Not true. VFTs prefer nutrient poor soil. In fact, the main reason owners of these plants fail to keep them alive is not watering them with pure enough water. You’re supposed to use water with a TDS below 100ppm. Rain water or RO water preferred.
The reason these plants can survive in such low nutrient soils is because they evolved a different mechanism for obtaining nutrients.
I don’t know if a vac sealer would help, but I have no experience with one. I’ve seen a recipe that uses one to get marinade deep into a mushroom steak, but mushrooms are not the same as tofu!
Give it a try and report back!
Yup! Soak beans over night, sauté veggies in the instapot with oil, add spices/beans/broth, blast in instapot. They’re better the next day.
Same rice method you described. But I don’t use a rice cooker because I don’t have one. And I use tomato paste, not salsa.
That’s the recipe I used!
The beans are always good. When in doubt- soak beans.
Same. The texture of mushrooms is just not quite the same. Lions mane is better than the traditional grocery store style, but it definitely still has issues. I think if I put a thicker marinade on it and seared it a bit more heavily it would have helped.
The parts of the “meat” that came from the center stalk of the mushroom definitely struggled with the rubbery texture issues. But the external edges of the mushroom fruit had a better, more tender meatiness.
Nice set of notes! Honestly, that looks pretty similar to what we got: -kelp granules -msg -soy sauce -beet juice
I wouldn’t say it tastes like salmon much. But between the kelp granules and the nori “skin”, it gives off enough fish vibe to distinguish it from plain ol’ pan fried tofu.
I wish you luck in your journey. I would love to have a bagel and lox again (minus the dead animal)
The color doesn’t penetrate very well, but on the outside edges it really does a lot to trick your mind. I think if you add slices to the tofu to simulate flaking of fish, you could spread the tofu out on a rounded surface and expose more of the insides to the marinade.
Nice! I should start keeping some fridge taters on hand.
What’s a “fridge potato”?
Ooh. I like this idea. I like the appeal of doing beans from dry, so maybe I’ll try that.
Thanks!!
Okay, thanks. This is a good summary. It really seems like a rice cooker would be a worthwhile investment. I just don’t have any more cupboard space!! I’ve been resisting for a while. But my rice and bean consumption has just been climbing. Spend your money where you spend your time, right?
A second instapot insert is an interesting idea as well. Do you know if they stack neatly?
I don’t have a rice cooker, so naturally, I use my instapot to make rice. But when I make rice and beans, I also use the instapot to make beans… so I’m toying with the idea of just doing rice and beans in the same instapot at the same time… thoughts?
I make a version of this all the time. A few tips that I’ve found help to really make this work well:
Ratio of VWG to tofu. The ingredients list always say 1 block. But if you can’t get the exact one they recommend (the super firm) your ratio is going to be off. I use regular extra firm blocks, and I press the water out of them. My final measurements are 370g tofu:120g vital wheat gluten.
Internal temp. Seitan is just really dense bread. And when you cook bread, the recipes always include a temp. You want crispy French bread: 200f. You want a moist sandwich loaf: 180f. The same logic applies to seitan. I always try to get mine to finish at 190f. Too low, and the texture is weirdly gummy. And if you let it go above 200 it forms bubbles and becomes more like a sponge (you’ll see the outside edges get this way anyway.)
Compress it. Yes, wrapping it tight is key to not letting it expand, but it will naturally inflate. What I do is rest a cast iron on top of it after it comes out of the oven. Let it come down to room temp under pressure. Then rest it in the fridge overnight.
Those are the big ones. Good luck!
Yeah, I was shocked as well. It barely tastes like cheese anyway. Why not ditch the ghee and paneer and go full plant power?
Makes sense! It’s a perfect substitute. We use tofu in our “butter chicken” as well.
I just love tofu.
311g flour (I split it 50:50, King Arthur bread flour and whole wheat.)
4g instant yeast
13g sugar
7g salt
270g soy milk (you can use any combination of plant milk and plant yogurt. I always have soy milk on hand, so that’s what I’ve gravitated towards)
Mix everything together (I use a stand mixer)
Let rest at room temp till doubled (2-4 hours depending on the temp of your room)
Dump it out on a floured surface, cut into chunks* (the above amounts I usually end up with 12 pieces)
Press the chunks flat, and cover.
Let those chunks rise for another 2-4 hours.
Preheat your pizza oven to max temp (900f)
Flour the chunks, and flatten them THIN!
Put 1-2 chunks on pizza peel, toss into oven for 30-60 seconds, flipping after they puff up.
*normally I split the big dough ball into 3 pieces. Refrigerate 2 of them, and only make one into chunks. That way I can have fresh baked naan for 3 days while we eat all the curry.
It really was. I’ve been making seitan a lot lately. I’m trying to get a better grasp on what makes it good. If you google recipes for seitan you will end up with 100 different ingredient lists, and 100 different cooking methods.
This recipe for deli meat style is really my most successful, but each time I make it I tweak it a bit. I think lightly frying the slices firms them up and gives the seitan a more rich, fatty flavor.
I think I’ll try smoking my next batch to see if I can get it to recreate a more bacon/spam like product.
I’m with you. Just toss with oil and seasonings, and air fry them shits.
Hahahah… welp!