Sunday, January 31, 2010

Harissa Seitan "Wings"

harissa wings 003
Before we move on to the next stop on the world tour (remember your winter jacket!), I have a short follow-up from Tunisia.  Harissa seemed like a natural for a vegan wing sauce, and this is a super easy recipe, useful for tofu, seitan, tempeh, or any other "meaty" food.

This technique can be used with any hot chili sauce, be it sriracha, red curry paste, chipotle salsa -whatever you like.  Mix one part chili sauce with about half as much Earth Balance margarine, mixing together over low heat on the stove top.  Toss the results with whatever "wings" you're using - baked tofu, fried tempeh, etc.  In this case it was breaded and fried seitan pieces. Serve hot with a nice cooling dip on the side.  For this, I blended together a little silken tofu, along with tahini, fresh lemon juice, minced garlic, and a pinch of salt.

My fried seitan chunks benefit from a couple of hints picked up from The Splendid Table: room-temperature foods tend to behave better when fried, and develop a nicer, crunchy coating.  This worked like a charm, and I won't try to bread and fry anything straight out of the fridge again.  Also, I mixed in a tbsp. of corn starch with the coating of flour, salt, and pepper.  This adhered much better to the seitan bites than my usual breading, which usually is just all-purpose flour and some spices.  These two tips were a big help for me, as I'm often stumped with getting a good, golden brown coating on fried foods.

17 comments:

Mary Catherine said...

Mike - where can I see this recipe?

The Voracious Vegan said...

AWESOME! I am drooling everywhere right now because that picture is fantastic and exactly what I am in the mood for tonight for dinner. Such a great idea!

Mihl said...

So simple and so delicious! Thank you!

The Bad Vegan said...

thanks for sharing the tip about frying foods at room-temperature to get a better, crunchier coating. if i'm gonna give in and fry something, i want it to be as just right...so i tend to avoid it because the texture doesn't always come out how i'd like. i can't wait to try this!

T said...

YUMMM! Great idea for all that harissa lying around!

Trinity (of haiku tofu) said...

Thanks for sharing that room temp tip!

Cassie - Vegan Fox said...

Mmm...these looks so tasty!

Bianca said...

Ooh yum! I may have to try harissa or sriracha with my Super Bowl seitan wangz.

River - The Crafty Kook said...

*drool* Heaven on a plate! I really need to work on my seitan making skills, they are pretty poor really. What kind of vegan can't make seitan, right?!

Thank you for the breading tips! I did not know that breaded goodies fry better at room-temperature.

A winter jacket for our next stop? Awesome! I'll have my mittens, hat and scarf ready! :-D

two vegan boys said...

This looks so good. I need the recipe. Please oh please. :)

Mike K said...

Thanks for the comments everybody! I get kind of lazy about organizing the actual recipes sometimes, so hope this helps: For the harissa recipe, it's in my previous post on Tunisia. All I did was mix a half cup of harissa with about a quarter cup of Earth Balance margarine - heated over low heat just until the margarine is melted and combined with the hot sauce.

From there, I just tossed the fried seitan pieces in the warm harissa/margarine sauce. I always use the boiled seitan recipe from Veganomicon for pieces like this, and any prepared seitan, tofu, tempeh, or faux meat should work about the same.

For the breading, I used about a half cup all-purpose flour, 1 tbsp. corn starch, plus 1/2 tsp. salt, & black pepper. I like a bit of paprika, rubbed sage, or thyme in breadings sometimes too.

Toss the seitan pieces in the flour mix just until coated, and then fry in about 1/4 inch of canola or peanut oil for just a couple minutes, flipping once until browned on both sides. These brown really quick, so it pays to be attentive and not let them get carried away. From there, proceed to the hot sauce part :)

Hope this helps, though even my organized recipe is a little convoluted and out of sequence. Thanks again for the kind words!

Lisa said...

thanks for the tips! I like The Splendid Table and have more recipes yet to explore in it.

dining room tables said...

I am now drooling over this dish. Where can I see this recipe? And thanks for the tip of yours regarding the frying thing.

miss v said...

i've been waiting for this post! totally as drool-worthy as i imagined!

Penny said...

I've just linked over from Two Vegan Boys. There's some great food here! I love food blogs as they inspire me when I'm stuck in a cooking rut and yours is one I'll be returning to!
Thanks for the 'room temperature' tip.

Viagra Online said...

hello! I really appreciated this kind of post.

Palak Varma said...

Your awesome topic is yours. I like these topics very much. I would like to have such topics daily, this post is really good for you. There are people like you in the world who put their views in front of everyone. Thank you from the heart.
Noida Escorts Service
Call Girls In Gurugram
Call Girls Noida
Call Girls Manesar
Call Girls Bhiwadi
Call Girls Rajiv Chowk
Sector 29 Call Girls
Gurugram Call Girls Photos