Sesame Tofu Dessert

Quick and Easy dessert! If you prefer a firmer texture, try extracting excess moisture of the tofu by wrapping with a clean tea towel and place a plate on top of the tofu. Leave for about 15 minutes. Sugar is omitted in this recipe as the sesame powder that I used contains sugar.

Preparation:     5 mins

           

Ingredients (makes 3 cup)

°         1 pack silken tofu (300g)

°         4-5 tablespoons sesame powder

°         mint leaves and sesame seeds (optional), for garnish

Method

1.      Combine the silken tofu and sesame powder in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. 

2.      Garnish with mint leaves and sesame seeds. Serve chilled.

Mock Zha Jiang

Simple mock Zha Jiang for noodle, congee or steamed rice! Tempeh and firm tofu is used to give the sauce a different texture as well as for its wonderful nutrients.

Preparation:    10 mins Cooking time:    8 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)

°         1 can mock meat in mushroom sauce (brand: cixin vegetarian)

°         125g tempeh, cut into mini cubes

°         75g firm tofu, pat dry and scrambled

°         2½ olive oil

°         5-6 tablespoons water

°         some coriander leaves, sliced chilli and sesame seeds (optional), for garnish

Method

1.    Heat the oil in a wok. Throw in the tempeh and stir-fry for 2 minutes.

2.    Add in scrambled tofu and fry until rather dry.  Pour in mock meat in mushroom sauce and stir-fry for 1 minute.

3.    Garnish with coriander leaves, chilli, sesame seeds and serve.  

Silken Tofu with Wasabi

For kid - without wasabi ... 

I read about Goma-dofu (Sesame Tofu) - a special dish where the tofu is made using sesame paste and kuzu powder (Japanese arrowroot potato). It is served with dashi and wasabi.  So, I replace the sesame tofu with silken tofu and serves with dashi and wasabi.

Preparation:      10  mins,  Cooking time:         5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
°         1 tube silken tofu (250g), steamed or blanched, drained well cut into six sections
°         wasabi
°         some roasted sesame seeds (optional), for garnish

Quick Dashi Sauce
°         45ml water or dashi stock
°         1½  teaspoons sugar
°         1½  tablespoons light soy sauce
°         7.5ml cooking rice wine (optional)

Method

1. To make the sauce: add 30ml water with sugar in a pot and bring to a boil. Stir in cooking rice wine and light soy sauce.
2. Place the tofu on individual serving plates and pour in dashi stock.
3. Top with wasabi, sprinkle some sesame seeds on it and serve.

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. 

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 …

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!

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.

Bitter Gourd and Tofu Soup

The colour of this soup looks beautiful, green, orange, white and maroon! And most importantly, it is simple to whip up. Here is some cool fact about Bitter Gourd or Bitter Melon:

Bitter gourds are very low in calories but dense with precious nutrients. It is an excellent source of vitamins B1, B2, and B3, C, magnesium, folic acid, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, and has high dietary fiber. It is rich in iron, contains twice the beta-carotene of broccoli, twice the calcium of spinach, and twice the potassium of a banana.
Bitter melon contains a unique phyto-constituent that has been confirmed to have a hypoglycemic effect called charantin. There is also another insulin-like compound known as polypeptide P which has been suggested as insulin replacement in some diabetic patients.
Source: http://www.juicing-for-health.com/bitter-gourd-benefits.html

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-4)
° 100g bitter gourd, sliced
° 1 (125g) firm tofu, cubed
° 25g carrot, sliced
° 6 seedless red dates (optional)
° 1 slice ginger
° 750ml water or vegetable stock
° salt and pepper, to taste
° granulated mushroom bouillon (optional), to taste
° crispy ginger shreds (optional)

Method
1. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the bitter gourd slices and mix well. Let it stands for 10-15 minutes and rinse off the salt. Drain well and set aside.
2. Place the ginger, water/vegetable stock, red dates in a pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add in bitter gourd, tofu, carrot and bring to a boil for 2 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Season to taste with salt, pepper and granulated mushroom bouillon.
4. Ladle the soup into individual serving bowls, garnish with crispy ginger shreds and serve immediately.

Silken Tofu with Minced Tempeh and Mushroom

I got the inspiration of this recipe from minced meat over tofu. Using tempeh and mushroom to replicate the minced meat. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water for more sauce and don’t forget to add a tiny bit more vegetarian oyster sauce or soy sauce for that too, if desired. Want a spicy version, add chilli padi or chilli flake!

Preparation: 10 mins Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g), steamed or blanched and drained well
° 100g tempeh, cubed
° 50g fresh shiitake mushroom, cubed
° 1- 1½ olive oil
° 1½ tablespoons vegetarian oyster sauce or to taste
° 3 tablespoons water
° some roasted sesame seeds, for garnish
° few coriander leaves (optional), for garnish


Method
1. Heat the oil in a wok. Add the ginger and fry till fragrant.
2. Throw in the tempeh and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add in the mushroom and stir-fry for another minute. Mix the vegetarian oyster sauce and water well, pour over the tempeh and mushroom.
3. Place the tofu on a serving plate and top with the tempeh and mushroom.
4. Garnish with coriander leaves, sesame seeds and serve.

Rice Set with Minced Mock Meat and Scramble Tofu

Do you think you would be able to do this? Why not? It is real easy as long as you know how to wash the rice grain and dump into a rice cooker, boil a pot of water and dump in the French beans and removed immediately once the colour start changing and how to fry scramble egg! Only this little skill set required.

The mock meat in mushroom is a ready made Singapore product that I bought (ingredients: soya bean, mushroom, textured vegetable protein, chili, soya bean oil, sugar, hydrolyzed vegetable protein and yeast extract). That saves some time in cooking using fresh ingredients. And the yellow stuff is not egg, it is scramble tofu seasoned using turmeric to give the colour of the egg. You can omit turmeric if you don’t have any in the kitchen. Turmeric helps to prevent the onset of arthritis and offer some protection against breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Preparation: 15mins Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 2 bowls cooked rice
° 1 can mock meat in mushroom sauce (brand: cixin vegetarian)
° 8 French beans, sliced and blanched
° 1 (225g) big firm beancurd/tofu, pat dry and scrambled
° ¼- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
° ½ teaspoon sesame oil
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° salt and pepper, to taste

Method
1. Marinate the scrambled tofu with turmeric powder, salt, pepper and sesame oil. Set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat and fry scrambled tofu until dry. Set aside.
3. Divide the rice into 2 serving plates. Top with mock meat in mushroom sauce, French beans and tofu. Serve immediately.

Silken Tofu with Cream of Miso

Finally, able to resolve the horrible font issue by re-do them. For the below recipe, it is nothing new, just using ingredients for making the Miso Soup and play around with the amount of ingredients used to create something slightly different.

It is not difficult at all …

Preparation: 5 mins Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 6)
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g), steamed or blanched, cut into 6 sections and drained well
° 250ml water or vegetable stock
° 1 slice ginger
° ¾ tablespoon miso paste or to taste
° 1 teaspoon cooking rice wine (optional)
° 1 teaspoon corn flour, mixed with 30ml water
° some roasted sesame seeds, for garnish
° few slices spring onion or coriander leaves or mint leaves (optional), for garnish

Method
1. Place the water or vegetable stock, ginger in a pot and bring to a boil. Add miso, cooking rice wine and mix well. Stir in corn flour mixture and bring to a boil.
2. Place the tofu on a serving bowl and scoop the cream of miso onto it.
3. Garnish with spring onion or coriander leaves or sesame seeds and serve.

Silken Tofu with Sweet Miso

Another one! Quick, simple plus impressive! If you consume alcohol, you can add sake or few drop of cooking rice wine to this miso paste. This is another dish that you can play with the presentation using different colour sesame seeds, spring onion/coriander leaf or even chilli slice/flake … Just have some fun with it! Next, I am going to use this sweet miso paste with green tea soba for another recipe …

You can do away with steaming, if you love cold tofu or want to save energy. Steaming or blanching the tofu, will make the texture for some tofu softer.

Preparation: 5 mins, Total time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 4)
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g), steamed or blanched, drained well cut into four sections
° some roasted sesame seeds, for garnish
° few slices spring onion or coriander leaves (optional), for garnish

Sweet Miso Paste
° ¾ tablespoon miso paste
° 1 tablespoon hot water
° 1 tablespoon sugar
° ½ teaspoon sesame oil

Method
1. To make the miso paste: combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Place the tofu on individual serving plates and garnish with spring onion or coriander leaf.
3. Top with sweet miso paste, sprinkle some sesame seeds on it and serve.

Silken Tofu with Vegetarian Meat Floss

This is real simple and to make it look presentable, just plays with the arrangement of the vegetarian meat floss, spring onion or coriander leaves, chilli and different colour sesame seeds.

Not all things need to be complicated to prove its worthiness. If it can be simplified, why make it complex? Sometimes, I just wonder those special or secret recipes, does all of them need to be special by using so many ingredients? I believe, not all special or secrets need to be in that way.

So for this sauce, it’s real simple, even kids can do it. Just get some good quality light soy sauce and the sesame oil can be replaced with garlic oil, shallot oil, chilli oil, olive oil or no oil! And you may even surprise your family member with this simple and easy to do dish, yet yummy. If the tofu is broken during handling stage, never mind, just mess it up a bit and said it is meant to be in this way to absorb the sauce!

You can do away with steaming, if you love cold tofu or want to save energy. Steaming or blanching the tofu, will make the texture for some tofu softer.

Preparation: 8 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g), steamed or blanched and drained well
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian meat floss
° some nori shreds
° some roasted sesame seeds, for garnish
° few slices spring onion or coriander leaves (optional), for garnish

Sauce
° 2 tablespoons light soy sauce or to taste
° ½ teaspoon sesame oil or garlic oil or shallot oil or chilli oil or olive oil

Method
1. To make the sauce: combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Place the tofu on a serving plate and drizzle the sauce at the bottom the tofu.
3. Garnish with vegetarian meat floss, spring onion, sesame seeds and serve.

Baked Bean with Silken Tofu

So simple and easy to whip up!

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 4)
° 1 can (220g) baked bean in tomatoes sauce
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g), cut into cubes
° ½ -1 tablespoon olive oil
° 1 slice ginger or 1 clove garlic (optional), finely chopped
° 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh spring onion or coriander, for garnish

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the ginger or garlic and fry till fragrant.
2. Add in the baked bean, silken tofu and bring to a boil.
3. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with spring onion or coriander and serve immediately.

BaiYe Tofu Salad

Happy New Year everyone, I am back from hibernation and getting back to cooking is a little bit tough after a nice break. So, I tried something simple and it looks like noodle but it is not. It is BaiYe Tofu ( 百 页 豆 腐 )- a traditional Chinese soybean product which is popular in mainland china. It can be used for salad, stir-fried dishes or stew. This BaiYe tofu that I bought is a product of Singapore.

Preparation: 10 minutes

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 125g BaiYe tofu, shredded and blanched for 2 minutes and drained well
° 25g carrot, peeled and shredded
° small handful of coriander leaves
° some toasted sesame seeds (optional), for garnish

Seasoning
° 1 teaspoon sesame oil or olive oil
° 2 tablespoons cider apple vinegar
° 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
° 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
° salt to taste

Method
1. Mix the all the ingredients for seasoning in a bowl and set aside.
2. Add in BaiYe tofu. Toss well.
3. Garnish with coriander leaves, sesame seeds and serve.

Pan-Fried Tofu with Enoki Mushroom

Simple isn’t it? You don’t need to know a lot to whip up a healthy simple home cooked meal, believe me. This is homestyle cooking, as long as it tastes yummy, who cares how it is been done. What you need to know is how to pan-fry the firm tofu, which is real simple.

As for the sauce, if you prefer a more robust sauce, you can heat some oil and stir-fry a clove of garlic or a slice of ginger till fragrant and then pour in the sauce. Otherwise, just mix all the sauce ingredients. A little bit of sugar or chilli flakes can be added, if desired.

Preparation: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 1 firm beancurd/tofu, halved and pan-fried
° 50g enoki mushroom, base trimmed
° some toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
° few shredded carrot (optional), for garnish
° few shredded spring onion (optional), for garnish
° few local lettuce leaves or pea shoots (optional), for garnish

Sauce
° 1½ tablespoons vegetarian oyster sauce
° ¾ teaspoon sesame oil
° 3 tablespoons hot water

Method
1. To make the sauce: combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
2. Place some lettuce or pea shoots on a serving plate. Top with enoki mushroom, shredded carrot, shredded spring onion and drizzle the sauce over the tofu.
3. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve with hot rice.

Silken Tofu with Spicy Soy Sauce

This is an eco-friendly ‘No Cook’ dish which anyone can do within 5 minutes. It is yummy! For a smoother texture, do steam or blanch the tofu for 5 minutes.

Preparation: 5 mins, Total time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 1 pack silken tofu (300g), cut into 8 cubes
° few slices spring onion (optional), for garnish

Sauce
° 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
° 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
° 1 teaspoon sugar
° ½ teaspoon sesame oil

Method
1. To make the sauce: combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Place the tofu on a serving plate and drizzle the spicy soy sauce over the tofu.
3. Garnish with spring onion and serve as an appetizer or side dish with hot rice.