Food Network Friday – Beef and horseradish sandwich

Wow! It’s been ages since I took part in a Food Network Friday. And what’s especially great, is that Sky viewers are now able to access Food Network in the UK. Just hit 262 for all the greats – Rachel Ray (I’m obsessed with her and her EVOO), Bobby Flay, Chopped, Iron Chef and, we’ve had Ina Garten – Barefoot Contessa – on UK Food for a while, but she’s in her proper home on Food Network. And this week’s FNF, chosen by Kim at Veg-in-Training is a prime Ina classic. (By the way, until I heard an advert for her programme last week, I was pronouncing her name all wrong. It’s actually Eye-na, and not, as I’d been saying, Eee-na.) I love Ina and her perfect house and garden, her rather unlikely background and her camp husband Jeffrey.

If you haven’t been following FNF, it was created by Tami at Vegan Appetite and takes recipes from Food Network and veganises them. Some of them are easier than others – I suspect I picked the hardest recipe so far – but this one was pretty easy.

The main difficulty here in England would be the horseradish. I have never seen a prepared horseradish anywhere that doesn’t include eggs or cream. Or does the recipe mean fresh horseradish? I think I’ve seen that once in 20 years. Does anyone know of any mainstream horseradish sauces that are vegan? I do have some that I dragged back from Ireland years ago, so I used that. It must be years past its use by date, but no matter. I did consider using wasabi for a change, but then I wanted to use Japanese vegetables instead of the rocket (arugula), and couldn’t get any, so I stopped that idea. It might work for those of you who can’t get horseradish though.

I also used watercress instead of rocket. At this time of year they’re both a bit insipid and come from abroad, but I always get a bit peeved that rocket is somehow trendier than our own lovely locally grown peppery watercress. I’ll be sure to make this again in spring, when the pepperiness of the watercress will be perfect.

Here’s what I did, then (just me eating today):

1 seitan steak
1 tsp Pure margarine
1/2 tsp Better than Beef bouillon
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

Mixed up margarine, bouillon and mustard and rubbed into the steak. Baked the steak for about 20 minutes then sliced in half lengthways.

1 seeded roll, halved and grilled
1 handful watercress

Sauce:
2tbsp Plamil mayo
1tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 1/2 tsp horseradish sauce
2 tsps Tofutti sour cream.

Mixed all together.

I spread one half of the bun with the sauce, then topped with the seitan, watercress and the top half of the bun.

I wanted to make this a Barefoot Contessa meal, so I searched around and decided to serve the sandwich with these matchstick potatoes which needed no veganising and were extremely tasty!

Thanks Kim and Tami – a wonderful meal. I’d forgotten how much I loved horseradish!!

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