Dinner Adventures... Quorn off the Cob

A few days ago I was browsing the fridge for dinner options ( I agreed to cook for my room mate as well) and I decided to use my favorite new anti-meat product Quorn.

I think I may have mentioned these before, and if I haven't then really I should have. Quorn is a meat substitute made from fungus, yes fungus. Mushroom are fungi, however according to the people at Quorn, there are over 600,000 types of fungi. A quick little bit of research indicates that Quorn has been a top seller in the UK and was only recently introduced to the States.

It's made of Mycoprotien, which is a specific type of fungus. The website describes it here:
"Mycoprotein is the main ingredient in all Quorn products. It's made from a member of the fungi family, which includes mushrooms and truffles, and is a high-quality meat-free protein that's naturally low in fat with very few calories."

My room mate bought the Quorn 'chicken' nuggets, which I tried once, and so I bought the 'chicken' tenders, which are supposed to emulate bits of grilled chicken. I have tried a pretty sizable amount of imitation meat products, having grown up in a half vegetarian household, but I think that by far Quorn takes the cake over all of them. The first time I tried it, I literally did a food double-take because I could not believe it wasn't real. Unfortunately, it's also pretty expensive, which is why I've only bought one package so far.

So, now what to do with the Quorn. I pulled some things out of the pantry and off the shelves and wound up browning up the Quorn tenders in a pan with some onions, adding peppers ( the rest of which I roasted and they came out fabulously!) and topping off with a can of tomatoes. It wasn't quite as liquidy as I wanted so I supplemented with a little bit of tomato sauce and a tiny bit of stir fry sauce.

I'd also recently purchased a package of rice vermicelli noodle sticks to try ( I've been getting curious about the gluten free craze going on... but that's for another post). Although the dish was not remotely Asian, I wanted to see how the noodles would mix with my creation. The noodles cook up in just a few minutes and with the help of a little oil they mixed in pretty nicely to the Quorn dish.

Once I tried the dish, I realized that I had made my own version of a dish my mom used to make and that was one of my favorites growing up- Spaghetti squash and veal ( or fake meat). The rice noodles have a similar texture to the squash and her dish also had a tomato base with pepper and of course a protein source. So now I have my own version. I got a big thumbs up from my room mate as well.

I have yet to see too many stores carrying the Quorn products, but hopefully it will become more popular, and perhaps a little cheaper? There are Quorn burgers, Quorn turkey and all sorts of other goodies to try. As with other meat substitutes ( including soy) there isn't a lot of information about what ingesting this type of product can do long term. There have been claims of allergies etc. but so far I haven't found anything serious. Some controversy is surrounding the product because it markets itself as mushroom based, and the Advertising Standards Authority contested that while it is fungus based, it is not mushroom based.

Quorn actually was first released in the UK in 1996 and in the US in 2002. It was originally developed to combat the predicted shortage of food and of protein in the average person's diet. The name comes from a town in the UK.

Previously on Road Raging Foodie...

Hello Long Lost Readers! If anyone is still patient enough to stick around, or just stop by randomly then thanks!! I believe I promised some sort of entries about food..... this is a blog right?

But first, let me say, when driving on a road or highway, it is generally considered courteous to STAY IN YOUR LANE. I have no problem with switching lanes, but when you are riding halfway between one lane and the other, that's just rude and annoying. The lines on the road are actually drawn so you can fit a car between them ( shocking as that might be), so really, there's no need to ride with one tire in one lane and one tire in the other lane.

Anyway, we were talking about food. So here is a nice overview of the last few months or whatever.....

1. BBQ pulled Shreds = Bad
Maybe its the fact that this imitation meat doesn't even know what kind of meat it is trying to imitate, or maybe they just don't understand the texture of shredded meat, but this is a no-go for me. I've recently become addicted to bbq sauce, but fortunately there are other types of fake shredded meat that do attempt to be meat. At the moment I cannot remember what the good bran is, but next time I'm in the store I'll check it out. There is definitely one that tastes pretty authentic, but not these.
2. In other sad news for vegetarians ( which thankfully I am not), it was recently brought to my attention that some Hostess products contain beef fat. Yea, I know, what business does a cupcake have with beef fat? I haven't got a clue, but I checked the label and there it is right on the chocolate cupcakes. Now, if they were to make a bacon cupcake, I would not complain, however with a normal chocolate cupcake I find myself very confused. It's hard to see in the picture because of the reflection but if you look to the right, next to canola oil, it does say beef.


3. This one is just to show off a nice meal I cooked ages ago. Simple but delicious. Pasta with spinach, roasted peppers and portabello mushrooms. YUM!

4. Keeping on trend with the pasta, I have a slightly less "authentic" dish. Somewhere my ancestors are probably rolling in their graves. I decided to try pasta for a box. I'd like to state for the record that I have never purchased a box of kraft mac and cheese, however the fake cheesy taste was really appealing to me when I was shopping a few weeks back, so I decided to go for a more reputable version. I've always seen Annie's brand in the store and been intrigued by it. The pasta is organic, for whatever that's worth and all the ingredients are natural ( which of course doesn't really mean a whole heck of a lot either, but hey, points for trying). I've never made boxed mac and cheese so I didn't really know the process. Basically you cook the pasta then add the cheese powder to milk and pour it on. It wasn't bad. If you're in the mood for not legit home cooking then it could be decent. It wasn't really my favorite but I enjoyed the box experience and it lasted me a few days too.


5. More about packaged foods! I've been on a quest to find decent Indian food that comes pre-made. I realize that's probably almost impossible, however I finally think I lucked out. Trader Joe's stepped up to the plate on this one and did not dissapoint, with by far, the best packaged Indian food I have encountered so far. It's been sitting in my cabinet for months now, waiting for the right moment to be eaten, and finally that moment came. I chose Jaipur Vegetables which although packed in a box, is actually sealed inside a thick silver plastic bag. Indian food may not be the prettiest to look at, but at least this food looked like the picture on the cover ( a real first in my experience). The color was definitely darker, but it was much closer to looking like the box than most. The taste was great. It was spicy and full of flavor and didn't have any weird after tastes. My only complaint is the cashews were kind of soggy, but otherwise, totally good! I enjoyed it with a piece of Naan, also from Trader Joes, which stays nicely frozen until ready to go in the oven.




So that is pretty much the highlights of food in recent times. Stay tuned for more at the new house.....

One for the Vegetarians...

Ever since I watched part of Food Inc. I've been increasingly interested in eating less meat or hopefully meat that is prepared with some humanity. I don't think that I could ever give up meat entirely because I just need a burger every now and then, but my dad is a vegetarian so a lot of times we have meatless meals in my house. Over the years my family has tried quite a number of "fake meat products" and although we've run into a few not so hot ones, there are actually a great number of imitation meats out there.

I pretty much exclusively eat veggie hot dogs because hot dogs kind of creep me out on principle. I don't really have a problem with taste but somehow their legend of horror got to me and I can only remember eating two real ones over the last ten or so years. I've encountered some purple bouncy fake meat hotdogs in my time but the brand we buy exclusively is Tofu Pups. I won't say they taste like a hot dog is supposed to (whatever that is exactly) but I've gotten used to the taste of them smothered in mustard and I like them a lot. As far as burgers go, Boca burger is really the only way to go if you wan't an experience that is anything like meat.

My family is also pretty into our fake breakfast meats like bacon and sausage. I'm a lot happier eating fake sausage than real sausage ( again something about the ground up bits of meat just creeps me out), but I find real bacon hard to resist. It's really the only pig product I will eat without serious coercion. My college roomates were entertained by my my Morningstar Farms Facon. J said the taste was alright but she didn't understand why it was attempting to look like real bacon in color. S also said it tasted alright after being coerced into eating some by my parents, but he didn't particularly seem thrilled by it. I think it has a pretty smokey taste and isn't too bad a substitute for bacon, although nothing will ever replace real bacon.
I decided to branch out into new types of fake meats last week by purchasing Smart Deli "Bologna" by Lite Life. I have to say I was pretty impressed. The serving size said it was 4 slices but I found each to be rather thick and have lots of flavor so I only used two and it really had the right taste to it! New awesome food found!

And lastly, my dad bought Lite Life's Italian style sausages, which surprised me by being incredible. They don't even need anything on them or with them to taste authentic. All the right spicing is there and all the flavors. I cooked them up with some onions and peppers the other day to make Italian Sausage and peppers on a sub/ grinder/ hoagie. ( Side note... the name for such a sandwich will have to be another blog post for another day because there is much debate between North and South Jersey as well as the rest of the country). Certainly going to keep these around.