At our recent chefs meeting at Parties That Cook, our chef chief, Bibby, mentioned she read an article on how San Francisco’s vegetarians are turning vegan and restaurants are getting into offering vegan on the menu.  Here’s the SF Chronicle article.   Yesterday, as I drove down O’Farrell to get to Sur La Table, I noticed a big blinking neon sign outside a Chinese restaurant that spells VEGAN!  I can just imagine some dude out in Guangzhou feverishly making neon signs that no longer says Free Delivery or All You Can Eat Buffet but a simple Vegan instead!

The nice thing about a lot of Asian cuisine is that they are typically vegan.  I love toying with the different noodle types made out of various different grains – buckwheat soba, rice vermicelli sticks, glutinous rice disc, mung bean cellophane noodles and here, sweet potato starch noodles.

Chef’s tip:  You’ve gotta eat this dish immediately.  Chilling a starch noodle makes the noodles stiff.

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small yellow onion, sliced thinly, makes 1 cup
4 oz shitake mushrooms, sliced thinly
1 carrot, julienned
1 red pepper, sliced thinly
2 red jalapeno, seeded, and julienned finely, optional
2 sprigs green onion/ scallions, julienned into 2 inch sprigs, makes about 2 cups
2 cups baby spinach

Sauce:
3 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup tamari/ light soy sauce
2 tablespoon water

Noodles:
3-4 tablespoons sesame oil
6 oz potato starch noodles, soaked in hot water 10 mins

1. In a small bowl, mix all sauce ingredients.  Set aside.
2. Boil noodles according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.
3. Heat a wok over high heat.  Add 1 tablespoon sesame oil, add garlic, onions, mushrooms.  Stir fry for 1 minute, push to the side, or remove from pan.
4. Add 1 tablespoon sesame oil, stir fry carrots, red pepper and jalapeno.  Fry till fragrant and vegetables are tender – about 2 minute.
5. Add sauce mixture to the wok, and bring to boil.
6. Add noodles and simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed. Toss in mushroom and spinach.  Cover and steam for 1 minute.  Add a little more water if necessary.
7. Garnish with chopped green scallions.  Drizzle with more sesame oil and soy sauce if necessary.
8. Serve immediately.

Serves: 6

Tags: Korean, noodles, vegan, Vegetarian.

I love kalbi but find it a bit of a work to work around the sinewy parts of the short ribs.  Using a juicy piece of tenderloin solves that problem while still allowing me to enjoy the sweet grilled beef.

Chef’s tip: While testing for beef doneness is most accurately achieved with a meat thermometer, a quicker way of testing will be to feel the meat with your finger tips and then comparing it with the softness of the area of your palm between your thumb and the base of your hand.  With one palm opened, take your index finger of the other palm and press on this area.  That’s how raw meat feels like.  Next, with that opened palm, bring the index finger to gently meet the thumb like you are doing an “ok”; that’s how “rare” would feel like.  When you switch the index finger to the middle finger, you will begin to encounter some resistance, but it’s still soft; that would be “medium rare.”  For “medium”, bring your ring finger to the thumb, it will feel springy.  And lastly, for “well-done”, bring your pinkie finger to meet your thumb and your palm will feel pretty firm.  You never want to cook your tenderloins well done.

Marinade:
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoons vermouth or sake
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
2 Tablespoons frozen pineapple concentrate
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon ginger, grated
3 Tablespoons green onions, white parts only, finely sliced

4 6-oz tenderloin
1 cup kim chee

1. Whisk all the marinade ingredients together.
2. Immerse the tenderloins in the marinade, cover tightly and leave to marinade overnight.
3. Slightly oil a grill, and heat it.  When hot, sear the meat, both sides.  Cook till desired doneness.  Let steak sit for a few minutes before serving.
4. Bring remaining marinade to boil.
5. Serve steak with drizzled with cooked marinade with white steamed rice and some kim chee on the side.

Serves: 4

Tags: Beef, grilled, Korean, salty, sweet, umami.

Black rice has a nutty, slight sweet and chewy texture with the aroma of coconut and for those of you who may be familiar with it, a pandan fragrant.  You can easily find black rice in Korean grocery stores or health food stores, where the rice is more commonly labeled as Forbidden Rice.  Its deep purple color makes a stunning presentation while boasting a high nutritional value.  Buy the regular black rice to serve as carbs (i.e., not glutinous or sweet black rice, which are more apt for desserts).

Chef’s tip: Cooking black rice is like cooking brown rice.  Pre-soaking the rice helps to make it cook faster.  Wrapping your pot lid with a dish towel prevents condensation from falling back into rice and making the rice soggy.  Tie the towel to the lid knob to prevent it from catching fire.

Ingredients:

2 cups black rice
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, optional

1. Rinse the rice.  Soak in water for 30 minutes.  Drain.
2. Add 3 cups of water to the rice.  Add salt if using.
3. Bring to boil.  When it comes to a boil, turn heat to a simmer.  Cover pot with lid that is wrapped with a dish towel.  Simmer on low for 30 minutes.  Do not uncover.
4. Remove from heat, and let sit for 10 minutes further. Do not uncover nor fluff.
5. Fluff before serving.

Serves: 4

Tags: Korean, Rice, vegan, Vegetarian.