moo shu seitan

This northern Chinese dish is typically made with cabbage, wood ear mushrooms, lily buds, eggs and animals. It is also more often than not made with hoisin sauce, a Chinese barbecue sauce, of sorts, made with bean paste, soy sauce and chiles.

In this delicious vegan rendition, we make our own hoisin sauce as part of the dish using red miso, sambal oelek and tamari.

It is important to note the distinction between white and red miso - white miso is fermented for only a few short months, is sweeter, milder and is the main ingredient in miso soup. Red miso, dark miso and the like, are fermented for more than a year, more often up to three years, is more pungent, is darker and saltier and not sweet.

While hoisin is made with soybean paste and not miso, dark miso is very close in flavor and robustness to soybean paste and is more readily available in stores near you.

The seitan I used is from Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N); it is robust, hearty and stands up well to grilling, sauteing and searing. It is the perfect replacement for the traditional meat in this quick stir-fry.

My hubby and I adore wood ear mushrooms, which are curiously black on one side and white on the other when dried, but rehydrate to a dark purple. These mushrooms are very toothsome and give a nice bite without any overpowering mushroom flavor. If you can find it, great, but it not use shiitakes or even button mushrooms.

Moo Shu is served with Mandarin pancakes and they are incredibly easy to make, but if you'd rather not, then just serve the filling with flour tortillas.

Moo Shu Seitan

Serves 4

Mandarin Pancakes:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seed oil

Sauce:

2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

2 tablespoons reduced-sodium tamari

1 tablespoon red miso

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon sambal oelek

Black pepper

Seitan:

1 pound seitan medallions

2 tablespoons arrowroot starch or cornstarch

1 (1-inch) piece ginger, grated

4 garlic cloves, sliced

Stir-fry:

2 tablespoons neutral oil

1 cup wood ear mushrooms, rehydrated in hot water, drained and rinsed

1 small cabbage, shredded

5 scallions, minced

1. Pancakes: Combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Add the water and stir using a fork. Knead lightly and set aside for 20 minutes. Knead until smooth on floured surface and divide into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and flatten using your palm. Spread ½ teaspoon oil on one disk and top with another disk. Press together and roll into a 6 to 7 inch circle.

2. Preheat a skillet over medium heat and spray with oil. Cook one rolled disk for 20 seconds, covered with a lid. Flip and cook uncovered until puffy, another 30 seconds. Remove from pan, separate the disk into 2 pieces and keep warm between kitchen towels. Repeat with the other 3 pairs.

3. Sauce: Combine the vinegar, tamari, miso, sugar, sambal oelek and black pepper, to taste, in a small bowl. Whisk well until smooth and set aside.

4. Seitan: Combine the seitan, starch, ginger and garlic in a shallow pan. Mix well using your hands to massage the seitan. Set aside.

5. Stir-fry: Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat. Add the seitan and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the cabbage and scallions and cook until wilted, about 4 more minutes. Stir in the sauce and cook until thickened, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve the stir-fry with the pancakes.

Substitute: Substitute 8 (6-inch) flour tortillas for the pancakes. Substitute 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms for the wood ears.

© 2015 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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eggplant sriracha bbq burger

Day 14 VeganMoFo Burger Hoopla continues with this Eggplant Sriracha BBQ Burger with Zucchini Slaw. This is an Asian-inspired burger of eggplant slices grilled and basted in Sriracha BBQ Sauce.

There are Asian flavors spiking this burger throughout, in the BBQ sauce and the slaw: tamari, sriracha, sesame seed oil, rice vinegar and Chinese 5-spice powder. I love using that spice because most of us have it in the back of the cabinet, yet seldom get the chance to cook with it; it adds so much flavor!

You can see all those wonderful flavors coating the grilled eggplants. So good and so fast!

As an aside, you can see hot hot it is in San Diego: we don't have central air, and as soon as I took the bottle of sriracha out of the fridge, it immediately began to condense the water from the air and the label got all soggy. Sheesh.

Oops! Who is that?! Jimmy photobombed my shoot. He took a sniff, turned right around, not being one for eggplant, and promptly went to the back of the table to lay down for the duration. Spot him in the remaining photos.

As soon as I moved the food out of the way, he claimed his rightful spot in the front. I've noticed that he and I are taking turns using the table!

This burger is outrageously good! Even my youngest took a careful bite, looked at me wide-eyed and said, "I cannot believe I like this so much - it has everything I don't like!" She dislikes eggplant, ginger, ziucchini and bbq sauce.

Goes to prove that the sum of the parts can be very different than the parts themselves.

EGGPLANT SRIRACHA BBQ BURGER PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Eggplant Sriracha BBQ Burger with Zucchini Slaw

Makes 4 to 6 burgers

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided

1 teaspoon toasted sesame seed oil

1 small onion, minced

6 garlic cloves, minced

⅔ cups ketchup

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon reduced sodium tamari

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 teaspoons sriracha (or more)

1 tablespoon brown sugar

½ teaspoon Chinese 5-spice powder

½ teaspoon dry ground ginger

2 tablespoons vegetable broth

1 large eggplant, cut into ¾-inch slices (you will need 8 slices for 4 burgers)

4 to 6 (3-inch) buns, not sliced

Vegan Mayonnaise, to taste

Zucchini Slaw, recipe below

1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and sesame oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until golden, about 8 minutes. Add the ketchup, 2 tablespoons tamari, vinegar, sriracha, brown sugar, 5-spice and ginger, stir and cook over medium-low for 8 minutes to thicken and marry flavors. Remove from heat.

2. Combine the remaining teaspoon oil and tamari and the vegetable broth in a large bowl. Toss the eggplant in the marinade and set aside while grill pan preheats.

3. Heat a grill pan over medium heat. Spray each slice of eggplant with oil before placing on grill pan. Cook the eggplant until almost tender, about 2 minutes per side. Baste the eggplant with the BBQ sauce and cook until glazed and the eggplant is tender, about 1 more minute per side.

4. Toast the buns to warm. Cut the buns in half almost all the way through, but not completely. This will help keep the sandwich together. Spread a little mayo on one side of the bun, add 2 eggplant slices, a bit more BBQ sauce and top generously with the slaw. Serve.

Zucchini Slaw

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon reduced-sodium tamari

2 tablespoons brown sugar

½ teaspoon fresh ground ginger

1 garlic clove. minced

1 medium zucchini, julienned or grated (use a julienne peeler)

2 cups shredded baby kale

¼ small onion, grated

2 tablespoons minced cilantro

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

1. Combine the lime juice, tamari, sugar, ginger and garlic in a large bowl.

2. Add the zucchini, kale, onion and cilantro. Toss to mix. Season with salt and black pepper.

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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If you haven't seen the giveaway for the cookbook Vegan Tacos by Jason Wyrick, it is HERE. Don't miss it.

rou jia mo [chinese burger]

Day 6 Burger Extravaganza takes us to China. Indeed, China does have a version of a burger, but not in the same sense as the western burger. It is more of a street-food sandwich, but since it is referred to as "Chinese Burger" it made my list of burgers.

Rou Jia Mo is widely loved and universally accepted as just basically an amazing burger. My investigation into this masterpiece of sandwiches took me to You Tube, since there isn't much of any recipes online to research and learn from.

I found one video that was filmed in China and a street vendor is shown making the sandwich. If you are interested here is the link. Be warned, it is not vegan or even vegetarian. The sandwich is made starting at the 6 minute mark.

I used tofu as the protein because tofu will absorb the flavorful cooking broth. When the sandwich is prepared, the tofu should be chopped well with plenty of broth for it to continue to absorb. In the video the lady is shown chopping and adding pepper, cilantro and cucumber as she chops the cooked meat before adding it to the Mo bread.

I decided to make the veggies into a light salad to add on top of the tofu, which I think is prettier and because the tofu is so rich, it provides a welcome acidity.

The traditional sandwich is very rich because the broth is a bit fatty (I've cut it way down, but if you cut it even further, you will lose a lot of the appeal of the burger), but I tell you, after my first pass at a taste test, I couldn't resist testing it again - over and over again.

The broth is spiked with all kinds of wonderful Asian spices (I've read that up to 25 spices are typically used in this dish), but because I limited the spices, I added Chinese 5-spice as it brings lots of flavor to the broth in one little bottle.

With the burger filling all done, the attention turns to the bread. Pillowy, light, soft but with chew. After much, much research, I made a really great rendition of Mo. The Mo takes about an hour to rest, but there is no yeast in the dough, so it is not a difficult bread to make.

If you insist on using a store-bought bread, use an English Muffin or a pita, but it won't be as good. The bread is really an integral part of this sandwich.

Bottom line, Rou Jia Mo is definitely on our make-again list.

ROU JIA MO - CHINESE BURGER - PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Rou Jia Mo - Chinese Burger

Makes 4 to 6 burgers

¼ cup unflavored coconut oil

1 (14 to 16 ounce) firm tofu, pressed 30 minutes, cut into ½-inch slices

1 medium onion, chopped

4 whole cloves

2 small red chilies (or more)

2 cinnamon sticks

1 anise pod

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 (2-inch) piece ginger, grated

2 cups vegetable broth

2 tablespoons fermented black bean garlic sauce

1 tablespoon reduced-sodium tamari

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon brown sugar, divided

1 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice seasoning

2 medium carrots, julienned

1 medium cucumber, julienned

1 medium bell pepper, julienned

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seed oil

¼ cup chopped cilantro

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

Mo bread, recipe below

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the tofu slices until golden brown and crisp, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

2. Add the onion, clove, chilies, cinnamon, anise and coriander to the oil in the skillet. Stir and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the ginger and cook for another minute. Transfer to a large pot (with all the oil) and stir in the broth, black bean sauce, tamari, 1 tablespoon sugar and 5-spice. Stir well and add the tofu. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.

3. Make the salad by combining the carrot, cucumber, bell pepper, vinegar, sesame seed oil, cilantro, 1 teaspoon sugar and salt and black pepper, to taste, in a large bowl. Set aside.

4. To make the burgers, transfer 2 pieces of tofu to a work surface and chop well, adding onions and simmering broth to moisten the tofu as you chop. Cut a piece of Mo in half almost all the way through and stuff it with the chopped tofu and onions. Add more sauce to moisten and top with plenty of pickled vegetables. Serve immediately.

Mo Bread

2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons water

Neutral oil, as needed

1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor. Pulse to combine.  Add the water and process until the dough comes together. Transfer to a large bowl and knead to combine into a ball. Spray the bowl with oil, return the dough to the bowl and cover with a plastic wrap. Set aside to rest for 30 minutes.

2. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Return to the bowl, cover and set aside for another 30 minutes.

3. Divide the dough into 6 pieces, form into balls, and roll the dough pieces into a 3-inch circle.

4. Heat ½ teaspoon oil a large skillet over medium heat. Add a rolled out dough and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes per side. Do not burn.  

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

Vegan Heritage Press is giving away a copy of "Everyday Vegan Eats" (my cookbook). Enter to win HERE. Contest ends September 14.

Have you entered to win "Vegan without Borders," the soon-to-be-released cookbook by Robin Robertson? Contest ends September 14. Enter HERE.

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bok choy and chickpeas over ginger polenta bowl

Lunch at our house these days leaves little time for cooking, but the meals continue to be needed. Couple the demand for food, about thirty minutes to cook and seasonal produce and you have the making of bowl meals.

This time I wanted to use beautiful baby bok choy that had been delivered a few days before and when I think of bok choy, I immediately think of Asian food.

I decided to saute my bok choy and serve it with chickpeas that had been sauteed with a little sesame seed oil. As soon as the chickpeas hit the pan, I knew that these beans were the bridge to making creamy polenta, studded with slices of ginger and chili flakes.

I made a simple sauce using tamari and vegetable broth and lunch was ready quickly.

While creamy polenta might not be the first thing someone thinks of as a foil for Asian food, it was really delicious. Since my hubby is away this week, I was secretly a little glad that I got to eat more than my fair share. It was a little surprising how wonderful spicy, garlic and ginger creamy polenta can be!

BOK CHOY AND CHICKPEAS OVER SPICY GINGER-SCENTED POLENTA BOWL 

PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Bok Choy over Spicy Ginger-Scented Polenta and Chickpeas Bowl   

Serves 4

2 tablespoons neutral oil, divided

10 garlic cloves, minced, divided

1 to 2 teaspoons red chili flakes

3 ½ to 4 cups unsweetened plain vegan milk

1 (1-inch) piece ginger, (half sliced thin and the other half finely grated), divided

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 cup polenta or medium-grind cornmeal

1 (15.5-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed, drained and patted dry

3 teaspoons toasted sesame seed oil, divided

10 ounces baby bok choy, halved through the stem

6 tablespoons vegetable broth

2 tablespoons reduced-sodium tamari

1. Heat 1 tablespoon neutral oil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Stir in 6 minced garlic cloves and the chili flakes and cook until the garlic is golden, about 1 minute. Stir in 3 ½ cups milk, the sliced ginger and salt. Bring the milk to a simmer and using a whisk, slowly add the polenta while whisking the milk. Bring the milk back to a simmer, lower the heat until the polenta barely bubbles. Cook until the polenta is tender, stirring frequently, about 25 minutes. When the polenta is cooked, stir in additional milk, up to ½ cup, to achieve a creamy consistency. Remove and discard the garlic slices, if desired.

2. While the polenta is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil and the chickpeas. Season the chickpeas with a little salt and cook until the chickpeas are golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Remove from the skillet and set aside.

3. Add 1 tablespoon neutral oil and 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil to the still hot skillet. Add the halved boy choy, cut side down, and cook until lightly charred and crisp-tender, about 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the skillet and set aside.

4. Heat the remaining teaspoon of sesame seed oil in the still hot skillet. Reduce the skillet heat to medium and stir in the grated ginger and the remaining garlic. Cook until the garlic is golden. Carefully add the vegetable broth and tamari. Stir and cook until the sauce reduces by one-quarter.

5. To serve, divide the polenta into 4 bowls, top each bowl with an equal amount of bok choy, chickpeas and sauce. Serve immediately.

© 2014 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

I'd like to give a shout-out to GiGi over at Veganville. She was one of my irreplaceable testers for Everyday Vegan Eats. GiGi is right this very minute running a contest to giveaway a copy of EVE to one lucky US or Canada resident. If you don't have it, yet, here is an opportunity to win it. 

WIN A COPY AT VIGANVILLE!

She is sharing the recipe for the Seafood variation of Marinated Tofu from Everyday Vegan Eats. With the marinated tofu you can make such recipes as this No-Fish Filet Sandwich:

Some of you may not know that GiGi runs the very divine vegan bakery on etsy: Veganville Bakery. 

My son just celebrated his 19th birthday last month and I ordered a few boxes of GiGi's voopee pies for his special day. I asked GiGi not to have it delivered until his birthday because, well, they might not last long enough to make it to his birthday! 

Let me tell you that we are not short on sweets at our house, so it wasn't that my kids were hankering for sugar, but they inhaled these beauties! Veganville was nominated by VegNews for the best online bakery, and it is no surprise. 

We procured two boxes: Assorted Gift Box and Assorted Chocolate Love Box. And not a single voopee pie was left. 

Thank you, GiGi! We all LOVED the voopee pies!

I am linking to these recipe parties: Healthy Vegan Fridays. and What I Ate Wednesday. 

 

indonesian stir-fried noodles + "one-dish vegan" winner

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It was my youngest daughter’s birthday yesterday – she turned 14. She likes to think that now she is officially a teenager, as 13 was just too close to being a “tween.” She requested a strawberry-lemonade birthday cake for her party and a spaghetti bar, complete with vegan meatballs and homemade sauce. She got all three.

If you are interested in seeing just exactly what a “strawberry-lemonade” cake might look like, I have it posted on my facebook page here. Holler for the recipe – I’m happy to share.

Since her birthday week menu officially ended yesterday, having consisted of "healthful" fare such as vegan pups in a blanket, pizza, vegan broccoli cheese soup (this actually being the better of her choices!), vegan shamrock shake and other cookies and sweets, I decided to make something for lunch today that was full of veggies, as it was woefully lacking this past week.

For lunch today we had Indonesian Stir-Fried Noodles with baby kale, cabbage and broccoli. A very fast and easy dish to toss together in under 30 minutes even if you have to cook the pasta first; just chop the veggies while the water boils.

Indonesian Stir-Fried Noodles Recipe

On a separate note, I have recently discovered vegan recipe parties that a few blogs are hosting and since this was a delicious, easy and healthy meal, I have decided to enter this recipe. The blogs hosting Healthy Vegan Fridays are Suzanne at Hello Veggie, Anna at Herbivore Triathlete, and Kimmy at Rock My Vegan Socks.  

The blog hosting Gluten-Free Fridays is Vegetarian Mamma.

I’ve also decided to submit this dish to What I Ate Wednesday hosted by Peas and Crayons since, well, it is Wednesday and all!

Finally, to wrap things up and leave no string unattached, today is the day to announce the winner of One-Dish Vegan by Robin Robertson. Her new book features such completely amazing meals such as …., … and ….. If you weren’t lucky enough (and I am so so sorry about that!) to win my copy, I encourage you to get one anyway; it is a really great book, with creative and wonderfully tasty meals. Since I've made around 30 or so recipes from it, I know!

The winner of Robin’s book is comment number: 25 by Timi Caswell.

Please respond to zsu at zsusveganpantry dot com with your mailing address so I can get this to you asap!

And a big thank you to everyone for entering! I will be hosting more giveaways next month, so bookmark this site, or follow via those handy buttons on the top right of this blog.

All the best,

Zsu

char siu tofu bánh mì

The Food Network is currently airing their fourth season of the Great Food Truck Race. Ever since the first season, when the Nom Nom Truck was a contender, I have been dying to make a bánh mì sandwich, one that is just as great as the Nom Nom Truck's. Difficult to tell though, since I can't taste the show's sandwich.

Last week the Food Network aired a rerun of the first season and all those desires came flooding back: I needed to finally make a bánh mì.

 In recent years, bánh mì, a Vietnamese baguette sandwich, has taken the U.S. by storm. The sandwich, or some variation there of, has shown up in a multitude of places, including the vegan world.  

There is a killer bánh mì sandwich in Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day! by Tamasin Noyes and Celine Steen and Robin Robertson has her own spin on this popular sandwich in One-Dish Vegan called 

the Bánh Mìzza.:

Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day!

One-Dish Vegan

Both of the above culinary masterpieces are amazing, so grab the books and start cooking. Naturally, these are not recipes I can share with you, but I can share the version I made.

I chose to make a Char Siu Bánh Mì. 

First things first:  we need to define just exactly what a "bánh mì" is. It is a Vietnamese baguette  sandwich with a (meat) filling, pickled vegetables, jalapenos, cucumbers and cilantro.

The pickled vegetables are a local replacement for the French cornichon pickles, which was an expensive ingredient for the local folks. The French influence, also responsible for the bread itself, is because of French colonization of the local region in the 1800's.

Char Siu is Asian barbecue pork. It is sweet, sticky, and bright red. Most Asian countries have adopted this Cantonese staple and have adapted it to suit their own needs and tastes. I am falling in line and adapting it to my tastes and needs. I used pressed tofu as the base. After marinating the tofu in the BBQ sauce, I baked it and then broiled it to achieve that  "burnt" or "siu" componenet that this dish is known for. 

I pickled daikon and carrots in a simple brine for about three days before making the sandwich. My bánh mì is served with the char siu, daikon pickles, cilantro, jalapenos, sauteed shiitake and onions, and my Cilantro-Sriracha Sauce. 

It is a little involved to make this sandwich: pickling the veggies, pressing and baking the tofu and all that slicing and dicing.  

 The hype alone that surrounds this sandwich is a good enough reason to spend a few hours in the kitchen. Decide for yourself - tasty enough for all that effort? In the end, we thought it was well worth it.

Char Sui Tofu + Daikon and Carrot Pickles + Cilanto-Sriracha Sauce 

Char Siu Tofu Printer-Friendly Recipe

Daikon and Carrot Pickles Printer-Friendly Recipe

Char Siu Bánh Mì Printer-Friendly Recipe