Seitan Paprikas (December 25)

Last week I blogged about 'Poor Man's Paprikas,' also known as Paprikas Potato, so I decided to make the actual, very popular Hungarian dish, apparently intended only for rich folks, Chicken Paprikas.

The good news is that the seitan costs about as much as the potatoes and, in fact, the costliest ingredient here is the cashews for the cashew sour cream.

Tender Seitan in sauteed until it starts getting brown and then set aside. The base of the sauce is very authentically Hungarian, being reliant on onions and fat. I cut most of the oil out, but the flavor was still wonderful.

My recipe calls for 2 T of oil, one large onion and 1 T of Hungarian paprika. You can cut the oil in half again, just make sure to keep the onions moving so they don't burn. In addition, "sweat" your onions at some points as well (cover with a lid to keep the moisture in the pan not in the air).

To make it even more authentic, I made Galuska with this to sop up the lovely gravy. Galuska is a dumpling, almost like a gnocchi but no potato and much less work. These "require" eggs, but having made them in mass proportions with eggs at the restaurant and now making them without eggs, it is obvious that as long as you cook them for a minute or two after they start floating, they are just as fluffy as their counterpart.

There.

Another egg "requirement" debunked!

Cost Breakdown

seitan: $3

pepper, onion, tomato: $2

paprika: $.50

cashew, flour: $1

flour, turmeric, salt: $2

Total to make 6 servings:

$8.50

Seitan Paprikas Recipe

(with Dumpling recipe)

Galuska (Dumpling) Recipe

Breakfast Bake (December 25)

For a beautiful and hearty brunch meal, this Breakfast Bake was wonderful. In fact, it was so good, I made a double batch and one is in the freezer for another day.

This contains tofu, sausage from the Field Roast Grain Meat Co., carrots, peppers, Daiya vegan cheese and hashbrowns.

I browned the hashbrowns and set them aside in a bowl. Then I sauteed the sausage, carrots, peppers and onions and put those in the bowl with the hashbrowns. Lastly, I sauteed the tofu, seasoned it with nutritional yeast, black salt and turmeric. I steamed the tofu for 10 minutes until there was no more liquid in the pan and then added that to the bowl as well. I mixed it all up, with a cup of Daiya, and popped it into a pie pan. I baked it for 20 minutes and served it with toast.

The most tedious part is getting the hashbrowns to brown in a small saute pan.

Use a big one.

Cost Breakdown

hashbrowns: $2

sausage: $2

tofu: $2

onion, carrot, pepper, green onion: $2

Daiya: $1.50

toast: $2

Total to make 5 servings:

$11.50

Breakfast Bake Recipe

Udon Noodles in Shiitaki Broth (December 21)

Asian Night

Japanese udon or soba noodles are frequently eaten with a seaweed or mushroom flavored broth. Tonight I made a shiitaki broth after having tried to make a seaweed broth which I scrapped (the broth was too strong of seaweed and I knew the family would not enjoy it). A piece of kombu is the traditional way to flavor the broth, but I only had arame and apparently I used too much of it.

No matter; I started again and simmered some water with shiitaki stems, onion, garlic, tamari and mirin. After about 15 minutes I strained it and used this as the broth.

For toppings I steamed some kale, sauteed the shiitaki caps and diced celery root, and julienned some white turnips. I used the turnips raw since they were young and crunchy and delicious. Some slivers of raw onion and green pepper added some more dimension and dinner was complete.

It strayed a tad from tradition, but it was very flavorful and had a lot of umami (Japanese deliciousness).

Cost Breakdown:

shiitaki: $4

udon: $2

vegetables: $3

tamari, mirin: $1

Total to make 6 servings:

$10.00