Good cheap fun (and seitan recipe)
I was making wheat meat/seitan this morning, and I discovered good cheap kiddy fun.
After making the seitan but before cooking it, I discovered that I'm just it would be fun for kids to play with the seitan. It has similar properties to silly putty. Ok, not as colorful, but its cheap.
How do you make seitan?
You take unbleached flour (lets just say a kilo, for simplicity's sake) and mix it with enough water to make it into a dough. Knead it very well. As in very very very well. (100 times kneaded is the "real amount" its supposed to be done, but i never count.)
Then put it in a big bowl and cover it with water. Run the water down the side of the bowl, and not directly onto the dough. Let the dough sit covered in the water for 12 hours.
Then knead the dough underwater. The water should get very white and cloudy. Pour off that water. Fill. Repeat the kneading, pouring, and refilling until the water is absolutely clear.
And there you have your silly putty. :-P
(If you actually want to cook the seitan, you can boil that "putty" in a very salty soy sauce broth with other seasoning, or you can stir fry it in tiny chunks and then add a terriyaki type sauce after its finished frying, so it absorbs the flavor. Seitan is wheat gluten, a protein, but not good for people with gluten sensitivities.)
Ask a rav about the issues of "bizui ochlin"- embarassing the food and using it for non food related purposes. I'm not sure what a rav would say, but i know people do make paper mache with flour and water as well, so i assume it would be fine, but still, ask your rav...
Now if you want non food related good cheap silly putty, you can make goop. We made this in a science class- it calls for glue, borax and water. But borax isnt available here, so I havent done that since elementary school. Heres a link for more info.
http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/goop/page.html
Have fun!
After making the seitan but before cooking it, I discovered that I'm just it would be fun for kids to play with the seitan. It has similar properties to silly putty. Ok, not as colorful, but its cheap.
How do you make seitan?
You take unbleached flour (lets just say a kilo, for simplicity's sake) and mix it with enough water to make it into a dough. Knead it very well. As in very very very well. (100 times kneaded is the "real amount" its supposed to be done, but i never count.)
Then put it in a big bowl and cover it with water. Run the water down the side of the bowl, and not directly onto the dough. Let the dough sit covered in the water for 12 hours.
Then knead the dough underwater. The water should get very white and cloudy. Pour off that water. Fill. Repeat the kneading, pouring, and refilling until the water is absolutely clear.
And there you have your silly putty. :-P
(If you actually want to cook the seitan, you can boil that "putty" in a very salty soy sauce broth with other seasoning, or you can stir fry it in tiny chunks and then add a terriyaki type sauce after its finished frying, so it absorbs the flavor. Seitan is wheat gluten, a protein, but not good for people with gluten sensitivities.)
Ask a rav about the issues of "bizui ochlin"- embarassing the food and using it for non food related purposes. I'm not sure what a rav would say, but i know people do make paper mache with flour and water as well, so i assume it would be fine, but still, ask your rav...
Now if you want non food related good cheap silly putty, you can make goop. We made this in a science class- it calls for glue, borax and water. But borax isnt available here, so I havent done that since elementary school. Heres a link for more info.
http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/goop/page.html
Have fun!