Now that I live in the Lone Star State, I feel pressured to conform the local culinary standards. While I ain't gonna eat dead cow, so I've been making fajitas with everyone's favorite wheat-based meat substitute, seitan!
4 oz. Seitan (I've included a recipe below, in case you can't find it in your
store.)
½ Green pepper
½ Red Onion
1-2 Canned Chipotle peppers
1-2 Tablespoons Cooking Oil
4 of those smaller-sized whole wheat tortillas
Shredded Monterrey Jack cheese to taste
Chopped Fresh Cilantro to taste
Your favorite Salsa if this ain't hot enough for you
You probably already have a good idea of where this is going, but here are directions,
just in case. Heat the oil in your wok or skillet at medium to high heat. Slice
onion and green pepper in long strips. I like to then cut the strips in half to
make eating less messy. If I get only half a pepper in my bite the whole thing
tends to fall apart. Anyway, yeah, like toss the veggies into the pan. Get out
your seitan and slice it into strips as you intone "say-TAN" in your
best heavy metal voice. Throw the seitan into the mix and, with a
spatula, stir up the filling periodically. Chop your chipotle peppers into itty-bitty
pieces and distribute it in the filling. The oil from the peppers can burn mucous
membranes, so be careful. And, guys, do not use the restroom without washing your
hands thoroughly! I can't tell you how many times I'll forget, and, half an hour
later... Anyway, cook the filling until the green pepper is blackened in spots.
Wrap the filling in warmed tortillas with the rest of your fixings, and you're
good to go. Serves one.
Homemade Seitan
I guess this is further proof that our friends at Whole Foods are evil, but I
can't get my favorite brand of Seitan in Austin. In Philadelphia, they carried
it at Fresh Fields - which is owned by Whole Foods - but neither Whole Foods here
or H.E.B. carries the stuff, choosing instead to sell some funk-nasty crap they
call "Wheatloaf." Being the good DIY-er that I am, I've learned to make
Seitan at home.
1 Cup High Gluten Flour
½ Teaspoon Garlic Powder
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
¾ Cup of Water
High gluten flour might be a trick to find. I found it in the very special health food section at H.E.B., but those of you in other areas might have to go to Akin's or Wild Oats or whatever to get it. Anyway, dump the dry ingredients in a largish bowl and mix it up a little. Mix the wet stuff in a measuring cup, then pour it in the bowl. With a rubber spatula stir the ingredients, which should turn into a rubbery dough surprisingly fast. Knead the dough a few times, then let it sit for a few minutes, then knead again.
In a saucepan, boil:
1 Quart of Water
¼ Cup of Soy Sauce.
Knead the dough a little more. Roll the dough into three or four "snakes,"
then slice the snakes into little pieces. Drop the pieces into the boiling bath.
Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the saucepan. Simmer the seitan for 45-60
minutes. During this step, the seitan should bloat up like Keith Moon in the late
70s. Drain off the water and refrigerate or freeze the little loaves. Serves four.
Homemade seitan sounds like pasta... but boiled for a really really long time. I bet you could use bread flour (unbleached of course) for the high gluten flour. The bread books I have say they should be about the same. It might not be organic, but you should be able to get it at any grocery store.
You could get some jello molds for your seitan. Perhaps a Satan seitan.
Posted by: Lurvig at January 14, 2003 11:39 PMActually, no, I tried making Seitan with other kinds of flour and it makes a sticky mess. When you cook Seitan, it develops bubbles in the middle, so its more spongy than pasta. The closest thing I could compare it to is perhaps a bagel and the way they gets chewy when they're boiled.
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