I am super excited to bring you my darling friend Wancy Ganst and introduce you to her AMAZING cookbooks!! They are sooooo easy, all microwave cooking!! I love it and they are not what you think....they are all gourmet, easy to create meals!! Tons of healthy vegetarian choices too!!
Tell us about your cookbooks...
There are 2 main series of my vegetarian cookbooks, the difference is just one using vege meats and one without.
What is vege meat?
Vege
meat is also called meat analogue, meat substitute, mock meat, faux
meat, or imitation meat. It is made from tofu, soy protein, gluten,
mushrooms, etc, or mix of them, and with flavours added to make the
texture and taste like real meat.
You might think it is strange that why vegetarians would eat something 'fake'?
Well,
vege meat is not purely for vegetarians. Sometimes, vege meat is for
meat-eaters rather than vegetarians. For example, when having meals with
meat-eaters, as vegetarians, you do not cook real meat but according to
etiquette, you might not just cook vegetables, then vege meat can be a
kind of substitute. And for some new vegetarians, who might not get used
to eat vegetables only, then consuming vege meat might be helpful to
them during the 'transaction period'.
So, you are vegetarian? When and why you become a vegetarian?
Yes,
I am a vegetarian and there are several reasons. First of all, I have a
weak stomach - I always have stomach-ache, my doctor suggests me to
consume more vegetables and less meats - that's what I got used to for
many years. And we have heard something like 'our Earth is sick' also
for years already. In 2010, I have heard about 'Meat-Free Monday', I
thought, as my diet was to consume vegetables more than meats, and if
eating less meat can help supporting the environment protection, it's no
harm to do so. Therefore, I started my 'Meat-Free Monday' and found
that not just I am fine with no meat consumption and I am healthier. So,
finally, I decide to become a vegetarian, and that's why almost all my
cookbooks are vegetarian.
Other than the cookbooks focus on using vege meat, have you published other books?
Yes,
I have totally 20 books published until now. Eighteen of them are
cookbooks mainly in 2 series - 'Vegetarian' and 'Meat?-Not-Meat!', and
one cookbook about cooking konnyaku, which is also called konjac, is
high-fibre and almost zero-calories, so that it is a very popular diet
food in Asia. And the remaining one is about hand
diagnosis.
You
only write cookbooks that using microwave oven, do you know how to cook
in traditional way? Who is the audience for your cookbooks?
Yes,
I do know how to cook using gas, but I still prefer using microwave
oven – you can use microwave oven to steam, stew, braise, stir-fry,
pan-fry, grill, roast, bake… Once you hear the sound 'ding' from your
microwave oven, you know your meal is ready or you can proceed your next
cooking step. And during the food is cooking in the microwave oven, you
can work with other stuff, it helps to save my time.
And
using microwave oven is only one of the cooking methods, learning how
to cook with microwave oven doesn't need to give up one another. In
fact, you can learn one more cooking method and utilize it to make your
cooking easier and faster. So, there should have no limitation about who
to read them, and I can think of lot of potential audience - the ones,
who like to cook, who need to cook, who want to cook but don't know how
to cook or no time to cook, etc. However, I would highly recommend my
cookbooks to the people, who are beginners in cooking. As you know, to
make people feeling interested and building confidence in something,
first of all, this thing should be simple and easy to get success, and
the recipes in my cookbooks would not fail them.
What compelled you to write your cookbooks?
After
being a vegetarian, I have heard lot of people said that eating only
vegetables is boring. However, vegetarian cuisine can be as tasteful as
the other cuisines with meat. Therefore, I review my cooking notes that I
jotted down before and convert them into microwave and vegetarian
versions, such as using vege meat to replace real meat, and at the same
time, I started creating my own and new vegetarian cooking notes. As the
result, there become a kind of collection... then that's the beginning
of my life in cookbook/recipe-writing.
What is your biggest challenge in writing your cookbooks?
Wow!
Everything is the biggest challenge! First of all, time is one of them,
we all only have 24 hours a day, but there are lot of other things
needed to do, and writing cookbooks is really time-consuming. For
example, when there are ideas coming up in your mind, you need to
experience them, measure the amount of ingredients to be used,
fine-tune the steps and write them into formal recipes. Sometimes, if
you failed at the first time, then you might need to have adjustment and
try again.
Also, presentation of my dishes is another
biggest challenge. I only simply noted down the cooking steps before,
but the pictures of my dishes are needed to be put in the cookbooks.
Therefore, how to make the dishes look tasty and presentable is
important, and the techniques in taking photographs are also required. I
try to learn how to present the dishes and what angles to be taken can
make the dishes look better by seeing the pictures in other cookbooks
and food magazines. It is another time-consuming process, but when I
look at the pictures and the dishes look good - that really makes me
happy, and my hard-working isn't wasted!
What is your biggest challenge in self-publishing your cookbooks?
Doing
marketing or promotion of my cookbooks. I think that's not just to me,
but to all self-publishing authors. We all have no budget to hire
professional marketing team to help us in marketing, so we need to do it
by ourselves. Frankly, I am still learning and experiencing what are
the good ways to do book marketing and promotion.
What is your biggest fear about writing your cookbooks?
No one likes them! Would you? ;)
What is the name of your cookbook that being published recently?
Microwave Cooking 20: Dozenth (12th) Vegetarian Cookbook.
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Peace~Paige
