Tuesday, January 13, 2009

in the bitchen kitchen i worship seitan

i think i've talked about this before. before becoming a mommy, i worked full-time in a juvenile detention center. it was a difficult but rewarding job. the hardest part was dealing with my co-workers, not the children. anyway, i went from FT to PT after having my little blasto, and now i work there one sunday a month for $8.50 an hour. why do i do this? well, i get to see the kids, but i also have access to this HUGE industrial kitchen all by myself. after i'm done slingin' the nasty ravioli to the chillins, i bring in my own groceries and make food for my family. i put the said nommables in tupperware and freeze. it's a good system, and it's nice to have time in a kitchen and really focus.
here's my punk rock tofu press. i put the tofu between two plates and set a big-assed can of apple butter to squeeze the excess water out. it usually takes 4 bouts of 20 minutes to get it perfect.
i'm a seitan worshipper. thank g-d i'm not allergic to wheat, because i don't know what i'd do without the lord of the meat substitute underworld. shown above is raw seitan after i've mixed in spices and water.
now, here it is cut into chunks before boiling. seitan takes on the flavor of what you knead into it and what you boil it in. i like to make a broth with nooch, ms. dash, bragg's, and the eye of a newt. JK! seriously, i throw all sorts of shit in that pot.
here it is after being boiled AND baked. baking after boiling the seitan gives it a super meaty texture.
voila! here's the finished product. this batch came out tasting very beef like. perfect for fajitas. yes, it's true--making seitan takes time, but it is really worth the work. for $4 i can make a few batches to freeze. commercially made seitan costs at least $5 at the food co-op.

4 comments:

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

It's true; you can make so much seitan for the same price as if you buy it! Definitely worth the effort.

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

I love a good commercial kitchen! The seitan looks delish!

Bianca said...

I worship seitan too! I always make my own cause the homemade kind is sooo much better. I should start pressing my tofu though. I never do cause I'm lazy and always too hungry to wait. But I know it does neat stuff for the texture.

On the SB books, they actually don't really care much about how skinny you are (there's even a disclaimer in the back of the book letting people know that it's all a trick to make people go vegan). They talk a lot in the book and the workout video about honoring your body as is, but just not putting meat, dairy, white flour or pasta (but whole wheat is encouraged), and refined sugar (they do recommend evap. cane juice and turbinado in moderation).

The thing I love the most about the series is that it made my best friend go veg. She read it before I'd even heard of it because she thought it'd give her secrets to losing weight. And then she read all the horror stories about factory farming in the meat chapter and swore off meat forever.

Leslie Richman said...

I'm kind of glad no stores in my area sell seitan. I've only had the homemade and I love it. I use the Yellow Rose Recipes recipe. I save the broth and use it in everything! That recipe makes enough to use one batch for recipes one week, and freeze the other half of the batch for future use. Score!!