FNF - bubble and squeak with sausages and onion gravy

Not to scare anyone that time has suddenly sped up and it is again a Food Network Friday, hosted by the lovely author of American Vegan Kitchen, Ms. Tami Noyes, this is due for April 1st. (So it is not too late to join in the fun! Redo Jamie's recipe vegan and send your creation to Tami.)

When I chose this one, I had St. Pat's Day in mind, so I made it on that day. Bubble and Squeak is a traditional English dish made of leftover vegetables and potatoes mashed and fried together until crisp. What is the connection to Ireland? The Irish claim it as well. Good enough for me!

We have traditionally enjoyed Corned Seitan and Cabbage on this holiday, but, truthfully, I wanted something else - not to mention that David requests Corned Cabbage throughout the year and does not feel restricted to the wearing of the green.

As written, this Jamie Oliver dish is not - not! - low fat in any way. This is obviously not a Food Revolution meal. A bit of recipe translation: A knob is a tablespoon and a glug is a couple of tablespoons. He asks you to use a glug of olive oil to fry your potatoes. No need, folks. The potatoes absorb the oil anyway and then you need to add more. Skip most of the oil, use a well seasoned cast iron pan or nonstick and your potatoes and root vegetables will brown just fine.

Since the sausage was the bit of creative element for this FNF, I made my Corned Seitan but rolled it into links. This maintained my tradition of having Corned Seitan on St. Patty's and tasted really good to boot.

The onion gravy calls for 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar. This would not be a big deal, except Jamie does not reduce it any. This had me raise a Vulcan eyebrow.

Ultimately, the gravy was a little too thick, so I added another half cup of broth. The acidity would have been a bit much alone, but with the rest of the dish, it worked beautifully. This must be why he has a TV show and I have a blog.

I used baby arugula, dressed with a bit of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper for the greens.

Delicious meal.

Cost Breakdown

corned sausage: $4

potatoes, leek, turnip, carrot: $4

onion, arugula: $3

chestnuts: $4 (and on sale!)

flour, herbs, vinegar, stock: $2

Total to make 6 servings:

$17.00

roly poly sandwiches

Here is a delicious concept for a restaurant: wraps. Not just ordinary wraps, but grilled panini-style wraps. That is Roly Poly Sandwiches. The fillings are fresh (I'm only counting the veggies, folks) and the creativity is great.

When we lived in Dallas, we lived near a Roly Poly, hence my initiation to the sandwich shop. Naturally, the pickings were slim for a vegan, and most of the sandwiches had to be taken home to 'doctor', but that was the way to discover the ins and outs of the roly magic.

Since it is much more economical to make one of these at home than to pay full price for a quarter of the fillings, we have been making these Roly sandwiches in our kitchen for years.

The method is really simple: go to their website, find a sandwich you would like to have, sub the meat for the optimal veggie ingredient, roll, grill in a cast iron pan with another pan over it, flip and repeat. Dig in.

I chose to make #71, Chipotle Chicken, using a veggie burger for the chicken. Tender Seitan cutlets would have worked even better, but you work with what you have. I used Tofu Bacon for the bacon (Fakin' Bakin' would have been nice, too), Daiya for the cheeses, veganaise mixed with enough chipotle adobo sauce for my taste (a lot!) and used some vegan ranch I had in the fridge.

There were a few reasons I chose to make this sandwich: one, I love chipotle; two, I had a burger in the freezer; three, I had made BLT's a few days before and had some of the tofu bacon left; four, there was vegan ranch in the fridge as well. See? I only had to make the chipotle veganaise.

Kate's sandwich was #13, Hot Honey. I used Tofurkey slices, Daiya, Tofu Bacon, tomato slices (use the sun-dried if you have it) and skipped the spinach. For the Honey Mustard Sauce, mix some maple syrup with a little Dijon mustard and veganaise.

Cost Breakdown:

wraps: $.50

burger, Tofurkey: $2

Daiya: $.50

tomato, spinach, chipotle: $1

veganaise, Dijon, maple: $.50

tofu bacon: $.50

Total to make 2 sandwiches:

$5.00



#71 - Chipotle 'Chicken'




#13 - Hot Honey, without spinach