Monday, April 6, 2009

Seitan and Rice Milk

Tonight is leftovers (the last of the Gobi Aloo and some more of the Seitan Vindaloo), so I thought you might like to know some of the other things I have been doing lately.

First of all, I found that the Baked Seitan Steaks also works well if you do it on the stovetop with cutlets. Just for fun I tried it on Sunday, making 8 cutlets for one batch of the seitan. I cooked them on the stove top with 2 cups of water and 4 tsp of Bryanna’s Homemade “Chicken Style” Broth Powder. I set my stove on 1 and was going to let them sit for an hour, but upon checking them after 40-45 minutes, they were done. The broth was simmering, but the cutlets were not airy or brainy looking. They tasted good as well, which was good since they were our dinner. I ended up using three and the rest are in the refrigerator in the broth. They should get used up this week.

On the rice milk front, I made an important discovery today. My problems with the base were that I skipped a step in making it. I had made the decision that since it was going to be mixed up in a blender that I could skip the mixing step once it was cool Big mistake. I just blended the last of the base and it totally changed its character. Instead of being hard and stiff, it became smooth and more fluid. So I decided to make a small batch of the milk and put it in the refrigerator. This one tasted much better. It did not have the grittiness I had previously found. So this batch may be a winner after all. I just needed to add a step.

And on a surprising finding, I actually found the Turtle Mountain Coconut Milk at one of my grocery stores on Saturday. Much to my surprise since I still cannot get MimicCreme (Vegetation and Mandee you may get it before I do). I haven’t bought it yet, since I am not sure I can validate the cost in my mind. Even though the cost does not seem to out of line for a half a gallon of product, 4.50 for a half gallon. Just have to see how my budget works out.

And on another surprising finding. Earth Balance will be coming out with a soy-free (yes, that is correct), vegan margarine in May. I just found it on the site today and can verify that it is soy-free. It uses no soybean oil, soy lechitan or soy protein. I have already started the wheels in motion, with a few emails, to try and get my local Publix to carry this. If I have to choose between this and the coconut milk, this wins; hands down. Can soy free tempeh be to far behind? Products page has been updated.

5 comments:

  1. Apparently you can make tempeh out of beans other than soy, I just can't get my hands on starter and to be honest, fiddling with bacteria scares me a little bit!

    Congrats on the non soy EB!! We don't get regular EB :( and there's no hope for the Mimicreme. I emailed them just after they brought it out and was told that there were zero plans to bring it to Australia.

    Hooray for getting the rice milk to work! Is there going to be a recipe? *big cheeky grin*.

    Good to know too that the seitan steaks work on the stovetop. I think I'll have to try that next. I like simmered seitan but I'm tired of always having to wrap it in cheesecloth because my stovetop seems to have uncontrollable temperature gauges!

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  2. Vegetation see quote from MimicCreme website below
    Q: Can I buy MimicCreme outside the United States?
    A: We are currently working on distribution agreements with many companies that ultimately will bring our products into the continents of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. We also will be shipping to Central and South America and Canada. Please check our website frequently for updates.

    Recipe forthcoming for the rice milk.

    I also cannot get the starter for nonsoy tempeh. The link to The Farm does not work. I found a small tempeh maker in north Florida and he is considering makeing it with winged beans, but I would have to order a case at a time. So not possible. Check out tempehshop.com

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  3. I've never even considered making my own tempeh, what a cool idea. Couldn't you just buy the starter online?

    They have mimiccreme at the natural food store I'm going to today, actually. I've never bought it though, I don't really know what I would use it for :)

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  4. Gina, I could buy the starter, but you need a different starter for non soy tempeh than for regular tempeh. The Starter A is easy to find, not so true for Starter B. Theoretically; one can buy it from The Farm, but the link to their Tempeh Store is no longer working on their site. Or it wasn’t the last time I checked, which is today. And since no one sells a commercial tempeh that is made without soybeans; if I want a soy free tempeh, I have to make it my self. Which is a whole other set of problems.

    I found it in their catalog (The Farm), but they only appear to sell Starter A at the moment. There is a source for Starter B, but it is in Europe (Belgium, to be exact) and I am not sure they are allowed to ship it to the United States.

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  5. Oh! Awesome! Thanks for the mimicreme information!! I'll admit, it's been a while since I emailed them (I get tired of emailing and harassing companies to bring their stuff over here :P).

    I didn't realize that the 2 different kinds of tempeh needed different starters. That's too bad :( Hopefully the farm website will have some soon! (And if I lived closer I'd totally go halves in the case of winged bean tempeh with you!)

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