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Today I was looking through the recipes in the last issue of Gourmet Magazine (*shakes fist at Conde Nast*), when I read the recipe on Vegetarian Shepherds Pie which called for seitan as one of the main ingredients.

Seitan is an Asian protein-rich, meat-free food stuff made of wheat gluten that is very popular for creating meat substitutes for vegetarian and vegan cooking.

If you are gluten-free for health reasons, such as gluten-intolerance or celiacs disease, or for diet reasons, also very valid, then navigating the world of vegetarian and vegan cookery can be very tricky as it can be very gluten-full.

After reading the recipe in Gourmet tonight, I decided to Google "gluten-free seitan" to see if there are any good gluten-free, meat-free seitan substitutes. And there are. Not packaged to be bought at your local health food store, but here are a couple of sets of recipes for gluten-free seitan to be used in various veggie recipes:

http://stanford.wellsphere.com/healthy-cooking-article/gluten-free-gluten/472515
http://www.meatandeggfree.com/gluten-free-seitan.html

If you have made gluten-free seitan, please comment and let us know what you thought of it.

Reading Jessica's review of Pintxo People in Brighton got me thinking about Pork Bellies, which led to searching for recipes on making your own pancetta, which led me to where to order pork bellies from Niman Ranch.

Except I don't need to order a pork belly, as I have one coming from Reno. I do need to go to order some pink curing salts.

Later, when I decide to make my own sausages, I will need to get these two attachments for my mixer rather than purchasing a separate meat grinder and sausage stuffer. Then I just need to locate my mixer in my storage room...

After reading several really good food blog posts today in my Sage feed reader, I decided I would give some link love to the following:

Chocolate & Zucchini celebrates Bastille Day with Bleu Blanc Rogue:

Today is the French national holiday, known in the English-speaking world as Bastille Day, but simply referred to as le 14 juillet in France.

I wish I could offer some sort of culinary tradition tied to this holiday, but as I explained in this past post, there is none: the celebrations revolve mainly around fireworks, military parades (I had to interrupt the typing of this post to watch the planes cross the sky above us, on their way to the Champs-Elysées), and dances. There may be grilled merguez vendors on the sidewalk here and there, but that's about it...>>

Fatfree Vegan Kitchen has a great recipe for http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/07/blueberry-oat-bars.html. When I am given the green light to reintroduce gluten-free oats back into my diet, I will definitely make these bars.

Indian Food Rocks on Rat-a-what no longer:

Thanks to Remy, the medley of vegetables that is ratatouille that had been indelibly imprinted on my taste buds almost a decade ago, was no longer just another unpronounceable French dish. I empathized completely with Ego as he ate every spoonful of ratatouille, even though I prefer the chunky version to the layered confit byaldi that was served to him in the movie. Mmmmmm! ...>>

Kalofagas on Greek Appetizers: The roasted eggplant dip, melitzanosalata, is my favorite, too. Yum.

The last dip and one of my favourites is Melitzanosalata. It's a dip of roasted eggplant, garlic, olive oil and balanced with some chopped fresh parsley. To truly make this dip a head turner, the eggplants have to be roasted over open coals or at the very least, on a gas grill...>>

Mahanandi's Chocolate Cherry Cake for the 4th of July could be easily made gluten-free (rice flour instead of flour) and diary-free (safe oil instead of ghee). Must try it!

Warm and juicy cherries from farmers market. Unsweetened Chocovic baking chocolate from Trader Joe's. Hazelnuts from last winter. Combined with all-purpose flour and baked together. This cherry chocolate cake has strong bitter taste. Almost like medicine, and I love that kind of choco-potency. A rare extravagance that puts in a mood for an equally decadent holiday weekend.

A chocolate cake shouldn't be cloyingly sweet. That is the manthram I applied when I put together the following ingredients. It's an easy recipe and the results are very bakery like...>>

And last but not least, the World Foodie Guide on Cantonese Home Cooking. Her Mom's Steamed Fish is much like our own hadashi's Bobo's steamed fish (although Bobo uses sherry in her recipe).