Seitan Piccata
I’m a confirmed carnivore. A Meat-for-Breakfast kind of carnivore. But, I also enjoy trying as many vegetarian meat alternatives as I can. I think that makes sense. After all, when you’re kosher you can’t have meat all the time. During the Nine Days I was looking through a new food magazine I picked up (CHOW magazine. FYI, I like the magazine a lot. It’s not as chock-full of recipes as some of the other periodicals I read, but the material was educational, entertaining, and as I later discovered - delicious). They had an article about vegetarian meat alternatives and the vege-meat industry, followed by a recipe that piqued my interest - Seitan Piccata. By the time I had a chance to make the dish, the Nine Days were over - but the dish will stay in my ‘meatless cooking repertoire’.
What is seitan, you ask? Seitan is a meat alternative made from wheat-gluten. It can be made at home, but I went to my local Whole Foods Market to pick up a package. Every available brand was Kosher, by the way. As it turns out, the package I bought was seitan-chunks, rather than cutlets - so I was making Seitan Nugget Piccata, but the taste wasn’t affected by it.
If you’re not familiar, ‘-piccata’ generally means a thin chicken or veal cutlet, dredged in flour and fried, served in a white-wine sauce containing capers and lemon juice.
The most important question when evaluating meat-alternatives has to be “How did it taste?” I’m happy to report that it tasted great. As the magazine article pointed out, meat-replacements are generally best with strong flavors & sauces. I mean, seitan and tofu and the others are basically tasteless - I wouldn’t judge them against meat until after cooking. These are raw ingredients - not like a Morningstar Farms sausage patty or burger.
When I cut into my seitan-chunks, I discovered a network of bubbles, very similar to the inside of a sponge - but it didn’t bother me. If I made the recipe with cutlets, there would have been more seitan surface-area to dredge and fry, and the inside of the cutlet would be less noticeable, if at all. Also, the next time I make this, I’ll probably use butter - which would violate the Vegan philosophy of the recipe’s author.
Enjoy.
Seitan Piccata
CHOW Magazine6 seitan cutlets
whole-wheat flour for dredging
1/4 C olive oil
1/2 C diced shallots
1/2 C diced onion
1 t minced garlic
1/4 C drained capers
1 C dry white wine
1/4 C fresh lemon juice
1 C vegetable stock
4 T margarine
1 C chopped fresh parsley
1 t sea salt
1/2 t freshly ground pepper1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a saute pan. Dredge the cutlets in flour and shake off the excess. Fry about 30 sec. per side. Set aside.
2. Heat remaining oil. Saute shallots, onions, garlic and capers until soft. about 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the wine and cook until it is reduced by 1/2. about 5 minutes.
4. Whisk in the lemon juice and cook 3-5 minutes more.
5. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 minute. Whisk in margarine, salt & pepper. Pour over the cutlets & serve at once.