Seitan Class

Matthew Woolen is a master pastry chef and has worked in a variety of Seattle restaurants, including gastropub Old Sage, Zhu Dang, and a gluten-free restaurant called Capitol Cider.

Matthew Woolen

When you <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/seitan">make seitan from scratch</a>, a byproduct of the process is a slurry of wheat starch and water. There are a lot of things you can do with the starch slurry: You can make <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/wheat-starch-noodles-liangpi">noodles</a> with it or whip up a batter. Or you can use it to thicken sauces in seconds.Using a starch slurry to thicken sauces to a spoon-coating consistency right at the end of cooking is quite common in Chinese cuisine. Typically cornstarch or potato starch is used, but the same principles that apply to a cornstarch or potato starch slurry also apply to a wheat starch slurry. The only trick to using the runoff from making seitan for thickening is getting an appropriately high concentration of starch. Letting the runoff sit undisturbed for at least six hours will give the starch time to settle at the bottom of the container, and you can easily ladle off most of the clear water on top.Of course, you can make this recipe using another starch slurry. And while this recipe also calls for a batch of seitan, you can substitute tofu, tempeh, or even shrimp for the wheat meat. But using seitan and the starch slurry leftover from its production is a kind of total utilization that’s kind of neat, and it’s a great argument for making seitan at home.

Silky Seitan and Vegetable Stir-Fry