Seitan made from scratch (without gluten flour)

I live in a land of nowhere, so I don't have an access to wheat gluten flour. They just don't sell it in my country yet! But that doesn't mean I couldn't make seitan at home. It just takes some time and a lot of washing. You actually have to wash the starch out of the dough ball so you are left with the gluten only. But it is really cheap and tasty and protein rich and totally worth the trouble once in a while! Let's get washing!

Basic seitan recipe:

• 3 cups of wheat flour
• 1 cup of water

Seitan in a cooking sheet:

Washed seitan (looks like a brain, huh?)

Boiled seitan chunks:

Mix the flour with water, work the dough with your hands, forming it into a ball. Wrap the ball into the cooking sheet and leave it to rest for 30 minutes. Unwrap the dough ball and put it in a big bowl. Pour on some cold water, so the dough ball will be completely covered. Start washing the dough ball in cold water. Wash it like you wash your socks in a sink :D Rub it together and work it hard :) You can see the water getting more white, that is the starch you want to get rid of. Wash the ball for a couple of minutes and then drain the water and pour in new water. Wash it again for a couple of minutes and then repeat the procedure for the third time. So almost all of the starch will be gone and you are left with a rubbery wheat gluten as known as seitan. In the end, you can also wash it in a running water for a minute or two. Now you have seitan. I usually cut it into strips or cubes (depends on the meal I want to make), boil them (until they float on top), drain and fry or marinate before cooking. You can make so many dishes with seitan! Here are some of my examples:

Seitan skewers:

Seitan steaks:

Seitan goulash:

Seitan stroganoff: