ghost pepper hot sauce seitan wings

I finally understand the beauty of "buffalo wing sauce."

Like many, I enjoy the flavor and heat of hot sauce, but at some point, the capsaicin becomes unbearable. Enter the other half of wing sauce: fat! Capsaicin is fat-soluble so the butter or margarine in wing sauce lets you consume more of it than you would be able to otherwise!

I made seitan wings and covered half of them in chipotle peach bbq sauce, and the other half in this ghost pepper wing sauce. To make the wing sauce, I mixed equal parts melted margarine with some ghost pepper hot sauce that Julie made with a gifted ghost pepper, vinegar, water, and garlic. A little bit (start with a teaspoon or less) of xantham gum goes a long way to help make the wing sauce thicker.


Photographing a bottle of hot sauce can be frustrating, so I turned it on its side...much better.

boulder bourguignon

It is sad to see good restaurants close. One restaurant that I am missing these days is Sunflower Restaurant in downtown Boulder. Though it was a tad expensive, it served delicious, organic food that had a flavor profile to match the price (unlike some fancy restaurants). Just the other day, I had a craving for their "Boulder Bourguignon" so I attempted to recreate it. Do you have any favorite restaurants/dishes that you miss?

Bourguignon Ingredients:
16 oz. seitan, torn up bites
8 oz. tempeh, crumbled
6 T. soy sauce
6 T. maple syrup
2 T. vegan margarine
2 T. olive oil
liquid smoke
black pepper
2 T. flour
8 oz. yellow potato, cubed
8 oz. beet, peeled and cubed
4 oz. carrot, sliced
3 c. red wine
2-3 c. veggie broth
1 T. tomato paste
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t. thyme
1 bay leaf
salt
8 oz. pearl onions
1 T. vegan margarine
1 T. olive oil
thyme
salt
black pepper
1/2 c. veggie broth
4 oz. small mushrooms

Creamy Polenta Ingredients:
8 c. water
2 c. coarse corn meal
2 T. vegan margarine
2 t. salt

If you don't know how, making seitan at home is super easy and cheap. I will post about the process sometime soon.

Heat seitan and tempeh in soy sauce, maple syrup, margarine, oil, and liquid smoke over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to low and toss the seitan and tempeh in flour and black pepper. Let it cook for a few minutes. Transfer the seitan and tempeh to a 9x13 baking dish and add the potatoes, beets, carrots, red wine, veggie broth, tomato paste, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and salt. Mix. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 2 hours. Stir up the mixture every 30 minutes or so. You can add additional veggie broth if things start to dry out. Your goal is to have liquid covering everything.

30 minutes before the bourguignon finishes in the oven, saute pearl onions in oil, margarine, salt, pepper, and thyme until browned. Add 1/2 c. veggie brother and simmer with cover for 20 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the onions and continue to cook. When you take the bourguignon out of the oven, stir in the onions and mushrooms

Start the water boiling for the creamy polenta 30 minutes before the bourguignon comes out of the over. Once the water is boiling, stir in the coarse corn meal. Continue to stir for 20 minutes. Add margarine and salt.

Serve the bourguignon next to or on top of the creamy polenta and enjoy!!

corned seitan and cabbage

Growing up, my mom made corned beef and cabbage every year for St. Patrick's Day. Corned beef is one of the few meats that I miss since becoming a vegetarian. Well, at least I can still celebrate St. Patrick's Day with some corned seitan and cabbage!

Serving Size: 6

Ingredients:
1/2 "corned beef" seitan from Everyday Dish, sliced
1/2 cabbage head, wedged or sliced in long strips
3 red potatoes, cubed
2 carrots, julienned
1/2 yellow onion, wedged
1 can of beer
remaining seitan cooking liquid
1 bay leaf
salt to taste

I followed the recipe on Everyday Dish for no-knead "corned beef" seitan. To achieve a tougher, less spongy seitan, Everyday Dish has you wrap the seitan in cheesecloth so that during the boiling process it cannot expand much. Overall, I was pleased with the results of their recipe.

As you finish with the Everyday Dish recipe, remove the seitan from the cooking liquid. Reserve the cooking liquid. Slice the seitan into strips 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick and 1 - 1.5 inches wide. If you want, you can make the seitan the day before and keep it in the fridge overnight.

In a large pot or crock, alternately layer pieces of cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and onion, adding salt to each layer. Add in a bay leaf and a can of beer, any kind. Add some or all of the reserved seitan cooking liquid. Bring the veggies to a boil and simmer for about an hour, until the cabbage and potatoes are soft. Drain the extra cooking liquid. It can be frozen and used later to make more seitan, or for a soup base. Add the seitan strips to the veggies, mix up, and serve.

Cooking the seitan separately like this prevents it from expanding and getting more spongy. Next time I might try cooking the veggies while simmering the seitan in the cheesecloth.

Side Note:
The "corn" in "corned beef" refers to large grains of salt used to cure the beef. More info straight from Wikipedia: corned beef was never consumed in Ireland, but was picked up as a substitute for bacon by Irish immigrants in New York City from their Jewish neighbors. [source]