Seitan
Tonight aliencrabcakes and I ventured into the uncharted territories of making seitan. (for those who don't know, it's a wheat-gluten based meat substitute that is super high in protein) All-in-all, it went very well, but with a few odd hiccups. We used a recipe that she_is_kaygee recommended and made a few of our own adjustments.
BATCH #1:
We decided to double the recipe so that we could each take half of what we made. Well, we did remember to double the recipe - except for the water! Oops. This made for a rather intense set of flavor and extra-thick sauce that was nearly a gravy because of all the nutritional yeast in it. We also added some celery seed, garlic, and used soy sauce in place of the liquid aminos. The texture was great, but the flavor was SALTY! However, with such a great texture, we decided it was a recipe worthy of keeping and playing with.
BATCH #2:
This was our full-blown experimental batch. We added garlic, Teriyaki sauce (after realizing the bottle of BBQ sauce had seen its day already), less than half the nutritional yeast, and veggie broth instead of water. Since the texture was fine the first round with only half the water, we used that same amount of veggie broth and simply adjusted the spice amounts based on taste-testing as we cooked. This batch looked great as it simmered, but when we finished and tried a bite, the texture was really odd - like soggy dough. Perhaps we should have cooked it a little longer since the broth was so much thinner? Not sure, but it's still edible. I may try to pan-fry it a bit when I use it. Still, it was strange for it to come out so incredibly different than the first.
In the end, we had a good time and decided the recipe is worth keeping, but it will need some tweaking until we get it just right. The best part is that it is WAY cheaper to make our own seitan than to purchase it at the store. If I did my calculations correctly, one 22-oz bag of wheat gluten flour should make over 20 servings of seitan! That puts the price at under half the amount I'd pay for store-bought seitan. Hooray for cooking at home.
BATCH #1:
We decided to double the recipe so that we could each take half of what we made. Well, we did remember to double the recipe - except for the water! Oops. This made for a rather intense set of flavor and extra-thick sauce that was nearly a gravy because of all the nutritional yeast in it. We also added some celery seed, garlic, and used soy sauce in place of the liquid aminos. The texture was great, but the flavor was SALTY! However, with such a great texture, we decided it was a recipe worthy of keeping and playing with.
BATCH #2:
This was our full-blown experimental batch. We added garlic, Teriyaki sauce (after realizing the bottle of BBQ sauce had seen its day already), less than half the nutritional yeast, and veggie broth instead of water. Since the texture was fine the first round with only half the water, we used that same amount of veggie broth and simply adjusted the spice amounts based on taste-testing as we cooked. This batch looked great as it simmered, but when we finished and tried a bite, the texture was really odd - like soggy dough. Perhaps we should have cooked it a little longer since the broth was so much thinner? Not sure, but it's still edible. I may try to pan-fry it a bit when I use it. Still, it was strange for it to come out so incredibly different than the first.
In the end, we had a good time and decided the recipe is worth keeping, but it will need some tweaking until we get it just right. The best part is that it is WAY cheaper to make our own seitan than to purchase it at the store. If I did my calculations correctly, one 22-oz bag of wheat gluten flour should make over 20 servings of seitan! That puts the price at under half the amount I'd pay for store-bought seitan. Hooray for cooking at home.