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Still on the vegan marshmallow quest -- I noticed today my local grocery carries acacia powder and tragacanth gum (powdered), so I picked up two ounces of acacia and one ounce of tragacanth gum. They did not, unfortunately, have any agar agar or carrageen. Any advice on how to use these two gums as a substitute for gelatin?

Okay, results: I tried two batches -- one regular strawberry and one vegan raspberry, using flax goo as the gelling agent in the vegan batch. I tried the flax alone, rather than including other gel substitutes, because 1) I had it on hand and 2) I wanted to rule it out as a possible solution in itself. The regular ones turned out perfectly -- very airy; just as expected. The flax gel, before whipping it, looks and feels exactly like snot. After whipping, it increased in volume and foamed, but only by about 1.5x original volume. It does retain the gelatinous texture, even after being combined with the raspberry puree. After adding the superheated sugar syrup, it did seem to increase a bit more, but the flax gel did not set the air bubbles. I poured it out on to an oiled half sheet, but it barely covered the whole bottom at approximately the same thickness of the original puree, so I moved the aluminum foil up so that it would only cover half of the half-sheet. It's very sticky, but it doesn't look like it will harden up. Even if it does, it will be more of a slightly foamy fruit gel than a marshmallow. Discussion: Boiled flax meal may help set up marshmallow batter, but it will by no means do it alone. This definitely calls for something much stronger.

Ah. I was thinking that either the acid in the fruit puree would be enough or that I could add lemon juice or other acid at that point. But if it won't even fluff, then there's no point. That's helpful to know that it's more complicated than simply substituting agar and likely needs more than one gelling agent. No, vegetarians eat eat milk derivatives, but not vegans. They're the most strict and avoid eating or using any animal products at all. So I consider it a personal challenge to make something entirely unexpected that they can eat. Checking the ingredients on commercial vegan marshmallows was a good idea. These are what seem to be the main gelling agents: acacia, soy protein, carrageenan, locust bean gum. Now, acacia is gum arabic, and I recognize carrageenan as a seaweed extract, and locust bean gum, but I'm not sure what soy protien is or at what point it would be added -- to the puree at the beginning or to the fluff at the end? Probably the beginning, unless the heat from the sugar would be problematic. I think it must be an important ingredient, given that natural gelatin has a significant protien content. Well, I will report back with results. How soon depends on when I can get my hands on these various gel subsitutes. ETA: I just had another idea. Flax seed, when powdered and then boiled in water, becomes clear and gummy -- almost like an egg white. Only fresh reacts this way IME -- pre-toasted doesn't work. I wonder if when cooled somewhat, it would fluff? It does contribute a "nutty" flavor, so that has to be taken into account.

I'd love to make these for a gift for some vegan friends, but sadly, Emes Kosher Gelatin is no longer considered to be vegan. Well, Emes says it is, but they're the only ones. Apparently, chemical analysis reveals that there's too much protien for it to be only what it is advertised to be and it reacts too similarly to animal-based gelatin. Which, I suppose, explains why it works so well. So now, I am at a loss as to what to try, given the lack of success in this thread with agar. But what about pectin? It doesn't look like anyone has tried that yet. Is it worth trying, or is it too dissimilar from gelatin?

Yup; it was a straight 1:1 substitution. I've also had very good success with using coconut milk in making a non-dairy chocolate fondue.

Well, I did it. And the verdict is .... success! I used Trader Joe's light coconut milk (it wasn't an attempt to be healthier -- it was just what was available) and Earth Balance margarine. The fudge sauce was especially a success, and I'll attribute that to the powerfully chocolate flavor of the two types of chocolate. What little coconut flavor was imparted from the coconut milk was entirely overpowered by the chocolate. So, if you want a coconut-flavored hot fudge, you would need to add a bit of coconut extract to it, along with the vanilla. It was creamy, smooth, appropriately thick when cooled, and did not harden into a solid block when chilled in the refrigerator. I did thicken considerably in the refridgerator, but you could still spread it on something, if you were so inclined. It reheats well with no off-flavors or other problems that I could detect. The caramel sauce was also a success, though it did have a slight coconut flavor. It was not unpleasant, but it was there. The texture was also good and it reacted exactly the same as a dairy sauce. In fact, the results were good enough so that I think I'll continue to make caramel and fudge sauces this way. It is certainly easier to keep a can of coconut milk on hand than it is to run out for heavy cream, and I am guessing that it's less expensive than soy cream/creamer.

My husband and I are having some friends over for an evening of reality TV and ice cream sundaes. In all, a junkfest of food and entertainment. Rotting the mind and body all at once! The glitch: two of our guests are vegans. Not a big problem, though: Soy Delicious (or Soy Dream or whatever it's called) ice cream is pretty decent, and Hip Whip whipped topping is an okay substitute for whipped cream. I'll have the real stuff on hand for the rest of us heathens, though. I'd like some suggestions about what to do for the chocolate and caramel sauces, though. For simplicity, I'm only going to make one of each, and they'll both be vegan. In place of the cream in the sauces below, I was thinking of using coconut milk. Would that likely work? Or, should I try soy milk or soy cream? Soy has never tasted quite right to me in milk or cream form. The butter will be replaced with Earth Balance margarine. Non-vegan recipes: Chocolate fudge sauce 10 ounces semisweet chocolate , chopped 1/3 cup sifted cocoa powder , Dutch process 1/3 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup light corn syrup 1/3 cup heavy cream Pinch table salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into pieces Caramel sauce 2 cups granulated sugar 1 cup heavy cream pinch table salt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , cold

A really fascinating source on the history and making of butter: http://webexhibits.org/butter/ From their overview of the process and steps involved in making butter, it looks like ripening the butter through added enzymes and an aging process will flavor the butter. So, depending on the cultural butter variant you want (http://webexhibits.org/butter/countries.html), you have to alter your method quite a bit. http://webexhibits.org/butter/process-steps.html

My husband introduced me to "Cincinnati chili": spaghetti noodles, topped with canned chili and shreaded cheddar cheese. I have to admit that it's really good. I also like spray "cheese" on Ritz crackers, but I can't bring myself to buy the stuff anymore. The shame would be too much. Another favorite childhood "appetizer": peanut butter on Saltine crackers, topped with a slice of cheddar cheese. My grandfather introduced me to this one: liverwurst sandwiches on toasted white bread, smeared with Miracle Whip. My grandmother preferred to eat her Miracle Whip plain on a big piece of iceburg lettuce. It was her "salad." One day after school, I discovered that microwaving leftover plain white rice with a teaspoon of honey makes a satisfying snack/dessert. This was an improvement over my usual dessert at grandma's, which was a small handful of stale chocolate chips. Wow, I'm grateful that I can drive myself to the grocery store and don't have to eat like that anymore!

Another idea: our friends veganized a Food Network butternut squash lasagne recipe, and it's really quite excellent. There's no fake cheese or tofu in it, I believe. I think the bechemel sauce was made using soy milk, and flavored with a bit of nutmeg. It holds together excellently and is extremely filling.

It's probably the sugar in the chocolate. Chocolate that is marketed as vegan is made from unrefined sugar or other natural sweeteners. This is because the process sugar goes through during refining is not necessarily vegan. My friends are fine with me using regular dark and bittersweet chocolate, though I did use the vegan stuff once. It was kind of off-tasting, so I melted it in coconut milk and used it as a fondue. It tasted much better that way. I bet you could also make some nice chocolate truffles with chocolate and coconut milk, then rolled in unsweetened cocoa, nuts, or shreaded coconut. Looks like you've got enough options here for about 20 dinners, John DePaula! You'll have to keep bringing those vegan friends back for more!

I just thought of a few more ideas. Premade frozen phyllo dough is usually vegan (check the package to be sure, of course). You can use this, brushed with Smart Balance vegan margarine (not all margarine is vegan, and most of it tastes terrible, so our vegan friends turned us on to this brand), to make sweet or savory filled triangles. Or, you could do a nice caramelized apple tart, using the phyllo dough for the crust, and caramelizing the apples in brown sugar and Smart Balance. A caramelized onion tart might also be interesting. Caramelized onions also make a great pizza topping. Also, vegetable stock and mushroom stock are extremely useful for adding to beans, using for soups, deglazing pans, etc. I can't recall if wine and beer are considered vegan or not. For some reason, I think they may not be, so you may want to just ask your friends if they can drink them. Edit: A couple more things Roasted brussels sprouts are a nice rustic-looking addition to the dinner. Toss the brussels in *lots* of olive oil and kosher salt, roast in a single layer on a flat pan for 30 mins at 400 F (check in on them periodically to be sure they don't burn, and move them around). Serve immediately. Asparagus with kalamata olives makes a nice side dish or appetizer. Blanch asparagus, then toss with olive oil, kosher salt, and olives, and roast until done. Like was said above, though, vegans do get a lot of roasted vegetables served to them. But, I have a particular fondness for those two dishes, so I would personally have no reservations about using one of them as a side dish.

You can deep fry in clarified butter without worrying that the solids will brown or burn.

My husband and I (not vegans) get together with vegans about once a week for dinner, so I have a lot of experience with what you're trying to do. The easiest and most successful way to do it, I think, is to think about cuisines that do not have a huge focus on meat or dairy anyway. Indian, Ethiopian, and Italian cuisines are particularly easy to find meat and dairy-free dishes for. I wouldn't recommend Mexican food. We've done it, but it hasn't really turned out to my liking. Actually, tortillia soup may be vegan, or easy to make vegan. Enchiladas and tacos turn out okay, if you like soy cheese and meat substitues. I do not. Lentils, fried breads, potato croquettes, fried potatoes, focaccia, pasta, gnocchi, and bruschetta are all easy to make without animal products. Pizza can be done nicely without cheese as well, or with vegan cheese. However, when choosing soy or almond cheeses, you have to avoid any with casein or whey listed as ingredients, and I don't find that they melt particularly well anyway. You can also make an excellent chocolate fondue by melting bittersweet chocolate in heated coconut milk. Our friends make a cheesy vegan fondue with nutritional yeast and other mystery ingredients, but I honestly like to leave the tofu/yeast/etc stuff to them. Other dessert items you can supply include fruit sorbet, chocolate cake (there are oil-based recipes that do not have eggs and use white vinegar in their place), and candied orange peel dipped in chocolate. Some vegans, just as an fyi, avoid eating refined white sugar because during the refining process it is typically filtered with charcoal. I have pretty much given up on that one, though Trader Joe's does sell a white sugar that I think is okay. When I use that sugar, I measure it by weight rather than volume, since the crystals are larger than your normal white sugar. In my experience, it's not so hard to make one vegan meal. Repeat meals get tougher. If you would like a couple of vegan cookbook references, there is the Millennium Cookbook (this is where I got the gnocchi recipe. I recommend increasing the water to make it easier for the dough to come together), and I just received another book called Vegetarian Appetizers (by Paulette Mitchell) that includes a good selection of vegan appetizers. In fact, I'll be using the appetizer cookbook this weekend, as we're having an appetizer party with them on New Year's Eve. Good luck, and if you have questions, I'll do my best to help. EDIT: Also, Indian pizza (regular pizza dough topped with different Indian dishes) is highly tasty and impressive.

I'm not a vegetarian at all, but when eating vegetarian, until recently, I'd always opted for #2. There are many cuisines (particularly, Indian, Ethiopian, and Italian) that offer amazing vegetarian, and even vegan dishes where the lack of meat is no lack at all. And I'd just never tasted any meat replica product that I enjoyed. But then, some friends took me to NV Vegetarian Resturaunt in Woodland (CA), and I have to say that I was amazed how things have changed. The lemon chicken, an entirely vegan product, was amazing. Seriously, the texture and taste were fabulous. And I've had cream pies made with tofu that have been wonderful. I still prefer real cream. I can see what people are saying about eating simulated meat being fairly hypocritical, but it's certainly not hurting anyone, so I don't see that it really matters. And, I would posit that most vegetarians started out as meat eaters, so if they can get the taste through a soy product, it's all the easier for them to keep vegetarian. That said, there are still a lot of disgusting faux products. Soy cheese, fake pepperoni, and fake sausage are disgusting, IMO. Almond cheese is okay, but not great. So, when I invite those friends over for pizza night, I stick with the real thing and leave them to top their pizzas with the fake stuff.

Yeah, I was surprised that it worked. They were seriously amazing, though. Defies all logic, but it's true.

My fiance and I (who eat meat, dairy, and eggs) are good friends with two other couples (one couple is vegan; the other is vegetarian). We get together about weekly for dinner and our favorite tv shows. We eat wonderful food, weekly, and we always just make it vegan so that everybody can eat everything. We've done particularly well with pizza and focaccia, Indian food, Ethiopian food, and desserts like chocolate cake and "cream" pies. The vegans have made some amazing savory puff pastries that make me hungry just to think about them. Is this a lifestyle everyone should emulate? Well, no. Not everyone has the same beliefs about what is ethical. I'm sure that most people on this board, at least, can think of *something* they wouldn't eat because it's "just not right". Vegans choose to draw the line at all animals. If we all have ethical philosophies about what is right to eat, vegans are no more moralists than anyone else. Btw - the vegans and the vegetarians are coming to my wedding in two weeks, where there will be beef brisket, pork shoulder, and a suckling pig. There will also be a ton of vegetarian and vegan dishes there, though, that everyone can eat. It's not tough to be accommodating and makes them feel like we really want them there.

Regarding SF, for a low-key food night, I really recommend going to Zante's Pizza on Mission St. Their Indian Pizza is really one of my very favorite things to eat in the whole City. Their regular Indian food is good, too, but you should really bypass everything else on the menu and go for the Indian pizza. Also, for lunch, definitely get the super al pastor (barbeque pork) burrito at almost any taqueria on Mission St. There's one on 25th or 26th that is particularly good.

My all-time favorite spice cake is the Sweet Potato Layer Cake with Rum-Plumped Raising and Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting. I've always made it as a bundt cake, but I'm sure it would be awesome in nice layers. I think it's a little heavier than what the original poster has in mind, but for my money, this cake can't be beat. Sweet Potato Layer Cake with Rum-Plumped Raising and Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting From Regan Daley, In the Sweet Kitchen Serves: 12 to 14 Ingredients: 3/4 c. golden raisins 1/3 c. dark rum 2 large or 3 medium-sized sweet potatoes (to yield 2 c. mashed) 4 large eggs 2 c. sugar 1 c. vegetable oil 2 tsp. vanilla 3 c. all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1.5 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. nutmeg 3/4 c. buttermilk Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting: 1 c. granulated sugar 1/4 c. cool water, plus up to 1/4 c. more for thinning caramel 1 lb. cream cheese 1/2 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature 5.5-6 c. confectioners' sugar, sifted 1.5 tsp. vanilla vegetable oil Edit: see the link for instructions.

Ooh, I love mochi ice cream. It's so, so good! I have no idea how to make them, but they are wonderful for eating.

When I lived in the Bay Area, I used to love to go there! It's so good and really spoiled me for good Ethiopian food. I think beef tibs is my favorite meat dish, so I always try to make sure that's included in whatever I order. It's usual to have a small salad in the middle, which nicely ofsets some of the heat when you eat it with the spicy meat. I've had some decent stuff in Sacramento, but nothing that's compared to Addis in Oakland. There's a similarly named place in Sacramento: Addis Ababa (it's named for the city in Ethiopia and doesn't imply that the same people own the place in Oakland), and they will actually sell you teff flour and lentils. When we were at the Sac resturaunt and asked how they made the injera, they even let us go back in the kitchen with them and showed us how to do it! And, they sent us away with some injera starter. And now, Ethiopian lentils is a regular dinner staple for us. In fact, I just made some last night.

In "In the Sweet Kitchen," Regan Daley has a recipe for "little lime-syrup-soaked coconut cakes." It would go very well with a Thai dinner. Also, I believe the same book has a recipe for lychee ice cream.

Yeah, I think there's something by the water pumping station, but it's been months since I've been down that way (the bike paths on the river are great, but not so much in the winter), so I couldn't remember if I'd really seen something or not. I'll look into it, and Masque, too. Thanks!

To keep the Sacto thread going, I've got a question: I'm looking for a place that would be good for a day-after-wedding brunch with family and other out of town guests. A toddler will likely be brought along, so the atmosphere should be somewhat ... relaxed. I think that something along the river would be nice (it will be summer, so it would be great to eat outside), but I'm just not all that familiar with resturaunts in the area. We just rarely eat out. Ideas?

That's a good idea, and it's an option I would definitely look into, except that I would be concerned about melting. July wedding, in Sacramento. We're having everything in the evening, hoping that it will be cool enough to not be uncomfortable, but I'd still expect temps to be in the high '80s for at least part of the evening. Although, if the cakes were kept indoors long enough, I could do that, or even buttercream.