Salisbury.Fake food

Product Review – No Evil Foods

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Hello, friends!  We are rounding out March with a product review that comes from a suggestion by my brother.  He is neither vegetarian or vegan, but he saw these at his Kroger and tried them.  I snagged some while I was down there the last time, and I made them this week.  I made the Comrade Cluck into a rather decadent barbecue macaroni and cheese with Follow Your Heart Provolone and nutritional yeast and Sweet Baby Ray’s.  The Stallion I diced up and fried before I put it on a tortilla pizza with some Daiya mozzarella and a nutritional yeast/herb blend.  Both were excellent.

Comrade Cluck, the chicken substitute, has a similar flavor to Tofurky’s deli slices.  There are some subtle differences and I think that comes from the other ingredients No Evil uses, like organic shoyu (soy sauce).  The color is darker than I expected, and that came from the soy sauce, I think, but all in all, it’s a solid meat substitute.  I will say that I burned it on accident because I wasn’t sure how long to cook it for, even though the package thoughtfully provided me with instructions.

This gets a 7/10.

The Stallion has a characteristic flavor of seitan, that vital wheat gluten almost aftertaste.  But the Italian flavors come through, too.  The use of fennel helps counteract that bite of the wheat gluten.  I think it’s better as part of something, however, as I was a little underwhelmed with it by itself.  More pizza for me!  Or toss it with pasta and peppers.

This gets a 6/10.

With all the new meat substitutes, it’s becoming more and more important to me to make sure I am eating the fresher vegetables and the whole foods.  The substitutes are more like a special occasion type item.  I always look forward to the new things, and my brother keeps sending me the new items he finds at his store.  It makes a difference to know my brother cares about how I eat.  He still makes fun of me for it sometimes, but I know he does so out of love, hah.

I hope you’re all staying healthy and safe.  This is a weird time to be alive, and quite frankly I’m tired of hearing about this virus stuff, so I’ll leave it there.

Salisbury.Fake baking, food

Rye Bread

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If you’re after a hearty brown bread, this is it.  I’ve made a lot of bread in my life, and this is by far my favorite in terms of flavor.  I admittedly underbaked mine, so I recommend going to 40-45 minutes when baking, but the result is a chewy, delicious bread.

Another note: the coarseness of the rye will rip the gluten strands during kneading, but that’s why we add extra all purpose flour.  You could do this with bread flour, but I’d test the dough after the 3 cups are added.  You could also add in 2 tbsps of vital wheat gluten if you don’t have bread flour, but I didn’t use it in this recipe because I don’t know who all has such an ingredient.

The coarser flour tends to hydrate faster since there’s not as much gluten in it, so combining the white and the rye flour helps balance.  Test your dough after adding three cups and add in the fourth cup during the kneading process if you notice it’s still too wet.  I think in total I had 4 and 1/3 cups flour.  It might be different for you, though.  The dough should be slightly tacky, but not sticky.

Ingredients and Method:

1 tbsp + 1 tsp yeast (active dry)
2 cups warm water
2 scant tsps sugar

Combine these into a large bowl and whisk to dissolve the sugar and yeast.  Let sit for 10 minutes–really do let it sit for ten minutes.  The yeast needs time with this type of bread.

2 tbsp melted butter (I used plant based)
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 cups rye flour
3-4 cups all purpose flour

Stir in flours, salt, and butter, and mix until a dough forms.  Once dough forms into a ball, move to a well floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, adding more flour as needed to prevent dough from sticking to the surface.  This part could also be done in a stand mixer, but as I make bread by hand, I don’t have time measurements for how long to let it go in a mixer.  The dough should spring back when gently pressed.

Set dough in a bowl in a warm place, loosely covered, until doubled in size.  Since it’s a heavier bread, it’ll take longer than an hour.  Mine took about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Gently fold dough out of the bowl onto a clean surface, floured if dough is tacky, and divide into loaves.  Grease loaf pans and let rise again for 45 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 400* F in the last fifteen minutes of the rise time.  Bake at 400 for 5 minutes, and then lower the temperature to 375 to finish baking.  This bread will take a bit to bake.  I recommend checking it at the half hour mark, but it’ll probably take closer to 45 minutes.

Remove from pans and let cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.  Makes 2 loaves.