"Man (Woman) is what he (she) eats."
- German proverb
Hello everyone!
This is a grand day (should you allow it to be). Your time is what you make of it (thus the day belongs to you). Let us make this day one very well spent and of value to all.
This being said, what has Chucky been up to in his kitchen? I cannot take credit for this recipe. All credit goes to David Tran of The Loving Hut restaurant. He recently gave an hour long demonstration at Central Florida Earth Day 2011 which Tiffany and I enthusiastically attended. That my friends was, indeed, a grand day!
I had been meaning to make seitan but simply had not done so. I had purchased a bag of vital wheat gluten from Hoover's Essential Market several months back. Basically, it's been sitting on my kitchen counter as somewhat a paperweight (until now).
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| Kneaded seitan rests in bowl |
I kept my seitan simple. My first attempt at making seitan is as follows.
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| Soy sauce and seasoning |
Ingredients:
- 1 cup vital wheat gluten
- 1 Tbsp Kirkland Organic No-Salt Seasoning
- 1 Tbsp Lee Kum Kee Light soy sauce
- 1 cup water
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| Vital wheat gluten |
Directions:
- Mix vital wheat gluten, seasoning and soy sauce.
- Add water.
- Knead several times.
- Place in bowl, covered with water for seasonings to take root.
- Three ways to cook:
- Boil in seasoned water until floats. Longer you cook, chewier the seitan.
- Slice and heat on non-stick two-sided griddle. Approximately 2 to 3-minutes until fully cooked and firm.
- Slice and sauté (or stir fry) to desired doneness.
Note: I have taken liberty to share the recipe and instructions that David Tran handed out on my recipe link below.
Chucky? I used cooking method 1 in a Spicy Pasta with Mushrooms & Seitan recipe that I kind of tossed together on a whim. I see countless possibility for the use of seitan with my vegetarian lifestyle. I am fortunate not to be sensitive to gluton.
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| Seitan ball removed from fridge 24-hours later |
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| Sliced and ready to drop into boiling water |
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| Soup base in boiling water |
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| After seitan floats to top, steep 15-minutes longer |
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| Seitan being drained |
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| Sliced and ready for stir-fry dish |
Hi-dee hi-dee be-it-known-that-seitan-is-easy-and-versitile-ho my friend!
Vitla wheat gluten is so expensive in the U.K, a blogger friend of mine posted me a 500g bag recently and I was able to make some vegan chorizo, wow I loved it. I have yet experiment further with it, but its so great to read that is versatile.
ReplyDeleteTook me a while to locate it but thanks for sharing the chorizo sausage recipe (http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.com/2011/02/vegan-chorizo-sausages.html) on your blog! I, too, love spicy chorizo sausage.
ReplyDeleteWhen David Tran gave his demo at Earth Day, he noted that you can derive gluten from regular flour but I cannot quite remember the details of the process. Perhaps you can Google the it? If you are unable to find it or would like David's e-mail, please let me know.
I have found chicken cutlet and beef stroganoff recipes for seitan via Google. Can't wait to make 'em. I'm hooked on seitan right now.
Wow, who knew it'd be that easy to make. Cool! I've only bought the pre-made ones from the Asian supermarkets. Is that No-Salt Seasoning spicy at all? I've seen it at Costco but was afraid it might be spicy. I don't even like pepper in my food.
ReplyDeleteHi Mandy. You're asking the wrong person about spicy. I eat habanero hot sauce and Chinese ground chili pepper on an almost daily basis.
ReplyDeleteThe Kirkland Organic No-Salt Seasoning ingredients listing is: organic onion, organic garlic, organic carrot, organic black pepper, organic red pepper, organic tomato granules, organic orange peel, organic parsley, organic bay leaves, organic thyme, organic basil, organic celery, organic lemon peel, organic oregano, organic savory, organic mustard seed, organic cumin, organic marjoram, organic coriander, organic cayenne pepper, citric acid and organic rosemary.
As the fourth listed ingredient is organic black pepper, I don't recommend this spice choice for you. However, simply use anything that you love the taste. Something as simple as vegan chicken stock would suffice perfectly fine.
That's one of the amazing things about seitan. It's incredibly versatile. Be creative and think outside the culinary box!
Oh yeah... Be forewarned that 1 cup seitan makes ALLOT of finished seitan. After it's kneaded into a ball, remember that it will again double in side when boiled.
Thanks for posting on the blog! It's very much appreciated and helps keep me going. Let us know how your first seitan works out!
My favorite way to eat seitan is in "BBQ Gluten Ribs" which is from The Farm Cookbook. You bake the "ribs" (which are seitan in sort of rib shapes) in the oven with homemade BBQ sauce. My mom is a vegetarian and that is our "special" meal we make infrequently because it takes so long to make. But it's worth it! Yum!
ReplyDeleteEthos Vegan Kitchen was serving BBQ chicken filet sandwiches at Central Florida Earth Day 2011. A big chicken flavored chunk of seitan cooked on the grill with BBQ sauce and served on a huge bakery bun. Delicious!
ReplyDeleteBut... now you've got my mind focused on getting the BBQ Gluten Ribs recipe. I love this lifestyle! I can still eat BBQ and remain meatless in my diet! What a wonderful world!
Thanks for sharing Happy Bunny!
I've been meaning to try making seitan but until now didn't find a recipe that inspired me enough to give it a try. I think this one might be one, though -- thanks!
ReplyDeleteI agree with MexZihCan...your recipe seems simple! I'm going to make seitan next week now...I'll let ya know how it goes!
ReplyDeleteHi Bourgeois Gal. Like tofu and tempeh, seitan takes on the predominate taste of whatever it is served in (BBQ sauce, hot sauce, in soup, etc.) I've made several batches since my original post and typically use nothing more than vegan soup base to flavor my seitan.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to hear how it works for you. And, yes ~ It is as simple as it looks.