Get Excited...

You're about to experience...WHEAT MEAT!

Also known as seitan (Say-tan not satan as I seem to continue to pronounce it.) is the protein, or the gluten, derived from wheat. As disgusting as the idea of eating a clump of gluten may be, I have to say, this was the most delicious day we've had so far. 

The day started with Chef Jay demoing how to make seitan. First he mixed whole wheat flour and bread flour with water and kneaded it for 15-20 minutes. Using a bread flour rather than a pastry flour or regular all purpose flour will provide a higher yield at the end of the process because of the high protein content in bread flour. Then, this gigantic heap of dough had to rest in cold water for 30 minutes. On a side note, I want to be playing with dough at all times. It is squishy and makes me feel nice inside. 

After it came out of hibernation, the rinsing process began. This was essentially to get rid of everything in the dough other than the protein, or the gluten.
So, we were washing off the starch and the bran, hull and germ that had been incorporated from the whole wheat flour. 

It started off looking like this:

Then this:

Then finally after everything was rinsed and only the protein was left, it was shaped into a ball like mass and paraded around by Jay:

 That last part is a lie. Jay didn't parade the gluten ball around. He just wanted to caress it momentarily. But so did we all. 

I told Jay if he ever makes a dating profile to tell me because this will obviously be his profile picture.

After it's made into a ball like this, it is put into a pot and cooked in a flavored liquid. In this case it was water, shoyu and a few seasonings I think.

When it comes out, it can be made into a variety of different things.

In this case, the seitan was sliced thinly and used on a sandwich:

 This was my lonely soy version. The other sandwiches had real mayonnaise which is not vegan. 

It was pretty delicious.

Burgers: 

Some of these were made with egg and some were vegan. I've had my fair share of meatless burgers and this was..."far superior", as Chef Jay would say. 

 

Seriously, get in my mouth. 

 Seitan kebabs with mushroom, onion and tomato. 

These were another kind of kebab. I don't know what was on them, but they tasted like vomit. 

K. 

Moving on.

Probably my favorite dish of the day, Seitan Bordelaise. 

This actually tasted like meat. I mean, I haven't eaten meat for a long time, so maybe it didn't. But it definitely felt like I was eating meat.

Seitan Stew

I wasn't super into the stew.

I chose not to give it my full attention, so don't really remember anything about it other than that it tasted like liquid butternut squash.