A vegetarian at Thanksgiving [Portobello Wellingtons with Madeira Sauce]

Last year, I struggled with Thanksgiving, in part because I just didn't feel like I had a good sense of how to approach the holiday from a vegetarian perspective. It's one of those holidays that can become rather awkward because all of the side dishes to accompany the turkey tend to be pure carbohydrates. While some people don't seem to mind (scrottie), I do. I want a centerpiece that I can enjoy that involves the same sort of drama and suspense as a roasted turkey. Tofurky just won't cut it.

So, to the Cafe Flora Cookbook I've gone. The crew team had a Thanksgiving party yesterday evening, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to try out an option, Portobello Wellingtons with Madeira Sauce. I've never had Beef Wellington before, but it also sounds like a lovely little centerpiece for the meat-eating sect: a side of beef wrapped in pastry and roasted, served up with some gravy.

Whatever. Anyway, I've written about the Cafe Flora cookbook a few times. It tends to specialize in amazing vegetarian dishes that are mostly amazing because they're carefully constructed and take a considerable amount of time and effort to prepare. Among the dishes, this one is by far the most complex one I've attempted to date. Good for special occasions, not good for a last-minute supper idea. I started on Friday night by preparing the Mushroom Pecan Pate, roasted portobellos, and pan-braised leeks, which took around 1.5 hours, altogether. I already had some mushroom essence in the freezer, but if I hadn't had any, I would have made it then, as it takes a good hour or longer to simmer down. I continued on Saturday afternoon with the Madeira sauce and Wellington assembly and baking, which took another 2 hours altogether.

The result was tasty and satisfying - the mushrooms, mozzarella, and pecans make the pate proteinaceous, while the sauce and leeks add rich flavor. And it is indeed great with mashed potatoes, as promised by the Cafe Flora cookbook. I'm glad I brought it, too. There weren't many vegetarian items at the Crew Thanksgiving, aside from the pies (though those were tasty, too).

( Recipes are below the jump. )

Meanwhile...

Here are a couple of the other things I've been up to, recently.

From the visit to Austin:

A railroad trestle to nowhere. The streams flowing through Austin perplex me, somewhat. I think Austin's still in the mindset of "cap and hide" urban water sources, although there are paths along some of the streams.


Beer and Detroit-style pizza at Craft Brew, in the Rainey Street district. The Indian food at the nearby G'Raj Mahal was even more delicious, but I was pretty happy with the local beer, pizza, and live music. At one table over, we observed a woman with dreadlocks, wearing cowboy boots. Austin, personified. On another night, I had a tasty cocktail made with liquor from a local distillery and pecan syrup from an Austin pecan tree.


Saturday morning, A&M hosted a small regatta against longtime rivals Baylor. The weather was strange, foggy yet windy in the morning.




Our team's boats, with Baylor's trailer in the background.


I didn't have any competition for the regatta, so I volunteered to serve as the Starting Marshal. I think it had been a good year since I'd last operated the launch. There were a couple of iffy moments towards the beginning, particularly at the point where I couldn't figure out why the motor wasn't self-leveling, which of course happened right after I'd dropped off all my passengers and had to head to shore without any ballast in the bow. The day I joined the team two years ago, a guy operating the launch under similar circumstances got thrown out of the boat with the launch motor operating full speed. We watched in horror as he came to the surface, with the empty launch doing high-speed donuts nearby. Finally, it flipped over, killing the motor. We were very lucky that nobody was seriously injured. Needless to say, I did not care to repeat that experience. So once I made it back to the beach, I acquired a passenger for ballast for the rest of the morning. He did a good job.


By the end of the regatta, the fog had blown off, but the wind picked up to the point where it started to whitecap. Despite the wind, the last fours were able to finish the race uneventfully.

The regatta concluded the fall racing season for the team. In a week and a half, I'll turn my focus to the Holiday Challenge. I'll miss the morning practices out with the rowers; we had a great group this fall.