GREETINGS FROM YOUR ELF!! Didn’t 2017 begin a few weeks ago and here we are ready to dive into 2018? Goodness mercy Elf! We have a lot to share today so let’s get on with it. The holiday season at the Elf-haus is always a challenge…a challenge to find new and exciting vegan recipes to try out on ours-elfs as well as share with others. So, this year we prepared a couple of recipes to take to the Pajama Christmas at the Dees. BUT FIRST, we always start Christmas Day by taking breakfast to the kids/grand kids. This year, we took ‘sausage’ biscuits and Cinnamon rolls. Two weeks ago, we showed you the Maple Sausage roll we prepared from The Gentle Chef’s wonderful meat analogue cookbook, Seitan and Beyond. This week, here’s the end result. We sliced the sausage and sautéed
and then baked the biscuits to ‘slide’ those patties in! We must confess that we did NOT make the biscuits but did find a ‘store-bought’ biscuit that had no dairy or animal stuffs in them. These did not last long.
We also took ‘store-bought’ Cinnamon Rolls, primarily for the grandkids. They are not plant-based, so instead of the Annie’s Rolls we usually take (Kroger has been OUT of them for weeks now), we used regular ole Cinnamon Rolls…they did have an indication of dairy, so Big Solid and Your Elf did not partake. We DID, however, partake of the traditional Christmas morning Mimosas and a sausage biscuit or two.
The three dishes we prepared for our DEES’ DINNER were SO MUCH FUN to make and so worth the elf-fort!! First of all, from Susan Voisin’s Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, we made Vegan Sausage and Mushroom Étouffée.
and then baked the biscuits to ‘slide’ those patties in! We must confess that we did NOT make the biscuits but did find a ‘store-bought’ biscuit that had no dairy or animal stuffs in them. These did not last long.
We also took ‘store-bought’ Cinnamon Rolls, primarily for the grandkids. They are not plant-based, so instead of the Annie’s Rolls we usually take (Kroger has been OUT of them for weeks now), we used regular ole Cinnamon Rolls…they did have an indication of dairy, so Big Solid and Your Elf did not partake. We DID, however, partake of the traditional Christmas morning Mimosas and a sausage biscuit or two.
(Note: We used the French spelling, so that's why it looks different.) We are pretty sure that the idea of a Vegan Andouille Sausage curls the toes of most folks from Louisiana but we have to say that these are a very decent plant based alternative. We had made the sausages a week or so ago; they keep beautifully and also freeze well, though they don’t usually last long enough to have to freeze. So, the base of the Étouffée is a roux; most rouxs are a mixture of oil/grease and flour that is stirred constantly over heat until the flour reaches a certain color. The color could be from a light brown (for a lighter roux) to a deep chocolate brown, for obviously a darker roux. Well, Susan has found a way to make a FAT FREE roux using ONLY the flour stirred over heat! When we first tried this a few years back, we were so skeptical we almost went with the old way BUT we didn’t. And we are SO very glad we did. This method, believe it or not, makes a fabulous roux without the fat!! We started off with just plain ole flour in a pan…we completely forgot to use our iron skillet!! What a stupid Elf.
Using a wooden spoon, we stirred and stirred and stirred. Now, the stirring part is so very critical! At first, you think you’re NEVER ‘gonna’ get to the color suggested by Susan which is the color of light brown sugar. So, we kept on stirring as the flour slowly began to change color. Personally, Your Elf likes a roux base that is a bit darker, so as the flour began to brown up, we kept a close watch on the degree of darkness.
Believe Your Elf when we say that this is THE most critical part of the roux preparation because once the flour starts to color, the process speeds up and it doesn’t take but just an instant to go from the desired color to BURNED. If that happens, you just HAVE to start over. We had gotten to a fairly nice color and were really trying to keep a close eye on further darkening when we got an important phone call we were anticipating. We made the decision to stop the roux at that point rather than balance a phone conversation with the intensification of the roux. We removed the roux from the heat right then.
Once our phone call was over, we finished the roux off by blending the browned flour with The Gentle Chef’s Chicken Bouillon. The final roux was such a lovely color!!
With that preparation done, we were able to focus on the remainder of the ‘cookery’. We sliced our PB Andouille and sautéed them
until they were browned and slightly crisp.
And here's what they look like up close and personal.
We deviated a bit from Susan’s recipe by sautéing the sausages first and then the other vegetables. Why, you ask? Well, we wanted the onions and other vegetables to sauté in the flavor left by the sausages. So we did not wipe the pan out when we began to sauté the onions.
We used a small amount of water to deglaze the sausage bits along with the onions to keep the use of fat to a minimum. Next, we added the rest of the ‘mirepoix’ or Holy Trinity of onions, celery and bell pepper that is so associated with Louisiana cuisine—we added the celery and bell pepper to the onions we had already softened up a bit.
Talk about great smells! Once the ‘mirepoix’ was ready, we gave the roux a quick spin in the blender to refresh and added it to the pan along with the remaining ingredients (soy sauce, thyme, smoked paprika, cayenne, ground black and white pepper, garlic, dried basil). In another slight departure from the recipe, we had sautéed a LOT of sliced mushrooms earlier because we KNEW we were going to prepared two recipes that included mushrooms. So, we added the sautéed ‘shrooms to the roux and spices.
You can see the spices we added prior to stirring them in and letting the mixture slowly cook until it thickened.
When it had reached a desirable thickness
we added the sliced and sautéed sausages.
Here is a close-up of the Étouffée. It’s a beautiful dish. The sauce was just the right thickness to support the substance of the mushrooms and sausages.
And now, for the other side of this dish. If you’ll look back at the spice ingredients, you’ll notice that one of them is cayenne. Well, we have this EXTRA HOT cayenne that we purchased from Patel’s Grocery. And when it says EXTRA HOT, we can vouch every so surely of that. With that in mind, we added ONLY HALF of the 1/4 teaspoon recommendation of the recipe or 1/8 teaspoon. AND EVEN THAT WAS TOO MUCH!! Well, not too much for us but WAY too much for the Dees! So, we were able to share some with our neighbors who LOVE extra spicy food! We can tell you that when we make this again, we will use 1/16 teaspoon of the cayenne. The Étouffée was served over brown rice and we forgot to take a picture of that!
Using a wooden spoon, we stirred and stirred and stirred. Now, the stirring part is so very critical! At first, you think you’re NEVER ‘gonna’ get to the color suggested by Susan which is the color of light brown sugar. So, we kept on stirring as the flour slowly began to change color. Personally, Your Elf likes a roux base that is a bit darker, so as the flour began to brown up, we kept a close watch on the degree of darkness.
Believe Your Elf when we say that this is THE most critical part of the roux preparation because once the flour starts to color, the process speeds up and it doesn’t take but just an instant to go from the desired color to BURNED. If that happens, you just HAVE to start over. We had gotten to a fairly nice color and were really trying to keep a close eye on further darkening when we got an important phone call we were anticipating. We made the decision to stop the roux at that point rather than balance a phone conversation with the intensification of the roux. We removed the roux from the heat right then.
Once our phone call was over, we finished the roux off by blending the browned flour with The Gentle Chef’s Chicken Bouillon. The final roux was such a lovely color!!
With that preparation done, we were able to focus on the remainder of the ‘cookery’. We sliced our PB Andouille and sautéed them
And here's what they look like up close and personal.
We deviated a bit from Susan’s recipe by sautéing the sausages first and then the other vegetables. Why, you ask? Well, we wanted the onions and other vegetables to sauté in the flavor left by the sausages. So we did not wipe the pan out when we began to sauté the onions.
We used a small amount of water to deglaze the sausage bits along with the onions to keep the use of fat to a minimum. Next, we added the rest of the ‘mirepoix’ or Holy Trinity of onions, celery and bell pepper that is so associated with Louisiana cuisine—we added the celery and bell pepper to the onions we had already softened up a bit.
Talk about great smells! Once the ‘mirepoix’ was ready, we gave the roux a quick spin in the blender to refresh and added it to the pan along with the remaining ingredients (soy sauce, thyme, smoked paprika, cayenne, ground black and white pepper, garlic, dried basil). In another slight departure from the recipe, we had sautéed a LOT of sliced mushrooms earlier because we KNEW we were going to prepared two recipes that included mushrooms. So, we added the sautéed ‘shrooms to the roux and spices.
You can see the spices we added prior to stirring them in and letting the mixture slowly cook until it thickened.
When it had reached a desirable thickness
we added the sliced and sautéed sausages.
Here is a close-up of the Étouffée. It’s a beautiful dish. The sauce was just the right thickness to support the substance of the mushrooms and sausages.
And now, for the other side of this dish. If you’ll look back at the spice ingredients, you’ll notice that one of them is cayenne. Well, we have this EXTRA HOT cayenne that we purchased from Patel’s Grocery. And when it says EXTRA HOT, we can vouch every so surely of that. With that in mind, we added ONLY HALF of the 1/4 teaspoon recommendation of the recipe or 1/8 teaspoon. AND EVEN THAT WAS TOO MUCH!! Well, not too much for us but WAY too much for the Dees! So, we were able to share some with our neighbors who LOVE extra spicy food! We can tell you that when we make this again, we will use 1/16 teaspoon of the cayenne. The Étouffée was served over brown rice and we forgot to take a picture of that!
Our next dish was from the Forks Over Knives cookbook titled Mushroom and Green Pea Risotto. We saw this on Facebook and determined we really needed to give this one a try.
O.M.G! This is a most delicious dish! And it’s really easy! Usually, risottos take a while to prepare as you stir small amounts of broth to the arborio/short-grained rice until the rice develops as creamy, silky texture and additional ingredients can be added. This recipe actually develops all of that creaminess without the constant or near constant stirring, adding, stirring, adding. So, here you go. Here is our ‘mise en place’. Left to right-ish we have mushrooms, short-grain brown rice, black peppercorns, apple cider vinegar, frozen peas, nutritional yeast, thyme, onion, and cashew cream in the white topped jar. Not pictured is six cups of the Chiken Bouillon.
There are two 'secret’ ingredients to this recipe that account for the smoothness and the cheesy flavor..raw cashews from which the cashew cream was made and nutritional yeast. The onions are cooked in water (to keep fat use to a minimum) but we used 1 teaspoon of EVOO with water, covered the pan and let the onions soften. After the onions cooked, the mushrooms and green peas were added and cooked until tender with the mushrooms taking a wee bit longer so they were
added first.
added first.
The rice, broth, and some spices were cooked in a medium saucepan until the rice was cooked al dente. To the partially cooked rice, we added the mushroom/pea mixture, cashew cream and remaining ingredients.
This was cooked over medium heat with frequent stirring until the rice was completely cooked, all liquid was absorbed
and the dish had developed that creamy, silky texture.
After the Risotto was completely cooked, we let it sit, covered for a bit, tasted to adjust seasoning and it was ready. This dish is quite lovely…we did not over-spice this dish because we wanted to share it with someone who is very sensitive to heavy heat/spices. Even Big Solid, who is NOT a risotto fan, liked this. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
Our final dish was a dessert called Apple Crisp. We actually took a non-vegan recipe that we had used a long time ago and substituted vegan ingredients, namely vegan butter or margarine and sugars.
Here is our ‘mise en place’; all purpose flour, Earth Balance (I hate to use it but sometimes it comes in handy for baking), Brown sugar, a sliced assortment of Granny Smith, Gala, and Honey-crisp apples, quick cooking oats, water, organic sugar, spices.
It’s very easy to prepare. Throw the sliced apples in a 9x13 baking pan and sprinkle a mixture of some of the flour, cinnamon and organic sugar over. Pour the water over that (which we forgot to do, not a big deal). Top with a crumbled mixture of flour, brown sugar, baking powder/soda, and melted vegan butter and bake for about 45 minutes at 350º. It’s easy and it’s also delicious.
We served it with a scoop (or two) of So Delicious Cashew Milk Salted Caramel Cluster. Not a picture to be found because we were all devouring this lovely dessert! Alas, we have no pictures of the DEES’ Pajama Dinner this year. Time got away from us and people left before we could gather our wits to take a group photo. Elf-forts at a timed group selfie did not result in anything! BUT, you can at least get an idea of what an elegant table ME and Jesse set.
As well as the napkin that has been The Elf’s for many years!
OH—ONE MORE THING! Your Elf has a new Facebook page called The Movie Elf.
We have fun reviewing movies from an average person POV; mostly visceral in nature and oh so fun to do. Join us, please.
OK, NOW we are done for this week! We will be busy tomorrow cooking up some traditional and some non-traditional New Year’s Day plant-based goodness to share with you as we kick-off 2018! Annie sends her best New Year’s Day wishes as well!
So, until such time as we greet you in a New Year, remember to always LOOK for the GOOD, be an EXAMPLE of the GOOD, and ACT for the GOOD as HARD as you can, in as MANY WAYS as you can, EVERY DAY that you can. Your Elf.
Hi - when I make apple crisp now I replace the butter with coconut oil. I actually like it better than with butter :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea!! We'll give that a go next time!!
Delete