A couple of years ago I read a bunch of recipes for vegetarian/vegan holiday meal recipes, and made up my own (as usual) and this year I'll be doing it again, similar to what I did before, since it came out SO good. I do not normally attempt to make things taste like meat, I don't see the point in it, there are much better flavors, but we had meat eating company. My notes say on a 1-10 scale I gave it an 8.5. So here are my notes, for others to think on...
2 packages extra firm tofu
in food processor with:
2 sloppy tsp brewer’s yeast
2 tsp chicken bouillon powder
onion powder
small amount poultry seasoning
1 splash balsamic vinegar
1 splash soy sauce
bit of turmeric for color
bit of beet juice for color
about ½ cup coconut oil
mix till blended and no lumps
mix together
about 1 cup gluten
about ½ cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp chicken bullion powder
about ¼ of the dry in a bowl, mix in wet until it just barely holds together in marble sized lumps, put into another bowl, same with next ¼ ... trying to keep it from being kneaded, so it doesn't become a brick.
Take the marble sized bits, lay them in rows on cheesecloth, barely roll them together, leaving air pockets. I made a block, then cut it into 6 slices, and restacked them, like I do biscuit dough. Shape to the steamer, wrap the cloth, steam until solid. I used the big pressure canner, with the rectangle deep fryer basket as the steamer, did not seal the lid.
To serve I sliced, marinated in glazes and baked.
Glazes:
Orange, ginger, honey
Butter, poultry seasoning, sage, celery seed, chicken bouillon
Butter, fresh garlic, onion powder, salt
Butter, turmeric, red chile, black pepper, salt
Some explanations: I did NOT want it kneaded up, I was going for a lighter texture than seitan tends to be. This is why I was just barely mixing things. My biscuit dough slicing bit is to pat it into a lump, slice it, stack the slices on edge, press it into a lump, repeat. The idea in the biscuits is to end up with flaky layers, in this stuff it let it adhere without turning into a brick. I didn't slice it repeatedly, like I do for biscuits, only once, to adhere it. I left a lot of air pockets in it, as trying to not crush it. I used a good amount of oil in it, to help un-brick it also.
The tofu kept the whole thing from being just seitan, normally I cook beans, blender them up, and put them into my seitan, but the flavor has a beany whang, and I wanted the protein, the smoothness, and the low flavor of the tofu for this. I tried once using besan (chickpea flour) in seitan, but it's made from raw chickpeas, and really didn't taste very good, so I switched to cooked beans, usually with spices.
The vinegar and soy sauce, and onion powder, all add umami, a complex flavor that tastes "rich" or "deep." A lot of
vegetarian recipes I have tried don't have a deep flavor, and that makes them not taste meaty. If you are going for meat flavor, adding umami to it will help.
Mushrooms are a deep umami flavor, as is kombu seaweed and roasted onions. I'll probably be using mushrooms and roasted onions this year in my mix.
The deep fryer basket I used is about 2.5 inches deep, 8 inches by 5. It's mesh, and I lined it with cheese cloth, so I could steam it without having it in a solid pan, (I think I supported it in the canner, which is just the biggest pan I have, nothing important about it being a canner, on stainless steel bowls with a rack on top of them) as I think solid pan edges make for really crispy seitan, and I was going for turkey texture, not tough edges.
All of the glazes were good, and the whole thing went over REALLY well.
So I'll be running a batch again in a few days for Thanksgiving, and will take notes again. Let's see what happens!
I like to play with my food.... :D
Ever made anything like this? How did it come out? What did you use?
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