The Chinese Vegan Kitchen
Read The Chinese Vegan Kitchen Online
Authors: Donna Klein
The Chinese Vegan Kitchen
PERIGEE TITLES BY DONNA KLEIN
The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen
The PDQ (Pretty Darn Quick) Vegetarian Cookbook
Vegan Italiano
The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen
The Tropical Vegan Kitchen
Supermarket Vegan
The Chinese Vegan Kitchen
THE
Chinese
Vegan
Kitchen
More Than
225 Meat-Free, Egg-Free,
Dairy-Free Dishes
from the
Culinary Regions of China
DONNA KLEIN
A PERIGEE BOOK
A PERIGEE BOOK
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Copyright © 2012 by Donna Klein
“Spirit of God” copyright © 1965 by Medical Mission Sisters
Text design by Kristin del Rosario
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
PERIGEE is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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First edition: December 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Klein, Donna (Donna M.)
The Chinese vegan kitchen : more than 225 meat-free, egg-free, dairy-free dishes from the culinary regions of China / Donna Klein.—First edition.
pages cm
“A Perigee book.”
Includes index.
ISBN: 978-1-101-61361-0
1. Cooking, Chinese. 2. Vegan cooking. I. Title.
TX837.K5447 2012
641.5’636—dc23 2012029883
The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.
Most Perigee books are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. Special books, or book excerpts, can also be created to fit specific needs. For details, write: Special Markets, Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
| ALWAYS LEARNING | PEARSON |
To
The Yali “Nanya” Middle School
Class of 2013
W
ài n
men!
—TEACHER DONNA
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS •
First and foremost, many thanks to my literary agent, Linda Konner, and the staff and crew at the Penguin Group, namely John Duff, who enabled this cookbook, my lucky number 7, to be published—yes!
Sincere thanks to WorldTeach, a nonprofit affiliate of the Center for International Development at Harvard University, which made my volunteer year in China possible.
Special thanks to Yali “Nanya” Middle School in Changsha, Hunan Province, The People’s Republic of China, for affording me the honor, privilege, and pleasure of teaching oral English to the Senior One students during the 2010–11 school year.
Heartfelt thanks to all my students at Yali, in the classroom and at English corner, and their families, who contributed recipes, ideas, and endless inspiration for this book.
Thank you, Emma and Sarah, my gorgeous grown-up girls; Jeff, their devoted father; and Trevor and Cooper, our beloved adopted dogs, for holding down the fort while China was my home away from home for eleven months.
Thank you, Karen, my fabulous friend since our St. Joseph’s University days, for getting up early on Sunday mornings to Skype from suburban Philadelphia to Changsha and keeping my spirits way up.
Finally, eternal gratitude to the countless Chinese cooks who have fed their families during the best and worst of times in a remarkable country with the longest continuous history in the world, who have produced the most creative cuisine on Earth, and who have passed their secrets on.
• CONTENTS •
PREFACE: THE BEAUTY AND SPIRIT OF CHINA
Meal-in-a-Bowl Soups, Stews, and Congees
Tofu, Seitan, and Other Main Dishes
• THE BEAUTY AND SPIRIT OF CHINA •
Much has been written about the breathtaking beauty of China. If my experiences as a traveler to Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai, Xi’an, and throughout Hunan Province—such as Mount Heng, Shaoshan, Yuelu Mountain, and the amazing Zhangjiajie, whose Wulingyuan Scenic Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is said to have been an inspiration for the scenery in the movie
Avatar
—are any indication, it’s all true. Much has also been written about the breathtaking effects of state-sponsored atheism in China, as well. Many claim that communism has essentially stifled—even snuffed out—spirituality, as the majority of Chinese citizens profess to be agnostics, nonreligious, or atheists. If my experiences as a WorldTeach volunteer living and teaching oral English in China for eleven months are any indication, however, it’s not at all true. In China, I found the Spirit of God everywhere I looked. Its sacred breath was manifested in the eyes of my students welcoming me every single day to class, in the smiles of the locals greeting me on the streets, in the voices of their children calling “hello,” in the touch of the stranger’s hand leading me to exactly where I needed to be when I was lost, in the taste of the apple given as a gift on Christmas Eve, and in the smells of the incense wafting through the streets from the temples on the Lunar New Year. Ah, the temples—Daoist, Buddhist, or Confucian, China is temple heaven. The sublime states of loving-kindness, compassion, balance, and harmony emanating from these pillars of Eastern wisdom and philosophy are
woven into the fabric of everyday life in China—showing up in formal attire simply isn’t necessary to receive the gift of such bliss, only presence. Climbing into a landscape painting of Chinese tranquility can help.