Chow Vegan

Since there’s still beautiful looking long beans at the farmer’s market, I can’t stop buying them. This time I went with a simpler recipe than the Long Beans With Tempeh.

Simpler, but it uses an ingredient you may not be familiar with, fermented bean curd or preserved bean curd. Or in Chinese, fu yu. Some people call it “chinese cheese”, because of its pungent aroma, saltiness, and smooth creamy texture.

Basically, it’s cubes of tofu that have been fermented in rice wine. It’s used as an flavoring agent or condiment. There’s different varieties of fermented bean curd, I like the white, chili one for its subtle spiciness. There’s also a red version that’s usually used with meat, although I’ve never tried it. A little bit goes a long ways, so a jar usually lasts for a good while stored in the refrigerator.

This is the brand I get from the Asian grocery store, it’s the one I grew up with. I’ve tried other brands but I like this one the best. Recently, they’ve updated their packaging (the old one is on the left). They’re also now ISO 9001 certified.

At first whiff, you may be put off by the aroma. But I assure you when cooked or added to other foods, it doesn’t taste like how it smells. It mellows out, leaving a delicious, savory, kinda salty flavor.

Besides long beans, any number of vegetables can be cooked with fermented bean curd, I’ve tried spinach and zucchini with great success. Sometimes I like to smash and mix a cube into just plain ol’ white rice.

Long Beans With Fermented Bean Curd
Serves 2 as part of a meal

1/2 bunch long beans, about 6 ounces
3 tablespoons water
1 - 2 fermented bean curd cubes
1 teaspoon oil

Snap off the ends of the long beans, break into 3″ pieces and wash in several changes of water.

Put the bean curd cube and water in a small mixing bowl, mash the bean curd in the water and set aside.

Heat a wok until hot, add the oil and swirl to coat the wok. Add the long beans, stir-fry and cover for about 30 seconds. Add the bean curd water mixture and cover. Cook until the long beans are tender and the water absorbed and sauce-like about 2 1/2 minutes. Plate and serve.

I apologize if anyone encountered any weirdness while visiting my blog lately. Last week, there was a “denial of services” attack on the server hosting my blog. I just don’t get why anyone would want to do such a thing.

It’s been quite the experience, first one thing gets fixed, then something else goes wrong, that gets fixed, then another thing is broken and now it’s working again. Have I mention I don’t like roller coasters?

Anyways, on to the food. Once again, I’m just cooking whatever looks good at the weekly farmer’s market. This week it’s long beans, also called yard-long beans, Chinese long beans or asparagus beans. They look like really long, super skinny green beans.

I always see them at the chain grocery stores and they usually look like they’ve been there forever, all shrivel up and way past their prime. I don’t know why those stores even bother to put it out there or even who buys it. If it’s in season, then the farmer’s market is the place to go.

Two types are available around here, a thicker light green one and a skinner dark green one. Sometimes there’s also a purple variety, while it was a beautiful color amongst the green at the farmer’s market, they sadly do not stay purple when cooked but turned a dark green.

For a vegan version of the popular Sichuan dried-fried long beans dish, I use the tempeh filling from Tempeh Stuffed Yellow Chile Peppers to replace the traditional pork and Sichuan preserved vegetable.

Dried-Fried Long Beans With Tempeh
Serves 2 - 4 as part of a meal

1 bunch of long beans, about 12 ounces
1/4 cup tempeh filling
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Sauce
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

Snap off the ends of the long beans, break into 3″ pieces and wash in several changes of water. In a small bowl, combine the sauce ingredients, mix well and set aside.

Heat a wok until hot, add the oil and then the long beans. Cook until crisp-tender and the skins a little charred, about 6 - 8 minutes, stirring frequently. (The wok will become very, very hot, so be careful around it.) Transfer the long beans to a bowl.

Lower the heat to medium and add more oil if necessary. Add the garlic and the tempeh, stirring for about 15 seconds. Add the long beans back in and the sauce ingredients. Stir to combine until everything is well-coated. Serve immediately.

At this week’s farmer’s market, I couldn’t resist these beautiful yu choy sum. Also known as:

• choi sum
• pak choy
• yau choy
• yu choi sum
• yow choy sum

I’m sure I missed a few of the other names that they go by as well. Since there’s a lot of different varieties of Asian greens and they all kinda look similar, it can get confusing. I get confused if it’s called by one of its many other names, but I can recognize it by sight.

Yu choy sum looks like gai lan (chinese broccoli) but skinnier. Of course, if you don’t know what gai lan looks like, then that doesn’t really help you. In which case, never mind, just look at the picture below.

Another member of the bok choy family, but so much more tender and sweeter than the larger bok choy, yu choy sum taste like a cross between broccoli and spinach. They can be used in stir-fries and soups. As usual, I prefer just a quick and simple stir-fry as part of a meal.

Stir-fried Yu Choy Sum
Serves 2 as part of a meal

1 bunch yu choy sum
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt

Wash the yu choy sum in several changes of water, trimming off any old leaves, tough stems and the bottom 1/2″ from each stalk. Cut the stems into 3″ pieces, halving the bigger stalks lengthwise.

Heat a wok over high heat until hot. Add the oil and swirl to coat the wok. Add the garlic and stir-fry for a few seconds. Add the yu choy sum and stir. After about 30 seconds, it’ll start to wilt down. Stir bringing up the greens at the bottom to the top. Add salt to taste. Cook for 1 1/2 minutes or until the stems are tender. Serve immediately.

I had intended to serve roasted red potatoes with the Chicken-Fried Tofu I made last week. But I was wavering between mashed potatoes or something else. I decided roasted potatoes would be good but then the oven was busy with the tofu.

Both taste best hot right out of the oven when they’re nice and crispy. If only I had a fancy kitchen with two ovens, but I don’t so I didn’t make the potatoes until later and had it as a snack.

Roasted Red Potatoes
Serves 2 as part of a meal

1 pound red potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Wash and scrub the potatoes with the skin on. Cut into 3/4″ - 1″ wedges and put into a mixing bowl. Add the olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper to taste. Toss well to coat each piece, then pour out onto a baking pan.

Roast for about 15 - 20 minutes on each side, flipping over the potatoes about halfway through until the potatoes are tender on the inside and nicely crisp and golden on the outside.

Earlier this month, I posted about Spicy Baked Potato Chips. Crystal over at The Modern Vegetarian commented about using sweet potatoes in the recipe. I thought that was a great idea and finally got around to trying it.

I prefer the chips to sweet potato fries. I’ve tried the fries both in restaurants and the frozen kind. For all I know, the restaurant kind could have been using the frozen kind. Anyways, the chips are a bit firmer and not so floppy and greasy.

The sweet potatoes I had on hand were on the small size, it’s probably better to find bigger ones that are more uniform in size, so they’ll cook more evenly. That and a mandoline would have been very helpful as thinner slices would make for a crisper chip.

Spicy Baked Sweet Potato Chips
Serves 1

2 small or 1 large sweet potato
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Peel the sweet potatoes and thinly slice crosswise into 3/8 inch thick slices. The more uniform the slices, the better. If you have a mandoline, use it.

Place the sweet potato slices in a bowl. Add the olive oil, cayenne pepper and salt to taste and mix well. Spread the slices out on a baking pan in a single layer. Bake about 12 minutes on each side. Carefully checking to make sure the smaller or thinner pieces don’t burn (that’s why it’s better to have uniform shape and thickness). Serve immediately with your favorite condiment.

Ranch Dip

I made just enough ranch dip to try with the chips. I had a tiny bit of fresh silken tofu left over in the fridge and a very sad looking half of a lemon. I kinda just winged it, so I don’t have the measurements to write out a proper recipe for the dip.

Basically, it’s just silken tofu, lemon juice, onion powder, dried parsley, and salt. Add everything to taste in a bowl and whisk until it looks like a dip. The key is taste testing and adding small amounts until it comes out to your liking.

Whenever I travel, it always seems like I don’t get to eat enough leafy greens. I feel out of sorts when that happens. There’s no leafy greens in burritos, none on the pizza or veggie burgers, which I had twice on this last trip. (I reserve the eating of veggie burgers for traveling only as most restaurants have them nowadays and I don’t want to overdose by eating them at home.)

So as soon as I return, I must have some greens. I’m a little tired of the usual kale, spinach and swiss chard. But at the Asian grocery store, I saw red leaf amaranth also known as yeen choy or Chinese spinach. Sometimes they’re also available at the farmer’s market; they’re in season from spring to fall.

The leaves are dark green and tinged with red. Like red swiss chard, when cooked it’ll color anything it comes in contact with a pinkish red. It came be substituted in any spinach recipe but I prefer a simple stir-fry.

Stir-fried Amaranth with Garlic
Serves 2 as part of a meal

1 pound of red leaf amaranth
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup water
Salt

Wash the amaranth in several changes of water, trimming off any old leaves and tough stems. Let dry in a colander or if you’re in a hurry, spin dry the greens.

Heat a wok over high heat until hot. Add the oil and swirl to coat the wok. Add the garlic and stir-fry for a few seconds. Add the amaranth and cover. After about 30 seconds it’ll start to wilt down. Stir bringing up the amaranth at the bottom to the top. Add the water and salt to taste and cover. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until the stems are tender. Serve immediately.

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.

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.