curried seitan + cauliflower

When I was a kid, one of my favorite treats was miàn jīn, Chinese fried gluten. It is impossible to describe in a way that makes it sound appealing. Balls of wheat gluten that had been deep fried, and canned in some sort of mysterious and delicious oil. In terms of appearances, it was not a pretty thing. It also kept its shape fairly well, so when you peeled pieces out of the can with your chopsticks, they always retained its vaguely cylindrical, brainlike consistency, and is advertised as "mock meat". You're drooling right now, aren't you.

So, like with most things, once I moved away to college and away from the sometimes astonishingly ... antique contents of our pantry at home, I forgot about most of these things.

Until, a couple of years ago, Hillside Quickie happened. So the name of the restaurant is a bit of a misnomer, given that it is neither situated on a hillside, nor is the service quick, by any stretch of the imagination. What it does boast, however, is VEGAN SOUL FOOD.

Now, I've already gone over my various and complicated feelings about "-an" classifications of eating, so you can take my word for it when I say that this isn't just good food by vegan standards (if you are one of those skeptics that believes that meat + butter related substances are key for anything delicious). This food is good, period. If you are ever in the Seattle area, it is definitely worth a stop. This place affirms the hypothesis that everything can be made delicious through the process of deep frying.

Hillside Quickies can be wholly attributed to my discovery of seitan - namely, that it existed outside of the nebulous walls of my mother's pantry, and that other people eat it.

Since I've started cooking in earnest this year, my roommate has pioneered many successful attempts at making seitan through baking. As I was doing research for our weekly group vegan dinners, I finally thought that I would try my hand at it. And let me tell you, there is a lot of shit to sort through about seitan.

I encountered a few recipes that uttered dire warnings about boiling the seitan, others still who swore by it, tons of recipes that differed between cooking time, cooking method, amount of oil, type of oil, marination. You get the idea.

So, deciding that it was time to just pony up and start experimenting, I glommed together various recipes from around the internets and came up with this.

Curried Seitan + Cauliflower

INGREDIENTS:

• 6-8 cups vegetable broth
• 2 2/3 cup vital wheat gluten
• 3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 Tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon tumeric
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 3/4 cup water
• 1 stalk green onions, chopped
• 1 head cauliflower, chopped
  

• 2 cups rice milk
• 1 Tablespoon flour
• 1 Tablespoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pour the broth into a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer.

2. Combine the vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, curry, and salt into a medium size bowl.

3. Combine the soy sauce, sherry, and water into another bowl.

4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a spoon. Knead into dough a few times until all of the ingredients are incorporated. The water will react almost instantly with the vital wheat gluten to make a tough dough.

5. Tear pieces of dough off the larger dough ball with your hands and drop gently into the simmering broth. The pieces should be about an inch in diameter. Allow to cook for about 20 minutes, or until the seitan has expanded and risen to the top of the pot. Remove from heat and place in a shallow dish.

6. Mix half a cup of rice milk with the flour in a medium saucepan. Stir over low heat until the mixture has thickened.

7. Add the remaining rice milk and other sauce ingredients, and cook at medium heat for approximately 5 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened.

8. Pour the mixture over the seitan pieces and refridgerate overnight.

9. The next day, allow the seitan to sit at room temperature for about ten minutes before cooking.

10. Heat 2 tsp of oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Spoon the seitan pieces into the pan, reserving the sauce, and cook for 3-4 minutes, until the seitan is slightly browned and firm.

11. Pour marinade sauce over the seitan, add the cauliflower, and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes.

12. Salt and pepper to taste, garnish with green onions, and serve over rice.

I was a little nervous about making this, in the way that I am nervous about attempting to make cheese. When food texture is so important, it generally is common sense to assume that it would be really easy to screw up. And though I cooked my seitan a tiny bit longer than I should have (I modified the above recipe accordingly), the seitan just was a little bit tougher than was my preference, but could very well be exactly up someone else's alley. But the point is, the whole thing did not explode into a seitany, satan-y ball of doom, and was quite forgiving of all of the humiliations that I put it through. Do be prepared for the alarming rate of dough expansion among cooking, and learn from my mistakes and test the seitan frequently to make sure that it is at the consistency and texture that you like.

Though I will admit: I am still a little bit freaked out by the insta-magic of wheat gluten. The final product was a very convincing meat-like texture, with good flavor. In the future, I'm going to try slicing and frying cutlets (instead of boiling pieces), so we'll see how that works out. Also, I am well aware that this is the second curried cauliflower recipe that I have posted. I'm working on diversifying, I promise.

It was quite an easy make-ahead sort of recipe, and the vegetables could certainly be flexible, depending on what is in season. Seitan keeps remarkably well in the freezer as well, so you could always portion the seitan in freezer bags, instead of just marinating overnight.

And while it is not quite as cheap an option as tofu or beans, it is quite a treat, and - it turns out - easy to make.

Also, if anyone has any killer seitan recipes, then do let me know! Sorry for not having pictures of the final product (the first picture was the seitan, post-marinade) - but it always gets eaten up so fast...

Cauliflower Pepper Curry

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hello beautiful friends!

so sorry for being quite MIA in the past week. a fatal combination of house guests, laziness, and a renewed inspiration to make work had culminated in a bit of stagnation, cooking-wise.

but as a peace offering, i have the recipe from the cauliflower pepper curry that i made for the second time in a week. so take that as an endorsement; this stuff is good.

this recipe is a great illustration of one of my favorite food policies: "more pepper". (the others being, 'more mustard', and 'more garlic'.)

Cauliflower Pepper Curry

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 can of coconut milk (14 oz)
  
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp peppercorns, crushed
• 1 tablespoon curry leaves
• 1 bunch spinach, chopped
• 1 head cauliflower, chopped
• 2 vine-ripened tomatoes, cubed

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add mustard seeds and cover, until the seeds have stopped popping. Add cumin seeds and cook until browned (1 min).
2. Stir-fry cauliflower until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook for an additional one minute.
3. Pour in coconut milk and scrape bottom of pan to release spice. Stir in salt, peppercorns, and curry leaves. Reduce and simmer for about 5-8 minutes, until cauliflower is tender.
4. Add spinach, continue to simmer until cooked (about 5 minutes).
5. Stir in tomatoes. Raise heat to medium-high, and boil uncovered for 3-5 minutes until tomato is warmed, and some of the cauliflower has broken down to thicken the sauce.
6. Serve over basmati rice, if desired.
   

Bon appetit! Was a great, simple meal that could be left unattended for stretches of time. Perfect for listening to the State of the Union address and chipping away steadily at a cable-knit scarf that I have been working on since December.

There are a lot of things that I could say about my feelings (or lack thereof) on politics, and political leaders, and rhetoric, and public relations. Clearly, there are many things about our nation's shared situation that are less than ideal, and things about my own situation that are the same. In some ways, the last year has caused me to become a skeptic. Skeptical about things working out, about the seemingly inexorable slide of our country towards desperation, about things falling apart more than they come together.

As I made dinner tonight, I was a bit surprised to find that despite these precious feelings, I now have more gratitude than ever before. I no longer feel helpless. I no longer feel as if the things that happen to me are solely a result of unpredictable, inscrutable factors.

I could focus on the negative. I could grouse about tuition costs, about squeezing in hours at work at any given opportunity, about always rushing endlessly from place to place with burning calves and lungs. About millions of things, really. But the truth is, I don't. I'm recklessly, stupidly grateful to have a job, to have the opportunity to work and be paid in exchange, to have faith in my ability to do things well, in good friends and in a warm cat on my lap. I'm grateful for having the will and health to put in the effort to make food for myself, to experience the satisfaction in preparing it for subsequent consumption. In exercising a conscientiousness and a certain joy in converting raw ingredients into something worth having.

There are a lot of cliches that exist about the therapeutic effect of making food, about cooking to save yourself. I think I can buy into that to some degree, but it goes deeper than that. It's not just cooking that's saving myself. It's me. I'm saving myself. And small things, small things are saving me.

Vegan French Onion Soup

As a kid, you learn quickly that a good rule to live by is, "if it takes good, it is probably bad for you".

But of course, as we grow older, we learn another valuable life lesson: "there are always exceptions to the rule", and "rules are made to be broken".

Vegan French Onion Soup

[from Foods For Long Life]

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 cups water
• 1/2 pound crimini mushrooms, cut in half
• 2 stalks of celery, cut in four pieces
• 1 large carrot, cut in four pieces
• 8 peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 cloves of garlic in skin, cut in half or smashed
• 1 tablespoon Tamari soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 large onions, thinly sliced (about 10 cups)
• 2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon dry thyme
  salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

Start with the broth. Combine water, mushrooms, celery, carrots, peppercorns, the bay leaf, and crushed garlic cloves in a large pot. Simmer covered, for about an hour.

Meanwhile, slice onions. Saute with olive oil in a medium-large saucepan over medium-high heat, until they start to turn translucent. Turn down the heat to medium-low. Add 1 tsp sugar, and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the onions start to caramelize. Be careful near the end not to stir too often or too infrequently - if you stir too often, the onions won't brown, and if you stir too infrequently...well...you know what happens. Once the onions have turned brown, add crushed garlic and thyme.

Once broth is done simmering, strain the vegetables out of the stock. Add the stock to your pan of (now caramelized) onions.

Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Okay. Admittedly, this recipe takes awhile, about an hour and a half, with all of the simmering and caramelizing action that is going down. So don't attempt this recipe after a fifteen hour work day and your stomach is threatening to digest itself. In fact, I think it's pretty safe to say that it is probably a "strictly weekend" sort of recipe.

But think of the rewards! Don't lie, I know I had you guys at "ten cups of onions".

vegan fudge brownies

hello friends!

so this is the point (cerca week two, to be optimistic or cynical, depending on your point of view) in the year when new years resolve is starting to weaken a bit.

though i am certainly far from throwing in towel, i'm starting to sense to feast-famine pattern of postings that is likely to start occurring, with emphasis on "feast" on these things called weekends, during which i occasionally manage to capture that rare beast known to some as "spare time".

ok, there will be no more gratuitious use of quotation marks for the rest of this post, so you can put your rotten tomatoes away.

what i am really getting at here is that though i am cooking consistently throughout the week, i will definitely need to make a more protracted effort to make sure that i'm posting in some semblance of real-time - with a liberal definition of being within the week.

but, as a show of my good feelings (and attempt at appeasement), here is the most amazing brownie recipe i know of. say what you will about vegan foods, but these brownies are by far the best i have encountered. something about the creative substitutions for dairy that really does the trick if you are into the idea of dense baked goods - which i am certainly in favor of. caution - these are heavy. as in, can use as a doorstop heavy. or, can eat for breakfast and be sustained for a good few hours heavy. not that i've done that for the past two days, or anything.

Vegan Fudge Brownies

INGREDIENTS

• 1 16 oz package silken tofu
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup dark cocoa powder
• 1 cup Earth Balance

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Puree tofu until smooth (in food processor, blender, or by hand). Add brown sugar, salt, and vanilla.
3. Melt margarine in a saucepan over low heat. Whisk in white sugar and cocoa powder until smooth.
4. Combine cocoa mixture with tofu mixture until well incorporated.
5. Fold in flour.
6. Pour into pan, bake at 350, until toothpick comes out clean (usually around 30-40 min).

Voila! In terms of difficulty and time commitment, probably not too much more or less than your standard recipe (unless your recipe consists of: opening betty crocker package, adding eggs and water, and baking. and even then, still not too much more).

But trust me. It's worth it. Just a note, you might want to make some coffee during the last five minutes while these babies are baking to have with your first piece.

(You can thank me later.)

curried sweet potato and rice soup

for new years eve, my roommate and I decided to stay in and make dinner.

our new years eve consisted of (in the following order):

1. taking a nap
2. taking a power bath with a book (think power shower, but in bath form - bliss!)
   
3. making this soup
4. making the decision to stay in
5. beer, wine, and prosecco
6. deciding to ring in the new year listening to gwen stefani's 'what are you waiting for'
7. missing the actual arrival of the new decade (!), thanks to the fact that the website that that we had loaded with the new years countdown had frozen
8. having a miniature dance party to santigold in the living room
9. ending up going out anyway

in retrospect, we probably knew that it was inevitable. but luckily, the brunt of our new years activities were absorbed quite nicely with being full of this delicious, delicious soup.


it's that time of year. in seattle, this means the beginning of three long months of not seeing the sun, and being constantly damp (not wet - this city specializes in doling out just enough constant drizzle to warrant being unbearably damp while being just short enough of moisture to warrant opening an umbrella). not to mention coming down with seasonal depression.

and that, my chickadees, is when we collectively thank god for SOUP.

i had a couple of leftover sweet potatoes maxin' and relaxin' in my fridge, leftover refugees from Thanksgiving. i had originally planned on just throwing them in the oven and roasting them until they were caramelized and gooey. this was one of the few things from the Thanksgivings of my childgood that my mom and I could agree on because it was so easy to make. (step one: preheat oven to 425. step two: throw potatoes in oven. step three: take out of oven after an hour. step four: eat.)

but, given my sort-of new years resolution - (let's just call it a resolution, shall we? i feel like anything that is labeled as a New Years Resolution is doomed to failure around, oh, February) - coming across this recipe seemed pretty kismet. and what a recipe it is! slightly more work than just chucking them in the oven, but not too much more. and definitely worth that extra effort.

Curried Sweet Potato and Rice Soup
[adapted from Happy Herbivore]

INGREDIENTS

• 2 whole large sweet potatoes, cooked
• 1 whole sweet onion, diced
• 6 whole garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tsp mild curry powder
• 0.25 tsp chili powder
• 1 cup rice milk
• 1/2 cup rice, cooked (I used a blend of white, brown, wild, and red)
  

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425F. Bake sweet potatoes until just slightly overdone, about 1 hour, 15 minutes. Allow to completely cool, then peel away the skin and discard. Or eat. Whatever floats your boat.

Mash potatoes in a medium bowl - if you have just overcooked the potatoes, you should be able to do this without a blender.

In a medium saucepan, combine onion, garlic, broth, curry and chili powder. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until onions are translucent (about 5 to 7 minutes).

Transfer mixture to potato puree, add rice milk, and mix thoroughly.

Return to saucepan and heat thoroughly. Season to taste.

Ladle into a bowl, spoon warm wild rice into the center, and serve.

The result? Soup that was rich and creamy. Sweet, with just a little kick from the chili powder, with a little crunch from the onions, and a little chewy, from the rice. Amazing. And delicious! I doubled the original recipe because I had two potatoes instead of the 1 that it had called for - and because I figured that the leftovers would be just as good cold, if not better.

Turns out that it was just enough to make two hearty bowls for 2 - so if you want leftovers, think about doubling the recipe above. Another thought that would have been delicious, had I had some on hand, would have been a bit of fresh cilantro on top.

Happy new year, dumplings!