...now this is the first time I've ever made seitan from scratch...and it's not because I've not known about it for a long time...for some reason...many years ago...I attended a 7th Day Adventist demo of the making of seitan from just flour and water...and I thought it was interesting...but I could easily buy vital wheat gluten in powdered form and thought that it was a lot of trouble to do it this way...and it sort of is...but it's definitely easy enough to do...and fun...
...the only real difference between what I did and the demo I watched all those years ago...is that I washed my flour in bowls and saved the (basically) wheat starch...the woman who did the demo I saw...just washed hers under the tap and all the starch got washed down the drain...which seems a little bit wasteful to me...
...so...here goes...
...I got out a bag of plain flour...a big bowl and some water...
...there's not really a recipe...just add enough water to make a nice firm dough...
...and knead it for a bit until the gluten starts to form and you can see the bands or strands of gluten...
...then fill your big bowl with water...
...and plop the dough ball into it...
...and then just leave it...for about an hour...
...and then just start kneading the dough under the water...it will get very chalky white...and because I'm saving my starch...I drained it into another bowl...
...filled this one up with water...and started washing again...
...and just continue doing that several times...the water will get less and less starchy...
...when you're happy with the texture of your seitan...
...put it into a colander or stainer to drain the rest of the water out...
...the bowls of starch will start to separate...if you ever did those experiments with corn starch with your elementary aged child...you'll know exactly what that's like...it's basically pure starch...
...now...on to the seitan...I'm going to be making a Julia Child chick'un recipe...and the only thing I'm adding to the washed flour seitan is some chicken flavored bouillon powder...that's it...I just put it into the food processor and gave it a whiz to mix it all up...if you've ever worked with seitan...you'll know that it's difficult to mix things into it once you've added the water...it's a pretty tough dough...usually you add any flavorings either to the liquid or to the dry ingredients before mixing...so the food processor just makes it easier to get it incorporated...
...and then I just formed it into a 'roast' on some foil...
...and twisted up the ends and put it into the oven to bake...
...it puffs up quite a bit so make sure your wrapping is nice and tight...you can of course cook it in simmering water/broth as well...
...peeled back the foil...
...and I have a really perfect chick'un roast...
...now...back to all that starchy water...I had three big bowls of it...so I drained off most of the clear water on top...
...and combined the three bowls gloopy starch together...
...so then...I got out the dehydrator...and the combined bowl of starch water...
...and I poured the gloopy starch water onto the mat in my dehydrator...
...you can see the starch start to solidify as it dries...
...and then once it's fully dry it a papery solid caked powder...
...so that went into the trusty old Emmie food processor...
...and then I passed it through my finest sieve...
...and it feels just like corn starch...that crinkly sort of squeaky feeling of corn starch if you know what I mean...
...so then I did that all over again...I had a good solid pint of pure wheat starch...
...but I still had over a cup of starch water left...
...and it continues to separate as it sits...so I drained the clear water off the top again...because I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the rest...
...and I just put it into jars by the 1/3 cupful...and put it into the freezer...so more to come on that later...
...have you ever made Washed Flour Seitan?...
~Have a lovely day!
I made that once, years ago, and as you say, it's easy but.... it's easier to buy it ;-)
ReplyDeleteKeeping the starch is brilliant!
And your chick'un looks perfect!
Hi Éphée,
Delete...I haven't done it yet...but I'm going to use the starch to add to some regular AP flour and make 'cake' flour...
~Have a lovely day!
That's just cool. I had no idea that's how it was made! Saving the powdered starch is taking things to extremes!! Love, K
ReplyDeleteHey K,
Delete...haha...extreme...that's me...not......I haven't done it yet...but I'm going to use the starch to add to some regular AP flour and make 'cake' flour...
Love,
T
Seitan is amazing. Yum. Looks good, Teresa.
ReplyDeleteMatt has made it a handful of few times. Mostly now we use VWG in conjunction with other ingredients mixed in--we're big fans of the Instant Potato Flake seitan, also a mix of tofu and VWG.
We made some pretty great "bacon" from our starch leftovers.
Hi Beth,
Delete...I've seen that starch bacon video...and I definitely want to try it...I froze some of the liquid starch...and I haven't done it yet...but I'm going to use the powdered starch to add to some regular AP flour and make 'cake' flour...
~Have a lovely day!
When I first learned about seitan the washed flour method was all that I heard or read about. I did go through that process a few times. But truly, it seemed and still seems to me to be a great waste of time and energy. I don't see anything on this post that indicates that the washed flour method produces a superior seitan. At 79 with chronic fatigue syndrome a part of my life, I'll stick to using wheat gluten with different flavorings.
ReplyDeleteHi Nonna,
Delete...I agree the VWG is way easier...I haven't done it yet...but I'm going to use the powdered starch to add to some regular AP flour and make 'cake' flour...and I think I'm going to use the liquid that I froze to make some starch bacon...
~Have a lovely day!