My (vegan) Mushroom Wellington

How perfect is to arrive at home after 3 hours of class and see this?

I'm being busy the last days and I'll be like that for at least the next 2 months. And I think that this sucks is very good! I just wanted to have more time to write here, but I can't complain. So I won't promise to write as much as I can, but I will do my best to keep posting.

Since I had the first Mushroom Wellington at Juice, I've being thinking about how they cook it. Of course I didn't get the recipe and I still like to go there to eat it, but some weeks ago I tried my own version of the dish and it was really good.

Recipe (to make 2)

Ingredients:
1 rectangular puff pastry
250g chopped mushroom
200g chopped tofu
1 vegetable stock cube (optional)
1 chopped onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 (or 3) tablespoon shoyo
herbs

Pre-heat the oven (220ºC). Put the oil in a pan and heat it for a minute. Add the chopped onion (and garlic if you want) and let if fry until it turns gold. Add the chopped mushrooms and tofu and let them fry for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the shoyo and the stock cube and the herbs fry everything for another 3 or 4 minutes. The most important thing here is to make sure that the tofu is soaking the shoyo and the herbs. Cut the puffy pastry in the middle, making two small rectangles. Put the two slices in a nonstick tray. Add half of the mushroom and tofu mix in the middle of one puffy pastry slice and make the same with the other half. Close them and use the fork to make sure the that the edges are really well closed. Put the tray in the oven for 20/25 minutes.


I served my vegan Mushroom Wellington with white rice, black beans and tomatoes and let a little bit of the mix to decorate the plates.

Vegan vanilla with peanut butter cupcakes
that I baked for an order last week

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Receita do VEGAN MUSHROOM WELLINGTON em PORTUGUÊS:

Originalmente, o Beef Wellington é um prato à base de carne muito popular no Reino Unido. Aqui em Dublin, o restaurante vegetariano Juice faz uma versão vegana do prato, usando cogumelos e tofu. Resolvi fazer a minha versão dele e aqui está a receita, que faz dois:

Ingredientes:

1 massa folheada retangular (aqui é fácil achar a massa vegana pronta para comprar)
250g de cogumelos fatiados
200g de tofu cortado em quadradinhos
1 cubo de caldo de legumes (opcional)
1 cebola fatiada (ou, caso prefira, bem picadinha)
1 colher de sopa de azeite
2 (ou 3) colheres de sopa de shoyo
Tempero a gosto (eu uso sempre salsa e pimenta)

Aqueça o forno (220ºC). Coloque em uma frigideira o azeite e deixe esquentar por 1 minuto. Acrescente a cebola (e também alho, se você desejar) e deixe fritar até que ela fique dourada. Adicione os cogumelos e o tofu e deixe fritar por 2 ou 3 minutos. Adicione o shoyo e o caldo de legumes e deixe fritar, mexendo de vez em quando, por outros 3 ou 4 minutos. O mais importante aqui é fazer com que o tofu pegue o tempero, principalmente do shoyo. Parta a massa folheada no meio, em duas partes. Coloque-as em uma forma (ou tabuleiro) não aderente. Adicione metade do recheio em cada uma delas e feche a massa. Use um garfo para fechar bem as bordas. Leve ao forno por 20/25 minutos. Eu servi o meu Wellington com uma combinação bem brasileira de arroz, feijão e salada de tomate!

Vegan MoFo III - Day 2 - Mushrooms

I think I'm pretty bad at tagging posts (or I'm bad at posting too!) because I just realized that I have just a few posts about all my favorite food. And because of that I decided to make a chapter of this Vegan MoFo about the food we cook a lot at home. This will be just one part because I have more to write about and I believe that veganism is much more than a diet.

Cupcakes were the first. I won't go in order of what I cook more or like more, but I'll share some passions here and I hope you can share some of yours with me too!

Now I will talk about mushrooms. If you are a new reader of this blog, you will notice that this space is not that much about recipes, is more about tips. Many people think it is hard being vegan and this is my way to show them that it's not like this (mainly to Brazilian friends and readers that are the majority here). And it's great to know that I have a lot of Irish and American readers too, that have even more options to cook vegan food! Ok, let's go back to the mushrooms. They are another thing that is not that easy to find in Brazil (and they are expensive there too). So I just started to cook more with them afeter we moved to Europe (where you can find all kinds of mushroom everywhere and they don't cost too much). They are great with most of the food we cook: pasta, risotto, lasagna, snacks, salty pies... And even without tagging properly I know that I posted some recipes here that have them in!

My tip today referes to those days when you don't have much time to cook and want something delicious. Cook a white sauce with mushrooms, soy cream and herbs (I always use a vegetable stock cube too) and use it with one of these pre-cooked meals (I love them with the Fry’s Vegeterian Golden Crumbed Schnitzel, white rice and potato wedges). Or use this sauce as a layer of your lasagna. Or add some tomato sauce for a different option.



And if you don't know a lot about mushrooms, Wikipedia always helps: "Edible mushrooms are used extensively in cooking, in many cuisines (notably Chinese, European, and Japanese). Though mushrooms are commonly thought to have little nutritional value, many species are high in fiber and provide vitamins such as thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, cobalamins, ascorbic acid. Though not normally a significant source of vitamin D, some mushrooms can become significant sources after exposure to ultraviolet light, though this also darkens their skin. Mushrooms are also a source of some minerals, including selenium, potassium and phosphorus."

Let me know what is your favorite recipe with mushrooms!


PS. Now I'll go back to prepare today's lunch, that is actually the next food of my Vegan MoFo top: risotto!

Live for better days *

I will be so busy this August that I have no idea about when and how often I will be able to write here! But this is great! I got an amazing project to do in my professional area (journalism) and I'm also baking more vegan cupcakes (this will be the second week with the vegan cupcakes being sold at the other Govinda's branch and I'm really excited!). And in the end of the month we're going to Ieper Fest, my favorite hardcore festival ever. Hope I can find some free time to cook and post here, but if I don't, I have good reasons, haven't I?!

Last week I decided to try a recipe of the Brazil Nut blog. Andrea has always great vegan recipes (in Portuguese) there. I wanted to use things I had at home, so my choice was the potatoes + mushrooms fried balls. I changed her recipe a little bit, so I decided to post it here. It's easy, fast and delicious!


Ingredients:

* 450 grams of potatoes cut into cubes (I used 5 medium potatoes)
* 2 tablespoons vegan margarine
* 170g of mushrooms, chopped
* 4 garlic cloves, crushed (we love garlic too, so I also used 4, but you can use less if you want)
* Wheat flour
* Salt, pepper and other herbs that you like

Place the sliced potatoes in a pan with boiling water and a little salt and let them cook for 10 minutes, until they are soft. Drain well the potatoes and mash them, in the same way to make smashed potatoes (or potatoes puree).


Meanwhile, melt the margarine in a frying pan. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and the garlic at the smashed potatoes (I used the liquid sauce instead of water to mix everything).

Make the balls (or small burgers) with your hands. Roll the balls/burgers in wheat flour and into bread crumbs to get a thick coating. I fried them in a non-stick frying pan without no oil for 5/7 minutes. You can also roast them instead of frying.



(* Ignite – Our Darkest Days)