Jamaican jerk, and cinnamon rolls you can buy!

A few weeks back, I blogged about the great food at Horizons here in Philadelphia. One of the best appetizers is the Jamaican BBQ Seitan and fortunately, chef Rich Landau has been kind enough to share this recipe on a local media website. I decided to recreate the dish myself last night and it was amazing! I did make a few slight alterations and I also had to make my own Jamaican jerk because the grocery store was all out of it! I'll give you the Jamaican jerk recipe followed by my slightly modified version of the Jamaican BBQ Seitan. The sauce for this is amazing, I bet it would be great on some roasted tofu!

Jamaican jerk:

1/4 of a small onion
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin

Mince the onion and thyme together very finely until it becomes almost a paste. Add all of the spices and mix well. If you want to make some to use in the future, use dried onions and thyme, or better yet, allow the jerk to dry on a cookie sheet for 24 hours until all the moisture has evaporated. Then store in an airtight container for later use.

For the Jamaican BBQ Seitan:

Sauce:

1 cup organic ketchup
1 TBS molasses
1/2 C agave nectar
Juice of 2 limes
2 TBS very finely minced ginger
Jamaican jerk (use entire recipe from above)

Mix together all ingredients and set aside.

For the seitan:

The sauce should be enough for about 3-5 pounds of seitan. You can make as much or as little as you like. Make sure your seitan pieces are relatively thin, less than 1" thick. Heat a pan on medium-high with a bit of canola oil. When it's nice and hot, lay a few pieces of seitan down and let sear for about 2 minutes. Flip over and cook for another 2 minutes. Turn heat down to low-med and spoon sauce over to cover the top of the seitan. Flip over and cover that side as well, make sure the seitan pieces are nice and coated. Allow to cook for a minute or so, until the sauce starts to bubble around the seitan. Remove and serve!

Sticky, sweet, and spicy. What more could you ask for?



I also decided to whip up some cinnamon rolls for dessert. Well, I guess you can't really whip them up as it is about a 4-hour process from start to finish, but they're SO worth it. I used the recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking, which I highly recommend. The only alteration I made, was the substitution of whole wheat pastry flour. Oh by the way, they can be all yours now thanks to Etsy.com. Yes, I am going to being selling some of my shippable foods on Etsy, so you can all have a taste for yourselves. Get em' while they're hot!




Stay tuned for more exiting surprises coming soon!