French cooking and meat substitutes...(x-posted)

[lotus_n_my_hair]

I've been vegetarian for about 9 months now...And after eating nothing but legume and East Indian dishes, I decided to expand my menu a bit...So I decided to crack open my french cookbook. Thing is it's loaded with meat recipes (I bought it when I still ate meat)...So that will take a bit of a stretch of the imagination and I have no problems

Comments

[kastinkerbell]

As far as the fat/grease from the meat...I'm guessing that in many cases using broth will not work. Broth is essentially water and that is quite different from fat as far as it's properties go. You'll probably want to use butter/margarine (not sure if you avoid dairy, as well) or oils (keeping in mind that olive oil has a strong flavor on it's own).

Since the meat will have also had meaty flavor, you'll want to bump up other seasonings to compensate.

Broth *can* work as a substitute for "juices" of the meat. Like if you were making a "roast" and wanted to make a sauce from the juices. While the meat juices will also have the fats in them, it will probably be ok to sub veggie broth for them.

[lotus_n_my_hair]

The recipe I have in mind (pepper steak) called for the meat juices to make a creme sauce w/...I guess if I mix a little veggie broth into the butter some flavour that could work?

[ticklethepear]

I just googled "french cuisine vegetarian" and there were a bunch of sites...if you can read French I'm sure there are even more options!

[lotus_n_my_hair]

Thanks for the suggestion! My french is rusty, lol but am taking classes this spring.

[magid]

You're more likely going to be able to make a reasonable vegetarian substitute dish when it's something like a stew, where the meat is not solo, than if it's a simple steak, which is really only about the meat.

[lotus_n_my_hair]

The recipe is a steak recipe...I am unsure if it will work out to be honest...Someone suggested seitan, but unsure hmmm....

[medancer]

I've heard that a giant portobello mushroom done over the grill makes a decent steak substitute.

[miss_elysium]

ooh yes it does :) (and it releases a lot of juices)

[miss_elysium]

for fat and greese I just add oil (but this will include some experimentation, trials, and pitfalls)

I use tempeh as a beef substitute but not sure as far as a full steak.

For chicken I use Quorn (its in the freezer section) and that is VERY similar to chicken. You can get it as strips or pressed as a while half of chicken roast (complete with leg and wing which is a little funny and disturbing depending on your reasons for going veg)

Good luck,

[lotus_n_my_hair]

Heh...I use quorn to sub for chicken and ground "meat"....You are right, it is disturbingly too much like meat...LOL

I switched over for mainly ethical and health reasons, but admittedly I liked the taste of meat. I just didn't like taking the life of an animal for that taste. I think I am one of the few veggie that would admit that I once liked meat though lol...

Someone suggested seitan for steak substitute....I may try that.

Thanks for the tips!