the oyster stew experiment

There are two recipes in this book I’ve been dreading. This is one of them: oyster stew. The other one is a roast possum recipe, but we’ll get to that later. Back to the oyster stew. Why anyone would make oyster stew in the first place is beyond me, but it’s in the book, and had to be done sometime. So I guess I thought today seemed like as good as any other.

Oysters:

Faux fish seitan recipe from La Dolce Vegan. Use smoked salt. Tear the seitan into small pieces when placing it in the boiling broth. They kinda turn out in the shape of oysters. Weird.

1 lb. potatoes

1-cup bacon bits (vegan, duh.)

1 chopped white onion

1 cup chopped celery

Corn from 2 ears corn

4 cups regular unsweetened soymilk

2 cubes vegan bouillon

2 teaspoons vegan Worcestershire sauce

1-teaspoon salt

1-teaspoon black pepper

Herbamare to taste

1/3 cup minced fresh parsley (optional)

Boil the potatoes in two batches (1/2pound each), 1 batch whole, 1 batch cubed.

Sauté celery, corn, and onions until celery is soft.

Heat up soymilk, bouillon, and whole potatoes and use a hand blender to blend until smooth (or throw the soymilk, bouillon and whole potatoes in a vitamix and blend until smooth. Then heat up in a large pot.

Add Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, and bacon bits.

Add corn. Celery, onions, cubed potatoes, and faux oysters

Cook for 10 minutes. Add herbamare to taste.

Serve in bowls and add parsley for garnish

I found it quite tasty, although a bit strange. My wife and roommate ate the biscuits and ignored the soup. I guess, unless you’ve had oyster stew and really miss it, don’t bother making it. On that note, if any workfolks want some for lunch Tuesday, hit me up. I have a ton. After that glowing review of this strange stew, I can imagine how many messages I’ll get asking for this concoction.

Creamed “Chicken” and Biscuits

I’m tired and cranky tonight, but I said I was going to make creamed chicken on biscuits and gravy and collards greens. Well, I made it halfway through following through on that one. Didn’t really realize that I needed to cook the collards for 2 hours. 2 whole hours!!! So when I started cooking dinner at 8 o’clock tonight, there was no way in hell I was going to spend two hours waiting for collard greens. Nope, they will just have to wait. Fortunately, for me, creamed “chicken” and biscuits only takes about 20 minutes. Perfect.

So, I popped the cork on a bottle of wine and got to cooking.

Creamed “chicken” and biscuits

(WSCC pg. 20)

¼ cup margarine

½ cup thinly sliced celery

¼ cup all purpose flour

1 ½ cup soy milk (or rice, or whatever)

½ teaspoon salt

Few dashed of black pepper

Dash of chili powder

2 cups diced fake chicken (I used the rest of the “chicken” seitan I made or the bbq the other day, and when I try this recipe again (because I will!) I’m gonna get my hands on some of that gardien fake chicken. That would set this over the top.)

3 large biscuits (I just used bisquick and soymilk. I know, I know, why use bisquick when it’s so easy to make my own from scratch? I just love bisquick. I can’t help it.)

Melt margarine in medium heavy saucepan over medium-low heat and add celery. Cover and cook until tender. Sprinkle flours over mixture and stir until smooth. Cook for 1 minute. Gradually pour in milk and stir until smooth (I use one of the rubberized flat whisks. I love them. They make the best gravy every time). Stir in fake chicken and cook until thick. Serve on biscuits.

Tomorrow morning I am going to make toast and have the left over for breakfast.