First mistake: making those bagels. Just wait, you'll see.
Second mistake: making up my own seitan recipe...which required ONE HOUR of rolling out. It was so springy that I had to keep letting it sit. I'd wrestle with it for about 5 minutes, let it sit for 10, etc. In the end, I thought I'd beaten it.
Now for a good thing: making awesome mushroom roulade filling. With some Gimme Lean sausage and red wine.
Third mistake: thinking I had really rolled those roulades thin enough. I'd cut them into quarters and thought I'd sear them. Let's just say they 'pan-expanded' to about an inch thick.
Then I stuffed them, rolled them and tied them. At this point, I'm starting to think they look a little like intestines being tied off and it's not all that tempting. My solution was to keep snitching the stuffing.
For a second good thing: I decided to baste them with some red wine, tamari and sesame oil.
Into the oven they went for about 45 minutes, turning and basting and all that. I moved on to the vegetables and the garlic mashed potatoes.
4th mistake: they weren't cooked all the way. Next time I'd try to simmer the slabs of seitan before searing them, like What the Hell does.
Here's the final plate, which isn't a pretty picture. Focus, much? And the roulade? Well, it was slimy/crispy. The crispy parts were pretty good but the texture of the underdone seitan (which plumped when I cooked it) wasn't very pleasant. The rest of the dinner made up for it.
5th mistake: same as the first mistake. Remember those bagels? Jim ate 3 in the hour before dinner. The result being he ate about 3 bites of everything on his plate. This from a guy who always gets seconds.
His defense: "I can't help it. I'm a bagel whore. "
In truth, I can't really blame him. Those bagels are that good... and the roulade wasn't.
The moral of the story is don't make bagels when you want make an impressive dinner. And it would probably be a good idea to follow someone else's roulade recipe, at least for the first time.
*Bryanna's Chicken Seitan Cutlets from the Everyday Dish DVD rolled out between parchment as suggested by Joanna of Yellow Rose Recipes is the exception to this rule. I personally think that parchment idea is the greatest cooking tip of 2008. I just may write a blog post dedicated to just that idea, that's how much I love it!
8 comments:
I can sympathize... I made a roulade for Thanksgiving as well and it wasn't all I had hoped for.
wow... and here I am worry about my chickpea nuggets.. that roulade is intimidating!
Oh no! I'm sorry, but your description of them looking like intestines made me crack up (yes, I look like a lunatic laughing at my computer).
If it makes you feel any better I made the Vegan Planet roulade once and it was the same. The outside bits were okay but the middle was slimy and gross :(
oh these things are a bummer when they happen but I really love that you post things that you don't think turn out well (although they still look pretty good to me)..it's really helpful to me because I probably would make WAY more mistakes than you ;)
I love your cupcake/squirrel theory but unfortunately my squirrels are not cupcake lovers (yup, I've tried). Crazy furballs! They won't touch the baked goods that we've left out. Okay, so we only leave the burned or yuck stuff..maybe that's why;) My neighbor swears she's seen a squirrel drag a muffin up to his nest but not my freaky cuties. But they do like corn chips and good, vegan chocolate. Go figure the fickle diet of spoiled urban squirrels!
I find that when the seitan is too thick (especially at the inner section after it’s rolled up) that’s when you can get sections that can be undercooked.
Here are some troubleshooting tips on winning the battle of the seitan roulade:
1. Roll out and/or stretch the seitan dough VERY thin, especially at the side that will get rolled up at the center.
2. Make your seitan dough a little softer than usual by adding a bit more liquid to the mix. This will help it not be as springy and difficult to roll out.
3. Let the seitan dough rest before trying to stuff and roll it. After rolling it out flat, I usually weight it down with a cookie sheet and some heavy objects on top so that the seitan relaxes into its new shape. It’s great to roll it out between sheets of parchment paper, but I usually just use plastic wrap and that works fine too.
4. When spreading your stuffing on the seitan, pay special attention to the side that you will be rolling up first to form the roulade. Be sure the seitan at this side is very thin and doesn’t “roll in on itself”. To prevent this, spread the stuffing to the very edge on this side so you don’t have any “seitan touching seitan” going on.
5. Keep the roulade tightly covered for most of the baking time. This will help it cook through and not get too brown on the outside before the inside is finished cooking. Uncover for the last 15 minutes or so to let it brown on the outside.
I hope these tips are helpful.
Wow, Robin! Those are awesome tips! Thank you very much for taking the time to offer your help. I was feeling rather overdone by the idea of ever trying again, but with all your tips, I'll definitely give it another go. Thank you!
By the way, we just had your Garlic Soup from Vegan Fire and Spice for lunch today. It is amazing! We've loved every thing I've made from that book.
Vegan Noodle and Vegetation, with all that help, we can make rockin' roulades!
For the Love of Guava, your chickpea nuggets looked really good to me.
Amanda...maybe those aren't really squirrels. Maybe they are tiny water buffalo in disguises.
Oh, I am sorry! I imagine rolling out seitan is very difficult, so kudos.
Well, at least you know what the hell a roulade is! I have to say I'm consistently reminded that I'm still so new to this whole cooking thing. ;)
At least the bagels were hit!
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