Vegan Braised Shitake Mushroom with Baby Bok Choy

I had a friend come over for dinner tonight so I made two dinners tonight. Actually for most nights I make two dinners since my wife, Therese and the kids are not vegans...yet ;) I have not converted them yet but maybe over time they will come over from the "dark" side. The non-vegan dinner was a 9-hour sous vide pork roast with a mushroom gravy, roasted beets and Yukon gold potatoes, grilled squash, and the hummus that I made the night before with the whole wheat flat bread. I'm going to save a future blog about sous vide cooking. It deserves a posting to itself.

The main event was the vegan braised shitake mushrooms with baby bok choy. This dish is a spin off from a dish served in Cantonese restaurants. The difference with my dish is that there is no oil at all and it is almost as good. I say almost since a 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil would give it a nice kick. Since I'm still on a oil free diet I left the oil out.  Here is the recipe that serves two:
• 8-10 medium size "best" quality dried shitake mushrooms
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
• 2 cups of vegetable or mushroom stock
• 2-3 tsp. of Braggs Amino Acid
• 2 tsp. grated ginger
• 4oz of baby bok choy

There are different qualities of dried mushrooms ranging from $10 to $20/lb. For this dish, don't be cheap and pay the extra for the better quality mushrooms. You won't regret it!  Here is a photo of good quality versus cheaper quality:

Note the ones on the left are shaped more like flower, thicker, and more uniformed in shape. The ones on the right are thin and less uniformed. There is a big difference in taste. The better quality will rehydrate in water quicker and the intensity of the flavor is stronger than the cheaper variety.

First thing to do is rehydrate the dried shitake mushroom in hot water for at least 20min. After the rehydration period slice the mushroom and place in a medium size pot. Also add the soaking water to the pot as well. Add the remaining ingredients including the stock. Bring mushroom to a boil uncovered. Once it boils, turn the heat down to a simmer and cover the pot. Let this simmer for a minimum of an hour to braise properly. Taste the mushroom after an hour and add salt or additional Braggs Amino Acid if needed. To thicken the sauce add a corn starch mixture. Clean the baby bok choy and boil in water for no longer than 2 minutes. Overcooking the bok choy will ruin the taste, texture, and all the great vitamins.

To serve add some Jasmine brown rice to a dish, place the boiled bok choy around the rice and spoon some mushroom mixtures over the bok choy.

This is a quick and easy recipe to make! You'll be surprised how filling and tasty this turns out. I'll be bringing the leftovers to the Mariner's game tomorrow evening :)

Hummus and The Ultimate Vegan Rice Bowl

Vegan for Thought
Eating right as a vegan has its own challenges! You can be vegan and overweight with the wrong food choices. Excessive oils including olive oil can elevate your cholesterol and add weight to your body. Eating refined carbs like white sugar, white rice, and white flour is a big no no if you're looking to lose weight. Before the month of July I was guilty of all counts with eating refined carbs. They way I was eating I would probably be given life imprisonment! I finally realized after so many years that switching to a plant based diet, avoiding refined carbs, and with moderate exercise, losing weight is really not that difficult. Btw, I stepped on the scale this morning after a 3 mile run - down another 2 lbs. to 144lbs. This is a 16 lb. loss since I first started this new lifestyle on July 1st. 

Hummus
Many of you enjoy eating hummus. I'm not a big fan of chickpeas but hummus I enjoy eating. It's vegan and refreshing with all the yummy flavors of garlic, lemon, and sesame! Many of may not realize (including myself until recently) that hummus is not exactly diet food. A cup of hummus that you buy at the store is approximately 430 calories where 200 calories is from Fat. Some of you may argue that is it good fat but it is still fat! I decided to make my version of low fat hummus. Here is the recipe for 4-6 as a side dish:

• 1 can of organic garbanzo beans
• 1 tbs. tahini
• 3 cloves of garlic crushed
• 1/2 half of lemon squeezed
• 1 Paprika for seasoning (optional)
• Liquid from can of garbanzo beans

Take a blender and placed the garlic in first. Add 1 tablespoon of tahini and then the drained garbanzo beans. Take the liquid from the drained garbanzo beans and pour it into the blender until the liquid reaches 1 inch from the top. Squeeze the lemon in the mixture. Note: I'm not using any olive oil and reduce the amount of tahini by more than 50% from the traditional recipe. Some recipes call for 1/3 cup of tahini! Tahini is about 100 calories per tablespoon and 83 calories from fat. Turn on the blender and blend it until it is smooth. You can always add hot sauce and paprika for taste. It is actually quite tasty and a lot more healthier! You can also use it as a spread to replace mayo. The extra garlic clove gives it a nice kick! The perfect bread for this hummus is a whole wheat flat bread that is sold at Trader Joe's. Even my kids enjoyed eating them and they hate everything that resembles wheat :)

The Ultimate Vegan Rice Bowl
I can't take any credit for this next recipe. The original recipe came the engine2diet.com. Before the beginning of July, there were two things on the grain list that I avoided: brown rice and black beans. Being Asian I was raised on white rice all my life and any type of beans had no appeal to me at all. I remember my wife telling me last year to give brown rice a try and I told her no way -- it's chewy and took forever to cook. My wonderful sister suggested a couple of months ago to visit Trader Joe's and try their Jasmine brown rice. I love Jasmine white rice so I bought 3lbs. of the brown version to give it a try. It wasn't that bad! I also found a TJ Cuban style black beans to compliment this dish.  Here is the recipe for 2 hearty servings:

• 1 cup of uncooked Jasmine brown rice
• 1 can of Cuban style black beans (TJ)
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1 heirloom tomato chopped
• 1/3 cup of cilantro chopped
• 1/4 chopped yellow onions
• 1 heirloom tomato
• 1/2 avocado sliced
• 1 tsp of good quality salt

Cook brown rice in a rice cooker. It's up to you whether to rinse the rice beforehand. Unlike white rice there is no starchy coating on the outside. Keep in mind that brown rice requires more liquid to cook. I generally add anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup more water than white rice. While the rice is cooking make a salsa. Combine the tomato, cilantro, yellow onions, and salt together and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Heat up the black beans in a small pot on warm. When the rice is done scoop a serving on a plate, top it with half of the black beans, add the salsa on top and add about 2-3 slices of avocado. I've made variations of this dish with corn, roasted bell peppers, and other fresh vegetables to garnish.

You will be quite surprise how wonderful this dish tastes and how filling you'll feel after eating this. I promise you won't go to sleep hungry. This is a good low fat vegan alternative to your typical rice bowl at the store or restaurant. If you like to reduce the fat even more, skip the avocado and add roasted bell peppers or corn instead! This is one vegan dish that my wife and her daughter enjoy eating.

Vegan Curried Tomato Tofu versus The Perfect Pot Roast

Huh? Some of you may be confused by the title since it is like comparing apples and oranges or comparing cats and dogs. There are times though that one of our cats, Abby would some time imitate a dog. She would come when her name is called. The same is true for vegan food where some vegan meats would attempt to imitate real meat. Abby is still very independent like a cat so her imitation of a dog is very limited. Similar to vegan meat, it also attempts to taste like real meat but does a very poor job.

Don’t make a vegan dish just to copy a regular meat entrée because in many cases it just doesn’t work. One of my favorite Chinese dishes is tomato beef over rice. I made a vegan oil-free variation using tofu instead of beef and it was unbelievable. There is no reason to attempt to replace the beef with fake meat like Tofurkey. Cooking vegan dishes is a challenge in itself but to do it with no oil is double the challenge! Here is the recipe:

Vegetables
• 1/2 lb. of cremini mushrooms
• 1 tsp. chopped garlic
• 1 tsp. chopped ginger
• 1 tomato quartered (preferably heirloom)
• 1/3 cup sliced yellow onions
• 1/2 cup of firm tofu or baked tofu
• 1/4 lb. of fresh wide rice noodles
• 1/2 cup of chopped bell peppers (optional)
• 1/2 cup of chopped green onions (optional)

Sauce
• 2 tbsp. organic ketchup
• 1 tsp. curry powder
• 1 tbsp. Braggs Amino Acids
• 1 tbsp. corn starch
• 2 cups of vegetable stock
• White pepper to season

Mix all the sauce ingredients in a cup or a mug. The vegetable broth needs to be cold or else the corn starch will clump up. Set this aside. Boil some water and have it ready to cook the rice noodles. Toss in non-stick pan or a wok the onions, mushroom, garlic, and ginger without oil. Cook it for 30 seconds and then add some vegetable stock. The aromatics will cook in the liquid and still be brown as the stock evaporates. Stir fry for another 1-2 minutes and then add the tomatoes and tofu.

The most important thing to remember is not to overcook the vegetables. Cook for another minute and then add the sauce mixture. Continue to stir the sauce and vegetables so it will not clump up as the sauce will thicken up quickly. As soon as the sauce is thickened, turn off the heat. Throw the rice noodles in the boiling water. Loosen the rice noodles and cook for no more than 2 minutes. Drained the noodles onto a plate and immediately add the vegetable mixture to the rice noodles. You can add cilantro on top for taste if you like. The calorie on this dish is probably less than 600 and calorie from fat is under 50. For a typical Chinese version of this dish is probably double in both total calories and in fat calories.

Since I have not converted the rest of the family to vegan, I made a pot roast tonight as well. The perfect pressure cooker pot roast! My sister, Melanie bought for me a pressure cooker for my birthday. It is one cooking appliances that I used just as much as my Sous Vide machine. I’ve adopted a recipe that I found online and made it many times better. The original recipe is way too salty! Here is a healthier version of the recipe that makes the perfect pot roast:

• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 3 lbs. of chuck roast
• 1 large onion chopped
• 14 oz. organic beef broth (no salt)
• 3/4 lb. cremini mushroom
• 3 carrots chopped
• 1/2 oz. organic brown gravy mix
• 1 oz Italian and Ranch style dressing mix
• 4 cloves of fresh garlic

I never believed until now that good quality meat makes a lot of difference. Last week I used chuck roast that was grass fed that cost $5.99/lb from Metropolitan Market. Today I used a choice chuck roast from Safeway that cost $1.99/lb. The one from last week was significantly better! Who would guess this would be the case for chuck roast??

Heat the pressure cooker using the browning setting with the lid open. Dredge the pot roast with flour and brown on both sides. Add the chopped onions, garlic and mushroom to the pressure cooker.

In a small bowl mix the seasoning and the beef broth together. Pour the mixture into the pressure cooker. Do NOT add salt.  Seal the pressure cooker and set it for 75 minutes on high pressure (15psi).  I highly recommend after 75 minutes to allow the pressure cooker to "natural" pressure release. Essentially you want the cooker to cool down enough naturally to open the lid without releasing the pressure manually. This allow the meat to be more tender!  It takes 15-20 minutes the natural process to occur.

After opening the lid, take the meat out and set the pressure cooker back to browning. Add a corn starch mixture to thicken the gravy and place the meat back in the pressure cooker. Set the setting to keep warm before serving. I guarantee you that you'll have the perfect pot roast (so I was told).

Vegan versus Pot Roast? I'll let you decide :)

Real Men Can Be Vegans!

Wow, it has been forever since I updated my blog. Too much going on with life but no excuses :)  A couple of highlights and lowlights since my last blog about 6 months ago. Let's start with some lowlights:

• My cholesterol is at an all time high of 260! Why is it that I can never spell cholesterol?
• Too much good food has added a few extra pounds and I am at an all time high as of the first of July - 160lbs. This is definitely borderline overweight
• I confessed to my wife that my guilty pleasure had been getting a double order of fatty roast pork once a week at Uwajimaya grocery store in Bellevue. I guess it's better than cheating on something else!
• I had the worse meals possible during our trip to Kauai in June - daily spam masubi (you can get them fresh in the 7/11 store), saimen, and my favorite at the Hawaiian BBQ dive at the Honolulu airport: Loco Moco!  If you never had a loco moco before it's literally a heart attack on a plate. It's 2 servings of white rice, 2 large hamburger patties, 2 eggs sunnyside up, and loads of greasy gravy.
• Excercise - is that something that you do with the remote?
• I have snacking almost every night in front of the computer eating spam; sodium loaded canned soups; egg & rice; ice cream; sugar loaded iced tea; buttered popcorn; and way too much top ramen.

Looking back at the list one can only wonder if anything has changed. One thing has not changed is my love for cooking. In the last 6 months the dinner parties are still going strong both at my house and my friend's house in Bellevue. I'm still cooking multi-course meals experimenting with yummy ingredients and I even had the pleasure of cooking wild boar one night!  I even purchased a pressure cooker and made the absolutely best pot roast ever. I'll leave this for a different blog. 

So has anything else changed?  The answer is yes which is one of the main reasons why I'm writing this blog. After my wife and I left Hawaii we flew to Anchoarage, AK for a few days and then to Kodiak Island to stay with my wife's friends Angie and Jeff. They are absolutely the nicest couple we've met. Angie was telling me about how she went on a oil-free vegan diet based on a book called the Engine 2 Diet. I don't believe in diets since I've tried many over the years. She gave me the book and I read it.  During the 5 days Angie educated me about the diet and told me how her chloresterol had dropped 100 after 28 days. On our last day, I told her that I might give it a try but maybe do it halfway. My friends that know me well can tell you that I LOVE my meats, fats, and other badness.  There was no way I was going to do this or even stick with it.

Fast track 30 days later, I'm actually doing this diet 99.9% for the last 30 days. Yes, I cheated with nibbles of meats once in awhile. Here are some highlights:

• Exercise - I now run 2.5 miles 3 to 4 times a week! 
• Jeans that I bought 5 years ago that didn't fit before now fits! I need to purchase a new belt.
• I don't do portion control when I eat. I eat as much as I like consisting of great vegan foods like brown rice, whole grains, lots of veggies and fruits, tofu for protein, flax seed, soups with asian vegetables and noodles, and beans! Keep in mind that I hated black beans and brown rice before until I visited Trader Joes.
• I still snack at nights but it's always fresh fruits or a bowl of vegan soup
• I've learned that Trader Joe's is one of the best places to buy great food at a decent price.
• I don't snore anymore since starting the diet 30 days ago
• I lost 14lbs in 30 days!!!
• Vegan hot dogs are nasty but vegan corn dogs from Trader Joes rocks!

Don't get me wrong, I still cook lots of meats for my family and friends. I just don't eat it :)  It is tempting at time but I still love to cook. The last 30 days I made a couple of fabulous traditional paella, learn to cook pulled pork, brisket, smoked chicken, and smoked turkey on my friend's green egg, made yummy pot roast, and still eating vegan!  Real men can be vegan :)

I will continue on with the is blog with some great pressure cooker recipes and with awesome vegan recipes that I have discovered. 

Seafood Extravaganza - Lobster Bisque, Salt Baked Tilapia, Fried Potato Slices, Mushroom Spinach Puff Pastry with Snow Peas

Tonight's theme on seafood was inspired by an Iron Chef episode where one of the iron chef made a salted dome fish. The response from one of the judge was it was the best thing she had eaten because the flavor of the fish was so intense.  That's my main motto when it comes to cooking: freshness, natural, and flavorful. I always believe the flavor of the main ingredient should never be overwhelmed by other spices or poor cooking technique. 

I decided to make a healthy version of lobster bisque. That sound like an oxoymoron since it's not really that possible! I started with a leek, couple of shallots, 4 garlic gloves, 2 tomatoes, and half an onion chopped up and cooked with olive oil and butter. I added chopped lobster shells that I had from a previous dinner party. I cooked everything together for about 15 minutes and then added about 3 tbs of flour. I had some chicken stock that I made awhile back and added about 6 cups to the base. I cooked it down for another 45 minutes until the broth had thickened. I then added about 1/2 cup of cream and simmer for another 10 minutes. The worse thing I hate about lobster bisque at a restaurant is the absence of lobster in the bisque!  I took at 8oz lobster tail and split it in half. I sous vide it with 4 tbs of butter in a vacuum bag at 140 degrees for 20 minutesn

It is absolutely the most tender and flavorful way to cook lobster. It is very similar to the butter poached method used by Thomas Keller also known as a beurre monte'. I have used this technique in the past but decided to sous vide it this time around. They were both very similar in taste and I would probably not be able to tell the difference. The result of the bisque was refreshing and yet it didn't taste too rich. I also added a dab of creme fraiche. I wish I had chopped chives and caviar to add for plating presentation.

The salt dome fish was fun to make!  I wanted a fresh fish so I went to local Asian market not too far from the house. I didn't see anything I liked on display and I also checked most of the gills. The fish weren't too fresh at all. There were a few fish that had the gills remove - a very bad sign!  Fresh fish should smell like the sea and the gills need to be bright red in color. They had swimming tilapia in the tank so I pointed to the guy behind the counter that I wanted the largest one. It can't get fresher than that!  It ended up being a 3.5 lb tilapia for $4.99/lb. Not bad since nothing else was in season. I had it cleaned and scaled but kept the head and tail intact for presentation. I also bought 6lbs of sea salt to encase the fish. I mixed 2 egg whites and about 1/4 cup of water to the sea salt to give it a nice pasty mixture. I lined a pan first with parchment paper, added about 1/2" inch of my sea salt mixture and place the fish on top. I stuffed the fish with a few sprigs of dill and 6 slices of lemon. I then covered the fish with the rest of the salt until it was completely covered.

It was then baked at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes. After removing it from the oven, I let it cool for about 10 minutes. I then took a spoon to remove the top of the salt casing and gently removed the skin from this fish

The meat on the fish was very tender, moist, and cooked to perfection!  I wanted a nice sauce to complement the fish so I made an orange miso butter sauce. I took 1 cup of orange juice and reduced it down until it was syrupy -- about an hour. I added a tablespoon of white miso, couple teaspoon of soy sauce and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. I cut in about 4 tbs of cold butter and whisked it in the sauce. The sauce is unbelievable and perfect for the tilipia. It doesn't masked the flavor of the fish but enhances it with a citrus buttery sauce.

I made 3 other side dishes. Sliced potatoes cooked in duck fat from my duck confit I made a week ago, oyster mushroom spinach puff pastry, and pan fried snow peas. The potatoes I topped with a dab of creme fraiche with a few chopped scallions. I would have preferred to use chopped chives but I didn't have any in my fridge. Here is the final dish:

I know, one of these days I need to get professional lighting for my camera :) 

Enjoy!!