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VEGAN FEAST SUBSCRIBERS' COOKING AND RECIPE FORUM>
Chorizo-stuffed cutlets
Søren
255 posts
Aug 31, 2007
6:50 AM
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I've finally gotten around to make some more of the main dishes from the newsletter that I really wanted to try out. I made the tamale pie for us which we really enjoyed. Since I'm living in Europe, I don't have access to the soy curls (much as I'd like to try them) so I used ordinary textured soy protein - or that is, I used half the amount and threw in a can of kidney beans since I thought we hadn't eaten beans enough recently. The red sauce was spicy and delicious but I used it all for the filling since it would have been too dry otherwise. I found one hour's baking time was enough (Bryanna stated 2 hours) - our oven is rather unreliable since it suddenly gets red hot, and that might be part of the explanation.
I also wanted to try the chorizo-stuffed cutlets. Actually we were supposed to have had a fellow vegan over for dinner, one of my DH's business clients, and I really wanted to impress her. Bjarne was anxious if it wasn't a bit courageous to make a brandnew recipe that I hadn't tried out but I wiped him off since I've been making the cutlets several times before and I couldn't see that turning them into rolls instead could go wrong.
Our guest eventually had to cancel but I went ahead since I just thought we'd have food for two days plus some for the freezer. I had the day off and started in the morning, and my rolls all turned neat and pretty. I did the seitan dough in the food processor but it did come out a bit soft. I started kneading it to see it would firm up a bit but I kept faith that it would hold together. Unfortunately, when I pulled out the clay pot from the oven, most of them had popped open and come out of shape, the chorizo stuffing of course being mushy since it had been mixed with the cooking broth. I pulled up all the rolls who were disturbingly soft and let them all cool which of course firmed them up a bit and thanked the higher powers that I wasn't going to serve this for company. Despite being a mess, the rolls tasted rather very good, and the peanut sauce was FANTASTIC. I made the black-eyed-beans salad (albeit with plain potatoes) and it was a winner as well.
So what went wrong? As I said when I tried out the agnolotti, I'm not usually very good with things that need stuffing. But I'm also wondering if I've processed the seitan dough too long so the gluten wouldn't create strings? Could that be possible? Even when I knead the dough, it didn't really form strings. It might be I've simply miscalculated the amount of gluten - we use metric measures here so I'm always calculating when making Bryanna's recipes even though it's no big probolem.
It was a shame to see all my work with the homemade chorizo stuffing and the seitan cutlets not ending in the beautiful dinner I had hoped for - but I'll have to try this again and get it right.
And make sure to try that peanut sauce!!!
Søren
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Bryanna
Owner/Moderator
2178 posts
Aug 31, 2007
2:41 PM
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Actually, you don't want this dough to form "strings"-- it's a smooth dough. The only thing I can think of is that they didn't seal well enough before cooking, or maybe you stuffed them too full. Stuffing is tricky! An alternate way would be to cook the cutlets as usual, spread the chorizo on one half and fold the cutlet over, secure with a toothpick and fry or steam them; or try rolling them (pre-cooked) with the chorizo, like a crepe, fasten with toothpicks and steam or fry.
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