Sunday, August 15, 2010

Basic Seitan how to...

In my recipes, I use seitan often.  It is something I enjoy cooking with as it versatile and easy to use.  There exist some store bought brands but to be honest, I never like seitan until I started eating it homemade.  If you have used the store brands and did not like them, you should try to make it yourself before you dismiss it.

Recently, I noticed that despite many recipes using seitan, I do not actually walk anyone through the process of making it.  It appears at a glace to be a taxing process, however, it is actually very simple and low maintnace.

There are many variations, including many just on my blog such as, Seitan Steaks and Seitan Chicken Fingers.  This is just a simple and basic recipe for everyday use or use in recipes like Spicy Seitan or in a stir-fry with a Mongolian Sweet Sauce.

If you have additional questions, please see the Seitan Tips post and feel free to ask. 

Basic Seitan (how to)

the broth

10 cups of vegatable broth
2/3 cup of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of liquid smoke
1 teaspoon of hot sauce

Bring all ingredients to a boil in a large pot.



the seitan

1 cup of vital wheat gluten
slightly less than 1 cup of the broth
2 teaspoons of garlic
1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon of parsley
1 teaspoon of ground black pepper

In a large mixing bowl, add all dry ingredients and mix well.  Once the broth is hot dd the less than 1 cup and immediately fold into the gluten until you have a wet dough.  The dough should be brown in color, moist to the touch, and slightly sticky.


Cover the work station in a very think layer of flour and kneed the seitan mixture several times over the next 10 minutes. Allow the dough a few minutes each time to settle and rise a bit.  Cut into desired pieces and return to "the broth" water.  Boil for 40-45 minutes.  While boiling, they will expand so make sure the pot being used has enough space.


Remove from the water.  If storing the seitan, make sure you put some type of liquid with it to avoid drying out.  Bar-B-Que sauce, a few spoonfuls of "the broth" or another marinade with work.  It should bee in an airtight container for over a week.

5 comments:

Rose said...

Homemade seitan is the best! I've made your Seitan Steaks before...they are good! Thanks for the how-to and recipe.

amymylove said...

hmmmm might have to try this... i am always looking for new and different ways to prepare seitan, it's my favorite :)

Anonymous said...

you did a pretty complete job of explaining seitan in your seitan steaks post, but this recipe has less ingredients, which can be less overwhelming (if you don't have all the ingredients!) This post is also more clear about what you have to do if you only want to make seitan and not seitan steaks.

Ame

tweal said...

Thanks so much for sharing this information! I have very little experience making or eating seitan, but the few times I have had it, I really enjoyed it. I always mean to try making my own, but the recipes are so daunting. I like how simple this one is, and I think I will try it soon.

Neal said...

Nice one buddee. Next you should teach the folks how to make a rad vegetable stock to use for this.