Seitan
Ok, since this is ostensibly a blog about seitan, I should probably post my Seitan recipe.
- 2 1/2 cups wheat gluten
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tbs all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbs tomato paste
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 3-4 cloves garlic, pressed or grated
- 1 1/2 tps lemon zest
- 4 ts Sage
- 2 ts Rosemary
- 2 ts Oregano
- Blend in a food processor with a dough blade. If you have very strong hands, you can kneed it, I’m told. Keep going till it coalesces in to a ball and runs round and round, threatening to knock over the blender. It might not look quite like a ball of dough, but it should be mostly clumped together.
- if it turns into a paste, but won’t hold together, it’s probably too wet. Add a small amount of wheat gluten at a time, until squeezing makes it solid in your hand. If it won’t turn to paste, it’s too dry.
- The longer you blend it, the firmer the seitan will be. Also, the less wet it is, the firner it will be. I make my seitan a tiny bit wetter if I want it soft.
- Cut it into three equalish sized chunks and put in a pot of cold water. Turn the water up, and let it boil.
- It has to be cold and get warm, don’t warm it up first.
- Keep an eye on the seitan – it will sink at first and sit on the bottom, but eventually rise. But it will also stick to the bottom. At some point as it’s boiling, you’ll find yourself wrestling it free of the sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- When it’s boiling, turn it down to a simmer and let it cook for an hour. Turn it off and let it cool to room temperaturish before putting it in the fridge.
- This also helps the seitan become more firm.
I usually make a double batch, and after cooking and cooling, slice one batch up and put it in freezer bags in the freezer. Cuts up great with a bread knife, and then it fits in the freezer bags.
You can vary the spices – put whatever in there. I’ve made ‘indian’ seitan (I should make it again soon). I need to try to make it with zaa’taa for an arabic flavour. The above is sage heavy – I’ve fooled people with it. “Sausage?” they say, “But I though you were ve-“, “Yes,” I reply, “Everything they told you was a lie.”
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