Chinese Buddhist Mock Me@t

[Guest guest]

An excellent Vietnamese restaurant near my house recently closed down for a few

months

while the owners remodeled and then reopened it as an all-vegetarian Vietnamese

restaurant.

 

They are now serving a number of meals that include " mock me@t " (their words)

prepared

in the " Chinese Buddhist tradition " (again, their words).

 

Their " soy b*ef " is absolutely fantastic. Though it of course doesn't taste like

b*ef, thank

goodness (or at least, how I think I remember it might maybe taste...) the

seasoning and

especially texture are fantastic. It is wonderfully tender-chewy, and they grill

it so that the

edges of each strip are slightly charred and a bit crispy. I've done some

research on the

web and from what I can find, it appears it is prepared with dried tofu sheets.

 

I haven't been able to find any recipes explaining how to use dried tofu sheets

and prepare

them in this manner. Does anyone know how to do this?

 

Laurie

[Guest guest]

Laurie, I'm not sure if this info will help or not. I've never heard

of this but it sure sounds extremely interesting.

 

It shows a couple of substitutions for me*t with this product.

 

http://tinyurl.com/5matd

 

(I also saw a few recipes online by searching for " recipe " and " tofu

sheet " . I too would be interested in hearing anyone with personal

knowledge on how to use this. This sounds really cool. Shawn)

 

Mock Meat: Tastes Like Chicken?

by Jim Leff

 

(continued)

 

CHINA

 

In China, mock meat preparations were developed by Buddhist

vegetarians to serve to meat-hungry temple guests. Long

experimentation resulted in some startlingly canny imitations, but the

cooking techniques are far more difficult than for the simpler Indian

dishes.

 

Many recipes use tempeh as the basic meaty raw material. Tempeh is the

best known of several types of fermented soybean cakes. Unlike tofu,

this stuff contains the whole bean (and all its nutrients), and as a

cultured product it's more digestible than other soybean products.

Tempeh's 33% higher in protein than soybeans, but it's quite

perishable (look for black spots -- a possibly carcinogenic mold). It

makes a good meat substitute: salty from fermentation -- a deeper

saltiness than merely adding salt to tofu (though chefs can come close

by marinating tofu) -- and also more flavorful than unfermented bean

curd. There are other, less widely-known kinds of fermented bean curd

(e.g. Japanese nato, and runny -- almost cheesy -- Cantonese foo yi);

all lend different flavors.

 

Each kind of meat has its own strategies for vegetarian recreation;

the following are typical -- though by no means the only --

techniques:

 

If It Ain't ... Then It's ...

Duck Sometimes tempeh, usually tofu sheets (a.k.a. tofu skin, made by

skimming and drying the top of tofu curds). You roll up vegetables in

one large rehydrated sheet (sometimes smoked, but always marinated).

 

Chicken Also made from tofu sheets, but marinated in paler-colored

spices (like light soy sauce) for a longer time (for a softer

texture). Unlike the duck, it's neither rolled up nor stuffed, and

multiple sheets are used.

 

Beef/Steak Tempeh or tofu marinated in rice wine, soy sauce,

scallions, black mushrooms, and lots of anise.

 

Pork Wheat gluten, plain and simple.

 

Tripe This hot and spicy chimera can really fool you into thinking

you're eating actual viscera. They do it with shredded thick cut bean

curd sheets (which have an almost honeycomb texture reminiscent of

tripe). It's served in a brownish sauce, accompanied by little chopped

pickles and soybeans.

 

The main Chinese trick is to try to be faithful to the recipe you're

imitating; you marinate in the same spices you'd marinate meat, and

you cut, handle and cook in as similar a fashion as possible.

 

These dishes, at their best, taste great, and they do come close to

fooling the palate. But the techniques are difficult, and it's not

easy to find a chef with the knack. What's more, most Chinese

restaurants offer plain old vegetarian dishes reliably prepared by

most any decent chef, so unless you've found a specialist (such as

Manhattan's Tang Pavillion, a Shanghai style kitchen that makes both

mock and real meat, Poti and Happy Buddha), it's perhaps better to

stick with Buddha's Delight.

 

Page 1 2 3

 

 

Tofu Sheet with Bean Sprout Rolls Recipe

http://tinyurl.com/6h4kw

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

, " Laurie R. "

<laurieadrienne> wrote:

>

> An excellent Vietnamese restaurant near my house recently closed

down for a few months

> while the owners remodeled and then reopened it as an all-vegetarian

Vietnamese

> restaurant.

>

> They are now serving a number of meals that include " mock me@t "

(their words) prepared

> in the " Chinese Buddhist tradition " (again, their words).

>

> Their " soy b*ef " is absolutely fantastic. Though it of course

doesn't taste like b*ef, thank

> goodness (or at least, how I think I remember it might maybe

taste...) the seasoning and

> especially texture are fantastic. It is wonderfully tender-chewy,

and they grill it so that the

> edges of each strip are slightly charred and a bit crispy. I've done

some research on the

> web and from what I can find, it appears it is prepared with dried

tofu sheets.

>

> I haven't been able to find any recipes explaining how to use dried

tofu sheets and prepare

> them in this manner. Does anyone know how to do this?

>

> Laurie

[Guest guest]

I had lunch at Vegetarian Haven, a wonderful restaurant in Toronto last

Christmas, and they had several mock seafood dishes. The shrimp substitute in

the salad roll was amazing. I don't know how they did it, but I think konyaku

was used in some form. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

Cheers,

Craig

 

 

[Guest guest]

Laurie said, " I haven't been able to find any recipes explaining how to

use dried tofu sheets and prepare them in this manner. Does anyone know

how to do this? "

 

Bryanna Clark Grogan's " Authentic Chinese Cuisine " vegan cookbook

probably comes closest to showing how to do this. She has a recipe

(which I am not going to post here, because I have not tried it) for

Buddha's Chicken where sheets of yuba (bean curd skin) are coated with

seasoned soy sauce and stacked on top of each other, rolled up tightly,

steamed, and then fried.

 

The seasoning is what makes the different fake meats taste like

different kinds of meat or fish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

from Maida, Citizens for Pets in Condos: http://www.PetsinCondos.org

[Guest guest]

I'd like to thank everyone who has posted with info about the tofu sheets. You

have

offered a lot of great info and several excellent resources. I sincerely

appreciate it!

 

Laurie

 

 

, " Maidawg " <maidawg@c...> wrote:

> Bryanna Clark Grogan's " Authentic Chinese Cuisine " vegan cookbook

> probably comes closest to showing how to do this.

> from Maida, Citizens for Pets in Condos: http://www.PetsinCondos.org