Suburban Vegan Stories of Survival in the Land of Meat & Dairy

I was very excited for the Top Chef finale this Wednesday. Unfortunately, I had to attend a hearing at a school board meeting that went all night long. I didn’t get home until after midnight and didn’t eat anything for dinner much less a delicious gourmet meal. But this morning I learned it wasn’t the finale, which means one more week of Top Chef meals!

Tonight, before we watched Top Chef On Demand, I made Braised Seitan, Kale & Fava Bean Risotto, a kinder version of Antonia’s winning risotto from episode 12.

Here’s my modified version of Antonia’s recipe. Serves 4.

Braised Seitan

• 6 ounces seitan, chopped (I used a package of Upton’s Natural’s traditional seitan)
• 1 cup onions, carrots, celery, rough chop
• 1 sprig parsley and thyme
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/2 vine ripe tomato, chopped
• 1/2 bottle red wine
• 1/2 cup Armagnac
• 3 cups veggie chick’n stock
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 veggie bouillon cubes

Risotto:

• 1/2 small onion, brunoise
• 1 cup Superfino risotto
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 -3 cups of chick’n stock
• 1 tablespoon earth balance
• 1 can fava/butter beans
• 1 cup blanched kale chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• soy Parmesan to taste

• 1/2 teaspoon chopped Marjoram
• 1 tablespoon flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 2 tablespoons ciabatta bread crumbs, garnish

Directions

1. Heat skillet and large pot.

2. Season seitan with salt and pepper. Dust with flour and sear in skillet until brown.

3. Sauté minepoix (that’s the onions, celery & carrots) in pot. Add setian, paste, tomato, parsley sprigs, thyme sprigs, red wine, Armagnac, chick’n stock, and bouillon cube. Simmer for 1 hour.

Risotto:

1. In large sauté, sweat brunoise onions. Add risotto. Toast for 20 minutes on low heat until crispy. Add white wine and reduce.

2. Add 1 cup remaining hot chick’n stock slowly and whisk and beat until creamy and cooked.  Add more stock as needed. I used several cups of chick’n and some veggie stock to get the rice cooked and creamy (remember, risotto must spread!)

3. Finish with margarine, fava beans, rapini leaves and lemon zest, soy parmesean.

Assembly:

1. When plating, ladle risotto in middle of plate, spoon seitan  over and sprinkle with bread crumbs and chopped herbs.

And going back to season 3, I made Hung’s Molten Chocolate Cakes Vanilla Crème Fraîche, Raspberry Coulis for dessert.

The Crème Fraîche did not work for me, so I had to use canned rice whip.  Surprisingly, the cake turned out really well with egg replacer and margarine. It’s very rich, but so delicious!

On Friday, we are going on vacation, which means we need to use up ingredients in the fridge before our trip. I had a container of mushrooms that needed to be eaten, so I did a search for “mushrooms” in Top Chef’s recipe finder and settled on Howie Kleinberg’s Mushroom Risotto. It needed a few adjustments. I used Vegetarian chicken broth, margarine, vegan Parmesan topping, soy milk, and truffle olive oil.

I would just like to point out that my risotto spread when it was put on the plate.

Tonight’s Top Chef episode takes place in the Bahamas, which, by the way, is not a monarchy. The chefs went head to head against the winning chef from their season. Mike (seriously?), Tiffany, and Richard are winners, but Carla didn’t cook her rice and Antonio had problems with veal this week (come on, Top Chef! Stop with the veal!)

The elimination challenge was strange. A fire in the kitchen made everyone start over again. Mike, for the first time I think, won a challenge. Richard was second and the girls were in trouble. And then a terrible tragedy occurred! Carla was sent home!! How can Carla go home before Tiffany?! And why is Tiffany even in the finale? How did Mike win?

Birthday Pop Tarts

Yesterday was my boss’s birthday. He usually doesn’t come into the office on Tuesdays, so I brought in birthday pop tarts today. He loves pop tarts and there are two boxes of brown cinnamon pop tarts on the lunch room table. However, gelatin is one of the ingredients in frosted pop tarts. So, I made a vegan version free of animal products and preservatives found in the boxed kind.  They don’t look pretty, but they did taste good.

The big news in vegan baking: Sticky Fingers won Cupcake Wars last night! Sticky Fingers was my neighborhood bakery when I lived in DC and I miss them so much. They did our wedding cake which was amazing. Doron Petersan rocked and made delicious & hilarious cupcakes. Take that, eggs & dairy!

Tonight’s home challenge: veganizing Dale’s winning grilled cheese and spicy tomato soup, which has bacon, butter, cream, ribeye and cheese. Piece of (vegan) cake!

Spicy Tomato Soup

• 1/8 cup tamari
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 head minus 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 4 cups of unsweetened soymilk
• 2 ounces of Tabasco sauce (or a generic brand that doesn’t come in a wasteful box)
• 3 ounces of olive oil
• 3 28-ounce cans tomatoes

Whisk together tamari, liquid smoke and maple syrup (which can make a delicious marinade for tempeh bacon, but works as the bacon replacement here). In a large pot, add onions, garlic, tamari mixture, soymilk, Tabasco, and olive oil. Cook until onions are translucent then add canned tomatoes. Bring to boil then puree with immersion blender or pour into regular blender.

I don’t mean to brag, but this soup is pretty fricking amazing. I suppose Dale gets some credit for creating the recipe, but I just made it better. (You’re welcome, Dale!)

Grilled Cheez

• Sourdough bread
• Vegan Gourmet’s Monterey Jack Cheese Alternative
• Peppered Tofurky Deli Slices
• Margarine

Butter outside of bread, place a layer of cheese on the bread, add some deli slices, another layer of cheese and top with the other slice of bread. Use a foreman grill, panini press or regular pan to grill the sandwich. Chances are you’ll have toasty bread before you have melted cheese.  If this happens, open the sandwich up, remove deli slices and broil in oven until the cheese melts. Remove from oven and spread the cheese around with a knife (so it will be more likely to stick to the tofurkey). Put the deli slices back on and press the bread together.

I had low expectations for the grilled cheez, because I tasted the cheese before making the sandwich and it was really gross. But after it was melted onto buttery bread and dipped into tomato soup, I almost forgot it wasn’t a real grilled cheese sandwich.

Paula Dean and some deep fryers start off Episode 11. Carla couldn’t handle the pressure despite this being her specialty. Richard fried mayonnaise (gross! but totally something Paula Dean would love – smart). Mike stole Richard’s dish and won after Antonia was eliminated for not plating a second serving.

The elimination round revolved around fish, so I didn’t find it very interesting. Tonight’s soup was in Dale’s honor, because Dale and his big ego are gone.