I am a seitan junkie. There, I said it. Actually I am pretty sure I've said it already. :p As mentioned previously, even though I have my own favourite seitan recipes for all different applications, I'll still make any seitan recipe I come across. So of course I had to make the Stuffed Baked Seitan Roast (page 306) which uses dough from the recipe for Basic Simmered Seitan (page 305) and topped with Mushroom Sauce (page 546).
This stuffed roast recipe is fairly straight forward — make the stuffing, make the dough, roll it up and bake. Sounds easy? It was.
The stuffing was super easy to pull together. The recipe for that is fairly basic so you'll want to adjust to your tastes. Everyone has a different idea of what an ideal stuffing is and it is usually based on what you grew up with. Well, I grew up with Stove Top stuffing (yes, really!) so I judge all others by my memory of that stuffing which was my favourite part of holiday dinners. So because I have had a fondness for Stove Top, I wanted a super salty, overly seasoned stuffing. :p I added in some vegetable bouillon powder, some extra sage and thyme and a few dollops of margarine.
The seitan dough is also a fairly basic dough with a neutral taste that goes well with a delicious gravy or sauce. The dough was easy to put together with the most challenging part being to flatten and stretch it out. Robin uses a food processor to mix her seitan dough but I prefer using my hands. I make seitan a lot so I know by feel how much to knead it and whether it needs a touch more liquid. Now there's nothing wrong with the seitan dough for this application (baked, not simmered), but because it is not simmered in broth it was a little too neutral tasting for me. I think it would definitely benefit from more soy sauce and more seasonings as well as a spoon or two of chickpea flour for texture (my personal taste as I rarely make seitan with just vital wheat gluten and always add in chickpea or soy flour). Another thing that would take this to the next level would be a basting or glazing liquid since the top gets a bit crispy in the oven and can be hard to slice through straight out of the oven. Next time I'll also place in a loaf pan since the log seemed to flatten a bit during baking on just a flat pan. As with all seitan, it is better the next day after resting in the refrigerator.
All in all, this was a great basic recipe with loads of room to customise. It is especially a good recipe for those new to seitan and wanting to try something a little fancier like a stuffed roast. From start to finish, including baking time, was about 1.5 hours with (IMHO) fairly minimal prep work so you could totally whip this up for a weeknight dinner like I did. I'll definitely make this again but with some of the modifications I mentioned.
— Ms. Veganorama
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Previous blog entries:
Basic Simmered Seitan: 1, 2
Mushroom Sauce: 1, 2, 3
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Good tips!
ReplyDeleteWhy chickpea flour? Does it impart a different flavor you like, or is it a texture thing?
Totally a texture thing. It removes that stiffness/rubberiness that you get when using straight vital wheat gluten. It also softens it a bit.
ReplyDeleteYou can use soy flour too or even finely ground corn flour (masa). In a pinch you can use regular wheat flour. Just about 1/4 cup to 2 cups of vital wheat gluten changes the texture.
Hi. We love your blog! We recently had our first go at making Seitan and used Robin's Basic recipe on page 305. After we mixed all our ingredients, we were left with the consistency of GRAVY! I'm not sure what we did wrong. We rechecked every ingredient and the quantities. We ended up adding quite a bit more vital wheat gluten until it finally felt like a dough consistency. It still ended up being very sticky and not really like bread dough. Should it be? Any advice?
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you were using the wrong flour. See this post for a primer:
ReplyDeletehttp://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com/2007/11/theres-big-difference-between-gluten.html
Also you weren't adding the simmering liquid to the flour were you?
That was it! It was the flour. Thanks so much for your help.
ReplyDeleteNo problem! Good luck with your next batch. :)
ReplyDelete