Seitan, you dissapoint me.

Okay, so I made seitan again... this time I used the recipe for Breakfast Sausages.
See, I had this idea to use my clay pot to make some potatoes and I wanted to try sort of steaming my 'log' of seitan in there as I do not have a steamer and I thought this might be a nice alternative. If you are not aware, steaming your seitan is the new phenomenon. First it was baking, now it's steaming. Now I declare it's clay potting... it's like baking AND steaming! No, actually, I got the idea from Bryanna.

I made it pretty much as the recipe called for, tossed my potatoes with 1 T olive oil and rock salt right there in the clay pot, wrapped up the seitan in tinfoil, set it on top and BAM! there was supper. No, actually, I poured in 1/2 C beer, put it into a cold oven turned to 400 degrees and waited 1 hour and then BAM! had supper. Next time I would add more salt to the seitan dough. I was hoping for a markedly different texture using the clay pot cooker, but no such luck. I am always slightly disappointed with seitan. Seitan, you disappoint me.

Here is some red lentil soup and Moroccan bread. Can't find the link, it was a pdf...

The bread I baked on parchment paper on my pizza stone and it came out pretty crispy, not exactly what I was imagining (I was imagining a wonderful bread from a local restaurant Babani's- we actually had them cater our wedding and one sharp memory I still retain is of the waiters/caterers bringing out these large round loaves carried on their shoulders- sooo goood!).

Well anyway, it was still good, just not what I was expecting. Perhaps next time I will bake it on a baking sheet and for less time?

2 1/2 C semolina flour (I subbed in 1 C AP flour)
1 scant T yeast dissolved in 1/4 C warm water
1 C warm water

toppings;
1 T olive oil
1 T kosher salt
1 T sesame seeds

Mix the dry and wet. Knead until smooth. Let rest 15m then flatten into a 3/4" round on parchment paper.
Cover with an inverted bowl and let rise 1 hour or until doubled.
20m before rising time is over, preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Bake 35-40m.

Still working through "Embrace Me"- kinda dragging right now, but that may be because my brain feels like cotton balls right now. Or is that bowling balls?

Taunted.

Taunted (taunted, I tell you!) by visions of vegan ribz (don't click on that link if you've ever dreamed of vegan gyro, either!!!) denied to me on my recent trip to Milwaukee (but hopefully not next time) I decided to make my own! Of course, mine were not deep fried and accompanied by any vegan chive mayo alas, but they were still good.

Just like other times, I started out the same, but this time I added;
-HP sauce
-a little pepper
-more salt
-some Kitchen Bouquet
-used half tahini and half peanut butter
-added 1 T of toasted sesame oil to the dough/mix
and when I basted them with BBQ sauce I coated them in oil first.

I also baked them covered for 30m, covered them with oil and sauce, flipped them and then baked them uncovered for 10m. This resulted in a tastier, not as tough rib.

Still reading "Embrace Me"- as I get to know the characters more, it's easier to read. Great characters. Can't wait to see how she ties it all up.

Tedious and Time Consuming

Here is WWHFDLN...
I think Sundays are becoming soup night. My husband requested red lentil soup, but I just couldn't bring myself to make the same thing again, a week later. So I did the next worst thing, I made the lentil soup I've been making so much this fall and winter!

Middle Eastern Lentil Paprika Soup

1 C brown lentils, rinsed
2 T oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T parsley
1/4 C ketchup
2 T vegetable broth powder
2 T HP sauce
1 T paprika
1 t curry paste
2 bay leaves
1 t salt
8 C water

Saute onion, then garlic. Add everything else except the water and let cook a few minutes. Add the water, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer 30m.

Made this with my go to bread recipe, left out the vital wheat gluten, let it rise a lot longer on the first rise (do breads with potato tend to have longer rise times, or what?).

Good bread

4 heaping C flour
1/2 C potato flakes
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C oil
1 scant T yeast
1 T salt
2 C water

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Grease your loaf pans.
Mix 'er all up in your big 'ol mixer, change to the knead hood and knead 3m or so.
Dump out the dough, oil that bowl and put the dough back in, turning to oil both sides.
Cover with a damp tea towel and place in oven to rise 1+ hour.
DON'T FORGET TO TURN OVEN OFF!
Ahem.
Preheat oven to 170 degrees again.
Knead dough for 10m or so. Cut in half, shape into rectangle, roll out into even bigger rectangle. Roll up short side, tuck under ends and place, seam side down into loaf pan.
Cover with tea towel and place into oven, turn off oven. Rise 45m.
Take towel off.
Leave loaves in cold oven, turn to 400 degrees and bake from cold oven for 30m, cover with tinfoil and bake 10 more minutes.

Boy, typing that all out makes it seem so tedious and time consuming.

Okay, here, above, we see the progression of what really occurred when we ate this quick and easy black bean and potato skillet dinner... yes, I do live in Minnesota, why do you ask? Hey, it was very tasty that way! I think it tasted better!! Food snobs...

Oh, and in the background there you can see the homemade tortilla chips I made... mmmm.

Quick and Easy Black Bean and Potato Skillet

1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T oil
5 or 6 small potatoes, scrubbed or maybe 2 med large ones
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 C your favorite salsa
1/2 t cumin

Saute your onion and garlic, add the beans, cumin and salt and mix well. Add salsa and mix well. Cook for a few minutes until salsa liquid has mostly evaporated and then add the potatoes and mix gently.

Serve with chips.

And finally, here we have Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon. I paid really good attention to the directions this time (go, me!) and fried them instead of baked them and they were yummy!! Much better than the chewy patties I made before...
Served with some cheezy sauce, sorry, don't have the recipe before me, I think it was my latest incarnation of that bean based one (a can of white beans, undrained, 9 green olives, clove garlic whizzed in blender and heated up).

No news on the "Infinite Jest" front, not much reading this weekend.

Fry 'em up!

Here's what we had for lunch yesterday. I started with the bamboo rice and kind of went from there... so, to be fancy it is bamboo rice on a bed of arugula served with sweet miso salad dressing and craisins. Hmm... adding 'craisins' at the end sort of kills it, don't you think? No matter, it was good! I'll try again, 'Bamboo rice served over a bed of rocket with sweet miso dressing and dried cranberries'. That's better!

Sweet Miso Salad Dressing -thanks lolo!

1 T miso, heaping (I used the miso in the yellow container? it's yellow?)
1 T sugar
1 1/2 t Dijon mustard
1 t balsamic vinegar
2 pinches salt
pepper to taste

1/4 C vegetable oil
2 T hot water

Whisk together first 6 ingredients, then slowly whisk in oil. Add water to thin if desired.
Makes about 1/2 C dressing, 2 points per T.

notes;
next time I would just blend this all in the blender, although it is such a small amount, really, but then I'd probably add more water, maybe 1/2 C water total.
I could eat this with a spoon! I really like it!


And here's what finally transpired with the seitan. I fried it as postulated. Supporting the theory, you can fry anything and it will taste better.
I breaded it, woo!, haven't done that much...
Slice up your seitan.
I got roughly 21 pieces.
Make your breading. Here's what I used;
1/2 C breadcrumbs
1 T corn meal (for crunch!)
1 t garlic granules
1/2 t salt
and I added about 2 T of fresh herbs to it and whizzed it all up in the blender.
Mix up 1 T ener-g egg replacer to 2 T water in a bowl. This will be your 'wet' that you dip first. ?You could also use a flour water mix? I just had ener-g and I never use it for baking so I thought I'd use some up for this.
Then dip your seitan in wet, then dry.
Oh yeah, have a big 'ol skillet going with oil in it (I used 1 T oil for 3 slices at a time).
Fry 'em up!

I read here that you should refrigerate cookie dough for up to 36 hours for better flavor (actually, what I read there was that they vacuum sealed the dough in a plastic bag, I read about the long 'rest' for the dough in their link to the NYTimes). Wonder what difference it would make with vegan cookies (no eggs, so no liquid from there to soak up). In the name of science, I shall try!! Anything for science.

Still enjoying "Jewel".

Finished my scarf finally!!! Oh joy, oh rapturous raptures!
I washed it, and conditioned it (to help with the scratchies) and called it george, no, wait, I washed it and conditioned it and threw it in the drier! I should go check on it, left it to dry the rest of the way airdry.
Wheeee!

Mysterious Seitan

Good morning!
Well, I finally took the plunge and tried the crockpot seitan. It was not a success.
I used this recipe and was unsure how much water to add to the crockpot, so I just took a tip from some other recipes and put in enough to cover.
I think the taste was fine, actually. But I didn't knead the seitan or anything and I think I should have squashed it flatter into the crockpot instead of in a round loaf.
Doesn't that soup look seitanic, though? I put chard stalks in it so it turned red.
I didn't get the gravy I was hoping for, so I just used the broth for a soup and whatever bits and bobs of the seitan were floating were- tada! in the soup.
Now I've got a big blog of seitan in my fridge, just waiting for whatever I'm going to do to it... mwah-ha-ha -haaaa! Oh, and, I'm storing it not in the broth!! You're always supposed to keep the seitan in the broth, I wonder what will happen, will it develop consciousness and rise up and lead the condiments to justice?
So, maybe it was the conversions into cups from oz or something...

Crockpot Seitan ala Mystery

dry ingredients;
1 1/4 C vital wheat gluten
1/2 C + 2 T chickpea flour
3 T nutritional yeast
1 T brown sugar
1 T garlic granules
1 t salt
1 t oregano, crushed between fingers (I did remember this!)
1 t thyme, cbf
1/2 t tarragon, cbf
pinch celery powder

wet ingredients;
1 C water
1/2 C olive oil
3 T soy sauce
1 T liquid smoke (not three like in the original post)

For in the crockpot;
oil to grease crockpot
a few carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
bay leaf
6 C water or water to cover seitan


Mix dry together in mixer, then add wet. Freak out because dough is waaay wet. Go to chop onion and carrots. Come back and feel relieved that seitan is something I can actually put into a ball shape form now.
Grease crockpot.
Put seitan blob in, dump carrots and onions in, add bay leaf.
Cover with water.
Cook on high for 4 hours.

Well, I'm agonna take that seitan and slice it up reeeel thin like, and then I'm agonna bread it and fry it. Uh huh.

Still reading Jewel, got sucked in by interesting birthing stuff. If it turns out to be one of those dirty laundry/one woman's triumph over adversity books, I'm outtie.

Nothing if not thorough.

Kale!
Chard!
Cilantro!
Close up of cilantro!
And arugula, snap peas, lettuce and garlic scapes (time to try that pesto recipe out again!).
Vegan Dad's Perfect Tempeh Burger with Browned Chickpea Flour Gravy! These were good! I even went to 'the big store' (Cub) to get the HP sauce and the browning sauce it called for! Wow, browning sauce iz teh cool! I feel like I'm learning so many things lately with food! Like, also at Cub, I got gram flour and then when I was reading that Chickpea Flour Pizza recipe, it said to crush the dried herbs between your fingers and I did that and I think it helped (of course I promptly forgot and didn't do it on this recipe)! And I've never done that before! And I got Paprika paste, so that will be fun to try out... and some moong dal... well, anyway, on to the recipe!

Perfect Tempeh Burgers

1 pkg tempeh (9)*
1/2 C bread crumbs (2)
1/2 C vital wheat gluten (2)
2 t ground fennel seed**
1 t sage
1 t thyme
1 t oregano
1/2 t parsley
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
2 T soy sauce
2 T HP sauce
1/4 t browning sauce
1/4 C water
1 T oil

13 points total, divided by 6 = 2 points per pattie plus ?2? for the oil = 4 points per pattie

Crumble the tempeh into a small skillet and add water with 2 T soy sauce to cover. Simmer 10m. Remove from heat and drain and cool.
Mix tempeh with bread crumbs, vital wheat gluten and spices. Add soy sauce, HP sauce and browning sauce, mixing well. Slowly add water until it makes a dough. Knead a few times and roll into a thick cylinder and divide into 6ths. Using your palms, press each into a pattie and fry in oil in a large skillet 5m each side.

*Vegan Dad said that after simmering the tempeh, you might have to use less or no water or more vital wheat gluten, but I didn't find this to be the case. It could have been my bread crumbs, I used storebought, and those things are as dry as the dickens.
**I got to be all knarly and used my rolling pin to crush the fennel seeds!

Browned Chickpea Flour Gravy (adapted from Killer Brown Gravy from Vegan Lunchcast)

1/4 C chickpea flour (2)
1/2 C plain soymilk (1)
1 T Earth Balance (3)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
pinch black pepper or to taste
1/2 C water

5 points makes approximately 1 C gravy

In a small skillet over med high heat, brown the chickpea flour, stirring constantly. Don't worry if it gets lumpy.
Add flour to blender with soymilk and blend until smooth.*
Meanwhile, melt Earth Balance in heavy bottomed pot and remove from heat. Pour flour mixture in and add salt and spices. Mix well and return to low heat, stirring constantly. Slowly add water until it is the consistency you want. Serve quickly (the chickpea flour really soaks up the water, so it gets thick quick!).
*to avoid use of blender, you could try and sieve your flour first, then brown it, then mix it with the butter (no liquid yet) and then add the milk and water SLOWLY (as you would a roux).

Still reading the Sheri T. book, it's at least interesting.
No knitting, temps forecast to be in the 90's today! Will have to finally break down and turn on the air conditioner.

P. S. Do not tell me what that gravy looks like. I told you it thickens up quickly!

Pandowdy, pandwody, pandowdy.

After seeing this post over at have cake will travel, I did decide to try the black bean burgers! We have been searching for a nice burger for quick suppers/lunch/grilling and this fits the bill for the first two. It was good- the color was good, the texture was nice and the taste was tasty, what else can I say? My husband liked them more than the chickpea cutlets, so that's nice, too! From Veganomicon.

Black Bean Burgers

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained (3)*
1/2 C vital wheat gluten (4)
1/2 C bread crumbs (4)
1 t cumin
1/4 C water
1 T HP sauce
1 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder

I mixed it all in the mixer (sorry, Isa!). First, mashing the beans, then adding everything else.
Knead by hand a little, divide into 6 and make patties and cook in a little oil in a skillet.
Each pattie is 2 points, plus ?maybe 2? for the oil soaked up during frying = 4 point per patty

Notes;
next time ?add 1/4 t salt?
can use minced garlic and actual onion
loved the HP sauce in there, but now I feel guilty (see wiki article above) for HP sauce is now made outside of England by Heinz! Geez, I got it as a replacement for Worcestershire sauce! White rice conundrum!
also, can replace HP sauce with ketchup. At least the HP sauce isn't chock full of corn syrup.
*these little numbers in parenthesis represent POINTS values ala Weight Watchers.

I also made Strawberry Rhubarb Pandowdy (from Veganomicon again, but not mango-whatever that was in the book- that pie crust is awesome!).

I oopsed and made the crust with 1/2 C shortening not 1/3 C and it still turned out great!- probably actually much easier to roll out, huh? I guess that's why I had to add a little flour in at the end 'cause it was sticking... but it didn't really matter because it all got smushed into the pie filling! Beauty!

crust;
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour (12)
1 T sugar (1)
1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking powder
1/2 C cold shortening (24)
1/4 C cold water + 2 T if needed
2 t apple cider vinegar

filling;
1 C rhubarb
2 C strawberries
1/2 C sugar (8)
1 t lemon juice
1 t cinnamon
2 T cornstarch

Cut shortening a little at a time into dry ingredients with pastry cutter. Combine vinegar with 1/4 C water and add a little at a time while mixing with pastry cutter. Add up to 2 T water if needed to get dough to hold together when pinched. Gather into a ball and knead a little, flatten into disk and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hr.

Mix together filling ingredients and set aside.

When dough has chilled, remove from frig and roll out onto parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Dump filling into pie plate, place crust on top and bake at 350 degrees for 30m, take out of oven, cut crust into 1" squares and smush into filling, then bake 20m more or until crust is golden.

45 points total, divide into 8ths, 1/8th = 6 points (gasp). This was, of course, very, very good. Used up the last of the CSA rhubarb! Wah!

Notes; next time ?try 1/4 C flour? instead of cornstarch.

Going to the library to get new books!! Woo! Going to try and find some book that has "something something Fire and Ice" in it's title, by the guy who wrote "Dreamsongs". Hah. Wish me luck.

Could not get through "The Custom of the Country" by Edith Wharton. Brain too tired to hack through it. Need light sci fi/fantasy.

No knitting. Soooo close to being done with scarf, centrepullball is all squishy and gutted, awaiting it's doom, but it sits on the shelf in stasis. Must push on through.

Ribz Redux

Okay, I changed my mind... writing and saying, especially, ribz, with that zzzzzzzzz at the end, is just too fun!

Let's see, what else did I make this weekend? We went to the farm and I made a Baked Lentil casserole, but doubled it and added some other stuff to jazz it up, like onion powder, garlic powder, onion soup mix, grape jelly!, and veggie broth. Much better. Put that over rice and shazzam! it's an easy, good casserole. At least I think so. Next time I make it maybe I'll make it with molasses for the honey, or maple syrup!

I also used the rest of the pumpkin almond sauce mixed with some spaghetti, put it in a casserole, put some bread crumbs on top mixed with sage and paprika, drizzled it with some olive oil and had a nice spaghetti bake. Also easy.

I might give up on the fire book, because it's so boring to read about these characters that I've already met. Their backstory is just not that gripping when you're like "Oh, yeah, I knew that about Juney." or "Oh wow, so that's how Mike and Signe hooked up.". It sort of loses the romance when you already know the outcome. Perhaps I will start yet another book.

I have been knitting, and ripping, and knitting and ripping the short row scarf and think I finally have something I like, but talk to me tomorrow. Not too many stitches, nice shaping, complicated yet mindless in it's own way. Oh, plus I thought up a baby cardigan that might be fun. I know, how is this a knitting blog with no actual things to show, right? Sorry peeps. So far I'm keeping everything under wraps. You'll just have to come here for the food.

Ribs not Ribz

Last night we had BBQ Seitan Ribs. I say 'ribs' not ribz per this post. I pretty much agree about just using regular words and not trying to have all these alternate spellings. I do still want to differentiate, however, so I guess that just means more adjectives.

Here is the seitan before it went into the oven.

Anyway, they were good! We actually grilled them! And we ate virtually the same thing that Susan did!

I watched the video (link on Susan's page), which was helpful, and then later, once we had them on the grill, I was looking for how many minutes to grill them. I thought I'd remembered 15 from the video, so I watched it again to get to the point where she says 15m on the grill. I don't think we did them for that long, but they were still good. My husband's recommendation was to put the BBQ sauce right into the seitan dough next time! Maybe I'll try 1/2 C water and 1/4 C BBQ sauce next time. I also used the blender to blend the water and peanut butter and liquid smoke and soy sauce. You can also bake them at 350 for just 20 minutes and then coat with sauce and bake for another 15m.

















I Googled how to microwave a potato and decided on 5m, then flip, then another 5 (this was with all three in the microwave) and it got them ready really nicely. Then we just put them on the back of the grill like Susan suggests and they were nice and hot and done when the seitan was.

In other news, I emailed my friend who is test knitting the mitts and was like "Ack, ack, plz don't knit these!" and then worked all day in bursts to rewrite the pattern. So far I have triumphed over the right hand mitt, onward to rehabilitating the left. Supposedly the left will be easier because ?I think? that I actually had a good pattern for that one, but now I have to check, plus apply some eureka ideas I got when working on fixing the right hand mitt.

I did this Invisible (Provisional) Cast on (scroll down) but I didn't use a very thick yarn and so my live stitches were incredibly tight!! So last night at about 10pm I was staring at the last 6 sts or so I couldn't get off one needle onto another. I'm sure it will make my seam real pretty, but I don't want to knit the thing again right now, I just want to try it on to see if it fits.

Still hacking through that book, fantasizing about a library trip, starting to gather ideas for books to get.

That is all.

Cheaze please

Thursday night we had Golden Cheaze Sauce which you can see in the pic above, green beans with lemon herb seasoning and an amalgam of Seitan O'Greatness and Chickpea Cutlets and Loaf

based off of this post...
Preheat oven to 425.
basically I just whipped up 1 can of chickpeas and 1/4 C olive oil and 2 cloves garlic in the food processor until it looked like hummus, then in the mixer mixed that, plus 1 C bread crumbs, 1 C vital wheat gluten, 1/2 t salt, 1 heaping T chicken flavoring and 1 t oregano and then slowly added water until it held together and looked 'doughy' (I scantly filled up a cup measure and then used almost all of it)
Roll into a 'log', wrap in foil and bake 1 hour.

The cheaze (I cannot stand that spelling) was good, my husband really liked it (he's probably sick to death of Dragonfly's Bulk Dry Uncheese Mix) and said it reminded him of something his mom used to make with ?Chicken gumbo? with ground beef poured over rice- "Saturday Night Special". Who knew pimento was the secret spice ingredient in chicken gumbo soup?

Last night we had Morningstar farms crumbles simmered in the leftover cheaze sauce (they said it made 6 1/2 C servings but I got just under 2 C). and salsa and corn in flour tortillas.

Today we're off to the fiber festival for Mother's Day- Woo! Yarn! I do not even care that it will rain- that'll drive off all the weaklings hah.

I finished Spindle's End by Robin McKinley and I think I have a new favorite author!!!! She reworks fairy tales and now I'm reading Rose Daughter (I was looking for her book, Beauty, at the library but couldn't find it, so I grabbed a bunch of her other stuff and was like, gee, I hope she's good- now I'm glad I did!).

No knitting, started to try to do the thumb and decided that I could work the left hand thumb the same as the right (how can this be, part of me is suspicious) but some crisis warranted my attention and everything had to be put away.

Gotta go work out the yardage of yarn I need for my hood pattern so I can buy some luscious alpaca today.