Seitanic Hash

When I gave birth to my first child years ago, my mom came up to stay with us. She did a lot of cooking for us, and shared many of her recipes. We weren't vegan at the time, but I still have all of those recipes, recorded on cards and filed in my recipe box. The beauty of them all were their simplicity.

One dish she made was hash. Hamburger and diced potatoes and onions, simmered in gravy. I've made similar, but this time around I did things a little differently. This is also a good dish to use up any leftover pot roast, like the one I made here.

Seitanic Hash

Leftover seitan pot roast, diced
Two large potatoes, diced
3 carrots, diced
One onion, diced
1/2 t. fennel seed
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper

In a large skillet, sauté the pot roast, potatoes, carrots and onion until vegetables begin to soften. Add the seasonings and stir to mix well. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Check occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking, and add a little water if necessary. Serve with slices of buttered bread. Enjoy!

Seitan Pot Roast in the Crock Pot

I can't even remember the last time I had pot roast. Actually, I can. It was three years ago, when I made this pot roast. I think we were overdue.

I tweaked this recipe a bit, and it was sooo much better. Instead of Braggs Aminos, I used soy sauce. I used 1-1/4 c. vital wheat gluten and 1/4 c. garbanzo bean flour. I changed the measurements to 1/2 t. thyme and 1/4 t. black pepper. I did not sprinkle the vegetables with salt and pepper, but did sprinkle the minced garlic and another 1/2 t. thyme over all of it.

I also cooked it on high for 5 hours, then turned it to low for one hour.

This was the result:

It was juicy and delicious. My dough seemed wetter than I recall, and that may have been the difference. It did not have the typical wheaty taste one finds in seitan, and I believe that is due to the addition of the garbanzo bean flour.

I had just enough leftovers to keep to make some kind of hash for tomorrow's supper.

Kung Pao

Before I became vegan, my favorite dish at any Chinese restaurant was Kung Pao. Usually Kung Pao chicken, but sometimes even one with three different meats. Now, of course, that thought horrifies me, but I had begun to wonder why in so many Chinese restaurants the only dish available to me was steamed mixed vegetables.  Boring. Bland. Why couldn't they do a vegan Kung Pao?

I have since found some excellent Chinese restaurants that offer a variety of dishes for the non-meat eater, and this pleases me enormously. But I also make it at home. This recipe can be made with either tofu or seitan.

Kung Pao Tofu

4 c. cooked rice
Sesame oil
One onion, chopped
5-6 ribs of celery, diced
One package extra firm tofu, frozen, thawed, pressed, cut into bite sized cubes
1/4 c. peanut butter
1/3 c. soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/8 t. red pepper flakes
1-1/4 c. water
2 T. cornstarch
Dry roasted peanuts
Green onions, chopped

Saute the onion and the celery in the sesame oil until softened. Add the tofu, peanut butter, soy sauce, garlic and red pepper flakes. Mix well. Whisk together the water with the cornstarch and add to the frying pan. Simmer over medium until slightly thickened. Serve over the rice and sprinkle the peanuts and greens onions on top. Enjoy!

Kung Pao Seitan

Substitute seitan for the tofu.

You can also substitute Braggs Aminos for the soy sauce, and can use a different nut butter if you prefer.

Also, remember to check the ingredients on your dry roasted peanuts. Some name brands contain gelatin.

Maple Seitan Chops, Two Ways

I recently picked up a copy of Jenn Shagrin's cookbook, Veganize This! I was very excited because the book gives recipes for flavoring seitan in ways that imitate meat. For those of us that grew up as meat eaters, and what I maintain now to non-vegans, it isn't the meat we miss, it is the flavors. So if I can find away to duplicate them cruelty-free, I'm all over it.

I chose to make the recipe for pork chops. Her flavoring broths are the key, and have a long list of ingredients. That has never put me off, so I set off for the task.

I made the seitan and broth as she outlines in the recipe. The smell was heavenly! Later, when I was frying the chops the first time, it very much reminded me of the smell of pork chops.

After that all resemblance ended, and I'll detail here my findings.

Maple Seitan Chops

Homemade seitan
2 T. brown sugar
1/4 c. maple syrup
1 T. grated ginger
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced

In my first attempt, I used Shagrin's recipe for the chops and cut the seitan into pie shaped wedges and smooshed them as flat as I could get. I fried them first in olive oil, then mixed up the above sauce recipe and added it to the frying pan. The maple sauce cooked up fast and became more glaze than sauce.

The result was a beautiful looking chop with a maple-y glaze. The wheat taste, however, was too pronounced for my liking.

Back to the drawing board. Some research into seitan chop recipes and reducing the wheat-y taste suggested adding chickpea flour to the mix. Other comments included making the seitan, not the broth, the flavor.

In my second attempt, I added 3:1 ratio of vital wheat gluten:chickpea flour and threw in some diced onion and garlic. I reused the broth from the first chops. The dough, despite my best efforts, was too damp to cut into the pie shapes, so I put the ball of uncooked seitan into the broth. After an hour and letting it cool a bit, I sliced it and put the sliced seitan into a baggie with the above sauce ingredients to marinate. I let it marinate overnight. I then fried the sliced seitan in olive oil.

The result was a more subtle maple flavor and no discernible wheat taste. I liked the flavor much better, but did love the pork chop shape from the first chops. I'll need to play around with it some more, but definitely feel the addition of chickpea flour to the vital wheat gluten makes for a better tasting product. I will probably leave out the onion and garlic and see it that makes it less wet and more manageable so I can cut it into a chop shape.

Greek Gyro, Vegan Style

We love to go to the Texas Renaissance Festival. There is always something new to see there. It's also the place where my husband and I have tried new foods for the first time. One of those foods was a Greek sandwich called a gyro (yeer-ro). It was difficult at the time to find a local place that made them, so we were limited to the Renfest to indulge our taste buds. Now you can buy one at the mall food court. When I went vegan, it was one food that no longer graced my menu.

Until now.

Greek Gyro, Vegan Style

Seitan:
Dry ingredients:
1-1/2 c. vital wheat gluten
1/4 c. tapioca flour
2 T. chickpea flour
2 T.nutritional yeast
1 t. onion powder
1 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. rosemary
1/2 t. parsley
1/2 t. oregano
1/2 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. white pepper
Wet ingredients:
1 c. vegetable broth
1-1/2 T. tahini
1 T. dry white wine
1/2 T. olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced

Marinade:
1/4 c. dry white wine
1/4 c. vegetable broth
1/2 t. oregano
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. white pepper

Tzaziki Sauce (recipe follows)

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well. Knead mixture for a few minutes.  On a large sheet of foil, shape seitan to fit inside a steamer. Wrap in foil, but not too tightly. Place the foil packet in the steamer and steam for 55 minutes.
In a shallow container, combine the marinade ingredients. Slice the seitan as thinly as possible and add to marinade. Coat the seitan well, cover and set aside for at least 30 minutes. Make Tzaziki Sauce.
Heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium. Add the seitan and any marinade and cook until hot.
Serve in pita bread or flour tortillas, with some chopped red onion, peeled and chopped cucumber, chopped tomato and shredded lettuce. Drizzle on some Tzaziki Sauce.

Tzaziki Sauce

1/2 c. vegan yogurt
3/4 t. Dijon mustard
1-1/2 T. lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 c. peeled and chopped cucumber
2 T. fresh parsley, minced
2 green onions, minced
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 t. dill
pinch cayenne and black pepper
1/8 t. salt

Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Gyros are an American-Greek sandwich. Most food historians generally agree the name "gyro" and the current sandwich are both recent inventions originating in New York during the early 1970s. Gyros are believed to have originated in Greece. (They’re similar to the döner kebabs of Turkey and shawarma of the Middle East, which are slices of meat, rather than a minced loaf.) The process starts with boxes of raw beef and lamb trimmings, and ends with what looks like oversized Popsicles the shade of a Band-Aid. In between, the meat is run through a four-ton grinder, where bread crumbs, water, oregano and other seasonings are added. A clumpy paste emerges and is squeezed into a machine that checks for metal and bone. Sounds disgusting, doesn't it? It still amazes me what people will eat, especially when they don't know what it is exactly. And yeah, I was one of the guilty. But then, I used to eat at McDonalds, too. Hydraulic pressure — 60 pounds per square inch — is used to fuse the meat into cylinders.

A proper American-Greek Gyro gyro is made with meat cut off a big cylinder. This meat is cooked on a slowly rotating vertical spit or gyro, implying the circular spinning motion of a gyroscope. The sandwich maker slices off strips of the warm meat when the sandwich is ordered, heats pita bread on a griddle or grill, and then serves the meat on the bread, topped with the sauce which is usually garnished with lettuce and tomato.

It is similar to a Turkish Doner Kebab: Slices of marinated lamb, mutton, beef, veal, or chicken which are stacked on a vertical spit and roasted at a vertical grill. It is served as a type of sandwich stuffed into Turkish bread, rolled into flat bread, or laid atop diced flat bread and topped with sauces.

This type of sandwich has been known, and sold on the streets, by the people of Greece, the Middle East, and Turkey for hundreds of years. Greek historians believe that the dish originated during Alexander The Great’s time, when his soldiers used their long knives to skewer meat and kept turning the meat over fires.

Gyro is probably the most often mispronounced food name. Even its fans usually do not get the pronounced correctly - whether it is mispronounced as "jee-rohs," "jai-rohs," "gee-rohs," The correct Greek pronunciation is “yee-rohs.” The varied names have geographical origins from different peoples’ languages.

However it is made or sold, I'd much rather have the cruelty-free version. It is tasty and filling and I know exactly what is in it! Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients. It is really quick and simple to whip up, the steaming time is the kicker. But you can make this a day ahead, let it sit in the refrigerator until ready to cook and your family will love you for it!

Seitan

Seitan Pot Roast

Nothing says comfort food like a pot roast! The centerpiece of many Sunday dinners, it is soul nourishing food. Placed in a crockpot, it's mouth-watering scent wafts through the home, welcoming all who enter. And the best part is leftovers! So many things you can do with them!

Seitan Pot Roast

1 onion, chopped
1-3/4 c. vital wheat gluten
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1 t. onion powder
1 t. thyme
1-1/2 c. water
3 T. Braggs aminos
1 T. ketchup
3 large carrots, sliced
5 medium potatoes, cut into chunks
1 c. vegetable broth
3 garlic cloves, crushed
Salt and pepper

Spread the onion along the bottom of the crockpot.

In a bowl, mix the wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, onion powder, thyme and 1/2 t. salt and 1/2 t. pepper. In a separate bowl, mix the water, Braggs and ketchup. Pour liquids into the dry ingredients and mix well.  Knead this for about 2 minutes. Mold into a nice shape, and place the raw seitan in the crockpot, on top of the chopped onions.

Arrange the carrots and potatoes in the crockpot around the seitan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and the the vegetable broth. Place lid on crockpot, turn to low and let cook 8 hours.
Slice the seitan roast and serve with the vegetables. Enjoy!

If you have never used a crockpot, my first piece of advice is - go buy one! When purchasing a crockpot, look for one with a removable liner. They are much easier to clean. They come in many sizes and shapes, so pick one that suits you. I have two. One round, one oval and both large. I've found the oval shaped one does seem to take longer to cook.

The LOW setting is about 200 degrees, and the HIGH setting is about 300 degrees. In other words, it gets hot! Make sure it sits on your counter away from the edge, to avoid any little fingers accidentally touching. One hour on HIGH is equal to two hours on LOW.

Only fill the crockpot one half to two thirds full. The foods will not cook properly if the appliance is filled to the brim. If the food and liquid level is lower, the foods will cook too quickly. Foods cooked on the bottom of the slow cooker cook faster and will be moister because they are immersed in the simmering liquid. Don't lift the lid to stir, especially if you are cooking on the low setting. Each time you lift the lid, enough heat will escape that the cooking time should be extended by 20 minutes to half an hour. To check progress without lifting the lid, spin the cover until the condensation falls off. Then it's easy to see inside. Liquids do not boil away in the crockpot, so if you are making a recipe that wasn't specifically developed for the crockpot, reduce the liquid by 1/3 to 1/2 unless you are cooking rice or making soup.

Cooking times. Most people want to try adapting their favorite stews and sauces to the slow cooker. The chart below explains how to adjust cooking times.

Oven/Stove Top Time      Slow Cooker (Low Setting)     Slow Cooker (High Setting)

15 - 30 min.                     4 - 6 hours                               1.5 - 2.5 hours
30 - 45 min.                     6 - 8 hours                               3 - 4 hours
45 min - 3 hours               8 - 16 hours                             4 - 6 hours

The crockpot is ideal for working people who must be away from home all day (or for those days when you must run errands or attend meetings, or for when you're entertaining and want to get the food preparation done early). The food will simmer for 10 to 12 hours on Low if you must be gone all day or you may cook the food in 5 to 6 hours on High. It is a very simple appliance to operate and you will find that the cooked food is very tasty. If you are a working person or one who knows they will have a very busy day, you can do most of the chopping and measuring the night before. Then refrigerate these ingredients until the next morning. If your crockpot has a REMOVABLE liner, you can assemble and refrigerate the food right in the liner which will be easy to pop into the crockpot the next morning. Be sure you don't fill the crockpot so full that the food pushes up on the lid.  Protect the crockery liner. Do not subject it to sudden temperature changes. Do not preheat the cooker and then add food. Do not pour cool water into the crockery liner while it is still hot after food has been removed.

CLEANUP: As soon as you remove the food from the crockpot, uplug it and fill the liner with VERY HOT soapy water (DO NOT ADD COOL WATER!!). Let the liner soak while you eat. When the water has cooled, you can swish out the liner and rinse it and put in in the dishwasher. Mine are crockery and HEAVY, so be careful not to drop and break your liner! NEVER IMMERSE THE OUTSIDE PART OF THE COOKER OR LET THE CORD GET IN THE WATER!! Wipe the outside metal shell with a damp soft cloth and dry with a towel.
 
I have used a crockpot for years and have only ever had to replace one, when it quit cooking on LOW. They are a fabulously convenient appliance to use, and make dinner preparation a snap, especially on those days when I am extraordinarily busy. Having dinner ready and waiting is a blessing!

Panko Encrusted Seitan Cutlets

I am always on the lookout for new things to try or new ways to do it. I have numerous cookbooks and have been collecting recipes since I was 15 years old. It's fun to look through some of the recipes I have and sometimes I wonder *what was I thinking* or *OMG this sounds gross!* It amazes me sometimes what some cooks will come up with and think it will be even marginally palatable. And then there are those that I think sound odd but when tasted, are really quite good!

None of that, however, applies to this dish. From the moment I saw it I thought it would be scrumptious. It was!

Panko Encrusted Seitan Chops

Seitan
1 c. panko breadcrumbs
3 T. fresh chopped rosemary
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. onion powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper

Make the seitan using the Seitan with Satan recipe, except substitute garbanzo bean flour for the nutritional yeast. Also, this time around I used Braggs Aminos in place of the soy sauce. No other reason than I was out of soy sauce! Let it drain after cooking. Slice into cutlets, about little less than 1/2 inch thick.

Mix the bread crumbs and other ingredients together.

Heat oil in a frying pan on medium high. Press the cutlets into the breadcrumb mixture until nicely covered, then place in the oil in the frying pan and cook until nicely brown on one side. Flip and brown on the other.

I served it with apples and dried cranberries baked in maple, ginger and brown sugar. My daughter noted that running her cutlet pieces through the mapley liquid added a really nice additional flavor to the dish.

If you've never had seitan (pronounced say-tahn) before, you are in for a treat. Seitan is derived from the protein portion of wheat and has a chewy texture. If you are a non-vegan or a vegan convert, it is a great substitute for meat, especially if you are trying to limit your soy consumption. According to Barbara and Leonard Jacobs in their excellent book Cooking with Seitan, "seitan has been a staple food among vegetarian monks of China, Russian wheat farmers, peasants of Southeast Asia, and Mormons. People who had traditionally eaten wheat had also discovered a method to extract the gluten and create a seitan-like product."

You can make your own, like I do, or buy it commercially made. You will find it in tubs or vacuum packs soaking in marinade in either the refrigerator or the freezer section of many natural food stores. You may also find frozen or fresh gluten in Asian markets by the name Mi-Tan. As gluten is a low sodium and extremely lowfat protein (containing around 10 mg. sodium, 0 g. fat, and 7.5 g. protein per ounce in its raw state), additional processing is what may add unhealthy attributes. Most of the commercially prepared seitan contains a considerable amount of sodium (up to 100 mg. per ounce). If you choose to deep-fry the gluten, the fat content will jump from virtually zero to the number of grams in whatever oil is absorbed (at 4.5 grams per teaspoon).

Like I said, I prefer to make my own, because then I can change up ingredients (as I did in this recipe) to suit me. I haven't tried changing up to flavors to mimic different meats, like pork, poultry or seafood, but I do happen to have a cookbook that gives the ingredients to do that very thing. Definitely on my list of things to try!

Try this dish. I think you'll like it!

Seitan

This Stew Will Put a Spell On You!

I love stew. Always have. My mom would typically makes hers in a pressure cooker, and the smells permeating the house were heaven sent. I wanted something reminiscent of those days, so when I came upon this recipe, I had to make it.

Witch's Stew

Seitan, cut into chunks (I made my own, using the recipe from Seitan with Satan, more on that later!)
1-2 lbs. potatoes, chopped into quarters
5-6 large carrots, sliced
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finally chopped
1 bag frozen peas
4 c. vegetable broth or stock
Olive oil
2 vegetable boullion cubes mixed with 2 c. boiling water
1 c. unbleached flour, mixed with 1 tbsp. onion powder and 1 tbsp. garlic powder
1/2 tbsp. thyme
1/2 tbsp. sage
1 c. unbleached flour, mixed with 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1 c. water (I actually used the leftover flour from above and the leftover broth from making seitan earlier)

1. Dredge seitan chunks in flour/onion powder/garlic powder mixture.
2. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Toss in seitan chunks and cook until heated through and slightly browned.
3. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
4. Add vegetable broth, vegetable bouillon/boiled water mixture, potatoes, onions, and carrots. Allow to cook for at least 35-40 minutes, or until potatoes and carrots are mostly cooked through.
5. Add frozen peas, thyme, and sage and mix well. Add flour/soy sauce/water mixture slowly, and stir well - this thickens the stew. Allow to cook for 10-15 more minutes, or until peas are completely heated through.

I really liked the flavor of this, and didn't even add any salt or pepper to it.
 
I made my very first batch of seitan for this, rather than buying it premade from the store. It was remarkably easy, made the house smell divine, and came out pretty darned good, I thought, for my first attempt. I am definitely going to make my own seitan from now on.
 
I wondered about the history of stews, since they are not only popular now, but are often mentioned in different books I read, both fiction and non-fiction. It seems stews are mentioned  in the oldest cookbook known. There are recipes for lamb stews & fish stews in 'Apicius de re Coquinaria', whose identity is uncertain, there having been 3 Romans by that name in the period 1st century BC to 2nd century AD. The most famous and colorful of the three was M. Gavius Apicius, who taught haute cuisine under Tiberius and who legend has it exhausted a vast fortune on his lavish dinners, finally killing himself when his funds no longer permitted him to eat to his tastes.What is known is that the book has survived, and there are recipes for stews of lamb and fish in it. There is an English translation of Apicius for those so inclined.
 
There were also stew recipes by one Taillevent (French chef, 1310-1395 whose real name was Guillaume Tirel), who wrote Le Viandier, one of the oldest cookbooks in French. It mentions ragouts (ragoût), which is the French word for a main-dish stew.
 
There is archaeological evidence of practices going back 7,000 or 8,000 years or more of other cultures using shell of large mollusks, like clams, and turtle shells to boil foods in. And, no doubt the development of pottery, perhaps 10,000 years ago, made cooking even easier.
 
All I know is making stew is one of the easiest things to do and very flexible, ingredients-wise. So whip up a cauldron...er...pot of stew and enjoy!

Seitan With Satan

This was just too funny not to share! It does have language in it, but the recipe given is so simple!