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

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On May 12th I gave a vegan Peruvian cooking class for 14 people in Nanaimo, BC, which is about an hour south of where I live (Denman Island), but on the "Big island" (Vancouver Island).  Kelli Etheridge, of Stir Cooking School in Lantzville, BC, organized the class, and it was her friend Kimberley Plumley who suggested me-- so thank you, Kelli and Kimberley!  The class was held in the lovely mezzanine teaching kitchen at Lucky's Liquor Store in Nanaimo and I couldn't have done it without the help of the ebullient and tireless Jodie Robertshaw, Lucky's event and marketing coordinator (who also did all the dishes!!!).

I made a 4-course vegan Peruvian summer meal.  Only 3 of the participants were vegan, but everyone seemed to enjoy the vegan food.  The fresh Peruvian flavors certainly won them over! Jodie served her choices of craft beer and ale, each chosen to complement one of the courses.  I was impressed by her choices!

The first course was Causa:
a unique and delicious Peruvian cold salad that can be described as sort of cold terrine, with layers of savory, chili-laced vegetable filling and potatoes mashed in a garlicky lemon dressing. I like to use different colors of potatoes, if I can, but it wasn't the right time of the year for purple or blue potatoes. The recipe is in my book "World Vegan Feast".  Here is one of the terrines I made that night, and below that is a compilation of other Causa I have made in the past:



The second course was Salpicón De Tofu con Col (Peruvian-Style Crispy Marinated Tofu Slices and Cabbage Salad).  Below is the recipe, with a description and photos:


Printable Recipe

BRYANNA'S SALPICÓN DE TOFU CON COL (PERUVIAN-STYLE CRISPY MARINATED TOFU SLICES AND CABBAGE SALAD) 
Serves 4
This unusual cabbage salad (pronounced sal-pee-kohn day tofu kohn kohl) is not only delicious, filling and refreshing-- it's inexpensive and beautiful. Crispy fingers of pan-fried tofu cover a lemony wilted cabbage salad surrounded by colorful chunks of corn and sweet potatoes. It’s hard to describe just how terrific this salad is—suffice it to say that there’s never any left when I serve it. To keep the sodium down level down, I blanch the cabbage rather than the traditional method of wilting it with salt. We make this often for guests (this recipe is easily doubled). This recipe is a slight variation on the one in my book "World Vegan Feast".

12 Crispy Marinated Tofu Slices (I call this "Breast of Tofu"; recipe here)
Dressing:
1/4 cup aquafaba or Fat-Free Oil Substitute for Salad Dressings
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 small clove garlic, crushed
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
Salad:
3 cups thinly-sliced or shredded Savoy cabbage
1 medium red bell pepper, in matchsticks
1 small carrot, peeled, in matchsticks
1 small sweet or red onion, peeled and thinly sliced (if you only have ordinary yellow cooking onions, see the Tip below) 
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill  (or 1 teaspoon dried dill weed) 
Garnish:
1 small steamed or baked orange sweet potato, peeled and sliced into 4 pieces (cold or at room temperature) 
12  Kalamata olives or Peruvian Alfonso olives
Optional:
1 ripe Hass avocado, pitted, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes, tossed in 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Chunks of cooked corn on the cob

Whisk the Dressing ingredients together in a small bowl with a whisk. Set aside. Blanch the cabbage for about 1 minute in a large pot of boiling water-- just until wilted. Transfer it to a colander and rinse well under cold running water. Drain well.

Mix the cabbage, onion, bell pepper, carrot, dill and Dressing well. Mound on a platter and surround with Garnishes. Cut the Crispy Marinated Tofu Slices into matchsticks and arrange on top of the salad. Serve cold or at room temperature.
Tip:
#1) If You Have No Sweet Onion or Red Onion: Use an ordinary yellow cooking onion, but peel and slice it paper-thin. Transfer it to a bowl and cover it with boiling water. Let it sit for about 5 minutes, then drain and rinse it, then drain again. This removes the sharp raw onion flavor.


The third course-- the main course-- was my vegan version of Anticuchos, which are spicy West-African influenced Peruvian kebabs, served at every big gathering and purchased from street vendors to be consumed right on the sidewalk. Homemade seitan chunks make a wonderful animal-friendly substitute for these kebabs-- it's the spicy marinade and sauce that really makes the dish. Traditionally, these are served with chunks of cooked sweet potato and corn on the cob. The recipe is in my book "World Vegan Feast".  Here's a photo that Kelli took of one skewer of Anticuchos atop a mound of Salpicon:


The fourth course-- dessert-- was vegan Lucuma Ice Cream.  Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit that has a rather dry texture and is not really eaten as a fruit, but it has a "butterscotch-y" flavor and makes terrific ice cream. It's used in shakes, too.  I remember having the ice cream often while visiting Peru as a child.  It is now easy to find dried powdered lucuma in health food stores, as it is now used as natural sugar substitute by some folks.  The powder works well in ice cream-- fortunately, because it's hard to find either the fruit or frozen pulp where I live. You can find my recipe here: http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.ca/2012/08/take-3-of-vegan-peruvian-lucuma-ice.html  Here is a compilation of photos of various versions of this recipe as I was developing it:




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Here are some photos from the class and also pics of the food from a couple of days later at home, when we had the leftovers for dinner with a friend:











Enjoy!

Just wanted to let you know that an article of mine is featured in the latest issue of VegNews magazine (Aug 2014)-- a little bit of history and four colorful and scrumptious vegan-style Peruvian recipes, inspired by foods that I remember from a childhood visit to my father's family in Lima.  I hope you get a chance to see the article and try the recipes.  

UPDATE, July 2020: This magazine issue used to be available online, but is no longer. However, I I included photos of each recipe under the photo of each dish in the preview below. You can zoom up the recipe page photos to read the recipes. 

Here's a little preview:

Vegan Chikn Anticuchos (Spicy Peruvian Kebabs)

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Soltero de Queso/Bachelor's Salad

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Escabeche de Tempeh

Lucuma Ice Cream

I hope you'll try some of these-- enjoy!

This is the third summer in a row that I have tackled Peruvian lucuma ice cream, vegan-style:

Take #1, 2010: http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.ca/2010/08/some-simple-summer-meals-kitchen.html

Take #2, 2011: http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.ca/2011/08/vegan-peruvian-style-lucuma-ice-cream.html

Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit and, as many of you may know, my father was Peruvian. I remember lucuma ice cream from my three months in Peru as a six-year-old. Lucuma is a fruit with a quite dry texture, so it is mostly used to make a delectable, rich ice cream. Lucuma itself is rather sweet and has a butterscotch-y sort of flavor. When I was in Vancouver in August 2010, I found a store with Peruvian foods and bought some frozen lucuma puree-- what a coup, I thought!

Now, ideally, I would use the pulp of the fresh fruit, but it's hard to come by lucuma fruit on Vancouver Island. So, I was thrilled to find a bag of frozen lucuma pulp and I set about working out a recipe using it.  Here is what I wrote in 2010: "I worked out a recipe based on my vanilla gelato recipe made with Instant Clearjel, with the help of a (non-vegan) recipe from the internet. After splattering the kitchen with soy cream after a little accident (Mercury is in retrograde-- what can I say?), I made the mix and tasted it-- WAY too sweet!! I couldn't figure it out! My gelato is not as sweet as most, and I had used less sweetener than the non-vegan recipe called for (in relation to the volume of liquid, etc.). So, I got out my (new, under-used) reading glasses and read the small print on the bag of lucuma puree-- sugar! I had been assuming that it was unsweetened, since the label did not say 'sweetened' and the recipes I found online all called for unsweetened puree. My mistake!" (Read the rest of the adventure here.)

I ended up making a pretty successful batch after that one, with no sugar in it.  But, unfortunately, I knew that I would not be able to order lucuma pulp (sweetened or not) on the internet, so I wanted to find an alternative.  The obvious was lucuma powder. It seems that lucuma is all the rage in the raw foods community and is even used as a natural sweetener. I found some at a good price from this Canadian vendor, and ordered 2 lbs for future experiments. In August of 2011 I developed a recipe for the ice cream using the lucuma powder. It was pretty tasty, but, of course, not as good as that made with the fruit itself.

The other day I decided to use up my last bit of the sweetened lucuma puree in my freezer and make the ice cream without nondairy creamer in it.  Because I used plain, unsweetened soymilk and no creamer, I ended up adding just 2 tablespoons of agave nectar. The recipe is simple to make and I thought the texture was great.  The taste was good and we certainly enjoyed it, but I am still on the trail of a vegan, North American version with real authentic Peruvian flavor-- I'll have to track down some unsweetened puree and use more of it, but, next, I'll try using more lucuma powder and I have a few ideas up my sleeve. (If you've used these products with any success, I'd love to hear about it!)  Stay tuned!



Printable Recipe

I can't believe this week has gone by so fast! Sheesh! And here it is Thursday again! We did have a fun few days with DH's stepdaughter from Montreal and her two lovely 12-year-old twin daughters. We had a picnic the beach with some friends and 2 of my granddaughters, the girls having a great time swimming, canoeing, going out on my stepson's motor boat, and getting to know each other. We went to Salt Spring Island for a night, with the "gang" (as DH calls them) to visit more family-- driving in style in a friend's immaculate white 1972 Chevy Caprice. We would have been squished in our little car, with no air conditioning on the hottest weekend of the year, so our friend offered his ride. Very fun, and a big surprise for the Salt Spring relatives when we drove up!

But, along with company, cooking, the ordinary daily running of a house and job, family, and, of course, the Book-- hours of editing-- it's been mostly work and very little serious cooking, I'm afraid!

I did make an interesting recipe yesterday-- Lucuma ice cream (vegan, of course!). Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit and, as many of you may know, my father was Peruvian. I remember lucuma ice cream from my three months in Peru as a six-year-old. Lucuma is a fruit with a quite dry texture, so it isn't eaten as a fruit, per se. Mostly it is used for a delectable, rich ice cream. Lucuma is rather sweet and has a butterscotch-y sort of flavor. When I was in Vancouver last, I found a store with Peruvian foods and bought some frozen lucuma puree-- what a coup, I thought!

Yesterday I worked out a recipe based on my vanilla gelato recipe made with Instant Clearjel®, with the help of a (non-vegan) recipe from the internet. After splattering the kitchen with soy cream after a little accident (Mercury is in retrograde-- what can I say?), I made the mix and tasted it-- WAY too sweet!! I couldn't figure it out! My gelato is not as sweet as most, and I had used less sweetener than the non-vegan recipe called for (in relation to the volume of liquid, etc.). So, I got out my (new, under-used) reading glasses and read the small print on the bag of lucuma puree-- sugar! I had been assuming that it was unsweetened, since the label did not say "sweetened" and the recipes I found online all called for unsweetened puree. My mistake!

I tried diluting it with more soymilk-- still overpoweringly sweet! (I now have about 2 quarts of very sweet milky liquid in the fridge that I have to think of some ways to use!  Any ideas?) So, I started over and used no sweetener at all. It still tasted too sweet to me, but I know that when food is frozen, the sweetness is not as apparent, so there was hope. I stuck it in the freezer and hoped for the best, as I was hoping to take it to a family dinner with my sister and my mother on Friday-- they will remember this treat, too!

Last night I looked for unsweetened lucuma puree in Canada online-- no luck. But I did find lucuma powder. It seems that lucuma is all the rage in the raw foods community and is even used as a natural sweetener. I found some at a good price from this Canadian vendor, and ordered 2 lbs for future experiments!

BTW, lucuma is being called a "superfood", but I think this is somewhat of an exaggeration. It's true that it has lots of fiber and beta carotene, but, then, so do carrots! It is high in natural carbohydrates, so it was used by the Incas to provide energy, and evidently the trees are very prolific-- no wonder it was a popular food. Tasting sweet and butterscotch-y didn't hurt! I just feel that we should not go hog wild over exotic foods that are supposed to provide miraculous nutrients, when, in fact, we have foods at home that are just as good, more available, and much cheaper! For me, his is an exotic treat to relive some childhood memories.

Anyway, that said, we tried a bit of the ice cream when I was photographing it and re-packing it, and it is delicious! Here is the recipe I used with the sweetened puree, but I plan to try it again with the lucuma powder and will report back!


Printable Recipe

Update Aug. 2012: See a recipe for Vegan Lucuma Ice Cream using lucuma powder here. And stay tuned for Take 3!

BRYANNA'S VEGAN LUCUMA ICE CREAM (PERUVIAN), TAKE 1 (WITH SWEETENED LUCUMA PUREE)
Servings: 10
Yield: 5 cups

1 1/2 cups soy creamer (plain)
1 1/2 cups nondairy milk
1 1/2 cups lucuma puree (with sugar)
3/4 cup raw cashews or cashew pieces, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes and drained
(if allergic to nuts, use 1/2 cup more nondairy milk, or soy creamer, and 2 tablespoons oil)
1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
3/8 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons Instant Clearjel® (see info below recipe)OR 3/8 tsp. guar gum or xanthan gum

Place the creamer, milk, and lucuma puree into a blender along with the soaked, drained cashews, and blend until VERY smooth and frothy (make sure that it is not grainy at all).

Mix all of the remaining ingredients, into this mixture and blend again until it is VERY smooth.

Chill the gelato mixture thoroughly, and then freeze according to directions for your ice cream machine. Scoop into a quart plastic container, cover and freeze for several hours (preferably 24 hours) before serving.


Keep cool!