Seitan - First Attempt

[blogslut]

So, it tastes great but the texture left a lot to be desired. I made up my own recipe from the basic consensus of most DIY Seitan how-tos:

1 cup vital wheat gluten
3/4 cups broth
1/4 large onion chopped fine
4 cloves garlic chopped fine

I first mixed the VWG with the onion and garlic, then added the broth and squished it all together. I waited ten minutes and kneaded the stuff a bit more.

On the stove, I had a pot slow boiling of about 3 cups of broth. To this I added:

3 tablespoons Ponzu sauce
3 tablespoons fancy Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon Tonkatsu sauce
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon Koo Chun bean sauce

(NOTE: I recently got to visit an Asian Market - Yay!)

So, anyway, I pulled off chunks of the Seitan and patted out some flat cutlet shapes and dropped them in the pot.

This is where things went bleh. After about 7 minutes, the cutlets did not keep their shape. The whole bunch just sort of puffed up into a big semi-attached blob. I low-boiled this concoction for another 45 minutes because most of the recipes instructed this cook time.

After that, I whipped out the frying pan and pulled the majority of the seitan out and transferred it to the pan with some oil, in an attempt to obtain the firmness and outer-crispiness that I desired. The stuff firmed up a bit and did get some nice crispy bit but I realized that cutlets were not going to happen. The best I was going to get was the appearance of ground meat. I went ahead and added the sauce from the pot and cooked the stuff down to make the sauce nice and thick.

I the end, the texture was okay but nowhere near firm like I wanted. I tasted amazing and I had some on top of noodles with some veggies.

I think, next time, instead of boiling or simmering the cutlet shapes, I'm going to try frying them in a pan to get a firm cutlet-type product. Then I will make the delicious sauce.

[Warpy]

1. Now that the weather is getting warm, you can make your own seitan

and in my experience, it is much better.

I used 100% whole wheat flour, method to my madness at the end. I'd mix flour, water and a little salt to make a dough and knead it until the gluten was fully developed.

In a glass gallon jar, I'd submerge the dough and start to knead again for about 5 minutes. I'd let the whole business soak while I filled another jar with water. I'd take the dough out and set that first jar aside for the starch, germ, and bran to settle. I'd continue kneading the dough under changes of water until the last kneading had the water turn translucent rather than opaque white, indicating most of the starch was out of the dough.

I'd simmer pieces of gluten in a combination of broth and tamari for 10 minutes or so, remove and cool. At that point, it was ready for use. I especially liked it in stir fries, people would always swear they were eating meat, the texture was that good.

As for the first gallon jar with the settled starch, germ and bran, I'd carefully pour off most of the water. The thick layer of solids would get poured into dry half sheet pans and put into a 300F oven to dry. Once it had dried, the big pieces could be dusted with salt and spices and used as a snack. The little pieces were crushed and put into a jar and used as bran cereal.

Homemade seitan is labor intensive, but the texture is always better than the commercial stuff because they never seem to get enough starch out of it and it doesn't hold its shape. Homemade seitan is dense and chewy and accepts whatever flavor you give it. It can be frozen sucessfully with only a minor change in texture.

[blogslut]

2. That's pretty labor intensive alright

Why do you use flour as opposed to vital wheat gluten?

[Warpy]

3. I always used the whole wheat flour

because I liked getting the high fiber snack food and cereal out of it.

You will still need to knead that high gluten flour to activate the gluten in it. There is still some starch that needs to be rinsed out of it.

[blogslut]

4. Cool, thanks

I will also try kneading more next time. And I should rinse it before I try to fry it?

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

5. In another thread, I said that one of my favorite cookbooks is

Last edited Thu May 2, 2013, 05:33 PM - Edit history (1)

The Vegeterranean: Italian Vegetarian Cooking by Malu Simoes and Alberto Musacchio. They run a vegetarian hotel/restaurant near Perugia where I once stayed. I was so impressed by the cooking there that I bought their cookbook (which I had to get from Amazon in the UK).

I have had good results from their Seitan recipe, which makes 800 grams (1 pound 12 ounces). The flour they call for is what Italians call "Manitoba flour" or Tipo Manitoba (a name unknown in Canada), which is essentially high protein bread flour. I use either White Lily Bread Flour (NOT the soft flour used for biscuits that White Lily is best known for) or King Arthur Bread flour.

Dough
1.4 kg (3 lb 2 oz) bread flour
800 ml (26 fluid oz) water

Cooking liquid
3 liters (3 1/2 quarts) water
1 tablespoon salt
100 ml (3 fl oz) dry white wine
100 ml (3 fl oz) soy sauce
1 carrot, peeled and cut into pieces
1 onion peeled and coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk (keep the leaves on) chopped coarsely
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 sprig rosemary
1 sprig parsley (or cilantro if you feel like it)

Combine the flour and the water in a large bowl and work well until the dough is smooth. Place the bowl in the sink. Squeeze and rinse the dough under cold running water continually until the starch is washed away (you can tell because the water runs clear and the dough feels elastic). Drain in a colander and set aside.

Put two large pots on the stove. In the first pot, combine 2 liters (2 1/2 quarts) of the water with the salt and bring to a simmer. Put the rest of the cooking liquid in the other pot and bring that to the simmer.

Take the seitan from the colander and place on a flat work surface. Using your hands, roll the dough out to form a log about 10 cm (4 in) in diameter. Slice into 1 cm (1/2 in) slices. In batches, place the seitan into the salted water. When it comes to the top, use a slotted spoon or a spider to place in the other pot. Simmer in the second pot for about 20 minutes. Take the pot off the stove, and allow the seitan to cool in the liquid.

When it is cool, remove from the liquid and gently squeeze out the excess liguid. You can refrigerate it for up to a week. I do not know if it freezes well.

I have some friends who are vegetarians, and I use this for a vegetarian version of beef stroganoff (obviously, these friends are not vegans). Would anyone like the recipe for that?

[blogslut]

6. Neat.

I did some more research/reading and turns out that I don't need to rinse my vital wheat gluten in order to remove the starch because that's what VWG is - wheat flour with the starch removed.

Also, numerous recipes and seitan makers stress that it's vitally important that one places the just formed patties/cutlets/loafs/whatever in simmering broth/water, as opposed to a low boil - the mistake I made.

I will, knead my seitan more and let it set for a while before I cut it and/or shape it and pop it in simmering liquid. I'll let folks know how that works out.

[Texasgal]

7. I love seitan!

My recipe is similar. I like to use sesame oil and seeds to give it a bit of a "crunch" !

[blogslut]

8. I was thinking of adding a bit of quinoa

To make it closer to a complete protein. But some sesame seeds sounds awesome.

[surrealAmerican]

9. You may be using too much liquid.

I've done this before. The recipe I use calls for:

2 cups Vital Wheat Gluten
2 Tbsp Flour
1 1/4 cups Water
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Oil
1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1 tsp Lemon Juice
2 cloves Garlic

I also kneed it together in a mixer for about 5 minutes, then cook it in one or two big piece(s), and cut it up afterwords.

[blogslut]

10. I made a small batch last night that turned out way better, texture-wise

I kneaded it a lot more and let it set longer. I also cooked it in a frying pan full of a broth/seasoning concoction, burner set on LOW for an hour. Totally kept it's shape.

Yay!