Cooking with Lucky Peach: Power Vegetables!

[Smokeydoke]

Here is the discussion thread.
Here is the Amazon link.

My first recipe was Mushroom Mapo Tofu p. 132  I was blown away by how good this tasted. Very spicy! Very authentic. I didn't miss the meat at all. I told Mr. Smokey I'd add ground pork next time and he said it didn't need it. Mr. Smokey refused pork? Ha!
Definitely a keeper and maybe a regular rotation spot.
If I had anything negative to say, it would be the dish wasn't very filling. The recipe is suppose to serve four but the two of us finished it off, no problem, and Mister wasn't full afterwards. A soup, or an appetizer could be paired with the dish to make a heartier meal.

Note: I did receive a complimentary copy of the book to review, but all opinions of the book and recipes are mine.

[Smokeydoke]

Pickled (Napa) Cabbage p. 48
Another winner! It tasted (like) kim chee but was so quick and easy. Meehan devoted few pages to vegetable pickling but the cabbage seemed the easiest. Just add cabbage, salt, chilies and vinegar, let it sit two days, flip the cabbage after the first day. It tasted great and was ready to eat by day two (I think this only works with cabbage).

 

I'm really excited about this book, the more I read it, the more I liked it. It had challenging recipes, useful information I had never read before, ingredients I'd never seen before and most importantly, recipes that had been delicious. I know Lucky Peach is hit and miss but so far I'm impressed with this book and I'm glad I tried some recipes from it. 

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2016 by Smokeydoke (log)

[Smokeydoke]

It's been far too long since I've cooked from this book, it's time to start again.

 

TEMPURA GREEN BEANS p. 62

 

This was a simple recipe of fresh green beans, dipped in tempura batter, then deep-fried. Served with honey mustard sauce.

 

This was delicious, but one-and-done for me, to the dismay of poor Mr. Smokey who exclaimed, "Best green beans I ever had." It was a lot of work because you could only deep-fry a handful at a time or they would stick to each other. I must've done five batches before I called it quits and threw the rest away. A pound of green beans makes a huge batch though, enough to serve at least six people. They used to be a staple at places like TGIFs or as Meehan fondly remembers, The Red Cat. Mr. Smokey can have his fill there.

 

 

This was one batch worth, as you can see the batter gets very puffy and it seems like more green beans than there really are.

 

[FeChef]

Tempura looks good. Smoking is bad for your health. Tufu seems pointless.