The last time I had orange beef, before this plantbased version, was on a bad date over 30 years ago. I met a very interesting man. He was a young scientist working at our cities' university in a medical department.

He had run from Eastern Europe. He was suspected of being a member of the KGB due to his ties to an associate, apparently a member. He was threatened. They said they were going to kill his wife and child (yes he was married). He said he broke it off with his wife to save her life. Then he faked that he was running to Australia and went to Canada to throw "them" off. I agreed to a date out of curiosity plus he wasn't bad looking.

I met him at the restaurant of my choice, where I wanted to order orange beef.

He blew it right away when we sat at the table and pulled out a rose.

No not a real rose! A rose brooch! It wasn't in a box. It was in his pocket. It was gold coloured and it was tacky. I was really turned off by this weird action on a first date. I had to go through with it, thank him and pretend I liked it, and hope he had some good stuff to say.

During dinner he just talked science. Blah blah blah.... I didn't know what he was talking about. Eventually I just tuned out saying the occasional, "uhmm humm".
So now you wonder what this has to do with orange beef.

The orange beef that we ordered, was so good that it helped me get through the evening. It was me and that dish on a date together.

I never had it again for some reason. After thinking about it I a made plant based version. The beef was made from vital wheat gluten, seitan.

Skip making the seitan if you don't want to take the time or perhaps you don't have access to vital wheat gluten. You could use store bought vegan meat. If you're not vegan...I think you know what to use.

Seitan beef

380 g vital wheat gluten
150 g oyster mushrooms
20 oil
50 g carrot
30 g beet
140 g onion
3 g garlic
60 tomato paste
2 g liquid smoke
140 g soy sauce
15 g agave or maple syrup
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp fennel
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp smoked paptika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
Salt to taste (I taste, add, taste, add, until it's quite salty)

Grate carrots and beets. Add with mushrooms to a food processor. Fry onions and garlic and add to the mix of raw carrots, beets, mushrooms, spices and liquids.

Transfer to a blender and blend until you get a smooth paste. Transfer the paste to a bowl or back in the food processor, or stand mixer. I used the processor for the first time.

Add flour gradually until it forms a ball.

It mixed very well, but I didn't like how wet it was, so I added more flour. The amounts were added up in the recipe. I mixed the rest by hand until all of the flour was well incorporated by kneading for around 10 minutes. I wrapped it in parchment paper and steamed it. You can use foil or cheese cloth as well. It was steamed for an hour. You can tell when it's done. It gets much bigger almost double and becomes firmer.

This was the first step. I now will grill it to get it more firm and get out more moisture. It will concentrate the tastes of the seasonings and ingredients.

I have an electric grill that works great for this. After brushing each steak with a little oil, put in the grill flipping it after a minute with the lid pressed down.

This can also be done in a frying pan.

I only used half of the loaf and put the rest in the fridge. After I sliced the steaks into small strips then marinated. This was marinated for a few hours. I don't think it's necessary when it's not real meat. Plus it already tasted good. Oh well I did it anyway.

Marinade

10 g soy sauce
3 g sake (optional)
5 g rice wine vinegar

Toss the strips to coat and put aside.

Warning! If you don't like flaming spicy food look away.

We happen to like spicy food so I put a good load of chilies in this. I wanted to forget how cold it is outside. It worked. I met my match.

Would I do it again? Yes!

If you can't handle it, you could certainly omit the chilies or add the amount you want.

Szechuan orange beef

400 g vegan ~~beef~~
300 g orange juice
5 g orange rind or zest
150 g diced onion
15 g ginger minced
25 g garlic minced
3 g dried chilies whole
10 g fresh chilies minced
30 g cornstarch
40 g soy sauce
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp szechuan pepper
50 g vegetable broth or water
30 g agave or maple syrup
10 g sesame oil
Oil for frying

Cut the orange rind into tiny slivers or just use zest. Saute onions, then add ginger, garlic, chilies, rind and spices.

Add liquids and simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Coat the strips in the cornstarch by tossing.

Heat a pan with oil and add the strips. The pan should be very hot with a good amount of oil to ensure crispiness.

Add the chili orange sauce and simmer until the cornstarch has thickened. Add more water or broth if necessary to prevent sticking.

Top with green onions and sesame seeds. I only had black sesame seeds so I used those instead of white.

To accompany, I had a green vegetable dish and Jasmine rice.

This was very familiar to me even without real meat. In fact I think I could fool some people with this vegan ~~beef~~. It was so full of flavors that you could barely tell the difference. It's been a good 17 years since I've had real beef.