After a lovely 5 days on the beaches of Florida, we are back home and back to cooking! Actually, we cooked all but a couple of our meals while on vacation but I am back to my own beloved kitchen and pantry staples and it is so good to be home! I made two fabulous meals today - and after a few meals of mediocre status in the last couple of weeks, I was so happy! I guess that's the hard part about trying so many new recipes - you are bound to make several that are just "ok". Anyway - my 2 meals today were outstanding in my opinion!! For lunch I made an adapted version of Pine-Nut Crusted Gardein from Conscious Cook (the picture isn't great but it really was delish!) and for dinner I made a polenta dish that was a perfect meal for my gluten-intolerant father-in-law (who came to dinner tonight!). I am loving polenta more and more! I always loved eating it at my sister's house (she makes really great polenta and makes it quite frequently in fact!) but up until a couple weeks ago had never tried it myself. Mmmm - so yummy! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the polenta and when I realized, there were no leftovers to photograph! Oh well.
I find recipes in the Conscious Cook to be pretty detailed and lengthy. I have abbreviated this recipe and also modified it in several places so the recipe is not as it appears in the book!
Pine-nut-and-basil Seared Gardein With Lobster Mushroom Beurre Blanc
For the "Chicken"
1 cup toasted almonds (instead of using the outrageously pricey pine nuts!!)
1 cup flour
1 T dried basil
8 (2 oz) Gardein frozen scaloppini, thawed
Sea salt and black pepper
4 T canola oil
Place almonds, flour, and basil in food processor and pulse until coarsely crumbled. Place in pie plate. Flatten scaloppini with your hand to 1/2 inch thick. Season with salt and pepper. Press each side into crumb mixture. Heat oil in skillet and pan-fry fillets until golden. Keep warm.
For the mushroom beurre blanc
1 t olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
8 oz package of button mushrooms, sliced (I chose to slice instead of chop finely because my family doesn't like mushrooms and bigger pieces are easier to pick out!)
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup cashew cream (see recipe below)
2 T nutritional yeast
6 T Earth Balance
Heat oil in skillet. Add onions and saute until translucent. Add mushrooms and saute 2-3 min. Add broth and cook until reduced by half. Add cashew cream and cook 5 min. Whisk in nutritional yeast. Remove from heat and stir in Earth Balance 1 T at a time.
Top scaloppini pieces with mushroom sauce and serve.
His version is much more elegant and looks far more beautiful but I used what I had and didn't purchase some of the pricier ingredients (pine nuts and lobster mushrooms) but this was truly an incredibly delicious meal!! My 4 yr old loved the "chicken" and told me he loved it so much! Thrilled my little vegan-cook's heart!!
Polenta and Veggies (Source: The Complete Vegan Cookbook)3 T olive oil
4 cloves crushed garlic
1 t fennel seeds
1/2 t dried chili flakes
1 EACH red, green, yellow pepper, sliced
1 8 oz package mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1/2 t dried rosemary
1/4 t salt
1 cup vegetable broth
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
6 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups uncooked polenta
Heat the oil in a skillet. Stir in garlic, onion, fennel and chili flakes. Cook until onions are translucent. Add mushrooms and peppers and continue to saute about 1-2 min. Add parsley, rosemary, 1/4 t salt, and 1 cup broth. Cook about 10 min or until liquid has reduced to about half. Set aside and keep warm.
Bring the remaining broth to a boil. Pour in polenta in a steady stream, whisking constantly. Reduce heat and simmer 20 min. When polenta begins to pull away from sides, it is done.
To serve, spoon polenta into bowls and top with veggies.
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