Recipe 42 - Oh ddduhduhdear! Vegan Bulgogi

Ah Korea.. they bring such cute babies into the world.  And apparently they make some good Bulgogi.

Yes, that's what my final asian month veganization is going to be.. Korean Bulgogi.

Let's talk about this, shall we?

Bulgogi is a Korean dish that usually consists of marinated barbecued beef, chicken or pork. It is listed at number 23 on World's 50 most delicious foods readers' poll compiled by CNN Go in 2011.

(hhmmm)

Bulgogi is believed to have originated during the Goguryeo era (37 BC–668 AD) when it was originally called maekjeok (맥적), with beef being grilled on a skewer. It was called neobiani (너비아니), meaning "thinly spread" meat, in the Joseon Dynasty and was traditionally prepared especially for the wealthy and the nobility class.
Before cooking Bulgogi, the meat is marinated to enhance its flavour and tenderness with a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, garlic, pepper and other ingredients such as scallions, onions or mushrooms, especially white button mushrooms or shiitake. Sometimes, cellophane noodles are added to the dish, which varies by region and specific recipe.

Bulgogi is traditionally grilled, but pan-cooking is common as well. Whole cloves of garlic, sliced onions and chopped green peppers are often grilled or fried with the meat.This dish is sometimes served with a side of lettuce or other leafy vegetable, which is used to wrap a slice of cooked meat, often along with a dab of ssamjang, or other side dishes, and then eaten as a whole.


Well ok then!   Facts about a dish I've never had.   Live and learn.. live and learn.

So, I'm making my bulgogi with 'pork'.. and not this kinda pork:  
(Good god, people this is a VEGAN blog.. besides, who would eat Piglet?)

Anyway
Let's look at some numbers.



Traditional Bulgogi                                               Vegogi
Calories    310                                                       185
Total Fat   8.6                                                        4.5
Cholesterol  131                                                      0
Sodium 1135                                                         560
Total Carbohydrate  2.7                                            6
Dietary Fiber   0.3                                                    4                       
Protein    52.3                                                        18
WWpts -  7                                                              3


So - I'm also about to pair this fabu dinner with..
'Tipsy Ducks in Love' and I don't mean this:










I mean this:











And yes - all you see there on that menu is going in my drink.  What doesn't make it vegan?  Hello - cream?!
And just for fun - I'm not doing the numbers on it either.. (nanny nanny boo boo).
 :D  This is actually a VERY NEW Disney World (more detailed Animal Kingdom/Asia) drink so finding the actual nutrition info on it I have not.. but whatevs.  Woo.. I'll have to play some Disney music!

So, I was going to do this veganization on Saturday - but it turns out that Saturday is national vegan pizza day - so the girl and I are going to celebrate with her vegan version of Dewey's Green Lantern and I'm going to make a cherry pie pizza - so that means this one has to move up to Friday!

So my darling dear and I will enjoy vegogi and end up being two happy tipsy ducks in love after our veganization - in a hot house.  A hot house! (It's supposed to be 102!  I guess I'd better pull out the window AC).

Keep it tuned here - we'll either die of heat-stroke or we'll die of eat-stroke.
Ahahaha.
Ok

Friday it is.
I'll leave you with this ponder - What Would Song-Siyeol Joseon say?


Music enjoyed while blogging: 
Air (not the band - the white noise, and not that band either).

Current Motivation:
I have none, I need a nap


Current Craving:
Popcorn      

The Vicarious Vanton! Recipe 40

So, I set out Friday night to do a ton of things.. one of those however was to make wantons to share with you lovely people, and so -- I did.

They were fairly easy, however the thin-ness that you had to roll them to was almost to ridiculous proportions.   I got my cardio in.  Figured if I'm ever going to do that again, that I'm going to have to get a heavier duty rolling pin for somthing so 'thin'.

But anyhoo.

I made the dough.  The suggestion was that it rest in two balls, under a damp cloth for I dunno - 15 mins?  So while that was doing it's thang, I had a cutie pie visitor who surprised me with a little gift I'd so much wanted that day. <3  (You gotta love a girlfriend who listens.. AND delivers!)  

After that quick interaction of "Hi, Sqeeal Thanks Bye!" I started to roll.  I was fascinating myself with the shapes I had come up with during the roll out session.. I swear I see a big old fat dinosaur in this one.  Come on, don't you?
<<


That, well - that roll was too thick, but I cut it out in the squares I had to anyway, and RE-rolled them to almost paper-thin as much as I could.

When that was done,  I mixed up the cream cheese filling, and I swear - it tasted just like the stuff you get at those crazy asian buffets!!  I was excited.

So, I stuffed, pressed closed, and stuffed some more.  I think I made 24 wantons.. then, in they went to the fryer.

Back out, and drained - as I made my evening salad for dinner.   My dinner was wantons, duck sauce - which is NOT made from ducks tyvm (which I purchased) and a salad.
And I'm telling you..

It
Was
Good.

Just look at those beauties up there at the top of my blog, won't you?
Now, they were better just out of the fryer, however my sister, my brother, bff, bff jr, bff husband and the girl all tried them, and they got glowing reviews.

I'm happy.

So, what's next?   Dessert!

Stay tuned tomorrow - as I'm now on a search for glutonous rice flour.
Woo.
And hoo.

Onward with asian month!


Music enjoyed while cooking and blogging:
Subsonic 56K of course


Current Craving:
More Wantons

Current Motivation:
Happy Me's

Recipe set 39 - Tofegg Tarts and SunDrop soup

First I want to apologize for the smudgers in my photos!  But on to the blog.                             

So,  I sit here in the luxury of my screened in porch tonight, with my kids.. full as a tick (for now) watching them lay 'dead' on the ground.. Sanchez watching dillegently over his old ailing brother, and Lucy and Pippen just kinda laying there.  It's cute.  It's my life.  I sit here with pineapple juice and a bottle of Dasani, which is apparently in a 'plant bottle' says 30% plant based, and I cringe.  I can't figure out why the collaboration of those two words make my skin crawl, but, no matter - this is about my veganization.  

Tof-egg tarts, were fairly simple.  Had I felt fancy, I'd have put  them in real tart cups, however that would not have worked, considering I only own ONE tart cup, and I've used it to make wax tarts..  so I went for the cupcake pan instead.  However, because of that, they kinda ran over the side.. no matter though.. they still were lightly sweet and custardy just like they were supposed to be.

 

I do believe a skeeto is chewing on my sweet skin.. darnit.  Anyway, as I said, these were easy and I'm sure as they set in my frige over night they'll come out looking better than they do in my picture where they seem to be oozing over.. ah but they oozed with delight, so that's all that matters!


On to the next thing.. making 'egg' for egg drop soup.  That, well - it was a chore.  I didn't realize, til I was doing it that I was actually making tofu.  (of course I was, I was using soymilk and a seperation liquid..  this wasn't easy.. not really time consuming, but specific.  I had to use a thermometer and boil the right course of salt and water for coagulation.. you get the picture.   After you boil, stir, sit and strain, you're going to end up with a little somethin' that looks like this:

 

And we call that - tofu.   And now the lady on the deck next to me is filling my lungs, her grandson's lungs and my cats lungs with second hand smoke.. she's filling hers with first-hand smoke.  Awesome.

Anyhoo..

Of to make the 'broth'.. and the next time I make it, I won't put the sesame oil in it that it called for.. however this gelled up nicely, just like an egg drop soup broth should.  :)  I was pleased.  I added green onions  as well, and then dropped in my "egg" after the boil.

So, when I got this in the bowl and my tart on the plate, it all came together a bit like so: 
And with that, this lady is now filling the pit bull's lungs with smoke too.  Aren't we all lucky tonight?

Anyhoo... I paired all of this with the noodle fest I'd made for last weeks veganization, and had quite a little meal.  I actually enjoyed the noodles in the soup even more than just the soup alone, so when I packed it up, that's how I packed it.

All in all I was quite please with this dinner (and even more pleased that this lady is going back into her house).  It was a challenge, but challenges are good.  And with that, I think I might make myself some popcorn and go inside and chill because I am being chewed up by something out here.

What's next?  Oh just you wait and see - it's gonna be 'a cold one' in China!

Happy weekend!

Music enjoyed while cooking:
Subsonic Radio (of course)

Current Craving:
Popcorn (of course)

Current Motivation:
To prove you don't need eggs for tarts or soup!
   

In Ode to the incredible, UNEDIBLE egg.. Recipe set 39

Doesn’t that pic just give you the warm fuzzies?   "Look ma, it’s where my egg came from!"  (Maybe if you have chickens as family this is correct) – but for most people, let’s find out, in a hen’s point of view, what really happens?

I’m going to be a bit dark here first, but occasionally, we have to remember what we're REALLY doing this for.  The animals who don't have a voice.. not our thighs. 

From the Hen:

"I am battery hen. I live in a cage so small I cannot stretch my wings. I am forced to stand night and day on a sloping wire mesh floor that painfully cuts into my feet. The cage walls tear my feathers, forming blood blisters that never heal. The air is so full of ammonia that my lungs hurt and my eyes burn and I think I am going blind. As soon as I was born, a man grabbed me and sheared off part of my beak with a hot iron, and my little brothers were thrown into trash bags as useless alive.
My mind is alert and my body is sensitive and I should have been richly feathered. In nature or even a farmyard I would have had sociable, cleansing dust baths with my flock mates, a need so strong that I perform 'vacuum' dust bathing on the wire floor of my cage. Free, I would have ranged my ancestral jungles and fields with my mates, devouring plants, earthworms, and insects from sunrise to dusk. I would have exercised my body and expressed my nature, and I would have given, and received, pleasure as a whole being. I am only a year old, but I am already a 'spent hen.'
Humans, I wish I were dead, and soon I will be dead. Look for pieces of my wounded flesh wherever chicken pies and soups are sold and my eggs, in your breakfast”.

I need a moment.

Ok, the vegan chick is back!

Now onto my next veganization.   As you know it’s asian month, and we’re going to travel to Taiwan for this next group I’m doing, as an ode to the incredible, inedible egg. 

Without further ado – lets visit Egg Drop Soup and Egg Tarts!

I have had both, and I can say the originals were very good.  So, as a now vegan I want to try my hand at putting together the vegan versions, because, well, I can!

I’ll be doing this on Friday, in the comfort of my own home.  It will be my dinner and dessert, and it will maketh me happy and warm. (Well I’ll probably already be warm, I hear it’s supposed to be upper 80’s.)

So, let’s do some numbers and some names.

Egg Drop Soup                                                    Sun Drop Soup
 1 cup                                                                         1 cup

Calories 73                                                                 52   
Total Fat 4 g                                                               1.5       
Cholesterol 102mg                                                      0
Sodium 730mg                                                           148 
Total Carbohydrate 1.7g                                             3.4    
Dietary Fiber  0 g                                                       3.1    
Protein         8                                                             4.6
WWpts – 2                                                                   1

   

Egg Tarts                                                              Tofegg Tarts
  1 tart                                                                          1 tart

Calories 133                                                                 112   
Total Fat 6.3 g                                                              1.4       
Cholesterol 50mg                                                              0
Sodium 70mg                                                              42.5 
Total Carbohydrate 17g                                               5.2    
Dietary Fiber  0 g                                                        3.2    
Protein         2.9                                                           1.6
WWpts   4                                                                      2      

So, there you have it.  And for a little ‘religious' information.  Did you know that most Taiwanese vegans and vegetarians  are so because of Buddhist practices?  And just for the fun of it, what does Buddha himself have to say about all of this?

"When we bring mindfulness to the dinner table, it suffuses the rest of our life as well. We become more sensitive to the well-being of animals, of the environment, and of ourselves and our families. We are more aware of the choices we make in all areas of our life. We enjoy food more, know that, while the obtaining of even plant foods necessitates some suffering, the amount and kind of suffering is dramatically reduced when we leave meat off our shopping lists and out of our kitchens. We become more aware of how meat consumption feeds violence and anger."

So with that, let’s get ready to start out next veganization!  Friday, here I come!  Anyone want to taste-test with me?  I’m open!

Music enjoyed while blogging:
Subsonic Radio

Current Craving:

Fried ‘unchicken’

Current Motivation:

Stopping the war on our hens.

Recipe 38 - Vegan California Rolls - or "Sunshine" rolls

Ok,
I'm telling you what.

I'm obsessed over these sushi rolls.  Literally, I could live off of them.
Not only that but I have now made a sushi chef into my girlfriend, which is fine, because she did a much more stellar job of rolling than did I.


Ok, also I know I promised a v-log, but I couldn't find my camera stand so it didn't happen.  Just deal with the pictures.. and drool.  (Or not if you don't like sushi, but I do NOT know how you wouldn't want to pop these into your mouth as a constant.)

So, Saturday night I went into the Vegan Or Not kitchen to do a little Japanese cooking.   I, of course with the vegan california rolls, and my brilliant non-vegan/vegan chef with Yakitori.   (Which, omg yum).

Anyway - for some reason I was rather jumpy that night.  I even hollered at the dogs to hush it up when I walked in.. (which is quite unlike me).   I found that my seaweed was a little worse for wear and I had to go buy more.. which was ok, it gave the sticky rice some time to do it's thing.   Anyhoo..

As you can see, once I got back from trusty ol' Kroger (and many thanks to my girl for prepping my sushi rice for me while I was gone).  The time was ready.  I had my vegan crab swimming in cream cheese and the girl cut up all my veggies for me, and I was ready to go..
Or so I thought.





Leave it to me to put the veggies on the wrong way..  lol.  There is NO WAY that roll would have rolled up the way I had those veggies on there... no way in Japan.

So, I had to reconvene the things and change it up, which was ok.. however, I was still rather jumpy.


So, once I had those babies on correctly, I was able to make it into a roll.. which was less of a pain than I thought it was.  The most painful part was that darn sticky rice.
I have this issue with having sticky stuff  on my hands and that stuff just would NOT go away at all.
No matter.. it turned out ok, and I had the girl sharpen a knife for me so I could slice up my roll.. which you'll see momentarily.. but not before Jen tried her hand at an 'inside out' roll (sticky rice on the outside, seaweed on the inside).

The steady hand of the woman I love..  she made them practically perfect, and went on to make more the next day.  Now, I can't get enough of these things..  she did make hers sans crab, so she just had a veggie roll.. but yum as ever.

You can even see some of her inside-outs here in this mashup of both of our sushi's

Now, in her blog you'll read all about the Yakitori she made as she's also going to attempt the non-vegan version to go with it for her dinner, tonight.  Keep an eye out for that one, or like her blog on Facebook to get the inside scoop.



So, for dinner we had Yakitori, Chow Mein noodles (which I threw together and oh my - those were good) and sushi...
And the proof:

 

SO YUM!


So this weekend, 'Asian' week continues.. have you heard the word 'egg'?  Well, we're about to egg it up.  Keep it tuned, details are coming.

Til then!  Happy eating.


Music enjoyed while cooking:
Jen talking to me, Drew's occasional in and out chats, dogs whining and Chiana meowing.

Current Craving:
More sushi!

Current Motivation:
Turning Japanese!

Vegan California Rolls - Welcome to Asian Month - Recipe 38

So, I've decided to go Asian in June.   (Well I haven't.. you won't see me 'turning Japanese' anytime soon.)   However, there are a bevy of asian dishes out there which are so not vegan of which I do not partake in anymore, but would really love to.  
One of those?

California rolls!  Aka, Sushi!

Before I run off to the Golden State, let's learn a lil bit about sushi, shall we?

"The original type of sushi, known today as nare-zushi (馴れ寿司, 熟寿司), was first developed in Southeast Asia, and spread to south China before introduction to Japan. The term sushi comes from an archaic grammatical form no longer used in other contexts; literally, sushi means "sour-tasting", a reflection of its historic fermented roots. The oldest form of sushi in Japan, narezushi, still very closely resembles this process, wherein fish is fermented via being wrapped in soured fermenting rice. The fish proteins break down via fermentation into its constituent amino acids. The fermenting rice and fish results in a sour taste and also one of the five basic tastes, called umami in Japanese.  In Japan, narezushi evolved into oshizushi and ultimately Edomae nigirizushi, which is what the world today knows as "sushi".

Contemporary Japanese sushi has little resemblance to the traditional lacto-fermented rice dish. Originally, when the fermented fish was taken out of the rice, only the fish was consumed and the fermented rice was discarded. The strong-tasting and smelling funazushi, a kind of narezushi made near Lake Biwa in Japan, resembles the traditional fermented dish. Beginning in the Muromachi period (AD 1336–1573) of Japan, vinegar was added to the mixture for better taste and preservation. The vinegar accentuated the rice's sourness and was known to increase its shelf life, allowing the fermentation process to be shortened and eventually abandoned. In the following centuries, sushi in Osaka evolved into oshi-zushi. The seafood and rice were pressed using wooden (usually bamboo) molds. By the mid 18th century, this form of sushi had reached Edo (contemporary Tokyo).

The contemporary version, internationally known as "sushi", was created by Hanaya Yohei (1799–1858) at the end of the Edo period in Edo. The sushi invented by Hanaya was an early form of fast food that was not fermented (therefore prepared quickly) and could be eaten with one's hands at a roadside or in a theatre. Originally, this sushi was known as Edomae zushi because it used freshly caught fish in the Edo-mae (Edo Bay or Tokyo Bay). Though the fish used in modern sushi no longer usually comes from Tokyo Bay, it is still formally known as Edomae nigirizushi."

Do you like how I can write in Japanese?  I'm so smart.

One of my very favorite sushi's is the California roll, which traditionally has cream cheese and crab meat in it... so not vegan.  But alas, I'm a smart little american and I'm going to make this so that I can enjoy it.. and I'm going to do it with the help of my vegan sous chef girlfriend, Jen.  
We're going to V-log it too. ;)

So, let's get to the numbers.   I'm going to adapt a recipe from my boy-crush, Alton Brown.  So, let's roll on over here and see what we've got.


California Roll Sushi                                           Sunshine Roll Sushi
    one roll                                                                  one roll
Calories 232                                                                 159   
Total Fat 14.4 g                                                              8.4       
Cholesterol 5mg                                                              0
Sodium 135mg                                                              128 
Total Carbohydrate 23.7g                                             20.2    
Dietary Fiber  4.4 g                                                       5.2    
Protein         3.9                                                             2.6
WWpts -       6                                                               4

So there you have it.  

My Saturday night date night is going to turn into an episode of Iron Chef.  (Ok, not quite).   But it should be fun, intense and a little wild in the kitchen with bamboo mats and rice vinegar.

Stay tuned, you'll be glad you did!

Music enjoyed while blogging:
Nothing today but what's in my head -- Goin' To California (Led Zepplin) & Turning Japanese (The Vapors)

Current Motivation:
Doing something I've never done!


Current Craving:
Potato Chips