November cumen in

Hm. i hope i'm not late for this post. i think its been two weeks since the last; i've been calculating it more by the phase of the moon, truth to tell. Wasn't my intention when i started but i like the thought of posting at new and full moons. If i were following that logic, the full moon post would be what projects have reached fruition, while the dark would be about those in potentia; but i'm pretty sure my life doesn't schedule itself so neatly.

Let's see if i can once again condense two weeks of activity into one paragraph. Short and sweet is not my metier, people! But since Halloween, i've perfected my vegan tiger meat recipe, embellished some jeans, finished up one play and gone into rehearsal for another, begun preparing for a new statue gig, made some great breakfast cookies, got killed off as the unknown victim for a murder mystery, caught a deliciously creepy gallery show and another installment of Pecha-Kucha, gotten back behind the lighting board for my friend's band, and been immersed in a fabulous book.

Oh, and i delivered the wedding veil i mentioned before. And now, thanks to the miracle of Teh Internetz, i can show you a picture of it! Here:

No, its not the most stunning piece you've ever seen in your life. But i'm pleased with it, and more importantly, so is my client. We were going for an Eastern Europe meets 1920s sort of effect; i'll let you decide if i even came close. i've never attempted something remotely like it before, but when the requests come in, you say yes first and learn how afterwards. But enough of the old news.

Looking over the list, i realize that i can't elaborate on each of them without rambling on (and on, and on, and on). Soo.. perhaps i'll give you ONE chunk now, and then as i get time, will put up little sub-posts about the rest. Like i said, still working out my approach to blogging; its not like the old LiveJournal where i'd spit out whatever came into my head! (and apologize afterwards, ha ha). There's a bit already been promised, which is what you'll get today; we'll see what happens from there.

*ahem* Proceed.

On November 13th, the previous play ("Brainpeople", which got wonderful reviews) wrapped up. One of the central plot points in this play is the consumption of a roasted tiger cub, and one character in particular eats a fair amount of it. Now, finding something to stand in as tiger meat wouldn't've been so hard, but the actress playing that role happens to be vegan. As the in-house old hippie, the director turned to me and asked, 'what can we use?' My first question to her was, did she have a gluten allergy. No? Awesome. We're having seitan.

At some point last spring, i got the urge to see if there was such a thing as vegan corned beef, and found a recipe that tasted GREAT, so i figured i'd just use that again. Except.. i saved it on my netbook, which currently has a case of teh deads (contributions towards a new LCD screen can be PayPal'd to gothikfaerie@yahoo.com ;-) OK, fine. i found it online, i'll just find it again. Except.. i couldn't find the one i'd used. It ~might~ be Breanna's Vegan Corned Beef, the link for which seems to be no longer active. Instead, i found one that seemed close on The Domestic Vegan , which tasted ok, but i didn't care for the texture much.

So every week when it was time to make the tiger meat, i'd tinker a little. Until finally i came up with this:
My Vegan Corned Beef

Dry Ingredients:

* 2 c. vital wheat gluten
* 2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
* 2 Tbsp. minced onion
* 1 Tbsp. paprika
* 1 Tbsp. garlic powder
* 1 tsp. caraway seeds (ground)
* 1 tsp. fennel powder
* 1 Tbsp. salt
* 1 tsp. black pepper
* 1 tsp. chinese mustard powder
* ¬1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Wet Ingredients:

* 1 c. water
* 1/2 c, tomato juice
* 1 Tbsp. liquid smoke (hickory flavor)
* 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
* 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
* 1 tsp. soy sauce
* 4 lg drops red food coloring

Directions:

Grind spices in blender til powdered. Gradually add flour and flake yeast; transfer to a large bowl. Combine wet ingredients in blender, rinsing out floury residue. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir to combine. Particularly if you use the food coloring (you may not want to; it heightened the effect for onstage), at this point it will look something like this:


Knead with your hands for a couple minutes, until everything is well combined & strands of gluten start to form. On a clean surface, shape the seitan into an oval (about 8" by 5" with a 1" thickness). Let set for one hour. Loaf may rise some during this time. It will only become slightly more attractive, however:


Bake on a lightly-greased cookie sheet at 325F for thirty minutes. While the loaf is baking, fill a large pot with about 12 cups of water or vegetable broth, to which you have added 1-2 T wine vinegar. Add 2 bay leaves & 1 potato, cubed; 1/4 head of cabbage, rutabaga, turnip, and/or beet (for color). Bring to a boil, then lower heat to keep the water simmering. When the loaf is baked, it may look something like this:


The original recipe recommended wrapping it in cheesecloth before the next step: I did that the first time but then didn't bother and aside from losing the string marks where it was tied, it didn't seem to matter much. Simmer your tiger meat for another thirty minutes, then remove from broth with tongs or slotted spoon. You guessed it: its


The final product came out with a darker 'skin' and a nice chewy, moist texture. Without baking, you get something really rubbery; without boiling, its a lot like bread. i'm going to try this just for myself at some point (when there's no more leftovers in the freezer) and probably tinker with the seasoning more; i still never got the great corned flavour of the original recipe. However, this one also makes a great hash: cut slices into cubes and fry up with cubed potatoes and onion, maybe an extra bit of soy sauce and/or garlic powder. Sunday morning noms!

Anyway that's all i have time for today.. could be more in days to come, stay tuned..