My favorite food is probably Pad Thai with mock duck. Ever since my first experience at Kihn Do with mock duck, I've been a sucker for this meat substitute. Although I'm not a vegetarian, I try to limit my meat consumption. Does this make me a flexitarian? I enjoy Tofu, but sometimes you need to change it up. After a conversation with Angela about finding a recipe to make Seitan (aka Mock Duck) at home and wanting to try it and being a little apprehensive to do so, we decided there was strength in numbers and we should give it a shot.
Here I am mixing all the ingredients together. So far so good. The dough was like a really thick bread/silly putty/play doh type thing. This was also before I shattered one of Ange and Kyle's wine glasses. (which I still feel bad about!)
Time to knead the seitan. Note: do not over knead. I think that's why our results were a little more chewy than desired.
After the kneading, we broke it apart to rest. Yes, we did comment on the various undesirable things it looked like at this stage.
Time to simmer it! We used the mixture the recipe recommended of veggie broth, soy sauce, ginger and onions, although you could really add anything you wanted.
Still simmering, starting to expand!
Starting to pull out the seitan! The pieces really expanded during cooking! I would estimate each piece tripled in size.
Ange pulling out the last piece!
And the fruits of our labor! Ange made a delicious stir fry and we also made a pad thai. The mock duck/setian was a little chewy but overall had really good flavor. It went really well in the pad thai and the chili peppers from Ange and Kyle's garden gave it the perfect amount of kick!
My lessons learned from our cooking night?
1) Don't over knead your seitan!
2) Pad thai wasn't nearly as scary to make as I first thought (although it was super helpful to have Ange and Kyle helping me out!)
3) Cooking with people who love to cook is really fun and educational!
I can't wait for our next experimental cooking night! Thanks Kyle and Ange for hosting!!
