Seitan a la King

Still working on that next cookbook — the retro vegan one. Yea, it's been three years now, but I'm in no hurry. I've just been developing three to four new recipes a month. At this rate, I'll be done in, oh, another three years. Ha! Seriously though. I'll try to get it done sooner than that.

Anyway, this past weekend, I developed a recipe for Seitan a la King (like Chicken a la King) to be included in the 1910-1919 chapter.

This has chopped seitan (made using my steamed seitan recipe that will also be in the book), sliced mushrooms, green bell peppers, and pimientos in a chicken-like cashew cream sauce. It's served over brown rice. So good! Cashew cream really is the best thing in the world.

The origins of chicken a la king are a little fuzzy. Wikipedia says there are conflicting stories claiming it came about in the 1880s or 1890s, and several hotel cooks in different places are credited with its invention. But one guy — William "Bill" King of the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia — got credit for the dish his New York Tribune obit in 1915. So, in honor of Mr. Cook, I'm placing this dish in the chapter corresponding with his death date.

Here's an excerpt from King's obit (from Wikipedia):

"The name of William King is not listed among the great ones of the earth. No monuments will ever be erected to his memory, for he was only a cook. Yet what a cook! In him blazed the fire of genius which, at the white heat of inspiration, drove him one day, in the old Bellevue, in Philadelphia, to combine bits of chicken, mushrooms, truffles, red and green peppers and cream in that delight-some mixture which ever after has been known as 'Chicken a la King.'"