Thanksgiving Update (with Recipes!)

Dear Readers,

I'm sorry.  I am a bad blogger.  Your memories of Thanksgiving are packed away, and I am about to tell you how my meal went.  Bear with me.  There will be so much holiday baking in the next few weeks, all will be forgiven.  That is my hope.

First, what went wrong.  I tried to make a seitan turkey.  I read so many blogs, and thought I would do bee-yew-ti-full-y, but no, I was left with a dense rubbery mass of wheat meat.

The before:

And the during.

I'll leave the after to your imagination.  I don't know what wrong!  I kneaded, I made dashi, I simmered.  Oh well.  I will not be deterred, and I will make delicious seitan one day!

For the almost perfect, I present a gluten-free, vegan pumpkin coconut pie with a pecan crust.  It's actually quite hard to find a recipe that is both gluten-free and vegan.  At our thanksgiving, we had someone with a gluten allergy and someone who is allergic to both dairy and eggs.  I knew it was going to be tough, but I felt sure that I could make a pie that was vegan and gluten-free and delicious.  And it was!  Too bad the filling never quite set.  Rather than messing with various starch flours to make a pastry crust, I made a delicious nut crust.  The filling was classic Libby's with some vegan experimenting.

Recipe at the end of the post.

Now for what went right...This fig crostata.

It was conventional baking perfection!  Buttery crust, rich filling, and the consistency was perfect.  I've never made a lattice crust before, and I was a little nervous, but it comes out so prettily that I've nearly forgotten the tense moments of broken pastry!  I've had my eye on this recipe since last year's Gourmet Thanksgiving issue.  And I might make it again for Christmas, it has a dark, fruity, filling like mincemeat.  I did need to bake it longer than the 30 minutes in the recipe.  More like 45 minutes for the crust to get golden and the filling to set.

It was a wonderful meal with good friends and good food!

Here's the recipe for the pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin Coconut Custard Pie

Makes 12 servings

Takes 2 hours

2 cups crushed pecans
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. vegan margarine (or almond oil) 
3/4 cup brown sugar 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 
4 Tbsp. cornstarch, sifted
15 oz. Pumpkin Puree (Not pie filling) 
1 can (15 oz.) light coconut milk


Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit. 

If you are using margarine, soften by placing it in your pie pan and heating it in the oven while it comes to temperature.  Remove before it gets too hot.

Toss the nuts with the brown sugar and then thoroughly mix with margarine in the pan.  Use your fingers to press the nuts into a firm and even layer all around the bottom and sides of pan.  Bake for 25 minutes.  (Keep an eye on it because the pecans will burn if your oven is too hot of you leave it in for too long!).

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan over medium heat, add all filling ingredients.  Stir until combined.  When it begins to steam, turn heat down to low, and stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken (Watch out!  The pumpkin will bubble and can burn you and make a mess of your kitchen if you leave it be!).

At this point, I am not sure how long you should stir for, or if you should add more corn starch.  I felt my filling had thickened, and poured it into the cooled pie crust.  But!  It never fully set.

We ate it cold and it was so delicious!  Like yummy pumpkin pudding with a pecan praline crumble. 

If you try this pie, please let me know how it goes!

I Went Shopping: Thanksgiving at the Halifax Farmers' Market

It's been nearly a month since I last posted!  Don't know how the time has gone by.  Sorry dear readers. Now it is nearly Thanksgiving in America, and there will be so much cooking and picture-taking this week that I hope it makes up for my bad behavior.

Today we went to the Halifax Farmers Market and stocked up for Thanksgiving.

From Elmridge Farms, we bought

Fingerling Potatoes

Multi-colored carrots

A butternut squash

A buttercup squash

Parsley

Parsnips

Yellow Onions

Sweet Potatoes

Celery

We found Brussels Sprouts at the Elmridge Farm Stand, but we are not sure where they came from.

Selwood Green Farm

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Yellow Onions

Carrots

Pasture Hill Farm

Leeks

Turkey

Sunchokes

Satisfaction Feast

Samosa

Cookies

Boulangerie La Vendeene

Square White Loaf

Froment

The mushrooms, hot peppers, green and yellow peppers came from a stand whose name I can't remember.

I am definitely going to be making Gourmet's Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie, which came out so beautifully last year.  I think I will bake a vegan pumpkin pie with coconut milk, and a conventional pecan pie.  And, what I am really looking forward to, I am going to make my own seitan Turkey!

Stay Tuned!

And Happy Holiday Planning!

Thanksgiving in PEI

We took advantage of the thanksgiving long weekend to visit Prince Edward Island, a charming land of farms and sea coast. In exchange for playing 36 holes of golf, my boyfriend agreed we would visit Anne. I loved the books as a young girl, and have always wanted to visit. L. M. Montgomery wrote with such affection and real knowledge of PEI, that the island was as much of a character as Diana or Gilbert.

And so we saw Green Gables.

But we really fell in love with the food.

Our first stop was the Charlottetown farmer's market, where we debated whether or not to buy our weekly produce. There was a good variety, and lots of preserves, in addition to beautiful leather work, baskets, and other crafts. There were also a lot of food stalls. We wanted to have lunch in Charlottetown, so we decided not to eat at the market. BUT, we did have some amazing little doughnuts, hot now from a tiny machine!

They were so good, I was afraid they had been fried in lard. And also too afraid that I wouldn't be able to eat them to ask!

Our next meal was eh, at the Merchantman Pub in Charlottetown. All of the local produce pamphlets had included it as one of the restaurants on the island that really stressed local, fresh seasonal ingredients. The very nice red peppers did not make up for the fact that my veggie tacos were actually a burrito and not very flavorful. It was good not great.

Especially in retrospect since we had one of our favorite meals anywhere in the maritimes that night at the Pearl Cafe. PEI is trying to develop agro-tourism, stressing the number of local family farms and the availability of great produce and meat. The Pearl is one of the restaurants that I had heard about as participating in farm-to-table type cuisine. The Pearl is between Cavendish (Anne-town) and North Rustico, the major cluster of businesses on the north shore (this means, 10 businesses all spreading out from a single intersection! PEI is tiny!). It's in a gorgeous building, I heard it was a converted woodshop.

It was so beautifully decorated. Exposed beams, wood paneling, and just really nice details. Like this pretty lamp.

It was too dark to take pictures of the food or any of the other parts of the restaurant. But I will tell you a little about what we ate. It was thanksgiving, and Paddy had his first of two turkey dinners that weekend. This one had turkey and stuffing and gravy. And they were so nice to replace the creamy mashed potatoes with these delectable fried potato puffs. And there was kale and carrots, and really delicious pickled pearl onions.

I had really yummy parsnip and carrot "pasta" in a walnut pesto, that came inside a wee pumpkin. And kale on the side. By itself, it was pretty good, but adding paddy's potatoes and pickled onions made it the best veggie plate I've had in the maritimes. And then there was apple cobbler and a pistachio praline for dessert. YUM!

We also ate really well at the B&B where we stayed, the Beach House Inn. Waffles one day, poached eggs the next, and bacon at every breakfast for Paddy.

Our other great meal was at the Dunes Gallery and Cafe.

It was the last day of their season, and they had a special three course lunch to benefit an organization that put PEI farmers in touch with Kenyan farmers, and arranged exchanges between children in both places. Everywhere we went, we heard locals bemoaning the decline of agriculture in the province. I hope the farms survive, because they make amazing foods.

At the Dunes, Paddy had turkey soup to start, and I had an amazing plate of little salads. A beet and goat cheese "slaw," an amazing panzanella with tiny tomatoes, some quick pickled cauliflower, a couscous salad with peas and raisins, all topped by a big pile of really good sprouts. So many yummy tastes!

Our main courses were steak for paddy, and swiss chard polenta with a tomato and mushroom sauce.

Our desserts were sooooooo good. Very simple, an apple cobbler and a blueberry cobbler. But both were so fruitastically tasty. I would go back just for them.

We ate so well, we had to take a long walk along the shore to get ready for Paddy's second thanksgiving dinner.

Thank you Prince Edward Island!!! For giving us Anne and delicious foods. Next year we'd like to invite you all to visit PEI for thanksgiving weekend with us and enjoy lots and lots of turkey dinners. Paddy has a list of at least 5 places we didn't get a chance to go.