Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps

I've said this before, but sometime I just repeat. Being a Vegetarian in the US is tough business. I mean, when we go out to eat and look at the menu, there are 76 options if you eat meat and there are 4 options if you don't. And out of the 4, 2 are added on the menu by you - like when you ask the restaurant to serve you the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo without the chicken. Or the Panang curry - with no meat and substitute tofu. Or the great American BLT sandwich without the bacon of course - what's great or American about it after that anyways? 

And one such experience is with the very famous lettuce wraps for appetizers. PF Changs has one of the best lettuce wraps and until recently, they had only the chicken version available. I'm yet to go and try their vegetarian version. But every time we've been there before, and order the food and wait around, I see one of my neighboring tables being served the famous chang's lettuce wraps. And the hungry humans sitting on that table pick up their fresh green lettuce, dump some chicken filling and go crunch munch when I'm sitting there starving for my chowfun and ma po tofu. Not anymore - next time I'm getting my plate of the vegetarian lettuce wraps - hope its worth my wait.

I've been planning to make this for a while now. I wanted to do something new with the soya granules that's been sitting in my pantry for some time. So, if you are a soya chunk or soya granules lover, you will love this recipe. If you're not, its ok - you can still eat a little bit to get your protein in and give your muscles some food too. And its a perfect appetizer to serve when you're cooking Chinese or Asian food. I had invited a friend's family for dinner and had Indian Chinese on the menu and this was of course a part of the meal. 

So, this is what I used. I had about half a packet left and used it all up. This would serve about 6-8 people.

Boil the granules in hot water for about 10 mins and then wash and rinse under water. Wash it thoroughly a couple of times. Squeeze out all the excess water and set aside the cooked soya granules.

In a small mixer, make a paste of all these below -

Onion - half a medium onion - roughly chopped
Garlic - 3-5 single pods.
Ginger - about 1 inch piece - roughly chopped
Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
Red Chillies - 3-4

Without any pre cooking, just blend all these together into a raw paste.

In a wide pan, add 2 tbsp of oil. You can use sesame seed or regular vegetable oil. When the oil it hot, add the ground paste to this and start cooking till the raw smell goes away.

Add about 1/2 cup of finely chopped onions to the cooked paste. Saute for a couple of mins.

Now, add the cooked and strained soya granules to this paste. Mix well and cook on medium heat for a few mins.

Now comes the spicing up part. Here, what I added. You can add any kind of flavoring you like to improve the taste.

1/2 tbsp of Chilli garlic sauce

1 tbsp of Soy Sauce

1 tbsp of Chilli Soy

1 tbsp of white vinegar. You can also add a citrus flavor with some lime or orange juice for a citrus soy taste.

Mix well and let this all cook for about 10 mins. Add some salt if you think its needed. The soy provides enough saltiness.

When done, top off with some cut green onions.

Serve warm with some grated carrots and crispy chowmein croutons on the side. This adds a lot of crunch and balance to the soft soya filling.

Cut the stalk off at the bottom of a fresh whole lettuce and gently peel out the whole leaves and place on on top of the other. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve. The cold bland lettuce works great with the warm salty soya filling and the crunchy noodle and carrot offer a welcomed crunch to the appetizer.

Don't let your protein sit away in a pantry shelf. Time to get it out and make it pretty. 

Enjoy. Peace out.

Bok Choy Stir Fry

All it takes for this awesome tasting dish is a few minutes of chop, fry and pour!

I make this anytime I make Chinese or even Thai food at home. This is a really quick and easy stir fry recipe. The original recipe is here at About dot come by Rhonda Parkinson. This is the very first recipe if you are trying to search for a bok choy stir fry recipe. And I don't think you need to search further. This is a great and simple recipe.  Thank you Rhonda for putting a great Bok Choy on my dining table many many times!

I did cut out the 1 1/2 tbsps of oil for frying from this recipe - really, I don't need more fat and love handles. Got enough already. And besides, the bok choy still tastes great without that oil. And also, I don't cover and cook a couple of mins - I'm sure that tastes great too - but I like mine with a bite to it and not completely cooked. You can try it both ways as you will be making this often too from now on. I just know it.

So - let's get on to some freshness below - here are 4 stalks of bok choy! Washed and ready to be executed. I almost feel sorry for them. Let me say a prayer.

You were an inspiration to all around you. May your soul rest in a mild flavored soy sauce and may you be enjoyed by all who savor you. Amen.

In a small bowl, add 2 tsp of soy sauce - that would be twice the picture below.

Add 1 tsp of brown sugar. (the recipe calls for just plain white sugar, but I like the flavor of brown sugar in my sauces)

Add 1/4 tsp of salt. Now if you are like me and bloat a few inches with every ounce of sodium in your asian meals, you can skip this as the soy sauce does have the sodium needed. But, I was just following the recipe you see. I'm going into hiding due to bloating the next couple of days. I'll just tell all I'm vacationing in Hawaii!

Add 1/4 cup of water to the rest of the ingredients.

In the recipe, the sesame oil is added at the end. But I just added 1 tsp of sesame oil in here. If you don't have sesame oil, you could just use your regular cooking oil - be it Olive or Canola or Veg oil.

Stir everything together well. Set aside.

In a wide pan, add about 1 tsp of your cooking oil. Throw in about 1 inch ginger piece chopped into small bits. Fry till you can smell the invigorating awesomeness of ginger. I would marry ginger if I could - love it that much!

Throw in the chopped bok choy to the pan and stir in with the ginger.

Add the sauce mix on top of the bok choy.

Cook for a couple of mins or until some of the water evaporates.

Serve hot immediately.

Enjoy. Peace out!

Before I go, I just have to share this with you guys. Coz...well..I just have to.

Here's what happened to me on Mother's Day! Bright and beautiful. Enough said.

Now I enjoy, And I peace out. You do too.

Vegetarian Curry Mee Laksa!

Laksa is traditionally a Malaysian dish - a kind of a noodle soup with coconut milk base but usually made with shrimp paste and with seafood in the soup. Its quite tough to find a vegetarian version of this - at least here in the US. But, we do love laksa when we find it. This used to be our order always at Tropika, a wonderful malaysian restaurant close by, until they decided to close down! Why? Why people why? There is another malaysian restaurant now in its place - and I'm yet to go there. But, my craving for Laksa could not wait until then. So, I made it! Yeah..take that you suckers! LOL!

You do need a couple of unique ingredients to get that laksa flavor. I could not find all - but still managed to get a good tasting laksa. I realized that I could have added more spice to it - this was not too spicy so add more spice if you want it hot!

To begin with, let's make a laksa paste. This is available ready made in the markets but always carries shrimp paste in it - so, if you want a vegetarian version, make it yourself!

Here are the ingredients required for Laksa paste -

Onions - about 1/2 an onion - or a few shallots.
Ginger - originally galangal is used, but I could not find it and hence used ginger, its cousin! Hoping some common DNA would still be available.
Garlic - 2-3 cloves
Coriander Seeds - 1 full tablespoon - this is what adds a lot of flavor to the dish.
Red Chillies - about 10-12 - yeah..trust me. that was not enough!
Lemongrass - I found a fresh stalk at my grocers - if you do too, peel the outer covers and chop up about a tbsp of lemongrass pieces. This is a very strong flavor - so don't add too much or else this will overpower the dish.
Turmeric - 1 full tsp
Salt - to taste

 

There's my stalk of lemongrass that I picked up from Albertsons. I checked so many stores and no one had lemongrass! It was hard to find. Albertsons also had a tube with lemongrass paste similar to a concentrate. But, that was 4 bucks and this fresh stalk was like 19 cents! So, you do the math - and always fresh is better. And you just need about a tsp of this - so why buy a big tube and let it spend the winter in your fridge!

  

Fry all together for a min and then move to a blender to make a fine paste. Add oil to blend well - do not add water.

  

This paste is not too fine- you can still see a few coriander seeds and chilli flakes - this is pretty good consistency for the paste. 

  

Now, fry the paste in about 2 tbsp of oil. Yeah..2 tbsp - I told you this was a tasty dish - not a healthy one! Cook this until the paste comes together and becomes a little thick. This is laksa paste. 

  

Meanwhile, boil some regular noodles in hot water until done and wash with cold water to stop cooking. Now, you could use rice noodles for the dish. But I could not find any thick rice noodles. So, I just used the regular wheat noodles similar to egg noodles. The packet did say that this was a good noodle for soups!

  

Chop up your veggies ready. I used mushrooms, snow peas and broccoli. I bought fried tofu from the store and cut that into long pieces. Also, keep some bean sprouts ready - we will add that at the end for the crunch! And chop up some cilantro too finely.

  

In a wide pan, add a little bit of oil. Throw in the mushrooms, snow peas and tofu in here and fry for a couple of mins. 

  

Add all of the laksa paste now and mix together well. 

  

It smells wonderful ...wish you could all smell it!

  

Now, add about 2 cans of coconut milk and 1 1/2 cans of water to the veggies. I was being kind and considerate to my body and hence went with light coconut milk from trader joes! You can cheat if you want...I won't tell. Or you could place a table lamp while cooking and pretend that is was Light coconut milk! I won't tell again!

  

Now, just let this cook for like 10 mins. Until the soup boils well. 

  

When its boiling and you are ready to switch off the stove, add the broccoli in here. Switch off the stove. The existing heat is enough to cook the broccoli. You still want them to be crunchy. That's it - you're done!

  

To serve, place noodles in a bowl. 

  

Add some soup on top to completely immerse the noodles and a little more. 

  

  Top off with crunchy bean sprouts and some cilantro. Enjoy hot! And thank me! LOL!

  

Enjoy! Peace Out!