Seitan - a question.

[BernardSmith]

I have been making seitan for years, but have always added the raw flavored gluten to a stock or liquid and boiled it for about 60 minutes and then roasted or stir fried the cooked seitan. Have just come across a very different approach which suggests that bake the raw seitan in a bread pan filled with stock and covered with foil OR you wrap and seal the dry raw seitan in foil and also bake it. The boiling method makes the final seitan quite juicy . What does baking do for this dish? I ask but I am planning to bake some tonight... Thoughts? Thanks

[Green Aura]

It's a while since I made any seitan but I usually double wrap in parchment paper and steam it. I add all the flavourings and liquid to the seitan itself, rather than to a broth.

The other thing I always do is add chickpea flour or cooked beans (whatever I've got) and usually mushrooms (ground in food processor). I find that, along with the steaming, this makes the seitan more tender, rather than chewy. It reduces the taste of the seitan itself, which I find quite harsh and you can make all sorts of different flavours.

[BernardSmith]

Thanks , Maggie. Last night, I experimented with baking my seitan (I add chickpea flour and nutritional wheat) at 350 F for 75 minutes. Boiling seems to allow for the liquid to seep in and create tiny pockets in the gluten as it boils whereas baking made this more "dense", more chewy. Planning on adding baking powder to my next batch see if this will help make more pockets of air. I may also bake the seitan in a aluminum-covered bread pan half-filled with stock to see what difference that might make.

When I boil the seitan (simmered for 60 minutes) I usually add some onion, garlic and soy sauce to the water to make a stock. I add soy sauce, curry powder and/or cumin, onion and garlic powder to the gluten and nutritional yeast/chickpea flour mix for a more savory flavor.

The baked seitan is going to be used in a version of kebobs (with green and yellow squash, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, eggplant (aubergines)) and sweet corn (marinated with a mix of rice vinegar, lemon juice, toasted sesame oil , soy sauce and crushed garlic) over a bed of brown rice -

[Green Aura]

Sounds good.

[Green Aura]

This is the basic recipe for seitan I was using latterly. It only takes a few minutes to assemble and then it's hands off from then on. I've nicked ingredients and cooking tips from all over the WWW over time. Herbs and flavourings can be altered to suit. The result is meaty texture, not chewy. If you're going to use chickpea flour instead of cooked beans just add a bit more liquid - it should be very wet before adding the VWG. Or you can use it instead of the nuts. It's a very flexible, forgiving recipe.

a punnet of button mushrooms, roughly chopped if large
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup black-eyed peas (or other cooked beans)
1 cup hot water, wine or veg stock
½ cup apple puree, mashed sweet potato or pumpkin etc (it doesn't make it sweet, just rounds out the flavour and texture)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp herbs of choice (I tend to only use ½ tsp thyme though or it overpowers the others)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp yeast extract (optional - I usually dissolve it in the stock)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 ½ -2 cups gluten

Blitz all ingredients, except gluten, in a food processor as smooth as you like or leave chunks for some texture. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add sufficient gluten to make a soft, but not sticky dough. Knead for a few minutes, form into a log or loaf shape, wrap in greased, double parchment and an outer layer of foil (put a fold in each layer to allow for some expansion). Steam on a trivet in a water bath, in the oven, at 190C for 1 hour.

Turn over and steam for another hour.

Can be cut into steaks, chunks, sliced or minced.

It has occurred to me that this could be done on a trivet in a slow cooker too, although I haven't tried it.