Yet another wheat meat recipe

I wanted to try this out after tasting some vegetarian sausages over the weekend. I was interested in softening the bite and achieve a more meat-like flavor. I used mushrooms, tamari and nutritional yeast for umami, and lecithin for emulsion and flavor. The other weird ingredient,  carrageenan, may have been unnecessary here.

In a beaker or any microwave safe container :

250ml water

One dried shiitake mushroom 

2 tbsp tamari

2 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp soy lecithin

1 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp safflower oil

Warm in microwave and let sit 10 minutes, then blend until mushrooms disappear 

In a bowl:

250g vital wheat gluten flour

25g nutritional yeast

30g masa harina 

.5 tsp carrageenan 

Shape the pliable dough as desired.

Put in stovetop smoker with maple wood chips for 40 minutes. 

Wheat meat - SMOKED!

Here's another version of wheat meat, also known as seitan. This one is cooked in the smoker, which adds another dimension to it. It can be cooked again, for example, by pan-frying it in small tidbits in olive oil and a couple of rosemary twigs, until browned and crispy, and delicious.

The dry ingredients:
- 2 cups (270g) of vital wheat gluten flour
- 6 tablespoons (25g) of nutritional yeast

The wet ingredients:
- 250ml of warm water
- 1.5 teaspoons of Better Than Bouillon paste
- 2 tablespoons (32g) of agave syrup

The general idea is to have about 280ml of a savory and sweet stock.

Plus: some olive oil.

Use a Kitchenaid stand-up mixer to mix the dry ingredients.

Combine the wet ingredients in a glass container and stir and heat in the microwave oven until the bouillon paste is dissolved. Add broth to dry ingredients and mixed until a dough is formed. Spray water in small increments if there are dry bits. Knead for about 5 minutes.

Prepare the oven top smoker with a mix of apple and hickory wood chips, about 2 tablespoons total, and add water to the drip tray to make sure there will be steam.

The dough will be sticky and firm. Pour some olive oil in a bowl and grease the dough, so you can handle it. Place it on a wood surface like a cutting board. Tear it by hand by pulling and twisting, in small pieces, walnut size, and toss the pieces back into the oiled bowl to keep them from sticking to each other, in small batches. Lay them on the grid of the smoker and smoke/steam them for about 30 or 40 minutes, until it gets to 212 degrees F for a little while.

The tidbits before smoking.

After smoking and cooling down. 

Wheat meat

Wheat meat, also known as "seitan".

For the broth:
6 cups water
10 dried shiitake mushrooms
a piece of kombu

Wet mix:
4 cloves garlic
2 tbsp chopped onion
1.5 tsp salt
500 ml of the above broth
25g olive oil

Dry mix:
3 cups (425g) wheat gluten flour
.75 cups (90g) chickpea flour

Boiling broth:
4 cups of the broth above
6 cups water
2 tbsp tamari
2 tbsp molasses

Pound garlic, onion and salt in a mortar. Mix with the rest of the wet mix ingredients.

Amalgamate dry mix well in mixer, then add the dry mix while the mixer is going. Change to dough hook and knead for 5 minutes. Let rest half an hour, then knead for another five minutes.

While the dough is resting, make the boiling broth by putting the remaining 4 cups of the broth in a large saucepan with 6 more cups of water,  the tamari and the molasses, which you may want to dissolve in a small container with some water before throwing into the saucepan.

After the second kneading, stretch out the dough and flatten it - it's very elastic and will resist working. Cut it into long strips about 0.75 inches wide, and then cut each strip into small pieces about 0.75 inches across. Or even smaller, if practical. They will triple or quadruple in size. Add them to the broiling both, as you cut them.

Let them boil for at least 30 minutes.

Drain  and let cool. Can be cooked as if it were meat. For example, roast it with garlic and rosemary in olive oil.

Peanut butter hard biscuits

Dry side:

1 cup - 150g - all purpose flour
2 tbsp - 18g - corn starch
1/2 tsp - 1.5g - baking powder
1/2 tsp - 2g - salt

Wet side:

110g peanut butter
55g honey
20g - 1/3 whole - beaten egg
40g water

Prepare the dry and wet mixes, then make a malleable dough, roll it out between sheets of parchment paper to a 1 cm (3/8" inch) flat disc, cut into small pieces and bake for 18-20 minutes at 300 F.

Macine

Dry ingredients:
2 cups flour
5 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tsp baking powder

Wet stuff:
1 stick butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp cream
1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter in the sugar until uniform, then add rest of the wet ingredients and beat some more until creamy.

Add the dry and wet components and knead until a soft dough is formed.

Cover in plastic and put in the fridge for 1/2 hour.

Turn on the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spread the dough on a flat surface to a thickness of about 3/8 inch. Divide it into any shape you like. Typically these are made into round cookies with a hole in the middle, but anything works. Roll up any edges and divide until there is no more dough left.

Arrange the pieces on the parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Enjoy dipping them in coffee!

Spanakopita - Greek Spinach Pie

8-10 sheets of phyllo pastry dough
1 lb spinach, or baby spinach, washed
8 oz feta cheese
8 green onions
1/4 cup dill (*)
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves (*) (optional)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

(*) approximate amount

Time to make: 1 hr work plus 45 minutes for baking plus 15 minutes cool down.

I use a 9x13 rectangular pyrex pie dish for baking, and it results in a pie about 1 inch thick. If using a smaller pie dish, the pie will be thicker and the baking time should be increased proportionally.

Blanch the spinach in a large pot with a splash of water, covered, over low heat. Should take 5 minutes.Drain them and chop them coarsely. You can save the green broth to use in other dishes.


Chop the green onions and the herbs finely. Put them in a mixing bowl.

Crumble the feta cheese and add it to the bowl. One can use some mozzarella, or some ricotta, or both, to substitute some of the feta. Increase the salt if doing so, as feta is generally saltier than other fresh cheeses.

Add the eggs and the spinach to the bowl, and mix it all well together.

This is a good time to turn on the oven and set to 350 degrees F.

Put the butter in a ramekin and microwave it until melted. Add the olive oil to the same ramekin and mix it well with a pastry brush.

Lightly grease the bottom of the pie dish with butter. Open the phyllo dough box and line the bottom of the pie with one sheet. Brush the sheet, then cover it with another sheet. Lay the sheets so their edges are hanging over the sides of the dish.Repeat until you have 4 or 5 well greased sheets lining the pie dish.

Pour the spinach mix and spread it out evenly. Grate some Parmesan cheese on top. Add salt and pepper if you haven't done so already.

Lay more dough sheets, brushing each one with the butter/oil mixture, until you have a couple of layers on top. Fold in the edges of the bottom sheets, then add another couple layers on top, and try to tuck it all in in a somewhat orderly fashion.

Place it in the middle rack in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, until the top and the edges turn golden.

Pie crust

This makes enough crust to line a 9 inch pie dish with some dough to spare, for decorations, extra rim, and so on.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 stick butter, cold, cut into small chunks
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp ice water

The flour can be general purpose white wheat flour, whole wheat, 50/50 white and whole wheat. I've used various combinations and it doesn't seem to matter.

Mix the flour and the salt, then add the butter chunks.

The goal is to incorporate the butter and the flour without melting the butter. The result should be a gritty-looking mix that looks like crumbles.

This can be done by hand, by rubbing the flour and the butter together. Or with two knifes, by scissoring the butter chunks until they are very small. Both of these methods take a long time.

My favorite method is to use an electric mixer (I use a Kitchenaid) with the whisk attachment. Start it slow and slowly increase speed one step at a time until you see little pieces fly out, which means it's going too fast. Reduce speed by one notch and let it go for a few minutes.

Drizzle the ice water over the flour and press it together to make a dough. Place the dough ball over a lightly flour surface, flatten it by hand, then stretch it with a rolling pin. If it sticks too much or seems to fall apart, place it between two sheets of parchment paper and stretch it out that way.

Lay the crust on the pie dish. It's best to put it in the freezer for a while before using it, but it can also be used right away.