How to Make Kao Fu (kǎo fū, 烤麩)

Here on the lush, banana, bamboo and barge filled banks of the Red River in Hanoi organic and alternative health food is rare. Our friend and local grocer orders bulk, gardens organically, prepares it all in her kitchen and living room and sends out boxes to us. She makes everything there in the house and is always trying to diversify. She acts as our health expert and nutritionist and says that seitan and tofu is not enough for us anymore, we need to go a step further into kǎo fū (烤麩). The best I could do for her was a google search which yielded nothing. The alternative macrobiotic health food movement of Hanoi needed a recipe for Kao Fu and it took many days to get it.

So here is the result of the search. A good simple recipe for Kao Fu. (Translation from this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZfgXOcBdLM&feature=related)

Melt dry yeast in water at 37°C for 10 minutes. 

Mix flour and yeast solution together with a small spoon of salt...

No unit is given for the flour, just make a big dough (best to use high protein content wheat flour, so that you can get more gluten)

Allow dough to grow 1.5 times into a large net-kind structure. 

Wash the dough until it looks like long-chewed gum - at a certain point volume will not be lost through washing, at this point you've got wheat gluten.

cut into cubes

steam or fry.

You Gotta Kill to Eat ‽

Way up here in the little mountain village of Andermatt I found myself having a mild argument about our practice in Maine of cooking lobster alive. The World's Finest Lobster Comes From Maine (Maine Lobster Council). I grew up with it and cannot bring myself to think of it as cruel. Many of my family and friends are fisherman and our meager economy is dependent on lobster. Likewise when I hear people grumbling about foie gras I think of the Besse family in Southern France. The Besse family makes the best foie gras you ever tasted (check out Dan Barber's Foie Gras Parable on Ted.com). They hosted me on their little farm for several days and showed me the warmest hospitality I am ever likely to experience. In France as in most other western countries the buyers of agricultural products are so big that it has become impossible for a small farm to survive on anything but a niche market.

The careful issue here that many of us feel uncomfortable admitting is that being alive necessitates death. This is one part of life: Life is suffering (many Buddhists eat animals) Even the tofu and the rice requires killing not only plants, but animals too - those harvesting machines don't pause to let snakes and rodents get clear before they cut, even if it did there would be the insects to consider and all the displaced species tat would otherwise live in the place of those fields.

I feel there is a partial solution for this moral dilemma, which is to know the life before it is taken. Meet the sheep and the cows, walk in the fields and get out on the water. Get to know the farmer and the fisherman who bring that food to your table and help them by supporting their business. Get to know their practices and lend a hand. In all likelihood when you meet that local farmer, fisherman, hunter or gatherer you will come to enjoy your food more and you will certainly have a better sense of what it takes to keep you alive.

For more information about locally grown food check Out Meet Your Local Farmer from Mother Earth News and Sustainable Table. For information and resources about seafood check out Sustainable Fisheries from MarineBio, Sustainable Fisheries from WWF and Sustainable Seafood from Earth Easy. To meet a local fisherman or Farmer go for a walk, ask around and encourage your neighbors to do the same.

Cory's Dr Green Blog Posts:
Small is Beautiful
Give Organic a Chance
Beekeeping
No Work Farming
Growing Organic