One Colossal Failure, and One Smashing Seitan Sucess! Yeah, Baby!

Ok, I've had a busy Sunday, peeps, so let's get to it. First of all the eclairs I'd hoped to make. Wow, what a tee-total failure that was!

Everything started out swimmingly, with me following a pretty generic eclair recipe I found on the internet. I planned to simply try and replace the eggs with the usual vegan egg replacements.

First crack I went with ground flax seeds and water. Well, my "eclairs" ended up looking like wizened up little brown fingers. They didn't puff up at all. Into the compost they go, but I'm feeling confident, so lets try that again...

Next attempt I tried to replace the eggs with some silken tofu I whipped with a little water. I also added some baking soda, for good measure. The result? Slightly whiter wizened up fingers.

Egad. This is going to be harder than I thought. But at this point it's starting to get really, really nice outside. Fu** it, I say, this can wait for another day. I have other stuff to do, and that includes sunbathing.

So I moved on to chocolate cookies with mint filling, made in cute little-bitty bone shapes, just because I got this cute cookie cutter a while back that I have't had a chance to use yet.

They were perfect! Just the perfect size for a little sweet somethin' somethin'.

Then I moved on to my major project for the day, which didn't involve a lot of hands-on time but did require some planning ahead- my very own homemade "Seitan Turkey."

See, I've had smashing success lately with seitan, and I naturally got to thinking that it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to make my own "Tofurky". Really, it's just seitan wrapped around some stuffing, right?

So I made some chicken-flavoured seitan using my own recipe. (Which I'll post in a minute, I promise.) I made a double batch and let it sit for an hour.

I then rolled it out somewhat thin...

and then slopped the stuffing in the middle. (I used some Stuff 'n Such boxed stuffing, which happens to be vegan..)

the I rolled it up really tight in some cheesecloth, and trussed it up like the Christmas turkey....

Then it went into the "crockery" part of my crockpot, doused with a double batch of seitan broth. I cooked in for three hours in the oven at 250 degrees. I know, it doesn't look like much yet....

But Wow! Didn't this look good when it was done! (I know I need to work on the "shaping" part...it looks a little peculiar...kinda like a giant kidney...)

And here is my seitan "turkey", cut and ready to eat!

This made a fantabulous dinner to welcome Hubby and my two "babies" home from Grandma's...

OK folks, you simply must have this recipe. This is the same recipe I used to make "chicken" burgers last weekend. I'm sure it can be improved upon (can't everything?) but I can't for the life of me figure out how! These directions are for making the burgers from last week...to make the seitan "turkey", simply double the seitan recipe and follow instead the directions above!

Seitan Turkey/Seitan Chicken

Add to blender:

5 oz (150 mls) silken tofu
1-cup water
1 tsp salt
¾ tsp black pepper
1 ½ Tbsp Vegan Chik’n bouillon
Scant ½ tsp poultry seasoning
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion salt
½ tsp thyme
Pinch celery seed

Blend. Add the mixture to the following ingredients, already mixed in a large bowl:

1/3-cup soy flour
1 ½ cups gluten flour
1 Tbsp rolled oats
1 Tbsp cornmeal

Knead together into a firm ball. Keep more gluten flour on hand, between ¼ and ½ cup, to work into the seitan as you knead it. Once mixed, let sit for one hour. Then, knead again until firm, just a minute or so.

Prepare a large juice can by lining it with non-stick foil or parchment paper.

Place seitan in the can, and press seitan down into bottom to make sure it is a solid mass.
Pour over the seitan a broth made of the following:

1-cup water
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp onion salt
¼ tsp poultry seasoning
¼ tsp thyme
1 Tbsp Vegan Chik’n bouillon

Cover can with foil. Pre-heat oven to 375degrees. Place can in oven and immediately reduce heat to 250 degrees. Let cook for 3 hours. Remove from can and cool on rack. Slice once cool.

To make burgers, dip them in something wet like soymilk or BBQ sauce, and dredge in a mixture of flour and breadcrumbs. Deep fry one or two minutes. Drain on paper towels.

This was so good, I guess I can live with my failure with the eclairs. For now, at least. We'll see what happens next weekend, though. (I don't take failure well!)

Well, that's it for me folks. Tomorrow is Monday again and we start the grind all over. One thing: we have two very large gardens, and top priority this week is getting the planting done. So if I don't have any updates a few times this week, you'll know where I am- hip deep in dirt and loving every minute of it!

Night everyone!