie, I guess.

Now originally I wanted to make these the traditional way by making six small individual hand pies. However I was in a bit of a rush, and I’m no expert with shortcrust pastry so after many minutes of frustration and swearing down at the pastry, I decided to do myself a favor and take the easy route.  So instead of making six pies I made one, and yes it kind of looks like a pot pie, but it doesn’t really taste like a pot pie, not the kind of pot pie you get in America anyway. In fact this reminds me of something German from my childhood. It’s reminiscent of some kind of pie my mother or Oma, - or even my grandmother - might have made. So even though I’ve never been much of a fan of pot pies, or savory pies in general I found these Dingle pies immensely satisfying, and I hope you do as well!

Now, I list the gravy as being optional and it is. If you choose to make six small pies it’s not exactly necessary though it’s recommended if you want a juicer pie. If you choose to make the big pie I definitely recommend it, and in either case trust me when I say you’ll definitely want to lather some gravy over the top of the finished pie. Small or big, that shortcrust pastry is just begging to be drenched in gravy!

Irish Dingle Pies 

Filling

1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1lb Irish Style Seitan finely chopped
3 Celery Stalks Chopped
3 Carrots Chopped
1 Large Onion Chopped
2 Red Skinned Potatoes Chopped
Celtic Sea Salt and Black Pepper
1-2 Tbsp Almond Milk
Vegan Gravy (Optional but highly recommended

Crust

2C Unbleached All Purpose Flour
2C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1C Vegetable Shortening
1 tsp Celtic Sea Salt

Quick and Easy Pan Gravy 

½ Yellow Onion Chopped
4 Cloves Garlic chopped
1 ½ C Vegetable Broth
1/4C Red Wine
2 Tbsp Bragg’s Liquid Aminos or Soy Sauce
1/4C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 tsp Ground Thyme
½ tsp Dried Sage


To make Crust 

- Combine Flour and salt in a food processor. Cut in the vegetable shortening with a knife and process until the mixture resembles crumbs.

- Stream in the cold water and process until a dough forms.

- Remove the dough from the food processor and kneed for 2-3 minutes, then wrap in a plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

To Make Filling 

- Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat and add the onion, celery, carrot, potato and seitan. Saute for 10-15 minutes until potatoes are beginning to get soft.

- Remove from heat and let rest until cool enough to handle

To Make the Gravy 
Adapted from Robin Robinson’s Pan Gravy recipe in “Party Vegan”

- Heat the olive oil in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes until beginning to get soft. Add garlic, thyme, and sage and saute another 5 minutes.

- Add the flour, and mix together. Cook for 1 minute then add 1 cup of vegetable broth.

- When the mixture begins to thicken stir in the red wine, remaining broth, Bragg’s. Simmer over low heat for 10-15 minutes.

- Transfer to a high speed blender and blend until smooth.

Assembly 

- Preheat Oven to 350'F

- Remove the dough from the fridge and remove the plastic wrap. Remove roughly a third of the dough and set aside to make the pie lid.

- Roll out the remaining dough on a lightly floured surface. Once rolled out to desired size and thickness press the dough into a greased pie plate.

- Place the filling inside of the pie crust and top with a quarter of the gravy.

- Roll out the leftover dough to make a top crust. When it’s reached desired size and thickness carefully lift the dough and place it overtop of the pie.

- Press the edges of the dough together and roll the dough up to make a nice tight lip.

- Slice two or three holes in the top crust to let steam escape and brush with the almond milk, then place in the oven. Bake for 35-55 minutes until the crust is golden. Then remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

- Serve drizzled with gravy, and a nice side salad.

Alternately, 

- If you want to do it the traditional Dingle way. Roll out the dough, and using a small plate cut out six circles. Re-rolling the dough as needed to make the circles.

- Divide the filling evenly between the six circles. Top with a couple of tablespoons of gravy if desired.

- Roll out the remaining dough and using a slightly smaller plate cut out six circles to make lids.

- Place each lid circle and lay each on top of the crust with the filling. Dampen the edges of the crust and bring the edges of the pastry up around the meat, pleating it to fit the lid. Draw a slice through the top of each pie to let steam escape. Then cook as directed above.

The Big 'Ole Valentine's Day Post of 2013...

Blueberry Blintzes

There is nothing I would have loved more then to post about Valentine’s Day on actual Valentine’s Day. Alas it was not to be, because right in the middle of photographing our dessert my camera battery died. I do have a backup battery of course, but because they hold such a long charge - months! When all I’m using it for is everyday food photography anyway - I rarely keep the backup charged. Of course by the time the battery was finally charged it was a little past midnight, and I was half a sleep. I couldn’t bother to get back out of bed. Though I truly hope you had a lovely Valentine’s Day, however you celebrated it.

I personally think Valentine’s Day is a silly holiday - really it’s not a holiday at all, - and before I met my husband I never celebrated it. I’ve never thought of myself as being particularly romantic, and when I was younger I was certainly more practical then romantic. My husband on the other hand is a very romantic man, and the only romantic man I’ve ever been with - former boyfriends of mine were like me, more practical then romantic. - After six years of marriage and nine years together I think a little - or maybe a lot - of that romanticism has worn off on me too. I’ve celebrated every one of the past nine Valentine’s Days, and each year they become a little more meaningful.

In our early years together we would celebrate with gifts, cards, flowers and a nice dinner out. These days however I don’t like the hustle and bustle of busy restaurants on Valentine’s Day, and so we typically go out for dinner another day of the week, while Valentine’s Day we stay home and I make something delicious and romantic. Any excuse for me to make something fantastic right?

Well, this year was no exception to the rule. As is my custom I like to start holiday celebrations off with a special breakfast, so I began our day with Blueberry Blintzes. I used Mark Reinfeld’s recipe from his book "30 Minute Vegan Taste of Europe" - a book I was very excited to buy and then never got around to actually using! - According to Reinfeld Blintzes are of Slavic origin and are a popular feature in the traditional cuisine’s of Eastern Europe. I was really interested to try this recipe because though I know what a blintz is I’ve never actually ate one - not that I recall anyway, - and the picture looked divine. I didn’t grow up in an area of the world that hosts a lot of Eastern European immigrants, and aside from one or two Russian restaurant Vancouver doesn’t have many Eastern European eateries. Chicago by contrast is overflowing with people of Eastern European decent, and has many restaurants devoted toe the cuisine. However it isn’t very vegan or vegetarian friendly cuisine and since I became vegetarian so soon after moving here I didn’t really have adequate time to explore it.

As it happens Taste of Europe is not the only vegan cook book I own to contain a recipe for blintzes. I’ve seen them in several other cook books of mine, and while I always felt intrigued by them I also always felt intimidated. I am not a crepe master, as much as I love crepes they are really not my forte, but besides the crepes other books made blintzes seem so complicated, while Reinfeld makes them look easy. In fact these were far easier to prepare then I expected them to be. It took me longer then 30 minutes but hey, I’m a newb at this.  This was my third or fourth time making crepes and I found them a lot easier this time around then I have in the past so that was a confidence booster. Making the filling was easy as well, as it’s a combination of vegan cream cheese, steamed tofu, tahini, lemon juice, sugar, nutritional yeast and salt. Then the blueberry sauce is super easy. Blueberries, arrowroot, water, cardamom and sugar although I replaced the sugar with maple syrup for the sauce. Once everything is prepared you stuff the blintz, saute it in a pan on both sides, then top if with the blueberry sauce and a little dollop of extra filling.

Romaine Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing

Man were these delicious! They taste so decadent. I really couldn’t get over how rich and wonderful they were, and now I’m super excited to make more blintzes in the future. With both sweet and savory fillings!

Red Wine Mushroom Sauce

For dinner I wanted to make something equally delicious, that was special, and romantic yet cost effective. I didn’t want to go overboard since it was just the two of us. After some careful thought I decided to make the Seitan Scallopini from Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg’s book “Spork-Fed” I really love this book, but I haven’t used it to make anything since Canadian Thanksgiving last year. It’s one of those books that I always forget I have. Initially I wasn’t sure if this would be the right dish to make, but the picture looked so gorgeous and inviting that I thought ‘what the hell? Why not?’ I had plenty of seitan in the freezer, and all the other ingredients called for in the recipe I had as well, which made things easy.

Seitan Scallopini with Red Wine Mushroom Sauce

Now, I’ve never eaten actual scallopini because most scallopini I’ve seen on restauant menus was made using veal and even when I ate meat I never, ever, ever ate veal. - Gross! And Sad! - and the thought of chicken scallopini didn’t much interest me either, so I have no idea what a ‘traditional’ scallopini is suppose to taste like, but I don’t care because this dish was freaking amazing! Seriously! The Seitan is sliced into thin cutlets, then briefly coated in a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, and lemon juice, then breaded in flour, garlic powder, basil, thyme, salt and pepper. Once breaded it’s fried in olive oil till crispy brown on both sides.

Strangely enough the combined smell of this process along with the garlic I was roasting in the oven reminded me exactly of walking into my grandma’s house for a Sunday night roast dinner. Sunday night roast dinners at my grandma’s were a prominent feature of my childhood, and one of my very favorite things. Since my dad’s parents didn’t live as close to us as my mom’s parents did, we didn’t see them as often, so dinner at grandmas was always a big deal for me, and her roast dinners were seriously the best! I can’t say I exactly miss them now since I have no desire to eat meat, but I do miss that sense of family unity, and the warmth of her house at the holidays, and making this dinner really brought me back there, if only for a few moments.

Anyway, the next step in the scallopini recipe is the sauce. Which is made using red wine, vegan butter, mushrooms, flour, maple syrup, lemon juice, salt and pepper. To me this didn’t sound like enough ingredients to make a rich delicious wine sauce but boy was I wrong. This sauce was simply amazing! And it was super amazing poured over the scallopini and garnished with fresh minced parsley. Seriously, we were in heaven eating this!

To accompany the meal I decided to make a light salad. Since I was going to be eating so much gluten - and as I mentioned before I’ve been keeping pretty much gluten-free since my juice fast - I figured it would be best if I ate something light on the side, and preferably raw. So I deiced to make the Romaine Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing from Donna Klein’s book “The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen.” I chose this recipe because it was simple, and because I wanted an ‘Italian’ style salad to go with our ‘Italian’ style main course. The salad is literally very simple, it’s just romaine lettuce - although I threw in some diced tomato and red onion for good measure - but the dressing is fantastico!  You roast 8 cloves of garlic in the oven and mash them into a puree when they’re cool. Then combine it with another clove of minced garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, lemon juice, Dijon Mustard and vegetable broth. I didn’t have any Veg broth though so I subbed water, then I added a touch of agave to sweeten the deal, and man it was phenomenal! Not all of my garlic cloves mashed completely so there were still chunky bits of roast garlic in the salad that were absolutely amazing!

Finally for dessert I made the Cinnamon Scented Tiramisu also from Jenny and Heather’s book “Spork-Fed.” I know so many people who go ape-shit for Tiramisu, and while I do enjoy it I never really saw what all the fuss was about. For some reason Tiramisu is something I never order when I go out, I never buy it, I never make it and I never think about it. Sure if it’s around I’ll eat it, and I enjoy it, but it’s just one of those things I never think to make myself. Of course their version sounded delicious and I wanted to keep with the Italian theme so I thought I’d give it a go. Plus I had two more containers of Vegan Cream Cheese leftover from Christmas that I needed to use before March.

Cinnamon Scented Tiramisu 

An Inside Shot of the Tiramisu

There Tiramisu was surprisingly easy to make. The cake is flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, sugar, soy milk, apple cider vinegar, and oil. I actually used Date sugar for this, and coconut oil instead of a ‘nuteral oil’ and think it worked out fantastic. I’ve been using date sugar a lot instead of actual sugar and I’m really enjoying it. Then the cream layer is made with vegan cream cheese, vegan butter, sugar, soy milk, lemon juice, orange juice, and salt. I didn’t have orange juice though so instead I used 1 tsp orange extract and 1 tsp almond extract. Worked great. I also added in cinnamon to the cream layer. After all this was called cinnamon scented tiramisu and I wanted there to be a lot of cinnamon! So I added in double the amount of cinnamon into the cake, and 1 tsp into the cream layer. Then you brew some strong coffee or espresso, mix it with sugar and amaretto, and bam! Everything’s finished except the assembly.

Of course the assembly is easy. Cut the cake, pour the coffee mixture over top of it to let it soak in. Then layer cake, cream, cake, cream until you run out of both. Garnish as desired with chocolate. I used chocolate chips and formed them into cutesy little hearts!

And that was Valentine’s Day, I hope you all had just as much fun as we did!