Country Fried Seitan Sandwich with Coconut Cheddar Cheese & Organic Baked Fries

I started a new job about two weeks ago.  It is a very interesting and fun job!  I am working at a food truck downtown and having a great time with it.  It is something I have really missed about NY - working for a place that doesn't have a ton of structure and allows me to do what I need to do, but without a ton of supervision and demands.  It's a pretty cool gig.  I am still working part time as a vegan pastry chef, which is good, but doesn't include a lot of hours.  This past week I definitely made my hours, which was great.  

The place is called Ez Cheesy, which is basically a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich truck.  Pretty cool and different menu.  Obviously it is not all vegan, but all but one of the sandwiches are vegetarian and the rest can be made vegan with the inclusion of daiya.  I love that!  This is part of the menu this year:

Tampopo: Ramen Noodles mixed with Kimchee, topped with Brussel Sprouts and Cheddar/Daiya

Old Mission Torta: Smashed Beans, Avocado, Queso/Daiya, Pickled Jalapeno Peppers, Shaved Radish, Spicy Mayo

City Middle: Local Made Donut with Goat Cheese and Fig Jam (would be great with vegan cream cheese)

Sweet Caroline: Shaved Carrot, Goat Cheese, Walnuts & Honey

There are more items on the menu, but I thought I would put a couple so you could see how different and cool this place is!

Making sandwiches all week, you would think I would get tired of them, but it actually inspired me to work more on the menu for our upcoming cafe and make a couple different sandwiches at home.  I made this tasty one as well as a couple veggie paninis.  Yum!  I found a really interesting recipe for vegan cheddar cheese, using coconut milk as the base.  It's very meltable and cheesy in texture, but I really didn't care for the flavor.  I definitely think it is something that warrants more testing and playing around with.  How cool would it be if it were actually that easy to make a meltable vegan cheese?!

This was Hubby's plate.  So Good!

To make the Sandwich:

- Country Fried Seitan

 - Fresh Baguette, sliced into portions and cut in half, toasted

 - Veganaise or other topping

 - Sliced Veggies: tomato, green pepper, red onion

 - Coconut Milk Cheddar Cheese or other vegan cheese

 - Baked Fries or side of choice


1.  Toast baguette.  Slather veganaise on both sides of the bread.  Place veggies on the bottom, followed by the seitan.  Layer the cheese in there somewhere.  (I should have put it next to the seitan so it could have melted slightly.)
2.  Add fries or other side and eat!

You can barely see the vegan cheddar peeking out from underneath the veggies!

Enjoy!

Koko

Sesame Seitan Using Homemade Seitan

I love trying to replicate recipes.  Especially those that I really miss being able to order since moving away from NY.  I used to get this awesome sesame vegan chicken recipe from a place called Zen Palate which would deliver directly to my apartment on my days off or whenever I felt too tired to make dinner.  Since coming back to Michigan, the ability to purchase vegan "meats" isn't as easy, so whenever I get the chance, I stock up.  I've also been making several batches of seitan and freezing small portions of them so I can prepare a quick, tasty meal.  This meal came together very fast thanks to that prepared seitan.  Yum!

 

 



Tasty, Crispy Yummy Sesame Seitan


2-3 Servings of seitan, homemade or store bought
Canola or refined coconut oil for shallow frying

Broccoli or other veggies to have on the side, steamed

White or brown rice to serve.

Sauce:
1/2 cup filtered water
1 cup unchicken broth
2-4 tablespoons rice vinegar (I used 3)
1 tablespoon tapioca starch
1/2 cup organic sugar or agave
2 tablespoons tamari
2 tablespoons sesame oil (un-toasted)
1 teaspoon chili paste
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, plus additional to garnish
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder


1.  Prepare the sauce: in a medium sauce pan add all of the ingredients.  Whisk together well. 
2.  Turn the heat on medium and cook until the sugar dissolves and the sauce thickens considerably.  Set aside to cool slightly until ready to use.
3.  Cut the seitan into small pieces, dry well.  Briefly pan fry in a small amount of canola or refined coconut oil until crispy.  Place on a paper towel lined plate to drain.
4.  Once all of the seitan is cooked, place in a bowl with a generous amount of the sesame sauce.  Toss well.
5.  To serve, place a portion of the rice on the plate, followed by a serving of the sesame seitan and the steamed vegetable.  Top the seitan with additional sesame seeds.  That's it!

A close-up of the deliciousness.

Enjoy!

Koko

Breaded Seitan, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sauteed Onions and Mushrooms, Green Beans

I try to cook everyday.  For at least 1-2 meals.  Sometimes I feel more excited about cooking and sometimes I feel like throwing something together.  For this meal I felt like throwing something together, but had several ingredients to use up before another grocery shopping trip with the hubby.  The meal ended up taking a while to make, but was so worth it.  So tasty and comforting!

 

 

 

Such a pretty and tasty meal!

 

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes:

2 1/2 lb. russet potatoes, peeled and large cubed

 

4 tablespoons earth balance

sea salt and black pepper to taste

unsweetened almond milk or soymilk

 

1 head garlic, top cut off

olive oil

 sea salt and black pepper

 

Sauteed Onions and Mushrooms:

1 large red onion, sliced thinly

4 oz. crimini mushrooms, sliced

1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil

sea salt and black pepper

1/4 cup filtered water

 

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Place the head of garlic in a small piece of aluminum foil.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper.  Close the foil tightly.  Roast for about 30 minutes, Place potatoes in a pot and cover with cold water.  Cook for about 30 minutes, or until the garlic has softened and darkened in color.  Set aside until cool enough to handle.

2.  Place the potatoes in a pot covered with cold water.  Cook until just tender. 

3.  Prepare the sauteed onion and mushrooms: place the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add the onion and mushrooms and cook for several minutes.  Add the sea salt and black pepper and cook until the mushrooms begin to release their juices.  Lower the heat and add the filtered water.  Cook until most of the water has evaporated and the mixture is very flavorful.

4.  Finish the potatoes: add the earth balance, sea salt, black pepper and prepared roasted garlic.  Mash very well.  Add the almond milk or soymilk until the desired consistency is achieved. 

5.  Serve with a veggie protein and a side. 

 

 

 

 



So delicious!

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Koko

Breaded Seitan Cutlets from the Vegan Diner Cookbook

I have this crazy thought that I will make most of the recipes out of the hundreds of vegan/vegetarian cookbooks I have.  I'll be honest, there are several recipes out of each cookbook that I would likely never make, simply because I do not like some of the ingredients, but lots of them look good and really make me want to make them.  That is the point of having a cookbook, right?

 

A couple years ago I purchased a cookbook called the Vegan Diner Cookbook.  All the pictures look great and I loved the theme.  Upon further investigation of the book, once it was delivered, I realized it had tons (and I mean tons!) of typos.  Really ridiculous ones too, like turn to this page for this sub-recipe, and the page it says is 000, as if they were going to go back and add it in once the book was completed, and just forgot.  Plus, I have been cooking for so many years that most of the time I am able to look at a recipe and realize if it will or will not work.  And there are quite a few in there that make no sense.  This really in-depth exploration of the book came after making several recipes, thinking that the recipe itself didn't make a lot of sense, then trying it and having it fail.  I cannot recommend this book for purchase, and after making several things from it that did not work, I put it on the shelf and haven't opened it in years.  But, like all meals that I cook, I took pictures of it (these are pics from Brooklyn) and felt I should post it.  So here are the breaded seitan cutlets from the book.  

Breaded Cutlets - baked and topped with melty vegan cheese

Spaghetti with Homemade Marinara and the Breaded Cutlet.

Koko

Testing Recipes: Country Fried Seitan Caesar Salad & Smoked Tofu Sandwich

Now that Hubbs and I have broken our fast and gotten back into eating (yay!), I have been testing recipes maniacally.  Even if it means I only take a small bite of whatever it is.  I am definitely staying away from more refined sugars and trying to use more local maple syrup and agave as sweeteners, plus dates, when that works for the recipe.  I am also trying not to eat anything fried, or at least a very small portion.  Just really trying to keep things healthier. 

 

I was going through a bunch of photos and recipes I have saved as drafts for this blog and have found a ton that need finishing, which I will publish soon.  It's funny how many of them have fried foods and tons of carbs.  I'm not saying that's bad - it's damn tasty, but just how different it is from how I'm trying to eat now.  I also found a ton of photos of recipes I've tested over the years, especially gluten free.  I'm going to do a post soon with all the pictures of the gluten free items I've tested but don't necessarily have a recipe for.  It either got lost along the way or wasn't exactly great, but the pictures are always fun to look at. 

 

 

Here's two recipes I've been working on over the last several days.  One is for a Seitan Caesar Salad and the other for a Smoked Tofu Sandwich.  I liked the Caesar, I just wasn't crazy for the dressing.  I have researched and made tons of vegan Caesar-type dressings, but none of them have been nearly as tasty as I recall a "true" Caesar dressing tasting.  So I've still got to work on that.  The Smoked Tofu Sandwich tasted great, but was too hard to eat with that bread.  It was a locally made organic baguette that was just too crispy and hard to eat.  I ended up with a sore mouth afterwards!  But definitely easy to fix - I'll have to find another, less crispy local baguette and problem solved!  Testing these both another time, but that's the fun part, right?! We'll get to sample them all over again!

 

 

 

Vegan Caesar Salad with Country Fried Seitan

Smoked Tofu Baguette on Local, Organic Baguette



Closer view on that beautiful sandwich!

Enjoy!

Koko

Mustard Sage Seitan, Tostones, Marinated Beet & Simple Salads

At this point in the season, most everything is out of our garden.  The only things remaining are some kale, beets and onions.  Hubby and I took it upon ourselves to finish harvesting everything from the garden and start preparing it for storage.  We dug up the onions and allowed them to "dry" for a couple days in our garage.  The beets were dug up as well, trimmed and allowed to sit for a couple days.  The kale has been sorted and placed in a big bag in the fridge, until I have some time to clean it, dry it and freeze it.  My mom also has a couple trees that produced nuts this year - very exciting!  So we picked heart nuts for a couple hours in the cold; searched for hazelnuts on the branches and the ground - and found 8!  This is the first year that tree has produced and we are definitely going to enjoy those nuts! 

We were also afforded the amazing opportunity to go to our neighbors and pick apples from her trees for free.  Such a generous woman!  She and her husband are in their late 70's, in the beginning stages of failing health and are unable to pick the apples themselves - and really wouldn't use them anyway.  We picked a ton of them!  We plan to make lots of pies and crisps and freeze the rest of them.  Exciting!   After picking all of those amazing things from off and around our property, I was really craving eating those beautiful beets.  And they were crazy delicious!  Seriously  - they taste nothing at all like they taste in the store - even as fresh as I have been able to purchase them.  So sweet, earthy and melt-in-your-mouth delicious!  Yum!  We were also able to make it to the local Spanish food store and bought a couple plantains to fry up.  Delicious dinner!

Comfort food and healthy salads all in one!  Yum!

Mustard Sage Seitan:

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons filtered water

1 tablespoon tamari

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 large clove garlic, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage

3/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed in fingers

2 tablespoons white wine

1/2 teaspoon agave

4 large pieces seitan, homemade or store-bought

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  

2.  Place all of the marinade ingredients into a medium mixing bowl: the mustard, olive oil, water, tamari, black pepper, garlic, sage, rosemary, white wine and agave.  Whisk together very well until combined.  The taste will be strong before baking, but it will tame down after baking.  

3.  Slice the seitan into large slices and place in the bowl with the marinade.  Gently toss the seitan in the dressing and carefully place into an 8x8" baking pan.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until most of the marinade has been absorbed into the seitan.  

4.  Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.  

Enjoy!

Koko



Mashed Potatoes with Corn Gravy, Mustard Sage Seitan, Steamed Broccoli, Simple Salad

I made this meal after browsing through the seemingly millions of cookbooks I have, and landing on Horizon Cafe's cookbook.  I looked through everything in the book and went with this recipe because I had the majority of the ingredients on hand and it seemed easy enough to make.  I was really curious about the corn gravy, thinking that there was no way I would really like it, but what the heck, as I keep telling myself, it is my impossible goal to make almost all of the recipes in the cookbooks I have, so another recipe down!  While I was making it, I was looking suspiciously at the corn simmering in the liquid and trying to imagine it as a gravy, but couldn't.  Same thing with the seitan.  I tried the marinade before it was cooked and was a little turned off - it was pretty strong.  But, I have learned that whenever you have a marinade that you whisk together and pour over a protein, and it includes an oil that has to be emulsified, the sauce will become nice and thick, which in and of itself makes a damn good sauce! 

When I placed the plate of food before both the Hubby and I, I was debating about telling him the names of the foods.  I was thinking I should just say, here's some baked seitan and potatoes and gravy and get on with it.  He wouldn't ask any questions and would dig right in, saying his usual "It's delicious honey, thank you".  But, of course I never learn to do that, so I told him I made Mustard Sage Baked Seitan and Mashed Potatoes with a Corn Gravy.  After looking at me a little strangely, then looking at the plate strangely, and giving everything a not-so-delicate sniff, he started eating.  After taking a bite of each the seitan and the gravy, he looked at me, surprised.  Then, after quickly skimming off and eating all the gravy from his potatoes, he holds up his plate and asks for more gravy.  He has never done that before with gravy.  Never!  So I knew it had to be ridiculously tasty, and was it!   Yum!  He ended up getting another serving of the potatoes and dousing it with the gravy.  Good choice of recipes to test!  I will definitely make both of these again!  So tasty!

 

 

Mashed Potatoes with Corn Gravy, Mustard Sage Seitan, Steamed Broccoli:

Serves 4

Corn Gravy:

1 medium onion, chopped, about 1 cup

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups corn, thawed if frozen

4 ounces white wine

1 1/2 cups water

1 tablespoon vegetable boullion powder

1 teaspoon dried sage

1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed with your fingers

1 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Steamed Broccoli:

1 head broccoli, cut into florets, thick part of stem removed, peeled and diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

pinch garlic powder

 

 

1.  While the seitan was cooking, I prepared the corn gravy.  In a large pot, add the olive oil over medium heat and allow it to become hot.  Once it is hot, add the onion and saute for about 5 minutes, or until golden and softened.  Add the garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes, or until fragrant.  Add the corn and saute for an additional 5 minutes, or until the corn has browned.  Add the wine to deglaze the pan and allow it to reduce by half.  Add the water, boullion powder, sage, thyme, paprika and black pepper.  Allow this mixture to simmer for about 5 minutes.

2. Working in two batches, blend the mixture for several minutes, or until completely smooth.  Pour the gravy back into the pan with a mesh strainer on top, stirring until all of the gravy goes through.  The fiber from the corn is all that will be left in the strainer.  Discard and repeat with the remaining gravy.  Season to taste (it should taste amazing!) Cover the pot with a lid and keep warm.

3.  Prepare the broccoli.  Place a steamer basket in a medium sized pot over high heat, filling the bottom with water. Cover the pot and allow the water to come to a boil.  Once the water is boiling, add the prepared broccoli, covering the pot again.  Allow the broccoli to steam for a minute or so, checking its doneness by poking with a fork.  Cook to desired tender-crispness.  Place in a serving bowl and toss to coat with the olive oil, sea salt, black pepper and pinch of garlic powder.  Season to taste.

4.  To serve, place a portion of the mashed potatoes on the plate, creating a well in the center where the gravy will go.  Place a portion of the  gravy on the mashed potatoes (believe me, you will be back for more!).  Arrange a portion of the seitan, steamed broccoli and simple salad on the plate as well.

Enjoy!

Koko

Monday, Not Sunday Brunch

It's Brunch Time!  This was from the Brunch I made for Hubbs and I on Monday - the only day I don't have to be to work at 5 am. 

I mentioned in the last post that I still want to keep this blog going even though I have not had a ton of time to work on it lately.  What I had intended when I first started it was to take pictures of everything I cook and bake, write and post the corresponding recipe.  Most of the time I do take all of the pictures and write all of the recipes down.  Sometimes, somehow, I do not write down the recipe due to timing issues, or Hubbs inadvertently throwing it away, or some other mishap, but I still have all the pictures that I would like to share.  It makes me sad going through the thousands of food pictures I have taken over the last couple years and think of not being able to share them, simply because it would not follow the initial purpose I had of creating this blog, by not also posting a recipe.  So perhaps from now on, I may be posting some/more blog posts without recipes, but with more pictures.  Besides, food pictures are always fun to look at right?  So, here are all the lovely pics of the brunch we had, which was delicious!  I could barely get the pictures taken because the Hubbs was standing over my shoulder with his fork, declaring how "starving" he was.  So they were taken pretty quickly.

Monday Brunch!





The plate all loaded with delicious food: homemade vegan
sausage, diner potatoes, tofu scramble, pancakes.




Tofu Scramble.


 

Pancakes!





Diner-Style Potatoes.

 

The whole spread before it was dished up.  Beautiful!

Enjoy!



Koko

Spicy Chorizo Calzones

Sometimes when Hubbs and I pass the pizza store on Church Avenue as we do our grocery shopping, he thinks he needs pizza suddenly, but costing $3 a slice (meaning just sauce and cheese - Hubbs is not vegan, remember), it can add up.  And what quality of ingredients to they really use anyway?  I am always telling him that I would much rather make it myself with quality ingredients and have him eat something made with love.  So he got the brilliant idea the other day to make calzones.  I'm not sure if he's even ever had them before, but saw them in the pizza store, got really excited and wanted them. 

I have definitely mastered the pizza thing, but I've never made a calzone before.  So, I of course went online and followed some instructions off of someone's blog (of course I can't remember which blog now).  I really liked how they weighed out the dough to keep things consistent.  They suggested using 4 oz. pieces of dough.  I've made the dough a thousand times before but have never weighed it, so that seemed like a decent number to me.  Now, however, thinking back, that was a HUGE piece of raw dough, because it still had to proof, then bake, which would make it about 2 times the size. 

So, using a double batch of pizza dough, I ended up making 8 incredibly giant calzones, 3 of which I ended up freezing, because once we ate them for several days straight, we didn't want to see them for a long time to come!  So here is the process I went through making them for the first time.  I will definitely make them smaller next time and not fill them as full, because several of them lost their delicious cheesy filling.  We'll just have to wait till next time to see how much better they will be.  They were crazy delicious though, especially when dipped in warm homemade marinara sauce!  Yum!

Spicy Chorizo Calzones:

Yes, I am a GIANT calzone, but made Hubbs happy!


Pizza Dough:
1 cup warm water, not too hot
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon turbinado sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 cups unbleached flour

Toppings:
vegan cheese, shredded
sauteed green peppers and onions
homemade marinara sauce
vegan sausages, cooked and sliced

1.  To prepare the dough: place the water, yeast and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to combine.  Allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes until bubbly.  If it does not bubble up, the yeast may be dead, so start over.
2.  Into the bubbled up mixture, add the olive oil and sea salt.  Mix again.  While the stand mixer is working, add the flour in 1/2 cup increments until it is all incorporated.  Mix for a couple minutes, until when the dough is touched, it springs back. 
3.  Place a towel over the dough, place it in a warm place and allow it to double in size, about 45-60 minutes. 
4.  In the meantime, prepare the rest of the ingredients: saute the veggies, prepare the marinara sauce, shred the cheese, saute and slice the sausages.
5.  Punch the dough back down and separate the dough into 2 ounce pieces.  Generously flour the countertop, roll the piece of dough in the flour and roll out into a nice sized circle. 
6.  Place the cheese, veggies, sausages and marinara in the very center of the circle.  Do not overfill.  Carefully place the top of the dough over the center, and using a fork, press the dough together to create a good seal. 
7.  Finish the rest of the calzones as above.  Once the calzones are filled, place on a oiled baking sheet and again cover with a towel.  Allow to rise for about 30 minutes.
8.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
9.  Once the calzones have risen again, place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the dough has cooked all the way through and the top is nice and golden.  Let cool for several minutes before serving.




The uncooked pizza dough with the "cheese" & sauteed veggies
& my flour bin in the background (didn't notice it there before)




Topping with the cooked vegan sausages




Homemade Marinara




Sealed the calzone




After the calzone baked, all the cheesy goodness
seeping out the side.




Fresh baked calzone sliced in half for the Hubbs

 

How freaking delicious does this look??

Enjoy!

Koko

Country Fried Seitan, Sesame Kale, Fried Zucchini & "Fried" Rice

This is one of the many times the Hubby has come home and said "Mucho Hambre Mami", meaning "I'm very hungry honey!".  Insert roll of the eyes here.  Since when is he not hungry?  Seriously?  It's scary thinking what it's going to be like if/when there's another guy added to the family - like a son!  They would eat me out of house and home!  I always tell people I have to cook for at least 3 people (Hubby counting as 2 people)!  Anyway, knowing that he loves rice and can literally eat it everyday, I made some fried  - more like sauteed - because I already had some cooked rice in the fridge.  And since I was making country fried seitan, which takes a while to make, I'm not going to lie, I wanted to make something that would be a little simpler.  I got this recipe idea from the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook.  The original recipe wasn't exactly super tasty, so after messing around with the spices a few times, I hit it and now it's amazing.  Since the thing that takes the longest time is mixing together the spiced flour, I have wised up a little and made a giant batch of it and now keep a Ziploc of it in the refrigerator at all times so that whenever Hubbs or I have a craving, it's not as far away.  Also always having a batch of homemade boiled seitan in the freezer definitely helps.  (After I finish with this recipe, I will have emptied my supply and am going to have to replenish it soon.)  I've also got the fried zucchini down and can whip that up ridiculously easily.   I have figured out that the key to making a quick meal is to have things ready before hand to help you out and save time for those days when you're really busy.

Country Fried Seitan, Sesame Kale, Fried Zucchini & "Fried" Rice:



Country Fried Seitan, Sesame Kale, Fried Zucchini, Fried Rice



Serves about 4, with extra seitan left over

Fried Zucchini

Sesame Kale

Fried Rice:

2 cups cooked rice, cold

1/4 cup shredded carrots

1/4 cup green peas, cooked

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon tamari/shoyu

1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1/2 small onion, small diced, about 1/2 cup

2 green onions, sliced

Country Fried Seitan:

1/2 - 3/4 lb. homemade seitan steaks

Spiced Flour Mixture:

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

4 teaspoons baking powder (yes, baking powder!  It will make the seitan crispy)

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon boullion powder

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder

2 pinches cayenne, optional, but a good idea

Wet Seasoned Mixture:

1/3 cup seasoned flour

1/2 cup filtered water

3 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard

1.  Begin by getting everything ready for the fried seitan.  Mix together the flour and all the spices.  Set aside.

2.  Begin making the rice.  In a wok over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and let it become hot.  Once it's hot, add the onion and carrot and saute until the onion is fragrant, about 3-4 minutes.  Add the peas and stir for a minute.  Add the rice and "fry" aka saute for about 10 minutes, letting the grains become a little crispy.  Add the rest of the ingredients, being sure to combine thoroughly.  Continue to cook for an additional couple of minutes.

3.  Back to the country fried seitan.  Set up a station: 1 bowl will have the wet seasoned mixture, the second bowl will have some seasoned flour and a clean plate should end this assembly line. 

4.  Place a large pan over medium heat and cover the bottom with a layer or no-taste oil, like canola.  Allow the oil to become hot.  In the meantime, prepare the seitan.

5.  Assembly line:  keep one hand for the wet mix and the other hand for the dry mix.  Squeeze out any liquid that may be in the seitan into the sink.  Dip the seitan pieces into the wet mixture, coating well.  Shake off excess liquid.  Now place the seitan into the spiced flour.  Cover every surface of the seitan with the flour.  Shake off excess flour and place on clean plate.  Repeat with remaining seitan. 

6.  The oil should now be hot.  Carefully place the coated pieces of seitan into the oil, cooking for several minutes on each side, until browned and crispy.  Once browned on both sides, drain on paper towel covered plates. 

7.  To serve, place portions of each item on the plates, and be prepared to serve seconds.  Delicious!

Enjoy!

-Koko

Pot Pie with Homemade Buttery Crust, Artichoke & Roasted Pepper Salad, Sauteed Kale

This was definitely a labor of love.  I usually make pot pit into a Shepherd's pie because it is easier and you just slap some mashed potatoes on top.   It looks pretty and tastes amazing.  And I usually use a ready-made spelt pie crust, but when I decided to make this tonight (to use up the tons of leftover gravy I somehow had), I didn't have any crust.  So I decided to make the crust.  Now don't get me wrong, I have made pie crust tons of times and it really is not difficult to make at all, it's just a little time consuming and can be a little frustrating if you do not flour your work surface enough, causing the dough to stick and tear.  I usually just cop out and buy the ready-made spelt crust (which comes in its own pie pan) or the stuff that comes in a tube in the refrigerated section.  Just because it's easier. 

But, I actually had an abundance of earth balance today, which never happens - I am always running out!  And I also had a little bit of extra time, so I made the crust from scratch.  And it came out amazingly!  Seriously delicious - I think the best I have ever made.  Could have been the gravy helping out on that one though!  When I served it to the Hubby, he was very excited, saying that it looked so beautiful!  Then he took a bite and actually moaned.  Moaned!  I have never heard him do that before.  And when I asked him how it was, he said "amazing!"  He usually doesn't get that excited about things, so it made me really happy.  He had three giant pieces.  I was only able to eat one, because it is pretty filling, plus we had the artichoke salad and the sauteed kale.  But he definitely had 3!  And he had several more the following day - the thing was literally gone in 2 days!  The entire pie!  It was that good!

Pot Pie with Artichoke & Roasted Pepper Salad, Sauteed Kale:



Buttery Crusted Pot Pie, Artichoke Pepper Pasta, Sauteed Kale

 Yields: 8 Slices

Crust:
3 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 cup chilled Earth Balance
6 tablespoons ice water

Filling:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium green pepper, small diced, about 1 cup
1/2 medium orange pepper, small diced, about 1/3 cup
1 medium onion, small diced, about 1 cup
2/3 cup frozen mixed vegetables
1 large potato, peeled and small diced, about 1 cup
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
1 homemade sausage, fried on all sides, chopped, or other meat replacer
3 cups prepared gravy (I used a leftover nutritional yeast gravy)
Sea salt, black pepper, cayenne to taste


1.  Make the crust first.  Place the flour and sea salt in a medium mixing bowl.  Whisk together.  Place the earth balance in the middle of the flour.  Using your hands or a pastry cutter, cut the flour in until it is evenly distributed throughout the flour.  Add just enough cold water until a dough forms - you do not want it to be wet at all.  Roll into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. 
2.  Begin making the filling: place a wok over medium heat, add the oil and allow it to become hot.  Once the oil it hot, add the green and orange peppers and the onion.  Cook until vegetables are just tender.
3.  In the meantime, bring a medium sized pot of water to a boil.  Add the chopped potato and the frozen mixed vegetables.  Cook until potato is just tender and veggies are cooked.  Drain. 
5.  You can take the dough from the refrigerator now.  Allow it to warm up just a bit.
4.  To the sauteing vegetables, add the frozen spinach and cook just until it becomes hot.  Add in the drained cooked potato and mixed vegetables, the cooked and chopped sausage and the gravy.  Stir to coat.  Allow mixture to simmer and season with sea salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper, if desired. 
5.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Divide the dough in two pieces.  Roll out the first ball of dough and place into an oiled pie plate.  Prick all over with a fork.  Place on a sheet tray in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until cooked through. 
6.  Roll out the second piece of dough.  Now you can pour the filling ingredients into the cooked bottom pie crust.  Top with the second pie crust, crimping the edges to seal everything in there.  If there are any tears, just add an additional section of dough.  (See below.)
7.  Place the filled pie back onto the baking tray and place in the oven.  Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until the top layer is baked through and the filling is bubbling.
8.  Allow it to cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting and serving.


The Whole Pot Pie.  It was gone in 2 days.  Seriously!




Close-Up of the Delicious Pie!

Enjoy!

-Koko

Vegetable Fried Rice, Grilled Veggies, Seitan & Steamed Broccoli

I feel like lately, a lot of my meals are about using up the ingredients I have in my refrigerator.  But then again, isn't that kind of the purpose of having food in the fridge - to use it?  Anyway, hubby and I were very hungry tonight  (when are we not???) and wanted dinner very quickly.  I had some leftover cooked rice, some seitan I prepared from Viva Vegan (we were not fans!  Too garbanzo-y!) and a mushroom sauce I had prepared a couple days ago.  Fried Rice came to mind very quickly, as well as the mushroom sauce over the seitan, and I really wanted something grilled - so I slapped a few veggies on my panini machine, which gives amazing grill marks, great flavor, and a very nice texture.  I also put the seitan on the machine for a few minutes for good measure, to heat it back up and try to make it look a little nicer - it was pretty ugly.  Surprisingly, dinner came together very quickly, in about 30 minutes and hubby and my bellies were both very satisfied (although we still didn't like the seitan, even smothered in the mushroom sauce!).  Any thoughts on what to do with the seitan, which was steamed, not boiled?

Vegetable Fried Rice:



(I must have been starving when I was taking these pictures -
they are all so blurry!  This was the best one!)
Grilled Seitan with Sauteed Mushrooms, Vegetable Fried Rice,
Grilled Veggies & Steamed Broccoli



Serve 2-3

3 tablespoons olive oil, separated
3 cups cooked, cooled rice (leftover rice works beautifully here)
1 cup snap peas, tough ends removed
1 medium onion, small diced, about 1 cup
1 medium orange pepper, small diced, about 3/4 cup
1/2 cup shredded purple cabbage
1/2 stalk broccoli, chopped finely
2 tablespoons tamari
1 tablespoon mirin (rice cooking wine)
3/4 teaspoon vegetable boullion powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Red Pepper flakes and additional tamari, for serving

1.  Place a wok over medium -high heat.  Add the oil and allow it to heat up.  Once it is hot, add the peas, onion, pepper, cabbage and broccoli.  Saute, stirring frequently, until tender-crisp. 
2.  Break apart the cold rice with your hands into the hot wok and continue stirring.  You may have to add an additional 1-2 tablespoons of oil to keep everything from sticking.  Continue to fry for a few minutes, until the rice is hot and has colored slightly. 
3.  Add the tamari and mirin at the same time, being sure to drizzle it around the contents in the wok.  (If it is deposited at the same spot, it will cause the rice to absorb too much of the salty flavor and the seasonings will not evenly distribute throughout the rice.)  Quickly stir the rice mixture to coat.  Add the boullion powder and black  pepper and stir again.  Continue to cook for a few more minutes to allow the rice to dry out again.  Season to taste
4.  To serve, sprinkle the rice with additional tamari and as many red pepper flakes as you would like.  So quick and so delicious!

Enjoy!

-K

V eggies & Seitan in a Brown Sauce with Szechuan Style Fried Eggplant with Spicy Dipping Sauce

Sometimes I really surprise myself and get really ahead of myself.  This meal is exactly what I mean by that.  I made this on the weekend, on a Saturday when the Hubby and I were spending the day off together.  We both woke up way too early (should have definitely slept in!) and were tired midday.  Hubby, unlike me, has no issues with going back to bed and taking a nap for a couple hours.  I try as hard as possible not to do that because I know how quickly the day goes by then, and working so much really makes you want to take advantage of the time you do have off.  So, off Hubbs went to sleep, and here I was, bored and tired, but not wanting to waste the day (why do I have to be so stubborn!?), so I went through my new Vegetarian Times Magazine and since I was hungry, I decided I would ultimately make every recipe in there (well, most anyway!).  So, I realistically looked through the magazine a second time and looked through the fridge, and decided I couldn't really make anything at that moment.  So. what was I to do?  Go through my bajillions of cookbooks and find something else.  SO, I looked through all the books and settled on something I haven't really made any recipes from before - something I bought when I was a teen still living in Michigan.  The book was Linda McCartney's On Tour - Vegetarian Recipes from Around the World.  I found several recipes I could make then and there, but they were pretty damn labor intensive.  What did I have but time though, afterall?  SO, I started and several hours later (this was supposed to be time off - away from the kitchen, right???), I went and woke up the sleepy Hubby and showed him the great spread.  He was definitely surprised and impressed.  And loved every bite.  It was pretty damn tasty.  So we sat down, ate dinner and enjoyed a nice movie together.  A nice ending to a good (and tasty!) day!

Veggies & Seitan in a Brown Sauce with Szechuan Fried Eggplant with Spicy Sauce:

Serves 4

Veggies & Seitan
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 green pepper, julienned, about 1 cup
1/2 orange pepper, julienned, about 1/2 cup
1/2 yellow pepper, julienned, about 1/2 cup
1 medium red onion, cut in half and sliced thinly, about 1 1/2 cups
2 broccoli spears, cut into florets and stems peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups seitan, sliced thinly

Brown Sauce (will include recipe later)
Cooked White or Brown Rice

Fried Eggplant:
1 medium/large eggplant, peeled, sliced into 1/2" slices and cut in half
1/2" no-taste oil, such as canola

1 cup unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons flax eggs
2/3 cup water

Spicy Dipping Sauce:
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Serrano pepper, seeded and minced
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons red chili paste
1/2 teaspoon agave
1 large tomato, finely chopped, about 1 1/2 cups
2/3 cup water
1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1.  Prep the vegetables first.  Set aside.  They will come together very quickly once everything else is going.
2.  Now prepare the dredging mixture for the eggplant - it has to sit for 15-20 minutes before it can be used.  In a small mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, sea salt and black pepper.  Whisk together (I used a fork).  Add the flax eggs and water and whisk again.  A thick batter should have formed.  Allow it to sit for the indicated amount of time, stirring occasionally.
3.  Make the spicy dipping sauce.  In a large pan over medium heat, add the oil and allow it to become hot.  Once it is hot, add the garlic and the Serrano pepper.  Saute for about 2 minutes, or until fragrant, but not browned.  Add the vinegar to deglaze the pan.  Add tomato paste, red chili paste and agave and stir until the pepper and garlic are coated.  Cook for one minute.
4.  Add the chopped tomato and the water and bring to a simmer.  Lower the heat slightly and allow the sauce to continue cooking.  You want the sauce to be pretty thick - about the consistency of a thick marinara.  This will take about 10 minutes.  When the sauce has thickened, turn the heat off, cover with a lid and keep on the stove - you want the sauce to stay warm. 
5.  Begin to cook the eggplant.  Place the oil in a medium sized pot over medium-high heat.  Allow the oil to become hot.  In the meantime, Line two plates with paper towels and set aside.  Dip the eggplant slices into the mixture.  It should stick and coat the pieces very well. 
6.  The oil is ready when a drop of the batter begins sizzling and immediately comes to the surface.
7.  Make sure the eggplant slices are thoroughly coated in the mixture, allowing excess batter to drip back into the bowl.  Place carefully into the hot oil.  You can cook up to 5 at a time in the oil, depending on the size of your pan.  These need to cook for about 2-3 minutes per side.  If yours are cooking faster than that, your oil is too hot. 
8.  Once the eggplant slices are cooked thoroughly on both sides, place on paper towels to drain and immediately sprinkle with sea salt.  Continue cooking the rest of the eggplant.
9.  Begin cooking the seitan and veggies.  Place a large wok over high heat and add the oil.  Once the oil is hot, add all of the peppers, the onions and the broccoli.  Cook for several minutes, stirring frequently.  If the veggies appear to be sticking to the pan, add a small amount of water - this will also help to steam the veggies and let them cook faster.  Once the veggies are tender-crisp, add the minced garlic and cook for an additional minute.  Add the seitan and cook just until hot.
10.  Add the brown sauce by the ladleful, stirring to coat, until your desired sauciness is achieved.  I used about 2/3 of a cup of the sauce.  Stir to coat. 
11.  To serve: place a serving of the prepared rice in the center of your plate, top with the sauteed veggies and seitan mixture, followed by any additional sauce.  Place 2-3 slices of the fried eggplant (you can always get more - the plate just looks better when it's not so heaped with food!) on your plate and serve a ramekin or small bowl of the dipping sauce on the side.  That's it!  And if you're cooking for two, you'll have leftovers for the next day.  Can't wait to eat this tomorrow too!

-Enjoy!

-K

Yellow Rice, Beans, Seitan, Steamed Broccoli

I was really excited to make this meal, and really in the mood to cook.  It may not actually look like a lot, but it seriously took hours.  Hours!  Not kidding!  I woke up early yesterday while the Hubby was starting his baseball game, which he does every Sunday, and felt like cooking.  I have learned that when this happens, I need to follow my feeling, because it doesn't happen all that often anymore, especially now that I am cooking professionally for a family almost every day of the week.  Anyway, I went through the Viva Vegan cookbook, and I know I have said before that the cookbook looks awesome, but the recipes really should be saved for the weekend, or for a time when time is not the issue.  So I made use of that yesterday. The meal consisted of a lot of different elements, everything of which was homemade.  I made a batch of red steamed seitan from the book, which was not all that tasty (ok, if I am really being honest, it was pretty terrible!), and I ended up throwing the rest away that was not used for this meal because the flavor was too strong and the texture too strange.  I even made the anatto oil used to color the rice. 

I am not going to type up any of the recipes I used, because 1) they are in the cookbook, and 2) I didn't really like anything, so it wouldn't be very nice of me to type up something not tasty and potentially have someone try it and also not like it.  The broccoli and rice were tasty.  The flavorings in the seitan dish, aka the sauce, was tasty as well - think lots of onions, garlic, unchicken broth and wine, yum! - but the seitan itself just had such an overpowering taste.  The beans were just terrible.  It was a great idea, but I have a bean recipe I love and I really think I should just stick to that for the time being.  The idea behind a Dominican Style Sazon (Seasoning/Flavor), is to use all of the elements of Dominican bean cooking, which sounds great, and uses ingredients that I generally put in my beans anyway, but the way in which that went about is where things went awry.  The recipe called for blending onions, garlic, peppers, parsley and some other flavors in the blender - raw! - and then placing this mixture into a pot coated with oil and "frying" it for like 20 minutes.  I did it exactly like the recipe stated, then added the cooked beans, the liquid, etc. and simmered it for quite a while.  The texture was just really unpleasant, because realistically, how finely can you puree parsley leaves?  It had an overall grassy taste and texture.  SO, I think from now on, I will continue to prepare my beans that I know both Hubbs and I love.  But I will say though, the presentation of this dish was pretty amazing, and Hubbs gasped when he saw it, saying it looked exactly like how his mom used to make.  I now know how to make the rice, and with a different kind of seitan the seitan dish would work, so it was a good starting point.  And this is so far the only thing I have not liked from this cookbook.  So, perhaps when I have more time off, I will look to this book and attempt more of the recipes.

Steamed Broccoli, Yellow Spanish Rice with Garlic, Latin
Shredded Seitan, Red Beans with Dominican Style Sazon

Enjoy!

-K

Baked Seitan

I've said before that one of my favorite things to experiment with is seitan.  I have made this baked seitan dish several times before, and have had success, but each time I thought it could do with having more flavor.  The seitan I usually make is the kind that is boiled, then marinated, baked, fried, sauteed, etc.  Or I also make the kind that is steamed, then baked.  I have only been making this baked seitan for a couple weeks.  I am finally satisfied that this recipe is super delicious and super easy!

Baked Seitan


The Baked, Cooled Seitan


Yields: a Giant Log - you can freeze it

1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon chipotle pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons tamari or shoyu
2 tablespoons sherry
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon boillion powder
1 cup filtered water

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Place the vital wheat gluten flour in a large bowl.  Add all the dry spices and stir to combine.
3.  Add all the wet flavorings and the water and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until combined.  Knead for 1-2 minutes or until gluten becomes firm and well combined.
4.  Form gluten into a log and place in the center of a large sheet of aluminum foil. 


Uncooked Seitan in the Middle of the Foil



A Close-Up of the Uncooked Seitan Log


5.  Roll the aluminum foil around the log and twist the ends, leaving a  couple inches of space to allow for seitan to grow.



The Uncooked Seitan in Aluminum Foil


6.  Place the log in aluminum foil on a sheet tray and bake in the oven for 60 minutes. 
7.  Allow to cool and slice into desired pieces.



The Cooked Log of Seitan - You can Easily Make it
Larger Around and Shorter. 


Enjoy!

-K