More Seitan(ic) News!

A nice relaxing day off. It started a bit shaky with a trip to the leasing office. The potato-heads that work there consistently make substantial errors, generally with my account. This time it was an inaccurate accusation regarding the renters insurance policy that I have. All that was cleared up within a short time. Off to get the rest of the errands completed. Best Buy, Wachovia, etc.

Home by 11:30am for a relaxing day of WoW and cooking. Ding! 76! What chu' kno bout dat? ...that may very well be the saddest thing i have ever written... ***shake it off***

For dinner I decided to dig back into the seitan I made the other night. I wanted to use some quinoa as well and had some brussel sprouts that were going to spoil soon. Roasted brussel sprouts is quick, easy and delicious. Count it.

The quinoa is an easy cook but, I feel that sometimes the flavor is a bit to mild for my taste. Using the greatest acquirement of the year, my food processor, I threw together a pesto-esque sauce.

Pesto-esque Cilantro Sauce

2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
10-12 sprigs of fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons of pine nuts

Put them in a food processor for about 20 seconds. It will be more of a rub then a sauce and that is what we are going for.

I then added some corn and black beans to the quinoa and let it finish cooking. When it was done, I stirred the Pesto-esque Cilantro Sauce into it and let it sit for about 20 minutes. This gave the quinoa a nice mellow flavor. It was a nice balance to the spicy seitan that accompanied it on the plate.

As for the seitan, I decided to use a technique I have been using to make tofu for awhile. It is a time consuming process but hardly labor some.

Spicy Seitan

1 pound of seitan
3 cups of water
1/4 cup of hot sauce
2 tablespoons of oil
1 tablespoon of oregano
1 teaspoon of marjoram
1 teaspoon of black pepper
2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of thyme
2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper

Pre-heat the oven on 400. In a sauce pan, bring the water, oil, oregano, marjoram, black pepper, cayenne pepper and thyme to a boil. In a deep baking pan, evenly spread the seitan (you can use tinfoil to avoid a mess or burned pan). Pour the hot sauce and the water mixture over the seitan and bake for 1 hour. Stir occasionally. After 45 minutes, 80% of the water mixture should have cooked off, sprinkle the crushed red pepper over the seitan, stir and add in more black pepper and oregano (if you want). Bake until all the liquid has cooked off. Serve hot.

This came out better then expected. It amazes me that all these years I have been buying seitan instead of making it myself. I am also excited to see that the same seitan was used for two dishes that were extremely different. Blows me away.

More to come soon. Off to watch top chef and eat some popcorn!