Above is an in-house recreation of what was Picky's favorite entree he has eaten all year: Southwark's Barbequed smoked pork belly, baked beans, wilted collards, and Birchrun blue cheese sauce. But we made the pork part vegan and kept the blue cheese sauce.
Above is a shot from our dinner a few months ago which we recapped here. It was some seriously good eats. It was so good, we kept the thought of Picky's entree rattling in our heads to recreate, but so that Messy could enjoy as well. We've become seitan fiends over the last few years and we've settled on Ray's Seitan as the real deal, hands down, best we've had. One day, we'll get around to making our own wheat meat, but that's another story. Ray's is available all around town in places like Fair Food in RTM, Whole Foods, Essene, among others. It's an incredibly flexible meat alternative which can take on flavors, but it's got tons of flavor and not much like tofu which relies more on soaking up flavors. The texture is close to shredded pork.
We use a shake and bake (actually, fry) recipe from our friend Liz comprised of nutritional yeast, flour, garlic salt, salt and a liberal grind of pepper. Dredge the seitan after squeezing out some water and toss in a container. Fry up in some oil – we prefer it in a cast iron skillet. Add in a pour of your favorite BBQ sauce and let the sauce carmelize. For the rest of the dish we used sauteed savoy spinach (with salt and pepper and garlic in oil, from FFF), a can of beans from TJs (yeah, yeah), and 1/4lbs. of bleu d'auvergne (from Salumeria in RTM) reduced over low heat.
Plated, it looks pretty similar. As similar as you're gonna get without the piece of "meat" being a single, huge, 9" slab of delicious belly fat. The taste was, as you guessed it, not the same. But – it was fantastic. We can't think of a way to vegan up a blue cheese sauce, but if you've got a recipe, let us know.
omg, this looks incredible. i am definitely going to try it. i <3 seitan!
Ah, I'll take your word for it but the uncured bacon and Blue cheese dish looks kind of revolting (cool photo though). Your semi vegan version looks much more appealing.
[...] Messy and Picky re-create Southwark's "single, huge, 9" slab of delicious belly fat", otherwise known as smoked-and-barbecued pork belly with baked beans, wilted collards and Birchrun [...]
Mmm, what a dream treat. Kudos for coming up with a veggie version of pork belly. I don't think this could look any more delicious. Can't wait to try it ma self.
I wasn't sure where to comment this, but your most recent post is as good a place as any.
First, nice mention in the Inquirer this morning! Second, congratulations on the engagement! Third, my CSA linked your Queensland Blue squash soup post on a recent e-mail, since for the second time this year they distributed Queensland Blues.
Anyway, overall congratulations and I hope you continue the wonderful food information in 2010. Happy New Year!