Portabello Stack with Grilled Seitan and Squash, Andhra Veg Pulao

My annual Professional Photographers of NC convention ended mid-day today. Yesterday at the banquet, they had a good meal for me of mounded white rice and various vegetables in a red pepper sauce.

On my way home, I stopped at an Indian grocery store to get some groceries for tomorrow's cooking class. I don't usually use convenience foods, but picked up from that store Priya brand Andra Veg Pulao.

Tomorrow, we'll be making a North Indian pilaf; this one, cooked and in a foil bag, and simply needing to be put into boiling water for 5 minutes, is a medium-hot dish from the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Its ingredients are rice (20%), peas, rice bran oil, carrot, potato, onion, tomato, coconut, vegetable oil, gren chili, ginger, garlic, salt, cashew (we only found a half cashew!), coriander leaf, mint leaf, clove, cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamom, anistar, mace, and turmeric. I prepared it as a side dish with dinner tonight and we found that we really liked it!

For the main dish, I started sauteeing a portabello mushroom cap. A few minutes later, I put in thinly sliced seitan, a thick (maybe 1/4") slice of red onion, and a fresh rosemary stalk. Keeping in mind that I'm cooking twice these quantities (one stack for my wife, and one for me), I was running out of space in my pan so removed the mushroom a few minutes later and added a few slices of summer squash, cut into 1/4" thick slices. When the squash was browned somewhat and the seitan nicely browned and a bit crispy, I added the mushroom back in to be nice and hot, then served as a stack, piercing it with the rosemary. Yum!