Chloe's Kitchen: Mongolian BBQ Seitan

Was up in Maine this past weekend celebrating the battles of Lexington and Concord as all Massachusetts and Maine(was a part of MA until 1820) residents are required to do... when we all pitched in to make this dish. Also, there was apparently a marathon.

As the title states, this recipe is from Chloe's Kitchen. Chloe Coscarelli won Cupcake Wars as a vegan cupcake maker... which, while cool, means absolutely nothing to me. I have nothing against cupcakes, but I just don't watch the show... nor would winning a competition necessarily convince me that she's a good chef. But given that she probably knows her cupcakes, the clear question is whether anything other than the desserts are worth making. Well I can say at least in this particular dish's case that she knocks it out of the park: really easy to make but full of flavor... and from a glance through the cookbook that seem to be her general M.O. A couple of weird things: the book has lots of pictures of her where you might expect pictures of food and the serving sizes are pretty small. For the former, I guess this is great if you have a crush on her and/or the degree to which you are physically attracted to the author is one of the criteria you use to determine your cookbook purchases... and for the latter: just keep it in mind. We doubled this recipe for 3 people and there weren't a ton of leftovers... maybe two servings, and I'd at least like to think we're not pigs.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon agave
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1-2 teaspoons chili-garlic sauce
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 8 oz shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
• 8 oz seitan, cut into thin strips
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 4 oz, snow peas, strings removed
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced on bias
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 cups cooked rice

Directions

1. Whisk hoisin, water, soy sauce, agave, and chili-garlic sauce in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Heat oil over medium high heat in a large skillet. Stir fry mushrooms and seitan until lightly browned and mushrooms have released their juices. Add ginger, cinnamon, and cloves and cook a few more minutes.
3. Add the sauce and snow peas and reduce heat to medium. Let cook until sauce has thickened, which might happen quite quickly. Remove from heat and mix in scallions and cilantro and then serve over the rice.