Animal Writings

My almost-vegan niece, the other day, was saying that just about the only animal-dish smell that gets her to thinking, "Man, that smells good...I miss that" — though not to the point of eating it, of course — is southern fried chicken.

This recipe isn't an exact replica, but it comes close. It's definitely fried! The batter has the right amount of crispiness and crunchiness, and overall the dish has a satisfying, rich, slightly tangy taste.

The protein base is seitan — nice and filling. I bought "chicken-style" seitan, already cut up into chunks; you can find this in a lot of stores these days. I fried the coated pieces of seitan in corn oil for a more authentic taste. (Remember Mazola?) Make sure the pan and oil are nice and hot!

I ate it with some rice that I cooked in vegetable broth, and a salad made with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers that our next-door neighbor gave us. I was stuffed!

My wife was on a business trip, but when she gets back, I'm going to cook up another batch. Maybe we'll have it with mashed potatoes and gravy and string beans.

And it's really simple to make!

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P.S. I feel funny calling non-animal dishes "chicken," since the whole idea is that it's not chicken. But if we need to call some mock-meat dishes by their animal names for a while, to let people know which non-vegan dish it most resembles, taste-wise, and that draws more people to vegan cooking, so be it.

Labels: cooking, food, recipes