Portable Shepard's Pie: Pot Pie Cupcakes - how to pt. 1

For the first Dreamsfood bounty I subimtted a recipe for Pot Pie Cupcakes. They are intended to pull together the goodness of a pot pie in a portable cupcake/muffin format.

Here's the gist; make shells | make soup | fill shells with soup | top with corn bread biscuit batter | bake | top with hollandaise sauce

Of course, being the Alpha Dreamsfood project, this is Columbus centered and vegan. The hope is to spread the message and open it up to more locations and flavors. Anyway, I'm hoping you are here for the recipe, because that's what I've got -

To begin with we will address the soups.  The first one, "Soothing Savory", had apple-smoked sweet potatoes, peas and charred corn. The second one, "Sassy Savory", had some apple-smoked seitan, leaks, butter beans, and smoked turnips. 

For the Soothing Savory, you first need to roast the potatoes (I recommend doing so at the same time as the turnips). Once you roast them and get them hot and sweaty, throw them on the grill for about two hours with some apple wood smoke and indirect heat (you will want to smoke at the same time you do the seitan). As the smoking is winding down, saute an onion, then add some garlic and build up a good soupy base. In a cast iron skillet, powder the bottom with paprika and ancho powder (and cayenne if you want some more heat) and dry toast the spices on medium then edge it toward high. Once the skillet is hot and the spices are done, drain a can of corn (actually use fresh if you can, but it's January in Ohio so...) and add it to the skillet and char the skins. Add along with a can of peas to the base of the soup. Add the sweet potatoes and *boom* you're basically done. From here on out you will be acting like a custodian more than anything. Spice it how you like it, I did my general tex-mex thing. The vegetables are the focus here, and not some spice blend so just keep in mind accenting.

Note: Using fresh corn would have been ideal, same for the peas. You can decide to drop some corn starch slurry into the mix if you'd like a thicker soup for your pies. Smoked salt, however, is one stand-out seasoning that I would say you should invest in for this and the next soup.

Sassy Savory is a smidge more intensive. For the seitan I made basically the same seitan as I had with the Seitanic Panic in the Oven Shepard's Pie. I used the same basic recipe from before, and a similar stock for simmering the seitan and for the rub. Smoking the seitan was nice and easy and done at the same time as the sweet potatoes and the turnips. So basically once you drop the seitan in the stock to simmer, cut up your sweet potatoes and turnips and put them in the oven at 350'F.

Once the seitan and turnips (which upon roasting will still have their bite, though a bit mellowed; upon smoking will mellow out entirely but still have a great punch of flavor) are done smoking it's time to build the soup. The soup starts the same as pretty much any other one I do, but in this case after you finish off the onion and garlic sauteeing, you can stock the stock with the simmering stock you used for the seitan (upcycle that salty water). Mire-poix is utterly your friend on this one, so grab some carrot and celery (and hell, add it to the other soup if you want). Originally I was going to use butter beans only but some black beans made their way in there as well. Add the sweet potatoes and corn starch slurry (if appropriate). Spice and season as you like. Reserve the smoked seitan for making the cupcakes, or just add toward the end of stweing.

Note: When/If to add the smoked seitan is an interesting problem. If you've ever baked seitan before adding it to a saucy stweing dish, you will know the effect you get. The surface becomes nice and resilient and the texture more durable. It is less likely to soak up massive amounts of liquid, and consequently flavor. I chose to preserve the acute smokiness by topping with seitan before serving (and I like the presentation aspect better); you could diffuse it (a) if you prefer, or (b) if you can't stand sharp smoked food, or (c) if you over-smoke those bad boys.

Next time, how to make the shells and build these bad boys...

pron of food - pot pie cupcakes

New Gallery up from my recent entry for Dreamsfood's first bounty, vegan comfort food. It is an attempt at creating a pot pie using a cupcake format. The first one, "Soothing Savory", had apple-smoked sweet potatoes, peas and charred corn. The second one, "Sassy Savory", had some apple-smoked seitan, leaks, butter beans, and smoked turnips. Both were served in pizza dough shells with corn bread biscuits and a nice dose of vegan hollandaise.

So the Bounty of comfort food also included Shepardess Pie and four varieties of Spanikopita (one of which Portia had spontaneously created with some leftover mix and some leftover smoked seitan). It was a big success in terms of people loving the food prepared as well as the turn-out and feedback provided by our Dreamsfood Alpha group members.

Very excited for the second bounty, which was announced this week. It's focusing on Latin Foods and we're hoping for some foods inspired by our Western hemisphere neighbors. So far we have an enchilada entry and a flan (vegan flan? for science!) and I'm hoping for a ton of additional recipes.

I will get the post up soon detailing the how of making these exciting monsters! And YES, smoking seitan is utterly worth every ounce of the effort.

What is the Ideal Vegan Turkey Replacement?

So I know I have been putting up a ton of posts on seitan as of late, and trust me, my intestines are not too happy about it. Nonetheless, here is another one; it's more in line with the holidays though so there.

I recently posted and then put a bounty on the question, "What is the ideal vegan turkey replacement?" Seitan (or other vital wheat gluten things) seems to be the most commercially viable alternative. 

But, how does it stack up on a qualitative level with other fake meats? If any of you would like to engage in providing your own canonical answer, or perhaps contributing to the discussion, have at it. Here is the question I asked;

With respect to the following characteristics, what vegan meat substitute media (as in, can approximate turkey not necessarily in nutrition but rather taste) fits best? What preparation of the media is most suited to creating this profile? Why?

• Has the defined texture of turkey meat
• Has the defined texture of turkey skin, whether deep-fried or baked
• Has the moisture level of either light or dark meat
• Has the flavor compatibility to suit either a mushroom or vegan sausage stuffing
• Has the flavor compatibility to suit either a rosemary or vegan sausage gravy
• When made from scratch, does not exceed the cost of a relatively sized bird

Please note, I am not asking about pre-packaged or brands of media, but rather media and preparations themselves (i.e. not Field Roast or Tofurkey, but rather Seitan/Vital Wheat Gluten)

Preliminary Seitan Turkey Loaves

So you have this Seitan Loaf and don't know what options you have for making it into something analogous to a Turkey.

Are you just not interested in even faking it, but still have a loaf of perfectly fine, although sage/thyme/poultry-stocked, seitan? Try these;

• Isa Chandra and the PPKs Sage and Pumpkin Seed Seitan (with Pumpkin Garlic sauce)* preparation or their mushroom hot pot.
• My Seitanic Panic in the oven. (Granted, this could require smoking, or you could go straight up and bake it in gravy covered with lentils and kale and smashed potatoes)

(*sorry, no PPK-Direct source attributed by the ref I found)

Well, so far I can't yet claim to have perfected a fake turkey loaf. That said, if you can be happy with a tasty roast, then this loaf's for you. It has a decently not too spongy, not too tough texture. The key to finishing it off is in how you reheat it.

Here are the simpler options:

• Bake at 275'f until warmed through. It is already cooked, so just measure with a probe thermometer, you'll want it about 120'f or hotter (cooked chicken is 165'f minimum). You will want to have some of the basting broth (see recipe) to plumpen up the loaf. Flip every fifteen minutes; I'm guessing this will take about 1 hour.
• Is someone else getting ready to deep-fry an entire turkey? Get in there and deep-fry the loaf before they use the oil. This will brown the outside and warm it up. The loaf can rest until later, then warm up in oven.
• bake at 350'f for 25 minutes per Vegan Dad (he's also got a stuffing mix in there)

Here are the complicated options:

• Add a yuba crust (bean curd skin) and bake and baste for less-than-satisfactory results.
• Thin out some miso paste with sesame oil, then brush onto loaf. Apply a light crust of onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika; brown on all sides in a skillet with sesame oil. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes at 275'f. (This is how I am going to try to do mine this time; I may also deep-fry prior to browning.)

In the second of the two sets of options I laid out what are probably the better ways to get a pre-made loaf ready for the Thanksgiving table.

I haven't done a ton of experimenting with these so if you have success one way or another, or in a totally diffferent vein feel free to let me know in the comments below. Enjoy!

As for experiments undertaken thus far, check out the gallery.

Seitanic Panic in the Oven

So I was planning to make the Seitan's Pie.

You know, that paragon of goodness that transcends the boundaries of traditional casserole? The one that says, "oh it's cold out there, why don't you open this potato lid and get to the hot, steamy goodness?" AKA. Shephards Pie; minus the shephard, and minus the goat/sheep/etc. The problem is, without running out and picking up a bunch of those packets of crumbles and whatnot, it's hard to find a really good base. 

Right now I am going through that phase of trying out and refining techniques and recipes. In particular, I am trying to replicate meats. Although this recipe involves making seitan from scratch, and then making it super tasty, I guess this could just be a recipe for the amazingness that is shepard's pie.

I looked into a handful of recipes. I like the idea of minced meat for Shephard's pie, but I wasn't particularly confident of any of the options. So instead of starting with the recipe for the pie, I began with the recipe for the dough. Coincidentally, I found a recipe for smoked seitan that piqued my interest independently, then the idea for a smoked Seitan Shephard's Pie started to form.

So basically,as for steps I borrowed from the Cathy Eats recipe, I snagged measurements for the dough, the pre-boil (after you form the dough, simmer in water and a splash of soy for an hour), and the time for smoking.

Of note; reserve the remaining liquid ingredients from the dough making. Dry rub from Cathy will result in a sweeter "meat" (the point of hers was to add BBQ sauce). Taking from my experiments with pulled pork, I took a different approach with the rub and its application.

For the rub, I followed that standard paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper approach. To take it in a direction where the palate was basically flat but broad (full-bodied but not too spicy), I added cayenne, dry mustard, cumin, ground allspice, ancho, and chipotle powders (for extra points, toast the spices in your skillet first). You can also double the amount rub for spicing other parts later on. Or if you want to get realy good toast up some peppers and make a fresh chili paste.

To prep for smoking, once the hour of simmering is up, pull out the seitan balls (I cut my loaf into sixths instead of thirds), place in a colander to cool and drain, reserve liquid left in pot. Pour about a quarter cup mustard and a quarter cup agave (remember the "glue" from the pig butts? I subbed agave for honey, and voila its vegan) into the container that has the remaining liquid from loaf making (I used a nice big metal mixing bowl); mix well, and once you can handle them, toss the seitan in the glue. Apply rub to glue-y doughs; keep one hand dry for sprinkling rub and one wet for moving dough and applying rub.

Now you do have a few other options. (A) You can either let the seitan sit overnight after they are done simmering. I did not do this. (B) You can do the same after applying the glue, or the glue and rub. I did not do this. (C) You can let the glued, rubbed dough sit or cure for awhile before smoking. Again I did not do this. I got the fire started a half hour before the timer was up on the simmering, and as soon as the glue-rubbing was done the may have sat for about 5-10 minutes. I have a feeling that, any way you slice it, this is pretty idiot-proof.

So, easy enough, smoke the "meat" for about 90 minutes, or whatever time you can put into it wihout completely drying it out, but even that isn't a big deal. The next ingredients are why.

Other components for Shephard's Pie;

• Potatoes: Slice up a bunch of potatoes into 1/2" cubes. Toss on fire until they get a nice char and smokey flavor. It is more important that you get them all fired and flavored up because you will be mashing them up anyway. Roast at 375'f for about 25 minutes in oven after tossing in oil and spices complementing the dry rub. Mix in about a quarter cup earthbalance and a cup of soy milk. Mash the potatoes with masher/ricer/dough-blender (my preferred). 
• Gravy: Add lentils (G1) and kale (G2) to the gravy (G3). Yum.
  • Gravy 1: Start a pot of lentils. I made about two cups broth and two cups lentils. I messed up the lentils and ended up with just lentils, no broth.
  • Gravy 2: Sautee 1 bunch of green and purple kale in sesame oil and paprika, add four or five chopped cloves of garlic. (I am guessing you wil likely have some extra time, if so, chop up some celery and add after the greens have sauteed for about four minutes, sautee for another 4 minutes or until greens are just wilted.)
  • Gravy 3: Mix up a roux with earthbalance, you will needabout 1 1/3 cup (this is 2/3 butter, 2/3 flour) These measurements based on how much I needed to thicken the leftover simmering liquids. Okay. So actually, thats what I thought I'd need; I also needed an additional three tablespons corn starch (as slurry) to finish it off.

These steps will probably take between thirty and forty-five minutes worth of time. And can easily be managed in the space of time it takes to smoke the seitan.

So, we've got our gravy brought to a simmer and spiced how we like it (I went with a thicker, more mustard-y taste; you might even go after a spicier green than kale like mustard or earthier like beet), our potatoes are all mashed (and spiced, I mimiced the dry rub with extra garlic and ancho powder, do whatever you like) and at the ready, and we just pulled the seitan off the grill and it has rested a few minutes (not for the sake of juices/fat like a meat, but for the sake of the rub bark crispening).

Pre-heat oven to 400. Cut the seitan into 1/4" strips, then into smaller chunks using a chef's knife (I thought a serrated knife might work better but it played havoc on the rub); drop in pot and even out. Pour on the gravy nice and even. Dollop about the potatoes, then smooth down with a fork (hopefully you made them nice and creamy and this shouldn't pose any problem). Pop in oven for about thirty minutes or until the potatoes brown.

For bonus points, once you pop it in the oven, you can start carmelizing an onion or two (nice big strips), and for the first twenty five minutes while you're waiting on the pie, stir the onions every two or three minutes, then add them to the top for the last five minutes.

Now the pot you build this guy in will make all the difference to plating. You can put it together in a casserole dish; something like a 9x13" or a nice wide oval crock will work.  I used a 6 quart cast iron pot. It worked great and passed the heat through really well. It did a great job heating it all the way through.

So this is the kind of meal that will keep you warm as November comes to a close and the temperatures begin to drop off. Enjoy your Saturday, and once 2 or 3 pm rolls around, get ready to start pouring some love into some food.

Wrap up: This recipe yields about 4-6 quarts of yummy goodness, it takes about 15 minutes prep, 1 hour boiling, 1 1/2 hour smoking, 40 minutes baking (three hours in all). Be mindful of the salt level as you go on down the line, it stacks with all of the different spices and liquids, but there are a lot of layers it will need distributed through.

This Shephards Pie variant is along the line of a Southwestern kind of thing. The rub with sugar would steer towards a sweeter barbecue, which you cold totally riff on, but was not what I was going for. I would like to go somewhere with horseradish; Miss Kristin mentioned horseradish in potatoes and I have been dreaming ever since. Miss Freulein has been doing amazing things with root vegetables, so that's another option. I would list more, but I am tired from pre-baking seitan turkeys, and, seriously, you all get the picture, and I am not planning to patronize you.

As for me and mine, I went for a straight sear with low actual heat; the Seitanic Panic.

Update on 1:18PM by mfg

big thanks, per usual, to Ms. Freulein, Real Life Documentarian, VP. Not only did she provide many of these lovely pics in the gallery, but she also helped and lent me the beautiful pot

Seitan's Pie

not mine; pic for referenceSo I am going to be making a recipe that I never even have eaten as an omnivore: Shepherd's Pie. Something about casseroles must just have never fit into my family's retinue; they're convenient, tasty, and easy. So I will take one of the more classic, long-standing ones, eliminate its convenience, experiment with its tastiness, and subject it to all kinds of pitfalls to low skill.

Here's how the fun will unfold;

• I am going to follow this recipe to make the meat filling. She is making a BBQ seitan, so the elements of the recipe that would veer too closely to that I will omit; the general approach to smoking seitan, which is guess is just [simmer for 60 minutes] +[smoke for 90 minutes], is what I will be following.
• I am going to roast some nice local red potatoes I picked up yesterday at the co-op on the grill and then make some slightly underdone mashed potatoes with them
• I am going to make a mushroom gravy with celery carrots and lentils
• Mince the meat dough, mix in a flax egg, add to dutch oven
• Pour over the gravy and bits, mix a bit
• Cover with mashed potatoes
• Bake at 400'f for 25-35 minutes

Let's see what we get. So far I have started the dough and am about to prep the potatoes (basically, all I have to do is cut them up and toss them in a smidge of oil then grill them in the basket).