Vegan PF Chang's Orange Peel Beef Seitan aka "crappy mall Chinese Food"

Crappy mall food is one joy in life that was ripped from me in my silly decision to become vegan. BUT LO AND BEHOLD. I have made Crappy Mall Chinese Food-- specifically a rip of PF Chang's Orange Peel Beef.


1 package WestSoy Seitan
Sri Rocha Hot Sauce to taste (I used about 1 t.)
3 T. Bragg's (or any soy sauce)
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/2 c. flour
1 c. oil for frying

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Mix the seitan with the hot sauce, Bragg's, and garlic. Use a fork to separate any big pieces. Toss them in flour, dump them in the hot oil (dip the corner of one piece in to see if it starts to bubble to be sure that the oil is hot enough). Deep fry for about 3-5 minutes until golden brown. Remove with a metal strainer, and set on paper towel to cool/crisp up.

1 yellow onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 c. mushrooms (any kind), chopped
1 c. frozen peas
1-2 t. chili garlic sauce (to taste)
any brand of "mandarin orange sauce" from the grocery store (avoid the "marinade" with soy sauce in it)
1/2 c. plain tomato sauce (secret ingredient)
3 T. Bragg's
1 T. oil

1 package of spaghetti, soba, or udon noodles (or rice)

Saute the garlic in the oil, add the onions and reduce heat. Saute until translucent. Add the vegetables in the order that you normally stir fry vegetables (carrots, then peas, mushrooms last). Add the Bragg's and the chili garlic sauce and let the stew for a few minutes. Mix in the orange sauce and the tomato sauce and the cooked noodles. At the VERY LAST COUPLE MINUTES add in the fried seitan. If you add it to early, it'll get soggy.

SO GOOD!

Scallion Pancakes

I made these in Indonesia, among other things, because vegan food was limited, as were the ingredients I could recognize at the grocery store. After 6 weeks I was pretty tired of Gado Gado. While I was taking a taxi to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for this, I found 1,050,000 rupiah ($110) that I got to keep because no one claimed it after I reported it to the cab company...

The recipe is from apartmenttherapy.com

Ingredients:
-white flour
-hot water
-chopped green onions
-salt
-oil

Mix flour and water in a 5:2 ratio to make a basic dough. 2.5 cups flour/1 cup water is good for about 3-4 people as an appetizer. Hot water (like close to boiling, or even boiling) will facilitate chewier pancakes. roll dough into a ball and coat in some oil. Cover with a damp towel, and allow dough to rest for about 30 minutes. Then, roll the doughball out flat and sprinkle it with green onions and salt. I haven't gotten the green onion amount down to science yet, but use an amount based on how much you like green onions.

Roll the pancake sprinkled with onions up like a snake. This way, the onions are on the inside, which makes frying them up easier/the onions don't fall out or get burned. Cut the snake into 6-8 pieces (if you used 2.5 c flour). Cut them into smaller pieces if you only have a small fry pan, larger if you have a larger one. Heat up a skillet and put some olive oil in it, and roll out the small pieces until they are about 1/3 inch thick (like pita bread thickness). Fry on both sides for about 2 minutes, until brown.

Serve with a dipping sauce. I use soy sauce with lime juice, fresh grated ginger, rice vinegar, and a bit of water just because it was what I had around, but really any "asian themed" dipping sauce would be delicious. Or, honestly, hummus (since I put that on everything).

I've relocated back home to Detroit and I'm unemployed and bored out of my mind, so I'll likely start posting more on here. Unless I get a job. If you need a women's health nurse practitioner in Detroit, call me.


I can has onion pancake...

Sweet And Sour Vegetables

-bag of frozen stir fry vegetables. or fresh
-couple squirts of braggs amino acids
-1/4 c apple cider vinegar (I really like apple cider vinegar so I use a lot, if you don't like it you might want to use less. but you should like it because it's insanely delicious and good for you) I use Bragg's brand, again.
-about 2 T. sugar (i use sugar in the raw)
-cornstarch as thickener
-cooked rice

1. Cook the vegetables. Don't cook the crap out of them though. Just stir fry. Quickly.
2. Add the liquids to make the sauce.
3. Mix a few T. of cornstarch in some cold water and dump that in. I like cornstarch better than flour because a) it doesn't change the flavor, and b) in this case it gets to have a lovely gelatinous consistency that reminds me of the really crappy mall-chinese food I don't eat anymore
4. Fast, tasty, sorta crappy. Whatever.