My darling nephew, Stefan, invariably travels with an entourage. In fact, he’s been known to bring as many as eleven friends to visit–sometimes even to sleep over for a night before they move on to his parents’ cabin on Hornby Island!

His entourage this year was relatively small, however–just his producer, his podcast partner and fiancée, and his own partner, Irene. Part of the purpose of their visit was to produce a couple of vacation podcasts, but they also found time to share a few meals at Sideways Cottage and to kayak and swim at various spots around Denman.

I was dying to have them try my seitan pulled pork on tangzhong buns, so I tempted them back here post-kayaking (when I knew they would be hungry!). Though the only vegetarian in the crowd was the lovely Becca, they all gobbled the sammies and pronounced them delicious.

And after checking out our outdoor bathtub and sauna, Stefan had the brilliant idea of shooting a few PR pictures for their podcast in the tub, so we popped open some pink champagne, and they hopped into the tub. Producer Dan got some great shots (though we’ve yet to see the sauna pics!):

James can never remember the name of their podcast, so he just calls it “The Gross Boys,” which is actually pretty appropriate. Like a good auntie, I always listen to their weekly podcasts, but I do admit that I’ve had to close the windows on more than one occasion when the gross boys are being particularly….well…gross. As for James, though he is the best of uncles and completely devoted to our darling Stefan, he just can’t bring himself to listen to the podcast. Well, he can’t listen deliberately, but he does catch the occasional snippet.

And speaking of tangzhong buns (what a good segue!), today I thought I’d experiment with that amazing potato chicken seitan I made this week and attempt a vegan version of the KFC fried chicken sandwich.

Vegan KFC Burgers

Ingredients:

510 grams of potato chicken seitan, shredded and divided into six little piles of 85 grams each

6 pieces of rice paper

2 cups hot tap water in a large, flat bowl

Seasoning:

2 cups flour

4 TBS smoked paprika

3 TBS white pepper

2 TBS garlic powder

1 TBS each celery salt, black pepper, dry mustard, ground ginger 

1 1/2 tsp each thyme and basil

1 tsp oregano

2 tsp sea salt

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Dredge:

1 TBS Vegg powder dissolved in…

1.5 cups warm water

Final Dunk:

1 cup panko crumbs

First:

Shred seitan into large chunks and create six small circles of about 85 grams each:

Next…

create your assembly line of the seasoning mix, the dredge, and the panko crumbs:

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Next…

Fill a large flat dish with warm water and immerse one piece of ricer paper into water until soft and pliable.

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Place rice paper in your hand and add one pile of seitan. Wrap rice paper around seitan, shape into a patty, and place on cooling rack. Continue with the rest of the seitan.

Next….

Dip each patty in the seasoning, the dredge, back into the seasoning, back into the dredge, and finally…into the panko!

At this point you can cook the patties by either pan-frying or by air-frying:

The air-fried patty is delicious and crunchy….

And the pan-fried patty is delicious and crispy…

The one fried in oil is a bit more succulent and crispy, but quite a bit less healthy (because of all that damn oil!!). The choice is yours!

Once they’re done, slap those delicious patties on a tangzhong bun with onions, pickles, lettuce, and vegan mayo!

SO CRISPY AND DELICIOUS!!

And the song of the day is Roo Panes’ “Know Me Well”…