Barbecued Seitan Brisket Ala Chef Chad Sarno

Total Time: 2 hrs 9 mins Preparation Time: 50 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 19 mins

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup soy sauce (or low sodium tamari)
• 2 1/2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 3 tablespoons dates, paste i had date paste already made (or maple syrup, you can make your own by covering pitted madjool dates in soy or almond milk overnig)
• 1 cup marsala wine
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
• 4 garlic cloves, fine minced
• 1/2 tablespoon dried chipotle powder
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 3 1/2-4 cups vital wheat gluten flour (start with 3 1/2 cups(and add the last 1/2 cup if the mixture is still too wet to knead. you want it)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 cup of regular plain soymilk
• 2 tablespoons realemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard or 1/2 teaspoon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons , chia seed (or use ground chia is you don't have a vitamix)

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 375 degrees f.
• 2 for the wet batch(make twice- you'll need to mix this up twice, i know, it's a big pain:.
• 3 whisk all above ingredients well, then in a separate bowl mix the dry batch. you will be making 2 separate wet batches.
• 4 then mix dry batch separately.
• 5 once you have the wet and dry batches mixed separately and thoroughly, then mix both batches together(one wet and one dry).
• 6 knead for 3-5 minutes until it is all is mixed and elastic in texture, like a very firm dough. add the reserved 1/2 cup of gluten if the mixture is too wet.
• 7 with your hands, shape it into a loaf pressing to be no thicker than 1 to 1 1/2 inch thick.now you¹re ready to bake it. i used a deep 9 x 13 inch pan (like a lasagna pan). there's a lot of braising liquid, so you need a pan that's deep enough so it doesn't spill into the oven.
• 8 for the braising liquid, make another bowl of the wet batch liquid as listed above, and pour into a very large & deep baking/roasting pan--a 9 x 13 inch with deep sides. place the seitan loaf in the center and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, flip it--very carefully, baste with liquid and continue to bake for 20 more minutes. i then needed to cook for an additional 20 minutes at 375 degrees--total 60 minutes. then i lowered the oven to 325 degrees & finished baking for about 20 more minutes, until the braising liquid had thickened into a nice glaze.
• 9 here's what the chef advised: continue this process until most of the liquid has thickened up as a glaze and the seitan is firm to the touch. allow it to sit and firm up before use.
• 10 when it had cooled, i covered it in foil--and refrigerated it overnight to firm up. then i cut it into 4 large pieces--to freeze what i wasn't going to use right away. it slices beautifully when it's frozen--and is just slightly defrosted.
• 11 makes delicious "bbq brisket" sandwiches--maybe add extra bbq sauce or some of the glaze & serve on a delicious bun. my family loved it as a reuben, grilled with a panini press, with no-fat russian dressing, sauerkraut, & a little daiya mozzarella cheese---or with cole slaw, daiya, & russian dressing.
• 12 let me know how it turns out. can use it for fajitas, stir-fries--etc.
• 13 healthy librarian's notes.
• 14 the reuben is best with real caraway-seeded deli rye, or tj's or alvarado street bakery's caraway sprouted rye bread.
• 15 assemble the sandwiches for grilling. we used a little daiya mozzarella--and it works best to first warm up the sliced brisket for one sandwich, topped with about 2-4 tablespoons of daiya, in the microwave before grilling the sandwich. this way the cheese easily melts, & the brisket warms up before you grill the sandwich. otherwise it takes too long to get the brisket warm & the cheese melted while grilling the sandwich.
• 16 each sandwich has sauerkraut & is spread with with either brown deli mustard, or homemade no-oil russian dressing.
• 17 we grilled them without oil on a non-stick grill pan (any pan will do), & used a heavy panini weight to press them down.
• 18 my new version of no-fat crazy creamy chia russian dressing:.
• 19 mix all the ingredients in a high-speed blender until well-blended, about 1 1/2 minutes.
• 20 when it's done, remove from the blender & add about 2 tablespoons of ketchup (enough to give it that salmon thousand island dressing color) & 1 to 2 tablespoons of pickle relish to the mayo.
• 21 make ahead & let this gel about 15 minutes.
• 22 refrigerate leftovers.