Veggie food series: How to make seitan

I realized I've never posted this even though I already wrote in in October, so here you go:

Anyhow, I just wanted to share my love for SEITAN. What an incredible thing it is.

Inspired by the "no-alcohol January" which is really popular in Finland, I have "no-meat October" every year. The main goal for myself is to shake up my dinner routine a bit and try to find some good veggie recipes I can then use throughout the year. This year I found it a bit hard to start with just basically because time just flies and October was here way too soon, haha. But now I've been rocking my new veggie diet and I am even trying to push it towards more of an vegan diet than a lacto-ovo-vegetarian which I normally do on Octobers (lacto-ovo-vegetarians are allowed to eat egg and dairy products).

So, every October I try to find some new veggie things to try out and this year I was really tempted to try making seitan. I tried it for the first time oevr the summer and I was pretty amazed how good it was. I've always had an impression it's really, well, labour-intensive to make (the economist inside of me couldn't come up with a better expression). But with some advice from my friend Krista and with a little googling, I found out it's incredibly easy. So here's a simple recipe for you:
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Basic seitan

Makes about 12 patties

Ingredients

2 dl gluten flour
1dl soy flour or kikpea flour (gram), I prefer kikpea
1,5dl Water or other liquid
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons chilli or smoked paprika, ground
Pretty much any seasoning you wish, in the ones pictured below I used some tumaric

For cooking stock

1,5l of veggies stock or 2 stock cubes and 1,5l of water
Soy sauce
Balsamic vinegar


Start off by mixing all your dry ingredients (gluten flour, soy/kikpea flour, dry seasonings) in a large bowl. Mix the 1,5dl water with 2 teaspoons of soy sauce on a small bowl. 

Then mix the liquids and the flour together in a bowl and knead. Not a lot of kneading is required though as the gluten flour builds the elasticity up like really fast.

Knead the dough to a longish roll and then cut to pieces  and form to shapes to your own taste. I like making patties.

Next thing you have to do is to cook the patties. My cooking broth was a combination of vegetable stock, vinegar and soy. It's very much recommended to season the broth well as it will give the most of the taste to the patties. So get your stock to a slight boil and drop the patties in one by one. Then let them simmer for about 20 minutes.

The finished product

After cooking, you can also cut some of the "steaks" to smaller pieces: they can be used in multiple ways to substitute meat in sauces and stews! You can freeze seitan and then just thaw it when needed. Freezing should make the consistancy slightly softer.

First time at a flea market as a seller!

Looks like this is turning out to be a very flea market oriented blog, but hey, I guess it's no problem!

Today I had my first experience in actually be a seller at a flea market. Kallio-liike, a neighborhood movement from the Helsinki neighbour Kallio, organized outdoor flea markets in parks during summer. They have broadened the concept and today we saw the first indoor winter flea market. I have to say it was great!  The idea is that the flea market doesn't cost anything for the seller as it normally does but the people can just come and sell whatever they happen to have on. Everything happens either on blnaket on the floor or if someone (a myself) had racks/tables their own, one could use them.

Anyhow, for me, it was a success and I had a blast! I sold almost all the stuff I brough. I basically was only left with my graduation dress but I guess it was too fancy for the flea market after all.

The summer cottage

This wardrobe at our family's summer cottage has just the perfect color! I love it! Too bad my mom happens to share my taste so she has a "reservation" for it since it originally used to belong to her god parents. Well it's gorgeous anyhow!

Great Italian coffee in Helsinki

My favourite place to have a cup of espresso or cappucino has to be this: Cafe Gran Delicato on Kalevankatu in Kamppi. Unfortunately it's not really on my hood but I try to pay it a visit every time I'm nearby and have a craving for great cuppa. Definitely an authentic atmosphere: the staff speaks Finnish with an accent and you pay when you leave which is really not the common practice around here. And of course most importantly, the coffee is superb as well as the baguettes and paninis you can have if feeling a bit hungry. A def. recommendation from me! Just keep one thing in mind: if you happen to be one of those who prefer their coffee "the Finnish way", lightly roasted and tasting like the rainwater, you better order tea or latte here.

I just wanted  to share some random  stuff you might come across while visiting drift stores and antique shops. I did end up buying something as well but more about that later.

Second-hand finds

So, I went to the Valtteri Flea Market the other day and this is what I found:

Isn't it just the most adorable little bag ever? Good condition, genuine leather, a Finnish manufacturer... and best of all, the price was 4 euros! A real find there!

As I really like the design of the purse, I googled a little bit more about the brand, Three Bags, and I found out there was a couple of bags by the brand on internet auctions. And that's where I then found this baby:

I've been looking for a bag that would accomodate my other baby, Asus Zenbook laptop I bought a couple of months ago and now I found it! How didn't I come to think of traditional suitcases before? And the colour is just to die for.

Another colourful second hand gem I purchased with the first bag:

Isn't it cute? Can't wind it up though as it makes such a noise I can't sleep, haha. :D

Belgium/The Netherlands

Actually, before showing you the second-hand shopping goodess, I'll share some totally random pics from my trip to Belgium and The Netherlands a couple of weeks ago. Good times meeting up with dear friends!

And yeah, these are just some random pictures with crappy quality of cameraphone as I couldn't find my camera when I was packing.

Oh look, it's me! And Thiago being kind with his photobombing victory mark. :D The name sign was an awesome present, thanks Senna! We all got matching ones with our names on them. :) Apparently it's the Belgian car licence plate design.

 And btw, the dress I'm wearing is the one that was featured earlier in the blog! I love love love it! It's  just the perfect travelling piece because of the versitilily, fast-to-dry fabric and the loose fit.  Totally recommend you guys get a similiar piece for travelling use!

 

 

Oh well hello there, the wall of interenet memes... (Brussels)

This is a ratio I'm talking about! The picture is an information add for what's coming thanks to a renovation on a Dutch railway station (Breda, I guess). Translation: Places for 16 trains, 20 busses, 4200 bikes (!) and 720 cars. Helsinki city officials, learn something from this!

 

A very cool catherdal-like hallway on the airport of Copenhague. You wouldn't really guess it's an airport, would you?

"Welcome back to Finland". The weather was so bad hey almost didn't let our plane to fly from Stockholm to Helsinki...

I had an awesome trip seeing all my friends! Thanks for Thiago, Wolney and Daniel for hosting me in Brussels and for Britt and Danielle for hosting me in The Netherlands! Hope to see you guys soon!