The Cheese Soufflé Also Rises

Cheese Soufflé.  Mmmm.  This recipe intrigued me from the very start, when I got my copy of Darren's book.  But getting a soufflé to both rise and have the texture of a cloud without eggs was the challenge (see my notes in June's entry on the Spinach Soufflé).  I began by following Darren's recipe very closely, substituting tofu for the eggs, but keeping everything else the same, albeit the vegan versions.  The first attempt was downright ghastly.  Liquid tofu with too much hot spice was definitely not something the Queen would order, and neither would I!  But after exploring both my cookbook shelf and the internet for various recipes that produce an impressive rise in the oven, I decided to change the nature of this soufflé.  While the original may be a traditional egg souffle that gets a kick from cayenne pepper, mine is more of a... three cheese pastry that rises like waffles, or perhaps biscuits in the oven.

Does a cheese-bread soufflé sound odd?  Perhaps.  But when was the last time you met a cheesy bread you didn't like?  Instead of layering cheese onto a loaf of French bread and sticking it in the oven, this one is baked all together, producing a deliciously creamy, light, golden browned soufflé.  But don't take my word for it.  Try it yourself, and see how the puffs of meringue-like batter rise up in your oven to golden heights.  I may never settle for ordinary cheese bread again!

Cheese Soufflé

Earth Balance vegan butter, for greasing your soufflé dish

1 T. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

½ t. salt

½ c. all-purpose flour

½ c. potato starch (Bob’s Red Mill is one brand)

½ c. grated vegan Parmesan (Galaxy Foods brand is my favorite, by far)

1 pkg. vegan cream cheese (Tofutti brand, Follow Your Heart Brand, etc.)

1 pkg. vegan Mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese (Vegan Gourmet is great)

¼ c. Earth Balance

1 c. regular (unflavored) soy creamer (Silk is a good one)

1 19 oz. pkg. soft tofu

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place a baking sheet in the center of the oven.  Grease an 8 inch soufflé dish thoroughly with the Earth Balance butter, making sure to get the top edge as well.  With any luck, your soufflé will rise, and you don’t want it to stick to the top.  Put your greased soufflé dish in the fridge.

Put the tofu into a food processor and processes until smooth and creamy.  Add the cream cheese and process again.  Slowly pour in the cup of creamer through the top “shoot” of the processor, as you continue to process the next ingredients.  Break up the block of Mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese and add it to the food processor.  Process again until everything is creamy.  Add the Parmesan and Earth Balance vegan butter and process one more time until smooth.  Set aside.  Sift together the flour, potato starch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Combine the dry ingredients with the wet and pour very carefully into your prepared soufflé dish.

Put the soufflé on the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 45 minutes or a little longer.  When it is ready, it should be golden brown on top and sky high.

Serve warm with additional creamer to pour over.

Pojarski Smitane

Pojarski Smitane

(Russian meatballs with sour cream sauce)

First of all, please don’t ask me how to pronounce the name of this recipe.  I haven’t a clue.  In my house, we grew up cooking AEbleskiver.  I can pronounce that for you.  I can even veganize it so that the batter tastes the same as the original when you lick the bowl.  But Pojarski Smitane is a new one to me. 

I was never that big a fan of meatballs before I gave up meat, to tell the truth.  They were “just OK”.  This is a very good version of Russian meatballs, complete with a yummy sauce served with sour cream and fresh dill.  I hope you will find it much tastier than “just OK”.  приятного аппетита!  (That’s Russian for “Bon Appetite,” according to Google Translate.)

For the “meatballs”:

4 slices good, white bread (not the pre-sliced version that comes in a bag with brightly coloured polka dots on it!)

1 cup soymilk

1 lemon, juiced and zested

1 lb. tempeh (plain or soy flavored, not the fancy teriyaki or garden varieties)

 3 cloves garlic, crushed or pressed

½ c. vegan Parmesean cheese, grated (I like the little purple can made by Galaxy Nutritional Foods.  It tastes just like the real thing you ate as a kid in the ‘70s that came in a giant green can)

½ c. finely diced red bell pepper

½ c. finely diced celery

¼ t. celery seed

¼ c. finely chopped fresh dill

¼ c. finely chopped green onions (the green ends rather than the white bulbs)

Vegetable oil for frying

For the sauce:

¼ c. vegan butter, such as Earth Balance brand

1 c. finely diced shallot

½ c. good white wine (if you wouldn’t drink it straight, it doesn’t belong in your cooking)

2 T. all purpose flour

1 T. paprika

1 c. vegan broth, beef flavoured, if possible (Edward and Sons makes a good beef flavored bouillon cube, and Better Than Bouillon makes a good “no beef” flavored paste)

½ c. vegan creamer, plain or regular flavoured

1 T. lemon juice

½ c. vegan sour cream (I like Toffutti brand’s version)

¼ c. finely chopped fresh dill

Start off by making vegan buttermilk: pour the tablespoon or two of juice you get out of a lemon into the cup of soymilk and stir it to mix it throughout.  Allow it to stand for several minutes to “curdle” the soymilk slightly.  In the meantime, cut the loaf of white bread into 4 slices, maybe up to an inch thick.  Remove the crusts as well as you can, and cut the bread into little pieces (approximately ¼ inch cubes).  Put the bread into a bowl and pour the “buttermilk” over it, stirring to coat each piece.  Set aside and allow bread to soak for a minimum of ten minutes.

Using the grater attachment on a food processor, shred the tempeh.  Put the shredded tempeh into a large bowl and add the rest of the meatball ingredients.  (I literally threw a red bell pepper, seeded and chopped into big chunks, a few stalks of cleaned celery, the garlic, and a few green onions that had been peeled and cleaned into the food processor with the regular blade and pulsed a few times until everything was diced.)  Mix well.  Add the buttermilk soaked bread and mix again. 

You may find it works better to give up on the spoon you were stirring everything with and just use your hands to really mix everything together.  Form the mixture into “meatballs,” or as Darren does it, into tear drop shapes that are 3” long, 2” at the widest part, and1 ¼” thick.  Put the “meatballs” in the fridge while you make the sauce.

While the meatballs are chilling, melt the butter in a medium sized sauce pan and chop the shallots finely in a food processor.  Sauté the shallots in the butter until soft, then add the wine and bring to a boil.  Cook this mixture for several minutes.  Make your beef flavored broth (I used the microwave) while the shallots and wine are cooking.  Remove the shallots from heat and whisk in the flour and paprika.  Keep whisking as you add the broth and the creamer.  Heat gently and add the lemon juice.  Keep warm, but do not boil.

Pour about a quarter of a cup of vegetable oil into a large skillet.  When it is nice and hot, begin frying the meatballs that have been chilling in the fridge.  Fry them for approximately 3 minutes on each side, cooking them in batches and removing them to paper towel lined plates when they are done.

Chef McGrady serves the dish by pouring the sauce on a large platter and topping with the meatballs around the edge of the platter.  He then swirls the sour cream in the middle and sprinkles everything with the chopped dill.  If I’m not serving this at a fancy dinner party that the Queen of England might want to attend, I add the sour cream directly to the sauce once it’s cooked and put the meatballs on a plate (or in a corningware container in my lunch bag to take to work) and spoon a little sauce over them.  A dash of fresh dill scattered on top is the final touch.

Spinach Souffle

I don't recall having had many souffles before I went vegan.  In fact, I don't recall one at all.  My first experience with any souffle was when as a teenager, I was inspired by one Julia Child made on tv.  I attempted it, changing a few ingredients here and there, depending on what we had in the house.  My souffle collapsed, and I renamed it "suffle".  I later tried a second attempt, keeping closer to the original ingredients used by Ms. Child, and it too collapsed into an entirely American pronunciation.

Darren McGrady has a great story in his book about how difficult souffles can be to master, even for some of his fellow chefs in the Royal Kitchens.  So it wasn't just me!  I did some searching online recently to see what a traditional souffle should be like, to compare it with how my vegan version of this spinach souffle turned out.  I read that "eating a souffle should be like eating a cloud."  I asked my husband, Prince Consort, if he thought eating this vegan concoction of mine was like eating a cloud.  "Hmmmm," he answered.  "It may be like eating a really creamy, savoury cloud, I guess."  We debated about what might have the texture of a cloud, and we came up with popovers, with their light, air-filled pastry, and cotton candy.  This souffle is not like a popover or like cotton candy.  But it is very creamy and smooth, and downright tasty.  And if the Queen of England likes the original version enough to request it for dessert on occasion, it's good enough for me!

Earth Balance or other vegan butter, room temperature (for greasing the dish)
20 oz. frozen spinach
1/2 c. all purpose flour
4 T. Earth Balance or equivalent
1 1/4 c. unflavored soy milk
1/2 c. unflavored soy creamer
19 oz. soft tofu
1 block Follow Your Heart brand Vegan Gourmet mozzarella cheese
1/2 t. nutmeg

Chef McGrady uses fresh spinach, blanching it briefly before shredding it in a food processor.  If you have the time and inclination, by all means do so.  I found that frozen spinach worked very well and tasted just fine in the final product, so I am using it here for it's greater convenience.  Thaw your spinach in the microwave, squeeze out all excess water, and either shred the thawed spinach in a food processor if you want it to be really well grated, or simply use it as is, like I did.

Adjust your oven racks so that the top rack is in the middle of the oven.  Pre-heat the oven to 400.  Using the room temperature vegan butter, grease your souffle pan heavily, leaving an eighth of an inch thick layer all around the top.  If you don't have a souffle dish, use the deepest dish you can find, as the souffle needs to be able to rise up the sides of it to great heights.  Darren suggests an 8 inch souffle dish.  I used a slightly smaller souffle dish, and the souffle did spill over the edges a bit, making rather a mess, albeit a yummy mess.

In a food processor, whirl the tofu until it is completely smooth.  Add the vegan mozzarella in chunks, and continue processing until smooth.  In a medium to large sauce pan, heat the flour, butter, soymilk, and soy creamer over high heat, whisking constantly until you have a nice, thick sauce.  Add the tofu-cheese mixture and continue whisking for a few minutes.  Stir in the chopped spinach and nutmeg.  Pour everything into the greased souffle dish, slide a baking sheet under the dish, and put the whole thing into the oven, on the top rack in the middle.  Bake for 50 minutes, checking once after about 30.  You don't want to be opening the oven door often, or your souffle won't rise as well as it should.

When your souffle is slightly golden brown, slide a knife into it at the edge.  If the souffle is still liquidy, give it some more time.  If the souffle is creamy, but no liquid is left, leave the souffle in the oven and turn off the heat.  It is done when there is no liquid left and the top is a bit crispy.

Serve hot with creamy mushroom sauce:

1 10 ounce bag of cleaned, sliced mushrooms (white button or crimini)
a few tablespoons of a good, white wine
1 large shallot, chopped finely
a clove or two of fresh garlic, chopped or pressed, optional
1 c. unflavored soy creamer

Saute the shallot and optional garlic in the white wine for a few minutes before adding the mushrooms.  Cook until the mushrooms have given off their liquid, and the liquid has cooked off.  When the mushrooms are fully cooked, and there is very little liquid left from either the mushrooms or the wine, stir in the creamer.  Cook for another minute or two, and serve with the hot souffle.

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

Apparently, the original version of this recipe was made as the Groom's Cake at Prince William's and Kate Middleton's wedding.  According to Darren's book, both the Queen and Prince William love this chocolate-tea biscuit combination, and I must admit, it is darn yummy!  Here's my vegan version, with proportions for a more American sized cake.

1 cup vegan butter, such as Earth Balance, at room temperature
2 cups Vegan sugar, such as evaporated cane juice, or anything not processed with animal bones
2 cups vegan chocolate chips
1 cup applesauce
4 cups McVities Rich Tea Biscuits (about 120),(Or honestly, if you don't happen to have a British Tea Supply shoppe within walking distance, you can use vegan animal crackers. They taste very similar!)

Icing: 12 oz vegan chocolate chips

Grease a 9" springform pan very thoroughly with Earth Balance vegan butter.  In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar with the applesauce until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.  In a microwave, melt the 2 cups of chocolate chips 30 seconds at a time, stirring after every time. Stir in butter mixture.  Fold in biscuits or animal crackers, stirring until well coated.

Spoon biscuit mixture into the prepared cake pan, filling all gaps on the bottom (it will be the top when unmolded). Refrigerate, covered, at least 3 hours until cold and firm.  Remove cake from fridge. Remove ring from springform pan. Place 4 or 5 pieces of waxed paper on a serving plate at the edges, leaving the center area alone.  Ideally, you want to have the edges of the paper under the cake when you put it on the plate.  After the cake is frosted, you will pull these pieces of paper out from under the cake, leaving a clean, frosting-free plate edge.  Turn the cake upside down onto the serving plate so that there is a piece of waxed paper under all edges of the cake.   

In the microwave, melt the rest of the chocolate chips, stirring between each 30 second nuking. Slowly pour over cake, filling crevices and smoothing top and sides using a knife or spatula. Carefully slide each piece of waxed paper out from under the cake.  Put the cake back into the fridge to set for at least 1 hour.  Slice into pieces and, if desired, stick into the freezer.  Have you ever put your Girl Scout thin mint cookies in the freezer before consuming the entire box?  Yeah, it's kind of like that.  Only totally vegan!

Makes 8 servings.

Banana Flan

This makes (2)  9 1/2" tarts.  If you have a deeper pan or make it more like a pie, you may be able to fit it all into one pan.



For the pastry:
2/3 c. sugar
3/4 c. vegan butter, such as Earth Balance
1 c. vegan butter flavored shortening
1/2 mashed banana
1 t. vanilla extract
3 2/3 c. all purpose flour



For the filling:
19 oz. soft tofu, drained and patted dry
1 13.5 oz. can full-fat coconut milk
3/4 c. sugar
3 T. vanilla (yes, Tablespoons, not teaspoons, so you don't have an overpowering coconut or tofu taste)
1/4 c. cornstarch
pinch of salt
1 T. softened vegan butter



For the topping:
8 ripe bananas
1 10 oz. jar apricot jelly



Prepare the pastry:

In a food processor, combine the banana, sugar, butter, shortening, and vanilla. Pulse until smooth, and then add the flour. Tip out onto a floured surface and mix to form a smooth dough.  Divide dough into 2 roughly equal balls and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Ideally, you would now roll the dough into two perfect circles and be able to pick them up carefully and place them in your tart pans.  But this is not an ideal world.  I have found it much easier to avoid the heartbreak (and swearing) of broken crusts by placing each ball of dough into a tart pan and pressing them with your hands into a nice, even, flat crust.  Press the edges up into the fluted rim of the tart pan and get on with your life.  If you are a perfectionist, by all means, attempt to roll the dough into 1/4" and lay it into the tart pan beautifully.  But you are a better pastry chef master than I!

At any rate, once you have your beautiful crusts in your tart pans, stick them back in the refrigerator for another 45 minutes.  Pre-heat your oven during this break to 350, and when the 45 minutes are up, poke several air holes in your crusts using a fork and blind bake for 30-40 minutes, until light golden brown.  What's that?  You don't know what blind baking is?  Well, if you're a really dedicated baker, you probably already have what's known as blind baking beans, or some fancy weights you got from an even fancier kitchen store that were made for this purpose.  The point is to keep your lovely crusts flat and even, so that when you pour your filling in later, there will be room for the filling.  Otherwise, the crust will tend to rise up while baking and not be very crust-like at all when they are done.  If you don't have blind baking beans (which are essentially dried beans, lentils, or any other type of legume that you use for this purpose only) or fancy baking weights, you can improvise.  The first time I made this recipe, I put a sheet of wax paper over the crust, set a 9" pie plate on top of that, and weighted it with canned goods.  I think that was a bit more than was required, and the next time I made this, I literally left the crusts empty and just smacked them with a spatula every ten minutes or so of baking.  I think I'll try getting some beans next time.

When your crusts are done baking, remove them from the oven to cool, and prepare the filling:

  

In a food processor, pulse the tofu until it is smooth and creamy.  Add the rest of the ingredients, processing until well combined. Pour the filling into a heavy sauce pan and heat.  Whisk constantly until the pastry cream thickens (about 4 minutes), and then remove from the heat.  Spoon the filling into the crusts, then stick the tarts back in the fridge.

A few minutes before serving, remove the well-chilled tarts from the fridge and cover them with sliced bananas.  Heat the apricot jelly until it is liquid, and brush the jelly over the banana slices.