Food Network Friday - Beef and Horseradish Sauce Sandwich

For this week's Food Network Friday Challenge I converted this Ina Garten Recipe. With the holidays approaching, it was nice to have a fairly easy conversion this week. Once the seitan is made, this is a snap to throw together. I used Tami Noyes' Beefy Seitan Recipe that will be in her upcoming American Vegan Kitchen cookbook as the base. The rest was pretty straight forward.

"Beef" and Horseradish Sauce Sandwiches.

Makes 2 hearty sized sandwiches.

4 oz Beefy Seitan

1/2 tablespoon Earth Balance

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

Salt and Pepper

Sauce ingredients

1/2 cup vegannaise

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

2 teaspoons stoneground mustard

1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

1 Tablespoon Toffutti non-hydrogenated sour cream

Sandwich ingredients

4 slices whole grain sandwich bread

1 cup arugula

1 tomato sliced thin

1/2 tablespoon softened Earth Balance

Preheat oven to 500.Mix 1/2 tablespoon EB with 1 teaspoon dijon. Coat seitan roast with mixture. Coat with pepper and salt lightly. Bake seitan for 15-20 minutes until outside gets a nice crust on it. Remove from oven.

While seitan is cooking mix together sauce ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Can keep in refrigerator for several days.

To assemble sammies thinly slice hot seitan. On one slice of bread spread the horsey sauce. Top with thinly sliced hot seitan, 1/2 cup arugula and a few slices of tomato. Butter top slice of bread and put on top (butter side down). Slice in half and serve.

Vegan MOFO - Day 8 - Iron Chef/Okra and Horseradish

Today I am straying from my there. I love iron chef! Did I tell you how much I love iron chef? It gives one a chance to see how creative they can be. It also opens you up to the possibility of ruining some perfectly good ingredients. This is my favorite arena. I love trying to figure out to how I can wing throwing together a great dinner with ingredients someone else picks out.

This challenge was a bit daunting for me because I can't really stand okra normally, especially the frozen stuff. The first challenge was finding fresh okra this time of the year. Score one for my friend Daphne! One of her neighbors had okra in her garden. I couldn't decide whether to use fresh or prepared horseradish, so I bought both. Now with the chosen ingredients in hand, I needed to get creating.

I had a theory that the pith in the okra is what gives it to that nasty slimy texture I despise. So I decided to clean out the seeds and pith and stuff those bad boys. Okra seems to show up in cajun/creole cuisine. This made me think I should put a cajun twist on things. Here is what I came up with.

Cornmeal Crusted Stuffed Okra served with Durty Rice Cake and Creole Sauce

Cashew Horseradish Cheese

1 cup raw cashews (measured before soaking)
1/2 package Mori-nu silken firm tofu
1 Tablespoon fresh grated horseradish
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Pinch of white pepper.

1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/4 cup corn meal
3/4 cup corn flour

Soak cashews in filtered water overnight. Drain. Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth, scraping down sides of processor once or twice. Refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight. This cheese is excellent as a spread on crackers too!!

Get 12 medium sized fresh okra. If it is too large it will be very woody and stringy. If it is too small, it will be hard to stuff. Make a slit down the length of the okra. Carefully remove the pith and the seeds. Gently stuff the okra with the cashew cheese. Refrigerate stuffed okra while you prepare the creole sauce.

After the creole sauce is simmering. Heat canola and peanut oil to 350. Make a breading station with two shallow bowls. One with 1 cup of unsweetened soy milk. In the other bowl mix corn meal and corn flour. Place stuffed okra in milk, then dredge in flour mixture. Repeat one more time. Place breaded okra in hot oil carefully. Fry for about 3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Drain on paper towel. Can keep warm in 250 degree oven while preparing side dishes.

Serve over Durty Rice Cake. Drizzle with creole sauce. (Recipes for these will be posted later as another MOFO entry. I have to pack for my trip!!!)