Thai 'Son-in-Law' Eggs

I have been oggling this recipe for a while in my 'Travels with Thai Food'. The boiled eggs are fried in vegetable oil, halved, and topped with a garlic-y tamarind sauce that contains minced mock chicken. Fish sauce brings the flavors together.

This dish takes the name 'son-in-law eggs' because it is considered one of the few things an unskilled cook or husband could make on the spot if the in-laws visited unexpectedly.

Sauce
2 tbs vegetable oil
1/4 cup minced chicken (mock chicken in my case)
1 tbs tamarind concentrate plus 3/4 cup water
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs fish sauce
1 small yellow onion
6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 small red chilli
1/2 tbs ground coriander

Eggs
8 hardboiled eggs
vegetable oil for frying

1. Sautee onion, garlic, chilli, and coriander on high heat until golden.
2. Add the sugar and tamarind and turn the heat down to medium low to lightly caramelize, approximately 3 minutes.
3. Add the water, fish sauce and chicken (mock chicken does not need to be pre cooked, real chicken does)
4. Heat vegetable oil in a deep wok or pan to high. Drop in the hard boiled, peeled eggs, careful not to splash the oil. Allow to fry until deep golden on the outside. Remove with a slotted spoon. Cool on a paper towel.
5. Cut hardboiled eggs in half, spoon heated sauce mixture over top. Garnish with extra diced chilli if desired.

Individual 'Chicken' Potpies

Not that I can't always MAKE time to cook, but sometimes it's nice to have a good meal in a short amount of time without a mess, so you can just relax and do other things besides cook. (Like...?) Chicken pot pie is comfort food to me because of the buttery crust and the memories of fall and family and all the goodness inside.

I used a soy product and chicken and mushroom stock for the filling, along with an assortment of vegetables, and butter in the crust, so this recipe is unfortunately not vegan. But this recipe is still easily vegan-ized by using vegan margerine and alternative spices so don't turn the channel yet...

Once I made a batch of about 8 of these in individual, reusable muffin tins, I ate it for dinner for a night or two and froze the rest for an occassion that I wanted a hot lunch but no mess, or if I wanted to just take a bath while these suckers were in the oven.

Zucchini Bread

Now that I've been making the transition into a vegan diet, baking is posing a new challenge. Most of my friends will attest to the fact that I do not back down from a challenge. Learn Finnish? Bring it on. Learn German in Finnish? Ok, then. Make an entire buffet spread for my moving out party that is vegan and everyone will love? Done and done.

The menu of this particular party included homemade pita chips, a lentil and carrot curry dip, this zucchini bread adapted from Hell Yeah It's Vegan (I used less sugar but more oil), peanut butter and cocoa squares (I would have taken a picture if these weren't eaten so fast!), amongst other basics (veggies and fruit, etc).

Most people did not realize there was zucchini in this bread. People knew they liked it and kept asking me what it was, but were shocked to hear that there were vegetables inside. Something good for you? Ok, there is a lot of sugar in this recipe, so I won't go calling it 'health food', but it's a nice treat this time of year. Doesn't come close to my mom's zucchini bread (she makes dozens of mini loaves to give away every year and everyone loves it), but at least this version is vegan!

I still had quite a bit leftover, however, and ate the rest for breakfast with a little plain soy yogurt and fruit. But afterwards I got lots of ideas how to reuse leftover zucchini bread.... toasted with agave syrup drizzled ontop....layered in a cake..... with raisins....