Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

***I will not be blogging for about 1 1/2 weeks-- I'm going to Whitehorse, Yukon!***


Our Thanksgiving meal: (clockwise from top L) roasted butternut squash slices with orange juice and spices; Garlic and Herb Crusted Soy and Seitan "Pork Tenderloin" Roast (from the Vegan Feast newsletter); my vegan brown gravy with sauteed chanterelles; Succotash from my vegan holiday cookbook (green beans, lima beans, corn, red peppers, and green onions); Orange and Rosemary Cranberry sauce (from my upcoming issue of the Vegan Feast); Traditional vegan bread stuffing; and mashed potatoes.

Dessert-- recipe below!

We celebrated last night with three vegan friends. We didn't have our usual big family dinner this year, due to various circumstances (but we'll get together next month for my mother's 90th birthday!). It was a spur of the moment dinner, because we were going to (perish the thought!) skip it altogether, since I'm down to the crunch getting the new issue of the Vegan Feast newsletter done and my house was less than tidy, shall we say. But I couldn't NOT have a harvest dinner, and I had one of my Soy and Seitan "Pork Tenderloin" roasts in the freezer (the one from the Everyday Dish DVD), a nice squash, some chanterelles, and some cranberries, so, I invited some close vegan friends who don't have family nearby and whose company we always enjoy.

The meal was ready from start to finish in 3 hours, and we stuffed ourselves with good food and great conversation! The main dish was made with my (thawed) frozen seitan "pork tenderloin", covered in a garlicky crust:



Leftover "pork tenderloin" is great in sandwiches with leftover cranberry sauce and vegan mayo! Crusty bread or rolls is the best, but it's good with any good bread;





We ended the meal with the following Ginger Apple Crumb Pie, topped by a creamy dessert sauce.

Hope all you fellow Canadians had a great weekend!



Printable Recipe (both recipes)
GINGER APPLE CRUMB PIE

This is my version of a recipe by Wendy Kalen from the Nov. 2004 issue of Fine Cooking magazine. I used my Lowfat Wholewheat Oil Pastry, which is in all of my books, I think. I used wholewheat pastry flour and a little less sugar in the crumb topping, and substituted vegan buttery spread for the butter called for (and half as much!). My guests ate every ginger-y crumb! We ate it with the Creamy Cashew-Pear sauce on top, but a vanilla vegan "ice cream" would be good, too. (I calculated the Nutrition Facts using my Lowfat Wholewheat Oil pastry crust.)

1/ 9" pie crust (your favorite)
Filling:
6 medium apples, peeled, cored and thinly-sliced
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbs unbleached white flour
Ginger Topping:
1 cup wholewheat pastry flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 pinch salt
1/4 cup vegan buttery spread (try my homemade vegan palm-oil-free Buttah)

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Make the crust and place it in the refrigerator until ready to fill.

Mix the sliced apples with the other filling ingredients and pile into the pie crust.

Mix the Topping ingredients with a pastry cutter, in a food processor, or with your fingers, until like crumbs. Top the apples evenly with the Crumb Topping.

Place the pie plate on a cookie sheet (to catch any drips!) and bake at 425°F for 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 375°F and bake another 30-35 minutes, or until the apples are tender and teh top is nicely browned.

Servings: 8

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 342.9 calories; 30% calories from fat; 11.5g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 192.9mg sodium; 255.0mg potassium; 58.4g carbohydrates; 4.3g fiber; 31.3g sugar; 54.1g net carbs; 4.6g protein; 7.0 points.


BRYANNA'S CREAMY CASHEW-PEAR DESSERT SAUCE (WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HOLLY!)

We couldn't get any vegan vanilla "ice cream" on the island yesterday, so I decided to make a sauce to go with the apple pie. I started adding cashews to soymilk in the Vita-Mix, and my friend Holly, who is a third-generation vegetarian (!!), mentioned that her mother used to make a similar sauce, but she added pears to it. So, since I had two large ripe pears that needed using, here is my version, which she said tasted very similar to her mother's. It is luscious, and would be good on steamed pudding, chocolate cake, or anything else you can think of!

3/4 cup soymilk (or other nondairy milk)
1/4 cup organic cashew pieces
2 large ripe pears, peeled and cored and cut up (the pears should not be firm or hard, and should be sweet)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 pinch salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender or Vita-Mix and blend until VERY smooth. Place in a covered bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Servings: 8
Yield: 2 cups

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 61.5 calories; 30% calories from fat; 2.2g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 47.6mg sodium; 118.5mg potassium; 10.0g carbohydrates; 1.9g fiber; 6.0g sugar; 8.2g net carbs; 1.5g protein; 1.0 points.

Enjoy!

Just a note to say that we have no phone (and, thus, Internet) access (I'm writing from work again, but I won't be back for a week), and they're not giving us much hope for a speedy recovery. Apparently it's a two-man job, but they won't send another guy out. The local (very kind) technician said he might be able to do a temporary patch job if my DH helped, so we'll see.

UPDATE 5PM: We have phone and internet access again! The technician came late in the day and my husband just phoned and said it was patched up, so, barring any big windstorms, it should hold until he comes back. Sunday there is a forecast of winds up to 90k an hour, but that's less than the last big storm that hit.

In the meantime, I'm keeping busy making food ahead of the holiday and doing a little decorating. Yesterday I made two seitan "pork" roasts:



and two seitan "turkey" roasts :



I also made some vegan Tourtière (a French-Canadian "meat" pie which DH, who comes from Quebec, MUST have every year on Christmas Eve):



The recipe was in an article that I wrote for Vegetarian Times magazine in 1995-- but now I use a package of Yves "Ground Round" (vegan "hamburger" crumbles) instead of the ground seitan. The recipe, unfortunately is not available online, though you can access it through your local libary electronic magazine archives. (NOTE: In the recipe on that site, the baking time inexplicably reads "SO"-- it should read "50-60 minutes, or until the pastry is done to your liking".)  You'll find other French-Canadian recipes there, and some background on the Réveillon (REV-e-yawn), or Christmas Eve, feasting and traditions. UPDATE: DEC. 2014:  See my new vegan Tourtière recipe here!


HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU ALL (and I'd love to hear about your vegan holiday feasting)!