Vegan Recipes: Ingredients

[This page is in the earliest stages of development: 24 April 2007]

Japanese ingredients

Soy sauce / Soya sauce / Shoyu

This dark brown liquid is produced by fermenting soya beans. It tastes both salty and rich. It can be bought in small bottles in many UK supermarkets, and in litre cannisters from cash-and-carry wholesalers.

 

Miso

Miso is produced by fermenting various beans (soya beans) and grains (barley). It has a consistency similar to firm, smooth peanut butter, and comes in a variety of types, such as hacho miso and mugi miso. It varies in colour from dark brown through orange to yellow. If it is on sale in UK supermarkets, I have not seen it. I buy miso from a whole-food shop: Almonds and Raisins in central Newcastle-upon-Tyne , Out of This World in Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne , UK , Tullivers, York , UK , Westerly Wholefoods on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan , New York City. [Update: Holland & Barrett shops in the UK now stock miso in jars.] In the UK there are at least several suppliers of miso, although I prefer Clearspring because all their products are vegan.

 

Japanese seaweeds

Whilst seaweed is used traditionally as a food in a variety of places, including Scotland , and seaweed extract (carageenan) is used extensively in commercial food manufacturing, it is the Japanese seaweeds that are best known today, not least because of the widespread availability of sushi dishes. Some of the best known of the Japanese seaweeds are: arame [‘a-ra-may’], wakame, [‘wa-ka-may’], hijiki [‘hi-ji-ki’] and nori [‘no-ri’]. Nori is available in supermarkets as sheets for making sushi. Arame, wakame and hijiki are presented as dried strands, which swell up considerably when reconstituted with water or stock. Packs are available from some supermarkets. Clearspring is my preferred brand.

 

Shi-itake mushrooms

Different fruit and vegetables grow in different parts of the world, and so it is not surprising that a dish from some part of the world should require local ingredients. In that place, those ingredients may be abundant, everyday and cheap. Sometimes recipes suggest that a specific obscure (to British cuisine), exotic (to British cuisine) or expensive (in UK shops) ingredient should be used, when in reality more an ingredient more commonplace to the UK would serve just as well. [Note for future reference: it would be a good idea were I to give some examples here.] For decades it was almost impossible to buy in the UK any mushrooms other than agaricus bisporus (a variety of mushroom, related to the field mushroom (agaricus campestris), that is commercially cultivated and so widely available in shops and supermarkets that they are known simply as ‘mushrooms’). Thankfully, many UK supermarkets sell a variety of fresh mushrooms, including shi-take, grey oyster, red oyster and yellow oyster mushrooms. I buy only fresh shi-itake mushrooms, and have never bought dried shi-itake mushrooms. In miso soup, fresh shi-itake mushrooms are significantly worth their difference: agaricus bisporus mushrooms are not a substitute.

 

Sushi rice

Vegan sushi sounds unusual, which it is, and difficult to prepare, which it isn't. Sushi rice is an especially sticky rice that, when pressed, the grains will tend to stick together. It is best to use sushi rice both because of its stickiness and because of its high quality. Basmati rice is not sticky, and ordinary long-grain rice may not be particularly high quality. However, it can be fun to experiment learning how to make vegan sushi, and any rice will get you started.

 

Tofu

Tofu [pronounced as ‘toe-foo’, not ‘toffoo’] is produced from soya beans, and is sometimes referred to as bean curd. Two varieties of tofu are widely available in supermarkets: silken tofu, which is very soft, almost like junket; and tofu, which is firmer, and can be firmed further by frying or baking in a convection oven. Non-silken tofu is widely available in three varieties: plain, marinated and smoked. Cauldron is a popular brand in the UK, although many other brands are available from whole/health food stores, wherre it is sometimes also possible to buy tofu in a wide variety of added flavours, as well as tofu-based spreads and pates. Tofu can be used in a wide vbariety of dishes.

 

Mirin

Mirin is a sweet syrup made from rice.It can be bought in small bottles. Clearspring 'Rice Mirin' is obtainable in the UK. Mirin is used on sushi.

 

Sushi ginger

Sushi ginger is root ginger that has been sliced incredibly thinly. It can be bought in small jars.

 

Wasabi

Wasabi is a paste or sauce made from the ground-up root of a Japanese horseradish plant. It is usually bought as a powder and mixed with a little water to make a paste. In Manhattan, take-away sushi has ready-made wasabi in plastic sachets. It neither smells nor tastes of much, but its peppery kick, although short-lived, is intense. It is eaten on sushi.

e-mail address p.g.h@btinternet.com