Xmas - Part 1

By Monica on December 27th, 2007

Hope everyone had a great holiday, whether you spent it surrounded by friends and family, or spent it like us - in pajamas, just the two of us, doors securely locked with a stern ‘go away’ sign posted. It was heaven. But we did have the obligatory familial gathering the weekend before, so there was still plenty of food and festivities.

Where to start? Appetizers, of course! As a kid, I distinctly remember this delicious, congealed glob of secretions my father called a ‘cheeseball’. The cream cheese and shredded cheddar inside not having enough saturated fat for him, he coated it in some sort of chipped luncheon meat. I had written this off as something best left to omnivores when Ahisma from VeggieBoards posted her recipe for the very same thing, sans lunchmeat which I added just for nostalgia. And wouldn’t you know it, same exact taste, a glorious vegan cheeseball. Absolutely delicious, and still very bad for you!

I also made Sauerbraten Neatballs, one of my favorites.

In previous years I served a few different main courses, typically everyone got to pick his or her favorite and I was kind enough to make them all. This year I made my favorite and told everyone to eat it or go hungry. Bah-humbug. Big surprise, everyone ate it. What we have here is the veganized version of my Babi’s Czech Beef & Dill Gravy. Seitan, dill, gravy, dumplings, damn right they ate it.

So that was dinner & then it was time to take our brandy spiked Silk Nog into the den for the American-Consumer portion of Giftmas. Ray & I made a very diligent effort to keep buying down to a minimum this year and I think we did alright. Ray bought me only eco-friendly, handmade, vegan-friendly items, and I bought him only one item he really wanted instead of 50 trivial widgets.

I do have to show off the necklace I got; I absolutely love it. A delightful vegan in Dallas creates these in various animal forms and sells them on Etsy, fully customizable.

If you’re waiting for dessert porn, you will have to wait a bit longer. I do have the dessert porn, lots and lots of seedy Xmas dessert porn, but this post is approaching novel length already and I still have to post recipes. So stay tuned, finish up your left overs this week, and I’ll get to the recipes!

Ahisma’s Cheeseball Treat
16 ounces vegan cream cheese
1 package Vegan Gourmet, flavor of your choice, shredded
1t garlic powder
1/4t pepper
2t umeboshi vinegar (or apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice)
1t Red Hot sauce
1 bunch fresh scallions, diced

Combine the spices with the cream cheese. Mix remaining ingredients with a fork. Combine the two. Line a suitable sized bowl with plastic wrap and pack the cheeze mixture into the bowl. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours.

Sauerbraten Neatballs
I used Bryanna’s recipe for “Saucy Neatballs” for the balls. I highly recommend it, but use whatever no-meat meatballs float your boat, and this recipe is for the gravy.

1T vegetable oil
1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
1 cup water
1/2 white vinegar
6T packed brown sugar
1t ginger
2 bay leaves
2T flour
2T water

In a sauce pan, heat the vegetable oil and saute the onions until soft. Stir in water, vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, and bay leaves. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Mix flour and water together, then add to gravy to thicken. Add your Neatballs to the gravy, simmer for 10-15 minutes, and serve!

Czezh No-Beef & Dill Gravy
(I’m doing this from memory, this is one of those dishes I never wrote a recipe down for, so bear with me!)

“Beef”
8 ounces seitan chunks, any kind
6 cups veggie broth
Tops and leaves of one bunch of celery
1 onion, quartered
2T peppercorns

“Gravy”
8T Earth Balance
8T flour
~4 cups reserved veggie broth
1 container Tofutti Sour Supreme, or Better Than Sour Cream
1 cup packed fresh dill
1T lemon juice
1T sugar
salt
pepper

“Beef” - To a medium pot, add the 6 cups of veggie broth, seitan chunks, onion, celery, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for one hour. Reserving the broth, drain the mixture. Discard the veggies and peppercorns.

“Gravy” - When “beef” is done, melt the EB in a large, straight edged saucepan. Add the flour, making a roux, and cook for about 1 minute. Add approximately 4 cups of reserved veggie broth, +/- 1/2 a cup to form a gravy consistency. Add the sour cream, dill, lemon juice, sugar, and salt & pepper to taste.

Add seitan chunks to the gravy to heat throughout. Serve over dumplings, of course.