For someone whose dodgy culinary skills fall, without fail, back upon the globulous bosom of dairy products, one might venture to say that successfully veganizing a dairy-heavy dish would be the ultimate slap in the nicotine-stained face. Bonus ass-kicking points for veganizing a dish that also contains more eggs than an entire colony of ill-treated hens could produce in a decade.
Which brings us to creme brulee and its sticky-sweet cousin, creme caramel (pictured above), the sugary little cholesterol bombs of French cuisine and, as far as I can see, the last wobbly arguments for the use of eggs and dairy in said cuisine. And since tearing down wobbly arguments is what this splinter faction is all about, I was struck speechless with admiration when Chipmunk of the PPK ventured bravely into the land of creme brulee, torch in hand, ready to bring us the first recipe in Hezobllah Tofu that does indeed contain tofu.
This is also a work in progress, a little toddler of a recipe, if you will, so your comments and kitchens are greatly needed. I'd say Bourdain can kiss our asses an extra time for this one, but I just noticed that the original recipe calls for ten egg yolks and a quart of heavy cream, so I imagine Tony is in the throes of a triple-bypass by now.
Blend with 100g sugar (roughly 3 oz - I goofed while converting the measurements, this is twice the amount in the recipe), 1 teaspoon soft dark sugar and half a cup oil (I'd go lower on both next time).
For version 1, I heated a few tablespoons of soy milk with a pinch of turmeric (for colour), a pinch of salt and half a teaspoon vanilla bean paste, mixed in the tofu mixture and a generous tablespoon of arrowroot and heated it through. I then baked it at 300 degrees with the moulds immersed in water until it looked done. Sprinkled on some white and brown sugar and caramelised the tops under the broiler (with limited success). This one came out eggy but a little crumbly, and so...
Version 2: Made the tofu mixture as stated above, but using slightly less sugar. Heated maybe a tablespoon of agar (I'd probably go higher next time) with a little water until the agar melted. Added the pinch of turmeric and salt, stirred in the tofu mixture with half a teaspoon vanilla, heated through (being careful not to let too much moisture evaporate, otherwise the emulsion will split!), poured into the moulds and left to set. Then I melted some sugar in a pan and let it caramelise and let the crème slide onto a plate. When it was dark enough, I added a little water - just enough to make it pourable but still syrupy - and spooned it over the top (Normally, you would pour the syrup into the mould before the custard goes in). This one wasn't quite firm enough either.
So to sum up possible adjustments, my lack of equipment notwithstanding: Less sugar, less fat (possibly something a little more solid too, since that quart of cream is bound to have some saturated fat going on), more agar and possibly some arrowroot. I intentionally didn't use any extra flavourings and aimed for a fairly "plain" custard, which didn't taste like tofu, luckily. I wonder what a little black salt would do. There's probably multiple ways of doing this.
7 comments:
When I made vegan tofu at my hotel I used Agar Agar, a soy milk that I had made myself which I infused with tahitian vanilla beans, blood orange peel, and annato seed (for color without any aroma) that I reduced, cornstarch, and mashed banannas. Overall the texture and taste was appealing (more of a warm gelee then a creamy regular custard). But from the vegan in the banquet he said it was a rousing success. But I would have to say with a vegan creme brulee getting the caramelized/burnt sugar is important!
I laughed. An amusing blog, for if I myself am not vegan nor vegetarian, I have many friends who are, and I enjoy cooking for them and making foods they enjoy as much as I do my carnivorous friends.
But this. This... evil. This foul abomination, it goes too far. The only possible reparation you could make for trying to label this recipe as "creme brulee", is a ritual cleansing the likes of which is seldom seen in this modern world, an ordeal to make plain your apology to all that is good and true in the world. To do otherwise is to sully all that is beautiful with the filth of an offense to cooking and taste that is far worse than anything even McDonald's could do.
It may be tasty. It may be healthy. It may be the best dessert ever created by the hands of mankind - but it is not, it never can be, creme brulee.
It is actions like this one, my friends, that make Mr. Bourdain's comments seem less objectionable, nay, that trivialize them in mainstream thought, allow him to swell the ranks of his legions with otherwise good and decent people. Put simply, you presume too much, and you allow this evil to persist in the world at your peril.
Oh, gosh, Matt, this is terrible. This blog was created just for you! The fact that you find it unappealing is a.. terrible blow. Just terrible.
I think I'll stop being vegan now.
Hi Matt. Please go poorly emulate Anthony Bourdain's pretentiously hackneyed writing style somewhere else. This is not the place to debate the merits of vegan cooking; it's a collective effort for charity. Oh, and also, I can totally delete you. Thanks, bye!
As the perpetrator of this abomination, I'd like to point out that this pales im comparison to the other heresies I commit on a regular basis. I'm a card-carrying evilutionist [sic], so I'll get back to you when I've repented for that one. That said, "crème brûlée" is French for "burnt cream", so you might as well nitpick that they ought to have called it "crème avec une croûte de sucre brûlé". Chimps beat us hands down when it comes to not mindlessly imitating ineffectual actions. "But, but...you can't do that!" Yes, yes I can and I'll gladly adopt the chimp strategy and work out how! Now behave yourself, or I'll start making graven images of îles flottantes.
Anyway, I'm going to try and get my hands on some achiote but the flavour of the turmeric (used very sparingly) isn't detectable here. Commercially available custard powder (the upmarket stuff with real vanilla!) would be another solution, possibly. The banana angle is interesting and I know it works in ice cream, but I do think that tofu is closer to the eggy texture of the original dish.
My husband was just saying (jokingly, actually) this morning, "Now if they just could veganize creme brulee. . . " And then I find this, via the PPK. Wow.
I'll have to try this sometime, sounds good. I've only had traditional creme brulee once. Because of the amount of eggs and fat, it's not something I would have ordered a lot, even as a lacto-ovo vegetarian.
Btw, Matt has obviously never made creams/desserts from silken tofu or he would realize how it is indeed, creamy. I don't think "cream" necessarily needs to refer to dairy products, although traditionally I suppose it does. But we're changing/challenging tradition here. It's probably a good sign that someone was so utterly offended by this.
Finally, I love this blog. What a great idea!
wow, that looks really yummy!
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