Steamed Pumpkin Cake

with crispy shallot, chilli and coriander ...

with sweet sauce 'n' chilli 'n' sesame seeds ...

with mock floss ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This recipe is inspired by the Steamed Carrot Cake or Steamed Yam Cake. It looks kind of troublesome to whip but it is not.

To include some fun elements for your guests or kids, allow them to designer their unique Pumpkin Cake to show off their creativity or culinary art. They are few ways to garnish or add flavour to the Pumpkin Cake - top with some mock floss and coriander leaves, or drizzle some sweet soy sauce and sprinkle some sesame seeds or chopped chilli, with some Japanese Spring oil shreds and shichimi, or with some crispy shallot and chopped spring onion, or with chee cheong fun sauce and sesame seeds ...

Preparation:     15 mins, Cooking time:  25 mins

Ingredients (makes 8 pieces)

°         250 pumpkin weight after  peeling, diced

°         4 chinese dried mushroom, soaked and sliced

°         150g rice flour

°         1 tablespoon corn starch

°         1 teaspoon salt or to taste

°         pepper to taste

°         ½ teaspoon sesame oil (optional)

°         500ml water

°         1½ tablespoon oil

Garnish

°         ½ fresh red chilli, finely chopped

°         few coriander leaves

°         some toasted sesame seeds

Method

1.      Combine the rice flour, corn starch, salt, pepper and sesame oil with 250ml of water. Mix well and stir into a smooth batter.

2.      Heat oil in a wok. Throw in the pumpkin and mushroom and stir fry for 1 minute. Pour in 250ml of water and bring to a boil.

3.      Off the heat and pour in the batter. Stir till the batter turn thick and transfer to a steaming container and steam for 25 minutes.

4.      Let it cool. Garnish with chilli, coriander and serve.  

Carrot Cake with Mock Floss

Lately, there are lots of dishes using Floss - Chicken Floss, Pork Floss! Look like it is another way to market the product - FLOSS!  I chance upon this recipe - Meat Floss Carrot Cake (non-vegetarian) and modified the recipe to make a Vegetarian Carrot Cake with Mock Floss.

This is a long neglected food and is not too difficult to whip up at all and I love to add lots of ingredients to it. Other way to garnish this Carrot Cake is to drizzle some sweet soy sauce and sprinkle some sesame seeds or chopped chilli, with some Japanese Spring oil shreds and shichimi, or with some crispy shallot and chopped spring onion, or with chee cheong fun sauce and sesame seeds ...

Preparation:     15 mins, Cooking time:  25 mins 

Ingredients (makes 8 pieces)

°         200g radish weight after  peeling, diced

°         50g carrot weight after peeling, died

°         4 chinese dried mushroom, soaked and sliced

°         150g rice flour

°         1 tablespoon corn starch

°         1 teaspoon salt or to taste

°         pepper to taste

°         ½ teaspoon sesame oil (optional)

°         500ml water

°         1½ tablespoon oil

Garnish

°         some mock floss

°         few coriander leaves

°         ½ fresh chilli, sliced

Method

1.      Combine the rice flour, corn starch, salt, pepper and sesame oil with 250ml of water. Mix well and stir into a smooth batter.

2.      Heat oil in a wok. Throw in the radish, carrot and mushroom and stir fry for 1 minute. Pour in 250ml of water and bring to a boil.

3.      Off the heat and pour in the batter. Stir till the batter turn thick and transfer to a steaming container and steam for 25 minutes. Let it cools. Top with mock floss, garnish with coriander and chilli. 

Porridge with Lettuce ‘N’ Mock Floss

Just a simple bowl of porridge, enhance it with some lettuce and Mock Floss …. The trick to having porridge or congee cooked in 10-15 minutes is here - Quick Congee

French Bean N Mock Floss

Deep-fried French Beans with Mock Floss

Toasted French Beans with Mock Floss

Mock Floss, Vegetarian Floss, Pumpkin Floss …  Floss again?

Haha… I am not a big fan of Floss, just like other ingredients or recipes in this blog. I brought to create the recipe and now I still have half a bag of floss left. Therefore, thinking hard on how to finish them. Besides this recipe, there is another recipe using floss, yet to be post on the blog  … 

For this recipe is inspired by the Celebrity Chef – Sam Leong’s cookbook – A Wok Through Time. There is a dish -  Wok-fried Long Beans with Homemade XO Sauce, is  a green cylinder of long beans topped with a dry, fluffy XO sauce. The Dry homemade XO Sauce look like pork floss to me, therefore I substitute with Mock Floss for a vegetarian version.  A lot of time, by flipping cookbooks and those lovely pictures are a great source of inspiration, with little modification or improvising them, you get the vegetarian version and or maybe something totally new …   

 I used French bean and for a healthier version,  by mix ¾ teaspoon of oil with a pinch of salt to the French bean and toasted them in Toaster Over for 10 minutes instead of deep-frying.  Deep-fried or poaching in oil look much better in term of the colour. 

Next, arrange them on a plate and topped with mock floss. I added more sesame seeds (black and white) plus a pinch of dried chilli flakes as I don’t have shichimi togarashi.

So, here is the output! Does it look good? Do you feel like having some?

For a more presentable look, you can tie the deep-fried French beans into a knot, arrange either one or few on a small serving plate and garnish with mock floss.  If you want to place them on a porcelain spoon, arrange the spoons in circle on a plate facing outward. Just play with it and explore …

Steamed Eggplant with Mock Floss (aka Purple Eggplant 'N' Auburn Floss)

Want some? It looks good and tastes good too!

This dish is inspired from two non-vegetarian restaurants – Taste Paradise and Peach Garden. Taste Paradise has Crispy-fried Japanese Egg plant topped with Pork Floss. For Peach Garden is thin crispy fried egg plant strips fried in light batter and tossed with generous helping of pork floss and a touch of garlic.

Anyway, I haven’t taste these 2 dishes at all, pork floss isn’t vegetarian! Am I going to miss out delicious food, of course -  NO, I decide to whip up and share this with all Vegetarians and Vegan -  a simple and healthy vegetarian version – Steamed Eggplant with Mock Floss.

Here you go, just simple 3 steps where anyone can cook :-

·        Slice the eggplant (or cut into long thick strip), arrange on a serving plate and steamed for 8-10 minutes.  

·        Drizzle shallot/olive oil, little amount of light soy sauce (optional) over the eggplant.

·        Topped with generous amount of mock floss, garnish with coriander leaves and chopped fresh red chilli.

For a special feel – instead of chopped fresh red chilli – use shichimi togarashi (seven spice chilli mix) where you can get from supermarket.

Food presentation isn’t difficult at all, sometime, it can be labour intensive and time consuming but there are also some very simple and yet elegant that can be done up real fast. There is no fix rule, how edible food garnish should be placed, so loosen up and play with it. The more you do it, it just come naturally, without even having to think about it.

So, hurry grabs some eggplant, mock floss and cooks this …

Simple Rice Soup

This is an easy-to-prepare clear rice soup. Don’t discard the kelp, use it to make a mini side dish – Seasoned Kelp http://crystalbyblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/seaweed-salad.html.

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 1)
° 1 bowl cooked plain white
° 10 kelps in knot
° 5 seedless red dates (optional)
° 1 slice ginger
° 500 ml water or vegetable stock
° salt and pepper to taste
° granulated mushroom bouillon (optional), to taste
° few drops sesame/shallot oil (optional)
° small handful freshly chopped coriander leaves or spring onion, for garnish
° 1-1½ tablespoons vegetarian meat floss
° some nori shreds
° small handful freshly chopped spring onion (optional)

Method
1. Place kelps, ginger, red dates and water in a pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the kelps, red dates and ginger. Season to taste with salt, pepper, granulated mushroom bouillon and sesame/shallot oil.
2. Place a bowl of rice on a serving plate, top with vegetarian meat floss and nori shreds. Garnish with coriander leaves or spring onion.
3. Ladle the soup on the bottom of the rice and serve immediately.

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.

Mock Floss Toast ...

If you have ever been to Toast Box and the Pork Floss Toast made you salivate, no worry, we can easily have a Vegetarian Pork Floss Toast. Just get the Vegetarian Pork Floss from the Vegetarian Shops!

With some breads (toasted optional), spread it with veg*n mayo or margarine and pour the vegetarian pork floss over it, that’s!

I would think that the Golden Pumpkin Meat Floss (vegetarian) is much better than the Vegetarian Pork Floss which I used in the photo.