Seeing as how ham is typically the main dish at our Easter Dinner, I was challenged to find a meatless dish that would allow me to feel celebratory and decadent. I found a recipe called "Rosemary-Hazelnut Encrusted Seitan" which, if nothing else, sounded elegant and decadent so I decided to give it a try. Since I still have not figured out the how/when/why of Tempeh, let's give "Seitan" a whirl, eh? I had NO IDEA what to expect. However, it's worth mentioning that my husband referred to it as "Satan" more than one time. He is usually much more supportive, really.
The recipe was actually alot more work than I would have thought as it involved quite a bit of blending, marinating, chopping, mincing, toasting, dipping, frying, and straining and to be honest, I was really not feeling the love. Especially because I thought the marinade for the chunks of seitan was stinky. Nothing but olive oil, soy sauce, Dijon mustard and tons of garlic. With genuine concerns that this elegant sounding meal would turn out to be a disgusting mess, I planned a back up meal of "Vegan General Tso's chicken." I know this doesn't sound the least bit Easter-ish, but the guy at the deli counter at Whole Foods convinced me to try it and LO! It tastes like chicken!! Duly impressed, I walked out with the biggest container of this stuff that I could find. The guy did tell me that it was a proprietary blend of Seitan and something else so maybe all was not lost for the dinner after all.
When it came time to prepare the Red Wine and Shallot gravy, such a magnificent aroma rose up through the house that I am at a loss to describe. Regardless of how this seitan stuff tasted, I'm pretty sure I could have just drank this gravy and been totally satisfied. However, miserable multi-tasker that I am, I left the gravy to simmer far too long and reduced it to practically nothing. I decided then and there that it was all for me - even if any of my guests WERE brave enough to try the Seitan.
Per recipe instructions, I ground up toasted hazelnuts, fresh rosemary, and flour, then dipped the stinky marinated stuff in it. I fried it up in some olive oil until crispy, and served with Gravy From Heaven. Given the limited gravy available, I filled my plate and let everyone else eat ham.
I have three words to describe Rosemary-Hazelnut Encrusted Seitan and here they are: Oh. My. God. This? Was totally worth giving up ham for. I am totally not kidding - you have to try this, but I am not giving up any of my own. The craziest thing is that I could have sworn I was eating meat of some kind. I probably would have mistaken it for pork. I'm not the only one who thought so - I let the three teenagers try some and they all thought it tasted like meat as well. And if teenagers say so? You know it's true. Well... to be honest, only one of them actually SAID it tasted like meat but since neither of the other two made any sort of disparaging comment, that is good enough for me and I'm calling it a ringing endorsement. These are teenagers, after all.
I'm having leftovers for lunch today - if I can scrape out enough gravy.
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