Adventures in the Land of Seitan
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
I made vegan lunch meat today and…meh. I pretty much followed the recipe, except I used fresh onion and garlic instead of powder. It turned out sort of bread-esque. So I decided to try it in a stir-fry: cubes of seitan sauteed in a little oil, add chopped veggies (onion, pepper, broccoli, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, ginger) and some hoisin sauce, broth, soy sauce and rice vinegar. We enjoyed it, it was very tasty, but there’s that bread-y, hushpuppy quality there. Damn. Maybe if I had browned the seitan more? Baked or steamed it longer in the first place? I dunno. Dad feels it’s reminiscent of stuffing–the seasoning is similar to poultry seasoning, after all. I might try other seasonings; the seitan sausages were very sausage-like, even if they were a little bread-like. ANYWAY, I look forward to a S-L-T (Seitan-lettuce-tomato) tomorrow for lunch to check out how it tastes as a sandwich.
**UPDATE!!**
10:00 p.m. I was a little snacky (hee, hee–thanks for the term, Sebastian!) and snagged a couple pieces of cold seitan from the leftover stir fry and now I have to revise my original wheat meat assessment! After soaking up the sauce, the seitan took on a more interesting texture and it was very tasty! Hmmm. I’ll let ya know what a sandwich is like, but now I would recommend the seitan lunch meat more enthusiastically as a meat alternative in a casserole or in a sauce…and tomorrow I can let you know how it is as plain ol’ lunch meat!
FINAL VERDICT:
Noon, Wednesday: The chilled seitan was still slightly breadly (reminiscent of dutch loaf), but dad and I enjoyed our lunch sammiches. I will make this again, BUT I will change the seasoning–lose the turmeric and sage, up the garlic, play with the spices (maybe some rosemary? or thyme? bay? touch of ground cloves?) add nutritional yeast and maybe some liquid smoke. As omnivores, we realize seitan can’t duplicate our meatly ingredients, but we certainly liked the flavor as well as having a healthy, compassionate alternative to processed meats. It’s been a while since I tasted the Yves-type lunch meat, but as I remember the experience, the texture of homemade seitan is firmer, and, to me, more palatable. So Jeff and Anna Marie, I think you’ll enjoy this–if nothing else, you can cube it and freeze it to use in recipes! What the hell- -it’s less processed than store-bought, probably less expensive, and much more versatile! Final verdict: try it.
