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To Make The Stew
1 pint diced gluten 1 pint water Stew slowly for three hours, adding boiling water as may be necessary. Then add: 1 pint diced potatoes 1 onion, diced and cooked in a little oil till light brown Cook till potatoes are tender. Then add: 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or salt to taste 1/2 bay leaf 2 teaspoons flour stirred smooth with 1/4 cup cream 1 tablespoon chopped parsley This may be put into a pan and a pie crust or biscuit crust put over it and baked as a pot pie.
A meatless stew built on wheat gluten — what a modern cook would call seitan. The method is sound, but the three-hour simmer belongs to homemade gluten, not to what you can buy today.
- What "gluten" means hereWheat dough kneaded and washed under water until only the elastic protein remains, then simmered or steamed firm and cut into cubes. Packaged seitan or gluten made from vital wheat gluten flour is the direct equivalent.
- The three hoursThat long simmer was for raw or barely-set gluten, which needs it to firm up and lose its doughy taste. Ready-made seitan is already cooked; 20 to 30 minutes in the stock is enough, and longer only makes it spongy.
- Pints are volumeA pint of diced gluten is 2 cups of cubes, not a pound. The same for the potatoes. The stew starts with equal volumes of gluten and water, which is barely enough liquid — expect to add boiling water more than once.
- Brown the onion properly"Cooked in a little oil till light brown" is the main source of depth in an otherwise pale, meatless pot. Take it past soft to genuinely golden.
- The thickeningTwo teaspoons flour in a quarter cup of cream gives a barely-bound gravy, not a thick one. Stir it in off the boil, then return to a simmer for two or three minutes to cook out the raw flour.
- Bay leafHalf a leaf is right for this quantity. Add it with the salt as directed and pull it out before serving.
- If you make the pot pieTransfer the finished stew hot to a baking dish and lay on the crust. The recipe gives no oven temperature or time; a hot oven, in the region of 425F for 20 to 25 minutes, will brown either crust and bring the filling to a bubble at the edge. A cold filling under a lid of pastry will leave the underside raw.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; roughly four servings as a stew, or three if it is baked under a crust as a main dish.