from the forthcoming

Deep December Ragout of Seitan, Shiitakes & Winter Vegetables with Garlic & Red Wine

4 to 6 servings

What makes this dish ---- despite ingredients which may seem strange to a lot of the population--- exceptional? Hearty, deeply flavorful, lapped in a rich, glossy, savory sauce, spiked with red wine, it's  serious winter-time satisfaction in a bowl.  It is everything you want from a stew, from the seductive aroma with which it warms the house, to its robust, filling, substance and big, distinct  ("manly," we might have said in pre-feminist days) chunks of potato and other vegetables. Dried shiitakes hydrate in the ragout; garlic (and no wimpy amount of it, either) is used almost as a vegetable in its own right. The garlic chunks mellow during the cooking process, yet what they lose in individual integrity they give to the dish as a whole.

 But though this ragout is everything you want, it's nothing you don't --- no fatty layer requiring degreasing, no stew beef cooked past flavor and recognition to mere stringiness. And, though it is absolutely impossible that something so stalwart should be low-fat, low-fat it is. Serve it in a bowl, accompanied by a hunk of good bread, starting off with a big green salad splashed with a tart vinaigrette or non-sweet sesame dressing. Or, try it ladled over any cooked grain or pasta.  In any case, you'll have a wafting fragrance in the house presaging the most fulfilling of cold-weather meals --- a combination guaranteed to console the disheartened and nourish the dispirited.

          Please note: I always do this dish in a heavy-gauge, non-stick Dutch oven.  If you use a conventional cast-iron or enamel-clad one, spray the heck out of it with Pam cooking spray before you start, and expect to stir the dish considerably more often than I suggest here to prevent sticking.

Ingredients:

Pam cooking spray

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, cut vertically into crescent-shaped slivers

1/4 cup unbleached white flour

3 1/2 cups vegetable stock

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/4 cup tamari/shoyu soy sauce

1 cup hearty, full-bodied, tannic red wine, such as a Cabernet, Barolo, or Barbaresco

1 tablespoon umeboshi vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

A major grinding of fresh black pepper --- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon or so

1 cup canned diced tomato in tomato puree

8 to 10 cloves garlic, peeled, quartered or thickly sliced

1/4 teaspoon Dragon Salt

6 to 8 dried shiitake mushrooms, broken roughly into quarters

1 packages (8 ounces) “traditional-style” dark seitan, well-drained, diced into stew-beef size squares, 1 to 1 1/2 inch or so

4 small potatoes, scrubbed, peel on, cut in large pieces

2 carrots, scrubbed, peel on, sliced in 1/2 inch rounds

1 parsnip, halved lengthwise, sliced in 1/2 inch half-rounds

2 cups green beans, stemmed and sliced into 2 to 3 inch long pieces

1 zucchini, halved lengthwise, and sliced into 1/2 inch half-rounds

Minced fresh flat-leaf parsley, optional, for garnish 

1. If using a conventional Dutch oven, spray it with Pam cooking spray and see note above; you'll have better results with a non-stick one. Heat the Pam cooking sprayed or non-stick Dutch oven with the oil over medium high heat, and add the onions, stirring to sauté for about 6 minutes, or until they start to brown but are still a little crisp. 

2. Sprinkle the onions with flour, and, lowering heat to medium, continue to cook for about 4 minutes. Add about 1/2 cup vegetable stock, stirring it in to smooth it into the flour. When the flour is incorporated and the liquid is free of any flour lumps or clumps, add a little more stock, then, finally, the entire remaining amount, stirring often. Add nutritional yeast (you will think it's going to lump, but the flakes will dissolve), soy sauce, red wine, umeboshi vinegar, honey, black pepper, tomato, garlic, and Dragon Salt. Bring mixture to a boil, then turn down to simmer.

3.  Drop in the dried shiitake mushrooms (they will hydrate as the stew cooks), with the seitan, potatoes, carrots, parsnip, and green beans. Lower heat slightly, cover, and let ragout barely simmer, stirring every so often, for 35 minutes, or until potatoes are nearly done. Lift lid, drop in zucchini, recover, and let cook another 10 to 15 minutes more, or until vegetables are tender but still distinct. Serve, hot, if desired with a sprinkle of parsley.

Variations:

I’ve been so delighted with the flavors and textures of this stew that I’ve prepared countless variations of it over the years.

Tempeh'd Deep December Ragout of Shiitakes & Winter Vegetables with Garlic & Red Wine : Omit seitan. Stir pre-baked tempeh or tempeh "bacon" pieces into the stew,  with the zucchini, in the last 10 to 15 minutes of cooking time.

Deep December Ragout of Shiitakes & Winter Vegetables with Garlic, Garbanzos & Red Wine: Omit seitan. Drain a 15-ounce can of garbanzo beans, reserving both liquid and beans. Use the bean liquid as part of the vegetable stock called for, as you make the recipe above. Add the beans in the last 10 to 15 minutes of cooking, when you add the zucchini.