Book of Yum

The other day I discovered a beautiful green gourd like vegetable at a Farmer’s market stand with Chinese vegetables. I asked the vendor the name of this vegetable and he said it was an Opo Squash- a vegetable like a zucchini but sweeter. Despite the fact that I don’t actually like zucchini, I couldn’t resist taking the beautiful green melon home. I actually mistook the Opo Squash for a different vegetable- the unappealingly dubbed “hairy melon” in my favorite Chinese Vegetarian cookbook, and so I chose to make a hairy melon pancake recipe using the Opo. I peeled the squash and sliced it into rounds, then cutting it into strips and mixing it with some seasonings, a little flour, baking powder, and vegetable stock. Then I heated some scallion oil and fried the concoction in two batches. I actually thought it was fairly tasty, if a bit oily. DH was not such a big fan of the Opo squash, as it tasted too much like zucchini for his taste. Interestingly, I don’t like zucchini, but I found the Opo to be mild and inoffensive. I wouldn’t mind trying it in other recipes. The star of the night was not the opo squash pancake, but instead another recipe from the same book- Sweet Scallion Tofu. The sauce requires multiple stages- first, you make the flavored oil, and then you use the flavored oil in a lovely sauce, and then you pour the sauce over freshly prepared tofu. The layers of flavor are absolutely yummy- and earned an enthusiastic 9/10 from my omnivore (but tofu loving) DH. Best of all, now I have lovely scallion oil AND sweet scallion sauce waiting to be used in another recipe. If you can find it, I highly recommend the (out of print) book, From the Earth: Chinese Vegetarian Cooking. A word to the wise- it does have one chapter using seafood, so that chapter is not applicable to strict vegetarians. Also, there are some recipes calling for oyster sauce, and I have yet to find a gluten free oyster sauce, unless I were to make it myself. Obviously the oyster sauce will also be problematic for strict vegetarians. But, even if you don’t make recipes using either of those ingredients, there are plenty of absolutely amazing, vegetarian recipes that are easy to make gluten free. It is by far the best Chinese Vegetarian cookbook I own, and contains some of our favorite recipes ever.

Sweet Scallion Tofu Side Dish  Tofu  Chinese

Ingredients Scallion Oil 2 cups peanut oil (or other if allergic) 10 scallions, in 3 inch sections, white section pressed lightly Heat wok to medium and add peanut oil and scallions. When scallions are brown, take the scallions out and strain the oil into a glass container and let cool. Keep at room temperature. Sweet Scallion Sauce 1/4 cup Scallion Oil 1/4 cup GF San J low sodium tamari 1/4 cup vegetable broth (from low sodium gf bullion or stock) 2 tbsp sugar Heat wok on medium, add scallion oil, soy sauce, broth and sugar. Whisk ingredients and let them come to a boil. Turn off heat, pour into a glass container and keep either at room temperature (for 4 weeks) or refrigerated (3 months). 3 tbsp pine nuts 6 cups cold water Fresh firm Tofu (one or two cakes) 1/4 cup sweet scallion sauce 1/2 scallion, finely sliced Directions Dry roast pine nuts. Bring water to boil. Add tofu and boil for a few minutes. Remove and drain. Cut tofu cake in half, thirds, or fourths and pour some sweet scallion sauce on top. Sprinkle with scallion and pine nuts and enjoy. Notes Simple but yummy!

Rating:  9 Original Source:  the out of print “From the Earth: Chinese vegetarian Cooking” Recipe ID:  1074 Added:  May 14, 2007 Last Modified:  May 14, 2007

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