Vegan Beef Burgundy

My Culinary Class at school had been really focusing on sauces.....so I ran with it.  I made, and I have no idea why....a vegan version of Beef Burgundy - and I'm glad I did!

It looked like a mess...but it didn't taste messy...

Even when I tried to make it look plate pretty.....it looked messy.

  

I ate it with tofu noodles, Goods ate his with regular pasta noodles.  It was yummy but really saucey - even Goods thought it was too saucey and he is like a "Sauce King"....I'm a plain Jane myself, I don't like to cover my food up with sauce....serve mine naked please. 

Here is my Beef Burgundy recipe I conjured up....

 - What you need - 

1 package of Fake Beef Tips

3 Tbs. of Flour

1 C. sliced Onion (I 1/2 mooned shaped mine)

1 C. or more sliced Red & Green Pepper

6 cloves of garlic - sliced/minced

2 C. Red Wine

2 Tbs. Balsamic Vinegar

1 Tbs. Soy Sauce

2 Tbs. Tomato Paste

1 C. "Beef" Stock

1/2 tsp dried Marjoram

1/2 tsp dried Thyme

1/2 tsp  Hungarian Paprika

Black Pepper (to taste)

Salt (to taste)

- First - 

I browned up some Fake Cow and coated the fake cow with 3 Tbs. of flour.

Remove from pan & set aside.

(feel free to just set the pan aside if you don't mind washing a bunch of pans afterwards)

- Next -

Saute the garlic, onions & peppers until desired tenderness

- Then -

Add the wine, vinegar, soy sauce, tomato paste & bring to a nice bubble.

Then add the "beef" stock (I used faux beef bullion cube mixed with water)

Bring to a bubble again.  All this is pretty much done over medium heat.

- And Finally -

Reintroduce the "beef" tips coated with flour. 

(ie put them back into the pan)

Stir the mixture until it thickens, at this point though you might want to turn the heat down a bit.

Tah-Dah - You are done.

Serve with noodles.

And what else did I serve with this....a simple but delicious - vodka on the rocks with a lemon twist....

I know, I'm getting all fancy dancy on you....A TWIST!!   I am gaining even more knowledge about booze in my beverage class.  I will share with you how to easily peel a whole lemon in one fell swoop.  The secret is....before you try and peel the lemon, you let it sit in hot water for 15-20 minutes before the peeling begins.  After the soaking, cut off both ends and then slit it from one end to the other.  Then you can just easily peel the rind off in one piece.  It's like magic.

And like magic - I'm disappearing...byes for now.

~Signs of Spring~

Seeeee.....a sign of SPRING!
No, the above photo isn't from Fall, we actually still have 2 pumpkins left from Halloween, as Lily poses with the 7 month old pumpkins.

Here's a real sign of Spring.....

And another, the Green Heron's are nesting....

Thank goodness they pick the Detroit Zoo to nest at, not our neighborhood....they've visited our yard before, eyeing up our fish in our pond- don't they realize they are my PETS??? Here's a closer look at the beasts....

And yet another sign of Spring- Goods doing Spring clean-up in the pond....and yes the water was FREEZING.

Then Goods got to rest on our new double chaise lounge at the tiki hut patio.

Goods, if you are reading this, make a note to take off the canvas cover off the roof.

And it was a beautiful Saturday, weather wise, so we immediately think of PICNIC FOOD!

Planned menu of:

Fake Chicken Patty Sandwich

Baked Beans

Corn on the Cob

It was a long day of yardwork so I went and checked the freezer- shoot, no Boca Chicken Patties, so I did have to make my own after all. Well, they really weren't my own, I borrowed the recipe from Vegan Dad- I used his Chicken Wing recipe and made my own patties...lookie...

I baked them in the oven as you do the wings, then Goods threw them on the grill for a bit. They were excellent. I think next time I will just dip them once in the breading instead of twice, that you do for the wings-they were a tad bready, and really crunchy...but I liked that! When I was forming the patties, one of them thought about falling apart, but I just pinched it back together. Here is my plate, I'm bunless...

My condiments are on the side, one of which is Bubbie's Pickles - they are the bomb! The corn was from Kroger's and it was great- very sweet and tender- soaked in their husk and done on the grill. I have bought it a few times lately, and it's been great every time.

The baked beans, well they cooked all afternoon in the crockpot - I can't tell you my secret recipe, well one, because I don't want to, and the other reason is because I wing it each time I make them.

Since I was talking about beans....I made a Gluten Free Chocolate Cake - out of Black Eye Peas....Are peas considered a beans??? Well close enough...

I've been trying to cut out as much gluten in my diet as possible and I've been testing some "different" recipes and this was one of them- It was like Puddin' cake. It should have been called "Protein Packed Puddin' Cake". The recipe was from Bittersweet Blog - link for recipe ***here*** (and she has much prettier photos of the cake too). Next time I'm going to bake it in a 8" x 8" pan and see how that turns out...just because the cake was so thick. The cake wasn't too sweet, which I prefer....you know, because I'm sweet enough.

And just for fun....a photo of a new addition to the Detroit Zoo-

He was saying to me - "Hey were is my piece of Protein Packed Puddin' Cake" - yes, I think he was.

All food rated 5 out of 5 forks.

Is it crockpot or slow-cooker? Easy Seiten Pot Roast

By the way, it sucks being in Michigan right now!
But on to the regular schedule programing...

Week 2 of my self weekly crockpot challenge.....
Slower-Cooker Seitan Pot Roast from Vegan Planet.

Here is her recipe, copied directly from her website:

1 sweet yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chopped (I used pearl onions because they are pretty)
1 pound baby carrots
1 pound small red-skinned potatoes, halved or quartered
(I also added some chunks of celery)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup vegetable stock (I used 2 cups, will explain later)
2 garlic cloves, crushed (I added extra)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
(I added some dried rosemary cauze it's yummy)

2 cups wheat gluten flour
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 cup water, or more as needed (I didn't need extra)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup or tomato sauce (I used ketchup)

1. Arrange the onion, carrots, and potatoes in the bottom of a lightly oiled slow cooker. Season the vegetables to taste with salt and pepper and add the stock, garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon of the thyme.

2. In a large bowl, combine the wheat gluten flour, onion powder, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of thyme, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. Add the water, soy sauce, and ketchup. Mix well, adding a little more water if the mixture is too dry, then knead for 2 minutes until smooth. Shape the gluten to fit inside your cooker and place on top of the vegetables. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 4 hours, or until the seitan and vegetables are cooked.

3. To serve, remove the vegetables and seitan from the slow cooker. Cut the seitan into slices and arrange them on a serving platter. Surround with the vegetables and spoon the cooking liquid over all.Serves 4

And here are my photos of the process-
I call this one - "THE RAW MEAT"
Now this one - "RAW MEAT ON RAW VEGGIES"
I call this - "RAW MEAT & VEGGIES COOKED TOO FAST" (I'll explain later)

And this one - "POT ROAST DONE AND NO ANIMALS HARMED"

And finally - "VEGGIES & GRAVY IN THE GRAVYBOAT THAT MY GRANDMA MADE"

This recipe was quite easy. I read some other blogs that stated that the recipe really took 8 hours to cook, I allotted for that, so I turned the cooker on at 10 am, and by 3 pm, the food was done. So it sat quietly on the counter until 6 ish. The roast didn't dry out all that much either, but I had no other choice, we weren't ready to eat dinner at 3 pm- I might have gotten a year older this week but I'm NOT ready for the early bird dinners.

I put my roast in a 6 quart roaster, so I added 2 cups of veggie broth. This turned out perfect since I was able to make gravy out of the extra broth. [side note, because I like to babble- I HATE GRAVY! I hate what it stood for, even when I ate poor little innocent animals. Who in their right mind would want to eat liquid animal fat - TOTALLY GROSS. So even as a vegetarian and then vegan, I still didn't touch the stuff....buuuttttt, I'm starting to appreciate it more. I started slowly, VWV chickpea gravy and now I'm up to making it all by myself now. End of side note]

Now the review, finally huh?

The roast - it was good, not wow great, but quite good. Maybe it was in the crockpot too long- nice flavor, I think next time I would add some extra stuff.

The veggies - totally kick a$$. Perfect seasoning.

The ease of preparation - great!

Do I need to go spend money to by her cookbook? - I do believe so!

I give this 4 out of 5 forks.

I saved the left over seitan to make "beef" stroganoff tomorrow night- pretty excited about that...not that I'm a fan of mushrooms, but I'm trying.

So Goods & I have a fun filled weekend planned, which of course I will share with you! So have a great weekend!

Giganitic Log of "Meat"

I like making my own fake meat. I like trying new recipes- so here we go...

The recipe is here: Veggie Lunch Meat

This made a GIGANTIC log of meat - like 10 inches long! I think the diameter was over 3 1/2 inches. HUGE.

I followed the directions up until the "how to cook" instructions. I do not have a steamer, even though I thought I had every kitchen gadget under the sun. So I restored to how I usually make fake meat - wrap it in parchment paper, then in foil- tightly.

So now I had a GIGANTIC foil log in front on me. When making seitan "meat" log from Vegan Vittles, I bake the log at 325 degrees for 1.5 hours (flipping it 1/2 thru)....so that is what I did with this monster. After the 1.5 hours I unwrapped it and ended up wrapping back up and put it back in for another 1/2 hour. The first time I took it out, it just wasn't firm in the middle- but adding the additional 1/2 hour to the bake time, the gigantic log came out PERFECT! SEE!!!!!

I loved the flavor of this, it reminded me of kabalsa/sausage. Even Goods asked me if I could make them into smaller logs and make sausage for sauerkraut. I loved the moistness of the meat too, not dry like other meats I made, this is very moist - even without steaming it as Vegan Dad does. So - excellent job Vegan Dad!

Oh, and since this log was so gigantic, I cut it in half and froze it. Vegan Dad likes to make lots, just like when I made the VAT-O-CHEESE (my Nov 21st post) and I made Vegan Sweet & Sticky Wingz (didn't blog about but made a lot and were excellent!) I kind of feel like I'm stalking Vegan Dad, but really it's all about the recipes!

Definitey a 5 out of 5 fork recipe!