Harvest Seitan

From Foodsies!

Although this weekend was warm enough to put me in the mood for summer, we had sleet and snow on Monday, and yesterday was chilly as well. This put me in mind of more autumnal and wintry eats, something warm and homey and richly spiced.

I decided to play with my seitan recipe a bit, and I think I have vastly improved it. This is the best seitan I have made yet, and probably some of the best i've ever had. It turned out juicy and tender, and had a rich meaty flavor reminiscent of steak.

To compliment the seitan, I was planning to make pears in a red wine sauce (I had been thinking along the lines of 'pork tenderloin' in pear sauce). Too bad we were out of pears. And didn't have an open bottle of wine.

So instead I used apples and sauteed them in dark rum, water, and mulling spices. I had this packet of mulling spices laying around waiting for me to make mulled cider, but since we didn't have any whole cinnamon sticks or other spices, I decided to try using them to flavor the apples (and later the seitan). It worked beautifully!


Kat's Harvest Seitan

Ingredients:

Seitan

3/4 Cup Vital Wheat Gluten
1/4 Cup Quinoa Flour*
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
1/2 tsp Sage
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Allspice
1/4 tsp Salt

3/4 Cup "Beef" Broth
1 TBSP Vegetarian Worcestershire Sauce
2 TBSP Tahini
1/4 tsp Liquid Smoke

Spiced Apples

2 Apples, sliced and/or diced***
1 TBSP Earth Balance
1 TBSP Fresh Ginger, grated or finely chopped
1 Cup Dark Rum
2 Cups Water
1 Package Mulling Spices (or make your own)**
Sugar to taste


* You can substitute Soy Flour, but I don't like the flavor of Soy Flour. Both add tenderness to the seitan, but I think the Quinoa doens't mess with the flavor as much.

** Take 3 sticks of Cinnamon, 1 whole small Nutmeg, 3 TBSP Whole Cloves, 3 TBSP Whole Allspice, and 1 TBSP of Orange Peel. Place the Cinnamon and Nutmeg in a plastic baggie and smash with a hammer or other heavy object (fun!) and then mix in the rest of the spices. Use a little, a lot, or all of it for this dish.

*** I sliced one and diced the other. The variation is prettier and more interesting.

Instructions

Seitan first.

Mix your dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Mix your wet ingredients together in a pyrex measuring cup. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix. Stop adding the wet mix when you have a slightly wet dough.

Knead for 5 minutes.

Leave the dough in the bowl and cover the bowl with a damp cloth (or cover the dough with saran wrap). Set aside for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, get some water boiling in a pot for steaming (See Method 1).

After the seitan dough has rested for those 15 minutes, remove and manipulate into a tube shape. Using a sharp knife, slice rounds off from the tube, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and form each slice into a cutlet (pull and smoosh to desired shape).

Place these pieces on a plate that will fit into the steamer and then cover with another plate facing down (should look like a UFO or something) and place the whole thing in the steamer. Alternately, wrap/fold each piece tightly in foil and place them in the steamer.

Steam for 20-25 minutes.

In the meantime, heat 1 TBSP of butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. When the butter is melted, add your apple slices. Stir them around and saute them for a minute, then add the ginger, a pinch or two of sugar, 1/4 cup of the rum, and the mulling spices.

Saute until the rum is gone and then add some of the water until it's gone. Then add more rum. When it's gone, add more water. Back and forth, until the apples are soft. When they are done, remove the skillet from the heat and remove the apples, along with some of the spices (The apples will be prettier that way).

When your seitan is done, remove from the steamer. Add a spritz of olive oil to the skillet and add the seitan. Add a touch of rum and some more of the mulling spices (if needed) and saute until browned.

Serve along with the apples for a hearty, insides-warming meal. Combined with a good veggie side, this would make a great holiday type occasion sort of dish.

From Foodsies!

I had seitan left over, but no more of the cooked apples. The leftover seitan was great served with some pearl barley cooked in veggie broth for lunch.








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There is Peach Cobbler in Heaven

From Foodsies!

I believe I have a new favorite dessert. Vegan Peach Cobbler. Sounds so simple, no? Yes well, it is simple. But the peaches, slurping around in their own spiced sweet syrupy juices, taste like nectar (and like summer). And the biscuity crumbles are hearty and satisfying.
It's comfort food. Or comfort fruit, if you will.

I don't know what i'm doing making such things when i'm "dieting," but I did minimize the sugar and butter, used whole wheat flour and oats instead of regular flour. Next time I think I can cut the sugar down from 1/4 cup sugar to 1 TBSP of Agave Nectar. And I might throw in some soy flour or almond meal in place of some of the whole wheat flour, to make it lower carb. Still not diet food exactly, but better than some other desserts.

And it's a super easy to gobble up a serving or two of fruit.

Also, technically it's Peach Apple Cobbler, but only because I didn't have enough frozen peach. It's good with the apple, but I think it's probably better with just peach (or maybe i'm just appled out at the moment?).



Peach Cobbler

Ingredients

3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 Cup Rolled Oats*
1 TBSP Earth Balance
3/4 Cup Soy Milk
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt

4-6 Cups Sliced Peaches**
1/4 Cup Sugar***
1 TBSP Brown Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Ginger Powder
1 tsp Vanilla
1 TBSP Lemon Juice

* You don't have to use these. You can just use more flour (for a total of 1 cup) instead. You can also substitute graham cracker crumbles or anything else you want.

** This is about 6-8 peaches, or 2 small bags of frozen peaches (or about 20oz). Don't use canned peaches, cuz that's gross. Frozen is always better (less preservatives, less or no added sugar, etc). You can also use apples, cherries, blueberries, whatever. You might want to adjust the spices and sugar a little because tarter fruits need more sugar, sweet fruits less. If you're using a really juicy kind of fruit (particularly if it isn't frozen) then you may want to increase the cornstarch to 3 TBSP.

*** I think you can just use 1 TBSP of Agave instead if you are so inclined

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400.

Thaw your peaches in the microwave (if using frozen peaches, obvs) by nuking at 50% power for about 2 minutes, then stirring, then again for another 3 minutes.

Dump peaches in a saucepan that looks big enough to hold all of your peaches. Add the sugar/agave, brown sugar, cornstarch, spices, vanilla, and lemon juice.

Stir thoroughly. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to boil. Let it boil for a minute, still stirring. The mix should be thick and syrupy around the peaches. Remove from heat and set aside. It should look sorta like this:

From Foodsies!

Dump the flour, oats, salt, baking powder, and the 2 tsp of sugar into a mixing bowl. Mix gently. Add the Earth Balance a little pinch at a time, and then cut it into the mix. Or you can do what I did, and just use one of your hands to grab and mush and mix it all together (you can also use two butter knives and slice them in opposite directions repeatedly). The main thing is that you want the Earth Balance to get broken up and mix with the flour to form something like small crumbs. If this doesn't make sense, then just mix everything up as best you can and say to hell with it. It doesn't make a big difference in the end, to be honest.

Now add the milk slowly (like 1/4 cup at a time) and stir. What you wind up with may resemble this:

From Foodsies!

Or it might not. Who cares? It will turn out great anyway, that's the beauty of this recipe.

Dump your peach mixture into a 2QT casserole dish, or any casserole dish that you think will hold it well. I recommend a round casserole dish because you will have more fruit than topping, so a deeper dish works better than a larger, shallow dish.

Now pinch off little globs of dough and drop them (or carefully place them, if you're anal) onto the peaches. I figure the globs should be about the size of a marble. It should wind up looking something like this:

From Foodsies!

Now bake in the oven (which is at 400) for 30-35 minutes.

Remove from the oven, let cool as long as you can stand, then devour.

From Foodsies!

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Kale-based Smoothies Don't Suck (I know, I was shocked too)

From Foodsies!

What?!

Kale in a smoothie? Bleeeech.

WRONG!

Smoothies are delish! And fruit > kale, so if you put some fruit in with the kale, you don't notice the evil kaleness.

No offense to kale, of course. I love me some greens and all. But it's really hard to eat kale every single day...

Unless it's in my daily breakfast smoothie!

Mmmm mmmmm.



The fun of smoothies is experimentation. Here are two of mine:

1 Solid Handful of Kale
1 Banana
1/4 Cup Frozen Blueberries
1/4 to 1/2 of an Apple
1/2 Cup Orange Juice
1 Cup Water

Remove the Kale leafiness from the stems and tear into smallish bits and dump into blender.
Slice the half apple and dump the slices in the blender.
Add the frozen blueberries.
Tear the banana into small chunks and add to blender.
Pour in OJ, followed by water.
BLEND!

1 Solid Handful of Kale
1 Banana
1/2 Cup Frozen Blueberries
1 TBSP Peanut Butter
1/2 Cup Soymilk
1 Cup Water

Remove the Kale leafiness from the stems and tear into smallish bits and dump into blender.
Add frozen blueberries
Tear the banana into small chunks and add to blender.
Pour in Soymilk, followed by water.
BLEND!

I make small modifications based on what fresh and frozen fruit we have on hand each morning. Sometimes I add in 1 TBSP of cocoa powder, or 1 TBSP of Blackstrap Molasses. Sometimes I use frozen banana or apple, sometimes fresh. Sometimes I use more Peanut Butter. A few times, I used Red Kale, and that was a little weird but still drinkable.

It's important to use at least a little frozen fruit, because that will make your smoothie nice and cold. You can use ice cubes instead if you have a stance against frozen fruit for some reason.

This works awesome in the Cylon Blender (aka, the VitaMix) but it doesn't require such a crazy blender. You might want to chop some pieces smaller, and check the instructions for the blender to make sure it's up to the task of ice cubes or whatever. The resulting smoothie might not be AS smooth as from the Cylon, but it'll still taste good.

And by "good" I mean "really, really great compared to just eating some raw kale."

PS. My smoothies are always reddish because I use frozen berries (yum!). One of these days i'll resist, and see if I can get a new color (i've seen lots of pictures of people with green radio-active looking smoothies and I want a radio-active looking smoothie too!

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Phyllo Fun! - Vegan Spanakopita and Rummy Peach Pockets

From Foodsies!

It's time for Fun with Phyllo Dough! Plus some Fun with Fruit (and Rum)!

Everyone is so scared of Phyllo dough. Faw. Wusses.
The key to working with Phyllo is to chill out. Relax. Breathe. It doesn't need to be perfect. It isn't supposed to look perfect anyway. It's a flaky crust in the end anyhow - so don't worry about rips and tears and crumbles. It'll look natural when it's all said and done.
And anyway, it just has to taste good. And you know what? It will. Why?

Because Phyllo is much easier and much more fun to work with than common rumor has it.

Let me put it this way - I completely screwed up this Spanakopita and it still turned out fine. Not great, but that's ok because I know what I did wrong (and it wasn't the phyllo's fault).

Additionally, the Rummy Peach Pockets are fun and tasty, and they are a great way to use up any extra Phyllo dough leftover from the Spanakopita. They bake for the same length of time as the Spanakopita, so you can make them together. Ah, efficiency.

You can also fold these dishes into the typical triange shape. Instructions for that are at the very bottom of the page. The method in my instructions is for a sort of easy cheater casserole style of Spanakopita.


The first step is to get some vegan Phyllo Dough. It isn't hard to find. Athens brand is great.

Now you need to thaw it. It takes 2 hours sitting out on the counter to thaw. Too bad I forgot all about that. Oops.

Instead, I thawed it in the microwave by cutting the ends off the tube casing to vent any steam buildup and nuked it on the 3 power level (with 10 being the highest) for 30 seconds. I then flipped the tubes over and did the same thing for another 30 seconds. I then let it sit out while I got everything else ready. I then nuked them at 2 Power for 30 seconds.

Your mileage may vary. The safest bet is to give it the 2 hours, but who gets home 2 hours before they even start making dinner? Right. So, give it your best shot with the microwave.

Moving on...

Vegan Spanakopita

Ingredients

1 Package Phyllo Dough
1 Large Bag Fresh Spinach (or 6 big handfulls) OR 1 Package Frozen Spinach
1 Package Firm Tofu, regular or silken*
1 Onion, finely diced
1/2 Cup Walnuts or Pine Nuts, finely chopped or ground (optional)
1/4 Cup Fresh Parsley (optional)
1/4 Cup Fresh Dill (optional)
1/4 Cup Miso (mild, yellow, or white)
2 TBSP Lemon Juice
1 TBSP Olive Oil
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Nutmeg

3 TBSP Olive Oil OR melted Earth Balance**

* You can use Silken or Regular tofu - both will work. The Silken will create a sort of creamy spinach mash while the Regular will create a firmer mix sorta like feta crumbles mixed with spinach.

** This will be for wiping on the phyllo dough. You can use an oil brush or a rounded knife to spread it on the dough. You can also try a spatula or a large spoon. Whatever works. The melted Earth Balance might be easier if you're without a brush.

Instructions

Spray a skillet with a bit of olive oil and saute the onion. At the same time, steam your spinach either in the microwave or by adding to the skillet along with the onion (and a few TBSP of water) and covering.
Once the onion is tender and see-through and the spinach is steamed, set aside.

In a large bowl, mash your tofu with a fork until it is crumbly (or mooshy, if you're using Silken). Add the miso and lemon juice and mix well. Now add in the spinach, nuts (if using), herbs (if using), olive oil, salt, and nutmeg. Mix thoroughly. If you're using regular tofu, you want a mashy crumbly mixture without any really large chunks of tofu. If you're using silken tofu, just mix it all together.

Here is my mix, although I used too much spinach (i've now adjusted the recipe):

From Foodsies!

Now for the fun part.

Preheat your oven to 375.

Get out a large rectangular casserole (like 11x7).

Unroll your Phyllo dough. It should be in small, very very thin sheets. It will probably want to stick to itself, and to rip and tear and crumble. Oh well. You want to layer it fairly evenly across the bottom of the casserole. Don't worry if it curves up the sides some.

IMPORTANT: While you are working on each layer of Phyllo dough, you want to cover the rest with a sheet of saran wrap (or a dry towel) and then top that with a damp towel. This is because you really, really don't want to let the Phyllo dry out.

Once you've got a single layer down, brush it lightly with oil. Lay down another layer. Brush with oil. Lay down another layer. If you have to do it in strips or torn bits, that's fine too. Do the best you can and be patient when separating the Phyllo from itself.

Do this until you have 8 to 10 layers, depending on your patience.

Now cover with your spinach and tofu mixture. You want it to be about 1/2 inch to 1 inch deep and covering the whole dish all the way out to the edges.

Now lay down another 8-10 layers of Phyllo dough, brushing each layer with oil before laying down the next.

Finally, brush some oil on the top of the topmost layer.

Using a knife, score the top of the topmost layer (and on deeper if you want, but best not to cut through the bottom layer) so that when it's cooked, it won't tear or crumble so much when you cut it. You can see in my picture above where it is scored. You can't tell, but the cuts don't go all the way through to the bottom.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes at 375.
After the 25 minutes is up, remove from the oven and remove the foil. Return to the oven and bake for another 15-20 minutes at 350. You will know it's done when the top layer of Phyllo is a golden brown (but don't burn it of course).

Remove, slice, and enjoy.

Wait, what did I do wrong when I made it last night?

I forgot to oil between the layers of Phyllo dough. Sadface. I had the oil and brush all ready to go, I just didn't think to use it. I also didn't think to use it on the Rummy Peach Pockets. Way to go.

And yet, it all turned out OK. I'm sure it will be better with the oil, but hey. We got dinner and then leftovers for lunch out of it.


Rummy Peach Pockets

Ingredients

1 Package Phyllo Dough, Thawed
1 Bag Frozen Peaches (or 2 if they are small bags)
1 Cup Dark Spiced Rum
1 Cup Water

2 TBSP Brown Sugar
2 tsp Almond Extract (you can use Vanilla instead)
4 TBSP Water

3 TBSP Olive Oil or Earth Balance

Instructions

Thaw the Phyllo dough.

Thaw the peaches (microwave on 5 for 1 minute and repeat until no longer frozen).

Mix the Rum and water together in a large bowl. Add the peaches. Soak for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Remove from the rum/water mix and place in a microwave-safe dish. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and almond extract. Add about 4 TBSP of water.

Mirowave on high for 6 minutes.

Now get out your Phyllo Dough and a small rectangular casserole dish. Just like with the Spanakopita, layer the casserole dish with a sheet (or many strips and torn bits) of Phyllo and then brush with oil.

Don't forget to cover the Phyllo when not in use with saran wrap and a damp towel.

Repeat until you have about 8 layers.

Cover with the peaches so that you have one solid layer of peaches.

Lay down another 8 layers of Phyllo (oiling each one). Score the top layer where you want to eventually cut slices.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Remove from oven, remove the foil, return to the oven and bake at 350 for another 15-20 minutes until the top layer of Phyllo dough is golden brown.

Remove and enjoy.

From Foodsies!

Timing the complete dinner:

You can bake both of these dishes at once. I advise getting the Spanakopita all ready while you soak the peaches. Once the Spanakopita is all ready in the casserole, get the Rummy Peach Pockets ready and then pop both dishes in the oven at the same time.


Making triangle pockets:

You can also make actual "pockets" with either of these dishes, rather than doing it slacker casserole style. Just cut (with scissors, or carefully tear with your hands) the Phyllo into 3-inch or 4-inch wide strips, place 1-2 spoonfulls of spinach mix (or peaches) at the bottom and fold up like you're making a paper football (or a flag). No need to coat with olive oil except on the top of the pocket.

Once you've got them all made, place the pockets in a casserole dish and cover with aluminum foil and proceed like normal with the baking.
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Fail

I haven't posted in a few days, because i've been dead tired and also because I can't manage to bake a successful German Apple Pancake. Basically, it's an apple pancake that you bake instead of cooking on a skillet. Should be simple, right?

Apparently not.

I've failed... 4 times now. It seems that no matter how I adjust the ingredients or how long I bake it (or at what temperature), it just won't cook through. The top and bottom cook, but all of the insides stay raw and mushy. Grr.

From Foodsies!

Anyway, here is the basic recipe i'm using (poorly):


Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Flour (have also tried 1 Cup Flour)
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
3 tsp Baking Powder (have also tried with 1 tsp, 2 tsp, and 4 tsp)
1/4 Cup Applesauce (have also tried mashed banana)
1 Cup Milk (have also tried with a 3/4 Cup and with 1 and 1/2 Cup)

2 Tart Apples
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Sugar
2 TBSP Water

1 tsp Earth Balance

Process:

Preheat oven to 450 (I have also tried 415 and 475)

Slice up the apples and arrange in microwave-safe small casserole or other non-bowl shaped dish. Cover with cinnamon and nutmeg and sugar and then add the water. Microwave for 4 minutes. They should come out a little soft but not mushy.

Mix up applesauce/banana with the Soymilk. Mix up the dry ingredients. Add the wet to the dry (slowly, while stirring). Mix together to form a wet batter (just like a pancake batter).

Put a casserole dish in the oven for 5 minutes or so to warm up. Remove (with potholder!) and melt the Earth Balance in it. Then pour in the pancake batter. Then dump in the apples and use a spatula to even everything out.

Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes (I have also tried 20 and 40).

Remove from oven to discover that the top, bottom, and edges are great but all the rest is a mushy uncooked mess.

Whyyyyy? Why do I even care about this stupid pancake, which I could just make an apple pie or cobbler instead? Or when I could just make a real pancake?
Also, why won't it work? The leavening shouldn't be a problem - it does seem to rise enough. I think I may have read somewhere that a less wet batter cooks through better, so maybe i'll try reducing the soymilk next.


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The 5 Minute Baked Apple

From Foodsies!

Who knew fruits and veggies could be so easy?

Most of my life I have shunned fruit and vegetables like a particularly healthy strain of plague. But times have changed, and I am gradually building a trust-based relationship with both fruit and vegetables. I eat a banana, it doesn't take like ass nor kill me, and so I start to learn that it won't hurt me. Ditto with veggies. I steam some spinach, it tastes good with a bit of Earth Balance and salt, and before you know it, i'm telling the carrots how I really feel about the time I ate a strawberry that turned out to be rotten. It's like we're growing, together.

But both fruits and vegetables seem so boring. I thought the problem was me. Something wrong with my taste buds, or some childhood trauma (looking at you, sneaky rotten strawberry). Like something must be wrong with me that I can't appreciate the flavors and textures.

But i've come to realize that the problem is actually with the fruits and veggies. Who wants to eat the same spongy banana-y banana every day? Or the same bitter steamed broccoli with its little feelers tickling the top of your mouth? Well, this is why we invented cooking and recipes. So I guess the problem really was with me - with me being too dumb to realize you can cook fruits and veggies to improve them, just like with any other food.

This will be the first in a series of posts on tasty and easy recipes to gussy up Fruits and Veggies.



The 5 minute Baked Apple

Ingredients

1 Apple
1 TBSP Raisins
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Earth Balance
1 tsp Water

Instructions

First you need to core your apple. This is by far the hardest part, although it is made stupidsimple if you have an apple corer. An apple corer is totally on my Kitchen Want List, as it will save me at least 5 minutes a day.

If you are corer-less like me, take a sharp knife and stick it in the top of the apple and cut around the core. You don't want the knife to go all the way through the bottom of the apple, btw. Now use the knife, your hands, a spoon, whatever to pull the core and seeds out from the apple.

You should now have an apple with a nice cavity in it and no seeds and no remaining core. Take your knife and chop off a thin slice from the top or peel off about 1/4 inch of skin from around the opening. You may also want to chop a thin slice off from the bottom of the apple so that it sits flat.

Pour your tsp of water into a custard dish or another small microwaveable bowl.

Place the apple in the water, in the bowl.

Sprinkle half the cinnamon and nutmeg into the hole of the apple. Stuff with raisins. Sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon and nutmeg on top. Top with the Earth Balance.

Place the microwaveable bowl on top of a microwaveable plate (in case the water/juices boil over a little this will keep your microwave clean). Microwave the apple for 6 minutes.

Remove, let cool enough that you don't kill yourself, and enjoy. PS do not eat the bottom stem of the apple. After you've eaten the insides you can cut this out or just eat around it. Or eat it I guess, but eww.

Options!

You can fill the apple with anything you want. Raisins, dates, walnuts, maple syrup, chocolate, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, rum, schnapps, jam/jelly, anything you can think of. NOTE: If you are using a liquid such as rum, please cover the apple with saran wrap and poke several holes through it. This way the steam can escape but the rum won't boil over everywhere.

Further Options!

You can even fill the apple with onions that you've sauteed to a deep brown and fake bacon and fake sausage. Add in a splash of dark rum or red wine and you're ready to go.

NOTE: You can also make this dish in the oven. In fact, for the "dinner" style option with the fake meat, it may even be preferable. It just takes more time. But it's certainly the best option for making several apples at once.

To prepare in the oven:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the cored apples in a square or rectangular casserole dish. Score the apples a little bit with a knife so that the skin doesn't break apart during baking.

Fill the apples with your fillings.

Pour 3/4 cup to 1 cup of water over the apples around around them into the baking dish.

Bake for 35 minutes.

After removing from the oven, baste with the remaining liquid from the casserole dish, or if you're lazy like me just spoon it over the apples.

Oven-baked apples have a slightly different texture and appearance than ones cooked in the microwave, but both methods are a tasty treat. Experiment and enjoy.

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