How’s your Monday going? Did you groggily rise from bed, inhale a mug of coffee and waddle out the house bouncing off the door frame? Or did you spring from sleep, fully refreshed and ready to face the week ahead? The first step to getting back into blogging regularly is to scrounge through previously saved drafts that somehow haven’t quite made it to the little blue ‘publish’ button stage. Here’s one of them. Particularly relevant due to the discussion around Monday. Hah. We’re getting a little bit clever in our cop-out (from up to date) posts. Cheerio.
A few months ago as I descended the stairs to breakfast, gearing up for a six hour day at uni, the aroma of cooked bacon wafted up to meet me. Now, there’s bacon at breakfast on a weekly basis, however it’s taken me a little while to actually write about this particular morning. It was a distressing day. The bacon smelled so damn good. Mouth-wateringly so. I virtually drooled down the front of my dress. So much for maintaining the preppy look on a Monday morning. Any fellow veggos out there will probably sympathise with me when I say it’s really only the smell of certain cooked meats that cuts to the core. That puts a slight wibble in the staunchly no-meat mindset. I made do with the usual oats/yoghurt/fruit combo and was none the worse for it, my arteries silently thanking me. Yet this moment of trauma prompted lengthy musings over why it is that I refrain from eating meat. It felt time to post another this-is-why-you-don’t-need-meat-yeah kind of recipe.
A significant number of carnivores I’ve quizzed about tofu (yep, I’m that irritating chick that asks you about what you had for breakfast/lunch/dinner/on your friend’s birthday last year) have had a distinct aversion to it. Well. This recipe will change minds. It’ll have you fighting over the last scraps of tofu in the pan. You’ll come out of it a changed person. Honestly.
Crisp, fresh, sweet, spicy, sour, earthy…it hits all the texture/flavour g-spots. Serve as a suave entrée or pair with a bowl of brown rice (cooked in coconut milk for that extra hit of luxury) for a more substantial main meal. Give me a bowl of this and I’ll forget why I ever questioned my vegetarianism. Buh-bye bacon. Hel-lo Mushroom Sang Choy Bow. And have a happy Monday, no bacon necessary!
Mushroom Sang Choy Bow
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 tbsp sesame oil plus 1tsp extra
400g button mushrooms (or about 3 field), finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp garlic powder
225g can bamboo shoots, drained & chopped
225g can water chestnuts, drained & chopped
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp kecap manis
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
2 tsp cornflour
¼ cup water
200g firm, marinated tofu (I used Honey Soy), torn into small pieces
4 cos or iceberg lettuce leaves
2 spring onions, finely sliced
Handful snow peas, finely sliced
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Brown rice to serve
Method
Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the mushroom and cook for approximately 2 minutes or until it begins to soften and collapse. Throw in the onion, garlic and garlic powder and cook until most of the mushroom liquid has evaporated, about 7 minutes. Now add the bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, soy sauce, kecap manis and sweet chilli sauce. Stir well. In a small bowl whisk together the cornflour and water until smooth. Pour into the mushroom mixture in a gradual stream, stirring constantly. Leave to simmer gently for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the tofu. Heat the remaining 1tsp of sesame oil in a small fry pan. When shimmering, add the tofu and cook, stirring occasionally, until crispy. This should take about 5 minutes.
To serve: Place a lettuce leaf on each plate. Divide the mushroom mixture between the lettuce leaves and top with the fried tofu, spring onions, snow peas and sesame seeds. Serve alongside brown rice.
Source: Adapted from http://www.aww.com.au/food/recipes/2012/3/mushroom-sang-choy-bow/
