(Food) Bulgogi Seitan

I decided to whip up some Korean grub today. I don't have kim chee, I don't know how to cook Korean food, and I'm a vegetarian. Plus the snow is going nonstop and the temperature has dropped 24 degrees in the last few hours--going to the Commissary isn't an option.

Like that would stop me.

I Frankensteined a few recipes together. One was a Betty Crocker recipe. One was from Vegan Dad's Cookbook.

Bulgogi Ingredients
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 Green onions minced (We're snowed in today--I used 3 T of freeze-dried chives.)
3 T sugar

3 cloves garlic minced
2 T sesame oil

1 T rice wine vinegar

1 cup vital wheat gluten

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Mash black beans with a fork. Add all but last two ingredients and mix well. Add gluten and yeast and mix with dough hooks for 5 minutes. (I don't know about kneading by hand. It's really soft dough. I have a flimsy hand mixer with weak little dough hooks and I'm thrilled to find something they can actually knead.)

Roll dough into teaspoon sized balls and rest on waxed paper or parchment. Flatten with a fork (like peanut butter cookies.) Use a rolling pin if you own one--I don't. Heat a large skillet with a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in the bottom. Fry all pieces a minute or so on each size. Serve over rice. Garnish with scallions if you have them.

Don't burn yours like I did.

Fortunately my kids would rather eat green beans than kim chee. Besides, the only brand sold in town has fish paste. I am too lazy to make my own.

It's hard to style food when your children faint at the sight of food touching. Meh. Oh, well.

Does it taste like bulgogi? I don't know. It was pretty good. The kids ate the heck out of it.

The red thing I have been crocheting is the Big Bow Cardigan from the latest Interweave Crochet. I wasn't interested in it until I saw the designer's pictures of the cardigan without the bow. Gorgeous, ain't it? I am such a sucker for unusual construction. The sweater is worked from cuff to cuff and I learned to make a row of single crochet and foundation chain at the same time. How did I live so long without learning how to do this?