VEGAN FEAST SUBSCRIBERS' COOKING AND RECIPE FORUM>

Bi-Weekly recipes-- faux "seafood"

Bryanna Owner/Moderator 811 posts Feb 22, 2005 5:04 PM	Some of you may have seen these recipes, but, then, maybe not! ---------- "To look like a goddess, eat like a peasant." Karen Andres
Debbie 560 posts Feb 23, 2005 8:14 AM	Hey Bryanna, Glad you are posting this recipe (Faux Salmon). I am going to try it. Yes! I have been trying to develop faux fish recipe and made faux eel to make Japanese Unagi (Unagi Donburi), Grilled 'Eel' on rice. It came out pretty good. I don't know how many subscribers like Japanese food but we used to love it when we weren't a vegetarian. ---------- Debbie Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
JulieH 119 posts Feb 23, 2005 9:27 AM	Bryanna, would it work to substitue kelp powder for the dulse flakes? I was wondering because I have kelp powder in my cabinet. Debbie, I love Japanese food and actually teach a lot of Japanese cooking classes (that's what we were teaching in Newport). I do the vegetarian portion, my husband does the seafood. But I would love to get your recipe for the unagi. Julie
Bryanna Owner/Moderator 813 posts Feb 23, 2005 12:56 PM	You could try kelp powder, Julie, but I find I have to be careful with it-- it can be obtrusive. Debbie, I found this Japanese recipe for vegetarian "eel", but haven't tried it yet: VEGETARIAN "EEL" OVER RICE (UNAJU OR UNAGI DONBURI) (serves 4) (from "Japanese Cooking: Contemporary and Traditional" by Miyoko Schinner, BPC)) 10 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked 1/2 c. rehydrated wakame seaweed 1/2 c. (packed) soaked yuba 2 T. soy sauce 1 T. mirin (or dry sherry) 3 T. glutinous rice flour 4 sheets nori (seaweed sheets for nori sushi) 2 T. oil "Tare sauce" (see below) 4 c. hot rice Place the shiitake and wakame in a food processor and process until finely minced. Shred the yuba in small pieces. Mix the yuba with the wakame mixture and season wit the soy sauce andf wine. Mix in the rice flour. Divide this into fourths and place a mound on each sheet of nori. Pat it out into a rectangle, and fold the nori over the mixture to form a packet (how big?? what shape??), sealing the nori with water to make it stick. Heat the oil in a frying pan, and saute the "eel" on both sides til crispy. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of the Tare Sauce to the pan and flip the "eel" over a couple of times to allow the sauce to penetrate. Place hot rice in 4 individual bowls, place a piece of "eel" on top of each, and pour 2 or 3 T. of the sauce over each piece again, this time allowing the sauce to flavor the rice. Seve immediately. TARE SAUCE: 1/3 c. Sucanat 1/2 c. Konbu (kombu) Dashi (see below) 1/2 c. soy sauce 3 T. mirin (or dry sherry) Combine and simmer all the ingredients for 5-10 minutes, or until the mixture forms a thin syrup. KONBU DASHI: use shiitake or Asian dried mushroom soaking water simmered with konbu, or just water or light vegetarian broth simmered with konbu. I also found these Chinese recipes for vegetarian "eel" but haven't tried them yet; STIR-FRIED MOCK "EEL" From http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blrecipe371.htm Ingredients: 60 grams (slightly more than 1/4 cup) dried black mushrooms (with large caps if possible, it will look better) 80 grams (slightly more than 1/3 cup) whole bamboo shoots 12 pieces small pak choi (bok choy) or other green vegetables 1/2 carrot (medium sized) 2 tablespoons cornstarch SEASONING 1/3 cup water or soaking liquid from mushrooms 1/2 teaspoon sugar 3/4 teaspoon salt SAUCE 1 teaspoon cornstarch 2 tablespoons water 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce 1 tablespoon sesame oil Oil for deep-frying and stir-frying Directions: Wash the mushrooms and soak to soften. While the mushrooms are soaking, prepare the other vegetables. Peel the carrot and shred. Rinse the bamboo shoots, cut in half and shred. Save the soaking liquid from the mushrooms if desired. Remove the mushrooms stalks and squeeze out any excess water. Cut into pieces about 1 centimeter thick. Prepare the seasoning and the sauce ingredients and set aside. Add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to the mushrooms and mix well. Heat wok and add oil for deep-frying. When oil is ready, add the mushrooms and fry on high heat until they are crispy. Clean out the wok. Add water for boiling pak choi and bring to a boil. (You will need to boil them in batches). Add a bit of oil and salt to the water and cook until done. Drain the pak choi. If desired, place the pak choi a baking tray and put in the oven to keep warm, covering with another dish so that it doesn't dry out. Add 2 tablespoons of oil in wok. When oil is ready, stir-fry the bamboo shoots and carrots on high heat. Add the seasoning, stirring. Give the sauce mixture a quick re-stir and add, stirring gently. Add the mushrooms and sesame oil and mix. Serve hot over the pak choi. ******************** Here's another; CHINESE VEGETARIAN “EEL” 1/4 lb. dried Chinese black mushrooms Soak these in hot water to cover for half an hour. Squeeze and cut around the stem (discard stem) to form long strips. Add : 1 and 1/2 T. beet juice for color. Add: 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 T. EnerG egg replacer beaten with 2 T. water 1 T. soy sauce 1 T. cornstarch 1/2 tsp. pepper 1/2 tsp. sesame oil (roasted) 1/4 tsp. Chinese 5-spice powder Deep fry the strips until crispy and golden. Stir-fry 1/4 lb. vegetables (green beans, sprouts, etc) in 1 T. oil. Add the fried mushroom strips at the last minute and serve immediately. ---------- "To look like a goddess, eat like a peasant." Karen Andres
Debbie 561 posts Feb 23, 2005 1:59 PM	Bryanna, Yes, I tried the first recipe from Miyoko Schinner. I have that cookbook. It is a good book but for this one I didn't like the texture. It was soft and pasty like. It needed to be steamed first, I think. Or maybe there are too much shiitake mushrooms. I made my own too with fresh yuba (without shiitake mushrooms) combined with some flour (I want to try chickpea flour) then steam it. I like the texture but at that time I used kelp powder. The texture was good but don't have the strong 'seafoody' flavor. So using my recipe with wakame in it would be good. I will try to write everything down. Miyoko is right about using wakame which really brings out the 'sea' flavor. Julie, It is very easy actually. If you can get fresh yuba from Asian market, it is the best. Fresh yuba is also called beancurd sheets. I haven't tried using dried beancurd sheets but I suppose it will work too if you soak it first. Using wakame (soak it first) brings out the 'fishy' flavor if you want the 'fish' to have a strong sea flavor. Then, process the ingredients in the food processor, add some seasonings (mushroom powder, onion powder, salt). Use a nori for sushi, pat the ingredients down thin on half of the nori, lengthwise. Then, cover it with the other half of the nori, seal it with water, make it look like a thin fish fillet. I steam the fish fillet first for 20-30 minutes. Then, really cool them down and put them in the fridge until firm and set. The sauce is really easy. I use equal amount of Japanese soy sauce (Yamasa or kikkoman), Japanese sweet mirin, and 3 Tbsp sugar. Boil it for 5 minutes. I use a fork to stab the fillet in several place so the sauce can be absorbed to the fillet. Pan fry the thin fillet on a non-stick frying pan. Flip it so the other side is crispy too. The nori will be crispy. Once the fish is crispy, pour the sauce over. The sauce will be boiling and thickened. Flip the fillet several times to soak the sauce and cook for several minutes. At the end, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds (1 tbsp). Serve immediately on Japanese short grain rice. I like to accompany this dish with miso tofu soup. I really have to write the recipe down. :-D We love Japanese food. When I cook Japanese food, I serve them in a Japanese way too, using decorated ceramic rice and soup bowls, those little cute ceramic bowls, bamboo chopsticks, and a Japanese tea set. I make Green Tea with Roasted Brown Rice (GenMai Cha). Yummy! Debbie ---------- Debbie Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
Søren 132 posts Feb 23, 2005 2:42 PM	What? Vegetarians don't eat fish??? Søren
Søren 133 posts Feb 23, 2005 2:47 PM	Just kidding (before someone kills me!) The faux veg. "seafood" is indeed an interesting theme, Bryanna, and one that is commonly ignored in most veggie cookbooks. I was never fond of seafood when I was an omni but I have enjoyed several of your "fishy" recipes like the smoked haddock from the last newsletter although I did use too much kelp powder to Bjarne's taste (as you warned, it can be obtrusive). I also like the chowder recipes from your "20 minutes" a lot, and we've also tried your "fish cakes" from the same book a couple of times. Søren PS! By the way, Debbie, the Japanese kitchen is one I'm not particularly crazy about. At least not so far. Chinese, Indian, Italian, anything Bryanna, yes, but the Japanese haven't really pleased me much. Last Edited Søren on 23-Feb-2005 2:49 PM
Bryanna Owner/Moderator 814 posts Feb 23, 2005 4:31 PM	You sound like my husband, Søren! He never liked seafood before becoming vegetarian, either. He refuses to eat seaweed, though I can sneak it discreetly into some things, and he hates smoked tofu because it reminds him of smoked salmon! (more for me!) They have a great nori-wrapped veggie "salmon" made from textured soy at the lotus pond restaurant in Victoria, but I can't figure out how they get the texture. My husband also does not like japanese that much, but my Dad loved it and we used to go to japanese restaurants alot when i was a kid. We have two good friends here on Denman who are Japanese and they make great vegetarian food for us! They make 'homestyle' food that you wouldn't find in restaurants. Have you tried Inari Sushi from one of the past issues (I'll have to check)? Brian really likes that. ---------- "To look like a goddess, eat like a peasant." Karen Andres

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