Peppered Shrimp and Spinach Fettuccine Alfredo

The peppered shrimp for this is pretty easy, just fry the vegan shrimp (by Vegetarian Plus) up with oil and pepper. For the sauce, it's just a basic roux sauce with lots of freshly ground peppercorns (I love the 4 peppercorn blend for a deep, warm flavor) and earth balance, and to make it "alfredo" I added a ton of Daiya mozzarella-style vegan cheese and a dash of lemon juice. Simply serve over spinach fettuccine noodles (or any noodles, really), and voila! A fancy dish good enough to serve to two in candlelight.

Mardi Gras Checkerboard cake

 This one is pretty much self-explanatory! I mainly wanted to give my new checkerboard pans a spin. There's nothing mystical about it; it's just an insert that you put in each regular round pan that you wash off & reuse every time that separates the colored batters while you pour them in. Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is the last day of feasting, merriment, and general mischief before Ash Wednesday & the 40-day abstinence of whatever you desire to sacrifice, or fasts according to tradition, during Christian Lent. As some of you may know, I adore French culture as well as baking - and the Mardi Gras festival is a big part of that. Its traditional colors are d'or (ou jaune), verte, et violette, which are presented here in vanilla cake and lemon buttercream frosting. Vegan sprinkles for the win!

Seitan Napoleon

This is a dish I tried to imitate from Gillie's Restaurant in Blacksburg, VA - it didn't come out as good as theirs, but it was still pretty tasty. It consists of some very tender seitan, grilled eggplant, grilled portabello mushroom caps, roasted red pepper puree, and a sweet/salty balsamic glaze.

Potato Salad

Using nayonnaise, mustard, and nutritional yeast with a bit of vinegar, sugar, and celery seed makes a fantastic potato salad sauce. This is one of those things that gets better when it sits in the fridge for a day or two. Try chopping up some fresh salad veggies to throw in with the potatoes, like bell peppers or cucumbers, for a refreshing treat.

Vegan Rangoon / Wontons

Phyllo dough provides the crispy wrapper for these, as I can't find other vegan wrappers anywhere. I think they work fine if you don't have time for your own homemade wrappers! The filling is simply Tofutti's "Better than Cream Cheese," onion, soy sauce, and a smidgeon of sugar. They're then baked for a fairly short amount of time. I've heard of using red pepper slivers to imitate crab meat; maybe one day I'll try that or some actual vegan crab meat. These are an addictive snack!

Spring Rolls

 

These are easily made by quick-frying  shredded cabbage, bean sprouts, and shredded carrots in sesame oil and soy sauce, then rolling in sheets of phyllo dough & baking until golden brown!