Terrific Cabbage Roll Pickles

Coldplay – Life in Technicolor II (click to listen, have fun and enjoy!), it starts with upbeat music - a Indian Stringed Instrument – Santoor! Beautiful way of introducing a classical instrument, otherwise I would not even know that there is such beauty sound in the world. If only Vegetarian Cuisine just like Santoor in this song. Again, why not? Vegetarian Cuisine can be trendy …

So, I tried out with pickles and play with it! The food presentation of this dish can be improved. In the photo, I didn’t cut it into bite size, if not it can be stacked up and sprinkle with shicimi togarashi to make it looks classy. Place them in a glass bottle (recycle your home sauce bottle), décor the bottle in a simple way, if desired – you can give away them as - Homemade Nappa Pickles. An appetizer for a party (just add a garnish with skewer, if desired) or a side dish or as refreshment between spicy dishes …     

Preparation:      10 mins, plus 1-2 hours standing time

Ingredients (serves 8)

°         4 (200g)  Chinese cabbage/Nappa/Wok Bak leaves, halved lengthwise and blanched

°         2 tablespoons cider vinegar

°         1 tablespoon sugar or to taste

°         ¾ teaspoon salt or to taste

°         3-4 slices red chilli, chopped 

Garnish

°         Some  roasted sesame seed (optional)

Method

1.       Combine the napa, chilli vinegar, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix well.  Leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 4 hours.

2.       Tightly roll the leaves and cut into bite-size if desired. Sprinkle some sesame seeds, chopped chilli/chilli flakes and serve.

Super Simple Soupy Wonton Wrapper Noodle ...

When writing the post (Revolutionized instead of Veganized), I recalled my late mother brought back some dried wonton wrappers from Malaysia few decades ago. She used them to cook a piping hot soupy "wonton wrappers" noodle for us. I could not remember what soup base or ingredients she used now. But what still lingers in my mind is the delicious silky smooth wonton skin …

Am I craving for this – No, of course not! It is just to share some information, hopefully new ideas leads to new thinking about Vegetarian Food. As a Vegetarian or Vegan, in fact, you still can have fun with food and enjoy terrific food … 

So, I made myself a bowl for lunch – super easy and simple. Just remember, when cooking the wonton wrapper in boiling water, don’t throw it all together! Gently one by one or few pieces by few pieces in ample boiling water, so it will not stick together. After that, add them to the soup or broth. I cut the normal wonton wrapper into 4 small squares portion prior to cooking it.

The key to this is good broth, if not substitute with granulated mushroom bouillon and soy sauce and drizzle some shallot/sesame oil. Garnish with spring onion or Chinese celery. Is this too plain, add some mushrooms – pair with right type of mushroom or pair with veggie side dishes or a plate of Dry Instant Noodle or whatever you desire or …

  

This dish is good for very young kids  …

Impromptu Dessert … (Matcha Jellywith Red Bean and Soymilk)

My young man invited our neighbour’s son over after a cycling workout in the neighbourhood. Gosh! It is a little too late to whip up anything except toasting some French Fries and Vegetarian Otah.  So, looking in the refrigerator, I happened to have 3 items – Green Tea/Matcha Agar Agar, Red Beans Soup (I finally learn the trick on how to cook soft red beans) and soy milk!

What I did was to combine them all together in a minute, snap a photo of it and served in a small bowl.  Then, I did another variant without the soymilk (just green tea agar agar with red beans) and another presentation in a glass.

So, at the end of the day, my neighbour’s son had 2 servings of my Impromptu Dessert – the one with soymilk!  Could it be the presentation that makes it look tempting? Guess so, in this era, chefs have to master the art of food presentation as well, it is even more important for Veg*n Cuisine …

Feel free to replace Green Tea/Matcha with other ingredients or a mixture of different variants agar agar/jelly for a more interesting dessert.

There is a new instant Sea Bird’s Nest (Funori) with red dates and rock sugar block, where it only required hot water to make it into a drink. Use that to make the Jelly, if desired. For a more wobbly texture jelly, consider using Ice Jelly powder instead.

Was reading a non-vegetarian cookbook (Haute Chinese Cuisine), it had a very attractive soup - Jade Soup with Bird's Nest! The garnish on this thick Green Peas soup is bird’s nest in sweet syrup.  Nice name, good pairing and a good write up on it.

Guess, by changing it to Sea Bird’s nest (finely shredded or fine strips) and using Red Bean Soup or something else, it can be something amazing too ...

Cabbage Tofu Parcel

Lost my entire photo collection again (corrupted), second time in a month, guess I will have to stop blogging for a while, no photo for the recipes. Only left with this photo and also decided to pamper myself (laze a bit) after I had made a trip to Blood Bank for blood donation yesterday.

The ‘O’ blood group is current at status LOW these few weeks - http://www.donorweb.org/bloodstocks/, so if you are a local and feeling well for the past 3 weeks and didn’t take any medication for past 3 days, make a trip for blood donation if possible. Who says Vegetarian Diet is lacking, if a Thalassemia Minor like me on a Veg*n diet donated blood for 7 times already, so no worry if you eat well.

Back to this recipe, for a change, using cabbage leaves to wrap the tofu (the tofu ingredients can be used to make tofu ball, wonton filling  etc with slight modifications) … It is a little bit of work and I feel that the marinating ingredients, sauce and tofu texture can be further improved. Maybe, next round I would try adding otah ingredients to it or something else. Give the cabbage leaf a very quick blanch, to soften it for wrapping. Keep the water from blanching for steaming. For simplicity and control of oil intake, I omitted the step heating oil in the wok with ginger or garlic, to make the sauce.    

Preparation:      15 mins Cooking time:    15 mins 

Ingredients (makes 6 pieces)

°         1 (225g) firm tofu (beancurd), washed, pat dry with kitchen paper and mashed

°         6 pieces Beijing Cabbage leave, blanched

°         3 Chinese dried mushrooms, soaked, drained and chopped

°         ½  carrot, chopped

°         1 tablespoon corn starch

°         1 teaspoon sesame oil

°         sugar, to taste

°         salt, to taste

°         pepper, to taste

Sauce

°         125ml stock or water

°         1 tablespoon vegetarian oyster sauce

°         1 tablespoon light soy sauce

°         ¼ - ½ teaspoon sugar

°         ½ teaspoon sesame oil

°         1 teaspoon corn flour

Method

1.       Combine the mashed tofu, mushrooms, carrot, corn starch, sesame oil, sugar, salt, pepper and mix well. Divide into 6 portions.

2.       Place 1 pieces of cabbage leaves on the chopping board or plate. Place a portion of tofu in the centre and roll up.  Secure with a toothpick, if desired and repeat with the rest. 

3.       Place the tofu parcel on the plate and steam for 10 minutes.

4.       Meanwhile, pour all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Heat the mixture in a wok, stirring and bring to a boil.

5.       Arrange the cabbage tofu parcel on a serving plate and drizzle with sauce and serve immediately. 

Ripen Green Mango with Salad Cream ...

My green mango ripen! Gosh! I totally forgotten I bought a green mango in the wet market and it was sitting quietly in my fruit basket. This type of incidents happened quite often.

When green mango ripen, it turned greenish-yellow on the skin, it is a little bit of sweetness but it is not as sweet as those ripen mango that we get from supermarket.

In fact, it tastes better if you don’t really like too sourish green mango. It can still used to make Thai green mango salad with sugar reduced, if you desired or mixed with sour plum powder with/without chilli or just simply goes with salad cream like in the photo …

Thai Green Mango Salad and Thai Green Papaya Salad are popular salad in Thai Cuisine. One thing that I haven’t really featured out is why isn’t there a combination of Green Mango and Green Papaya for the same salad? Or maybe there are, just thatI don’t know or it could be it just makes no sense to have 2 types of ‘green julienne” in the same salad …

Mushroom Kinpira

Kinpira is so simple and easy to do, here is another one – using Dried Mushroom! The key for this simple yet yummy side dish is good quality dried mushroom, soy sauce and the preparation of the mushroom. It goes well with congee!

About 2 decades ago, when I was a non-vegetarian, there was a mini vegetarian stall near my workplace selling traditional vegetarian plain congee added with delicious and fragrant Chinese dried mushroom. The mushroom looks something like this but with very oily sauce. Mushroom simmered in the flavorful sauce was so aromatic that make you wanted to have a bowl of piping hot congee just with that. Imagine this tasty congee with little garnish like spring onion and pepper, in front of you at this moment …  are you hungry now?

Meatless congee can be delicious, you will be astonished! 

Preparation:      10 mins, Cooking time:    10 mins         

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

°         50g  dried Chinese mushroom, soaked, sliced and drain well

°         1 tablespoon olive oil

Seasoning

°         1 tablespoon sugar

°         4 tablespoons light soy sauce

°         1 tablespoon cooking rice wine or water

°         1 teaspoon sesame oil

Method

1.       Place all the seasoning ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.

2.       Heat oil in a wok. Fry the mushroom for 5 minutes or till slightly burned or dried.  Pour in the seasoning and simmer for 3 minutes or until it is dry.  

3.       Dish up and serve immediately.

Mini Tofu Balls

This is not a new recipe, I just use the old recipe created in Mar 07  - Crispy Tofu Balls.

Explore old recipe … Experiment with a new presentation … Exchange ideas … new appealing dishes Evolved ... So, just be daring and start enjoying the fun.

By serving this cutie mini tofu ball wrapped in lettuce leaves, it becomes a finger food and a perfect item for parties! It gives a light and healthy appeal. A homemade special dipping sauce which can be as simple as spicy mayo sauce or mixing tomatoes and chilli sauce or change around the sauces, mixing and matching, would add a new twist to it.  Replace lettuce leaves with few julienned carrot, green mango and alfalfa, then team with green mango salad sauce, if desired.

This little cuties tofu ball can be served with Tomatoes and Herbs Sauce Spaghetti with Tomatoes and Herbs Sauce

Or add few of these tofu balls to the Spaghetti with Tomatoes Sauce Spaghetti with Tomatoes Sauce, to make a more complete meal.

Is Veg*n Food is bland and boring? Nay! We can even re-invent those Traditional Veg*n Food and make it New Style Vegetarian Cuisine.

p.s. A little secret! In fact, I didn’t purposely re-do these tofu balls, it was some left over when I used them for creating the Tofu Cabbage Roll … then I started playing with the lettuce leaves and homemade pasta tomatoes sauce I have in the kitchen with these deep-fried tofu balls …

Matcha Power Fries

Haha! After trying out with the crispy healthy curry shoestring fries, felt like creating a totally different taste of fries for kids that does not eat spicy food. Matcha Powder!  

Mixing the matcha powder (green tea powder) and oil with the fries, instead of deep-frying, just threw them into the oven toaster. The end result is fries in an interesting shade of green. Any dipping sauce, again anything you desire. To go with the greeny theme, add wasabi to the salad cream or mayo, if it is not served to kid.

In fact, to make French Fries more colourful and exciting, mix or serves 3 different types of Fries, Original(yellow in colour), Matcha Fries (green in colour) and Curry Fries (red/orange in colour) in a plate!

Preparation: 3 mins Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 1)

 100g fries

 ½ teaspoon matcha powder/green tea powder

 1 teaspoon oil

 salt to taste

 Few basil leaves or curry leaves (optional), deep-fried

Method

1. Combine the fries and matcha powder in a bowl and mix well.

2. Drizzle the oil over the fries and mix well.

3. Place the fries in the over toaster and toast for 15 minutes or till crispy.

4. Sprinkle some salt, garnish with fried basil leaves and serve immediately.

Healthy Curry Shoestring Fries

Read about curry version fries that have spicy powder sprinkled on them. Happen to have a pack of fries in the freezer and decided to play with it. Mixing the curry powder and oil with the fries, instead of deep-frying which can make my kitchen real oily, I threw them into the oven toaster. These make cooking fries so much simpler and yet with a new twist. What dipping sauce to go with this, anything you desired. If you like spicy food, add some curry powder to the salad cream or mayo.

Preparation: 3 mins Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 1)

 100g fries

 ½ teaspoon curry powder

 1 teaspoon oil

 salt to taste

 Few basil leaves or curry leaves (optional), deep-fried

Method

1. Combine the fries and curry powder in a bowl and mix well.

2. Drizzle the oil over the fries and mix well.

3. Place the fries in the over toaster and toast for 15 minutes or till crispy.

4. Sprinkle some salt, garnish with fried basil leaves and serve immediately.

Wasabi Daikon Sangchae

Want something different? Instead of using chilli powder for this Sangchae, use Wasabi. I got this idea from a Korean Cookbook. Wasabi adds zest to this appetizer, gives a sharper taste and a green tint. Serve Washi Daikon Sangchae together with Chilli Daikon Sangchae as a appetizer, if desired.

Preparation: 10 mins, plus 1 hours standing

Ingredients (serves 2)

 200g white radish/daikon, peeled and cut into matchstick length

 2 teaspoons salt

 ¾ tablespoon roasted sesame seeds

Marinade Seasoning

 ½ - ¾ teaspoon wasabi or to taste

 1 tablespoon cider vinegar

 ½ tablespoon sugar

 ¼ teaspoon salt

Method

1. Combine all the marinate seasoning in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.

2. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons salt to the radish, mix well and leave for 30 minutes for the liquid to drain. Rinse and gently squeeze out as much moisture as you can.

3. Transfer the radish to a big bowl or plate. Throw in all the marinade seasoning and toss well. Leave to marinate for ½-1 hour and place in the refrigerator till chilled.

4. Sprinkle the sesame seeds and serve.

Simple Cucumber Kimchi (Vegan)

Another simple kimchi, make some and served as side dish, if you desired. Omit the garlic, if desired. Garnish with some toasted sesame seeds.

Preparation: 20 mins, standing time 4.5 hrs

Ingredients (serves 2)
 250g Japanese cucumber(weight after cutting), small sections
 1 tablespoon salt

For marinade
 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
 25g ginger, finely chopped
 1 tablespoon chilli powder
 1- 1½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar
 ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
 1 tablespoon sugar or to taste

Method
1. Place the cucumber in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Set aside for 30 minutes, then rinse and drain well, squeezing out any excess moisture.
2. Meanwhile, to make the marinade: combine all the marinade ingredients in bowl and mix well. Set aside
3. Transfer the cucumber and marinade into a container. Mix well and place it in the refrigerator for 4 hours prior to serving.

Simple Cubed Radish Kimchi (Vegan)

Something appetizing and not too difficult! It is a no-cook side dish and you can prepare them over the weekend and to be consumed on busy weekday dinner. Omit the garlic, if desired.

Preparation: 20 mins, standing time 24 hrs
 Ingredients (serves 2)
 250g white radish/daikon, peeled and cubed
 1 tablespoon salt
 Some toasted sesame seeds (optional)

For marinade
 25g ginger, finely chopped
 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
 1 tablespoon chilli powder
 1- 1½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar
 ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
 1 tablespoon sugar or to taste

Method
1. Place the radish in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Set aside for 30 minutes, then rinse and drain well, squeezing out any excess moisture.
2. Meanwhile, to make the marinade: combine all the marinade ingredients in bowl and mix well. Set aside
3. Transfer the radish and marinade into a container. Mix well and place it in the refrigerator for a day prior to serving.

Mini Otah Toast

Many would find that cooking is a time consuming and tedious task, from thinking of what to cook, what ingredients to buy, where to buy them, the washing, the cutting, the cooking, the cleaning up ….

Often, good delicious recipes are labour intensive which most of us does not have the time. And one of the headache problems is those seasoning and sauces occupied the space in the refrigerator and often not consume before they expired. Maybe, some would like to get those ready-prepared vegetables in the supermarket and just do a simple quick stir-fry.

Usually, the common reaction is don’t cook, eat out! Often eating out, those eateries offering healthy food are quite limited. So, sometimes, we still yearn for a simple home cooked meal, and would usually go for those real simple and easy recipes!

Here is one of them, spreading ready-made raw vegetarian otah on bread and toasted them in the oven toaster for 5-8 minutes.

For party food, garnish with black and white sesame seeds, coriander leaves, nori shreds, mock floss etc. Serve with lettuce if desired.

Special Tempeh in Lettuce

This is another simple homestyle recipe by marinating the tempeh with Vegetarian BBQ Sauce and toasted them in the oven toaster. Wrapped the tempeh cube with a small piece of lettuce with carrot shreds (optional), it is a light salad and can easily pick up and eat by hand.


Do you need a dipping sauce for this, maybe yes and maybe no. The Vegetarian BBQ Sauce on the tempeh is tasty enough to go with fresh lettuce. If a dipping sauce is required, salad cream mix with fresh lemon juice and sugar can be used.

Preparation: 8 mins Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 4)
 200g tempeh, cubed
 1½ tablespoons Vegetarian BBQ Sauce
 Some lettuce
 Some carrot shreds (optional)

Method
1. Combine the tempeh and vegetarian BBQ sauce in a bowl and mix well. Let it stands for few hours if possible.
2. Put the marinated tempeh in the oven toaster and toast for 15 minutes.
3. Serve with lettuce and carrot shred.

Mock Cabbage Kimchi (Vegan)

When I first opened up the Vegetarian Kimchi that I bought in Korea, it tasted like cabbage in my homemade Chicken Rice Chilli Sauce, to me! That was my first impression and with that feeling in mind, I created this recipe and no cooking involved. Omit garlic and double the amount of ginger if desired.

Next, I might be making Cucumber Kimchi in this manner but using chilli power instead of fresh chilli.

Preparation: 20 mins, standing time 4.5 hrs

Ingredients (serves 6-8)
 400g Chinese cabbage, cut into small sections
 4 tablespoons salt

For marinade
 5 fresh chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
 50g garlic, finely chopped
 25g ginger, finely chopped
 60ml apple cider vinegar
 ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
 1 tablespoon sugar or to taste

Method
1. Place the cabbage in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Set aside for 30 minutes, then rinse and drain well, squeezing out any excess moisture.
2. Meanwhile, to make the marinade: combine all the marinade ingredients in bowl and mix well. Set aside
3. Transfer the cabbage and marinade into a glass bottle. Mix well and place it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hour prior to serving.

Okra with Otah ... (Vegetarian)

This is real simple dish. The key is the Vegetarian Otah. I bought a pack of Otah wrapped in coconut leaves that cost about S$6 for 20 pcs at the wholesaler. I used those! Yes, it defeats the purpose of buying Otah in this form and stuff into other vegetables, but it is delicious.

Make a cut on each Okra and stuffed theOtah in it. Brush it with some oil and toasted in the toaster oven and it is ready. It can be BBQ too, if desired.

Be innovative, you can use other vegetables too! Have fun …

Jade-Green Abacus Beads

In my kitchen, there is some left over silken tofu, some glutinous rice flour and near expiry green tea powder. Therefore, I tried this combination and go with the sugar syrup used for the Traditional Glutinous Rice Ball. If making the syrup is a little bit troublesome, maybe just add them into a soymilk or almond milk. Serve them in a skewer and maybe coat them with a thick sweet or salty sauce or coat them with some grounded peanut powder.

Adding tofu make it much more nutritious and will become a good snack for the young as well as the adult, as tofu is one of the good alternative sources of meat protein. Next, maybe I will make Dango with some fruits (Avocado etc) in it, serve on a skewer and go with palm sugar syrup – new permutation!

Preparation: 15 mins, Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 5-8)
Dough
 100g glutinous rice flour
 100g silken tofu
 1 teaspoon green tea powder
 750ml water, for cooking the glutinous rice balls

Syrup
 750ml water
 4 pandan leaves (screwpine), tied into a knot
 2 slicesginger (optional)
 10 seedless red dates
 sugar to taste
 ½ -1 teaspoon basil seeds (optional), soaked and drained

Method
1. To make syrup, add the water, pandan leaves, ginger, red dates to a pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside.
2. To make dough, combine the flour, tofu and green tea powder in a mixing bowl. Mix well, knead into dough. Add some water if the dough is too dry or some flour if it is too watery.
3. Divide the dough into 40 small pieces and roll each into a ball. Shape them into abacus beads by using the thumb and finger to make a slight indentation in the centre of each ball if desired.
4. Bring 750ml of water to boil. Add in glutinous rice balls and return to a boil. Remove water the glutinous rice balls with a slotted spoon as soon as they float to the surface. Transfer to the sugar syrup.
5. To serve, ladle the glutinous rice balls and syrup into individual serving bowls. Serve hot.

Burdock Kinpira

This is another crunchy Kinpira recipe using Burdock. I omitted mirin in this recipe, you can add mirin or cooking rice wine, if desired. Carrot or shiitake mushroom shreds can be added too.

Preparation: 10 mins Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-4)
 180g burdock julienne or shreds
 2 tablespoons olive oil
 some toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Seasoning
 60ml water
 1 tablespoon sugar
 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Method
1. Place all the seasoning ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok. Fry the burdock for 3 minutes. Pour in the seasoning and simmer for 5 minutes or until it is dry.
3. Dish up, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Lotus Root Pickle

There is lots of goodness in lotus root. If you are tired of cooking it, pickle it. Sweet, tangy and crunchy! You can slice it very thin or 0.5cm, depending on your time and how you want to serve this. This can be a starter for a party where you can prepared in advance, just garnish it with some sesame seeds or chilli. If you have the time, you can cut around the side of the ring according, making it look like a flower, for those bigger slices. It is also a simple recipe to share over small talk at a party. Is this delicious? It is depend on personal preference.

Preparation: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves ±150g)
 150g lotus root, peeled and sliced
 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
 1 tablespoon sugar or to taste
 ½-1 chilli padi (optional), for garnish

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Chilled for 1 hour and serves.

Lotus Root Kinpira

Sweet and crunchy lotus root topped with toasted sesame seeds! Simply tasty. And it is also very easy to whip up. You can add some cooking rice wine or sesame oil to it, if desired. If you have any superior stocks, use it to replace the water for the seasoning. Lotus Root is full of goodness.

Preparation: 10 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-4)
 180g fresh lotus root, peeled and sliced
 2 tablespoons olive oil
 some toasted sesame seeds (optional)
 some fresh coriander leaves, for garnish

Seasoning
 60ml water
 1 tablespoon sugar
 3 tablespoons light soy sauce

Method
1. Place all the seasoning ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok. Fry the root lotus for 3 minutes. Pour in the seasoning and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Dish up and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. Garnish with chilli or coriander leaves, and serve immediately.

Chilled Soymilk with Jade

The matcha powder I had is going to expire soon, therefore, I used it to make Matcha Agar Agar (just follow the instruction on the agar agar packaging, next mix the matcha powder with water and stir in and all mix well). Chilled it.

I had a packet of Green Tea Soymilk (just mix matcha powder with water and add to soymilk, if you can’t find any green tea soymilk in the supermarket).

What’s next? Pair them up, of course!

So, my dessert is born – Chilled Soymilk with Jade Dessert, all about appreciating the nature’s beauty – Jade-Green Colour and Goodness of Soy. New combination, new taste, new experience …

Simply Chic Tofu

Who says healthy yummy food is difficult to whip up at home? With some good sauce that you grab from the Vegetarian Grocery Shop and minimal food presentation, you can even put this dish for a special occasion! Try some witty food presentation to add to the quirkiness …

Now, to make it more scrumptious, remember to steam the silken tofu for a smoother texture … simple isn’t ? No comprising here, unless you don’t mind about the texture.
Ok, the sauce that I used here is the Vegetarian BBQ Sauce – here gone my secret recipe!

Mix 'N' Magic Juice

Remember seeing a beautifully 2 colours Juice Beverage and trying to recreate this using watermelon and oranges but failed, it just mixed up! If you want to have 2 serving of fruits in one beverage – then mixing watermelon and oranges juice (1/2 glass watermelon juice and ½ glass (1) orange juice) together is not a bad idea …

Black ‘N’ White Tofu

I bought this tofu in tube form (eggless) for a change. My initial idea was to cut it into 7-8 circular sections and arrange to resemble the petal of a flower in a serving plate, garnish with finely chopped carrot or chilli in the centre and some coriander leaves. It can be a stir-fry dish, but I make it into something real simple and easy to whip up at home.

As Tofu is one of the regular items for Vegetarian to obtain our protein, you can change the sauce and way of cooking to make it more interesting. Next, I might be thinking of Tofu with Jade sauce using simple ingredients or using this sauce Mui Fan maybe. You can also use pumpkin to make a sweet or salty sauce to go with it. Or maybe a mango sauce to make Sweet Tofu dessert … so many ways … to enjoy Tofu!

Preparation: 5 mins, Total time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 3-4)
 1 tube silken tofu (250g), steamed, drained well cut into 6-8 sections
 some roasted sesame seeds, for garnish
 few slices spring onion or coriander leaves (optional), for garnish
 ¼ fresh red chilli (optional), sliced or finely chopped for garnish

Homemade sauce
 1 tablespoon hot water
 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
 ½ teaspoon vegetarian oyster sauce
 1 teaspoon sesame oil or olive oil

Method
1. Combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Place the tofu on individual serving plates and garnish with chilli, spring onion or coriander leaf and sesame seeds.

Shrek's Drink ...

This creation is not new actually, Soymilk with Grass Jelly is a common combination! What I did was change the soymilk to Green Tea Soymilk as I still have some left, it gives a different colour – Green ‘N’ Black rather the traditional Milky White ‘N’ Black – maybe a little simple surprise for the kid – name it as Shrek’s Drink!

By the way, any kid can make this drink easily. I would put the grass jelly in a container, using a knife (plastic knife) and go through it in all directions, within minutes, it is all done if you don’t mind about the shape. Or use a grater to do it.