Saturday, May 14, 2011

Thai Week: Isaan Vegetables

Breakfast: Quinoa pilaf – recipe to come soon!

Lunch: Leftover Pad Thai.

Dinner: Isaan vegetables with rice.



 My love affair with quinoa continues; this time, she’s breakfast.

In the last week I’ve had more pseudomeat than I have in the previous herbivorous 2 years. In Sunday I was taken to Jean’s Kitchen, a great vegetarian place on the Danforth while specializes in mock duck, chicken and shrimp. It was a bit weird to feel the consistency of meat during a meal but everything tasted delicious!

This recipe stays within that theme as it has vegetarian sausage included in it. That may seem like a strange choice, but it works. Just make sure that you don’t buy sausage with any herbs in it, but not a hot dog-style sausage either. That was all we could get yesterday and to be honest, it tasted odd. A plain but meaty-style vegetarian sausage is what you should look for.

You’ll need:
(Feeds 2)
            1 cup water
            1 medium onion
            1 carrot, grated
            1 head of broccoli, chopped
            1 vegetarian sausage, chopped
            150g tofu, fried
            2 tbsp soy sauce
            3 tsp brown sugar
            4 tbsp roast rice powder
            2 tsp chili paste
            Juice of 1 lime
            A handful chopped coriander leaves
            6 kaffir lime leaves, crushed
            1 tbsp lemongrass, sliced

Method:
            Boil the water in the wok
Add the carrots, onions, broccoli, tofu and sausage and cook til the water evaporates
Take off the heat and add soy sauce, sugar, rice powder, chili paste and lime juice
Throw in the lemongrass, coriander, kaffir lime leaves and serve

This goes perfectly with rice, or I like to serve it as a side dish with Thai Red Curry if there are a few people eating.

If you have time, you can make your own roast rice powder very easily; just lay some rice out on a baking tray, push it in the oven for 5-10 minutes, then crush the hell out of the grains using a pestle and mortar. It actually gives the meal a better consistency and looks really good. Plus you get a plus +10 smug factor, which is like Health Points but much more self-satisfied.

No comments:

Post a Comment