Not Fish Fish Curry

Yesterday was truly the best Sunday I've had in a while. I woke up early, put in a couple of hours at the gym and then returned home to my adoring dog (the way Mojo welcomes me home really makes me feel special) and sleeping husband. It was 1030am!

"Come on," I said, "let's get up, go out and relax."

Yeah, I can be quite a pain in the you-don't-want-to-know-where!

So, it was close to noon when we left the house for some lunch and a walk-about. Lunch was pretty simple fare: rice and Asam Fish Curry for the man and rojak for me. The fish curry received rave reviews that inspired me to make a vegetarian version of the dish for myself for dinner.  It isn't unusual for me, you know, thinking about dinner during lunch, thinking about tomorrow's breakfast at dinner. Actually, I think it's a pretty universal habit of food lovers. Right?

So anyway, I got home at 3pm and started mentally planning my curry. There are so many varieties of fish curry (and not-fish curries too): Thai Fish Curry, Indian Fish Curries (for there are many, many varieties types of Indian fish curries, just you go online and see for yourself!), Malaysian fish curries (there are many different types too) ...

The best thing, I concluded, was to look at what I had in my fridge/pantry and only then decide on what type of curry I'd make.

I like my fish curry a little sour. Tamarind would be ideal but I didn't have any in my fridge. I had some lime though so that was fine.

I also love to ladies finger and brinjal in my curry but I had neither. Oh bummer. I made do with long beans and tomatoes. I DON'T like potatoes in fish curry so I didn't add any.

What else? Oh yes! Lemongrass would do quite nicely. I add lemongrass in almost any curry I make, even the dry curries. Other ingredients? Onions, chilli powder, salt, curry leaves, garlic and coconut milk/milk/yoghurt.

Last but the most essential is, of course,  the fish or in my case, the fish substitute. If you're familiar with Chinese vegetarian food, you will be familiar with this soy-based fish that comes in a block about two feet long. The soy "fish" is even wrapped in seaweed, which plays the part of the skin.

The curry was delicious and definitely satisfied my cravings. The best part? I have some leftover so my dinner tonight is set!

Vegetarian Not Fish Curry

200g vegetarian fish, sliced

2 tbsp fish curry powder

1/2 cup long beans, cut into 3-4cm pieces

1 tomato, quartered

1 medium onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, sliced thin

1 cinnamon stick

4-5 star anise

2 stalks lemongrass (bottom white part only, smashed)

1/2 tbsp lime juice

3 cups water/vegetable stock

1/4 cup milk/coconut milk/yoghurt

salt to taste

a handful of curry leaves

First, dissolve the chilli powder in about 1/3 cup water to make a thick paste. Set aside.

Fry the sliced "fish" till they are just golden. Remove and drain. 

Head 3 tbsp oil in a pan. Add the onions and fry till they soften. Add the garlic , cinnamon and star anise and fry till fragrant. Add the tomatoes and long beans and then the fish. After a couple of minutes, pour in the curry paste and stir so that everything is coated well with the curry.

When the mixture starts bubbling, lower the heat and add the water. If you want to, mix 2 cups stock, with 2 cups water.

Let the curry cook. When it starts to simmer, add the lemongrass,  coconut milk and the salt. Squeeze in the lime juice and taste again to see if you need more seasoning. I added a pinch of sugar to temper the heat.

Tear up the curry leaves (it releases more flavour) and add into the curry. Stir and remove from heat.

The Cinderella of soy

Textured vegetarian protein or soy meal or soy meat is a forgotten delight. When I first became a vegetarian in 1989, textured soy chunks were the meat replacement staple for vegetarians: they were rich in protein and low in fat and were able to ably compensate vegetarians for the sudden loss of protein from meat.

These chunks are  made from defatted soy flour, made by extracting soybean oil. It contains no fat which is good but, on its own the chunks were quite tasteless as they contained no MSG or other artificial flavouring. My mum used to cook them in curries, seasoning the chunks with curry powder and other spices. You could still taste the strong protein of the soy, though.  Simply put, we ate them because they were good for us not because they tasted amazing or were deceptively like meat.

The popularity of soy meal took a dramatic nose dive when other, tastier meat analogues came into the forefront in the early 1990s. The alternative? Wheat gluten or seitan that is flavoured to taste like meat. Definitely a tastier option as you could replicate any meat dish using seitan. Curry Fish, Beef rendang, pork chops, vegetarian ham, butter chicken, spare ribs ... you name it, you can have it. The texture of the wheat gluten products were also more refined. If the soy meal was a little springy, the wheat gluten products were smooth and, for want of a better word, meaty.

For a while, I too was taken up by the possibilities that wheat gluten brought to the table. And, for a while, I too forgot about the humble soy meat.  Just for a while though for while gluten is tasty, eating too much gluten made me feel bloated and uncomfortable. So I began reading up on gluten and found that the protein from gluten comes from hard-to-digest protein that can cause indigestion. Check this out. While I still use  gluten-based vegetarian produce from time to time,  it's no more than once a month.

Instead, I decided to go back to soy meal and try and make it more appetising. Playing around with seasoning and cooking techniques, I admit I may have brushed off the flavour of soy meal too easily.

This soy meal burger was my first successful soy meal experiment and I do want to share my joy. Try it, you'd be surprised too.

Soy meal burger

1 cup soy meal

4 cups water

5 fresh mushrooms (shitake/swiss brown is fine)

1 clove garlic, chopped

Mixed spices *

1/2 cup cheddar cheese

1 cup breadcrumbs

salt and pepper

* I used a spice mix that Marty got me from Morocco but you can use cayenne, cumin, chilli (or curry), coriander powders or experiment with any other spice you fancy.

Boil the water in a saucepan. When it's bubbling, add the soy meal chunks and cook for a minute. Turn off the heat and let them soak in the hot water for about 5 mins. They should be soft and spongy. Drain the water, squeezing as much water from the soy chunks as you can.

Rub your spices and black pepper all over the chunks and transfer them into your food processor/blender. Pulse a couple of times till their  chunks are broken up but DO NOT  blend till smooth.

Tranfer to a bowl. Mix in the cheese and breadcrumbs and season with salt and pepper. Don't use all the breadcrumbs at a go. Use a half cup and add more if its necessary to bind the mixture together.

Form patties from the mixture, make sure you compress them tight. Place them on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 20-30 mins or till they're nice and golden and have firmed up. Let them cool. They may be a little soft when out of the oven but will firm up as they cool. If they're still soft after 10 mins or so, let them rest in the switched-off (this isn't a word, I know) oven for about 5-7 mins.

I assembled my burger using lettuce, apple and raisin chutney and mustard.