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Text ©1988 by Sam Waring. All rights reserved.
Created: Wed, 5 May 2004 at 21:14:02 UTC
This turned out to be a hectic month, and I just haven’t had much time for cooking. When you’re trying to implement a new municipal budgeting/purchasing/accounting system for a mainframe by October 1, no excuses accepted, and get preempted regularly every week at five minutes’ notice from whatever else you were trying to get done, it doesn’t make for good feelings and enthusiasm about much of anything else.
So this month is short and sweet, and comes from a request to tell what I brought to IPLSIG this past month (Chinese month). It’s a variation on the “Buddha’s Feast,” a vegetables-only meal which is supposed to be a strictly yin-yang balanced, nothing exciting sort of meal. Well, this don’t make it, because it’s jazzed-up with chili sauce, and curried gluten (if you can get it; it’s difficult to find) and anything else I can make it interesting with. It’s lifted from Barbara Tropp’s The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking, and she’s just as heretical about the religious significance as I am. It’s a good dish for juggling with whatever vegetables you have around; just don’t get much over the total amount of stuff to put in. If you don’t like baby corn or bean sprouts, leave it out; if you’d like more of something else, OK to add a bit more.
| 2 ounces bean threads | 3 ounces mung bean sprouts |
| 6 medium dried black mushrooms (shiitake) | Dash of chili sauce |
| 4 ounces baby corn | 5 ounces braised gluten (mock duck; mun chai ya)* |
| 4 ounces straw mushrooms | 2 squares (4 ounces) hard tofu |
| 4 ounces braised dried bean curd | ¾ pound fresh green vegetables (choice of bok choy, carrots, broccoli, Napa cabbage, zucchini or any other green vegetable you feel like) |
| To stir-fry: | |
| 4 tablespoons peanut oil | 1½ to 2 tablespoons regular (thin) soy sauce |
| ¼ teaspoon coarse (kosher) salt | ¾ cup liquid (½ cup water and ¼ cup reserved curried gluten juice) |
| ¼ teaspoon sugar | |
| 1½ teaspoons sesame oil, for garnish | |
* If you can find it, substitute Curried Braised Gluten (much better).
(All this can be done the day before, and everything stored separately in airtight bags in the refrigerator.) Remove the fastening (string or rubber band) from the bean threads. Cut the bean threads in two at the middle (do this while holding them inside a paper bag, or you’ll wind up with shrapnel everywhere). Soak the bean threads in warm water until they are rubbery-firm, about 20 minutes. Wrap the squares of tofu in a dishtowel, put them under weighted plates, and let them sit for at least thirty minutes to press out the extra water. Soak the dried black mushrooms until they are soft; cut off the stems and discard. If you have more feasters than mushrooms, cut the caps in half. Drain the cans of straw mushrooms and corn; rinse. Cut the dried bean curd against the grain into quarter-inch thick slices. Drain the gluten and reserve its liquid. Add the water and chili sauce to the reserved liquid. Cut the gluten into eighth-inch thick slices or shreds. Cut the tofu into slices one-eighth inch thick and then stack these slices and cut into slivers. Combine with the other ingredients. Slice the green vegetables thinly.
TO STIR-FRY:
Put a wok on medium-high heat; add one tablespoon of oil to the wok, and swirl to coat the pan. Add the salt and sugar, then add vegetables and stir-fry. (If you are using more than one vegetable, cook only one vegetable at a time.) Turn the vegetables out onto a platter, and add more oil to the wok, then swirl to coat again. Add the combined ingredients to the wok; sprinkle with 1½ tablespoons of soy sauce. Toss to blend and add the reserved liquid. Raise to a simmer; keep stirring. Level the contents of the pan, adjust the heat, and steam-cook for two minutes. Reduce the heat to low, and uncover the pan. Stir and taste the bean threads (they give the best idea of how the seasonings are being absorbed). Adjust the seasoning if needed. Return the vegetable to the pan; toss to mix. Turn the heat off. Drain most of the excess liquid then fold the sesame oil into the pan. Turn onto a warm serving platter.
That’s what there is for this month, although I hope to have something better for next time out. I’ve just found the wonder of computer bulletin boards, and discovered there’s a National cooking bulletin board echo, so I’m gonna start reading that and see what weird and wonderful things there are to be found.
first ran: June 1989
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Text ©1988 by Sam Waring. All rights reserved.