For Julie and Julia: Vegan Sausages and Mushrooms

Between 2 and 4 AM this morning, I woke up, tossing and turning, too awake to sleep and too tired to get up. (Has that ever happened to you?) During that restless time it dawned on me that I hadn't blogged yesterday! In the midst of actually cooking something, getting ready for a dinner party and submitting this blog for a space on the foodie blog roll, I totally forgot to write. I feel like I've broken a chain letter, or turned off the movie during the critical exposition phase, which is funny, because this blog is so new that it has no readers, at least no responders. I continue to believe that if I prepare this 'party', someone will attend. :)

This morning I heard a radio talk show host offer up a great recipe for happiness: "List five things you're grateful for, once a week." It was good to be reminded of that, because it's something I've tried to do on a daily basis ever since I watched The Secret for the first time three years ago. I thought this exercise would weave itself beautifully into this blog about food this morning, so here are five things I'm grateful for: 1) a brain to think up what to say here, 2) a computer on which to write those thoughts, 3) this blog space that provides the forum in which to express myself, 4) the film that inspired me to write this and 5) the money, food and cookbooks that will help me carry out this experiment and these reflections.

Now as for yesterday:

My roommate, Dori, gave a dinner party for four friends and she graciously invited our other roommate Dianne and me to join them. Being a typical Taurus, Dori loves to cook more than Julia Child or any chef on The Food Network; she would much rather eat at home, and she would much rather cook for me and my friends than to see us go out to a restaurant. I'm not used to such a person, but it's certainly a treat. For appetizers, Dori served chips and her homemade ceviche, guacamole and salsa. She made a wonderful corn and black bean salad, black bean soup and for the carnivores, a huge plate full of grilled steak and shrimp to fold into tortillas with her homemade salsa and guacamole.

As for me? I made my first vegan main dish, which two of the guests tried...and really liked! :) YEAH!

Variation on Julia Child's recipe for Sauteed Mushrooms with Vegan Mexican Chipotle Sausage:

1/2 pound of chopped mushrooms
3 Tbsp. olive oil
a pinch of minced fresh garlic (This is added when using olive oil to replace butter.)

2 Tbsp. chopped green onion

1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped parsley
1 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

(Parsley and cilantro are excellent detoxing agents for the body; they absorb and remove toxic metals!)

Saute the mushrooms for about three minutes, then add the green onions and saute for two more minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the parsley and cilantro.

Julia's Sauteing Tips:

As Julie learns in the film, in order to saute correctly, you have to make sure the mushrooms are flat, not crowded in the pan. Otherwise they don't brown evenly.
The oil has to be really hot, almost smoking, before you add the mushrooms; they must sizzle when they hit the oil. If they don't sizzle, remove them from the pan immediately until the oil is hot enough. I tested a couple of mushrooms at a time.

Vegan Mexican Chipotle Sausage

2 vegan Mexican chipotle sausages, removed from their casing and chopped
1 Tbsp. oil
1/2 cup red cooking wine

There is not even one recipe for sauteed sausages in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. So, here's what I would do, and did:

Follow the instructions for sauteing except for the time. TIP! Plant-based foods require little to no cooking; they are already cooked, so all you have to do with them is heat them. If you overcook them, you will see what Mr. Goodyear experienced when he tried heating rubber for the first time: it will turn into something hard enough to make tires.

After thoroughly heated, add cooking wine to the sausages and stir until the wine is absorbed.

Stir in the sauteed mushrooms and serve.

There's probably a better way to do this than to saute the mushrooms and sausages separately, but they turned out fairly well and, as I said, the meat-eaters that tried them really liked them. My only complaint is that I may have cooked the sausages a bit too long; they were a wee bit dry, and I don't think they came out of the casing that way.

SO, there it is, my first attempt at an actual Julia Child vegan hybrid.

Have a wonderful day, and should you want to try this recipe, you can get the vegan sausages at many different natural food stores and sometimes even at major grocery stores.