This is the latest attempt of my ongoing mission to master the seasoning of textured soy protein (TSP). Usually I’m lazy and just boil the TSP chunks in a broth made from vegetable stock cubes, but this time I tried something fancier. We thought that the result was really good.
For the soy strips:
- 100 g soy protein strips
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 tablespoon crushed ginger
- 2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dry sherry
- 1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
- about 2 dl water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
First, I rinsed the TSP strips. Then I heated the oil in a cooking pot on medium heat, added the crushed garlic and ginger to the pan, and fried them for a couple of minutes. Then I added the rest of the ingredients, and brought the stew to boil. As the TSP strips started to absorb the liquid, I started stirring them, until all the liquid was absorbed. This took me about 5 minutes. The TSP strips were now ready to use.
For the sauce, Anni mixed:
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoons sherry
- 2 teaspoons raw cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon crushed chili in oil (or chili paste)
We stir-fried also:
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
- 2 medium carrots, sliced
The second seasoning took place just before serving. I stir-fried the sliced carrots and red bell peppers for a few minutes, and just before serving I added the TSP strips into the wok pan, stirred them for a second, and then added the sauce Anni had prepared.
We ate the veggies and soy strips together with jasmin rice and steamed Shanghai Bok Choy. I think the soy strips were more savoury than when boiled with a stock cube and water. It’s easy to end up with TSP strips that are a bit too salty with both methods, so take it easy on the soy sauce, if the brand you use is very salty.
By the way, readers in Helsinki: We think that the best TSP strips (“soijasuikaleet”, that is) in town are in Al-Marwan, small shop on Fleminginkatu between Vaasankatu and Helsinginkatu that sells mostly Middle-Eastern foodstuffs.
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