Like seitan? Or something different?

I had not heard of seitan (marketed in Iran as the Great Seitan). Checking wikipedia, it looks like it's the same thing; seitan seems to be a name given to the product in the '60s to introduce it to the West. My family favours the baked spongy gluten. I favour leaving the room while they prepare it.

(Huh. Apparently it's used as a meat substitute. Not a use to which I would put it.)

I don't use seitan too often, but one recipe that I like is seitan cooked with mushrooms, onions, and a red wine sauce. There's also a seitan brisket recipe that we sometimes make for Rosh Hashanah. My favorite use, though, is a sandwich at Cafe Blosson in NYC -- the seitan is breaded in spiced cornmeal and deep-fried, and put on a sandwich with caramelized onions, avocado, and garlic mayo. They also have seitan on skewers with BBQ sauce, served with jicama slaw. Yum.

The powdered kind of wheat gluten can also be used to make homemade vegan sausages.

sj, I hope you get good, helpful information tomorrow.

Why is it that I can't get up in the morning, yet I still can't get to sleep at night, even though I'm exhausted? Oh, 5:15 is going to come early. Again.

vw, how's your mother doing?

gluten

I know the word. But I have no idea what to do with it. I eat, c'est tout. Apart of trying to have 3 salads per week, and thinking on starting running (a freaking whole class on "The Anthropology of Happiness", and do I do something to make my life better from what I've learned? Hell no), I'm the poster girl of chocolate and spice and everything nice.

Also. FIELD WORK TODAY! OMFG, and please send your ~mas. It's my first, and I'm excited and worried and whatnot, and mostly in need for a talkative, good informant(s).

I have my follow up with my doctor tomorrow to get the results of my blood tests regarding my pain issues. I'm so scared, and I don't even know what to hope for.

Ugh, waiting and uncertainty is the worst. I hope everything turns out for the best, sj.

Oh, missed that: I wish you luck and bravery you won't have to use, sj.

{{sj}} I hope you get useful information.

mmmm, the Chinese do some amazing things with that wheat gluten. I can recall a lovely meal in a Buddhist monastery at the top of a mountain somewhere. They served a stew made of gluten and black mushrooms and wood ears and I don't even know what. It was delicious.

Sj, all good thoughts for your appointment. And may it bring you relief.

I know that Vietnamese cuisine has tons of faux fish and meat made from wheat gluten as part of their tradition. The story I hear (which may be legend rather than fact) is that rich Buddhist monks in Vietnam developed these recipes so they could stay vegetarian while living a life of luxury. So wheat gluten shrimp, wheat gluten pork and so on. What I've had in the local Vietnamese place always tasted pretty good to me.