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Recipe Wed Feb 18 2009
Vegan Eggless Wash for Deep-Frying
I had a recent urge to create some stuffed and deep-fried olives. And I knew one of the people eating them was vegan so I decided to stuff some of them with some Soyrizo instead of andouille sausage. But I wasn't sure how to get the great breading on the olives without first dipping them in egg. When deep-frying it is generally best to dip the item lightly in flour, then dip them in a beaten egg, and then dip them in breadcrumbs or other similar item for crisping. You dip them in flour so the egg will stick better and you dip them in egg so the crumbs will stick better. It's a real "she ate a spider to catch the fly" kind of thing.
I began my experiment by making sure my crumbs were vegan, thankfully they were. (A couple of handfuls of potato chips that are crushed super-extra fine make a great coating if you can't find vegan breadcrumbs.) But then I wanted something that had the consistency of egg, with some stickiness, but not a lot of flavor that would conflict with either the fake sausage or the olive. As I stood looking in my refrigerator, I spied my carton of unflavored soymilk when I decided to try heating it gently in a small pan and whisking in some cornstarch. I put a teaspoon of cornstarch in a small bowl, add a couple tablespoons of cold soy milk and whisked it gently until all of the lumps were removed. This is called a slurry. I then added a cup of soymilk to a saucepan over medium-low heat. I watched the milk and just when it seemed like it was close to starting to boil, I slowly poured in the slurry while whisking. I didn't want the soymilk to boil (because I was worried about it separating) so I kept stirring and stirring and after about 8-10 minutes the sauce started to have the viscosity and thickness of a couple of whipped eggs. I let the mixture cool so I could dip my hands in it and I proceeded to flour, dip, and coat some more olives. And it worked great.
In fact, it worked so much better than the egg. As it cooled it got slightly thicker and the the thickness really ended up glueing the crumbs to the fairly slick surface of the olives. It worked so well, that I think I'll have to make another batch. This time I'll take pictures before I get excited and eat them all.
