Red chard, portabello and chick pea saute on plated nutritional yeast and tomato coulis; vegan chipotle mac and cheese with cilantro and cocoa sauces.

Dinner 17 April 2007.


The wine was D'Arenberg's Darry's Original.

Red chard, portabello and chick pea saute (evoo, lemon juice, sea salt, black pepper, oregano, basil and thyme) on plated nutritional yeast and tomato coulis (tomato, oregano, basil, garlic, olive oil, sea salt).

Whole wheat fusilli with a chipotle, lobster mushroom and nutritional yeast veloute (roux, nutritional yeast, lobbster mushrooms, chipotle, sea salt, lemon juice, vegan chicken stock) baked in a ramekin and then plated with cilantro (cilantro, lemon juice, garlic, evoo, sea salt) and cocoa (cocoa, stevia, evoo, sea salt, black pepper) sauces. Mixed up, it was like a vegan mac & cheese with mole.

Grilled eggplant and tofu mille-feuilles with red pepper, white bean and walnut paté on tomato and red pepper coulis

Lunch 3 March 2007. Grilled eggplant and tofu mile-feuilles (grilled eggplant, sea salt, sunflower oil, rice wine vinegar; grilled tofu, chipotle, tamari, wine vinegar, sea salt, sunflower oil, vegan worcestshire sauce) with red pepper, white bean and walnut paté (roasted red pepper, cannelini beans, walnuts, rice wine vinegar, nutritional yeast, gomaisho, sea salt, garlic, oregano, basil and thyme) on red pepper and tomato coulis (red pepper, tomato, red wine, vegan chicken stock, black pepper and garlic) with a fennel frond for the garnish.

I chased it with a celebratory cognac and espresso (celebratory because I thought for sure my eggplant/tofu stack would tip and spoil the presentation -- and I already have enough trouble with presentation). This was a time-intensive dish (grilling the tofu and eggplant separately, marinating both a couple of hours a head of time, prepping the paté, reducing the coulis), but it wasn't overly difficult in terms of labour. In fact, it was nice to have time to work on each individual piece.