Hezbollah Tofu: Seitan au Poivre

This recipe is not for the faint of heart. It's a knock-down, drag-out flavor bomb in your mouth and we love it. It's my version of the Bourdain recipe of the same name, but subbing seitan and minus the cruelty, with added flavor and compassion. Fasten your seat belts for this one though. It's power packed.


Seitan au Poivre
Serves 4

4 seitan cutlets, 4-6 ounces each (see previous post for a recipe)
1/8 to 1/4 cup peppercorns, roughly crushed (edited! see below)
2 tsp olive oil
1 Tbsp olive oil (for the pan)
1 Tbsp earth balance (for the pan)

1/4 cup brandy
3/4 cup broth
2 tsp tomato paste
2 tsp dark miso
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp earth balance
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the cutlets. Rub about 1/4 teaspoon olive oil on each cutlet side and and rub in about 1/2 tablespoon of the pepper. Set aside. Heat the olive oil and earth balance over medium high heat. When really hot, sear the seitan cutlets on both sides. Keep warm and make the sauce. Take the frying pan off the heat.

Using the same frying pan, deglaze the pan with the brandy. Put it back on the burner and reduce by 1/2. Add the broth and reduce by 1/2 again. Take it off the burner, and add the tomato paste, miso and vinegar. Stir in the last of the earth balance. Check the seasonings and serve over cutlets.

This sauce is super dense and concentrated. It will look like you didn't make enough, but once you taste it, you'll know. Just a little bit of this goes a long way to really enhance the cutlets.


Here is the finished plate, with some lovely lemon dressed broccoli (the dressing is a Yellow Rose tester) and pasta fresca. Next time, I'd probably serve it with rice pilaf or potato side instead of pasta. It needs a nice carb backdrop to offset all the intense flavors going on here. We'll have this again and again. Not only is it easy, but it's got that Wow Factor and would be great for a dinner party.

Don't forget: it's all about Hezbollah Tofu!

Edited because I'm being intentionally vague. The 1/4 cup is a lot of pepper, but if you are a pepperhead, go for it. If you just love pepper but don't really want to marry it, you'd probably prefer the 1/8 cup.