Cucumber & Pineapple Salad

Cucumber & Pineapple Salad

Cold Tofu

Cold Tofu

I've learned that not all recipes need to be complicated to look and taste great.... ( which is something that I am trying hard to apply in life as well!) I'm learning, like some of the great chefs I admire, that I have to look at the core ingredient that I'm given and appreciate it in its simplicity- its look, texture and flavour.

Stirfried Bittergourd with Beansprout

Stirfried Bittergourd with Beansprouts (28 Mar 2012)

Not many places serve this simple yet unusual combination of bittergourd with beansprout. So far, I've only had it at Good Fortune Restaurant, Bandar Puchong Utama. The restaurant is famous for country village food and it claims not to use MSG. The food didn't looked fancy but it tasted home cooked and had good flavours.I decided to cook the dish myself seeing that my parents loved it so much.

All you need is bittergourd, 30 cents worth of beansprout and some minced garlic. The only advice I would give is to soak the bittergourd in salt water to reduce the bitterness. 

Stirfried Bittergourd & Beansprouts Recipe

Ingredients:

1 medium bittergourd

50gm beansprouts

1 tbsp garlic, minced

1/2 tsp chicken stock granule (optional)

1 1/2 tsp soy sauce

A dash of pepper

2 tbsp water

Method:

1.  Cut bitter gourd into half length-wised. Use a metal spoon to scoop and remove the centre pulp and seeds. Slice bittergourd thinly then soak in salt water for a while.
2. Wash and drain the beansprouts. Remove the black husk and roots if any.
3. Heat up wok. Add a tablespoon of cooking oil. Saute garlic until fragrant.
4. Add the bittergourd and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add chicken stock granule and water. Cover with lid for 30 seconds.
5. Add in the beansprouts, soy sauce and pepper. Stirfry for another 1 minute.
6. Ready to serve!

Vegetarian Wrap

My mum's yoga class is coming to have lunch at our house. Since the yoga teacher is a vegetarian, I thought that it would be a good time to try out this vegetarian wrap. This is one of my favourite dim sum when I was in Brisbane. Back then I worked as a dim sum girl at a Chinese restaurant in Sunnybank. I would pray that no one ordered this basket while pushing the dim sum cart around the restaurant as any leftovers from the steamer carts would end up being lunch for the staff.

Vegetarian Wrap Recipe

Ingredients:
1 sheet of dried beancurd skin, soak in water
1/4 inch old ginger, julienne

Filling:
2 inch of carrot, shredded
1/2 stalk of celery, cut into 2 inch strips
A handful of dried lily bulb, soaked in water
5 dried chinese mushrooms, soaked & sliced thinly
1 piece of dried black fungus, soaked and sliced thinly

Seasoning:
1 tsp of vegetarian oyster sauce
1/2 piece of fermented beancurd
A dash of salt and pepper

Method:

1. First, heat up a little oil in wok. Saute 1/2 the ginger you have julienned.
2. Then add the mushrooms, dried lily bulbs and black fungus. Stir fry for 3 minutes to soften them. Add a sprinkle of water if necessary.
3. Then add carrots and celery. Pour in seasoning. Stir fry for another 3 minutes. Remove to cool.
4. Use a kitchen towel or clean cloth to dry the soaked beancurd skin. Cut the skin into 6-7" squares.
5. Here is the tricky part. Place 2 tablespoon of filling in the middle of the skin. Wrap it by folding the bottom part of skin upwards. Then fold in the sides of skin. Finally flip the roll towards the other end of the skin. Careful as the whole thing might fall apart when you flip.
6. Use a large spatula to gently lift the roll and place it in a heated non-stick pan. You should have a little oil in the pan.
7. Fry the roll on one side until it is crispy before turning it over to the other side. Pan fry until the roll becomes golden brown.
8.  Serve hot with chinese red /black vinegar and the balance julienne ginger.

Stirfry Vegetarian Chicken with Shitake Mushrooms & Snowpea

Stirfy Vege Chicken with Shitake Mushrooms & Snowpeas (Feb 2012)

My mum-in-law's sister, whose a vegetarian, came to visit during Chinese New Year. When she stayed over for lunch, I did a major crash course online on the subject of vegetarianism. I found out as well that aunt-in-law took eggs but no garlic or onions. By the way, did I mentioned that she's a very good cook?

I've never liked fried gluten which most Chinese vegetarian restaurants would use to substitute meat in their dishes. Since I don't stock vegetarian ingredients at home, the best way was to serve vegetables only.I had fresh shiitake mushrooms with rather broad stems. The stem felt a bit like a tough piece of cooked chicken breast meat! So I decided to make the "chicken" meat out of it! It was all very experimental this time around as I had only an hour to prepare lunch. Luckily, the dish turned out well and was acceptable

Recipe

Ingredients:

6 slices of ginger

200g fresh mushrooms

A packet of snowpea

1 piece of black fungus soaked

Thinly sliced red chilli, for garnishing

1/2 cup of cornflour

1 tsp salt

A pinch of 5 spice powder

1 small egg

Seasoning:

1 tbsp of Vegetarian Oyster Sauce

1/2 tsp of dark soy sauce

1 tsp of rice wine

Method:

1. First, remove the mushroom stems and soak in water for 15 min. Add 1 tsp of salt into water. Squeeze out excess water from stems.
2. Break and beat 1 egg in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the cornflour and 5 spice powder. Dip stems in egg then in cornflour mixture before deep frying the stems till golden brown. Drain stems and leave aside
3. While soaking the mushroom stems, slice the mushrooms into bite size pieces. Remove the tough string along the sides of snowpea. Cut black fungus into smaller pieces.
4. Heat a tsp of oil in a wok and fry the ginger till fragrant. Add all the vegetables and seasoning, turn down heat to simmer for 3 min.
5. Bring the heat back up and add earlier fried stems to the vegetables. Give a quick stir before serving.

Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup

My sister, Charmaine has been living a pretty healthy lifestyle considering her hectic work schedule. Sometimes she'd sent me an image of her many dinners and this soup was one of them. Naturally, I was eager to try the recipe out besides adding some international flare into my Asian diet.

The recipe is adapted from taste.com.au. It has a little Middle Eastern feel to it so I've changed some of the ingredients to suit the family palate. (or rather the kids!)

Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup Recipe

Ingredients:
60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
1 large brown onion, finely chopped
1 tbs finely grated fresh ginger
1kg Butternut pumpkin, peeled, deseeded, coarsely chopped
500g sweet potato (kumara), peeled, coarsely chopped
1 tbs ground cumin
1L (4 cups) vegetable stock
125ml (1/2 cup) water

Method:

1. Heat half the oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until soft. Add half the ginger and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the pumpkin, sweet potato and half the cumin and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until aromatic.
2. Increase heat to high. Add the stock and water. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the pumpkin and sweet potato are very tender. Set aside to cool slightly. Transfer to the jug of a blender and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Pasta with Lemon, Garlic & Mushrooms

Pasta Creation (Oct 2011)

I've always been fascinated by Nigella Lawson from her Nigella Bites & Nigella Feasts series. With some of her recipes readily available on her website, I quickly tried out some pasta dishes. This is actually the first of her linguine recipes!

I made this pasta for Darren's 9th birthday party. It seemed to compliment the meat dishes that I was serving. I adapted most part of the recipe except that I made do with spaghetti instead of linguine. I'd encourage you to try different kinds of fresh mushrooms that you may find in your local markets.

Pasta with Lemon, Garlic & Mushroom Recipe
Ingredients:
1 packet of pasta
A punnet fresh mushrooms
80ml extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
1 small clove garlic, crushed
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 sprigs of fresh thyme, stripped to give 1 teaspoon leaves (Otherwise make do with dried thyme)
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
2-3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan, or to taste
Freshly ground pepper 

Method:

1. Slice the mushrooms finely, and put in a large bowl with the oil, salt, crushed garlic, lemon juice and zest, and thyme leaves.
2. Cook the pasta according to packet instructions and drain loosely, retaining some water. Quickly put the drained pasta into the bowl with the mushroom mixture.
3. Toss everything together well, then add the chopped parsley, grated cheese and pepper to taste, before tossing again.