Chinese Chili-Orange Stirfry Sauce

Simple ingredients, scrumptiously complex flavour.

Ingredients:
3 T orange marmalade
2 T soy sauce
2 T sake
2 T water or orange juice
2-3 t Chinese chili paste
2 t cornstarch

Whisk all ingredients together with a fork. Pour over an almost-done stir-fry and cook, stirring frequently for five minutes, or until sauce has thickened. Serve over rice.

I made this tonight to go on a stir-fry composed of:
1 small onion, sliced in half moons
1 garnet yam, sliced in matchsticks
2 ~8 oz packages seitan
3 stalks celery, sliced medium-thick
6 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 bag frozen (shelled) edamame

Cook the onion in a little canola or sesame oil until just soft;
add the seitan and sweet potato, cook on high med-high heat until the seitan is lightly browned;
add the celery and garlic, cook for 2 minutes;
add edamame, cook until edamame is heated through;
add orange sauce, cook five minutes.

Pepper Seitan

This is my version of Chinese Pepper Steak. I usually end up browning seitan when I use it, so it's a nice change to eat this recipe, in which the seitan ends up soft and succulent. Serve with brown rice and a side of steamed or stir-fried vegetables.

1 lb seitan, cut into long thin strips
1 large green bell pepper, cut into long thin strips
1 large yellow onion, cut into thin half-moons
1/2 c sliced water chestnuts

Marinade:
1 T reduced sodium soy sauce
1 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
1 T cornstarch
2 T rice vinegar
1 t fresh ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
1 T sesame oil

Sauce:
Original marinade from seitan, plus enough water to make a total of 3/4 c of liquid
1 T cornstarch
1 T reduced sodium soy sauce

Marinate seitan (in the marinade) for about fifteen minutes; this is the perfect time to chop the veggies. Whisk sauce ingredients to combine.

Stir-fry onions for about five minutes, or until they are just starting to become translucent. Add peppers and water chestnuts, stir-fry for another five minutes, or until they are as cooked as you want them.

Put veggies aside; in the same (now empty) pan, stir-fry seitan for five minutes. Add sauce and reserved veggies, cook until the sauce is thick and everything is warm, probably another (you guessed it) five minutes.

The best plum sauce Branden has ever tasted!

This was phenomenal! We had some plums that needed to be eaten immediately, and once again, the urgent eat-it-now-before-it-spoils feeling lead to a creative success. We served this with rice, seitan pan-fried until crisp, and a stir-fry of carrot, baby bok choy, and bean sprouts. It would also make a great dipping sauce for fried tofu, spring rolls, etc. It does have a lot of ingredients, but don't be scared, it isn't hard to make.

.75 lbs plums, pitted and chopped
.5 c water
Half of a medium onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T ginger, minced
A quarter of a lemon, juiced
.25 c brown sugar
1.5 t teriyaki sauce
1.5 t soy sauce
1 t chili paste
.25 t ground cloves
.25 t ground allspice
3 T water
1 t cornstarch

Put everything except the water and cornstarch in a pot and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Whisk cornstarch into water.
Pour sauce into a blender, add cornstarch and water mixture, puree.
Pour sauce back into pot, cook for another ten minutes.

Mushroom Stroganoff of the Gods

This was heavenly. I am still blissed out from eating it. I had a bunch of cashew gravy leftover still, and this dinner was the obvious solution for my overabundance of gravy. I also found a bag of oyster mushrooms that Branden picked up for free at work but never told me about in the refrigerator, luckily they were still good. I think that was divine intervention. I served this with a bunch of swiss chard sauteed with garlic and olive oil as a side dish.

1 lb fettucine pasta, cooked, drained, and rinsed (but still warm)
1 large onion, sliced
.5 lbs oyster mushrooms, mostly whole, only the biggest sliced
.5 lbs cremini mushrooms, sliced thick
Salt and pepper
1 box seitan (.25 lbs), cubed
1 batch cashew gravy
Margarine
Parsley, chopped

Saute onions in margarine until translucent.
Add mushrooms to onions, season with salt and pepper, and saute until soft.
Meanwhile, fry seitan until browned.
Heat gravy, thin with extra soymilk if it looks too thick.
Place pasta on a plate, top with gravy, then mushrooms, then seitan, and garnish with parsley.

Sichuan Eggplant and Seitan

This is a super yummy recipe for a dish I love to eat at Chinese restaurants, but have never been brave enough to make myself before. It turned out to be really easy to make. If you don't have seitan, you could use tofu or tempeh, or just add more eggplant. I used cayenne pepper for the spice, but next time I will use Chinese chili paste.

6 asian eggplants, sliced diagonally
1/2 pound seitan, chopped
Black pepper, to taste
1 head garlic, roughly chopped
Oil for cooking
Sauce:
2 T. water
2 T. soy sauce
1 T. braggs
1 T. balsamic vinegar
2 t. brown sugar
1 T. cornstarch
Cayenne pepper to taste
Any leftover marinade from seitan package
Green onions, sliced diagonally
Sesame seeds

Stir-fry eggplant in a little oil until soft, set aside.
Fry seitan in a little oil until lightly browned, season with black pepper.
Add garlic, stir-fry about five minutes, don't let it brown.
Meanwhile, whisk sauce ingredients together.
Add sauce to seitan, stir until coated.
Add eggplant, combine thoroughly.
Cook for another five minutes.
Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds, serve with rice.