pat's cheese steak make over

To make the sandwich bigger,
click on the top bun.

Let's for a brief moment veer away from the casual dining restaurant and go to Philadelphia.  Pat's King of Steaks boasts of being the originator of the Philly Cheese Steak. The legend goes that Pat was selling hot dogs from his cart when, on a whim, he decided to cook up some steak meat instead. He was probably getting tired of hot dogs and wanted to eat something different for a change. 

A cabbie nearby was exposed to the succulent "aroma" and had the temerity to ask for Pat's lunch instead of a hot dog. Being the smart businessman that he was, Pat didn't have a hang up over this and, in fact, made some more for himself after the cabbie was gone. The cabbie enjoyed this steak sandwich so much that he spread the word to other cabbies who in turn spread the word and the rest is history. 

At this point Pat did not have cheese on his famous cheese steak; he added that later. 

Since I went to the trouble of making the SteaK Seitan, I decided that I needed more recipes for steak. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives loves to show cheese steaks on the show and Tami and Celine have their own version of cheese steak in their new cookbook, Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day; I didn't want to be left behind.

Let's talk how to order this cheese steak as a local - not that you'll ever have the chance seeing as it isn't vegan, but perhaps you can get the family to play Pat's and "order" the sandwich from you.

Here is the lingo:

(1)

One sandwich with onions: "wit"

One sandwich without onions: "wit-out"

Two sandwiches with onions: "2 wit"

(you get it, right?)

(2)

specify the cheese: American, Cheese Whiz, Provolone

For the vegan version, you can have Follow (Your Heart), Teese, Daiya, or a great vegan cheese sauce. 

(3)

 Have your money ready 

(or chores for the at-home players)

So, review:

One sandwich without onions, with cheese whiz:

"wit-out whiz"

For those who want authentic, and nothing but, you will need the cheese sauce, which I have very conveniently invented for you (although, which at this point had to be removed from the site as it is appearing in my upcoming cookbook!). This is a fantastic cheese sauce, so please give it a go - it requires no Daiya, FYH, etc. I added peppers and onions to our sandwiches, along with the cheese sauce. 

Pat would be proud. 

*sniff*

Cost Breakdown

SteaK: $3

bread: $3

peppers, onions, mushrooms: $3

cheese sauce: $2

oil, garlic, misc: $1

Total to make 4 sandwiches:

$12.00

Their charge per sandwich: $9.00

Make Over cost per sandwich: $3.00

SteaK Seitan

Cheese SteaK Sandwich

chili's make over

This is Take Two for the Chili's Make Over. Take One is here.

I won't rehash the fabulous casual dining experience that Chili's offers, but head right into the heart of the blog. 

The steak.

I have been wanting to recreate 'steak' ever since, well,... we went vegan. It hasn't been easy and I am not saying this is the end-all to the endeavor, but, damn, it's good! Chili's offers a Cajun Ribeye on their menu which has Cajun seasoning, au jus, and Cajun butter. It is served with mashed potatoes and veggies. I chose this as the first steak to make because it has other components that take the focus off the meat. This would make it more probable that the steak would taste like a steak. Not the steak, mind you, but a steak-like product.

This is seitan in its simplest form - basically vital wheat gluten, tamari, oil, stock and steak sauce. Steak sauce is vegan, ironically. The real secret is not in the gluten itself, but how it is prepared. After the gluten flour is mixed with the liquid it needs to sit for around 24 hours  6 hours. It is then rolled very thin (possible after all that sitting) and cooked low and slow, for about 2 hours. 

Now that the gluten has become a SteaK, it is grilled in a grill pan with a good bit of oil. Although most of the oil drips off into the grates, the oil is important because our seitan has practically no fat, but the flesh it mimics does. 

 Our Cajun SteaK is then topped with au jus and the Cajun butter. 

O.M.G.

You WANT this. Really.

It is um-mazing. In fact, the family has informed me that we will be having this often. Even as I write, there is another batch sitting and waiting to be baked.

Onto the contest winner of Fresh From the Vegan Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson.

Random.org generated result is comment #17, in2insight. Email me with your mailing address at veganaide (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Congrats! And everyone, thanks for entering. It really is an amazing slow cooker cookbook. I have her first one and this supreme! It is worth the cost of $11.32.

Cost Breakdown

SteaK:

gluten, oil: $2

stock, sauce, tamari: $4

Total to make 8 thin SteaKs:

$6.00

CAJUN STEAK PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

SteaK Seitan Recipe