Ulpia's Thanksgiving - Pastry-Wrapped Portobellos with Madeira Sauce; Sweet Potato and Apple Gratin; Chocolate Mousse Cake

This year I celebrated my first Thanksgiving as a vegan and as a devoted cook. My family very obligingly gave me free reign with the meal preparation. So I packed my spices, measuring cups, and a cake pan into my luggage (causing the man at the airport to curiously open said luggage up), enlisted my grandmother's help, and got to cooking. The entire meal, two desserts and a gratin included, took me almost nine hours to complete (with plenty of breaks for snacking in between, and some waiting around the oven). But boy was it worth it! Batgirl's post about the Pastry-Wrapped Portobellos (page 331) with Madeira Sauce (page 546) convinced me I had to make them the centerpiece of my meal. Completely independently, my mom thought so too; minutes after I'd decided, she sent me an e-mail telling me as much.


With my grandma's invaluable cleaning, chopping and dough-rolling help, it came together wonderfully (and a lot faster than if I had been on my own). And it was pure glory. Alongside, we made the Sweet Potato and Apple Gratin (page 379)—oh sweet, sweet baked goodness. I had no gratin dish, but a deep pan worked splendidly.


My dad's words were “This fits everyone's tastes.” and then “I could eat ten of these!” (They're pretty big...and I agree with him completely.) I think I've succeeded in impressing them. No, actually, I floored them. Well, I was just the medium; this book is what came through for me—yes. Just, yes. A hearty, please-more-now yes! This is most definitely and without a shred of a doubt something I will be making again for festive occasions or any time I'm looking to impress. (Don't let that nine-hour-comment deter you from making this, the mushrooms themselves took less than an hour to make. Which means I really did take a lot of snacking breaks.)


And of course, no festive meal is complete without plenty of dessert. The Chocolate Mousse Cake (page 445) which I'd made before for them was requested. I happily obliged. (And baked up a Double-Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake too for good measure.)


My friend and her mother who live a few houses down happened to drop by and I instantly put together plates for them—they had to try this stuff too. They were particularly enamored with the gratin, insisting that I share the recipe. Then I pushed some dessert on them, too, and they loved it. That makes six omnivore vouches for this meal.


My grandma got creative with the stuffing I had left over, added more mushrooms, and made a lovely salad (we use the term “salad” loosely in Romanian, obviously). My dad and I scarfed it down before anyone else even saw it. It was very delicious. Very.

My first vegan Thanksgiving was a smashing success. Simply smashing!

- - Ulpia, thankful for her wonderful sous chef and trusting parents - -

Pastry-Wrapped Portobellos w/ Basic Mashed Potatoes & Madeira Sauce

I ashamed to confess this, but for me food in rarely just functional. As much as I hate the term, I'm a "foodie" to the core. If something doesn't taste amazing, I will eat a couple of bite, but that's about it. I'm always searching for that next euphoric food experience.

Pastry-Wrapped Portobellos {page 331} with Basic Mashed Potatoes {page 373} and Madeira Sauce {page 546} was one such euphoric experience.

Flaky golden pastry encases a tender portobello mushroom, filled with a walnut stuffing. Paired with the creaminess of the mashed potatoes and the deep, complex richness of the Madeira sauce, it was a flavor party in my mouth.

As I was eating this meal, it occurred to me that the mushrooms would make an AWESOME main dish for Thanksgiving. If anyone is still searching for the perfect centerpiece for your Thanksgiving feast, this just might be the thing.

One more thing I wanted to mention -- when I looked at the recipes this evening, the whole meal felt very daunting to make. However, it came together really quickly. I went into the kitchen at 4:45pm, did a bunch of dishes, and still had dinner on the table by 6pm. So...don't let the "fanciness" of this dissuade you, it's actually really easy to put together.

Pastry-Wrapped Portobellos is definitely a recipe worth buying this book for.

-- Your Friendly Neighborhood Batgirl

Stuffed Baked Seitan Roast

I am a seitan junkie. There, I said it. Actually I am pretty sure I've said it already. :p As mentioned previously, even though I have my own favourite seitan recipes for all different applications, I'll still make any seitan recipe I come across. So of course I had to make the Stuffed Baked Seitan Roast (page 306) which uses dough from the recipe for Basic Simmered Seitan (page 305) and topped with Mushroom Sauce (page 546).

This stuffed roast recipe is fairly straight forward — make the stuffing, make the dough, roll it up and bake. Sounds easy? It was.

The stuffing was super easy to pull together. The recipe for that is fairly basic so you'll want to adjust to your tastes. Everyone has a different idea of what an ideal stuffing is and it is usually based on what you grew up with. Well, I grew up with Stove Top stuffing (yes, really!) so I judge all others by my memory of that stuffing which was my favourite part of holiday dinners. So because I have had a fondness for Stove Top, I wanted a super salty, overly seasoned stuffing. :p I added in some vegetable bouillon powder, some extra sage and thyme and a few dollops of margarine.

The seitan dough is also a fairly basic dough with a neutral taste that goes well with a delicious gravy or sauce. The dough was easy to put together with the most challenging part being to flatten and stretch it out. Robin uses a food processor to mix her seitan dough but I prefer using my hands. I make seitan a lot so I know by feel how much to knead it and whether it needs a touch more liquid. Now there's nothing wrong with the seitan dough for this application (baked, not simmered), but because it is not simmered in broth it was a little too neutral tasting for me. I think it would definitely benefit from more soy sauce and more seasonings as well as a spoon or two of chickpea flour for texture (my personal taste as I rarely make seitan with just vital wheat gluten and always add in chickpea or soy flour). Another thing that would take this to the next level would be a basting or glazing liquid since the top gets a bit crispy in the oven and can be hard to slice through straight out of the oven. Next time I'll also place in a loaf pan since the log seemed to flatten a bit during baking on just a flat pan. As with all seitan, it is better the next day after resting in the refrigerator.

All in all, this was a great basic recipe with loads of room to customise. It is especially a good recipe for those new to seitan and wanting to try something a little fancier like a stuffed roast. From start to finish, including baking time, was about 1.5 hours with (IMHO) fairly minimal prep work so you could totally whip this up for a weeknight dinner like I did. I'll definitely make this again but with some of the modifications I mentioned.

— Ms. Veganorama
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Previous blog entries:

Basic Simmered Seitan: 1, 2
Mushroom Sauce: 1, 2, 3