In no way, shape or form am I any part
Japanese. I wanted to get that out of
the way before I continue with this blog.
The girl and I set out this weekend to become a slight bit
Japanese.
For her blog, she veganized California rolls (sushi) and for me, since
sushi just wasn’t enough for dinner, I set out to do Yakitori. Yakitori is grilled chicken on speared sticks
with leeks or green onions.
After we got finished tasting and devouring the
Sushi that we had made, it was now time
for me to Veganize this dish. I rolled
up my sleeves, put my apron and chef’s hat on and began my quest for the
ultimate VEGAN YAKITORI- (mind you, I had no idea what it was until I was
challenged with this recipe).
Of course, since the recipe is mainly focused
around Chicken, I had to improvise. And
this was, really the only thing that I had to veganize. I reverted back to my trusty Light Life
“Chicken Strips but I tend to think it may have been a tad bit better with
seitan. I’ll try that, certainly, next
time.
The sauce called for a combination of soy sauce
(liquid aminos), mirin or sake, sugar, honey or maple syrup and small wooden
spears. Since we already had an
abundance of rice, we decided to make chow mein (thanks to the girlfriend) to
be the side to our Japanese dish.
After mixing the soy sauce, sugar, maple syrup and
sake, I then put the mixture in a pot and heated. After this was heated through, I added the
chicken strips and let sit for a while, until all strips were soaked. Once this was completed, I added the strips
to the spears and alternated between the strips and the green onions. I opted not to grill because it’s just too
long of a process for just a few spears.
Into the oven they went and we relaxed for a few moments. We plated the final product and as you can
see... quite tasty. However, I believe
that there is much room for improvement on this recipe.
I have
fallen in love with making sushi so the next morning, we ran up to Kroger and
purchased more Sushi making items. My goal
was to perfect the sushi roll. Sushi
takes a while to make simply due to the sticky rice and if you don’t have
patience, then you might as well not even try.
My sushi rolls consisted of avocado, carrots and cucumber and I set out
to make Crab stuffed sushi which had imitation crab (which is chock full of a
variety of fish), avocado, carrots and cucumber. They were a huge success and out of 4 veggie
rolls and 1 crab roll, I have 6 veggie and 1/3 of the crab left. Serve with a side of wasabi, pickled ginger
and liquid aminos for dipping. Liquid
Aminos is a natural version of soy sauce and contains a lot less sodium. I do prefer the aminos over soy sauce.
I couldn’t call my blog “Vegan or Not” if I wasn’t going to make the actually non-vegan meals so last evening, I set out to make the real chicken version of the Yakitori and instead of chow mein, I made Thai noodles with Thai spice, topped with chives and served with the sauce from the chicken. One word summed up the tasty treat and that was “Splediforous!” coined from my roommates stuffed mouth. I, too, had to try the chicken for I don’t want to lie to my readers if I haven’t actually tasted the dish. But, I only tried one chunk of the chicken and it was mouth watering delicious.
I, also, have to confess that I have brought in a
batch of the sushi because it’s so good and if I had any co-workers, I would
let them try it. But, for now, I get to
enjoy these wonderful veggie rolls all by myself. I can, truly, say that they are yummy!
So my Vegan or Not Friends… another success in my
pocket and another challenge awaits me.
For our Wednesday night date night, it is time for
me to veganize my famous spinach lasagna. I am looking forward to this
challenge.
I turned Japanese for a few days but now it’s back
to comfort and soul food. Anyone who has
tried my regular lasagna, knows that it’s going to be good!
Japanese rating from a non-japanese individual on
the Yakitori Vegan or NOT:
6 out of 10 chopsticks
Sushi Scale:
4 Carrots, 4 Avocados and 2 Cucumbers
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