Recipe Reduction 66-64

Lime-Cumin Dressing

It's a win!  Lime juice, cumin, garlic and olive oil.  Whisk it together and it beats three-quarters of the bottled dressings on the market.

Fried Cucumber with Purple Perilla 
from the revolutionary chinese cookbook

My purple perilla had to be Thai sweet basil, a substitute. It turned out good, and definitely something to add to the permanent recipe file and make when cucumbers are in season and coming out your gills.  But--MAJOR NOTE--peel them first.  They come out crunchy, not mushy like you'd think a vegetable made primarily of water would become, but the peeling doesn't soften at all.

The technique is simple: slice them thinly (and peel first according to me!). Stir fry for a few minutes, then add a chopped red chile, garlic, soy sauce and rice vinegar.  And the parilla leaves. I chopped them but the recipe didn't say that was necessary. When it's all hot and good smelling, remove the heat and splash on a bit of sesame oil.

Sadly, I think my sesame oil has gone bad. And my toasted sesame oil as well. They don't smell right and they have an aftertaste. But I use so little of the stuff that a bottle lasts me years. I guess it's going to have to go in the refrigerator beside the olive oil. Sigh...because now before I can make a recipe, I have to get the oil out and and let it re-liquify.




Stay-In Vegetable Fried Rice 
from Vegan Without Borders

No. Just, no. She made this vegan by substituting tofu for the egg, and that made it not fried rice in my book. If I didn't eat eggs, this might be an acceptable alternative, but it still wouldn't be good.

The other issues are that (a) she didn't fry the rice, and (b) used too much soy sauce in lieu of other flavors.  Seriously, how can you call it fried rice if you don't fry the rice?  And the sauce was just soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and a little toasted sesame oil. All good things, but the proportions were off, or something.

And one more grumble--why call it "vegetable" when the only vegetables are onion, peas, and carrots?  I added mushrooms and wish I'd thrown in some chopped squash, too.

I didn't go back and check, but I think I'm batting about 33% in favor of Vegan Without Borders recipes. Some are good, some hideous; but all can be improved.