Our Great Big Vegan Wedding Tasting
We offer a full tasting of their menus to all our wedding clients and often to corporate clients too. Whilst this is sometimes difficult to fit into a busy schedule we never regret the value that this gives to both us an our guests.
Its a great opportunity to try ideas, discuss options and fine tune the recipes. Often our most interesting and new innovations have come from being challenged to do something different. One really good case in point was a recent tasting for Lizzie and Aiden. They are planning a fully vegan wedding to take place in 2020 at the Millennium Galleries in Sheffield. To help them decide on their menu we cooked a wide range of options from canapes, to starter sharing platters, four main courses and even evening buffet options.
The Vegan Pork Pie for this latter course went down so well that it has spawned a new product available to purchase: (see the recipe below).
The tasting took place at our dining and meeting event space, Upstairs@PJtaste. The starter platters included grilled vegetables, olives and tapenade.
The four main courses were a wild mushroom risotto, non meat Wellington with fondant potatoes, a tagliatelle with local squash, spicy chickpeas and a vegetable consomme and finally a “pulled pork pie” with roast potatoes. Guests were particularly impressed with the Wellington made with beetroot and the risotto and these both made it onto the wedding breakfast menu.
Sticky toffee pudding was decided on for dessert replacing the garnish on the day (a brandy snap filled with pecan nut cream) to a caramel sauce and our delicious dehydrated banana chips (this concentrates the flavours!).
Another hit was the vegan pork pie. Made in the traditional way with a vegan “hot water crust” it is hand raised and baked in an authentic tin. This was actually delicious and we immediately received orders for Christmas and instructions to make it available as a product on our web site!
Recipe for the Vegan Pork Pie
Ingredients for the hot water pastry crust:
300g plain flour
130g vegetable shortening
80ml water
Pinch of salt
Ingredients for the "pork" filling:
250g soya protein flavoured with local grown herbs (e.g. thyme, sage)
1 small onion
1/2 cup breadcrumbs - we used crusts from our sandwiches dehydrated and whizzed up
1/4 whole fresh nutmeg grated
1 tsp mustard
Salt and pepper
Ingredients for the jelly layer
1 cup cooled vegetable stock
some vegan jelly set - we use agar agar bought in loca chinese supermarkets
First make the pastry. In a bowl with the flour and salt grate in half of the vegetable shortening. Rub together using your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Now take a small saucepan and have it on a low to medium heat. Place the water and remaining vegetable shortening into it and heat until the fat has melted and the liquid is hot (not boiling). Pour this liquid into your flour mix and stir together using a wooden spoon. As soon as its cool enough to handle, go in with your hands and bring together to a smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge while you make the sausage filling.
For the “sausage” mix fry the onion and add the herbs, mustard and soya protein. Season and add vegetable stock to bring the mixture to an easily moulded form.
To raise the pastry use a suitable high sided tin. Roll out the pastry, reserving some to make the top, between two layers of cling film and then place into the tin. Dont worry if it breaks as you can mould it back to shape raising it up the sides of the tin. Fill with the “sausage” mix and cut out a lid crimping this onto the top. You can apply a soya milk wash to the top before baking.
Bake at 170C until the pastry is crisp and has a good colour. Partially cool before adding the jelly layer. We use a small funnel to carefully pour the jelly mixture through the top. Cool fully before enjoying with your favourite chutneys.