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VEGAN FEAST SUBSCRIBERS' COOKING AND RECIPE FORUM>
Looking for "Simply Heavenly" Abbot George Burke
Val
63 posts
Apr 12, 2005
12:27 PM
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Hi, I'm looking for a copy of "Simply Heavenly" by Abbot George Burke. I can't find it in any of the bookstores I checked out and the cheapest I found it for online was $40. Just wondering if anyone has an extra copy, or is looking to get rid of theirs for a reasonable price.
Thanks!
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Val
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Val
65 posts
Apr 12, 2005
11:48 PM
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Just bought one.
Thanks!
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Val
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Debbie
654 posts
Apr 13, 2005
10:44 AM
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Val,
What's the special about that cookbook? Honestly, I have never heard of it. :-)
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Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
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Val
66 posts
Apr 13, 2005
11:17 AM
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Debbie, it's an out of print, vegan cookbook that has about 1,400 recipes from an Orthodox Monastery in Nebraska(the monks compiled it for over 20 years). It's basically a "fake meat" book. There are great recipes in it, and I imagine it's similar to the kind of "meat" vegan Buddhist monks would cook too (which is something I've been looking for).
I found out that the $40 book was actually from 1992 and I ended up paying more for one that was from 1997 (which apparently is an udpated and expanded version). I've also decided to get one for my sister (who's a vegetarian) and so I'm back to looking for one again :)
I'll let you know what the recipes are like, ok? It's too bad that it's out of print now. That's why it's so expensive. It was originally sold for only about $16 brand new!!
I found a recipe from this cookbook online, and maybe I'll just post it here for you. I'm going to try it this evening.
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Val
Last Edited Val on 13-Apr-2005 11:51 AM
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Val
67 posts
Apr 13, 2005
11:40 AM
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Debbie, one thing I forgot to mention is that some recipes in the Simply Heavenly cookbook have MSG, so you have to adapt those to make them without MSG.
Here's a link that uses a recipe from Simply Heavenly and Bryanna's recipe too.
http://www.ellenskitchen.com/forum/messages/1416.html
P.S. Debbie, for some reason I couldn't get a live link in there, so I've just pasted the address above.
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Val
Last Edited Val on 13-Apr-2005 11:53 AM
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Debbie
655 posts
Apr 13, 2005
1:38 PM
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Val,
Thanks so much for the info! I am curious now about the recipes in this cookbook. Let me know if you find a really good recipe. :-) We can replace the MSG broth with Bryanna's broth.
BTW, for 'seafood' fake meat, I found that kombu seaweed is not strong enough for me. I like to use wakame seaweed.
I am familiar with ellen's kitchen web site. She is not a vegetarian but really knowledgeable about recipes of all sort of stuff.
My Indonesian Seitan Satay recipe is posted in her web site with picture of it. :-)
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Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
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Val
68 posts
Apr 13, 2005
6:14 PM
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Sure Debbie, I'll let you know if there are any good recipes in it (and I'm sure there are). I'll just email you the recipes that are good.
Thanks for the tip on kombu and wakame. I'll have to remember that for future reference when I need to make a fish substitute.
I'll check out your satay recipe on Ellen's kitchen website. Is it the same one that is on Bryanna's site, or is it an earlier version ?
How are you enjoying your Thai cookbook ? Have you ever made any vegan sambal recipes ? My grandma used to made a really good coconut sambal recipe, and I'm going to try to make it this weekend. The only problem is that I haven't been able to find unsweetened dessicated coconut. Have you ever found it anywhere ?
Gotta go cook now. Will check back later.
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Val
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Debbie
656 posts
Apr 14, 2005
8:34 AM
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Val,
Yes, my satay recipe is the same one on both sites.
I really like the Buddha's Table cookbook. I haven't tried the other one yet. However, his recipe is mostly too sweet for us so I just need to adjust the sugar content. It is also too hot and I just have to reduce the amount of Thai chillies. For example, one recipe suggests 3 tbsp. minced Thai chillies. Man, we can't take that. Can you take that much spicyness? I maybe able too when I was young and was still in Indonesia. But now I am a whim in eating hot and spicy food, out of practice and eat too much bland western food. :-)
I will email you several of Thai recipes if you want. I will ask Bryanna to email my email address to you.
Yes, I have made vegan sambal. One that I like is Thai Roasted Chili with Tamarind. I will email you the recipe.
I found dry unsweetened dessicated coconut in Wild Oat market, in a pkg. You can re-constitute it. But if you want really good dessicated coconut that is not dry, you have to buy a real coconut. Most Asian or Hispanic markets now carry it and it is cheap, 99 cents each. Then, I whacked it with the back of a cleaver, take the juice out, peel the hard brown shell, peel the soft brown skin from the white coconut meat, and grate it with a special grater. The special grater: Microplane spice grater is the only brand than can grate it right. It is the BEST tasting desscicated coconut, far better than those dry ones. I have done this for Indonesian desserts and cooking. :-)
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Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
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Debbie
657 posts
Apr 14, 2005
10:39 AM
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Val,
You can also buy frozen dessicated unsweetened coconut in Asian market (not dry). That's another option.
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Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
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Val
69 posts
Apr 14, 2005
11:57 AM
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Debbie, I wrote you a message and was about to send it when my cat jumped into my lap and sat right on the laptop and erased it all!! Oh well :) So here I go again.
Thank you for your offer to email me your vegan sambal recipe. I love sambal and yours sounds really good (with the thai chilis and tamarind). Please take your time with the Thai recipes from your cookbook, and email as and when you have the time, ok ? Just email what you liked. It sounds like we have similar tastes. I should be getting the "Simply Heavenly" book soon, so I'll try out some new recipes and email them to you too. I heard that the Vegan BBQ "chicken" is really good. Can't wait to try that.
Re: coconut, I wish I could have it fresh, I remember how that was something I took for granted back in KL. Anyway, at least they have frozen, unsweetened coconut out here, so I will get that for now. Maybe later I might get that grinder you talked about and buy coconuts and grind the flesh, but I'll just have to settle for frozen for now (which is not too bad considering I was thinking about using sweetened, dessicated coconut if I really HAD to!!)
Thank you for all your tips and information, Debbie. I really appreciate them all. It's hard enough becoming a vegan without moving to a new place and having to start over again, but when you combine the 2... what a nightmare! Before I found this message board and Bryanna's newsletter, I was just shopping at Ralphs and Vons!! Can you imagine how much better things are for me now ?? :) So once again, thank you! (And thank YOU, Bryanna!)
I drove by a little Asian market on Anaheim St (in Long Beach) yesterday and I'm going to check it out today and see if they have the frozen coconut and a few other things.
Debbie, have you ever been to Yasmin, a Malaysian restaurant in Alhambra ? John took me there for Valentine's Day and their food was really good, exactly like the food we get in KL. They are not vegetarian, but were very accommodating and made all my food vegan. It was really cheap and really tasty. A chinese Malaysian guy runs the place and he stopped by our table to talk to us and was very friendly. They even had ketupat!! John ordered satay and I had his ketupat (the ketupat wasn't quite soft and fluffy like the real thing, but was pretty good). I ordered the vegan satay but I wouldn't recommend it. It was just "vegetarian fu chok" and didn't even look like satay. But what was really good there was their Char Kueh Teow. Mine was veganized, and it was AWESOME!! John had Mee Goreng and loved it. I think our total bill was about $20 + tip.
We tried "Belachan Grill" another Malaysian restaurant in Redondo Beach for our wedding anniversary. I wouldn't recommend it at all. It's run by Malay Malaysians. They messed up my vegan order and put chicken in it (!!) and said that I didn't tell them, then they added regular milk to my ice-kacang when I asked for soy milk (apparently my fault again) The only good thing they had was roti canai, which tasted like the real thing. The bill came up to about $40 - which would be fine if the food was good. We're definitely not going there again! Have you tried either of these restaurants ?
Well, gotta run. Talk to you later.
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Val
Last Edited Val on 14-Apr-2005 5:08 PM
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Debbie
658 posts
Apr 14, 2005
2:01 PM
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That darn cat! ha ha...oh well, they are cute!
No, I haven't tried those restaurants yet nor ever heard of it. My brother lives in Alhambra. I will tell him to scout for Yasmin restaurant. I definitely will check it out when I go to Descanso garden which is close to Alhambra. THANKS!
You can make ketupat easily. You might be able to buy this in 99 Ranch or other asian market here. Just look out for it while you are shopping. This brand "Ketupat Nona" is rice in a sealed plastic bag with tiny holes in it. The way you cook it is to boil the rice in the bag for the time it says in the box. You might need to turn it over a couple times and then VOILA...you have ketupat! Here is how it looks like (the box), the one on the left.
Ketupat Nona
For those who never heard of it, ketupat is a rice cake that Southeast Asians eat with satays and peanut sauce. The uncooked rice is inserted in woven form made of coconut leaves and boiled for hours to form a rice cake.
Of course, this would not taste the same as the one that we cook in the coconut leaves casing. Don't expect too much, Val! There is no aroma from the coconut leaves, just from the plastic...ha ha.. Man, I haven't had the REAL ketupat for years, now you make me drooling, remembering my childhood days. I learned how to make the woven casing with the coconut leaves. But it seems like I am in another life now.
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Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
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