Looking for a recipe for saitain (sp?)?

Question

It is a meat/protein substitute made from neading bread dough under water to remove the starches. Does any yeast bread dough work? Or is there a special recipe?

Answer 1

Seitan IS easy! If you want to make it yourself, here is what you do:
Mix flour and water until it forms a dough that you can roll around in your hands without it getting sticky. You don't even need to measure. Then, you "rinse" the dough, which is exactly what it sounds like. Fill a bowl with water and rinse off the dough, until the water stops turning white. What you Will be left with is "glue-y" wheat gluten, or, the makings for seitan! This is what I used to do, and it was easy, but I wanted easier! Walmart sells boxes of wheat gluten (it looks like brown-ish flour) for $1.25 a box. I pour that into a bowl and add a packet of McCormick's Buffalo Wing Seasoning (the original flavor has honey [if you're a vegan]). Add water, and: seitan! I prepare it as a I would fried chicken (coating it with batter and flour, then frying it in oil). You can also boil it or bake it. Try different things to see which tastes best to you. I didn't care for it boiled (it was too rubbery), but I love it fried. You can also season it by marinading it, or boiling it in broth or spiced water.

Answer 2

It's seitan, and it's easy! Don't bother with the stuff in the store; it's overpriced and doesn't taste that good.

I buy the Arrowhead Mills Vital Wheat Gluten and use the directions on the box to make the dough. I make the simmering mixes from recipes in "La Dolce Vegan" by Sarah Kramer, but you can just use vegetable broth. I use the whole box of wheat gluten, make a big lump of dough, and cut it into two pieces. Then I simmer it about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. After that, I put each lump of seitan (and it will blow up exponentially as you cook it, so use a big pot) into a container with some cooking liquid. I freeze one and put another in the refrigerator.

One thing I have learned is that seitan is best if you don't use it in a recipe the day you make it. And the reason I do the big lumps is so I have the choice of cutting it into chunks or chops.

www.vegweb.com also has alternative methods for making seitan.

Good luck. And Praise Seitan!

Answer 3

Look for vital wheat gluten in the bakery aisle of your grocery. It is much easier to make seitan from vital wheat gluten, since most of the starch has already been removed. You only need to knead and wash to remove the remaining traces of starch (and you can skip this step if you're not fussy). Knead into a dough and beat it around, then let it sit for an hour and slice it into bite size pieces. Then boil them in a flavored stock or broth or fry 'em or whatever.

Answer 4

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups water

Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Mix until well combined. Cover with cloth and let sit for 30min. Wet hands and knead dough together for about one min. Place back in bowl. Fill the bowl with cool water and continue kneading. The dough will crumble a little but that is fine. Carefully drain the water using your fingers as a strainer. Continue this process until the water remains clear (or mostly clear). Rinse one final time and drain out excess water.

Now that is plain seitan. Seitan is like tofu as it picks up whatever flavors its cooked in. you can flavor your seitan by simmering it in a broth of your choice.

Answer 5

Check out the Candle Cafe Cookbook. They have a home-made seitan recipe in there, and then tons of recipes to use the seitan in.

Answer 6

I have tried making seitan twice and it was a complete disaster! Now I just buy the seitan in a jar or can. It's delicious and cheap!

Answer 7

seitan isn't easy... I think you'd be better off just buying a commercially-made seitan, but if you really want to try it - here's an article on the process... Good Luck!
http://www.vrg.org/recipes/vjseitan.htm