Jack Daniels Glazed Stuffed Thanksgiving Roast

As the note suggests: Crazy Jack D's Seitan Stuffed with...Stuffing

This year's Thanksgiving roast was a product of two recipes coming together like Syba to treat, like Syba to dumpster, like soul mates. I took the roast I made last year from here and combined it with this stuffing concept created by Vegan Chick. Next year I might try VC's stand-alone, but this year it was about the Jack D.

I made the stand-alone roast last year. Looks delicious. And it was good....but needed a friend.

If you're looking for something quick, this ain't it. But if you embrace that Thanksgiving is all about waiting, then feasting, you have found your Roast. It's about a 5 hour process total (over half of a work day!)

Let's start with our stuffing -- use your favorite recipe. I adapted this one because I had a bag of cranberries on hand and like the idea of bright red specks throughout (I chopped the cranberries in my Ninja food processor).


A. Stuffing: Make and set aside.

B. Roast

1) Mix these dry ingredients in a medium bowl:

• 5 cups vital wheat gluten
• 1 cup chickpea (garbanzo) flour
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons garlic
  

2) Mix these wet ingredients in a blender until smooth:

• 2 tubs o' tofu (2 lbs)
• 3 cups cold water
• 2 Tablespoons 'chicken' flavor broth powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/8 cup olive oil
  

3) Once blended, mix the dry and wet ingredients together in a large bowl. [Start step 4) before kneading.]

• Knead for about 5 minutes, flipping around, punching it, etc. Or put in your bread machine for 10 minutes.
• Roll out and stretch out on a flat surface. I found it difficult to roll out, so I also used my pizza "know-how" as Dad would say, and stretched it like pizza dough then rolled. Like so:

• Place the stuffing (about 3 cups) in the middle:

• Roll up, and pinch the ends together. They will not stay together well - but the cheese cloth will solve that issue.
• Wrap with cheese cloth, and tie the end if need be.

Seitan mummy! (Pictured after step 4)

4) Boil the simmering broth. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Boil together:

• 5 cups water
• 4 'beef' flavored boullion cubes
• 2 Tablespoons Ketchup
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 5 garlic cloves, minced or grated
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 Tablespoon poultry seasoning
• 2 teaspoons salt

Once boiling, remove from heat.

5) Bake it! 300 degrees.

• Get a casserole large enough for your huge creature-sized hunk of seitan. Preferably with a lid. Something at least a foot long is a good size.
  
• Place a ladle-full or two of the broth into the baking casserole dish.
• Place the seitan hunk on top of the broth, and cover with the remaining broth.

• Put the lid on or wrap aluminum foil on the pot, sealing it well.
• Cook for 1 hour. (Start making the glaze).
  
• Flip -- no easy task; I used two forks, one for each end -- then cook one more hour.
  
• Flip again, then cook for another hour.
  
• Turn the over off and allow the seitan to sit for another hour.
• Let cool before using. Remove twine/ties and cheesecloth.
  

6) Glaze it! See C. below for the recipe. Then bake at 350 degrees F until the roast is heated through and the glaze looks nice -- usually about one hour.

C. JACK DANIELS GLAZE

I modified this recipe slightly (more JD!)

1) Combine the following into a small sauce pan:

• 5 cloves of garlic, roasted or fresh, grated
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 Tablespoon tamari
  
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
• 1 Tablespoon crushed pineapple
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 Tablespoons minced onion
• 2 Tablespoon Jack Daniels
• 1/4 teaspoon yippie cayenne - a
  

2) Cook

• Bring ingredients to a boil
• Reduce to a simmer, then cook for 30-40 minutes or until the sauce reduces by half.
  
• Do not let it burn or boil over.
  

D. RESULT

Damned fine centerpiece, delivers on taste and texture. Someone said it was so much better than Tofurky, but through the phone chain this somehow got translated into Tofurky starting a class action lawsuit against me for making the roast. Nevertheless, by the end of the night, only a few drops of glaze remained.

Next year I'd like to try stuffing it with something else, perhaps shiitakes and leeks as created here.



More pictures from the 4th Annual Thanksgiving Record Party

Layered Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake

And then, all dressed up

Intros and Inspirations

When I was an eater of cheese, I most certainly did not agree with it being included in the cake family.* So I do not have a long, loving history with this dish. However, back in Seattle as a new vegan I had the most beautiful piece of dessert awesomeness in the form of vegan Kahlua Cheesecake one day.

From then on, I was ready to embrace the flavor marriage. Though the recipe below is rather opposite something Paula ‘heart failure’ Dean would prescribe for your sweet teeth, and adapted from the Fat Free Vegan blog, it in fact is not fat free. Instead, we have a rich, sweet, tangy, and spicy cake wonderment that is sure to make people fall in love with you (all over again).

I decided to serve this at our 3^rd annual Vegan Thanksgiving Record Party.

Cake adapted/reprinted from the Fat Free Vegan Blog.

*Ditto for the chocolate-fruit combo.

History of Dish

As if I needed more encouragement to make this dish every week to celebrate things I make up, it turns out cheesecake is thought to originate in ancient Greece. Better yet, Pythagoras, a vegetarian, was rumored to have baked the first vegan version of this dish.** Unfortunately, it failed since the local Agora was out of Tofutti Cream Cheese.

Democracy and cheesecake follows.

** This was completely fabricated during sugar high experienced by blog poster.

Yield and Preheat

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Ingredients

Gluten-Free Crust

This one is just from my head. I made it up since one of my guests is gluten free. It just occurred to me she might be soy-free as well. OOPS!

• One box of Lucy’s Cinnamon Thins (5.5 oz): Crush it in your blender/food processor, pour into bowl.
• 1 cup of oatmeal: Crush in your blender/food processor, pour into bowl.
• 1/8 cup Earth Balance butter, melted, pour into bowl

Mix all three above in the bowl.

Spread into your pie pan.

Like this, except spread your filling up the side of the pan.

1^st layer

Blend the following until silky smooth:

8 ounces (one tub) Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese

6 ounces (1/2 tub) Tofutti Sour Supreme

6 ounces (1/2 of package) firm silken tofu (or extra-firm)
1/2 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Remove 1 ½ cups of the mixture and pour into your awaiting pie crust.

Double the fun.

2^nd layer

Into the awaiting blender, add the following, then blend until smooth:

1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons rum (optional)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Carefully pour on top of the first layer, spreading around by turning/rotating the pie pan.

Layers!

Baking

Bake until the center is almost set, about 60 minutes (or until you become impatient, about 10 minutes). Insert a toothpick into the center -- it should be firm. If not, give it more time.

This pie must cool. Chill for 3 hours at least in your fridge.

Conclusion

Thank you, Fat Free Vegan for creating this wonderful recipe. I'm not a fan of pumpkin, and this tastes a bit pumpkin pie-y to me. But I had to convince Rob to save the rest for our guests.

We at Fat Love Cafe added a little bit o' Soyatoo on top.