Comments on: Good Greens: Gai Lan With Hunan Salted Chilies and Ground Bean Sauce

By: Sherri

Sherri — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:14:06 +0000

Thanks for posting about this green; I missed the other post on it. I’ve been having a hard time getting my hubby to eat greens other than spinach. I’m sure my ‘learning how to make greens taste good’ has a lot to do with it =)

I’m checking out an Asian vegetable seeds site for it now.

By: Kaykat

Kaykat — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 07:21:31 +0000

Barbara, this looks delightful! I just replenished my asian spices, can’t wait to try this out.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:49:08 +0000

Renae–to make a vegan version of my Ma Po, what I have found works best is to use a variety of mushrooms, either diced or chopped finely, and then sauteed in the part of the recipe where you brown the ground meat.

I like to use at least a handful of rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms–otherwise known as Chinese black mushrooms–in the dish, so that I can use the soaking liquid mixed with vegetable stock to take the place of the chicken broth.

I have found that the combination of the great flavor the mushrooms add to the sauce, plus the textural interest, really makes a vegan ma po with mushrooms vastly superior to making it with TVP.

And yeah–the recipe I use is quite authentic, so I suspect you will really like the sauce a lot better.

Let me know how both recipes go!

By: renae

renae — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:35:07 +0000

This looks really great; I can’t wait to try it! I also made (vegan) Ma Po Tofu last night and am sorry I didn’t think to check here for a recipe since the one I used was kind of boring. But not only did we have a cat named Pywacket when I was growing, up, your Pyewacket looks like one of the cats I have now, Brachtune!

I think I might try veganizing your Ma Po Tofu with the rest of my homemade tofu (served with the gai lan above, of course). I don’t ordinarily repeat dishes in the same week, but I think your version would just do the dish much more justice.