Southern Fried Seitan!

I said I'd restart this blog and then I didn't do a thing. Well, actually, I did lots of things: pack boxes, store them in a storage unit, rejoin the gym (ahem), watch the entire first season of Game of Thrones, visit the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, canoe part of the Connecticut River ... just nothing to do with the blog. Oops. Better late than never, though.

So ...

I gave in. I got some of those Bragg Liquid Aminos. I'm still not entirely sold. I got it to try and to use as a substitute for soy sauce. Yeah, yeah: it's non-GMO and has all those healthy amino acids. But, for someone like me who is super-super-sensitive to sodium, it might be better to stick with low-sodium soy sauce. (Bragg has, as far as I can figure, 960 mg of sodium per tablespoon whereas low-sodium soy sauce has 575.) But since I now own this bottle and have to do something with it, I figured I'd use it, as so many have suggested, in the simmering liquid for seitan.

I'm feeling very Southern again today and I'm having friends over this afternoon for some champagne sipping and relaxing in the overgrown backyard (one thing I haven't done is yard work), so I figured I'd make some Southern fried seitan.

Mix and briefly knead:

1 c vital wheat gluten
1 c cold water

Bring to a boil:

4 c water
1/2 c nutritional yeast
4 T Bragg Liquid Aminos (yep, there they are!)
2 t onion powder
1 1/2 t sage
1/2 t white pepper
1 t thyme
2 bay leaves

Add the briefly kneaded vital wheat gluten to the liquid, reduce and cover. Cook at a simmer, stirring frequently, for about an hour, until most of the liquid is reduced. Remove from heat and let the seitan cool in the remaining liquid.

Yum.

I'm not vegan, so I'm using milk and eggs for the "fried chicken" part, but I don't see why you couldn't easily replace that with soy milk and egg replacer. (And here I'd like to give a thumbs up to Bob's Red Mill Farm Egg Replacer. I got some the other day to make a vegan cake for a friend, and although I've seen a few reviews in which people said it tasted odd to them -and one, at least to me, odd review in which the reviewer complained it made awful scrambled eggs [because I never would have expected to use a powdered egg substitute to make scrambled eggs] - I found it worked perfectly.

Mix together an egg, a cup of buttermilk (add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to the milk, stir and let thicken for about five minutes to make buttermilk) and as much hot sauce as you like - the more, the better. In a ziploc bag (easy cleanup and yes, I do wash and reuse them), mix a cup of self-rising flour and whatever spices you like; I chose pepper, salt, paprika, cayenne, rosemary, garlic, and onion powder, but whatever floats your boat (or you have in the pantry). Dredge the seitan pieces in the egg mixture, then toss with the flour mixture. Dredge again in egg and toss with the flour mixture again to get a really crispy, layered coating. Fry in hot oil, drain, and eat.

Somehow it turned into a Southern food extravaganza, so in addition to the fried seitan, we had collard greens, biscuits with sausage gravy, deviled eggs and fried pimento cheese balls. I really was going to take pictures, but guests came early and, what with all that packing, I was hungry, so it all got eaten before I could take a photo of the side dishes.

I guess it's good I rejoined the gym ...