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spicy mushroom phyllo, vegan MoFo.

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It’s Vegan MoFo III, the Vegan Month of Food, Day 22.

Yesterday, I shared a truly simple yet entirely delicious phyllo dessert with you – today I bring you its savoury cousin.

This is one of my husband’s house specialties. Just as I gave him full credit for yesterday’s dessert, I must do the same for today’s dinner. He’s an experimenter in the kitchen and lately it’s all been about phyllo. Getting him to write down what he was doing was no easy task. He doesn’t like to be held down by rules in the kitchen – he likes to feel and taste his way through it. Still, I persevered to get something in writing and this is what he came up with. It’s a little different each time he makes it, but that’s part of its charm. I’m not complaining – this is tasty stuff.

This dish is very forgiving – the recipe is more of a guideline than a strict plan of action.

Spicy Mushroom Phyllo

  • Phyllo dough, thawed and ready to use
  • 1 lb cremini mushrooms, chopped (or white mushrooms)
  • 3 slices of bread
  • 1 – 1.5 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced (to taste)
  • 1Tbsp red curry paste
  • 2/3 – 1 cup coconut milk (or almond or rice milk for a lighter dish)
  • 3/4 cup sliced almond
  • 1 bell pepper – yellow, red or orange, minced
  • 2 – 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast (to taste)
  • oil (for stir fry and for brushing dough)
  • water (as needed)

Preheat oven to 375F.

Warm 1-2 Tbsp oil in a skillet at medium-high heat on stove and stir fry mushrooms. When mushrooms have reduced considerably in size, lower heat to medium-low. Drain mushrooms and finely mince. Return to skillet.

Add minced ginger to  mushrooms and toss together in skillet.

Turn heat off on stove but leave skillet there. Check on it occasionally to be sure contents do not stick to bottom of pan.

Cut the bread by quartering each slice three times – quarter a slice, then quarter those pieces, then quarter those pieces (you’ll end up with tiny pieces). Add almond slices and cubed bread to skillet and mix everything together very gently (you don’t want to completely break up the almond slices).

Add coconut milk (or almond or rice milk) a bit at a time until right consistency is achieved. You’re looking for everything to be quite moist, but not liquidy.

Lay phyllo over your work area. Layer three pieces of phyllo directly on top of each other. Lightly brush oil over the top of the phyllo. With a sharp knife, quarter the phyllo as it lays flat. Fill a small bowl or glass with water and keep nearby. Water acts like glue when you’re working with phyllo.

Spoon mushroom mixture equally onto each of the four pieces of phyllo. Now wrap the phyllo up into a square package, just as if wrapping a present. Dip your fingers in the water and touch the dough as you make each fold – this will help the dough stay together and not unravel.

Place each phyllo package on a parchment lined baking sheet and slide into oven. Bake until phyllo starts to turn golden, about 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. Monitor closely to prevent scorching.

Watch out – it’s steamy when it comes out of the oven. Enjoy.

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chestnut stuffing, vegan MoFo.

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It’s still Vegan MoFo III, the Vegan Month of Food.

If you’re planning a festive meal for American Thanksgiving, Christmas, or another holiday or special dinner, you might be considering adding stuffing to the menu. I recently discovered a favourite recipe and thought I’d share it with you: Chestnut stuffing from VeganYumYum.

Lolo of VeganYumYum has an entire Thanksgiving menu outlined – just scroll down to find the Chestnut Stuffing recipe. FYI, the broiled green beans, slow roasted tomatoes, and tangerine cranberry sauce are also fabulous. It was that very menu that inspired me to make my own roulades for our Thanksgiving dinner last week – and this was the stuffing I used to fill those roulades with. I first came across this recipe when I was planning our Thanksgiving menu last year – made with crusty sourdough bread and roasted chestnuts, it’s an easy home run.

It’s the chestnut that really sets this stuffing apart from its plain jane cousins. I just love chestnuts. Love, love, love. There are fewer things more wonderful than the scent of roasting chestnuts wafting up from the oven on a cold, crisp Autumn afternoon. I love it with the celery but forgot to buy some in time this year, so I substituted carrots and the stuffing was still completely delicious.

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pumpkin puree, vegan MoFo.

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We are almost half way there – blogging merrily along the Vegan MoFo III road.

I love my local Farmers’ Market.

Now that I’ve gotten that amorous declaration out of the way, allow me to share this: It makes me exceedingly sad that my local market will be closing up shop at the end of this month, marking the end of an especially colourful and bountiful season. But before that sad day comes, I’ll be taking full advantage of what the October market has to offer.

And my favourite October market find is pumpkin. Pumpkin is so versatile. You can use it in sweet and savoury dishes alike. Soups. Baked goods of all sorts.

But those elusive pumpkins show up about a month before Halloween and then, suddenly, they’re all gone.

There is a way we can extend the pumpkin bounty, friends: Pumpkin puree. And if you’ve never pureed your own pumpkin before, you’re in for a treat – it’s easy.

So buy up those pumpkins while you can, roast ‘em, and puree away – then freeze it all, stored in little ziploc bags, and use it for months to come. Don’t get me wrong – in a pinch, some nice organic canned puree will do. When you’re making that pumpkin pie during the holidays however, you just can’t beat fresh puree.

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Trust me on this. It’s easy. It’s awesome.

There is an absolutely fabulous step by step tutorial all about pureeing your own pumpkin at Ree Drummond’s super site, The Pioneer Woman, complete with humorous anecdotes and lovely photos. My advice is to take Ree’s sage advice regarding allowing your puree to drain before using or freezing it if you suspect it to be on the wet side – I find, more often than not, that it is. Allowing the pumpkin to drain over a cheesecloth or sieve in the fridge overnight (or even a full day) will improve the texture and intensify the flavour.

Ditto regarding Ree’s advice about freezing the puree in 1-cup bags. That’s just clever.

I’ve heard, and Ree concurs, that smaller pumpkins generally yield more intense flavour. The pumpkins I used this time around were about 5 to 6-inches in diameter, which I’d classify as mediium. I have pureed bigger ones, like last year’s Halloween pumpkin, with fine results. I have yet to try those teeny ones from the supermarket (which look to be under 4-inches in diameter), and who knows, maybe those little ones would knock my socks off.

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Now snap those pumpkins up.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you all about the pumpkin pie I made with the first puree of the season.

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