Veganizing “Friends”: Phoebe’s Rehearsal Dinner Potstickers

     I’m tired of pie crust. That’s right, I said that. That just happened. I’ve made so many lately, going through so much palm-oil-laced Earth Balance, that I presently have no desire to eat any more buttery layers or bake with questionable morals. But it was my dad’s birthday recently, and when I ask him what he wants for his birthday ‘cake’, he always says Boston cream pie. Well, not exactly. He recounts what he would have as a child: a Sara Lee graham crust with “soft, gray chocolate” (ew) layer and white cream on top. I’m not sure that’s a Boston cream pie, and when I made the one from Vegan Pie in the Sky, he said it was nothing like what he remembers (though delicious). So I winged a recipe from scratch and you’ll have to make it now because, like I said, best pie ever. And it’s so easy to make! No weird ingredients, and so much wiggle room with the ingredients.
     What’s the secret, you ask? It’s my aforementioned (likely momentary) abhorrence for regular pie crust. Instead of dealing with that nonsense, I altered a batch of my favorite cinnamon sugar cookies and spread the batter into the pie shell. It baked up like nobody’s business, puffing up uncontrollably and amazingly, rising and rising like a souffle. As it cooled, it fortunately sank a little (so I could fit the other components on top), but it was the most delicious and most fun pie crust ever. I see a lot of cookie crusts in my future.

     What about the soft, gray chocolate, you ask? First, I put out of my mind the question of what on earth Sara Lee did to chocolate to give it those qualities. Then, I set about my usual daily activity of melting a pot of dark chocolate, wondering what I could add to it to prevent it from hardening. I needed fat, I knew that, and some milk. For the fat, I used a combination of full-fat coconut milk and Earth Balance, in order to significantly decrease the amount of butter used. I also had to add sugar, because my dad hates dark chocolate. It worked out really well, resulting it a soft, creamy chocolate layer that kept its proper coloring. 
      As for the top layer, I used silken tofu, a drop of peanut butter for consistency (just enough for a hint of nuttiness but not enough to tell it’s PB, so any nut butter would work), and just a tiny bit of sweetener to offset the very sweet bottom layer and the very rich middle layer. The result was pretty much perfection. 

Directions: 

1. Blend it all in a blender until smooth.
2. Pour it over the pie and refrigerate for several hours. 

Like I said this was amazing. It’s messy, especially if you cut into it before it’s fully set like we did. But we didn’t care because it was sooo good. Hot damn. Go make it! 

The renowned restaurant Tredwells, in the Seven Dials area of the West End (close to “Matilda”!), has joined the happy trend of mainstream restaurants doing special-night plant-based supper clubs. And yes, they do mean vegan. Calling their one-night-a-month supper club “Vegwells” to be adorable, Tredwells in their attempt this past Monday has lept ahead of the competition. I’d expect nothing less from a restaurant of Marcus Wareing, the celebrity chef with the two-Michelin starred restaurant in Knightsbridge (remind me to look into whether that one is vegan-friendly too, and thus a candidate for the Vegan Michelin series). So I just googled Marcus Wareing and was like ‘hmm why is he sooo familiar looking’ and realized it’s because he was on an episode of Masterchef that Husbo P and I watched during our short but EMBARRASSING hate-fueled obsession with that terrible addictive af show. Anyway, the Tredwells chef, Chantelle Nicholson, has created this ‘plant-based’ supper club to highlight the magic that can unfold when you focus on good, sustainable ingredients. As the author of an apparently vegan (!!) cookbook called Planted, she seemed up to the challenge of impressing me with this meal. Spoiler, she did.

​Chef Chantelle spoke at the start of the meal, which is when I realized that like a true supper club, every table in our basement room was part of this special night and we were all going to be served the same courses at the same time. I like that! It made it seem extra special and like a real event. I am pretty sure this was the first edition of this new version of their supper club, which will be held on the last Monday of every month and must be booked (and paid for) in advance. I am not sure how often the menu will change, but given the restaurant’s dedication to sustainability, seasonality, and innovation, I assume that it will be different each time. Although if the desserts wanted to stay the same, I would be happy.
 
The concept focuses on five ‘plant-based’ courses, and I was assured that everything was vegan. I’m always nervous when places use the phrase ‘plant-based’ (more on that later), so even when someone tells me it’s all vegan, a part of me never really is certain. Well, thanks to Chef Chantelle’s welcome speech, I was finally at ease, because she mentioned how they were using fun new ingredients like ‘the water from chickpeas’. GIRL I almost screamed! High caliber chefs embracing the magic of aquafaba (remind me to ask her if she’s familiar with this name for it) (I’m asking you to remind me of a lot of things but like it’s in writing now so don’t worry) makes me so happy. And I figured, if they’re using aquafaba, I’m pretty sure that means everything is vegan.
 
Our waitress was very sweet, and after I quickly and repeatedly emptied my small-to-medium (it wasn’t a thimble, but I downed it in a sip) water glass, I said ‘would it be possible to get a pitcher? I think it would be easier for all of us’ and she laughed and brought me one so huzzah. 

The first course was a little jar of mushroom mousse that sounds weird but was great. The caramelized shallots seemed to be concentrated at the bottom, which I didn’t know, so my last few bites were a little too full of them, and the pickled mushrooms were big ole strips to be eating out of a tiny jar with a teaspoon. But those are just little quibbles because this was hella delicious. I’d be happy eating that again. 

Course 2 was avocado, lemon, and kohlrabi, which the chef said was her idea of summer in a dish. And it was very summery and bright, and I was glad to have something fresh and refreshing, even though it wasn’t anything revolutionary. You always need something to break up heavier foods and stronger flavors.

For the main course, we were served a chickpea panisse, which is a fried chickpea flour cake kind of thing from the south of France. If you know me, you know I’m obsessed with chickpea flour and run out weekly because I make socca probably too often. It’s the best stuff and there are endless ways to use it. So I was excited to get it as my main, especially since that meant at least a little bit of protein. It’s rare to see someone at one of these ‘plant-based’ shibangs give us more than vegetables, so I welcomed these sort-of frittery, sort-of cakey slabs heartily. I was also just happy that we got this dish because the other ‘plant-based’ item on their restaurant’s regular sample menu was grilled cauliflower, and you know what happens when a restaurant tries to give vegans a slab of cauliflower as a meal (I burn it down). The socca fingers (new name) were very good and not super dry like mine always are. They were served with grilled onions (a few too many/too big for my taste), mint salsa, and very thin slices of whatever white veg that is, fennel maybe? Good stuff. 

As good as all the savory dishes were, dessert brought everything to a whole nother level. I know what you’re thinking: um, y’all crazy. Dessert on ‘plant-based’ menus at non-vegan restaurants are universally tragic. They’re always futile attempts that show zero awareness of what vegans want (they always seem to be trying to be low-sugar or healthy or whatever and you’re like I’m eating out at a restaurant do you think that’s what I’m here for?). But against all odds (take a good look at me nowwww), dessert at Tredwells was the best freaking part. These little jars of deconstructed strawberry meringue pie were astounding. It was one of the best desserts I’ve ever had, and probably the best in the Non-Chocolate category. Simply sublime. It actually made me giddy (probably the sugar rush) and I started acting a little loopy and I shouted “ANOTHER ROUND GOOD SIR” and husband was sooo embarrassed but I wasn’t because I wanted more. Like Jon Lovitz and his rock shrimp ravioli, I could have eaten 100 of these. Man alive I really want to have this again. They had to have used aquafaba for the meringue, which was a little more mousse-y and not as stiff as you’d expect if it was on a pie, but considering it was all in a little jar it worked for that form. The strawberries were perfect, and that scorched surface was gorgeous. LOVES IT! 

I also loved the second dessert! Yes we got a second dessert that was also wonderful! Screw every other ‘plant-based’ menu! This was toasted hazelnut pudding with hazelnut caramel, just out of the oven so the waiters warned everyone not to touch the dish (I did of course because they said not to and it was extremely hot even ten minutes later). The pudding-y cake was great itself (I didn’t really see where the caramel came into play? it was probably mixed in maybe) but what made this dish was the dark chocolate sorbet on top. The little discs of sorbet were extra extra frozen, so that when it was first served, you literally could not cut into the sorbet with a spoon. They were softened by the heat of the cake! So they slowly melted a little and would mix into the hazelnut pudding and it was so lovely and delicious and I was very very full and very very happy. You know how many ‘plant-based’ menus we’ve tried in London and elsewhere over the years – have you EVER seen a place provide two incredible desserts (besides Alinea?) like this? I can’t think of anywhere right now and I’m impressed.
​

So yes, you’ll notice I’ve been using ‘plant-based’ in quotes allatime because I forking hate that phrase, especially when the user is using it instead of vegan. I’ve said in lots of posts (and probably ranted to you in person if we know each other (and on twitter) (and instagram) (complaining is my jam)) why it is problematic, but for a quick refresher: Plant-based is not a real term. Businesses, including restaurants, pop-ups, AND companies selling regular supermarket goods have been using the phrase – for a while now – to mean anything based on a plant. Meaning, when I found a protein bar at the grocery store that screamed “Plant-based!” on the box and I went to check the ingredients, it contained milk and egg. Its first two ingredients were oats and apples – so it was “plant-based” in the truest in-quotes meaning possible. Bless their f-ing hearts, it was founded on plant materials, I guess they were saying, but they added non-plants to it and no one can do shit about it because who is defining ‘plant-based’? Honestly, to me it makes more sense, to get into the semantics of the word ‘based’, that it would mean something that is centered on plants but not 100% entirely made of plants. Like how movies are ‘based on the true story’ or ‘based on the book’ but are never exact copies. They’re just based on it. And I realize that mainstream companies do this because using the word ‘vegan’ would scare away potential nonveg customers – but would it really? Is there any evidence that Joe Spare Ribs wouldn’t try the new vegan menu if it said Vegan at the top but he would if it said ‘Plant-Based’? 

And this rant, and be sure that I’m always going to make this rant (see, e.g., my review of Plates) ​is a little unfair to put on this review, because the chef and staff at Tredwells seem much more amenable to using the V word than others; I mean the chef even has a vegan cookbook. But, it’s messy to me that they commit so hard to the phrase that it informs the code for their regular menu – V means vegetarian, but P-B is used for plant-based. That’s not a very commonsensical code for vegans to look for on a menu. I see that on a menu, I think there’s peanut butter in there and they’re coding it to warn the peanut allergy sufferers, but then, as a fanatic lover of peanut butter, I would do my peanut butter dance and order every peanut butter thing on the menu and so when it turns out it was all the vegan stuff I would, well I would be fine but disappointed because hot damn I love peanut butter. You get what I’m saying. I’m joking yes but it is a wee bit unintelligible for something that is supposed to easily inform customers, especially since vegans are probably the ones looking for the plant-based items. People just trying to eat more vegetables but without real restrictions can use the common sense skill of reading item names without needing a code. I would never think to look for p-b next to a dish name to see if it’s ok for me. And I’ve never seen that before anywhere, so it seems like bending over backwards to avoid using the v word. That kind of mental acrobatics is a big turn-off and I wish people would just embrace the word vegan, especially as ‘plant-based’ continues to get more and more bastardized by commercial ventures. 

Aside from my requisite p-b rant (not peanut butter) (I know you thought I meant peanut butter right), the experience at Vegwells supper club was a real treat. Everything was delicious and some dishes were extraordinary. I have no idea how they will top these desserts but I believe in them. And I’ll let you know, because I will definitely be going back.

Tredwells “Vegwells” Supper Club, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe for right now
Water speed: I was happy to get a pitcher so I didn’t have to worry about it, but before that, the waiters did a good job filling the water glasses of normal people and their normal drinking speeds.
Service: Overall very nice. It was really hard to get the bill at the end (we paid before, as I said, but you had to pay for service and any drinks you got at the end) because everyone was finishing at the exact same time, so I wish next time you could just pay for service beforehand too, like we did for Plates and others. 
Bathrooms: Around the corner so you pass a little window into the kitchen on the way. Fine, clean individual doors marked separately for men and women.
Food:  Fantastic! And we’re getting closer and closer to getting sufficient protein at these things! Sun’s out guns out!
Bonus: Amazing desserts! Like seeing a double rainbow.