joe's crab shack make over

CRABBY-CAKES PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Joe's Crab Shack (warning: the link is decidedly UN-appetizing). Not a place any vegan in their right mind would head to. Although my husband, poor dear, had a business meeting at just this place a month or so ago. He ate leafy greens and talked a lot to mask the emptiness in his stomach. Joe's hasn't heard of the restaurant rule that states that given a group of people, the vegan chooses the restaurant. That is, unless it is a business meeting and the boss chooses the joint so he can write it off as a business expense.

While crabs are about as easy to make vegan as eggs are, given that they are the entire animal on a plate (truly, how horrifying that is!), crab cakes are absolutely doable. Joe's signature dish is a huge crab cake, either served as an appetizer, dinner plate or a sandwich. Either way, they are served with a Sriracha Remoulade. Any good vegan will pounce on the word "Sriracha" and beg the question why it is being muddied by being served with animal parts. 

Let's change that.

This Crabby-Cake is made with a seaweed (don't leave!) infused shredded tofu. Shredding the tofu allows the marinade to permeate the tofu more effectively, thus giving it a hint of sea-flavor - in a really good way. It is formed into a cake, breaded and sauteed.

They serve their sandwich on a brioche bun, so if you want to go authentic, you can have it all by making the brioche recipe in Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day! (and return later this week to check out this leg of the blog tour). 

The cake does fall a part a bit while being eaten as a sandwich, but my hubby, a pre-vegan Joe's customer, informs me that even ones made with crab fall apart; it's just the way it goes. Grab a napkin and dig in, because this really is good enough to put up with a little mess. Even my youngest, who hates with a passion messy food, has resigned herself to the fact that one tends to equal the other.

Make sure to enter the cookbook giveaway for Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day!

Cost Breakdown:

tofu: $2

seaweed, vegenaise, spices: $2

mustard, breadcrumbs: $.75

buns, lettuce, tomato: $4

sauce: $.75

fries: $3

Total to make 4 sandwiches:

$12.50

Their Cost per Order, with fries: $11.00

Make Over Cost per sandwich and fries: $3.15

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seitan parmigiana

First off, I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to Post Punk Kitchen for naming this blog, yes, the one you are reading!!, Weekly Vegan Menu, on their 100 List. We are so darned amazed, flattered and any other word that aptly describes being slammed to the floor in awe. I love the list and its other contents and look forward to perusing it myself in the coming weeks. Beautiful job, PPK! And not just because we are on it. The list is great and if you haven't seen it, yet, you certainly should.

Chicken Parmigiana is a classic Italian dish of breaded and fried chicken, baked with layers of tomato sauce and cheese. Interesting to note is that Eggplant Parmigiana was the predecessor of the meat version, not the other way around. 

Way to go aubergine! 

Since I have already created the eggplant recipe, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about the meat version. I had a bunch of non-veg teenagers over for dinner and thought this might be a nice vegan dish to make for them. This was also the perfect way to introduce to you all my brand-spanking-new Simple Chicken Seitan Recipe. 

The Simple Chicken Seitan Recipe uses only 7 ingredients, can be made in any machine or by hand (if you have to) and has no seitan flavor if cooked properly.

What's the catch? 

(1) You have to cook it at a very low temperature. The lower the better, but 225 F works very well. This means that you cook it longer. If you do not care about seitan-y flavor, then by all means, continue cooking it at the regular temperature of 350 F for an hour or using your slow cooker.   

UPDATE:

The slow cooker method has turned out to be a success, and I am so excited because of it! It is actually turning out to be the better of the two methods (oven or slow cooker). The trick is to leave the lid ajar, by about a quarter inch, and only cook the cutlets for 3 hours and 45 minutes. Huge thanks to Nonna for getting me to try it even after I abandoned the idea.

(2) You have to sift your gluten flour. No getting around this. In order to pull off the recipe to an exact tee, maintain proper texture and flavor, you have to measure the correct amount of gluten. The best way to do that is to either sift the flour before you measure it or stir it up before you measure it. This is the same procedure that you use for baking with regular flour; the flour granules settle down and make measuring inaccurate by as much as FOUR Tablespoons per cup of flour! That makes a big difference in the final product.

***A little note about the cost of vital wheat gluten flour.*** 

I've seen some comments on different sites about the expense of gluten flour. If you purchase a small box of it from your local health food store, sure, you are going to pay an arm and a leg for the stuff. Been there, done that. But, if you buy it from the bulk section of, say Whole Foods, you are way better off. I buy 25 pounds at a time from WF for around $80. That is around $3.25 per pound. A pound of gluten flour yields more than 3 cups. 1 cup of gluten makes 8 cutlets. 

Therefore, 1 pound of gluten, at $3.50, makes around 30 cutlets of Simple Chicken Seitan.

No Whole Foods or other super-awesome store like that near you? No problem. Hitting Amazon, you would still be paying a lot, around $5/pound for Bob's Red Mill or $6/pound for Arrowhead Mill. But that is still not even close to the $9/pound that you pay at a local health food store. 

(There are other companies that sell on Amazon, but I don't have buying experience with them.)

On the brighter side, Barry Farm , a place I have shopped from, sells vital wheat gluten for $3.50/pound. Discounts for larger (5 pounds or 25 pounds) orders. Great place to get it. I purchased 30 pounds and the total, including shipping, was $85. That is less than $3/pound, including shipping. 

The other ingredients for the Simple Chicken Seitan are chickpea flour (very important), salt, VA Chicken-Style Broth Mix, garlic and tahini. If you don't have tahini, add 1/2 Tablespoon of a neutral flavored oil.    

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A note about eggs and binding. What makes the Parmigiana family of classics especially off the menu for vegans (even if you ask for it without cheese) is the egg batter. The consensus still remains that you need eggs for binding crumbs onto things, when all you need is wet flour. It doesn't matter if you use soy milk, nut milk, water, broth or eggs to make your flour wet - it all does the same thing - turn flour into glue (papier mache anyone?) The one difference is that vegan milk, water and broth won't cost you a million karma points. 

There it is. Get cooking.

Cost Breakdown

seitan: $3

panko, breadcrumbs, flour: $1

spices, garlic: $.50

pasta: $3

tomato sauce: $3

Total to make 5 servings:

$10.50

Simple Chicken Seitan Recipe

VA Chicken-Style Broth Mix Recipe

creamy spinach and artichoke dip

Our homeschool group had our Not-Back-To-School potluck picnic today. I brought my Spinach and Artichoke Dip and it was a hit! One mom even called it "her dessert." It's great to have pleased a nice bunch of moms with something as easy as this.

I will be posting the recipe soon, so hang on. This has spinach, artichokes, Better Than Cream Cheese, veganaise, lemon, and roasted garlic. I've been making this for potlucks for years, always bringing home an empty dish.

A little about the cost.

I had to buy the artichokes from a Safeway store because Whole Foods was not open yet, and I paid $4 for a bottle of artichokes that I pay $2 for at Whole Foods. If you are fortunate enough to live near one and are not shopping there for the 'specialy' items, Whole Foods is a bargain. Their strict buying practices are a bonus as they do not sell anything of questionable ingredients; in fact, it was as a Whole Foods clerk was pulling  Willow brand margarine off the shelves that I learned the hazards of hydrogenated vegetable oil. Whole Foods does not deserve their 'whole paycheck' nickname if you shop for wholesome, great groceries.

Cost Breakdown:

spinach: $2

artichoke: $4

panko: $1

lemon: $.50

bread/cracker: $3

garlic, olive oil: :$.75

veganaise, Better than Cream Cheese: $3

Total to feed 15 people apps:

$14.25

quick cassoulet

What makes a cassoulet a cassoulet? White beans. The rest is preference. Tomato sauce, sausage, duck - or any animal - carrots, etc. Traditionally cassoulets take hours to bake, but it is summer time and there is no room in this house for hours of heat!

I used some Tofurkey for my cassoulet, but had I seen the zucchini lurking in the back of the crisper drawer, it would have usurped the sausage for sure. Other vegetables, especially harder ones like winter squash, turnip, parsnip, cabbage or cauliflower would also have been a fine addition in lieu of the soy.

I topped the cassoulet with breadcrumbs sauteed in a pan with garlic, spring onions and parsley.

It was ready fast and tasted lovely. In the winter I will make a true cassoulet, but for today the Summer Cassoulet was just right.

Cost Breakdown

beans: $4
carrot, onion, garlic: $2
tomatoes: $3
panko: $1
Total to feed a family of 5:
$10.00