Sequestration Meal #355

 

An adventure in advanced pantry-clearing that turned out to be amazing: Sweet & sour mock pork with rice. The mock pork itself is from a can, but rather than braised (as with the mock duck in a can) this is fried gluten in a can. I hadn't used it yet because I had no idea what to do with it and there weren't any recipes readily found, but I eventually managed to find this one, which I cut in half since I only had one can of mock pork. As is typical for me these days, I made do with what I had and refused to buy anything else that was shelf-stable, so instead of pineapple I put some orange juice and a squeeze of lime in the sauce and called it good--and it was! I used JUST Egg for the egg in the batter for frying and found that I needed nearly twice as much of the seasoned corn starch mixture as was written. And I pan-fried them rather than deep frying, because I didn't want to use that much oil. It worked out fine.

Battering and frying things is one sure way to make them amazing, so it is perhaps not that surprising that this was delicious. But every time I find something that seems totally new in the world of vegan food I get really excited. I don't know how often I might be inclined to make mock pork, and probably the Gardein sweet and sour porkless bites are more often to make their way into the rotation than this is, even though I thought these little nuggets were better--so wonderfully flavorful and crispy on the outside and tender and meaty on the inside--but I found this really deeply satisfying.

On a totally different note, some of you know I was in the path of a bad storm last week. This week's posts were scheduled in advance, but you may see some gaps for a bit after that, because I am dealing with the aftermath of a flash flood. My home is fine, but I no longer have a car. I am sad about this, of course, but glad not to have to move or deal with other things. People died in this storm, including some people who live really close to me. My car was insured and I will buy a new one. But it's very stressful, and I'm working on coping. I'm feeling somewhat afraid of the inflated prices of cars and the low inventory available, and it's a preoccupying concern at the moment. That may mean fancy meals or it may mean I rebel against cooking altogether. We'll see.