The Vegan Thread

Enjoy, I'm a bit jealous! I will be spending the morning riding to Cambridge eating cereal bars.

Dark Arts on Ponsford St. Not really junk food, but killer brunch & cake. Plus I think they've started doing vegan pastries too.

Good call. You should definitely go there @kl and grab at least two black bean brownies. They are godly.

"Another vegan Hackney food venue, Mr kl-eosote?"

Just about to take a long walk with the dogs to get the appetite going before heading to Hackney. I'm having the best month - gf is doing Veganuary, and cooking loads of new stuff. The other night it was a batch of amazing black bean brownies. She's also looking at a lot of animal rights stuff and talking about going full time vegan. Life is good!

Also where can you get vital wheat gluten for cheap? It's so bloody expensive!

Glad you enjoyed the recipe. Kneading is a bit of a dark art. Too little and it's too airy, too much and it gets rubbery.

Re: the wheat gluten flour I got 1KG from Amazon for £4.28 I think it was which isn't too bad considering the amount of Seitan dough you can get from that I think, although it's out of stock at the moment https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buy-Whole-Foods-Online-Gluten/dp/B007CX0ZSK

Intend to try that / your recipe today, wanted to ask:

• do you think the cajun seasoning fits the soy sauce? Sounds kind of weird to me.
  
• what for do you wash the simmered pieces in milk, before deep-frying?
  
• do you have a recommended vegan sauce / dip for these?
  
  

Thanks in advance!

After stocking up on all the spices I found that aforementioned supermarket is out of stock in the vital wheat section.
Thoughts of cajun-spiced goodness made me drive to the posh organic store though pissing rain that sells Seitan Fix (overpriced gluten flour). Out of stock as well.
FML.

Broth cooking on the stove right now, about to knead the shit out of 1,5 kg dough under water in a few minutes.

I did a bit of research and the rubbery part was (I hope) mainly down to me boiling the stuff rather than a constant simmer. I'll steam it next time to avoid that risk. As for the soy and cajun combo - I think that worked really well and the flavours were great (just my technique was lacking)

How did it go, what did you eat?

kl, are you OK? Or was it that last vegan mint leaf?

This 'fried chicken' thing seems to be ridiculously successful. They appear to run out of stock every day, are scrambling to increase their production capacity, and generally seem to be run off their feet. Be careful what you wish for ... :)

When I went along, the queue was quite short, only just out the door, so I probably got lucky. I thought then that the initial excitement had abated a little, but apparently the queues still get very long even now.

It seems as if they've created a product that's in huge demand, so I hope they can capitalise on that, and I imagine it can only be a matter of time before more such shops open, or before you can get it in non-vegan fried chicken shops, too, for a more direct head-to-head popularity contest. :) (I suppose it might be difficult to avoid contamination in that case, though.)

Well done, ToS.

Went straight to Temple of Seitan, queued for well over an hour (!) but luckily were inside when the hailstones and rain came along. Didn't seem to put off the rest of the queue, mind. Both had the chikn 2 piece, which was amazing- coleslaw was rubbish, but that's not what you're there for. Just by a pub, so can grab a beer and use their picnic table for eats. Everyone in the pub was talking about what people were queuing for ('They're vegan, it's that gluten free stuff, innit?')

After a wander, went to Black Cat (Dark Arts closed early). Shared a tofu katsu, portions were too huge to have two mains, but manfully ploughed thru a Bounty Coconut Cake as well.

Gf loved it all, is continuing veganism, has just knocked out a bunch of raspberry chocolate cakes and is planning to try making fried chikn (with EB's recipe) at home.

I agree but it's currently more than twice the price of actual fried chicken, so there's a way to go yet.

True, undoubtedly because they're not making it in such large quantities just yet. I hope the price drops in the coming months; imagine what a good marketing line that would be. :)

What time did you go to black cat? I went for lunch on Saturday wanting tofush but had to settle for a disappointing 'fry up'. Wasn't impressed TBH.

do you think the cajun seasoning fits the soy sauce? Sounds kind of weird to me.

Just adds some salt/savoury flavour

what for do you wash the simmered pieces in milk, before deep-frying?

So the flour mix for the coating has something to stick to

do you have a recommended vegan sauce / dip for these?

I don't really. I like mine with burger sauce and lettuce in a bun!

If they can branch out widely and get it down to 'impulse buy on the way home from the pub' price then I'll be a very happy/fat hammer.

Tried the new Quorn vegan fishless fingers yesterday.

Went for the classic butty rather than with chips and peas. Made a rookie mistake and forgot to check what bread we had, wholemeal only! I confess thread >>>

Anyway, I had forgotten how orange the crumb is and was a bit shocked initially, they're pretty small and made the kitchen smell weird but didn't taste too bad. Doubt I'll buy again.

About 6pm, place was v busy. The fry up seems to be the signature dish there, but we didn't try it.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/outrage-after-animal-rights-group-peta-calls-for-ban-on-plastic-warhammer-figures-wearing-fur-a3454806.html

I hope this is either a hoax or something that PETA themselves know is a joke and they're just being attention-seeking ... just in case they hadn't noticed, all fantasy games, not only Warhammer, tend to feature rampant animal abuse, including hunting, meat-eating, and so on, which is not the worst problem in the world because they're games. <Cue endless debate about whether acting out fantasies through games makes people more or less violent. :) >

I Still don't really understand this, I can only assume it must be some kind of publicity stunt. Seems such an arbitrary thing to take aim at, will they be demanding that game of thrones change their wardrobe too next?

That would be a worthier target. The amount of fur in replica costumes worn by fans alone must cost a lot of lives. (Here's a petition that gives some numbers.) I think fur is a very important topic for protest, as it's a huge industry, but that Warhammer thing demeans the serious campaigns around it.

This must be a joke right? Surely even PETA aren't this pathetic... fake vegan news?

So I did it without gluten flour, but made regular seitan.
Cooked in broth that was severly overspiced with cajun style herbs etc.
Breaded & fried after letting it steep for two days in it.
Came out a lot less spicey than expected though.

I remembered one thing (too late) -
it's important to boil the pieces with a slight simmer only, to keep them from swelling too much.

Also I've found the leftover broth makes for an excellent gravy when cooked down -
I just did this, and the next batch of "chicken" pieces (this time made with gluten) are simmering right now - very curious to see how they compare!