Seitan

After an inspiring visit to Penzey's Spices on Saturday afternoon, we decided to make a batch of seitan on Saturday evening for use in meals throughout the week. Seitan is a vegetarian meat-substitute made of wheat gluten. Generally available at well-stocked supermarkets and health food stores it's far less expensive to make at home and works well as a dense and textured substitute for chicken or beef. After mixing the ingredients and kneading the dough, we boiled the seitan in cheesecloth for about an hour, during which it expands and solidifies (what you see below). We'll use it in a Cabbage Stir Fry and Thai Curry, probably with a bit left over for next week's menu.