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Seitan - General Guidance

Well friends, I girded my loins and tried making my own seitan yesterday. I had trawled the Net for info and some of it was contradictory, others were confusing, but I did find out how to make it with gluten powder and when to freeze it--after the initial cooking.
I always follow the easiest recipe thru the way it says the first time and go from there. NOW I understand why they recommend you add seasonings, herbs, mushroom powder etc. to the gluten mix...it tastes of absolutely nothing, as is. I mean, imagine eating an eraser. OK as a chewing exercise...flavour, not so much! LOL I also understand why they suggest you work it very little (mine was almost as dense as me!) and if it weren't 100º out I might have tried baking instead of boiling it.
BUT...and it's a big but...after I had laughed at the way it swells up when you boil it and looks like something out of a biology lab, and tasted it and found it...well, completely tasteless...I sliced it up and marinaded it in an African barbecue sauce. And DH the carnivore tasted it and did NOT go "Gross!" or laugh at me about it. We agreed the recipe and method need "tweaking" and that I need to print out the instructions and follow them closely, but that we are definitely onto something, at less than a dollar a pound for pure food, no waste. No bones, no fat, no cholesterol...and cheap! He ate some and said maybe we should put it in a curry etc.
10 years ago or even 5 he would have laughed at me and made "cute" remarks all the time I was trying to eat it. Now he agrees we need to eat less meat and things like this will help that. From his point of view it is purely economic (he is facing disability retirement) but hey, any  start is a good one. Now if I could just get him to eat things with leaves and roots... ::)

I bought the vital wheat gluten and am going to make some seitan for the first time. The box says to boil it in veggie broth. I see some people on here talk about frying it.
Which is better, to fry it or boil it?
Please let me know

Thanks
Shannon
:snail:

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I have never tried frying seitan before. Or at least I have cooked it first and then fried it. It is good baked if you use a 1:1 ratio of liquid to dry ingredients. I do simmer a batch regularly in some water and soy sauce (for one hour), which I then whiz in the food processor to make ground crumbles for taco meat. Supposedly if you let the water get above a simmer it will make the seitan super rubbery. Like tofu, I think different cooking methods create different meat-like textures and you should try them all. It really depends more on the recipe. Also, I think the simmered version is more digestible.

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SV, I think it has to be either boiled or baked before frying, so that all the dough gets cooked first. :) it is tasty fried !

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