Four Delectable Wheat Meat Dishes

Gluten has strongly polarized the current generation of food-loving folks. Depending on who we talk to, either gluten is the root cause of all evil and ailment, to be censured and possibly banned from diets; or, gluten is quite an essential part of a nutritionally-balanced meal that includes optimal whole grains which provide a rich array of vitamins and minerals.

Celiac disease is very real. Research connecting diabetes and gluten is well published. And, many seem to have high sensitivity to gluten in their diet, even if not diagnosed with Celiac disease.

Over the past few years, after staying gluten-free months at a time, switching to quinoa, millet, amaranth, brown rice for weeks a stretch, it seems to make no significant difference to the folks at home. So, I've made peace with gluten for now, promising to revisit the issue in a year or so. 

I am not a nutritionist, but, I do believe in consuming as much natural, primarily-vegetarian foods as possible with minimal processing -- leaning towards fresher,  homemade options than conveniently packaged heavily processed foods. As to going grain-free? I am still researching and experimenting.

Anyway, all that is to segue into these 4 vegetarian recipes for using homemade wheat meat. 

Every once in a while, I make a batch of  wheat meat with variations in flavor and cooking methods just to see if this is still tolerated by our digestive systems. Since it stores well in the fridge and freezer, I can use a little at a time incorporating it in a variety of dishes.


I. Wheat Meat Bulgogi with pickled ginger

Nothing much to it. Instead of beef, which we don't eat, simply slice the wheat meat and toss with other ingredients like, pickled ginger strips, pickled carrots and beets, julienned summer squash and cucumbers, thinly sliced onions soaked in vinegar,



II. Wheat Meat Crumble Burritos

Cut up the wheat meat chunks into smaller pieces and run it in a food processor to make a coarse crumble. Saute some onions, bell peppers, tomatoes along with the crumble, add some Taco seasoning and there you have it.

III. Wheat Meat Fajitas

Similar principle as above, but just thinly cut them to strips along with peppers and onions.

Homemade corn tortillas fresh off the griddle makes this interesting.

IV. Wheat Meat Meatballs

Since wheat meat is already cooked and ready to go, simply crumble it in a blender, then add egg and wet slice of bread for binding. Either bake or pan cook till it has a crusty outside and firm enough that it can hold its shape well in the sauce.

Other wheat meat dishes shared earlier:

Wheat Meat Pot Roast

Wheat Meat Philly Cheesesteak

Florentine Omelette

I savor Sunday mornings: I let the baby talk and play in the crib with a few crib toys I sneak in when he is just waking up, before he notices me and jump-starts my day; I push down the surging guilt at not rushing to greet but letting Ana (who is old enough at 3¾) to get up from bed and read her books or play a bit in her room or even get out of her room if she likes.

I just sit on the bed, propped up with comfy pillows, savoring my morning cuppa, deliberately attempting to tune out the baby's prattle and Ana's parley with her dollies streaming in through the baby monitors.

And, when those 4 or 5 minutes pass, I busy myself thinking up a good way to cook up eggs for the morning brunch as I change the wriggling baby's diaper under Ana's watchful eye :)

This is just another omelette recipe, but happens to be D's and my favorite that I haven't posted so far. Typically, it is fairly thin, cooked only on one side, with favorite veggies and cheese filling, folded up and served warm with the morning joe.

As I make it in a 10x10 pan, this is large enough to be a meal in itself - usually ends up being Sunday brunch for us...

Ingredients
1/3 cup Eggbeaters™ whites
1 whole egg
1 tsp Herbs de Provence mix (or Italian herbs mix, if handy)
salt and pepper to taste
chopped spring onions for garnish
1 Tbsp Olive oil, or canola oil or even butter if preferred

Filling:
Baby spinach leaves
marinated and sauté mushrooms, if handy,
fresh grated colby jack or part skim mozarella or both
some diced smoked gouda, if preferred
some diced mock chicken sausage, if handy
Other veggies if preferred**

**I prefer not to use bell peppers or tomatoes as the omelette gets a bit soggy.

Preparation:

1. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat
2. Beat the egg whites, eggs and herbs till fluffy - do this right before ready to pour in the pan and cook
3. Pour into a fairly wide and shallow pan - I use a 10x10 square non-stick pan with about ¼-inch rim that works out just perfectly for this dish
4. Pick up the pan and spread the egg mixture around to form a thin uniform layer, sprinkle salt and ground pepper lightly
5. Allow it to set part-way, add the sausage, spinach, mushrooms across the middle, then add the cheeses on top of this layer of veggies, allow the eggs to cook through and the cheese to start melting
6. Fold in the two edges to form a packet and slide it off the pan into the serving plate
7. Garnish with chopped spring onions or any other favorite garnish like chopped parsley or shredded basil or oregano leaves

Poori Masaal

"Poori Potato" is how my dad always refers to this classic breakfast/tiffin dish my mom used to make on and off when I was little. Pooris/Puris are whole wheat bread that are fried, and usually puff up in the process. Typical side dish it is served with where I grew up is a mildly spicy potato dish.

Pooris are usually made with whole wheat flour and are about 3-4 inches in diameter. Sometimes, I serve pooris with a hearty vegetable korma or curry.

Bathuras are made with all-purpose flour and about 6-8 inches in diameter. The mini bathuras, which are usually larger in size and served with Cholay/Chana, work just as well as pooris for a sumptuous weekend brunch.

Ingredients
1½ cups self-rising flour*
OR
1½ cups all-purpose flour + 1½ tsp baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
½ tsp nigella seeds
½ tsp black cumin seeds
salt to taste
canola oil for frying
*(use whole wheat flour, if preferred)

For the potato masaal:
4 medium potatoes, cooked
1 medium onion, finely diced
2-3 green chilies, finely diced
1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
cilantro for garnish
Tempering: 1 tsp canola oil, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds

Preparation:

Poori: combine the flour (baking powder, if using), nigella seeds, cumin seeds, and some salt, add a little buttermilk at a time and knead into a soft yet slightly stiff elastic dough.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan for deep frying.

Potato Masal: Start with the tempering - heat oil in a largish pan, when shimmering, add the mustard seeds, when they pop, add the cumin seeds, then the grated ginger, chilies and onion, plus turmeric powder and sauté till onions turn translucent; add the cooked potatoes, adjust salt to taste, add a little water as needed to adjust the dish to the consistency you like. I don't like it runny...

Divide the dough into one inch diameter balls, and roll them out flat with a rolling pin to about 2 millimeter thick. Deep fry each of these and drain in a paper-towel lined plate.

Serve pooris/mini-bhaturas warm with potato masal garnished with cilantro.

Vegetable Bread Pie

I had some three day old Romanian bread that needed to be used up a few weeks ago. This dish was just thrown together without any specific end-product in mind. And since it turned out fine, it gives me a chance to write about it here :-)

Basically, it is like a vegetable pot pie, but, instead of pie dough, I used old bread soaked in some milk; the vegetable filling is just held together by a mixture of cheeses.

Ingredients
6-8 slices of old bread
some milk
cooking spray
filling:
frozen peas, frozen spinach, onions
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper powder
salt to taste
1 tsp oil

some cream cheese, grated mozzarella, grated cheddar

Preparation

heat oil in a pan, sauté the onions, then add the frozen veggies and the spices, cover and cook till done; off heat, stir in the cheeses

spray a cake tin with some cooking spray; heat the oven to 375°F

remove the crust from the old bread and soak it in a small amount of milk - just enough to get it wet but not soggy; squeeze out excess milk and push some slices of bread down at the bottom of the cake tin; add a layer of filling; then another layer of wet bread on top

spray a little cooking spray on top and bake in the 375°F oven for 10-15 minutes until top is crisp and brown

huevos motuleños

Eggs, Huevos, Wyau (oo-ya, in Welsh), however we call it at home, are a favorite breakfast/brunch meal on weekends.

Every once in a while, D likes what he calls Farmer's Breakfast: eggs (fried, poached, omelette, scrambled, just any way is fine), (soy) sausages, hash brown and griddle cakes.

I like eggs, but, not when they feel "eggy" in certain dishes - like, certain cakes have the eggy smell, soufflé feels eggy (quel dommage!), custard feels eggy... however, fried or scrambled eggs seems alright - just a quirk of mine :-)

Huevos Rancheros is pretty popular and easy to do, but, this time I decided to make Huevos Motuleños for Sunday brunch, which i don't make often.

Huevos Motuleños is eggs served Motul style (of the Yucatan): tortilla, black beans, fried eggs, peas & ham, some kind of queso fresco, with fried bananas on the side.

Quite a meal in itself!

Seems deceptively elaborate and labor-intensive... But, really, it is quite simple to assemble and enjoy.

Especially, since some parallel processing can be done, the brunch comes together quite easily: i usually start the black beans in the back burner first; while it is simmering, get the egg-batter ready and pan-fry the tortillas; simultaneously, in another pan, fry the bananas, while egg is getting poached in the microwave and Violà!


Always excited about experimenting, I did a few things differently from the traditional recipe: as we don't eat ham or beef and such, omitted the peas & ham; instead of queso fresco, used queso panela made with part-skim milk; prepared poached egg instead of fried egg; and, pan-fried the tortillas in egg-batter, not much unlike French toast.

For the French-toast-style egg-battered tortillas:
2 large flour tortillas
2 eggs
2 Tbsp finely minced onions and jalapeños
salt to taste
1 tsp cayenne pepper powder
1 tsp canola oil

beat the eggs with onions, jalapeños, salt and cayenne pepper; pour into a shallow bowl and keep handy for dipping the tortilla

cut the tortilla into a square, saving the 4 edge pieces

heat oil in a pan, dip the tortilla pieces in the egg mixture and pan cook both sides till golden brown and done



For the black beans:
1 cup cooked black beans (if using canned, drain and rinse well)
½ medium onion chopped finely
2 jalapeños chopped finely
1 Tbsp coriander powder
1 Tbsp hot sauce (Frank's®, Tabasco®)
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp canola oil
cilantro
salt to taste

heat oil in a pan, sauté the onions and jalapeños, add the rest of the ingredients and simmer on low till flavors meld; taste & adjust flavors; off heat, stir in cilantro, reserve some for garnish

For the poached eggs and pan-fried bananas:
2 ripe bananas, slit lengthwise & 1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 eggs, for poaching with 2 Tbsp finely minced onions and jalapeños
some oil

poach the eggs in a microwave egg-poacher, adding the onions and jalapeños on top

meanwhile, heat oil in a pan, add the slit bananas, sprinkle brown sugar on top; flip and cook the bananas all over till crisp on the outside and the brown sugar caramelizes

Assembly:

lay the egg-battered pan-fried French-toast-style tortilla on a plate, top with some black beans, a poached egg, a couple of slices of fried banana, and crumble some queso panela (or feta, or any crumbly cheese of your choice); serve warm

Sig at Live To Eat is hosting this month's Weekend Breakfast Blogging (WBB#9), and this is my Egg-stra Ordinary Breakfast entry:-)