Hail Seitan.
Yes, I know it's old, but I said it anyway. Sooooo, I occasionally have themed dinner parties. I love to cook for people, really really love it. The more people the better and the more creative I can get! In the fall I had a "Pumpkin Party" where every single dish I made, be it appetizer, main course, or dessert, had pumpkin in it. I've been itching to plan another such party, but what food to choose to center around?? I decided the best spring/summer choice would be strawberries. Thus the birth of the Strawberry Shindig.
Now, I am a firm believer that any food can end up in any type of dish and be amazing, but strawberries in a main dish are a little hard to come by recipe-wise. It's not that the dish needs to FOCUS on strawberries, just that strawberries have to be there in some fashion. In my cooking blog delving I found a few good main dish recipes: Cold Strawberry and Avocado Soup, Strawberry and Fresh Mozzerella Salad, Strawberry Risotto, and Strawberry BBQ sauce. BBQ sauce! "Excellent!" I thought... but... what does a vegetarian BBQ??? Sure, there are those freezer fake meat "cutlets", but I will have 15-20 people here and those things aren't cheap. Besides, thawing something and covering it in sauce isn't really what I consider "cooking" (fine for a weekday evening, but for impressing guests? come on...). In steps Seitan. I'm more than a little ashamed/bitter to say that I have never had it. Yesterday I was looking for vegetarian Reuben sandwhich recipes and found one that used seitan and I thought "hmm, I wonder why I have never seen this stuff in the store before." Turns out it's because it is ridiculously easy to make and anything packaged and sitting around for a while probably wouldnt be very good. And in my "How to make seitan" quest I found it. The perfect vegetarian BBQ ribs substitute (well, I guess I am assuming these taste good, we shall find out).
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-seitan-vegan-barbecue-ribs-164108/
I can't wait to get to the store to buy some vital wheat gluten :)
ps. Strawberry sushi will also be made for the party, but I came up with that idea on my own and tried it out a few weeks ago. Amazing.
My baby squirrel smells less and less like pee everyday. He's a cutie. Joe took pictures, so hopefully I can get some of him to post.
Now, I am a firm believer that any food can end up in any type of dish and be amazing, but strawberries in a main dish are a little hard to come by recipe-wise. It's not that the dish needs to FOCUS on strawberries, just that strawberries have to be there in some fashion. In my cooking blog delving I found a few good main dish recipes: Cold Strawberry and Avocado Soup, Strawberry and Fresh Mozzerella Salad, Strawberry Risotto, and Strawberry BBQ sauce. BBQ sauce! "Excellent!" I thought... but... what does a vegetarian BBQ??? Sure, there are those freezer fake meat "cutlets", but I will have 15-20 people here and those things aren't cheap. Besides, thawing something and covering it in sauce isn't really what I consider "cooking" (fine for a weekday evening, but for impressing guests? come on...). In steps Seitan. I'm more than a little ashamed/bitter to say that I have never had it. Yesterday I was looking for vegetarian Reuben sandwhich recipes and found one that used seitan and I thought "hmm, I wonder why I have never seen this stuff in the store before." Turns out it's because it is ridiculously easy to make and anything packaged and sitting around for a while probably wouldnt be very good. And in my "How to make seitan" quest I found it. The perfect vegetarian BBQ ribs substitute (well, I guess I am assuming these taste good, we shall find out).
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-seitan-vegan-barbecue-ribs-164108/
I can't wait to get to the store to buy some vital wheat gluten :)
ps. Strawberry sushi will also be made for the party, but I came up with that idea on my own and tried it out a few weeks ago. Amazing.
My baby squirrel smells less and less like pee everyday. He's a cutie. Joe took pictures, so hopefully I can get some of him to post.