Chow Vegan

Fresh Lychees

July 3, 2008 By chow 10 Comments

Lately, fresh lychees have started to pop up at the Asian grocery store. Beneath the red bumpy skin is a sweet, fragrant, juicy, translucent grape-like white fruit. If you’ve never tried them before, they’re quite the summertime treat.

Fresh lychees are so good as is, I’ve never been able to bring myself to actually use them in a recipe. They have a freshness that the canned version doesn’t quite capture. With such a short season (a few weeks) I must eat them before they’re all gone.

To eat, just stick a thumbnail in towards the top to break the skin (be careful not to squirt juice all over the place) and the rest of the skin should easily be peeled off. I like to eat them as I’m peeling them – watch out for the smooth, shiny, hard pit in the middle.

I also remember eating bags of dried lychees as a kid. Although I haven’t seen the dried lychees at any store for years. The whole lychee is dried with the skin on. When dried, the skin turns a cinnamon-brown color and becomes somewhat brittle and the inside becomes dark brown and raisin-like. They were mighty tasty and fun to eat too.

Baked Vegan Cajun Chicken Fingers

June 29, 2008 By chow 5 Comments

It’s inevitable that anything that’s good but fried, I will somehow try to bake it. Yeah, it’s healthier but it’s also because I’m kinda lazy and don’t want to clean up a big greasy mess (the real reason).

When I first made Homestyle Vegan Cajun Chicken Fingers, I pretty much followed The Vegan Ronin recipe posted here with a few minor changes. Today, I made a “shake and bake” version. It’s just as tasty, doesn’t have as much of a coating but still came out crispy – the thinner pieces did, the thicker knot part was nice and chewy. I like both versions. Of course, the lazy part of me likes the baked version better.

Baked Vegan Cajun Chicken Fingers
Serves 2 – 4 as part of a meal

1 package fresh soy knots
3 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon onion granulates

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Rinse off the soy knots and drain. In a bag, combine the rest of the ingredients. Add the soy knots and shake to coat well, place on an oiled baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes, turn over and bake another 12 minutes or until golden and crisp.

Dried-Fried Long Beans With Tempeh

June 23, 2008 By chow 5 Comments

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.