Vegan "Egg Salad" Canapé

Ingredients

1tsp turmeric
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon fine chopped chives 
1 tablespoons Dijon or yellow mustard
1 container fresh extra firm tofu (drained on a terry kitchen towel for at least 2 hours... best wrapped up in towels overnight in the refrigerator)
1/2 cup Vegenaise (add more if you like it lighter and creamier)
1/2 cup celery diced fine
4 scallions chopped fine
1/2 cup red onion diced fine

Salt to taste

Mix the mayo, Mustard, spices and fine chopped veggies together. This is the "yolk" mixture.

Open the package of firm tofu and drain.

Rinse the block or blocks of tofu under water and place on a clean terry kitchen towel or paper towels. You can leave the wrapped tofu out on your kitchen counter or in the refrigerator.

Check the toweling and if it's full of water, turn it over to saturate the other side of the toweling.

The main concern in doing this step is to remove as much liquid out of the tofu as possible before starting the recipe creation. Excess liquid will make the egg salad mixture too watery.

HINT: It's even better to do this step the night before so that all the excess liquid will drain into the toweling overnight... put it in the refrigerator if you do this this step the night before.

If you don't take the time to drain the tofu completely, the salad will become watery.

Mocking Boiled Eggs
In the bowl, crumble the drained tofu with your fingers. It will look like boiled egg whites in a real egg salad.

Take your time to make sure that the mixture is crumpled evenly.

If you want it to really look authentic, make sure all the straight edges are crumbled.

Add the Vegenaise, onion, celery and scallions...

Stir until all becomes a beautiful yolk yellow color.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Faux Gras + Blue Cheese & Chives (a.k.a. Savory Seared Pears)

Faux Gras + Blue Cheese & Chives (a.k.a. Savory Seared Pears)

 I will tell you that this  really is delicious. It's a perfect appetizer served with crostini; it's also great on top of some lightly dressed arugula.


Faux Gras + Blue Cheese & Chives


2 ripe pears
champagne vinegar
applewood smoked salt
black pepper
1 tablespoon of butter
Humboldt Fog cheese (or any other light-tasting bleu cheese)
chives


Slice pears into thirds from top to bottom leaving two good slices with the skin on and a core slice for each pear. Using a sharp knife, score the pear in a diamond shape. (You want you knife to pierce the flesh, but not to pierce the pear skin.) 


Lightly sprinkle each scored pear half with champagne vinegar -- just a few drops will do. Next, add a pinch of smoked salt and a turn of black pepper to the cut-side of each pear. Heat a medium-sized pan over medium-high heat. Once the pan is heated through, add the butter. Once the butter has melted, place pears in the pan cut-side-down, and allow them to cook for three to four minutes. (You want the pears to caramelize nicely.) Once you have achieved some good color on the cut-side, flip pears over and heat them through on the other side. Remove pears from pan. 


To serve, place pears on a plate and garnish each pear half with about 1/4 ounce of crumbled bleu cheese and chopped chives. Serve with crostini or soft french bread.

108 pounds lost