Making Charlie's Seitan

Readers, as you know, I am always on the look out for a good seitan recipe.  Well, I found a new one on Charlie's Kitchen Blog, and it made a great batch of seitan! I have been using a mix of vital wheat gluten and chick pea flour in my recent batches, but I really liked the density of Charlie's all VWG seitan recipe. It had a pleasant texture--not too chewy! I had to do some substituting based on what I had in my kitchen, so I wrote up a version of the recipe I ended up making.

Marinate it, saute or roast it--it's recipe ready! Try it in Veggie Pho, Reuban Sandwiches, or Hakka Noodles! I have the most amazing recipe coming up for Seitan Tibs, made with berbere!

Seitan
Based on Charlie's recipe
Takes 1 hour
Makes 8 loaves of seitan

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup vegetarian mushroom flavored oyster sauce
2 Tablepoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup water
2 cups vital wheat gluten
6 Tablespoons nutritional yeast

In a large measuring cup, mix together the wet ingredients.

In a large bowl, mix together vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast.  Pour the wet into the dry and stir together to combine.

Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until the dough is nice and smooth, about 10 minutes.  Shape into a log. Let the dough rest while you heat the water.

Place a steamer basket or wire rack on the bottom of a stock pan, and fill to just below the basket/rack. Heat on medium until steaming and just barely bubbling.

Slice the seitain log into 1-inch thick slices, and knead them a little into obloid shapes.  Place in a single layer (if you can) on the steamer rack.  Cover the pan and turn the heat down to low.

Let seitan steam for 40 minutes, turning them over after the first 10 minutes, and then once more more about 25 minutes into cooking.

Let rest for at least 10 minutes (and preferably overnight), and the seitan is now ready to be used in recipes!

Hakka in Halifax

I've been enjoying The Hakka Cookbook since I received a copy in the fall from the book's editor, who I am very proud to say is my friend! The recipes are written clearly and with warmth, and everything I've made so far has been delicious! 

The Hakka are a people who have moved over generations from their homeland in southeastern China. The book's author, Linda Lau Anusasananan, traveled to Hakka kitchens around the world to gather recipes for her book. In the places they settled, Hakka cooks incorporated local food cultures into their cooking practices. In India, "Hakka Noodles" are ubiquitous on the menus of Indo-Chinese Restaurants. Indians love Chinese food, and their demand for Chinese dishes like Chilli Paneer, Gobi Manchurian and Chicken 65 are a good reminder that national labels are not always the best descriptors for food or cultures!

I've made Anusasananan's garlic noodles several times, adapting the recipe by replacing the shrimp with tofu, or in this version, with steamed seitan that I made myself. 

I've also been making these noodles with the vegetables that are available here in the winter in Halifax: brussels sprouts, carrots and mushrooms!  The chili is an exotic treat.

This recipe takes a little time, but it's pretty simple.  Just prep the ingredients, and then it comes together really quickly.

 
I don't have a wok, and my stove isn't great, but I can still make this recipe work. The important thing is to add the ingredients separately in stages so that the pan doesn't lose too much heat.  Start with the mushrooms and get them brown. At the point you think they might begin to burn, add the onions, garlic and chili to cool down the mushrooms.  And keep going with every vegetable. Let me know if you try it out!

Winter Hakka Noodles
Adapted from Linda Lau Anusasananan's Garlic Noodle Recipe in The Hakka Cookbook
Makes 4 servings
Takes 1 hour

2 Tbsp. Shaoxing Chinese Rice wine (great to have on hand in the fridge)
1/2 tsp. ground white pepper (or black)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 loaf seitan, sliced (you could use tofu, or as in the original recipe, shrimp!)
12 oz dried wheat noodles (I used Shanghai noodles) 
about 12 shitake mushroom caps, thinly sliced (save the stems for making stock, or throw them in your next pot of rice)
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 red chili, sliced in two
2 cups sliced brussels sprouts
1 carrot, julienned
3 Tbsp. soy sauce

Mix the wine with the salt and pepper. Toss with the seitan, and let sit to marinate.

Preheat the oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees.
 
Cook noodles according to package directions so they are just firm.  Rinse thoroughly in cold water until cool to touch. Lightly toss with vegetable oil and set aside.

Coat the seitan with oil and toast for 10 minutes on each side, to lightly brown. Let cool on paper towels.

Coat the bottom of a wok or large saute pan with vegetable oil. On high heat, brown the mushrooms, about a minute on each side. Add onions, garlic, and red chili, and saute for about a minute. Add brussels sprouts and saute for one minute. Put a lid on the pan and let steam for one to two minutes.  Add carrots and saute another minute. Turn heat down to medium. Add the seitan, noodles and soy sauce. Toss gently to combine--tongs work really well.

Enjoy!

Experiments in Seitan

Like so many things, this post started out as an experiment that did not go according to plan. I was wanting to make Terry Hope Romero's red seitan, but since I didn't have all the ingredients on hand, I needed to make some substitutions. I decided to use some of the quick Really Excellent Marinade to replace the tomato paste Romero's recipe called for.  It produced a very wet dough. 

I am not a very confident seitan maker, and I always wonder just what the consistency of the dough should be, how long it should be kneaded, and the size of the loaves for steaming.  I thought this was a good opportunity to test this out.

I divided the dough in two, I left the wet dough to rest, and with the second half, I added more Vital Wheat Gluten to make the dough the usual consistency I get from following a seitan recipe.  This thick dough was inevitably kneaded more than the wet dough and had that elastic feeling you look for when making bread.

Since I had a bit extra VWG left, I added some chick pea flour, and some water to make a dry, very well kneaded dough.

I then packed them in foil and steamed them according to THR's description.

After steaming, you couldn't really tell a difference between the wet dough and the medium dough. I kept one loaf of each to bake, and there was very little difference between the wet and the medium when they were baked.

The next day, I took one loaf wet and one loaf medium and sliced them to put in a marinade.  The medium loaf was a bit chewier, but only a little.

The big surprise was that on slicing the dry little dough ball, it had these nice little holes in it!  That means it is less dense than your average seitan and would probably soak up flavors more. 

 
I marinated it in some soy sauce, picka peppa sauce and sesame oil and sauteed it for a sort of reuben sandwich.  So good!

The steamed seitan is just the basis for later cooking. Try it in some Winter Hakka Noodles! But here is the result of my experimenting, a very good basic recipe for seitan.

Steamed Seitan
Adapted from Terry Hope Romero's recipe for Red Seitan
Makes 4 loaves of seitan
Takes 1 hour

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 giant clove of garlic grated (about 1 tablespoon grated garlic, maybe more)
3 Tablespoons light soy sauce
2 Tbsp Really Excellent Marinade
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup chick pea flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp dried oregano

Mix together garlic and wet ingredients in a large liquid cup measure. 

In a large bowl, thoroughly combine dry ingredients.

Pour wet ingredients into the dry, and stir until it begins to leave the sides of the bowl.  It will be very wet. In the bowl, knead for 3 minutes. This will be difficult as the dough will be very loose. Persevere!  Let rest for 10 minutes.  Knead again for 1 minute. Divide into 4 pieces, kneading each into a loaf shape.

Prepare a steamer and basket. I use a large stock pot with a wire cooling rack. Bring water to a boil and then turn down to a steady simmer.

Wrap each loaf into a loose foil packet, allowing room for the seitan to expand. Steam seitan for thirty minutes. Can be used right away, but it's better over time. Let cool and refrigerate. Will keep for 1 week.

Stay tuned for recipes on what to do with your seitan!

Really Excellent Marinade

This is a simple post for a marinade I've been making for tofu and seitan.  It's tangy and just a little spicy, and can be adjusted accordingly. I've put it on veggie burgers and it's good with roast potatoes too! It's made with items I always have on hand: Pickapeppa Sauce, a great vegan Worcestershire sauce replacement (Worcestershire sauce has anchovies in it, FYI); Cholula Hot Sauce; and Soy Sauce.

I used some of the sauce to marinate baked seitan, and then made a vegetarian Reuben sandwich with the seitan:

 

Yum!

I wanted to share this sauce with you because I also discovered that it makes an excellent flavoring for seitan! Some of you might know of my troubles with seitan. I just can't give up on making it right. Well, my latest attempt to make a batch of seitan yielded some unusual results, so this post kicks off a series of posts documenting my experiments with seitan.  Stay tuned for recipes for seitan and one that uses seitan!

Yours in experimentation!

Really Excellent Marinade, Flavoring and Sauce
Makes about 2 Tablespoons of sauce--enough marinade for a block of tofu or a loaf of seitan
Takes 10 minutes

1 1/2 Tablespoons Pickapeppa Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Cholula Hot Sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

Mix Together.  Tastes even better the next day.

Seitan is mine

Friends!  I did it, I made seitan, and it was delicious!  You may remember the Thanksgiving wheat meat disaster, in which I produced an inedible, squeaky, bland loaf.  I was dispirited, but I persevered, thanks especially to my good friend and seitan cheerleader, Abby.  She had sent me a recipe a while back, and she is such an advocate for thoughtful, impromptu cooking, that I just gave it a go with what I had.  The resulting seitan, was very tasty, with mushroom stock flavor and an aromatic whiff of clove.  I was apprehensive about the texture, but it was perfect, soft but with a good heft and density.  Even Paddy liked it!

After making it, I sauteed it to crisp it up, and put it into homemade veggie pho.

You can see it poking out from under the cilantro and mint.  So good!  The following day, I sauteed some sliced seitan with leftover brussels sprouts and rice.  Delicious!  I used it the day after that on pizza.  I sliced the seitan into strips and sauteed them with fennel seeds and a pinch of smoked paprika to make 'pepperoni'.  Yum.

Have fun experimenting with different flavors and uses for the seitan.  I know I will!

Seitan

Adapted from Abby Glogower's Recipe

Makes 2 generous servings (or enough for 1 person for 3 meals)

Takes 1 hour

1 mushroom bullion cube (I used Harvest Sun--if you have any stock, use that)

2 cups of water

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

dash of ground cloves

dash of pepper

1/2 cup Vital Wheat Gluten

a pinch of paprika and a pinch of pepper

1/8 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup water

In a shallow, wide pot (large saute pan works), bring the bullion, water, onion, garlic, pepper and clove to a simmer.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine vital wheat gluten with the spices.  Add in the soy sauce and water, and combine with your hands until a dough forms.  It will be very wet, and a bit elastic, and will glom together.  Pull off eight evenly sized bits (you can divide dough in half, and each half into half, etc, to make sure the pieces are evenly sized), and flatten into patties.  Add to the simmering broth, spreading them out in the pan to give them room to grow, and simmer for 45 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed.  Turn the pieces over every 5–10 minutes to make sure both sides cook evenly.

Let me know what you use it for!