Black Truffle Mac n Cheese

So anything with truffle oil is automatically amazing, right? I don't even like mushrooms! This recipe calls for a few different kinds of cheese, but feel free to change it up if you don't like something. I subbed the american cheese for a cheese I found at Earth Fare, a truffle-infused creamy goat cheese, which was amazing. If I could have changed anything, I would have added more blue cheese, but if you don't like blue cheese, leave it out all together! I also couldn't find shaved black truffle in tallahassee, but I bet if you live in a real city you can find it. I fixed it by adding a little more truffle oil, and the truffle flavor in the goat cheese helped.

From Food pics

Ingredients:

1/4 c butter
1/4 c flour
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz dry macaroni
2 oz american cheese
2 oz cheddar cheese
2 oz swiss cheese
2 oz blue cheese
2 tbsp Worchesterchire sauce
2 tbsp hot sauce
1 tsp thyme
Black truffle, shaved, to taste
salt and pepper
bread crumbs
black truffle oil, to tasste

1. In a large saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and add the flour. Whisk constantly (LOW heat) for about 5 minutes. Slowly pour in the milk and cream, continue to whisk. Bring to a low simmer. The recipe said to simmer (while whisking constantly) for 30 minutes or until the sauce became thick, but that happened for me after about 10 minutes.


2. While this is happening, cook your pasta till its al dente.

3. Once the sauce is thick, turn heat to its lowest setting and stir in the cheese, sauces, truffle shavings, salt, pepper, and thyme. Taste it to see if you like it. I added more salt, pepper, and thyme than the recipe called for. Stir until all the cheese is melted.

4. By this time your pasta should be done. Strain and drizzle with about 1 tbsp truffle oil.

5. Add the macaroni to the cheese sauce and stir to evenly coat. Divide the dish into individual serving dishes, top with bread crumbs and more thyme, and broil until the tops are golden brown. Drizzle with truffle oil, and serve!

From Food pics

Seitan Pot Pie

I adapted this recipe from my friend April, who adapted it from the Veganomicon. This particular recipe isn't vegan because I used butter and a store bought pie crust, but it would be super easy to make vegan, so that's why I'm tagging this as vegan. I'm not really a fan of "all american" meals, but this is really filling and hearty, and wonderful on a cold night.

Ingredients:
(I suggest getting the veggies cut and the broth ready before you begin, you'll be stirring so much you won't have time to prepare them later. Don't forget to let your pie crust thaw, too!))
1. Pre-made pie crust (you can use just the top, or the top and the bottom) (puff pastry works well too!)
2. About a quarter of a recipe seitan, cut into chunks, or more as you like it (I would say I used about 3 cups of seitan all together)
3. 1/2 a white onion, diced
4. 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
5. 2 celery sticks, sliced
6. one potato, diced
7. 3/4 cup frozen peas (or corn, if you prefer)
8. 3/4 cup cut-up broccoli florets (make them pretty small)
9. 2/3 cup + 1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
10. salt, pepper, thyme, to taste
11. 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
12. 3 tbs butter (or vegan margarine!)

1. Saute the seitan in a little bit of oil for about 8-10 minutes, or until browned. Set aside.

2. In a large saucepot, make your roux. Melt the butter and add the flour, stirring constantly until it browns.

3. Add the onions, stirring pretty constantly. Careful, they'll stick to the bottom, and you don't want that to happen.

4. Stir in the potatoes, carrots and celery; stir for about 8 minutes.

5. Pour in 2/3 c of the veg broth. Stir enough to get the browned bits of roux off the bottom of the pot. Add the frozen peas.

6. Add about half the remaining broth (about 3/4 of a cup). Add your salt, pepper, and thyme to taste. Bring to a simmer.

7. Add the rest of the broth, and simmer, stirring frequently, until the sauce has reduced to a gravy-like consistency.

8. At this time, prepare your pie crust. Grease a large pie plate or cast-iron pot. Roll out the bottom of the pie crust until it is about an inch (n each side) larger than your pie plate. Carefully lift the pie crust into the plate and make sure its snug in there.

9. Spoon the seitan mixture into the pie crust. Roll out the top of the crust and carefully place it over the seitan mixture.

10. Crimp the edges with your fingers or a fork and brush the top with soy milk or egg. Make a few slits in the top for steam to escape, and bake for 45 minutes at 375. Let it cool for at least 10 minutes before serving - its hot!

From Food pics

From Food pics

Seitan Wings

EJ and I recently spent time in Denver, where we saw a lot of friends and family. Some of our dear, dear friends brought us to this AMAZING vegetarian restaurant called Watercourse. It was SO. GOOD. One of the appetizers we ordered were seitan wings, which EJ and I fell in love with. Of course when I came home, I tried to re-create them, and I was very pleased with the outcome.

I'm putting 2 versions here; the baked version is clearly healthier, but the fried version tastes better.

Ingredients (Fried):
Seitan
1/4 cup soy milk
2 tbs garbanzo flour (but I would bet that any flour would work well)
Panko bread crumbs
Veg oil, for frying.

1. Mix the milk and flour together with a fork until all lumps are gone.
2. Cover each piece of seitan with the flour mixture, and then toss in bread crumbs.
3. Heat oil in skillet. Fry each piece of seitan ~5 minutes on each side, or until brown and crispy.

Baked.
Preheat oven to 350.
Spray a cookie sheet with oil, and bake the seitan about 15-20 minutes on each side, until brown and crispy.

Serve with your favorite sauce (buffalo, teriyaki, barbecue...EJ and I ate it with some peanut sauce).

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Seitan from scratch

Seitan is this uber healthy food made from what gluten flour. The main ingredients here are wheat gluten flour and water; everything else is for flavoring, so feel free to change it up. I found this recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance. Its a little time consuming, but its so worth it.

Ingredients:
2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 tbs all-purpose flour
1 c cold vegetable broth
1/2 soy sauce
1 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs olive oil
2 cloved garlic, minced super fine, or grated

Broth:
12 cups cold water or cold veg broth
1/2 cup soy sauce

1. In a large bowl, mix vital wheat gluten, yeast, and flour. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients (not the broth).

2. Pour the wet into the dry and mix. Knead (i do this inside the bowl) for about 5 minutes. The dough should be spongy and elastic.

3. In the meantime, prepare a pretty large saucepot with the broth. Keep the broth cold though, this is important for the texture of the seitan.

4. Isa suggests rolling the seitan into a log about 10 inches long and cutting it into about 6 pieces of equal size. I felt like these would be HUGE pieces, so mine were a lot smaller. I made several logs about 4 inches long with about the width of four fingers. The smaller the pieces, the more spongy and soft the pieces will be is what I gathered.

5. Place the seitan pieces in the broth and bring the broth to a boil, partially covering the pot.

6. When the broth is boiling, turn the heat to low and simmer for an hour (covered), turning the seitan periodically.

7. Turn the heat off and let the broth/seitan cool for 30 minutes. This helps the seitan become firm.

8. If you're not using the seitan right away, cut into chunks and store in the broth in a sealed container for a few days.