In the past weeks I've been eating much more meat than
I usually did. Although one bad experience with a butcher
weeks ago reminded me that it's time to reduce it again,
somehow I couldn't stop carving for meat dishes. Yet, I
am no longer willing to buy anything from that butcher
anymore. I need an alternative.

I remember, my grandma used to have vegetarian days and
eat fake meat dishes. As I was more a vegetarian than I am
now, I used to taste them too and I had to say, I liked fake
meat.


top: before and after cooking the dough
below: fake chicken in murgh badami style


After watching some videos and reading some posts about
homemade seitan, I finally tried to make my own to cook
murgh badami (or rather a murgh badami inspired dish). I
start with wheat gluten, instead of flour - it saved me time
(and water).

My homemade seitan was too chewy, especially the bigger
pieces. The smaller pieces was better (although my son was
still not convinced - he's rather a real meat lover). I need to
do some experiments to improve the texture. Isn't cooking
fun? :-)

I just couldn't help it - each of those fabrics on the left photo
were calling my name :-P Only at home I got some vague
ideas, how to assemble one with another. Now I need to
overcome myself and draft some patterns...



Last week I went to our local "city potter" to see her current
work. She had a lovely cup - matte black on the outside and
white glaze on the inside -, but I was actually looking for a
big cup. She did have some big cups, but not in the right
colors. I wanted white/bright inner glaze (I love to see the
color of the tea I drink). She then offered me to make a big
cup in a similar design as the small cup. She told me it's a
500 ml cup (but I can actually even pour 750 ml liquid in).

It's really HUGE, but it's perfect for me. So practical!
No longer making (too much) tea in a teapot (and forget
about it for a while, that it's already cold when I want to
fill my cup in) from now on *huge grin*