A special dinner for a vegetarian

Hey Dave,

How about grilled or roasted portabella mushrooms.

I forgot the difference between a vegetarian and a vegan, is cheese out of the question?

I'd suggest hiding meat products in the vegetarians food in the form of stock.

Mushrooms would probably work with cabernet. You could also serve something in a tomato based sauce with a sangiovese or nebbiolo based wine.

Spo: Vegans are the radical ones - no eggs or dairy products.
She'll happily eat cheese and free range eggs.
We can do stuffed portabello mushrooms, but for me that's just an ordinary midweek meal and I'm trying to do something memorable. She's come a long way to visit and it's a special occasion.

Gigond Ass: I've served her gelatin before now and got away with it, but for the most part I'm quite prepared to go along with her decision. Pasta is an option, though the phyllo dish is still my favourite.

Still can't think of anything to pair with Sauternes though. I can do a nice heirloom tomato salad with fresh mozarella, basil, olive oil and balsamic, but I would normally pair that with a dry white; Sauternes would probably ruin it.

Does your good friend have a dog?

I don't really know what to pair with the sauterne other than foie or a sweet fruit type dessert. Maybe a cheese but I don't like to pair sauternes or most wines with cheese for that matter.

Maybe you can find something on this site for the veggie Here I count about 600 recipes in the vegetarian section. I could go ## and post them all.

quote:

Originally posted by Sweet Melissa:
Does your good friend have a dog?

quote:

Originally posted by Sweet Melissa:
The answer.

As an alternative to pasta, you could get creative with polenta. I'm thinking something along the lines of making a batch of chessy, buttery polenta, letting it cool and set, then cutting the polenta into cakes / squares so they can be grilled. Then, top the polenta with some sort of tomato / mushroomo sauce to better match it with the wine. Polenta and red sauce marry beautifully.

Soft polenta with Roquefort.

quote:

Originally posted by grunhauser:
Soft polenta with Roquefort.

Have you ever seen HARD polenta outside of your kitchen, Mr Softie?

quote:

Originally posted by BRR:
As an alternative to pasta, you could get creative with polenta.

I was thinking along the lines of risotto with those wild mushrooms you mentioned.

One local restaurant that we visit offers a pretty good dish along the lines of Matt's suggestion - a hearty wild mushroom risotto with tons of parmesan.

Or perhaps a sauteed mushroom/eggplant type mix over the polenta cakes mentioned - we've done something similar for dinner, but it's been served with a sauce started with beef/veal stock

As for the mushrooms, I know everyone has their own preference, but I would use Porcinis if you can find them, and given your location, I am sure you can.

Dave,

The Funky One prepared a vegetarian meal for one of the Wednesday Night Dinner Club gathering back in May that included a wonderful pasta dish and some other stuff I don't remember. If you want the full menu, ask him for it or let me know.

I shall attempt to ping him. Shame that this board has no message facility, but I'm pretty sure I've seen him on VC.

As far as polenta goes, personally I've never been a huge fan and thus have never cooked it.

The other thing is that she can eat the potato & parsnip gratin, so I don't need to cook a completely seperate meal for her, just a nice substitute for the meat.

What kinds of truffle are in season right now? I've never cooked with them either, but as I said it is a special occasion.

Well Dave, until you've sprung the magic polenta from your own hands a few times and a few ways, you shouldn't dismiss it so readily.

Polenta is a canvas that can be painted in so many different ways. You're missing out.

quote:

Polenta and red sauce marry beautifully.

Absolutely!

Polenta marries any sauce beautifuly and is one of my absolute favorite winter staples.

hard or soft?

quote:

Originally posted by Sweet Melissa:
Well Dave, until you've sprung the magic polenta from your own hands a few times and a few ways, you shouldn't dismiss it so readily.

Polenta is a canvas that can be painted in so many different ways. You're missing out.

I've tried it a few times, but it's just not for me. I figure that if a chef in a top restaurant can't cook polenta in a way that makes me want to eat it, what chance do I have?

dave,
try useing tempeh for the meat sub.
lentels make a great veg meat loaf.

try.
crepes stuffed w/ wild mushroom ragu
topped w/mornay sauce

try this book :Quick vegetarian Pleasure
Jeanne lemin
or
the new vegetarian, by colin spencer
this book has some nice gourmet recipes an can help you out.

The crepes sound nice, but Mornay sauce and cabernet? I don't think so.

sorry i didnot know what the wine was!
you can try some miso w/the extra wild mushrooms onions garlic then blend w/fresh herbs on top!
you can allso put it on a bed of spinach!

quote:

Originally posted by Jcocktosten:
As for the mushrooms, I know everyone has their own preference, but I would use Porcinis if you can find them, and given your location, I am sure you can.

I can only find dried Porcinis, which is odd because I thought September was their season.

whole foods should have them!

quote:

Originally posted by bez780:
whole foods should have them!

They said they won't be getting them until November.

Dave,

How about a pastry with the Sauternes, maybe filled with earthy fruits like figs and plums, with fresh herbs like rosemary. Then for the main, a stuffed portabello cap. Maybe a mixture of exotic mushrooms, eggplant, olives, etc. Grill the portabello ahead of time, then finish under the broiler topped with cheese.

Dave, if you ever have to do this again try this recipe. We made it the other night and paired it with a Bordeaux (Margaux). It worked well.