The other day, I visited our local library branch to retrieve some books I had on hold, and while I was there, I spied (OK, actually, I searched high and low, and thenI spied it) one of my favorite cookbooks, The Chinese Takeout Cookbook by Diana Kuan. I knew it had to come back home with me for another go-round, and immediately upon its arrival I began to plot out what I was going to make and when.
Tonight’s selection? Orange Seitan! In the cookbook, Kuan uses chicken, but I find seitan to be a wonderful veggie substitute. And it was! I won’t give away all of Kuan’s recipe, because she has a book to sell, but suffice it to say, while the rice cooked I marinated the seitan, then stir-fried it (the recipe calls for battering and then frying, but I skipped that step), then added the orange sauce and heated that through until it was reduced by about half.
As the seitan and rice both cooked, I warmed up four spring rolls in the oven, and they hung out waiting for the rest of the meal to finish up, keeping warm all the while.
I tell you what, this cookbook can do no wrong! We ate every morsel of the seitan (and almost all of the rice), and we both loved the mingling of flavors. The sauce wasn’t overly orangey, nor was it overly sweet – but it had a wonderful hint of both attributes, which we both really appreciated. We’ll definitely make this meal again!
:)