VeganMoFo Iron Chef Challenge 1: Seitan Chops Smothered In Apples And Ginger
The stars of the hour, apple and ginger!
You know a dish is a keeper when you don’t want to wash your hands for hours afterwards because they smell so delicious.
When Katie announced this week’s Iron Chef Challenge ingredients I knew that I couldn’t go with the obvious, so I immediately crossed any and all baked goods off my imaginary list. But I’m still a little embarrassed that I came up with my dish because Peter Brady popped into my head, “Pork chops and appleshauche, porkchops and appleshauche…” Obviously, my Peter Brady was a vegan one.
I wanted a tender seitan. Not soft exactly - toothsome but not tough. I’ve been wanting to try chickpea flour in the Veganomicon seitan recipe instead of nutritional yeast and it really did the trick - exactly what I wanted. Simmered seitan was the way to go here because baking or steaming would give too stiff a texture. Once simmered and cooled, I sliced them lengthwise in kind of a diagonal to create a more organic shape because I wasn’t up for eating any right angles or geometry of any sort.
I used whole wheat panko to coat the cutlets, with lots of fresh rosemary and pan fried in olive oil to get a crispy on the outside, tender on the inside bite. You have got to love the aroma or fresh rosemary in the frying pan.
And finally - the star of the evening! Thick slices of rome apples with a little maple syrup and brown sugar and loads and loads of fresh minced ginger. I threw in a handful or dried cranberries and baked until tender and just a little caramelized. I also made a separate pan of crispy sauteed shallots for another dimension of savory with a hint of sweet. And then I smothered it all over the chops. And it was good.
It looks like a hot mess but I didn’t feel like taking a lot of time to set it up, I really wanted to eat it - I served with sweet and salty maple baby carrots, brown basmati and sauteed purple kale
Seitan Chops Smothered In Apples And Ginger
Serves 4
For the Ginger And Apples:
3 Tablespoons fresh minced ginger
2 pounds rome apples (or any crisp red apple), peeled and sliced into 1/3 to 1/2 inch slices
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon olive oil
handful dried cranberries (about 3 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
For the shallots:
2 cups thinly sliced shallots
1 tablespoon olive oil
For the seitan cutlets:
1 recipe Veganomicon seitan (with chickpea flour instead of nutritional yeast, and minus the garlic and lemon), shaped into 4 cutlet shapes (please don’t make me write out that recipe! You have v-con right?) and cooled
Breading ingredients:
3/4 cup panko breadcrumb, preferably whole wheat
3 cloves minced garlic
3 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary
1/4 teaspoon salt
Several dashes fresh black pepper
Olive oil for pan frying
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Put all the apples on the sheet and toss with maple syrup and olive oil to coat. Spread out into a single layer. Scatter in the cranberries and ginger and then sprinkle on the brown sugar.
Cover loosely with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the tin foil and flip the apples. Bake for 15 more minutes or until tender and slightly browned.
While the apples are baking prepare your shallots. I used the same cast iron pan for the shallots and the cutlets to cut down on dish duty. Just saute the shallots in the oil over medium high until shallots are nice and brown and crispy in spots. Transfer them to a bowl and cover with tin foil to keep warm.
Now make the cutlets.
They should be cool to the touch and still damp from the simmering. Slice them lengthwise and at an angle to create 8 pieces.
On a plate, toss together all of the breading ingredients. Preheat your pan to medium heat. Press each pieces into the breading to coat well.
Pour a nice thick layer of oil into the pan. You’re not deep frying so don’t go overboard but 1/4 inch of oil would be just great. Pan fry the seitan for about 3 minutes on each side and then another 2 to 3 minutes or so on each side until nicely browned. Do it in two batches so that you don’t overcrowd the pan.
To plate:
Lay each cutlet on the plate, top with some shallots and then smother in lots of apples.
This was so fun, thanks for the great ingredients Katie! And check out all the other entries for this week. Don’t miss the next one!
October 5th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
This dish is so cool!! This is what I had in my head too! I did it with tofu though! I like yours so much better. My apples were really on the savory side. I like your mix of sweet with the apples and savory with the shallots. Awesome Isa! Can’t wait till next week’s iron chef challenge!
October 5th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Nice presentation. Oh the crispy seitan cutlets sound so good.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Oh my god, Isa. That totally rocks.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
That looks like what I would do for Thanksgiving dinner. Only better.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Wow, that looks fabulous! Yum nom nom.
October 5th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
like “pork chops and applesauce” but way better!
October 5th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Genius! It doesn’t look like a hot mess, it just looks HOT!
October 5th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Holy crap! You are amazing, absolutely amazing. (And I looove brown basmati!)
October 5th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
That sounds so effing good! I’m saving this recipe right now.
October 5th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Funny… The first thing I thought of was Peter Brady, too! Only I was not clever enough to execute it!
Totally making this though…
October 5th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Hey, I like to think great minds think alike! I made a seiten dish too - a veganized Chicken Pot Pie recipe. I totally loved this challenge!
October 5th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
this looks a little too yum.
Now I can hear Peter Brady
October 6th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Amazing Isa!
October 6th, 2008 at 11:10 am
DAMN. I want that!
October 6th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Holy crap. If I don’t have too many people at Thanksgiving next Monday that may just be on the menu, especially since we’re apple picking the day before…
October 6th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I missed that this was even happening, but clearly you win. Swoony seitan, Isa. Swoony.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Hi Isa,
This isn’t about your recipe, but there’s an article in the New Yorker about pets, Leona Helmsley and animal rights. I thought of you! http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/09/29/080929fa_fact_toobin
Love,
Danielley
October 6th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Wow, that looks awesome! I’m getting hungry!
October 6th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Kristi - this would make a great T-giving dish!
jd - see what you are missing?
yelly - I already saw that. Nothing gets passed me. NOTHING.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Those look crisp-ity delicious. Yum!
October 6th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Omg I’m so making this for my Thanksgiving dinner this Monday (Canadian)! Woo hoo! Thanks for posting this Isa
October 7th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I really should stop licking my monitor now.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Looks like this is this year’s Thanksgiving dish!
October 7th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Sounds wonderful, but I don’t see a temperature for the apples…?
October 7th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
well, that anwsers the question of what to make for thanksgiving on monday. Thanks, Isa!
October 8th, 2008 at 1:27 am
zoe, you were right! I added the temp, 350 F. Thanks!
October 8th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-licious. When may I stop by? HeeHee — Seriously, if you know our country, you also know the Illuminati is controlling everything (they’re far above our Prez). Got moxie? Most of U.S. don’t. Read the signs of the times, dude: God’s a concrete, kick-ass reality. ?A must read if youse wanna live? -Fr. Sarducci, SNL
tok2me. comment on anything.
October 9th, 2008 at 4:34 am
Daaaaamn, that sounds good.
October 11th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Very psyched to try this after picking up some great apples from the farmers market, but a question: which V-Con seitan recipe? Assume the one for cutlets, but there is no nutritional yeast in that one.
“1 recipe Veganomicon seitan (with chickpea flour instead of nutritional yeast, and minus the garlic and lemon), shaped into 4 cutlet shapes (please don?t make me write out that recipe! You have v-con right?) and cooled”
Thanks, Isa!
October 12th, 2008 at 8:38 am
I made this last night and served it with the maple mustard potatoes and beans from VwaV. It took a long time to make everything (no knife skills here!), but it was sooooo good! The shallots, the ginger, the rosemary, the delcious fried panko….
Okay, I’ll stop raving now:o)
October 14th, 2008 at 5:00 am
Ziba, the Simple Seitan in veganomicon.
October 15th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Thanks, Isa. I did it wrong–used the cutlets recipe–but it was still great. One more reason to do it again!
October 24th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
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November 10th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Isa, may I sing your praises? Lalalala…
I just made this for dinner (with brown basmati & broccoli for my sides) and OH MY GOSH it was incredible! I was strongly considering making it for a little vegan Thanksgiving dinner my friend and I are having soon, so tonight was the test run. And yep, we most certainly are definitely serving this as the entree at our dinner party now! Thanks for the awesome recipe! I wish I could eat this every single day.
December 13th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Beautiful presentation! It sounds very tasty too. I think that I would have to make it with the same sides you had, because it just looks and sounds perfect.
May 26th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
[…] Post Punk Kitchen Blog Show Us Your Mitts Blog Archive Posted by root 1 day 33 minutes ago (http://theppk.com) Oct 5 2008 i used the same cast iron pan for the shallots and the cutlets to cut down on dish duty pan fry the seitan for about 3 minutes on each side and then another 2 fr sarducci snl tok2me comment on anything post punk kitchen blog show us your mitts Discuss | Bury | News | post punk kitchen blog show us your mitts blog archive […]