Thursday, February 11, 2010

Day 11

We've been busy exploring the vegetarian restaurants in Sacramento. We've tried some really good ones, and some pretty bad ones, but I'd like to focus on our latest find (one of the good ones, still searching for THE best): Au Lac Veggie. The food at Au Lac was pretty good, service was amazing, and the price was extremely affordable (we paid $30 for 3 entrĂ©es, rice and drinks). They have interesting menus with all these fake meat products. They call them "Veggie Chicken, Veggie Fish, Veggie Beef", and what we've tried so far have been impressive (as far as fake meat entrĂ©es go). We ordered the Mongolian Veggie Beef, Claypot Veggie Fish, and the Eggplant with Basil.
I was pleasantly surprised when the "Mongolian Veggie Beef" arrived. It looked like real beef! The "beef" was sliced thinly and stir fried with some green bell peppers onions, garlic, coated with a spicy-sweet sauce that worked so perfectly with brown rice. I thought it would be chewy (more like gummy) but it actually tasted pretty close to the real thing.
The Clay Pot Veggie Fish was just "OK", not as good as the real thing. I mean the fish was good, but the sauce could use a little work.
My favorite was the Eggplant and Basil. The basil flavor permeated the eggplant in this delicious and slightly sweet sauce, the eggplant was smokey too, I love smokey flavor. All in all we walked out of that place happy and full (but not disgustingly full, like you would feel after finishing a huge piece of steak!) with left-overs for the next day. Awesome! Too bad I didn't have a camera with me so I could share photos, oh well!

Au Lac Veggie got me really curious about these fabricated meat products. I was obsessed and fascinated with the idea. So I tracked down the source. I found them in the Asian part of town which is south of where we live. They had a freezer chest full of these "meats". They had veggie mutton, chicken, fish, beef chunks, ham, and goose! I've already tried the fish so I got that. I figured I'd try the goose too.

For dinner on our 11th day, we had pan fried Veggie Fish with homemade Thai Vegetable Curry.


Here's the recipe:

THAI VEGETABLE CURRY
Serves 3-4
1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 onion, sliced thin
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
2 medium sized Japanese or Thai* eggplants, cut into chunks
1/2 pound cup squash, cut into cubes
1 pound green beans
1 medium sized red bell pepper, sliced into strips
1/4 cup or water
1-15 oz. can unsweetened coconut milk
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce (soy sauce, if you prefer)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup basil leaves



In a heavy pan or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until it starts to to turn translucent,about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger, stir until fragrant. Stir in the curry paste and fry, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the eggplants, squash, green beans, and red bell pepper. Season with a teaspoon of salt. Pour in the water and cover pot to let the veggies steam for 5 minutes. Add half of the coconut milk and reduce to half under medium heat. Once reduced, add the remaining coconut milk and bring to a boil. Stir in the fish sauce (soy sauce), brown sugar. Reduce the heat and simmer, for 5 minutes or until vegetables, particularly the squash, have softened.

Remove from the heat and add the basil leaves. Serve over rice.

Variations
*If you are using Thai eggplants, use about 6 of them for this recipe. They are tiny, about the size of a small tomato. 

You can use other vegetables that are in season. Carrots, cauliflower, snow peas, cabbage, mushrooms and canned baby corn work well. Try your favorite, or use a combination of vegetables.


Calories per serving: 350 (without rice)

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