Thursday, March 29, 2007

Belgian-Style Stew

I've been trying different seitan recipes to find one that I really like better than all the others. So far, they've all been pretty similar. How do they do it in restaurants? It always seems perfect.

I've never made it in a crockpot before, so I gave that method a whirl. The recipe was in Fresh From The Vegetarian Slow Cooker. Here are all the ingredients in the slow cooker before.


And after.
It didn't puff up as much as with the stovetop method, but then it didn't deflate after cooling either. This one was pretty dense. Again, I hadn't found the texture I was looking for.

I decided to use some of this batch in a recipe I found on Robin Robertson's site called Belgian-Style Seitan Stew With Dark Beer.



I had some Guinness, because what self-respecting Irish girl doesn't have a Guinness or two in her fridge? (Seriously, I wasn't drunk when I took this picture. I hadn't even opened the can yet. It's just me being my lopsided self.)

Then, I HAD some Guinness. Like wine, it helps the cooking process.




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This recipe was very simple and easy to make. The sauce was thick and slightly sweet.

I served it over noodles like the recipe suggested and also had some garlic roasted beets and an oven roasted broccoli, cauliflower, pepper mix.



The setain was tasty enough, but quite chewy and a tad tough it seemed to me. The flavour was fine, so I may try this again, but use the simmer method.
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The beets were really good, as always. I make these fairly often. I posted the recipe a couple of months ago.


This vegetable medley was very simple to make. I tossed broccoli, cauliflower and peppers with a splash of olive oil, sea salt and some pepper; spread it out on a cookie sheet and threw it in the oven. After about 10 minutes, I gave it a stir, let bake for about 5 more minutes. When I took it out of the oven, I transferred it to a bowl, drizzled balsamic viniegar on it and tossed. That was it & it was so tasty.

Washed it down with a bit more Guinness and we had a very filling meal indeed!

10 comments:

River said...

Absolutely delicious looking! And I love what you have done with the beets - we love beets!!!

What pretty pics too - I'm gonna have to work on my photography skills.

scottishvegan said...

I love making stew with beer, it gives it such a great flavor! I don’t like to drink it though… I think it’s pretty yucky! The beets look delicious!

Candi said...

Your photos are so pretty! I love the dinner you made, and the seitan *looks* so good! Too bad it was a little tough for you. I find the same thing happens when I make it. I am going to try the baked version that Crystal just blogged about - it looks like it may turn out better than boiled!

http://vivaciousvegan.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Everything looks delicious! I love roasted beets!

bazu said...

That does look like a fine meal. Like Candi, I'm going to try the "seitan o' greatness" (it has an Irish last name, see??) that everyone's talking about. I like the idea of baked instead of boiled.

And your lopsided beer picture cracked me up! Very funny indeed.

MeloMeals said...

Everything looks delicious.. the pics are lovely too.. I want those beets!

Dori said...

Your roast not expanding in the crock sounds like a Bryanna roast that I made some time ago, this one was made in the crock with potatoes, onions, carrots, etc. I have never had seitan that did not expand and tenderize like that one, but she meant for it to be like that. I have had some great Bryanna seitan roasts, but that one (Italian roast, I think it was called) was not my favorite.

Shananigans said...

Beer stew, yum! I may need to put a slow cooker on my registry. I made the seitan o’ greatness, you might want to give it a whirl. It was my first time using an oven baking method for seitan and it turned out great. You can find it here on the post punk kitchen boards: http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=15959 I’m looking forward to playing around with flavor variations on this recipe. A few commenters had interesting substitutions I’d like to try, like peanut sauce in place of worcester.

You just inspired me to make roasted beets in the near future. Mmmm…beets…

Michelle Ann said...

Carrie, that looks so good and the colors on the plate are fabulous!

KleoPatra said...

WOW! Carrie, all of that is amazing. Insane delectable goodies there. You've been busy, woman! I am ready to move to Canada...