Posts Tagged ‘Meatless Monday’

Spring rolls! CRUNCHCRUNCH! NOMNOMNOM!

After a few weeks of carb and dairy heavy meals, not to mention a bit of vacation excess by your author, it felt like a good time to lighten up. Fortunately, we’ll be playing with a fusion of Szechuan and Thai with a touch of Vietnamese so, even without the extra calories, we’ll get plenty of bold flavors and satisfying richness. It’s kind of like having a culinary Asian All-Star team on your plate.

If you’ve cooked in these cuisines, you’ll already know how long and intimidating many recipes can look, though they’re actually quite simple. There are a goodly amount of raw ingredients to prep, more than we’re used to seeing in general. It’s really no big deal … a little prep earlier in the day and a little doing instead of pot-watching later … not so bad, right?

You’ll also see, in the lists, a few exotic ingredients you’re unlikely to find at the the regular old supermarket (unless you live in an overwhelmingly Asian neighborhood). Even if you can find them at the mega-mart, I heartily recommend searching out a specialty ethnic market in your area or, in the case of some non-perishables, buying online for better quality and selection at a better price. You’ll be surprised what a windfall for your food budget a little side-trip to a locally-owned ethnic market can be. As a bonus, you get to stock up on great pantry items to cook your favorite cuisines throughout the month, plus give back to your local economy.

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So, this week’s recipe …

Hot and sour soup = bliss in a bowl

I have what can only be called a deep and abiding love for Hot & Sour Soup. So, the idea of making a favorite so far off from what I’m used to felt a bit strange. H&S, as you probably know, is generally made with pork … often with chicken broth … not so appropriate for our Meatless dinner, so tinkering must be done to keep the soul of this satisfying soup and not feel like we’re missing those missing components. In the end, it seemed better to go further afield and tweak away over trying to remain too faithful. What resulted was a soup with the wonderful contrasts of the original plus a few more nuanced levels of flavor, lent by the Thai influence, between the sharp edges. It was definitely a food experiment I’ll be happy to make again, soon (and even happier to have leftovers to eat NOW).

To bring a deep meaty taste to the base broth, I decided on shiitake mushrooms, using both mushrooms in the stock as well as soaking water for additional mushrooms set aside for the finished soup. Rather than keep to Szechuan or even Chinese, ingredients, I looked to Thai cuisine, renowned for savory, full-bodied flavors without the use of meat. Instead of just ginger, garlic, and scallions as aromatics in the broth, I added galangal, lemon grass, cilantro, and shallot for more layered flavor balance. In the soup, fried chili garlic paste, lime, and tamarind provide savory heat, tart acidity, and umami counterpoints to the sharp acidic sweetness of the vinegars, soft twang of the rice wine, and clean heat of the white pepper. I kept the egg drop, since it’s so crucial to the mouth-happy feel of the soup and it’s great added protein, to boot.

To get some veg in, plus turn the tables on the cuisine fusion, I picked spring rolls as a fresh, crunchy foil to the thick, savory soup. In thinking about what tweaks might be tasty to the familiar Thai classic, I brought in a hint of Szechuan, as well as a touch of Vietnamese for good measure. Keeping the fresh, light feel of the original, I used a base of shredded veg, but replaced plain with a lightly marinaded/pickled version similar to that of a Vietnamese banh mi. I kept the fresh Thai basil in there because, well, it’s damned tasty, but added just a hint of mint, too. Then, I match-sticked  some firm tofu and soaked it through the afternoon in a Szechuan-influenced marinade to use in both the spring rolls and soup.

Here’s how it goes …

Thai-inspired Hot and Sour Soup with Banh Mi Spring Rolls
serves 6-8 depending upon portion sizes

wet veg + spring roll wrapper = big fucking mess ... drain well!

Pickled Veg (in the style of Vietnamese banh mi)
⅓ cup sugar
1 TBSP kosher salt
2 cups hot water
2/3 cup white distilled vinegar
½ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup scallion greens only – very thinly sliced
1 cup daikon radish – shredded
1 cup carrot – shredded
1.5 cups bean sprouts
2 cups cabbage – shredded* (note in pre-prep)

Marinaded Tofu Matchsticks
1 pkg firm tofu (19 oz)
reserved tofu packaging water
4 TBSP black vinegar
3 TBSP Chinese rice wine
1.5 TBSP soy sauce
1 TBSP sesame oil
½ tsp tamarind concentrate
½ cup scallion light and white only – very thinly sliced

banh mi spring rolls with dipping sauce

Spring Rolls
spring roll wrappers
dipping water
fresh Thai basil
mint
cilantro
lime wedges
* note: If you want a nice dipping sauce, try mixing together equal parts soy sauce and black vinegar with a splash of rice vinegar and sesame oil. Keep a little fried chili garlic paste at the table for diners to add a dash with their chopsticks if desired.

Soup Base
12 dried shiitake mushrooms
3 cups hot water
1 large handful (about 1 cup) shredded dried woodear mushroom
1 cup hot water

soup base aromatics

6 cups water
(mushroom soaking water)
8 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 6-8” piece konbu seaweed – rinsed
2 pieces lemon grass – smashed and cut into pieces
3-4” piece of ginger – peeled and sliced no thicker than ¼”
6-8 ¼ – ⅓” slices galangal
½ cup cilantro stems (about 1 bunch) – cut into small pieces
4-6 cloves of garlic – peeled and smashed
2 small shallots – peeled and cut into small slices
¾ – 1 cup scallion white and light only – about 1 ½ bunches worth – cut into small pieces
1 TBSP soy sauce

*If we’d have had some available, I would also have added a handful of kaffir lime leaves, crumpled to release their oils.

Soup

Thai-inspired hot and sour soup

Mushroom broth ( base above)
shiitake mushrooms – all – stems removed and cut in julienned strips
woodear mushrooms – if not pre-shredded, cut in julienned strips
6 oz oyster mushrooms – stem ends removed and cut into julienned strips
4 TBSP soy sauce
3 TBSP rice wine
2 TBSP sesame oil
2 tsp tamarind concentrate
1 tsp fried chili garlic paste
1 tsp sugar
⅛ tsp ground white pepper
½ cup water chestnuts – minced
½ cup scallion greens only – thinly sliced
2 handfuls (as desired) bean sprouts
⅓ cup black vinegar
¼ cup rice vinegar
juice of 1 lime
3 TBSP corn starch
3 TBSP water
2 eggs – beaten well

*If I’d have made it to the further-out Chinese market, I’d have also added dried, reconstituted and julienned lily buds.

Pre-prep: (aprox 4-6 hours – or more – ahead)  Marinate vegetables and tofu
- In a large storage container or bowl, measure in sugar and salt then pour hot water over, stirring well until dissolved. Add vinegar and stir. As you prepare each vegetable, place them straight into the pickling mixture until all vegetables are done. Mix well and push gently over the top layer to help the vegetables submerge better. If possible, check once or twice during the 4 (or more) hour soak, mixing well and pushing down again.

*note: Like shredded cabbage in fish tacos, the cabbage in pickled veg doesn’t have enough time for the thicker spine bits to soften. Because of this, I’ll plan a different meal after these which calls for cooked cabbage. This way, I can cut off just the nicer-to-munch-raw tops of the leaves without wasting the other bits.

- Remove tofu pieces from the original container, saving the storage liquid. Slice the tofu, then slice further into small matchstick pieces and set aside. Add all marinade ingredients to the water in the original container and mix well. Place the tofu in a plastic bag and pour the marinade over, then squeeze out the air and store in the fridge. Like the veg, if possible, check on it during the process and flip the bag over.

Step 1: Soup Base
- In a large bowl, pour 3 cups hot water over 12 dried shiitake mushrooms. In another bowl, pour 1 cup of hot water over the woodear mushrooms (black fungus). Let them soak for about a half hour, then squeeze out excess water back into the bowl and set them aside for later.
- In a soup pot, heat all soup base ingredients on HIGH just until the pot comes to a boil. Then, remove from heat and let steep for 15 minutes. Remove konbu and return to a boil, then reduce to SIMMER for 1 hour. (This is an excellent time to slice mushrooms and prep herbs and ingredients for spring rolls … just sayin’ … You’ll also definitely want to put your pickled vegetables in a strainer over a bowl at least an hour before you intend to eat. Drippy veg + spring roll wrappers = big fucking mess.)
- Set shiitakes aside until cool enough to handle and strain the broth. Squeeze out any excess moisture in the mushrooms back into the pot.

Step 2: It’s SOUP!
- In the soup pot, return the base broth and add all the ingredients before the vinegar. Once the
bean sprouts are cooked as you like, add the vinegars and lime juice and stir.
- In a small bowl or cup, mix the corn starch and water very well, until perfectly smooth, and slowly pour in and stir until the soup is thickened.
- Slowly drizzle in the beaten eggs in small threads at the surface of the soup. (If you need to do several rounds to keep big glops of egg from forming, that’s swell!) Give it a moment or two to start to cook, then stir around to make egg threads. Repeat until egg is all incorporated.

Step 3: Serve!
- This is where your clever decision to prep the spring rolls while the base cooked pays off. The grooviest thing about spring rolls is that everyone can make theirs however they like. So just set out nifty ready to stuff ingredients with your wrappers and a water bowl to dunk them in. Then you can ladle out your soup and dig in!

Please pardon the iPhone pics. There wasn’t time to shoot proper food porn of this week’s meal.

Vegan Miso Soup with Mushrooms and Soba

In many parts of the world, the idea of going meatless is not a new or novel approach to eating. Being part of affluent (and, let’s admit, indulgent) cultures, it’s easy to forget there are many people for whom a mostly meatless diet is historically the norm. These cultures’ cuisines are a great place to look for delicious, healthy ideas for your Meatless Monday menus, so don’t overlook them.

Few cuisines make the most of every ingredient while retaining clean, simple flavors like Japanese. Though many of us may picture standard sushi bar fare when thinking about Japanese food, there is an extensive variety outside raw fish, teriyaki, and tempura in the cuisine. The beauty is, the approach remains the same, simple clean flavors with an economy of common ingredients. Later, we’ll get into Japanese home cooking and pub (izakaya) fare but, for today, we’ll keep it super-simple with vegan miso soup and soba noodles, a great light dish for hot summer nights.

Dashi is the master broth of many Japanese recipes, so a great staple for starting to explore Japanese cuisine. Granted, traditional dashi requires katsuobushi (shaved bonito), so we’ll tinker a bit to make it appropriate for Meatless Monday by substituting mushrooms, which will offer their own hearty umami flavor.  The upside: an additional treat (the cooked mushrooms) to add to your meal.

Konbu

Having moved from the melting pot of Southern California to not-so-diverse Florida, I know how difficult it can be to find authentic ingredients outside larger cities. Sometimes, specialty food chains carry a wide assortment of ethnic ingredients, but often at a premium. This is mind, I went a step further and substituted the more common brown crimini mushrooms instead of my favorite shitakes, just to be sure the broth will work using the most affordable and easiest-to-get ingredients. I’m fairly sure konbu, the seaweed base of dashi, should be available at any specialty or gourmet market at an affordable price. Of course, this is a must-have for making dashi, so has no appropriate substitute, anyway. Hopefully, you can get your hands on some, if not in person, then online. (Many authentic dried and non-perishable ingredients are available to order on the interwebs.)

Always make sure to check for ethnic markets in your area, too. They may be a little off your beaten path, but are worth the trip to get great ingredients, often at a significantly lower cost. Think of it this way, unless you live near a cultural enclave, your regular grocery store will consider ethnic ingredients as specialty items (and we all know what happens to prices when that happens). An ethnic market will consider those same items pantry staples, ingredients people buy (and they turn over) regularly, so the costs will reflect that shift in perception. If you’re not sure where to find markets, check out some of the great food resources online, like the helpful community at Chowhound.

Okay, enough of my yammering … let’s make some Meatless Monday dinner!

Vegan Miso Soup with Soba and Mushrooms

serves 4 dinner portions

Vegan Miso Soup

6 cups water
2 pieces of konbu (rinsed) – aprox 5×5″ each
ginger – peeled and sliced to 1/4″ (using a piece aprox 2″ wide by 4-6″ long, to taste)
6 scallions – whites and light green parts cut in 1″ long pieces and green ends  sliced thin to garnish
1 TBSP soy sauce
1 TBSP sesame oil
24 mushrooms – whole with stems trimmed (Use fresh or reconstituted dried shitake mushrooms -plus their steeping water- if available. If not, brown crimini mushrooms will work just fine.)
1 lb package of soba noodles
1/2 to 1 lb firm tofu (depending on desired portion size)
2-4 TBSP light (aka) miso paste (to taste) - You can also use heartier miso pastes, but it is not recommended since their stronger flavors can overpower this lighter, vegan base broth.
wakame seaweed for garnish (if available – may also be labelled “healthy sea vegetable”)

Step 1: The first step to making a Japanese base broth is steeping your konbu and aromatics. Grab a nice, big pot and measure in 6 cups of water (yes, water). Add the konbu, ginger, and white/light scallion.

Step2: Turn your burner to HIGH and let the water come just to the point where it’s about to boil. (You’ll see little bubbles starting to form and a soft rumbling on the surface.) Take the pot off the heat and let steep for about 25 minutes. (The time-frame is longer for this vegan version to infuse more flavor.)

Step 3: While your base is steeping, start up a pot of boiling water for the soba noodles and prep your mushrooms and tofu (as well as any other veg you’d like to add to your soup bowl or sides – see suggestions).

Step 4: Remove the konbu from the pot (For bonus Cheap Bastard points, set it aside to use later, like wrapping around fish or vegetables and steaming). Add your mushrooms, soy, and sesame and heat on HIGH just until the pot starts to boil. Then reduce to SIMMER for 15 minutes.

Step 5: While your mushrooms simmer, cook your soba noodles according to the package instructions. Once done, strain well while rinsing with cold water.

Step 6: Pinch off small amounts of soba noodles and rinse as a small strand, then lay each strand out on your plate in small sections for easy portioning. Set the noodles aside while you finish the soup.

Step 7: Remove the mushrooms from the pot and portion out into small bowls. Then strain the broth (if desired … this will prevent any accidental ginger-eating) and return it to the pot. Bring the broth to a boil and measure out 2-3 TBSP of your miso into a small bowl.

Step 8: Once the broth is bubbling, remove it from the heat and ladle a small amount into the miso bowl. Mix well (a small whisk is ideal for this), then add the miso base back to the broth while stirring well. Taste and repeat mixing miso base

The little bubbles tell you it's ready to steep

in 1TBSP increments until the soup is flavored as you like.

Step 9: In a soup bowl, add tofu, wakame, and scallion greens and ladle the soup over (to reconstitute the wakame). Serve immediately with the soba and mushrooms.

Other groovy suggestions:

Want a more substantial bowl of soup? Add some fresh vegetables before ladling in your soup. Just a few options are: shredded carrots, cabbage, and daikon radish; lightly steamed cabbage; bean sprouts; minced water chestnut; sliced bamboo shoots; chopped spinach; steamed broccoli.

Not a fan of tofu but still want to get your protein? Make a delicious miso porridge-like soup by substituting egg for tofu and steamed rice for noodles. This, of course, will render your vegan soup vegetarian, but still meatless. Before you add your miso base, keep the broth boiling and reserve a bit more in case you need to make more miso base. Beat 4 eggs well in a spouted vessel (like a pyrex measuring cup). Pour the beaten egg into the bubbling broth in a thin stream while stirring vigorously to create little ribbons of egg. Let the egg strands cook for a few moments until they set before removing the pot from the heat to add your miso base. If the taste is right for you, add the reserved broth back to the pot; otherwise, use it to mix more  miso base. When serving, instead of noodles on the side, add steamed rice to your soup bowl (along with the wakame and scallion garnishes) and ladle the soup over to make a hearty, porridge-like soup great on cold days for any meal.

Braise some baby bok choy in a cup of your base broth (without miso) for a great vegetable side. Add a cup of water plus a little extra of your base ingredients at the start of cooking to have enough broth for braising liquid. Clean the bok choy well and cut into quarters length-wise. Bring the braising liquid to a boil, then add the bok choy and stir until the edges of the leaves just start to wilt. Then, cover and simmer at the lowest heat possible until the thicker portions of the stalk are cooked through (this should probably take about 20-30 minutes). Bring extra flavor to your bok choy by adding a bit of soy, sesame oil, ginger, etc. to the base broth for your braising liquid.

Mushrooms and soba, ready to serve

Spinach also works great with Japanese flavors and is readily available anywhere. Heat a TBSP each of canola and sesame oil on MED in a large pot. Add a TBSP of minced garlic and 1 tsp grated ginger. (Porcelain ginger graters are readily available at Japanese markets or online and are a HUGE time/energy saver.) Stir well for about a minute. Add spinach by the handful, stirring until the leaves begin to wilt before adding more. Then, add a drizzle each of soy and rice vinegar and mix well until all the spinach is completely wilted and flavors are incorporated. Serve immediately.

Pickles are a tasty Japanese staple food. One to three days before your meal, prep your vegetables (slice or shred into small pieces) and let them brine in the fridge in a mix of 2 TBSP kosher salt, ¼ cup sugar, 2 cups hot water, and 1 cup vinegar (or a touch more to taste if you like tart pickles – rice, cider, or plain old white vinegar work well), maybe even a touch of soy if you’d like to add some umami saltiness. If you want to get a little tricky (and spicy), try adding a bit of wasabi or a few Thai red chili peppers to the mix. If the brine doesn’t cover your vegetables, mix another batch more until it does; your vegetables need to be immersed. Mix well a couple times a day. Your pickled vegetables will keep in the fridge for at least a week, so make extras to munch as a healthy, crunchy snack. Some readily-available vegetables that work great for quick, cold pickling are Persian cucumbers (or peeled/seeded regular cukes), radish, daikon radish, shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, cauliflower, green beans, and green tomatoes.

Well, that’s the Meatless Monday lot for this week. Hope your week is a good one! See you next week with more recipes and food porn!