Grace's Vegetarian Turkey

My friend Grace has many talents. On top of being a fantastic baker, cake decorator extraordinaire and photographer, she is also a terrific cook. Last July, I had the pleasure of partaking in a feast she whipped up for her birthday party. This vegetarian turkey was one of the dishes she served.

Grace's vegetarian turkey reminds me of my good friend K in Malaysia, who has been a vegetarian for more than 15 years. Whenever I am in town, I like her to bring me to her favorite chinese vegetarian restaurant and let her do the ordering. There will be a table full of mock chicken, mock ham, mock bacon, and mock roast pork, mock fish and vegetables. I find it fascinating that one can name any meat, and the restaurant will surely has a vegetarian version, make with the mock meat in which the ingredients are essentially soy bean and mushroom, flavored to mimic the real deal.

I have not seen this kind of chinese vegetarian restaurants in the US, so I was excited when Grace served the vegetarian turkey. I knew I need to learn this dish. K will be impressed if I bring this to the next potluck party when I go home this Nov!

Grace uses an assortment of vegetables as filling/meat, and the beancurd sheet, which can be found at the freezer section of Asian grocery store, as the "turkey skin". That's our friend T, hiding behind the beancurd sheet.

Here's the step by step photo instructions I have taken while Grace was demonstrating the process. If you can read Chinese,check out the recipe on Grace's blog and other mouth watering creations she make. That woman is insanely talented, I miss her food.

Here's Grace posing with the vegetarian turkey. She will be so proud to know that I finally made it last week on a rainy day. It is as good as my mentor's! ;)

Grace's Vegetarian Turkey
see the recipe in Chinese here


1 pack of beancurd sheet (see the picture above)
1 medium carrot, finely shredded
1 cup wood ear mushroom, rehydrated in water, for 1 hour, and finely shredded
6 dried shiitake mushroom, rehydrated in water, for 1 hour, and finely shredded
vegetarian oyster sauce
soy sauce
1/2 cup vegetable broth
sesame oil
dark soy sauce

For the filling:
Add 2 tablespoons of oil in a nonstick pan, and stirfry the carrot and mushrooms. Season with 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, 1/2 tablespoon of vegetarian oyster sauce and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning according to your preference. Continue to stirfry until all the ingredients are soft and cook.

Remove from the pan and put the filling in a pan to cool slightly.

Make sauce:
In a small or medium bowl,mix together 1/2 cup of vegetarian broth with 1.5 tablespoons of vegetarian oyster sauce, 1 tespoon of sesame oil, 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce,1/2 teaspoon of dark soy sauce and 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar.

To assemble the vegetarian turkey:
Remove 2 pieces of the bean curd sheets from the package,fold the sheets in half and cut with a scissor. You will have 4 pieces of half circle now. Using a pastry brush, generously brush the sauce onto a piece of half circle, cover with another half circle, and brush with the sauce. Repeat for 2 more times. You will have 4 pieces of overlapping beancurd sheets.

Put some of the filling in the center of the beancurd sheets, and fold following the step by step instructions above. Secure with a toothpick.

Heat a nonstick pan with oil, add in the "turkeys", and sear until both sides are lightly golden. Pour in th remaining sauce, the turkeys are ready when the sauce is almost fully absorb. Remove from pan, and cool.

At this point, you can keep the vegetarian turkey in the fridge and keep for up to 2 days. Cut when ready to serve.

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Penne with Roasted Vegetables & Goat Cheese

As an effort to maintain a healthy diet, I try to make vegetarian meal once a week. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to adhere to this regime the past weeks for some reasons. Ok, they are mostly excuses, so I shall not bore you with the detail.

This week however, I am determine to stick with this resolution. As I was looking for a tried and tested recipe for our vegetarian meal, I came across one listed by Robyn1007 on the Cookinglight bulletin board. Although it called for yellow squash and zucchini which I didn't have on hand, I thought I could swap it with other vegetables. In my case, I used red bell pepper and eggplant. The result is one hearty satisfying meal. The transformation of the few humble vegetables after roasting is simply amazing. I like the fact that they are easy on the waist but huge in flavor.

I can't stop raving about my love of roasting vegetable! Whenever I find a vegetable that I don't like, I would just roast it. And then, they will be welcome as VIP on my favorite list. Like cauliflower. I only eat it when it's roasted with garlic, salt and lemon juice.(yum!) Using the roasting method, I have recently became acquainted with sweet potato too. My mum would be so proud of me. She couldn't persuade me to try her favorite purple sweet potato the last time I was home.

Note: I am excited to learn from the lovely Anh that Morgot of Coffee and Vanilla is hosting the Vegetarian Awareness Month in October. I am sure there will be more vegetarian ideas for me come early November.(When the roundup is up!)Oh, and I shall not forget to submit this pasta dish as my contribution for the Vegetarian Awareness Month.

Penne with Roasted Vegetables & Goat Cheese
Adapted from Cookinglight.com

1/2 pound uncooked penne (tubular-shaped pasta)
1 medium eggplant,cubed
1 large red bell pepper, remove seed and roughly chopped into cubes
1 cup thinly sliced red onion, separated into rings
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
A handful of cherry tomatoes
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 cup (4 ounces) goat cheese
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme


Preheat oven to 475°.

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain, and set aside.

Combine eggplant and next 6 ingredients (squash through garlic) in a large bowl; toss well to coat. Arrange vegetables in a single layer in a jelly-roll pan. Bake at 475° for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes.Add the cherry tomatoes to the jelly roll pan. Roast until all vegetables browned. Drizzle vinegar over vegetables; toss well.

Combine pasta, vegetable mixture, goat cheese, basil, and thyme in a large bowl; toss well.

Yield
4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)

note: the original recipe uses 2 cups of sliced zucchini and sliced yellow squash respectively.

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Thai Basil: A great herb to try

We don't go to the Asian grocery stores very often. But whenever we go, I make sure that a pack of fresh Thai Basil lands in our shopping cart. Ever since I got back from a Bangkok trip 5 years ago, I have been mesmerised by Thai cuisine. There's something intriguing in Thai cuisine. No doubt it's almost always spicy, rich-because of the coconut milk used. But on top of that there's something else. Something uniquely Thai. Maybe it's the spice and herb they use.

Ironically, the mystery is only solved after 5 years and a move to another continent later. I finally learn that part of the mystery flavor is imparted by Thai Basil. Ever since my first encounter with Thai Basil, I use it in every single Thai recipes. And it never fails to offer the flavor I love and miss from Thailand. Unlike the sweet basil which we use in Italian cooking, Thai Basil has a more assertive flavor. OCT think it's pungent. However, I find it hard to express in words its complexity. For some reason, it reminds me of fennel bulb. Other than that, Thai Basil is a highly compatible herb with Asian cuisine. I like to add it towards the end when cooking red/green curry. Sometime even in sweet and sour dish, which one could associate with Chinese/Thai cuisine.

Recently I find another use of this beloved herb in a recipe from July issue of Bon Appetit. A glance at the ingredient list, I know it would be perfect for our weekly vegetarian meal. The original recipe used egg noodle, but I swapped it with angel hair with no problem. Despite its simplicity, this dish is one which packs with lots of Oriental flavors. The use of three types of fragrant oil with ginger, garlic and vinegar is certainly a clever way to infuse lots of flavors without loading on fat. I further reduced the amount of oil by 1.5 tablespoons and increased 2 more cloves of garlic without missing much flavor. It was a perfect light Oriental meal for summer.

Thai basil may seems unassuming, but adding it to any stirfry, or in this case pasta; would instantly enhance the flavor. If you haven't already tried cooking with Thai basil, I strongly urge to do so. It would certainly surprises you how simple it is to add a "Thai touch" to the standard stirfry.

I am submitting this dish which features Thai Basil as my first entry to Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Myriam of Once upon a Tart this round, and be sure to check out more about Weekend Herb Blogging at Kalyn's Kitchen.

Spicy Sesame Noodle with Chopped Nuts and Thai Basil
adapted from July 2007 Bon Appetit

1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced ( I used 4 gloves,because I love garlic!)
3 tablespoons Asian sesame oil (I used 1.5 Tbps)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
11/2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon (or more) hot chili oil*
11/2 teaspoons salt
1 pound fresh Chinese egg noodles (about 1/16 inch in diameter) or fresh angel hair pasta ( I used dried angel hair)
12 green onions (white and pale green parts only), thinly sliced
1/2 cup coarsely chopped roasted peanuts
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh Thai basil leaves

*Available in the Asian foods section of many supermarkets and at Asian markets.

Heat peanut oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add ginger and garlic; sauté 1 minute. Transfer to large bowl. Add next 6 ingredients; whisk to blend.

Place noodles in sieve over sink. Separate noodles with fingers and shake to remove excess starch. Cook in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, stirring occasionally. Drain and rinse under cold water until cool. Drain thoroughly and transfer to bowl with sauce. Add sliced green onions and toss to coat noodles. Let stand at room temperature until noodles have absorbed dressing, tossing occasionally, about 1 hour. Stir in peanuts and Thai basil; toss again. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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Soba's what for dinner!

When you spend a lot of time reading the delicious food blogs out, many things can happen to you. Do you know that by simply staring at the food on the computer screen can make one gain weights? Ok, this may not sound scientific, and I don't have any concrete research work done on this yet. But that is certainly the case for me. Sadly, as of the last time I weighed, I have gained some more pounds from looking at food that I didn't eat! I am serious. Really.

Another thing, that may or may not happen to you, is an impulsive change of menu for dinner. Yes, this happens a lot of time around here... You know, the menu I planned sounds great, and the necessary ingredient has been taken out to thaw. But thing changes in a matter of one click. Like the time when I see the entry about soba here and here.

"Isn't it great?" I told myself. "I have soba in the pantry which I bought for a recipe I read somewhere. But couldn't find it anymore after soba comes on board." A change of menu is inevitable, lest I forget where I see the recipe again. So much on food blogs overloaded.

Speaking of soba, I wish I could tell you more than it's noodle made of buckwheat flour and I have seen it made fresh from the Japanese restaurant display window. Other than that, I know very little about soba. If you are interested to know more, check out here.If you are only interested in eating (like me), skip the link, and drag the cursor down because I want to tell you about my first soba experience.

You know how sometime you have never tasted a new thing and don't know what to expect? That was my case with soba. Would it taste like the Italian's spaghetti or Asian's instant noodle? The answer is none of the above. In fact, I tasted a mild nutty flavor in Soba. Since I have not tasted anything made with buckwheat before, I wouldn't know if that's the typical "buckwheat taste".

Anyhow, I sort of incorporated these two recipes into one, because I don't have some of the ingredients in the respective recipes.ha! The thing with cooking (at least Asian's cooking) is, it is very forgiving. You can safely incorportate more of certain condiments to suit your taste, or leave it altogether.(With some exceptions of course, but that's not the case here, at least)

While I am sure both recipes taste marvellous, I am happy to report that my modified version was pretty good too. With an auspicious beginning with soba, I have since optimistically bought a few more packs of soba (with different brands)from my local Asian's grocery store. They are now sitting neatly with their Italian and Chinese counterparts!

Does any food blog make you try something new lately?

Spicy Soba Noodles with Tofu, Shiitake mushroom and Red Pepper

Makes 4 servings

For sauce
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 to 3 teaspoons Korean hot-pepper paste (sometimes labeled “gochujang”)
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar

For noodles
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped peeled ginger
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
10 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in water to soften, stemmed and thinly sliced
1 block (12oz) of firm tofu, cubed.
6 scallions, thinly sliced
8 to 9 ounces soba
1 red pepper, cored and thinly sliced

Stir together all sauce ingredients until brown sugar is dissolved, then set aside.

Toast sesame seeds in a dry 12-inch heavy skillet (not nonstick) over medium heat, stirring, until pale golden, then transfer to a small bowl.

Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers,add tofu and cook, stirring occasionally, until all sides are browned. Remove from skillet. In the same skillet,sauté ginger and garlic, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add shiitakes and red bell pepper and sauté, stirring frequently, until tender, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium,return tofu to the skillet and add most of scallions (reserve about a tablespoon for garnish. Add sauce and simmer 2 minutes.

While the tofu mixture is cooking, cook soba in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 6 quarts water) until noodles are just tender, about 6 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cool water to stop cooking and remove excess starch, then drain well again. Transfer to a large bowl and toss with sesame seeds and tofu mixture. Serve sprinkled with reserved scallions.

If you aren’t able to find Korean hot-pepper paste, substitute 3/4 teaspoon Chinese chile paste and reduce the amount of soy sauce to 1/4 cup.

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