Instructions: When I lived in Minneapolis, my favorite dish at the neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant was a "Mock Duck." You could get Mock Duck salad, Mock Duck over noodles and Mock Duck in a bunch of different ways I no longer recall.

Fifteen years later, I still remember the spicy flavor and chewy texture.

I had no idea at the time that I was eating wheat gluten, made into a meat substitute called "seitan" pronounced (SAY-tahn.) Its high in protein at 7.5 grams per ounce with no fat in its raw state. This can change depending on how its cooked. Naturally, being a vegan food its cholesterol free. Seitan is an ancient food and is a staple among vegetarian monks in China and the common folks in Southeast Asia.

Today, seitan provides vegetarian and non-vegetarians alike with as close to a meat alternative as there is. It is brown in color and almost always comes shaped like the size of chicken tenders but can be found in burger, sausage and fajita-strip form (usually in the refrigerated section of most health food stores). It comes natural with no extra flavoring added or with teriyaki, barbecue, Szechuan or tamari flavor.

I have also found it canned in Oriental grocery stores called wheat gluten or sometimes mock duck. Ive taste-tested both the refrigerated version and the canned version and found the canned to be equally good. It is also about half the price of the fresh variety.

This wholesome food is made from whole wheat or white flour that has been mixed with water and kneaded. The dough is then rinsed and mixed to remove the starch until gluten forms. It is then boiled in water. This glutenous dough is called kofu. Kofu becomes seitan by cooking and flavoring it in a variety of different ways.

Simmering kofu in a flavored broth is one very popular method to make seitan.

The flavoring that you use will only be limited by your imagination. You can add cayenne, fennel, paprika, garlic and Italian seasoning for a "sausage"

flavoring. The kofu or gluten can also be baked, oven-braised, pressure-cooked and even deep-fried. The texture and flavor will change depending on which method you use.

Seitan can then be used in stir-frys, sandwiches, stews, or ground in the food processor and used like ground meat in chili and hamburgers. Or, it can be formed like a cutlet and used in place of chicken. It is perishable and will last up to about a week in the refrigerator.

If making seitan at home from scratch is not your thing, you can try making it from a commercially available mix from Arrowhead Mills called Seitan Quick

Mix or from Knox Mountain called Wheat Balls. Ive had these and they taste remarkably like beef meatballs. I prefer it over tofu for its chewy texture.

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