Spawn of Seitan

On Seitan.

Again.

Not wishing to have it languish in the fridge any longer, it was decided the time to use us the Seitan. The Vegan was nominated guinea pig. Not really knowing what to expect from the glutinous mass, I went for a nice universal marinade - shish taouk, a Lebanese dressing of cayenne pepper, garlic, black pepper, cumin, lemon and olive oil.

1/3 tsp Ground Cayenne Pepper
1/3 tsp Ground Cumin
1/3 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 1/2 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped or pressed
Juice of 1 lemon
A good glug of Olive Oil

To make the marinade, simply mix all of the ingredients together (I used a Jamie Oliver "Flavourshaker" - purchased in a sale out of curiosity. It pleasantly surprised me.) and leave to infuse for a few minutes. The dressing can be used on pretty much anything, although it goes best with lamb and chicken.

The raw seitan was boiled for roughly an hour in water - it is recommended to boil the seitan in a tasty broth, but as I was unsure as to the results of this little experiment, I didn't want to commit further resources to a possible failure. I now definitely recommend a broth. The texture of the seitan was quite good, if a little bread-y, but it remained too moist after boiling. I would like to try again, draining the seitan with a cheese cloth before further cooking; the excess moisture did detract from the flavour and texture somewhat.

After boiling, the seitan was diced into small cubes, and marinated in the shish taouk for about 20 minutes. The texture of the seitan means it very readily absorbs dressings of this type. The cubes were they fried for about 20 minutes over a medium heat with a little bit of olive oil. The seitan was then served along side a leafy salad with gapes, walnuts and a wine wine vinegar and olive oil vinaigrette.

Personally, I was a little disappointed in the dish. I don't think the problem was with the seitan itself; I just need a little more practice cooking it. The Vegan was generally quite positive about the whole affair, and would surprisingly like to try seitan again. I think she is just being polite.