[Sca-cooks] The 50th annual SCA-Cooks Thanksgiving list!

[Stephanie Ross]

Hi all! I am plowing through over a month of digests, so please forgive the
old thread. I just had to answer this one, esp. since in the same digest a
perfectly good and yummy vegan dish was mentioned in a menu list by
Anne-Marie. 

Ysabeau wrote:
<<So, how would you handle the dilemma of having one person in a group who
is
vegan? My cousin is cooking so she is making tofurkey (yech!) and regular
turkey...she is also basically making duplicates of almost every dish...a
special vegan cake (they use 7-up and applesauce instead of eggs and
oil?!?!), mashed potatos with no butter butter or milk, plain green beans,
etc. I know he is family, but how far would you go to accomodate one
person's special diet before telling them to bring their own food? I can't
really complain because I'm not doing it, but still...>>
 
Vegan cooking is something that is its own cuisine and something one has to
learn how to cook. It's not a matter of substituting vegan things for milk
and eggs in those types of dishes. Milk and eggs are used as binders in
much of Western cooking and seldom have a decent non-animal equivalent.
When you cook vegan, you combine ingredients in a way that doesn't need
binders. Take A-M's, "roasted acorn squash halves stuffed with brown/wild
rice pilaf with cranberries pecans and orange". Your cousin would have
loved it! The rice mix is nestled in the hole where the squash seeds were,
making this practically a meal in itself. Vegans eat a lot of "live food",
so a plate of grapes, sliced fruit or tomatoes is a delicacy. Something as
simple as a relish tray with hummus to dip veggies in would have thrilled
your cousin. Mashed potatoes can be made with veg broth, roasted garlic and
salt. Supremely yummy, no dairy needed. Or use almond milk - medieval
lenten dishes are often vegan and a great change of pace. The parsnip mash
with milk and nutmeg also on A-M's list would have been wonderful with
almond milk instead. Gravies can be made with a seasoned bean puree. I know
it sounds gross but it's actually tasty. The mushroom pate would also have
been enjoyed by your cousin. I made a green bean and walnut pate out of
Vegetarian Times once that was really good. Vegan is a cuisine you have to
research to get the feel of how dishes are constructed. What I liked best
about being vegan/veggie is the bread. I could indulge in bread whenever I
wanted to as long as it didn't have eggs, lard or tallow in it. Bread is
very satisfying and a great substitute for meat IMO. I learned to love
olive oil with spices and basalmic vinegar to dip bread in. If you really
want to investigate vegan cooking, get some copies of Veg Times out of the
library and read them thoroughly. Vegan food isn't complicated as long as
you aren't trying to recreate meat dishes. Even pumpkin pie can be made
animal-free easily. Use silken tofu in place of the milk with the pumpkin
puree and buy vegetable-shortening-only pie crusts. AFAIK, pecan pie can be
made vegan too, with no loss of flavor. Bon appetit!
 
~Aislinn~
Et si omnes ego non.

"The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the
first and only legitimate object of good government." --Thomas Jefferson to
Maryland Republicans, 1809.