Aonori Ko Aglio Olio

Aglio Olio is a real simple to whip up pasta dish and yet simply great.  The minced garlic lightly stir-fry in olive oil add a wonderful aroma and taste to it.  I like to make it real spicy using chilli padi or use dried chilli flake if I run out of fresh chilli padi.  I have a similar recipe Shell Pasta with Dried Chilli Flake that used dried chilli flake but for the above Aglio Olio, I added Anori Ko to add more nutrition values to it!

There are so many way to play with food like garnish it with julienne nori  and Shichimi Togarishi or garnish with Edamame soybean with black sesame seeds,  so have fun and create your own unique or fusion  pasta.

Potato and Cucumber Salad with Peanut Sauce

I like the Peanut Sauce that comes with the Vegetarian Satay that I got from Friendly Vegetarian Food Supplier.  Since there was some Peanut Sauce left, I decided to have whipped up something similar to the Indonesia dish - Gado Gado.

I steamed a potato (peeled and diced), sliced some Japanese cucumber and with some vegetarian Tapioca cracker (or papadum) and use the peanut salad as dipping sauce.  This is just one of the many ways to enjoy potato, if you like peanut sauce or not allergic to peanut.  Potatoes are not just great for any meals but are also good for you and your body.  It is loaded with a good amount of vitamin C, potassium, fibre, antioxidants, with a low calorie count of 110, yet zero fat and cholesterol!

p.s:  Vegetarian Tapioca Cracker goes well with the peanut sauce, and it adds some texture to this dish! Limit the intake or omit this for a more healthy meal.

Funori Jelly a.k.a Algae Essence Jelly

Algae Essence Jelly with Macha Soy Milk Dessert  ...

Algae Essence Drink with Ice Jelly Powder added to create a firmer texture ...

Algae Essence Drink with Fresh Lotus Seeds ...

I  bought a pack of Algae Essence (300g± @ S$5.50) from Friendly Vegetarian Food Supplier and make this jelly.  The ingredients listed are Algae, Longans, Red dates, Dark Brown Sugar.  If you want to know how this taste likes, it is exactly like winter melon drink from Yeo's or the traditional birdnest drink that was very popular in the Pasar Malam in the past (we still can find this drink in some of the Pasar Malam). 

Algae Essence (300g± @ S$5.50)

Algae Essence block (300g±)

I like making Jelly for colleagues and family members (not that I love jelly) because it is super simple and simply great. It can be made in advance and keep in the refrigerator up to a week. A small piece of chilled jelly after a meal, is so refreshing and kids love it too.  For this jelly, my young man does not really like it, as it contains Red Dates bits in it.

It is real simple to make this jelly even kid can do it.  Instead of following the instruction of using 5 litre of water, I used 2.5 litre of water to boil the Algae Essence block.  After chilling it, it becomes wobbly jelly and the sweetness is just nice.  You can also break the Algae Essence block up into smaller pieces (to speed up cooking) prior to throwing into the water and bring to a boil. Add ice jelly powder to it, if you want a firmer version jelly.

You can serve this as jelly or combine with other ingredients to make it into a beautiful and special dessert.  For a quick and no-fuss, simple and fun to serve, I added Macha Soy Milk to it.  It helps to give this dessert a contrasting color and also to create unique, random design or pattern. You can serve with Nata De Coco cubes or fruit cocktails, just like the ice jelly dessert.

If you want to taste this and not wanting to cook it, purchase the read-made jelly from the Vegetarian or Organic Eateries.

Steamed Vegetarian Fish with Enoki Mushroom

Ideal for busy people who have little time to spare preparing meal especially during weekday. For this dish, the emphasis is more on the natural food like tomatoes and mushrooms, which is a little different from my earlier version of Steamed Vegetarian Fish. It required very little and simple seasoning. You can opt to sprinkle sesame oil after steaming, if desired.  

Preparation:     7 mins, Cooking time:  8 mins

           

Ingredients (serves 2)

°         1 vegetarian fish slice

°         2 tomatoes, cut into 4 wedges

°         100g enoki mushroom, base trimmed

°         2 thin slices ginger, finely shredded

°         1 teaspoon sesame oil

°         1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste

°         1-2 mini dried Chinese mushroom (optional), soaked

°         coriander leaves and chilli/wolfberries, for garnish

Method

1.      Arrange the enoki mushroom, tomatoes, vegetarian fish, ginger shreds, mushroom ion a heatproof serving plate.

2.      Sprinkle salt, oil and steam for 8 minutes.

3.      Garnish with coriander, chilli and serve immediately.

Sandstorm Snack ...

Sandstorm Snack  

The original is just a simple glutinous rice ball but I shaped it to be like a cube after pressing the round glutinous rice ball at six sides to look like a mini cube. Then boil in boiling water (steam it, if desired) and place on a plate of glutinous rice flour (toasted in the oven) to coat it.

Lastly, into the Macha Peanut Coating and giving it after a sandstorm effect!

Hmmm … cooking can be a creative activity if you want it to be, so just unleash your creativities and imagination…. Have fun! 

Macha Peanut Coating ...

Kinako (soybean powder) coating is a basic ingredient for Warabi Mochi. And there is a different variant – Macha Kinako Coating,with green tea powder added to it (other spices like cinnamon can be used). Since I don’t have soybean powder in the kitchen, I used grounded peanut powder to make Macha Kinako Coating which is not as delicate and fine comparing to soybean powder …

From Essentially Japanese Cooking & Cuisine, Mattcha-kinako coating recipe – Mix 1 teapsoon mattcha (grean tea powder), 20g sugar and 15g kinako (soybean powder)

Winter Solstic Dessert ...

Abacus Shape Glutinous Rice Ball with grounded peanut powder …

 Mini Glutinous Rice Cake with Azuki Bean (stuff it in, if desired ...)

Sprinkle or sift some macho powder on it ...  

I am not a big fan of Glutinous Rice Ball or Dessert and why are there so many postings related to it?

Just that I haven’t got bore with photographing these mini creations using the ingredient glutinous rice flour. And I find that dessert and snack can be made more interesting with slight modifications that do not required lots of work or cost a bomb and yet can be served in a small portion to enhance a bento set or as a beautiful snack in any party menu.

Simple ingredients like glutinous rice flour which are not costly at all and yet it can be use to make mochi, mua chee, glutinous rice ball, kueh etc. With different ingredients added and methods used, it can make into different desserts/snacks with many different variants.

Must Winter Solstice Dessert which is the traditional glutinous rice ball be round (round shape symbolize 团圆), of standard size, in red and white colour, in sweet soup or coated in grounded peanut powder?

In fact, it can be unique and different … I have few other ingredients in mind that I wanted to test out when I am free …  It is quite fun, mixing the flour with water and shaping those tiny little balls and throwing them into boiling water and seeing them floating … sound like Clay Therapy …

So, be daring, create a new Winter Solstice Dessert this year and maybe a different one for every other year! 

Macha Peanut Coating! 

Kinako (soybean powder) coating is a basic ingredient for Warabi Mochi. And there is a different variant – Macha Kinako Coating,with green tea powder added to it (other spices like cinnamon can be used). Since I don’t have soybean powder in the kitchen, I used grounded peanut powder to make Macha Kinako Coating which is not as delicate and fine comparing to soybean powder …

Vegetarian Siew Mai ...

I just like the combination of a piece of coriander leave and just one wolfberry for garnish. Simple yet it makes a big different to the food. I saw this in a beautiful food photo of shark’s fin dish and therefore try it out on instant vegetarian siew mai which I bought from Friendly Vegetarian Food Suppliers – 25pcs for S$5.

You just have to steam them and place on a small white porcelain plate use for sauce or arrange in a row on a oblong plate, Next, just place coriander leave and reconstituted wolfberry on it (kid can help out with this).  That’s!  

Frozen Vegetable Dumping

Served in Sauces Plate with Mushroom Broth and garnish with coriander and wolfberries ...  

Served in a Chinese Tea Cup with Mushroom Broth, mini dried mushroom, wolfberries and coriander ...

Various presentation ... 

Frozen Vegetable Dumping 450g @ S$2.50

Yes! This is instant vegetarian food and with simple food presentation, it can look beautiful and use that for buffet or party food for a no-cook.

I got this from Friendly Vegetarian Food Supplier – 1 pack (450g) for S$2.50 (Product of Taiwan by Chimei). 

Homemade Vegetarian Furikake

Homemade Vegetarian Furikake 

Sprinkle Vegetarian Furikake on Steamed Rice 

Vegetarian Salted Fish 

Furikake is a type of Japanese Condiment that is usually used to sprinkle on top the rice. You can create your own style … here is another variant …

The ingredients for the above Vegetarian Furikake are Vegetarian Salted Fish, White Sesame and shredded nori.  Quantity as per individual preference. Mix well and store in a container.  Use it for rice, congee or salad! 

p.s : still in hibernating mood … : )

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 …

A Cup of Simple Crispy Shallot Rice

For Little Girl ...

For Little Boy ...

Super simple and delicious …

When I was a little gal, my late mother whipped up this Rice with Raw Egg for us. What she did was when the rice was cooked, threw in the eggs (raw), shallot oil, spring onion, crispy shallot, and season with salt, light soy sauce and then mix well.

Yesterday, I was making some shallot oil by deep-frying some freshly cut shallot in oil. It was aromatic and I decided to mix the shallot oil, crispy shallot and some chopped spring onion to the cooked white rice. Season to taste with light sauce and mix well.  Spring onion and shallot lends its unique flavour to the plain rice, making it real fragrant.

Then, to make it interesting for kid, I serve it in a round Tea Cup with cute little cartoon on it (freebie). It looks good and delicious, my boy finished up all the tasty rice very fast.

Visual impact is important to kid too! It helps to make the food look more appetizing. Try this, if you have a fussy eater at home. It does not need lots of time to churn out something simple yet delectable.

For a healthier version, use brown rice (those that are light brown in colour). Substitute shallot with ginger, spring oil with Chinese parsley if desired. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds if preferred.

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 …

No Cook Red Bean Ice lolly …

Vegan Ice Cream is not easier to find or the varieties are limited. If you are a vegan and want some healthy ice lolly with no cooking involved, you can still achieve this.  I bought a bowl of Red Bean Soup from the Dessert Stall as take away. As it is very difficult to get red bean soup with lots of red beans, I added silken tofu to make the ice lolly (250ml red bean soup with beans and 125g silk tofu).

Dump all in the blender and blend till smooth, put into the ice lolly mould and frozen it. Sugar, taste before adding, I find the dessert sweet enough and skip the sugar.

Another way, if time permit, cook the red bean soup and you can have lots of red bean in it. A healthy dessert serves in a different way and with lots of goodness …

Just a little question, do you prefer ice lolly, ice cream or sorbet?

Ice cream is too common, big tub of ice cream loaded with lots of calories and yet selling at a very cheap price are easily available at the supermarket. Of course, there is some real delicious high end ice cream too where people go for quality and not quantity.

As for calorie-counters, would you able to resist the temptation of the delicious ice cream or look for a healthier alternative yet special like sorbet which would cost more or do a simple homemade fruity ice lolly?

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.

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.

Simplified Dry Tom Yum Vermicelli

This might be a good, pretty simple to whip up and yet impressive item for party or fun fair, as all the ingredients can be prepared in advance and just mixed them prior to serving and it will not go wrong at all even without any stir-frying.

This can also be an item that can be given to your helpful guests who want to help out in your party or easy task for little boys and girls to do. Remember to taste and add more lime juice or tom yum paste if necessary. Use shallot oil instead of olive oil, have some fresh shallot slices, if desired. Pea shoots is too common to add as addition green veggies for this dish, try something else … julienned green mango or something that does not required too much work …

How about putting in a beautiful bento box with some fruit/veggie salad or a cup of lovely smoothies/juices/soya blends plus crispy cracker and take it to work for lunch?

Preparation: 10 mins, Cooking time: 8 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-8)
° 150g rice vermicelli, cooked according to packet’s instruction
° 1 firm tofu, cubed and pan-fried
° 1 stalk lemongrass, peel off outer layers leaving tender whitish centre, cut out 5cm, thinly sliced
° 5-6 kaffir lime leaves, finely cut/snip just before using
° 25g carrot, shredded
° some fresh coriander leaves, for garnish
° 1 fresh red chilli or 3 chilli padi, sliced
° some toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Tom Yum Sauce
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° 2 tablespoons vegetarian tom yum paste or to taste
° 2 tablespoons light soy sauce or to taste
° 2 tablespoons (4 limes) freshly squeezed kalamansi lime juice
° 4 tablespoons (60ml) water
° ¾ tablespoon sugar or to taste

Method
1. Place the Tom Yum sauce ingredients in a bowl and mixed well.
2. In a big bowl, throw in the vermicelli, corianders, chilli, tofu, carrot, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves.
3. Pour the Tom Yum sauce over, toss and mix well. Sprinkle some water if it is too dry. Taste and add more Tom Yum Paste (more fiery and spicy) or lime juice, if necessary. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve.

Dried Japanese Ramen (Vegetarian/Vegan)

This is real simple! What you need to do is to cook the Japanese Ramen based on the instruction given on the packaging. Using Vegetarian BBQ Sauce沙茶酱) to transform it to a bowl of palatable Dried Japanese Ramen. Add a bit of olive oil to the Ramen so that it does not stick together. Or add some vegetable stock to make it tastier. As for the topping, any ingredients you prefer. I like to use King Oyster Mushroom, as it is easily available and the price is reasonable, it gives some textures to this dish. Opt for Bailing Mushroom (which has the abalone texture) specially braised if prefer to give a more posh feel. Pair this with a decent small bowl of soup to make it perfect!

Preparation: 10 mins, Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 2 Japanese Ramen, cooked
° 50g king oyster mushroom, sliced and blanced/cooked
° 10 slices carrot, for garnish
° some freshly spring onion, shredded or chopped
° Vegetarian BBQ sauce (沙茶酱) to taste

Method
1. Place the ramen in each individual bowl, top with the king oyster mushroom, spring onion, carrot and Vegetarian BBQ sauce. Serving bowls and serve immediately.

The Art of Being a Creative Vegetarian No-Cook: Peanut and Lotus Root Congee

The Art of Being a Creative Vegetarian No-Cook! Let me share a little secret here, how to enjoy a piping hot Peanut and Lotus Root Congee, if you can’t find any Vegetarian Eatery offering this dish!

Very Simple. The trick is to get (take away) Peanut and Lotus Root Soup from a Vegetarian Stall. Next, in your own kitchen, take out ½ rice cup of washed and frozen rice grain. Throw the soup and rice grain into a claypot,bring to a boil and simmer for 10 – 15 minutes.

When the congee is ready, just garnish with some fresh coriander which is optional. Add pepper if desired.

What’s next ?- Eat directly from the claypot of course (save the task of washing another bowl, be nice to Mother Earth) ...

Do you need to be an expert in cooking? No, Everybody, even young kids can do this simple task! It is similar to cooking instant congee!

So, next time, if you find a stall that sell palatable Peanut and Lotus Root Soup, get some home and frozen it till you need to whip up a quick meal or when a cold or sore throat attack.

I got mine from Eight Immortals @ Causeway Point (Woodlands) – Horizon Food Mall, Level 5 @ S$3 for a big bowl.