Veggie & Fruity Salad

We had this simple yet wonderful salad at KMSPKS. We like it. We re-create it. We share it. The salad we had, have some grapes too, add them or any other fruits you desired. I omit vinegar/lemon juice, salt or sugar totally, as I find the salad cream after mixing with the fruit had the just nice consistency.

Preparation: 8-10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 100g green apple dices
° 100g red apple dices
° 75g carrot dices
° 75g Japanese cucumber dices

Salad Dressing
° 2-2½ tablespoons vegetarian salad cream/ vegan mayonnaise

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Serve chilled.

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.

Kelps and Red Dates Congee

Real simple and hassle free …. Ever since, my ex-colleague taught me how to make congee with frozen rice grain, I find cooking congee even much easier and faster. There is always some frozen rice grain in my freezer, just in case, I want to cook something easy and quick.

Often, I heard that non-vegetarian can’t really go vegetarian even if they really wish too, because they find that their body can’t take ‘coolness’ from eating vegetables. Well, being a vegetarian does not mean we eat only vegetable, there are many other ingredients that not only add colour but also nutrition to our diet.

If the body nature belongs to the ‘cool’ type like me, I would add more ginger, chilli and ingredients that are warm in nature to cook my dishes. For this recipe, I used ginger and red dates which are warm in nature to offset the ‘coolness’. So, if your body belongs to those ‘heaty’ types, just omit the red dates and use lesser ginger. Red dates improve the ‘Qi’ and boost blood circulation and rich in iron too.

Preparation: 5 mins Cooking time: 20 mins, plus 2 ½ hours standing time

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 100g rice, washed and drained
° 750ml water
° 2 slices ginger
° 10 kelps in knot
° 6 red seedless red dates

Method
1. Wash the rice and drain well (not too dry). Put the rice in a plastic or metal container and freeze it for 2 – 2 ½ hours in the refrigerator.
2. Remove from the freezer and add 250ml water to it and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
3. Pour into the rice, ginger, kelps and red dates into a claypot or pot. Add the remaining water and bring to a boil. Simmer for another 15 minutes or until the congee is soft. If it is too thick, just add some water.
4. Ladle the congee into individual serving bowls and serve hot.

Mango Crispy Mock “Prawn”

In fact, I was thinking of doing a veg*n version Mango Crispy Chicken, using either mock chicken drumstick or marinated king oyster mushroom and deep-fried. In the end, I used the mock prawn and it is quite similar to one of my earlier recipe Plum Sauce Mock Prawn! The problem is having too many recipes, I lost track of them!

Ok, this is so much simpler! You need to know how to deep-fry and that’s about all. The rest is just mixing the sauce. For Thai Mango Crispy Chicken, the sauce called for sugar, lime juice, fish sauce and chilli. In this recipe, I used plum paste and adding a little bit of tangy taste using orange juice! So, you can always come up with your own sauce or use other sauce like Tangy Orange Sauce!

Preparation: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 8 (200g) vegetarian noodle prawns, deep-fried or pan-fried or baked
° 1- ½ mango, diced
° some mint leaves, for garnish

Sauce
° 2 tablespoons plum paste
° 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
° toasted sesame seeds (optional)
° ½ fresh red chilli, seeded and sliced
° toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Method
1. Mix all the sauce ingredients a bowl and set aside.
2. Arrange the mock prawns, mango and mint leaves on a serving plate.
3. Serve with special plum sauce.

Potato Salad with Avocado Wasabi Cream

I was looking at those ripe avocado and potatoes at home, not knowing what to do with them. Out of sudden, Sunny who I have never met before, came to my mind, I don’t know why. She loves avocado and wasabi! Usually, we would use mayo for potato salad. To make this recipe healthier, I use avocado to replace mayo. Since Sunny loves wasabi, I use it to give it a different twist. So, this recipe is for her. And this also look like Egg Mayo Salad!

Preparation: 10 mins Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-3)
° 200g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks and steamed

Avocado Salad Cream
° 1 avocado, peeled and stoned
° 1 tablespoon mayonnaise/vegetarian salad cream
° 1 tablespoon freshly squeeze lemon juice
° ¼ - ½ teaspoon wasabi or to taste
° salt to taste

Method
1. Combine avocado, vegetarian salad cream, lemon juice, wasabi, salt in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Place the potatoes in a salad bowl. Add the avocado salad cream to the potatoes and mix well.
3. Set aside to cool in the refrigerator and allow the flavour to develop.
4. Serve chilled.

Nata De Coco with Sterculia and Agar Agar Dessert

Dried Sterculia Seeds / Soaked Sterculia Seeds in water

You see, with a minor change of the one of the ingredients, you can create a different treats! I replaced soymilk with Nata De Coco! And my boy loves this and asked for more. And it looks colourful and attractive to little ones. Nata De Coco is a high-fibre, low-calories and cholesterol-free dessert. Again, you can make the agar agar yourself or you just get them from the Fruit Stall in the food court.

Preparation: 5 mins, standing time 30 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 2 sterculia seeds/mollow nuts, lightly bruised
° 50g-75g agar agar (jelly), cubed
° 360g Nata De Coco

Method
1. Soak sterculia seeds in ample water for 20-30 minutes until the flesh has expanded into a loose, jelly like mass. Peel off and discard the skin. Drain well.
2. Mix all the ingredients in a jar and pour into individual glasses.
3. Chilled or serve with ice.

Soy Milk with Sterculia and Agar Agar Drink

Dried Sterculia Seeds / Soaked Sterculia Seeds in water

Really, you don’t need special ingredients to come up with some interesting and creative drink for kids or anyone. It can be so simple and yet so easy. You can make the agar agar yourself or you just get them from the Fruit Stall in the food court.

Preparation: 5 mins, standing time 30 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 2 sterculia seeds/mollow nuts, lightly bruised
° 50g-75g agar agar (jelly), cubed
° 400ml fresh soy milk

Method
1. Soak sterculia seeds in ample water for 20-30 minutes until the flesh has expanded into a loose, jelly like mass. Peel off and discard the skin. Drain well.
2. Mix all the ingredients in a jar and pour into individual glasses.
3. Chilled or serve with ice.

Singapore VEGETARIAN food guide

Photo source: VSS

Welcome to SINGAPORE …. A Veg*n FOOD Paradise!

The Vegetarian Society Singapore (VSS) http://www.vegetarian-society.org/ had produced a lovely Singapore VEGETARIAN food guide that they did in cooperation with Singapore Tourism Board (STB). The first of its kind, this 76 page booklet is the result of months of hard work, and features write-ups on over 80 restaurants, organized by precincts.

Letting Veg*n or Non-Vegetarian to discover the wealth of Vegetarian Cuisine in Singapore, from Asia to Western, Organic Vegan to Vegetarian Versions of local favourities ….

Where to get a copy:
It will be distributed by the Singapore Tourism Board at their local office, kiosks, strategic tourist attractions and pick-up points, as well as their overseas offices.

Uniquely Singapore -

click here: http://www.visitsingapore.com/publish/stbportal/en/index.html/

~~~

JULY SPECIAL PROMOTION!

From 1 to 31 July 2009, Just bring along the Food Guide to these fine restaurants and enjoy a 10% discount on dine-in cuisine!
click for here more info:http://www.vegetarian-society.org/?q=node/1047#

Udon in Tomato Soup

Now, the previous tomato soup recipe can also be used as a soup base for udon or even pasta or ramen! The goodness of tomatoes, rich in Vitamin A & C and contain Vitamin B too. Also a good source of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and dietary fibre.

Preparation: 10 mins Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 2 packs (400g) udon
° 800g tomatoes
° 100g king oyster mushroom
° 2 slice ginger
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° 1½ tablespoon tomatoes sauce
° 1 tablespoon sugar
° salt and pepper to taste
° granulated mushroom bouillon (optional), to taste
° 1 tablespoon corn flour, mixed with 2 tablespoons water
° ½ sheet nori, toasted and shredded

Method
1. Place tomatoes in a blender or food processor and blend well. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the ginger and stir-fry for 1 minute.
3. Throw in the king oyster mushroom and stir-fry for 3 minutes.
4. Pour in the tomatoes puree and bring to a boil. Season to taste with tomatoes sauce, sugar, salt, pepper and granulated mushroom bouillon.
5. Divide the udon into individual serving bowls.
6. Ladle the soup into the udon, garnish with nori shreds and serve hot.

Tomato Soup with King Oyster Mushroom

Tomatoes were real cheap S$1 for 1kg. And tomatoes are rich in Vitamin A & C and contain Vitamin B too. Also a good source of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and dietary fibre. Therefore, I decided to make this tomato soup! It is pretty easy, give it a try. If you can’t find king oyster mushroom, you can substitute with toasted tempeh cubes, just add them in prior to serving. Silken Tofu is also another good choices …

Preparation: 10 mins Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 4)
° 800g tomatoes
° 100g king oyster mushroom
° 2 slice ginger
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° 1½ tablespoon tomatoes sauce
° 1 tablespoon sugar
° salt and pepper to taste
° granulated mushroom bouillon (optional), to taste
° 1 tablespoon corn flour, mixed with 2 tablespoons water
° ½ sheet nori, toasted and shredded

Method
1. Place tomatoes in a blender or food processor and blend well. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the ginger and stir-fry for 1 minute.
3. Throw in the king oyster mushroom and stir-fry for 3 minutes.
4. Pour in the tomatoes puree and bring to a boil. Season to taste with tomatoes sauce, sugar, salt, pepper and granulated mushroom bouillon.
5. Ladle the soup into individual serving bowls, garnish with nori shreds and serve hot.

Chlorophyll Thirst-Quencher

It has been a month already. I kind of enjoy my hibernation very much. And thank you so much for all the lovely comments. So, just post a few recipes, and I will be back to hibernation again. For this recipe, it is Soy Milk with Wheat Grass Juice! The colour look beautiful in the picture, different hue … What I did was filled the glass with soy milk and slowly pour in the wheat grass juice. Leave it as it is. Give it a stir it prior to drinking it, if desired.

Preparation: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 50g fresh organic wheat grass
° 125ml water, boiled and cooled
° 250ml reduced sugar soy milk

Method
1. Combine all the wheat grass, water in a blender and blend until smooth. Strained with a coffee strainer and squeezed out all the liquid from it.
2. Add the wheat grass juice to the soy milk and pour into individual serving glass.
3. Served chilled.

Apple Wheat Juice

Hmmm… this is my first try using Wheatgrass! Well, it tastes good, however if you don’t really like it to be too grassy, you will need to do extract the juice using a wheatgrass juicer. If not, you can do this manually, by adding the water and wheatgrass in a blender and blend till smooth. Next, strained it using a coffee strainer and squeezed out all the liquid from it. Then add it together with lemon juices, apples, water and honey and blend well in a blender.

Preparation: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 2 (175g) green apples cubes
° ½ freshly squeezed yellow lemon juice
° 25g fresh organic wheat grass
° 250ml water, boiled and cooled
° 3 tablespoons honey or to taste

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Taste it, add more honey, if necessary. Chilled or serve with ice.

French Vegetariens Magazine – Jan-Feb 09 issue

This is the French Vegetariens Magazine – Jan-Feb 09 issue! I finally got it from Virginie Pean yesterday (she is even more lovely and beautiful in person ) …

Some of the recipes from this blog are featured there but in French. Virginie is the person who picked and translated those recipes! Thanks Virginie ... : )

Green Apple with Tempeh Salad

Just whip this up this morning … In fact, I wanted to make little cup using wonton skin for the salad, but I am just too lazy! You can add some mango if desired.

Preparation: 8-10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 100g tempeh, diced and toasted
° 1 green apple, diced

Salad Dressing
° 2 tablespoons vegetarian salad cream/ vegan mayonnaise
° 1 teaspoon sugar
° 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
° ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper or curry powder (optional)

Method
1. Combine all the salad dressing ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Add in the green apple and tempeh and mix well. Serve chilled.

Pickled Pumpkin

Didn’t know that Pickled Pumpkin can be so yummy. I had Stone Pot Rice at Yes Natural Yes Natural (btw Yes Natural Bakery next door sells Delicious Curry Puff) and they have pickled pumpkin on it. It is crunchy, sweet and a bit sourly, very appetizing just like pickled papaya which I really like. I haven’t decided whatever should I add salt on the pumpkin to extract the water, maybe next round I shall try it. Anyway, it is real easy, there isn’t even a need to boil the vinegar. The problem I have is I don’t have the patient to slice it thin enough!

Preparation: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 6)
° 350g pumpkin (weight after peeling), thinly sliced
° 150ml distilled white vinegar
° 100g sugar, or to taste

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients in a glass container, mix well and leave to stand for 24 hours in the refrigerator prior to serving.

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.

Orange and Mango Juice

A cool, fresh and sweet drink! Just nice for a hot weather.

Preparation: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 4 oranges, freshly squeezed
° 1 mango, peeled and diced
° ice cubes

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Chilled or serve with ice.

Enoki Salad

Want some mushroom salad! Here it is, simple and crunchy. The core ingredient is enoki mushroom, you can added shredded carrot or shredded green mango to gives it some colour! Drizzle the dressing ONLY when it is ready to be served … Use Chinese plum sauce instead of Thai plum sauce, it is not that watery. So, have fun and create your very own unique enoki salad …

Preparation: 8 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 200g enoki mushroom, base trimmed
° 25g shredded carrot
° some coriander leaves
° ½ teaspoon black and white sesame seeds (optional)
° ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

Dressing
° 2 tablespoons plum sauce
° 1 teaspoon (1-1½ limes) freshly squeezed kalamansi lime juice
° sugar to taste (optional)

Method
1. Mix all the dressing ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Arrange enoki mushroom, carrot and coriander leaves on a serving plate. Garnish with sesame seed and crushed red pepper.
3. Serve with dressing.

Glutinous Rice Pudding with Mint Coconut Milk

Was wondering whether to post this recipe or not, as the mint leaves in the photo did not look fresh and that appealing. But my little one, gives the green light and say this can go onto the blog, so here it is …. Using lemon grass and mint as the ingredients in this dessert, come from what Veganic described in VSS Forum. However, you can omit lemon grass and ginger if these ingredients are not available.

Nothing difficult and yet you can churn out different variants and presentable dessert. Well, if mint coconut milk does not appeal to you, you can always have mango puree coconut milk sauce, durian puree coconut milk sauce, raspberry coconut milk sauce or whatever sauce you can think of and the most important thing is the sauce must be something you like.

Preparation: 10 mins, Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 150g glutinous rice
° 150ml water
° ¼-3 stalks fresh lemon grass
° 1 slice ginger
° mint leaves (optional), for garnish
° roasted sesame seed (optional), for garnish

Sauce
° 60ml fresh coconut milk
° 2 tablespoons peppermint syrup

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and mix well. Set aside and chilled.
2. Wash the glutinous rice and place in a bowl with enough water to cover. Leave to soak for 3 hours or more. Drain thoroughly.
3. Peel off the outer layers of the lemon grass stalks, leaving the tender whitish centre. Cut into 8cm pieces and bruised.
4. Place the glutinous rice, water, salt and lemon grass, ginger into an electric rice cooker, mix well and turn it on. Discard lemon grass and ginger when done.
5. Divide into individual serving plate. Garnish with mint leaves and sesame seeds.
6. Drizzle the sauce over the glutinous rice pudding and serves immediately or chilled.

Quick Congee!

Plain congee garnish with carrot shreds & coriander leaves

Congee with enoki, carrot & coriander

During the recent lunch meet up with an ex colleague - Carolyn, she shared a very good idea that she learnt from a cooking video – how to shorten the cooking time for congee. I gave it a try, it works and therefore I did it again with the steps taken down. It is 10 minutes faster than my usual way of cooking congee. So, no worry about making Baby porridge, it becomes as easy as ABC. The secret is to breakdown the fiber of the rice gain by freezing it. So, you can wash the rice, clashed them if desired and put them in the freezer. Any time that you like to have a quick congee, just removed from freezer and within 20 minutes, a hot bowl of congee is there waiting for you. If you don’t want it that mushy, shorten the cooking time a little.

If you prefer it thinner, just add more water. It can be served with a variety of accompaniments, such as pickled turnips, salted peanuts, mustard greens etc. The other option that I did is adding enoki mushroom, carrot shreds, coriander leaves prior to remove from the heat. And season to taste with salt, light soy sauce and sesame oil.

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 20 mins, plus 2 ½ hrs standing time

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 100g rice, washed and drained
° 750ml water
° 2 slices ginger (optional)

Method
1. Wash the rice and drain well. Put the rice in a plastic or metal container and freeze it for 2 – 2 ½ hours in the refrigerator.
2. Remove from the freezer and add 250ml water to it and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
3. Pour into the rice and ginger into a claypot or pot. Add the remaining water and bring to a boil. Simmer for another 15 minutes or until the congee is soft. If it is too thick, just add some water.
4. Ladle the congee into individual serving bowls and serve hot.

Pumpkin with Ginkgo Dessert

Pumpkin is never my favourite food. The only pumpkin dish that I love is Cream of Pumpkin Soup which I had in New Zealand 15 years ago. Few days back, I was having lunch at Naïve and the dessert of the day is Pumpkin with Sago. Wow, love it and didn’t know that pumpkin dessert can be so delicious. It had a little bit of coconut milk (my guess) and with tiny sago, it is just nice like Bubur Cha-Cha. If you wonder what Naïve is, it is a newly open modern Asian vegetarian eatery, check out the review here

That dessert inspired me to make this, thick and creamy pumpkin paste quite similar to Taro with Ginkgo Dessert (Orh Nee, a traditional Teochew dessert). You can even replace Ginkgo nut with fresh lotus seeds or water chestnuts bits. You can even design how you want to present this dessert to give it different touch. If you don’t really like Orh Nee ‘style’, just add more water and sugar to make it thinner to suit your preference. The amount of coconut milk used is minimal, so it might appeal to those who don’t like coconut milk or limiting the intake. And you can have it hot or chilled!

If you wonder what is that green thingy near the bowl - that is an environmental friendly toy leg-less grasshopper that I weaved using pandan leaves instead of young coconut leaf. Well, I had almost forgotten how to do it and I think it didn’t turn out well. Coconut leaf is the best material, using the midrib or mid vein to serve as something that kid can hold on or just stick them in pot of plants …

Preparation: 15 mins, Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-4)
° 350g pumpkin (weighed after peeling), peeled and diced
° 12 fresh ginkgo nuts
° 50ml coconut milk
° 180ml water
° 2 ½ tablespoons sugar, or to taste
° 3-4 pandan leaves (screwpine), tied into a knot

Method
1. Stream the pumpkin in a pot of boiling water or streamer for about 10minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain well and set aside.
2. Place the ginkgo nuts, water, sugar, pandan leaves in a pot and bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Removed the ginkgo nuts and set aside. Discard pandan leaves and stir in coconut milk.
3. Transfer to the pumpkin and coconut syrup to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Ladle the pumpkin paste into individual serving bowl or plate. Garnish with ginkgo nuts.
5. Serve hot or chilled.

Vermicelli Salad

Another healthy and easy salad dish, almost no-cooking required except for blanching the Brown Rice Vermicelli in boiling water. Brown Rice Vermicelli is high in fiber and good for our health. You can add some oil (sesame/shallot/garlic/ginger) to it to prevent it sticking together and at the same time add some fragrant to it. I added lettuce leave here to up the fiber intake. Again the amount of carrot and cucumber shreds and herbs to be added depends on individual preference. Remember to add mint leaves, it is A MUST. You will understand what I mean if you taste it …

Preparation: 15 mins

Ingredients (makes 2-4)
° 150g blanched brown rice vermicelli, mixed with 1 teaspoon olive or fragrant oil
° 25g shredded carrot
° 50g shredded cucumber
° few onion slices (optional)
° 1 lettuce leave (optional) for garnish
° some mint and coriander leaves
° some toasted/roasted sesame seeds

Chilli Dipping Sauce
° 2 fresh red chilli padi, sliced
° 2 teaspoons sugar or to taste
° 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
° 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar
° 1 teaspoon olive oil (optional)
° 5-6 kalamansi limes, freshly squeezed

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Set aside.
2. Place the brown rice vermicelli, carrot shreds, cucumber shreds, onion slices, mint leaves, coriander leaves on a serving plate. Garnish with sesame seeds and chilli slices.
3. Serve with the dipping sauce.

Mango and Veggie Salad with Wasabi Salad Dressing

Lately have been busy with other stuff that I didn’t spend enough time on this recipe blog and those things on my January To-Do List. So last night, I decided to create this recipe at 8pm. It is real simple as I love to say. It has to be simple yet nutritious to be done at home by anyone, anything that required more works; let’s enjoy them at the vegetarian eateries. Maybe it is a little bit costly, but just takes that as the price for the manhour if we have to do it ourselves and we can relax and dine in a different ambience … Be a little compassionate and pamper ourselves once in a while by having a nice meal at the vegetarian eateries …

Back to this recipe, adding mango to the veggies salad gives a different taste – natural sweetness.! The amount of mango or carrot or cucumber to be used depends on individual preference. For the salad dressing, I added Wasabi! Sunny had left comments on my blog that avocado with wasabi is her favorites, I think. So, I happened to pass by the sushi counter at Cold Storage @ Bugis, so I brought 2 little pack of wasabi at 10 cents each. By adding wasabi to the salad cream, it gives a totally new flavour and it is nice, but you have to taste it before adding more wasabi, if not …. : )

Oh yeah, just to share this new piece of information from Health Promotion Board (HPB) - A Vegetarian’s Guide to Eating Right Share with ALL your friends (veg*n and non-veg*n)….

Preparation: 8-10 mins

Ingredients (serves 1-2)
° 75g mango shreds
° 50g carrot shreds
° 25g Japanese cucumber shreds
° 1 lettuce leaves (optional), for garnish
° some toasted/roasted sesame seeds (optional)

Wasabi Salad Dressing
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian salad cream/ vegan mayonnaise
° 1 teaspoon sugar
° 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
° ¼ - ½ teaspoon wasabi or to taste

Method
1. Combine all the wasabi salad dressing ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.
2. Arrange the mango shreds, carrot shreds and cucumber shreds on the lettuce leaves. Garnish with sesame seeds.
3. Serve with wasabi salad dressing sauce.

‘It is OK To Be Wrong” Green Curry Dried Udon

What a weird name! Yup :)

The core ingredient for this is 1 tablespoon of green curry paste, around 60ml of water and 60ml of coconut milk to make thick Green Curry Sauce. It can be used for Pasta … hmmm… I will redo this again sometime later by totally omitted deep-fried basil leaves and the pan-fried chilli need to be changed or done differently maybe, or at a time when I have lesser things to deal with, maybe …

It was done sometime back in hurry and when I was hungry. The presentation, the deep-fried basil leaves, the pan-fried chilli and the lacking of good ingredients to make this dish more nutritious and unique, that I almost decided not to post this at all and discard this totally …

In this world, we are unknowingly been "taught" to fear mistakes and in a way affect how we deal with things and that affect our life … However, it is from mistakes that we learn more …

There is something that I read from from the book PresenationZen by Garr Reynold on what Benjamin Zander said that I find it meaningful, I manage to search it from the web, as I don’t have the book on hand, it should be something like this …,

“
You have to take a risk
In most cultures — and certainly here in Japan — making a mistake is the worst thing you can do. Zander says that it’s dangerous for musicians, for example, to be so concerned with competition and measuring themselves against others because this makes it “difficult to take the necessary risk with themselves to be come great performers.” However, only through mistakes can we see where we’re lacking, where we need to work. But we hate mistakes so we play it safe. Yet long term nothing could be more dangerous if our goal is to be insanely great at what we do. Zander suggests that instead of getting so dejected by mistakes, we instead exclaim loudly (or to ourselves) “How fascinating!” every time we make a mistake. This little gem alone was worth the price of the book. Think about that. Another mistake? How fascinating! Another opportunity to learn something just presented itself. Another unlucky break? No worries! Move forward.”

Fake Fried Rice

Hmm… I am not so creative in naming veg*n recipes. This is not something new, just that playing with 2 old recipes and simplified even further. Many would say to have a plate of nice and fragrant fried rice, you need some techniques to do it. It is simple fried rice but the ability to achieve that is not that easy.

So, what can a newbie or kid can do … maybe try this recipe. What we need is to stir-fly the ginger to make it fragrant. The rest is just mixing the oil and dark soy sauce or maybe together with the ginger. It is simple but tastes good, remember those olden days, where we just add some oil and soy sauce to the rice. Garnish with more lettuce or carrot shreds if you desired.

Preparation: 10 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 1)
° 250g cooked rice
° 75g ginger shreds
° 2 tablespoons olive oil
° 1 tablespoon sesame oil
° 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
° lettuce shreds and corianders leaves (optional), for garnish

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the ginger shreds and stir-fry for 3 minutes or until fragrant.
2. Remove the spring roll with a slotted spoon. Drain well on kitchen paper and set aside.
3. Place the cooked rice in a big bowl. Add 1 teaspoon oil from the wok, dark soy sauce and mixed well.
4. Transfer to a serving plate and top with the ginger shred.
5. Garnish with lettuce shreds and coriander leaves and serve.