veganmofo - late summer + sin carne asada

Day 16 #vgnmf15 - what is your favorite late summer food? A cookout, of course! And our favorite cookout is Sin Carne Asada tacos, made with Seitan SteaK.

So, yeah, a cookout is our favorite late summer "food." Especially this cookout below.

The first step is to make a robust seitan that stands up well to grilling. Then marinate the seitan in a mojo-garlic mixture.

Next, throw those seitan steaks onto the grill with plenty of onions. Make your Arbol Salsa and Guacamole and warm your tortillas. Prepare your garnishes: lime, cilantro, crumbled vegan  cheese, vegan sour cream, jalapenos, etc.

Finally, slice the seitan, and stuff them into those warmed tortillas with all the condiments your heart desires.

You can also grill some corn on the cob, make a potato salad or a Mexican Pasta Salad (the recipe in Everyday Vegan Eats is phenomenal) and just scarf the tacos down while they last.

I usually make 2 to 3 pounds of seitan for this; our family of five will literally fight over the last few tacos, so it's always best to err on the side of leftovers. Tip: serve your tacos in small corn tortillas but double them up to help hold the tacos together.

#truthtalk  We are having this next week, too, to get one more cookout in before the summer ends.

{Kindle edition of Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N)  is up for grabs in this week's giveaway. Enter HERE. Both international and domestic contest!}

Sin Carne Asada Tacos
Makes 6 to 8 servings

Marinade:
3 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium tamari
4 scallions, coarsely chopped
10 garlic cloves
2 serrano or jalapeno chiles
½ teaspoon sea salt
Ground black pepper
2 pounds SteaK Seitan

2 onions, cut into ¾ -inch thick rings
Oil for the grill, as needed

Other:
Small (3-inch) corn tortillas, as needed
Arbol Salsa, recipe below
Guacamole, recipe below
Vegan cheese, crumbled
Vegan sour cream
Pickled jalapenos
Cilantro leaves
Lime wedges

1. Marinade: Combine the oil, juices, tamari, scallions, garlic, chiles, salt and black pepper in a blender. Blend well and transfer to a large baking dish. Add the seitan and mix well to coat. Set aside to marinate overnight.
2. Heat your grill or grill pan. Oil the grates or pan. Grill the seitan, basting with the sauce as needed, and onions until lightly charred, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a work surface and cut into slices. Heat the tortillas on the grill, about 30 seconds to 1 minutes. 
3. Place two tortillas on top of each other and fill with seitan, onions and choice of toppings. Enjoy!

Arbol Salsa
2 to 6 dried arbol chiles
2 California chiles (also known as dried Anaheim peppers)
2 medium ripe plum tomatoes, cut into 6 wedges
½ medium onion, cut into ½-inch slices
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
Sea salt and black pepper
2 to 3 splashes sherry vinegar

1. Remove the stems and most of the seeds of the chiles. Heat the chiles in a pan (or grill pan)  until soft and lightly colored. Transfer to a bowl and cover with hot water. Set aside to rehydrate for 20 minute. Drain the chiles and transfer the chiles to a blender. 
2. Heat a grill pan over medium heat. Grill the tomatoes, onion and garlic until lightly charred. Transfer the tomatoes and onion to a blender. Peel the garlic and transfer to the blender. 
3. Blend the mixture until smooth. Season with salt, black pepper and vinegar. Blend again and adjust seasoning. 
4. Salsa will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a month. 

Guacamole
5 medium ripe Hass avocado, mashed 
1 small ripe tomato, diced
3/4 cup minced red onion
1/4 cup minced cilantro
1 to 2 tablespoons minced jalapeno (optional)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Salt and black pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl using a spoon. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, black pepper and lime juice.


 © 2015 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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veganmofo - book/film inspiration + schnitzel (chickpea brine)

Day 7 mofo challenge is brought to you by the compassionate side of the Von Trapp family. Again, I was assisted by my teen girls to plod my way to this musical inspiration, The Sound of Music.

We are pretty big into musicals at the Dever household and it's pretty unusual to not hear at least one family member singing. As I write this, my youngest is busting out a Sweeny Todd song as she is getting ready for work.

So, we could have chosen other musical inspirations, but collectively we went with The Sound of Music, as much for the musical itself as for the inspired meal from it: the schnitzel.

Some might remember from last year when I was in my burger throes and made like 20 really kick-butt creations, that the Schnitzel Burger was the first in that list - another one on a homemade bun.

That was all fine and tasty, but then the magic of the chickpea brine was brought to our arena and now the Schnitzel needs a remake.

A regular schnitzel is made using an egg bath which actually adds a unique texture to the breading. It isn't really like breading with just a sticky substance (such as flax or cashew milk) that is then dredging in bread crumbs. The egg bath for this dish puffs up and creates a tender, fluffy texture.

I wanted to see if the magical chickpea brine would enhance the texture of the breading, so I made one batch with the whipped brine and another with just starch+liquid combo, acting as the glue that binds.

Verdict: the chickpea brine produced a noticeably different texture! The breading was indeed lighter and fluffier than the one without. I believe the schnitzel pictured above had some of the breading fall off a bit [which is where there is no fluffy breading], but you can see where the breading adhered that it is puffed up, just as in the egg-based schnitzels. Score!

To fix the falling off dilemma, I wound up chilling some of the cutlets in the freezer for about 10 minutes to help make them stick  to the seitan; that worked well, so chilling it first will be my procedure hence forth.

As for the seitan, I used the Simple Seitan from Everyday Vegan Eats (Amazon, B&N), but instead of making cutlets, I cooked the gluten as a roast and sliced the seitan about 1/4-inch thin. This resulted in a really crisp, but fluffy coating.

All in all, definitely the way to go when you splurge and make a schnitzel. Reminded me of my days in the restaurant [minus the cruelty]. Yippee!

Schnitzel [using chickpea brine]

Makes about 6 cutlets

½ cup dry fine bread crumbs

½ teaspoon paprika

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup chickpea brine

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 pound seitan loaf (Everyday Vegan Eats has a great one!), cut into ¼-inch slices and gently squeezed of excess moisture

Neutral oil for frying

Lemon slices

1. Combine the bread crumbs and paprika in a shallow pan (cake pans are awesome). Season with salt and black pepper. Add the ¼-cup flour to a separate shallow pan and season with salt and black pepper. Whip the chickpea brine into stiff peaks using a stand mixer, if possible. Gently fold in the 2 tablespoons flour. 

2. Dredge each seitan slice first in the flour, then in the chickpea mixture and finally in the breadcrumbs. Set the cutlets in the freezer for 10 minutes to help the breading to adhere.

3. Heat ¼-inch oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add 2 popcorn kernels. When the popcorn  pops, the oil is at the correct temperature.

4. Cook the cutlets in the hot oil until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Do not crowd the skillet; cook the cutlets in batches. Drain the cutlets on paper towels.

5. Serve with lemon slices.

 © 2015 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

moo shu seitan

This northern Chinese dish is typically made with cabbage, wood ear mushrooms, lily buds, eggs and animals. It is also more often than not made with hoisin sauce, a Chinese barbecue sauce, of sorts, made with bean paste, soy sauce and chiles.

In this delicious vegan rendition, we make our own hoisin sauce as part of the dish using red miso, sambal oelek and tamari.

It is important to note the distinction between white and red miso - white miso is fermented for only a few short months, is sweeter, milder and is the main ingredient in miso soup. Red miso, dark miso and the like, are fermented for more than a year, more often up to three years, is more pungent, is darker and saltier and not sweet.

While hoisin is made with soybean paste and not miso, dark miso is very close in flavor and robustness to soybean paste and is more readily available in stores near you.

The seitan I used is from Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N); it is robust, hearty and stands up well to grilling, sauteing and searing. It is the perfect replacement for the traditional meat in this quick stir-fry.

My hubby and I adore wood ear mushrooms, which are curiously black on one side and white on the other when dried, but rehydrate to a dark purple. These mushrooms are very toothsome and give a nice bite without any overpowering mushroom flavor. If you can find it, great, but it not use shiitakes or even button mushrooms.

Moo Shu is served with Mandarin pancakes and they are incredibly easy to make, but if you'd rather not, then just serve the filling with flour tortillas.

Moo Shu Seitan

Serves 4

Mandarin Pancakes:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seed oil

Sauce:

2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

2 tablespoons reduced-sodium tamari

1 tablespoon red miso

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon sambal oelek

Black pepper

Seitan:

1 pound seitan medallions

2 tablespoons arrowroot starch or cornstarch

1 (1-inch) piece ginger, grated

4 garlic cloves, sliced

Stir-fry:

2 tablespoons neutral oil

1 cup wood ear mushrooms, rehydrated in hot water, drained and rinsed

1 small cabbage, shredded

5 scallions, minced

1. Pancakes: Combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Add the water and stir using a fork. Knead lightly and set aside for 20 minutes. Knead until smooth on floured surface and divide into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and flatten using your palm. Spread ½ teaspoon oil on one disk and top with another disk. Press together and roll into a 6 to 7 inch circle.

2. Preheat a skillet over medium heat and spray with oil. Cook one rolled disk for 20 seconds, covered with a lid. Flip and cook uncovered until puffy, another 30 seconds. Remove from pan, separate the disk into 2 pieces and keep warm between kitchen towels. Repeat with the other 3 pairs.

3. Sauce: Combine the vinegar, tamari, miso, sugar, sambal oelek and black pepper, to taste, in a small bowl. Whisk well until smooth and set aside.

4. Seitan: Combine the seitan, starch, ginger and garlic in a shallow pan. Mix well using your hands to massage the seitan. Set aside.

5. Stir-fry: Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat. Add the seitan and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the cabbage and scallions and cook until wilted, about 4 more minutes. Stir in the sauce and cook until thickened, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve the stir-fry with the pancakes.

Substitute: Substitute 8 (6-inch) flour tortillas for the pancakes. Substitute 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms for the wood ears.

© 2015 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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vegan vegetarian meatless plant-based

seitan steak sandwich

It's been a seitan steak kind of week over here. My hubby asked for a repeat of the Cajun SteaK, using my seitan SteaK recipe, but I wanted to mix things up and use the seitan in other ways.

 I made a Seitan Steak Sandwich with Creamy Mushroom Sauce. Searing the seitan and then basting it with au jus gives it a wonderful flavor. Topping it with the creamy mushroom sauce is spectacular. Serve it with a fluffy baked potato, and you've got yourself a compassionate meat-and-potatoes dinner.

I used fresh homemade almond milk for the sauce, but I am sure a store-bought vegan milk will work equally well. It is important to caramelize the mushrooms just enough to give them flavor, but not so much that they shrivel up into nothing but a pile of dried fungus.

I will be posting how I make my almond milk over the next few weeks because even though a lot of people say that it is easy and there is nothing much to it, except soaking some nuts, blending with water and then straining, I find there are a few nuances that are good to know.

On a personal note, my sister will be visiting us from Hungary this week. I haven't seen her for close to 30 years, so it should be an exciting week. I learned that she is also vegan. Imagine that! Three decades and a world apart and both of us live cruelty-free.

Because we live in San Diego, we'll be heading up to LA to dine on some kick-ass vegan food. I've not been to Crossroads, yet, and then there is Doomies, which I hear makes a great batch of vegan fried chicken. I've also heard through the grapevine that there is a vegan cheese shop in LA. I hope she'll have a good time in the states!

SEITAN STEAK PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

SEITAN STEAK SANDWICH PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Seitan SteaK Sandwich with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Serves 4

Steak:

2 teaspoons fresh cracked black pepper

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon olive oil, divided

3 SteaK Seitan slices

¼ cup au jus (recipe below)

Mushrooms:

1 tablespoon olive oil

6 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced

4 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup sherry

¼ cup au jus (recipe below)

1 cup nondairy milk

4 hoagie rolls, split almost completely through

1.SteaK: Combine the black pepper and salt in a small container and set aside. Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the seitan, topping each pieces with 1 tablespoon of the au jus and about a quarter of the seasoning mix. Cook until golden brown, about for 3 to 5 minutes. Flip the seitan, add more au jus and more seasoning mix. Cook for another 3 to 5 minutes. Drizzle the seitan with 1 teaspoon oil, flip and cook until lightly charred. Drizzle another teaspoon of oil and flip. Cook until the other side is lightly charred. Transfer the seitan to a work surface and cut into slices.

2. Mushrooms: Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until golden, stirring only occasionally. Add the garlic and the remaining seasoning mix. Stir and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sherry and au jus and cook until almost evaporated. Add the milk and cook until the sauce is reduced by half. Taste and adjust seasoning.

3. Assembly: Toast the split hoagies. Divide the seitan among the hoagies and top with the mushroom sauce. Server.  

Au Jus:

1 cup vegetable broth

2 tablespoons vegan steak sauce (such as A-1)

1 tablespoon reduced-sodium tamari

¼ teaspoon dried parsley

⅛ teaspoon dried thyme

⅛ teaspoon oregano

⅛ teaspoon rosemary

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

To make the au jus, combine the broth, steak sauce,tamari, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and black pepper in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat. Whisk well to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, and cook until reduced by one-third, about 10 minutes. Keep warm until needed.

© 2012 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

schnitzel burger + veganMoFo

Vegan MoFo 2014! Yeah! At least for the first week, then it'll be more like..."what to do I post now?!?"

This will be my FIFTH year participating (attempting to participate?) in what started as Isa's and PPK's answer to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which was itself a challenge to folks to write as much as they could in the span of a month. VeganMoFo challenges us to blog (and therefore, write) about vegan food (adding cooking to writing) for a month.

I think a lot of us forget that the challenge in the first place is to cook and write and not worry about themes or perfection or precision. We tend to get so excited about MoFo that we also stress the hell out.

Word of advice to those new to MoFo-ing - when you hit a snag in your blogging, just remember that you actually did, indeed, consume a meal that particular day and can blog about that particular meal or experience.

As many MoFo-ers, I, too have a theme for MoFo 2014 - burgers. This month I plan on making tons! (20) of vegan burgers and blogging about them. Join me, won't you?

I'll be out and about visiting as many MoFoErs as I can, since I am not only participating in the event but also participating as a Round Up writer. I will be writing the Round Up of MoFo 2014 on Sundays - can't wait to actually have an excuse to HAVE to peruse all the wonderful blogs out there!

Back to my blog and post...

My first MoFo offering in my burger-themed extravaganza is .....

Schnitzel Burger. You saw up there, didn't you? There goes the surprise.

Why choose this burger as my FIRST? Because I'm Hungarian and have served thousands of Wiener Schnitzels (unfortunately) to customers in Florida in my parents' restaurants. Back then the fried protein was an animal, but making a few compassionate alterations, the Schnitzel becomes a vegan delight.

This sandwich is made using a simple seitan recipe I love (my own!) and served over pretzel buns. It turns out that vegan pretzel buns are quite hard to find and I discovered that making my own was as close as a recipe... from Everyday Vegan Eats.

That happens to be my new cookbook which has a recipe for soft pretzels. With a few adjustments to the recipe (such as forming the dough into a bun), the pretzel bun became an easy reality. In case you need an easy, simple and great recipe for seitan, the on I use is in Everyday Vegan Eats (EVE, page 40).

After I battered and fried the seitan, and served it over the homemade pretzel buns with horseradish sauce, I also made my German Potato Salad (EVE, page 96) - such a perfect accompaniment to a schnitzel.

If you happen to be one of the very few folks who do not have Everyday Vegan Eats, you have a few days to enter to win it from Vegan Richa, who is giving away a copy to one lucky winner. If you haven't entered, yet, just look at the German Potato Salad and Soft Pretzels above and don't delay.

And as a side note, I am choosing the winner of Vegan Chocolate: Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy Free Desserts. There is still a scant few hours to enter to win this incredible cookbook by Fran Costigan.

Who wants the recipe for this super incredible burger?

SCHNITZEL BURGER PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Schnitzel Burgers with Dill-Horseradish Sauce

Serves 4

3 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise

3 tablespoons vegetables broth

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

½ cup dry bread crumbs

½ teaspoon paprika

¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

4 seitan cutlets, gently squeezed of excess moisture

Neutral oil for frying

4 pretzel buns or other soft bun, toasted

Horseradish Sauce, recipe below

4 thin slices red onion

½ cup arugula

1. Combine the mayo and broth in a shallow pan. Season with salt and black pepper. Combine the bread crumbs and paprika in a separate shallow pan. Season with salt and black pepper. Add the flour to a separate shallow pan and season with salt and black pepper.

2. Heat ¼-inch oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add 2 popcorn kernels. When the popcorn pops, the oil is at the correct temperature.

3. Dredge each seitan cutlet first in the mayo mixture, then in the flour and finally in the breadcrumbs, but do not press on the breadcrumbs. This will keep the crust crisp.

4. Cook the cutlets in the hot oil until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Do not crowd the skillet; cook the cutlets in batches. Drain the cutlets on paper towels.

5. Make the sandwiches by spreading the toasted buns with Horseradish Sauce, add a slice of onion and some arugula. Add a fried cutlet and the top bun. Serve with German Potato Salad.

Horseradish Sauce

6 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise

2 tablespoons prepared horseradish

2 tablespoons minced fresh dill

¼ teaspoon natural sugar

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and season with salt and black pepper. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for up to a week.

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

I am linking to these recipe parties: Healthy Vegan Fridays, What I Ate Wednesday and Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck. 

 

     

hungarian seitan paprikas - throwback thursday foods

When I read Cadry's post, 11 Ways to Know You're a Food Blogger, it struck me that, one, not only am I food blogger [busted] but that there are so many of us around the blogoshpere. Although Cadry didn't limit her list of obvious tip-offs to just vegan food bloggers, there happens to be many of those, as well. Again, caught red-handed.

And, two, that these self-professed food bloggers happen to be excellent at their photography and blog content. I'm sure many of us have our favorites and religiously visit the sites at least weekly. Just noticing my personal food blog, it is quite apparent that my photography and recipe writing skills have dramatically improved over the years.

That is not to pat myself on the back; I'm just pointing out that from where I began, many lessons have been learned. In other words, I may have gotten better, but that is only because I had such a long way to go!

I am sure many of us can look back on our first few blog posts and laugh - yes, I took that photo! and I wrote that?!?

As I was assembling last week's menu (using my Menu Template), my son asked me to make Paprikas, a Hungarian paprika and sour cream stew. I recalled having made it just a few years ago (yes, that is exactly what I told him! "We just had that a few years ago.") and it hit me that, hey!, I can improve on said recipe, but if not the recipe, that photo can only get better.

And then Cadry's post came creeping back on my mind. Why, yes, I do, indeed, have more cloth napkins, plates and mason jars than any sane person would. I even have an equal number of plates and bowls reserved only for photos as there are in my cupboard reserved for daily meals.

I can't really write a blog post about something I've already done! Can I? Yes! I can if I improve it and call it Throwback Thursday -- only this TBT is about food posts!

Here is my first installment of Throwback Thursday - Food Blogger Style:

Remaking this dish, I enhanced the recipe, and therefore the flavor and retook the photo. If you'd like to check out the original attempt, you are welcome to gaze upon the curiosity that was Paprikas 1.0

Paprikas happens to be a variation on the Hungarian Goulash and if you omit the sour cream, you would have a great Seitan Goulash, but if you include it, voila!, it's transformed into a completely different dish.

Serve the Paprikas with pasta, rice or thick slices of bread to soak up the sauce. I made my stew using my SteaK Seitan recipe, but any good seitan recipe will be wonderful.

I also added some kale sprouts on top of my serving to boost nutrition and because I love a little bit of green with my rich stews. However, minced parsley is just as welcoming.

I'm sure we all have our fair share of Throwback Thursday Foods lurking in the back of our food blogs; I know I have plenty enough to keep this theme going for many, many moons to come.

 HUNGARIAN SETIAN PAPRIKAS PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Hungarian Seitan Paprikas

Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 teaspoons toasted sesame seed oil, divided

1 large onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

¼ cup unbleached all-purpose white flour

1 large Hungarian wax or bell pepper, diced

1 large ripe tomato, diced

1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika

2 cups vegetable broth

1 pound seitan cutlets (about 4)

¾ cups vegan sour cream

2 teaspoons nutritional yeast

1. Heat the olive oil and 2 teaspoons of sesame oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and stir and cook until the onion is golden, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.

2. Stir in the flour and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the flour smells toasted, about 3 more minutes.

3. Add the bell pepper and tomato. Stir and cook until the pepper softens, about 3 minutes. Stir in the paprika and the broth. Stir well to combine. Bring the sauce to a boil, reduce to a medium simmer, and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes.

4. Toss the seitan slices with the remaining teaspoon of sesame oil. Heat a grill pan over medium heat. Cook the seitan until grill marks appear, about 2 minutes per side. Remove to a work surface and coarsely chop the seitan. Add the seitan to the sauce and cook to heat through. Remove the pot from heat.

5. Stir in the sour cream and nutritional yeast, season to taste and serve over cooked rice, cooked pasta or with crusty bread.

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

I am linking to these recipe parties: Healthy Vegan Fridays, What I Ate Wednesday and Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck.