Vegan Chipotle Sausage with Kale

Hello! How is everyone doing? Hope you enjoyed the Christmas and year-end holiday break. I (and this blog) took a week off from posting and we are now back with a few more days to go before we say goodbye to 2013 and hello to 2014!

Today's post is about sausage-less sausages. You won't miss the meat with these vegan "grain meat" sausages made with wheat gluten. Oh yeah, these are really delicious sausage-less sausages.


If you like it spicy, then you will like the Mexican Chipotle flavor that is made from a spicy-hot blend of smoked Chipotle peppers, Chili de Arbol peppers, fresh chopped garlic, sweet onions seasoned with cumin seeds and oregano.


These Field Roast brand of vegan sausages are available in Whole Foods Market, and voted recently into the vegetarian sausages Hall of Fame. As the sausages are on the crumbly-side, they are easily broken up like ground meat and conveniently flavor up a simple saute of winter greens e.g. kale.

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Chicken Barley Soup/ Light Stew 薏仁鸡汤

Cook (more of) this on Sunday, and there will be leftovers for another easy weeknight dinner the week ahead. Soup or light stew, a comforting and satisfying dish to have, especially during the cold winter months.


This is not my first time cooking Chicken Barley Soup but it is the first time I make it a point to "document" the dish in this blog/website.


Barley is a well-known natural diuretic that helps in curing water retention. This grain is a well-rounded ingredient with fiber (both soluble and insoluble), vitamins (good source of Vitamin B-6), and minerals (e.g. high in magnesium, iron) that maintains overall good health.

I usually add barley when making quinoa and millet congee, turning it to a multi-grain congee. You can also use barley for dessert-soups or savory soups. Or most simply, cook barley water by boiling barley in water! In this dish, barley adds the magical touch of thickening the soup quite a bit, turning it to a stew.

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Baked Vegetarian Spring/ Egg Rolls - Brussel Sprouts & Mushrooms 素春卷 （非油炸)

I have always doubt the crispiness of baked spring rolls. I mean, how can "baked" ever compare to deep-fried crispiness ? Today I have come to confirm this. Baked spring rolls MAY NOT look perfectly golden-brown BUT they CAN BE crispy. Yes, THESE ARE CRISPY!


What does that mean? A person who enjoys deep-fried foods but avoids deep-frying because of the grease (and smell) in the kitchen (that same person has to end up cleaning the kitchen as well...so now you know) is finally able to find a solution to satisfy her cravings for crispy spring rolls without deep-frying.


This is also a new filling I have created for vegetarian lovers. Wonder what's the filling? Look closely.

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Spinach, Kabocha Squash Millet Congee 菠菜南瓜小米粥

This definitely looks like baby food!!! Well, but it should also ease into an adult's palate, especially when one is under the weather or simply yearn for a one-pot hot "something" on a cold winter night. Congee it is!

A quick, soothing and warm one-pot millet congee with baby spinach, kabocha squash and some ground chicken (optional if vegetarian).


Millet is highly nutritious. It contains B-complex vitamins such as niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin; also high in iron, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, and potassium. This millet congee is flavorful, warm and soothing and the entire dish can be accomplished in less than 30 minutes from prep. to finish.

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Collard, Pumpkin Bean Soup & Avocado Toast

I have cooked this bean soup (Tuscan Bean Soup) before, but this time replacing the "greens" from kale to collard.

I enjoy making such bean-style soups - warm and wholesome especially towards the last few months of the year when it is typically colder; and this is also the time when I bring in the Immersion Hand Blender to better use - making pureed soups e.g Asparagus Soup, Pumpkin Soup or simply to make soups thicker.

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Steamed Meat with Pickled Lettuce 蒸肉饼

What is that pinkish mashed-up stuff?! It might not look good or even appetizing (my fault for not making it look good) but it is an "old-school" "Grandma" style dish that is easy to cook using just a few ingredients (in fact, just two or at most three ingredients) and very flavorful. Most importantly - it is comfort food to many of us who enjoys home-cooked Chinese-style dishes. Call it the taste of home

I consider it Grandma's style dish for two reasons. First, when the other half was eating it, he said this dish is best suited for seniors/the elderly as it is boneless, easy to bite and chew (assuming some in the very old generation may not have strong teeth to bite/chew food) yet very tasty with plain porridge/congee (another dish suitable for the elderly).

Second, I think a lot of us had this while we were younger. I meant, Grandmas in many families must be cooking this often in their generation when food ingredients were scarce and not as bountiful as today.


It uses just two ingredients - ground meat and pickled lettuce (from the can or bottle).

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Yongkang Beef Noodles, Formosa Chang in Taipei, Taiwan 永康牛肉面， 胡须张

After a few days in Tainan, Southern Taiwan, indulging in many rounds of milkfish porridge, trying eel noodles, trying the famous Danzai noodles, shrimp rolls, we headed to Taipei, northern Taiwan for a day before heading back to California.

I am not quite a fan of beef noodles per se. However, I do like to try food or dishes especially those that have been recommended or deemed good through words-of-mouth. Yongkang 永康 Beef Noodles was recommended by the locals in Taiwan, being rumored as Jackie Chan's favorite beef noodle in Taipei. I am not quite sure how Jackie Chan's "endorsement" works here ...BUT...WELL...

Stewed Beef Noodles in Light Broth 清炖牛肉面

Anyway, upon verifying the facts only till now, only after we visited Yongkang, it seems Jackie Chan's favorite beef noodle stall is rumored to be Laozhang 老张 Beef Noodles and not Yongkang (apparently, Laozhang closest competitor). No wonder the mix-up.

Braised Beef Tendons Noodles 红烧牛肉 (半筋半肉）面

I usually like beef noodles in clear broth 清炖 as this is how I can taste real beefy broth, a broth that is not overpowered by the spices typical of the braised version 红烧. I am also usually more of a fan of beef tendons to other parts of beef, however, a combination of tendons and meat is only offered in  the braised version. Okay, so I am not getting the best of both worlds in a single bowl but that's alright. The server did mention that they can combine the tendons and meat in the clear broth version if we really wanted it; however the tendons would have been braised anyway, so it is going to be added into the original clear broth. Finally, we just went with all-meat for the clear broth stewed beef noodles, and tendon-and-meat combination for the braised beef noodles.

I first read about Formosa Chang from Noobcook's review sometime back, and never fail to register that in my food memory..."would love to try it someday if I get a chance".

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Asian Pickles by Karen Solomon

What comes to mind when you hear the word "Asian Pickles" ?

For me, the first few Asian Pickles that come to mind will be Kimchi (from Korea), Pickled Cucumbers (from China) and Mango Chutney (from India). But Asian Pickles is MORE than that.

Asian Pickles by Karen Solomon will definitely do more justice to the preservers and picklers; and certainly help a novice like me expand my horizon in the pickling arena. The book will be on sale 10 June 2014.

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Ten Speed Press [Press Release]
Publicity Contact: Natalie Mulford natalie.mulford@tenspeed.com

For Asian food aficionados as well as preservers and picklers looking for new frontiers, the Far East’s diverse and sometimes spicy array of pickled products and innovative flavor pairings will wow the palate. In Asian Pickles, respected cookbook author and culinary project maven Karen Solomon introduces readers to the unique ingredients used in Asian pickle-making and numerous techniques beyond the basic brine. For the novice pickler, Solomon also includes a vast array of quick pickles with easy-to-find ingredients. Featuring 75 of the most sought-after pickle recipes from the East – including Korean Chopped Daikon Kimchi, Japanese Umeboshi, Chinese Spicy Ginger Cucumbers, Indian Coconut-Mint Chutney, and more – Asian Pickles will help you explore a new preserving horizon with fail-proof instructions and a selection of helpful resources.

ON-TREND: Pickling in general, and Asian pickling in particular, is a hot culinary category. Although pickling is a time-honored food tradition, chefs, bartenders, and the food media are enthusiastically embracing new methods and uses.

NOVEL PRODUCT RELEASE: Four ebooklets were published in lead-up to the print book (Japan: Fall 2012, Korea: Spring 2013, China: Summer 2013, and India: Fall 2013). These recipes will be combined with additional recipes from Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines in this comprehensive print and ebook.

Asian Pickles is a DIY guide to making the tangy pickles of Japan, Korea, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and more, featuring recipes ranging from traditional tsukemono and kimchi to chutney and new combinations using innovative ingredients and techniques.

About the author:
Karen Solomon is the author of Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It; Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It; and The Cheap Bastard’s Guide to San Francisco; a contributing author to Chow! San Francisco Bay Area: 300 Affordable Places for Great Meals & Good Deals; and a former contributing editor to Zagat Survey: San Francisco Bay Area Restaurants. Her edible musings on the restaurant scene, sustainable food programs, culinary trends, food history, and recipe development have appeared in Fine Cooking, Prevention, Yoga Journal, Organic Style, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, San Francisco Bay Guardian, and elsewhere. She’s currently a guest blogger for The Blender, the Williams-Sonoma blog, and the Bay Area Bites KQED Food Blog. Visit www.ksolomon.com.
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The above is a press release from Ten Speed Press.

Fish "Tofu"and Tomato Rice Noodle Soup 鱼豆腐番茄果条汤

One of the best ways to enjoy these precious organic heirloom tomatoes is using them, fresh and raw, in salads.

But it was a cold winter day and salads were not the best way to go.

I want a piping hot soup on this blustery day. A Rice Noodles Soup might just be it.


This noodle soup is very similar to the Shirataki Noodle Soup I have cooked before. Both delicious but I definitely prefer using fresh rice noodles.

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