So, Vegan MoFo is over for another year but unlike past years I'm feeling less burnt out and more determined to keep on blogging regularly. Usually after MoFo I end up taking a two month blogging break and when I come back the blog is filled with travel posts. This year I'm going to try to inject some home cookin' & eatin' into the blog all year round, I am Vegan In Brighton after all!
This week I tried a new seitan recipe, the Chicken Style Seitan from Vegan Diner.
This is probably one of the easiest seitans I've ever made, there isn't even any kneading, just throw everything into a bowl and stir. It gets wrapped in a tea towel & steamed for 50 minutes. Mine was still a little soggy in the middle after 50 though so next time I'd give it a full hour.
What did you make with this seitan I hear you ask, well, firstly I made a delicious sandwich with cranberry sauce. The Thanksgiving flavours of the seitan worked perfectly here and I'll definitely be repeating this tasty sandwich before the loaf-o-seitan runs out. Secondly I made a stew I'd been eyeing on the PPK for a while, the Seitan Porcini Beef Stew. Now a chicken style seitan probably isn't the perfect choice for this recipe but I figured what the hell!
The meatiness in the stew comes from the seitan, porcini mushrooms and beef broth. I used the Edward & Sons bullion cubes I brought back from the US. This thick & flavourful stew was really easy to make, a bit of chopping but nothing complicated. I'll definitely be making this again.
On Friday night Nick & I went to the Gourmet Girls Pop Up Restaurant at Fanny's of Hannover. This week they has a special menu of their favourite dishes for World Vegan Day & it seemed like the perfect way to celebrate.
The first course was what immediately tempted me to book our spot at this dinner and boy was I glad I did. This Roasted Pumpkin & Cashew Cheese Ravioli was perfect.
I'm a huge fan of stuffed pastas and this heavy-on-the-cashew-cheese filling exceeded my expectations. The pine nut & sage butter complimented the ravioli beautifully and I only wished that there was more of it!
The main course of Smoked Garlic & Mushroom Arancini nestled on wilted spinach & served with a macadamia nut truffle cream and a watercress, pomegranate & rawmesan salad with a balsamic reduction was, of course, as amazing as it sounds. It looked so amazing that I actually forgot to take a picture of it! Luckily for you, if you want to take a look, I've eaten a very similar dish before at the Gourmet Girls Pop-Up, back when it was popping up at secret locations all over the city. I have to say that this time around it was even better, the macadamia truffle cream was amazing and added an extra something to the dish.
For dessert the Gourmet Girls made their Divine Chocolate Marble Cheesecake.
This comes with a chocolate orange & maca sauce and it's deeeelicious! A year and a half ago when I last tried it I was a huge cheesecake hater and I still quite enjoyed it, this time around I loved it. I think that I might finally like cheesecake but only if it's really fucking good! Nick said that it's the best cheesecake he's ever tasted & he's an actual cheesecake fan!
As it was World Vegan Day we even got gifts, cocoa and white chocolate buttons. Such a lovely touch and a wonderful surprise ending to an amazing meal.
If you haven't been to the Gourmet Girl's Pop-Up yet what are you waiting for? Check out the upcoming menus right here & get ready for wonderful meal.
The last exciting thing of the week was this package arriving from The Book Depository. Finally the two cookbooks the MoFo blogosphere was going crazy for this year are mine.
I'm super excited about both Artisan Vegan Cheese and Vegan Eats World. The rave reviews I've read and the pictures I've seen from Artisan Vegan Cheese were enough for me to get overexcited without even seeing the book & I can't wait to get started with some home cheese making.
Even before reading anything about Vegan Eats World I knew that I'd be buying it, Terry Hope Romero could release a book about something I had no interest in and I'd probably still buy it, use it & love it but a world cookbook is exactly what my collection needs. I love Chinese and Japanese food already but I hardly ever tackle them myself and I'm excited to try cooking up Thai, Indian and Middle Eastern food too. The other thing about this book is that it's stunning, seriously, so pretty. It has a similar layout to Veganomicon which I love and Terry's writing style always makes me smile. I have a whole list of things I need to buy before I can get cooking but I can't wait & I'm sure I'll be telling you all about it soon.
I'm glad you'll be blogging more regularly
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading your posts! (They always make me hungry!)
Yeah! This MoFo was easier for me too! Those Edward & Sons bullion cubes are so good! The Not-Chicken cubes give polenta an awesome flavor. I'm a bit obsessed with not-chicken polenta at the moment! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely World Vegan Day dinner! I love that they gave you goodies to take home!
I really want to try some cheeses from Artisan Vegan Cheese, but making rejuvelac scares me!
The Gourmet Girls Pop Up food looks amazing!! That cheesecake and that pasta....omg! And I've just moved an hour and a half further away from Brighton....boh! They're more than welcome to come to Norfolk anytime :)
ReplyDeleteI love that seitan recipe, so easy. I've started making it in half portions so I can eek out my vital wheat gluten in between visits to VX!
ReplyDeleteLove me some seitan! Those recipes sound and look delicious. I went seitan mad just the other day with an African style seitan stew and then I battered and breadcrumbed the remaining seitan before fryin it last night. Mmmm, crispy. In the UK you can buy Gluten Powder from The Flour Bin online much cheaper than importing it. The recipes need tweaking a little but only in the amount of liquid you add to your powdered mix. I've been using it for years in place of vital wheat gluten.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on getting through Vegan MoFo! I've checked out Vegan Diner but haven't tried the seitan recipe yet. Good to know it's an easy recipe, I still need to work on my seitan making skills. :-)
ReplyDeleteWel Jel that your Vegan Eats World has arrived. Shitty amazon is still saying it hasn't been released yet! Boo.
ReplyDeleteThat seitan has been on my to make list for ages too. The last time I made seitan though I burnt it and it was inedible. Next time, I will read the instructions!
I felt invirgorated by Mofo too--and a wee it burned out. Nice that the pressure is off :)
ReplyDeleteI love Vegan Diner--Julie is just great. And that pop-up restaurant looks like a blast, ("Titbits" catring--cracks me up!) I can't wait for my copies of the cheese book and Vegan Eats World to arrive.
That was me who commented above. Not sure why I came across as unknown. One of those days!
ReplyDeleteI cannot wait for my next paycheck so I can head up to a book shop and get Vegan Eats World. Keep us updated on whether the Artisan Vegan Cheese is worth the pages it's printed on. I haven't come across it before but just the name alone sounds pretty good. I think it is time to pop my vegan cheese cherry and try making some if the recipies are fairly easy, I've only ever tried vegan cheese sauce before and have been too scared to make my own cheese!
ReplyDeleteThat's what I like to hear - more posting and more droolworthy snaps. Good vegan cheese and pasta combos are thing of a wonder.
ReplyDeleteBoth of these cookbooks are on my wishlist, along with Vegan Sandwiches. Good job Christmas isn't too far away!
Ill have to check out that seitan recipe - thats one thing i've never had the courage to make, but that sounds like something that i could do for sure!
ReplyDeleteThe seitan stew looks delicious! I'm looking forward to seeing what you make from Vegan Eats World, hope you can track down the ingredients you need. Artisan Vegan Cheese is definitely going to be my next cookbook purchase!
ReplyDeleteIt's very rare that I'll make seitan from scratch, but this sounds like a recipe I definitely need to try. I even have the cookbook, so I don't know why I didn't snap it up already. Perhaps it would change the way I think about seitan prep in the first place. That stew seems so delicious, it would be worth any effort.
ReplyDeleteOh that seitan recipe sounds exciting! I'll put it to the test later this week.
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry to hear about your wisdom tooth, dude. I hope you can get some comfort real soon. Fingers crossed.
I love homemade seitan! I use Tami's recipe from American Vegan Kitchen, and I LOVE it. I make the steaks and freeze them for easy retrieval later. YUM. I need to make a batch of it soon (after Thanksgiving, though, too much to do!).
ReplyDeleteXOXO!
P.S. I'm gonna ask for VEW for Xmas, and I broke down and bought Artisan Cheese :-)