Seitan O'Greatness

My husband is so silly sometimes.
This year my birthday fell on Easter Sunday. You'll never believe what was included in my birthday present.

I never even thought something like this existed.

It even has poseable arms and gliding action!!

I have been having a lot of fun with this around the house. Simon is very interested in the Jesus action figure, but I've put him up high so he doesn't end up like the leprechaun.

My entire present wasn't based on silliness. Jim did also include this DVD.

I haven't even had time to watch it yet and I'm dying to. I wonder if there's a Freddie action figure? Hmmm?
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I've been trying different seitan recipes to find the one that I really like. There has been a trend with bloggers lately with baked seitan. The first time I read about this was on Jess's blog. From what I understand, the original recipe appeared on the PPK forums. Several other bloggers have made this, adapting the recipe to suit their tastes and have raved about it. Look at what Crystal did with hers. Bazu, Laura, Kris and Mary, just to name a few, have all given their take on this new recipe. I was intrigued and had to try it. I wasn't sure what I would use it for in the end, so I decided to keep the spices fairly simple.



I did add paprika so it would get that nice reddish colour that everyone had with theirs.

With the wet ingredients I pretty much followed the original recipe.

Mix them together.

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Knead and make a log shape. Wrap in foil and bake. Easy enough and minimal clean-up - even better.

Voila! Seitan O'Greatness.

I cut it in half and wrapped each piece well and threw it in the freezer because I didn't have any immediate plans for it. I did cut off a slice to try it and it was rather good. Flavour was nice and quite neutral and the texture was very different from any other seitan I had made.

So the seitan o'greatness sat in my freezer for about 2 weeks. We'd had a fairly hectic week, so one night I decided on a simple dinner of spaghetti. First I sauted some onions and red peppers until just barely tender. In another pan, I sauted chunks of the seitan that had been sprinkled with an Italian seasoning blend. I mixed both of those with a jarred sauce that I like and let it simmer away while the pasta cooked.

This dish turned out really well! The seitan had a nice "sausage-like" texture and tasted quite authentic. Even my omnivores (Jim & Jade) ate this up like there was no tomorrow.

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The wine I picked is a real steal. This is a medium to full-bodied red wine from the Puglia region of Italy. It goes extremely well with pizza, pasta, burgers on the BBQ. It sells at the LCBO for $8.45. Can't beat that. It's one of the best wine deals out there.