Faux Chinese But Really Tasty Chinese Vegetables

In the culinary world of my childhood, "Chinese food" as we knew it wasn't very Chinese. And so, my concept of Chinese cooking is rather faux, very "Jewish" 1950's, though very tasty.

By the time we sat down, there was double the food on the table.

For my Book Club, we decided to go Chinese this week, since we read, or more accurately for most if not all of us, reread The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.

I made vegetables. You can use any and not stick to what I cooked. Actually only now that I'm writing the recipe I remembered that I had planned on using some fresh ginger, too. Here's what I cooked:

• onion
• garlic
• carrot
• peppers
• squash
• mushroom
• kohlrabi
• celery

As you can see, I cut them all into strips of sorts and put it all in a big pot, added a bit of oil, covered and let it cook a bit, not too much. Then I added some "soy"or Tamari sauce, sprinkled some sesame seeds and turned off the heat.

A culinary purist would find it awfully fake, but for me it's "Chinese enough" and absolutely delicious. Give it a try.




PS we had a wonderful time at the Book Club meeting. We got a lot out of the discussion and the book.

And keeping with the Chinese theme we had "fortunes" sans cookies, since most of us are trying to keep weight off.