If you're reading this, you probably know Kittee or at least "know" her. It's common knowledge that Kittee is awesome. Now Kittee is someone who when she speaks about food, I always stop and listen. She speaks my culinary language.
For example, the other day:
Kittee: I just made a dish from WORLD.
Me: World Vegetarian?
Kittee: Yup.
And then she went on to tell me about something awesome that she made.
When my other, also culinarily fantastic friend Stacey wrote me on Tuesday to wish me a Happy World Vegetarian Day, I remembered my conversation with Kittee, and it came to me right away that it had been far too long since I had taken up the World Vegetarian project of our youth (well, two years ago). Back when Stacey and I both lived in New York City and had little else to do, we were cooking dish after dish from this most awesome of vegetarian tomes. This, and one of my first cookbooks ever, The World of the East Vegetarian Cooking, are two of my favorites of all time, but it wasn't until I met Stacey that I checked out World Vegetarian from the library for the first time. After renewing and returning over and over, my mom finally sent me a copy of my own. Reunited!
Neither of these books are vegan, but almost all of the recipes including dairy and eggs are in a separate chapter of the book, and if I don't look in that chapter, I forget they are there. I have learned a ton about the cuisines of other countries through these books, and what I've learned has definitely influenced my own flavor and spice experiments in the kitchen.
Anyway, I already had beans a cooking (this time, fresh "haricots tarbai" from the farmers market, mixed with parsley/coriander pesto) so I waited until today to break open this old favorite. Today we made Cold Eggplants with Spicy Chinese Peanut Dressing (p. 181) and Bean Curd with Hot Sauce (p. 100) (above). The spicy peanut dressing really complemented the soft and creamy baby japanese eggplants we scored at the market nicely. The bean curd (tofu!) wasn't all that hot, but it was certainly flavorful. The heat from both dishes came from the sambal oelek, a ground chili paste found at most asian markets, and it's a good thing to use for heat when you don't want to chop up lots of chiles. All of it came together right quick, which was great, cause soon after we headed out to a party to watch the VP debate and laugh at Sarah Palin, neither worldly nor vegetarian.
1 comment:
The World of the East was one of my first vegetarian cookbooks too! I used to make her gluten balls, WAY back in the day. Way way way way way, back in the day. I never knew what to do with them after I'd made them though.
We have another MJ book too, it's a strictly Indian book that dates back to dazee's bachelor days. It's got loads of non veg recipes in it, so I only use it when I want to make Indian food with TVP.
I'm gonna go check out Stacey's blog, thanks for the link.
Smooch.
xo
kittee
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