Intro and ?

April 28, 2001

Hello,

I am not a vegetarian right now, but aspire to be one once again.

I've had a few stretches of semi-vegetarianism in my life - the first

in 5th grade when my school took the class on a field trip to a meat

packing plant. I don't know what they were thinking. I could not eat

meat after that. I eventually started eating meat again for reasons I

don't remember and then about five years ago I decided to stop eating

red meat and poultry but still ate sushi. I know that is not true

vegetarianism. Salmon and raw tuna will be the hardest things to give

up.

When I got pregnant with my 2nd child I started craving very rare

steak and eventually gave in ... and then that lead to eating poultry

and so on.

It is now two years later and I am pregnant with my 3rd baby and

completely disgusted with the food we consume in this household. My

husband is a diehard meathead, along with my children.

My plan is to just stop buying meat. Which leads me to my question. I

am making Kung Pao Chicken tonight. What is the most 'meat like'

alternative to replace the chicken with? My husband likes the fake

bacon I buy for BLTs so I am hoping I can find another meat

replacement he will be happy with. Also when I have a tofu dish in a

restaurant it is much more firm then when I try and cook with it at

home in spite of buying the extra firm variety. Anyone have any

suggestions for getting the tofu to have a more dense, less watery

texture?

Thanks in advance.

Lauren

April 30, 2001

Hi Lauren, I too thought sushi would be the hardest to give up, but I've

enjoyed the non-fish sushi instead. The avocado and cucumber are great, --as

long as i can get the wasabi, i love it. And now I can't believe I used to eat

raw fish. So sad. About the tofu, try freezing it first! I freeze a block

and then when I want to use it for dinner, put in it the refrigerator that

morning, by evening it's thawed but the texture is changed. It's much firmer

and even grills really nicely. I have a George Foreman Grill (Christmas gift)

and the tofu that has been frozen is great sliced and grilled on the grill and

put in sandwiches. Good Luck. Jeannie

April 30, 2001

Lauren asked:

<<Also when I have a tofu dish in a restaurant it is much more firm then

when I try and cook with it at home in spite of buying the extra firm

variety. Anyone have any suggestions for getting the tofu to have a more

dense, less watery texture?>>

Two ideas....

1) The tofu in the aseptic paks is " silken " , so even if it's listed as

" extra firm " , it still isn't as firm as fresh tofu. If you can get to

an Asian market, you can find the firmer blocks of tofu in the

refrigerated section. Otherwise, some regular grocery/health food

stores have them in the refrigerated section that is part of the produce

section.

2) You can press the tofu by putting a plate and some weight on top of

it. An hour or two of that works well. Be sure to set up some way of

catching the dripping liquid -- like towels -- or you'll have a mess on

your counter.

Liz

April 30, 2001

On Sat, 28 Apr 2001 laurenstranahan wrote:

> My plan is to just stop buying meat. Which leads me to my question. I

> am making Kung Pao Chicken tonight. What is the most 'meat like'

> alternative to replace the chicken with?

My husband has found a vegetarian " chicken " product at the vegetarian

Vietnamese deli near our house. It's not a brand name, though. The deli

owner makes it herself. If there is a significant Asian population where

you live you may be able to find something similar at an Asian grocery or

specialty store near you.

If you can't find something like that, I would use tempeh or seitan

instead. Both of those have a firmer texture than tofu. White Wave makes

a variety of seitan they advertise as " chicken-style " that's pretty good.

----

Patricia Bullington-McGuire <patricia

The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered

three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the

purely hypothetical. They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each

nonexisted in an entirely different way ...

-- Stanislaw Lem, " Cyberiad "

April 30, 2001

There's a wonderfully simple technique to make tofu more palatable to people

accustomed to eating meat.

When you get home from the grocery store, put the tofu into the freezer - in

the original sealed plastic wrapping. To use, thaw in the refridgerator

overnight, in a bowl of water on the countertop for a few hours or if you're

in a real hurry, under running water for 20 minutes. The texture of the tofu

will be more like ground meat, but you have to use strong flavoring to give

it some taste. Like flour, tofu takes on the flavour of whatever

seasonings - herbs, spices, onions, garlic etc. - that are used in the

recipe. Use thawed crumbled tofu in recipes such as spaghetti sauce, tacos,

chili and tofu cubes in dishes like a stir fry (the texture is closer to pig

meat or chicken breast).

Wendy

May 1, 2001

, laurenstranahan wrote:

Anyone have any

> suggestions for getting the tofu to have a more dense, less watery

> texture?

You can press tofu by placing it on a plate, placing another plate on

top, and putting something heavy on top of that, such as some books, a

full teapot, whatever. The water can just be poured off. Some

books recommend wrapping the tofu in cheesecloth or a towel before

doing this. I don't. Half an hour should be more than enough for

this. Another thing to do with tofu is freeze it, right in the

package, and defrost it before using. That doesn't exactly make it

firmer (you might even still decide to press it after it defrosts),

but it does make it chewier as a replacement for meat in recipes like

chile or a " meat " pasta sauce.

We're lucky enough to have a local tofu available that is very firm to

begin with so I don't use those techniques too often anymore. If

there is more than one brand available where you are, try them all.

If you're looking for meat substitutes, there are many available in

health food stores. I have a book on Italian vegan cooking by Bryanna

Clark Grogan that has recipes for making a lot of substitutes from

scratch without a major amount of fuss. Everything I've tried from

that book has been excellent. She also has a Chinese cookbook with

meat substitutes.

Deirdre

May 1, 2001

I haven't tried the frozen tofu, but will do that soon. Something I recently

learned (and felt silly, like I should have known) is " pressing " the tofu

before cooking. Cut it into squares, and put it on a plate. Put paper

towels on top, and then top it with something heavy (I use a cookbook).

Leave it for about 1/2 hour, and all the water is pressed out. The texture

is much more firm when you cook it.

Sharon

May 2, 2001

Lauren,

I'm a few days behind the conversation, but I press the very firm

waterpack tofu for several hours in cloth towels and then deep fry it in

peanut oil. it comes out more like the stuff in Chinese restaurants that

way. Good luck with the kung pao tofu! Susan

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May 2, 2001

Thank you for all of the replies.

I have tried seitan and was very pleased with the results. My 15 yr old son

thought dinner was good but 'something is wrong with the chicken'... : ) I did

not tell him it was not chicken before hand. He thought it was 'okay'. My

husband hasn't tried it yet.

I am going to try the tofu suggestions. Thanks a lot.

Lauren

May 3, 2001

Hi~ I will post an intro later but wanted to suggest my favorite chicken

substitute, called VEAT. I make a mean chicken pot pie with it that my

carnivorous husband loves!

It's at my local grocery store here in Cali.

Bonnie