Day 20: An Edible Oxymoron (Gluten-free, Vegetarian, Chicken Fried Steak)

Tonight was my weekly Wednesday night Bible study and the food theme of the night was creamy polenta. I signed up to bring a protein entrée. You'll notice I did not use the word 'beef' or 'chicken' or even 'meat' but 'protein.' I am a member of a religious community that is known for healthy living, and vegetarianism is a big part of that. Traditionally, when our members get together to eat, meat is not served even though many of us in attendance are omnivorous.

One of our members is also gluten-intolerant and so when I cook for these gatherings, if I'm making something with flour in it, I also try to make a gluten-free version along with the regular recipe. Up until a few months ago, I knew nothing about Celiac's disease or really about gluten for that matter, except that you add it to bread-machine dough to make it more chewy. My friends have very kindly educated me and I found a wealth of information online. But nothing prepared me for the sticker shock I experienced when I went to buy substitution ingredients at the local health food store. Xanthan gum, an important ingredient in gluten-free cooking and baking, costs $14/lb, which may not sound like much, but it was $8 for a ridiculously small bag of powder. Also, you get the best results when you mix a variety of gluten-free flours and I was not prepared to buy a pound of this and a pound of that.

I found a great solution in Pamela's Gluten-Free Baking & Pancake mix. If you've ever used Bisquick to make anything other than pancakes, then you already know how to use this mix. A few weeks ago I made AB's Tres Leches cake and used the mix to replace the flour, baking powder and half the salt. In a blind taste test, I would not have been able to tell you which had wheat flour and which was gluten-free. Now to be honest, gluten-free websites will tell you that Tres Leches cake is ideally suited for this kind of preparation because gluten-free baked goods can be heavy and the texture of this cake is ideal for soaking up the milk.

Making a gluten-free vegetarian protein dish can also be a challenge. You're pretty much limited to beans (legumes, including soy). There are a variety of soy-based, meat substitutes out there (Morningstar Farms is probably one of the most popular brands; Worthington and Loma Linda makes a much more extensive line of products) but most of those products have gluten in them.

I decided to make a dish using tofu, since that is the only non-meat, gluten-free protein source in my refrigerator. My parents buy dozens of packages of tofu (pronounced 'tooboo' in Korean) when they make their bi-weekly trek to the Korean grocery store  so we are always well-stocked. I grew up eating it (in soups, steamed, stir-fried, cooked as a sauce, etc. etc. etc.) and love it but I find not many people do. Something about the consistency and the flavor...

My oxymoron-ic chicken-fried steak is actually AB's Fillet O' Fu recipe, with a few adaptations. (See my tips below for details on how to make it gluten-free and fully vegetarian.) He effectively figured out how to address the texture and flavor issues. No one is going to bite into this thing and ask if it's steak, nevertheless, it is substantial enough and so full of flavor that it can stand on its own as a protein entree.

Busy Mom Modifications and Tips

• When you buy tofu at the store, even firm tofu, it has a wet, crumbly texture. There are three ways to firm it up:
• Fry it
• Freeze it, which changes the texture of the protein, making it more chewy
• Drain using a weight (which is AB's method in this recipe)
• I tried freezing the tofu but it did not make a noticeable difference in this preparation so I just went with drained.
• AB has you draining the tofu for an hour then marinating for 15 minutes on each side. (In his cookbook, Good Eats: The Early Years, which is what I used as my recipe source, the instructions say to marinate for an hour.) I was short on time (what else is new?) so I drained for only 45 minutes and used heavy bricks. I marinated for a total of 15 minutes but I also used my Foodsaver Marinating container, which supposedly sucks out the air and pulls in the marinade at the same time. My tofu steaks were FULL of flavor.

• Worcestershire sauce is made with anchovies so it is not truly vegetarian. I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos, which also happens to be gluten-free, instead. It adds a strong, meaty-like flavor to foods, similar to the flavor portobello mushrooms add. This is really strong stuff so use it sparingly.
• Just a note: These days soy sauce is frequently made with wheat so you want to check the label before using it in gluten-free cooking. Bragg's LA can be used as a replacement for that as well in cooking. Not sure I'd dip sushi in it though.
• The cookbook recipe has you dredging in flour and then the egg wash and then Panko breadcrumbs. I didn't have any Panko so I dredged in flour twice (which is the online recipe instruction). For the gluten-free version, dredge twice in the Pamela's mix.
• I like a thicker coating on my batter-fried goodies and I found that just dredging did not do much. I dumped a generous amount of the flour/baking mix on to the steaks and then patted it down. When you lift it up and shake it a bit, most of the coating will stick.
• If you are making both regular and gluten-free steaks in the same frying pan, be sure to fry the gluten-free steaks first. You do not want the bits and pieces of wheat flour coating that inevitably fall off into the oil to land on your gluten-free steaks.
• Be sure to open up the windows and run the vent above the stove (if you have one). My house reeked of fried food for hours and not in a good way.

The Results

The steaks are surprisingly firm and flavorful. I'm not going to give up beef for this, but it was delicious in its own right.

Ratings

• Difficulty: Medium. Getting the coating right and deep frying take a practiced hand.
• Time to prepare: Two hours with my shortcuts
• Prognosis: Will definitely make this again

My Shopping List

Nothing - I made do with what I had on hand.

The Tally

• The day's tally: $0
• Total this week so far: $25
• Total this month, to date: $25