Home-made Seitan
water in pot
1 cup soy sauce
2 celery stalks, cut in thick chunks
2 carrots, cut in thick chunks
1 large onion, cut in thick chunks
9 cups whole wheat flour
1-2 cups water
Fill a large pot with water, add soy sauce and vegetables. Bring to boil and lower heat to simmer.
In the mean time, place flour in large bowl. Add just enough water (about 1-2 cups) to form a moist, elastic dough. Knead for ten minutes.
Fill bowl with warm water to cover dough, and let dough rest for 10-15 minutes. Without removing water, begin kneading dough under the water. Water will turn milky white, and as it does so, carefully drain out water and refill. Repeat until water stays almost completely clear. For a while it will seem that the dough is just going to completely fall apart in a disgusting, gooey mess, but keep at it. All of a sudden the dough will begin to toughen and soon you'll be left with a nice, elastic ball of raw gluten. The more you knead it, the tougher it will get, so adjust to your liking.
Once you have your small, elastic ball, drain all water away and rip dough into small chunks and drop into simmering water. Simmer for one hour, occasionally stirring, as seitan pieces tend to float.
After simmering, you can store the seitan in the broth and it will keep in the fridge for quite a while. You get a ton of seitan out of this, and its pretty fun to make as well! Happy cooking!
SO HOW'D IT GO?
I'm going to have to try this, I heard so much about Seitan, I live in Sweden and when you ask around in the stores here for wheat gluten they just look at you and go huh? You can buy Seitan though in some places but not where I live.
Can you make this with just white flour or do you have to use wheat?
I don't understand where the "protein" comes from. None of those ingredients have any real protein to speak of...and because science has suggest that there is no such thing as "spontaneous generation" I'm tad skeptical.... 8)...okay not sure why I decide that was the "skeptical face".....
I think I am a feeling leery because my first week of veganism this lady gave me a tour around a local health food store and "waned" me about Seitan...which I'm always nervous to say...It was like the week of the first of the pet food recalls, or right after they figured out it was contaminated wheat or whatever....The lady was like: "Its a byproduct...when ever you have a by product you know its not the best fr you. Plus, most people cant digest it anyways...."
Humm......shall investigate further... 8).....
Tried it just now, went according to instructions until the kneading in water part...even tried jkl's altering cold and hot water procedure...but the portion that i soaked in water was tool soggy... so i took some dry dough and kneaded with the wet gooey dough and keep adding dry dough, kneading without water until i have elastic dough balls.... ;)
this recipe yields way too than my cooking pot and bowls could handle...i would advice to cut down amount of flour if you don't wan to cook too much..
I have never made this myself but I always wanted to try. One thing that i will definitely try is to start with bread flour. Bread flour has a higher protein (and hence also gluten) content, so that should make the seitan yield higher and possibly the process easier. We'll see.
When I have made it from scratch I used half all purpose white and half whole wheat. Also, for the kneading with the water, I keep it in a colander in a bowl and use water that comes from the faucet. I was also taught that it is important to alternate between hot water and then cold water then hot, etc. Half the time you are really holding it in your hands as you work out the starch. When you are finished and the water is mostly clear, the gluten will have a wrinkled, brainy look to it.
But it is so much easier to start with a box of vital wheat gluten.
This is my first time making it. Oh man, I completely failed. I don't know what went wrong. It came apart in the water, but the instructions said something like that would seem to happen so I thought it was okay and kept at it. I was at it for almost an hour and it seemed to kind of stick together. There was some sort of elastic-type thing where when you pull it apart, it slightly clings together. Although the whole thing never stayed together. It was pretty hard to knead. I tried squeezing it together without the water.
I'm still going to put mine in the pot and see how it comes out. Maybe I can elasticy dumplings for now.
I will attempt this again some time. If anyone has any tips or possible reasons why mine never stayed together, that'd be great.
Until next time!
I have only attempted this 3 times & I have had the same problem but i seem to get better at it with each attempt. I have not been able to make a good patty (yet) but what i do get makes a good burrito or chili filler. keep trying!
This is my first time making it. Oh man, I completely failed. I don't know what went wrong. It came apart in the water, but the instructions said something like that would seem to happen so I thought it was okay and kept at it. I was at it for almost an hour and it seemed to kind of stick together. There was some sort of elastic-type thing where when you pull it apart, it slightly clings together. Although the whole thing never stayed together. It was pretty hard to knead. I tried squeezing it together without the water.
I'm still going to put mine in the pot and see how it comes out. Maybe I can elasticy dumplings for now.
I will attempt this again some time. If anyone has any tips or possible reasons why mine never stayed together, that'd be great.
Until next time!
Luda Blue, according to vrg.org, "As gluten is a low sodium and extremely lowfat protein (containing around 10 mg. sodium, 0 g. fat, and 7.5 g. protein per ounce in its raw state), additional processing is what may add unhealthy attributes. Most of the commercially prepared seitan contains a considerable amount of sodium (up to 100 mg. per ounce). If you choose to deep-fry the gluten, the fat content will jump from virtually zero to the number of grams in whatever oil is absorbed (at 4.5 grams per teaspoon)."
For those asking /saying to just use to vital wheat gluten:
I have yet to find any wheat gluten nor seitan that are organic, so by making this here recipe, you can use organic ww flour, and have yourself organic seitan! :)
More work, yes, but is our health not woth it?
Pages