Mushroom Gravy and Fries

Once I get on a gravy kick it is hard to stop!  This is a simple meal made from things that I have made dozens of times.  French fries with barbecue sauce, Kale salad with think slice zucchini, snap peas and shredded carrots, brown rice with mushroom gravy.

Food for 200

so . . .I did something kinda crazy last week.  I made A LOT of food.  About a month ago Boz asked me to handle food for an upcoming event.  I had a budget of 300 dolalrs and needed to feed 200 people a combination of vegan and non vegan food.  OF course I wanted to go all vegan but I got help to deal with the non-vegan side of things.  While I turned 50 pounds of potatoes into 65 lbs of potato salad and 45 pounds of cabbage into 50 pounds of cole slaw Hani and Marie handled BBQ chicken (eww right, huge thanks for them dealing with it).  Of course I wanted there to be a comparable vegan choice so I went with the classic BBQ jack Fruit. 

Considering how delicious and simple it is to make this dish I am always amazed that people do not know about it.  First question is always "jack fruit?  what is that?"  Well Ill tell you: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackfruit 

or rather  I will let Wiki tell you (please donate).  The cool part is this fruit has been eaten in India for over 6000 years, and it is just like I always say . . .you want a new idea look at the oldest vegetarian group on the planet!  Fortunately we can take this fruit and give it an american twist.  The hard part is often finding a good source of jack Fruit.  For last weeks meal I completely bought out the Asian market here in Davis, which is where you can often find canned jack fruit.  If you go with fresh jack fruit you need to soak it in water over night (or longer) to reduce the sweet/fruity flavor.  Getting from the can is way easier.   

Preparation is pretty much boiling the fruit in flavor water.  I use a combination of vegetable stock, garlic and onions.  The secret for getting the BBQ into it is a touch of liquid smoke . . . and oh man how have I never cooked with liquid smoke before?  You knwo that smell that people associate with barbecued whatever?  well it isnt the meat, it isnt the marinade, it isnt the grill it is the smoke!  liquid smoke adds that woodsy taste that you get in your nostrils and keep craving.  It is also what turns ketchup into barbecue sauce (more or less). 

The cole slaw and potato salad were pretty challenging and in the amount of time I had I didnt manage to take many photos.  Some day soon I might have enough time to actually document what I am doing again. 

Also a big thank you to Brad and Diana who helped plate food for 100 hungry climbers and the dozens of spectators at the Competition.

This is not the burger you are looking for

In the dead of winter you cannot blame me for wanting a taste of summer.  I just wanted to fire up the grill and toss on some portobello's, some marinated zuchinni, a few potatoes and of course corn. . . but it is January, it is cold outside, I am not gonna take the time to set up a grill and most my favorites are out of season.  After rummaging around the kitchen I made a mash of black beans (left over from dinner) and boiled yams, the mix was mostly yams.  That was not all, I grated some carrots in and tossed in some sauteed onions with seasonings (garlic[duh], salt, pepper, paprika and cumin).  I was surprised by how firm the mash was right off the bat!  I didn't have to add ant flour to stiffen it up.  I did use some corn meal on the outside before tossing my patties into a grill and it made it so they held together instead of sticking to the pan.  I put the patty on a baguette with barbecue sauce, dijon mustard, karinata kale, and a fresh sprout mix.  I rounded out my summer daydreams with thick cut fires baked at 400 F with lots of pepper and a dash of salt.  The good news is the days are already getting longer! 

Biscuits n' Gravy

After doing a bit of traveling I got a hankering for some good ole fashion american food. . . Classic Biscuits and Gravy with a vegan twist.  We will be turning this mass of vegetables

into this meal.  Looking around the plate we see: BBQ Tempeh Sweet potato mash, green salad, spicy home fires and the focus of the meal Biscuits and Mushroom Gravy.

Mushroom  Gravy:

I like to use slice mushrooms rather than diced, I think it adds a nice texture.  The garlic and onions are going to provide a flavorful body to back up the mushroom highlights.

The onions are sauteed in oil, a lot of oil (nearly a cup of oil) for 5 to 10 min before the mushrooms join them.  I used as much coconut oil as I had around and used some canola to round it out.  I like to use coconut oil because the saturated fattiness and hint of flavor puts a lot of creaminess and delicious!  

I usually cheat when I am making gravy and just whisk some flour into the mess being sauteed but making enough gravy for ten people I went ahead and made a rue.  Rue is a fancy word for thick vegetable stock and I used about 5 cups of stock with 1-2 cups white flour with a  splash of soy sauce and vegan Worcestershire sauce to re-enforce that earthy savory taste and darken the rue to a nice golden brown color.  I also added a Tbs of butter (but not too much because the mushrooms and garlic already have enough oil)

Add the rude and let the whole thing simmer.  Check the flavor and add salt and pepper until it gets just the way you like.  If you are feeling extra fancy you can add in some truffle oil while it simmers to a thick and tasty gravy. . . personally I like drizzling the truffle oil over the top so it stands out as a distinct but complimentary flavor.  I did toss in some cursed red pepper flakes for a hint of color, not enough to make it spicy just enough to make it mesmerizing to look at. 

Buttermilk Biscuits:

Yeah I am sure you are going to scoff at the idea of 'buttermilk' and you have every right to but there is a vegan approximation.  I use soy milk (the protein and fat content are high and usually has a good amount of emulsifier which helps); one cup of soy milk whisked with a teaspoon of white vinegar.  The acid interacts with the protein and fat to thicken the soy milk until it is creamy and frothy. 

 For this recipe make sure the soy milk is chilled and goes back into the fridge after whisking. The key to making delicious flaky biscuits is keeping the fat chilled so the flour takes on a crumbly consistency.  That means between every step the ingredients should be in the fridge.  

Ingredients:

Dry

2 Cups White Flour

4 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp Baking soda

1 tsp salt

Fats

2 Tbs butter

2 Tbs shortening

Milk

1 C soy milk

1 tsp white wine vinegar 

The fun part of this recipe is that after sifting together the dry ingredients you get to mash in the fats by hand.  From fridge to mash should only take five minutes and the crumbly flour goes back into the fridge.  It is ok if there are some clumps but the goal is to have it all be flat and flaky but a few lumps are fine.  

Mix in the chilled buttermilk with a minimum of stirring until the ingredients are well combined, the dough should remain sticky.  Flour your hands and roll the dough into a ball, I tripled the recipe so I ended up with three balls (and could have been happy with quintuple these were so good).  Back into the fridge!  

You can roll the dough out but it is more fun to press it by hand to about 1" thick.  I made it too thin and the biscuits did not puff up as much as I wanted but man still delicious!  I used a cup to cut out rounds, recombining the trimming to make more rounds

bake at 450 for 15 min and yummmmmmmmmm!

Sides:

Five pounds of potatoes wedged and tossed with olive oil paprika salt pepper and garlic.  Bake at 450 for 45 to 60 minutes until golden brown and tasty, stir them around somewhere near the 30 min mark.  I like to let them sit for 15 min before serving, not only because they are too hot but also because the starches settle down and they go from being flaky to firm, and I like that more! 

Cut tempeh into strips and toss with your favorite BBQ sauce.  I was going to make my own but I ran out of liquid smoke.  I tried this new sauce based out of sonoma and was amazed to find that I liked it without alteration!  Most the time I add half a dozen spices to sauces before I actually enjoy them. . .this one was bang on and may hinder my doing BBQ sauce from scratch in the future. Bake at 450 for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 min or so 

unfortunately The store ran out of tempeh so I tried to make Seitan from vita wheat gluten and spices. Not goig into detail here because I didnt like the way it turned out but I will play with it more and get back to you once I figure out how to make seitan do what I want.  

Still I rolled it out after kneading and tossed it with the Barbecue sauce.  The flavor was right on but the texture was too rubbery, I am guessing I over mixed it, over kneaded or added too much water . . .more experimentation to be done. 

Sweet Potato mash was simple. . . cube 5 pounds of sweet potatoes and steam until soft.  Mash them with 1/2 Cup oil 1/4 Cup water, 1 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg.  Garlic, salt and pepper to taste.  Keep in mind here the oil and water may be off in measurement but the point is to add oil and water until you get the creaminess you want but dont go overboard.  You can always cut the fat by increasing the water in place of oil but really the oil is what makes these things turn to velvet. 

 And YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM