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If there is radish in it, dear Wux, it would be Beef Brisket with Radish (Luobo Niunan)
If the meat is sliced beef filet, it is a simple Tongue-numbing Beef (Mala Niurou)

https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=luobo+niunan -> do a pic search

https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=mala+niurou -> one of the best dishes under the sun, IMO

^ bookmarked the hot and spicy beef recipe; thank you. I'm pretty sure I could make something from that using seitan for the beef. I need to find sichuan peppercorns, but there are several Asian markets here.

wuxmedia wrote: isn't pids veggie not vegan, might be wrong.

Technically correct, because while I have not eaten meat for many years, I do currently still eat some dairy and eggs. I'm always on a sliding scale though, sometimes more vegan than others, and I have lately been moving back in the vegan direction.

To answer bacon's question about parmesan cheese, I do still have a bit of real parmesan in the fridge, although I did not use it in the penne. I used a bit of "cheese" sauce made from nutritional yeast and a bread-crumb topping. Yeast "cheese" sounds scary until you try it (like many other foods) -- then you either love it or hate it. I can also make a passable "ricotta" from tofu and a little yeast and lemon juice, and recently found a vegan "parmesan" recipe I am experimenting with. More on this later this week.

The bottom line is that I am not really looking for substitutes for things I don't eat -- I use some of the commercial meat substitutes, but I prefer to use tofu and make my own seitan. I avoid many of the meat subtitutes and the new commercial vegan cheese substitutes because the list of ingredients is often longer than the ingredients on other processed food I avoid, and also because I can make things that taste good (to me) without trying to make them resemble things I don't eat. :) There are also many world cuisines that don't use a lot of meat to begin with, so they are easy to modify for a vegan diet.

Too much information?

^ Not at all :)

We do the same here. Mostly tofu and seitan, we also try to avoid meat and cheese substitutes.

^ good info!

pidsley wrote:Yeast "cheese" sounds scary

yup... I'm sure it's lovely :)
we generally try not to eat all that much meat. but yummy.

Bacon. I'll have to get you the pictogram, assuming they are Chinese rw in the back clattering the woks around.
It looks like none of those, the carrots are like matchsticks and seemed like onion cut quite big, and square beef pieces, I know the taste of sichuan peppercorns (actually a flower bud IIRC) wasn't a touch.
Yes pids, if you do find some - be careful with them! Too much really is mouth numbing - not quite like chilli, but well...numbing - but yes, worth a taste :)

Sichuan pepper (indeed not a pepper) is citric, IMO, and prickly (well, it's called prickly pepper powder in the English translation on the package), and actually added to hot & spicy dishes to tone down the hot spiciness (xiang la) of the chilis. In the neighboring Hunan province, the Xiang cuisine does use fresh chilis finely chopped, while the Sichuanese cooks prefer to roast the chilis first, together with oil, to create a slightly smoked chili flavour. In the Middle North, they add sesame seeds to this mixture, not as much oil, and use it as a condiment for the Hand-pulled noodles (Lanzhou Lamian) soup/broth (http://www.wokwithmebaby.com/2012/05/17 ... an-noodles)
Here in the south, the most favourite mix is fresh chopped chili with chopped garlic in vinegar. Extreme.

Pidsley, if you like a bit of bite in your tofu, try to find dried tofu skin in the Asia market (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu_skin). It is also called fuzu (foo-zoo) -- in some places, even in China, the tofu skin is usually fresh and really very thin, nearly transparent, while fuzu is rather thick and needs a few hours soaking in water. It does have an own taste, I'd say it's a bit like artichoke. If you need recipes, let me know :)

^ Thank you mb -- I am planning a trip to the Asian markets soon, and I will look for tofu skin. I have heard of "yuba" before (I guess this is the Japanese term?) but I have never tried it. Sounds interesting.

Eating bean and zucchini enchiladas today (zucchini frozen from last year's garden). That's yeast sauce on top, spicy rice on the side.

mmm cannelonni, haven't had that in a long time, this recipe is really nice:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vege ... ERVyJK0.97
maybe you have the climate for aubergines (pfft eggplant, c'mon Americans, when is an egg purple)

tofu question, do you prefer the 'hard' (more textured) or the silken?
I haven't found a use for the silken, the firm is nice deep fried a bit then chucked in a stir fry.
I really like just ginger, garlic, some veg - soy sauce and some water, maybe some stock or gravy powder for gloopiness. cook until done - that's it.

Pidsley, I'm sure yuba is the same thing, yes.

wux, the different textures have different usages, the silken one can be used as soup ingredient (for example with eggs and tomato as in http://www.chinasichuanfood.com/tofu-eg ... -tomatoes/) or in a tofu salad: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012 ... ecipe.html (you can replace cilantro with parsley), or in a drink: http://blog.junbelen.com/2013/01/23/how ... gar-syrup/ (you can skip the sago pearls) -- I'd go for the salad and the soup, to be honest :)

An excellent recipe for Mapo Doufu, I also recommend to use rather soft tofu for it: http://themalaproject.com/chengdu-chall ... apo-doufu/

Tofu salad with century eggs: http://www.silkroadgourmet.com/cold-tofu-pidan/ (you can skip the meat and the century egg, which is probably hard to find abroad, or replace it with boiled eggs cut in 8ths, and still have a rich tasting cold dish)

Very good write-up about how to prepare crisp variants: http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/02/vega ... ecipe.html -- IMO the smoked version fits best and can be (ab)used to the infamous 'Stinky Dofu' if there is no fermented tofu available. Just prepare a dressing with sesame oil, chili oil, garlic, roasted chili flakes, sesame and broad bean paste, and you have the equivalent without the sewage smell.

I'm not a big fan of the very firm one, mostly because of the texture. There are thin tofu sheets, usually yellow in color and ready to be eaten OOTB. They can be cut to strings and replace noodles. Very suitable for 'salads' and also as wrapper for dishes like Meat Slices in Beijing Sauce (Jingjiang Rousi): http://www.travelchinaguide.com/tour/fo ... -sauce.htm (then wrap the sauce, cucumber julienne, leek shreds, green pepper shreds in the tofu layer)


Damned, I'm hungry now.

^ Thanks for the tofu knowledge bacon. Bookmarked that Mapo Doufu recipe for later.

Today is vegan pizza day. Sweet and hot peppers frozen from last year's garden, red onions, crimini mushrooms. Cashew "parmesan" on top.

^ awesome! I need to sort out the recipes we use and post something.

If an Italian is paying a compliment you definitely did it all right :D

How I'd love to take an 8th there! ;)

I love red onions.

Made this garlic flatbread yesterday after the pizza.



Eating it today with spicy chickpeas and cauliflower on basmati rice, dried-fruit chutney on the side.



I am going to take a break and eat leftovers for a few days, but I will have more later. It can be challenging to cook good food for one person (much easier to just eat crap) -- posting these has helped me be more thoughtful about what I am eating, so thanks for reading.

^ love spicy chickpeas!

"...eating crap..."
/me is eating cheese and branston pickle sarnies all night :)

those look really nice pids.

On one hand it's better to cook for one only, because you can actually prepare a bunch and eat the leftovers (of the leftovers), but on the other hand this is the biggest disadvantage of it :D

^ Heh, very true Baconmeister :)

Leftover basmati rice, curried green beans, homemade seitan sausage.

Now a very un-vegan thing. A typical Balkan monster meat platter with fresh onions, ajvar, pljeskavice filled with cream cheese, ćevapčići, ražnjići, some salad and fries and of course with spicy pepperoni.

I also forgot to add the đuveč