Mexican Night: Seitan Tacos

We have to start this post with a story.  Once upon a time, Lily and Sarah made HOT enchiladas on the last day of the month.  With the best of intentions, they vowed from that day forth to have a Mexican themed dinner night on the last day of every month.  We have kept this promise a handful of times.  The months we have missed have been due to travel, yoga, work, etc.  More often than not we have make-up Mexican nights.  We missed February all together but let's be real: February don't count for nothin.

Here are the tacos we made this month:

Seitan Tacos
(Printable Recipe)
Prep time 20 minutes
Cook time 10 minutes
Serves 1 Lily and 1 Sarah

For the seitan:
1/4 large red onion, diced
1/2 lb seitan
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, diced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder

Other topping suggestions:
1/2 tomato
Some chopped romaine lettuce
Shredded cheese
Salsa
Sour Cream

Start by sauteing the onion.

Add the seitan and saute until browned.

Warm taco shells in the oven.

Arrange ingredients buffet style to be assembled.

This Mexican night wasn't just any old Mexican night.  This was Sarah's first homemade taco night.  She had eaten out at Cascabel Taqueria recently, where she had her first taco ever (Lily still can't believe how absurd that is), but as a vegetarian growing up in a Kosher household she never had eaten a homemade taco.  In fact, Lily had to teach her how to assemble them - it was a real learning experience.

There will definitely be more tacos to come since they're delicious and fun, but also because the taco shell package came with 18 and we only ate 5 tonight (a broken shell served as an appetizer).

Ole!
Lil & Sar

P.S. VOTE today!  We have delayed this post in order to avoid inundating you with posts on Halloween.

Satan Stew for Halloween (Seitan Stew on the other 364 days)

Two posts on one day!?  It MUST be a holiday.   First and foremost, happy halloween, everyone!  I hope that you all fill your candy quota and have fabulous costumes.  If you're not into the whole dressing up thing, that's cool too - but I do hope you get to enjoy some delicious pumpkin flavored foods at the very least.

Now, onto the subject of this post.  Seitan Stew, which I continue to pronounce as "Satan" Stew, is so delicious it's scary.  After Sar concocted a lifetime supply of seitan, my first impulse was to make stew.  It's one of my favorite comfort foods, but since I've stopped eating meat for the most part, I haven't gotten to enjoy it.  Tofu stew just doesn't sound right...and veggie stew is good, but it's missing that certain something (beef?) that makes it such a hearty and wonderful dish.  Seitan has the right combo of flavor and texture to fit right into a vegetarian stew and the name makes it perfect for a Halloween post :)

"Satan" Stew
(Printable Recipe)
Serves 6

1 lb of seitan, cubed
1 medium white onion, finely diced
2 carrots, chopped
2 ribs of celery, finely diced
2 cups of mushrooms, chopped
1 turnip, chopped
1 sweet potato, chopped
1 red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, chopped
1/2-3/4 cups red wine
4 cups veggie broth
1 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
2 teaspoons dried parsley (or a few tablespoons chopped fresh parsley)
salt & pepper to taste
1 teaspoon corn starch
2 tablespoons cold water
1 lb egg noodles, cooked and drained

What to do:
In a frying pan, saute the seitan until it's well browned.  In a large pot, saute the onions, celery, and peppers until softened.  Add the rest of the veggies, salt & pepper, and seitan and cook together for a few minutes.

Now pour in the wine and get the party started.

Add the seasonings and broth bring it up to a boil.  Place the lid over the pot so that it's not fully sealed, but mostly covered.  (I hope you understand what I'm saying there, because I forgot to take a picture of that part.)  Allow the stew to bubble away for about half an hour, or until the veggies are all cooked.  In a small dish, mix the cornstarch and water to make a slurry and then stir this into the stew.  You should notice it thicken up a bit after a few minutes of cooking.  This is optional if you're into thinner broth, for the record.  

Serve over egg noodles immediately.  Enjoy with a glass of the red wine, if you're feeling festive - which I always am.

This stew was delicious right off the stove, but it was even better the next day reheated for lunch because the flavors really got a chance to blend and deepen over night.  If you're a vegetarian and tend to get made fun of at work for the "weird" lunches you bring (tofu-phobes are the worst...am i right??) this is the perfect solution.  Two of my coworkers asked me if it was beef stew!  Seitan is such a trickster.

Boo x 2!
Lil

PS - Sar and I like to eat ourselves out of house and home before grocery shopping (we've never been labeled wasteful or excessive) and one morning I found myself with nothing to eat for breakfast.  No milk, no eggs, no cereal, no bread, no yogurt.  Nothing.  I heated myself up some of this stew and it was a fabulous way to start the day.

Seitan - the wheat meat

For vegetarians/vegans and the people who love them - you may know of this mysterious chewy stuff called seitan.  It is similar to your tofu or tempeh because it acts as a meat substitute in a lot of different dishes.  It is NOT like tofu or tempeh (both made from soybeans) because this alternative protein is wheat based.  In my mind, making it fair game for The Upper Yeast Side blog.  

Seitan is basically just wheat gluten.  Here goes a basic (and my first attempt) at homemade seitan...

Basic Seitan
(Printable Recipe)
Prep time 10 minutes
Cook time 1 hour
This recipe yields a LOT of Seitan - enough for 5-6 separate dishes that would serve about 3-4 people...

Dough:
2 cups vital wheat gluten
2 teaspoons onion powder
Season with about 1/2 teaspoon sage, and 1/2 teaspoon marjoram, or a "chicken seasoning" which will likely have both in addition to some rosemary and black pepper.  I added a dash of cayenne because I planned to use it in a mexican style dish of Peter Berley's.
2 cups water

Broth:
6 cups water
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons soy sauce

Bring broth to a boil.
Combine dough ingredients and knead for a hot second to get it all elastic-y.  Cut into little chunks (about 2x2) and toss into the boiling broth.
Let it boil for 1 hour.
Drain.
Prepare as you need for your meal.
Store extra seitan in the freezer.

I bought that Bob's Red Mill bag of vital wheat gluten for about $7 at a UES health food store.  Since a package of seitan in the store costs about $6 and I made roughly 6x as much with only a third of the bag... Safe to say it pays to make homemade seitan.  

In the process of cooking this I legitimately thought this stuff was going to take over my stovetop.  It expanded to fill the entire pot from it's original size just barely poking out from beneath the six cups of liquid.

As I mentioned, this recipe yields a LOT of seitan.  Feel free to halve it or even quarter it if you aren't sure you'll love seitan.  I could have made the Peter Berley recipe at least 5 more times with the leftover seitan.  I wrapped manageable amounts of seitan in plastic wrap and put all of the bunches into one plastic bag and right into the freezer.

We made a black bean dish from Fresh Food Fast:

And we ate until we were extremely uncomfortable.

Here's the thing about vital wheat gluten.  It seems to know just when you are looking for it.  If you go to the grocery store specifically searching for this stuff, it won't be there.  The other people in the store and store workers have never heard of it.  However, if you happen to meander by the very same aisle you scoured without the intent of picking up vital wheat gluten it will magically fall off the shelf into your basket.  True story.  Not to mention, you'll start noticing this stuff in every grocery you checked previously.  Just when you aren't looking for it.  Get it whenever you can.  Store it in the fridge or freezer.  Brands I've used include: Arrowhead Mills, Hodgson Mill, and Bob's Red Mill.  Tell us if you find any other good ones.  

Good luck in your search for and cooking of homemade seitan!

Sar

PS The previous sourdough-oat loaf just got turned into French Toast and devoured.  Thank you Andy Jack.