ginger seitan

Asian Night

Cat is Japanese at heart - yeah, big surprise - she's a teenager. I think most teenagers these days are wanna-be Japanese, especially in this age of video games, anime and manga.

When Asian Night comes up, she always requests something that is Japanese. Which is fine by me; otherwise I wouldn't even know some of the dishes that exist.

She wanted me to make Shogayaki. Shoga means ginger and yaki means grill or fry. And that is your five cent language lesson for the week. Shogayaki is pieces of pork stir-fried, sometimes with onions, with a ginger sauce. It is served with shredded cabbage.

This is high on the Simple and Quick List as long as you have seitan. You can also use well-soaked TVP pieces. I defrosted and sliced my Tender Cutlets into thin (1/8 - 1/4 inch) strips, coated them with arrowroot (or cornstarch or flour) and stir fried them with sliced onions.

Then I poured on my ginger sauce - garlic, ginger (lots!), sugar, tamari, toasted sesame oil, mirin and sake (I used white wine) - and let it thicken and coat the seitan.

I served this with the traditional shredded cabbage and not-so-traditional sauteed garlic kale. Really good stuff.

Cost Breakdown

seitan, onions: $3.50

arrowroot, oil: $1

sauce, garlic: $2

cabbage: $2

kale: $2

rice: $.50

Total to make 6 servings:

$11.00

GINGER SEITAN PRINTER FRIENDLY RECIPE