Irish Style Seitan In Mustard Cream Sauce With Wild Rice and Crispy Cabbage...

St. Patrick’s Day is only a week away, can you believe it? Now, I’m not Irish, and I’ve never really ‘celebrated’ St. Paddy’s but I do like to observe most holiday’s and occasions with at least a good or special meal. This year I’m feeling a little more festive, I guess it’s the ugly weather we’re having, it makes me daydream a lot, and one of the places I’ve been dreaming about lately is Ireland in the Summer. Thanks no doubt to all of the Flogging Molly, The Pogues, Gaelic Storm and Dropkick Murphys I’ve been listening to of late. Anyway, I feel festive and inspired so I wanted to observe this year’s St. Paddy’s with a weeks worth of Irish style cooking.

Crispy Cabbage

Now, I know Irish fare may not seem all that vegan friendly to you, after all what is Irish cuisine most famous for? Potatoes, Cabbage and Meat - particularly bacon - and it’s also probably never struck you as a particularly creative or mouth-watering style of cooking. You never hear people say “I’m really craving Irish today.” Anyway. However I think the culinary traditions of England, Scotland and Ireland get a bad rap, it may not be ‘haute cuisine’ it may not have the fire of Latin cuisine, or say the romance of Italian but to say the Irish lack culinary creativity is to do them and their cuisine a disservice. Honestly I think the lack of creativity when it comes to Irish cooking has more to do with people outside of Ireland trying to re-create Irish food. I mean just open up any Vegan cook book that includes recipes for St. Patrick’s Day, and tell me what you see. Recipes for Champ, Colcannon - both of which I might add can basically be defined as mashed potatoes - cream of broccoli, pea, asparagus - anything green really - soup, and Irish soda bread. It’s repetitive and boring! But don’t think omnivores are any more ingenious when it comes to recreating Irish cooking. Bacon and cabbage, mashed potatoes and corned beef are about all I ever hear omnivores eating, and corned beef, really? Now I have a huge bone to pick with people who say corned beef is Irish - it’s not. First of all corned beef is just a name for salt-cured beef, and salt curing beef as well as other meats has been done since ancient times. As the dish that we know today noone is exactly sure who started it or when but it became popular with the British Navy during the 18th century English Industrial Revolution. The Irish may have been making a form of corned beef around this time to sell to the British navy but they likely weren’t eating it themselves.

Seitan in Mustard Cream Sauce

In fact, the entire time I was in Ireland - and keep in mind that I traveled the entire country from Dublin to Derry, and the Giants Causeway, to Galway, to Kerry, to Waterford, Cork and the Wicklow Mountains - I never once, on any restaurant menu saw Corned Beef as an option. It’s interesting that in Ireland Corned Beef is almost exclusively only sold to tourists or sold in tourist geared establishments, and that the majority of Irish in Ireland do not identify this food with Traditional, National Cuisine. It’s also interesting to note that corned beef actually has a stronger connection to Jewish Cuisine then it does Irish. But I digress - we were talking about a lack of creativity. When you ask the average person what they eat in Ireland you’ll undoubtably get the response “potatoes” and while it’s true that the Potato - still to this day - is the number one most commonly eaten vegetable in Ireland - along with cabbage and carrots - it does not mean that Irish cuisine has to be bland, boring, or potato heavy.

A lot of wonderful things grow in Ireland, from herbs such as parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme, to garlic, onions, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, cabbage artichokes, sunchokes, asparagus, and seaweed! Eating seaweed in Ireland isn’t just for the vegetarians and vegans! Mustard, wine and cream are also common for making sauces and flavoring dishes, so you see there’s a bounty of available options that any chef worth his or her salt could use to invent a dish that’s far more creative and tastier then corned beef or colcannon.

So for my first foray into Irish cooking I decided to try out a dish that utilized a mustard cream sauce. I’m a big fan of mustard - Dijon or stone ground in particular - and so a creamy, mustardy sauce with fresh garlic and herbs quite appealed to me. Now traditionally this is a sauce usually served with lambs kidneys - or the kidneys of any game animal - which is disgusting, and not something I would have even eaten back in the days when I ate meat, so I had to come up with something else. However since I wanted to keep the spirit of the dish alive I didn’t just want to throw some tofu or tempeh into a mustard sauce, that’s not all that creative is it? Besides organ meat is reported to be so flavorful that I didn’t think tofu would really make a good stand in.

I wanted something meaty and something with flavor and so I decided to make some Irish Style Seitan. I call it Irish Style because I flavored it with all of the most common herbs used in Irish cuisine, basil, celery seed, mint, sage, thyme, onion, garlic and parsley. It may not taste like a lambs kidney but it holds flavor notes true to Irish cooking and that’s all that matters. Seitan also stands up well to a good simmer, and retains a nice chewy texture.

Since the dish is also traditionally served over a bed of white rice - to soak up the sauce - and a salad I decided to do one better. I served my Irish style Seitan in mustard cream sauce over wild rice, and served it with a big ole’ pile of crispy cabbage. Crispy cabbage by the way is also another traditional Irish side dish, and while it may not be super creative it is surprisingly really satisfying as well as delicious! It’s hard to believe something so simple can be so good, but it is.

Make sure when you eat this meal you get a fork full of rice, sauce, seitan and cabbage all at once. Heaven!

The Full Plate - Seitan, Mustard Cream Sauce, Crispy Cabbage
and Wild Rice

Irish Style Seitan with Mustard Cream Sauce 

1 lb Irish Style Seitan Sliced into rounds or cubed (Recipe Follows)
2 Tbsp Earth Balance or other non-dairy butter
1 C White Wine
2-4 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
8 Garlic Cloves Minced
6-7 Green Onions sliced thin
½ Bunch Fresh Parsley Minced
2 Tbsp Fresh Minced Rosemary
1/4 tsp ground Thyme
Celtic Sea Salt to taste
1/4 - ½ tsp White Pepper
6 Tbsp Unsweetened Almond Milk (or other non-dairy milk)

- Melt butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Place seitan rounds or chunks in the butter and fry for 2-3 minutes a side until nice and brown. Remove seitan from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate.

- Pour the wine into the pan, and add the garlic, onion, and herbs. Stir to combine and then let simmer for 5-10 minutes until reduced slightly and garlic is cooked.

- Add the almond milk to the pan and stir until combined and creamy.  Season with salt and pepper, then return the seitan to the pan and heat through.

- Serve Seitan and mustard cream sauce over wild rice, garnished with extra parsley. With a nice side salad or crispy cabbage (recipe follows)

Now - Making Seitan is super simple and actually really quick. Trust me when I say that if you can bake a cake you can make seitan. I love the steam method, it's fast, cheap, and requires little prep. Basically mix a bunch of stuff in a bowl roll it into loaves and steam away, what could be easier and it's done in under an hour! I like to make a big ole' batch of seitan every 2-3 months and sore it in the freezer for quick and easy use. I will probably use this particular seitan recipe for several dishes to come later this week.

Irish Style Seitan 

1 ½ C Water + 1 Vegan Beef Boullion Cube (Could use a dark vegetable broth instead)
1 ½ C Vital Wheat Gluten
1/4 C Chickpea Flour
1/4 C Nutritional Yeast
1 ½ tsp Dried Basil
½-3/4 tsp Celery Seed
3/4 tsp Dried Mint
1 tsp Sage
1 1/4 tsp Dried Thyme
3 tsp Dehydrated Onion Flakes
3 Tbsp Tomato Paste
3 Tbsp Tamari
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
6 Garlic Cloves minced

- Mix all dry ingredients and spices together in a large bowl.

- Whisk together the broth, tomato paste, tamari, olive oil and minced garlic, in a small bowl.

- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the wet ingredients in. Mix until combined and a dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and kneed for 2-3 minutes. Then return the dough to the bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.

- Cut 4 rectangles of aluminum foil.

- Turn the dough out and kneed for another minute. Then divide the dough into 4 chunks. Shape the chunks into small oval loaves.

- Place one chunk of dough onto one sheet of aluminum foil. Fold the long side of the aluminum foil over the dough. Fold over the sides of the foil, then roll up like you would roll a burrito. Don’t roll the foil too tight because you need to leave a little room for the seitan to expand.

- Once all the chunks are rolled in the foil, place them into a steamer basket and steam for 45 minutes until nice and pulp. Seitan should be firm but springy.

- When seitan is done, remove from the steamer basket and place on a wire rack or plate to cool. Let cool for one hour and then place in the refrigerator or freezer until you’re ready to use it. Should keep in the freezer for 2-3 months if placed in an airtight container or zip-lock bag.

Crispy Cabbage 

1 Medium Head of Green or Savoy Cabbage sliced thin
2 Tbsp Peanut Oil
2-3 Tbsp Fresh Minced Parsley
Celtic Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste

- Heat Peanut oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.

- Add the cabbage and stir-fry 3-5 minutes, until just cooked but still crisp. Make sure you really watch it, you don’t want it to wilt, get mushy, or burn. A few golden spots are okay but it should retain it’s bright green color.

- Season with sea salt, pepper, and parsley and serve.

Wild Rice

1 ½ C Wile Rice
3 ½ C Water

- Place in a rice cooker and cook according to cooker’s directions.

PS: Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the seitan making process but I promise to do so next time! Also if you need this to be wheat-free you could try it with Tempeh. Tempeh is chewy enough to work, though you wont' get the added flavor of the seasoned seitan.

Product Review - So Delicious Coconut Milk Nog...

I want to take a moment to talk about Eggnog. I loved eggnog when I was a kid, it was definitely my favorite thing to drink around Christmas, and I have many fond memories of enjoying it around the holiday season. Of course that was before I knew what was used to make it - blah -and long before I ever went vegan. As I grew into my teens and then my early twenties I noticed my taste for eggnog had changed. A small four ounce glass was often more than enough to satisfy my craving for the traditional holiday drink, and any more would often leave me feeling bloated or ill. I rarely drank eggnog after I got married, mainly because my husband has never liked the stuff and with my changing tastes there was no way I could drink an entire carton myself before having it go bad. However I would still occasionally partake in a drink if someone else had eggnog available.

When I went Vegan of course I had to give up eggnog all together which honestly didn’t seem like such a big deal at the time, especially once I found out all that ‘traditional’ eggnog contains. Of course I did enjoy me an eggnog latte from time to time, or eggnog flavored ice cream, or eggnog French Toast, and every once and a while through that first holiday season I found myself growing slightly nostalgic for the beloved beverage of my childhood.

Then I discovered Silk Nog. Say what you will about Silk but I’ve always liked their products. I rarely drink soy milk these days and when I do I typically use Earth Balance Soy Milk, but Silk still holds a special place in my heart and their nog was good. It might not have been quite as thick as traditional nog but all the flavor was there. In fact it was so reminiscent of the nog I remembered that more then just a few ounces would give me that old blah feeling. That didn’t stop me however from enjoying it in small quantities all through last year’s holiday season.

This year I didn’t see Silk Nog on the shelf of my local groceries. However I did discover that Earth Balance came out with their very own Soy Nog. I promptly bought a carton and really enjoyed it. The taste and texture were very similar to the silk nog I remember from last year, and it too was very comparable to traditional nog, right down to giving me that blah feeling if I indulged too much.

By the time I finished my carton of Earth Balance nog a few weeks ago I had come ro realize something. Perhaps I don’t like eggnog as much as I thought. If I always get that blah feeling when I drink to much then maybe it’s something about the flavor itself or perhaps the richness that no longer appeals to me. Maybe my desire for nog at the holidays isn’t a physical craving at all but a nostalgic desire at re-creation. After this realization I was content to let nog go, at least for the remainder of the holiday season, and then I read Bianca’s post over at Vegan Crunk about So Delicious Coconut Milk Nog.

Now I’ve tried So Delicious plain Coconut Milk before and I honestly hated it. I thought it was terrible, and this is coming from an avid coconut lover. For whatever reason this brand did not appeal to me, and I’ve also tried a couple of their coconut milk ice cream flavors that I wasn’t particularly fond of either. When it comes to coconut milk used for drinking I much prefer Silk’s Pure Coconut Milk, or Coconut Dream. For baking, soups, curries or sauces I generally use Thai Kitchen or 365 brand. However Bianca made So Delicious sound, well so delicious. So when I saw it on sale while I was doing my grocery shopping Friday I decided to pick up a carton and give it a whirl.

This in my opinion is the definitive vegan eggnog! And from now on it will be the only one I ever purchase. This coconut nog blows all other vegan nogs, and quite frankly the traditional egg and dairy based stuff out of the universe! This nog is thick, creamy and rich, almost custard like and it doesn’t have that aftertaste that all other nogs have always imparted on me. This nog also doesn’t give me that blah feeling after I drink a glass or sneakily gulp down a few mouthfuls in the middle of the night. This is truly the perfect nog, and the best part is that it’s got just the slightest hint of coconut. That really makes this nog for me, that teeny-tiny hint. I love it. In fact I love it so much I’ve already drank half the carton since Friday, and I’m sure it won’t be long until the rest is gone.

So if you’re a former nog lover like me, or a current vegan nog fiend then give this nog a try and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. For all you nog haters or skeptics out there I dare you to try this nog, you never know, you might come away a changed vegan.

PS: I am very eager to try the Nog French Toast recipe on the side of the carton! American Thanksgiving Breakfast here I come!

Thanksgiving - Reexamining Traditions....

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, but because modern Thanksgiving traditions focus so heavily on the consumption of turkey flesh, it can be the most difficult holiday to sanely maneuver as a vegan. Today Thanksgiving is all about the turkey, yet what few people realize is that Turkeys had virtually nothing to do with the first Thanksgiving in either Canada or the United States, and were not a common meal item during Thanksgiving until the Mid 20^th century. In fact many of the things we consider Thanksgiving traditions today, from the spirit of the holiday to the food involved have little or no connection to the original celebration, and are complete myths. The Thanksgiving traditions that we are all familiar with today, have only been developed over the last two centuries.

In America there is actually very little known about the first Thanksgiving, and what we do know about it comes from only two sources. One a letter by Edward Winslow dated December 1621, the second a book by William Bradford written twenty years after the event took place. Though interestingly enough Bradford’s book was stolen during the revolutionary war, and didn’t resurface until 1854 so it had very little influence on shaping American Thanksgiving traditions. No where in either document do they write that turkeys were slaughtered for the actual Thanksgiving feast. In fact the only mention of turkey is from Bradford, who writes in his book only that the colonists hunted wild turkey’s during the autumn season. Though his book gives clues as to what may have appeared at the feast.

The animals killed for the first Thanksgiving were likely ducks, geese, various kinds of fish, and possibly deer. Though there is some speculation that because of the bounty of abundance brought in by the fall harvest, there would have been less meat, and more fruits and vegetables adorning the table. Interestingly many of the dishes we consider so familiar were entirely absent at the first Thanksgiving. Cranberry’s if they were used at all would have been used almost solely for their color because their tartness wasn’t desirable to the European settlers. It wasn’t for another fifty or so years that people began boiling fruit with sugar to make sauces and pies. Though had the settlers been privy to this trick it is unlikely that sugar would have been available anyway. Potatoes either regular or sweet were also not available at this time as cultivation of the popular root vegetable had not yet spread to North America. Pumpkins were also likely absent, but even if they had been available there was no flour so pumpkin pie would have been impossible, subsequently there were no ovens in which to bake a pie so it’s doubtful any pie at all was served for dessert. Another interesting fact is that there were no forks at the Thanksgiving feast.

There is also some controversy not only about whether or not the pilgrims actually first landed at Plymouth Rock, but also just how friendly their relationship with the Wampanoag Indians was. There are many stories and accounts of the European colonists stealing from and raiding the homes and ‘pantry’s’ of the Wampanoag. Taking their corn, beans and other harvest foods. It is also said that the Wampanoag weren’t originally invited to join in the festivities. That it was only after hearing gunfire from the settlers hunting rifles that the Wampanoag - thinking the settlers were preparing for war - appeared on the scene. Once they realized that they were mistaken and that it was a feast being prepared they returned to their homes to gather their people and the bounty of their harvest to share with the settlers.

Contrary to popular belief this first Thanksgiving really shouldn’t be labeled as such, but rather be called "The first Thanksgiving of the New World" Thanksgiving historically and traditionally has always been a celebration of the fall harvest. This tradition of celebrating the abundance that comes with autumn goes back as far as civilization and appears in some form or another in every culture in every country across the globe. The European settles likely celebrated fall harvest in some form in the years before their journey to the new world, making this ‘first Thanksgiving’ just a continuing tradition of something that was already familiar to them. Thanksgiving has little to no religious significance, in fact the European settlers while religious, never would have celebrated fall harvest in a religious manner, doing so would have been considered inappropriate. They actually had two separate fall traditions, the fall harvest which we know today as Thanksgiving, the celebration of food and feasting, and then an actual Thanksgiving which was spent in quiet reflection and fasting in the name of God. This second tradition was a solemn and serious affair as were most religious rituals and practices of that day. A very different kind of thanks giving then we are accustom today. For centuries afterwards Thanksgiving remained a religion-free celebration, and it wasn’t until the twentieth century that Thanksgiving began to take on a more religious significance at least in the United States.

So, how, you might wonder did our current traditions and notions of Thanksgiving come to be? Well the credit can almost solely be placed upon the persistence of one woman named Sarah Josepha Hale, who lived from 1788 to 1879. Hale was the editor of a very popular magazine. She is also the author of the novel Northwood: Life North and South, one of the first American books written by either gender about slavery. She is also famous for authoring the children’s nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Believing there were too few annual holidays celebrated in America, Hale embarked on a 40 year quest beginning in 1827 to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Before becoming a national holiday Thanksgiving was only regularly celebrated in New England. While other states had harvest festivals, their traditions were sporadic and took place anywhere between the beginning of October to the end of January, and was relatively unknown in the South. She used her status as an author and the vehicle of her editors position to write romantic and idealistic tales of the First Thanksgiving, taking many liberties to better appeal to her readership, she also went so far as to include her own personal recipes for some of her favorite fall dishes in the magazine. Recipes including those for roasted turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, things that - as already mentioned - would not have been present at the first Thanksgiving, but subsequently are all things that we eat today as part of our ‘tradition.’

In her quest to make Thanksgiving a national holiday she wrote letters to five different American Presidents - Zachary Taylor, Millard Filmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln - as well as other officials. Virtually all of her letters went ignored, until her letter to Lincoln which was persuasive enough to convince him to support legislation establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863. The new national holiday was considered at the time a unifying day after the stress of the Civil War. Interestingly prior to the addition of Thanksgiving the only national holidays celebrated in the United States were Independence Day and Washington’s Birthday.

However even as many of the myths Hale started began to seep into the culture’s collective consciousness, turkeys were not widely accepted as the picture perfect Thanksgiving meal until the mid twentieth century. You see wild turkeys - the kind of turkey the pilgrims would have eaten had they eaten any turkey at all - are adorned with dark plumage, and are thus dark skinned, meaning they have dark meat. Dark meat was unappealing and unappetizing to a great majority of consumers so to make turkey meat more desirable the Beltsville white was bred in 1947 at the behest of the National Turkey Federation. Since the white meat was more appealing to consumers, this is when turkey consumption went on the rise, increasing exponentially over the years. Turkey consumption continues to rise, and according to the USDA slaughter numbers an average of 240 million turkeys are killed each year, and anywhere from 22 to 40 million of those deaths occur at Thanksgiving, with another 22 million occurring at Christmas.

Canadian Thanksgiving traditions aren’t based in reality any more then the American ones. Various First Nations in Canada had long standing traditions celebrating in the bounty of the fall harvest dating back centuries before the European settlers arrived. Though the history of Thanksgiving as we sort of know it today can be traced back to the 1578 voyage of Martin Frobisher from England in search of the Northwest Passage. It was his intention to start a small settlement in the pressent Canadian territory of Nunavut and his fleet of fifteen ships was fitted with men and materials for exactly this purpose. However his expedition was plagued by ice and freak storms which at times had scattered his fleet, but upon rejoining at their anchorage Robert Wolfall an appointed preacher gave a sermon of thanks to God for their miraculous deliverance from danger, after which they celebrated.

Years later French Settlers having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1604 and onwards, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed "The Order of Good Cheer" and happily shared their food with their First Nations neighbors.

After the Seven Years War ended in the 1763 handing over of New France to the British, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. Beginning in 1799 Thanksgiving days were observed though not held every year. After the American Revolution American refugees who were still loyal to Great Brittan moved from the newly independent United States into Canada bringing with them many of the traditions and customs of American Thanksgiving. Still celebrations varied across the country. Lower Canada and Upper Canada for example celebrated Thanksgiving in different ways and on different dates, usually coinciding with the ends of wars and rebellions. Following the rebellions when the two Canada’s had merged into a united Provinces of Canada Thanksgiving was only observed six times between the years of 1850-1865.

It wasn’t until 1879 that Thanksgiving Day began to be celebrated every year, though the date was initially a Thursday in November. The theme for Thanksgiving also changed each year to reflect an important event to be thankful for. In the early years it was for an abundant harvest, however after World War 1 Thanksgiving Day was combined with Armistice Day and celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11^th occurred. In 1931 the two days once again became separate holidays, and in 1957 Thanksgiving was permanently set on the second Monday in October.

Interesting no? Another interesting little fact is that while Hale was no friend or savior to the Turkey she did have some other very noble ideas about what a Thanksgiving tradition should include. She originally envisioned that Thanksgiving would be about charity and generosity writing, "Let us consecrate the day to benevolence of action, by sending good gifts to the poor and doing those deeds of charity that will, for one day, make every American home the place fo plenty and of rejoicing." I guess some traditions stick better then others which is kind of my point in this writing.

We as people pick and choose our traditions and our beliefs. Our emotional attachments to ‘traditional Thanksgiving’ - as well as other cultural traditions - are incredibly powerful, and very often we try to justify them by citing historical accuracy. However historical accuracy plays no role in the Thanksgiving traditions of today, the idea is completely absurd. We continue to view turkeys as the quintessential Thanksgiving meal because that’s what we’ve been taught. We continue to eat turkeys because that’s what we grew up with, it’s what we’ve always enjoyed. At a very young age we are conditioned into a set of traditions, rituals and values, but often as we grow up we choose to ‘cherry pick’ those traditions, and values that best suits us, while leaving the rest behind. We choose to make Turkey our tradition but we can just as easily not choose it. It’s our ideals that shape our traditions, they’re not - or at least shouldn’t be - dictated by what people may or may not have eaten 400 years ago. That’s crazy if you think about it.

Our celebrations should reflect our values, and my values don’t jive with the mindless slaughtering of millions of beautiful animals whose flesh I have no nutritional requirement for. It’s important to remember that we can live our values and honor tradition at the same time. Remember that above all else Thanksgiving was a celebration of the fall harvest. We can easily, happily, healthfully and without murder celebrate in the countless bounty of fall. 22-40 million innocent and beautiful turkeys are slaughtered every year for this day of Thanks, but they don’t have to be. You can choose to celebrate kindness, you can choose to celebrate mercy, you can choose a gentler tradition.

This year live the values of compassion and celebrate a turkey free Thanksgiving.