Devil Fingers

If you ask many non-vegans, vegans eat "weird" foods. While a number of previously "weird vegan foods" have gone mainstream (kale, anyone?), there are still a number of "weird vegan foods" that aren't really anywhere close to hitting the mainstream food consciousness in a major way. One of those foods is seitan. It's clear that I like the "weirdness" that is seitan. What is also fun about seitan is that the word is commonly mispronounced. The real pronunciation is say-TAHN, However, a lot of people mistakenly say "satan."

For anyone NOT sensitive to gluten, seitan is an awesome food! It's a high-protein option that can replace meat in a number of dishes. Depending on how it's made, it can be stringy (like chicken) or more dense (like beef). If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll have seen my post for how I make my own seitan. That seitan version is toward the "beefy" side of the seitan spectrum. Given that that recipe is "beefy," it only works in some recipes. Thus, years ago, I started making a chicken-style seitan recipe by VeganDad. With this recipe, I slightly adapted another of his recipes (see below) and created what we refer to as Devil Fingers. See, if seitan is mispronounced, and these are kind of like breaded chicken fingers, what better name than Devil Fingers? Plus, the looks on people's faces when they ask what we're eating is awesome. Given that they're also delicious, this recipe is just plain fabulous.

Served with ketchup for dipping and roasted cauliflower on this night. 

Devil Fingers
Recipe slightly adapted from VeganDad's Seitan Fingers

Ingredients
12 pieces of VeganDad's chicken-style seitan
2 c. unsweetened soymilk
1 1/2 c. panko breadcrumbs
1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. kosher salt
heaping 1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
pepper to taste
canola oil for frying (or other suitable, light-tasting oil - but not olive!)

Directions
1. At least the day before you plan to make Devil Fingers, make the chicken-style seitan (shaping the dough into "finger" shapes).
2. Combine the panko, flour, salt, and spices in a bowl. Put the soymilk in another bowl.
3. Heat the oil in a large skillet on the stove over medium-high heat.
4. Using the "one hand wet, one hand dry" method, dip each piece of seitan in the milk. This is now your "wet" hand. Use the wet hand to move the seitan from the milk into the panko mixture, but don't touch the panko.
5. Use your dry hand to press the panko mixture onto the setain pieces.
6. Transfer to the skillet to fry (dry hand here). Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each piece of seitan.
7. Fry for about 5 minutes, or until golden brown, then flip each piece to fry the other side.
8. Drain the devil fingers on a plate lined with paper towels.

Helpful Hints

• Assuming that you've planned ahead, this is quite a speedy dinner. 
• Because I don't use unsweetened soymilk that often, I use powdered soymilk for this recipe and just mix it with water. The shelf life for powdered soymilk is significantly longer than the stuff in the fridge, so it saves us money. 
• Use whatever dipping sauces you think you'd like! We use ketchup, but I could see BBQ, mustard, vegan ranch, a vegan "honey" mustard, or anything else that sounds delicious.  
• 12 pieces is enough for us to eat both dinner and lunch the next day (three pieces for each of us at each meal). We both want to eat more, but these are surprisingly filling. 
• Given the frying, this is not the most healthy of meals, so it's not something that graces our table with regularity. We always eat at least one veggie with this, but sometimes we just accept that not every meal can be perfect and also make french fries. Yum. 

The post "Devil Fingers" originally appeared on Maggie's LesVegan Kitchen.