Seitan... More like Satan!!

I just adore Seitan, and since it can be little pricey in the store, I decided to make some at home. Now, this was not my first attempt at Seitan - I actaully made it for Christmas last year, but it was a bit of a disaster. Of course my hunny ate it up, showering me with compliments of how good it tasted, but I knew he was full of sh**. The flavor was alright, but it had this awful chewy texture. So, I thought I would try it again this holiday, but this time, I decided to test the recipe out first...

I used a combination of recipes that I found on VegWeb and created my own recipe. I also tried out a technique I learned from Chef Tanya of Native Foods (who happens to make the best seitan in the world!) - after mixing the vital wheat gluten with water, she rinses the ball of dough under running water to remove the starch. I divided my dough in two and tried this "rinsing" technique on half - i rinsed for about 15 minutes until the dough started to barely hold together and started to look like oatmeal... see below (on the left)...

Next, I put both blobs in a pan with the broth I made - soy sauce, veggie stock, garlic, onion, fresh herbs - and baked in oven until most of the liquid had absorbed (about 45-60 mins). I sliced the loaves in the pan and at this point, couldn't quite tell the difference...

... that is, until I actually ate them... the dough I DID NOT rinse tasted much better than the other, texture and flavor-wise. I sauteed the 'non-rinsed' seitan in a pan with some taco seasoning...

... and made some delicious tacos - with sauteed veggies, lettuce, tofutti sour cream and a whole lotta hot sauce!

As much as I want to, I am not giving up on seitan - "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," right? Well, that I will do! One of these days I will figure it out. Until then, I guess White Wave will curb my seitan cravings.