Still here...

Apologies again for the lack of posts...

Just a quick note for now - I'm checking out the Aero Gardens for year round herbs and veges - if you've any experience, leave a comment!

Vege steak

Vegetarianism in China and Taiwan, mainly thanks to the Buddhist monks, started out from moral beliefs of not harming animals. This is in contrast to many western vegetarians who give up meat for health or taste reasons, albeit often with a moral side too.

Perhaps not surprising then is the prominence of fake meat in local vege cuisine. Sometimes it’s too good for us western veges :) So what happens when a French chef meets Taiwan? Well that’s what happened with the Marquise a cinque heures.

You can find the Marquise down a side street five minutes west of the Sun Yen Sat memorial.

Home made cheese

Home made produce can be fun and rewarding, but often thwarted by the time it takes and sometimes unpredictable results. Bread and yoghurt are normally reliable, but take several hours.

So I was a little skeptical at 30 minute mozzarella, but it turned out reasonably well.

The first step is to acidify the milk with a little citric acid, then heat to a temperature needed by the rennet, cut the curd and heat a little a more. The magic step is then to drain the curd and zap it a few times in the microwave – this makes it more elastic for stretching and shaping.

A quick cool in water and then the refrigerator and you have some fresh cheese in no time. My first batch needed a little more rennet to set and could have been a little more ‘melt in the mouth’ but tasted fine.

The easiest way to start is with a kit though you should be able to find the bits you need independently too, but remember to check the rennet is vegetarian.

Veging in Taiwan

Yes it's been quiet here of late. As you might have seen over at http://aroaming.blogspot.com I've been spending some time in Taipei. One of the better places to be for a vegetarian...

As always, http://happycow.com is great resource for worldwide travelers and you'll find many venues. A more personal insight is how Taiwanese 'get' vegetarianism perhaps due to the high number of budhists.

I was taken to a side street 'Shabu Shabu' restaurant and when explained that I was vegetarian, they even brought me a tomato based broth (in contrast in China, I'd been given a mushroom soup that smelt of chicken).

Another instance was at the hotel when I was ordering room service (thanks to jetlag). Having ordered a soup and then asking for vege fried rice, they asked, so do you want the vegetarian version of the soup or regular?

All in all, very enlightened I thought - a true respect for our morals.

Bread

Bored with making the same kind of loaf every time? Why not try Pita Bread? I found this a pretty good resource:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread

Mine weren’t 100% successful at puffing up to form the pocket – looks like I needed to go to 410 in the oven – but those that didn’t still tasted fine. Lots of other recipes on this site too.

I’ve also been battling my whole meal bread – trying different mixtures and blends of white and whole meal. Something that seems to help (though only tried once so far) form more bubbles and make them less stodgy is to make up some gluten and add that to the dough mix.

Of course for those allergic to gluten that’s not a great solution – another thing I’ve done in the past, especially as my yeast starts getting a little old is to add some baking powder to provide an extra kick in the oven.

Yum, Tofu

Ok,not something you hear too often, but here’s a simple way to brighten it up.

Serves 4 (serve with brown rice)

• 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 inch finger of ginger root
• 14 oz extra firm tofu

Cube the tofu and place in an oven proof tray. Drizzle the oil & sauce over the tofu cubes. Roughly chop the ginger and add to the dish. Marinate for about 30 minutes, turning the tofu from time to time, so you have something like this:

Bake in the oven at 400 for about 40-50 minutes, again turning from time to time until the tofu crisps. Note you don’t have to keep the tofu in a flat layer.The strands of ginger will brown and most of the fluid will evaporate or be absorbed by the tofu.

Serve with brown rice.

‘Tis the season

In my continuing saga of self-sufficiency, I’ve now turned to making my own beer :) Like with beginning any new ‘hobby’, it makes sense to start small and go with something tried and tested. So, for about $99 (to get the free shipping) I got this lot from Mr Beer.

I mixed and matched a bit, getting one of their starter kits and then complementing it with an extra brew keg and another three beer mixes. Each mix makes 2 gallons of beer.

One thing to note is the standard brew mixes use one can of mix (which is then brewed with Booster – basically sugars and maltodextrin) where as the premium mixes use two cans. So needless to say, the premium ones will have more body.

Obviously once up to speed, you can try your own recipes (I’m sure I can make hard cider from apple juice) or graduate to a more advanced set up. And if you don’t want something alcoholic, they do root beer too :)