Last week, I decided to host a vegetarian dinner. Since quite a few of my friend and acquaintances are now vegetarians, I thought it would be a good idea.
I do like to try vegetarian food as it is a change from the normal. The vegetarian food that I am serving is Chinese style vegetarian food and it is actually vegan, as it does not contain food of animal origin.
My favourite is the vegetarian roast goose, which is very popular in Malaysia. My family used to have this from the temple whenever there is a vegetarian festival going on. There is also the soupy noodles that I like from the temple. The noodles use sweet bean curd sheets and is cooked with fresh mustard leaves. Anyway, those were the days.
I have made vegetarian roast goose many, many times and it is so easy, but a bit time-consuming. I also had my far share of mistakes and fumbles as there are many different typed of soy sheets, or bean curd sheets. Some are thin and dry and some are too thick to roll nicely. Anyway I have tried many times and I have my own little strategies to make it work.
Coming back to my dinner, we also have beans fried with mince and preserved vegetables (chye poh). I used a mixture of Quorn mince and the chopped chye poh. This dish is actually a Sichuan dish, but I changed the method of cooking to reduce the calories. In the original recipe, the beans are deep-fried. I boiled mine.
Another dish is a stew of my own concoction. I have cooked this several times with meat and it tastes delicious. I just use Quorn chicken pieces to replace the meat, and all the other spices and herbs remain the same. In fact I used a combination of eastern spices and condiments and western herbs to give a balanced taste.
The next dish is vegetarian stir fried leeks using vegetarian stir fry sauce. It is simple and easy to cook.
For dessert, we have Peanut Cream, served warm. Caryn, a Malaysian was so happy to have this as it has been a very long time since she last had peanut cream. Lisa, an English, was oooing and aahhing over it . She said it tastes like peanut butter milk shake! Hmm I have not tried a peanut butter milk shake before. We even made a joke out of the name : Fah Sang Woo, or peanut cream in the Cantonese dialect. So we were all woooing away the evening. Woooo…Woooo…
Of course we also have fruits, carrot cake, creme friache, etc.
We ate almost all the food. There was also some take-aways for next day’s lunch.
I prepared some goody bags for the guests.
I really enjoyed myself. It was fun, relaxing, and the food was good. ( I am not praising myself, I am very down to earth!) If you want to join me for my dinner, do click at the wefifi website. There will be other home cooks who love to share their food, too.
So until the next post, I wish you good health, wealth, and good appetite. BTW, in the Chinese culture, good appetite is synonymous with good health and wealth and the good fortune of being able to enjoy those pleasures.
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So for now, ta! and look forward to the next post.
Penang Lassie.
