Stuffed ‘No Turkey’

Serves: 8
Cooks in: 2 hours 30 minutes
Difficulty: 7/10

This one is technical to make but so rewarding when you slice into it & see the beautiful stuff running through the centre. I believe this recipe is powerful enough to help reduce the amount of people having meat on their dinner tables at Christmas. The flavours are incredible & you must wrap it in my homemade bacon

Ingredients

Stuffing

1 batch Gaz’s Sage & Apple Stuffing (RECIPE IN MY BOOK)

No-Turkey

Wet;

1 cup/240ml Soy Milk (if soy allergy, use oat)
10g (1/2 cup) dried mushrooms
olive oil, for frying
1 onion, finely chopped, sautéed until soft
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped, sautéed until soft
120ml/1/2 cup white wine
50g /1/4 cup chickpeas, cooked
110g (4oz) firm tofu, patted dry (if soy allergy, increase chickpeas)
3 tbsp  white miso paste
2 tsp Maple Syrup
1 tbs  Dried Tarragon
1 tbs Dried Thyme
1 tsp Dried Rosemary
1 tsp Dried Sage
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cracked black pepper 

dry ingredients : 

300g (2 & 3/4 cups) vital wheat gluten
50g (1/2 cup) chickpea (gram) flour
 2 tbsp nutritional yeast 

Rub

4 tbs Mixed Dried Herbs
1 tsp Cayenne
1/2 tsp Onion Salt

Broth

4 cups/960ml Hot Vegetable Stock
2 cup/480ml White Wine
2 Sprig Fresh Rosemary
2 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
1 Onion, quartered
Handful Dried Mushrooms
1 Bay Leaf
3 Cloves Garlic, peeled
Pinch Sea Salt & Pepper

Bacon Wrapping

3 tbs Gaz’s Cranberry (RECIPE IN MY BOOK)
8 Slices of Gaz’s Streaky Bacon (RECIPE HERE)
3 tbs Maple Syrup

For the stuffing, make a batch of my stuffing (recipe in my book) just don’t bake it in the oven.

 First up you will need to make the seitan ‘No-Turkey’. This part can be made 2 days in advance of serving.

Combine all the wet ingredients in a blender cup. Blend until smooth.

In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer (dough hook attached) add the vital wheat gluten, chickpea flour & nutritional yeast together then mix well.

Add the wet mix to the bowl and stir until the mixture forms a dough.

Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes by hand or in your mixer on medium speed. This is the most important part of the recipe. If you don’t knead it properly you will be left with horrible spongey seitan. I have gone as far as pounding the seitan dough with my fist!

Once kneaded the dough will be quite firm and elastic. Using a rolling pin beat the dough into a  rough rectangle shape around 1/2 an inch thick. Set the dough aside to rest for 10 minutes whilst you prepare the cooking broth.

Add the broth ingredients to a large roasting tray (40 x 28 x 8cm H).

Cut a piece of muslin slightly larger than the seitan dough rectangle. Sprinkle the rub mix over the seitan dough. Then place it spice side down onto the muslin sheet. It’s important to cover the seitan well in the spice mix as this stops the seitan sticking to the muslin.

Spoon generous amounts of the stuffing into the centre of the seitan dough rectangle width ways. Roll up the seitan dough around the stuffing moulding the edges together. 

Wrap the dough in the muslin as tight as possible. Twist the ends then tie them with string to secure to secure. Try to make sure your dough is a nice cylinder shape.

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Place the ‘No-Turkey’ wrap into the roasting tray with the broth then cover the tray with foil. Place the tray into the oven for 2 hours. I carefully turn the seitan over halfway through cooking and add additional stock if needed.

After two hours of cooking, remove the tray from the oven & leave the seitan to cool. When cool enough to handle, carefully remove the muslin. 

The ‘Turkey” can now be wrapped in clingfilm & placed into the fridge until you’re ready to serve it. I also reserve the broth liquid as it makes a great gravy. 

An hour before serving, pre heat your oven to 180 degrees C to reheat the ‘No-Turkey’ . You can eat it like this but I like to wrap it in my ‘bacon’ adding tablespoons of cranberry sauce to help the bacon stick, you can also secure it with string. I like to brush the bacon with maple syrup to help it glaze whilst it’s in the oven.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Whilst the ‘no turkey’ is cooking add the reserved broth liquid to a saucepan & place it over a high heat to reduce down until thick, if its not thickening well add a couple 2tbs of cornflour mixed with water to help it thicken.

Serve the turkey straight away.

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