Friday, October 9, 2009

Bonus MoFo: "Pepper Steak" Soy Curls

Big nasty storms ruined my plan to go to Atlanta this weekend. I already preloaded some weekend posts, so you get a bonus from my unexpected cooking tonight.

I was thinking about Kim's MoFo posts, in which she is veganizing family favorites, comfort foods, and the like. Once upon a long ago day (more decades ago than I will freely admit), I enjoyed my mother's Pepper Steak, a sort of faux-Chinese-food concoction. Seeing several bell peppers in the fridge, and 3/4 of a bag of Butler's Soy Curls, I set out to see what I could do.

I made a broth from 4 c water, 4 t Better Than Bouillon No Beef Base, and 1 t Champagne Marmite. I brought it to a boil, poured over the 6 oz of dried Soy Curls, and rehydrated for about 10 minutes. I drained the Soy Curls well, pressing out the extra moisture.

In a big frying pan, I heated some peanut oil, and fried 3 cloves garlic (chopped), a generous 1 inch chunk of fresh ginger (peeled and chopped), 1 t kosher salt, and some black pepper. After a few minutes, I added the Soy Curls and fried until they started to brown - maybe 5 minutes or so. I then removed everything from the skillet, and set it aside.

Next, I added a little more peanut oil and 2 chopped onions, and fried until they were caramelizing nicely. I then added 1 t sugar, the reserved Soy Curls mixture, and a mix of 1 T cornstarch, 3/4 c water, and 1/4 c soy sauce. When it thickened up, I added 3 sliced bell peppers (2 green, 1 red, to be exact) and cooked a few more minutes. It will be served over rice, very shortly.

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