Tag Archives: Rice

Adventures with Seitan

07 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Techniques, Vegan

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Seitan is made from the protein in wheat, in other words the gluten. All the starch is washed out of the wheat leaving pure gluten which consists of over 80% protein. Quite clearly this is not suitable for anyone who is coeliac or has an intolerance to gluten.
The resulting powder is then seasoned and mixed into a dough with water or stock before being poached. Frequently the Seitan is poached in flavoured stock to take on the taste of a type of meat. For me making a vegetable product taste like meat is not something I feel I need to do, I’m quite happy with vegetables tasting like vegetables. Having said that, Seitan, like tofu is a pretty bland product, so it does need flavour adding to it, I’m having fun experimenting with different flavourings and will share my successes and failures with you. Because seitan has a high protein content it’s texture is quite dense and it can be browned like meat or sliced and then fried to crispness, which can add some interesting textures to dishes.

This first seitan I made, I can’t say I was very happy with the texture, it was very dense and a bit rubbery. It needed fat in it to lighten up the texture. Not one to waste anything, I cut it into matchstick shapes, fried until crisp, which came out pretty good, and added it to oriental fried rice. As the seitan was quite bland this first time of making it, it needed the flavour of the ginger, garlic and chilli to perk it up.

SEITAN – FIRST TRY BASIC RECIPE – ONE PORTION – all spoon measurements are level spoons

4 tablespoons gluten powder

1 tablespoon chickpea flour

pinch of salt

vegetable stock

In a small bowl mix the dry ingredients together.

Add enough water to make a workable dough and knead to a smooth consistency.


Form into a sausage shape.

Heat the stock to a simmer and put the dough into the stock. Keep the heat low so that the stock is only just moving. I find cooking the seitan in a slow cooker on a low setting works well.

Cook for 40 minutes then remove the seitan from the broth.

Cool and cut into matchstick shapes, before frying and adding to the stir fried rice.

Tomorrow Seitan Herb Dumplings for soup.

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Arroz Negro – Black Rice

21 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by in Fish, Food for One, Main Courses

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Continuing on the rice theme, here is my favourite seafood and rice dish. It is fairly simple to make and does not have many ingredients, but the flavour of the squid ink and seafood mixed with that of the chilli and onion makes for a rich tasting dish. I regularly cook it just for myself.

FOR 6
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion – finely chopped
1 red pepper – chopped into small squares
1 green pepper – chopped into small squares
Half a red chilli – finely chopped
500 grams squid
500 grams mussels
500 grams prawns
250 grams rice
500 ml fish stock
500-750 ml chicken stock
Salt and pepper

Let’s start by preparing the fish.

Remove the innards from the squid and carefully remove the ink sacks into a small bowl. Cut the tentacles from the innards and save discarding the rest.

With the ink sacs, you need to break them open to release the ink and press them with the back of a spoon to make sure that it is all out before discarding the sac. In some places it is possible to buy the ink frozen in little sachets which saves on the fiddle of extracting the ink.

Wash the squid bodies and tentacles and dry them on kitchen paper. Cut the bodies into thin circles. If the tentacles are small leave them whole, but if large cut them smaller.
Clean the mussels and steam them open.

A lot of cooks like to cook the mussels in the rice, but I find that there is often grit in the mussel shells and so prefer to open them separately and then sieve the liquid. Also some mussels are extremely salty, so if you have their liquor apart, you can taste it for saltiness before deciding how much to add to your dish.

If I am making this rice just for myself, I use ready cooked and shelled mussels that I buy frozen and keep in the freezer for these sort of mixed fish dishes that only require 5 or 6 mussels.

The prawns can be left in their shells to be opened at the table, but if you prefer for easier eating, they can be de-headed and peeled now.

Heat the oil in a large shallow pan and add the onions. Fry gently until translucent.

Add the peppers and chilli and keep cooking gently for five to ten minutes.

Add the squid and and continue frying gently for another five minutes.

Add the rice and stir well to coat with all the other ingredients in the pan. Fry for about five minutes.
Mix a little of the fish stock into the ink to dilute it and add it to the pan with the rest of the fish stock. Mix well.

Cover and leave to simmer for about five minutes. If it is starting to look dry add some of the chicken stock.
After another five minutes add the prawns if they are in their shells and the liquor from the mussels. Check the seasoning in the liquor in the pan and add salt and pepper as required. Add more chicken stock if needed.

Continue cooking until the rice is at the al dente stage – cooked but with firmness in the centre.

using unshelled prawns add at this stage and then a couple of minutes later add the mussels and let them warm through.

Let the rice rest for five to ten minutes.

Serve with Alioli and a tomato salad.

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Spanish Rice Dishes – Arrozes

15 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses

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The Spanish take their rice very seriously, and the other day I was discussing with a group of friends which their favourite rice dishes were, their favoured cooking methods, what variety of rice is best and should you include garlic and onions or not it? Can a good paella be made without rabbit? We all agreed, no.

It occurred to me that I had not shared any Spanish rice recipes with you. I am about to rectify that lack.
The one thing that all rice dishes here have in common, is that the rice is cooked in a flavoured liquid, and so the short to medium grain varieties of rice which absorb much liquid without disintegrating, are the ones used.
The best rice we all agreed is Bomba from Calasparra. The only rice cultivated here not at sea level, but in the flood plains of several rivers in the mountains where it grows slowly in the cool water, letting it develop lots of flavour. Consequently it is more expensive than other rice, but you get what you pay for.

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Cooking the rice outside on an open fire is unanimously the favoured cooking method preferred by my friends, although whether this is more to do with the atmosphere of gathering friends and family together and all pitching in with either ingredients to go in the rice or little starter dishes, rather than the actual flavour of the rice, I am not sure.

The paella illustrated above and cooked by my camera shy neighbour Paca, was made with rabbit, pork ribs, artichoke quarters and red and green peppers.

Obviously this method of cooking rice is not available to most of us, and is best suited to cooking for a good number of people, but that does not mean that a good paella for as few as one person cannot be successfully prepared in your own kitchen. The flavour of the fire can achieved by the addition of a pinch of good smoked pimenton or paprika.

There are as many paella recipes as cooks, and many are simpler and have fewer ingredients than the celebratory Paella Mixta with its several varieties of seafood plus chicken, rabbit, and pork ribs for the meat. I am going to start with my favourite which has as its two main ingredients, rabbit and butifarra sausage. The sausage is quite highly spiced, so if the butifarra is not available, use any other peppery sausage.

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PAELLA DE CONEJO Y BUTIFARRA
For Six
1 rabbit – cut into chunks with the bones in
1 Butifarra sausage of aprox 350 grams
1 onion – cut into small dice
1 red pepper cut into strips or small squares
1 -2 green peppers – cut into small squares
250 grams short grain rice – La bomba or any of the risotto rices
1 – 1.25 litres light stock
Saffron – 2 good pinches
Pimenton – 2 pinches
Salt and freshly ground black pepper.
300 grams French beans – cut into short lengths

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Peel the sausage, cut into quarters lengthways and then into thick slices.

Put into a shallow pan on a low heat for the fat in the sausage to render out. If you are using a very lean sausage, then add some olive oil in which to gently fry the sausage.

Add the onions and fry slowly until transparent.

Add the peppers and again fry slowly for about 10 minutes.

Add the rabbit pieces and fry turning from time to time until sealed all round.

Now add the rice and stir in to make sure that it is coated with all the fat and juices from the other ingredients. Fry for about five minutes to let the rice absorb the juices.

Crumble into the pan the saffron and add the pimento. Stir well.

Now add the stock. Start with about three quarters of the amount stated.

Bring to a simmer and keep the heat low. Cover and let cook for about ten minutes.

Stir the rice. Add the beans.

Add more stock if needed. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.

Leave to cook until the rice is cooked but still slightly firm in the centre and the stock has been absorbed.

Turn off the heat and leave the rice covered to rest for about ten minutes.

Serve.

Next time – Arroz Negro – Black Rice made with seafood and a hint of chilli………