Vegan MoFo Day 17: Dude, you're fugly

I felt like I was staring into the fridge for hours last night trying to find inspiration to cook something awesome and not just throw a fry's chicken burger in the oven. In reality it was about 5 minutes.

 

I came up with a use for this mock chicken I bought in a Thai supermarket recently.  I didn't notice when I bought it that it's tofu, not fried gluten as I thought, so I was a little wary.

 

When I opened it, this was staring back at me! EEK.  It was massive lumps of gross looking stuff.  I tasted a bit, it tasted strongly of soy, but not completely unpleasant.

 

Despite its fugliness, I pressed ahead with my idea for "chicken" and dumplings and I'm glad I did, it was ACE!

 

I didn't measure anything, I was winging the lot, so here are some guidelines, rather than a proper recipe:

 

I chopped 2 large carrots into small dice and boiled them for 10 minutes, while I got everything else ready.  I sauteed a large shallot in a bit of olive oil with some dried thyme and rosemary and then added the carrots and the drained mock chicken that I broke up into chunks.  I then added about a tbsp of flour and stirred it around, then added 300ml of veggie stock and about half a cup of soymilk.

 

Whilst the carrots were blanching, I made the dumpling dough from 1/2 cup of plain flour, into which I rubbed 2 tbsps of vitalite, then mixed in a pinch each of thyme and rosemary and a bit of salt. Then I added soymilk a splosh at a time until it came together as a soft dough.

 

I rolled the dough into about 6 or 7 ping pong ball sized dumplings and dropped them into the stew.  Then I cooked it all for about 15/20 minutes.  I then added some frozen peas and because it wasn't thickening enough, I mashed a tbsp of vitalite with a tbsp of flour and added this to the stew to thicken it.

 

I served it with steamed cauliflower and mashed potatoes.

 

My little kitchen friend has taken to sitting and watching me cook lately (I think in the hope that she's going to get a titbit) and I took a pic yesterday just as she squeaked at me! hehe FEED ME SAL!

Laterz
xXx

Post title taken from this scene in Supernatural

Vegan MoFo - Mock-a-doodle-stew

Lame title. I'm sorry.

Today I had PMT - the angry kind and work sucked so I was fighting the urge to put on Rage Against the Machine and sing FUCK YOU I WON'T DO AS YOU TELL ME! at the top of my voice. I went with plan B instead - chick flick and comfort food. Plus angry PMT has turned to lameass teary PMT - I cried twice while watching the Sex & the City Movie!

I love a good stew and when I saw the Barefoot Contessa's show yesterday I knew I totally had to steal her idea! (This recipe.)

Ingredients (approximates as I didn't measure anything):
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion
3 tbsp margarine
3 tbsp flour
2 cups ish stock (I used the faux chicken stock I cooked the seitan in)
1 clove of garlic
1 cup of chicken seitan (I made my own and more on that at some point during Vegan MoFo!)
small handful finely chopped parsley (about a tbsp)
leaves from 2 sprigs of time
1/2 cup peas (actually it was prob nearer to a cup - my hand slipped!)
2 carrots

Method:
Peel & chop the carrots and cook them in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Saute the onion in the olive oil for 5 minutes, then add the margarine and turn heat down low. In a separate pan, gently warm (don't boil) the stock. Once margarine is melted, add the flour and stir well, cook out flour taste for a minute or so. Slowly add the stock, bit by bit until you have a lovely thick smooth sauce.

Add the garlic and thyme, stir and cook for a minute or so then add the seitan, veggies and herbs, stir well, turn down low and cook with a lid on for 5-10 minutes. Serve with sprinkle of fresh parsley, dumplings and mashed potato! YUM.

I baked the dumplings / biscuits and just put then on the stew for the last 5 minutes. But I made a booboo! I just used the recipe on the side of the Atora packet but I use plain flour instead of self-raising and forgot to add baking powder. DOH. So they were more like hockey pucks than fluffy dumplings but hey, it's been that kind of day.

Cooking to: the Sex and the City Movie!