Teriyaki Seitan

This past weekend was the DISKovery Holiday Potluck.  It was nice to socialize with all of the awesome people who help keep our computer lab running and who make use of the classes and public computer access.  I finally was able to get my grandma's recipe for teriyaki marinade, so I felt it was time to make some serious teriyaki seitan.

Teriyaki Seitan

2 lbs seitan (or however much you want.  I used homemade, but any fake beefy seitan would work well)
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup good strong soy sauce
2 T sake, sherry, or vodka (I used vodka)
1/2 t salt
2 t grated fresh/frozen ginger
1 clove minced garlic
green onion

Mix up the marinade and let the seitan soak up the tastiness for at least 3 hours, but the longer, the better. I fried up the slices of seitan along with some onion, carrot, and edamame.

I think many of the potluck attendees did not know this was fake meat when they tried it, but they really enjoyed it and all of the seitan was gone by the end of the party!  I love sharing tasty food with people, and I'm so glad that this turned out well.  My grandma is awesome, what can I say?

The sauce/marinade is very gingery and garlicky, and the sugar carmelizes when you cook the seitan.  Om nom nom.

I also made a couple of batches of gifflar filled with apples and apple butter.  Ahh I'm almost getting tired of baking and cooking.  After the holidays, maybe it'll be time to take a break and just eat french fries.

Swedish Coffee Crescents: Gifflar! And a rant about race

Sometimes I think the worst part about most surveys, employment forms, ballots, and similar documents is that they have the optional (or not so optional) "race/ethnicity" section.  The typical choices are often limiting, and I don't think I'm alone in feeling this way.  Asian?  What kind of Asian?  Caucasian?  Black?  There are hundreds of flavors in any one of these categories--so what do you glean from pegging someone in one of these general categories?  And more and more, why is this question still "check one?"  Why is it a radio button instead of a "check all that apply?"  I love it when surveys and forms have this option, because like millions of other humans, I don't have a single ethnic or racial heritage.

What do you do when it's "select one?"  I think lots of people who are mixed race pick the one that isn't white.  I do, sometimes.  I think I do because I'm afraid that by not saying that I'm part Asian, somehow that "minority" part of me will be underrepresented on surveys.  But why don't I put white?  Is it because caucasians tend to be overrepresented in surveys, forms, opportunities, etc?  By checking the Asian box, aren't I buying into the archaic "one drop" rule?  I don't know.  But once in a while, I get a pang of guilt for saying simply, "Yes," when someone asks if I'm Asian.  Which is a silly question to ask someone, anyway.  What does knowing the race of a person tell you?  Not a lot!

Recently my great great aunt, a tall, fabulous Swede, passed away.  My Caucasian side is all about the Swedish recipes, especially cookies.  So here's to you, Aunt June.

Swedish cooking is all about buttttttahhhhh.  The veganized version is all about the maaaargarine, but they still taste fucking delicious and don't let anyone tell you that if it ain't buttah it aint worth it.  Filled with nuts, or with cream cheese and fruit, these are wonderful with coffee and tea.  We bake up batches of these with apple or nut filling for Christmas...but I doubt they'd let me "bastardize" them and bring vegan versions.  So I just enjoy these at home!

Swedish Filled Coffee Crescents (Gifflar)

1 package active dry yeast

1/4 cup lukewarm water

2 cups sifted all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2/3 cup non hydrogenated margarine (or vegetable shortening...nom)

1/4 c water + 1.5 tsp Ener-G egg replacer OR 1/4 c water + 1 T ground flax seed (equivalent of one egg)

Traditional Filling:

2 Tablespoons butter or margarine

2 Tablespoons sugar

2/3 cup chopped walnuts

Cream Cream Cheese and Fruit Filling

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/3 cup vegan cream cheese

1/4 jam of your choice

Garnish:

oil/melted margarine

Soften yeast in lukewarm water. Sift flour into bowl, add sugar; cut in butter or margarine with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Stir in egg and dissolved yeast. Work dough with floured hands until smooth. Cover; let rise 1 hour in room temperature. In the meantime make the filling; cream butter or margarine with sugar and add chopped nuts, or mix sugar and cream cheese. 

Divide dough into four parts. Roll each part into a circle about 11 inches in diameter and about 1/4 inch thick, cut each circle into 8 wedge shapes. At the wide end put a teaspoon of filling. Roll each wedge shape up by beginning at the wide end, stretching the wide end a bit as you roll it. Place crescents on buttered/margarined cookie sheets. Brush crescents with Garnish . Let crescents rise for another hour at room temperature. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden yellow brown. Makes 32 crescents.

These flakey, tender rolls are so, so good.  Just wait until it's peach season... oh man.  Peach walnut crescents? Hell yeah.

Banana Rum Bread Pudding

6 or so slices whole wheat bread

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2 large, very ripe bananas

1 c nondairy milk (I used almond milk)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

pinch of cloves

1/4 tsp salt

1 c brown sugar

1 T cornstarch

1 shot spiced rum (or more, I won't judge)

Mash the bananas in a large bowl, then mix in everything but the bread and walnuts.  Add the walnuts and bread, making sure to coat all of the bread with liquid.  Let sit as you preheat the oven to 350 degrees and oil a loaf pan.  Add the pudding mixture to the loaf pan.  Bake for 30 minutes, then refrigerate for at least an hour before serving so that it has time to firm.

If you didn't want to booze up the pudding, you could omit the rum or substitute apple cider.

The dude ate it with cookie dough coconut milk ice cream.  Whatever, man.

Cornmeal Scones

My muffin tin consists of 6 dinged and bent muffin cups.  This used to be a boon when I was living alone and only made half recipes of things, but lately, making full or double batches of muffins and cupcakes makes me sad.  But sometimes, a soup begs for a cornmeal something-or-other, and so the cornmeal scone takes a step forward and says, "Pick me!"

2 1/2 c AP flour

1/2 c cornmeal

2 T baking powder

1 t salt

2 T nutritional yeast

1/4 t pepper

2 T oil

2 T agave nectar

1 c nondairy milk

1 T apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the nondairy milk and vinegar, set aside to curdle.  Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and nutritional yeast.  Mix in the oil, agave, and the curdled milk until just combined.  Dough should not be too sticky, if it is, add a little more flour or cornmeal.  Divide into four dough balls.  Flatten the balls into discs, cut into four scones and place on a nonstick baking sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, until just golden brown.

Warm and served dipped in soup...heaven, without using a muffin pan.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Many of my friends were born without the chocolate-loving gene; whether this is a defect or the absence of a defect will require further study.  Even the boy won't eat a super chocolatey brownie, preferring applesaucey vegany mildly chocolatey brownies to the ueber fudgy concoctions I will occasionally make.  So, I went in search for a gentle chocolate chip muffin, nothing double- or ultra- or otherwise prefixed.

This morning, I made these, which were these but with a tsp of instant coffee and a half cup of wheat bran thrown in to make them more breakfasty.

And, I took a shitty webcam photo--complete with the shadow of my laptop--of one before I ate it.

Good-bye, breakfast muffin.