Today was such a beautiful day.  Beautiful Sundays always make me want to set out an amazing brunch.  Brunch is definitely one of my favorite meals.  I love the laziness of brunch;  I love to linger over the delicious foods, reading the paper, and enjoying life.  Brunch to me means relaxation.  My absolute favorite brunch food has always been eggs benedict, and my vegan version, which has been a work-in-progress for some time now, is so great that I will post it soon.  Today, however, I made another of my favorites.  Quiche Lorraine.  Quiche Lorraine?  How can that be vegan, you may be asking.  After all, not only is quiche usually made with eggs and cream, but Quiche Lorraine also has bacon and cheese.  Pretty hard to veganize, right?  Wrong!!  This vegan version is savory and delicious, as well as nutritious, and is the perfect way to enjoy a lazy Sunday brunch.  A green salad, a fruit salad, and this quiche, and my Sunday afternoon is complete!

For the frozen pie crust, I prefer wholly wholesome, found in specialty stores, but many major supermarket chains carry vegan ones, such as shoprite – just check the ingredients and make sure there is no butter or eggs.  You will be surprised how many frozen pie crusts contain neither!

• 1 9″ frozen pie crust
• 1 lb extra firm tofu, pressed
• 1/2 cup raw cashew nuts
• 2 T nutritional yeast
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 vegan beef bouillon cube (I prefer Edwards and Sons not-beef)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 slices fakin bacon
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t onion powder
• 1/3 cup vegan cheddar shreds, such as Daiya

Preheat oven to 425.

Press the tofu in a tofu press, or place it on a plate with another plate on top and some heavy objects, such as books or heavy pots, on top of that.  Leave for about 20 minutes and the liquid will be released.

In the meantime, lightly grease a small pan and brown the fakin bacon on both sides over medium high heat.  Remove from pan and cut into small pieces.  Set aside.

Place the cashews, tofu and nutritional yeast in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.  Pour into a large bowl and set aside.

Add olive oil to a large pan over medium high heat.  Saute onion until translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add the bouillon, salt and onion powder to the onion and mix to combine well.

Add the onion mix to the large bowl with the tofu mix.  Add the bacon and the cheese and combine well.

Pour into frozen crust.

Bake 10 minutes, then lower oven to 375 and bake 30 minutes more.

Serve warm.

I recently came across black lentils for the first time and knew I had to come up with a really special way to use them.  What I created far exceeded my expectations!  The potato cakes are so crispy and delicious and the lentils, while they obviously don’t have the squishy texture of caviar (which I never really cared for anyway), they do have a seafood  taste.  By cooking them in kombu and shitake broth, the fish flavor is subtle, yet perfect.  This recipe makes a very large amount of both the caviar and the potato cakes, so please reduce it unless you are making it for a party as I was.  And just so you know – they will disappear very, very fast, so you might want to make more than you think you need!  I used fresh dill, chives and lemon zest to garnish them, but I bet they would also be wonderful with fresh cilantro, rosemary, orange zest, fried sage leaves, or whatever you have on hand.  They are just so darn good they will always taste great!

For the lentil “caviar”

• 1 c black lentils
• 1 oz dried shitakes
• 12” piece kombu
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 T dulse flakes

Separately soak the shitakes in 2 c warm water and the kombu in 4 c warm water, for 30 minutes.

In a medium saucepan, place the lentils, salt, dulse, and the shitakes and kombu, with 2 cups of the soaking liquid from each.

Bring to a gentle boil, then turn heat to low, and with lid open a little bit, simmer for 25 minutes, or until tender.  Remove kombu and shitakes and then drain lentils.

For the potato cakes (latkes) – makes about 75 bite size

• 6 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 large onion, cut into chunks
• 2/3 c quick cooking oats
• 3/4 c plain bread crumbs
• 1 T salt
• 1 t onion powder
• canola or safflower oil for frying

In a glass bowl, combine oats with 1 1/3 c water and microwave on high for a minute and a half.  Set aside.

Grate potatoes and onion together (onion will help potatoes from turning brown) in a food processor or by hand.

 In a large bowl, combine grated potatoes and onion with bread crumbs, salt, onion powder and oatmeal.

Heat oil in pan over medium high heat.  Form mix into small circles and cook in oil until browned on both sides, about 3 minutes per side.

If the mix gets too liquidy, you can add more bread crumbs as you go along.

For the cream

• 8 oz tofutti better than sour cream, or other vegan sour cream
• 1/4 c chopped chives

To serve – place a teaspoon of cream on each cake and place a teaspoon of caviar over the cream.  Garnish with your choice of chopped dill, lemon zest, chives, parsley, cilantro, fried sage, orange zest – just about anything you like!

“Meat” Puffs fresh out of the oven

I love being vegan.  I love the food, and honestly, there are not too many things that I miss from my pre-vegan days.  If I were to list the few things that I do miss, they would all come from my childhood memories – delicious things that my mother made that were most definitely not vegan.  I have tried over the past few years to recreate these recipes.  Some are just not happening – like her delicious clam dip.  Big sigh!  But that’s okay, because I am having lots of success with other ones.  For example, this recipe for “meat” puffs.  I would make the original ones with my mom every year for Thanksgiving.  We would make a huge amount, she would leave them on a hot tray, and we would devour them all day long.  Yummm.  They were so great!  I must admit that I had forgotten about these puffs until very recently when I was perusing my mother’s recipe box, wondering what else I could veganize.  I have to say they came out perfectly, and, even if my memory is not serving me well and they are different from the original, these are awesome in their own right.  Maybe one day I’ll get that vegan clam dip…

“Meat” Puffs a la Syl

• I large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 T evoo
• 2 – 8 oz cans water chestnuts, diced
• 1 not-beef bouillon cube (I love Edward & Sons)
• 3 T vegetable broth
• 2 pkgs boca crumbles
• 1 pkg puff frozen puff pastry

Defrost puff pastry at room temperature for 40 minutes.

Preheat to 350.

In a large skillet, saute onion and garlic in oil over medium high heat until translucent.  Add water chestnuts and frozen crumbles and cook a few minutes more.  Meanwhile, place the bouillon cube and broth in a small, glass bowl and microwave for 60 seconds. Stir well.  Add the broth mix to the pan and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes more.
Once the pastry is defrosted, roll out to thin a bit.  Then cut into 2-3 inch squares.  Place 1 T filling in the center of each square and fold the corners in to create a square puff shape.  Place seam side down on a lightly sprayed baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.  Makes about 20 puffs.

Sage-rubbed Polenta with Whiskey Cream Sauce

This recipe is the creation of my daughter Kira.  She loves to cook and to use original combinations of food.  While she is definitely too young to have whiskey, she is pretty adept at cooking alcohol out in recipes.  This is a truly delicious way to enjoy polenta.  And if you don’t have the time to wait for the polenta to set, it is just as good right out of the pan, all warm and creamy.  We used sage right from our garden, and it really paired well with the whiskey sauce.  Although there seem to be a lot of steps to this recipe, the actual prep time is small and it is really worth making!!

For the polenta:

• 6 c water
• 2 t salt
• 1 3/4 c cornmeal
• 2 T earth balance spread

Boil the water in a large saucepan.  Add salt.  Gradually whisk in cornmeal.  Decrease to low and cook, 15 minutes, stirring often.  Turn off heat and stir in earth’s balance to melt.  Spray cooking spray on a 9×11 pan and pour polenta in.  Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight.

For the sauce:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 c whiskey
• 1/4 c vegetable stock
• 1 1/2 c raw cashews

Over medium-high heat, saute the onion in 1 T earth balance spread until lightly browned.  Add whiskey and let the alcohol cook out.  Add broth, salt and pepper and cook on medium until liquid is reduced by half.  Let cool.  Place cashews in a blender and add water just to cover. (If you do not have a powerful blender like a vita mix you may want to pre-soak the cashews overnight).  Blend well.  Add the onion mix and blend again.

For the rub:

• 2 T olive oil
• 1 t fresh sage, chopped very fine

In a small bowl, mix olive oil,  sage, and salt and pepper to taste.  Rub over polenta.   Dab any spots with too much oil using a paper towel. Use a glass to cut circles out of the polenta and place on a lightly greased baking sheet.  Broil a few minutes until lightly browned.  Spoon sauce on top.

My son is an awful cook – really awful!!  He has maybe cooked a few things in his entire life and they usually involve disaster!  However, since he is heading off to college in the fall, I am determined to let him experiment more in the kitchen and tonight I am so glad that I did.  He came up with this on his own (with just a little help) and it is delicious – and of course – really easy to make!!  Can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!!

Adam’s Fakin Bacon Cheese Dip

• 1 1/2 c daiya cheddar shreds
• 1 c vegetable broth
• 1/2 of an onion, chopped small
• 1 piece fakin’ bacon, chopped small
• 1/4 c vegan sour cream
• 2 T vegan cream cheese
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 1 t olive oil
• 1/2 t black pepper
• 1/2 t hot sauce, optional

In a small pan, saute the onion and bacon in the olive oil until the onions are transparent.

In another small pan, heat the broth.  Add the sour cream and cream cheese and whisk until melted.

Add daiya and again whisk to melt.

Add pepper, hot sauce, scallions, and onions and bacon from other pan and simmer for five minutes.

Great on crusty bread, with tortilla chips, or as dip for crudites.