Vegetarian for 500

What happens in the Buddhist community when the 4^th lunar month rolls around? It’s Buddha’s birthday of course! The holiday is celebrated throughout the month with a peak in mid-month, the 15^th day. We all know that celebration and food go hand in hand. After the ceremonies, most temples offer a vegetarian meal for all to enjoy. So how do you cook a vegetarian meal to feed 500 people? Just gather a lot of volunteers who love to cook, and just cook, cook, cook.

Tofu from Northwest Tofu…of course. On an average week the temple purchases 40 pieces of tofu to cook for weekly worships. However, whenever a major holiday comes along the numbers increase to 300 pieces. The tofu must be drained and “pressed” before frying.

Frying….3 woks are better than 1

Vegetarian Mắm Chưng is lined up getting ready to be sliced into individual serving size pieces.

Ong Choy just washed and waiting to be stir-fried with preserved bean curd.

Freshly fried egg rolls waiting to be served.

Rice is moulded into individual servings (using a rice bowl) and wrapped to keep warm and moist.

Ingredients for making Chow Mien



Chow Mien Ready to be plated

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Nước Trái Cây (Tropical Berry Punch)

Ingredients:
-1 can frozen concentrated tropical fruit juice (any flavor)
-1 bottle lemon lime soda (2 liters)
-frozen berries (your choice)
-lime and lemon slices (optional)

What to Do:
Thaw juice concentrate and mix with pop, berries and citrus fruit slices.

Note:
Use frozen berries, they help keep the punch cold while not “watering down” the punch (like ice would).

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Seadragon's Cheese Sponge Cake

I made this cake using Seadragon's recipe from Cafe of the East. The cake was perfect! Very smooth, moist and melt in you mouth yumminess. Thanks Seadragon! ;)

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Xôi Gấc (Coconut Sweet Rice Dyed with Baby Jackfruit)

Although called “baby jackfruit” gấc is not a related to the jackfruit (mít) family at all. It is only called baby jackfruit because it resembles a small jackfruit. A Gấc fruit grows on vines and has reddish-orange flesh which is used as a natural food coloring. You can usually by Gấc in the frozen section of well stocked Asian markets. If gấc is unavailable just dye the rice with orange and red food coloring, omit the wine. Because of its lovely red color, this type of xôi (steamed sweet rice) is usually served during wedding celebrations.

Ingredients:
-300g sweet rice (aka glutinous rice)
-100g sugar
-100g coconut milk
-1/2 tsp salt
-50g baby jackfruit flesh (Gấc)
-1 tsp cooking wine
-grated coconut, sesame seeds

What to Do:
Wash rice until water is clear. Mix baby jackfruit flesh with wine, add to rice and mix well, add water to completely cover the rice. Water level should be about 1 inch above the surface of rice. Soak overnight or a few hours. Drain and steam rice. While rice is steaming boil together coconut milk, salt and sugar to make coconut syrup. Mix steamed cooked rice with coconut syrup, rest for 15-20 mins before moulding. Serve with grated coconut milk and sesame seeds.

Trái Gấc (Baby Jackfruit)
Reference: http://www.ctu.edu.vn/~dvxe/cay_co/gac/

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Bánh Quế/Bánh Kẹp (Vietnamese Love Letters)

Ingredients:
-230g sugar
-150g rice flour
-150g tapioca starch
-300g coconut milk
-2 eggs (100g)
-1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

What to Do:
Beat eggs with sugar until creamy and lemon colored. Mix together flours with coconut milk, add flour mixture to egg mixture and mix well. Bake in love letter or pizzelle moulds until golden.

If making Bánh Quế, roll cookies while still warm. If making Bánh Kẹp, fold cookie into fourths while still warm.

Reference:
Gia Chánh Hoa Hường (Madam Nguyễn Thị Hường)

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Bánh Bông Lan Rể Tre (Honeycomb Sponge Cakes)

I have been experimenting with different types of flours and their role in cakes. The interesting thing about this recipe is there is no chemical leavening to help create the “honeycombs”. The honeycombs are dependant on the type of flour used. This cake is more interesting than tasty. They taste just fine; like any other sponge cake when hot but hardens once cooled. The solution? Just let the cakes cool and store them in an air tight container. Steam for 5 mins before serving, voila! In just 5 mins., you have steamed honeycomb sponge cakes ;).

Ingredients:
-2 eggs (100g)
-100g rice flour
-90g sugar
-3 tbs water (optional, can substitute with coconut milk, panda juice, etc…)

What to Do:
Preheat oven to 450’F and heat moulds. Beat eggs with sugar until pale and lemon colored. Add flour and water mix well. Pour batter into the heated moulds (should sizzle when the batter goes in). Bake for about 5-10 mins or until golden.

Note:
-this is a very simple recipe, the weight of the eggs, flour, and sugar should be approximately equal (adjust to you preference; try the recipe with just 1 egg if you just want to experiment)
-the pans should be very hot when the batter goes in and bake the cakes at a high temperature. If the temperature is too low the honeycombs will not be as high as it should be.

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Where Have I Been?

In case any frequent visitors are wondering what happened to me and why I haven’t been posting anything over the past month…..the reason is I’ve been busy with rehearsals and nightly productions of Tommy; a rock musical put on by undergrad UW Drama majors. As a result, I usually don’t get home until at least 10pm each night. Everyone knows I’m also a full time college student by day right? Aside from my “school activities”, wedding season is starting to kick up. Thus, any spare time I can manage to salvage is spent meeting with soon to be wed couples. As you can see my April is very densely booked and I’m just not able to post as often as I anticipated. I’ll be happy to answer any questions/comments but have no time to post any recipe requests or any experiments…which I have been itching to dive into. To anyone who thinks I’m dead or something…..no, I’m not just busy. :D That’s it for now see y’all next month…..later.

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