My new obsession

I first tried this product when I was vacationing in Warsaw with friends. We cooked borscht and fried up some vegetarian fried chicken substitute. When they pulled these hard little bricks of protein out of the bag I was absolutely disgusted. I couldn't imagine eating something so bizarre. It didn't help that we were all falling over each other to see the directions which essentially read - just add water. We coated them in egg and flour (very flexetarian of us) and fried them up. I honestly would have never guessed they were not chicken. They were light and tender, and flavorful. Just the right blend of spices and texture of meat.

Last week my flatmate told me that you could purchase the same product here. For around a dollar a bag you can buy this faux-meat product. It is used routinely in the states and goes by the acronym TVP. We never eat it in place of meat, but rather we use it as a meat extender. It extends the meat we use. Usually we use it in prisons and school systems (thank you Wikipedia for that delightful life affirmation) in order to cut costs. Just stir in some ground up flakes into real meat and they will absorb the flavor and mimic the texture of the meat being prepared. Think back to the last school taco you ate ... yep.



So, now that it's -20 outside, everyone is basically a shut in. We've already eaten everything edible - so we're down to just eating soy based protein. I'm very committed to figuring out how to make this stuff taste awesome. First you boil it.



Doesn't that look disgusting? But, honestly, I'm disgusted by raw meat, too. I guess this isn't any more disgusting.

Here it is after being pan seared and served with some mustard. It's not nearly as good as it was fried ... but it didn't taste bad. Today I made tacos with it and they were really enjoyable.



And since you made it the whole way through two disgusting pictures to get to the final product - I figured I should throw in another great picture. Here is Mefodyi begging for a bath.