Chicken and Buckwheat Waffles with Mixed Berry Preserves

Happy 2011! For Christmas every year, I hand make all my presents. This year, I sewed some Christmas ornaments with cute vintage holiday tags attached, sewed some cat nip toys for people with cats, made homemade dog cookies for people with dogs, prepared my own spice mix using spices from a local spice house near my place, made my own preserves from scratch, pickled my own pickles and cocktail onions, and made my annual variety of vegan cookies for everyone. I start sewing around October and do the pickling, spices, and preserves before Thanksgiving. The cookies I make in December and freeze them until I can give them to everyone. I used my mixed berry preserves for the waffles in this recipe!

Chicken and Buckwheat Waffles with Mixed Berry Preserves 

* Prep Time: 24 hours
* Cook Time: 3 1/2 hours (2 hours for seitan, 1 1/2 for rest)
* Ingredients (for seitan):

• 1/2 cup chickpeas
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tbsp red wine
• 2 tbsp soy sauce 
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp dried mustard
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp sage
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp ground fennel seed
• 1/2 tsp ground fenugreek seed
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten flour  

• 10 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup soy sauce

* Ingredients (for fried chicken):

• 1 1/2 cup self rising flour*
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp season salt
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• pepper, to taste
• 3 "eggs" via egg replacer (follow box instructions)*
• 1/4 cup prepared mustard
• 1/2 cup water
• peanut oil, for frying

* Ingredients (for buckwheat waffles):

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 "egg" via egg replacer (follow box instructions)*
• 1 cup almond milk*
• 1 tsp white distilled vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp soy butter, melted

• fresh berries (raspberries and blackberries), to top waffles

* Ingredients (for mixed berry preserves): *

• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 1 1/2 cup sugar*
• 1/2 lemon, seeded
• 1 pound of mixed berries (blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries)

* Recipe (for seitan):

1. Combine wheat gluten and nutritional yeast flakes in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Combine all the rest of the ingredients in a blender. Blend well.
3. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the bowl. Mix well. Let the wheat gluten mixture rise for a few minutes.
4. While you wait, add the vegetable broth and soy sauce into a big pot. Mix. Do not turn on stove yet.
5. Form the wheat gluten mixture uneven semi-round masses. You want it to somewhat resemble a "steak" for the rest of the recipe.
6. Put the seitan into the pot and now turn on the stove to medium heat. Place pot cover on, but allow some room for the steam.
7. Cook for 2 hours, rotating the seitan here and there.
8. To store, keep the seitan in the broth mixture and refrigerate. 

* Recipe (for fried chicken):

1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, nutritional yeast, salt, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, combine the prepared mustard with the water. Add in the egg replacer and mix well. Add 1/3 cup of the flour mixture to this mustard mixture and blend until all bumps are gone.
3. Drain the seitan of all its liquid by squeezing it firmly.
4. Coat each seitan chicken piece with the mustard mixture completely then the flour mixture completely. Do this for each piece until finished.
5. When done, wrap in cling wrap and then foil. Freeze for up to 24 hours. This helps the seasoning stick better when you fry it.
6. Heat up a semi-deep skillet with peanut oil. Once hot, place chicken in the skillet, enough that they all fit (if you have to do batches, do that). Cover and fry all sides until golden.
7. Drain in a strainer lined with paper towels. 

 * Recipe (for buckwheat waffles):

1. Combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl.
2. In a cup, combine the almond milk and vinegar. Set aside for 5 minutes. This is your "buttermilk".
3. Combine the milk, butter, water, and egg replacer in another bowl. Fold into the dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Heat up the waffle iron. Add 1/2-3/4 cup batter into the iron and close. Wait for the iron to stop steaming. The waffle should be slightly brown and crisp.
5. Pry the waffle out of the iron with a fork. Set aside. The recipe makes 2 waffles.
6. Add the fresh berries and the preserves to top the waffles!

* Recipe (for mixed berry preserves):

1. In a large saucepan, toss the strawberries with the sugar and let stand, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is mostly dissolved, about 1 hour.
2. Squeeze the lemon over the strawberries, add it to the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until the strawberries are just softened, 5 minutes. Add the mixed berries and cook over moderate heat until the liquid runs off the side of a spoon in thick, heavy drops, 20 to 25 minutes.

* Note: If you can't find self rising flour at your grocery store, try this recipe. For egg replacer, I used Ener-G. Feel free to use another non-dairy milk other than almond milk. The preserve recipe came from this website. For the preserves, make sure the sugar is vegan!