Pictures of Seitan Day

What you ask is the most fun thing to do? Ever? Make Seitan!

It looks like disgusting witch's brew right now, but soon it will transform into oh-so delicious seitan.

The blur is our chef instructor for the day, Chef Eliot Prag.

The class hustling to finish their dishes for service and critique.

My classmates, Kelsey and Molly. Molly's responsible for the delicious seitan burgers with cornmeal crust. My partner, Eve, and I made the Seitan Bordelaise with rich red wine, shitake mushrooms and thyme, and as a side, some love in a bowl: roasted garlic mashed potatoes with a touch of horseradish and cream.

Indian kebabs with mango coulis dipping sauce and roasted winter vegetables with herbs.

My god that was a good cupcake

What a coincidink that I just gave props to Jaime Oliver a few entries ago. I recently made his butternut squash muffins (really it’s cake) and topped it with a cream cheese frosting inspired by his runny frosty topping. And man it was awesome.

As he says, this recipe works under the same presumption as carrot cake. So if you don’t like the carrot cake, see you at my next posting. This was truly one of the easier cakes I have ever made. And the thing about Jaime’s recipes – which I’ve been trying for years now – is that they are always so well tested, and really, really work. For example, 30 minute meals by Mrs. Rachel Ray – I don’t think so. P.S. they take a lot longer.

So, back to the easy peasy. Didn’t have to peel the squash, didn’t have to cream or melt anything. Chuck in some squash, which ok, I will admit, had to weigh with my little food scale which I presume most people don’t have. I’d go with an educated guess of about 2 cups, then back to chucking in the rest of the ingredients: flour, lots of brown sugar, cinnamon (I went strong because my cinnamon was not so fresh), eggs, baking soda, walnuts, and the most interesting of all extra virgin olive oil instead of butter. Egads, this man is a genius. The olive oil may seem strong at first but as it cooks, it brings the whole cake together and even mellows out the intense sweetness of the squash. Truly – this is a revelatory recipe for me.

So unfortunately, I don’t think I can post his recipe here because I don’t want to get sued and all, so here’s the link.

My cream cheese frosting? Inspired by the variety of citrus in his frosty topping, I decided to go part traditional cream cheese frosting, and just a little bit crazy with a clementine. I’ll tell you right now: don’t use an orange, unless you have absolutely have to. Clementines have a more floral flavor that really suits the cake.

Kristine’s Cream Cheese Frosting that goes really well with Jaime Oliver’s Muffins
4 boxes of good cream cheese (24 oz) at room temperature
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
2-4 tablespoons of Clementine juice
Zest of half a Clementine

Zest half the Clementine and set aside. Juice half of the Clementine and set aside. In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese on medium speed to make the cream cheese lighter and more pliable. Add the zest, 2 tbs of the juice and sugar 1 cup at a time. Once incorporated, check to see how dense the frosting is. If it’s too dense, add more juice. Try adding 1 tbs at a time and let sit for a minute, before adding again. You’ll have some left over, and you’ll thank me for it.