Piccata Me Crazy!

Ever since I read "The Kind Diet" I've been dying to try her recipe for Seitan Piccata. Let me start by telling you that I love anything piccata- veal, chicken, whatever. You cover anything with a lightly creamy lemon wine sauce and it becomes heaven. Since drastically cutting down on my consumption of meat, I thought my favorite Italian dish was lost to me forever.

My biggest problem turned out to be finding large pieces of seitan. It seems my Whole Foods and Central Market are often sold out. Urgh! Instead, I decided to live dangerously and substitute tempeh; plus, I'd never had it before so it would be an adventure all around. Tempeh comes in several flavors and can be found pre-marinated. I chose a 5-grain version for my piccata. The other most important ingredient is the wine. A dry white wine works best and you don't have to spend a lot of money! My newest discovery is Vieux Papes, Frances most popular table wine. (Sorry, the website is in French; so dust off your high school French-English dictionary!) You can purchase these wines at Whole Foods and they typically run around $5-6.

The whole thing came out perfectly! It was so delicious and creamy, fast and easy. The only thing I would change next time is to cut the tempeh in half width wise or try to press it out and make it thinner. I wanted a bit more crunch than was afforded me from an inch and a half piece of tempeh. Hopefully next time, I can make it with seitan (and not have to worry about so much soy).

Just to top things off and play devil's advocate, I also made vegan chocolate chip cookies. The recipe was adapted from an old cook book (possibly Better Homes & Gardens??). I'll post the full recipe soon when I make another batch, but the conversion was really simple: 1 T of olive oil for the egg, whole wheat flour instead of all purpose, and vegan chocolate chips. Everyone loved them, even my Dad who commissioned another batch with pecans. I think I'll make chocolate chocolate chip cookies in a partially vain attempt to use up the giant container of carob powder I have. Wish me luck!

Full recipe here.