Denis Cotter is one of my most respected chefs. He’s written 2 marvellous cookbooks and owns a lovely vegetarian restaurant in Cork. I’ve been to the restaurant 4 times and have met him. He’s so nice! The books are a bit dairy heavy but I’m trying vegan versions of some of the things in it.
Yesterday was our anniversary but I was travelling back from Reading so couldn’t cook anything too elaborate. I decided to do a vegan version of a recipe from Paradiso Seasons, “Purple sprouting broccoli with dried tomatoes and garlic on a corn pancake of leeks and puy lentils, with a rosemary cream”
I made the crepes from VWAV. I always add a bit more water than the recipe; maybe it’s the difference between US and English flour? Anyway, they worked.
The stuffing for the pancakes is a mixture of puy lentils, leeks, garlic, dijon mustard and thyme, with a little cream (soya cream in my case).
The cream is heavily reduced stock, rosemary oil, (soya) cream, and in my version, a bit of nutritional yeast.
The purple sprouting broccoli is quickly fried with garlic and sun dried tomatoes.
My picture isn’t very good but there is a very nice one in the book if you want to look at it! We really enjoyed it with a nice bottle of Lirac.
Cooking the Vegan Books 