Thanksgiving Special: Fauxfurkey (Poultry-Inspired Seitan Roast with Homemade Yuba Skin)

I must be cracking up. I decided for some bizarre reason to make my own seitan roast this year. I intended to buy yuba wrappers/tofu skins, but Whole Foods did not seem to have any. Instead of substituting something else or doing without, I decided to make them myself. Yes. I'm that nuts.

For those of you who don't know, yuba is the skin that forms on top of soy milk when you heat it. It's served in a number of ways. People will wrap foods in it. They'll serve it as noodles in soup. I've had it sauced, with vegetables.

To me, it seemed like the perfect "skin" for my "turkey."

So, how in the hell do you do it? I checked the internet. The directions I found suggested that you heat soy milk to just below the boiling point, then remove it from the heat, wait until the skin forms, pick it off with chopsticks, then repeat. I tried that, and had some success. However, the skins were pretty small and delicate. They sat in sad little lumps on the plate, drying into slightly crunchy, sticky little wads. Not so appetizing, but I persevered.

I got wrapped up in another task, and when I looked over, my soy milk was at a full rolling boil, covered with a skin.

Crap! I thought. I ruined it!

Not so. As it turns out, letting the milk come to a boil and heat longer made the skin thicker. After loosening the edges from the pan, it lifted easily, and stayed in one piece.

The yuba does stick to itself (and look like a condom, according to pretty much everyone who sees it) at this point. 

At this point, I gently pulled it from the chopsticks and rinsed it in cold water, carefully rubbing out the folds. Because I needed to make a quantity of them (and I'd learned that they dry out), I layered them between damp paper towels until I'd made enough.

I probably made about ten like this before I was done. I covered it all with a dishcloth and put it in the fridge.

Time to make the seitan. I'd had the most success following the recipe for Seitan O'Greatness, so I decided to borrow the method and liquid-to-gluten proportion.

1 1/2 c. (minus 1 T.) vital wheat gluten
1 T. besan (if you don't have this, just use all gluten... I'm sure it will work fine)
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 T- 1 T. minced fresh herbs (I used thyme, rosemary, and sage)

Mix this together into a bowl.

Add:
1 1/4 c. stock (I used Better Than Bouillon No Chicken)
1 clove of garlic, pureed in 1/4 c. water
2 T. oil
1 T. soy sauce

Mix it together, then knead a few times. Set aside while you prepare the foil and skin.

Lay out a sheet of aluminum foil. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, minced fresh herbs, and a dash of paprika or cayenne. Lay the yuba wrappers out on top, overlapping slightly.

Put the seitan dough on top, then roll it as tightly as you can. Put it into the oven for one hour at 325. After one hour, pull back the foil and drizzle with more oil (and some white wine, if you like it) so the top gets crispy. Continue to cook for half an hour. Remove from the oven and let rest for a few minutes before slicing thinly.

Note: don't cook this on the bottom oven rack, or the bottom will get charred.

Bonus: Gravy (can be vegan or lacto-vegetarian)
Heat some flavorful veggie stock in a saucepan. You probably will need about 2 c. or so. Keep it warm while you work on the rest.

Mince one clove of garlic and about half of a small shallot. You should have a total of about 1/8 a cup of veggies. Then, mince half a small onion. You should now have about 1/4-1/3 c. of minced veggies.

Melt 1 1/2 T. butter or Earth Balance and 1 1/2 T. neutral oil over medium-low heat in a small saucepan. Add the minced veggies and cook until they get soft. Add 3 T. flour and stir until smooth. Add the stock and stir until incorporated. You might want to use a whisk. Let bubble and thicken. If it becomes too thick, add more stock (or some white wine).

Season with thyme, sage, rosemary, salt, pepper, Marmite, Maggi, Kitchen Bouquet... whatever tastes good!

Thanksgiving Special: Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Ah, Brussels sprouts. So many people hate them, so few love them. If you've only ever had the boiled variety, I can't really blame you if you are in the "hate it" camp. They are quite cruciferous. 

You'll need: 

2 lbs. of Brussels sprouts, trimmed and picked over (cut any large ones in half)

2 T. white wine

2 T. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

a pinch of sugar

Put the wine and olive oil into a large bowl along with the salt, pepper, and sugar. Mix with a fork until emulsified. Put in the Brussels sprouts and toss gently to coat. Pour into a large baking tray and put it into the oven with whatever else is cooking. Give the pan a shake every once in awhile. Ours were the size of marbles, so took about 25 minutes at 325. 

Thanksgiving Special: Butter-Glazed Carrots

Butter-Glazed Carrots:

2-2 ½  pounds of carrots

1 stick of butter (Earth Balance if you're vegan)

salt and pepper

Peel the carrots and slice on the bias. Parboil until they are mostly cooked, but still have some bite to them. (Depending on the size of your carrots, this will take 4-7 minutes.)

Set aside. You can refrigerate them at this point if you’d like to. Just dunk them in cold water so they stop cooking. When it’s time to glaze them, melt the butter in a large skillet. Add salt and pepper, then the carrots. Stir gently until the carrots are coated and heated through. You can sprinkle with herbs if you’d like to. Parsley or chives would be nice. 

Thanksgiving Special: Brown Sugar-Glazed Yams

Brown Sugar-Glazed “Yams”

What we call yams are actually a variety of sweet potato. A real yam is a starchy root that grows in South America. They are not easy to find up here. For the sake of simplicity, though, I’ll be referring to the tuber as a yam.

4 large garnet yams

1/3 c. brown sugar

¼ stick butter

3 T. water

salt to taste

Peel the yams and cut into chunks. Cook most of the way in boiling water. If you want to, you can blanch them in cold water and refrigerate them at this point.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large skillet or pot with the sugar, salt, and water. When the mixture is smooth and bubbling, add the yams. Stir to coat and heat through. Dot the top with more butter if you like it. You can also sprinkle on some brown sugar. 

Thanksgiving Special: Dressing/Stuffing

Dressing:

1 bag of bread cubes, 12 oz.  (if you make your own, do it at least a day or two in advance so they get sufficiently dry)

1 c. chopped onion

1 c. chopped celery

minced fresh herbs (sage and rosemary, a bit of thyme)

salt and pepper

1 stick butter (use Earth Balance if you are vegan)

1 ½ to 2 c. stock

Melt the butter in a large stockpot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and celery and sauté slowly until tender. Add the herbs and salt and pepper.  Stir. Add the bread cubes and toss until they are coated. Slowly add the stock, about half a cup at a time, until the dressing is moistened. Pack it into a casserole dish. It will need to bake at 350 for 30 minutes. If you made it ahead of time and refrigerate it, you’ll need to cook it longer or let it come to room temperature before you put it in the oven. 

Countdown to Thanksgiving: Cranberry Sauce

Ah, cranberries. For years, we ate the canned kind. The scratch of the can opener, followed by the shlorp of the red cylinder exiting the can, were very much parts of the Thanksgiving experience. I loved the sweet-tart-bitter flavor of the condiment.

My Gran would make her own. I was fascinated by this as a child. I had always figured that there was some sort of magical alchemy that took place in the cranberry sauce factory that gave the berries their look and texture. Not so. What's more, unlike most homemade dishes, these turned out prettier than the "real" version!

One year, I decided to try making them myself. There was a recipe on the bag. (Sort and rinse cranberries. Boil one cup each white sugar and water. When sugar dissolves, add cranberries. Turn down heat and allow to simmer 5-10 minutes, or until most of the berries have popped. Put berries through a Foley mill. Refrigerate. That is all.)

Being who I am, I decided that I was going to augment the berries and make them my own. I made one batch using ginger, honey, and apricot nectar. It was tasty and the most brilliant color, but a bit intense. The real winner was my spiced whole berry sauce. It's the simplest thing you can imagine, and tastier than the plain version.

1 c. apple cider
1 c. lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 bag cranberries (rinse and sort)
1 stick cinnamon

Bring the cider and sugar to a boil with the cinnamon stick.

When the sugar is dissolved, turn down the heat and add the berries.

Simmer 5-10 minutes, or until most of the berries have popped.

Fish out the cinnamon stick. Put the berries into a bowl, cover, and refrigerate. If you prefer a smooth sauce, you can put this through the food mill, or press it through a strainer. Do this while it is still warm, or it won't work.

Bonus recipe:

Christmas in Cape Cod

Make the spiced cranberries, but do not put into a bowl yet. Use a ladle to scoop up as much liquid as possible. Pour into a glass over ice and add some vodka (how much depends on how much juice you have, and which relative has cornered you in the kitchen). I like to top it off with a splash of club soda as well.

Preparing for Thanksgiving

As my family's resident cook, I'll be preparing the Thanksgiving meal. We'll have around ten people this year. So what are we eating?

Mashed potatoes
Butter-glazed carrots
Green beans with shallots and almonds
Roasted Brussels sprouts
Brown sugar-glazed garnet sweet potatoes
Herbed bread stuffing
Cranberry sauce (spiced whole berry and plain jellied)
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
Rolls (alas, these will not be homemade)
Classic relish tray

The family is eating turkey and turkey gravy. I've decided to try my hand at Fauxfurkey. My plan includes crispy yuba skin. I should probably practice this at least once before Thanksgiving rolls around. Are you all familiar with the Seitan O'Greatness recipe? It's amazing. I will be using a similar method (baking it, wrapped) in order to get an awesome texture. Wish me luck, folks, I'll probably need it! I will, of course, be making plenty of amazing vegetarian gravy for the veg folk at the table.

Sunday Suppers: Sexy Soup

Part of why I cook is that I love to nourish others. Good food, prepared with love, is good for the spirit as well as the body. While I may grumble about the wet weather and darker days, there are a few things I love about winter and fall. One is, of course, soup. I love soup and always have.

Fall and winter invite soup. It’s cold, dark, and wet outside. Spending the evening in a warm kitchen, stirring a bubbling pot is time well spent. Soup warms and comforts long before you take the first bite. The smells of your aromatics fill the kitchen. Your fingers warm as you chop the ingredients. You “taste” the wine on a regular basis to make sure it’s okay to put into the soup. Maybe that’s just me.

Summer soups are also delicious, but just aren’t the same. While all of the chopping does have the same sort of meditative quality, there’s something magical that happens when you make a hot soup.

Now why did I say sexy soup? There’s a secret… I don’t want to be single forever. I’ve heard that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach (and at least a few of my mom’s friends have wondered aloud why I’m not married when they try my cooking).  Sexy soup is my attempt to bring the comforting, warming quality of soup together with something a little fun and flirty, because who doesn’t want a little something sexy in their life?

The first recipe is probably not great as a seduction recipe. While onions are aphrodisiacs, they are not necessarily the sexiest-smelling ingredient out there.

Rich Onion Soup with Cheese Toasts

1 leek, trimmed, cleaned, and sliced (white and light green part only)

3 yellow onions, peeled and sliced

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

½ a stick of butter (yes, really)

1-2 quarts of water (depending on the size of your onions)

Better Than Bouillon No Beef

Sherry

Fresh thyme

Pepper

Toss the butter into a large soup pot and heat over medium. You can start with less if you worry about that sort of thing. While it melts, chop your veggies. Toss them in and stir to coat with butter. Let it sit over medium heat until everything is soft. I probably left it for 20 minutes. Stir it every so often. If it starts to stick, you can add a bit more butter and/or some oil. Once everything is meltingly soft, add 1 quart of boiling water. I just fill my electric kettle and pour that on. Stir well. Add 2 T. of Better Than Bouillon and stir until it dissolves. Add about 1 T. fresh thyme leaves and a generous grating of black pepper. Add sherry to taste (I used about 1/8 c.). Let simmer for five minutes, then taste. If it’s too salty, add some more water. If it seems watery, add more Better Than Bouillon. Keep warm while you make the toasts.

Turn on the broiler. Put a few slices of bread under it. Keep an eye on them! Once the tops get toasty, remove from the oven. Wait until cooled slightly. Butter the untoasted sides, add a thin layer of Marmite (Vegemite is usable, too) and a slice of cheese. I used white cheddar, but you can use anything. Put back under the broiler. Watch carefully. A fire in your oven is not sexy. Neither is blackened toasts. Once the cheese is melted and bubbly (even a bit brown), remove from the oven. Dish up the soup and serve with a toast on the side. You can dip the toast in the soup, or put it in your bowl and let everything soak up.

Velvety Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

This soup is a bit more on the sexy side. It’s got a vibrant color, a more subtle flavor (no halitosis!), and is loaded with healthy things. It’s warm and comforting, but has a touch of sophistication. It’s classy enough to take home to Mom and Dad, too.

Do this ahead of time:

1 butternut squash

5 cloves of garlic, peeled but whole

kosher salt

pepper

olive oil

fresh thyme (1.5 teaspoons of the leaves)

Pour yourself a glass of wine. Trust me, you’ll want it. Use a big knife to cut the top off of the butternut squash. Then cut it lengthwise into quarters. Scoop out the seeds. Now, cut it crosswise into chunks. If the squash is especially large or malformed, you might want to make the pieces smaller. Start drinking your wine. Using a small, sharp knife, peel the squash. (You can do it later, but unless you are doing this step way in advance, you risk burning your fingers.)

Put the squash pieces into a glass baking dish as you finish peeling them. Drizzle with olive oil (I used 2 T.), sprinkle with salt, grate on some pepper, toss in the thyme, and then put in the garlic. Toss everything together, coating with your fingers. Put it into the oven. Leave it there, shaking the pan once in awhile, until everything is easily pierced with a knife.

Now, pop that into a large saucepan with one cup of white wine (I used chardonnay) and three cups of boiling water. Let it simmer until everything gets mushy, then pop it in the blender until smooth. You might need to add more water or wine to get the texture right. Taste and add salt and agave nectar as needed. I probably used ½ t. salt and 1-2 t. agave nectar. I also tossed in a shake of cayenne and a sprinkle of ground ginger. It’s good!

The good, the bad, the ugly

I just moved into my first condo. It's very exciting and also a little bit scary. The good news is that I have a fabulous kitchen, even if the appliances are a bit old (not old enough to be vintage-cool, though). The bad news is that the previous owners turned the fridge off and left the doors closed. If you don't know what that means, it's the ugly: perma-stench. The fridge smells like dead fish and the freezer smells like mildew. The freezer has a puddle of brown goop under the vent. Basically, the fridge is not usable, at least not for storing anything that I may eventually want to eat.

I'll be buying a new fridge later in the month. Home Depot has an appliance sale coming up on November 10th, so I'll be trying my luck at that point. Until then, though, ramen for me, except when I go to Mom's house and cook for her (big plans and a fun theme for this Sunday!).

Also, I'm now on Twitter. SWFcooksveggie, of course