Daring Cooks Challenge, December: Seitan Sausages.

Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.

As eggs are something I can do, and the sausages looked fascinating, I chose to do the vegan recipe.  Instructions are as follows:

Ingredients

150 g pine nuts, toasted

1 red onion

1 red chili

1 cup sundried tomatoes

¼ cup olive oil

1¼ cups vegetable stock

2 Tbl. tomato paste

2½ cups vital wheat gluten (gluten flour)

1 tsp. (5ml/4 g) dried thyme

1 tsp. (5ml/4 g) paprika

For the poaching liquid:

6+ cups (1.5+ L/51+ fl. oz.) vegetable stock

3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

2 bay leaves

Directions:

1. Place 6 cups of stock, the crushed garlic cloves, and the bay leaves in a deep sauté pan or stock pot (you may need to add additional stock to cover the sausages). Heat on medium.

2. Toast the pine nuts.

3. Finely mince the pine nuts, red onion, chili, and sundried tomatoes.

4. Whisk the 1¼ cups of stock with the tomato paste and olive oil in a small bowl.

5. Combine the vital wheat gluten with the dried thyme, paprika, and pine nut/onion/chili/sundried tomato mixture.

6. Slowly add the stock/olive oil/tomato paste to the vital wheat gluten. Mix until you have a smooth dough. You will probably not need to add all the liquid. I added maybe ¾ of the liquid and the result was a rather wet dough. Whatever liquid you have left can be added to the poaching liquid.

7. Divide the dough into four portions. Each quarter will make a sausage about 10 inches (25 cm) long. You have a couple of shaping options here. You can make four 10 inch (25 cm) sausages, or 8 smaller ones.  Wrap the sausages in muslin (cheesecloth) and secure the ends with twine.

8. If the poaching liquid is not yet boiling, turn up the heat until it does. Add the sausages and turn the heat down to a simmer. Simmer gently for 45–50 minutes, or until the sausages are firm.

9. Remove the sausages from the poaching liquid (reserve the liquid if you don’t plan on eating all the sausages immediately). Allow the sausages to cool a little and gently unwrap. These may be refrigerated in their poaching liquid for a week.

I didn't like the colour of the poached sausages, even though they tasted delicious.  So I cut them into rounds and pan fried them to crisp and colour them, as seen here: