The Easiest and Most Expensive Tofu Dish

It was Bodhinight last Saturday and about 60 over of the UNIBUDS helpers went for the celebration dinner after the event. We ended up in this Chinese restaurant near China Town. We waited some time before everyone came, and when finally when everyone arrived, the dishes started to come as well. The dishes were alright, a dish or two was special in a way, but I was shocked when this tofu dish arrived to the tables from the hands of the waiters. Now, to those who like Chinese food and are reading this post, please, do not go to the restaurants and order this dish and get ripped off! It is simply ridiculous pricing! They charge at least AUSD 8 - AUSD 14 for this dish. If you really want to eat it, make it yourself! It is way much cheaper to make it yourself, and I reckon it will definitely taste a lot better, as outside food are always salty and less healthy comparatively... Anyway, here are the ingredients and the cooking method...

Ingredient: (serves 3-5)

550g fresh Soft Tofu

80g Pickled SzeChuan Mustard Green (those green in colour prepacked ones)

80g Black Chinese Shitake Mushroom (soaked for a few hours pre-use, thinly sliced)

3 tbsp Oyster Sauce

3 tbsp Sesame Oil

1 tbsp Sugar

Method:

1. Slice the tofu into desired sizes and shape, arrange on plate or bowl, steam for 10-12 minutes.

2. In a wok, heat sesame oil, add sugar and oyster sauce, add 2 tbsp of water if too dry, bring to boil over low heat. Pour over steamed tofu. Done. Serve hot or warm.

Note: Another method, just steam the tofu, mix the oyster sauce and sesame oil, omit the sugar, pour on top of the steamed tofu. Another method, mix the oyster sauce, sesame oil and sugar, pour over tofu and steam. All equally simple!

Apparently, it is not hard at all, and I think it taste a lot better than the one at the restaurant! Well, maybe at the downside of it, I do not have a few Chinese Buk Choys around the sides to garnish the dish... =.=

Roasted Sausage and Potato Salad

I saw this recipe over the newspaper the other day and was tempted to try it, yet I didn't want to spend on the specific ingredients which that dish required, hence I modified it and came out with this. Suits a student budget more I reckon. >.<

Ingredients: (serves 1-2)
2pc Thick Sausages (roughly cut into big chunks)
1 Capsicum (chopped length-wise)
1 Tomato (diced)
1 Stem Celery (rinsed, skinned and coarsely chopped)
3 small Potatoes (skinned and roughly chopped)
2 tbsp Caramel (melted)
1 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Black Pepper Powder
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 tsp dried Basil Leaves
1 tsp Lemon Juice
1 clove Garlic (finely chopped)
Salt and Pepper to taste
















Method:
1. Boil a pot of water, add in a pinch of salt and pepper, stir in potatoes and let it boil for about 10-15 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Remove potatoes from water, mix well with sausages and capsicum in a roasting bowl or pan, add vegetable oil, basil leaves, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Roast for 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.
3. Remove mixture from oven, give the ingredients a good turn, add in melted caramel, dark soy sauce and garlic. Mix well and roast for another 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Mix tomato and celery. Add pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Remove roasting ingredients from oven, stir together with tomato and celery. Done. Serve hot or cold.

Char Siew Salad? Not quite...

A few days ago I had this sudden urge to make make something out of the Char Siew Sauce that I bought some time ago and left it there since the first use. After scratching my head for one whole morning, I was still undecided on what to make, should I make Char Siew itself? I love them! But obviously there was no tenderloin meat in the storage, I only had this cutlets of pork armpits, if I remembered correctly, that is. Anyway, to cook the meat only was too plain and dull, I like vegetables and wanted them to go with the meat. Finally, I decided, what could be easier than making a salad? LAZY =)

The ingredients are fairly simple:
2 stems of Celery (thinly chopped)
1 Tomato (diced)
1/2 Carrot (finely sliced)
1 piece of Pork Armpit (about 100g) (cut lengthwise into strips)
1 tbsp Char Siew Sauce
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
1/2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tsp Lemon Juice
pinch of Salt and Pepper


Method:
1. Marinade the pork with char siew sauce, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, salt and pepper; this should be given about 20-30 minutes at least.

2. Mix the celery, carrot and tomato in bowl, add lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Leave aside.

3. Heat oil in a flat (preferably not-stick) pan or wok. Add in the pork cutlets one by one and saute over low heat. You can tell they are thoroughly cooked when they turn dark brown.

4. Remove the meat from the pan, top or mix with the salad.

5. Add 1/2 cup of water to the remaining sauces in the pan, bring to boil. Dilute some corn starch with cold water and add to the sauce, give it a good stir. Remove from heat and pour over salad mix. Done. Serve hot or cold.

What happened to my muffins?

Hooray! Bodhi Nite is finally done, as with great success I reckon! It was a full house crowd at Clancy's... Anyway, thanks to so much commitment recently, I haven't been able to post regularly on new dishes, well, not that I attempted much of it though. Haha. Speaking of new attempts, I saw this recipe over the internet during the busiest moments and I was tempted to give it a try, and I did! It should be a simple muffin recipe, but I wonder why it didn't turn out right. I am guessing that I because I added some plain flour, and did not have enough sodium bicarbonate that lead to it... Hmm

So, why am I posting this for? Haha, seriously, I do not know, probably just to show that archicook fails sometimes as well, Haha, in fact quite often! I remember I once told Anna that I should compile all the 'not successful' (let's not say fail) HAha dishes into the blog as well, so here you have it. Haha I'll definitely give this another try, until I get it right!

Orange Chicken

It was my turn to prepare dinner yesterday and I was reluctant to go out and get extra ingredients for the day's cooking, thanks to the fact that I had a long and tiring day with the choir. Fortunately I manage to dig out an orange and some orange juice from the fridge, hence I decided to give this dish a try, never tried it before, it's my first attempt! Hope everyone likes it!



Ingredients: (serves 2-3)
1 Orange (skinned and peeled)
1 Tomato (coarsely chopped)
400ml Orange Juice
300g Chicken Breast Fillet (sliced lenght wise)
2 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)
1cm Ginger (finely chopped)
1pc Khafir Lime Leaf (thinly sliced)
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 tbsp Light Soy sauce
1 tbsp Soy Bean Paste
1 tsp Dried Basil Leafs
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp pepper


Method:
1. Marinade the chicken fillets with 100ml orange juice, ginger, light soy sauce, soy bean paste, dried basil leafs, salt, sugar and pepper for at least 30 minutes.
2. In a wok, heat oil and stir fry garlic until aromatic. Stir in the chicken fillets, stir fry until the meat colour starts to turn white, add in orange juice bit by bit while stir-frying.
3. Add in the peeled orange pieces, fry for another 1 minute before adding tomato and lime leaf at the end, give it a good stir. Done. Serve hot or warm.


Note: If you prefer more succulent meat, use chicken thigh fillet, would taste a juicier and smooth while passing through the throat. Breast meat has a different texture.

Dried Pickled Mustards on Tofu

It was the 1st day of the Lunar Calender that day and I had this sudden urge to have vegan food for dinner. Hence I rang up my friends and told them I was coming over for dinner, the vegan style that is. It was not until I hang up the phone that I realised that my kitchen had ran out of stock suitable for vegan cooking. Hence I ran to the grocery shop and lingered around for some time to look for something to cook.

After about 15 minutes walking around like someone spying on the shop, I finally decided to make something simple, and economic! Haha, what could be more economic than tofu!? By the way, for those who do not know, tofu is a good source of protein like meat. Thus, here you have it, a simple tofu dish suitable for vegans...

Ingredients: (serves 3-4)

600g Fresh Soft Tofu

200g Dried Pickled Mustard (rinsed for at least an hour or more)

50g Sweet Pickled Radish (thinly sliced or diced)

2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

1 tbsp Pepper

1 tbsp Vegetable Oil

1 tbsp Salt

Method:

1. Rub 1/2 tbsp salt into the mustard and raddish, mix well and top over tofu.

2. Add on top light soy sauce, pepper and oil. Steam for 10-15 minutes. Done. Serve hot or warm.

At the brink of exploding...

It is only week 4 of the semester and things seem to be getting out of control. I think this is partially because I am spending a lot of time participating in UNIBUDS activity. Yet, despite being so packed in time, I some how feel that I am happier, partly because I am getting along with a lot of people in UNIBUDS. This is really the first time I understand what people mean by 'ask not what you can get out of things, but ask what you can offer'. By helping out with the activities that UNIBUDS is running, I some how feel my life more colourful and glad that I can offer help to others, this experience is really invaluable...










But anyway, thanks to my extra-curricular commitments and the ever demanding architecture assignments and tasks, I have not been able to update my blog recently, namely for about 1 week, this is something unusual to me as I update the blog quite often. But anyway, hopefully I will come out with some extra time to update my blog a bit and most importantly, some new dishes I reckon! Haha. One thing I would like to share with everyone is this following quote, it's something I never gave up on even I was very busy with all sorts of commitments and demands. I still strive to make good food, whether or not they are new ideas!

"We (Humans) live to eat, and not eat to live!"

Celery and FIsh Flakes with Sambal Sauce

Ingredients: (serves 3-4)

3 sticks Fresh Celery (rinsed and cut randomly)

350g Bassa Fillet

10g dried Achovies

1 small Spanish Red Onion (chopped randomly)

1 tbsp Pepper

1 tbsp Sea Salt

1 tbsp Vegetable oil

2 tbsp Sambal and Shrimp Sauce

3 tbsp coconut milk

2 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)

2 thin slice Ginger (finely chopped)

Method:

1. Marinate the fish fillets with salt and pepper for at least an hour. Poach in boiling water, remove from hot water, flake the fillets and leave aside.

2. In a heated wok, lightly toast the achovies, stir in ginger and garlic to reduce the 'fishy' smell. Add vegetable oil and stir fry for 1 minute or 2.

3. Add onion into the wok and stir fry until they turn brownish. Stir in sambal paste and add 1/4 cup of water. Bring to boil over low heat. Add coconut milk and bring to boil again.

4. Arrange celery on a plate, top with fish flakes, pour the sambal sauce on top. Done, mix well and serve hot or warm.

Sweet Malt Chicken Strips

Ingredients: (serves 3-4)
350g Chicken Breast Fillet

2 tbsp Maltose (melt before mixed)

2 tsp Lemon Juice

2 tbsp Sugar

1 tbsp Soy Bean Paste

2 tsp Pepper
1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Dark Soy Sauce

1 tsp Light Soy Sauce

1 Cucumber (finely sliced) (about 75-100g)

1 Carrot (finely sliced) (about 75-100g)

1/2 cup Oil for frying

Method:

1. Cut the chicken breast fillet lenghtwise into about 1cm thick stirps.

2. Marinade the chicken with maltose, light and dark soy sauce, soy bean paste, 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp pepper. Leave aside for at least one hour.

3. In a bowl, mix carrot and cucumber, stir in lemon juice, salt and the remaining of sugar and pepper. Keep in refrigerator.

4. In a wok, heat oil, parboil chicken in oil until they turn rick brown. Leave on serviette for a few minutes. Then fry again in oil on high heat for 1 or two minutes. Remove from oil, soak remaining oil off chicken with serviette.

5. Arrange hot chicken strips on top of cold salad. Sprinklt with some toasted sesame. Done.

Baked Lemon Fish with Fennel

Ingredients: (serves 2-3)
1 Fish (about 350g)
2 small Lemons
1/2 Fennel (finely sliced)
2 tbsp Sea Salt
1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tsp Sweet Paprika
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil.

Method:
1. Score 3 lines on each side of fish with knife. Rub thoroughly with salt. Leave aside for 5-10 minutes.
2. Slice a lemon, lay some on a greased baking tray or aluminium foil, top with some fennel premixed with fennel. Lay fish on top, drizzle with light soy sauce. Top again with remaining fennel and lemon slices.
3. Half another lemon, brush on some salt and oil, some sweet paprika if prefer, place beside fish. Cover with aluminium foil and bake in preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 35 to 40 minutes.
4. Remove from oven, squeeze lemon juice over fish when serving.

Shreded Tofu with Sweet Peanut Sauce

Ingredients: (serves 3-4)
600g Hard Tofu (Sliced to about 0.5cm shreds)
2 medium size Carrots (finely chopped)
50g Sweet Pickled Radish (finely chopped)
50g Raw Peanuts (toasted and skinned, crushed)
2 tbsp Sweet Chili Sauce (diluted with 2 tbsp water)
4 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1/2 tbsp Black Pepper Powder
1/2 tbsp Cinnamon Powder
1/2 tbsp Salt
2 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)
1 cm Ginger (finely chopped)

Method:
1. In a bowl, mix the shredded tofu with Cinnamon powder and salt. Par boil with 2 tbsp vegetable oil in a pre-heated work. Take out when the tofu shreds start to harden and turn yellowish brown. Place on a piece of kitchen towel and leave to cool.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok, stir in ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant. Add sweet radish, fry for about 2 minutes, add in shredded carrots, fry for another 1 minute.
3. Add the rest of seasoning and stir-fry for another 2 minute. Add corn-starch solution if the sauce is too watery.
4. Mix in tofu shreds earlier, followed by crushed peanuts. Done. Serve hot or cold.

Welsh Cakes - Relatives of Scones

It was not too long ago before I made some scones and I had heaps of the ingredients left in the kitchen. Hence, I wanted to make something out of it, and yet want to include some variety in the journal. Thanks to all the browsing through my collection of cookbooks, I finally found a recipe which is quite similar to scones, yet far more easier to make! What could be better! (lazy me XD)

Anyway, I made them, and actually double the recipe myself, but I'm just going to post the original proportions (improvised ofcourse). Well, enjoy!

Ingredients:
100g Self-raising Flour
Pinch of Salt
50g Butter or Margarine
50g Sugar
1 Egg, plus a little milk if required
50g Currants
2.5ml (1/2 tsp) Ground Nutmeg

Method:
1. Sieve the flour and salt. Rub in the butter and stir in sugar, nutmeg and currants. Mix to pastry consistency with egg.
2. Roll out to 6mm thickness and cut with 6mm small pastry cutter.
3. Arrange on large greased pan and bake in preheated oven at 150 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes.
4. Switch oven off for 15 minutes then grease and reheat for another round. Bake for another 5 minutes on turned side.
5. Dredge with caster sugar and serve. Makes 10.

Adapted from Simply Delicious

Cucumber in Vinegar Sauce

Ingredients: (serves 3-4)
3 Cucumber (about 375g)
15g White Sesame (toasted)
15g Black Sesame (toasted)
5 tbsp Dark Vinegar
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 1/2 tbsp Sugar
2pc Small Red Chili (the very hot ones! Finely chopped)
1 clove Garlic (crushed and finely chopped)
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil

Method:
1. Thinly slice the cucumbers, the thinner the better. Soak in ice cold water immediately.
2. In a heated wok, add oil, followed by garlic, chili, vinegar, light soy sauce and sugar. Turn to low heat and simmer slowly for a minute or two.
3. Remove cucumber from ice water and arrange on a plate. Pour over with the sauce. Sprinkle with toasted sesame. Done.

Steamed Fish Teochew Style (Revised)

Finally! I just came back from a few days trip to the New England Tablelands, the 3 days trip was really a a lifetime experience I reckon, prolly I will talk more about the trip in another post when I get my hands on all the pictures taken during the trip. For now, I would just like to share a few dishes with everyone before I get too busy and forget about it...

Well, I know I have already posted once on Teochew style steamed fish, but frankly speaking I was not satisfied that I had to use fish fillets for the dish. This time around, thanks to Foo Loong, I got a couple of fish in a whole! The first thing that came into mind was to make the Teochew style steamed fish again, as I really miss the authentic taste of that dish. This time around, I improvised the ingredients a bit, the result was better I reckon, partly due to the fact that a whole fish is used (this is just me, HaHa).

Ingredients: (serves 3-4)

1 whole Fish (cleaned, washed and tapped dry) (about 500g)

25g SzeChuan Pickled Mustard Green

50g Fresh Soft Tofu (sliced to 1cm thick pieces)

50g Chinese Shitake Mushroom (sliced)

1 Tomato (coarsely sliced)

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste (dissolved in 3-4tbsp hot water)

1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

2 tbsp Sea Salt

1-2cm Ginger (finely chopped)

1/2 tbsp Sugar

Method:

1. Rinse and wash the fish thoroughly, dry with kitchen towel. Make 3 diagonal cuts on each side of the fish. Rub over with 1 1/2 tbsp sea salt. Leave aside.

2. Mix the tofu, mushroom, pickled mustard green, tamarind juice and ginger, rub over with 1/2 tbsp of sea salt and sugar each.

3. Place the fish on a steaming tray or bowl, place the rest of the ingredients at sides of the fish. Add a dash of light soy sauce.

4. Steam for 15-20 minutes, or until the fish eyes pokes out. Done. Serve hot.