Healthy Boy thin soy sauce - magic veggie ingredient for Thai food

My wife's a vegetarian so I've gotten the habit of trying to devise decent veggie versions of recipes. By and large fish recipes (esp Asian sauce-based ones) are really veg-friendly with a little thinking about flavours and textures, but Thai food in particular has been a challenge as it uses a bunch of very intense fish-based products for flavour. One of these is Thai Fish Sauce but I've never been satisfied with the obvious substitute, your "off the shelf" Soy sauce (even the good stuff like naturally brewed Kikkoman brand from Japan). But a few days ago I read about "white soy sauce" from Thailand and how it was a good substitute. I headed off to the local Chinese supermarket and found Healthy Boy Brand "thin soy sauce" (product of Thailand) - they don't actually call it "white" on the bottle but this is definitely the business. It's thinner even than "light" soy sauce (like Kikkoman) and more translucent in clour, but it has that essential saltiness and fermented flavour you get from fish sauce. If you want a decent substitute for Fish Sauce, I'd suggest trying this.

Mousakka recipe (veggie version)

I made up this recipe for mousakka last night in an attempt to use up a batch of stuff but also try for an authentic style veggie version. I concentrated mostly on trying to create a decent substitute for the minced lamb in the meat version. To do this I used tasty/hearty things like puy lentils and sundried tomatoes: see what you think:

Ingredients:
3 large aubergines sliced into 1cm rounds
1 onion (180-200 gr)
4 cloves garlic chopped
2 tomatoes (200-250 gr) chopped
Olive oil

Things to make a substitute for the minced lamb - any combination of:
Mince substitute (eg quorn)
Lentils cooked (Puy lentils are nice)
6-8 sundried tomatoes (re-hydrated  then chopped) - I'm lucky here as I get a supply of really good ones from Puglia, Italy from a friend who visits there a lot.
NOTE: Those last 3 should weigh about 400-500 gr altogether. If you leave out the sundried tomatoes add a couple of table spoons of tomatoe puree.

A good handful of chopped fresh herbs (any one or more of Oregano, Marjoram, Mint, Parsley - my fave at the moment is mint)
150 ml red wine
250 ml veggie stock
A teaspoon of cumin and maybe a pinch of cinnamon if you like

Salt/Pepper to taste (you may not need any/much salt if you use the salty sundried tomatoes and a decent tasty stock).


For the topping (cheese bechemel)
60gr butter
60gr flour
600ml milk
2 big eggs whisked
100 gr of nice cheese grated (Gruyere/Parmesan mix works well)
A pinch of grated nutmeg

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 200 
Brush the aubergines rounds generously with olive oil and place on an oiled baking tray and pop in the oven (probably for about 20-30 mins - until soft and a bit charred).
Set them to one side
Boil the lentils (follow pack instructions - usually about 20 mins for puy lentils)
Fry the onions in olive oil until just browning - then add the garlic and fry for another minute or two (just don't burn the garlic)
Add the tomatoes and the red wine and cook for another 3-4 mins until the tomatoes are soft
Add the stock
Add the stuff for the mince element (ie lentils, sundried tomatoes, quorn etc)
Add the fresh herbs

Now bring all this up to the boil
Turn down to a very low heat and gently simmer this lot with a lid on for about 30 mins (basically you are after something like the consistency of a rich bolognese sauce). Taste for salt/pepper and add accordingly (1/4 teaspoons at a time for salt so as to avoid over-seasoning).

Make the topping (bechemel sauce - can be tricky to avoid lumps*):
Gently heat the butter until melted
Slowly add in some flour stirring all the time until it's all in and you have a pasty consistency
Now start slowly adding in the milk always stirring
In the end this  sauce should be about the consistency of a very thick double cream (*if you do get a lumpy sauce - bung the whole lot in a blender to get rid of the lumps then gently re-heat stirring all the time)
When it's done take off the heat and mix in the beaten eggs. Now fold in the cheese and add the nutmeg.

Now construct the mousakka:
In a deep (pref round) oven proof dish:
Add a layer of aubergines
Then a layer of of the mince mix
Then aubergines and so on (the dimensions of your dish will affect the number of layers - but 2-3 of each is pretty good)
When you have layred everything pour over the topping (cheese bechemel)

Bung it in a pre=heated oven (190) for about 30-40 mins (until the topping is nicely charred)

Take it out when done and leave it to stand for 15-20 mins

That's it :-)

PS - look closely and you may notice that there is an undocumented courgette poking out the top (it's true - I only had 2 aubergines so used a courgette for the final layer - (OMG!!)

Spaghetti with tomato, mint and caper sauce

Unusual mint and tomato combination v nice. Serves two.
Ingredients:
500 gr cherry plum tomatoes (halved and de-seeded), 20 fresh mint leaves chopped, 1 heaped tablespoon salted or pickled capers rinsed and chopped, 2 garlic cloves chopped, 200 gr dried spaghetti. A handful of fresh parsley chopped. Parmesan cheese grated.
Method:
Fry garlic in 2-3 tablespoons olive oil (then sieve off the oil into second pan to give garlic flavoured oil)
Fry the tomatoes, mint leaves, capers in that garlic oil until tomatoes are soft.
Season to taste with salt and pepper (remember the capers are salty already).
Put spaghetti in boiling salted water (guideline: 2 litres water/200 grams pasta/4 teaspoons salt is about  right) until al-dente.
Drain pasta and add to the tomato sauce and mix well. Now serve and sprinkle with fresh parsley and parmesan (both last two are nice but optional).
Voila :-)