Iron Chef Challenge: Chestnut-Pear Bread Pudding

Welcome to this, the 13th day of Vegan MoFo! First up, I gotta share my entry for the second Iron Chef Challenge from Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk: Pears and Nuts. I am slightly obsessed with chestnuts, with their sweet and savory and crunchy and creamy qualities....I knew that this is the nut I had to go with to pair with the pears in my challenge recipe! Luckily, Clover's had a butt-load of LOCAL chestnuts and several varieties of organic pairs. I had some stale bread from our wonderful Uprise Bakery, and fall screams for bread pudding, so there you have it! Chestnut-Pear Bread Pudding! Here she is, all cozy in the pan....And plated up, all gooey and yum. Oh, God, chestnuts rule!! I recommend drinking tea with this!

Chestnut-Pear Bread Pudding (serves 4)

1/2 stale baguette loaf, diced into cubes

1 cup soymilk

1/2 cup water

1 Tbs egg replacer powder

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 Tbs cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tbs almond meal

2 ripe pears, diced

1 cup roasted chestnuts, chopped

1 Tbs canola oil

Preheat oven to 375 F. Lightly oil a large loaf pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg replacer, water, and soymilk. Let sit for 10 minutes to thicken. Whisk again, adding in the maple syrup, sugar, spices, vanilla, and almond meal. Fold in the bread cubes, pears, and chestnuts. Let this sit together for 15 to 20 minutes to get all nice and goo-rific. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until golden brown on top. Serve warm...particularly with some vanilla So Delicious :)

Ok, onto dinner (yes, we did eat an actual dinner before going to dessert!)

Kung Pao Seitan! This was friggin delicious! Sweet, spicy, saucy, crunchy, savory, and just plain good. Steven definitely went back for seconds...he probably would have gotten thirds if I had made more!! I modified this from the Kung Pao Tofu recipe from the Whole Foods Cookbook...added some carrots, celery, and broccoli, and obviously swapped out the seitan for tofu. When I was an omni, I loved Kung Pao Chicken from Chinese restaurants, so seitan was more what I wanted for the taste and texture of the old days. Without the cruelty! Yay!

If you don't have this cookbook, check it out from the library, buy it, borrow it from a friend, I don't care what you do--just make this recipe! I served it up with some brown rice tossed with tamari and toasted sesame oil. Dinner is served!