Seitan Char Siu

Last night, I wondered what I should do with the last of my leftover seitan. I could always just use it as slices in stir fry, noodle soups and such. Even simpler would be to just smother it in barbeque sauce and serve it between two slices of bread. Then I started thinking that if this is supposed to be a meat substitute, why not try using it like meat. Why not roast it like Chinese roast pork? In particular, why not try making char siu out of it? So I looked up how to make char siu and substituted the pork with seitan.

I am considering my first attempt to be a failure. Although the marinade tasted okay, the seitan texture and taste just didn't seem right. I used the leftover seitan from Mark Bittman's cookbook, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and a basic char siu marinade. The resulting marinade is more brown than red, which is because I didn't add any red food coloring.

I have never made char siu before, even with pork. My mom always used to just buy it and that was that. Of course, I've had it enough times to know what it's supposed to taste like. It is one of the foods that I loved as a child and still enjoy in moderation as an adult. 

After the initial disappointment with the result, I looked online for "seitan char siu." Silly of me not to think of looking it up before I decided to make this attempt, but oh well. It didn't take me long to find this:
http://community.livejournal.com/vegancooking/2694496.html

The I've never thought to add peanut butter or tahini to the seitan recipe. I am very curious to try it as I'm sure the peanut butter will have an effect on the flavor and texture of the seitan. If it will make the seitan more tender, I'm all for it!

In the end, despite my disappointment in the result, I am willing to try it again with a different recipe. There is actually hope that this might work. If so, then I might try "red cooking" the seitan. One my mom's specialties was "red cooking" cubes of meat. My hubby was treated to some when we visited one day and I know that he liked them very much. I always thought it was a shame not to be able to cook the dishes my mom cooked because I was cutting out meat. Now, I feel like there is hope that I may not have to give up making some of my favorite childhood dishes after all!

Sorry if this post rambles a little. I'm writing this late at night on almost no caffeine. The last thing I want to say now is that my hubby seems to have eaten much of the seitan char siu while I wasn't looking. Perhaps it's not as much a failure as I thought it was? Lol!

Abeego

I saw this product reviewed by a bunch of eco-conscious sites and was excited enough that I wanted to try them out myself. They're meant to replace stuff like plastic wrap. It's hemp/cotton fabric infused with beeswax and plant extracts. It's reusable and molds easily to any bowl or container, becoming a perfectly fitted cover. It can be folded up to store cheese, vegetables and fruits and is relatively water resistant.

The beeswax makes it a rather stiff fabric, but it turns malleable as the beeswax warms up in your hands. Because it's the wax that makes it stick to the bowl, keep its shape after it's shaped and makes it water resistant, you can't apply heat to it. So you can only wash it with cold water and soap, you can't use it in the microwave and you shouldn't use it for hot foods. It is, however, really good for covering bowls of leftovers and unused portions of minced veggies or half finished glasses of juices.

In my experience, they do leave wax residue on any dishes you use them on, but it is easily washed off with some hot water and a sponge. Also, with usage, the fabric gets more and more creased because of the beeswax. That doesn't interfere with its usage but just thought I'd point that out.

As for hubby, he says that we pretty much never use tin foil for food storage anymore because of this. I think we actually do use less plastic wrap, but that could also be because of the recent acquisitions of covered containers. Still, I guess it was worth it if it means us producing less garbage.

Spiced tea

When the weather gets cold, we think of comfort foods and things that warm us. There are some foods that are traditionally only eaten in the winter like tong yuan or hot pot. Being Chinese-American, I also think of things like hot chocolate, chai, mulled wine, shepherds pie and veggie pot pies.

Today, I was craving something spiced and drinkable. I don't have any cardamom to make chai, nor did I want something as heavy as hot chocolate and it's too early for wine. So I made tea with ground ginger, ground cinnamon and a drop of good vanilla extract. I also added just enough sugar to sweeten it a little.

The result was delicious. The vanilla gave it a lovely flavor, the cinnamon and ginger made it cozy and warming and the sugar made it decadent and comforting. Yum!

Seitan piccata

One of my favorite dishes at Candle 79 is seitan piccata. It just so happens, you can get the recipe online!
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/10634

So tonight, I decided we would try to eat seitan with piccata sauce on it. I used a basic seitan recipe from Mark Bittman's cookbook, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I added 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast and an extra sprinkling of salt. I followed everything else exactly. Looking back, I could have done without the extra salt. I don't know what I was thinking when I did it. Anyways, the seitan came out a bit on the salty side, though you could taste it being too salty once you eat it with the piccata sauce. As far as seitan-making adventures, this came out the most tender and the least chewy in texture, though still on the chewy side. Maybe next time, I'll simmer it for an extra 15 to 20 minutes.

As for the piccata sauce, I didn't have all the ingredients on hand so I made do without the capers. I also substituted yellow onion for the shallots, used concentrated lemon juice and dried parsley. I also didn't bother measuring much and just tasted it as I went along. Still, it came out good enough that my hubby complimented me on it so in the end, it's all good!

Anyways, it turned out pretty tasty overall. We had some potato medallions on the side, which was also eaten with the sauce. Going forward, I'll have to keep finding ways to improve the texture of my seitan.

Homemade lipstick

I suppose you can make any homemade lip balm into a lipstick using enough colorant. I tried that once and although the result was a tube of very deeply colored lipstick, it went on my lips more like a sheer lip balm. So today, I decided to try a different formula.

8 parts castor oil (this makes for a shiny lipstick)
1/4 part beeswax
1 part candelilla wax
1/4 part vitamin E oil
3 parts beet root powder (pink colorant)
1 part alkanet root powder (purple colorant)
1/2 part titanium dioxide (makes the color less sheer and more matte)

Most instructions will tell you to mix this is two phases: the wax and oil phase and the colorant phase. First, you melt the oil and wax and then in a separate container, mix the colorant with some castor oil. Mix the colorants into a smooth paste and mix everything together. Make sure to mix well so everything is smooth. Work quickly for as the mixture cools, it hardens. When you're done mixing, pour into liptstick tubes or lip pots.

I was lazy and just melted the oil and waxes first and then dumped the powder colorants in. I made enough for two tubes. You can make your own natural colorants by dehydrating beet root and alkanet root and pulverizing them in a food processor. There is some sacrifice in texture in going this route, which I will explain in a moment. Here is what the lipstick looks like on my lips:

I will say that the lipstick went on feeling a bit gritty. I suppose that is what happens when you don't use very fine colorants such as mica or iron oxides. I suppose I could also have just run the colorants in a food process to see if I could get the texture more fine, but again, I'm too lazy for that. In any case, it's not unbearably gritty and you don't feel the grit once it's on. Right now, I very much like this formula and this color.

I would not use this as a blusher because the little bits of alkanet root will sometimes stand out and make you look like you have dirt on you. For a powder blush, it' probably best to use a very light dusting of beet root powder. For a matte look and some oil control, add a bit of cornstarch to the powder. To make the color a bit more brown, add a little bit of cocoa powder. I have yet to mix a shade of blush that I think looks good on me, but I haven't tried very often. Lol!

One last thing before I sign off. If you just want clear shiny lip gloss, just rub some pure castor oil on your lips. If you want a little tint to your lip gloss, you can try grinding the beet root powder really fine and add that to the oil.

Zucchini "crab" cakes

Several months back, I stumbled upon a recipe for mock crab cakes. I love crab cakes. I mean, I really love crab cakes! While I was still eating only veggies, crab cakes were definitely one of the items that I had occasional cravings for.

Anyways, I finally got around to trying out the recipe tonight. I paired it with some homemade spicy aioli. The cool thing about this recipe is that it's made with zucchini! Can you believe it? Anyways, the reviews for it says it really does taste like crab cakes. So after the hubby and I tried it, the verdict is pretty positive. I  can't say it tastes exactly like crab cakes, but it does taste like crab cakes.

If you'd like to try it yourself, here's the recipe for the zucchini crab cakes:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Connies-Zucchini-Crab-Cakes/Detail.aspx

For the aioli, take a few cloves of garlic and crush in a mortar with some coarse salt until you get a smooth paste. Scrape into a mixing bowl and whisk in an egg yolk. You can also add some dijon mustard and/or lemon juice. I added half a teaspoon of dijon and half a teaspoon of lemon juice. Start adding a drop of vegetable oil a drop or two at time, all the while whisking to create an emulsion. Keep adding until you incorporate all the oil you want to use. I used about 1/4 cup of canola oil and 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil. I probably could have used more oil, but I liked the taste of it then. Once the aioli is done, I added just a tiny bit of pepper and some of my favorite hot sauce. Then, voila! Spicy aioli sauce!

Black rice

A friend of mine made this really great dish a few weeks back using black rice. I've had black rice before, but have never cooked it myself. My hubby and I really liked what she made and she gave us a few cups to take home. So last night, I decided to try to imitate her dish.

I didn't have quite as many scallions as I would have liked, but at least I had some. So basically, I first cooked the black rice in coconut milk in my rice cooker. My friend had warned me that the rice takes a bit more water and time to soften, but I didn't realize that it would take quite as long as it did. I must have set the rice cooker to cook 3 times before I was happy with the consistency! Of course, I probably should have thought ahead and soaked it first. Anyways, then I scooped out what I wanted to use for dinner and added golden raisins, sliced almonds, scallions, salt, pepper, and my favorite hot sauce. I didn't measure anything so everything was done to taste. All in all, it turned out well! I usually hate raisins in anything, preferring to eat them by themselves, but I actually liked them in this!

Today, I used the leftover rice to make rice pudding. I didn't do anything fancy or anything. I just added more coconut milk and some water and sugar. When it got creamy, I added vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace and some cocoa powder. Again, I didn't measure and just seasoned to taste. It didn't need a lot of sugar because the coconut milk has a bit of sweetness to it. I think the coconut milk was such a strong flavor, in fact, that I don't think I was able to taste much of the spices. Anyways, the result was a fairly flavorful dessert. However, if you like the mushy, creamy kind of rice pudding, black rice probably isn't for you. I cooked and cooked it, but it wouldn't get mushy. Black rice simply has a chewier texture and although it's creamy, you just can't get the same texture as something like arborio rice.

Just to note, I'm more of a fan of short grain rice, so my black rice was the short grain variety. I find that short grain rice tend to get stickier and creamier and mushier. Long grain rice just doesn't get as sticky and it usually isn't my top choice when I buy rice. That's just my preference though.

Anyways, I have some more uncooked black rice left on my shelf and I'm wondering what I'll try doing with it next! For now, we have enough cooked leftover rice to satisfy us for a while. :-)

Diaper research

I've been thinking about babies and having babies. In particular, I've been thinking about diapers. To be exact, I've been thinking about cloth diapers. For a while, I was an avid reader of "green" sites and one of the big fads among "greenies" were cloth diapers. After the wave of fascination passed, some people cast doubt on how environmentally friendly cloth diapers are after factoring in using harsh chemicals to launder them and the amount of water used to wash them. I say harsh chemicals because you gotta use pretty strong stuff to regularly wash poop and pee off fabric.

For a long time, I couldn't bear the thought of foregoing the convenience of disposable diapers in favor of cloth diapers. As much as I would like not to add tons of disposable diapers to the landfill, I hate the thought of scraping poop every 2 hours and then washing the nasties in our washer. Although, even if cloth diapers are not necessarily the more eco-friendly alternative, I do believe it's better for our future baby because it's more breathable and isn't filled with weird chemicals. So I decided to do some research on cloth diapering online since it couldn't hurt just to learn more about it before making a decision. After a quick search online, I found this site:
http://allaboutclothdiapers.com/

The site has a lot of information on the different types of cloth diapers out there - and there are a LOT of choices! What I learned was that cloth diapers are expensive, with the fancy ones costing about $24 each. Considering that a newborn can go through 12 to 16 diapers a day, getting a decent stash of cloth diapers requires a huge initial investment. The other thing that concerns me is the fact that babies grow, meaning that you may have to invest in different sized diapers, increasing the cost of cloth diapering. There are cheaper options, but every option comes with pros and cons.

So basically, the most basic cloth diaper is called a prefold or flat. Prefolds and flats are rectangular diapers that you fold up and use pins or Snappis to secure into a diaper on baby. When we think of what our grandmothers used, we are thinking of flats. Prefolds are like the newly improved flats. They have a middle section that's thicker for more absorbency. If you're queasy about using safety pins, you can use something called a Snappi, which is a Y-shaped bit of stretchy rubber with plastic tabs that have little teeth to grip fabric. You can see YouTube videos of how to use Snappis with a flat or prefold diaper. It's quite fascinating, actually. The American Red Cross Babysitter's class, if I remember correctly, had an optional section to teach teenagers how to diaper a baby using a flat piece of cloth. Anyways, if using prefolds and flats, you may want to also use a waterproof or water-resistant cover over them.


Next up are pocket diapers ,which don't need a cover because it comes with a waterproof layer. It has a pocket for you to put in an absorbent insert. You can use a prefold or flat as an insert or you can buy inserts made from all kinds of materials like microfiber or hemp.

Fitted diapers have elastic and fasteners. They look a bit more like disposable diapers, but like prefolds and flats, they require a cover. I think most of the homemade diapers on Etsy.com are of this kind. Some fitted diapers come with pockets.

All-in-one diapers, or AIOs, most resembles a disposable diaper. There is no cover needed nor any inserts. These are the most expensive kind, but are super easy to use. Some AIOs also come with pockets in case your baby is a heavy wetter.

From this site, I also learned of something called, "elimination communication." It's potty-training your baby as soon as possible. Babies make signs or faces when they're about to go and when mommies see this, mommies can immediately put their baby on the potty. This causes the baby to associate the potty with going and the baby may learn to hold it until a potty is available. Mommies who have done this say that after hitting the one year old mark, their babies can get to the point where they rarely need a diaper and if they do soil themselves, it's because mommy wasn't paying attention when baby was trying to tell her baby needs to go! Fans of this method really love it and claims that it really works very well because it reduces the need for diapers and gives you another way to bond with your baby.

There is a third diapering option I'm considering. It's a hybrid solution between cloth and disposable diapering. Basically, parents can opt for a cloth cover that can be reused and use flush-able inserts. It's an attractive option because you're not adding as much to the landfill and you don't have to deal with poop.

The most attractive option in my mind right now is elimination communication combined with cloth diapering. The less time I spend cleaning poop, the better. What makes cloth diapering especially attractive, other than for the reasons mentioned above, is that I can use it for more than one child. Plus, cloth diapers come in really cute prints, materials and colors! The consumer in me is very excited at the prospect of shopping! However, the frugal in me says, it's much, much more practical to choose a cheap cloth diaper. For instance, using prefolds with an attractive cover instead of going for fitted cloth diapers.

Unfortunately, many people have had issues using prefolds. Some find them bulky and others have issues getting them fitted around a squirmy baby. Some really love them, but I won't know which camp I fall into until I try them out, I suppose.

Another attractive option is to get a one-size diaper. A one-size diaper can come as a pocket or AIO or AIO with a pocket. The one-size diaper has snaps that you can use to adjust the size of the diaper. Theoretically, you can use this same kind of diaper from birth to potty-training. You just have to use a different combination of snaps or fasteners as the baby grows. The BumGenius 4.0 is a very popular one-size diaper. Kawaii is also popular and is much cheaper than others of its kind. Reviews for both have been very good.

Now, another thing to consider when opting for cloth diapers is laundering. Many parents have installed a sprayer in the bathroom to spray gunk off the diapers before putting them in the diaper pail. I would prefer this over using an old spatula to scrape stuff or swishing the dirty diaper in the toilet. Still is really gross though.

Then there's the diaper pail. Supposedly, there are two ways to go about this. You can either use a wet pail or a dry pail. A dry pail is a pail with a liner. You thrown the diapers in there and when it's time to wash, you dump everything into the washer including the liner. A wet pail is a pail filled with liquid. Usually, the liquid has some soap or other pre-treating stuff in it. Dirty diapers are tossed into the wet pail and soak until wash time. When it's time to do laundry, you just pour everything into the washer. Wet pails sound like they require more work because you have to change the water pretty much every day to avoid smells and nasty buildup. In doing some research, both types can lead to smells.

The last thing I want to mention on this topic is reusable baby wipes, or cloth wipes. If I'm going to go this route, why not consider all my reusable options? There are some really soft and pretty cloths out there and you can make your own wipe solution. Soiled baby cloths go into the washer along with the soiled diapers and can be washed in the same load.

I know this all sounds like we'd be dealing in poop a great deal. That's probably true, but it's worth considering if our baby doesn't do well with disposables or we have the time and energy to devote to it. I admit that the initial investment can be high, but it doesn't have to be and if we're lucky, cloth diapering can actually save us money in the long run. Of course, this is all hypothetical talk and speculation. I'm not pregnant and we're not planning to have a baby for at least a few more months. :-)

Smoking is BAD

For a loooong time, my hubby would scoff whenever I held my breath around a person smoking a cigarette. I told him it's because second-hand smoke kills too and he would laugh and tell me there's no real evidence of that. I don't remember any of the articles I read that expounded on the dangers of second-hand smoke, nor do I remember reading any of the studies that the articles were based on. I just know that from reading articles in my past, I've come to the conclusion that there is no safe amount of cigarettes, even if I'm not the one smoking.

So of course I couldn't prove and back up my claims to my hubby. I never thought I had to file away what I read to prove what many now consider to be common knowledge. Still, he may scoff at me all he wants. I still hold true to my conclusions.

What is fortuitous today is my stumbling across this article:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/CancerPreventionAndTreatment/surgeon-general-cigarette-smoke-ravages-organ/story?id=12355628&page=1

Finally, I have some ammo to fire back at his scoffing! Although he'll probably say something like, I couldn't find the link to the study so the report and study could be flawed, blah blah blah. Irritating... but I will not compromise on my attitude towards smoking!


--------update--------

So as predicted, hubby scoffed at me again. He replied saying that the "theory" is based on nothing and again says that all these conclusions are from the study done in 1986. I didn't read anything about these conclusions being based on a study from 1986 so I dunno where he got that idea unless it was an assumption. He continued to explain why the 1986 study was flawed in its conclusions despite the fact that I don't see that study cited anywhere and so hence never thought the study relevant to the article I forwarded him. He ends his reply by saying that air is also harmful and second-hand smoke is only marginally worse.

When I ask him how he would respond if some dude blew cigarette smoke in our baby's face, he said he'd punch the guy. Why would you hit someone if they're not really harming your kid much more than regular air? Hmmm... something's not adding up, right? I told him that but he doesn't see my point.

I think we'll just have to continue to agree to disagree.

No help coming to 9/11 rescuers

I remember 9/11. I still get a bit emotional whenever I think about it or hear it mentioned. I have yet to ever see Ground Zero.

So it really boils my blood when I read something like this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/nyregion/10health.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Honestly, how can Republicans call themselves patriots when would rather give the money to the rich, who continually drain the country dry with impunity, than to those who gave of themselves to help others. I understand that we need to limit and pay down our deficit, but what the Republicans seem to want is to grow the deficit and give all the money to corporations and the super-rich. They are like the anti-Robin Hood. Maybe it's time we need a real Robin Hood.