veganmofo #17: piccata, you say? piccata, i say.

whenever i have seitan piccata at candle 79, it haunts me. every meal i have, for weeks afterward, is unfairly judged against that dish. salty, lemony, and accompanied by potatoes - i don't think a dish could speak more to my soul. for dinner tonight, i attempted a recreation at home.

i've a feeling seitan will be a lifelong project for me. as much as i love it, i don't make it very often and each time i do, i fiddle with my recipe and/or method a little bit. there's always something i think could be improved, be it in the realm of taste or texture. it's like there's this mythical seitanic ideal that i'm trying to make materialize in my kitchen. whether or not that ever happens, seitan remains one of my favorite protein bases because it's hearty, versatile, and can wear coats of many colors.

tonight, i baked katie's chicken seitan recipe, from the latest issue of don't eat off the sidewalk. when it comes to cooking seitan, i consider myself a boiler at heart. but i figured - new recipe, try a new cooking method. the taste of the seitan was right on but the texture was a little dense for a piccata. if i were looking for a sliceable, more solid gluten, i'd stick with baking. i have an ancient chambers range that has two temperatures - off and hellfire - and despite my careful wrapping and twisting of aluminum foil, my loaf split open a little and got a little overcooked.

no matter, though, because i found a recipe for candle's seitan piccata online (thanks, esme, for confirming it!) and i think it has the power to cover up the messiest of seitan mishaps. it's a quick-cooking meal, once the seitan is cooked and cooled, and i got four servings out of it. that should be enough to hold me over until i make my next foray into homemade piccata or convince a friend to meet me at candle for an expensive-but-worth-it dinner.

served it with mashed potatoes, natch, because they ratchet everything up, and some green beans for color and crunch. yump!