Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Steamed red seitan

March 29-30, 2013


Michael and I revelled in an Easter weekend at home, just us and the cat together after three fairly fractious weeks. It was a good time to embark on some serious cooking projects, and for the first we revisited making seitan. If only we'd revisited our past posts before beginning, this seitan might've worked out better.

Y'see, there seem to be some differences between Aussie gluten flour and the products used in American recipes, and differences among the various American products too. As a result, my gluten flour in Terry Hope Romero's steamed red seitan recipe was way too sloppy. I might have predicted this and averted issues if I had reread our previous troubled attempt at Terry Hope Romero's steamed white seitan and the helpful comments that followed. My bad. (Hopefully the quantities and comments in the recipe below will help avert future disaster, though I've lost all faith in my future self finding them.)

Instead, Michael added an extra 3/8 cup of gluten flour to our dough and it came out a bit jelly-ish, but not horribly so. A chop and a brown in the pan with an onion and this seitan was in fine form for our intended purpose.



Steamed red seitan
(adapted very slightly from Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero)

1 1/2 cups beef-style vegetable stock, cooled (next time I'll start with 1 cup)
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons tamari
4 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 7/8 cups gluten flour (yes, ridiculous - next time I'll start with 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup chickpea flour/besan
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

In a small bowl whisk together the stock, garlic, tamari, tomato paste and olive oil.

In a large bowl stir together the remaining ingredients. Pour in the whisked wet ingredients and stir to form a dough. I think you want a stiff dough, with only a little sticky-ness; add a little water or gluten flour as needed. Knead the dough for a few minutes, let it rest for 10 minutes, then knead again for another minute.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Knead each one a little more and shape them into rectangles. Wrap each one separately but securely in foil, allowing a little room for expansion. Steam the dough parcels for 30 minutes, allow them to cool down to room temperature and then refrigerate them overnight to firm up before using.

4 comments:

  1. I love finding information back in old blog posts but I sometimes don't find it til it is too late - at least I am consistent in not reading my posts any more thoroughly than other recipes

    Am intrigued to hear how you used this seitan

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    1. Hi Johanna! I'm a little relieved to know I'm not the only one who falls victim to this kind of inattention. ;-)

      I hope you enjoy the seitan recipe that I post tomorrow! It was a lot of fun to make and eat.

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  2. What a shame! The seitan doesn't look like it turned out too bad in the first photo. Was it little bit stringy on the base? I try not to add water or gluten flour to the mix after forming the dough as I've found that the dough doesn't turn out as smooth. I generally add 1/4 cup water less than US recipes which usually works out well.

    I'm looking forward to reading about how you used the seitan too!

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    1. Mel - you were kind enough to offer the same advice on my KFC seitan post, I would certainly have followed it if I had thought to read it before starting this time!

      I hope you'll get a kick out the seitan recipe, it was a hoot to make. :-)

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