...2.8...Tuesdays with Julia...

...I used my first ever Washed Flour Seitan to make a vegan Chick'un roast...

...and used that to make a delicious Vegan Poulet Rôti à la Normande...

...and all of the particulars are over at The Vegan Version...and the Washed Flour technique here...

~Have a lovely day!

Washed Flour Seitan and what to do with all that leftover starch water

...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!

...2.7...Over the Weekend...

...well...we thought we had broken our spell of winter weather...after three weekends of waking up to snow...this time it wasn't snow...but freezing rain...coating all the trees and power lines...so luckily...we still have power...

...and a huge flock of birds came to visit...we could hear them chirping and squawking and fluttering...it's so neat to see them...and a harbinger of spring too...

...we had a nice cozy pancake breakfast...the Man's mix...and I added an extra 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder to help with the rising...we'll add that to the recipe for next time...

...goceries were picked up...

...a pretty normal shop...we replenished our flour and cornmeal supply...and got an extra carton of both silk and almond milk as the supply of those has been kind of spotty...and we got a nice bunch of collards...

...so...before we started on the BIG project for the weekend...I got those greens washed...

...and into the InstaPot with some of our favorite Greens Seasoning...

...those turned out perfectly...and I also made a pot of pinto beans...but apparently didn't take a pic...

...and now on to the big project for the day...we moved absolutely everything out of the den...

...and just kind of crammed and stacked it all in the foyer...hopefully no one will come to the front door...haha...they usually don't...

...and got everything vacuumed really well...including the baseboards...

...and then I got a bucket of soapy water and washed all of the baseboards...vents...and any spots on the wall that I could...it really looks a lot better now...

...and then...finally...we were ready to begin...I got out the carpet cleaner that Mom had brought with her at Christmas...because we've lived here almost 8 years now...and we've never cleaned this carpet...which was new right after we moved in...I washed the little hearth rug first...and hung it outside to dry...

...and then went over the whole room...we'll call this horizontally...

...and made a second pass...let's say...vertically...and we set up a couple of fans to help it dry...

...and then Sunday afternoon with everything nice and dry...we gave it a good vacuum...

...and put everything back in place...

...so...let the spring cleaning begin...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...2.5...Dinner and a Movie...

...we debated getting takeout...but in the end I think we were just lazy...haha...and went with the totally uninspired baked tofu...baked potato...steamed broccoli and salad...haha...

...but the movie...finally I picked a winner...of course I was planning to watch Groundhog Day...haha...one of my very favorite movies of all time...generally we watch it every year...usually the first week of February...obvi...and the Man knows this and acquiesces...haha...

...but you know how you get suggestions in your queue based on what you choose...and probably because of the Bill Murray connection in both movies...Get Low showed up in the queue...its' from 2009 and I don't remember it at all...

...it was well paced...and just a really good movie...with an interesting story...I enjoyed it...

...what have you been watching lately?...

~Have a lovely weekend!