Seitan Steaks and New Oser Cookbooks

Bryanna's new Vegan Feast Newsletter just came out. I always love to see what new ways with seitan she is coming up with. This month my "must try's" include these steaks and some kebabs which I will try next weekend. Sometime my "must try's" get me so excited that I will stay up playing in the kitchen all night. I did start these before bed on Thursday, then on Friday morning we took the steaks out to make lunches and refrigerated the rest.

Picture one.... rolling out the seitan dough. This dough was a bit rubbery-er (that's not a word) and hard to roll out, but they did with persistence, a little water and a rolling pin. The previous seitan cutlets dough in which tofu is added is much softer and easier to roll, actually they were just pressed flat in my hand. I, myself, like them either way however the family usually prefers the dough with tofu (esp in "ham" loafs or spam as one of my sister's calls it).

Picture two.... Dropping the dough in the warm crockpot cooking broth. The broth was in the crockpot for about an hour on low before the "steaks" were ready to drop. I used my new 6 quart crockpot for this. I like the fact that this new pot has a carry feature that locks the lid in place and has a slot on the handle to attach the spoon. I was also amazed at how much it could hold compared to my oval 4 quart pot (which I will always use for the seitan roasts because I like the shape best in that).

Picture three.... What it looked like when I woke up this morning.

Despite the difficulty with the dough we really enjoyed these, however they are made with red wine which DD really didn't like but once she grilled it and put the sauce on it she thought they were good. I like A1 steak sauce, the ingredients list isn't to bad other than that darn corn syrup which is in everything and it is vegan. DH prefers BBQ sauce and DD likes ketchup the best. DS has gluten issues and doesn't get into these. Although I can and have made my own sauces, I used purchased sauces this time.

UPDATE:
Bryanna posted a response in comments about the ability of the seutan dough to be pressed by hand. ALSO - DH just told me last night that this is his favorite seitan steak yet. (yeah) Even though DD didn't like the wine flavor, I did and obviously so did DH.


NEW COOKBOOKS - - - -
At Christmas time I earned enough points on my credit card to get a gift certificate for amazon.com (my favorite reward). I purchased these three cookbooks by Marie Oser. If anyone else has these, would love to hear your favorite recipes.
I first discovered her at the same time I found Bryanna's books. I checked the books out from the library and still have a few handwritten recipe cards in my file box from that time. She uses several prepackaged goods which I could not afford at the time I first found the books, today I more interested in some new ideas and flavor combinations.... maybe I'll try a few of the convenience flavorings or soy meat just to see how they compare with my favorite "from scratch" Bryanna recipes sometime. Besides just the soymeats, there are many other recipes I'd like to try sometime also.

Hope you are all having a great weekend. I have another lunchbox picture to post soon. Today I have the chance to go to my favorite little Indian store when I do some other shopping. I am hoping that the store has their new cafe open (last time I went they were remodeling to allow for it).