Pasta Bake
I’m not sure why I feel this way, but pasta is boring.
And yet there are constantly people telling me how amazing it actually is.
To be fair, I’ve never really put any effort into making it delicious, so I have no excuse. I mean, if you just put sauce to pasta and never think about expanding the recipe - you probably feel the same way I do.
So I gave it a shot. And surprise surprise… pasta can be pretty good when you put in a little extra effort.
Now, I wasn’t quite ready to make my own pasta (yet), but I was ready to spruce up some pasta & sauce… even if it was JUST so I could write this post (caught me!!).
As a green, I used B.Sprouts, which you can look up here. I then decided to make a “crust” that would be broiled once the pasta was done cooking. Now, with pasta, I wouldn’t suggest a pie crust or flakey crust, but I had an idea of what would be good.
This is what I had in mind.
Ingredients:
1 tsp Turmeric
2 tables butter (earth balance)
1/2 cup, grated cheese
2 tbls Nutritional Yeast
4 tbls Bread Crumbs
2 tsp Red Chili
Directions:
Once your pasta is cooked, add white sauce and set aside (one day i’ll make my own sauce, promise).
Set oven to broil.
Melt butter in a bowl. You don’t want it to cook. Just enough to melt slightly.
Add all ingredients and mix together with hands/stir. What you want is the cheese/crumbs/yeast to be stuck together.
Once mixed, top your pasta (evenly) and broil in the oven until the top has browned.
What you end up with is a delicious crust that is cheesy and tasty and awesome.
I actually ate the entire meal - which was supposed to be my dinner and a lunch.
Stop judging me. You’ll do the same once you try it.
Oh, and listen to this band. They’re so good. And coming back to Toronto in a month or so. Also, the video is also made entirely out of food (ice cream cone microphones for the win!!).
Dave.
Crispy ‘Wings’
Today was a rainy Sunday afternoon and since my record player stopped working, I knew that the only way I’d be happy would be to get creative in the kitchen and make some almost authentic crispy wings.
Similar to the BBQ bites that I made earlier this year, but more wing like.
I went into China Town and found this crazy dry root called Glehnia, which I used as the ‘wing bone.’
I then reduced the cooking time of my last recipe to keep the seitan even more tender, and decided to improve my coating by investing in some Panko (which is actually super cheap at Essence of Life).
Oh, I also cut out some of the more difficult steps from the previous recipe in hopes that more people would be interested in giving this a shot. These are officially easy to make.
I found a great chicken seitan recipe from Voracious and although I didn’t use their ingredients, I did borrow the cooking method - so kudos to them for that.
Get our your napkins, this one is a salivator.
Ingredients:
1 bag of Glehnia sticks, broken into wing size bones. You can find these in China Town (or get creative. Bamboo? Skewers? Barbie Doll Legs?)
Dry/mix
1 tsp bbq spice (this can be found at Taste of Nature, Kensington)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbls paprika
1 tsp cumin
2 cups vital gluten flour
Wet/mix
3tbls braggs
8 squirts, liquid smoke ( I used the Hickory for this version)
1 1/3 cups - broth (I used fake chicken broth)
Broth (different from above, used to simmer the seitan)
4 cups water
1/4 cup braggs
few squirts liquid smoke
wet mix/breading
1/2 cupflour
1 cup water
Dry/breading
3 cups panko
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
Oil for frying.
Your fav BBQ Sauce/Hot Sauce
Directions:
Stir together all dry/mix ingredients.
In separate bowl, mix the wet/mix ingredients.
Combine and knead with hands. mold into a ball and cut into discs.
Add to broth and simmer for 20-30 minutes, checking the texture every 5-10 minutes, When desired texture is reached, remove from heat and let cool (still in broth). This is an important step. You want the seitan to be firm, but not too firm. To put it in perspective, if this were pulled pork, you could easily tear it apart. You want it to be harder than that.
As the seitan is cooling, prepare wet and dry breading in separate bowls and heat a little oil in a pot (don’t use a pan, you could burn yourself).
Once cool, cut your seitan into wing pieces. Slide the bone into the end, dip each piece into your wet mix, and coat with panko batter.
Fry each side for a good few minutes until super crispiness has been reached. Remember, you do not need a lot of oil for this (maybe a half inch thick), but if your oil is not hot enough, it will just soak into your food. The hotter, the better (without it burning, obvs).
In a frying pan, warn your fav BBQ sauce mixed with your fav Hot sauce (or skip this step if you want to just have plain Crispy WIngs).
Pat the wings with cloth/paper towel to remove excess oil and toss in sauce.
Now call me, tell me how it went, and bask in the glory that is crispy wings. WITH BONES.
My dream is to one day be able to sit with my friends in the pub, while enjoying pitchers of draught, the game on the telly, and some wings. This recipe just got me that much closer. Now if I could only convince the Wheat Sheaf to sell them……
Enjoy.
Dave.
