The Bulgar Bugle

OK, so now we have some unflavored seitan.  What can be done with it?

Lots, but for now, I have been experimenting with pan frying it.  First I slice it about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thick.  Then I coat it with a mixture of herbs and spices with a bit of salt.  I don’t have a standard mixture yet, as this is still in the test kitchen stage.  I have rubbed the spices/herbs into the cutlets, and I have sprinkled them instead of rubbing.  The next step is to pan fry them in a little olive oil until there is a nice crisp “skin”. 

The last step is to eat them, and they are tasty. 

Besides making my own mixes, I have used commercial steak seasoning and poultry seasoning, although with the steak seasoning you have to read ingredients to make sure there is no MSG added. 

“Seitan” is a Japanese word for what we might call “gluten meat”.  Prairie Rose seitan is made from 100% whole wheat, from the certified organic farm of John and Kris Gosney here in Oklahoma.  First I mix the flour with water to the consistency of bread dough.  After letting it soak for a while in water, I “wash” it under running water so that the bran and the starch wash out, leaving behind only the wheat gluten.

I form it into loaves, and steam it for about 45 minutes.  Voila, unflavored seitan!

When I first read the directions for making seitan, I thought, “this sounds crazy, the dough will just dissolve.’  Well, as it turns out, not quite.  It takes less than 10 minutes to wash one batch of seitan (about the equivalent of a batch of dough that makes 2 loaves).  I put the dough in a colander, and then put a wire screen underneath that to catch the bran.  As I wash the seitan, I break it into every smaller lumps, and the bran and starch wash away.  After a few minutes, it seems like it will all fall apart, but then it comes back together and the seitan loaf takes shape.