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 …

Tempeh with Honey

A simple recipe which I don’t know what to write about! Writing is never my strong point and I find it difficult to express. Recently, reading some non-vegetarian cookbooks, they have short and sweet description of their recipes together with beautiful photo – informative, interesting yet entertaining, therefore, it leaves an impact on the reader. Something which I may want to achieve.

Cooking is no longer just to fill the stomach, in this era, it is something more – it is a piece of Art without comprising the taste and quality of food or maybe it is even more than that, I don’t know! So is cooking my passion, in fact, it isn’t. Then, these must be the food that my family or my favorite dishes. Surprisingly, it isn’t too, what I really like could not really be found in here, it is a secret! So, the starting of this blog was never planned and it just grows. Now I treat this as a “Mandala” which is impermanent, therefore this blog can cease or exist depend on the "law of nature".

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)

 2 (100g) fresh tempeh, diced

 1½ tablespoon honey

 Salt to taste (optional)

 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Method

1. Mix the tempeh, honey, salt and sesame seeds a bowl.

2. Place them in the oven toaster and toasted for 10-15 minutes or till golden brown.

3. Serve immediately.

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.