Any veggie food recommendations?

[scullion Profile]

these are the seitan sausages i make.
they have quite a lot of ingredients in but are a doddle to make - as the wet and dry ingredients are mixed at the last moment you don't have to rush to get everything weighed out before you start - and they freeze perfectly.
i use marigold bouillon instead of the 'chickenish' powder and leave out the teaspoon of salt. i also buy the gluten powder from the local bakery - cheaper than the 'vital wheat gluten' brand.
they really are very good.
i usually make them in 'boil in the bag' strips with the bag sealer (we call them t..d sausages - thank you children) but i will be going back to foil when i run out of the tubing.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Gluten-intolerant people please look away...

500g of flour = 160g of freshly-made seitan. It took about 14/15 minutes of squeezing and rinsing to get to this stage. I wonder if it freezes.

Now to figure out what to do with it!

EDIT: On further investigation, most recipes for seitan use the wheat gluten as an ingredient, adding other ingredients then simmering or baking the resultant dough.

[Amyw Profile]

Ooh looks interesting Sakkarin , will be following your Seitan adventures

[Sakkarin Profile]

Not very exciting, I'm just going to make Sunflowers veg stirfry, not expecting it to be much of a surprise for a meat eater like me!

This might be of interest to veggies, Food Network at 9.30 tonight, "My Favourite Dishes", this episode featuring Achul Kotchar, his highlighted recipe is "Aubergine steaks stuffed with cauliflower and carrot".

https://www.tvguide.co.uk/detail/338835 ... est-dishes

[Sakkarin Profile]

That was surprisingly good, in fact I'll add it to my list of veggie meals that won't offend a carnivore. The textures give it that interest, and it's intriguing in the fact that its the first time I've ever used preserved radish as a full-blown vegetable, rather than as a textural aside (I always have preserved radish and turnip in my cupboard, it lasts forever). Half of that seitan I made was plenty for a substantial portion. I ended up simmering the raw seitan for 30 minutes in a very flavourful broth prior to slicing it up for the stirfry, as recommended by Sunflower.

There's a picture of the finished (i.e. after 30 min simmer) seitan, with the half I used for the stirfry marinating for 20 minutes. I cheated a little, and added a small amount of the simmering broth with potato starch right at the end as it was a bit dry, but not a great deal, the main "gravy" was a couple of slugs of oyster sauce.

(It's the Sunflower dish linked in previous post)

[Amyw Profile]

The seitan looks very meat like, in a good way. Just had a little google round the web about Seitan and thought this looked good https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/ken ... ied-seitan.

It's funny how many people I know couldn't imagine a main meal without meat in it at all and seem disgusted by the idea. Even when I was eating meat, I'd probably still have 1 or 2 main meals a week meat free, certainly at least that if you include fish in it .

I think as a cook, it helps extend your range of meals too, to have a few veggie options in your repertoire

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Sakks- thanks a million for Sunflower´s Seitan recipe. That is definitely on my list of things to do.
Amy - it´s not just in the UK where non-meat dishes are frowned upon. With the possible exception of the Mexicans and Peruvians, South American countries eat meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I´ve actually made a point of serving vegetarian food for dinner parties over the past 15 years or so, and guests are always (positively) surprised. At least I no longer have to put up with College veggie meals - potatoes, boiled veg and two crispy-baked boiled eggs with marmite sauce.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

A happy result, Sakkers.
When I made seitan, it took ages to cook out the solidness. 1hr30.

Mine went into parcels




And don't forget tempeh

This is cajun crusted tempeh. It's delicious.




And a mushroom burger too.
Cook a whole large mushroom - no need to chop it up. Season and top with your chosen ingredients.

[Sakkarin Profile]

That looks great, Gill, although I didn't really get on with tempeh when I flirted with it - I can't remember if it was in my Burmese or Korean diversion.

I'm pretty sure Sunflower made tempeh from scratch too! Out of my comfort zone, that. (Yep, the link's here)
http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.com/2 ... empeh.html


I found a recipe for "seitan sausages" on your blog, but it seems to use just flour, no gluten on its own. If you haven't tried the full-blown gluten extraction exercise, I found it quite interesting, as it's basically bread dough (stage one is pretty much as my overnight loaves, but without the yeast) washed away to extinction.

Same again tonight. I didn't link the actual recipe last time, just the seitan page, so here it is:
http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.com/2 ... ables.html

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I think you are right about the gluten process making that improvement.

I don't tend to do elaborate cooking any more. There was a time I'd roll up my sleeves for a good day's worth of prep.
I've even been thinning out my cookery library to just the bare minimum that I never want to be without.

[Sakkarin Profile]

I just had that feeling making some Cornish Pasties - "Can I really be bothered"!

Especially as I realised I currently have no pastry brush, so I now have to go out for a special trip to get one...

The Pasty thing is also accompanied by the realisation whenever I make pastry of how much fat goes into it, in this instance 150 grams of it for just 4 pasties.

[jeral Profile]

Sakkarin, as fat and protein both keep one full (for longer) is 125g fat for four pasties that bad? At least pasties don't have lots of "empty calories" sugar.

As to pastry brush, either fingers or cut the corner off of new dishwashing sponge.

Blimey, I feel like a fairy godmother - "Yes, you shall have your pasties"

[Sakkarin Profile]

Maybe if I could limit myself to just the one!

The other side of the "can I be bovvered" argument is firstly that they taste better than supermarket pasties, and secondly that they are a third of the price. And thirdly they are probably healthier despite the fat, for having no artificial additives.