This past weekend I was struck by a desire for brunch. Since crepes seem to be all the rage right now, and all of my non-vegan friends have been raving about all the creperies in the area, I decided crepes were in order. I’ve made crepes before, but not for some time. This week I decided to give the crepe recipe from Vegan Brunch a whirl and as such I won’t be printing the recipe. Don’t worry, I’ll be doing a little more testing and posting a crepe batter recipe soon. In the mean time, pick up a copy of Vegan Brunch. The crepe batter was excellent, and I thought I would share a few filling ideas with you.

One thing I love about crepes is their versatility, so I did both a savory and a sweet application. If you are doing something very savory, like curried vegetables, you probably want savory crepes (without sweetener), but for something breakfasty like this, sweet crepes worked great for both dishes. While perhaps a little intimidating, crepes are not that hard once you get the hang of them. You just need a little patience and the right equipment. While you don’t need a crepe pan (although they can be helpful) you will need a good non-stick skillet, or a well seasoned cast iron pan. I used a well seasoned cast iron skillet inverted over a burner (so i was cooking the crepes on the bottom of the pan). This gave me a surface similar to a crepe griddle and made it easy to flip the crepes with an Offset Spatula. I’m not sure if this method will work on an electric stove, so make sure your pan will get hot enough before you start.

Mushroom Crepes

Makes enough to fill 4-6 crepes

1/4-1/2 cup dry porcini mushrooms
2 cups boiling water
1 Tbsp mushroom soy sauce
1/4 cup dry red wine
2 tsp arrowroot dissolved in 2 Tbsp cold water
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 cup sliced crimini or button mushrooms
About 1/2 cup diced veggie sausage, about 2 links or patties or one large link. (optional)
1/4 tsp dry thyme
1/4 tsp dry rosemary
1/4 tsp rubbed sage
salt and pepper
olive oil

Place dry porchini in a bowl with boiling water. Set aside and allow to reconstitute for 20-30 min. Strain liquid into a small sauce pan, reserving reconstituted porchini. Add the mushroom soy sauce and red wine to mushroom liquid. Bring to a boil and reduce by half. Stir in arrowroot mixture and cook until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and allow to cool until serving.

In a large skillet, heat about 2 Tbsp olive oil over med-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring often, until they begin to caramelize. Add sliced mushrooms and reserved porchini. Cook until mushrooms begin to soften. Add sausage and herbs and cook through. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To serve

Fill each crepe with the mushroom mixture. Roll on place on a plate seam side down. Poor sauce over top and serve.

Blueberry sauce

2 cups frozen blueberries
1/4 cup sugar (adjust as necessary depending on how sweet your berries are)
1 tsp arrowroot
2 Tbsp water

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan over med-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat. Sauce will continue to thicken as it cools. Serve over folded crepes with powdered sugar. This also makes an awesome sauce for ice cream or pancakes.

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After reading enough vegan cookbooks, they can start to all look the same. The endless parade of tofu scrambles, stir fries, and poorly constructed baked goods start to bled together. The Artful Vegan provides a refreshing selection of truly exceptional cuisine. Chefs Eric Tucker, Bruce Enole, and Amy Pearce give us 140 amazing recipes representing interpretations of a wide range of global cuisines, taken to the cutting edge of modern gourmet cuisine. This is the second book from the Millennium Restaurant in San Fransisco (which happens to be the best vegan restaurant I have ever been to, or probably ever will), and it exceeds even the high standards set by the first book (The Millennium Cookbook). This is not just great vegan food, but truly first class, gourmet cuisine that is vegan.

Whether you are trying to impress that special someone, convince your parents vegans can eat real food too, or are looking to rekindle your culinary inspirations, you will not be disappointed. The appatizer sections contains such delights as “Sesame-Crusted Mushroom Calamari over Burdock Kimpira” (I haven’t made the recipe, but I did try this at the restaurant. It was amazing) and “Corn Flan over Tomato Compote with Spicy Grilled Nectarine.” Moving on to salads you will find an asoortment of arfully composed raw and grilled salads.  A pasta section adds another selection of dishes with a range of inspired flavors. The entree section continues to impress with fully composed dishes such as “White Bean-Filled Phyllo Purse Over Soft Polenta with Porcini-Zinfandel Sauce, Broccoli Rabe, and Grilled Pear”.

Plating an avocado key lime tart for a benefit for pigs peace sanctuary.

Where The Artful Vegan really shines (for me at least) is in the dessert section. While there are a few stand alone desserts (the walnut macaroons are most likely the best gluten free cookies I have had and the tapioca pudding has become a staple in my repertoire), the book features a bevy of sophisticated, restaurant quality, plated desserts. The key lime tart uses avocado to make a smooth, rich filling that sits in a pistachio and poppy crust that is almost good enough to stand as a cookie on it’s own. The whole thing is paired with a white chocolate mouse and a mango sauce. Also featured are several amazing cakes, and an assortment of ice creams and sorbets.

While not a prime cookbook for someone who doesn’t know how to cook, The Artful Vegan is choc full of amazing dishes sure to impress and inspire even those skeptical of vegan cuisine.

I served the crab cakes wtih roasted asparagus, blue potatoes, and carrots.

Last fall, on a trip to Portland, I found a package of vegan imitation crab at Food Fight. Now I’ll stop right here and point out that “imitation crab” is very common, but typically is actually made from Pollock (another type of fish) so is obviously not vegan. This stuff can be found at your local vegan grocery (if you are lucky enough to have one) or some Asian supermarkets with a selection of imitation meat, or a few online stores like here. The stuff we got was shredded, so I decided that crab cakes was the obvious application. It was also an obvious choice as it would mask any textural issues with the imitation crab. I didn’t have any on hand, but Old Bay would be a natural addition. I doctored up a little vegenaise to serve with them as a lemon garlic aioli.

Vegan Crab Cakes

1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
9 oz package vegan shredded crab meat
1/3 cup Vegenaise
1 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup water
1 scallion, finally sliced
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp urfa biber chile
1/4 tsp granulated garlic
2 tsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp pimenton
1 Tbsp vegan bacon bits
salt and pepper to taste

Lemon Garlic Aioli

1/2 cup vegenaise
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 cloves crushed garlic
salt and pepper to taste

To Make the Crab Cakes

Defrost crab if frozen. combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir to incorporate. Scoop with a spoon or ice cream scoop and form into even patties, about 2 inches in diameter. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and chill for at least 1 hour to firm up. Heat about 1 inch of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Fry in batches, being careful not to crowd the pan, until lightly browned one each side. Drain briefly on paper towels before serving.

To Make the Aioli

Stir together ingredients, adjusting as necessary for taste and consistency.

I’ve made many a vegan mac ‘n’ cheese over the years, even some great ones, but they are complicated affairs using many ingredients to achieve an acceptable flavor. Traditionally making home made macaroni and cheese is very simple, essential a bachamel sauce (milk gravy) with cheese added. After discovering Daiya cheese, I decided to try a traditonal recipie. It turned out wonderfully, perhaps even the best vegan mac I have ever had. For this batch I used cheddar flavor Daiya for the sauce and “Italian Blend” for the top. While the texture and melting of Daiya is excellent, the flavor is mild (although excellent), so in the future I may experiment with adding other vegan cheeses or other ingredients to give it a sharper flavor.

Daiya Mac ‘n’ Cheese

1 lb macaroni
1 Tbsp Earth Balance or other vegan butter
1 Tbsp flour
2 cups unsweetened soy milk
salt and pepper
2 cups Daiya shreds, plus 1/2 cup for the top
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp smoked paprika (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°. Cook macaroni until it is just a little under done (should still be a little chewy) drain and set aside. In a large saucepan, melt Earth Balance over medium high heat. Stir in flour to make a roue. Stir in milk and whisk to incorporate and cook until mixture begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper. Add 2 cups of Daiya and cook, stirring, until melted. Remove from heat and add macaroni, stirring to coat pasta well. Pour into a 2 quart baking dish and top with remaining 1/2 cup Daiya cheese. Toss bread crumbs with olive oil and paprika and spread evenly over the macaroni. Bake for about 30 min until bread crumbs are nicely browned. Remove from oven and let cool for about five min before serving.

Satay is a popular street food throughout many Southeast Asian countries traditionally consisting of skewared meat that has been marinated and grilled served with a spicy (usually peanut) sauce. If you look arround online you will find a range of recipes, all claiming to be the most authentic. Because of the wide variety of countries in which satay is found, there are many variations. I took a couple and adapted them to what I had in the pantry. I used eggplant, zucchini, and seitan, but portabello or shiitake mushrooms, tofu or tempeh would all work well. You will get the best flavor from a charcoal grill, but you can use a grill pan or even broil them.

Satay Marinade

1 inch piece of ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp coriander, ground
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Thai red curry paste
1/2 cup coconut milk
3 Tbsp sugar

eggplant, zucchini, and seitan, cut into strips
bamboo skewers

Peanut Sauce

1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp lime juice
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp Thai red curry paste
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup coconut milk

To make the satay

Combine marinade ingredient in a large ziploc bag. Add vegetables and seitan and marinate one hour to overnight. Soak skewers in water for at least 10 min. Thread vegetables onto  skewers and grill over high heat until browned on each side. Serve with peanut sauce.

To make the Peanut Sauce

Combine ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until the consistency of heavy cream, thinning with water or more coconut milk if necessary.

After making toffee, I eventually had to think of something to do with it (besides eating it in the middle of the night or sprinkling it on ice cream). I needed something quick to bake for a friend’s going away party, so I decided to jazz up some chocolate chip cookies. The toffee melts during baking making a delicious, if a little ugly, cookie. You will need batch of vegan toffee for this. To crush into pieces, place some larger pieces of toffee in a plastic bag and just whack it against the counter or pound with a skillet until they are the size you want.

Chocolate Toffee Chip Cookies

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup Earth Balance
egg replacer to equal 2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
2 cups chocoalate chips
1 cup toffee pieces

Preheate oven to 375°.
In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, cream together Earth Balance, sugars, egg replacer, and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, and salt and mix just to incorporate. Add chocolate chips and toffee and mix just enough to mix through.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat, leaving about 2 inches between cookies. Bake 8-10 min, until cookies are lightly browned around edges. Allow to cool for a few min on sheet before transfer to a cooling rack.

My success with making vegan salt caramels inspired me to venture further into candy making. My next adventure: toffee. It turns out toffee is much simpler than soft caramels. Essentially it is equal parts of sugar and butter caramelized to the proper stage. I started with this recipe and simply substituted Earth Balance and omitted the salt (because of the salt content of the Earth Balance). It turned out well, although I may have taken this first batch a little too dark. I elected to make a naked toffee as I had plans to use it as a garnish or in other dishes (stay tuned!). If you want to serve it as a candy on it’s own, you could top the toffee with nuts or chocolate (or both).

Vegan Toffee

1 cup sugar

1 cup Earth Balance

2 tsp water

1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients except vanilla in a large sauce pan (larger than you think you need) with a candy thermometer. Stir over low heat until Earth Balance and sugar have melted.

Increase heat to medium-high, stirring constantly. The mixture will bubble up as the water is cooked off. The Volume will increase dramatically at this point. After the water has evaporated, the mixture will collapse. Cook until you reach 300° on your thermometer.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Poor toffee onto a Silpat

or parchment lined baking sheet and spread into a thin layer (about 1/4 inch) with a silicone spatula. Cool in refrigerator until set. Break into pieces and store in a sealed container.

Back to the fryer for another quick recipe. This is acctually a relitivly simple treatment for tempeh, as you don’t really need to bother marinading it, and it is still tasty. From time to time you can find sea vegetable tempeh in stores, which makes a great addition if you are hankering for something more on the fishy side. Serve with malt vinegar and squeeze of lemon.

Beer Battered Tempeh

1 12oz bottle beer
2 cups four, divided
salt and pepper

1 package tempeh, cut into about six strips.

Fries

2-3 large baking potatoes

oil for frying

To make the tempeh

Heat oil to 375°. Combine beer and 1 1/2 cup flour in a shallow dish. Season with salt and pepper. Place remaining 1/2 cup flour in a separate dish. Dip each strip of tempeh in batter then dredge in flour before frying. Fry tempeh until golden brown and batter is crispy. Drain on paper towels before serving.

To make the Fries

Peel potatoes and cut into fries. Soak fries in cold water for at least 10 min. Drain fries and dry on paper towels before frying. Fry at 375° until browned. Drain on paper towels, salt, and serve.

Over all I was pleased with how it turned out. I still have some testing and revising to do on the fondant recipe. I’ll probably post some recipes and tutorials eventually, but I want to get a few things ironed out. You can click the photos below to view the full images.

So, I actually love Brussels sprouts. That is, if they are prepared well. If care is not taken, Brussels sprouts can be a little bitter and off putting. Usually I like to roast or caramelize them, but that can take time. I also like any excuse to throw something in the deep fryer. This is a quick recipe that will convert most anyone to a sprout fan. It makes a great small plate or appetizer, or works well as a side to most dishes.

Fried Brussels Sprouts

1 lb Brussels Sprouts
lemon juice
red wine vinegar
pinch crushed red pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt and pepper to taste

oil for frying

To prepare

Wash sprouts and trim the darker outer leaves. Cut into quarters. Heat oil to 355° and fry sprouts until lightly browned and crispy. Drain on paper towels. Transfer sprouts to a bowl and season to taste with lemon juice, vinegar, red pepper, garlic, salt and pepper. Toss to mix and serve.