Portobello ‘Steak’ au Poivre

Any suggestions for a substitution for the heavy cream so this can be a vegan dish?

For those who can’t do heavy cream I find that unsweetened original “NutPod” works so well. It’s a blend of cashew and coconut so it doesn’t have a coconut flavor and I use it whenever I make cream pasta etc.

Any liquid will deglaze the pan. Cognac is distilled from wine, fermented from grapes. The flavor you would get from bourbon will be quite different, bourbon being distilled from corn (at least 51% corn, but usually much more). You could just as well deglaze with white wine, or even stock. Beef stock would flavor well with the cream and mustard but if keeping vegetarian, veggie stock would work fine.

Can I substitute something (milk? Soy or almond other plant-based milk? Yogurt?) for the heavy cream and get a similar result?

Substituted the portobello mushrooms for steak. Worked quite well.

Vegan option- any nut milk mixed with vegan sour cream. I like Foragers for this use. About 1/3 spot to 2/3 nut milk. Would avoid coconut- too much flavor. Miyikos vegan butter is perfect if you can find it.

Plant-based (vegan) heavy-cream substitute: 3/4 cup raw cashews soaked overnight, drained, and rinsed. Blend with 1/2 - 3/4 cup water until smooth. Or, blend 2/3 cup full-fat oat milk with 1/3 cup olive oil. Plant-based (vegan) butter: Miyoko's European Style Cultured Unsalted Vegan Butter

About portabello mushrooms and removing the gills. First of all, "portabello" mushrooms are really over-sized "cremini" mushrooms. You don't HAVE to remove the gills, but they don't really add anything to the dish except blackness. Plus, what "steaks" do you know that come with "gills?"--simulacra! If you're going to stuff them, removing the gills creates extra space. I always do it...just because.

This was tasty. I wanted to keep it vegan so I went with the suggestion to use canned coconut cream instead of dairy. Given all of the other flavors (the pepper, garlic, brandy, and Dijon mustard), we couldn't taste any coconut in the cream sauce and it worked very well with the dish. I also used Miyokos Vegan Butter. It is always surprising how much mushrooms cook down. To create the hearty "steak" feel, I recommend starting with very large portobellos. I would definitely make this again.

In Canada we have a product called Earth's Own Oat cream. It works exactly like heavy cream adding all of the smooth and creamy flavour without the calories. Or I have made my own almond cream by soaking almonds overnight (1 C almond to 1 C water) and then blending it all together. It works well as a sub for heavy cream.

pour me a shot!

I made this with five large Portabella mushrooms (it’s what came in the package) and they didn’t fit in the pan so I just overlapped them until they cooked down so I didn’t have to clean a second pan; it seem to work fine. I used a bit less butter, substituted whole milk for heavy cream, and cooking wine for Brandy because that’s what I had in the house and the sauce was delicious. It’s on the list for a repeat.

Vegan cream is really easy! Take 1/2 c. raw cashews, soak in hot water until soft, drain the soaking water and discard, then blend the cashews with 1/4 c. water in a blender until creamy. Add more water if your blender is struggling, I have a rubbish blender Oster and it take a minute to get it really smooth. (Also, if pressed for time, whiz the cashews around in a blender until pulverized, then soak, should take about 15 minutes.)

Transitioning to vegan so did use butter to get rid of what I have left. Used coconut cream and it turned out fabulous! The beau and I loved the sauce and felt the portabella mushrooms were very meaty. He wants to have this recipe every week! Highly recommend making this dish!

Green peppercorn sauce is a different sauce (and my all-time favorite one). They're very similar, though. Ina Garten has a terrific recipe for bone-in pork loin with green peppercorn sauce in her book, "Barefoot in Paris." It's one of my favorite holiday or special occasion meals.