Chow Vegan

I’m traveling this week so my eating options is a bit on the limited side. I had read that Papa Johns had vegan pizza dough and sauce. That was to be my backup plan if all else fails. After five days on the road, I placed an online order for pizza delivery. Now I haven’t had pizza delivery in years but desperate times call for desperate measures.

The online ordering was super easy and straight-forward. There’s options to change the toppings and even a “no cheese” button. I went with a large veggie thin crust pizza with no cheese.

Sadly, their thin crust is not vegan, its got some milk product something or other in it. I got all mixed up after reading about which pizza chain has what vegan crusts. I thought it was but it’s the original crust that’s vegan. Lesson learned. I should have double-checked before placing the order. Duh.

Otherwise the pizza was great, the veggies were good, the delivery was on time, and the delivery person pleasant. It came with a couple packets of special seasonings which I didn’t use, and a pepperoncini pepper in the corner of the box. Apparently, pepperoncinis are a traditional Italian garnish. I even got an online discount. Not bad for a chain restaurant in a small town.

I never realize how simple it is to make my own savory baked tofu or maybe it’s because I’m just plain lazy. No, I’m just very busy (that sounds much better). Anyways, it’s not that hard at all.

Unlike Crispy Baked Tofu, there’s no breading involved. Instead tofu is baked in a delicious Chinese 5-spice marinade - great right out of the oven or store in the fridge for use later in stir-fries, spring rolls, salads or even jook.

Chinese 5-spice Baked Tofu
Makes about 9 pieces

1 pound firm tofu
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon Shaoxing rice wine
1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the tofu into 1/4″ thick slices. Wrap the slices in paper towels and place a heavy weight on top for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl and stir until well combined. If it seems a little too thick, add a tiny bit of water to thin it out. Add the tofu slices one at a time to the marinade coating well on all sides. Place the slices on a tin-foil lined baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes on each side.

Mochachocolata-Rita is hosting a Chinese Take-out Party blog event to celebrate her 88th post. The number 88 in Chinese symbolizes fortune and good luck. The Chinese 5-spice Baked Tofu is my contribution to the take-out party.

While I love getting fried tofu for Chinese take-out, it’s probably not the healthiest thing on the menu. Baked tofu has tons of the flavor, an excellent texture and the added bonus of being a bit healthier. Hopefully something all guests can appreciated.

Jook, also known as rice porridge or congee is my idea of comfort food. It reminds me of Mom, home-cooking and all things good. For other people, it’s mac ‘n cheese, chicken noodle soup, buttery mashed potatoes or fill-in-the-blank.

It’s purportedly good for whatever ails you. Got digestive problems? Eat jook. Feeling under the weather? Have some jook. Have a hangover? Here’s a bowl of jook. Fortunately, I’m not dealing with any of those issues at the moment, I just like to eat jook for jook’s sake.

I make mine home-style with all sorts of goodies to flavor the jook while it’s cooking. It’s endlessly adaptable - add whatever ingredients you like, leave out the ones you don’t. My Mom likes a variety of ingredients in her jook, one of which is gingko nuts. I don’t like gingko nuts. I will actually pick them out of my bowl. Mom carries on that they’re expensive, I generously offered mine to her but she didn’t want them. Sorry Mom.

Restaurant-style jook is cooked plain and then topped with your choice of various condiments and garnishes. Sometimes I like to top mine with French’s French Fried Onions for a nice crunchy texture.

I learned to make jook in a large pot, nowadays, I use a fuzzy logic rice cooker with a porridge setting. It makes it super easy. I don’t have to monitor the rice cooker like I would with the pot and it’s a breeze to clean up.

Jook
Makes about 5 1/2 cups

1/2 cup long-grain white rice
4 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked until soft, then chopped
2 1/2 tablespoons Tianjin preserved vegetable, rinsed
1 tablespoon minced ginger
3 ounces baked tofu, chopped
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 green onions chopped
Soy sauce

Cooking directions is for use with a rice cooker with a 5.5 cups capacity. Using the inner pot of the rice cooker, rinse the rice well in several changes of water until the water is clear. Add water to the marked level on the pot according to the rice cooker’s directions.

Add the chopped mushrooms, preserved vegetable, and ginger. Select the porridge setting to begin cooking. The rice cooker will do its thing while you relax. Occasionally, give the pot a stir. After about an hour and a half the rice cooker will beep that it’s done.

Add the tofu, sesame oil, and vinegar to the rice cooker. Press the reheat button to cook another 5 minutes, it’ll beep again when time is up. Ladle into bowls and garnish with green onions. Drizzle with soy sauce to taste.

I’ve been guilty of eating a whole bag of potato chips in one setting on more than one occasion. In my defense, the bag wasn’t really all that big. Yes, that’s a flimsy excuse so I’ve been working on kicking my salty junk food habit.

Now when I get the munchies, I make my own potato chips in the oven. They’re a lot thicker than store bought chips and have much more of a potato taste. It’s quick, spicy and satisfying.

Spicy Baked Potato Chips
Serves 1

1 russet potato
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Seasoned salt

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Thinly slice the potato crosswise into about 3/8 inch thick slices. I hand-cut mine but if you have a mandoline, you can probably get them thinner. If you do make your slices thinner, you’ll need to adjust the cooking time and/or temperature so the chips don’t get burnt towards the end of the cooking time.

Place the potato slices in a bowl. Add the olive oil, cayenne pepper and seasoned salt to taste and mix well. Spread the potatoes out on a baking pan in a single layer. Bake about 12 minutes on each side. Eat immediately with ketchup.

Today for “Show and Tell”, I have (drum roll please) - Soya Milk! I love this little guy! Especially his soybean leaf ears and tail. A super cute mini-figure series, The Moofia first appeared in late 2006 featuring seven dairy themed characters and one soy milk. Packaged in a miniature milk carton, Soya Milk stands all of 3″ tall.

Recently, it was announced that for 2008, the hit series will expand with three new characters, one of which will be rice milk. I’m hoping future additions will include almond and hemp milk.

Designed by the renowned Italian artist Simone Legno for his tokidoki brand - tokidoki means “sometimes” in Japanese. So named because Simone loves Japanese culture and he believes “everyone waits for moments that change one’s destiny.”

Check out more designer toys here, but be forewarned, they are highly addictive.

How nice of Lisa from Show Me Vegan to award me with an Excellent Blog Award! Thank you so much Lisa!

I’m passing it onto these excellent blogs:

Food Trance! - Fun eating and drinking vegan in the LA area
The Modern Vegetarian - Lots of yummy recipes from Singapore
Vegan Visitor - Beautiful photos and delicious recipes
Vegan Dad - Awesome food for the whole family
Your Vegan Mom - Tasty recipes with great stories

What do you do when there’s nothing in the house to eat? You open the refrigerator door and to your horror, you realize that in your very busy week, you somehow managed to forget to go to the grocery store. The fridge is absolutely empty, devoid of anything edible, save a few jars of condiments and a carrot that’s been there for who knows how long. And now it’s too late, you’re too tired, and too lazy to go to the store. And you don’t feel like having take-out.

You get creative.

I found some dried spaghetti noodles in the cupboard. Ok, that’s something. And there’s a box of veggie burgers in the freezer - things are starting to look up. So how do I combine them into something tasty? With vegetarian oyster sauce!

Inspiration comes from my Dad, I remember him cooking up a similar dish, Chinese Spaghetti, when I was little. This is my “semi-homemade” vegan version, it’s a very quick and easy meal for those “way-too-busy-and-nothing-in-the-fridge” days.

Chinese Veggie Beef Noodles
Serves 2

4 ounces dried whole wheat spaghetti
2 veggie burger patties
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
Vegetarian oyster sauce (also known as vegetarian mushroom sauce)
2 sprigs of cilantro, chopped

Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions, drain and set aside. Heat the burger patties enough to be able to cut into bite-sized pieces.

Heat a wok until hot, add the oil, swirl to coat the sides of the wok. Add the burger pieces, stir. Add the noodles and stir, try not to let the noodles stick to the wok. Add the veggie oyster sauce to taste, about 2 tablespoons or so. Stir to combine well. Divide between two plates and garnish with the cilantro.

Recently, I found these huge king oyster mushrooms at the grocery store. They’re similar to the Trumpet Royale™ variety used in the King Oyster Mushroom Salad but humongous. Humongous! They’re not just a little bigger, they’re a lot bigger.

If you saw them in the store, you would be a little frighten. They look like mushrooms on steroids with their thick, meaty white stems and their tiny tan caps (they’re not really on steroids, that’s just how they are). But they taste oh so good.

They’re the largest species in the oyster mushroom genus, Pleurotus. When cooked, they have a texture similar to that of abalone, which is probably why they’re also known as almond abalone mushrooms. In the stir-fry, crisp snow peas provide an excellent contrast to the soft mushrooms.

I also used another ingredient you might not have heard of - salted turnips. They’re not usually served in dishes at Chinese restaurants as they’re considered more for home cooking.

Found only at the Asian grocery store, they provide additional flavor and texture to the dish. It’s a little bit crunchy and even though it’s preserved in salt, it has a sweet flavor. But if you can’t find it or if you don’t feel like putting in some weird new ingredient you’ve never seen before in your life, you can leave it out. It’s not a recipe breaker.

King Oyster Mushrooms With Snow Peas
Serves 2 as part of a meal

1 pound snow peas
1-2 large king oyster mushroom
2-3 pieces salted turnip, rinsed off
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt

Wash and trim the snow peas. Slice the salted turnip crosswise at a diagonal. Wash the mushrooms and slice into 1/8″ rounds on the diagonal.

In a wok, heat until hot and then add 1 teaspoon of the oil. Add the mushrooms and salt to taste, sauté until slightly wilted and the mushrooms have changed to a smooth texture, about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Heat the wok again, add the remaining oil, salted turnips and snow peas. Stir and then cover for 30 seconds. Add salt to taste and a splash of water if the wok appears to be too dry. Cover until snow peas are cooked. They should be crisp yet tender, about 2 1/2 minutes, stirring and checking a few times. When snow peas are cooked, return the mushrooms to the wok, stirring to mix for a few seconds. Plate and serve.