Chinese Vegetables and Skallops

We've been looking at ways to use Loma Linda and Worthington Vegetable Skallops the past two weeks. Skallops are a versatile vege-meat and I particularly like them when we take them back to their roots. Soy and wheat gluten-based meat substitutes were brought to the Adventist Church by Dr. Harry Miller, erstwhile mission doctor and physician to Chinese leader Chiang Kai Shek. Dr. Miller set up a vegetarian meat substitute production plant that became Loma Linda Foods and from which sprang other brands like Cedar Lake, Worthington, and even Morningstar Farms which is available in almost every grocery store in the nation as a vegetarian meat substitute.

So using Skallops as a protein source with Chinese vegetables is appropriate given it's roots in Chinese food.  Using the basic fried with a corn meal coating version we showed you a couple of weeks ago, making a protein-rich Chinese vegetable dish is simple.

Ingredients:

• Fried cornmeal coated Skallops
• Bag of frozen Chinese vegetables
• Wok
• Olive or vegetable oil
• Rice or fried rice mix

Directions:

1. Prepare rice by package directions
2. Prepare Skallops or reheat them if already prepared
3. Heat oil in wok over medium heat
4. Add vegetables to oil and cook till thoroughly heated
5. Remove from heat and place in serving bowl.

Serving Suggestions:

This dish can be served like haystacks by placing rice, Skallops and prepare Chinese vegetables in separate bowls. Serve yourself by placing a bed of rice on your plate, a pile of Chinese vegetables on top of the rice and then place several Skallops on top of the vegetables. Add soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, sweet and sour sauce or whatever sauce you might like. There are all sorts of things you can add. I like to throw cashews, almonds, or peanuts into the mix. I also use chia seeds, flax seeds or quinoa as a healthy garnish. It's up to you. You can put nuts and the like in later or cook them in with the vegatables. Quinoa, however, is better if you start it in the oil in which you cook the vegetables before you add the veggies. 

With Chinese vegetables, you also stretch the Skallops farther if you're serving them for potluck. They get a little expensive but they are so good. You might station a helper by the Skallop bowl and dole them out sparingly, especially to the kids (and some grownups sadly) who might clean out the Skallops in one go. With a "server", you can share out the Skallops more fairly and without having to single anyone out for being a little enthusiastic in their spooning up the Skallops.  Just a trick I learned in my years of happy potlucking.

Tom

Homemade Sweet & Sour Sauce

Leftover sauce stores perfectly in a Mason Jar

I adapted this from a Better Homes & Garden Cookbook one day when I was making Chinese Vegetables with Tender-Bits. It's a nice gingery sweet and sour sauce that I like really well. You can play around with the ingredients if you like. I've made it when I was out of some of the stuff I needed, but it came out fine. The key ingredients are brown sugar, conrstarch, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger and garlic. You can experiment with other things like pineapple juice in place of vinegar, cherry juice off a jar of maraschinos in lieu of syrup or other varieties of sweet peppers. It takes just 10 to 20 minutes once you have everything in the pan and really adds a nice touch to Chinese food.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 4 tsp. cornstarch
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ginger
• 1/2 cup McKay's Chicken Seasoning made into a broth
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup red wine vinegar or pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup finely chopped green sweet bell peppers
• 2 tablespoons chopped pimento
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup or cherry juice
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

1.  In a small saucepan over low to medium heat, stir together brown sugar, cornstarch, broth, vinegar, sweet pepper, pimento, corn syrup, soy sauce, ginger and garlic in small saucepan over low to medium heat.
2. Cook and stir until the mixture thickens and starts to bubble.
3. Continue to stir for two minutes and then remove from heat.
4. Leftover sauce can be stored in the fridge in a glass jar for several days. It may gel on you after a few days, but stick the jar in the microwave and add a little water. Heat for a minute and then stir it to return it to its original consistency. If you put it in the fridge while it's warm in a mason jar or small recycle fruit jar, the jar will seal itself and the sauce will stay nice of quite a long time.

© 2015 by Tom King

Sweet and Sour Chinese Veggies and Tender-Bits

 

Back in the early 20th century, an SDA missionary doctor named Harry Miller and his long-suffering wife went to China to work among the poor people of that nation. His work came to the attention of Chinese authorities and Miller became the physician of choice to luminaries such as Chang Kai Shek and his wife. An immensely creative man, Millar traveled all over China improving hygiene and the diet of the Chinese. He once fought off river pirates on the Yantze with an oar and a pistol he carried with him on his missionary journies.

Another thing Dr. Miller is noted for is his discovery of how to mass produce meat substitutes from wheat gluten and soybeans. The Chinese made a wheat gluten meat-like substance called seitan as well as tofu from soybeans.  Dr. Miller developed a form of soymilk as an alternative to hard to obtain cow's milk for children and tinkered with ways to produce meat substitutes from gluten and soy. When the Japanese forced missionaries to flee Japan, Dr. Miller returned home, bringing his meat substitute idea with him. Worthington and Loma Linda foods were established based on Dr. Miller's patents for meat substitutes.

Loma Linda's lovely Tender-Bits are perfect to go with a nice pile of rice and Chinese vegetables. It fixes up nicely, especially if you have a wok to cook in. Here's how it works:

Ingredients:

1. Olive oil
2. Stir fry veggies
3. Loma Linda Tender-Bits
4. Flour
5. Seasoned salt
6. Rice/Rice a Roni

Directions:

• Start the rice following package directions. Rice-a-Roni makes a nice fride rice that is quick and easy to make up and makes a lovely base for your veggies.

• In a bowl, cut Tender-Bits in half in a bowl.

• Sprinkle flour and seasoned salt over the Tender-Bits and stir them up till they are covered with flour/seasoning mixture.

 

•  Fry the Tender-Bits in olive oil till crisp and slightly brown on the outside, then set the Tender-Bits aside in a bowl.

 

• Stir fry the frozen Chinese vegetables until they are ready.

• Lay down a bed of rice on your plate.

• Cover the rice with a generous portion of Chinese vegetables.

• Add Tender-Bits

• Add homemade Sweet & Sour Sauce, Soy Sauce or other Chinese sauce.

This is really good with Sweet and Sour Sauce and by making it yourself, you can fiddle with the ingredients to suit your own tastes. You might want to increase or decrease ingredients to taste. I tend to go lighter on the vinegar.

The Tender-Bits make this a really delicious dish. It will most surely become a favorite dish and if you make your own sauce, it will give you something to tell everyone at potluck that you made yourself. Not many people make their own sweet and sour sauce.

Have fun.

Tom King © 2015