Fried Chick-un

I learned two things today. The first thing I learned was, despite my previous experience, I LOVE seitan. That is, I love seitan that isn't home made. I've read over and over again how much people like seitan, so I just had to try it again. I mean, I had obviously screwed it up when I tried to make it, because there's no way in hell so many people would be like it if the disgusting mush that I made was actually what it was supposed to be like, right?

I bought the White Wave Chicken Style seitan and decided to make fried chicken with it. I found this recipe from the PETA website, and decided to give it a go. Holy smokes, this stuff is awesome. I absolutely could not believe how good it was. Rob also loved this dinner, and he is not a fan of fried chicken. As a matter of fact, I'd say real fried chicken is probably one of his least favorite things to eat. He's already been asking when we can have this again!!

To go with the "chicken" I made some potatoes mashed with plain rice milk, some sauteed rainbow chard, and some biscuits using this recipe. The biscuits were surprisingly good as well. I also made a mustard sauce for dipping. I didn't actually measure anything when I made the sauce, so I can't give you an exact recipe, but the ingredients were Dijon mustard, olive oil, brown sugar and vegan Worcestershire. I brought the sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, then removed it from the heat and let it set while the "chicken" fried.

This "chicken" was truly finger lickin'.

The second thing I learned.......I don't like tempeh. I mentioned in my post about tempeh curry that there was something about the way tempeh felt in my mouth that just didn't do it for me. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to like tempeh, I still feel that way.

This morning I made the tempeh bacon from the current issue of Vegetarian Times. The marinade was great, and the flavor was delicious, but the way that the tempeh felt in my mouth just grossed me right out. It's that firm, chewy, nutty thing that just makes my stomach turn. Tempeh will not be making any future appearances on this blog, sorry all you tempeh lovers.