Lunar Festival= Mooncakes! (Recipe Part I)

This past Sunday was the actual day of celebration for the Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival, but our town had a major power outage due to the hurricane or something, so celebration was postponed partly because of no light and partly because you simply couldn't see the moon (which is pretty much the whole point of the Moon Festival)!

Anyways, I had the honor of going to our local public school to teach the Chinese Club how to make mooncakes! Of course, I made some at home beforehand so that I would get to eat some before all of the ravaging teenagers finished them off haha.

Here are some of the ones made at the high school:

These are the molds I used for making the mooncakes. Flour them lightly, fill them with your dough-filling package and tap twice on the side and once on the front.

Here's a peek inside of mine (pineapple and sweetened mung bean fillings)!

Now, recipe time!

Vegan Mooncakes
12 1/2 - 13 T EB (in stick form, slightly softened)
2/3 C vegan powdered sugar (sifted)
2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 c plus 1 T Vanilla pudding powder (such as Simply Organics)
1 T Soymilk powder, plain (if you have the sweetened variety, sift out the sugar)
1 Ener-g egg or 3-4 T soy yogurt

1. Cream the EB and sugar until light and (surprise!) creamy, 2-3 minutes.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, pudding powder, and soymilk powder.
3. Gradually beat the flour mixture into the EB mixture in several additions. (It won't be completely compact; don't worry; it's normal for the dough to look crumbly)
   
4. Stir in your egg replacer of choice.
   
5. Knead it lightly until it comes together.
6. Flour lightly, wrap and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight.
   

TO BE CONTINUED.........

Beans, beans. Not really magical. Not really a fruit. But tasty, nonetheless.

I confess. I have a slight obsession with sweetened beans.

Mung beans are closely related to adzuki beans, I think. If not, they taste like it. They also resemble each other, so yea, I think they're probably related.

Here, I used mung beans to make a cold mung bean soup. It sounds incredibly odd, but it is a traditional dessert typically made and eaten during the summer months due to its refreshing qualities. It is also said to heal acne and bring down fevers and such.

Here are the beans before cooking.

After cooking and such, here is your final product! Simple and divine.

So go try it! Now!

3 cups mung beans
3 cups water

1 3/4-2 cups water
1 cup sugar (brown is preferred)

Cover the mung beans with water (at least one inch above) and soak overnight. Pour off the soaking water and add 3 cups of new water. Cook over med-high heat until the beans are tender.

In a separate pot, combine the water and sugar over med-low heat, stirring until dissolved. Once it has dissolved, set it aside.

Combine the sugar water and the beans and stir until homogeneous. Refrigerate and serve when icy cold. yum!

Finally! A recipe!

I love summer! any guesses why? Well, i get to sleep in till 630, eat gimme lean hot dogs, bake me some fries, and NOT GO TO SCHOOL! haha. yep, i loves summer.
Here we have some of the ingredients for a Chinese sticky rice dish. On the far left are rehydrated shittake mushrooms. In the middle bowl is a pile of fried onion and garlic. Underneath it is some sliced ginger. To the far right, we have some TVP strips that we bought at a Buddhist vegetarian store in Taiwan. I tell you, that place has SO MUCH STUFF!!!!! It really is a vegan's paradise.
Alright, anyways, here is the finished product. Yummy, no? this is topped with a sweet chili sauce and a couple of fresh sprigs of cilantro. Sometimes, it is also eaten with chopped peanuts. Whatever floats your boat, i guess.

I'm actually going to post a recipe!

Taiwanese Sticky Rice:

4 cups brown sweet rice
4 dried shittake mushrooms, rehydrated and sliced
1 Tbsp. Fried onion and garlic (optional; this can be found at asian groceries)
1/2- 3/4 c TVP strips, soy curls, or chik'n strips
1 t-T thinly sliced ginger
soy sauce
sesame oil
salt (can be omitted if you are watching your sodium intake)
1/2-1 tsp. sucanat or rock sugar
white pepper
Store bought Chili Sauce
cilantro

What to do:
1. At least 5 hours prior to mealtime, start soaking the rice. Simply place the sweet rice in a rice cooker and cover with water. At this point, the amount of water is not important, so long as the rice is covered.

2. Rehydrate the mushrooms by microwaving them in hot water for about 2-4 minutes. The water will be extremely hot, so be careful when removing the mushrooms from the water to slice thinly. Rehydrate the TVP strips by placing them in the leftover mushroom water (no need to microwave). They should be done in about 1-2 minutes.

3. Marinate the TVP strips in a simple 1:1 ratio of soy sauce and sesame oil. (2 T of each should suffice.)

4. After your rice has soaked, dump out the soaking water and replace with 4 cups of fresh water. Cook in your rice cooker.

5. When the above 4 steps are completed, and your rice is cooked, prepare your pan by pouring in about 1 T of sesame oil over med-high heat.

6. When the oil is hot, add in the ginger, garlic, and onion, being careful not to burn any of the aromatics. Add in the mushrooms and TVP strips, stirring constantly. Add in the rice at this point, making sure that the other ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the rice.

7. The rice is basically done now; add more soy sauce or salt to taste if desired. If you find that it is too salty, sprinkle on the sucanat. Sprinkle on the white pepper at the last moment.

8. In Taiwan, this dish is traditionally plated by packing cylindrical bamboo or metal containers with the rice mixture and then dumping them out on plates, as i have done above. If, however, you do not possess these containers, feel free to eat this "free form." Either way, it's delicious!